MorningGlory
Space for rent
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2007
- Messages
- 761
Cast
Me. Paul. 34. Chief planner and taxi driver. Scared and excited at the thought of the big coasters.
DS9. Paul (now called junior for the sake of this report). Absolutely bursting at the thought of Disney. As scared as his dad of the coasters but isn't showing it (yet).
Dad. 60 something. Doesn't know how he is going to handle 9 hours without a cigarette!
Brother. John. 45. Possibly the most excited of us all. Definitely looking forward to meeting Mickey.
Day 2 - Friday 15th June 2007
Okay, what is it with this jet lag mullarkey?! 4 bloody am!! I didn't go to sleep til 12:30! Could I get back to sleep though? Could I hell! I lay in the dark for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually decided that if I could make enough noise, I could rouse Junior from his slumber. Sure enough, some TV and the shower on with the bathroom door open done the trick, and we were up, showered and ready to go around 5:30am!! Okay, what on earth are we supposed to do at this time in the morning?! Anxious to go out, get in the car and explore we decided to journey down to DD and have a look around the place while it was still quiet. Here is some photos of our first ever time on any Disney property;
As you can see, it was a beautiful morning! The weather was in the low 70s already and it promised to be a scorcher of a day. We had a look around both the West Side and the Marketplace, then around 7am decided to head back to the hotel for a light breakfast, as we were meeting Spidey and having breakfast with him at 10. The free continental breakfast in the Comfort Inn LBV was adequate enough, I had a bowl of fruit, some fruit juice and a coffee, Paul had the cereal. We left the hotel around 8am and got to IOA around 8:20;
We had done the valet parking, which was good if you are feeling flush. Doing the normal parking is just as easy at Universal to be honest. The wait to get in was murder though, the sun was really beating down and we were already starting to feel a little tired. Eventually (it seemed) at 9am, the gates opened and we rushed in, forgetting any fatigue. We made our way up Port of Entry and headed for Spidey;
Now, bearing in mind that the last time I had done any kind of 'thrill' ride was many years ago and I had never done a 3D ride, only simulators. I thought this was going to be something good, but boy was I wrong! Calling Spiderman 'good' just does not do it justice. Okay I know I had nothing to set it against, but you can just tell from the whole experience that it really can't get much better than that. It was like a sensory overload - we both walked off and said 'Wow!'
The plan was that after Spidey we would do Hulk, but I think Paul was still feeling a little woosy after the incredible Spidey experience, so we decided to just walk around and look at some of the theming, heading in the general direction of Jurassic Park. Toon Lagoon is like an explosion of colour! We liked the funny speech bubbles that hang around the place;
After walking through Toon Lagoon, we came to the gates of the Jurassic Park. Im not quite sure why, but I never took any photos here. I think we were just amazed at the theming of everything, and the change in the music is very evident as you enter the area. It really sets the scene and you do feel as if you could be walking in to the movie! We decided we would have enough time to do the river adventure, so off we went in search of the ride. Found it quickly enough and there was no queue at all, we were at the front on the next boat to leave. This was a good ride, but a little disappointing to be honest. The animatronics seem to be showing signs of age, and wear and tear. The end of the ride was a shock though! I knew we would be doing a drop, I just didn't realise how big a drop it actually was! We got the ride photo for it, it was hilarious! There was 2 ladies sat behind us, and one of them was gutted as her favourite hat flew off in the drop! When we went to buy the ride photo, you can just see the hat lifting off her head! It's a really funny pic, I wish I had a scanner so I could show it. I must admit though, $18 plus tax for a ride photo seemed very pricey to me.
The ending at the river adventure really freaked junior (he told me he was sure he was going to fall out) so we decided to give the Hulk a miss today to give him time to pluck up some courage. Already, I had the feeling we would not be doing any coasters on this holiday. I wouldn't force him to try it though, so I just gently coaxed him throughout the holiday
So, after waiting 30 mins for Triceratop Spin (on a wait time posted of 20 mins) we decided we hadn't enough time to do the ride and headed off back through Toon Lagoon and Marvel Island to Confisco Grille for our breakfast with Spidey!
We met Spidey (again) of course;
By the way, the guy in the Spidey outfit is excellent! He talks to the kids alot, joking with them. This guy is good at his job! We were amazed at how he could balance himself, and came to the conclusion his feet were made of velcro lol.
Then, Cat in the Hat stopped by to say hello;
And shortly afterwards, Thing 1 and Thing 2;
These guys were funny as well, they kept playing with junior's hair, and clanging cutlery then blaming him for it. He thought they were hilarious (and if im being honest, I did myself!). The food itself was rubbish though to be honest. I seen what I thought was fried bread, and took a bite to realise it was some kind of disgusting cinammon flavoured toast! Ugh! Nothing else at the breakfast really whetted my appetite - I think I ate a couple of sausages and some scrambled egg. Also, we had to pay extra ($2.50) for our soft-drinks! And, they made sure they added their 15% gratuity! By now, I was feeling a little miffed with IOA to be honest. The wait times were now 60 mins for Spidey and we decided we didn't want to wait that long. I think tiredness was creeping up on us at this point, so we decided we would go for a stroll to Universal and have a look round before heading back to the hotel.
On the way over, we took the obligatory pictures of all the different sights;
We also met Scooby and Shaggy outside the entrance to the Studios. The pic didn't work out too good (was that a ruse by the photographer so I would buy the photo he took?!) so it's pointless showing it. We made our way into the Studios and just walked around, looking at some of the theming in the different streets. Then, we bumped into these guys;
They were superb and really got us all going. We only caught the last 5 minutes or so of their set, but really enjoyed what we had seen and made a point to try to see them again some time. After this, we walked around the lagoon before deciding we had seen enough. It wasn't too bad, around 2pm and the heat and tiredness were starting to wear us down a little, so we picked up the car from the valet parking, threw open the roof, and headed back to the hotel via Turkey Lake Road.
Back at the hotel, we both napped for an hour or two as Dad and John were nowhere to be seen. We awoke feeling more refreshed and junior decided he wanted a swim in the hotel pool, so we headed down there for an hour. Dad and John returned from their sojourn (they had been in Hooters!!
) and we decided to get ready and head up International Drive for a look around, and somewhere to eat. This turned out to be a bad mistake in several ways. First off, we were driving so long up I-Drive that I thought we must have missed something somewhere along the line. All we had seen was a convention centre. Added to this, the traffic was horrendous! It took us about half an hour to get along a 1 mile stretch. We had almost given up hope when we discovered what must be the southern end of the lively part of I-Drive. The natives were getting restless by this point, so we stopped at one of the first group of restaurants we seen, which included a Bahama Breeze and a TGI Fridays. After much deliberation, we opted for TGI Fridays on account of the fact that they have one in Glasgow which is quite good, and they had a patio so we could sit there and have a cigarette.
Bad, bad decision. I won't go into too much detail except to say this;
I had a burger which coated your mouth with grease on the first bite. It was foul.
Dad and John were served fish and chips which was lukewarm at best. I kid you not. It was cooked okay, but had evidently been left to lie for a couple of hours before being served. John ate most of his through sheer hunger, Dad and me barely touched ours. Junior had a hot dog, which he ate and said it was nice. He had a taste of my burger and we both agreed it was the worst ever - junior had to spit it out. Not one to keep quiet, when the waiter seen our obviously full plates and asked if there was a problem, my dad politely pointed out that the meal was cold, etc. The guy said he would do something about the bill, which he insisted on despite our protestations. We weren't interested in getting money off or anything, we just wanted to let him know the food was crap. So, as it turned out, they only charged us $20 for what we did eat, and the round of drinks we had. We left the guy $30 as we felt a little guilty, and he was really apologetic about it all. We vowed, though, that we would never be back here.
We then returned to the hotel for a good night's sleep, as junior was ready for conking out on the dinner table in TGIs! I watched a little TV and ordered a pizza to the room as I was still feeling hungry, and went to bed around 12.
Despite some mishaps, we had had a wonderful first day. Just being here, being able to wander around the parks at our leisure, is an amazing feeling. The weather today was unbelievably hot (around 90f - but it felt warmer with the blazing sun on you constantly) so we were hopeful it would continue for as long as possible. I was really getting into this whole driving with the roof down thing
Tomorrow - MGM Star Wars Weekend with lots of pictures!
Me. Paul. 34. Chief planner and taxi driver. Scared and excited at the thought of the big coasters.
DS9. Paul (now called junior for the sake of this report). Absolutely bursting at the thought of Disney. As scared as his dad of the coasters but isn't showing it (yet).
Dad. 60 something. Doesn't know how he is going to handle 9 hours without a cigarette!
Brother. John. 45. Possibly the most excited of us all. Definitely looking forward to meeting Mickey.
Day 2 - Friday 15th June 2007
Okay, what is it with this jet lag mullarkey?! 4 bloody am!! I didn't go to sleep til 12:30! Could I get back to sleep though? Could I hell! I lay in the dark for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually decided that if I could make enough noise, I could rouse Junior from his slumber. Sure enough, some TV and the shower on with the bathroom door open done the trick, and we were up, showered and ready to go around 5:30am!! Okay, what on earth are we supposed to do at this time in the morning?! Anxious to go out, get in the car and explore we decided to journey down to DD and have a look around the place while it was still quiet. Here is some photos of our first ever time on any Disney property;
As you can see, it was a beautiful morning! The weather was in the low 70s already and it promised to be a scorcher of a day. We had a look around both the West Side and the Marketplace, then around 7am decided to head back to the hotel for a light breakfast, as we were meeting Spidey and having breakfast with him at 10. The free continental breakfast in the Comfort Inn LBV was adequate enough, I had a bowl of fruit, some fruit juice and a coffee, Paul had the cereal. We left the hotel around 8am and got to IOA around 8:20;
We had done the valet parking, which was good if you are feeling flush. Doing the normal parking is just as easy at Universal to be honest. The wait to get in was murder though, the sun was really beating down and we were already starting to feel a little tired. Eventually (it seemed) at 9am, the gates opened and we rushed in, forgetting any fatigue. We made our way up Port of Entry and headed for Spidey;
Now, bearing in mind that the last time I had done any kind of 'thrill' ride was many years ago and I had never done a 3D ride, only simulators. I thought this was going to be something good, but boy was I wrong! Calling Spiderman 'good' just does not do it justice. Okay I know I had nothing to set it against, but you can just tell from the whole experience that it really can't get much better than that. It was like a sensory overload - we both walked off and said 'Wow!'
The plan was that after Spidey we would do Hulk, but I think Paul was still feeling a little woosy after the incredible Spidey experience, so we decided to just walk around and look at some of the theming, heading in the general direction of Jurassic Park. Toon Lagoon is like an explosion of colour! We liked the funny speech bubbles that hang around the place;
After walking through Toon Lagoon, we came to the gates of the Jurassic Park. Im not quite sure why, but I never took any photos here. I think we were just amazed at the theming of everything, and the change in the music is very evident as you enter the area. It really sets the scene and you do feel as if you could be walking in to the movie! We decided we would have enough time to do the river adventure, so off we went in search of the ride. Found it quickly enough and there was no queue at all, we were at the front on the next boat to leave. This was a good ride, but a little disappointing to be honest. The animatronics seem to be showing signs of age, and wear and tear. The end of the ride was a shock though! I knew we would be doing a drop, I just didn't realise how big a drop it actually was! We got the ride photo for it, it was hilarious! There was 2 ladies sat behind us, and one of them was gutted as her favourite hat flew off in the drop! When we went to buy the ride photo, you can just see the hat lifting off her head! It's a really funny pic, I wish I had a scanner so I could show it. I must admit though, $18 plus tax for a ride photo seemed very pricey to me.
The ending at the river adventure really freaked junior (he told me he was sure he was going to fall out) so we decided to give the Hulk a miss today to give him time to pluck up some courage. Already, I had the feeling we would not be doing any coasters on this holiday. I wouldn't force him to try it though, so I just gently coaxed him throughout the holiday
So, after waiting 30 mins for Triceratop Spin (on a wait time posted of 20 mins) we decided we hadn't enough time to do the ride and headed off back through Toon Lagoon and Marvel Island to Confisco Grille for our breakfast with Spidey!We met Spidey (again) of course;
By the way, the guy in the Spidey outfit is excellent! He talks to the kids alot, joking with them. This guy is good at his job! We were amazed at how he could balance himself, and came to the conclusion his feet were made of velcro lol.
Then, Cat in the Hat stopped by to say hello;
And shortly afterwards, Thing 1 and Thing 2;
These guys were funny as well, they kept playing with junior's hair, and clanging cutlery then blaming him for it. He thought they were hilarious (and if im being honest, I did myself!). The food itself was rubbish though to be honest. I seen what I thought was fried bread, and took a bite to realise it was some kind of disgusting cinammon flavoured toast! Ugh! Nothing else at the breakfast really whetted my appetite - I think I ate a couple of sausages and some scrambled egg. Also, we had to pay extra ($2.50) for our soft-drinks! And, they made sure they added their 15% gratuity! By now, I was feeling a little miffed with IOA to be honest. The wait times were now 60 mins for Spidey and we decided we didn't want to wait that long. I think tiredness was creeping up on us at this point, so we decided we would go for a stroll to Universal and have a look round before heading back to the hotel.
On the way over, we took the obligatory pictures of all the different sights;
We also met Scooby and Shaggy outside the entrance to the Studios. The pic didn't work out too good (was that a ruse by the photographer so I would buy the photo he took?!) so it's pointless showing it. We made our way into the Studios and just walked around, looking at some of the theming in the different streets. Then, we bumped into these guys;
They were superb and really got us all going. We only caught the last 5 minutes or so of their set, but really enjoyed what we had seen and made a point to try to see them again some time. After this, we walked around the lagoon before deciding we had seen enough. It wasn't too bad, around 2pm and the heat and tiredness were starting to wear us down a little, so we picked up the car from the valet parking, threw open the roof, and headed back to the hotel via Turkey Lake Road.
Back at the hotel, we both napped for an hour or two as Dad and John were nowhere to be seen. We awoke feeling more refreshed and junior decided he wanted a swim in the hotel pool, so we headed down there for an hour. Dad and John returned from their sojourn (they had been in Hooters!!
) and we decided to get ready and head up International Drive for a look around, and somewhere to eat. This turned out to be a bad mistake in several ways. First off, we were driving so long up I-Drive that I thought we must have missed something somewhere along the line. All we had seen was a convention centre. Added to this, the traffic was horrendous! It took us about half an hour to get along a 1 mile stretch. We had almost given up hope when we discovered what must be the southern end of the lively part of I-Drive. The natives were getting restless by this point, so we stopped at one of the first group of restaurants we seen, which included a Bahama Breeze and a TGI Fridays. After much deliberation, we opted for TGI Fridays on account of the fact that they have one in Glasgow which is quite good, and they had a patio so we could sit there and have a cigarette.Bad, bad decision. I won't go into too much detail except to say this;
I had a burger which coated your mouth with grease on the first bite. It was foul.
Dad and John were served fish and chips which was lukewarm at best. I kid you not. It was cooked okay, but had evidently been left to lie for a couple of hours before being served. John ate most of his through sheer hunger, Dad and me barely touched ours. Junior had a hot dog, which he ate and said it was nice. He had a taste of my burger and we both agreed it was the worst ever - junior had to spit it out. Not one to keep quiet, when the waiter seen our obviously full plates and asked if there was a problem, my dad politely pointed out that the meal was cold, etc. The guy said he would do something about the bill, which he insisted on despite our protestations. We weren't interested in getting money off or anything, we just wanted to let him know the food was crap. So, as it turned out, they only charged us $20 for what we did eat, and the round of drinks we had. We left the guy $30 as we felt a little guilty, and he was really apologetic about it all. We vowed, though, that we would never be back here.
We then returned to the hotel for a good night's sleep, as junior was ready for conking out on the dinner table in TGIs! I watched a little TV and ordered a pizza to the room as I was still feeling hungry, and went to bed around 12.
Despite some mishaps, we had had a wonderful first day. Just being here, being able to wander around the parks at our leisure, is an amazing feeling. The weather today was unbelievably hot (around 90f - but it felt warmer with the blazing sun on you constantly) so we were hopeful it would continue for as long as possible. I was really getting into this whole driving with the roof down thing
Tomorrow - MGM Star Wars Weekend with lots of pictures!
