wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
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Chapter 5: Just Because Mom Does it Doesn’t Make it Right
Today we were venturing off-site again. This time to Universal Studios. We left bang on time and were pulling in to the parking lot, having paid only $4 for preferred parking (Universal certainly knows how to treat Annual Passholders), by 8.30.
First stop was Cinnabon for some tasty Cinnabon sticks for breakfast. Then we had to have a group photo taken by the Universal globe.
Later in the day, we ended up buying this picture, taken by the Universal photographer, which was a good job because it’s the only one where everyone has actually got their eyes open.
First stop was Rip Ride Rockit, a ride we had been looking forward to for some time now. Rea had taken the kids on Jimmy Neutron so we were bag-and-child free. The line was already quite long but seemed to be moving steadily. Until we got to the front, at which point the ride broke down. So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And then we played the ‘how long do we wait before we decide to leave the line because you just know that as soon as you do, the ride will start up again and you’ll have to wait an absolute age’ game. We decided to give it 15 minutes, since we were wasting precious time plus we were concerned that poor Rea was stuck with the kids. When there was no sign of the ride starting up again, we left the line and went to meet Rea outside Revenge of the Mummy. We all rode this, with the exception of Rea (are you sensing a trend here), who had ridden previously and didn’t like it. Daniel and Matthew weren’t too sure about it but decided to give it a go. Daniel didn’t like it very much but Matthew and Ellie both loved it. When we came out of the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit was still not operating so we headed for the back of the park to do Simpsons. This was a first for all of us. I’m not sure about the others but, personally, I wasn’t that impressed. I’m not a big fan of simulators anyway and, to me, it just wasn’t that memorable. Still, it was nice to have been able to get on one new ride. And we saw Bart and Homer so that was a bonus. I don’t think Bart wanted the kids to be in the picture though.
After Simpsons, it was on to Men in Black where Rea pipped me to the post with the red button, although I still beat her score. Not being competitive at all there mate! I seem to remember we had a bit of a wait for this ride as well; we had been spoilt by the lack of lines at Busch gardens yesterday!
Then it was time for Jaws.
It was showing a 40 minute wait and the line was massive but the kids all wanted to do it so we joined the line. It was while we were waiting that one of the younger members of the party (who shall remain nameless) made an attempt to even up the score by driving me to absolute distraction. I won’t go into detail but, needless to say, it put a complete dampener on the day. I was more annoyed that Nat and John’s day was spoiled, too. The child in question was told to leave the line (OK, so that kind of gives away that it wasn’t Daniel
) but, of course, by the time we came off the ride she was nowhere to be seen. Despite Gary’s insistence that we just ‘leave her to it’, we obviously had to look for her and eventually found her sitting outside Disaster! Quite apt, I reckon 
Updated score: Bad Mothers 2, Children 1
Since we were all hungry, we decided burgers were the order of the day and so stopped at Richter Burger Co. for lunch. One of the party refused to come in as she wasn’t hungry so the eight of us had lunch and discussed the plan of action for the afternoon.
After lunch, we decided to go and see if Rip Ride Rockit was operating, which it was, but there was a 105 minute wait.
There is no way I would wait that long for a ride, new or not. (I was very disappointed to miss this ride but sadly it was not to be. Like Joh says, the wait time was just too long).
Nat, Matthew and Ellie wanted to see Shrek 4D so they headed off with Rea in tow while Gary, John, Daniel and I went to see Terminator 2 3D. Sian didn’t want to do either so wandered around the shops. After Terminator, Daniel bought a gun in the shop and had his picture taken.
We went off to meet Nat and the others. While we were waiting, we saw some characters so Daniel and I went to meet them.
Nat turned up shortly after and, as the characters were still around, Matthew and Ellie had some pictures too.
Daniel showed his gun off to Matthew, who wanted one too – so now we had two noisy guns. Yes, thanks for that mate, I've still not managed to 'lose' said gun either!
As Nat and John had never seen the Horror Make-Up Show, this was next on the agenda. Daniel wasn’t sure about this because he has a massive aversion to the sight of blood. And despite my assurances that the blood isn’t real, he really wasn’t happy. So Daniel and I decided to wander around while the others went in. We had a little sit-down outside and chatted about what we would do and Daniel decided he would be brave and go in after all. I was very proud of him and quite pleased, as it is a hilarious show. We got in just in time and managed to sit next to the others. If you haven’t seen this show, I urge you to do so as it really is absolutely hilarious. The show itself (and the jokes) remains much the same but it never fails to make me laugh. My favourite bit was when he told the little kid in the audience “Don’t drink beer for breakfast, just because Mom does it doesn’t make it right”. We all cracked up at this but I couldn’t quite understand why everyone seemed to be looking at Nat. I'm completely baffled still!!
After this, we decided to go on ET. On the way over, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet the penguins and lion from Madagascar.
By now, we were getting the hang of splitting ourselves into smaller groups to go on rides when we knew we’d be split up. So, on ET, the boys went together followed by the girls. Daniel was really pleased that he got the bike with ET in the basket. Nat and I tried to be clever and use fake names but he said them in the wrong order so it sounded rubbish! Louise and Thelma hasn't got quiet the same ring to it.
It was time to call it a day and we were all excited as we were off to Friendlys for dinner. This was another first for the Longstaff family and I hoped they would enjoy it as much as we do.
As usual, the food was lovely and the check was very reasonable but the air conditioning must have been on incredibly high as it was absolutely freezing.
After dinner, we had a look round one of the bargain shops on I-Drive. Nat and I found the perfect t-shirts!
We had decided that we would definitely be making a trip to the bar this evening so, once back at the resort, Nat and John got their kids settled while Gary put Daniel to bed and I tried to persuade the girls to babysit, which they reluctantly did (after I reminded them of the sacrifices I’d had to make in order to bring them on holiday in the first place) Big thanks to the girls from me, I would give them a childminding job anytime (well anytime they wanted to work for free that is!)
And so it was that, with Daniel, Matthew and Ellie safely tucked up in bed and the girls on duty, we headed down to the bar to relax with a couple of drinks.
When Nat's drink came, it had some foliage in it as decoration. "What's this in my drink" asks Nat. "Leaf it alone, it's supposed to be there" I replied
It was lovely to have a real adult conversation and a few laughs. A perfect end to a perfect day. What she said!
Tomorrow's exciting instalment - Chapter 6: High jinks and poolside drinks
Today we were venturing off-site again. This time to Universal Studios. We left bang on time and were pulling in to the parking lot, having paid only $4 for preferred parking (Universal certainly knows how to treat Annual Passholders), by 8.30.
First stop was Cinnabon for some tasty Cinnabon sticks for breakfast. Then we had to have a group photo taken by the Universal globe.
Later in the day, we ended up buying this picture, taken by the Universal photographer, which was a good job because it’s the only one where everyone has actually got their eyes open.
First stop was Rip Ride Rockit, a ride we had been looking forward to for some time now. Rea had taken the kids on Jimmy Neutron so we were bag-and-child free. The line was already quite long but seemed to be moving steadily. Until we got to the front, at which point the ride broke down. So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And then we played the ‘how long do we wait before we decide to leave the line because you just know that as soon as you do, the ride will start up again and you’ll have to wait an absolute age’ game. We decided to give it 15 minutes, since we were wasting precious time plus we were concerned that poor Rea was stuck with the kids. When there was no sign of the ride starting up again, we left the line and went to meet Rea outside Revenge of the Mummy. We all rode this, with the exception of Rea (are you sensing a trend here), who had ridden previously and didn’t like it. Daniel and Matthew weren’t too sure about it but decided to give it a go. Daniel didn’t like it very much but Matthew and Ellie both loved it. When we came out of the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit was still not operating so we headed for the back of the park to do Simpsons. This was a first for all of us. I’m not sure about the others but, personally, I wasn’t that impressed. I’m not a big fan of simulators anyway and, to me, it just wasn’t that memorable. Still, it was nice to have been able to get on one new ride. And we saw Bart and Homer so that was a bonus. I don’t think Bart wanted the kids to be in the picture though.
After Simpsons, it was on to Men in Black where Rea pipped me to the post with the red button, although I still beat her score. Not being competitive at all there mate! I seem to remember we had a bit of a wait for this ride as well; we had been spoilt by the lack of lines at Busch gardens yesterday!
Then it was time for Jaws.
It was showing a 40 minute wait and the line was massive but the kids all wanted to do it so we joined the line. It was while we were waiting that one of the younger members of the party (who shall remain nameless) made an attempt to even up the score by driving me to absolute distraction. I won’t go into detail but, needless to say, it put a complete dampener on the day. I was more annoyed that Nat and John’s day was spoiled, too. The child in question was told to leave the line (OK, so that kind of gives away that it wasn’t Daniel
) but, of course, by the time we came off the ride she was nowhere to be seen. Despite Gary’s insistence that we just ‘leave her to it’, we obviously had to look for her and eventually found her sitting outside Disaster! Quite apt, I reckon Updated score: Bad Mothers 2, Children 1
Since we were all hungry, we decided burgers were the order of the day and so stopped at Richter Burger Co. for lunch. One of the party refused to come in as she wasn’t hungry so the eight of us had lunch and discussed the plan of action for the afternoon.
After lunch, we decided to go and see if Rip Ride Rockit was operating, which it was, but there was a 105 minute wait.
There is no way I would wait that long for a ride, new or not. (I was very disappointed to miss this ride but sadly it was not to be. Like Joh says, the wait time was just too long).
Nat, Matthew and Ellie wanted to see Shrek 4D so they headed off with Rea in tow while Gary, John, Daniel and I went to see Terminator 2 3D. Sian didn’t want to do either so wandered around the shops. After Terminator, Daniel bought a gun in the shop and had his picture taken.
We went off to meet Nat and the others. While we were waiting, we saw some characters so Daniel and I went to meet them.
Nat turned up shortly after and, as the characters were still around, Matthew and Ellie had some pictures too.
Daniel showed his gun off to Matthew, who wanted one too – so now we had two noisy guns. Yes, thanks for that mate, I've still not managed to 'lose' said gun either!
As Nat and John had never seen the Horror Make-Up Show, this was next on the agenda. Daniel wasn’t sure about this because he has a massive aversion to the sight of blood. And despite my assurances that the blood isn’t real, he really wasn’t happy. So Daniel and I decided to wander around while the others went in. We had a little sit-down outside and chatted about what we would do and Daniel decided he would be brave and go in after all. I was very proud of him and quite pleased, as it is a hilarious show. We got in just in time and managed to sit next to the others. If you haven’t seen this show, I urge you to do so as it really is absolutely hilarious. The show itself (and the jokes) remains much the same but it never fails to make me laugh. My favourite bit was when he told the little kid in the audience “Don’t drink beer for breakfast, just because Mom does it doesn’t make it right”. We all cracked up at this but I couldn’t quite understand why everyone seemed to be looking at Nat. I'm completely baffled still!!
After this, we decided to go on ET. On the way over, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet the penguins and lion from Madagascar.
By now, we were getting the hang of splitting ourselves into smaller groups to go on rides when we knew we’d be split up. So, on ET, the boys went together followed by the girls. Daniel was really pleased that he got the bike with ET in the basket. Nat and I tried to be clever and use fake names but he said them in the wrong order so it sounded rubbish! Louise and Thelma hasn't got quiet the same ring to it.
It was time to call it a day and we were all excited as we were off to Friendlys for dinner. This was another first for the Longstaff family and I hoped they would enjoy it as much as we do.
As usual, the food was lovely and the check was very reasonable but the air conditioning must have been on incredibly high as it was absolutely freezing.
After dinner, we had a look round one of the bargain shops on I-Drive. Nat and I found the perfect t-shirts!
We had decided that we would definitely be making a trip to the bar this evening so, once back at the resort, Nat and John got their kids settled while Gary put Daniel to bed and I tried to persuade the girls to babysit, which they reluctantly did (after I reminded them of the sacrifices I’d had to make in order to bring them on holiday in the first place
) Big thanks to the girls from me, I would give them a childminding job anytime (well anytime they wanted to work for free that is!)And so it was that, with Daniel, Matthew and Ellie safely tucked up in bed and the girls on duty, we headed down to the bar to relax with a couple of drinks.
When Nat's drink came, it had some foliage in it as decoration. "What's this in my drink" asks Nat. "Leaf it alone, it's supposed to be there" I replied
It was lovely to have a real adult conversation and a few laughs. A perfect end to a perfect day. What she said!
Tomorrow's exciting instalment - Chapter 6: High jinks and poolside drinks
.
