The players:
DH(37)loves amusement parks and all the rides
DS(10)still developing his "ride courage" but doing well
DD(14)typical moody teen, but loves to ride anything
Me(36)master trip planner and master ride chicken
Just a little background here, we did the whole Disney thing about three years ago and although the we enjoyed it, DH said he would only go back to Florida if we did something BESIDES Disney this time. This trip started off in the planning stages as ONLY a Universal/IOA trip, but of course I HAD to wiggle in at least a little Disney...LOL! Because we went so many different places while we were in Florida, some of my days will of course be posted over on the Universal Boards as well.
On with the report!!!
We had left Maryland the day after the kids got out of school (why they added on those extra "make up" snow days is beyond me because the whole last week of school the kids did virtually nothing but watch movies and do puzzles) and had already decided we would do the 14 hour drive straight through at night (I work the night shift at the local hospital which means I am always up all night!). We left about 8pm, as DH had trouble getting away from work as usual (you would think they can't function without him or something!) and of course within an hour it was thunderstorming BIG TIME!! Very, very ugly storms, which of course slowed us down a bit. DH drove until about midnight and then I took over. It literally stormed in every state!! This was not fun! We finally got there the next day (and my nerves on edge from the drive) and hung around Orlando/Kissimee until we could check into the condo we had rented.
The condo was FABULOUS, much better than we had hoped. Three bedrooms, two full baths and everything was just so well kept and perfect. The price for this huge condo was cheaper than what we had paid to stay onsite last time at All Star Movies, and DH was VERY pleased because we didn't feel like we were tripping over each other all the time. We went to the local Super Wal-Mart and bought our groceries for the week and headed back to get to bed early! Next day was Typhoon Lagoon!
As I explained earlier, originally my DH had no desire to do anything Disney this trip. He said he'd had enough three years ago....LOL! I, of course managed to wiggle a couple of things in, one being Typhoon Lagoon! We loved this water park last time and I was able to persuade DH with talk of the wave pool. He finally agreed, so off we went!
We got to TL about 8:45AM (Monday) and they were just letting everyone in. There were literally no crowds so we decided to just start at the waterslides and work our way around. I rode the "rump ruster??" first, it was ok, but not very long and kind of slow (maybe it was because we were one of the first people on it?). We then went ahead and did the other two slides, but BOY is the walk up long and tiring. WHEW! Since nobody was there we were literally racing up and down the steps and by the third one I was winded! The setting and greenery is beautiful, but I will never understand the up, up, up and down, down....up, up..down of the darn walkway. I know its setting, but geez! Just let me go straight up the slides and get it done...LOL!
DH and DS rode Humanga Kowabunga next and enjoyed it, although they both commented that it was SLOW!!
We all headed for the lazy river after that. Time for some relaxation!!! Everyone got in a tube and just laid back and enjoyed. I LOVE the lazy river, its beautiful and you can just feel the stress draining away as you float. I do think they had too many empty tubes in the river though. At times we hit a complete jam, we were the only humans however...the rest of the jam was just empty tubes!!!
Finally we hit the wave pool, or should I say it hit US!!! For those of you that have been in the wave pool, you know what I mean. Those waves can be SERIOUS but FUN! DS was a little hesitant to be all on his own at first, so for about the first ten minutes he'd hold my hand when a big one was coming and we'd end up thrown halfway to the shore! He gradually got his "wave legs" however and was happily being thrown on his own in no time. We did this for about an hour or so and then decided to move on.
On a side note, I do think all of England and the surrounding area was at TL on this day. Everywhere I turned I heard a variety of British accents and was in 7th heaven! I love them!!! We talked to lots of English people throughout our trip and they were always the nicest, most polite people! Some of our people from this country could take a lesson or two from them!!
We decided to try out the tube rides next. Mayday Falls was ROUGH! The "speed bumps" killed my back, as well as DH's and DD's. We all agreed we would NOT be riding that one again!
We then got in line for the family raft ride. It was ok, but very short, especially considering the line we stood in, because as you can guess...the crowds were getting ugly!
We decided to go back into the wave pool and had a very different experience. It was definitly TOO crowded, and this resulted in a multitude of dangerous situations. When the waves hit, of course this meant people tumbling onto people BIG TIME! Several times I took someone's foot or elbow in my head or face and saw several younger kids being "trampled" by the crowds and the general uproar caused by the waves. We decided to exit after about 15 minutes of this (not to mention the two VERY RUDE women who yelled at my DD for bumping into them, WHICH was an accident and she DID apologize...I was there the entire time!!!) because it was truly ugly!
Needless to say DD was VERY upset after the incident with the two RUDE, NASTY women so we decided this would be a nice time to break for lunch. We had brought a cooler with sandwiches, drinks..ect...so went out to the parking lot and basically had lunch out at our van and enjoyed a break from the crowds. It was at this time we decided we didn't want to go back into the park right now, it was just too ugly! We decided that since Dowtown Disney was right across the way we'd head there instead!
We got to Downtown Disney about 2pm and just basically walked around checking out all the shops. I just love shopping down there and found lots of nice things in a variety of stores. I love the new toy store!
As the afternoon went on we stopped at Ghiradelli's and decided to experience one of their EARTHQUAKE EXPLOSIONS, which was very yummy. The whole family shared this one huge sundae, and we still were not able to finish it. It's basically multiple scoops of ice cream and toppings and of course all the good stuff!
DH then decided to rent a little mouseboat for him and DS to cruise around in, while DD and I went back to spending money...LOL. They had a great time....DS LOVED it!! DS also loved all the little lizards that were EVERYWHERE around there. He swore he would catch one, but they were always to fast for him...LOL!
At this time it was about 4:45 and we decided to head back to TL for a last ride around the lazy river and to basically cool off a little and see if the crowds were any better. Just as we entered the parking lot, the skies just seemed to open up and POUR water, along with LOTS of thunder and lightening!!! So much for going back to TL! It was an UGLY storm, so we decided to call it a day and head "home" to our lovely, waiting COOL condo! I had put dinner in the crockpot before we left that morning, so supper was waiting! We were a little disappointed about the rain,(it rained until after we had gone to bed) but hey, that's Florida, and all in all we had a nice day! We all went to bed early to rest up for the next day..........Universal Studios!!!
DH(37)loves amusement parks and all the rides
DS(10)still developing his "ride courage" but doing well
DD(14)typical moody teen, but loves to ride anything
Me(36)master trip planner and master ride chicken
Just a little background here, we did the whole Disney thing about three years ago and although the we enjoyed it, DH said he would only go back to Florida if we did something BESIDES Disney this time. This trip started off in the planning stages as ONLY a Universal/IOA trip, but of course I HAD to wiggle in at least a little Disney...LOL! Because we went so many different places while we were in Florida, some of my days will of course be posted over on the Universal Boards as well.
On with the report!!!
We had left Maryland the day after the kids got out of school (why they added on those extra "make up" snow days is beyond me because the whole last week of school the kids did virtually nothing but watch movies and do puzzles) and had already decided we would do the 14 hour drive straight through at night (I work the night shift at the local hospital which means I am always up all night!). We left about 8pm, as DH had trouble getting away from work as usual (you would think they can't function without him or something!) and of course within an hour it was thunderstorming BIG TIME!! Very, very ugly storms, which of course slowed us down a bit. DH drove until about midnight and then I took over. It literally stormed in every state!! This was not fun! We finally got there the next day (and my nerves on edge from the drive) and hung around Orlando/Kissimee until we could check into the condo we had rented.
The condo was FABULOUS, much better than we had hoped. Three bedrooms, two full baths and everything was just so well kept and perfect. The price for this huge condo was cheaper than what we had paid to stay onsite last time at All Star Movies, and DH was VERY pleased because we didn't feel like we were tripping over each other all the time. We went to the local Super Wal-Mart and bought our groceries for the week and headed back to get to bed early! Next day was Typhoon Lagoon!
As I explained earlier, originally my DH had no desire to do anything Disney this trip. He said he'd had enough three years ago....LOL! I, of course managed to wiggle a couple of things in, one being Typhoon Lagoon! We loved this water park last time and I was able to persuade DH with talk of the wave pool. He finally agreed, so off we went!
We got to TL about 8:45AM (Monday) and they were just letting everyone in. There were literally no crowds so we decided to just start at the waterslides and work our way around. I rode the "rump ruster??" first, it was ok, but not very long and kind of slow (maybe it was because we were one of the first people on it?). We then went ahead and did the other two slides, but BOY is the walk up long and tiring. WHEW! Since nobody was there we were literally racing up and down the steps and by the third one I was winded! The setting and greenery is beautiful, but I will never understand the up, up, up and down, down....up, up..down of the darn walkway. I know its setting, but geez! Just let me go straight up the slides and get it done...LOL!
DH and DS rode Humanga Kowabunga next and enjoyed it, although they both commented that it was SLOW!!
We all headed for the lazy river after that. Time for some relaxation!!! Everyone got in a tube and just laid back and enjoyed. I LOVE the lazy river, its beautiful and you can just feel the stress draining away as you float. I do think they had too many empty tubes in the river though. At times we hit a complete jam, we were the only humans however...the rest of the jam was just empty tubes!!!
Finally we hit the wave pool, or should I say it hit US!!! For those of you that have been in the wave pool, you know what I mean. Those waves can be SERIOUS but FUN! DS was a little hesitant to be all on his own at first, so for about the first ten minutes he'd hold my hand when a big one was coming and we'd end up thrown halfway to the shore! He gradually got his "wave legs" however and was happily being thrown on his own in no time. We did this for about an hour or so and then decided to move on.
On a side note, I do think all of England and the surrounding area was at TL on this day. Everywhere I turned I heard a variety of British accents and was in 7th heaven! I love them!!! We talked to lots of English people throughout our trip and they were always the nicest, most polite people! Some of our people from this country could take a lesson or two from them!!
We decided to try out the tube rides next. Mayday Falls was ROUGH! The "speed bumps" killed my back, as well as DH's and DD's. We all agreed we would NOT be riding that one again!
We then got in line for the family raft ride. It was ok, but very short, especially considering the line we stood in, because as you can guess...the crowds were getting ugly!
We decided to go back into the wave pool and had a very different experience. It was definitly TOO crowded, and this resulted in a multitude of dangerous situations. When the waves hit, of course this meant people tumbling onto people BIG TIME! Several times I took someone's foot or elbow in my head or face and saw several younger kids being "trampled" by the crowds and the general uproar caused by the waves. We decided to exit after about 15 minutes of this (not to mention the two VERY RUDE women who yelled at my DD for bumping into them, WHICH was an accident and she DID apologize...I was there the entire time!!!) because it was truly ugly!
Needless to say DD was VERY upset after the incident with the two RUDE, NASTY women so we decided this would be a nice time to break for lunch. We had brought a cooler with sandwiches, drinks..ect...so went out to the parking lot and basically had lunch out at our van and enjoyed a break from the crowds. It was at this time we decided we didn't want to go back into the park right now, it was just too ugly! We decided that since Dowtown Disney was right across the way we'd head there instead!
We got to Downtown Disney about 2pm and just basically walked around checking out all the shops. I just love shopping down there and found lots of nice things in a variety of stores. I love the new toy store!
As the afternoon went on we stopped at Ghiradelli's and decided to experience one of their EARTHQUAKE EXPLOSIONS, which was very yummy. The whole family shared this one huge sundae, and we still were not able to finish it. It's basically multiple scoops of ice cream and toppings and of course all the good stuff!
DH then decided to rent a little mouseboat for him and DS to cruise around in, while DD and I went back to spending money...LOL. They had a great time....DS LOVED it!! DS also loved all the little lizards that were EVERYWHERE around there. He swore he would catch one, but they were always to fast for him...LOL!
At this time it was about 4:45 and we decided to head back to TL for a last ride around the lazy river and to basically cool off a little and see if the crowds were any better. Just as we entered the parking lot, the skies just seemed to open up and POUR water, along with LOTS of thunder and lightening!!! So much for going back to TL! It was an UGLY storm, so we decided to call it a day and head "home" to our lovely, waiting COOL condo! I had put dinner in the crockpot before we left that morning, so supper was waiting! We were a little disappointed about the rain,(it rained until after we had gone to bed) but hey, that's Florida, and all in all we had a nice day! We all went to bed early to rest up for the next day..........Universal Studios!!!
