themepark
Wanted: Your trip reports!<br><font color=00cc22>I
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,469
Cast of Characters:
*Big Daddy celebrating his 21st birthday. Hey that's what our server at Hard Rock Cafe said!
*The Grinch. That's me! I am nicer though and not as green.
*The Spongebobs. aka DD (9), DS (7). Spongebob fanatics with matching Spongebob shirts.
I woke up around 7:30 and it was raining...pouring actually. I decided to go back to sleep in hopes of waking up later and the sun being out. Everyone woke up at 9:00 and it was still raining...pouring. We were checking out today, but our plans were to go to the parks and begin our drive home later in the day. We slowly packed and Big Daddy began loading our bags in the car. He bought himself a Royal Pacific hat in the gift shop which I quickly pounced on and gave back to him while singing "Happy Birthday!" Another gift taken care of!
We finally checked out and left the room at 11:20. The rain had diminished to a fine drizzle but the sky was still quite dark and threatening. We decided to borrow umbrellas from the hotel and journey to USF. I wanted to buy some gifts I had seen earlier, plus we wanted to ride a few more rides. We headed out on the water taxi. When we arrived at Citywalk, it was raining so we hurried over to NBA City for an early lunch. We were seated at a booth with the dual TVs. Pretty neat. The Spongebobs and Big Daddy enjoyed some games and Boy Spongebob got a Lakers jersey with his name on the back. He hasn't taken it off since. The Spongebobs liked the kids menu here. It had word seek puzzles with the team names and a design your own jersey picture. Much better than the more kiddie menus found in other restaurants they declared.
After lunch we headed into USF. It was still cloudy and breezy but no rain currently. We headed towards Terminator. They had just started a show so we decided not to wait for the next one. We walked on and arrived at the Horror Make-Up Show just as they were letting the Express line in for the 1:15 show. We sat on the 2nd row. It was just as hilarious as the first time we saw it last summer. I love that show! When we exited the theater, the sky was blue and the sun was beaming down on us. Excellent! Because we brought umbrellas and lugged them around all day in my new Grinch bag, we single handedly ended the rain and brought clear blue skies to Central Florida!
We waited a minimal amount of time to ride ET and we actually heard him say our names, "Goodbye Spongebob, Patrick, Grinch, Big Daddy"
At Woody Woodpecker's Kid Zone, we saw Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat, Woody and Winnie Woodpecker, Scooby and Shaggy. The Spongebobs rode the Nuthouse Coaster once. The express line was unusually long and they weren't always letting people on from that line. Odd.
We thought about stopping for Animal Planet Live but decided not to. The Spongebobs were itching to shoot the aliens. Big Daddy decided to wait outside at MIB. We entered the express line and boarded MIB quickly. My score was unsatisfactory (as it always is) so the kids and I decided to ride again. This time we went in the single riders line and were on in a flash. Boy Spongebob and I ended up in the same car. It broke down and we were left sitting for several minutes. My score improved but I will still not report it. Next time, I will read up on the scoring tips before my trip. Upon exiting, we got Icees and Pretzels and walked towards Jaws. No one wanted to ride so we walked on by. No interest in Earthquake from the Spongebobs either.
It was almost time for Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue so we got in the Express Line. 15 minutes before the show, they came out and announced that it was cancelled. I looked at my schedule and saw that the Ghostbusters show was starting so we hustled toward it. I promised FlyFly that I would see the show this time. It was cute and I had to laugh when about halfway through the show Big Daddy said, "I've seen enough." He went to a bench to sit down. The kids and I enjoyed the show. I felt like I already knew the Ghostbusters since I have heard so much about them and seen so many pictures here through FlyFly. After the show, the guys came back out for autographs and photos. We saw Beetlejuice first. He started sniffing us and said, "You girls smell. Where ya from?" I told him "Tennessee" and he said, "Well that explains the smell." Then Girl Spongebob and I turned to have our pics made with him and he kept covering up Girl Spongebobs face. Our picture is of me, Beetlejuice, and Beetlejuice's hand over DD's face. We walked over to the Ghostbusters and were talking with them. We turned for Big Daddy to take our picture and Beetlejuice comes running over and jumps right in front of Girl Spongebob and sticks his hand up over my face. I stood on my tiptoes and managed to show up in the picture. This pic is of me peering over Beetlejuice's hand, the Ghostbusters, and you can barely see DD's blue jacket behind Beetlejuice. He was a ham. Very funny. We watched them drive away with Beetlejuice making obnoxious comments to everyone in the way.
We walked right on Jimmy Neutron, saw Spongebob after the ride, and shopped a little in the store. We were getting tired and knew it was almost time to head for home
so we finished up some shopping in a few other shops and headed for the exit. Boo Hoo Hooo!! Sadly, we went to the Water Taxi dock. The boat from Portofino was pulling in when we arrived so we decided to ride there and check out the hotel. WOW! It was almost sunset when we went under the bridge and first had the Portofino in view. It is a gorgeous property! The pictures I have seen simply do not do it justice. I took some of my own photos but they don't show how beautiful it is. We wandered around and checked out the castle pool. The beach area was flooded and the slide was closed. Several kids were in the pool, but no one else much around. We wandered some more and came upon Sal's. I had read here that their pizzas were good so we decided to have a pizza before heading north. Yes, we were delaying leaving again. We sat outside watching the sun go down and enjoying our very delicious pizza. We felt very under dressed and kind of out of place at Portofino. There were lots of nicely dressed older couples and groups of people sitting around sipping wine. We were a family dressed in shorts, sweats, t-shirts, and sneakers amid a sea of black and high heels. There was a lively bunch in the Thirsty Fish across the way enjoying the Patriots win, but they were all dressed in black as well. We finished up the pizza and strolled over to the dock. Finally there was another family! They were dressed mostly in black. I am sure they were heading for Citywalk for dinner as the parks were closing. We got on the water taxi for RPR and waved goodbye 
to the parks. We returned the unused umbrellas and sadly departed to the parking lot.
We headed north on the turnpike at 7:30pm with a plan of stopping in 3 hours to spend the night then drive the rest of the way home on Monday. The Spongebobs instantly fell asleep. We ended up driving all the way home arriving here at 4:00am to 27 degree temps. UGH. Back to reality.
We shall return in May as soon as school is out!
*Big Daddy celebrating his 21st birthday. Hey that's what our server at Hard Rock Cafe said!
*The Grinch. That's me! I am nicer though and not as green.
*The Spongebobs. aka DD (9), DS (7). Spongebob fanatics with matching Spongebob shirts.
I woke up around 7:30 and it was raining...pouring actually. I decided to go back to sleep in hopes of waking up later and the sun being out. Everyone woke up at 9:00 and it was still raining...pouring. We were checking out today, but our plans were to go to the parks and begin our drive home later in the day. We slowly packed and Big Daddy began loading our bags in the car. He bought himself a Royal Pacific hat in the gift shop which I quickly pounced on and gave back to him while singing "Happy Birthday!" Another gift taken care of!
We finally checked out and left the room at 11:20. The rain had diminished to a fine drizzle but the sky was still quite dark and threatening. We decided to borrow umbrellas from the hotel and journey to USF. I wanted to buy some gifts I had seen earlier, plus we wanted to ride a few more rides. We headed out on the water taxi. When we arrived at Citywalk, it was raining so we hurried over to NBA City for an early lunch. We were seated at a booth with the dual TVs. Pretty neat. The Spongebobs and Big Daddy enjoyed some games and Boy Spongebob got a Lakers jersey with his name on the back. He hasn't taken it off since. The Spongebobs liked the kids menu here. It had word seek puzzles with the team names and a design your own jersey picture. Much better than the more kiddie menus found in other restaurants they declared.
After lunch we headed into USF. It was still cloudy and breezy but no rain currently. We headed towards Terminator. They had just started a show so we decided not to wait for the next one. We walked on and arrived at the Horror Make-Up Show just as they were letting the Express line in for the 1:15 show. We sat on the 2nd row. It was just as hilarious as the first time we saw it last summer. I love that show! When we exited the theater, the sky was blue and the sun was beaming down on us. Excellent! Because we brought umbrellas and lugged them around all day in my new Grinch bag, we single handedly ended the rain and brought clear blue skies to Central Florida!
We waited a minimal amount of time to ride ET and we actually heard him say our names, "Goodbye Spongebob, Patrick, Grinch, Big Daddy"
At Woody Woodpecker's Kid Zone, we saw Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat, Woody and Winnie Woodpecker, Scooby and Shaggy. The Spongebobs rode the Nuthouse Coaster once. The express line was unusually long and they weren't always letting people on from that line. Odd. We thought about stopping for Animal Planet Live but decided not to. The Spongebobs were itching to shoot the aliens. Big Daddy decided to wait outside at MIB. We entered the express line and boarded MIB quickly. My score was unsatisfactory (as it always is) so the kids and I decided to ride again. This time we went in the single riders line and were on in a flash. Boy Spongebob and I ended up in the same car. It broke down and we were left sitting for several minutes. My score improved but I will still not report it. Next time, I will read up on the scoring tips before my trip. Upon exiting, we got Icees and Pretzels and walked towards Jaws. No one wanted to ride so we walked on by. No interest in Earthquake from the Spongebobs either.
It was almost time for Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue so we got in the Express Line. 15 minutes before the show, they came out and announced that it was cancelled. I looked at my schedule and saw that the Ghostbusters show was starting so we hustled toward it. I promised FlyFly that I would see the show this time. It was cute and I had to laugh when about halfway through the show Big Daddy said, "I've seen enough." He went to a bench to sit down. The kids and I enjoyed the show. I felt like I already knew the Ghostbusters since I have heard so much about them and seen so many pictures here through FlyFly. After the show, the guys came back out for autographs and photos. We saw Beetlejuice first. He started sniffing us and said, "You girls smell. Where ya from?" I told him "Tennessee" and he said, "Well that explains the smell." Then Girl Spongebob and I turned to have our pics made with him and he kept covering up Girl Spongebobs face. Our picture is of me, Beetlejuice, and Beetlejuice's hand over DD's face. We walked over to the Ghostbusters and were talking with them. We turned for Big Daddy to take our picture and Beetlejuice comes running over and jumps right in front of Girl Spongebob and sticks his hand up over my face. I stood on my tiptoes and managed to show up in the picture. This pic is of me peering over Beetlejuice's hand, the Ghostbusters, and you can barely see DD's blue jacket behind Beetlejuice. He was a ham. Very funny. We watched them drive away with Beetlejuice making obnoxious comments to everyone in the way.
We walked right on Jimmy Neutron, saw Spongebob after the ride, and shopped a little in the store. We were getting tired and knew it was almost time to head for home
so we finished up some shopping in a few other shops and headed for the exit. Boo Hoo Hooo!! Sadly, we went to the Water Taxi dock. The boat from Portofino was pulling in when we arrived so we decided to ride there and check out the hotel. WOW! It was almost sunset when we went under the bridge and first had the Portofino in view. It is a gorgeous property! The pictures I have seen simply do not do it justice. I took some of my own photos but they don't show how beautiful it is. We wandered around and checked out the castle pool. The beach area was flooded and the slide was closed. Several kids were in the pool, but no one else much around. We wandered some more and came upon Sal's. I had read here that their pizzas were good so we decided to have a pizza before heading north. Yes, we were delaying leaving again. We sat outside watching the sun go down and enjoying our very delicious pizza. We felt very under dressed and kind of out of place at Portofino. There were lots of nicely dressed older couples and groups of people sitting around sipping wine. We were a family dressed in shorts, sweats, t-shirts, and sneakers amid a sea of black and high heels. There was a lively bunch in the Thirsty Fish across the way enjoying the Patriots win, but they were all dressed in black as well. We finished up the pizza and strolled over to the dock. Finally there was another family! They were dressed mostly in black. I am sure they were heading for Citywalk for dinner as the parks were closing. We got on the water taxi for RPR and waved goodbye to the parks. We returned the unused umbrellas and sadly departed to the parking lot. We headed north on the turnpike at 7:30pm with a plan of stopping in 3 hours to spend the night then drive the rest of the way home on Monday. The Spongebobs instantly fell asleep. We ended up driving all the way home arriving here at 4:00am to 27 degree temps. UGH. Back to reality.
We shall return in May as soon as school is out!
