Maelstrom

I have special love for the Norway section of Epcot Center's World Showcase. I once studied in Norway and the spirit of that country truly does prance around in my soul. I even stay for the movie at the end of the ride. That's how hard I love Norway. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Maelstrom is a boat ride. It is fun and short and at times dark and scary. Plus, there are trolls around who cause all sorts of mischief. I remember when I first came to Epcot, my mom explained this ride to me as totally awesome because at one point, the boat will come out of a hole in the wall and all of the park goers can see you having fun on the ride. I was mesmerized by this part.

Although, it's not all it's cracked up to be. See the picture below. That's the boat coming out of the wall. It barely even sticks it's back end out there. In all honesty, it's a bit of a letdown.
However, I forgive it because this ride brings me back to Norway every single time. At the end of the ride there is a short film about Norway. It's really nothing but a bunch of scenes and they show a lot of the old Viking ships. Many people bypass it, but ever since I was in Norway, I just can't bring myself to do it. Plus it's another 5 minutes sitting in an air conditioned theatre.

On a side note, they used to force you to watch the movie. Once you had to disembark the boat, you had to wait until the next showing of the movie and then you had to sit there and watch it. People would get so pissed about this. It caused many cases of the grumps in me as well. A few years ago, they decided that the movie would just play continuously and people could come and go as they pleased. People mostly go.

God, I miss Norway.

5/5 or 10/10 stars. I'm totally biased. An unbiased view would probably be 4/5 or 8/10 stars. The ride is short and sometimes the wait can be long. But it's cute and fun.