Friday, April 29th: part 2
As we were readying ourselves to leave Café La Bamba, Jake took a quick restroom break to swap out t-shirts to one of his dri-fits that was strategically placed in my purse before we left the villa that morning. He said it was so he would be cooler in the ridiculously high heat, but by cooler did he mean “cooler” (as in temperature” ) or “cooler” as in Minion-free? Hmmmmm
……..it was a good question
.
I will admit, the heat and sun did feel remarkably oven-like as we exited the restaurant, and probably even more so after enjoying the air conditioning for the last hour or more. We decided to attack our small must-do list right off the bat….we were all feeling a little weary by this point in the vacation (a combination of a busy schedule and the high heat) and were fairly certain it would be an early day
.
The boys both wanted to ride Transformers, which was posted at a 25 minute wait. They hesitated, feeling badly for leaving me for such an extended period of time, but I assured them I could more than fill a half hour while they were otherwise occupied. With their rubber arms sufficiently twisted, they headed into the queue while I pondered my options.
Just as they disappeared from sight, I hear the stains of music from down the street, getting louder and louder with each passing note. Within a few seconds, there was an announcement over the park speakers that Universal was pleased to welcome “The Stars of the Future” (or something along that line) and the first marching band came into view.
I stood and watched them all pass by, each from various high schools in the south, and enjoyed this little impromptu streetmosphere entertainment: those young people were amazing and had so much talent
.
What a fun opportunity this must have been for these high schoolers! But oh, how HOT they must have felt in their beautiful band costumes
……in shorts and a t-shirt, I felt like I was melting. They must have been ready to drop once their performance was over
.
I love the vibe of the New York section of the park, so I decided I’d take a stroll through there while the guys were otherwise occupied. While I have never been to New York City personally (it’s on my bucket list for sure, but Orlando keeps getting in the way) this area sure seems to come close to the photos and movies I’ve seen which do feature the “real thing”.
It was SO quiet …. I felt like I had the whole place all to myself
.
I popped into the Christmas store and perused all the wonderful items they had for sale. There were some Minion tree lights that literally called my name once again, and it took all my effort to walk away without a big bag of purchases
.
After walking through New York, I continued down toward Despicable Me, and while I had no desire to ride the ride right now (my stomach was still SO full from breakfast), I popped into the store to browse their delightful inventory. Much to my delight, I found not one but
TWO Minions waiting to greet guests and literally not a soul around them…..by sheer good luck, I managed to hit that perfect time when the gift shop was nearly deserted and the ride had not yet emptied out into the dance party area. So, I got myself a little extra Minion-lovin’…..with our AP’s ready to expire, I had to soak up what I could while I still had the chance
.
Heading back to our meeting spot outside Transformers, I once again had spectacular timing as one of the mini-parades was just emerging from the backstage area. Seconds later, both my guys saddled up behind me (smiling ear to ear and full of happy chatter about the Transformers ride), so the three of us all watched the entertainment while they filled me in on their ride experience and I filled them in about my Minion encounter.
From there, we headed to ET for one final ride…..both my men knew this was one of the few must-do’s on my list aside from our character breakfast. After ET, we made our way to Springfield for a final spin on the Twirl & Hurl.
Steve also had one more must-do on his Simpsons bucket list, and that was to win yours truly a Maggie for our Simpsons stuffie collection. In addition to the Radioactive Man that he had won on the Sledgehomer game earlier in the trip, we had an impressive collection of Simpsons stuffies won on previous trips proudly displayed at home: with a Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, Santa’s Little Helper and Krusty, the only Simpson unaccounted for was Maggie. Today, he declared, he would complete my collection if it took us all day to do so.
There was only one game that offered Maggie as a prize, and it was the one where you had to bust the balloons by throwing small darts. The sweat was STREAMING down poor Steve’s back as he paid his money to the attendant (perhaps a navy cotton shirt was not the best idea after all!), but he was focused enough that I don’t think he noticed. While darts aren’t exactly his game of choice (and aren’t something he gets an opportunity to play very often), every dart he threw managed to burst a balloon, and he was awarded a Maggie with great fanfare and excitement from the game staff
.
As we were taking the requisite photos of his latest accomplishment, we saw a couple characters stroll out from backstage and set up next to the entrance to the Simpsons ride. Before setting off in a quest for a cold beverage (which my talented Steve had most definitely earned!), we stopped for photos with Krusty and Sideshow Bob……with absolutely no wait at all.
More to come 
.
, my son was called up to join the show, it was all great! It was especially nice since we were staying in the campground on that trip, and we just jumped into our rental golf cart to go to the show and leave afterwards. Otherwise, transportation is a little cumbersome. I would definitely look at the boat options just to make it a little more fun.
. I can say I was very disappointed in our interaction with Mickey at Ohana's in December (and Ohana's breakfast has long since been a family favourite, so they have to do A LOT to disappoint me). It was my brother's first Disney experience of any kind, and I'll be honest....I was hoping for a little magic for him. Mickey Mouse, the character I was MOST excited for him to meet, was the worst character interaction we've ever had.....he literally seemed to not want to bother with our table at all. For the $30 a person we paid, I expected better. We still enjoyed ourselves, but the disappointment (and perhaps dissatisfaction?) was significant enough for me that I almost considered emailing Disney's guest relations with my feedback. We, too, have certainly had some spectacular interaction with Disney characters over our 10 trips to Orlando, but the best of them were on our first trip in 2009. Again, maybe because Jake was younger and the characters found that easier? 
It's hard to say.
.
. We either have very good.....or maybe bad? 
... senses of humour!
