caroley
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2000
- Messages
- 217
<b>Carole : (40) Organiser and chief adventurer. Compulsive shopper.
Stephen : (43) Head beer drinker, and food taster. Trainee shopper.</b>
<I>As this was our third year running at Orlando, the plan was to take it all at a slower pace, and enjoy the atmosphere. No queuing and no commando tactics. We have annual passes for Disney and length of stay passes for Universal. Were giving Seaworld a Miss this year rather than try to cram too much in.</I>
Day five Wednesday 17/10/01
Todays planned itinerary Epcot, Halloween Horror Nights
Weather cooler, quite breezy
This morning we were up and about at 8.30. Didnt want to get up too early as a late night planned. Well, late for us, anyway. We didnt rush ourselves but by 10.30 we were in the Fountain view café in Epcot having a late breakfast. I had a scrumptious blueberry muffin with a latte and Stephen had a bagel with cream cheese and a hot chocolate. Mmmmm, I do love that place!
After polishing off every last crumb, we headed for Test Track to see if any Fastpasses were left. The FP dispensers were covered so either theyd all gone for the day or the system was down for whatever reason. The standby queue was 30 minutes, which is twice as long as well willingly queue for, so we didnt bother. Stephen wanted to do Living with the land so we went over there but the queue was huge so we got FPs and decided to have a look in the shops while we waited.
Oh look I said, as Stephen tried to walk the other way, Theres a pin station! Lets go and have a look. And so it began Pin collecting, in quantity. I managed to buy twelve of them in a spurt of enthusiasm. I wont bore you by listing them all here, but suffice to say that I discovered pins that dangle and pins that move. Stephen was quite interested and picked a few of them himself.
After wincing slightly at the cost of the pins, we carried on to Mousegear as Stephen wanted to look at the magnets. He bought some of the postage stamp magnets last year and as there was a bit of space left on the fridge, he wanted to get some more. When we found them, they were packed so tightly that we couldnt get them out so we had to enlist a CM to help us. Eventually we got our magnets by the CM taking the racks apart and shaking them whilst upside down (the rack, that is, not the CM). We had a nice chat with her while we were all struggling to liberate Donald, Piglet and co. She said how great it was that the Brits were all still going over on vacation, and that it was really appreciated.
I managed to sneak another pin into the handful of magnets while Stephen picked out a cord to hang his sunglasses on and then we headed over to Living with the land to use our Fastpasses. I like this ride. As a horticulturalist myself, I find the different methods of growing they use to be fascinating. I made a mental note to try a few things in my own garden at home. Last year we did the walking tour of the greenhouses, and really enjoyed it.
Next, we headed for the World Showcase. We always go to Mexico first, so this time we went the other way round and started with Canada. We strolled round taking in the atmosphere and having the odd look in the shops. We stopped at the cart in the UK pavilion to buy a union jack pin to put on my cap, and ended up at my favourite pavilion, Mexico. The first time I saw the inside area here, I was in awe. I love the way you enter onto the balcony and the scene is all laid out in front of you. Amazing. I went to the stall where I got my suede rucksack from a couple of years ago to see if they had any nice bags, and sure enough, they had just what I wanted. Blue suede with lots of nooks and crannies and a nice long shoulder strap.
2.30 was approaching so we headed over to the Garden Grill for our PS. We hadnt eaten here before but after reading good things about it on these boards .
We were seated straight away. It wasnt anywhere near full which meant that the characters were constantly creeping up behind me, much to Stephens amusement. We had plenty of character interaction and Stephen even managed to take a photo of me with Mickey. (We used less film this trip than we ever have.) The food was good and the service was excellent. The sunflower bread was delicious and we had a whole loaf to ourselves, which we demolished. I love bread!
Stephen then insisted on going on Spaceship earth, which I didnt mind as I like it too. Then we left, stopping at Publix on the way for more water and beer, to have a rest before HHN.
We walked over to Universal for HHN and got there about 7.15. First stop was T2-3D, my favourite attraction in the whole park. It fascinates me how they co-ordinate the live action with the film. I love the Terminator films, anyway so this really is a treat for me. Stephens pick next so we headed for Back to the Future. This entailed walking through a scare zone. Great fun, it was really foggy and the scareactors were really well concealed, until just before they leaped out at you. I have no idea why I like being scared silly by stuff like this, but I do. BTTF seemed a bit more violent than I remembered and I banged my head on the back a couple of times.
We then went over to Bill and Ted for the 8.30 showing. This was as funny as when we saw it in 99. Some of it went over my head but between us, we got most of it. We were sat in the back row for B&T, which I prefer as you have something to lean back on. This meant that we could make a quick get away and get straight into Men in Black. I love it! We scored fairly well but were beaten by the other car. Obviously more practice needed
. We then went to the 10.00 showing of Dangerous DIllusions, a magic show, which was pretty lame, we thought. Then onto Boogeymen, which was a blatant sales pitch, and not at all entertaining. I prefer the horror make-up show, whose theatre they used. Id describe Boogeymen as the DVD equivalent of a timeshare presentation 
We then went on Twister, which seemed a bit more intense than we remembered. Another film that I like. After that, we called it a night and walked back. Wed had several encounters with chainsaw wielding maniacs, and the scare zones, but we hadnt been in any of the mazes. Id intended to, but Stephen wasnt that keen and time sort of ran out, so I was happy to wait for next year when Jo will be with us.
Number of pins bought today 14
Tomorrow Universal Studios and MNSSHP
Stephen : (43) Head beer drinker, and food taster. Trainee shopper.</b>
<I>As this was our third year running at Orlando, the plan was to take it all at a slower pace, and enjoy the atmosphere. No queuing and no commando tactics. We have annual passes for Disney and length of stay passes for Universal. Were giving Seaworld a Miss this year rather than try to cram too much in.</I>
Day five Wednesday 17/10/01
Todays planned itinerary Epcot, Halloween Horror Nights
Weather cooler, quite breezy
This morning we were up and about at 8.30. Didnt want to get up too early as a late night planned. Well, late for us, anyway. We didnt rush ourselves but by 10.30 we were in the Fountain view café in Epcot having a late breakfast. I had a scrumptious blueberry muffin with a latte and Stephen had a bagel with cream cheese and a hot chocolate. Mmmmm, I do love that place!
After polishing off every last crumb, we headed for Test Track to see if any Fastpasses were left. The FP dispensers were covered so either theyd all gone for the day or the system was down for whatever reason. The standby queue was 30 minutes, which is twice as long as well willingly queue for, so we didnt bother. Stephen wanted to do Living with the land so we went over there but the queue was huge so we got FPs and decided to have a look in the shops while we waited.
Oh look I said, as Stephen tried to walk the other way, Theres a pin station! Lets go and have a look. And so it began Pin collecting, in quantity. I managed to buy twelve of them in a spurt of enthusiasm. I wont bore you by listing them all here, but suffice to say that I discovered pins that dangle and pins that move. Stephen was quite interested and picked a few of them himself.
After wincing slightly at the cost of the pins, we carried on to Mousegear as Stephen wanted to look at the magnets. He bought some of the postage stamp magnets last year and as there was a bit of space left on the fridge, he wanted to get some more. When we found them, they were packed so tightly that we couldnt get them out so we had to enlist a CM to help us. Eventually we got our magnets by the CM taking the racks apart and shaking them whilst upside down (the rack, that is, not the CM). We had a nice chat with her while we were all struggling to liberate Donald, Piglet and co. She said how great it was that the Brits were all still going over on vacation, and that it was really appreciated.
I managed to sneak another pin into the handful of magnets while Stephen picked out a cord to hang his sunglasses on and then we headed over to Living with the land to use our Fastpasses. I like this ride. As a horticulturalist myself, I find the different methods of growing they use to be fascinating. I made a mental note to try a few things in my own garden at home. Last year we did the walking tour of the greenhouses, and really enjoyed it.
Next, we headed for the World Showcase. We always go to Mexico first, so this time we went the other way round and started with Canada. We strolled round taking in the atmosphere and having the odd look in the shops. We stopped at the cart in the UK pavilion to buy a union jack pin to put on my cap, and ended up at my favourite pavilion, Mexico. The first time I saw the inside area here, I was in awe. I love the way you enter onto the balcony and the scene is all laid out in front of you. Amazing. I went to the stall where I got my suede rucksack from a couple of years ago to see if they had any nice bags, and sure enough, they had just what I wanted. Blue suede with lots of nooks and crannies and a nice long shoulder strap.
2.30 was approaching so we headed over to the Garden Grill for our PS. We hadnt eaten here before but after reading good things about it on these boards .
We were seated straight away. It wasnt anywhere near full which meant that the characters were constantly creeping up behind me, much to Stephens amusement. We had plenty of character interaction and Stephen even managed to take a photo of me with Mickey. (We used less film this trip than we ever have.) The food was good and the service was excellent. The sunflower bread was delicious and we had a whole loaf to ourselves, which we demolished. I love bread!
Stephen then insisted on going on Spaceship earth, which I didnt mind as I like it too. Then we left, stopping at Publix on the way for more water and beer, to have a rest before HHN.
We walked over to Universal for HHN and got there about 7.15. First stop was T2-3D, my favourite attraction in the whole park. It fascinates me how they co-ordinate the live action with the film. I love the Terminator films, anyway so this really is a treat for me. Stephens pick next so we headed for Back to the Future. This entailed walking through a scare zone. Great fun, it was really foggy and the scareactors were really well concealed, until just before they leaped out at you. I have no idea why I like being scared silly by stuff like this, but I do. BTTF seemed a bit more violent than I remembered and I banged my head on the back a couple of times.
We then went over to Bill and Ted for the 8.30 showing. This was as funny as when we saw it in 99. Some of it went over my head but between us, we got most of it. We were sat in the back row for B&T, which I prefer as you have something to lean back on. This meant that we could make a quick get away and get straight into Men in Black. I love it! We scored fairly well but were beaten by the other car. Obviously more practice needed
. We then went to the 10.00 showing of Dangerous DIllusions, a magic show, which was pretty lame, we thought. Then onto Boogeymen, which was a blatant sales pitch, and not at all entertaining. I prefer the horror make-up show, whose theatre they used. Id describe Boogeymen as the DVD equivalent of a timeshare presentation We then went on Twister, which seemed a bit more intense than we remembered. Another film that I like. After that, we called it a night and walked back. Wed had several encounters with chainsaw wielding maniacs, and the scare zones, but we hadnt been in any of the mazes. Id intended to, but Stephen wasnt that keen and time sort of ran out, so I was happy to wait for next year when Jo will be with us.
Number of pins bought today 14
Tomorrow Universal Studios and MNSSHP
