Sunday, June 26 Spiderman breakfast, Islands of Adventure, Margaritaville
Me, the Disney-fanatic
DH, Craig, who puts up with my Disney obsession
DD, Jessica, age 10, part fish, goes with the flow for just about anything
DS, Ryan, age 6, also part fish, would prefer to always have his way
BIL and SIL, Craig's brother and his wife, joining us for the weekend
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Today we would go to Islands of Adventure. We were prepared to get wet. This was good, because walked out of the hotel into the most heat and humidity we had felt all week.
We had a priority seating for the character breakfast at Confiscos. Either this is unpopular or just not advertised, because the place wasnt even half full the whole time we were there. The food wasnt all that great not nearly the variety of a Disney buffet, but the characters were great. Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, and Thing 2 were running around causing trouble stealing hats and peoples food. Spiderman talks, and since the restaurant is empty, he really spends time talking to the kids. And he jumps on the backs of the booths. He was really good. It was worth it to see the smile on Ryans face talking to Spiderman.
Spiderman told him he had to eat all his breakfast. It was the only clean plate we would get from Ryan all week. I need Spidey to come around when we are having green beans at home. I would highly recommend this to anyone with a young Spiderman fan.
We thought wed do the relatively dry stuff first, so we headed for Seussland. The theming here is well-done. We rode the Cat in the Hat, which was like a rough version of Winnie the Pooh and with more spinning. We rode the Carouseussal and One Fish Two Fish. I thought we were supposed to follow the instructions in the song in order to NOT get wet, but we seemed to get sprayed every time anyway.
Over the Superhero Island next to see Spiderman again. Now this is a cool ride. There really is no comparison at Disney -- a moving ride combined with 3D movies. Definitely our favorite here so far. Ryan was too short for Hulk and Dr Doom, and Jessica was not interested, so we passed them over after trying out the seats for Hulk.
We rode the Storm Force Accelerators supposedly a faster version of the teacups, but I think we had our teacup spinning faster.
It was time to get wet off to Toon Lagoon. I liked the comic strip themeing here and the big props.
First we did Blutos Bilge Rat Barges. This was like Kali, but WAY wetter. Universal wins the battle of the raft rides. If the hills dont get you, the people with the squirt guns will. We were hysterical and wet from head to toe. Before moving on, we went up on the boat to squirt some other unsuspecting people. Its only fair.
Figuring we couldnt get any wetter, we went on Ripsaw Falls next. I was wrong. We came off even wetter. Splash Mountain wins on theming, but Ripsaw Falls wins on the splash factor.
Just one more wet ride to go, so we headed to Jurassic Park. Ryan didnt want to ride, so he went to check out the play area with Craig. The rest of went to see the dinosaurs. We saw a Universal employee at Jurassic Park send the guy in front of us without a shirt away from the ride to put a shirt on. Good for him. He should have sent him for deodorant, too. Jurassic Park was fun, with a good splash at the bottom here, but not nearly as wet as the other two, even being in the front row. Though we were so wet to begin with, it was hard to tell.
We're in the front row here, but I bought the picture because the faces on the people behind us cracked me up.
One more land to go. We decided to skip the shows (hope we didnt miss anything good) and just take the kids for a spin on the Flying Unicorn and then head for the pool. The kids rode the coaster twice. Gotta love the front of the line thing.
We left BIL and SIL in the park so they could do some of the coasters, and headed for a long swim in the pool.
After a refreshing swim we headed to Margaritaville for dinner. I had made a priority seating here. This place has a few too many check-in places. First we missed the main entrance and went up to the patio entrance. They sent us back around to the main entrance. We waited in line for 5 minutes at the outside check-in, only to be told that with a priority seating we could go straight to the inside desk. A sign to that effect would have been nice. Once we found the right check-in desk, we were seated in 10 minutes.
We had a really good waitress here, and some really good burgers (you cant order anything but cheeseburgers in Margartaville, can you?). The kids got a kick out of the margarita volcano and their parrothead masks.
After dinner, we made a quick stop in Islands of Adventure to pickup some photos that wed taken earlier, then we went over to Universal Studios. We had originally planned to hit a few rides. BIL and SIL were going to ride Mummy while we rode the Woody Woodpecker coaster and then wed meet up near Woody Woodpecker to do ET and MIB. The first part of that plan worked, and Craig and Jessica rode the coaster (Ryan didnt want to surprise), and then we ended up in the Curious George play area.
This was the most fun the kids had all day, I think. They took off their shoes and socks and got soaked. Ryan spent 45 minutes in this ball area vacuuming up balls. He wont clean a thing at home. The water area had a bunch of water guns that you used to fill up a giant bucket of water on the roof. When it was full, a bell would ring, and all the kids would run out on the courtyard and to get this giant bucket dumped on them. It was very funny. We enjoyed just relaxing on a bench and watching, and keeping an eye out for the rest of our party.
We never found them.
We later found each other back by the pool. They apparently saw how wet the Curious George area was and assumed wed never let our kids get that wet. But the kids had a better time in there than they would have had on the rides, and its something theyll remember.
Me, the Disney-fanatic
DH, Craig, who puts up with my Disney obsession
DD, Jessica, age 10, part fish, goes with the flow for just about anything
DS, Ryan, age 6, also part fish, would prefer to always have his way
BIL and SIL, Craig's brother and his wife, joining us for the weekend
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Today we would go to Islands of Adventure. We were prepared to get wet. This was good, because walked out of the hotel into the most heat and humidity we had felt all week.
We had a priority seating for the character breakfast at Confiscos. Either this is unpopular or just not advertised, because the place wasnt even half full the whole time we were there. The food wasnt all that great not nearly the variety of a Disney buffet, but the characters were great. Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, and Thing 2 were running around causing trouble stealing hats and peoples food. Spiderman talks, and since the restaurant is empty, he really spends time talking to the kids. And he jumps on the backs of the booths. He was really good. It was worth it to see the smile on Ryans face talking to Spiderman.
Spiderman told him he had to eat all his breakfast. It was the only clean plate we would get from Ryan all week. I need Spidey to come around when we are having green beans at home. I would highly recommend this to anyone with a young Spiderman fan.
We thought wed do the relatively dry stuff first, so we headed for Seussland. The theming here is well-done. We rode the Cat in the Hat, which was like a rough version of Winnie the Pooh and with more spinning. We rode the Carouseussal and One Fish Two Fish. I thought we were supposed to follow the instructions in the song in order to NOT get wet, but we seemed to get sprayed every time anyway.
Over the Superhero Island next to see Spiderman again. Now this is a cool ride. There really is no comparison at Disney -- a moving ride combined with 3D movies. Definitely our favorite here so far. Ryan was too short for Hulk and Dr Doom, and Jessica was not interested, so we passed them over after trying out the seats for Hulk.
We rode the Storm Force Accelerators supposedly a faster version of the teacups, but I think we had our teacup spinning faster.
It was time to get wet off to Toon Lagoon. I liked the comic strip themeing here and the big props.
First we did Blutos Bilge Rat Barges. This was like Kali, but WAY wetter. Universal wins the battle of the raft rides. If the hills dont get you, the people with the squirt guns will. We were hysterical and wet from head to toe. Before moving on, we went up on the boat to squirt some other unsuspecting people. Its only fair.
Figuring we couldnt get any wetter, we went on Ripsaw Falls next. I was wrong. We came off even wetter. Splash Mountain wins on theming, but Ripsaw Falls wins on the splash factor.
Just one more wet ride to go, so we headed to Jurassic Park. Ryan didnt want to ride, so he went to check out the play area with Craig. The rest of went to see the dinosaurs. We saw a Universal employee at Jurassic Park send the guy in front of us without a shirt away from the ride to put a shirt on. Good for him. He should have sent him for deodorant, too. Jurassic Park was fun, with a good splash at the bottom here, but not nearly as wet as the other two, even being in the front row. Though we were so wet to begin with, it was hard to tell.
We're in the front row here, but I bought the picture because the faces on the people behind us cracked me up.
One more land to go. We decided to skip the shows (hope we didnt miss anything good) and just take the kids for a spin on the Flying Unicorn and then head for the pool. The kids rode the coaster twice. Gotta love the front of the line thing.
We left BIL and SIL in the park so they could do some of the coasters, and headed for a long swim in the pool.
After a refreshing swim we headed to Margaritaville for dinner. I had made a priority seating here. This place has a few too many check-in places. First we missed the main entrance and went up to the patio entrance. They sent us back around to the main entrance. We waited in line for 5 minutes at the outside check-in, only to be told that with a priority seating we could go straight to the inside desk. A sign to that effect would have been nice. Once we found the right check-in desk, we were seated in 10 minutes.
We had a really good waitress here, and some really good burgers (you cant order anything but cheeseburgers in Margartaville, can you?). The kids got a kick out of the margarita volcano and their parrothead masks.
After dinner, we made a quick stop in Islands of Adventure to pickup some photos that wed taken earlier, then we went over to Universal Studios. We had originally planned to hit a few rides. BIL and SIL were going to ride Mummy while we rode the Woody Woodpecker coaster and then wed meet up near Woody Woodpecker to do ET and MIB. The first part of that plan worked, and Craig and Jessica rode the coaster (Ryan didnt want to surprise), and then we ended up in the Curious George play area.
This was the most fun the kids had all day, I think. They took off their shoes and socks and got soaked. Ryan spent 45 minutes in this ball area vacuuming up balls. He wont clean a thing at home. The water area had a bunch of water guns that you used to fill up a giant bucket of water on the roof. When it was full, a bell would ring, and all the kids would run out on the courtyard and to get this giant bucket dumped on them. It was very funny. We enjoyed just relaxing on a bench and watching, and keeping an eye out for the rest of our party.
We never found them.
We later found each other back by the pool. They apparently saw how wet the Curious George area was and assumed wed never let our kids get that wet. But the kids had a better time in there than they would have had on the rides, and its something theyll remember.
