MsPennieLane
<font color=660099>Self-confessed Disney addict<br
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2003
- Messages
- 904
Day 5 - Tuesday 27th
We woke up around 7am to find things back to normal. Woohooo!!! We decided that wed visit Islands of Adventure as we hadnt been yet and we wanted to pick up our Annual Passes. We had a pleasant drive along the I-4. Once at Universal, we joined the small queue for the car park and when we got to a booth, we showed our piece of paper with our annual pass details on. We were asked if we wanted free or valet parking for $4 and we decided on free parking. We parked in King Kong 110. We had quite a walk to Citywalk, along about 4 escalators.
the Hard Rock Hotel from one of the escalators
There were a few people heading for the parks, not as many as we had thought. We arrived about 9.30 and headed straight for Cinnabon for breakfast, a tradition whenever we visit Universal early in the day. As usual, we had the cinnamon classic mmm - I couldnt finish mine but they were delicious.
After breakfast we carried on walking to IOA and found the electronic will call machines. It was very simple to pick up our passes - we swiped the card wed used and it chucked out 2 tickets to get us inside the park. We then had to go to Guest Services to pick up the proper ones and have our photos taken. This took awhile once wed filled out the form. We had our pictures taken and our cards were processed. We then waited for one of the workers to come back with the little envelopes with all the discount information on them. It was 10am by this time and it was time to have some fun.
First stop: the Hulk coaster for Andy. He absolutely loves this coaster and couldnt wait to get on it. The park was absolutely dead - where had everyone gone? It had a wait time on Hulk of 10 minutes but it was a walk on. Hubby had 2 goes in about 10 minutes. As usual, he loved it.
lift off!
extreme closeup!!!
Then it was on to my favourite favourite ride in the whole wide world: Popeye & Blutos Bilge-Rat Barges!!!
We walked though Marvel Super Hero Island and there was nobody about, only workers.
Spiderman didnt have any wait on it. Toon Lagoon was also dead, nobody about at all.
where is everyone??!?
We headed straight to Popeye and there was no queue, no one waiting to go on the ride or anything.
We certainly had not expected this. It was wonderful.
no queues!
So we get on our barge, pull our shoes and socks off and get buckled up, putting the camcorder case into the storage compartment. I hadnt dressed right - I was in jeans whereas Andy was in shorts. There were only 2 of us in the barge. Did we get wet?
Ohhhhh yes! When there are only 2 of you in the barge, you dont get as wet as when there are more of you. I enjoyed this ride so much, its fantastic. We went round and there was no one waiting to go on so we were allowed to go on again.
fun!!!
One of the guys working on the ride, I nicknamed him Fez as he reminded me of Fez from That 70s Show (I say good day!).
Fezzzzz!
In the end, we went on Popeye 3 times in a row, and there were still no queues. After the 3rd time, I wanted to get off for awhile as I didnt want to get too dizzy and spoil my day.
Andy wanted to go on Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls as when we had come in January, it had been closed for refurbishment. I was going to go on it but the drop put me off. Yes, I am a wuss! I filmed the drop and managed to get Andy on there. You get wet even standing watching near the drop. Andy was absolutely soaked, even more so than when hed been on Popeye. He wasnt bothered about going on the Jurassic Park River Adventure and he turned to me and said more Popeye? Well how could I refuse!
There was still no one queuing for the ride. We went on and got a bit wet - I still had some dry spots on me. I love the bit when you climb up the raft and then you have a little drop - it feels like a big drop when you go up backwards! We got to the front and asked to stay on again. This time, another 6 people got on and I knew we were going to get absolutely saturated. And we did. It was great fun. Some of the people were English and theyd never been on the ride before. They looked at us and we were wet so they figured they werent going to stay dry for long. This time round was even better as there were more soakings and its always great fun watching other people get soaked, especially when they arent expecting it. After our 5th time that day, Id had enough so we headed back towards Hulk for Andy.
My jeans weighed a ton they were so wet, it was quite amusing. During our walk to Hulk we realised that we hadnt actually prepared very well for this and that we would be getting back into our rental soaking wet. Ah. Oh well, we had no choice but to get in there wet and wed have to put a towel in for our next journeys until the seats dried. Next time we do IOA well come prepared with towels and a change of clothes!
Andy had another go on Hulk. The park was getting busier but the rides were still pretty much walk ons. It still said 10 minutes for Hulk but again it was a walk on. Andy was getting hungry so we headed back to the car intending on visiting Checkers. As we got to the car park, we decided to hell with it, lets go to Chilis.
The only complaint as such Ive got about IOA and Universal Studios is the amount of walking you have to do to actually get there. Its a bit much. We walked, took about 4 level escalators, then had to take one down to our level of parking. I dont know how much closer to the parks you are if you take the preferred/valet parking so Ill have to find out. We have said that next time we go to IOA well go valet.
We drove straight from Universal to Chilis on International Drive, one of our regular haunts from our first Orlando trip when wed stayed in International Drive. We ordered our usual boneless shanghai wings (I cant get enough of these things!!!) and Andy had the Monterey chicken which basically was double chicken breast covered in bacon and cheese served with some veggies and mashed potato with some kind of sauce on it. The sauce was heavenly. I ordered the chicken and steak quesadillas which were really gorgeous. They came with rice, pico de gallo, sour cream and black beans. I dont think much of the beans but the rest was yummy.
We drove straight back to our hotel, me doing my nodding dog impression on the way as I was exhausted. The cleaner was still in our room when we got back. I was impressed with the way she made us put our key in the lock to make sure we were actually staying there. She wasnt too long and once shed gone we climbed into bed for some sleep. We were just starting to drop off to sleep when our room door opened. I cant remember if it was a cleaner but she had a better grasp of English than our cleaner so were not actually sure.
Anyways, we had a lovely sleep and woke up feeling refreshed. I rang my mum in the UK just to let her know that all was well and that everything was back to normal now. We had a brief chat and that was it. Then it was time to head back out. We had a PS at Chef Mickeys at 7pm and we wanted to have a look around the Contemporary first. Andy had never seen the inside of it before so I was interested in seeing his reaction.
Originally we were going to head to Epcot about 4pm, see Off Kilter and wander round before heading back to the Transportation and Ticket Center and over to the Contemporary. Wed slept longer than wed intended so that plan never materialised. Instead we headed to the bus stop and waited for a bus to the Magic Kingdom. Why is it that whenever you have a PS that the bus you are waiting for doesnt arrive? Instead, all the other buses kept turning up. Ok so we only waited about 15 minutes but we were desperate to get to our PS on time. As it turned out, we were at the Magic Kingdom entrance by about 6.10 so we headed straight for the resort monorail.
coming up in Part 2: dinner at Chef Mickey's
We woke up around 7am to find things back to normal. Woohooo!!! We decided that wed visit Islands of Adventure as we hadnt been yet and we wanted to pick up our Annual Passes. We had a pleasant drive along the I-4. Once at Universal, we joined the small queue for the car park and when we got to a booth, we showed our piece of paper with our annual pass details on. We were asked if we wanted free or valet parking for $4 and we decided on free parking. We parked in King Kong 110. We had quite a walk to Citywalk, along about 4 escalators.
the Hard Rock Hotel from one of the escalators
There were a few people heading for the parks, not as many as we had thought. We arrived about 9.30 and headed straight for Cinnabon for breakfast, a tradition whenever we visit Universal early in the day. As usual, we had the cinnamon classic mmm - I couldnt finish mine but they were delicious.
After breakfast we carried on walking to IOA and found the electronic will call machines. It was very simple to pick up our passes - we swiped the card wed used and it chucked out 2 tickets to get us inside the park. We then had to go to Guest Services to pick up the proper ones and have our photos taken. This took awhile once wed filled out the form. We had our pictures taken and our cards were processed. We then waited for one of the workers to come back with the little envelopes with all the discount information on them. It was 10am by this time and it was time to have some fun.
First stop: the Hulk coaster for Andy. He absolutely loves this coaster and couldnt wait to get on it. The park was absolutely dead - where had everyone gone? It had a wait time on Hulk of 10 minutes but it was a walk on. Hubby had 2 goes in about 10 minutes. As usual, he loved it.
lift off!
extreme closeup!!!
Then it was on to my favourite favourite ride in the whole wide world: Popeye & Blutos Bilge-Rat Barges!!!
We walked though Marvel Super Hero Island and there was nobody about, only workers.
Spiderman didnt have any wait on it. Toon Lagoon was also dead, nobody about at all.
where is everyone??!?
We headed straight to Popeye and there was no queue, no one waiting to go on the ride or anything.
We certainly had not expected this. It was wonderful.
no queues!
So we get on our barge, pull our shoes and socks off and get buckled up, putting the camcorder case into the storage compartment. I hadnt dressed right - I was in jeans whereas Andy was in shorts. There were only 2 of us in the barge. Did we get wet?
Ohhhhh yes! When there are only 2 of you in the barge, you dont get as wet as when there are more of you. I enjoyed this ride so much, its fantastic. We went round and there was no one waiting to go on so we were allowed to go on again.
fun!!!
One of the guys working on the ride, I nicknamed him Fez as he reminded me of Fez from That 70s Show (I say good day!).
Fezzzzz!
In the end, we went on Popeye 3 times in a row, and there were still no queues. After the 3rd time, I wanted to get off for awhile as I didnt want to get too dizzy and spoil my day.
Andy wanted to go on Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls as when we had come in January, it had been closed for refurbishment. I was going to go on it but the drop put me off. Yes, I am a wuss! I filmed the drop and managed to get Andy on there. You get wet even standing watching near the drop. Andy was absolutely soaked, even more so than when hed been on Popeye. He wasnt bothered about going on the Jurassic Park River Adventure and he turned to me and said more Popeye? Well how could I refuse!
There was still no one queuing for the ride. We went on and got a bit wet - I still had some dry spots on me. I love the bit when you climb up the raft and then you have a little drop - it feels like a big drop when you go up backwards! We got to the front and asked to stay on again. This time, another 6 people got on and I knew we were going to get absolutely saturated. And we did. It was great fun. Some of the people were English and theyd never been on the ride before. They looked at us and we were wet so they figured they werent going to stay dry for long. This time round was even better as there were more soakings and its always great fun watching other people get soaked, especially when they arent expecting it. After our 5th time that day, Id had enough so we headed back towards Hulk for Andy.
My jeans weighed a ton they were so wet, it was quite amusing. During our walk to Hulk we realised that we hadnt actually prepared very well for this and that we would be getting back into our rental soaking wet. Ah. Oh well, we had no choice but to get in there wet and wed have to put a towel in for our next journeys until the seats dried. Next time we do IOA well come prepared with towels and a change of clothes!
Andy had another go on Hulk. The park was getting busier but the rides were still pretty much walk ons. It still said 10 minutes for Hulk but again it was a walk on. Andy was getting hungry so we headed back to the car intending on visiting Checkers. As we got to the car park, we decided to hell with it, lets go to Chilis.
The only complaint as such Ive got about IOA and Universal Studios is the amount of walking you have to do to actually get there. Its a bit much. We walked, took about 4 level escalators, then had to take one down to our level of parking. I dont know how much closer to the parks you are if you take the preferred/valet parking so Ill have to find out. We have said that next time we go to IOA well go valet.
We drove straight from Universal to Chilis on International Drive, one of our regular haunts from our first Orlando trip when wed stayed in International Drive. We ordered our usual boneless shanghai wings (I cant get enough of these things!!!) and Andy had the Monterey chicken which basically was double chicken breast covered in bacon and cheese served with some veggies and mashed potato with some kind of sauce on it. The sauce was heavenly. I ordered the chicken and steak quesadillas which were really gorgeous. They came with rice, pico de gallo, sour cream and black beans. I dont think much of the beans but the rest was yummy.
We drove straight back to our hotel, me doing my nodding dog impression on the way as I was exhausted. The cleaner was still in our room when we got back. I was impressed with the way she made us put our key in the lock to make sure we were actually staying there. She wasnt too long and once shed gone we climbed into bed for some sleep. We were just starting to drop off to sleep when our room door opened. I cant remember if it was a cleaner but she had a better grasp of English than our cleaner so were not actually sure.
Anyways, we had a lovely sleep and woke up feeling refreshed. I rang my mum in the UK just to let her know that all was well and that everything was back to normal now. We had a brief chat and that was it. Then it was time to head back out. We had a PS at Chef Mickeys at 7pm and we wanted to have a look around the Contemporary first. Andy had never seen the inside of it before so I was interested in seeing his reaction.
Originally we were going to head to Epcot about 4pm, see Off Kilter and wander round before heading back to the Transportation and Ticket Center and over to the Contemporary. Wed slept longer than wed intended so that plan never materialised. Instead we headed to the bus stop and waited for a bus to the Magic Kingdom. Why is it that whenever you have a PS that the bus you are waiting for doesnt arrive? Instead, all the other buses kept turning up. Ok so we only waited about 15 minutes but we were desperate to get to our PS on time. As it turned out, we were at the Magic Kingdom entrance by about 6.10 so we headed straight for the resort monorail.
coming up in Part 2: dinner at Chef Mickey's
