Day 4: Thursday, April 29: Islands of Adventure
Weather: Low to mid 80s and a little overcast.
The night before I told my family that they had to be in the lobby of the RPR at 7:20. That was a lot earlier than necessary, but I wanted to build in some fudge room. I was shocked when they phoned me at 7:20 from the lobby. By 8:00, they had checked into their rooms, had their resort IDs and had purchased their theme park tickets from the concierge. We hit the walkway to CityWalk around 8:15 and we were standing in front of the IOA gates by 8:30.
It was at this point that God decided to test my pledge not to be a Type-A psycho in the parks. I explain to everyone that although the official opening time isnt until 9:00, the park will likely open a little early. My BIL, however, suggests going back to City Walk for breakfast at Cinnabon.
While I am a quick walker, my parents, sister and BIL move at a sloth-like pace. I quickly calculate that the walk to and back from Cinnabon will take more than 15 minutes and I start to squirm. I want to tell them that, although the gates look deserted now, it will fill quickly. But I choose not to. My family is well aware of my 1998 commando incident, and I have no doubt that my wife has already recruited them for support in the event that I go back on my pledge of easy-going touring. I bite my tongue and begin the slow trudge back to Cinnabon. But the test is not over. After we stand on line for what seemed like an eternity, my family decides to grab a table to eat their breakfast there. I feel a fit coming on, but I hold on to my chair and it passes. So there we sit, chomping on cinnabons while hundreds of people stroll by us on there was to IOA. I could feel an ulcer developing. Its 8:50 and we are still eating. Then my family starts to go through photo shoots in front of various City Walk landmarks. Finally, we head back toward the gates. When we get there, the crowds are already moving through. Because I was baptized Catholic, I feel the need to punish myself further and I ask the attendant when the gates opened as I pass through them. The answer, "about ten minutes ago at 8:45". 
My wife shoots me a look like, youll be OK. And it turned out she was right.
There were no crowds. Getting a stroller took all of two minutes, we grabbed a map and we were off to Seuss Landing. We walked on The Cat in the Hat, which everyone loved. I will grade most of the IOA attractions since they were all new for me and may be for many of the Disney fans here. Cat in the Hat gets a solid A. Then we hit One Fish, Two Fish ("B") and the Caro-Seuss-El ("B"), both of which were walk-ons. By the way, both the Port of Entry and Seuss Landing were very well done. In fact, all of IOA was brilliantly themed. If I have one regret about our vacation, it is that we didnt spend more time in IOA to soak it all in.
Next we moved to The Lost Continent, only to find out that Poseidons Fury does not open until 11:00 and The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad only has two shows, the first of which was at 2:30.
My DW, SIL, Sister and BIL hit Dueling Dragons and loved it. A word about me and roller coaster. The only thing I fear more than flying is roller coasters. It goes back to some bad experiences when I was a kid. My DW loves them. Heres the problem. My DS knows they scare me and, therefore, insists that I sit next to him on every thrill ride he goes on. He enjoys seeing Dad in a panic. Thankfully, he is not tall enough for Dueling Dragons, so theres no reason for me to go on it. DW gave Dueling Dragons an "A-". Next we hit The Flying Unicorn. There was a five minute wait. I am slowly overcoming my fear of coasters, but I have to tell you that even the Unicorn gave me trepidation. It didnt help that I was sitting next to DS, who was reveling in my fear. In what would become a standard question on every coaster we would hit on this trip, as soon as we began to be pulled up the first incline, DS asked me with a smirk, why do you think we are going up Dad?, which was invariably followed by, "don't worry, it will probably stop at the top". Anyway, the Unicorn was fun and quick. We gave it a "B". Next, we went Jurassic Park. My kids love the movies. I was bummed that the Triceratops Encounter was closed (the guide said Open Seasonally). So we just hit the Jurassic Park River Adventure. There was a 20 minute wait, but we used our FOTL card and got right on. The dinosaurs are great and the drop is pretty intense("A+"). The wait for Pteranodon Flyers was already 45 minutes, so we passed.
At this point we decided to take an early lunch. It was 11:15 and we wanted to try the Enchanted Oak and didnt want to move too far away from it. So we backtracked and had the place to ourselves. Everyone enjoyed their food. I had the Corn Chowder, which was outstanding. I tried DWs burger, and it seemed pretty good. Enchanted Oak got a "B+", a grade that was boasted by the restaurants theme. After lunch, the park was much more crowded. We move clockwise to Marvel Superhero Island. DW, Sister, BIL and SIL used their FOTL privilege to bypass a 45 minute wait on Hulk. They loved it, but it threw DW's equilibrium off a little ("A"). Next, we used our FOTL privilege to bypass a 40 minute wait on Spiderman, which was awesome ("A+"). The video seemed a little off in some places, which made me a little queasy. But I still loved it. At this point, it was around 2:00. Everyone went back to the resort except my Brother and me. We went to Toon Lagoon to get soaked on Popeye & Blutos Bilge-Rat Barges. Again, we used our FOTL privilege to bypass a pretty long wait. The attendants had no problem with us taking our shoes off once inside the raft. I was surprised how long the ride was. We both enjoyed it and it was warm enough out to get soaked ("B+"). I was disappointed that Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls was broken down , so I never got to do that. My bro and I decided to call it a day. One more note, even the carnival-type games are done well at IOA. Chester and Hester could learn a lot from IOA.
We walked back to the resort, used the fitness center (which was a nice size) and then hit the pool and the hot tub. We had dinner at the Hard Rock that night. Everyone enjoyed their food ("B+"). We got dessert again through room service. Before I ordered it, I spoke with the concierge about the complimentary cookies and milk thing. The concierge told me to request them through room service and to tell them they were complimentary. When the dessert arrived, I was please to see that cookies and milk were not on the bill. Of course, I quickly realized that that was because there were not on the table either. I didnt bother calling and I wouldnt ask for them again. No sense crying over missing cookies and milk.
Weather: Low to mid 80s and a little overcast.
The night before I told my family that they had to be in the lobby of the RPR at 7:20. That was a lot earlier than necessary, but I wanted to build in some fudge room. I was shocked when they phoned me at 7:20 from the lobby. By 8:00, they had checked into their rooms, had their resort IDs and had purchased their theme park tickets from the concierge. We hit the walkway to CityWalk around 8:15 and we were standing in front of the IOA gates by 8:30.
It was at this point that God decided to test my pledge not to be a Type-A psycho in the parks. I explain to everyone that although the official opening time isnt until 9:00, the park will likely open a little early. My BIL, however, suggests going back to City Walk for breakfast at Cinnabon.
While I am a quick walker, my parents, sister and BIL move at a sloth-like pace. I quickly calculate that the walk to and back from Cinnabon will take more than 15 minutes and I start to squirm. I want to tell them that, although the gates look deserted now, it will fill quickly. But I choose not to. My family is well aware of my 1998 commando incident, and I have no doubt that my wife has already recruited them for support in the event that I go back on my pledge of easy-going touring. I bite my tongue and begin the slow trudge back to Cinnabon. But the test is not over. After we stand on line for what seemed like an eternity, my family decides to grab a table to eat their breakfast there. I feel a fit coming on, but I hold on to my chair and it passes. So there we sit, chomping on cinnabons while hundreds of people stroll by us on there was to IOA. I could feel an ulcer developing. Its 8:50 and we are still eating. Then my family starts to go through photo shoots in front of various City Walk landmarks. Finally, we head back toward the gates. When we get there, the crowds are already moving through. Because I was baptized Catholic, I feel the need to punish myself further and I ask the attendant when the gates opened as I pass through them. The answer, "about ten minutes ago at 8:45". My wife shoots me a look like, youll be OK. And it turned out she was right. There were no crowds. Getting a stroller took all of two minutes, we grabbed a map and we were off to Seuss Landing. We walked on The Cat in the Hat, which everyone loved. I will grade most of the IOA attractions since they were all new for me and may be for many of the Disney fans here. Cat in the Hat gets a solid A. Then we hit One Fish, Two Fish ("B") and the Caro-Seuss-El ("B"), both of which were walk-ons. By the way, both the Port of Entry and Seuss Landing were very well done. In fact, all of IOA was brilliantly themed. If I have one regret about our vacation, it is that we didnt spend more time in IOA to soak it all in.
Next we moved to The Lost Continent, only to find out that Poseidons Fury does not open until 11:00 and The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad only has two shows, the first of which was at 2:30.
My DW, SIL, Sister and BIL hit Dueling Dragons and loved it. A word about me and roller coaster. The only thing I fear more than flying is roller coasters. It goes back to some bad experiences when I was a kid. My DW loves them. Heres the problem. My DS knows they scare me and, therefore, insists that I sit next to him on every thrill ride he goes on. He enjoys seeing Dad in a panic. Thankfully, he is not tall enough for Dueling Dragons, so theres no reason for me to go on it. DW gave Dueling Dragons an "A-". Next we hit The Flying Unicorn. There was a five minute wait. I am slowly overcoming my fear of coasters, but I have to tell you that even the Unicorn gave me trepidation. It didnt help that I was sitting next to DS, who was reveling in my fear. In what would become a standard question on every coaster we would hit on this trip, as soon as we began to be pulled up the first incline, DS asked me with a smirk, why do you think we are going up Dad?, which was invariably followed by, "don't worry, it will probably stop at the top". Anyway, the Unicorn was fun and quick. We gave it a "B". Next, we went Jurassic Park. My kids love the movies. I was bummed that the Triceratops Encounter was closed (the guide said Open Seasonally). So we just hit the Jurassic Park River Adventure. There was a 20 minute wait, but we used our FOTL card and got right on. The dinosaurs are great and the drop is pretty intense("A+"). The wait for Pteranodon Flyers was already 45 minutes, so we passed. At this point we decided to take an early lunch. It was 11:15 and we wanted to try the Enchanted Oak and didnt want to move too far away from it. So we backtracked and had the place to ourselves. Everyone enjoyed their food. I had the Corn Chowder, which was outstanding. I tried DWs burger, and it seemed pretty good. Enchanted Oak got a "B+", a grade that was boasted by the restaurants theme. After lunch, the park was much more crowded. We move clockwise to Marvel Superhero Island. DW, Sister, BIL and SIL used their FOTL privilege to bypass a 45 minute wait on Hulk. They loved it, but it threw DW's equilibrium off a little ("A"). Next, we used our FOTL privilege to bypass a 40 minute wait on Spiderman, which was awesome ("A+"). The video seemed a little off in some places, which made me a little queasy. But I still loved it. At this point, it was around 2:00. Everyone went back to the resort except my Brother and me. We went to Toon Lagoon to get soaked on Popeye & Blutos Bilge-Rat Barges. Again, we used our FOTL privilege to bypass a pretty long wait. The attendants had no problem with us taking our shoes off once inside the raft. I was surprised how long the ride was. We both enjoyed it and it was warm enough out to get soaked ("B+"). I was disappointed that Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls was broken down , so I never got to do that. My bro and I decided to call it a day. One more note, even the carnival-type games are done well at IOA. Chester and Hester could learn a lot from IOA.
We walked back to the resort, used the fitness center (which was a nice size) and then hit the pool and the hot tub. We had dinner at the Hard Rock that night. Everyone enjoyed their food ("B+"). We got dessert again through room service. Before I ordered it, I spoke with the concierge about the complimentary cookies and milk thing. The concierge told me to request them through room service and to tell them they were complimentary. When the dessert arrived, I was please to see that cookies and milk were not on the bill. Of course, I quickly realized that that was because there were not on the table either. I didnt bother calling and I wouldnt ask for them again. No sense crying over missing cookies and milk.
