PE.com - Tourism Blog

All I Ever Needed To Know about Norway, I Learned from Disney

The Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority and Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells are hosting Nordic travel writers this week to show them the wonders of the Coachella Valley.

So while briefly researching their countries of origin, I found the best travel promotion ever for Sweden. The Web site is standard, but click on "Stockholm the Musical" and dancing Swedes will implore you in a personalized song to visit Stockholm. Alas, they couldn't sing to "Kim" or "Kimberly" but if you're an "Amanda", "Lucy", "Deborah", or "Fiona" enjoy the seranade.

And I already knew enough about Norway because I've ridden the strange trip known as Maelstrom in Epcot, complete with its talking trolls and grande oil rig finale. Here's a video of the entire ride that I didn't shoot. It starts to get good around the 2:12 mark

-- KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
kpierceall@PE.com