Marching Along We're Adventurers ... FINAL UPDATE - Jan 20 Posts #108, 109, 110

[Star Tours Fan]

Wow!! Didn't have any trouble with the hotel when I got there the week after. They were great to me and I got there at 11pm. At least it got straightened out.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Whoohoo your first installment! I'm so excited to hear about everything. Sorry the hotel peeps were so rude - that seems like a totally unreasonable policy.

Need! More! Now!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Good day and welcome to Day 2…

Our day started when the alarm clock went off at 8:00 am. The beds weren’t the most comfortable the last time we had stayed there but they had been replaced over the last year and they were fantastic! About an hour later we had gotten ourselves ready and eaten breakfast at the hotel. We typically enjoy the free continental breakfast buffet they have at the hotel but this trip we found we didn’t take advantage of it, only eating there three times over the whole trip.

It was partly cloudy to start the day but we decided to leave our rain gear at the hotel. We headed off to Universal and got there a little before 9:30. We took a few pics on the way and got quite excited when we saw the park entrance decorated for HHN.

Lee had a bit of trouble getting through the turnstiles with his AP but then he remembered when he first used it in May he used his left index finger instead of his right…sure enough once he used the left it worked like a charm.

Our first stop was Shrek 4D. We only had to wait about 15 minutes to get in so we were happy about that. One thing we discovered by accident was that by sitting in the first few rows the picture was a lot clearer than when we were sitting towards the rear. As much as we love the 3D movie it was frustrating to watch it when it was blurry. This time when we were one of the last ones into the theatre and had to sit in the second row we saw it clearer than we ever have. We left and went to the photo op with Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona. Unfortunately it started to sprinkle just before we got our turn and Fiona can’t be out in the rain (apparently she's a witch) so she had to leave.

We then headed over to Twister which we had skipped in May. There is one part at the beginning of Twister that gets us every time. It’s when you first see the tornado as a projection on a screen. We know it’s a projection, we know it’s not real, but we still get an uneasy feeling when we see it.

After Twister we decide to just go for a walk around the park and snap a few pictures.

We checked the time and decided to make our way back to CityWalk for our lunch reservations at Emeril’s. On the way out we ran into Woody Woodpecker and Zorro

We left the park and headed to Emeril’s. We got there about 10 minutes early but they were still able to seat us. We’ve eaten at a lot of good restaurants over the past few years but this was one of the best, if not the best, dining experiences we’ve had. We tried a few of their breads and were very impressed. Our favourite was the scallion and pepperjack cheese bread. For our appetizers we ordered the New Orleans BBQ Shrimp and the Creole Marinated Calamari. Both were phenomenal but the BBQ sauce with the shrimp was the best either of us had ever had. For our main course Bonny had the Lobster Bisque while Lee had the Mahi-Mahi which was on the Table D’Hote Menu. We didn’t take any pictures of it…we see a lot of people posting pictures of food but we just don’t see our meals as photo-ops.

We didn’t have any room left for dessert so we left and were headed back to the park. We had noticed it start and stop raining a few times while we were in the restaurant but the sky didn’t look too bad. As we were heading back to the park we decided to stop at the washrooms next to the Nascar Café. We were only there about 2 minutes but when we were finished up the skies just opened. Fortunately it’s sheltered there so we were able to stay dry while we waited for it to blow over. We ended up staying put for over an hour watching people scrambling to buy ponchos. There were the regular clear Universal ones that a lot of people had but there were other groups of people who had there white ponchos with pointed hoods. After seeing several of these groups passing by we couldn’t help but wonder if we had somehow ended up at a klan rally.

Eventually the rain stopped and we decided that with us going to the HHN RIP Tour that evening it would be safest if we went back to the hotel to get our rain gear and leave the camera at the hotel where it wouldn’t get wet. We were really hoping to take some good pics that night but we just didn’t want to risk damaging the camera. So for the rest of this day there will be no more pics. Sorry!

Sure enough on the way back to the hotel the sun came out and everything dried out. We still grabbed the rain gear and left the camera. We got back to Universal and left the rain gear in the car where we could go back to get it if necessary. We decided to just take a stroll around the park as it was getting late and we’d be heading to a Stay & Scream area soon. As we were heading towards the big fibreglass shark near Jaws we noticed a single dark cloud heading our way as we were passing some tables with umbrellas. We had a seat at one of them and within a few minutes the sky opened up again. It only lasted about 15 minutes then we were on our way again. We stopped by Finnegans to meet a few of the folks from the CSW Forums including macraven, who we would be taking the RIP Tour with later on.

We left and made our way over to the Monsters Café where we grabbed a drink then headed over to the Stay & Scream area while the park emptied. This year the area was by the sound stages between Jimmy Neutron and Twister. Shortly before they opened the gates to let us back into the park they opened up the Nightmare on Elm Street house.

We’ll end this instalment here and post the HHN stuff in the next instalment…stay tuned...

 

[ATAfamily]

Aw Man! Nothing like leaving us hanging and wanting more

 

[CriminyCrafft]

I cannot WAIT to see your HHN pics!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Only 2 replies…we didn’t think we were that boring…


Since our RIP Tour wasn’t until 8:00 we decided to go through Bonny’s most anticipated house, Nightmare On Elm Street: Dreamwalkers

. A pet peeve of ours at HHN is that Universal wants us to move through the houses very quickly but at the same time they try and disorient us so we can’t. There’s nothing more annoying to us that having strobe lights flashed in our eyes in one room then expecting us to walk from there into a dark room and make our way through it very quickly. That’s how NOES started out. The storyline was that flashing the strobe lights in our eyes was supposed to be us falling asleep to enter Freddy’s world. After the strobe lights it appeared as if everyone in Freddy’s world was dressed as big blue dots. The set design in the house was absolutely immaculate and the scareactors were great but unfortunately Universal seemed to think it was a good idea to blind us so we couldn’t appreciate it. We were finally able to get a good look at the house during the daytime tour we took a few days later and yes we took lots of pics!

After we got out of the house the gates had opened so we were free to wander throughout the rest of the park again. We debated trying to go through another house or two but decided against it since we’d be going through them all soon with the RIP Tour and we’d be visiting them each several more times over the next few weeks. We’re also members of the HHN Vault forum and had ordered t-shirts from them which we had arranged to be left for us at the lost & found. We headed over and picked them up. While we were there we decided to just stick around the area since our Tour group was to be meeting in the next little while.

We hooked up with our tour guide Chris (who is one of our friends from the Vault) and the rest of our group and headed for the first house. To be perfectly honest, at this point it’s been over a month since we took the RIP Tour and we really don’t remember exactly what order we did the houses in. We remember the houses well but just not the order. We’ll just present them in the order you would encounter them walking through the park. Keep in mind these are just our opinions and there are a lot of other reviews out there that disagree with ours. Some of you may have gone to HHN and liked what we didn’t or vise versa. We’re not trying to start any debates, just share our experiences.

We’ve already addressed the NOES house so we’ll cover the other two sound-stage houses first. What we will add is that the NOES house isn’t as bad on the eyes when it’s already dark outside before you go in. It’s still very difficult to see anything but you’re not blind for most of the house.

The next we’ll review is the Dead Silence: The Curse of Mary Shaw house. Several months before our trip, when they first announced the HHN houses, we picked up Dead Silence and watched it with the understanding it was going to be a house this year. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie and thought it would make an excellent house. We were not at all disappointed. The house walked guests through a number of scenes from the movie starting in the cemetery. Next we moved to the mortuary (those who attended HHN 16 may recognize the Mary Shaw in the overturned coffin as a masked Cindy from Screamhouse: Revisited). Then we entered the Guignol Theatre.

Just in case anyone has wondered about the name, Le Theatre du Grand Guignol was a real theatre in Paris that was founded in 1897 by Oscar Metenier as an extension of the naturalist movement, which had been popularized by André Antoine's Theatre Libre. A typical evening at the Grand Guignol Theatre might consist of five or six short plays, ranging from suspenseful crime dramas to bawdy sex farces but the staple of the Grand Guignol repertoire was the horror play, which inevitably featured eye-gouging, throat-slashing, acid-throwing, or some other equally grisly climax. Over the years, and under the direction of several different managers, the Grand Guignol theatre flourished, becoming one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris. By the early 1960’s, however, the Grand Guignol’s formula no longer had the same impact with audiences, and in 1962, it closed its doors. (those who are interested can visit www.grandguignol.com for more information)

Now back to the house. While the bridge to the entrance of the theatre would have been a nice addition, it just would have been logistically impossible to do in the space they had. Those who have seen the movie may recall the rickety catwalk high above the stage in the theatre. The HHN folks recreated this with what we think was one of the best visual effects at this year’s event. To create the illusion, guests were led along a walkway that moved slightly under guests’ feet. Next to this walkway the ground was covered with mirrors and the ceiling had the stage scene mounted on it. The net effect was the illusion that you were about 30’ above the stage while in actuality you were less than 6” off the ground. When we did the Secrets of the Sideshow Tour we got to take a lot of pics of this house and we’ll be posting them later when we get to the day we took the tour.

We’ll move on to the next soundstage house which was Psychoscareapy: Home for the Holidays. The story behind this house is that the inmates of the Shadybrook Asylum (as seen in HHN 13 and 16) were let out carolling on Christmas Eve but their van crashed into a retirement home and the inmates have taken over. This house was geared less towards scares and more towards those with a very dark sense of humour. Fortunately that describes us to a ‘T’ so we thoroughly enjoyed this house.

One detail about this house to note is the fact there are a lot of clocks located throughout the house with several in each room. These were taken from the Back to the Future ride when it closed up earlier in the year. We got a lot of pics here on the daytime tour and will be posting them when we get to that day.

Passing the soundstages and through New York we eventually come to Vampyr: Blood Bath. Castle Vampyr was a very popular house at HHN 14 but the storyline was this castle only existed once every 13 years which made it impossible to bring it back before 2017. To get around this, the A&D team came up with a storyline that the younger vampires were hosting raves to attract new victims that would be either converted as new recruits or killed as food. The older vampires disapproved of this and showed up at one of these raves to fight with the younger vampires. Don’t look at us like that…this is their storyline…not ours. We’d just like to know where Count Chocula fits into this whole scheme.

We didn’t mind this house but felt it didn’t live up to its potential. Instead of scares, you were left with scenes of vampires feeding on one another. Lee will be the first to say there is nothing wrong with half-naked vampire chicks, especially when they’re dancing, but there really should have been more to the house in our opinion. The one nice touch was the advertisement sign for “Lugosi’s est. 1931”, which of course refers to Bela Lugosi who played Dracula in the 1931 Universal production of Dracula.

Just a little trivia tidbit…Universal Studios was in very bad financial shape and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy after the 1929 stock market crash. Studio head Carl Laemmle had all but given up on saving the studio when he finally agreed to son Carl Jr.’s idea of producing and releasing a horror film. In his eyes, he simply had nothing left to lose. Carl Jr. produced Dracula which was released in 1931 and became a blockbuster. The studio followed up the success of Dracula with the equally successful Frankenstein. Largely based on the success of these two films, Universal not only recovered but prospered and evolved into what it is today.

Now back to HHN. After Vampyr the next house you come to is Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Flesh Wounds. We would feel fairly comfortable in suggesting that those who are huge fans of the original film would not likely like this house which was based on the 2003 remake and the subsequent 2006 sequel/prequel. We think they did an excellent job of recreating a number of scenes from the movie. A few memorable scenes included a young lady frantically trying to start a van while Leatherface is on top of the van sawing through the roof, Leatherface rushing directly towards you up a hallway, and finally Leatherface coming towards you through sheets hung on a clothesline. This final scene was the first time since we’ve been going to HHN that Lee actually felt genuine fear for a second.

Next to TCM you come to the Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribute which was performed on the same stage they use for Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue during the day. The cast was absolutely phenomenal but it was one of those shows where you would love it if and only if you are a RHPS fan. We are not. To be blunt we found sitting through this show to be an absolutely painful experience. The verdict on this one was unanimous amongst our tour group and judging from the number of people we saw walking out during the show a lot of other people felt this way.

After RHPS you come to the Lee’s most anticipated house…Friday the 13th: Camp Blood.

The story behind this one was that the guest is a new counsellor at Camp Crystal Lake and the house starts with fellow counsellors trying to scare you with cheesy “Boo” scares but before too long Jason shows up and the scares are real. As far as execution goes we thought this house really delivered the atmosphere and overall was really well done. We were very impressed with Jason’s look as well…Lee was quite concerned that they wouldn’t costume the scareactors properly or cast people who didn’t have the right physique or something that would spoil the effect. Those who have watched the movies know Jason’s look changes dramatically from one movie to the next but they made an excellent decision going with the Freddy vs. Jason look.

Our next stop takes us to the most excellent show, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure. To describe the show briefly, it’s an annual show that parodies the previous year’s pop culture events. The show is definitely not for the kiddies as a lot of the humor is risqué in nature. One advantage of the RIP Tour is you get reserved seating up front and don’t have to get there too early. We enjoyed this year’s show more than most but in our opinion it still didn’t beat their 2005 show.

Next stop is Jack’s Funhouse in Clown-o-vision. For some reason Universal seems determined to keep trying 3D houses despite the fact that they are consistently viewed by most as the worst house of each year they try it. There are only so many things that can be done with a 3D house and none of them are scary. After the RIP Tour we attended HHN several times afterwards and this is the one house we never went through again. The less said about this house the better so we’ll move along.

Finally the last house we come to is The Thing: Assimilation. This house was excellent in every sense. The set design was great and the house was unique in that it used animatronics in addition to the scareactors which really added to the experience. One thing we had heard was that the Stage Manager for this house had passed away a few weeks earlier and the scareactors had made a vow to make it the scariest house at HHN. Their efforts were really noticeable and I give them credit for the job they did in keeping that vow.

By the time we finished up the RIP Tour it was close to midnight. We were going to grab a bite with macraven who we really enjoyed meeting but the restaurants were closing up and the park was soon to close as well.

We ended up following the mob out and left Universal for the night. We were quite hungry as we hadn’t had a bite to eat since lunchtime so we ended up stopping at the McDonalds across the street from our hotel on the way back. Overall we had a good group for our RIP tour and are looking forward to doing it again next year.

Anyways that’s our basic HHN summary from our tour. Again, we’re sorry we don’t have any pics posted but with the weather the way it was after lunch we decided to keep the camera safe. We will be posting lots of HHN pics but we just didn’t take any that night.

Next instalment…Epcot!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Thanks for the very descriptive update. I would want to protect my cameras too, so I can understand not wanting to take yours with you. I think I'll buy some disposable waterproof cameras for my next trip!

I've never been to Universal, though I'd really love to go, so I'm enjoying when you tell me about Universal too, thanks!

 

[macraven]

really enjoyed the installment.


i haven't put up my hhn pics yet that i took during the day tour on friday.
since we love the same things, i bet your pics on the tour would be the same or similar to mine.

waiting for the next episode

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

waiting for the next episode

It's already written...we just forgot to add a couple pics...we should have it up later this evening

 

[macraven]

hip hip hooray...........

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

After the busy night at HHN, we decided to skip breakfast and sleep in on Monday morning. We got up around 9:30 and noticed the skies were partly cloudy but everything was dry. We decided to leave our rain gear in the hotel and we put batteries into Pal Mickey then left for Epcot.

Sure enough, as soon as we pulled out of the hotel parking lot, it started to rain. As we pulled out onto 192 we noticed the skies were darker over WDW so we turned around and went to get our rain gear. After a quick pit stop back at the hotel we were back on our way. These two pics will show you what the weather was like…the first is a bright sky and raining with the ground completely wet and the second is a darker overcast sky with the ground completely dry. These pics were taken less than a minute apart.

As we got to Epcot everything was still dry and the sun was starting to come out. With both Pal Mickey and the camera we decided to bring the rain gear and we could keep these items under our coats if necessary. Since we had decided to bring the rain gear with us you can guess what happened…within a few minutes the clouds were almost completely gone and we didn’t see another drop of rain for the rest of the day (and since we kept it in the car from that point onwards we didn’t see any more rain until the day before we left)!

We turned on PM before we got to the gate and instead of starting up normally he started stuttering “he-ha…he-ha…he-ha…he-ha…” As it turned out the batteries we had charged before we left had lost their charge so we just shut him off.

We liked how they incorporated Ratatouille into the F&W Festival signage. We decided not to take pictures at the time as it was a bit of a mob scene and past experience has shown it’s easier to get good pictures later on after the morning entry crowd has tapered off.

The second thing we noticed was the closed Spaceship Earth. We had known for quite some time that it would be closed for this trip and we usually only ride it once each trip (usually near the end of the day when our feet are tired and we need the rest) but we were still a bit bummed at seeing it closed.

We stopped in at the Art of Disney store to browse and noticed that one of the artists whose work we had previously seen and liked was there signing prints. Bonny bought a set of prints and had them signed and personalized.

We then headed towards World Showcase as it would be opening soon and we had lunch reservations in Mexico at the San Angel Inn. We got there a few minutes before our reservation and sat inside the Mexico Pavilion and watched the crowd for a bit. Those of you who read our May TR will remember we got stuck inside the Mexico Pavilion during a cloudburst but were lucky enough to have a bench. This time we were able to get the same bench to sit and people-watch.

One of our WDW pet peeves are the people who think that hats for sale are there to be used as props for their photo ops. We were sitting not too far from where they have the sombreros on sale and watched as 7 sweaty people put on the same sombrero for photos in less than 10 minutes (yes we kept track since we had nothing better to do while we waited). Consider that over the length of the day and you’ll know why we don’t buy hats at WDW.

After about 15 minutes our pager went off and we were seated for lunch. Lee had a Margarita San Angel and the Carne Asada Tampiquena while Bonny had a coke with the Pollo A Las Rajas. The food was good but not great. The service was also good but not great. Bottom line is we would eat there again if we were passing by while we were hungry and there were openings but it’s not a place we would go out of our way to make an ADR for.

After lunch we decided to make our way through World Showcase. Our next stop was China. We enjoyed browsing through the shops and took a few pics of the gardens. While we didn’t eat there this trip, their CS restaurant (the Lotus Blossom Café) has really good food and we highly recommend it.

After we left China we headed over to watch the African carvers. Every time we go we’re absolutely amazed at their skill.

Next stop for us was Germany. We decided to finally take a picture of the Arribas Bros castle they they’re selling for $37,500. We can’t help but wonder if anyone has ever bought one.

We also always take a picture of this statue of St. George slaying the dragon. Most German villages have a St. George statue for protection. At least that’s what we read in the Imagineers Guide…neither of us have ever been to German so we really don’t know for sure.

The next stop was Italy where we took a few more pics.

We next headed over to the American Pavilion. We’ve never gone inside to watch the American Adventure and decided to skip it again this time. Instead we took pictures of the hedge pears.

We also decided to take a pic of the Canadian Pavilion from across the lagoon.

We were both feeling pretty sore and we knew we’d be going back to Epcot several times before we left so we decided to head back towards the exit. Lee had a blister from his crocs the day before and Bonny had pulled something in her ankle so we decided why aggravate these little things so early in the trip.

We did stop at the Canadian Pavilion on our way by to wish our fellow Canucks a Happy Thanksgiving. We noticed the CM we had promised the Timbits to wasn’t even there so we didn’t feel so bad.

On the way out we stopped to take these pics:

We did some shopping after we left Epcot and picked up a brace for Bonny’s ankle. We lazed around the hotel and just took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. With us skipping the trip to the Keys this year and spending the full two weeks in Orlando, we had a lot more time for everything so we never felt rushed at all. That evening we headed over to Old Town to take a little stroll and browse the shops for a little while before calling it an early night.

Up next…our day trip to St Augustine.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The weather sure did clear up and turn into a beautiful day! Those pear topiaries were so cute!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Great installments - I love all your pictures. I went to St. Augustine in 2001 and loved it. I can't wait to see what you thought. I did a ghost tour which was unintentionally hilarious.

Can't wait for more!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

What beatiful colors in your WS pics, especially of the African carvers! I'm totally enjoying all your pictures, thanks for sharing them. Wow, 2 weeks in Orlando, I'm so jealous.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

As much as we wanted to go to MK and see the refurbed Haunted Mansion, we also wanted to take a day trip to St Augustine and this was the only day we had free to take a day trip.

We started off by sleeping in and skipping breakfast again, getting up around 9:30. We got ourselves ready, gassed up the rental car, and headed east on I4 to Daytona Beach then north on I95 to St. Augustine. The trip took us about 2 hrs. It might have been a bit longer…we really weren’t paying attention since we were on vacation.

Our first stop was the beach. We’re quite used to Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach where it’s almost impossible to find parking anywhere and what you can find costs a small fortune. Needless to say we were quite pleasantly surprised to find tons of free parking adjacent to the beach. The one thing we found odd was there was something in the air that really made our throats scratchy so we were both coughing non-stop while we were there.

We spent about ½ hr strolling along the beach and snapped a few photos:

After leaving the beach we decided to head to the historic downtown and check out some of the shops. We found the parkade, parked the car, then headed out on foot towards the shops. After a few minutes we realized we were going the wrong way and turned around. We did a bit of browsing and took a few more photos:

We were getting hungry since we had skipped breakfast so we stopped off at the Florida Cracker Café for a bite. We had a few appetizers (Bonny had the crab balls and Lee the conch fritters) and burgers for the main course. Both the food and service were good and the price was quite reasonable:

After lunch we continued up St. George Street which is a street full of little shops and restaurants that’s open only for pedestrian traffic. We found the atmosphere in St. Augustine to be very reminiscent of Key West.

After we finished up our stroll and our shopping, we headed back to the parkade and picked up the car. One thing we noticed was that the cost of parking all afternoon in St. Augustine was less than parking in Key West for an hour. We next headed to the Fountain of Youth. Unfortunately it was getting late and the park was closing in about 10 minutes so we didn’t go in. We did shoot a few pictures outside the park.

Our next stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. Again, by the time we got there the fort was closing to the public in about 15 minutes so we didn’t bother paying to get in. We did shoot a few photos from the outside and will go earlier next time to see the inside:

After taking these pics, we left St. Augustine and headed south to Cocoa Beach. We went to the big Ron Jon Surf Shop for a while then decided to head back. As we were heading back to I95 we noticed the car was almost on fumes so we filled up again and headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back at about 10:30 we had been sitting in the car for quite a while so we decided to go for a walk around Old Town. We hear a lot of people claiming Old Town seems run down and unsafe to walk around at night. Frankly we don’t see this problem. It is supposed to look older as its intention is to recreate the boardwalk atmosphere of Atlantic City or Coney Island. As for it being unsafe, we’ve never seen anything to give that impression as it’s full of families with children even at night.

After about an hour at Old Town we headed back to the hotel where we watched a bit of TV before heading to bed for the night.

Next day…AK, HHN Daytime Tour, and a quick trip to MK…

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Lovely photos. I visited St Augustine many years ago, it is a beautiful city.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Great photos! Looks like a fun day. Are you familiar with the American tv show Ghost Hunters? It's one of my favorites and they had an episode where they investigated a haunted prison (which I went to when I was there) and a haunted lighthouse in St. Augustine. They got some REALLY scary stuff in the lighthouse. I guess my point is, St. Augustine is a great place for folks who like scary stuff to visit!

Can't wait to see your daytime HHN pics!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Yeah we noticed there were several ghost tours but we didn't want to stick around for an extra three hours until one started. We did one in Key West a few years ago and it was good for a few chuckles. It was a perfect example of the power of suggestion. We were told to take pictures throughout the tour and our guide would examine them at the end. The tour guide got very excited when these two elderly ladies captured a "stream of ectoplasm" in one of their photos which got them all excited and soon almost the entire group was seeing this supernatural phenomena in this photo. When it got to us we were quite easily able to see the "stream of ectoplasm" was a leafy branch in the foreground that was illuminated by the camera's flash. It wasn't blurry or anything that would cause confusion...it was very clearly a branch with leaves. People wanted to see a ghost so they saw a ghost instead of what was blatantly obvious and staring them in the face. A few others saw it was obviously a branch and were left shaking their heads as well.

The HHN photos will be coming up...because we're only allowed 25 images per post we'll have to spread them out over several posts...we should be able to get the photos of each of the three houses and the museum in one post each.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Yeah we noticed there were several ghost tours but we didn't want to stick around for an extra three hours until one started. We did one in Key West a few years ago and it was good for a few chuckles. It was a perfect example of the power of suggestion. We were told to take pictures throughout the tour and our guide would examine them at the end. The tour guide got very excited when these two elderly ladies captured a "stream of ectoplasm" in one of their photos which got them all excited and soon almost the entire group was seeing this supernatural phenomena in this photo. When it got to us we were quite easily able to see the "stream of ectoplasm" was a leafy branch in the foreground that was illuminated by the camera's flash. It wasn't blurry or anything that would cause confusion...it was very clearly a branch with leaves. People wanted to see a ghost so they saw a ghost instead of what was blatantly obvious and staring them in the face. A few others saw it was obviously a branch and were left shaking their heads as well.

The HHN photos will be coming up...because we're only allowed 25 images per post we'll have to spread them out over several posts...we should be able to get the photos of each of the three houses and the museum in one post each.

Oh, the ghost tour I took was terrible. The "guide" was a 20-year-old wannabe "actress" who had on period clothes and spoke with a bad faux British accent. It was quite amusing. St. Augustine has a spooky vibe, though, I think.

Can't wait till your next update!!!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Six months before your trip, early breakfast ADRs seem like a good idea. When the time comes and your alarm rings and you realize it’s still dark outside, you begin to question why you would do such a thing.

After grumbling we got ourselves ready, and were finally out the door on our way to our breakfast date with Donald and friends at Animal Kingdom. Arriving at the AK gates at about 7:35 am, we get in line behind a pylon. We knew they wouldn’t be open yet, but had to feel sorry for the family from the UK next to us who had arrived in a taxi and obviously had no idea they didn’t open until 7:45 am. You could just see the look of panic in their eyes when they asked the gate attendant if they could be let through and were told “the gates don’t open until 7:45”.

We park our car, get on the tram (yes we got on the tram – it was too darn early!) and arrive at the park gate. From reading the Dis, we knew there would be a special line for those going to the Breakfastosaurus. What we didn’t realize is how long that line would actually be. All these people couldn’t be going to breakfast could they??

We get in line and wait. Within a few minutes the line starts moving and we start our trek over to the restaurant. Yep all these people were going for breakfast!

We check in and take a seat waiting to hear our name called. If any of you have been to the Breakfastosaurus, you know what a zoo it can be – people mingling all over, talking excitedly and the poor CMs seating guests trying to be heard over the roar of the crowd. At last we hear our name called and are escorted to our table. It sure did smell good.

The buffet had a variety of items from pancakes, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs to french toast. There was also a cold buffet table with fruit, yogurt, cereal and pasteries. We filled our plates and returned to our table. Shortly after our first “guest” arrived …

Then Donald and Goofy stopped by to say hello …

We could see we had a bit of time before our next guest arrived, so we headed back to the buffet to refill our plates. As we were finishing up, the big cheese himself stopped by … yes even at Donald’s breakfast Mickey has to be the star.

With our tummies full, we decided we had a bit of time before we had to head over to Universal for our Secrets of the Sideshow tour, so took our time and snapped a few pictures before leaving the park …

... Up next, stay tuned for our behind the scenes pics of HHN