Going With The Flow - Day 6 - 26th July 2009

[wicket2005]

Morning or should I say afternoon? The alarm worked a treat and has gone off at 7 am and every 10 minutes or so afterwards because Ian keeps hitting the snooze button. Going off again now. Anyway we have had chance to wake up a bit and have a leisurely breakfast. The lads are still in their beds.

I will do the secret vote shortly. We quite like doing this as whatever the result everyone is happy to go to the park of the day. The choices are Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Islands, Universal, Sea World or Kennedy. Ian has the last say on Kennedy if that is ever picked as he has to do the driving.

Driving over here is crazy, seen so many battered cars and dodgy moves probably because of all the different nationalities driving in this area. I think the worse thing is no one lets you in a lane, you have to push your way in. Ian is really good at driving over here, he has got some of the roads sussed out now. The best route to the Florida Mall is just on the Beachline Express and take Exit 4, the Tom Tom wanted us to go another way but I remember it took us to a very dodgy junction that you had to get across so it is easier to just take the I4, Beachline, take exit 4 then follow directions to the Mall. Unfortunately, we have not sussed out how to reverse the directions and get back on the I4 from there. We end up going the Tom Tom route back which is on normal roads with loads of traffic lights which seems to take ages to get back.

 

[Kymie]

Dont u just love Sat Navs? I prefer a map any day! Hubby likes the sat nav (but then he is useless at map reading!) but the sat nav is always unpredictable! So we use both - sat nav to get us there roghly and me finding the finer detail on the map.

 

[wicket2005]

Sat Navs are really good at getting you to a destination but you still have to look at where you are going. It does cause me to get ratty sometimes back at home when I am telling Ian to go this way but he argues that Sat Nav is saying go a different way but then I say there is a huge sign over the road which I am following.

Anyway votes in this morning 1 for Universal and 3 for Sea World, I think we all fancy doing the Manta again.

 

[mandymouse]

Have a great day Bev, wherever you end up

 

[Pinky166]

Have a great time at Seaworld again.

Glad you got the alarm clock sussed out now. I think we did that in december, your not the only one's.

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks for reading.

We have just nipped to Sea World and did Manta, I didn't bother with a bag so we were straight on the ride, took about 15 minutes. Manta just rocks, I love it. Took some photos of the loading bay for you to see I will post them tonight.

We then did The Kraken, which I love too before seeing the dolphins and me and Gaz fed the stingrays, these are such friendly creatures.

By 10.15 am the line time for the Manta was 100 minutes, pretty nasty. We voted then to go into Universal and have just nipped back to the room for refreshments before going into Universal.

 

[jen_uk]

Good day so far

 

[Pinky166]

I love feeding the stingrays, they always seem to splash me though.

I was going to ask a favour, if you go back to IOA could you get a piccie of the Harry Potter area please , I would love to see how it's coming along since we were there in December. TIA.

Have fun at Universal.

 

[TWyn]

I think it's such a neat idea how you do the secret vote every day to decide where you're going. We always have our days planned before we even leave for vacation, but this is such a fun way to do it. Love hearing about all you're doing. I enjoy the escapism. Feeding the stingrays sounds really neat. Keep having fun and be safe on those roads out there!

 

[cannp123165]

I hope you're having a great day!

 

[natalielongstaff]

have a lovely day Bev

 

[suzycute]

I love your idea of a secret vote! Thanks for all the posts so far!

 

[buzz for boys]

Loving your report Bev - you should be able to keep asking thesat nav to re route until it shows you the option you are looking for !!! Im sure you know tht and its just not doing it but thought id mention it just in case !!!

Can i ask what tickets you have ??? I love the idea of voting each day but thin it must mean you have different tickets to the ones we had - or actually do i remember you saying you all have annual passes and ive just asked a really blonde question !!

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks for reading.

I will try and answer any questions you have just asked.

Claire, if I take my camera into Islands I will take a photo, up to now I have not taken a camera in as, as you know it is very much a water park and to save time at lockers have been going bagless which is lovely. I just usually have my camera to carry.

The tickets we now hold are all Annual Passes because they worked out cheaper for us, I always go for the best value option and we are already booked up for 2010 so took that into account. In the past we bought the 4 park flex ticket and the Ultimate ticket, these allowed us to park hop between all the parks. I know a lot of people tend to love Disney the best but we actually love all the parks in Orlando. So we like to be able to hop round them all and with having a car it is extremely easy to do. As we have been fortunate to go to Orlando for quite a few visits we have done all the rides, shows and parades so don't feel the need to do everything. We know what we want to do in each park and anything on top of the to do list is a bonus.

Thanks Tammy, these roads can be a bit scary that is why I do not drive other here. In our country on multi lane roads you can only overtake one way but here overtaking is from any lane. Ian drives very well though does get a bit confused with the east to west, north and south directions on road signs. With studying the area in my plans over the year I have a clear picture of where everything is so don't have any problems knowing where to do on the main roads.

At Christmas, what we called our bonus holiday after being over here in July 2008 we decided just to go where we wanted to go that day, subject to quiet days and non EMH days and it worked really well. Normally I do an intinerary of where we are going each day. We enjoyed doing this that much that we decided to do the same for this yearś holiday. As the lads are adults it gives us all the option of shaping the day and as I have said before we dont really mind what we do each day.

 

[wicket2005]

We walked across to Universal and managed to do Shrek and Twister. We did go in the line for The Mummy but the line was quite long even for FOTL so we came out of it.

Across the road, where the Blueś Brothers usually play, there was an exhibit of some of the cars from Fast and the Furious, plus a mention of a show so we decided to hang around and wait for it for 5 minutes. However, during that 5 minutes, a few spots of rain started and then joined again, me and Gary went to shelter under a canopy to a pretend shop and Ian and Craig sheltered in a door way. The rain got heavier and heavier, it thundered and flashes of lightning was frequent. Me and Gary hung round on the street corner, first time I have done that Suddenly we noticed Ian and Craig had disappeared I said to Gary he probably has spotted he is near the Irish pub. About one Guiness later we spotted him beckoning us from the pub doorway so we dashed across. I had a lovely glass of red wine and toasted Michelle Snowygirls for being such a caring Diser. After a while the rain stopped and heat turned up.

We went down to Jaws stopping off first for some Nathanś chips oophs french fries, the chips are more like what we have at home and I recommend them. They are sold at an outside kiosk just before the Jaws ride. We just had some chips then went on the Jaws ride, followed by Men in Black and Terminator. We then decided to go back to the room and get changed in to our wet clothes for Islands.

Whilst we were in the room we had a snack then I updated this report. However, the skies outside had darkened again and it is throwing it down. So we are enjoying a break back in the room, not sure what we will be doing next but we will vote on it. Ian is having a snooze and the lads are watching a programme about birds attacking people.

Forgot to say Claire, there really is not much of a difference with HP Land from December. The Ye Old Oak Tavern are whatever it was called has had a shell built up to make it look like it has a pointed roof. Duelling Dragons still has that long walkway to it. You can see the peaks of buildings which I think are for Diagon Alley. If I take my camera I will post some photos for you.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Sounds like your having a lovely time Bev

 

[wicket2005]

Hi Emma, yes we have enjoyed ourselves, even a spot of rain doesn't really spoil things. Currently holed up in room, thunderstorm has gone but still raining, though we do have some thunder in the room as Ian is snoring, Craig is having a nap and Gary is reading the paper. We are watching a nasty programme about Anacondas now.

The Royal Pacific (heck thundering again) has a lovely white sandy beach area where you can play volleyball or sit and sunbathes (if no one playing volleyball). I sat there by the waterś edge in 2007 and chatted to Craig and Ian. I have had second thoughts about being there now after seeing that snake dive in to the water the other day. I also don't think it is a good thing to sit near water in this land of gators either if they can get in peopleś pools a man made river would pose no problems.

We are avoiding travelling about as I remember listening to one of the Disney podcasts, I think it was DIsneyBrit where a CM was telling us about Florida Ice. This is what happens when it rains hard and hits all the stuff left on the roads, makes cars aquaplane, so best keep safe till it is over.

 

[wicket2005]

Some of todayś photos http://twitpic.com/photos/wicket2005 you can click on them and see a larger photo if you want (in case you have not sussed that out already).

 

[buzz for boys]

Some of todayś photos http://twitpic.com/photos/wicket2005 you can click on them and see a larger photo if you want (in case you have not sussed that out already).

I hold my hands up i didnt work that 1 out !!! Your photos are brill !! Manta looks scary - do u actually get wet ???

 

[wicket2005]

I am glad I mentioned about the photos, I had linked to the home page of my account to make it easy to see all the photos.

You don't get wet on the Manta, your hair goes all over the place though. I have nothing to tie mine back with so it ends up hanging in front of my face by the end of the ride.

We spent a couple of hours chilling in the room, Ian and Craig having a nap. Once they were awake we looked at the options as it was still raining. We decided to go and see the new Harry Potter movie at Citywalk. Both me and Ian put the mick macs on, the lads put their hoodies on, rain or no rain they were not going to be seen in mick macs. We caught the ferry boat down to City Walk which saved the lads from getting too wet. However, by the time we got down there the rain had eased off a bit.

We bought the tickets then just nipped to the BK Whopper Bar for some tea. I don't usually eat fast food but it filled a gap. The cinema was really nice, had lovely seats that rocked, a place to hold your drink with a bottom so took any size of cups, an excellent surround system SCDS not quite the right symbols but I think it is one of Sonyś designs and the picture quality was outstanding, a lot better than my local Cineworld which is quite a new cinema. I had a plastic cup of wine and this was dedicated to my SiL as being the only HP addict in the family who has read all the HP books like me and for giving me with a little help from my bro, 2 adorable nieces.

We very much enjoyed the film though I had restless legs throughout it which drove me round the bend. Any body got any remedies for this? I just couldn't keep still.

City Walk was alive with people going out for the night and had some rap artist on in the open. The walk back to the hotel was quite lonely but thankfully we didn't see anymore snakes.

Now just getting ready for bed, Ian watching some golf on the tv as are the lads. cya x