wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Saturday 2nd November
I was up super early this morning as the noise made when we backed in to Port Canaveral was unreal. How Gary slept through it I will never know. Even so, he was up quite early too and packing the last few bits into our hand luggage. We were going to head up to Cabanas for breakfast but nobody was very hungry. Before long, we heard the announcement telling us to get off the ship and make way for new passengers – or something like that.
We were having difficulty tracking down our room host to give him his envelope but, eventually we found him and were on our way. We bumped into Abby’s family outside Animator’s Palate, where they were going to have breakfast. We chatted for a while and said we would be in touch. As we approached midship, there was a huge line of people waiting outside Royal Court and I commented to Gary about how I was glad I wasn’t having breakfast there. When we rounded the corner, we realised that the line was, in fact, the queue of people waiting to get off the ship. We backtracked and joined the end of the line which, of course, was now significantly longer. It turned out that some poor child had been sick while getting off the ship so they’d had to close off the gangway for a while, to clear up hence the delay.
It took us around 30 minutes to disembark, but we were soon under the all too familiar sign, telling us that Mickey would see us real soon.
We grabbed our luggage and joined the customs and immigration line. It used to be the case that there was a separate line for non-US residents, making this a quick process for us but not now. Still, we didn’t wait too long. Once outside, we followed the signs for the Hertz shuttle. Luckily, there was a bus waiting and we were soon onboard and on the way to collect the rental car.
We were met with another minor delay at Hertz, when they didn’t have the class of vehicle we’d booked. But they offered us another SUV and it was perfectly fine. To be honest, we would have pretty much accepted anything; we just wanted to be on our way.
The kids fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got into the car. I took pictures of them both but you will have to make do with a picture of Daniel, though, since Sian would kill me if I posted the one of her.
Just as we were approaching the hotel, it started to rain a little. Wendy had texted to let me know she and Rich had arrived and we arranged to meet them in the lobby at 10.15, to get our Express Passes. We decided to valet park the car and unloaded our luggage, checked in and headed up to our room. I was a bit remiss here and didn’t get any pictures but it was a standard 2-queen room. It had started to rain so we hurried down to the lobby to meet Wendy and Rich, and decide on a plan of action. It was raining harder now. We got the Express Passes and went to get some drinks from the nearby Lotus Blossom Café. After a bit of discussion, we decided we just had to brave the weather as we only had 2 days here. We left the hotel and walked down to the boat dock, where we had a short wait for a boat to arrive.
At Universal, Gary and I went to the will-call kiosk to collect our Annual Passes. Daniel and Sian already had their tickets, as did Wendy and Rich. We were soon in the park and, realising the rain was not going to let up, we decided to make the first stop the Universal Studios store for hoodies (for the kids and Rich) and ponchos (for the adults).
Protected from the elements and it was finally time for our first ride of the day – Despicable Me! Wendy was a bit excited, I think.
Daniel was just ‘rocking on’…or something like that.
The ride was cool, although I was a bit concerned that it might not be enjoyable for Rich, who doesn’t really like motion-type rides.
Daniel just had to meet the minions afterwards.
Next up was Springfield USA. We were desperate to check out the new area, as it hadn’t been open on our last trip. It was absolutely brilliant. Wendy is very inventive when it comes to taking photos so we got a ton of great pictures here.
Lunch was at a variety of places. I love the fact that you have Krusty Burger, Cletus’ Chicken Shack, Luigi’s Pizza and a load of other choices in the same place. It is pretty well organised too. They only let a few people into the area at a time, so it never gets too crowded.
We had a variety of dishes for lunch – Daniel had pizza, Sian and Gary had Krusty burgers and I had chicken and waffles with tater tots.
We couldn’t’ resist this cute little cupcake with ‘pink donut’ frosting.
Wendy had a Krusty burger too – she could barely get her mouth around it.
And washed it down with a beer from Moe’s.
After lunch, we discovered that it had at least stopped raining, even if the sun had not yet put in an appearance. Daniel was still a bit peckish after his lunch.
We had a quick browse in the shops and then did The Simpsons Ride. After leaving Springfield USA, we went to experience Revenge of the Mummy. We did this twice and it was as awesome as ever.
Then it was time for Rip Ride Rockit. Both Rich and I opted to sit this one out.
We decided to wander round and have a go at the new Transformers ride. Daniel wanted to meet Optimus Prime.
The actual ride was a bit rubbish. There were a few technical problems but, having never seen any of the films, it didn’t mean an awful lot to me. We could have gone back on straight away but we decided not to bother. We were all cold and wet and had seen enough now. We wanted to see the Horror Make-Up Show, as we thought Wendy and Rich would really enjoy it but we had missed the last show of the day. So we decided to head back to the hotel, get dried off and ready for dinner tonight,
Daniel wanted one last ride on Rip Ride Rockit so we walked over there.
We left the park and stopped for a couple of photos of the Universal globe.
We had just missed a water taxi so decided to walk back to the hotel, a prospect Daniel was not overly happy about. He immediately went into teenager mode and spent the next 20 minutes dragging his feet and moaning about how unfair life is.
We got back to the room, where I had a shower straight away to warm up and we unpacked a few bits that we needed for that night and the next day.
We met in the lobby at 7 and got the water taxi to CityWalk. Dinner tonight was at Nascar Café. We didn’t have to wait long for a table but I was a bit disappointed that nobody laid my napkin in my lap for me
I think I only had a diet coke to drink tonight, since I was feeling a little bit run down and didn’t want to risk getting poorly. The food here was great though.
I had the hush puppy shrimp – absolutely delicious but so much of it.
Sian had a pulled pork sandwich, which she really enjoyed.
Gary had chicken fried chicken – or something like that.
Daniel must have eaten something but I can’t recall what he had. He and I may well have shared.
Our server brought the check – what a shocker, we have to pay for our meals now – and we paid up and left. We got the water taxi back to the hotel and decided to have an early night, since we wanted to be up early the next morning for early entry to Islands of Adventure. After arranging a rendezvous place and time with Wendy and Rich, we bid them goodnight and went off to bed.
I was up super early this morning as the noise made when we backed in to Port Canaveral was unreal. How Gary slept through it I will never know. Even so, he was up quite early too and packing the last few bits into our hand luggage. We were going to head up to Cabanas for breakfast but nobody was very hungry. Before long, we heard the announcement telling us to get off the ship and make way for new passengers – or something like that.
We were having difficulty tracking down our room host to give him his envelope but, eventually we found him and were on our way. We bumped into Abby’s family outside Animator’s Palate, where they were going to have breakfast. We chatted for a while and said we would be in touch. As we approached midship, there was a huge line of people waiting outside Royal Court and I commented to Gary about how I was glad I wasn’t having breakfast there. When we rounded the corner, we realised that the line was, in fact, the queue of people waiting to get off the ship. We backtracked and joined the end of the line which, of course, was now significantly longer. It turned out that some poor child had been sick while getting off the ship so they’d had to close off the gangway for a while, to clear up hence the delay.
It took us around 30 minutes to disembark, but we were soon under the all too familiar sign, telling us that Mickey would see us real soon.
We grabbed our luggage and joined the customs and immigration line. It used to be the case that there was a separate line for non-US residents, making this a quick process for us but not now. Still, we didn’t wait too long. Once outside, we followed the signs for the Hertz shuttle. Luckily, there was a bus waiting and we were soon onboard and on the way to collect the rental car.
We were met with another minor delay at Hertz, when they didn’t have the class of vehicle we’d booked. But they offered us another SUV and it was perfectly fine. To be honest, we would have pretty much accepted anything; we just wanted to be on our way.
The kids fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got into the car. I took pictures of them both but you will have to make do with a picture of Daniel, though, since Sian would kill me if I posted the one of her.
Just as we were approaching the hotel, it started to rain a little. Wendy had texted to let me know she and Rich had arrived and we arranged to meet them in the lobby at 10.15, to get our Express Passes. We decided to valet park the car and unloaded our luggage, checked in and headed up to our room. I was a bit remiss here and didn’t get any pictures but it was a standard 2-queen room. It had started to rain so we hurried down to the lobby to meet Wendy and Rich, and decide on a plan of action. It was raining harder now. We got the Express Passes and went to get some drinks from the nearby Lotus Blossom Café. After a bit of discussion, we decided we just had to brave the weather as we only had 2 days here. We left the hotel and walked down to the boat dock, where we had a short wait for a boat to arrive.
At Universal, Gary and I went to the will-call kiosk to collect our Annual Passes. Daniel and Sian already had their tickets, as did Wendy and Rich. We were soon in the park and, realising the rain was not going to let up, we decided to make the first stop the Universal Studios store for hoodies (for the kids and Rich) and ponchos (for the adults).
Protected from the elements and it was finally time for our first ride of the day – Despicable Me! Wendy was a bit excited, I think.
Daniel was just ‘rocking on’…or something like that.
The ride was cool, although I was a bit concerned that it might not be enjoyable for Rich, who doesn’t really like motion-type rides.
Daniel just had to meet the minions afterwards.
Next up was Springfield USA. We were desperate to check out the new area, as it hadn’t been open on our last trip. It was absolutely brilliant. Wendy is very inventive when it comes to taking photos so we got a ton of great pictures here.
Lunch was at a variety of places. I love the fact that you have Krusty Burger, Cletus’ Chicken Shack, Luigi’s Pizza and a load of other choices in the same place. It is pretty well organised too. They only let a few people into the area at a time, so it never gets too crowded.
We had a variety of dishes for lunch – Daniel had pizza, Sian and Gary had Krusty burgers and I had chicken and waffles with tater tots.
We couldn’t’ resist this cute little cupcake with ‘pink donut’ frosting.
Wendy had a Krusty burger too – she could barely get her mouth around it.
And washed it down with a beer from Moe’s.
After lunch, we discovered that it had at least stopped raining, even if the sun had not yet put in an appearance. Daniel was still a bit peckish after his lunch.
We had a quick browse in the shops and then did The Simpsons Ride. After leaving Springfield USA, we went to experience Revenge of the Mummy. We did this twice and it was as awesome as ever.
Then it was time for Rip Ride Rockit. Both Rich and I opted to sit this one out.
We decided to wander round and have a go at the new Transformers ride. Daniel wanted to meet Optimus Prime.
The actual ride was a bit rubbish. There were a few technical problems but, having never seen any of the films, it didn’t mean an awful lot to me. We could have gone back on straight away but we decided not to bother. We were all cold and wet and had seen enough now. We wanted to see the Horror Make-Up Show, as we thought Wendy and Rich would really enjoy it but we had missed the last show of the day. So we decided to head back to the hotel, get dried off and ready for dinner tonight,
Daniel wanted one last ride on Rip Ride Rockit so we walked over there.
We left the park and stopped for a couple of photos of the Universal globe.
We had just missed a water taxi so decided to walk back to the hotel, a prospect Daniel was not overly happy about. He immediately went into teenager mode and spent the next 20 minutes dragging his feet and moaning about how unfair life is.
We got back to the room, where I had a shower straight away to warm up and we unpacked a few bits that we needed for that night and the next day.
We met in the lobby at 7 and got the water taxi to CityWalk. Dinner tonight was at Nascar Café. We didn’t have to wait long for a table but I was a bit disappointed that nobody laid my napkin in my lap for me
I think I only had a diet coke to drink tonight, since I was feeling a little bit run down and didn’t want to risk getting poorly. The food here was great though.
I had the hush puppy shrimp – absolutely delicious but so much of it.
Sian had a pulled pork sandwich, which she really enjoyed.
Gary had chicken fried chicken – or something like that.
Daniel must have eaten something but I can’t recall what he had. He and I may well have shared.
Our server brought the check – what a shocker, we have to pay for our meals now – and we paid up and left. We got the water taxi back to the hotel and decided to have an early night, since we wanted to be up early the next morning for early entry to Islands of Adventure. After arranging a rendezvous place and time with Wendy and Rich, we bid them goodnight and went off to bed.
I do try. Unfortunately, there will be no trip to WDW for me in 2015 so I have had to fit an extra one in this year 
and the food looks yummy !
