8 days of winging it (hopefully Wilma cooperates)

[2BigKIdz]

This will be my first trip report. Having enjoyed reading so many of the one's on this board I am going to attempt it myself. Hopefully this will turn out to be an actual trip report as Wilma is the latest in a long line of threats to our vacation! As it stands we plan to leave tonight about midnight for our 12 hour drive from Virginia to Orlando. I guess we will check the weather this evening when we get up (my husband and I work at night) and rearrange plans if necessary.

The cast will include:

Me ---(Kendra) 32 yr old and "planner" of all vacations for our family and friends that vacation with us.

My husband ----(Chris) 33 yr old, loves Orlando and is especially excited about this week as the PSP World Cup of Paintball tournament is being held at Wide World of Sports. He is an avid paintball player and fan. Also a sports lover in general.

Sandy--- 40 yr old, very good friend. Has a 21 yr old son, Chris, a college student at Virginia Tech who is unable to make the trip. Only smoker on the trip, bad Sandy!

Chip ---- 42 yr old, Sandy's husband and also a very dear friend. Avid fisherman, engineer and big geek! (hope he doesn't read this

Pre-Trip plans and info:

This will be our first stay on Disney property and I am really looking forward to it. Until I really started reading a lot on the DIS I didn't understand how vast WDW is and how much it has to offer. Chris and I have reservations at All Star Sports for Friday night. Quite honestly I have always thought the values looked a little tacky and I was really leaning towards Coronado Springs but when Chris saw pictures of All Star Sports he quickly declared it "cool" so I booked it. I'm hoping we get a room in the football section as we both love football.

Friday night we plan to go to Downtown Disney and maybe DisneyQuest. We will definitely hit DisneyQuest sometime during the week, we love that place and I already have our tickets. Chris even loves the food there.

Saturday we will check into Silver Lake Resort. Sandy and Chip are time share owners (their home resort is in Clearwater where Chip's mom lives) but they did an RCI trade and this was the only resort left. I have read some reviews recently that weren't very favorable due to construction at the resort but hopefully this will not impact our vacation. Sandy & Chip will arrive sometime on Saturday evening, well that's their plan as of now (go away Wilma!)

The paintball tournament starts Sunday and goes until the following Sunday so I'm sure Chris will want to go there several times during the week, especially to catch some of his friend's games. It's a very nice set-up at WW of Sports and they have all the big vendors so we ended up getting a lot of good deals last year. We will be going our Christmas shopping there for our nephews as they are really into paintball as well.

We have tickets for Halloween Horror Nights at Islands of Adventure for Sunday night, but I guess that it's up to Wilma whether we get to go or not. I have no idea what will happen to our tickets if the park is closed, guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm looking forward to going this year since it will be Sandy & Chip's first time, hopefully one of them will be more frightened than I was last year!

We would like to hit Boma's breakfast buffett one morning and a place I read about called Texas de Brazil for dinner. Other than that we don't have any plans and definitely don't have any reservations, we just can't plan meals that far in advance.

This will be our 2nd trip to Orlando with Sandy & Chip, our first was in 1999 and we stayed at the Vistana. We vacation with them every year, normally beach vacations, they just have not been to Orlando with us since then. We are definitely going to Universal and Islands of Adventure, as they have never been to those parks. We have mentioned maybe going to Epcot or Animal Kingdom but will have to wait and see what the week brings. I really want to wait until next year to go to AK when Expedition Everest is open but if they want to go then I will go. Until reading about Epcot on this board, I didn't have any interest in going, now I think I would enjoy it. Magic Kingdom is most defnitely 100% out. Sandy & Chip said they are waiting to bring their grandchildren (son is not thinking of having children any time soon) and my husband has declared it "the worst park ever". I don't know when I will ever get to ride Splash Mountain! Our only trip there was last July and Splash closed right before time for our fast passes because of a thunderstorm, it was pouring so we decided to leave the park (good thing too because it poured the rest of the day and night). Maybe in a couple of years he will have forgotten how much he hated that park and go again I'll have to say that one reason he was so disappointed in MK was because he mistakenly thought the rides POTC and HM were made after the movies, he just couldn't understand why they were so technologically inferior. Once I explained that these rides are very old and the movies were based on the rides he was a little more complimentary. BTW- he loves the POTC movie!

You can probably tell from reading this that I am very concerned about hurricane Wilma. I've never had to deal with a hurricane interfering in vacation plans before so I am at a loss as to what to do.
Sorry this is so long, if you have read to this point, thanks! I will just update this post instead of creating new threads.

 

[jjk]

enjoy your trip looking forward to your next post

 

[2BigKIdz]

My husband and I finally hit the road about 3:30am on Friday the 21st, only 3 1/2 hours behind schedule. Amazingly this ocurred without any arguing or finger pointing as to who was to blame for being behind. It was pretty chilly in Virginia when we left, high 40's I think.

We ran into a lot of fog in North and South Carolina. It was so foggy that I didn't see any of South of the Border! Completely missed it, but that's not saying much. When I was a child my aunt and uncle had bumper stickers and other memorabilia from South of the Border. I had always envisioned an exotic port, imagine my disappointment the first time we stopped there!

We stopped for gas and lunch in Savannah. The gas station was the worst ever! The gas pumped at a gallon per minute, it took me over 20 minutes to fill up (28 gallon tank) and then it didn't shut off when it was full and I ended up with gas all over the side of the truck. Luckily I had the trusty wet wipes handy. We ate lunch at Shoney's and had a terrific server and the food was typical Shoney's. We don't have a Shoney's any more where we live so we actually enjoyed it.

Traffic was light and moved steadily our entire trip on 95-South. We were making excellent time until we got on I-4 and came to a complete halt about 60 miles east of Orlando. It took us 3 hours to travel 60 miles! What should have been a 12 hour trip took 15, we checked into Disney's All Star Sports at 6:30pm. Very warm in Florida, high 80's or low 90's.

We were in the Hoops Hotel on the 3rd floor, but the room # escapes me. Boy are these the smallest hotel rooms, ever! We stayed at a Microtel last year for 1 night and I thought that room was tiny but this took the cake.

We decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner, maybe catch a movie. We couldn't decide who was going to take a shower first so we thought we would take a 30 minute nap to re-energize before heading out for the night. I set the alarm by the bed for 7:30pm and promptly fell asleep. I awoke at 10pm to the realization that the alarm never went off (I'm sure I must have done something wrong) and my husband was sound asleep. Instead of getting up and trying to find dinner at midnight, I just went back to sleep.

I was awake the next morning at 5am and tried to be quiet so as not to wake my husband. I went to the drink machine and got a $3.50 bottle of water (the price was $2.50 but it stole a dollar and I was thirsty enough to pay the extra $1). I went back to the room and watched Disney cartoons, the old cartoons I remember from my childhood. I had a blast! I saw the one where Mickey brings home the little kitten and Pluto gets really jealous, that little kitten was sooo cute.

My husband finally wakes up about 7:30am and we take showers and head to the food court for breakfast. It was a madhouse! I got in line for the Mickey waffles while my husband got in line for omelets. By the time my husband got his omelet my Mickey waffle was cold but after a little in the microwave it was delicious, and the bacon was cooked exactly the way I like it!

I had pre-paid for the room through travelocity but was unsure if I needed to go back to the desk for check-out, so I called and was told I was all-set. We left the room around 9:30am and headed to our destination from the night before, downtown Disney and one of our favorite places, DisneyQuest!

I will definitely not stay at another value resort, just not my thing. I did NOT think it was tacky, it looks a lot better in person than the pictures, the grounds were actually very attractive. The rooms were just too small and just not what we are used to so next time we will try a moderate, probably Caribbean Beach, it looked so pretty.

Now on to day 2......

 

[2BigKIdz]

We didn't give much thought to it being Saturday, and looking like rain when we headed for DisneyQuest as the downtown area was very quiet when we arrived. We had to wait til 11:30am for DisneyQuest to open so we walked around some shops, bought some candy and other goodies at Goofy's and my husband spent a lot of time in the Starrabilia shop, he just loves that place.

About 11:30am we headed to DisneyQuest along with 4 million other people. Really wasn't a good choice going this day but we couldn't think of anything else to do for several hours until time to check-in at Silver Lake. We got to play tons of games for a couple of hours then we took a break and went down the block to the movies to see The Fog, that was a waste of 2 hours!

After getting out of the movies we headed to Silver Lake to check-in. We arrived shortly after 4pm but our room was not ready until 4:30pm. We hauled all of our stuff up to our 3rd floor condo in the pouring rain, called Sandy and Chip to see how close they were to Orlando (several hours away at this point, 70 miles north of Savannah).

We headed back down to DisneyQuest for more games, fun and dinner, my husband loves the cheeseburgers there. I got completely drenched walking from the car to the entrance. I thought it would be okay but by the time we finished eating I was freezing so I went to the gift shop to get a t-shirt to put on. They don't sell DisneyQuest t-shirts anymore so I got one that says "Dead Men Tell No Tales". I really love the POTC ride at DQ so I guess it's fitting. We met a very nice family from the Orlando area and it was their 1st trip to DisneyQuest even though they were Disney annual pass holders. They had planned on spending the evening at Epcot but becuase of the rain decided to give DisneyQuest a try, we gave them some tips and told them about our favorites there, I hope they enjoyed their time. We didn't see them again after we parted ways at the entrance to POTC. We played lots of games again and rode POTC twice, then the lines got really long and I was tired so we got some cheesecake to go and went back to the condo about 9pm.

Sandy and Chip arrived at 10pm and they were starving, they had not eaten anything but junk food since having breakfast in Charlottesville about 9am. Having never stayed in the 192 area they didn't have a clue where they wanted to eat. They ended up getting takeout from the Outback and Chris rode with Chip to pick it up. We sat and talked with them for awhile then we all headed to bed.

Up next day 3....Halloween (hurricane) Horror Nights

 

[MazdaUK]

really enjoying your reports - can't wait to see what happens next (do you manage a sneaky Splash Mountain fix?)

 

[2BigKIdz]

We had pre-purchased tickets for Halloween Horror Nights at Islands of Adventure for Sunday night, so we were stuck with that date come rain or shine.

Sunday afternoon was cloudy but otherwise nice. We headed down to City Walk about noon and had lunch at NBA City. Our server was Adam and he was awesome (his is the only name of a server I will remember), he joked with us through out our time there and we had a great meal and a lot of fun.

After lunch we headed to Universal to pick up Sandy & Chip's park tickets (they had pre-purchased tickets through RCI but had to pick them up at Universal). The line at customer service at Universal was very long but there was an attendant coming through the line checking on the reason we were in line. I had to pick up our HHN tickets, the kiosks were not allowing me to get them (found out later it was because they were already pre-printed at IOA). The lady informed me I HAD to go to IOA to pick up the HHN tickets so we headed over there and that was a lucky thing as the line there was much shorter.

We headed into IOA after getting all of our tickets. This was Sandy & Chip's first time there, so they hit the Hulk coaster first thing. I was feeling a little queasy so I declined and Chris waited with me while they rode. They really enjoyed it. Next we hit Spiderman, which is my favorite ride anywhere. They liked it but were clearly not as impressed with it as I am. Chip and Chris rode Dr. Doom's while Sandy and I waited (I do not do drop rides, TOT scares me silly!). As we were staying for HHN I really did not want to get wet but couldn't pass by the water rides so Sandy and I bought ponchos and jumped on Popeye's. I love this ride! But the poncho really didn't keep anything but my shirt dry, Sandy was wet too so she declined to ride Ripsaw Falls. Chris, Chip and I rode it and Chip said it was the best log flume ride he's ever been on. It is a good flume ride, still having never been on Splash Mtn, I can't compare. By this time I'm pretty soaked even with the poncho on (this is the first time I have ever worn a ponco on water rides and I felt a little silly). Chris and I convinced Sandy that she would not get wet on Jurassic Park River Adventure so she finally relented and got on, and as promised remained dry through out the ride. Next stop was Dueling Dragons and the wait time posted was 40 minutes, so far the longest wait we had all afternoon was about 10 minutes on Spiderman, most everything we just walked on. I've never waited 40 minutes for DD, even in July so I thought there must have been a mistake. Sure enough, the line is very, very long. Chris gets a little nauseous on looped rides so he decided not to ride so he held all of our stuff while the rest of us waited, and waited and waited. When we get close enough to see the ride I realize the reason it is taking so long is that they are only running 1 set of trains! Not sure of the reason for this but it made for a very long wait. As we are approaching our turn, several people asked to be let off of the ride which freaked Sandy out and she refused to ride so she left by the "chicken exit". Chip and I waited some more and finally got to ride the Fire Dragon. Chip absolutely loved it! I told him it was much better in the front and we would definitely have to come back during the week and ride in the front on each Dragon. Our wait time was closer to an hour than 40 minutes and by this time the park was closing in preparation for HHN. We headed over to Circus McGircus (sp?) and grabbed a snack while we waited for HHN to begin.

There weren't very many employees in this area to tell us where to go so we kinda wandered around aimlessly for awhile but finally figured out where we needed to go. Sandy commented on how lucky we were that the weather had held off, not long after that it began to rain! Not just rain but torrential downpours, so much for not getting wet! Sandy was thankful for her poncho but as I was already wet I didn't put mine back on because it was just too hot in that thing. Chip carried his palm pilot in his backpack and it must have gotten too wet, when we left the following Saturday it was still not working. Chris and I attended HHN last year and loved it but we were a little disappointed with this year's. I'm sure the weather affected the scare zones a lot as most of them were completely empty when we went through. Sandy and Chip liked it but they didn't have anything to compare it to. The Bill & Ted show was really terrific this year. We had hit all of the houses by 9:30pm and we were all miserably wet and looked like drowned rats so we decided to call it a night.

As we were driving home Sandy said she would really like a deli sandwich. I couldn't think of a single deli in the area, but then the Earl of Sandwich came to mind. Hmmm, it's Sunday night at 10pm, better call and make sure they are open. Luckily they stayed open til 11pm so we dropped by Downtown Disney on our way home and grabbed some sandwiches to go. I got the Earl's club and it was awesome! Sandy had it too but she had mayo on hers instead of the thousand island, she still liked hers though. Chip had the beef and bleu and said it was delicious. Chris is a little picky so he picked up McDonald's instead, his loss.

Monday we have reservations at 10am for breakfast at Boma, but Wilma is headed in our direction so we will have to wait til morning to see if we can get out!


Next up day 4- Boma and the hurricane

 

[2BigKIdz]

We made plans Sunday night to leave the condo at 9:30am to arrive early for our 10am seating at Boma (we didn't know about the Sherberth Road entrance to AKL at this time).

The wind and rain woke me many times during the night, the wind was actually coming through our window and blowing the blinds and we had a palm right outside the window and it was banging into the window pretty strong, glad it wasn't an oak. We lost power briefly sometime during the night as the alarm clock was flashing when we got up. Chris and I thought the weather was horrible, he said "guess we won't be going anywhere today". I was really disappointed as I had been eager to see the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I got up early, before 7am and took a shower just in case we lost power. Then I got back in bed and Chris woke soon after so we laid in bed and watched Sports Center. I never heard a peep from Sandy & Chip.

About 9:30am I went out to check on the weather from other windows, and Sandy and Chip were dressed and waiting for us. I thought they were nuts wanting to go out in that weather! But lo and behold on the other end of the condo the wind didn't look too bad, it was blowing in the direction of our bedroom and the palm made it seem much worse than it actually was! It was windy and raining hard, but not catastrophic like Chris and I thought! Chris raced to the bathroom and jumped in the shower. We made it to Boma at 10:08am according to our ticket. We were seated within 5 minutes even though there were tons of people without reservations waiting to be seated (the wait time was an hour for those without ADR's!).

This was our first time at the AKL, it is so neat there! I really, really want to stay here. (Okay- I have been kicking myself since last night- as mentioned we are there mainly for the paintball tournament, I didn't check their website for discounts this year because last year they never posted them but this year they had their act together- check these prices- AKL $148! I am so, so disappointed that I didn't check before we left because I would have jumped on that rate in a heartbeat! They also had AS Sports for $69 ($30 cheaper than I paid) and Ft. Wilderness homes for $173- great prices- ugghh I am so mad at myself!!!!).

I absolutely love that juice at Boma, the African juice froonch or whatever, it is delicious! Our breakfast was great. I don't eat eggs but Chris said the omelets were amazing. I do have 1 complaint, the people waiting for the omelet station were in the way of the rest of the buffett and it took a long time to get through the line. They should move the omelet line to an end so it is not in the way of the rest of the buffett.

It's still pouring rain when we leave AKL so we headed back home. I curled up on the couch with a book for awhile then dozed off for a few hours. Chip worked on a project on his laptop and Chris watched a movie. Sandy went in her bedroom and took a nap.

That afternoon the sun came out but it was chilly. Chris left me asleep on the couch while he rode to Wide World of Sports to check on the progression of the paintball tournament. It has been delayed because of the hurricane and would get set-up by noon on Tuesday.

That evening Chip was sick. I don't think it was food poisoning or the rest of us would have been sick as well. Chip didn't want to do anything but go to bed so Chris and I headed out for a night on our own.

We wanted to try Giordano's but there was an hour wait so we headed to Downtown Disney (again). Chris wanted to see the movie Doom which didn't start til 9:45pm but the restaurants were so busy that it didn't give us time to eat. We ended up having popcorn (me) and nachos (him) at the movies. Doom was okay (well, honestly I dozed off for about 30-45 minutes in the middle of the movie.) Chris met some paintball guys while waiting for the movie so they talked paintball, one of his most favorite things to talk about. They were nice guys all the way from Minnesota or Missouri or Michigan, hmmm I can't remember but an M state out west that wasn't Montana

Next up Day 5- Universal Studios, and all the meat you can eat

 

[2BigKIdz]

Chip got up on Tuesday feeling completely fine! We decided to hit Universal Studios even though it was really chilly. I have never been to a Florida park dressed in jeans and long sleeves until this trip! Definitely NOT getting wet today. Really could have used a sweatshirt or coat as it was very chilly and breezy all day.

We stopped in front of the globe and had our pictures taken on our way in. Once inside we head straight to Shrek, the wait is only 15 minutes. We got stopped right at the rope so while we waited for the next show we talked with the attendant, she was really nice and funny. We got to go into the new theatre for Shrek, but honestly I thought it was exactly like the other. Shrek is a great attraction! After Shrek we are starving so we head to Louie's and grab some pizza, I think their pizza is really good! After lunch we head to Twister (10 min wait) then to the Mummy (30 mins). The Mummy is my 2nd favorite ride ever. Sandy and Chip liked it too. We bypassed Earthquake (70 min wait) and rode MIB in the single riders line as the regular wait was 60 mins. Sandy said she felt like she was cheating by doing single riders (less than 5 min wait). I told her it was not cheating as anyone can do it, others just choose not to. I don't think she or Chip really enjoyed doing single riders and having to ride with strangers. I agree it is more fun to ride with your own group but I choose 5 mins over 60 any day. MIB is Chris' favorite ride and he would normally want to ride multiple times but as we are with first timers we trudge on. Back to the Future was a long wait too but I never ride this anymore as it makes me sick. Chris didn't want to ride either so Sandy & Chip didn't ride, we tried to talk them into it, we certainly didn't mind waiting for them but they refused so we walked on. By this time the park is getting ready to close so we head to our last attraction of the day- T2:3D. Chris loves this as he is a big Terminator fan, honestly once you've seen it I don't think it has much "re-ride" appeal but that's just me.

After that we head to the photo place to check out our photos and it is absolutely packed. I must be dense because the guy helping us had me so confused as to prices and packages, I just ended up getting 1 5X7. I really wanted a key chain but you have to buy them in groups of 4 for $30, I really didn't want 4 of them and he kept trying to talk me out of them for some reason anyway. Sandy and Chip also got a 5X7 but a different scene so we'll scan each other's pictures and have copies, I guess I can make my own keychain.

I had read about a restaurant called Texas de Brazil on the disboards, where you can have all the meat you want which sounded great, especially to the men. While making our way to the parking garage Chris suggested we dine there that evening. That's great but I have no idea where it is except on International Drive and I have left all of my papers with menus, directions etc back at the condo.

We drive on I-drive for awhile but never see it. We finally give up and I call and ask where they are located. For the life of me I cannot understand what the lady says, across from some kinda mall but that's the best I can make out, so I hand the phone to Chip. He can't understand the name of the mall either (it's Festival Bay Mall, by the way) and finally tells her where we are so she says just keep coming straight and they are on the left.

We found it finally and put our name of the list for a 45 minute wait. It's okay, they have nice comfortable couches and it's warm inside. It's pretty cold out by then and we have been walking all afternoon so a nice sit down in a warm place sounds okay. They do take reservations. The dress here was all over the scale, people dressed very elegantly to those of us coming from the parks dressed in jeans and t-shirts. It does seem more fitting to dress nicely as it has an upscale feel. We are seated about 45 minutes later and are asked our water preference. Still not sure what that means but they brought us some water anyway. (I did see people at the table next to us with a bottle of Perrier). Chip and I ordered iced tea, Chris ordered a soft drink and Sandy ordered a margarita and was asked her tequila preference. The waiter suggested his favorite tequila so Sandy tried that and said it was great. The food here was simply amazing! They have so many meat selections, I saw someone call it a carnivores dream come true and it really is. It's a little pricey but it's worth it. (4 dinners, 4 drinks and 1 mixed drink, 3 deserts and tax + tip came out to $250). They bring the meats out on these big sword like skewers straight from the grill. If it's not cooked to your liking they will cook it the way you want and bring it back. The pork tenderloin and top sirloin and filet mignon were incredible. You honestly can eat as much meat as your heart desires. They don't rush you or anything, I really can't say enough good things about this place. Oh and they are opening a location 45 minutes from us next year, yum!

We got deserts to go, I got the Brazilian cheesecake and it was delicious- better than any (yes, any) I have had from The Cheesecake Factory. It has caramel and pecans on top with a fudge like bottom, mmm mmm. Chip had the chocolate cake and he liked his equally well. Sandy got the carrot cake and said it was just okay. Chris skipped desert for some reason (could be that he was about to explode from ingesting 42 lbs. of beef and the thought of more food made him ?)

We waddled home and were fast asleep soon after.

Next up- Day 6 - Paintball!

 

[MazdaUK]

Fantastic reports!

as promised remained dry through out the ride

Can't imagine how - my DH and DS(12) were soaked - just lucky seat I guess.

I went to Brazil with work once and cooking the meat on great big skewers is how they do it in the south of the country - I agree its completely yummy! (Down there though one skewer was always hearts - YUCK )

 

[2BigKIdz]

Fantastic reports!


Can't imagine how - my DH and DS(12) were soaked - just lucky seat I guess.

I went to Brazil with work once and cooking the meat on great big skewers is how they do it in the south of the country - I agree its completely yummy! (Down there though one skewer was always hearts - YUCK )

Thanks!

My husband sat on the outside left and his head got wet but the rest of us just got a sprinkle.

Luckily the didn't serve any hearts, definitely yuck. The "strangest" thing they had was lamb chops.

 

[Del]

I'm enjoying your report. Thanks. Del

 

[2BigKIdz]

Chris had delcared Wednesday a paintball tournament day which meant Sandy and Chip got a free day to do whatever they wanted. Chris was really excited about the tournament so he woke me and rushed me along so we could be on our way.

This was our 2nd year at the World Cup tournament so we knew what to expect. They do a really good job at Wide World of Sports and we have enjoyed our time spent there. There were tons of vendors again and we spent more time wandering around the tents and shopping than we did watching the pb games. Chris did get to see the Russians play (Russian Legion or Boston Red Legion for anyone who might possibly be into paintball) which is his favorite team. He was really excited about that. We knew some people from around here who were playing but we didn't see any of them. We did get to stand right next to Bob Long (a paintball legend- and the maker of the guns Chris shoots).

Around 2pm we realized we hadn't eaten anything all day and were starved so we went to the All Star Cafe and had some lunch. For some reason we always end up eating there every trip. The food is okay they just have a really limited menu.

After lunch we went back to and watched some more paintball. We had gotten paint all over us from stray spray so we went back to the condo to change clothes and decide where we were going for dinner and catch up with Sandy n Chip.

We decided to try Giordano's again, I was determined I was going to eat there before the end of the week. Sandy n Chip declined to join us as they had eaten a late lunch at the Earl of Sandwich while they were out shopping. They went to Festival Bay Mall and really liked it, said they had some neat stores. Chris and I never made it there, maybe next time.

Giordano's wasn't quite as busy this time and we only had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. We got the deep dish pizza and some cheese sticks. Chris did not like the cheese sticks at all, but I thought they were good. The pizza was great. The service was incredibly slow, our waiter had a lot of tables and he was running all over the place. They seemed really short staffed for the amount of diners. We had a lady stop by our table after staring at our pizza on her way to the restroom, she finally inquired if we liked it or not as she had never seen a pizza like that Was an unusual experience.

After dinner we just went back to the condo and hung out with Sandy n Chip and watched some tv.

We made plans to go back to Universal and Islands of Adventure on Thursday to hit the things we had missed.

Next up Day 7-- Universal, again

 

[LightBurnsBlue]

I am really enjoying your report...it's a nice diversion from writing my research paper! I especially like your experiences in non-disney parks and restaurants. Your trip experience is familiar to my own...we love Disney, but we like to try other things in the orlando area too!

 

[2BigKIdz]

Ohhh, I am going to be adding photos soon, just haven't taken the time to upload them yet, maybe Saturday or atleast by the first of next week.

Thursday we headed out to Universal again. I guess we left the condo around 10am and were hoping for little to no crowds. Chris and I were in Orlando for the same week last year and had experienced very little crowds in the parks, practically walked onto every ride at Universal and MGM, it was wonderful. This is what we had been anticipating for this year as well and so far it had not turned out this way except for a few hours on Sunday at IOA.

We were greeted at Universal parking by hoardes of other thrill seekers, what a disappointment! We set out immediately for IOA and the Cat in the Hat store as we had seen those crystal picture thingies on Sunday and wanted to have ours done. On Sunday it was shut down when we went through but we asked about prices and were told they ranged from $20-$50, also told if we had it done in the morning we would be able to pick them up that same afternoon. The lady taking the pictures was a real kidder and we had a lot of fun. BUT the prices we had been told before were way off, they were really from $50-75 a piece for the pictures, keychains were $20 or less. Oh well, we wanted it done anyway. Chip and Sandy had a picture of their son and his girlfriend on a flash drive and were able to get theirs done as a surprise for them. Chris and I had ours taken as well and it turned out so good, I'm really glad we did it. We got a small rectangular crystal and 2 keychains for $85. Sandy and Chip had a small 3-d cube of themselves and that turned out really well also. We were told we could pick them up at 4pm that day and they were ready.

After taking care of our pictures we went to Confisco's for lunch. Then we went to ride Dueling Dragons to ride in the front seat. Chip and I rode in the front and Chris and Sandy rode in another row. Chris has to ride in one of the big boy seats on that ride and Sandy just has a thing about riding in the front. Chip and I met a man and his mother from Richmond, VA while in line for the Ice Dragon. This lady had to be in her 60's atleast and was getting on the roller coaster. She was so cute, she was a little nervous. She had been on the Hulk and liked it so I told her she would be fine on this as well. Her son had not allowed her to know they were getting in the front seat so when our turn came to board she was stunned (they were riding with Chip and I). It was really cute, she said "You tricked me, how did you trick me into riding in the front?" Her son just laughed at her but she was a good sport and got right on and buckled in. I told her the front was the best and she would be fine! When we arrived back at the station I asked her how she liked it and she said it was okay but I bet her son got a word or two on the way out. It's so nice to see older people enjoying the parks and actually riding things. My mom was always afraid of rides and consequently made me afraid of rides too (I know she thought she was protecting me). She told me they were dangerous and would make me sick and I really didn't want to get sick. I didn't ride a real roller coaster until I was 23! I finally got tired of being the one sitting on the wall waiting for my friends to ride and have fun. I love roller coasters now! I can't belive I missed out on so many rides in my younger days. One of the best times I've had at a park was this past summer, I took my 15 year old niece and 14 year old nephew to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It was a little rainy and in the middle of the week and there were no lines at all. We rode ride after ride after ride, it was so much fun.

Oops got a little off track there. By this time it was almost 2:30pm and we wanted to go to Universal to do the stuff we'd missed but thought it was silly to leave and have to come back by 4pm so we rode Spiderman again and then had some ice cream.

At 4pm we headed back to the Cat in the Hat store to pick up our pictures. On our way into the store, a lady asked Chris if he was park security. He just said no and proceeded into the store. We joked about it because he is a security guard, I told him he must just have that look about him. He was asked several times in the parks if he worked there or people just assumed he worked there and asked him questions. He did wear his AP on a lanyard so maybe that created some confusion, but I wore mine as well and was never asked a thing. Anyhow, we are in the store about 20 mins or so picking up our pictures and I also bought a Thing 1 stocking hat for Chris to wear while he plays paintball. We couldn't find Chris in the store so we went outside to look for him. He is with the woman that asked him if he was park security. Come to find out, she had lost her 5 year old son and was waiting for park security. They had yet to show up. By this time it must have been atleast 30 minutes from the time they called security. Chris was helping her look for her son so Chip, Sandy and I helped too. He had been riding the CaroSuessel with his 4 year old sister. They rode it twice in a row, the mother saw him on the ride but when the sister got off the little boy didn't. They never shut down the ride to look for the boy. They couldn't find the boy in the area and security was still nowhere to be found. Chris went back into the Cat in the Hat and got an employee to call again and finally someone showed up. The poor mother by this time was ready to pass out. We continued to help look but we never saw him, the security officer took the mother somewhere so we finally gave up and left it to the "professionals". I'm sure this must happen all the time, but it really upset us. We thought they should have stopped the ride and checked for the boy (just made me think about the little boy that died in the park in NY this year on that log flume ride). When we were leaving the park we saw the mom heading back that way still with the security guard. I'm assuming she found her son and he was okay because we never heard anything on the news. We thought about that little boy the rest of our trip and hoped he was okay. If anyone knows about this please post how it turned out.

We got to Universal about 5pm so we only had 2 hours to try to do everything we had missed our first trip. We hit Earthquake, E.T. and the animal planet live show but that was about all we managed as the lines were long.

We left the park debating about dinner. All week I had been craving potato skins. Sandy had been wanting to try the Colorado House of Beef so we went there and had a 15 minute wait so to pass time we looked at the menu. Darn, no potato skins, there must be a conspiracy against potato skins as they didn't have them anywhere we went. Right as our buzzer went off we decided we wanted Cheese fries and potato soup from the Outback instead. We placed a to go order at Outback and waited in the car.

We took the food back to the condo to eat. To go food is just not as good as when you eat it in the restaurant. My steak and potato were okay but the cheese fries were cold and the cheese was too congealed, live and learn I guess. Soon after dinner we went to bed.

Plans for the next day, Chris and I off for more paintball, Sandy n Chip hanging by the pool.

Up next -- Our last day

 

[MazdaUK]

The paintball souns fun - I didn't know there was a league, over here people do it for bachelor parties and stuff.

The service was incredibly slow

we found that too, and the food was nothing special. Not bad enough to complain about, just no better than reheating a frozen one at home

I hope that lady found her little boy - I was terrified of losing one of mine and bought a pile of ID bands with our contact details (which they only wore the first day ) and a special alarm for DS(5) so that it went off if he wandered off - he decided he was fed up with that half-way round Epcot

But it was my biggest fear - especially after a co-worker told me her mum worked with someone whose kids were taken from a Disney park some years ago. There are so many bad people in the world!