HOLY CRAP REPORT FULLY COMPLETELY FINISHED!! Photo Pass secret revealed!

[mx3man123]

Day 5 Magic Kingdom

Cast of Characters
Kelly - Fiancee
Katelyn - Kelly's 14 year old daughter
Me - 33 year old kid

We awake Sunday March 5th to Mickey's voice....it's starting to become a little surreal that we are in this magical place. Normal start to the day, no one talks to Kelly until she has her coffee. Kate takes forever doing her hair and face, I guess maybe she figures she may run into some cute guys there so I plan on Splash Mountain to wash all that junk off.
We all jump into the rental and off we go. We parked in grumpy and start our journey. I love the monorail through the contemporary, looking down on chef mickeys and wishing we had made a reservation.
We get into the Kingdom and I want to hit the park old school commando style but we end up hitting shop along main street......this is not my idea of a way to start the day at the Kingdom, my mind is screaming "Lets Go!!!!"

We leave the shop and head toward Frontierland where we stopped and got some character autographs. Rafika was there with Timon, how ackward this is, we already have rafiki's autograph but not timon's...what do we do? I told Kate to give her book to Timon and maybe there was ashot he would just hand the book back to her but I should have known better, he handed to Rafiki and now we have a duplicate...UGH!

From there we walk through Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, I noticed something this time through the house, I never saw a bathroom....maybe I'm wrong but apparently the Robinson's never have to go.

We then got a fast pass for the Jungle Cruise and headed towards Pirates of the Caribbean...IT'S CLOSED!!!!! I love this ride and it's closed, they actually had a female CM standing there telling people it's closed. What a job to do that all day, "it's closed, it's closed, it's closed" when she gets home her husband tells her he's a little bit frisky "It's closed".....

We wander over to Splash Mountain and there was very little wait so we go on that, I love this ride, i know Kelly and Kate expected a basic water flume ride and didn't realize there was a whole story inside the mountain. I especially love after the drop and you go back inside the mountain and see the big boat with the music, what a great ride.

We then headed back to Jungle Cruise and used our passes and walked right on. This is a terribly corny ride with corny jokes from the driver but it's so Disney and must remain there. I got a laug from the driver mentioning how she went to school for 4 years and got a degree and now she's working on the jungle cruise and how proud her parents are of her.

We stopped for a Mickey Ice cream, I know it's just Ice Cream and Chocolate but it tastes better because it's shaped as mickey's head.

We then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and there wasn't much of a wait there either. This ride didn't seem as thrilling as it did back in the early 90's, not sure if they tamed it down or not but it was just ho hum.

We were at a crossroads at this point, it was still early enough that we could hop the train over to toontown and take the path to Space Mountain and ride that fairly quickly or we could just go over to Haunted mansion, Peter pAn, Snow White, it's a small world etc and make our way over to Space Mountain so we chose the latter.

I love how purposely rude the CM's at Haunted Mansion are to everyone. Kate was actually weary of this ride like it's scary or something, this is coming from a kid that watches every horror movie going. I don't think she really understands that this is Magic Kingdom and nothing is scary here.

We then stopped at liberty Square for the obligitary head in stockade shot.

We saunter over to Peter Pan and this area was packed already so we got fast pass for 3 hours later. We waited in line for It's a smll world, it was about a 20 minute wait. I truly believe that Disney will take ownership of your children if you leave them on the tram as more than one of the kids 'working' in "it's a small world' mouthed 'Help me'.
That incessant song was so stuck in my head by the end of the ride I was singing "It's a long ride afterall, it's a long ride afterall....."

We then headed into Tinkerbell's treasure as there was no way Kate would let us walk buy without 'checking it out' again. So far I have thought the whole pin thing was silly and a total waste of money but I guess the magicalness (don't think this is a word) of this place got the better of me and I purchased Kate a $28 tinkerbell starter pin kit plus a $10.95 tinkerbell pin.
So if your keeping track she's got the tinkerbell purse, tinkerbell hat and tinkerbell lanyard with 5 pins.

Took some pics of the castle with a little kelly in front

By this time I was starving to death again so we went into Cosmic Rays...I LOVE THIS PLACE! The food was good and just watching Sonny Eclipse on the Piano and listening to everything he was saying was great entertainment while having lunch. The place is big enough it was really easy finding a table as well. Kelly got a chicken salad and the thing was huge, a manatee couldn't have eaten all that lettuce.

We then made our way to mickey's toontown fair and walked through mickey and minnie's house. I love the kitchen in Mickey's house, so many people open the door to get into the kitchen and set off the alarm, it's funny watching their faces like they expect of team of Disney security with their mouse ears to come running.

We then get in line in that huge tent to get autographs of the princesses, this line was excessively huge. I waited with them for 20 minutes before I got an idea to run over to Space Mountain for fastpasses while they wait, I went all the way and got the passes and all the way back and waited out front on the bench and they finally came out and didn't even get the autographs because the line was still to long.

My feet were killing me as these damn reebok's hate me or something, I'm limping along at this point, my shoes feel like I have a pin in them or something sharp but I took them off and checked my sock and nothing, not sure why these shoes are torturing me so.

We head into Tomorrowland and walked into Carousel of Progress. I love this attraction for one reason, you get to sit down for 20 minutes and do nothing. We had been going non stop since the park opened so I was zonked and this was a great break and surprisingly Kelly and Kate liked this attraction.

It was now time to use our fastpasses for Space Mountain and thats when Kate realizes she has lost a pin already, we bought them about 1 hour earlier and she lost one already!!! It's not really her fault, it's the stupid design of the fastener for the pins that don't stay on good. I'm sure everyone losses pins, i probably have 10 of them stuck into the bottom of my shoes and thats where the pain is coming from.

We walk onto Space Mountain, I swear this ride has one of the longest queue rides there could possibly be, it was a good 5 minutes brisk walk from the entrance all the way to the loading area, I couldn't imagine waiting in that standby line. I still don't understand why the majority of people don't use fastpasses. Lines suck people.

We then headed onto Buzz Lightyear, there was no wait so no need for fastpass there. This ride was fun, reminds me of Men in Black at Universal. I was racking up the points the whole ride, especially when the cars stopped for a couple of minutes.

Still feeling a little lazy we rode the TTA and kelly got a bit of a foot rub from yours truly.

The only other attraction in Tomorrowland left was Stitch so we visited that attraction. This attraction is really no good, it's vile and gross and basically a waste of time. I still don't know why they have a shoulder harness on this attraction, you don't move at all.

We then proceeded out of tomorrowland and got to the castle just in time for Cinderellabration. This is a nice little show, it gets alot of flak but I liked it.

We were all pretty wiped by the time this was over and decided to leave the Kingdom. We headed back to the villa and Kate went to the pool and I got ready for the Oscars.

Just a side not for people staying at the Boardwalk on DVC points, the community hall has an excellent DVD collection of kids movies and regular movies for free, so at the end of a long day it's nice to throw in a movie before bed, nice way to wind down.

Stay tuned for Day 6 at Seaworld.....

 

[mx3man123]

Day 6

Cast of Characters
Kelly - Fiancee
Katelyn - Kelly's 14 year old daughter
Me - 33 year old dolphincoveaphobic

Initially we weren't going to do Seaworld, we thought it would be too much. My sister(same one that gave us the DVC points, if she ever needs a kidney she can have mine) wanted to get us something for Christmas and suggested some sort of tour at one of the parks. The only one I was really interested in was the Keys to the Kingdom tour but Kate wouldn't be able to do it as she's 14 so I suggested Seaworld tickets as they would be the same price anyway.
We went to Seaworld on Monday March 6th and I absolutely love this park. I will make this a must do park on any return trips to Florida.
Now for you roller coaster buffs this park has the best roller coaster i have ever been on. Krakken is unbelieveable. I think it inverts you like 7 times, i lost count but this ride alone is worth going to the park. Got a good picture of Kate as she went flying by, she's in the second row by herself.

The next ride we went on I would discourage against if you don't like being soaked all day. Journey to Atlantis is a huge ride but they could have saved the money and just had a big pool there and thrown you in for the same affect. I sat in the front and kelly was directly behind me and Kate was beside her. I've never been hit by a mass of water like this in all my life, it's worse than the 6 foot wave at Typhoon lagoon. Apparently my body acted as a wall as Kelly didn't get wet at all which I'm glad of or I would have heard about it the rest of the day, instead I was the one that got to be uncomfortable all day long.

After i finished ringing out my shorts and my wallet we slushed our way over to the Penguin exhibit. It was cute, I'm a huge penguin now thanks to the "March of the Penguins" and I noticed alot of penguin souvenirs around, more than you would think.

After watching the penguins swim around we went to the Sea Lion show. This was a great show. The main guy in the show is a clone of Wayne Brady, actually he was funnier than Wayne Brady. It was very entertaining and the kids ate it up.

From there we checked out the sharks which was neat having them swim above you, they should have the Jaws music in the tunnel for the full affect.

I didn't realize until then that Seaworld was owned by Anheuser-Busch which leads me to the greatest thing
so far on this trip. The hospitality section of the park where they give away free beer, yes that's right free beer!!!! At first I ordered a nice roast beef sandwich which are worth the price of admission (OK my sister got me these tickets but you know what I mean) and I was outside eating it I saw a guy come out with a cup of beer. I decided to check this out. Here's the picture of the line....

I saunter up to the server, his name is Bob. I asked for a Bud and he poured it and I pulled out my wet cash and asked how much and then Bob said the two best words I have ever heard "It's complimentary"
Well needless Bob is my new best friend and I promised to write when I go back home.

We then rode a simulator ride called Wild Artic which was so so but after the ride you actually walk through a section that has real life polar bears and whales so that was cool. We then went to see Blue Horizons, thats what's great about this park, alot of shows where you just sit and they entertain you which is perfect for those people with evil reeboks that hurt your feet. Blue Horizons was amazing, dolphins doing everything imagineable and parrots flying over your head, two thumbs way up.

We then went up the sky tower, I love things that go really high up, it's no comparrison to the CN tower in Toronto but it was neat nonetheless, here's great pick of Krakken from above....

After we got back down to earth we went to the biggest scams of all that I have ever seen and I got sucked in hook line and sinker.
It's called Dolphins Cove where you get to feed the dolphins and of course who doesn't want to feed the dolphins. They have specific feeding times and you get in line, yes thats right I waited 20 minutes in line to pay $10 for two little trays of fish to feed their dolphins, it's genius. They charge outrageous prices for the fish and they get their own dolphins fed for free!! Whoever thought of this should have got a promotion. Which reminds me, Mom was feeding our cat twice a day for 10 days, let me see carry the 1 and add 15, oh ya Mom owes me $100 for feeding our cat.

Now thats the first part of their scam, now when you get your fish and head to the lagoon area to feed them they have professional photographers across from you taking pictures of you feeding the dolphins, they then radio these guys that are behind you and those guys give you a piece of paper with a number on it, we got about three of them in the 5 minutes we fed them, you then head over to these computers where there is more seaworld employees and you punch in the number off the sheets and up comes adorable pictures of you feeding their dolphins. Well Kate really wanted her pictures of the dolphins and so $22 later we got 4 wallet size and one 5 by 7. I wanted to run out of this money grabbing cove as quick as possible.

After the dolphins I wanted to say Hi to Bob again, Bob's cool.

We then went and got a seat for Shamu. Another really good show, he's their headliner, the Sigfried and Roy if you will, ok bad example. Now I am 33 years old and the name Shamu has seemed familiar to me my whole life so my question is, is this the original Shamu or do they pull a Lassie and when one Shamu dies they have another Shamu ready to fill in??
We were off to the side so we didn't get soaked. They actually have a ringer so to speak, it isn't Shamu that splashes the audience it's this huge whale they have come out with the sole purpose of splashing people. That would be cool if someone payed me to walk around with a super soaker and just get people drenched.

Once Shamu was done entertaining us we decided we had done pretty much everything and it was only 3:30pm so we thought we would check out International Drive for a place to eat.

I have never seen a road with so many restaurants. We all decided on KFC for dinner. We grabbed the grub and headed back to the villa. I didn't realize how different american KFC's are to canadian KFC's, they are complete opposites. For starters there is no Macaroni or Potato Salad at American KFC's....why?
We ended up ordering a 12 piece, wedges, macaroni and cheese and biscuits. I wish I had a picture of an american piece of kfc right beside a canadian piece of kfc, your chicken dwarfs ours all to hell. You have mutant jose canseco chicken down there. We all could only eat one piece of chicken it was so big. I'm just wondering, have you ever had Macaroni salad down there? You guys are missing out because mac salad is the best.

After we ate kate went swimming and got some movies. I called home to check on our cat because I figure our 11 day absense could very well put him over the edge.
Watched Illuminations from our balcony, I never tire of fireworks.

Went to bed failry early since we had one more day to go before we had a day off....

Stay tuned for Day 7, Universal Studios....

 

[MOMOFMNM]

thanks!! good report once again!!

I am sure I am not the only one who remembers the free beer place as a place that my mom and dad hung out all day and "released" my brother and I to do whatever we wanted.... Yeah I KNOW all about the free beer place...

bet my mom does not remember it too well...

 

[pooksma]

Thanks now my DH will want to meet Bob!!
Lovin' the reports.

 

[jes77]

Awesome report -- But I've not seen macaroni salad at KFC before ... and Yes they do have several Shamu's to keep the show going (I even think that it isn't the same orca every day...I think they rotate them out ... ya know with labor laws they gotta get their time off ya know ... hee,hee,hee )

 

[Kiger]

You are an absolute riot. I rarely read the trip reports all the way through - usually just scan to see if something new is going on - but your report is the absolute best one I've ever seen. I'm going to go through withdrawl when you post your last day! Your evil reeboks, mutant KFC chicken, love for American beer prices, mute-until-morning-coffee fiance, and tink obsessed step daughter to be are perhaps the best cast of characters in the park. Thanks for entertaining me (and my husband as I've read your reports to him). Glad your trip was so much fun. Please go again soon. Thank your sister for me for giving you her points.

 

[marc]

You are an absolute riot. I rarely read the trip reports all the way through - usually just scan to see if something new is going on - but your report is the absolute best one I've ever seen. I'm going to go through withdrawl when you post your last day! Your evil reeboks, mutant KFC chicken, love for American beer prices, mute-until-morning-coffee fiance, and tink obsessed step daughter to be are perhaps the best cast of characters in the park. Thanks for entertaining me (and my husband as I've read your reports to him). Glad your trip was so much fun. Please go again soon. Thank your sister for me for giving you her points.

I can't agree more. This is the most colorful trip report I ever read. Thanks & keep it coming.

 

[IDoDis]

Great report! You ought to think about being a stand-up comedian. You have a great sense of humor! I don't laugh at stupid jokes, but your writing is very comical.

We do have macaroni salad at KFC where I live, and you do get some HUGE pieces of chicken mixed in with the smaller legs and wings. I guess it's different in different parts of the country.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mx3man123]

I'm glad some of you are finding this amusing, I need to have a sense of humor with the line of work I'm in. I do technical support for a large American ISP. I'm sure you know which one, Wil E Coyote can't catch him.

If I didn't have a sense of humor I would have been admitted to a mental hospital long ago.

 

[mx3man123]

Day 7

Cast of Characters
Kelly - don't talk to me until I have my coffee fiance
Katelyn - Kelly's 14 year old Tinkerbell stalker
Me - Universally not impressed


Off to Universal we go today and I have to admit it feels a little weird leaving Disney property. I almost feel guilty when I leave the property like I'm cheating on Mickey or something. "Don't worry Mickey, I'll be back later to donate more money to you" See ya real soon!

We get to Universal and I have noticed this at Seaworld as well, there is an option of preferred parking. It's an extra three dollars. I hate to pay for parking at the best of times but to pay an extra $3 on top of the $9 it costs to park there was out of the question unless I got to park at Mel's Drive-In which I knew wouldn't happen.

Now the last time I was at Universal things were alot different, there was no Islands of Adventure or City Walk so basically the parking for Universal was right out front the main gates and now you park about a mile away I kid you not.

They do have these great people mover escalators that save you alot of walking and I have never been one to pass up an escalator.

Now I was in commando mode today so we whisked through Citywalk since I figured we could spend time looking around it on the way out. We get in
to the park and head to the right through the Hollywood section to the Kidszone so we could ride E.T. This is a cute ride but could use a little bit of updating, they give you these little cards in line then you get to someone that asks your name and swipes it on the card then you give your card to the people that load you on the vehicle. At the end of the ride ET says everyone's name on the ride. The little card I had was almost crumpled beyond recogniztion, note to execs at Universal, buy new E.T. cards.

We then headed to Back to the Future which was my favorite ride back in 1992 when I was there last. Apparently I was mentally challenged back in
1992 because this ride is really bad now. The big screen is full of discoloration and the movie looked blurry and I felt nauseated the whole
ride.

We then headed to Men in Black Alien Attack which is just a ripoff of Buzz Lightyear. Now the thing that bugs me about Universal is the fact that
some rides you have to get a locker to put your things in first to be able to ride. Yes the locker is free but they use this ridiculous thumb print technology to get the locker and to retrieve your belongings after. Your thumb has to put on the screen perfectly both times or it won't work. I also think it's gross that thousands of people are sticking their thumbs on this thing. I swear if you took a swab off that thumb screen and dropped it into some city's water supply you'd have some weird bird flu-ecoli-norwalk type of outbreak. Disney has the same thing when entering the park where you stick your two fingers which is just as gross but it's Disney so their allowed.

It was now time to ride Earthquake. This ride/show was exactly as i remembered it to be. I made sure I sat on the left of the tram as I knew I could get a good pic of the roof falling in and the truck slidding toward me. People were looking at me funny though when i had the camera pointed in that direction as nothing was going on yet.

Now going through this park kinda felt like just going through the motions, it wasn't as neat and exciting as I remembered it to be. I'm assuming the reason the park was basically the same as it was 14 years ago is they have been spending those years creating Islands of Adventure and Citywalk.
I do hope they start updating Universal though as I think it has the potential to be a really good park.

After Earthquake we came to the most entertaining part of my day and that was The Blues Brothers show. This show was excellent and by far the
best live street act I had come across so far. I love how they come driving down the street in their cop car with the huge horn on top. It was
just as entertaining watching some of the crowd trying to get jiggy with it.

We then went to Revenge of the Mummy and to another bacteria filled thumb scan machine. This ride was quite good, probably the best ride in this park actually. You get sprayed in the face with water on this ride which usually pisses me off but I have become accustomed to it by this point in our trip.

The crowds were pretty light this day. Here's a couple of photos to show how many people weren't there, i photoshopped out the tumbleweeds.

Took a picture of Kelly and Kate on this one street and there was only one other person on the street. Can you spot him? We finally found Waldo.

Now it was time for Twister. I had no clue as too what to expect from this attraction, the front looked cool and the wait was minimal so we decided to try it out. On a scale of one to ten with ten being an amazing attraction and one being "tear this piece of crap down" I gave it a -50. You go in a room and it's windy and you get wet and there is a cow that flies by.....thats it!!! It sucks and it blows...literally.
Not to mention you stand through the whole thing and any attraction where you stand is not a favorite in my books. Also the preshow is the annoying Bill Paxton with his "i'm an actor and your not" attitude. Skip this attraction.

Now it was time for Kelly to find a smoking section, yes she smokes. It's a disgusting habit and hopefully she quits someday but for now she needed her fix. You should have saw her after we flew(her first flight ever) into Orlando and she went 3 hours without a cigarette, it was worse than talking to her before her morning coffee.

We decided we wanted to sit for a bit so what better place than the Beetlejuice Revue. Before the show began one of the employees seating
people kept us all thoroughly entertained with her singing and dancing to the pre-show music, she was quite the character, maybe she's trying
to get promoted to be in the show?

We left the show about 3 minutes early so we could make our way over to Fear Factor Live. By this time we were starting to get a little hungry so we stopped right by fear factor to get a turkey leg and nachos and cheese. I'm not quite sure what the obsession is with turkey legs in Orlando but they are everywhere and everyone eats them. It's like a bunch of Henry the 8ths
walking all over the place with these things.Kelly is great at picking the meat off things so she went to town on the turkey leg and before you
know it we had a tray full of turkey meat we all shared and believe it or not we were all full of that leg and the nachos.

Now it was time for Jaws. I remember this ride was here the last time I was there but I didn't ride it then for some reason so i had to do it this time. Our boat tour guide couldn't have been more non-excited about his job, he sounded like Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller....Jaws..Jaws...Jaws...
I did notice the mickey ears in the water by the boat that had been attacked by Jaws....booo, Hiss to Universal.


We then headed from the back of the park were Fear Factor is located to the front of the park and got in line for Shrek 4D. I was expecting something really cool and original and it was good but it's the same movie as the one you can buy at walmart with the 3D glasses so that was a bit of a letdown. Kate did get her picture done with Shrek and Fiona, check out Fiona's pose, how many times a day does she do this I wonder?

I wanted to do the Horror make-up show but it didn't start for another hour and we had pretty much done everything this park had to offer anyway so we went through the Lucy exhibit and grabbed a plastic bottle of Bud. I'd never seen or had a plastic bottle of beer before and not sure why they don't have them everywhere. I love how liberal America is with their beer. In Canada beer is really restricted, to start with in Ontario you have to go to a beer store to get it, one central location. The place is actually called The Beer Store, were not that original of a nation. It has set hours to be able to buy beer. If you want beer outside of these hours your out of luck, thats when you go visit friends that have beer.

If you think the lines are bad at Soarin' you haven't seen anything, try to buy beer the day before Christmas when the beer store will be closed for the next 2 days, there isn't any fast passes here either.

We left Universal around 4pm and just wandered around CityWalk for a while before leaving Universal altogether.

We were pretty exhausted at this point as we had done 5 parks in 5 days and we were looking forward to a much needed day off the next day.

Stay tuned for Day 8's adventures at Typhoon Lagoon, Downtown Disney and Whispering Canyon, yes, all this on our day off.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

wow it looks really empty at US!!

You have prompted me to possibly try a Seaworld Trip in August....

looking forward to you getting back to the World next installment!!


thanks again!

 

[mx3man123]

Day 8



Today was our day off or so I thought. It just felt wrong to sit around and do nothing. Katelyn was not going to wake up yet no matter what we did.

You would think a 14 year old would be up at the crack of dawn when at Disney but not this kid, she'd sleep 12 hours a day if we let her. Maybe I should have waved some cooked bacon in front of her.


Kelly and I decided to go for a walk so we headed over to the Dolphin and Swan hotels and snooped around the lobby and pools and took some pics. These are very nice hotels but the size of these hotels almost make them look out of place here compared to all the other resorts, it reminds me of the sesame street skit, "One of these things is not like the other..."

From there we came back to the Boardwalk and walked around the water stopping at Beach Club so I could locate Beaches and Cream which is not that easy to find believe it or not especially since there is construction going on there.
It's a really nice walk around the resorts and I highly recommend it, I just wish we got to see all of Disneys resorts.

When we got back to the villa Kate was mobile and getting ready. By this point the day was up in the air as to what we would do. We had ADR's for 5pm at Whispering Canyon but we weren't sure if we would be doing that or not, we had 2 previous ADR's at other restaurants we never made it to.
Kelly suggested she take Kate to Typhoon Lagoon as we have 3 plusses on our passes that needed to get used. I didn't really care to go to the water park but I could tell Kelly didn't want to take the bus there and wanted me to go so I said I would drive them there and I finally relented and said I would go there with them, i have zero backbone.

Typhoon Lagoon was surprisingly quiet, it was about 11:30am and hardly anyone around. I didn't wear my trunks to the park but I had them with me. The girls headed out into the lagoon and i stayed in the shallow end wading in the water with my camera and then we hear this big WOOOSHH sound and this gigantic wave comes from the back of the lagoon.

Kelly is the one in the picture with her hand up as she is trying to run away from it, it was a galiant effort but she didn't make it. As you can tell from the pic I was way back and that wave still managed to soak my shorts. I then went to get a locker and get changed which I should have done initially. We played around in the lagoon getting slammed over and over by the waves, it was great fun.

We walked around the park and Kate tried out everything they had to offer. I'm not sure what slide this was but it gave her a wedgie. Don't worry, it wasn't an atomic wedgie.

So as Kate was enjoying herself we were just enjoying the peacefulness of the park, we weren't in fight or flight mode like you have to be sometimes at certain parks.

We took a picture of this big shark mouth only because everyone else was plus it makes me look tiny, I have a body of a taught, preteen, swedish boy!!!

We left the park after about 3 hours I would say which is plenty of time when the park is dead. We headed back to the villa when we showed and changed and relaxed a bit. We were still trying to decide on what to do later on and such. We finally made up our mind to head to Whispering canyon for dinner.

I don't consider myself to be a stupid person, I'm good at trivia, i'm pretty good at jeopardy so I'm not sure why my next decision was so stupid. I had carefully planned everything for the entire trip, had maps from the my home to airport, airport in Orlando to grocery store etc...
For some reason I didn't bother to find out where Wilderness Lodge was because I assumed it would be near Animal Kingdom.
Animals....Wilderness.....seemed to make sense to me. Luckily we left early enough and I did ask for directions from a friendly guard at Coronado Springs resort. I can hear all the other males booing me for asking directions.

We got to the wilderness lodge and I thought it was a great looking place.

Where it's located it feels like you are in the middle of the wilderness. I can hear everone say 'DUH!'
The inside was huge and everything echoed so when they rang that triangle dinner bell and a waitress yelled "COME AND GET IT!!" at the top of her lungs you can be sure everyone heard her.
We were seated in the back section, out of the main dining area and our server was Sergio aka, Dustry Trails. He reminded me of a mix of Cheech and Fez from that 70's show. We got quite a bit of attention from him for the first 20 minutes or so as we were his only table to start with.

We decided to keep it simple and we all ordered the skillet and chocolate milkshakes. I think we needed a few more straws, the 30 straws thrown at us didn't seem like enough.
I was dying of thirst by now and when the milkshake came it didn't last long. In hindsite I would probably order something not as thick when your really thirsty but I digress.
Dusty sees my milkshake cup empty and asked if I had a drinking problem. I didn't know what to say and Kelly and Kate started to laugh. Off he went to the kitchen to retrieve a refill. He came back out with this little number...

Kelly and Kate both lose it. I didn't feel as tiny as before, I felt like a bohemeth compared to this little gravy cup.

Now if you want your money's worth at this restaurant I would suggestd not eating the salad or cornbread and just stick to meat. The ribs are great and so was the pulled pork and the chicken. I didn't care for the sausage that much and I didn't try anything else. This gets to be quite a loud and lively place when it fills up which doesn't take long at all so our location away from the main room was quite pleasant. We knew enough not to ask for ketchup.

We finished our meal and were completely stuffed. We thought the best course of action at this point which was around 6:15pm would be to head to Downtown Disney to walk some of this food off so thats where we headed. We parked on the westside and looked at all the shops. I forget the name of this one shop but it was really expensive music and movie memorabilia. I could have bought this C3PO but I didn't want to buy another plane ticket.

From here we walked through Pleasure Island into Marketplace which i really like. The Disney store there is humongous. We tried to steer Kate away from the Tinkerbell section or else I would have had to put a second mortgage on my house.

I found the Earl of Sandwich which I really wanted to try prior to the trip but I was so stuffed from dinner there was no way I would attempt it, I didn't want to look like that fat guy from Monty Python's Meaning of Life, I was absolutely stuffed, I positively couldn't eat another bite. Hopefully someone gets that.

By the time we were done the marketplace we didn't feel like walking back to the westside so we were lazy people and took the bus, we weren't the only ones so I didn't feel too bad.

Now it was time for DisneyQuest. The building looked cool and we still had 2 plusses on our hopper tickets to use up so we went in. I believe it brought us to the 4th floor but I'm not certain, the layout of the building it's hard to decipher what floor your on. The first room we went into had old vintage arcade games.....JACKPOT!!! Kelly and I started hitting the games hard, when was the last time you played Burgertime or Frogger? We were having a blast but Kate didn't really care about these games, come to think of it everyone playing these games were adults.

I then started playing this Star Wars racing game and got caught up in that. Once I was done I couldn't find the girls anywhere until I looked at the Pinball Slam.

I have no clue of the purpose of this game but watching everyone moving around on their own pods was entertainment in itself, Kelly got her workout on this machine.

Now as neat as this huge arcade is I wouldn't pay the price they want to get in but it was worth a plus pass.

By the time we left it was around 10:30pm I believe and we were all tired so we headed back to the room and fell fast asleep.

Don't miss tomorrows adventures where I almost lose a limb at Islands of Adventure, you'll be sorry if you miss this. This will show what a complete loser I really am, so mark it on your calendar to check back here.

 

[marc]

I found the Earl of Sandwich which I really wanted to try prior to the trip but I was so stuffed from dinner there was no way I would attempt it, I didn't want to look like that fat guy from Monty Python's Meaning of Life, I was absolutely stuffed, I positively couldn't eat another bite. Hopefully someone gets that.

You mean you couldn't even try a wafer-thin mint?

 

[mx3man123]

You mean you couldn't even try a wafer-thin mint?

Marc my man...i knew someone would get that.....

 

[mom2fivecs]

Great trip report...you are keeping me laughing throughout.

 

[OhMari]

you are a great writer and I love the pictures.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

MX3:

To stay TOTALLY on topic here:

when you get into DQ do you have to pay extra to play the video games and such?? I am thinking about plusses but I am not takin' three kids anywhere that you pump quarters in a machine...that is cause for bankruptcy!

also do you think the slides at TL were fine for 8 and 9 yo girls who LOVE to swim and LOVE slides and such?? What is the height requirement??

thanks!!!

 

[jes77]

Uh oh! Did someone forget the cardinal rule of extreme thrill rides -- Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times !!! (Just kidding )

I love Disney but I really like IOA too (cause I love the rides!)

I do have a question: How much is it to get into Disney Quest? I want to go but I'm going solo and I decided not to get the plus option cause I really don't think I would actually use them -- but several people have recommended this to me (I like video games )

Thanks!!

I am really enjoying your report (Does this smilie look really creepy or is it just me?!)

 

[mx3man123]

MX3:

To stay TOTALLY on topic here:

when you get into DQ do you have to pay extra to play the video games and such?? I am thinking about plusses but I am not takin' three kids anywhere that you pump quarters in a machine...that is cause for bankruptcy!

also do you think the slides at TL were fine for 8 and 9 yo girls who LOVE to swim and LOVE slides and such?? What is the height requirement??

thanks!!!

All the games in DisneyQuest are free to play so it's just a plus pass to get in or I believe $34.99 if your paying out of pocket but I may be wrong.

8 and 9 year olds would love TL. Not sure of the height requirement but I saw alot of 4 feet people going down the slides.

 

[mx3man123]

Day 9 - THE INCIDENT!!!


This whole trip report writing is alot more stressful than I had originally anticipated it to be. First of all I keep checking to see if anyone has left and posts. I'm waitng for that "YOU SUCK" post that hasn't come as of yet.

Then there's the added stress of not wanting your report slip to the second page of the trip reports section like mine did yesterday, had a bit of an anxiety attack. I need a catchy title to get everyone interested like how to make $5000 on you Disney vacation. Horsegirl has already latched onto that idea. I may have to start a support group for dis'ers.

So today were headed to Islands of Adventure. I absolutely love this park, it's pure eye candy.
Universal really hit a homerun with this park, I can see why there was a lack of attention with the other park, all their time was spent on this glorious place.
It's literally like your in a comic book.

Now this park isn't for the faint of heart, they have some serious scary rides in this place so unless your child loves big crazy rides it probably wouldn't be worth it. I saw several kids crying with their parents saying "Comon Timmy, it's just a ride" "But Mom I don't wanna die!!"

The first one we went on is "The Incredible Hulk" which was a very fast ride, your flung around so much you don't know which way is up. Just a side not to people with larger upper bodies, these rides have 2 types of seats, I could ride in either but the seat with 2 seatbelts was more comfortable.

We then waited 15 minutes in the line for this ride called Dr Doom's free fall. Lame, Lame, Lame...enough said

Spiderman was next. this ride was truly AMAZING! Best 3D ride I have ever been on. Do not miss this ride.

We then beelined it to the back right corner of the park for dueling dragons. From the entrance to the ride to where you actually get on the ride is over 3000 feet, it has the longest queue line in the world, luckily it was dead today because there is no way I would have waited. Dueling dragons is actually 2 seperate roller coasters that clash throughout the ride. Both coasters are timed so you seem like your dueling with the other side, hence the name. When you get off the ride they have a shortcut re-ride door that you can get in line for the other coaster as they are both different so of course we rode both. Bring extra underwear with you, you'll need them after this ride.

Our next attraction was a walkthrough attraction which normally I don't like which you'll all know if you read my last Universal thread. But Poseidon's Fury is a great attraction. At one point you walk through a tunnel with water circling around the walls of the tunnel, it felt like a spin cycle of a washing machine.

We then wandered into Dr. Suess land. Kids will love this place, it is so colorful and cool looking, I almost felt like rhyming.

Now it was time for Jurassic Park. This ride was fairly good, there was a bit of a wait as it broke down while we were in line. I was happy that this ride doesn't soak you, I barely got wet at all. This section of the park needs more attractions though I feel.

We then headed to the Popeye section of the park. By this point I'm still in awe looking at everything. We stopped by Wimpy's hamburger joint for all you can eat burgers!!!!

Well ok they weren't real but they look pretty good. One of my favorite cartoon characters is Wimpy. Got to love a guy that loves burgers and cons people into buying him hamburgers, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"
I guess I should also like Jughead with this theory but his pointy crown hat he wears freaks me out.

Kate and I then rode the best water ride ever, Kelly whimped out when we saw the people coming off this thing, they were absolutely soaked. It's called Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. You are not safe anywhere on this ride. There are even water cannons up top that people can use to just soak the people on the ride.

Kate and I actually got off not too bad, we were the least soaked people on our raft. This was our last ride of the day anyway so we didn't care.

Now it was time to leave the park...i can hear you all saying "What about his limb getting ripped off??"

I'm getting to that. I thought once I left the park I would be pretty safe.

After we left the park and walked through Citywalk is when everything became interesting....

First of all I didn't realize you can have a fear of escalators but i now have escalaphobia, it affects .03 of the population. I always watch people go on an escalator and watch them jump over the part where the stairs disappear and I laughed at them, I thought they were crazy, but these people are smart. I never jump off I just kind of slide off the end of the escalator but not anymore........just when it you thought it couldn't happen to you......it does!!!!!


WHEN ESCALATORS ATTACK!!!!

When it grabbed a hold of my shoe I thought, 'Holy crap(disney version), this escalator is going to kill me and I'm just gonna be another darwin award recipient'

The whole escaltor stopped when kelly hit the red panic button....we just kind of stood there looking at it and couldn't believe that this happened, I mean honestly have you ever seen this happen to anyone before? Why do these weird things always happen to me?

A friendly security guard was there immediately named Clyde. First he wanted to know if I was alright which I was due to my quick thinking of pulling out my foot out of the shoe.
Then he kind of smirked about it saying he has never seen that before....Ok this guy is a security guard in a parking garage where there is nothing but escalators and he has never seen this before?? Then he started asking questions of what happened, apparently maybe I rode it wrong. I didn't realize there was any responsibility on my part when riding an escalator, I thought that was the point of the escalator is to not to do anything but to escalate. On a side note are escalators the ones that just go up? Are the ones that go down de-escalators? anyway back to my story. Clyde, the security dude radios someone then his lieutenant shows up, now I'm thinking to myself 'Security guards have ranks? and if so where the hell is the Four star General, I want Stormin Norman, my shoe is stuck dammit!!!!'

They call the escalator people and they come over and start laughing, actually come to think of it everyone was laughing at this point. They had to take a panel off to rescue my shoe.

The escalator people were also asking if i was ok, I guess they may be paranoid i would sue or something, after all I am in the good ole USA. I said i was fine and walked away sheepishly with my now deformed reebok.

I looked up at where we were parked as this was the last escalator to get to our vehicle and we couldn't help but to chuckle at the name of our parking area....hint, he has sharp teeth...

Trip to florida $3000
Tickets to universal $300
Pair of evil reeboks $80
look on my face when my leg was almost amputated.....priceless........

here's my ode to the Dr. Suess section of the park...

'i do not like the escalator
they have teeth like an alligator
when you get stuck you go boohoo
thats what i did when i lost my shoe

at times like this you feel like a fool
when people come to the rescue you try to play cool
dr suess was a genius and I am not
thats why his estate is worth millions and mine's worth squat'


I guess I could sue for my shoe and have the case heard on People's court.

'The litigants for this case are now on their way into the courtroom......
The defendant, a stupid canadian tourist who doesn't know how to ride escalators gets his running shoe stuck causing a huge backup of pedestrian traffic meters long.

The plaintiff, Universal Studios escalator company who says this defendant is a bumbling moron....'

you get the idea.

Now I was kinda glad my shoe was destroyed as these were the evil reeboks I had been talking about all along, I felt free of these shoes.


Tomorrow is MGM, back to good ole disney. Maybe I'll get run over by the Disney Stars and Motor Cars' Parade.