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 6 - Tuesday 19th June 2007
Today was a much-awaited day (well....since I had told junior about it 2 days previously lol) as we were going to watch a wrestling match in the evening, the first time junior had ever been to a live event. He is absolute bonkers about wrestling, and has all the figures, videos, belts etc and knows everything there is to know about what is happening in the world of wrestling. This was a little different though, as it was TNA wrestling, which is little known (it basically uses lesser known wrestlers, or those dropped from WWE, Smackdown!, etc). Not that anything was going to dampen his enthusiasm!
With that in mind, the plan of action for today was for me and junior to go up to Universal during the day for a few hours, return to the hotel for lunch, then meet Kevin and Kathleen (think I mentioned them in day 3...) to head back up to Universal for the wrestling, which was taking place on one of the sound stages. Kevin wasn't (note the past tense
) a fan of wrestling, but Kathleen knew probably as much as junior about it and is an avid fan. She was delighted when I had told her about it a couple of days previous, and the 4 of us decided we would all go together.
So, around 10am me and junior made the drive up Turkey Lake Road to Universal. We stopped off on the way in the new Walmart that's opened on Turkey Lake Road, as Kevin and Kathleen had told us that they had a British section and stocked, of all things, Irn Bru!!!!! After a breakfast of assorted pastries from the deli in the supermarket and a coffee from the in-store McDonalds, we got back in the car and got parked up at Universal around 11am. We had been hoping to get some photos with characters as we had seen Scooby, Shaggy and Shrek outside a few days earlier, but there was no characters around. We headed into the park and decided that, regardless of the wait, we were going to do the Shrek ride today. We got to the wait area which was showing 30 mins, but it was basically just a slow walk all the way through the queue and straight into the pre-show. I think it took about 10 mins at most. The queueing area in Shrek and the pre-show were 2 of my favourites of all the rides we went on in the 2 weeks, probably because it is my favourite ever animated movie. The ride itself was not quite what I had imagined, with the theatre set-up (I think I was expecting something more like Spiderman, with individual and moving ride cars) but overall it was still really good. Junior absolutely loved it though, and spent ages in the shop afterwards! I wasn't too fussed though, as we didn't feel like rushing around.
After Shrek, we decided just to take a slow amble around the lagoon, in the general direction of MiB, as this was another ride which was on our 'must do' list for today. On the way we just missed the Blues Brothers show, which we were a little disappointed with, but we did see Jake and Elmo passing in their car, and had a few laughs with them as they passed;
We then stopped at the barber shop for a couple of photos;
Before junior decided to take some random photos as we walked along;
Although it was slightly overcast, and there had been the slightest hint of a chill in the air that morning hence my attire, it was now very muggy and the heat was taking its toll, so we stopped for a frozen lemonade each and a cig for me before continuing our journey over to MiB;
We were hopeful as we approached the queue and the wait time had been posted as 30 mins, that it would be a 'Shrek 30 mins'. Alas, it was not to be, and this definitely ended up the wrong side of 30 mins. Closer to an hour to be honest. I have to admit, standing in queues is something I absolutely detest doing. I had never realised how much I hated it until this moment. Usually when I see a queue in a shop or something, I walk on and get what I need later, or from elsewhere. That isn't an option when you really want to go on a ride though, so we had to just bite the bullet. To make matters worse, I didn't realise you weren't allowed any bags and had got through the whole queue, pre-show, etc, etc only to be told about it at the end. This despite me having passed and spoken with several team members, who made no mention whatsoever about my bag. I was really miffed by this point and ended up having a bit of a....ahem...discussion with the TM who pulled me up about it. In the end up, he let me just walk through the exit of the ride and told me to come back up the same way once I had stored my bag in the locker.
Although I was feeling slightly annoyed, all of my angst had disappeared by the time we exited the ride. It was really great fun, very enjoyable! We laughed so hard from the start to the finish that we had belly and face ache by the time we got off haha! Although junior was a little peeved that I had neglected to tell him about the big red button!!
His dismay was tempered slightly though when he realised we had trounced the other team haha (who obviously didn't know about the big red button lol).
Although we had only done 2 rides, we had been walking at such a sedate pace that it was now after 3pm. We knew we had to get back up to Universal for 5 for the wrestling starting at 6, so we made our way out of the park and through the walkways to the car park. I had been doing okay with the driving so far and finding my way around, without even so much as a glance at a road map but today was my first foul up. When we had been to Universal the previous Friday, we had used the valet parking and had got simple, effective directions from the valet on the best way back to Turkey Lake Road. Not so this time though, when I became really confused going along Hollywood Way (I think) and was convinced I should be going in the opposite direction. I decided to do a U-Turn, drove back the way for another mile, then found I had been going in the right direction in the first place as we were now hitting I-Drive! Oh well, lesson learned. Rather than do another U-Turn, we just headed down I-Drive to Sand Lake Road and took that back along towards Palm Parkway. It actually turned into an okay detour, as we hadn't seen this part of I-Drive yet, although I have to say that had I seen any 'kiss-me-quick' hats, I would have been convinced I had warped over to the promenade at Blackpool!
We met Kevin and Kathleen at the hotel and headed over to CiCis Pizza near the hotel for lunch. This was one of our favourite places for lunch during the holiday. You can't go wrong with all you can eat pizza, pasta and salad for $4, and unlimited drinks for just over a buck!! Full to the gunnels, we all jumped in the Mustang and headed up to Universal, getting there around 5:15. As it turned out, we ended up waiting til around 7pm before we were let in. The wait wouldn't have been too bad except that we were stood in the queue beside this really obnoxious guy from North Carolina who made sure everyone within earshot knew that he had his own business, house, blah, blah. It turned into a helluva long hour and a half lol.
Eventually, we began to file into the arena and found a decent seat about 10 rows from the front and settled down to watch the show;
Although they had a few minor glitches, we had an absolutely brilliant time!! Kevin, adamant that this was just not his thing and that he was there under duress, was standing on his seat berating the 'villain' wrestlers within about 30 mins of the fights starting!!!
I have to admit, I did quite enjoy it myself! 
Junior and Kathleen, of course, absolutely loved it!! By the end of the night, Kevin was consulting TV guides to see when the next show was on the telly lol! He blames me for it as well - and im more than happy to accept haha. 
We got back to the hotel around 11, and met up with dad, John, and a couple of people who were at a works conference in Disney called Joe and Amy, from Louisiana. We got to know them well over the course of the next few days and have kept in touch with them since. After some beers and an impromptu singsong (Joe and Amy wanted to hear us sing Flower of Scotland - you don't need to ask some half-cut Scotsmen twice of course!
) we hit the sack around 12:30.
Tomorrow: An unplanned visit to Magic Kingdom
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 6 - Tuesday 19th June 2007
Today was a much-awaited day (well....since I had told junior about it 2 days previously lol) as we were going to watch a wrestling match in the evening, the first time junior had ever been to a live event. He is absolute bonkers about wrestling, and has all the figures, videos, belts etc and knows everything there is to know about what is happening in the world of wrestling. This was a little different though, as it was TNA wrestling, which is little known (it basically uses lesser known wrestlers, or those dropped from WWE, Smackdown!, etc). Not that anything was going to dampen his enthusiasm!
With that in mind, the plan of action for today was for me and junior to go up to Universal during the day for a few hours, return to the hotel for lunch, then meet Kevin and Kathleen (think I mentioned them in day 3...) to head back up to Universal for the wrestling, which was taking place on one of the sound stages. Kevin wasn't (note the past tense
) a fan of wrestling, but Kathleen knew probably as much as junior about it and is an avid fan. She was delighted when I had told her about it a couple of days previous, and the 4 of us decided we would all go together.So, around 10am me and junior made the drive up Turkey Lake Road to Universal. We stopped off on the way in the new Walmart that's opened on Turkey Lake Road, as Kevin and Kathleen had told us that they had a British section and stocked, of all things, Irn Bru!!!!! After a breakfast of assorted pastries from the deli in the supermarket and a coffee from the in-store McDonalds, we got back in the car and got parked up at Universal around 11am. We had been hoping to get some photos with characters as we had seen Scooby, Shaggy and Shrek outside a few days earlier, but there was no characters around. We headed into the park and decided that, regardless of the wait, we were going to do the Shrek ride today. We got to the wait area which was showing 30 mins, but it was basically just a slow walk all the way through the queue and straight into the pre-show. I think it took about 10 mins at most. The queueing area in Shrek and the pre-show were 2 of my favourites of all the rides we went on in the 2 weeks, probably because it is my favourite ever animated movie. The ride itself was not quite what I had imagined, with the theatre set-up (I think I was expecting something more like Spiderman, with individual and moving ride cars) but overall it was still really good. Junior absolutely loved it though, and spent ages in the shop afterwards! I wasn't too fussed though, as we didn't feel like rushing around.
After Shrek, we decided just to take a slow amble around the lagoon, in the general direction of MiB, as this was another ride which was on our 'must do' list for today. On the way we just missed the Blues Brothers show, which we were a little disappointed with, but we did see Jake and Elmo passing in their car, and had a few laughs with them as they passed;
We then stopped at the barber shop for a couple of photos;
Before junior decided to take some random photos as we walked along;
Although it was slightly overcast, and there had been the slightest hint of a chill in the air that morning hence my attire, it was now very muggy and the heat was taking its toll, so we stopped for a frozen lemonade each and a cig for me before continuing our journey over to MiB;
We were hopeful as we approached the queue and the wait time had been posted as 30 mins, that it would be a 'Shrek 30 mins'. Alas, it was not to be, and this definitely ended up the wrong side of 30 mins. Closer to an hour to be honest. I have to admit, standing in queues is something I absolutely detest doing. I had never realised how much I hated it until this moment. Usually when I see a queue in a shop or something, I walk on and get what I need later, or from elsewhere. That isn't an option when you really want to go on a ride though, so we had to just bite the bullet. To make matters worse, I didn't realise you weren't allowed any bags and had got through the whole queue, pre-show, etc, etc only to be told about it at the end. This despite me having passed and spoken with several team members, who made no mention whatsoever about my bag. I was really miffed by this point and ended up having a bit of a....ahem...discussion with the TM who pulled me up about it. In the end up, he let me just walk through the exit of the ride and told me to come back up the same way once I had stored my bag in the locker.
Although I was feeling slightly annoyed, all of my angst had disappeared by the time we exited the ride. It was really great fun, very enjoyable! We laughed so hard from the start to the finish that we had belly and face ache by the time we got off haha! Although junior was a little peeved that I had neglected to tell him about the big red button!!
His dismay was tempered slightly though when he realised we had trounced the other team haha (who obviously didn't know about the big red button lol).Although we had only done 2 rides, we had been walking at such a sedate pace that it was now after 3pm. We knew we had to get back up to Universal for 5 for the wrestling starting at 6, so we made our way out of the park and through the walkways to the car park. I had been doing okay with the driving so far and finding my way around, without even so much as a glance at a road map but today was my first foul up. When we had been to Universal the previous Friday, we had used the valet parking and had got simple, effective directions from the valet on the best way back to Turkey Lake Road. Not so this time though, when I became really confused going along Hollywood Way (I think) and was convinced I should be going in the opposite direction. I decided to do a U-Turn, drove back the way for another mile, then found I had been going in the right direction in the first place as we were now hitting I-Drive! Oh well, lesson learned. Rather than do another U-Turn, we just headed down I-Drive to Sand Lake Road and took that back along towards Palm Parkway. It actually turned into an okay detour, as we hadn't seen this part of I-Drive yet, although I have to say that had I seen any 'kiss-me-quick' hats, I would have been convinced I had warped over to the promenade at Blackpool!
We met Kevin and Kathleen at the hotel and headed over to CiCis Pizza near the hotel for lunch. This was one of our favourite places for lunch during the holiday. You can't go wrong with all you can eat pizza, pasta and salad for $4, and unlimited drinks for just over a buck!! Full to the gunnels, we all jumped in the Mustang and headed up to Universal, getting there around 5:15. As it turned out, we ended up waiting til around 7pm before we were let in. The wait wouldn't have been too bad except that we were stood in the queue beside this really obnoxious guy from North Carolina who made sure everyone within earshot knew that he had his own business, house, blah, blah. It turned into a helluva long hour and a half lol.
Eventually, we began to file into the arena and found a decent seat about 10 rows from the front and settled down to watch the show;
Although they had a few minor glitches, we had an absolutely brilliant time!! Kevin, adamant that this was just not his thing and that he was there under duress, was standing on his seat berating the 'villain' wrestlers within about 30 mins of the fights starting!!!
I have to admit, I did quite enjoy it myself! Junior and Kathleen, of course, absolutely loved it!! By the end of the night, Kevin was consulting TV guides to see when the next show was on the telly lol! He blames me for it as well - and im more than happy to accept haha. We got back to the hotel around 11, and met up with dad, John, and a couple of people who were at a works conference in Disney called Joe and Amy, from Louisiana. We got to know them well over the course of the next few days and have kept in touch with them since. After some beers and an impromptu singsong (Joe and Amy wanted to hear us sing Flower of Scotland - you don't need to ask some half-cut Scotsmen twice of course!
) we hit the sack around 12:30.Tomorrow: An unplanned visit to Magic Kingdom
