Laughter, Tears & Screams- Two Aussies in WDW! New - 6/10 - The End!!

[tink1957]

Sorry about your Cali Grill experience, it almost makes me reconsider making an ADR for our Sept. trip. Hopefully we will get another server.
Mini golf sounds like fun, we've always been so busy touring the parks that we never did it.

 

[PrincessAlways]

Well what do you know......I was right! I thought you went to play mini-golf! Sorry about your meal at California Grill. It's certainly true that the service & attitude can really ruin a fine meal.

 

[AussieAngel]

I think that bad service can sometimes make the food taste worse! Sorry to hear that it wasn't the greatest.

Thanks - and I think you're right about bad service making the food taste bad too!! My memories of California Grill just aren't great, and it's really all because of our server! Booo!

Wow! You guys had a VERY full day! You definately made the most of it. Too bad that your dinner wasn't all that you wanted it to be.

It was a big day!! Fun though! We seemed to have lots of full days actually - some too full for my liking!! But we also had lots of afternoon naps, so it evened itself out.

All caught up on your TR!! What a great time you have had up till now. I feel like I am reading a great book and can't wait for the next chapter. Thank You so much for sharing your vacation!!!

Thanks so much for your nice comments!! And welcome!! I'm glad you're all caught up - I'll have the next chapter up soon!!

rum or vanilla vodka is also GREAT in those frozen cokes!

we've never been to cali grill. i've been tempted to go because of all the hype but have resisted. i don't know - just not interested. i think the next trip our "big fancy" meal is gonna be at flying fish. that placed smelled SO GOOD last time i walked by it. i have to go there one day!

Wow, what a great idea!! We'll totally have to sneak some vodka into those frozen cokes next time!! Conan will love that idea!
I'd definitely try Flying Fish over California Grill - Flying Fish looks great! We wouldn't go back to Cali Grill again, especially if we were paying OOP. The meal was good, but there are much nicer places in WDW, I reckon!

Sorry about your Cali Grill experience, it almost makes me reconsider making an ADR for our Sept. trip. Hopefully we will get another server.
Mini golf sounds like fun, we've always been so busy touring the parks that we never did it.

I'm sure you'll get a different server than ours - there must be heaps of them who work there! Don't let our experience stop you from going - lots of people love it there! I say, go and try for yourself.
And mini-golf was lots of fun - something different, anyway!

Well what do you know......I was right! I thought you went to play mini-golf! Sorry about your meal at California Grill. It's certainly true that the service & attitude can really ruin a fine meal.

I know, you were right!! Great job! I wonder what made you choose mini-golf!?

I'm just downloading the photos from our next day at Islands of Adventure now, and it should be up soon.

In other news, I'm in the middle of helping my sister and her family plan their first trip to Disney World in May! They live in Ireland and they know absolutely nothing about Disney World. In fact, she still calls it Disneyland and even though I've corrected her 86 times, she still calls it Disneyland. Hehehee.

So I called the dining reservation line the other night and pretended to be her, and booked all her ADRs! I felt so cheeky!! I got them ADRs for nearly all of their choices (well, my choices really) except for Chef Mickeys and 'Ohana. Bummer! But oh well, they're still eating at some great places, I hope! They have two kids, aged 4 and 2, so I tried to think of some fun places that kids might like, and so far I've booked...

* Crystal Palace
* Coral Reef
* Akershus (for the princesses, of course!)
* T-Rex
* Teppan Edo (they love Japanese food!)
* Boma
* Sci-Fi
* Captain's Grille (they're staying at the Yacht Club)

What do you reckon!? Hopefully they'll have fun! It's a bit scary planning for other people! Fun though, I love it. I think my next step will be to make little lists of "Must-do" rides and attractions at each park.

My sister asked me the other night, "So do I need to book my Fastpasses now? Or closer to the time?" Eeeeek!! I've got lots of teaching to do!!

 

[shebaxric]

So I called the dining reservation line the other night and pretended to be her, and booked all her ADRs! I felt so cheeky!! I got them ADRs for nearly all of their choices (well, my choices really) except for Chef Mickeys and 'Ohana. Bummer! But oh well, they're still eating at some great places, I hope! They have two kids, aged 4 and 2, so I tried to think of some fun places that kids might like, and so far I've booked...

* Crystal Palace
* Coral Reef
* Akershus (for the princesses, of course!)
* T-Rex
* Teppan Edo (they love Japanese food!)
* Boma
* Sci-Fi
* Captain's Grille (they're staying at the Yacht Club)

What do you reckon!? Hopefully they'll have fun! It's a bit scary planning for other people! Fun though, I love it. I think my next step will be to make little lists of "Must-do" rides and attractions at each park.

My sister asked me the other night, "So do I need to book my Fastpasses now? Or closer to the time?" Eeeeek!! I've got lots of teaching to do!! [/QUOTE]

They might want to try 1900 Park Fare, which is in the GF. They have a character meal there and it's pretty popular. There is a character breakfast and a character dinner. I think the breakfast has Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter. The dinner has the characters from Cinderella including two of the mice. There is also a nice character breakfast in AK at Tusker House, which has Donald, Daisy, Minnie, Micky, and Goofy. I've done that one before and that was great. I hope this helps and I'm sure you'll do a great job helping your sister out.

 

[AussieAngel]

They might want to try 1900 Park Fare, which is in the GF. They have a character meal there and it's pretty popular. There is a character breakfast and a character dinner. I think the breakfast has Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter. The dinner has the characters from Cinderella including two of the mice. There is also a nice character breakfast in AK at Tusker House, which has Donald, Daisy, Minnie, Micky, and Goofy. I've done that one before and that was great. I hope this helps and I'm sure you'll do a great job helping your sister out.

Ooh, I thought about 1900 Park Fare, but they're already meeting lots of princesses at Akershus and Pooh & friends at Crystal Palace. My sister is a bit wary about how the kids will react to meeting the characters, so I didn't want to do too many character meals. Thanks so much for your ideas though!! I didn't think of Tusker House... Thank you!

 

[AussieAngel]

Beep, beep, beep!!! Another early morning alarm!!

Auuuugghhhh, by this time I was seriously cursing myself that I'd made so many early breakfast ADRs! We had another 7.30am breakfast coming up, this time at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. Aye, aye, aye!! So early!!

That morning, we were both feeling exhausted. We'd had lots of big days in a row without a break and we were feeling it. We really struggled to get out of bed, but we did eventually, and drove to the Poly to eat our breakfast at Kona. Still half asleep, but we managed!!

Breakfast at Kona though, was delicious. Especially my Tonga Toast!!

I didn't eat it all because it was MASSIVE, but what I did eat, I really enjoyed. Warm, sugary and soft - yum!! And totally healthy, of course.

With nice food in our bellies, we hit the road again - this time we were off to Islands of Adventure, the other Universal park. Yayyy, but also... zzzzzz. We were still sleepy. We needed a thrill ride to wake us up! Luckily, we were off to the right place.

We went through the same routine as the day before - parked, walked 500 miles to the parks, and this time, we found the big pointy entrance thing and headed into Islands of Adventure!

We started getting excited when we saw this sign near the entrance...

And so it did!

The first thing we noticed when entering Islands of Adventure is that the theming is awesome! The entry area is very cool - it really does feel like you're walking through a remote little village, ready to embark on a great adventure, ala Indianna Jones! See?

So Islands of Adventure is made up of just that - islands!! Lots of separate "islands" or lands joined together. Each island has a different theme, and the first one island we arrived in was Superhero Island. Woooo! Look what we saw!! The Hulk roller coaster!

This looked awesome! And even better - it sounded awesome too!! I don't really know what was making the sound, but at some point in the ride, the coaster makes a huge "WOOOOOOSH!" sound, and it just sounds scary! I think it's when it goes through a tunnel. We couldn't wait to ride it, but we were on a mission to somewhere else!!

Here's Conan in Superhero Island. Cool, huh!?

We kept walking, through Toon Lagoon Island. Although we just had to stop here under this sign, since this was exactly how we were both feeling that morning...

And then, we arrived at our mission destination!! "Welcome to Jurassic Park..."

Remember my love for silly blockbuster action movies? Well, Jurassic Park is the best one ever. Heheheee. I know it's for 10 year old boys, but I just can't help it. It's awesome. When we went to Universal in LA, we rode the Jurassic Park river adventure first and it was my favourite ride! I might even go as close to say that it's my favourite ride ever. I don't know what it is about it, but I just love it!! So that was our mission. We were off to ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure!!

I have no photos of it unfortunately, because you have to put your bags and belongings into lockers before entering the ride. Boooo. But anyway, it starts off with a leisurely boat ride through Jurassic Park, visiting some friendly dinosaurs. And the Jurassic Park music - "Do do do doooo dooooo, do do do doooo doooooo, do do do dooooo...." Hehheee. Love it! But then of course, things turn nasty. The raptors have escaped! Oh-oh! The boat gets lost and you end up having a very close encounter with an evil T-Rex, before getting dropped very steeply and very quickly in your river boat - a bit like Splash Mountain, but 10 times worse!! Yayyyyyyy!!!

We both loved it, and ended up riding it three times in a row! Ha! Nerds!!

Next we high-tailed it back to Toon Lagoon, which was basically a comic strip area with some cool rides thrown in.

We put our stuff in a locker again, and jumped on a ride called "Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls", which looked like any other flume water ride, really. Little did we know what was in store for us. Here it is...

So we sat in a little flume thingy. It seated 4, so there were 2 other people in front of Conan and I. You had to sit one behind each other, with your legs straight out in front of you. Squishy, yes! Comfortable, no!! Eeeek! Then we were off!!

Well. There are warnings on the ride that you might get wet. And WOW. Wet was an understatement. The signs should say, "You will get absolutely, positively, ridiculously, soakingly saturated." The first drop we went down was a teeny little one, and the water came absolutely gushing in at the sides. I seriously thought we might sink with so much water in the boat thing!! My legs were lying in the water. There was nothing I could do about it either, because there was nowhere else to put your legs!! By the big drop at the end, it kind of wasn't funny anymore. We were so, so, SO wet.

So wet that when we got off, we had to walk like a scarecrow. Arms straight out, legs spread wide. So embarrassing! Now, I don't know if it was just our log flume thingy, or what, but that was crazy!! The guy in front of me was actually a really big guy, so I'm sure that didn't help. Oooohhhh, dear. This is me, after 30 minutes or so, after I'd dried off a bit!!

The only dry part of me was the very middle of my top. Everything else was soaking. So uncomfortable and icky!!! It wasn't that warm that day, either!! Brrrr!!

Anyway, we kept walking and ended up back on the Jurassic Park island. We popped into the Jurassic Park Discovery Center to witness a miracle of science happen right in front of us! Wow!! From this...

To this!!

"You're breeding... raptors!?!"

Conan made a big friend too. (He wasn't as wet as me, see!?)

Whew! By this time, we had most certainly woken up properly!!

And just to make sure we were awake, it was Dueling Dragons time!!

Dueling Dragons is actually two roller coasters. You choose which side you'd like to ride on - Fire or Ice. They go on totally different tracks, but come ridiculously close to each other throughout the ride. As in, close your eyes because you think you're going to crash, close. Waaaah!!

Actually, I think I had my eyes squeezed shut nearly the whole time on this coaster. I was a bit terrified!! I didn't even scream - I was too scared!! Conan absolutely loved it though.

Here he is, still waiting to ride Hulk!!

Continued in the next post...

 

[AussieAngel]

But next was Seuss Landing!! Yayyyyy!!

Seuss Landing is SO cool!! I just love Dr Seuss books and read them all the time with my class. Walking into Seuss landing was just like being magically transported into a Dr Seuss book! So wacky and colourful and fun!

This is also the "kiddy" section of the park. But we had a blast here too! We went on the "High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train ride" first, which was a cute little train that took you right around Seuss land.

Then it was time for The Cat in the Hat ride! Basically, you sit on a Seuss couch and it takes you through a journey of the storybook. Awesome!!

And then...

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish! This was kind of like Dumbo - you sit in a fish that goes up and down and all around. Look, I'm even rhyming now!!

We stopped for lunch here too, and had a very icky lunch of stale burgers. But oh well, nothing can be bad in Seuss Landing!!

You know what came next... HULK!! Eeeeek!!!

I'll admit it - I was nervous. It just looked so big and green and threatening!! I'd seen Ellen Degeneres ride on Hulk, and she screamed (and laughed!) the whole way and ever since then, I'd wanted to ride it, but also knew I'd be terrified. Heh. But I guess that's the fun of thrill rides!

The queue was pretty long by then, but luckily we had our Express Passes, and whizzed right by everyone! Yayyyy!! And before I knew it, we were being strapped in, and we were off!! Hold onto your hats! I so wasn't expecting the take-off at the start. You trudge up a very long, steep climb, very, very slowly, and then... WOOSH!!!! You're off like a rocket!!

I have to admit... Hulk was very cool. I screamed like crazy, and Conan laughed like a madman. And even better, I kept my eyes open for most of the time! Yayyy!! Here's Conan on the tester seat out the front of the ride, demonstrating his scream...

And then of course, we had to ride it again!!!

By that time, we'd done most thing we wanted to do - a couple of rides were down because they were water rides and it was a bit chilly. We had a go on one more ride though - Storm Force Acceleration. Sounds cool, right?! But actually, it was pretty much a replica of the Spinning Teacups at Disney World! Which are great, don't get me wrong... it just wasn't what we were expecting!!

We decided to have a little break and share a funnel cake while we checked out the map to see if we'd done everything...

Wow, funnel cakes are great!! I'd never even seen one before, let alone tried one! We don't have them in Australia. I was surprised how big it was too!

Anyway, we realised we'd done everything we wanted to do, so headed towards the exit. Our summary for the day?! Islands of Adventure is SO much better than Universal Studios!! They both have some great rides and some not-so-great rides, but IoA's theming and overall atmosphere is just so much more fun and lively!! We had a blast!!

And, we were exhausted. It was around 3pm by then, so we headed straight back to Disney. And guess what we did?! We headed to Alamo to return our hire car. Oh noooo! We loved our little car, and we'd had so many fun adventures in it! It was sad to say goodbye! But on the other hand, it was kind of exciting, because from now on, it was purely Disney time!! No more leaving Disney for other theme parks - we had Disney, Disney, Disney ahead of us!!

Alamo offers a great service in that after you return your car, they drive you back to your resort. Cool! We were home at the WL by about 4.30, and had a little nap in our room. Lovely!! Aren't afternoon naps just the best sometimes!?

Dinner that night was nice and easy - downstairs at the Whispering Canyon Cafe!! We had a delicious, fun meal. Again, if you want to read more about it, head to my dining report!! Afterwards, it was back to our room in time to see the Electrical Water Pageant pass by! We had a great view from our balcony! Not really the most spectacular thing, but still fun to see!

We stayed up for a little while, watching tv and enjoying time to relax. We were very much looking forward to our next day - our first "day off"! We had no real plans except Chef Mickeys for a late 11am breakfast, then Downtown Disney in the evening. Who knew what the day would bring!?!!

 

[Happy Elf]

Your tonga toast looks amazing! Yum! I want to have that sometime, but we are having breakfast at O'hana instead this trip!

Sounds like you had a great time at IoA! DH would like to visit there sometime, but we need to wait till the kids are bigger!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

i absolutely loved ioa when we went last year!

my favorite ride was the spiderman ride

I am so glad you two had a good time

I am loving your trip report

 

[pamouselover]

I have not been to Universal in nine years. I was waiting for the HP park to get done first. Did you see any progress?

 

[AussieAngel]

Your tonga toast looks amazing! Yum! I want to have that sometime, but we are having breakfast at O'hana instead this trip!

Sounds like you had a great time at IoA! DH would like to visit there sometime, but we need to wait till the kids are bigger!

Can't wait to hear more!

Tonga Toast was great, but so was our breakfast at 'Ohana! I'm sure you'll enjoy that too!
I think it's a good idea to wait til your kids are older to visit Universal and IoA - there's a few rides there for little ones, but not many!

i absolutely loved ioa when we went last year!

my favorite ride was the spiderman ride

I am so glad you two had a good time

I am loving your trip report

Thanks! We had fun at IoA too, although we didn't do the Spiderman ride!! We were told it was a simulator ride, and we'd had so many bumpy, jerky rides on simulators that we decided to skip it!! Whoops! Was it really good?

I have not been to Universal in nine years. I was waiting for the HP park to get done first. Did you see any progress?

We saw lots of building going on in the new Harry Potter area. There are big construction walls up everywhere, so you can't really see in. It's a pretty big area though, so it will be pretty cool when it's done, I reckon!!

More trip report coming up soon!! I hope everybody is having a fun weekend. I made mint chocolate cupcakes today! Yay!

 

[transnet87]

Hello, I really enjoy all of your posts! IOA is a great park and Spiderman is not really too jerky of a ride, it is one of my favorites in the park, I am sure you guys would have loved it. Also Poseidon's fury is fun, I love that tunnel of water! Can't wait for your next posting.

 

[punkin413]

very cool! i'm so wanting to go there now. i love coasters and as much as i love disney world, it is not known for its thrill rides. so i really want to do IoA now! i may have to add it to our december 2010 plans.

your love of jurassic park made me laugh because my sister's boyfriend likes to do his imitation of a valosa raptur and it's quite amusing! you'd get a kick out of it.

you know, i used to love getting wet on rides when i was a kid. but now i just really hate it. it's not the actual water part - that doesn't bug me. it's the aftermath of walking around a park all day with wet underwear and socks. nobody can honestly say that's a comfortable thing to do!

love the pics of the EWP from your room! i know it's old and boring but it's so "disney."

 

[mrskckitty]

I just finished reading your dinning report and just loved it. Of course I had to pop over here to read all about your trip. I hope your kitty is doing well and I hope you post a picture of her so I can see her cute face.

 

[KristinAnne]

I lurked through your dining report, but I'm joining in now! It looks like you're having so much fun! I should have mentioned this on your dining report, but I like the point you make about saving money, but not really. If you'd eat that much food normally, then I imagine you definitely save money, but if you are eating it just beacuse it's there, then I imagine you're not. Also, did it prevent you from eating other snacks and desserts that you wanted to try?
Anyway, now on to the TR! I love reading along with the fun other people have. Jusrrasic Park sounds like a blast! It makes me that much more anxious to go back!

 

[MaceysMom]

Islands of Adventure looks awesome. We weren't planning on going there on our trip but I think we might take a day and go.

Funnel cakes are so good. We always get them at festivals.

As always great pictures!

 

[lmillercrew]

I hate wearing wet clothes too! If it's my shirt, I don't mind so much. But, when the pants get wet, ugh!
No funnel cakes in Australia? I suppose that's why they have them at the American pavillion in Epcot.
It didn't look like there were a lot of people at IOA when you were there.

 

[Nicole786]

I love Islands of Adventure! I agree about toon lagoon, I wore jeans when I was there last and totally regret it! Not wearing jeans to IOA anymore! haha!

 

[lovinwdw]

I am totally subscribing to this trip report. I just got done reading your dining report and it was awesome!!!! BTW, you made an absolutely beautiful bride!

 

[trixiequilts]

Yep, we really need to wait a few years before we do Universal. Which might work out okay because the Harry Potter hoopla may die down a little by the time we get there. Or maybe not. And it may not matter anyway, because it sure didn't look very busy!