GayDays 2011 June 2-10

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

It was delightful bumping into you. We're at Epcot again tomorrow (we're going to take your advice and see if we can get ADRs at Flying Fish tomorrow instead of Bistro de Paris) and Studios Tuesday; if you're around, maybe we can meet again.

We're at Studios on Tuesday as well! I'll PM you my cell #.

 

[DrGaellon]

We're at Studios on Tuesday as well! I'll PM you my cell #.

I just PMed you mine. We have ADR for 50's Prime Time at 7:15 on Tues; we could certainly change time or place and try for... 5? I think you're three people, right? Let me know if you want me to get on the website and see.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I just PMed you mine. We have ADR for 50's Prime Time at 7:15 on Tues; we could certainly change time or place and try for... 5? I think you're three people, right? Let me know if you want me to get on the website and see.

I added your number to my phone. We have a 6:40 at Yachtsman on Tuesday, but thank you for offering! 50's Prime Time is fun!

 

[dwtraveler]

Your fireworks pics are beautiful, thanks for sharing them!

 

[DrGaellon]

I added your number to my phone. We have a 6:40 at Yachtsman on Tuesday, but thank you for offering! 50's Prime Time is fun!

Do you have ADRs for lunch tomorrow?

 

[DrGaellon]

We got up late, enjoying the slow day. Barry met us at our resort around 11am, and we headed up to downtown Orlando to Bananas Diner for their Gospel Drag Brunch, which had been recommended to us by some of the guys in the Orlando room on gay.com. We were running late for our 1130 reservation, but they were not answering their phone; when we arrived at 1150, they told us they'd given away our table. There was an open table, so they seated us as soon as there was a break in the performance. The drag queens were marvelous - the food and service, not so much. Because they'd screwed up our reservation, they offered us free mimosas - which took almost 30 minutes to be delivered. The hash browns were nearly raw, eggs over-easy should have runny yolks but not runny whites, my french toast was dry and tough, and David's crab cakes Benedict had been microwaved, not pan-fried.

We headed straight over to Epcot and checked in for the Let's Go Play event. We got our tickets, our wristbands and our t-shirts. (Note to organizers: some of us are larger than XL, especially if your shirts are not pre-shrunk.) We stopped in the center of Future World; one of my friends from home, who has been with Disney for years, moved to Orlando full-time about 3 years ago to be the merchandising manager for all of Future World (except Mouse Gear). We'd emailed and made plans to say hi, since he was working. Poor thing was in a shirt and tie in the blazing Orlando sun! We chatted for ten minutes or so, then he gave us a priority pass for any one ride; it was a delightful little surprise! Thanks Andrew!

We wandered back to Mexico about 210; we didn't see anyone outside, so we went in and rode La Gran Fiesta, then wandered back out and got a margarita to share. We met Bob (whose DISboards nick I don't know) and his partner (whose name I've forgotten). While we were chatting, jackskellingtonsgirl recognized David and came up to introduce herself; she's a sweetheart, and I'm looking forward to meeting her DH and DS, and spending some time with them at DHS tomorrow.

We continued on a slow stroll around World Showcase. We passed Norway and stopped at the drinks stand at China. We wanted a Green Tea Plum Wine slushie, but they didn't have any, so we settled on the Strawberry Oolong slushie - sweetsweetsweet! We wandered through the African shops, then hit Germany, where we discovered the wine tour! We signed on and had 2 oz pours of both a semi-sweet Liebfraumilch and a sweet Riesling, and a 4 oz pour of apfelwein (which was suprisingly dry, and reminded me of a still hard cider). We also bought a pickle ornament for David's mom's Christmas tree. (I told him we should get one for our tree when we go back today.)

We moved on into Italy, checking the shops. In the Enoteca, we had 2 oz of a very nice Pinot Grigio, and 2 oz of an absolutely delicious, sweet sparkling Rose. We got a bunch of pictures at the plaza in front of Italy, with the lagoon and Spaceship Earth in the background.

We passed by American Adventure and stopped in Japan to watch the Taiko drummers; I screwed up the video when downloading it, so we'll have to shoot it again today. We stopped into Tokyo Dining for lunch-ner, which was very good if pricy (and I've actually had better Japanese in New York); I got David to agree to changing today's lunch reservation to Marrakech, since we did Japan yesterday. (Also, on Bob and JSG's recommendation, I changed dinner today from Bistro de Paris to Flying Fish Cafe.)

We did a quick stroll the rest of the way around the lake and back to Odyssey, since it was now after 6pm, and the party had nominally started at 5. It was pretty empty, so we decided to wander back out again. We did a quick loop through Mouse Gears, then over to Soarin' to use our Priority Pass. After Soarin', we went back to Odyssey and had a cocktail each and a few minutes of dancing - but it was still very sparsely populated. We left again and headed back across to Future World West, but it was about 730, and Captain EO had closed at 700. We had a sit and relax for 20 minutes or so and headed back towards the Promenade, strolling briefly through the Xeriscape display off the path. We noted two areas which had been roped off with staff inside; one had coffee and pastries, and the other had several mobile bars - I pointed these out to David as the sites for private parties. Just as we were passing the turn into Odyssey, a crowd of boys spilled out the doors, and someone told us to turn back and find the cast members with flashing red lights - they directed us to the larger roped-off area with the bars, which was smack in the center of the Promenade! I can't imagine a better place for watching Illuminations. There are pics and video at the Photobucket page.

 

[OhMari]

Hoped you liked the Flying Fish.
We got in all resturants on the Boardwalk without any ADR's, and this was Spring Break time.
We did Cape May, The Brewery resturant-sorry, can't remember the name. And the Yachtsman Club, except we ate at the other resturant at the Yachtsman Club, because it was cheaper and our hotel gave us 20% off because they goofed up our reservation at check in.

Hope you are having great weather and thanks for the fireworks link.

 

[DrGaellon]

Hoped you liked the Flying Fish.

The food at Flying Fish was delicious (we had the lobster summer roll appetizer, the lobster bisque, and the seared yellowtail tuna - we decided to share all three and the waitress was kind enough to serve them separately - she even had our tuna cooked to the different temperatures David and I prefer). Unfortunately, the smoke from the oak-wood grill was upsetting David's stomach and giving me a headache; as delicious as it was, I don't think we'll be eating there again.

I'll have today's trip report up soon; I need to get horizontal for a while, or maybe into the jacuzzi.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Do you have ADRs for lunch tomorrow?

We do not have lunch ADRs. Not sure we have really given much thought to lunch.

We just got back from Magic Kingdom around 12:45 AM.

 

[DrGaellon]

I developed a pretty impressive blister on my heel Sunday, which had drained itself; when I woke up Monday morning, it had refilled with fluid, and when I drained it again, it looked infected. Nice thing about being a doctor; I hopped online to our electronic prescribing system and sent in a Keflex script for myself to the Walgreens down the street.

We got a somewhat later start than I wanted, but since we were doing a second day at Epcot, I wasn't too fussed. We got the park just after 11 and headed directly back to Morocco for lunch. David didn't tell me that he dislikes cinnamon with meat dishes, so the brawat rolls and chicken bisteeya didn't go over so well; he loved the Jasmina salad, though. We shared the couscous M'rouzia Fassi, which was delicious.

We headed over to Norway to catch Maelstrom, which we had skipped on Sunday. (We never did come back to do American Adventure, I just forgot all about it.) From there, we did Test Track on the single rider line, then got FastPasses for Mission: SPACE. Ellen's Energy Adventure was off-line most of the day, and I find it boring anyway, so that was no loss. With FPs in hand, we did Innoventions East, and David got to do Sum of All Thrills (I chickened out). We hit Spaceship Earth, then doubled back to Mission: SPACE. I've never done the Orange ride, but David talked me into it; it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be, but it did leave me a wee bit queasy.

We crossed the plaza and hit Club Cool; after three tastes, David was sugared-out, so we went on to The Land and rode Living with the Land. I love Behind the Seeds, but I don't remember it being a full hour, and I was afraid we would run out of time, so we skipped it this year.

We went to Journey Into Imagination (I'm a Monty Python fan, and I love Eric Idle, but oh how I miss Dreamfinder!) then Captain EO, which was even cheesier than I remember it. I'd forgotten Anjelica Huston was the queen.

We rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends then walked straight back, no stops, to the BoardWalk for dinner at Flying Fish. As I mentioned above, the smoke in the restaurant was not good for either of us, although the food was wonderful, and our server was amazing. (By the way, the Grape Martini was incredible and not too strong at all.)

We strolled back across World Showcase, stopping in at France to finish our Wine Walk from Sunday, and pick up some pastries at the Patisserie for dessert (we got a strawberry tart and a slice of cheesecake). We walked to Germany to look again at die Weihnachts ecke - David had picked up the box of pickle ornaments for his mom, and we were thinking about the same for us, and for my sister, but decided against it.

At that point, tired and footsore, we headed out of the park and back to our resort, where we crashed early and hard.

 

[DrGaellon]

We arrived at DHS a bit later than I really wanted, but these things happen. Toy Story Mania was already flagging a 75 minute wait (which only got worse, never better all day), and dispensing FastPasses after 6 pm, so we chose to forgo it. We checked back several times during the day, but the line was never short enough to be worth the wait, so we never did get to ride it.

We strolled down to the end of Sunset Blvd and got FastPasses for Rock n Roller Coaster, then headed back to Great Movie Ride, which David loved. Jackskellingtonsgirl, her DH and DS and their friend got off the ride as we were getting on, so we met them over at Pizza Planet for lunch. After lunch, we split up again with plans to meet for Fantasmic!. We ducked into Muppetvision 3-D (which is one of my favorites). Somewhere along there, we got FastPasses for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. I wanted to see both The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Lights! Motors! Action!, but we had agreed that we were not running anywhere, and the timing was just all wrong.

We headed back to RnRC and rode it, then shopped back up Sunset to Hollywood Blvd. We found a Hollywood Tower Hotel bathrobe at Head to Toe that David liked, but they didn't have any in the shop except the display one, so we walked back down Sunset, rode ToT and got the ride photo with a frame and the robe at the exit shop. We then went up Sunset and dropped off the robe to be embroidered.

We checked in our FPs at Star Tours, then rode the Backlot Tour, by which time we were ready for dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is always fun. David was in heaven; he's been craving a malted shake for months, but no one at home seems to stock the malt powder anymore, even if they advertise that they sell malts (I'm looking at you, Baskin-Robbins). We both liked my steak better than his meatloaf (we did two entrees, instead of splitting one app and one entree as we'd been doing. We also had no alcohol, making it the cheapest dinner yet this trip.)

We finished dinner about 820, and checked TSM one last time. I wanted to catch The Magic of Disney Animation, but the next show wasn't for more than half an hour, and JSG's group was already in queue for the late show of Fantasmic!, so we decided to join them instead. Stood on line for half of forever, then enjoyed the show. We picked up David's robe, our ride photo and the t-shirts we'd bought for my family on the way out, then headed back to our resort.

 

[DrGaellon]

Today was planned to be a low-stress day; David insisted we could not come to Florida and not see the ocean, so I agreed to a beach day. I stopped at the Concierge desk at the resort to ask for directions to a public beach in Daytona, which had been recommended to me as nicer and cleaner than either Cocoa Beach or Vero Beach - but the nice man at the desk suggested Clearwater Beach as nicer than any of them. I have a friend from NJ who moved to Tampa about five years ago, so we made plans to meet when he finished at work, and off we drove, leaving around 12:15.

We had dinner reservations at Shor, which is in the Hyatt Regency Clearwater, but when we made plans to meet Matt in Tampa, we changed them to late lunch. The food was delicious - crab cakes, fried calamari and a strawberry shortcake, with a Canvas Pinot Grigio - and the patio seating had a gorgeous view of the beach and water.

After lunch, I was feeling a bit queasy, so I sat in the car with the A/C running and napped while David went down to the beach. The city of Clearwater sets out umbrellas and beach chairs each morning; when you sit yourself down in one, a lifeguard will come over and ask you to pay for the day - before noon, it's $18, noon til 2 it's $15, and after 3 it's $12, and they come around and collect the chairs and umbrellas around 5. After my nap, I joined him on the beach, around 20 after 4, and we sat until it was time to give up the chairs. We still had time to kill, so we went back up to Shor and had drinks at the bar.

We headed up to the gay district of Tampa, Ybor City, and had dinner at a sushi and sake bar called Samurai Blue, which was really quite good (although both their spider roll and their tobiko negimaki were wrapped in at least twice as much nori as was really needed). Matt met us in the plaza below the restaurant and we went into Hamburger Mary's for drinks. Two other friends of his (but not his new BF ) joined us, and we sat and BSed for an hour or so, then David and I took our leave for the drive back to Kissimmee.

Pics at http://www.photobucket.com/June8Clearwater

 

[DrGaellon]

I have been waiting for A YEAR to ride Harry Potter. We got to the castle - and they said I don't fit in the seat!!! I wanted to cry! To add insult to injury, while waiting for David, I saw guys bigger than me coming off the ride. I feel like my whole day, if not my whole trip, has been ruined.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I have been waiting for A YEAR to ride Harry Potter. We got to the castle - and they said I don't fit in the seat!!! I wanted to cry! To add insult to injury, while waiting for David, I saw guys bigger than me coming off the ride. I feel like my whole day, if not my whole trip, has been ruined.

Oh, no! I am so sorry! Did I tell you that ride made me violently motion sick? Maybe that will be a teeny consolation.

 

[DrGaellon]

Oh, no! I am so sorry! Did I tell you that ride made me violently motion sick? Maybe that will be a teeny consolation.

We are going to finish Studios then go back. Maybe she put me in the wrong test seat...

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We are going to finish Studios then go back. Maybe she put me in the wrong test seat...

It seems like I heard they had modified some of the seats. There were really some narrow parameters for guests when we rode last year, and it was a problem for a lot of people. Good for you for going back to try again!

 

[DrGaellon]

We got to Universal around 1010am (later than I wanted, but David is just NOT a morning person). Neither of us had had an adequate breakfast, but we didn't see anyplace we could drive through, so we just went. We had decided to do Islands of Adventure first, as David knew how much I wanted to see WWoHP; I tried to hint that I had changed my mind and wanted to go to the Studios first, but he wasn't hearing me, so I was in a grumpy mood to start.

As we passed under the first archway into IoA, there was a little bakery, so we had ham, egg and cheese croissants and coffees, which hit the spot nicely. Of course, mostly stuffed, we passed on Hulk for the moment. We also bypassed Fear Fall - ToT had met that need - and neither of us had any interest in Storm Force. We did get on Spiderman, which David loved, but I merely liked; it was more motion than I was expecting on a full stomach and left me a bit queasy.

We strolled through Toon Lagoon, but didn't stop for anything, and headed right on into Jurassic Park. (I am endlessly amused that the description for Pteranodon Flyers says that guests taller than 56" must be accompanied by a child.) We got on line for the river ride, but at the last second I decided I did NOT want to get wet (still grumpy) and ducked for the exit. He didn't get VERY wet, but still more than I wanted.

We moved on into Hogsmeade. There were two seats outside the gate to check size - and the girl said I didn't fit. I'd been waiting to experience this ride for a year (it opened the week after was there last year); I nearly cried. We hit the single rider line, and when David got to the front, I was shown to the chicken exit. Of course, we bypassed most of the theming, so I didn't even get to enjoy that. David was kind enough not to gush about the ride; in fact, he barely said anything at all to me for the next hour. We rather quickly made our way out of WWoHP, bypassing the other rides and all the shops.

We went into Poseidon's Fury, which was cute but cheesy (though I thought the water tunnel was an amazing feat of physics), and I started to feel a little better. We rode the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley, then The Cat in the Hat. I told David at that point that there were several things at Studios I wanted to see; I suggested we go there, then come back to IoA around 6 and try Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey again, and he agreed. We stopped for him to ride Hulk (he got me on a coaster with a corkscrew turn, but no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks am I getting on one with a full loop), then left IoA.

We crossed in front of "the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world" and entered Universal Studios. Right on the first corner, next to the Beverly Hills Boulangerie, was a hot dog cart. David said, "Mmmm, I could go for a hot dog!" so we did. We went counter-clockwise this time, hitting T2 3D first. We bypassed E.T. (I think it was down or something, and we just never looped back to it) and went to Simpsons which we both enjoyed thoroughly. We did Men in Black though we both scored dismally, especially compared to the pimply teenager sitting next to us, who got a score over 300K (David was about 36K and I was 31K).

In short order, we knocked down Jaws! (which had more shark than I remembered) and Disaster (how do they DO that with Chris Walken on film?), then stopped at Louie's for gelati (cioccolato and pistacchio). We did Revenge of the Mummy and Twister. David said since there was no Express entry for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, and there was NO chance I would agree to ride it, he'd decided to skip it. Jimmy Neutron was closed, and neither of us was pressed to see Shrek so we headed out of the Studios and back across to IoA.

We walked back up through Seuss Landing and Lost Continent, directly back to WWoHP. We bypassed the CM at the test seats and just got on line (by this time, it was after 6, and the line was down to about 25 minutes). We walked through all of Hogwarts (yay!) and got more pictures. We got up to the line and got into a bench. I pulled down the harness and it clicked twice. The CM said, "I've gotta have that third click." I breathed in deep, stretched my spine, and it clicked! And it was AMAZING. My day was redeemed. As we came off Forbidden Journey, we jumped on Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a tame coaster, even by my standards. We got on line for Dragon Challenge, but as we were walking in (through that VERY long queue, which was empty), they announced "a temporary delay in operations;" a CM immediately followed that announcement with "only the blue dragon is affected; the red Chinese Fireball is still fully operational" - until we got to the front, that is. We were the second group waiting at the front of the line when they announce "Do not load!" at the red side. We waited 10 or 15 minutes, but by 7:50, it was still offline, so we left.

We stopped to discuss dinner, and decided we didn't want to stay on CityWalk. I hopped on OpenTable on the iPhone and found Big Fin Seafood, about 3 miles away on West Sand Lake Road at Via Dellagio Way. If you happen to find yourself up in the Dr. Phillips/Sand Lake area, this is an excellent restaurant - nice wine list, extensive menu choices. And on Mondays, they offer whole 1 1/2 lb Maine lobsters for $13.95 (add corn-on-the-cob and steamed potatoes for an extra $3) - we've added that to our "must-do" list for next trip.

I hit the wall almost the moment we sat down, so I let David order; I don't like raw shellfish, but he does, so he got himself a half-dozen Bluepoint oysters, and me a shrimp cocktail. We shared a plate of Maryland-style crab cakes with mashed potatoes and green beans; he barely touched his because he hit HIS wall right after the oysters.

Both Universal parks in one day is a LOT, especially on our LAST day. We will plan things somewhat differently next time. Menawhile, he's in bed nearly asleep. I wanted to post this while it was all fresh, and get the pictures copied as well. Today's pics are at http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh48/DrGaellon/Disney June 2011/June 9 Universal/.

I'll post a wrap-up tomorrow evening once we're home.

 

[dmwang9]

I'm glad you got to ride WWoHP! I have friends who had the same experience you did -- they didn't fit in the test seat, but the actual ride vehicle worked for them.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time!