Family of 3 Vacation

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

So here I am doing my first report ever..Trying to be at par as disneyfairys .

As you have read We are a family of 3...
Husband 35
Wife 35 --me the one reporting
Son Dylan - 2 years old

We had planned this Universal trip for september but we are planning to move to the philadelphia area this summer ... So the planning came in a budget.. People asked why not Disneyworld.. well its simple , We went to Disneyland last year.!

I went online and looked at various hotels , prices , you name it. Finally saw a deal on the disney board. Comfort Inn lake buena vista 39 bucks... I was content with it.. but i was going to have to pay for the parking at the parks... so there i was daily looking at travelzoo.. finally found a comfort inn closer.... 39 bucks and with an awesome shuttle schedule...

The hotel was nice and I would go back again.

They had shuttle service at 8 am right before they opened the parks.. and the latest returns were at 8:45pm after parks closed.. we usually got back at 7pm.

anyways, back to the topic... We left Chattanooga on Monday morning around 7:30am.. My husband wanted to wash the car before we left but the car wash wasnt open till 8am so he said lets go to the gas station and wash it there. I said fine... We drove up but the machine wouldnt accept our money.. so I said , its a sign we shouldnt get the car washed so lets get outta here LOL!

We drove I-75 eating snacks soda anything we could have. Our son was watching cartoon movies on the dvd player ... we basically had a good drive.. and Dylan our son was cool the whole trip. We get to the turnpike around 3 maybe... but somehow we got lost in the correct exit... we ended up getting to our destination but after paying about 3 -4 tolls... I was upset about the tolls.... I realized now We were lost because on our way back .. we only paid 1 (go figure i must have taken the wrong routes lol)

We get off the car at the hotel and I notice the heat .... I live in Tennessee and its humid here but for some reason Florida feels different.. ... anyways... we get our room etc.... we freshen up and head out to downtown disney...
It was a rainy day from what i could tell and some sporadic thunderstorms would appear.... Downtown Disney is much bigger than the one in California... and the Disney Store is HUGE... It was interesting nontheless.. we had a good time and especially me trying various hats!

Our next destinations.. Walmart!!.. after 2 blasts of thunderstorms (which lasted about 2 min each.. we could barely see the road)

This walmart is next to i-4 ... I must say this though.............ITS THE BEST LOOKING WALMART I HAVE EVER SEEN! We bought few frozen foods and soda... Then back to the hotel... we went to bed at around 11pm... and set my alarm for 6:30am....

 

[LeslieR]

Great start...I'm looking forward to more!

 

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

So we get up at 6:30am on Tuesday june 3. You know do the daily morning routine. I put on the special waterproof mascara and eyeliner and off we went to get the Shuttle at 8am... by 8:30am we were at the kiosk....it was as easy as u guys said.... I swiped my credit card , entered my phone number and the tickets printed out...

The scanned our finger and had us sign our tickets... I put it in my special little purse and we went in... what an exciting feeling that was... i was really excited!!

many went straight , and we turned right to the entrance of the tribute to lucy.. security was there holding us off till 9am... then they said ok u can go... some ppl ran...I said no hurry. Where were we going? THE SIMPSONS!

By the time we got there was 10 min wait... no biggy. We were put on the first level because of the child swap....
The ride was real fun and from my angle i never saw the other riders. I loved it!

off we went to E.T... The wait was non existant in the 9am hour....smelled really nice lol...and was cool

after riding it twice we went to ride Woody woodpecker... Dylan seemed to freak in the begining but then asked for more at the end

we noticed in the map that the characters to madagascar were about to arrive and stood in line for it...(they had the "I like to move it move it song on)

We decided to get the refill mug and fill up it each time for .69 cents (that was awesome... we must of refilled it at least 10 times lol)..then it was potty break and decided to snap the little reptiles that are located thruout the park.... saw some squirels too and those are some friendly little ones... on the second day a squirrel was on top of scanner at the gates....

We walked onto Men in Black.....no wait but 5 min.... but i must say i am not fond of the interactive rides like buzz lightyear or this one but it was fun nontheless.. we only rode it once the entire stay. The child swap in MIB is above the loading and unloading area...nice place


Then the horror show.... It was really funny in the beginning and then a baby started to cry and that began to be their joke.. hillarious.... a few minutes later my husband was sleeping and i was getting there myself...the show wasnt bad but i think the rest and the ac of the room affected our heads lol

We decided to each lunch at Mels diner... and the hungry we were decided to get the double cheeseburger platter... this was going on during our lunch

We went to Jaws and never took pictures of it WOW... I forgot! it was fun and my husband got wet. agian the wait there was practically nothing...all that tuesday the waiting times were less than 15 min with no express pass.

We rode the Mummy and that thing was really fun to be in... scary but fun...we rode it twice back to back.... The child swap in this is right at the exit of the ride... u can see them off load from a window. Before riding I noticed a 11 year old girl crying, she was sobbing man....the family was upset having to not ride because of her... i suggested and pointed to the swap room... they were nice but said no thank you ...that she will be fine once the ride starts... they made it seem as if its normal for her to sob right before each ride... i couldnt believe they were making her ride. Never knew what happened later.

On the second time it broke down.... I waited there for 5 min and then it turned on but i did the reverse section with the lights on..not scary that way..My husband said he liked the simpsons better...

We went on DISASTER (formerly EARTHQUAKE) That was really funny.. we laughed alot.


We saw Dora and Jimmy Neutron... they were nice lol....Tried Shrek4d ..funny with all that bouncing around .....

by 4pm we had seen everything (no shows) and that was super nice... I felt the park was to ourselves. So we re-rode things we liked again.... Like the simpsons again now with 20 min wait....

and we did E.T again

left the park and got on the shuttle by 7pm... back to hotel and ate the frozen foods we got at walmart..

basically we really had a good time... hard to explain in a post with words and pictures...

tomorrow IOA....

 

[Hedy]

Looks like fun.

 

[Mrs. D]

Cool TR, looking forward to more of it

 

[macraven]

the little reptile you have in your pics, isn't he in the Geiko commercials...



love your report, looking forward to reading more from you.
your pics are great!

 

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

Sorry I havent posted in a while... been busy here with my move to pennsylvania in about 2 weeks........

On day 2 We finally went to IOA........... We took our shuttle and off we went at 8 05 am and by 8 30 am we were at the gates......

They opened the parks at 8 45am.... and like many mentioned before... everyone goes to the left.... We went right!!

First thing we see is how beautifullly themed this place really is........DR SEUSS.........

Our plan was to head right to Dueling dragons......but I said what the heck lets just do the Seuss landing while we are here.....nobody was there... We walked right onto CAT IN THE HAT........that is one cute and fun ride.........those spins it does during the ride i found real fun... we rode it like 4 times in a row.... My 2 year really liked it.

Then we went on ONE FISH TWOFISH.....again the only ones on the whole thing.........all 3 rode together and it was quite wet.. My 2 year old had no comment about it..

We skipped the trolley ride and decide to do it at the end of the day.. we see Mythos restaurant from a distance and the Poseidon fury show architecture... and i cant help but say its reallllllllllly awesome exterior..

So we arrive at the dueling dragons

and ask the attend where we go for child swap.... she says... nobody is here just go to the exit .... we did and she was right....My husband went first on ICE than me.......
...

We had the place to ourselves and really enjoyed it........The bad thing of this attractionis that the baby swap is so small and when we went back in later that day 2 ppl with strollers is all it took to fill it ulp...
Each coaster has its own baby swap area later i found out. still both tiny...

We decided to try the POSEIDON SHOW........that is one of the best things i have ever seen......its really awesome.........ppl come out of there really liking it.. We were trying to film with my little camera and the attendant said no flash photography ... he happened to confuse me with the ppl in the front row that were taking pictures.......I told him its not me but i dont think he believed me


Later we walk to Jurrasic Park, walk on ride and the baby swap here is outside next to loading and exit of ride...Husband went first , then me...........sat purposely on 3rd row ......I noticed there was no ford explorer falling froma a building like the Hollywood version ..Still it was pretty much the same.........I decide to keep my eyes open the entire fall and not put my head down for once...............well all the water landed on my fat face LOL...........I Have to say my wet n wild cheap eyeliner and mascara never run off... cheers for wet n wild H2O proof.

we walked back to where the SINBAD SHOW was going to be.........we got in and saw only about 15 min off the show........it appeared one of the actors got injured in one scene.......all i remember sinbad went to kneel at him and off they went and the intercom said sorry for the inconvenience... later a lady on dudley do ride said......the whole show in the day was canceled...

we walked past DR SEUSS and decided to do the trolley......the wait was 20min.......We did this about 2 times that day.....my son loved the choo choo.
lol... We saw a couple of characters and took pictures with them

Here GRINCH was playing with my shades......LOL

We went to HULK........They sent my husband tot he line and me to baby swap to exit......

The ride was really fun...........got off with a headache but only happened in the first time.

We tried accelarator about 3 times too....mainly for my son......

We went off to SPIDERMAN ........that is one great ride too......This child swap room is nice size.......but no view of the spouse unloading from there unless i walk outside which i did.............this swap room had a kids playing table...Then we went to eat burgers at the place acrross from it.I cant remember the name....

pretty much our day slowed down at this point.......we went to walk over the water rides.......My husband didnt wannt to ride it......so he waited below and i Did the single rider line on dudley do right........ the wait here was approx 60 min but on single rider less than 10 min.........i rode with all single riders.....I really didnt that wait until the coin pppl drenched us on the right side of our bodies lol..........

from there we just did repeats again.........our day was pretty much over by 6pm .........did trolley again and the kids one for Our son... We usually were at the hotel by 8pm ... that was my day.

 

[macraven]

did you get to do the pterodon flyers?

enjoyed your report.


hope you have a safe trip moving to PA.

 

[Indiana Jacob]

Like your pics. I've been to the studios but not
IOA. Suessland looks fun.