七月二日我們都早起,八點以前就得離開船室。相信這種重視效率的遊輪,是當天下午就要載另一批兩千五百名遊客,晚上就要再出航了。我們一家十一人就到九樓早餐廳,在甲板上一邊欣賞岸上風景,到十點才離開,下船和二兒子一家人道別。大兒子一家和我們倆坐一輛在Orlando機場就預約的Priceless limousine (這一家的老闆Bishara載我們從機場到Cape Canaverral,表示痛恨不守信用的車行,使我們對他很信任),四十五分鐘到Orlando Sheraton Safari Hotel,以後就在此住了四晚。在此前後各一天不算,有三個整天可以到各個Disney的娛樂場玩。
Waiting for the Priceless limousine to go to Orlando.
Sheraton Safari Hotel, reasonably priced
Swimming pool in the center court of the hotel. I lost the eye glasses inside the pool. But the pool cleaner found it and returned it to me the next day.
Orlando是在Florida中部的都市,其大都會區人口有兩百萬,自從1970年代Walt Disney Company開始在該地建立休閒娛樂設施,Orlando已經成為美國第三個最多觀光客的都市。說不定這個都市現在都靠Disney Resort生存了。Downtown Disney,Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot Center, Hollywood Studios, SeaWorld等等,占地就有Manhattan之大。要玩的地方其實需要努力走一星期才能走遍。有玩得地方,就會成為有很多大會議的地方。旅館房間數之多,在美國內是僅次於Las Vegas。
我們在Orlando三個整天,由大兒子安排,替每一個人買三天的入場券,這三天之內都可以用指紋驗證,隨時出入。就是說入門處有驗指紋的機器,在一秒內可以看出拿著這張入場券的人是否同一個人。入場券共花了約$1300,價錢不能說不貴,不過入場後什麼遊戲館都可以不再付錢就進入。只是每一項都要在炎暑太陽下排隊等幾十分鐘。
第一天上午在旅館戲水,因為有兩個孩子發燒咳嗽,休息到下午五點才離開旅館到Downtown Disney,到裡面有很多遊戲的Disney Quest Indoor Interactive Theme Park。有五層樓,在裡面有小孩大人都可以玩的visual reality game等遊戲。只是都得排隊等待。我們倆是坐了jungle cruise,其他時間是看小孩玩。在裡面四、五個小時,也吃簡單晚餐。最後到晚上近十點走過Downtown街道到另一端,等hotel shuttle bus,近十一點回到旅館。
Five stories inside. Many interactive games. We spent 4-5 hours inside.
Visual reality game. We had to wear a large heavy headset.
Street of Downtown Disney
Huge skeleton of Argentinosaurus outside the restaurant T-REX
第二天,除了小孩,玉麗也開始發燒咳嗽。又是休息到三點才到Magic World,這是我印象中最典型、主要的Disney 遊樂場。裡面有Pirates of the Caribbean, Swiss Family Robinson tree house, Haunted mansion, A small world等等,都是我們以前進去過的。可是玉麗也開始不舒服,我也很疲勞,都慢慢走,跟不上小孩,也懶得炎熱天氣排隊進入各個遊樂場。只好兩人進入咖啡店休息,七點就離開回旅館。 小孩一家因為要看國慶煙火,留到很晚才回到旅館的樣子。
Scenic view of the Magic Kingdom from the monorail. That night, the fatal monorail accident occurred, the first in 38 year history.
Building under renovation is covered with huge paintings to make it blend in.
第三天到展示現代世界科技的Epcot Center,也有各國的典型建築。在最顯目的銀色大圓球Spaceship Earth內,我們坐了兩次,看人類科技進步的歷史過程。
Epcot Spaceship Earth showing the history of technological progress.
Primitive human tribe.
Making paper
Renaissance
Room-sized early computer
Then, someone had a dream of making samll desktop personal computer in his garage. Probably all the parts required to make it small were ready by then.
As soon as we sat on the moving chair in the Spaceship Earth, our pictures were taken and shown on the monitor in front of us.
內部各種利用電腦的展示,只能驚嘆世界在過去三十年內真的完全改變了。地球上的人類如果以這種速度發展,對社會、文化、教育、貿易、軍事、國際關係等會有多麼大的影響! 五十年、一百年後的社會將是如何?會有更理想的人際、國際關係?或是由污染的環境、更稀少的資源而有更尖銳的競爭?
Japanese section in Epcot
Paris section.
Morocco section
我們等到晚上九點看完整整十分鐘煙花show,才離開。看完五花燦爛的煙火,聽到觀眾一陣陣的歡呼聲,然後天空回歸黑暗靜寂,只有觀眾盡興離場的步聲,心中不免有強烈的空虛感。可能別人也有同感吧?!只是強做不覺,沒說出來。翌日下午坐飛機回家。
Firework started at 9 PM and lasted for 10 minutes.
The pictures of the firework was taken with Canon IXUS65, which is an earlier model with narrower camera angle and smaller pixel size than those of the Canon IXUS860IS that I have been using for the past one year. I failed to take good quality night photos with IXUS860.
The "earth" is in the center of the lake.
The next day, after the firework, I was home, and was hit by severe symptoms of flu. I felt so weak that I had to lie down and "melt" into the bed for days. Serum antibody tesing later confirmed it to be type A. It could be the swine flu. If it was, we, who got sick during the trip, should have become immune to the more deadly mutated swine flu virus that is feared to emerge and sweep around the world later this year. It would have been safer to be infected now than later. The infection was a bleesing in disguise!
在這些Disney娛樂場,看到兩句,印象很深刻,都令人深思。是標語及問句。第一句是 “Imagination is more important than the knowledge.” 這是說,會「想像」、有創意,比書讀萬卷、有豐富的知識更重要。這種思維和中國念經背書式的教育是要差一百八十度!美國就是有許許多多的人用想像、創意,在短短兩百多年之內就造出了歷史上最強大、最能造福人類的國家。
第二句是 “Do you live to work, or work to live?” 問你是為生活而工作,還是為特定生命的目標而生活(工作)?這麼一個簡單問句,提醒我們人生要過得有意義。
可以一提的是,在 七月四日 美國國慶,下午遊Magic Kingdom當晚,在翌日晨兩點,遊客已經離散時,發生了載運遊客到各個園區的monorail相撞事故,撞到前方monorail的司機死亡。這是Disney World 三十八年來首次的死亡事故。翌日monorail關閉一天。相信以Disney做事的風格,一定會檢討、改正疏失。
不過,這個會絕對注重安全、會讓所有遊客快樂、滿足幻想夢想的Disney Resort,為什麼在各個影幕上有人用口頭說明時,沒有在旁邊附加字幕(caption),讓聽覺差的遊客也能瞭解是什麼一回事?為什麼沒有考慮到聽障遊客的權益?他們不是同樣的付錢買了入場券嗎?在Disney Cruise上如此,在各個Disney World Resort內亦如是!難道無法替聽障者「想像」他們的困難嗎?電視上各種節目有字幕,已經是二、三十年了。已經建立三十多年的Disney World Resort,卻一貫地忽略聽障者權益,可說是很嚴重、很難理解的疏忽。
美國的NIDCD(National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)是已經有法律規定各種娛樂及新聞業要提供聽障者字幕服務的。如果Disney不能迅速改善,可能成為法律訴訟事件。(http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/nidcdinternet/Templates/InternetTopicNavigationFS.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID=%7b4F3E97D3-A4FF-4006-AF84-261015110414%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2fhealth%2fhearing%2fcaption%2ehtm&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest#top).
我在遊輪最後一天的遊客滿意度問卷上,我表達這方面的關心,但是他們的問卷有但書,說他們不接受建議,因此在此問卷訴願恐怕無效。我已經寫了一封電郵寄給Central Florida Better Business Bureau (info@centralflorida.bbb.org)陳述Disney World公司忽略了聽障者的權益,BBB應該會在兩天內將此信轉交給Disney World公司。我將繼續寄給各種聽障者協會,請他們共同努力,催促Disney Company考慮聽障者的權益,在各種娛樂節目增加字幕。