Clearskies photographic Journey to the World and Beyond - 8 theme parks & much more

[clearskies]

I LOVE your photos!!! I'm subbing & can't wait to see more!!

aprilisis. Thank you for joining in!!!

I am going away this weekend but I am trying to get one more update in before I leave.

Wow, it didn't seem like you were there for that long, and they wanted to move on already?!

I totally get that about the theming there. It looks so great that it could keep even non-Potter fans entertained for quite some time. I'm a huge Potter fan though, so I'm sure I'll be entertained for quite a while.

I was moved along too soon but I'll spend more time there later in the trip. You are going to love it. I think you are leaving tomorrow right? Have a fantastic trip!!! (and get some good pictures)

 

[clearskies]

After I was yanked away from WWoHP we headed to Jurrasic Park area next.

The theming of this area was not quite as impressive as some of the other lands we had seen so far but it was still nicely done. It was primarily a jungle like theme with some Dinosaurs (well, not the real ones like in the movie ). it was nice but not as much of a visual treat as some of the other lands.

The first attraction we stopped at was the River Adventure.

This is one of those splash down water rides where you have huge drop at the end which creates a giant splash for those in the boat as well as those who stand in it's wake. It is not really a log flume but it is similar. You see rides like these in many other parks but Disney does not have one. If you go to Sea World this is like Journey to Atlantis. My daughter was afraid of the big drop and the other family we were with do no like big drops either so only my Wife, son and I went on. Fortunately there was not much of a wait (only a couple minutes). I thought this ride was better than other rides of this type that I have been on. The drop is pretty much the same it was the theming that differentiates it. Even though some of the dinosaurs were not the most realistic looking, it still had more going for it visually than other rides of this ilk. My wife thought I was crazy (and I am) but I brought my camera on. I had a sack to keep it under wraps for the large drop. The wildcard was whether there were other splashes during the ride. I did a good job at keeping my baby protected and got a few shots.

that was a close call with the camera. He pops up on the right side of the boat where I was sitting

if you want a better view of this, sit on the left side of the boat.

The only other ride in this Jurrasic Park area is for smaller children, Pteranodon Flyers. You actually can not ride as an adult unless you are accompanied by a child. Only my daughter and the youngest son of the other family met the height restriction so we bypassed the ride for the time being. The kids would come back later in the day to ride it.


We moved on to the next land which was Toon Lagoon.

This was another area where I walked in and said Wow. They truly did a magnificent job theming most of these "islands" in IOA. The only knock I will give it is that the comic characters are a bit dated and the kids as well as younger adults might not know who several of the characters are. I am a bit more....well.. seasoned..so I could identify most of the characters.

The family we were with had gone on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rate Barges while we were on Forbidden Journey earlier and they LOVED it! So this was our first ride here.

This is a raft ride similar to Kali River Rapids but oh boy it is different as well. On Kali you can get though the ride without getting that wet depending on the chance of where you are sitting in the raft when the splashes occur. This ride is an equal opportunity soaker. You can not escape without getting showered by buckets of water. Depending on your propensity to get wet you will either love this ride or hate it. The mom of the family we were with told me that there was a storage area in the middle of the raft to put our belongings and I could stow my camera bag. OK, great, we'll all get on together. So we go through a quick line and board our raft and I find that I am not fitting this 10 pounds of bologna into that five pound bag. Panic ensues...... My wife ends up throwing me a poncho and I wrap it around my bag and then I prayed to the water gods. I spent the rest of the ride huddled over my bag. I had to protect my baby. I got soaked (as did all our crew) but the camera bag came out of the ordeal a bit shaken up and angry at me but dry. Let me tell you that my Kids loved this ride as well!! No exageration, they Went on it at least 10 times in a row and some of them went on it I believe 13 times. Fortunately at that time of the day in the AM there was hardly any line. I think most people were still in Hogsmeade still scratching their heads wondering why we left so early. After the first go around on the raft I decided it was in the best interests of my blood pressure to sit outside with the bags while the kids went through the rinse cycle over and over again.

I took a few more pics while waiting

continued in the next post.....

 

[clearskies]

We are still in Toon Lagoon during the barge marathon. There was a themed play area for kids to explore nearby but there are water works there so I decided not venture over with my camera.

At some point my wife, my son, the daugher of the other family and I went to Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls.

This is a log flume ride in the same family as Splash Mountain. When we got there I found that they did not allow bags on this ride so I sat outside while rest of our group went on. I found that in general, Universal was much more restrictive than Disney in allowing bags and/or cameras on the rides. In some cases such as Forbidden journey I acknowledge that it was the right thing to do to restrict us. I forgot to mention but on forbidden journey I had change in my pocket and by the end of the ride, most of it had fallen out of my pocket so loose items were definitely dangerous. On this Dudley ride though I think I could have brought my gear. Albeit I would have to protect it points on the ride like I do with Splash Mountain. The wait posted was 15 min for the ride but it seemed to take a lot longer. I kept waiting for their log to get a picture of them and it seemed like it was forever. Next time I need to make a mental note of the people that head in just before my group does so I can realize that they will be following next rather than huddling over my camera as log after log comes down. When they finally came by and finished the ride they said they had a great time on the ride. Since it took a long time and we were staring to get hungry I decided I would skip the ride myself until our next visit to the park during this trip and instead we would regroup and head for lunch. I'll save my thoughts on the actual ride until I experienced it later in the trip.

When we caught up with the rest of our party we discussed where to eat and I wanted to head back to WWoHP and eat at the 3 broomsticks and afterwards make our way to the other end of the park. Their son was not happy to move from this area. My goodness, 13 times around on the barge should do it but I think he would have been content to just ride it all day long. I guess it is a good endorsement that they liked it that much. Reluctantly he gave in and we moseyed our way back to Hogsmeade Village.

Here is menu at 3 broomsticks.

we opted for the family feast. As you can see it includes a lot. The menu does not list it but in addition to all that is listed we also got vegetables which I included broccoli and perhaps other vegetables as well. I would say that this meal was definitely fitting to the word feast. This is a ton of food and more food than what my family of 4 could eat. Note that we are not huge eaters either though and in Disney we can usually do fine with 3 counter service meals for the 4 of us. The presentation was great. I would say that the taste just just so-so and nothing special though.

After lunch we headed to the lost continent. Here are a few more pics before heading on

This is the Hogs Head pub that is connected to the 3 broomshicks.

Back outside, lighting was better to capture the mandrake

I think they modelled this after the legendary Don Rickles

a couple more window displays and off we go..

Coming next will be the Lost Continent. I am headed out for the weekend for a ski weekend so if you never hear from me again you will know that I did not survive. Otherwise, I'll pick up again after the weekend.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Am glad you managed to go back to eat at Harry Potter World after having to leave so early and got to explore again later on. All that candy in Honey dukes...think I would have a hard time leaving that store

Enjoy your ski weekend.

 

[carolynob]

I am so enjoying your TR! We are going to IOA/Disney on Feb 16th with DD who loves Harry Potter. Although we've been to IOA and US many times, It's our first time to WWoHP. We're also from the Northeast and need to get away from all this snow! Have fun skiing.. Can't wait for the rest of your report.

 

[eugeniuss]

very nice... I am guessing I will have to break down and go to Universal next trip... it looks awesome...

 

[Antigua08]

Harry Potter looks amazing! I'm not the biggest fan but can definitely appreciate the theming, and am looking forward to sampling some Butterbeer. IOA was one of my favourite parks on my last trip, l think with Hulk being my favourite coaster so far. And have to say you were very brave to have taken your camera on the Jurassic Park ride

 

[Purpleblanket]

OMG!!! We definitly need to go back to visit Harry Potter and Jurassic Park theme parks!!

I love your photos and am looking forward to more!!

Debbie

 

[clearskies]

Am glad you managed to go back to eat at Harry Potter World after having to leave so early and got to explore again later on. All that candy in Honey dukes...think I would have a hard time leaving that store

Enjoy your ski weekend.

Thank you . I am still among the living after our ski trip and I even managed to keep all my bones intact.

We git a good taste of the Wizarding world both figuratively and literally
We'll explore some more in a four more days (trip time).

I am so enjoying your TR! We are going to IOA/Disney on Feb 16th with DD who loves Harry Potter. Although we've been to IOA and US many times, It's our first time to WWoHP. We're also from the Northeast and need to get away from all this snow! Have fun skiing.. Can't wait for the rest of your report.

Carolynob. Thank you!! You DD is going to absolutely love it!! Boy, I am envious that you managed to plan an escape plan from this brutal winter. I hope you have a fantastic trip!!

very nice... I am guessing I will have to break down and go to Universal next trip... it looks awesome...

Highly recommended eugeniuss. I don't think I could have a trip that is solely Universal but it is definitely worth allocating some of our precious vacation time and we will return in the future.

Harry Potter looks amazing! I'm not the biggest fan but can definitely appreciate the theming, and am looking forward to sampling some Butterbeer. IOA was one of my favourite parks on my last trip, l think with Hulk being my favourite coaster so far. And have to say you were very brave to have taken your camera on the Jurassic Park ride

We loved IOA!! More so than Universal Studios but US had some great attractions as well. We actually did not experience the Hulk Coaster. The kids were not quite ready for that one yet. Perhaps in a future trip.
The kids tried the non frozen Butterbeer later and they preferred the frozen. I hope you enjoy it. Perhaps foolish instead of brave would be the more appropriate word for me but fortunately I had enough protection to keep my baby safe this time

OMG!!! We definitly need to go back to visit Harry Potter and Jurassic Park theme parks!!

I love your photos and am looking forward to more!!

Debbie

Yay, another new reader. Debbie
I am trying to wrap up this visit to IOA so here it comes.....

 

[clearskies]

We have now made our way over to the Lost Continent Island at IOA. Our group wanted to see the stunt show that was there so we made our way over to wait for the next showing of The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad to start.

First a pic of the mystic fountain. I did not realize until after our visit that this fountain had some surprise interactive behavior but we did not experience it ourselves. Perhaps this was for the best though since I may not have been amused if it let loose on me with my camera in hand.

ok, now we are ready to enter and wait for the show to begin

Here is the title character, ready for action.

He is accompanied by his faithful sidekick who also provides comic relief

They need to save a "princess" from this goth chick who has a penchant for pyrotechnics

The "princess" seems a bit, well more mature than her hero. I call her the cougar. I'll give props to her though that she was very fit and she could hold her own with the stunts and the righteous fight against the forces of evil.

"Hey, didn't you go to school with my Mom?"

"Here, let me help you cross the street ma'am"

"Ok, what's your secret, buns of steel, pilates, what?"

Overall, I can't say that this show kept me captivated. Was it as painful as some of the meetings I had to endure today at work, not even close. So, there are worse ways to spend your time. However, I think that this show fell short of the mark compared to say the Indy Stunt Show as Disney Hollwood Studios. Be that as it may, the kids came away entertained and they got a kick out of the stunts, corny dialog and pyrotechnics. So they hit the mark on that demographic.

After the show my daughter and the other family's youngest son wanted to go back to the Pteranodon Flyers. Since this would probably be the last trip that our daugher would be under the height restriction, this would be the only chance for my wife or I to go on as well unless we find a child to rent in the future. I let my wife go and their oldest daughter went with their son. The rest of us headed over to Poseidon's Fury.

This is a walk through attraction which to my surprise had a huge line. Since we had not really met up with long lines yet I figured this had to be great. I think the wait was actually longer than the Forbidden Journey line we were on earlier. There was not much for me to take pictures of during this attraction.

I would say that this was entertaining and the guide was funny but I would not put it on the "must do" list for the future. If the line is not long I would go for it but it would not be worth a long wait. In the end I suppose it did not matter much that it took so long for Poseidon's Fury since after we were done we still had sit a spell to wait for our flyers to return. After about 25 more min our Pteranodon group returned.

When we finally regrouped we made our way over to Suess Landing. I really loved the theming here as well. How can you not love a land dedicated to Dr Seuss?

continued in next post.......

 

[clearskies]

The first thing we did was and elevated train ride called the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. This is slow but pleasant ride. Don't expect thrills though. I think you really need to have an aversion of heights to be scared from this ride.

After the train ride we took the kids on a spin on the Caro-Seuss-el

Honey, why is that strange yet compellingly attractive man taking our picture?

Next the kids went on One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish - This is a hub and spoke type ride (like Dumbo). I stayed behind and scoped out the area. The line moved very slowly. I guess I should have know from Dumbo experiences that the lines on these types of rides can crawl. I took some pics while waiting.

these guys were out and about nearby

Next up was the Cat in the hat ride. This is like a classic disney dark ride (ala snow white, peter pan, etc) I enjoyed this ride but be warned that it does spin you around a little bit. Not enough to really get to me but if you are more sensitive to spinning then you might have issue. I have a lot of pictures of this attraction. Let me know if this is picture overload for you.

continued in next post.....

 

[clearskies]

After Cat in the Hat we decided to make our way over to the last island we had not seen yet, Marvel Superhero Island Once again I really enjoyed the theming in the land even though I have never been much of a comic book reader.

I have a lot more pictures of this area from our next visit.


We first went to ride spiderman which had about a 20 min wait. Let me tell you that this ride lived up to its reputation as one of the best theme park rides around. What an awesome ride! It is tough to describle. It is a 3D ride where you move from one screen to the next in your ride vehicle. I would say that the closest ride that I have experienced to compare this to is Curse of Dar Kastle in Busch Gardens in Virginia but the Spiderman ride is so much better than that. Diseny does not have anything like it. Perhaps it can be compared a bit to the vechicle moments from Dinosaur combined with screen simulations of Star Tours except there are multiple screens you go to and it is 3D. I highly reccommend this ride. If you do ride it I suggest you ride in the front row if possible. I rode it twice in the trip once in the front row and once in the back and it really made a difference with the experience being in the front.

We somehow made it back to Toon town next but then did an about face since we did not want to get the kids wet again at the end of the day.

We made it back to Marvel Superhero Island for our last ride of the day which was the Storm Force Acceleration ride. This is a spinning teacup-like ride. No thanks, I'll pass. Since I don't get kicks from massive spinning I had no regrets sitting that one out. The kids though really enjoyed it and they went on a couple of times.

There are 2 more rides in the area, The Hulk Coaster and Dr Doom Fearfall. These seemed too intense for the kids though and we were ready to head out anyway so we parted our ways with our friends and we headed back to the Disney Resort area for dinner. So in an 8:30 - 4:30 window we saw most of what we wanted to in the park and that included going on some attractions multiple times. I personally could have spent more time in WWoHP and we did not ride Hulk, Dr Doom or Dueling dragons but we saw most of everything else and were leaving with time to spare before the closing at 7PM. Even with populatity of the new World, it definitely seemed like you could experience most of this park in one day at this time of the year. Fortunately there was no need for the express pass. We had an incredible day at the park and the experience more than exceeded our expectations!!

Tonight we are headed to Saratoga Springs Resport for Dinner. We'll pick up from there in the next installment....

 

[Purpleblanket]

Oh, I want to ride the "Caro-suess-al"!!!

That looks like so much fun! And I want to go to Dr. Seuss Land too!! lol

Debbie

 

[TanzUnited99]

Great pictures of The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show - your captions were super funny - made me laugh out loud!

Suess landing looks like so much fun and no your Cat in the Hat ride pictures are not an overload - the more the better!

Thanks for the on skipping Posiden's Fury if the line is long and riding at the front of Spiderman to really feel the experience.

 

[DisneyDreamerMom]

Subscribing! I love all the pics. We're headed to Universal for the first time on our next Disney trip so this is perfect. Can't wait to read more.

 

[clearskies]

Oh, I want to ride the "Caro-suess-al"!!!

That looks like so much fun! And I want to go to Dr. Seuss Land too!! lol

Debbie

Seuss Landing was a visual treat.
It was not an area of of big thrill rides but we had a great time there.

Great pictures of The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show - your captions were super funny - made me laugh out loud!

Suess landing looks like so much fun and no your Cat in the Hat ride pictures are not an overload - the more the better!

Thanks for the on skipping Posiden's Fury if the line is long and riding at the front of Spiderman to really feel the experience.

Thank you TazUnited99.

I am glad I am not inundating you with too many pictures. I tried to weed some out but there was still a lot on the cat in the hat ride that I enjoyed looking at.

I never tried asking for a specific seating row for any rides in Universal but I imagine they would accommodate you if you are willing to wait until the next ride. I have done it in Disney a couple of times and it was not a problem.

Subscribing! I love all the pics. We're headed to Universal for the first time on our next Disney trip so this is perfect. Can't wait to read more.

Thank you for joining the journey DisneyDreamerMom
If you have any questions as I go along feel free to ask.

 

[clearskies]

We are now back on Disney property and have arrived at the Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR). I originally intended to pick a restaurant in Downtown Disney for this evening's meal but none of the restaurants on the dining plan in DTD were reaching out and grabbing me. On a prior trip we had stayed at SSR but we never made it to the restaurant there, the Turf Club. After the trip though I saw some decent reviews so I decided we would give it a try on this trip and after dinner if we were up to it we could take the boat over to DTD and walk off our dinner.

We got to the restaurant a little early and they had no problem getting us in a bit before our reservation time. Since this restaurant is a bit away from the fray it was not as crowded. Sticking to my plan I ordered the steak. The menu choice is a Grilled New York Strip - with lump crabmeat. I opted for this but without the crab meat. Here is a picture of my entree.

My wife ordered the same but with the crabmeat. She seemed to be accepting this strange new behaviour of photographing food and asked me to capture her meal as well for prosperity.

The steak was good and without a doubt better than WCC but I don't think it measured up to the Skarks from our first night. It was a good solid meal. It did not knock my socks off but it was good.

So our Steak ranking now is
1. Sharks
2. Turf Club
3. WCC

I don't really eat dessert so when it was time to order dessert I told my wife to order an extra of whatever she and the kids would like to eat from my dessert choice and I was going to go take some pictures. I left my wife a room key to take care of the meal credits and headed off. Little did I know that I was setting her up.


I made my way down to the water to take some pictures of DTD.

I eventually got a call from my wife, apparently I inadvertently left her one of our 2007 room keys instead of this year's key. Why the heck would I be carrying 2007 room keys you may ask? Well, on that trip we had purchased 10 day non-expiring park tickets and we were using these for our Disney park days on this trip. She had to explain to the waiter that I had the correct key and had taken off. Her cell phone was dead so she had to borrow a phone to call me. When my wife called she explained what happened and said they seemed a bit worried that I was leaving them in the lurch since they asked her "He's coming back right?". I jokingly said that she should tell them that we did not use all our meal credits on that 2007 trip and that they should still be good right? She was not amused and told me to get my butt back over there. I thought it would have been a fun conversation though. It had started to rain anyway so I was already in the process of packing up when she called so it did not take me long to get back. I soon setted up the bill and they took my "wanted" poster off the wall.

Since the rain was building we nixed the idea of going to DTD and decided to head back to the resort. My wife and kids settled in for the night and after a little while I decided to take a ride over the the TTC in hopes that the rain would die down a bit and I could get some pictures of wishes from there. I had never attempted wishes from that spot and I wanted to give it a try this trip.

I drove over to the TTC and walked over to the boat dock about 5 min before the show was scheduled to start. Unfortunately the rain was not cooperating with my plans. It was not one of those teeming downpours that you can get pounded with in August in Fla but the rain was still pretty steady. I found that there is not a lot of space to set up a tripod down by the fence at the dock area. There was already another person there who was set up and I set up next to him. He was a nice younger man who lived in the area and came to Disney a lot to photograph (I'm jealous). He did warn me that they may chase me to move since I was close to one of the gates that the people coming off the ferry go through on their way out and they may tell me I need to keep the path clear. There was no additional room to the side though and since there are multiple gates for people to go through and this was on the very far right I took my chances. True to form I lacked the common sense to bring anything to protect my camera. I was wearing a rain jacket myself so it was the camera or me. Of course my camera won out and I draped my jacket over my gear while waiting for the show to begin hopefully any minute. We talked about photography while waiting and he showed me pictures from his flickr account. He was proud of his pics for good reason. They were great. We waited and waited as I got wetter and wetter. At some point one of the park guests returning from the night coming off one of the ferrys said that our "wishes" would not come true this night and the show was cancelled. It seemed hard to believe. Even though it was still a steady rain it was not a moonsoon type rain and there was no lightning. I did not think they usually cancel for these conditions. My experienced cohort was even more certain that they would not cancel so we stood there as I got wet enough to equal the soaking on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. Eventually after about 20 min my comrade seemed to think this was actually not going to happen and he started to pack up and he took off while I started to pack up. Shortly thereafter he hurried back saying he heard an announcement that they were going to start. Sure enough the show soon started.

So, was all that waiting and my nighttime shower totally worth it? Umm..hardly. The show went on but it was a bust from where we were. Once the show started, it became evident that the fireworks were getting obscured by clouds and smoke.

This got worse and worse as the show continued.

By the end of the show you could hardly see a thing.

So it ends up I got drenched for nothing. Oh, I'll come back to this spot to see if I can get some revenge later in the trip. You'll have to wait until then to see if I had more success at that time.

After leaving the show I made my way back to the hotel and got ready for bed. It was a great day but not as rewarding a night. I suppose if I had to choose rain in the day vs at night I'll opt for keeping dry at the parks during the day. We had perfect weather for IOA and hopefully the weather will be just nice in the day tomorrow. Well start on Day 4 in the next installment.

 

[TanzUnited99]

The food looks really good - am glad that I am viewing it on a full stomach.

Feel for your wife - getting caught in that situation. At least you managed to sort it out and get that 'wanted' poster off the wall

Have heard about taking pictures of Wishes from TTC - might try that but definitely not in the rain! It's a shame the pictures didn't turn out the way you wanted but am hoping that you had better weather next time round.

 

[clearskies]

The food looks really good - am glad that I am viewing it on a full stomach.

Feel for your wife - getting caught in that situation. At least you managed to sort it out and get that 'wanted' poster off the wall

Have heard about taking pictures of Wishes from TTC - might try that but definitely not in the rain! It's a shame the pictures didn't turn out the way you wanted but am hoping that you had better weather next time round.

Turf Club is a good option during busy times where it is hard to get an ADR at one of the more popular eateries. It is not a must do for us but I would be open for a return trip.

Fortunately my wife is pretty good natured and tolerant of my brainlessness. She's a keeper.

The TTC is my new favorite off site spot for photographing wishes (I guess I am giving away how it went the next time) but yes, it works out a tad bit better when there is no rain beating down on you.

 

[norybell]

It may have taken me a little while to find it, but I'm so happy to see another excellent photo-filled clearskies report!

To be honest, I like the foggy Wishes pics from the TTC! Very mysterious.

Your pics of IOA and WWoHP so make me want to go there...one of these trips, I'm going to have to make it happen. My trips are always so short, it's hard to talk myself into leaving Disney for a whole day!

I guess I'll just have to use it as an excuse to go for longer at some point!