Took the kid to Six Flags Marine World today. Her preschool is closed for Spring Break and I get a lot more vacation time than my wife does, so that puts me squarely in charge of Spring Break Duty. This is not the beer and wet T-shirt filled party that you might think. It's a lot more like babysitting, except that the kid is mine so I don't get paid and I don't get to raid someone's fridge.

This was my first visit to this Marine World and it became quickly apparent how inferior the average amusement park is to Disney[land|world]. I noticed three major differences within minutes of experiencing the park.

1) Disneyland is a Theme park. Most other parks are Amusement parks. It's not that Disney isn't amusing (ignoring the films for a moment), but rather that all other parks fail so drastically at the "theme" part. Marine World is part marine-themed (dolphin shows, water skiing shows, etc), part Looney Tunes, part non-Marine animals, part midway games, and part random rides. Really it's Marine-Non-Marine-Zoo-Looney-Midway-Ride-World. I guess that name didn't test well.

2) The rides make horrible noises. Either they start off with horrendous beeps or alarm sounds, or you get bombarded by many decibels of compressor/generator/jet-engine noise. Rides at Disneyland are music-filled or damn near silent.

3) All employees at Disneyland have the vast majority of their teeth.