Before Disney World fans break down with laughter, Maelstrom, the dark water ride inside the Norwegian Pavilion in EPCOT's World Showcase section is not an E-Ticket attraction. Not even close. Many find it to be rather silly in fact (check out videos on YouTube). So why does Maelstrom make it to #2 on my list of WDW attractions I'm most envious of being a Disneyland guy 3000 miles away? Well, my ancestry is 100% Norwegian so just think of it as us Norwegians sticking together with some sort of national pride.
Heck, the Norwegian Pavilion is not even the best Pavilion found in EPCOT's World Showcase. There are probably at least a half a dozen better ones according to many visitors. But at least Disney World has a World Showcase where someone like me can at least get a small glimpse of the land my ancestors came from. The World Showcase is a decidedly adult segment of a Disney Park. Where else can you get a beer from 11 different countries (and many visitors do)? Most kids find the World Showcase pretty boring but for us adults - man.... what a great Disney experience with multi-cultural displays, fine dining, and a couple of rides thrown in. The Disneyland Resort has nothing like the World Showcase and that's too bad because they had one on the drawing board to build here in California until they went cheap and gave us the first iteration of Disney California Adventure instead.
So I have no embarrassment whatsoever to say the second attraction I am most envious of in Walt Disney World is Maelstrom simply because that little attraction is part of something much larger, unique, and very special - the Norwegian Pavilion and The World Showcase.
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