From the Village Idiot to Water Man

Belle1962

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 18, 1999
April 22:
CAST:
ME–almost 40, Trip Planner Extraordinaire
DH–40, will assume various roles throughout the trip. Today will be WATER MAN.
TUS–The Ugly Stick. DH's walking stick which has a snake's head & rattler tail on it (yep–real but dead rattler—YUCK!!)

We manage to sleep in until around 7:30 am. (How am I surviving not setting an alarm, hopping out of bed and rushing to a park? Not well, but I'm managing). We're up, dressed, packed and check out. Our car can stay in the valet lot at HRH without additional charge so we leave our 2 bags plus the ugly stick (this will prove to be very valuable later) at the bell stand and head over to Universal Studios. Today is early entry at Universal but we arrive around 8:45 am anyway, and they're letting people in the park.

First sop—E.T. I LOOOVE ET. We were the only ones in the pre-show movie (with Steven Spielberg–in the movie not in the pre-show area–too bad for me). We wanted to give our names as Happy & Anniversary but they wouldn't let us. Too bad. Maybe a new innovention for E.T.? Program him to say stuff like Happy and then Birthday, Anniversary, Graduation etc.

Then on to Back to the Future. DH got to ride in front and I rode in back. I was next to a little boy and his mom & dad. He was having soooo much fun!!! It was great just listening to him and his reactions.

Next up: MEN IN BLACK. I beat DH. Both times. HA HA HA HA HA. The first time through we were in the front and a single rider guy was behind us. He was actually laughing at the byplay between DH & me.
DH "Let's ride again"
ME "Why?"
DH "Just because"
ME "I thought we wanted to head over to IOA?"
DH "We can later. After all we have FOTL"
ME "You just can't stand the thought that I beat you can you?"
DH " No, that's not it. I'm just having fun"
Okay–so back on we go. Guess who outscores who???? Yep–no more MIB for us today. But don't worry–Water Man will get back at me later.

Next stop: Jaws. Both DH & I think this has changed since we last rode it two years ago. Either that we're suffering from that CRS disease and don't remember it. Anyway, the shark really did surprise us. And the boy on the end of our row. When we first went into the boat he refused to move all the way to the end because the seat was wet. His Mom & Dad just laughed and made him move on down. Yes–he got wet. He also got scared by the shark. When the shark popped out at him he literally jumped over his sister and mom to be next to his Dad. That was the best part of the ride–watching him.

DH has never seen Twister so he wanted to see it. I've seen it twice and have never been impressed by it. I have the same problem here as I do at Poseidon–vertically challenged and usually have big people in front of me blocking the view. This time, thanks to FOTL, we were able to be at the front. WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE VIEW MAKES!!! I NEVER knew the cow flied through the air—too many tall people in front of me. I have now revised my opinion of Twister and will encourage people (who are taller than me) to do it.

By this time DH is REALLLLY hungry. (Notice we didn't stop for breakfast this morning???) Anyway, we stop at the bakery and he gets a chocolate croissant. On our way out of the park I get stopped by an employee (are they Cast Members at USF??). Anyway he wanted to ask me a couple of questions. Ok. Thinking they would be park related I told him to go ahead. It was a market research survey on laundry detergent! HUH!!!!!! These people are not only at the mall and calling me at dinner time, now they're in the theme parks!!! What's up with that?

We leave USF and walk over to IOA. Today we are doing Toon Lagoon. Which is about to make Water Man very very very happy. Of course, we can't walk past the Hulk without jumping in line (LOVE that FOTL). We then walk onto the Bilge ride. Since we were checking in at WL later that day, I didn't want to arrive looking like a drowned rat so I put a rain poncho on. (2 for $1.00 at the dollar store). I also changed into swim shoes that I was carrying in my bag. DH just jumped on the ride. THEN HE LOOKED AROUND. He noticed that EVERYONE else in our boat had taken off their shoes and put them in the center. If Guiness Book of Records has a record for taking off your shoes & socks he wins. It was almost funny. Anyway we all get soaked (not me as much–but you know for $1.00 the poncho was a little less thick than a garbage bag). Well, we're wet now so onto the log flume ride. Another wet one and I didn't put my poncho on. DH wants to do the Bilge ride so he goes off to jump in the FOTL and asks me to go to Me Ship the Olive and spray them as they pass. Ok no problem. Now, last night I wandered around Me Ship looking for Jurassic Park—sorry not there. Today I can't get out from wandering around Me Ship and eventually just stand aside and wait. Water Man will find me. He does and off we go for another stroll through Jurrasic Park. On the way there Water Man is sooo PROUD that on his second ride, HE was the one to warn everyone to take their shoes off. And they were grateful they listened to him. We stop and see the Triceratops (spelling??) and then move onto The Lost Continent. DH rode Dueling Dragons again (FOTL). The Mystical fountain was in high form today but he really wasn't as funny as he was in the past. It was very hard for him today because there were a group of kids just being really STUPID with him. Hollering SQUIRT HIM/HER every time someone walked by (he even told them that hollering "squirt them" kinda ruins the effect), pushing each other into the water and stuff.

We finished walking through IOA and then took the boat back over to HRH to pick up our luggage (and the ugly stick), get the car and head to Wilderness Lodge to check in.

DH goes out to valet while I give the bell desk our luggage receipt. Several minutes go by and no sign of our luggage. The bellman crosses the lobby and goes to another room where they store luggage. Several more minutes go by. He returns empty handed and goes back to check behind the bell stand again. Several more minutes go by. A manager type person comes over and assures me they will find the luggage. He crosses the lobby and checks "the other room". Several minutes go by. He returns empty handed. He explained how a lot of luggage looks alike, etc. etc. I told him, well not only were there those bags (which I had already described) there's a real ugly walking stick with a snakes head on it. He goes back behind the bell desk and PROMPTLY returns with our luggage and the ugly stick. I guess that thing does comes in handy sometimes. (LOL)

Next stop: WILDERNESS LODGE
 
Belle - great job on your reports!! Sooooo funny! We are trying to decide between 2-3 nights at HRH or PBH after our visit to AKL in June, vs. just switching resorts at WDW. FOTL sounds so awesome! My DH wants to stay at WDW the whole time (10 nights) - but I'm pushing to move to USE after a week at AKL. Wish me luck!:rolleyes:
 
i loved your trip report, that ugly stick did come in handy after all......

thanks for taking the time to post such a funny report...

patty
 
From a long time lurker and occasional poster...you say that Jaws appears to have changed from 2 years ago--what would you say has changed? I can remember the original Jaws (remember the whole hub-bub about the bad technology and they had to take the entire track and stuff up and sued the company yada yada all that jazz) and honestly I always thought the original was a bit better than the newer. Have they by chance brought back some of those elements? My absolute favorite was right after the boat house when Jaws actually came up and grabbed the boat and turned us around! I thought one lady was just going to have a heart attack over that one LOL! I also thought it was kinda neat to have Jaws being shot and blown up like in the original film, but perhaps that was a bit violent for the kiddies....

Thanks in advance for the info :) :)
 


:) Thanks for writing your reports! Don't feel too bad about getting "lost" around the Popeye and bluto bilge rat ride, I was still doing that on my second trip to IOA!
 

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