Day 3 - Friday - September 19, 2003
We slept (eyes squeezed shut, earplugs jammed in, wondering just how comfortable sleeping in the bathtub would be) until 8:30 and then caught the boat ("So bring your good times, and your laughter too, We gonna celebrate your party with you").
We passed through security at Universal Studios and I'm feeling snug as a bug in a rug. I can't imagine how any bad guys would ever slip anything past these inscrutable guards who are searching people's bags via the sure-fire method of poking around with a little stick.
The Beverly Hills Boulangerie had a line out les door so we hiked on over to Louie's for some breakfast. In the morning, Louie's is basically a Starbucks and so has a wide array of drinks but pretty slim pickings on pastries. We all ordered the banana bread and took a table by the open door where the birds hop freely in and out and have been trained to sit on the tables and stare at you until you feel guilty enough to leave sufficient crumbs behind.
Laura and Mary were both excited to experience Earthquake so we did that first. Then it was onto Jaws. Mary and I had been to Universal before, but something about being attacked by a man-eating shark caused her to pause. So this was the first time that I had a willing partner for the ride. Laura and I got seated up front and to the left. I'm not sure about other parts of the boat, but this was definitely the "soaker-seat".
We rode on Men in Black twice. They checked our FOTL cards upon entering the queue and then again just before descending the steps to the ride vehicles. I did reasonably well but could never quite get those last bonus points. (Must have been defective equipment - I swear I was losing points by pressing the red button.) And so Mary kept overtaking me at the end.
Laura and I then did Back to the Future where we lost many brain cells after having our heads continuously thrown against the back of the seats. If you figure this in with the amount of grey cells that we just plain fried in the Florida heat, it is amazing that I can still form words.
We headed over to ET's calm and cool forest. I wish they would just ditch the part before the bicycles where you give your name. Sure it was a sweet idea, but the effort just does not translate well. Not matter what you name is, it ends up sounding like "Grfiglesmy" at the end.
One note here, the Express line was well into the forest trail on the left. We could see it but couldn't get to it until the line progressed somewhat. I kept trying to discretely slip by the human lane blockers in front of us, but didn't want to risk the wrath of the queue.
We doubled back to Lombard's and had a very nice lunch. The staff here is mature and friendly. Our waiter, Gar (rhymes with Hair), took several pictures of us at our table next to the fish tank. 1 veggie burger + 1 cheese buger + 1 fresh catch basket + drinks = $62 with tax and tip.
After lunch, we headed over to Twister. It is here that we enounter Pink Skirt Lady. Now, to be honest, I'm not really 100% certain that she was wearing a skirt - they might have been shorts. But whatever they were, they were not enough. She was right in front of us as we entered the line. Our eyes were immediately drawn downward to the stretchy neon pink material which ended way, way too soon. I ripped my eyes away and tried to make some sense out of what I was seeing. Ok, ok, be calm. There was a pink skirt. Nothing wrong with a pink skirt. And then there was something hanging out beneath... no there wasn't... yes there was. Can't look again. Must look again. Ahhhh!!!!!!!
We make a bee-line to the opposite end of the waiting area and spend the next 10 minutes watching everyone's reactions as they get in line behind her. The male ride attendant keeps walking over to the trash can she's standing near and pretending to throw stuff away. Girlfriends and wives are swatting at their men urging them to avert their eyes and stop giggling like schoolboys.
We finally enter the ride and with each new re-arranging of the crowd comes a new group of followers to be "exposed" to Pink Skirt Lady. Our main focus is to not get behind her. Deadly F5 yadda yadda, flying cows yadda yadda and we're out of there.
We've had quite enough for the day and head over to CityWalk to get ice cream and catch a movie. We search in vain for Creemes (softserve) and finally decide to get cones at what I think was an arcade across from the theater. All I remember was that it was loud - we had to shout our orders - and expensive - like $3 for a single scoop.
The matinee for Pirates of the Carribean was a bargain at $5.50 but they certainly made up for it with the concession stand prices - $4 for a medium soda.
We headed out of CityWalk around 6:30 just as it was getting very crowded and walked back to RPR. After restocking at the ATM, we headed down to the Bula bar for a round of drinks and were somewhat stunned by one, the prices - $8.25 for a small daiquiri in a plastic cup and two, the short hours. It was Friday night and the bar was shutting at 8pm. We decided to try Jakes for the second round.
Jake's has a small dining area outside just under the bridge that leads to the main lobby and it is there that we sat. Our waiter was "Piston". Ok, I have to admit, that I didn't read the whole speil about the waitstaff being part of Jake's crew and so when Piston introduced himself, I heard "Pistian" (rhymes with Christian) and though, "Ooh, how exotic, I wonder if he's Greek or Italian." Days later, our waittress, "Stilts" will clear up the whole misconception.
Drinks and appetizers for the three of us came up to $44. The daiquiris are $2 cheaper at Jake's than they are at the Bula Bar. They're also larger.
We headed back to the room and noticed that the Dive in Movie was Ghost Busters. This lasted until almost 10pm and the pool shut soon after. I think the pool hours were in general too short. I rarely saw lifeguards and the noise from the pool did not seem to filter into the rooms, so I'm not sure what the rational was for the short hours.
We waited for the gates to be locked and cosied up to the window for another night's adventures with the Pool People.
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=443696">Day 1</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=444145">Day 2</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=445560">Day 3</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=446091">Day 4</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=446592">Day 5</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=447105">Day 6 & 7</a>
We slept (eyes squeezed shut, earplugs jammed in, wondering just how comfortable sleeping in the bathtub would be) until 8:30 and then caught the boat ("So bring your good times, and your laughter too, We gonna celebrate your party with you").
We passed through security at Universal Studios and I'm feeling snug as a bug in a rug. I can't imagine how any bad guys would ever slip anything past these inscrutable guards who are searching people's bags via the sure-fire method of poking around with a little stick.
The Beverly Hills Boulangerie had a line out les door so we hiked on over to Louie's for some breakfast. In the morning, Louie's is basically a Starbucks and so has a wide array of drinks but pretty slim pickings on pastries. We all ordered the banana bread and took a table by the open door where the birds hop freely in and out and have been trained to sit on the tables and stare at you until you feel guilty enough to leave sufficient crumbs behind.
Laura and Mary were both excited to experience Earthquake so we did that first. Then it was onto Jaws. Mary and I had been to Universal before, but something about being attacked by a man-eating shark caused her to pause. So this was the first time that I had a willing partner for the ride. Laura and I got seated up front and to the left. I'm not sure about other parts of the boat, but this was definitely the "soaker-seat".
We rode on Men in Black twice. They checked our FOTL cards upon entering the queue and then again just before descending the steps to the ride vehicles. I did reasonably well but could never quite get those last bonus points. (Must have been defective equipment - I swear I was losing points by pressing the red button.) And so Mary kept overtaking me at the end.
Laura and I then did Back to the Future where we lost many brain cells after having our heads continuously thrown against the back of the seats. If you figure this in with the amount of grey cells that we just plain fried in the Florida heat, it is amazing that I can still form words.
We headed over to ET's calm and cool forest. I wish they would just ditch the part before the bicycles where you give your name. Sure it was a sweet idea, but the effort just does not translate well. Not matter what you name is, it ends up sounding like "Grfiglesmy" at the end.
One note here, the Express line was well into the forest trail on the left. We could see it but couldn't get to it until the line progressed somewhat. I kept trying to discretely slip by the human lane blockers in front of us, but didn't want to risk the wrath of the queue.
We doubled back to Lombard's and had a very nice lunch. The staff here is mature and friendly. Our waiter, Gar (rhymes with Hair), took several pictures of us at our table next to the fish tank. 1 veggie burger + 1 cheese buger + 1 fresh catch basket + drinks = $62 with tax and tip.
After lunch, we headed over to Twister. It is here that we enounter Pink Skirt Lady. Now, to be honest, I'm not really 100% certain that she was wearing a skirt - they might have been shorts. But whatever they were, they were not enough. She was right in front of us as we entered the line. Our eyes were immediately drawn downward to the stretchy neon pink material which ended way, way too soon. I ripped my eyes away and tried to make some sense out of what I was seeing. Ok, ok, be calm. There was a pink skirt. Nothing wrong with a pink skirt. And then there was something hanging out beneath... no there wasn't... yes there was. Can't look again. Must look again. Ahhhh!!!!!!!
We make a bee-line to the opposite end of the waiting area and spend the next 10 minutes watching everyone's reactions as they get in line behind her. The male ride attendant keeps walking over to the trash can she's standing near and pretending to throw stuff away. Girlfriends and wives are swatting at their men urging them to avert their eyes and stop giggling like schoolboys.
We finally enter the ride and with each new re-arranging of the crowd comes a new group of followers to be "exposed" to Pink Skirt Lady. Our main focus is to not get behind her. Deadly F5 yadda yadda, flying cows yadda yadda and we're out of there.
We've had quite enough for the day and head over to CityWalk to get ice cream and catch a movie. We search in vain for Creemes (softserve) and finally decide to get cones at what I think was an arcade across from the theater. All I remember was that it was loud - we had to shout our orders - and expensive - like $3 for a single scoop.
The matinee for Pirates of the Carribean was a bargain at $5.50 but they certainly made up for it with the concession stand prices - $4 for a medium soda.
We headed out of CityWalk around 6:30 just as it was getting very crowded and walked back to RPR. After restocking at the ATM, we headed down to the Bula bar for a round of drinks and were somewhat stunned by one, the prices - $8.25 for a small daiquiri in a plastic cup and two, the short hours. It was Friday night and the bar was shutting at 8pm. We decided to try Jakes for the second round.
Jake's has a small dining area outside just under the bridge that leads to the main lobby and it is there that we sat. Our waiter was "Piston". Ok, I have to admit, that I didn't read the whole speil about the waitstaff being part of Jake's crew and so when Piston introduced himself, I heard "Pistian" (rhymes with Christian) and though, "Ooh, how exotic, I wonder if he's Greek or Italian." Days later, our waittress, "Stilts" will clear up the whole misconception.
Drinks and appetizers for the three of us came up to $44. The daiquiris are $2 cheaper at Jake's than they are at the Bula Bar. They're also larger.
We headed back to the room and noticed that the Dive in Movie was Ghost Busters. This lasted until almost 10pm and the pool shut soon after. I think the pool hours were in general too short. I rarely saw lifeguards and the noise from the pool did not seem to filter into the rooms, so I'm not sure what the rational was for the short hours.
We waited for the gates to be locked and cosied up to the window for another night's adventures with the Pool People.
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=443696">Day 1</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=444145">Day 2</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=445560">Day 3</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=446091">Day 4</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=446592">Day 5</a><br>
<a href = "http://disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=447105">Day 6 & 7</a>
