My First HHN Trip! COMPLETED!!

[Laurabearz]

Remember...

What happens in Orlando.... stays in orlando...

Unless you have pictures!!!

 

[patster734]

Remember...

What happens in Orlando.... stays in orlando...

Unless you have pictures!!!

Oh heck no! Blackmail, baby! Blackmail!

 

[donaldduck352]

Oh heck no! Blackmail, baby! Blackmail!

 

[Tinker-tude]

Great pre-trippie.

WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?


Waiting.


Patiently.

 

[RAPstar]

Ok so sorry for the horribly long hiatus (vacation depression is a witch who hates me, coupled with work and regular depression, lol). But anywho, I should hopefully start working on this tomorrow.

 

[RAPstar]

Ok, so I lied about today. But I will hopefully start again Saturday. lol

 

[macraven]

eh........it's now saturday again...

 

[Metro West]

eh........it's now saturday again...

I'm guessing this ship has sunk.

 

[macraven]

I'm guessing this ship has sunk.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I'm guessing this ship has sunk.

me thinks you are right

 

[m.urbanian87]

I'm guessing this ship has sunk.

hahaha.. i start to read everything from the first page and guess what??

NO TRIP REPORT AT THE END

 

[phlffhd]

test

 

[macraven]

test

ok, if i take your test, what do i win if i get them all correct?

 

[Metro West]

ok, if i take your test, what do i win if i get them all correct?

 

[donaldduck352]

ok, if i take your test, what do i win if i get them all correct?

 

[RAPstar]

Ok, so my trip depression was really really bad this time around. Forgive me? Promise I will do this soon. Honest.

 

[RAPstar]

Ok, so by soon....I mean now. Insomnia has gotten the better of me....or its the 2 litres of Dr. Pepper I've had today. Probably a little from Column A, a little from Column B. Here's hoping I remember what happened, lol.

First things first, all of my pics can be found here:
http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll306/faceleg24601/Florida 2009/

!!WARNING!! The full album has some public displays of affection in it, for you squeamish folks.

My First HHN Trip, AKA Why plan things when you don't stick to them?

Day 1

As usual, I never sleep well on travel days. But at least this time I remember dozing for maybe an hour while Chip watched The Da Vinci Code. He was my ride to the airport this time. We left about 4:30 or so I think. Stopping on the way at Taco Cabana for some yummy breakfast tacos. Check in went pretty smoothly, course I rarely check my bags cause I travel light. We took off right as the sun was coming out, and I got this great pic of the sun coming through the clouds (forgive the slight reflection of my camera)

Landed safely. Then the only real problem this trip happened. I spoke of it as it happened, but here's the story again. I had pre-booked a shuttle with Mears to my hotel. I did the self check-in and no problem. Gave the voucher to the guy at the stand and was told to sit and wait. Which I did....for over an hour. Then the guy tells me he's gotten a cab to come pick me up. Then the cab driver takes me to the wrong resort. Why Sheraton chose to have 2 resorts with almost the same name in the same city on miles apart is beyond me. So anywho, cab driver calls her boss to find out what to do and I get taken to the correct resort, the Sheraton Vistana Villages on International, not the Sheraton Vistana Resort in LBV.

Check in went ok, besides the $100 hold the put on my card that wasn't mentioned before hand, no biggie though. Here's some pics of my one bedroom vacation condo:

My original plan was to do a half day at Sea World, since I got the special they had were you get a second day free. But I was tired, and frustrated, so I decided to stay in and rest a bit. I called a friend I had made online to see if he wanted to hang out for a bit, which we did. I have since forgotten his name and haven't spoken to him since. Horrible, I know, but I got distracted. Anywho, he was nice enough to drop me off at Downtown Disney, since I wanted to do some shopping and I had an ADR for Boma at 9ish.

The balloon was down due to weather.

I'm still kicking myself that I could have gone in '08 before it closed

Gotta love Stitch the Pirate

While at DTD, I flirted briefly with a number of souvies that I wanted but decided against to try to stay under budget. I ended up getting one of those crazy Vinylmation things, and 2 treats from Goofy's Candy Co. (I got a rice krispie with both milk and white chocolate, no topping and a gingerbread cookie with the same and cinnamon sugar. I don't remember which was the coating and which was the drizzle). I then strolled around a bit listening to parents argue with children and husbands argue with wives until I couldn't take and called my friend to come get me. lol

So, Animal Kingdom Lodge is frickin beautiful. I don't have any pics cause I left my camera in the car but its amazing. We go and check in and I get my buzzer. I was a bit early so I knew I'd have to wait, plus they said they were running behind. No biggie really. We went to the bar one level up from it and I got me a Parrot Bay and Coke. Very nice, not too strong on the rum. Me and my friend Jeff (he was at Epcot with me in '08 if you read my previous trippie) chatted for a bit about this and that. For a while. They really were running behind. And I was hungry. I think it was 20-30 minutes after my ADR time that we got seated. Oh well. Got me another yummy drink (I told myself to drink more this trip, I wasn't doing any driving lol). The food at Boma was delicious. Some of it is odd, but I didn't find anything I outright hated. The peanut rice was the best. And Zebra Cakes. I don't need to say anything else about them. So we totaled out our tabs, I was supremely stuffed. Jeff takes me back to my resort and we chill for a bit to see if our mutual friend was going to come over. It got later, and I was plum tuckered out, so I called it a night.

 

[RAPstar]

Forgot to mention in Day 1, lunch was a Bufallo Ranch Chicken Wrap with onion "petals" from the restaurant at my hotel.

 

[RAPstar]

FISH DAY!!

Ok, so I know I woke up around 7:30ish. Proceeded to lobby to inquire about transportation stuff. I was originally going to get a Lynx bus pass after Sea World the previous day, but since I didn't go to Sea World I didn't get a pass. Oh well. Added it to that days plans. Got a 1 say pass for the I-Trolley and went out to the stop to wait. I decided to hop onto a Lynx when t came by my stop because the I-Trolley hadn't started running yet, and who knew when it would actually get to my stop, and the bus was already here and only $1. So off I go!

Yay! Fish World.....I mean Sea World!!

I got there right at 8, and waited in front of the gate till 8:45 when they let people in. Why I stood the entire 45 minutes instead of sitting I don't know. I then had to stand an additional 15 minutes for them to officially open the park. But luckily my first destination was not far beyond the where the rop had been set up

Yay! Manta!! Manta was amazing! I rode it three times that morning with no wait.

Can I just say how fricking huge Sea World is? I mean seriously, I felt like my feets were gonna fall of by the end of the day. Anywho, after Manta I went to go ride Journey to Atlanta...I mean Atlantis and Kraken.

I made sure to ride on the last row of Mylanta...Atlantis....to make sure I didn't get soaked.

JTA was prett good. Kraken, while not bad, was kinda rough. Maybe its just because Manta is so smooth by comparison? I had to keep my had firmly pressed against the head rest just to keep my ears from hitting the restraints. After the rides, I severly had to find a restroom, lol. I almost wet myself in the line for Kraken. I was going to ride Kraken again after but my head was still slightly sore, so I moved on.

I passed these guys as I was walking. Never seen a non-pink flamingo before.

As I was walking, it was getting to be the time they opened the back half of the park, so I decided to head that way. At the next rope drop area there was a few people waiting for the next part to open. As soon as the rope was taken down, this one woman ran. Not power walked, or walked briefly, ran like her life depended upon it. I guess we were headed for the same place cause she was at the reservation stand for Shark's Underwater Grill when I got there. I made a reservation for 2pm to give me time to get a couple of shows in before I ate. How I lasted till 2pm with no food at all is beyond me. While there I went ahead and went into the shark exhibit.

Ooooohh, barracuda! Where's Heart when you need them. lol

Shark!!

I then proceeded on the long trek back around the park. Again, fricking huge!! Wild Artic was on my way, so I went there. The ride portion was ok, I heard bad reviews. It wasn't the best, but pretty entertaining. Some of my favorite animals were in that exhibit.

Yay! Polar Bears!

I don't remember exactly what I did after Wild Arctic. I know there was a slushee somewhere in there, lol. Anywho, it was getting time for Believe. I went to Shamu Stadium and got in the line close to what I thought was the center, which it was. Got a pretty nice seat, not in the splash zone. I liked Believe, it was a little cheesy though. And I think they should have more Shamu time than video time.

After Believe, I kinda had to book over to the Blue Horizons stadium. Luckily I got there with time to spare, so I went to feed the dolphins. I liked how the new setup works, and I got plenty of time with the dolphins. It was this poitn I wish I had had someone with me so I could have gotten a picture. Oh well. Small story: So one of the first things the dolphin people tell you while waiting to feed them is to no touch then on the top of their heads. Well this one woman a few people down from me steadily kept trying to touch the top of their head. I almost hit her! People like that just urk me beyond compare. Anywho, fed the dolphins. Still had time to spare so I went and fed the rays. So cool. The feeling of them sucking the shrimp out your had is so weird! lol Then it was time to go get a seat for Blue Horizons. I got a good one I think. I loved the show, much better than Believe, IMO.

By that time, I was so hungry, I could have eaten one of the the annoying children. Not that I encountered very many, but if a parent had offered.....

View from my seat at Shark's Underwater Grill.

I liked Shark's. I had actually got there a bit before my ressie, but no biggie. My feet were tired anyway. The food was pretty good. I got the stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer. I also got me a tasty drink (lord knows what it was, tasty though). For my entree I got the mixed grill, which was really good. The chicken was not dry at all, and chicken almost always is to me. The steak was very good also. I didn't get a dessert, cause I was full and I had my treats from Goofy's still at my room. So I paid and went on my merry way. Oh, and before I paid, my waitress came by my table and was like "I have a surprise for you". I was slightly excited, until she said "Since you ordered that drink, you get to keep the glass". Gee, thank you Sea World for putting that on the menu so I would have known ahead of time I'd have to lug a glass around with me the rest of the day. Oh well.

I didn't want to leave yet, but was still kinda tired of walking. Luckily there was a showing of Cyde and Seamour not far away, both in time and distance. I like cheesy humor, more than cheesy sappiness, so I loved that show!! I proceeded towards the entrance, but decided to give Manta a couple more rides. Luckily I had some change on me so I got a locker for my glass.

Then I left. I think it was about 4pm. My second real annoyance came waiting for the I-Trolley. I was still trying to get to the visitors center to try to get a Lynx pass. While waiting to go that direction, 2 trolleys came that were full. Then an empty one came that was not picking people up. I was tired and frustrated so I just decided to skip the bus pass and go back to my resort, which was luckily in the opposite direction.

I don't remember getting dinner, but I think I got the same wrap I had the previous day. I did some swimming. Then I got a call from my friend (the one me and my friend Jeff were waiting to here from the previous day) and he wanted to come over and hang out. Which he did. It was kinda late, so I offered to let him stay the night which he did.

 

[patster734]

Thanks for the trip report! Looking forward to the rest of it!