Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

My wife and I saw "Sherlock Holmes" at the AMC movie theater in Downtown Disney. Before we were given the Disney Trip as our anniversary present, we had planned to see this movie on our anniversary.

"Sherlock Holmes" is a new take on a classic story. Robert Downey Jr. plays the title character, and Jude Law portrays his sidekick, Dr. Watson. When I say it's a new take, it's really an entirely new direction. Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Holmes is about as far as you can get from the buttoned up, tea drinking versions of Holmes I've seen in the past. Instead, Downey's character possesses an amazing intellect, but he struggles with multiple personal weaknesses. Dr. Watson was a nice change too. In contrast to being portrayed as a bumbler (which I've seen before), Watson is the steady one in this partnership.

The story was really good as well. This is early in Holmes career, so the villain is not Dr. Moriarty. Instead, it's a power hungry Lord bent on remaking the world in his image. It's up to Holmes to figure it all out and stop him before Great Britain falls to this madman.

I really liked this movie. I especially liked the new take on Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is obviously a super-genius, and when has a super-genius ever had it all together? I liked that he is troubled, and somewhat codependent on Watson. I thought Downey and Law made a good duo, and hope to see them back in future films.

Overall, this is a 4 to 4.5 star movie, and a must see.

My Disney Vacation - Part 5, The Kingdoms

This will likely be my last Disney vacation blog. The 4 kingdoms are the main attractions of Disney World. I'm going to hit the highlights of each.

Animal Kingdom
This is the first kingdom we visited. Animal Kingdom is like a zoo, with rides, shops and restaurants. The majority of the animals are from either Africa or Asia. Animal Kingdom has every animal you'd likely want to see (elephants, rhinos, hippos, gorillas, etc.), plus a few strange ones, such as the Tapir.

One of the highlights of Animal Kingdom is the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. It's like a real African Safari, and the animals get right next to the vehicles. I would recommend going early for this one. We went about 9 am and the animals were very active. The best show in Animal Kingdom is the Bug's Life 3D show. It is under the Tree of Life, and was the best 3D show at Disney World. Everest is the best ride at Animal Kingdom. It's a roller coaster modeled after a trip up Everest, and was easily my favorite roller coaster style ride at Disney World.

We spent about 7 hours at Animal Kingdom, and saw just about everything we wanted to see.

Hollywood Studios
I've gone back and forth on this, but I think Hollywood Studios was my favorite kingdom. It's really an homage to movies, not just Disney Movies, but all movies. The thing about Hollywood Studios is, it's not about the rides...in fact, the rides are mediocre at best. The Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster is highly overrated, and Star Tours is a simulator that will make you sick if you aren't prepared. I did really like the Great Movie ride, which is a slow moving tour through the movies.

No, Hollywood Studios is all about the shows. The big show is "Fantasmic" which is a trip into Mickey's Imagination. There's fireworks, flames, unique costumes, animation and music. I've never seen anything like "Fantasmic". It was the best show I saw all week.

Other top shows at Hollywood Studios are the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, the Muppet's 3D and Beauty and the Beast. Yes, I said Beauty and the Beast...they do 30 minutes of the musical, and I love musicals. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular was a great show too. The 2nd Unit team, which shoots the stunts, goes through different scenes using stunt performers. Very cool stuff.

I absolutely loved Hollywood Studios. We went there twice and spent about 8 hours total in the park.

Epcot
Epcot was the other kingdom that I really loved. We went to Epcot twice, once on New Year's Eve, and again 2 days later. There were so many people at Epcot on New Year's Eve that we had to go back again.

One of my favorite parts of Epcot is the Monorail, which we rode to get there. I wish the monorail was available all over Disney World, but sadly, it's only available from Magic Kingdom to Epcot.

Epcot is the most adult of the kingdoms. On New Year's Eve, we basically did the World Showplace, which is a tour through various countries set up around the lake at Epcot. That was fun for my wife and I, but probably wouldn't be that much fun with the kids. We really liked Morocco, China, Mexico and the United States. At the United States, we got to listen to a really good acapella singing group, and then talk with them afterward. There is also a terrific, 35 minute, show/video on the American Journey at the United States exhibit.

Even though Epcot is for older visitors, it still has some great rides. My favorite was the Soarin' ride. It's a glider simulation where you are gliding over California. I was nervous because I hate heights, but it ended up being my favorite ride. The Test Track and Spaceship Earth are 2 other really fun rides at Epcot. We skipped the Mission Space Ride, as we heard rumors of people getting sick on that simulator.

Epcot's fireworks show on New Year's Eve was outstanding. Because of the huge crowds on New Year's Eve, we went back a 2nd time and spent about 16 hours in Epcot total.

Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is the most famous of all the kingdoms, and also the busiest. We were planning to be at Magic Kingdom on New Year's Eve, but there were so many people that we could barely move. So, we went back on New Year's Day about 5 pm and stayed until about midnight. This allowed us to do everything we wanted in Magic Kingdom, while not having to fight huge crowds.

The one thing multiple people told us to do was to take in a parade at Magic Kingdom, so we did that. I thought it was a really neat parade, but I think it was a bit oversold to us by friends.

There were 2 great shows at Magic Kingdom. The first was the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which is an interactive animated show. We went twice, and the show was different each time. The characters interact with the crowd to make a hilarious show. Pretty cool considering the characters are all animated. The other neat show was "Mickey's Philharmagic", which is a 3D trip through various Disney movies on an adventure with Donald Duck.

Space Mountain is probably the most famous ride at Magic Kingdom, and it's a really good ride. But for my money, the best ride is Thunder Mountain Railroad...it's just a really nice, thrilling ride. I was a little disappointed with Pirates of the Caribbean, though the animatronic Capt. Jack Sparrow did look just like Johnny Depp.

Magic Kingdom was fun, and I'm sure it will be my kid's favorite when we take them someday.

So, that's my Disney Vacation in 5 blogs. Thanks for reading!

My Disney Vacation, Part 4 - The Extras

There are several attractions at Disney World that don't fall into the "Kingdom" category. These include Downtown Disney, The Disney Boardwalk, some mini-golf courses, multiple real golf courses and a couple of water parks.

Given that the weather was cool (temps in the 60's most of the time), we didn't do any water parks, and I didn't play golf. However, we did play mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens mini-golf course. It was fun, but not the most spectacular mini-golf course ever. There was a "precision putting" mini-golf course at the same location. It looked really neat, but was going to be a 2 hour round, which was more time than we wanted to spend.

The Boardwalk at Disney is on a lake near Hollywood Studios. There are several restaurants and shops on the Boardwalk, including Kouzzina. The ESPN zone at Disney is also on the Boardwalk. We didn't spend a ton of time at the Boardwalk, but did enjoy the time we had there.

Downtown Disney was a really nice surprise for us. On our first day there, we decided to check it out. We really didn't think we would spend much time there. When we got there, though, we were shocked at how fun it was. It's just shops, restaurants, night clubs and a movie theater, but like all of Disney, the atmosphere can't be beat.

We stopped at a T-shirt shop, and my wife made a custom T-shirt to commemorate our vacation. We also got Mickey Mouse Ears for the kids. We walked around for a while, and eventually found ourselves at the movie theater. On a semi-whim, we decided to see "Sherlock Holmes", which we both really liked (detailed movie review later). After the movie, we were on our way back to the bus stop and we heard a music group playing. The name of the group is Nova Era, and they play classical music with a new age twist. It was really neat music, and we ended up buying 1 of their CDs. This ended a really fun night at Downtown Disney, about 3-4 hours after we thought it would end.

My Disney Vacation, Part 3 - The Food

One of the highlights of the Disney World vacation for me was the food. We had the Quick Service Dining plan, so we got 2 quick meals a day and 2 snacks a day. Don't be fooled by the term "Quick Service" though, most of the food is significantly better than fast food.

Some of the Quick Service highlights were a Philly Cheese Steak and Nachos at our hotel. At Epcot, we ate Moroccan and German food. My wife loved the Moroccan food, and I thought it wasn't too bad. Two meals and 2 snacks per day was really plenty of food...the portions are huge!

We ate 2 really nice meals while we were there. On our anniversary, we went to Kouzzina, by Cat Cora. Cat Cora is one of Food Network's Iron Chefs, which is one of my favorite shows. Cora isn't my favorite Iron Chef, but I was excited to eat at her restaurant nonetheless. We did a 3 course meal, starting with Calamari, which was really good. The Calamari came with a some lightly fried lemon slices, which were fantastic. For the main course, I ate the Wood Grilled Flank Steak, which was the best thing I've ever eaten. I've never had a steak that was so perfectly cooked and so favourable. My wife had the Fisherman's Stew, which was also very good. For desert, I had the Loukamades (Greek Donuts), which were really good.

The other really nice meal was at Coral Reef in Epcot. I was really looking forward to Seafood, and I wasn't disappointed. For our appetizer, we had the sauteed shrimp. I can only describe the flavor of this appetizer as "earthy", which I've heard used on Food Network a number of times. I now know what an earthy flavor is. For the entree, I had the Lobster Ravioli, which was really good. For desert, my wife tried the Almond Gelato, and she said it was the best desert ever.

I really enjoyed the Disney Dining experience. I'm sure there are many other great places to eat at Disney World, and hopefully we'll get to make a return trip to try some other places (or go back to Kouzzina for more steak).

My Disney Vacation, Part 2

Today at work, I learned that I was the subject of a lunch time conversation where some wondered why I loved Disney World so much. So, without further adieu, here's the top 5 reasons I love Disney World:

5 - The rides - especially Soarin' and Everest
4 - The food - lots of great things to eat, and most of it is really quick.
3 - The employees - everyone seems to like their job, and nobody gets annoyed when you ask a question.
2 - The shows -the fireworks, 3D and laser shows are unlike anything I've ever seen.
1 - The atmosphere - it's just a great place to be.

My Disney Vacation, Part 1

Last week, my wife and I took a 10th anniversary trip to Walt Disney World. This trip was a gift from my really great in-laws, and it was probably the best trip of my life. We had a great time in all 4 Disney Kingdoms, along with some really nice meals and came home with some nice souvenirs.

Because we had so many great experiences, I can't put them all in 1 blog...it would be too long, even for me. So, for the next several blogs, I'm going to talk about each of the great experiences we had.

For the first blog, I'll give some general Disney thoughts and advice.

First off, the Disney World experience is unlike any other. There are so many different things to do, so many different shows to take in, lots of great rides, and some really good restaurants. If you go, you'll have to accept that unless you stay there for several weeks, you'll never get to do everything you want to do.

Second, and this may be the most important...make sure you have comfortable shoes. You will end up walking...a lot. My shoes were, apparently, worn out, and by the 2nd day, my feet and lower back hurt. But, I persevered, and had a great time in spite of the pain.

Finally, you will have to some time waiting in line, but everyone else has to wait in line too. Disney does a great job giving you things to do while waiting in line, so the waits never seem to take too long. Also, everybody there is so nice, that you can strike up a conversation with almost any other group of travelers or any "cast members" to pass the time.

Over the next several days, I'll talk about each of the parks, my favorite rides and shows, some of the better restaurants we ate at, and I'll review the book I read on the plane and the movie we watched at the theater in Downtown Disney.