Day 4 - Saturday - September 20, 2003
We were up at 9 and dressed in sandals and swimsuits in preparation for the wet rides at Islands of Adventure. That is to say, that Laura and I were. Mary had read about the drops on the water rides and had designated herself the dry dock for the day.
After the short walk to Croissant Moon for breakfast, I was quickly regretting not breaking in my sandals before the trip. They were new and they were leather and they were starting to rub in 2 or 3 places. A cherry croissant diverted my attention.
On the walk over to Ripsaw Falls, we made priority seating at Mythos for a late lunch at 2pm. For reasons which I don't understand, the guest services booth was situated in such close proximity to The Hulk that we had to shout back and forth to each other to make the arrangements. I wonder if the employees draw straws each day to decide who goes home with the splitting headache and ringing ears.
We used our FOTL cards despite the fact that the park was still pretty empty and rode Ripsaw Falls twice. Both times, we were placed right in front of the boat and were drenched. The second time, near the end of the ride, I was hit in the side of the head with several blasts of water. I looked up and saw Mary standing on the bridge laughing. I think she was handing out quarters to the crowd to keep the water blasters going.
Then we headed over to Jurassic Park and rode twice. First in the middle of the boat where we were shielded by a couple of large fellows riding in front. Then in the front of the boat where we got the full brunt of the gush following the drop. On the way out of the gift shop, Laura tried to take a picture of the displayed photo of our boat on the wall. A message came up - something like, "You survived but the dinosaurs have eaten your image". I assume that this is their way of encouraging you to buy the official photo?
By this time, the tank top that I was wearing was wet, clinging, and starting to hang closing towards my knees as a result of wringing it out a few times. So the next order of business was finding a dry shirt. We hit the shops just as a light shower turned into a 10 minute deluge.
We were close to Seuss Landing, so after the rain let up, we rode on the Caro-Seuss-el and One Fish, Two Fish. This time, Laura let me "drive" our fish and I was determined to do a good job. I carefully listened to the song which bids the riders to follow their advice to stay dry. Ok, so it's saying Blue Fish up, so I direct our fish upwards. Laura quickly counters, "What are you doing? Don't go up!" But I'm adamant, why would the song tell you to do the wrong thing? Just as I'm trying to sway her over to my way of thinking, we're both blasted in the side of the head with some serious fish spit.
My dry shirt is now not so dry and we're both giggling like children but I have chosen a path and I plan to stick with it. Laura is babbling at me once again as I try hard to listen to the next directions. This time it's telling me down, down, down. Down we go. I'm explaining to Laura that the last soaking must have been the result of some failure on my part to follow the directions. My point falls on deaf and somewhat moist ears. We're hit by another stream of water. I abandon my faith in the song and we spend the remainder of the ride lurching randomly up and down.
Mary joins us for her first and only ride of the day - The Cat in the Hat where she is reasonably sure that she won't get wet or almost eaten by dinosaurs or plummeted down a sheer drop.
At 1pm, I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable in my semi-dry swimsuit and steadily rubbing sandals so I suggest that we head on over to Mythos and see if we can get seated early.
This turns out to be no problem. We have a very nice lunch - 1 cowboy BBQ + 1 special wrap + 1 chicken club + soft drinks = $44 with tax and tip.
Back at the RPR, we change into dry clothes with the plan of catching the latest Terminator movie at the theater. We find that it is no longer playing and change our plans to go over and tour Portofino Bay.
On entering the bay, I suddenly feel like the poor cousins coming to visit. We spend the next several hours exploring the resort. I can't quite come up with a succinct description of this resort - other than to say that it is nothing like RPR. Portofino Bay is vast, elegant, and nearly deserted.
On our tour, we meet Tony, the bicycling security guard who stops to ask us if we need any assistance. Perhaps he was startled by the actual presence of people? We chat about the resort and Tony lets us in on a little security secret - the boats in the bay have holes drilled in them to prevent guests from going on unplanned excursions.
We end our visit with drinks at the Thirsty Fish and board the boat back to CityWalk. Blessedly, there is no "Celebration" on route. But there lightning in the area so we scrap our plan to explore the Hard Rock Hotel. Instead we wander into Margaritaville.
Here's a word of advice about Margaritaville, if there's room on the porch and no host(ess) is evident, then plop yourself down and order up. We walked through the porch, through bar, through the restaurant to eventually find a host(ess) stand only to be directed outside to the line to get a pager. It was only after I went back inside and specifically asked about the porch that I was told that we could sit there without waiting.
We had an absolutely good time on the porch. There was a singer and a guy on stilts making balloon hats for the kids and lots and lots of frozen delights. Also, I was carded for the first and only time on our trip. This amused me because Mary is 7 years younger than I am. 2 Caribbean chicken salads + 1 Monterey chicken sandwich + ? adult beverages = $102 with tax and tip.
We walk as straight as possible back at our humble abode where I promptly get the hankering for some ice-cream. I rope Mary into a quick trip to the gift shop and sadly find no ice-cream there. We stop in at Jake's and order dessert. Mary has the creme brulee. Piston warns that the brownie sundae I ordered is massive but I dismiss the warning and order away. Of course he is right and I reward him with the messy job of shoveling the remains into a take out container.
We waddle back to the room and I offer Laura my left-overs. Hey, that's what happens when you don't give specifics and just say "surprise me". We spend the remainder of the night letting the sugar buzz wear off.
<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 were up at 9 and dressed in sandals and swimsuits in preparation for the wet rides at Islands of Adventure. That is to say, that Laura and I were. Mary had read about the drops on the water rides and had designated herself the dry dock for the day.
After the short walk to Croissant Moon for breakfast, I was quickly regretting not breaking in my sandals before the trip. They were new and they were leather and they were starting to rub in 2 or 3 places. A cherry croissant diverted my attention.
On the walk over to Ripsaw Falls, we made priority seating at Mythos for a late lunch at 2pm. For reasons which I don't understand, the guest services booth was situated in such close proximity to The Hulk that we had to shout back and forth to each other to make the arrangements. I wonder if the employees draw straws each day to decide who goes home with the splitting headache and ringing ears.
We used our FOTL cards despite the fact that the park was still pretty empty and rode Ripsaw Falls twice. Both times, we were placed right in front of the boat and were drenched. The second time, near the end of the ride, I was hit in the side of the head with several blasts of water. I looked up and saw Mary standing on the bridge laughing. I think she was handing out quarters to the crowd to keep the water blasters going.
Then we headed over to Jurassic Park and rode twice. First in the middle of the boat where we were shielded by a couple of large fellows riding in front. Then in the front of the boat where we got the full brunt of the gush following the drop. On the way out of the gift shop, Laura tried to take a picture of the displayed photo of our boat on the wall. A message came up - something like, "You survived but the dinosaurs have eaten your image". I assume that this is their way of encouraging you to buy the official photo?
By this time, the tank top that I was wearing was wet, clinging, and starting to hang closing towards my knees as a result of wringing it out a few times. So the next order of business was finding a dry shirt. We hit the shops just as a light shower turned into a 10 minute deluge.
We were close to Seuss Landing, so after the rain let up, we rode on the Caro-Seuss-el and One Fish, Two Fish. This time, Laura let me "drive" our fish and I was determined to do a good job. I carefully listened to the song which bids the riders to follow their advice to stay dry. Ok, so it's saying Blue Fish up, so I direct our fish upwards. Laura quickly counters, "What are you doing? Don't go up!" But I'm adamant, why would the song tell you to do the wrong thing? Just as I'm trying to sway her over to my way of thinking, we're both blasted in the side of the head with some serious fish spit.
My dry shirt is now not so dry and we're both giggling like children but I have chosen a path and I plan to stick with it. Laura is babbling at me once again as I try hard to listen to the next directions. This time it's telling me down, down, down. Down we go. I'm explaining to Laura that the last soaking must have been the result of some failure on my part to follow the directions. My point falls on deaf and somewhat moist ears. We're hit by another stream of water. I abandon my faith in the song and we spend the remainder of the ride lurching randomly up and down.
Mary joins us for her first and only ride of the day - The Cat in the Hat where she is reasonably sure that she won't get wet or almost eaten by dinosaurs or plummeted down a sheer drop.
At 1pm, I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable in my semi-dry swimsuit and steadily rubbing sandals so I suggest that we head on over to Mythos and see if we can get seated early.
This turns out to be no problem. We have a very nice lunch - 1 cowboy BBQ + 1 special wrap + 1 chicken club + soft drinks = $44 with tax and tip.
Back at the RPR, we change into dry clothes with the plan of catching the latest Terminator movie at the theater. We find that it is no longer playing and change our plans to go over and tour Portofino Bay.
On entering the bay, I suddenly feel like the poor cousins coming to visit. We spend the next several hours exploring the resort. I can't quite come up with a succinct description of this resort - other than to say that it is nothing like RPR. Portofino Bay is vast, elegant, and nearly deserted.
On our tour, we meet Tony, the bicycling security guard who stops to ask us if we need any assistance. Perhaps he was startled by the actual presence of people? We chat about the resort and Tony lets us in on a little security secret - the boats in the bay have holes drilled in them to prevent guests from going on unplanned excursions.
We end our visit with drinks at the Thirsty Fish and board the boat back to CityWalk. Blessedly, there is no "Celebration" on route. But there lightning in the area so we scrap our plan to explore the Hard Rock Hotel. Instead we wander into Margaritaville.
Here's a word of advice about Margaritaville, if there's room on the porch and no host(ess) is evident, then plop yourself down and order up. We walked through the porch, through bar, through the restaurant to eventually find a host(ess) stand only to be directed outside to the line to get a pager. It was only after I went back inside and specifically asked about the porch that I was told that we could sit there without waiting.
We had an absolutely good time on the porch. There was a singer and a guy on stilts making balloon hats for the kids and lots and lots of frozen delights. Also, I was carded for the first and only time on our trip. This amused me because Mary is 7 years younger than I am. 2 Caribbean chicken salads + 1 Monterey chicken sandwich + ? adult beverages = $102 with tax and tip.
We walk as straight as possible back at our humble abode where I promptly get the hankering for some ice-cream. I rope Mary into a quick trip to the gift shop and sadly find no ice-cream there. We stop in at Jake's and order dessert. Mary has the creme brulee. Piston warns that the brownie sundae I ordered is massive but I dismiss the warning and order away. Of course he is right and I reward him with the messy job of shoveling the remains into a take out container.
We waddle back to the room and I offer Laura my left-overs. Hey, that's what happens when you don't give specifics and just say "surprise me". We spend the remainder of the night letting the sugar buzz wear off.
<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>
