My 1st PTR/TR: An unexpected trip, Disney in December 4 *Day 3 6/5 Illuminations!*

[disneydusted]

Don't you just love getting the Magical Express Passes??!! Makes the trip seem more real! Hope you are feeling better!

 

[Roxychica7]

I'm loving your PTR, and I'm so glad to have found it. Your pics are great. I can't wait to read more of your planning. We're going in 1 month and 2 weeks, but who's counting?!

Thank you so much! Congrats on your trip being so close too! Do you have a PTR going too? If so, I'll definitely slide on over! Thanks again for the nice comments!

Don't you just love getting the Magical Express Passes??!! Makes the trip seem more real! Hope you are feeling better!

Oh my gosh YES! Especially since this is our first time using them. Dbf (I love him anyway) said "What's the AK mean...doesn't that stand for Arkansas..?" Yes dear.. but it also stands for Animal Kingdom, that's where we're staying. But we're definitely exciting. And I am feeling much better, thanks!!

 

[Roxychica7]

Ok guys, I'm finally back. Feeling much better and almost over that sinus infection. So, let's see.
Day 3: Islands of Adventure

Now, I've been to Universal Studios before when I was in 6th grade, then my mom and I went to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios in..10th grade I believe and I really remember liking it. So, 2000 was the last time I had been to either park. We found a deal Universal's website at the time where if you used your Mastercard, you'd basically get a 2 park deal for 4 people for $85 each, plus you got your 5th ticket for free. So, split between the 5 of us, we couldn't pass it up.

Since we were so close to Universal, it took us no time to get there. I think we stayed 3 miles from the park.
Now, if you haven't been to Universal, make sure you wear tennis shoes. When you park, they put you in like a 4 or 5 story HUGE garage and you take this loooong walk with lots of moving platforms

until until you get to City Walk (has a huge movie theatre, shops, stores, restaurants, clubs), then there's a fork in the road and you pick which direction to walk (straight to US or to the left for IOA).

And here's ABZ welcoming us in the Hulk style

And with the Coaster itself.

So the park is basically divided up into "lands"
Things like Marval Comics, Jurassic Park, Seuss land (like Dr. Seuss) and an ancient land, which the name of is slipping my mind.
We usually walk around the Comics first, they have these giant thought bubbles where you can stand under to take fun pics and and also the marval comic book characters to pose with (definitely not the same as Disney characters but the boys liked it)

Next in the cosmic books part, they have a rapids ride there, kinda like Kali in AK, except they literally dump a huge bucket of water on your head on the ride (you know the kind at a waterpark where the bucket is usually located at a kids area and it takes a few minutes to fill up, but once it drops its like hundreds of gallons of water?) Yeah, wettest rapids ride I've ever seen. It's in the Popeyes section. And there's a boat that's over top of everyone on the ride and you can squirt people all day for free.

Dbf's family does that as a tradition at Busch Gardens but you have to pay a quarter each time you want to do it. It's fun though..they definitely get revenge back on me though once it's my turn to ride.

Then, since we all love to "play" we took turns playing inside Popeye's boat and the slides before moving onto the Jurassic Park section (kinda like Dinoland USA at AK, but more realistic)

Dbf being silly.

Now, Jurassic park is broken down into a few rides (a skyline kinda thing, the huge boat ride) a cave site with nets and slides, and a few other things. The cave site has these squirt guns that we decided to play with for a while.

Now, I'm scared to death of heights, but I did it for a quick bit to get to the other side of the cave site and explore.
I like this shot though.

Then we headed off to eat lunch. I don't remember what the place is called but they have some pretty good bbq and I absolutely love the inside of this place.
The outside (across from the Dueling Dragons coaster)

I know it's doesn't "quite" count as a light fixture, but I think you might like this one LL!! The pic doesn't do it justice and there's all kinds of carvings inside the place.

Next, we got on a pretty cool kinda standing ride called Poison's Fury (lights, fire, special effects), here's the sign to the place and the outside of the building. I really like the feel of this land.

Then we saw a live Sinbad show (like the 40 thiefs) which was really cool. HUGE boat prop, fighting and special effects stuff. Finally we hit up Seussland. Very fun and bright land before going to the NBA cafe for dinner, located right at City Walk.

The hulk coaster from one of the seuss rides.

This one embarasses me a little

 

[Roxychica7]

IOA continued...

I'm not sure what type of flower these are. I took this at the Seuss train stop.
They're awfully pretty though.

And finally, we stopped off at NBA for dinner.

Basic burgers, chicken sandwiches, and appetizers but totally decked out in basketball memories. I guess it would be equivalent to the ESPN place at Disney.

There's a lot of walking involved, but I like this place. It's more kind of adult fun I guess. I have a feeling that Disney will be losing some business now that Pleasure Island was taken out. City walk is absolutely huge and there's lots to do around there without actually going into the theme parks.

But afterwards we took pics with the Universal globe and squeezed ourselves onto the Wave ride for a photo.

So..that was IOA in a nutshell.

Next up...Day 4, Magic Kingdom!!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I love the almost light fixture. I have never been to IOA, only to Universal. I plan to go back after the Harry Potter Village is opened.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

IOA sounds like alot of fun, might have to try that out some time when we stay at FW and have a car down at disney to get there.

 

[disneydusted]

This park looks so cool! Please tell me that you guys didn't ride that roller coaster! That thing looks insane! Don't know if I could do that one!

 

[Roxychica7]

I love the almost light fixture. I have never been to IOA, only to Universal. I plan to go back after the Harry Potter Village is opened.

Oh I can't either! I completely forgot about the Harry Potter section

IOA sounds like alot of fun, might have to try that out some time when we stay at FW and have a car down at disney to get there.

I'm not a real big fan of US, the rides have been there a while, and some of them need updating, but IOA is really awesome! I love all the structures

This park looks so cool! Please tell me that you guys didn't ride that roller coaster! That thing looks insane! Don't know if I could do that one!

Oh no no no! Everyone else did, but not me! There's a blast off in the beginning just like Rock and Roller coaster, except it blasts you out into the outside. They all like it, but not for me

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Yay for Magical Express passes!!!

You and your bf are such a cute couple! I think it's so cool that you're both biologists.

It makes me nervous that it was so cold you had to wear gloves on one of those trips. I am praying it's not that cold at Thanksgiving! My Arizona blood won't handle that well!

I love all the pics from past trips!

 

[Roxychica7]

Yay for Magical Express passes!!!

You and your bf are such a cute couple! I think it's so cool that you're both biologists.

It makes me nervous that it was so cold you had to wear gloves on one of those trips. I am praying it's not that cold at Thanksgiving! My Arizona blood won't handle that well!

I love all the pics from past trips!

Aw, thank you so much!
The first year we went in 2005 it was quite cold most of the time, mostly long sleeve shirts and pants, and it was really cold only after the sun went down. I get cold easily, so it was better for me to wear pants, but my dbf got away with shorts and a light jacket.
Now in 2006, it was mild, around 80-85 most of the time and I only needed a light jacket at night for the fireworks. Last year, we had a fluke cold front come through and it was 35 degrees one morning!!! But that only lasted 2 days or so. Just check your weather up until the latest you can before you get your final list in pack incase there's anything weird in the forecast. But if you get cold easily, definitely bring a long sleeve shirt with you in your bag for the parks.

 

[izzyzoeybear]

Man...Making me feel old....The last time we were at US they were in the process of building IOA. That was when we lived in Florida.....and that has been a few years ago....

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Aw, thank you so much!
The first year we went in 2005 it was quite cold most of the time, mostly long sleeve shirts and pants, and it was really cold only after the sun went down. I get cold easily, so it was better for me to wear pants, but my dbf got away with shorts and a light jacket.
Now in 2006, it was mild, around 80-85 most of the time and I only needed a light jacket at night for the fireworks. Last year, we had a fluke cold front come through and it was 35 degrees one morning!!! But that only lasted 2 days or so. Just check your weather up until the latest you can before you get your final list in pack incase there's anything weird in the forecast. But if you get cold easily, definitely bring a long sleeve shirt with you in your bag for the parks.

So I guess layers are the key, huh?


I'm hoping for the mild days and mildly cool nights!

 

[sherreis]

I'm finally caught up. Sorry about the sinus infection - I can sympathize as I'm fighting off one now.

YEAH! for the ME tix. It is so exciting when they arrive. Just one more thing to make it all more real.

Thanks for the pics of US. I've never seen pics that people have taken from inside the park. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

[morgtroy]

Thanks for posting the pics of universal. We haven't done that one yet, thinking we'd let the kids get a little older. Looks like fun.

 

[Roxychica7]

Man...Making me feel old....The last time we were at US they were in the process of building IOA. That was when we lived in Florida.....and that has been a few years ago....

lol, I don't mean to make you feel old. When I posted Sea World from 2005, the last time I had been was..1993 I think, and I had a pink fanny pack on then..now, that was ridiculous, lol

So I guess layers are the key, huh?


I'm hoping for the mild days and mildly cool nights!

Yep, definitely a few layers on the top, just in case. It does kinda get chilly inside some of the rides anyway. But that's what I'm hoping for too!

I'm finally caught up. Sorry about the sinus infection - I can sympathize as I'm fighting off one now.

YEAH! for the ME tix. It is so exciting when they arrive. Just one more thing to make it all more real.

Thanks for the pics of US. I've never seen pics that people have taken from inside the park. It looks like a lot of fun.

I'm all caught up on your TR too! I hear ya about the sinus infections, I broke my nose back in 7th grade and they always give me trouble around this time of year.

Thanks for posting the pics of universal. We haven't done that one yet, thinking we'd let the kids get a little older. Looks like fun.

Oh you're very welcomed! You can get a pretty good deal with universal, but I definitely like IOA much better compared to its sister park, but definitely still fun!

 

[Roxychica7]

Ok, I've come to realize that I've been away for way too long and it's time to post again. But, sorry guys, I had a HUGE midterm and a project due in Statistics (rather, it's called "Research Design and Analysis") Now when I say huge, my midterm was take home, only 8 problems but took me 24 pages of handwritten work to complete and my project was 68 pages all typed and output from a statistical program, again only another 8 problems

But..good news...I got a 95% on my midterm and a 98% on my project!
Yessss...but all in all, I guess I can say that it "payed off" to leave the boards, so a while, but I'm back and ready to post again.

By the way, my mind is slipping me so much on what we did for the rest of our 2006, trip, so instead, I'm just going to post some of my favorites from the last two days so that we can get on over to last year's december trip!
And guess what...we GOT MORE DISNEY MAIL!! Our vouchers for our resort/coupons came Dbf and I thought about it, and 1 MONTH FROM TODAY we'll be walking around the MK. Ah

But...here we go!

We had left off at MK, here's some from that day:

Outside the gates

The beautiful tree

A view down Main Street

Wind caught my hair, and Dbf is hiding an orange behind him, definitely like the year before's castle pic better

Dbf was a gentleman and let me drive on Indy

I caught Kiki

Then Kiki caught a good one of us

Can you tell we love this one? I'll admit it, I think he beat me this time on Buzz

Dbf outside HM

Oh gosh, this one cracks me up of Stu (Dbf's step brother) on Peter Pan

The castle with Snowflakes

MK will always be my favorite park. So many loves inside that one. I have plenty more, but I wanna move onto 2007 soon, so I'll leave you with my favorite picture of the castle I took this year, or probably EVER. The only thing is that when we watched Wishes this year, I have "that guy's head" you know the one that gets in front you in every single picture you take? Yeah, I've got one of those in there, but I still LOVE IT. Enjoy!

 

[disneydusted]

Hey! Congratulations on your grades! Good job!!
I can't believe you will be there in a month.... walking down Main Street... taking in all of the Christmas decorations... can I come?
Now why is it that the guys always win on Buzz?
Your last picture of the castle is so pretty! Maybe you could photoshop out that guys head??? My sister is always improving her photos that way.

 

[Roxychica7]

Ok, let's move forward. I really want to get to 2007's trip, and all we have left is Disney Quest/Downtown Disney and Universal Studios.

Here's a few of our DQ adventure (This is where we met up with my DF Ann and this time she brought her fiance along):

Aladdin 3D ride

Now, Dbf and I have an on-going thing with arcade basketball. He ALWAYS challenges me and he ALWAYS loses. Thankfully he's not a sore-loser, now yes there is some slight pouting going on, but never too bad

Here's his challenge

And proof of the defeat

Now, Disney always finds a way to embarass you by wearing these crazy headgears to play their games. This one was Pirates 3D, still fun though!

And a life-size bumper car Buzz ride. You suck up these balls with your cart and fire them at the other cars. If they hit you, your car spins in a circle uncontrolably! These were our quick games faces before our challenge with Kiki and Debbie (Dbf's mom)

After playing all day, we headed off to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. We have one back home in Towson, MD, but we still love it. Dbf and I have plans this year to stop at the new T-Rex Restaurant and just grab drinks at the bar so that we can take in the atmosphere.

Playing in the giftshop beforehand

Ever had a Green Python at RC? They're really good, but hit you HARD! You can tell Dbf is feeling it at this point

And the last of the night..of course a stop at the World of Disney store! Stu's thumb was in the way, but you get the point

 

[Roxychica7]

Hey! Congratulations on your grades! Good job!!
I can't believe you will be there in a month.... walking down Main Street... taking in all of the Christmas decorations... can I come?
Now why is it that the guys always win on Buzz?
Your last picture of the castle is so pretty! Maybe you could photoshop out that guys head??? My sister is always improving her photos that way.

Thanks!! It definitely was a headache getting it done, but I guess it was worth it! I can't believe we'll be there in a month either! Where in the heck has November gone?! I only hope that once it gets here, the trip won't go extremely fast! Dbf's sister is a photographer, I'm sure she could fix it for me, thanks for the advice! When I went to Seaworld in '93 with my family, ALL of our pictures of Shamu have the back of this old man's bald head in every picture. It seems to never fail for me to find one of them

 

[Roxychica7]

Ok, lastly, Universal Studios. I don't have ANY pictures of Universal, except of outside and Jaws. It was raining this day and we got there late and I had been on all the rides before, so I think I was just taking my time this day.

Oh! But I forgot to mention, Dbf, the wonderful man that he is, along with ABZ got surprise pedicures for both myself and Kiki the morning before we left for Universal. They were amazing. We had no idea what was going on, but it was definitely worth it and made a huge difference on the sore feet after all the walking from the last 5 days. It was my 1st pedicure ever, I really enjoyed it, can ya tell?

Ok, brace yourself for the 4 pictures or so coming your way
But, US has rides based off of the old movies: Jaws, Men in Black, Earthquake, Twister, E.T., Back to the Future. Like I said, a lot of it needs updating. But Men in Black is still cool (like Buzz Lightyear but has aliens to shoot and you sit in a 8 person vehicle) and the Mummy is cool (I didn't get on though because things pop out at you)

Entrance into the park. Apparently they keep some of the Macy's float's there from the Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC. It was cool seeing some of them.

Posin with Jaws

Keeping my fingers close

And Mr. Jaws himself

And waiting for Back to the Future. You can tell you're extremely exhausted from the week

OK!!! That's it.
Next and lastly on the list will be Dbf's and my December 2007 trip!
We drove down this year (never again!) and got to stay back on Disney property (All Star Music)! I'll post a few of our drive down, our check in and finally our first day at Epcot! This year we did the dining plan so I'll do sort of a mini review on our meals too. So, by the looks of it, I have 1 month to finish this report and I should be cutting it close before we leave on 12/15.