MScott1851
<font color=font color=royalblue>Got a link for th
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2002
- Messages
- 3,198
Well...Monday morning, our first day back on "our vacation" is here.. For the first time in three days, we actually are awakened by an alarm clock instead of a doodie-head wanting a ride. However...without Harry and Lloyd to provide comic relief, Clint and I are pretty dull people!
The first thing on the agenda is "Operation Search and Rescue" for Clint's anniversary present I had shipped LAST WEDNESDAY!! Especially since our anniversary was yesterday... I get on the phone first thing and track down the number of the UPS store where I had mailed Clint's present from. The nice lady there remembers me, asks how my trip is going, and tells me that my present was indeed delivered Friday morning, gives me the exact time, place, and the name of the person that signed for it. I'm relieved that the package has been found, but I'm also super-peeved that it has been here the whole time. I don't think that the staff has been putting forth any effort to find it, and I'm questioning how they log incoming deliveries for guests. I had labeled it with our names and the Hard Rock Hotel, too, just as the concierge had advised me to when I called before we left. On our way out the door, we stop off at Star Services to let them know about the package, and also to express our disappointment with the botched flower delivery. A nice man named Ray listened to us, and immediately got on the phone attempting to locate the package. He assures me that it will be found and delivered to our room ASAP, so we head out to the parks.
We decided that we would check out Universal Studios, we were tired from the weekend, and just wanted a low-key day doing what WE wanted to do. Breakfast was a luscious apple pastry for me, and a gargantuan cinnamon roll for Clint from the Beverly Hills Boulangerie. We were packing our refillable "Hulk" cup, so this breakfast was economical and very filling. Wanting to let our meals sit and my Dramamine kick in, we headed to Terminator 3-D. The lady doing the preshow is the best part! She had the whole crowd just rolling with her bubbly "SUPER! OKAY!" spiel. The effects in this show are amazing. Clint walked around the rest of the day doing his "Ahnold" impression (saying vague things about politics like 'I believe dat every child should have a book to read" and "Oxygen and air are for everybody, and they should be clean even for the dirty people" just like Arnold himself did throughout his campaign.) After that, we doubled back to experience Shrek 4-D. The pre-show was almost too long. Even the adults were starting to fidget, and most of the children lost interest very early on. Shrek is one of those movies that amazes me with it's rating. There are so many things in that movie that are suggestive and have double meanings. While it flies right over younger childrens' heads, I wouldn't want to have to explain it to a child that was a little older. Farquaad? I used to get in trouble for saying that, and now it's a character in a beloved children's movie? Anyway... the Shrek experience was awesome...Of all the rides of this genre, this is my favorite. I won't spoil the surprise, but I have never been more grossed out in my life than with the "4th-D!" If I were a six year old boy, this would definitely get a big thumbs up! After Shrek, I felt that my apple danish would not make an encore appearance on Back To The Future so we headed that way, stopping first to ride E-T. I still love this movie and ride, but I am afraid that it is not quite as popular as it used to be. The woman in front of us was explaining the premise of the movie to her boys, and they were plenty old enough to have seen the movie by now. I wanted to give her a Blockbuster coupon and tell her to rent it for them, but Nosy Parker minded her own business...The Back to the Future ride was awesome as usual...The woman sitting next to me had never ridden it before and it was funny to see her react to it for the first time. MIB was next, and Clint was dancing to the MC Hammer songs they were playing outside and actually entertained a little crowd that was gathering behind him at the lockers, unbeknownst to him. He was that skinny white boy in high school that wanted to be MC Hammer, had the baggy pants and all, went to the clubs and danced with the girls while the guys that were too cool just watched from the sidelines...You know that guy. He almost fainted when New Edition did a reunion concert here last month. He took all his records with him to get autographs when he interviewed them...God knows he's a dork, but he's my dork.
The rest of the day went by very quickly with our FOTL access, and we were through by 3pm. We had made plans to drive to Tampa that evening and have dinner with a reporter that Clint used to work with, so we hopped in the car and made it over there in about an hour. We went to the Painted Puppy, which is an awesome record store that Clint orders vinyl from online all the time. I actually thought he was going to kiss the threshold when we got there. He just stood outside and gazed at it lovingly before he went in, and proceeded to buy about $100 worth of records. We left there and went to Ybor City to meet Jill...that is the coolest little place. But it didn't look very safe, even in daylight. As a whole, the parts of Tampa that we saw were very seedy looking. I'm sure that if we had ventured further, or went to St. Pete our opinion would have changed. We ate at the Green Iguana, a very cool little restaurant, and browsed around the little shops for a while. It was nice to catch up with Jill...we had not gotten to see her in over a year. About 9:00 we decided to head back to Orlando, thinking we would be back by 10:30. Boy, were we wrong! For some reason, entire sections of I-4 were completely SHUT DOWN for construction. Not detoured, not down to one lane, but completely shut down. It was almost midnight before we got back to Orlando, much too late to do anything else, so we headed to bed. Sure enough, Clint's package was on the counter. I looked for a note or something, didn't find one, but they did turn down the bed and leave a keychain on the pillow. Well, that just made all my bad feelings disappear. NOT. But I was just so happy to get Clint's present and give it to him that I didn't mind. He is such a good husband and totally takes care of me that I would give him the world if I could, but today, a watch would have to do.
So as you can see, without the cast of idiots, we had a very uneventful day. However, the feeling of impending doom is setting in, because we only have one more day. The longer we stay here, the more we realize that we don't like Memphis at all... I think we might defect to Orlando...
The first thing on the agenda is "Operation Search and Rescue" for Clint's anniversary present I had shipped LAST WEDNESDAY!! Especially since our anniversary was yesterday... I get on the phone first thing and track down the number of the UPS store where I had mailed Clint's present from. The nice lady there remembers me, asks how my trip is going, and tells me that my present was indeed delivered Friday morning, gives me the exact time, place, and the name of the person that signed for it. I'm relieved that the package has been found, but I'm also super-peeved that it has been here the whole time. I don't think that the staff has been putting forth any effort to find it, and I'm questioning how they log incoming deliveries for guests. I had labeled it with our names and the Hard Rock Hotel, too, just as the concierge had advised me to when I called before we left. On our way out the door, we stop off at Star Services to let them know about the package, and also to express our disappointment with the botched flower delivery. A nice man named Ray listened to us, and immediately got on the phone attempting to locate the package. He assures me that it will be found and delivered to our room ASAP, so we head out to the parks.
We decided that we would check out Universal Studios, we were tired from the weekend, and just wanted a low-key day doing what WE wanted to do. Breakfast was a luscious apple pastry for me, and a gargantuan cinnamon roll for Clint from the Beverly Hills Boulangerie. We were packing our refillable "Hulk" cup, so this breakfast was economical and very filling. Wanting to let our meals sit and my Dramamine kick in, we headed to Terminator 3-D. The lady doing the preshow is the best part! She had the whole crowd just rolling with her bubbly "SUPER! OKAY!" spiel. The effects in this show are amazing. Clint walked around the rest of the day doing his "Ahnold" impression (saying vague things about politics like 'I believe dat every child should have a book to read" and "Oxygen and air are for everybody, and they should be clean even for the dirty people" just like Arnold himself did throughout his campaign.) After that, we doubled back to experience Shrek 4-D. The pre-show was almost too long. Even the adults were starting to fidget, and most of the children lost interest very early on. Shrek is one of those movies that amazes me with it's rating. There are so many things in that movie that are suggestive and have double meanings. While it flies right over younger childrens' heads, I wouldn't want to have to explain it to a child that was a little older. Farquaad? I used to get in trouble for saying that, and now it's a character in a beloved children's movie? Anyway... the Shrek experience was awesome...Of all the rides of this genre, this is my favorite. I won't spoil the surprise, but I have never been more grossed out in my life than with the "4th-D!" If I were a six year old boy, this would definitely get a big thumbs up! After Shrek, I felt that my apple danish would not make an encore appearance on Back To The Future so we headed that way, stopping first to ride E-T. I still love this movie and ride, but I am afraid that it is not quite as popular as it used to be. The woman in front of us was explaining the premise of the movie to her boys, and they were plenty old enough to have seen the movie by now. I wanted to give her a Blockbuster coupon and tell her to rent it for them, but Nosy Parker minded her own business...The Back to the Future ride was awesome as usual...The woman sitting next to me had never ridden it before and it was funny to see her react to it for the first time. MIB was next, and Clint was dancing to the MC Hammer songs they were playing outside and actually entertained a little crowd that was gathering behind him at the lockers, unbeknownst to him. He was that skinny white boy in high school that wanted to be MC Hammer, had the baggy pants and all, went to the clubs and danced with the girls while the guys that were too cool just watched from the sidelines...You know that guy. He almost fainted when New Edition did a reunion concert here last month. He took all his records with him to get autographs when he interviewed them...God knows he's a dork, but he's my dork.
The rest of the day went by very quickly with our FOTL access, and we were through by 3pm. We had made plans to drive to Tampa that evening and have dinner with a reporter that Clint used to work with, so we hopped in the car and made it over there in about an hour. We went to the Painted Puppy, which is an awesome record store that Clint orders vinyl from online all the time. I actually thought he was going to kiss the threshold when we got there. He just stood outside and gazed at it lovingly before he went in, and proceeded to buy about $100 worth of records. We left there and went to Ybor City to meet Jill...that is the coolest little place. But it didn't look very safe, even in daylight. As a whole, the parts of Tampa that we saw were very seedy looking. I'm sure that if we had ventured further, or went to St. Pete our opinion would have changed. We ate at the Green Iguana, a very cool little restaurant, and browsed around the little shops for a while. It was nice to catch up with Jill...we had not gotten to see her in over a year. About 9:00 we decided to head back to Orlando, thinking we would be back by 10:30. Boy, were we wrong! For some reason, entire sections of I-4 were completely SHUT DOWN for construction. Not detoured, not down to one lane, but completely shut down. It was almost midnight before we got back to Orlando, much too late to do anything else, so we headed to bed. Sure enough, Clint's package was on the counter. I looked for a note or something, didn't find one, but they did turn down the bed and leave a keychain on the pillow. Well, that just made all my bad feelings disappear. NOT. But I was just so happy to get Clint's present and give it to him that I didn't mind. He is such a good husband and totally takes care of me that I would give him the world if I could, but today, a watch would have to do.
So as you can see, without the cast of idiots, we had a very uneventful day. However, the feeling of impending doom is setting in, because we only have one more day. The longer we stay here, the more we realize that we don't like Memphis at all... I think we might defect to Orlando...
Can't wait to hear about the trip's grand finale.
I love your trip reports! You've done sooo much during a day, I'd be exhausted. Guess I'm just not a party girl 
I didn't know about the refillable mugs at Universal, I'll have to check that out when we go in May! Thanks for the tip. 
And thanks for the reports too! 
