Let's see now,, it's tuesday,,, our last full day at The Royal Pacific, and we are beginnning it by the pool.
Our time there went a lot more peacefully without Cackler, Diane joined me down there only a half hour later, and we just sat mostly in silence, reading or just looking around.
I had to ask her and yes,,, she had some volacano nachos for breakfast as well,,, yes,, we did get our money's worth out of them.
Then we were back up there, changing and having what is probably a "too early Cocktail Hour, ' but , oh well, as they often say,, Schlitz Happens.
This time it was Sunny D's that accompanied us back to the parks,,, only this time we took the launch.
Can't you just hear the song playing in your head;
"Sunny D's, make me feel fine"
Before we left the room,,I took another out the window shot:
And apparently, another short video.
We then passed through the pool again to get to the boat launch;
Yes,, if you haven't noticed before,, I'm big on pool pictures,, always have been,,, pool pics just say "vacation" to me, make me happy.
On a side note, there is one thing that all 3 hotels on property have in common that I DO NOT LIKE.
And that is really confusing layouts. Back in Still Feeding Nebo,,, we stayed at Hard Rock,,, and ventured over to Portofino Bay.. Both of these resorts we got either lost,,, or landlocked,,, or trapped in certain sections. To the point where we wished we had left a bread crumb trail behind us.
Royal Pacific isn't quite as bad,,, but the pool area is between your room, and the boat dock,, / Walkway, to the parks.
And they have now implemented new "pool Gates" that , believe me,, the operation of is not intuitive.
You are never sure if they are under hotel lockdown at certain times of the day,, or if you need your room card to open it,, and if so,,, Rotsa Ruck figureing out how the latch/handle/knob/catch/lockout, works.
And you must pass through it somehow unless you want to walk way out of your way to the park.
The gates of entry to the pool all have this big knob at the top,,, the size of a 16 inch softball,,, you must turn this,, while pushing it forward,, with your other hand on the lever underneath,,, while pushing the gate forward as well.
But sometimes you must be Pulling back on the last part,,,depends on which gate you are using and which way you are going. I saw a family of 5 give up and climb over it, Commando style. Granny looked really funny climbing over.
And now down to the boats for transit to City Walk.
All the boats drop you off at a dock in CityWalk,,, from that dock you then walk either left or right to go to the park of your choice.
And no, this guy in the background is just there for show, I know, I swam out to it but couldn't get it started, but what an entrance i could have made landing it on the Jurassic River Adventure!
And of course,,, like everything else Disney or Universal,, there is a whole story behind this biplane and how it got here that you can read about in the lobby.
and even the most basic amusement park rides like Dr.Doom's Fearfall or even the Hulk coaster all have these elaborate story lines connected to them,,, who knows why,,, trying to keep up with Disney I guess.
Our first stop was going to be The River Adventure, but a couple of shots on the way to Yurasick Park:
Oh look, Dino Drool on my head!
Ok, next vid is a bit from the River Adventure ride.
I like this ride a lot,, I'm still a big kid when it comes to Dinosaurs and when I come across Jurassic Park on tv I end up leaving the channel there, no matter how many times I've seen it.
The River Adventure ride is a combination of Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean,, and Jungle Cruise, without the jokes.
And there is a spitting dino who gets me in the face almost every stinkin time! No kidding,, doesn't matter which side I sit in,,, he gets me.
Wait,,, it couldn't be Smidgy getting me , could it?
Nah.
hmm,, never considered ,,,
Nah.
And finally,,, I filmed again a little bit further,,, just to see if i could get Diane to say something dumb on video.
I think she suspected something though, cuz now she's not jabbering like she was earlier:
This will give you a little bit of an idea what it is like to go on a ride with Smidgy, bless her heart:
Hmm,, I'm the one that sounds like an idiot in the video.
But you knew that anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.
And I do believe we are now done with all the pictures from Universal Orlando, like it or not!
Now, back to scoring:
We didn't ,,, ok,,, I didn't ride it this time,,, DR. Doom's Fearfall ,,, or Dr. Fearfalls Doom ride,,, but I have many times in the past.
What it is is a tower that takes you up and then drops you. Sometimes it Shoots you up, and drops you slowly,, other times it's the other way around.
And yes, it's a regular amusement park ride that they all have, and one that Tower of Terror took to a whole new level... Yes,,, no doubt,,, this matchup goes to Disney.
Uni 9 Disney 6
There is another great matchup that we didn't get to do this trip due to cold,,, and that is the Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges,,, whew,,, vs. Kali River Rapids,
and this result is not only a no-brainer,, it's surprising.
Nobody does scenery, and asthetics like Disney does, But without a doubt,, the Rat Barges blow them away!
Kali is WAY too short,,, and really not fun enough to warrant getting that soaked.
The Popeye ride is twice as long,,, much more interesting with falls and water cannons, drops,,, lifts,,, and then you get to go through a "boat wash" .. Popeye and Bluto are a TEN,,, Kali a FIVE! It's my favorite ride at Islands,,, and I wish it was warmer out to have been able to enjoy it. It's the kind of ride where when you have front of line access due to staying at your resort,,, you just keep doing it over and over again, since you are already soaked.
It is JUST
PLAIN
FUN!
Uni, 10, Dis. 6
Hm m,,, I'm trying to mentally recount things here,,, and I think I shorted Disney one,,,pretty sure,,,
It's Uni 10, Dis. 7
Now, I wish I had something to compare to River Adventure,,, but as similar as Splash Mountain is to it,, I already gave them the credit for beating Dudley Do Right,,, and they can't win two different matchups for the same ride.
There was still a couple things we wanted to do at the Studios,,, so we up and left and went back to there where we caught the "Animal Actors on Stage" show, which was a waste of time.
It's one of those shows you forget how it was,, until you are watching it again,, and then you realize why you forgot how it went. It's up there with watcing goldfish races... in a bowl!
Really, just plain boring,,, and relies too much on whom they pick out of the audience for the kid role.
In this case, they really blew it;
turned out the little kid they got to come up and "help" them, couldn't speak English. it was kind of funny then to watch the cast members when they realized their error.
It's like when the animals at stunt shows aren't in the mood to do the tricks they are supposed to do,,,(see Thumper's Report).
Now, I admit , I was NOT the best choice they could have made when they picked me for the Indy Stunt Show at Hollywood Studios last year,,, but I do know one thing,,,
I wasn't BORING!
Yeah,,, that'll work.
However,,, this show is definately simialr to Animal Kingd'ms "Flights of Wonder" , they even have basically the exact same bird trick in it where the person stands up and holds out a dollar bill for the bird to take...
Flights wins this one easily, Uni 10, Dis 8.
We then rode Men in Black again,,, this time I didn'[t get so lucky pointing the gun at the air,,,and as darkness fell, we went back to Islands.
We had barely gotten wet at all on Jurassic Park,,, and now I've kind of lost my interest in getting reall wet,,, the temps are definately dropping some.
But we had to do SOMETHING.
We rode Dudley this time and got "medium Wet".
AS we were trying to decide on the Go for it all" and do the Barge Rats,,, thats's when I saw the guy step into the Orgasmatron.
Yes,, I know,, I used this joke early at the airport,,,but this even LOOKED like the real thing!
And the guy looked like Woody Allen!
Hey, I didn't say this was a GOOD thing!
To my amazement, this guy steppped into a vertical cylinder, and then after pressing a button, he started the writhe and move around in his own personal fantasy.
I wanted in,,,, just not with him!
And after a while, I htought he was being very selfish with the Orgasmatron,,,, "C'mon,,, let's give somebody else a chance, ok?"
Then Diane pointed out a slot.
A money slot.
It costs 5 dollars a person!
And I'm thinking,,, 5 dollars? Thats not so bad.
For what I'm looking at? What we are talking about?
Heck 900 number costs more than that to just connect.
That's what I've been told, anyway. Normally costs a lot more than,,,
um,,, never mind.
Then I found out it's just a "People Dryer"
Never seen it before though,,, how great,, now they soak us and charge us to not be soaked anymore.
At this point though, as much as i love the raft ride across the promenade from where we are,,,no,,, it's not going to be fun shivering the whole time, so we went back to the room and changed into dry clothes.
Yes,, it would have been stupid to change into wet clothes when we were already that way.
Geesh!
Then we went on back to CityWalk to Pat O'Brians'.
No, no fights this time,, just a lot of fun singing along,, kidding with the piano players. And you know what? This is very much like Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk, where they also have dueling pianos.
But Pat Obrian's wins,, for a couple reasons.
Mainly,,, they don't charge 20 bucks cover just to get inside!
They also seem to have better piano tunas here,, you can also sit much closer to the stage here,,, and most importantt of all,,,
On Tuesdays, (today) they not only have TWO fancy drinks,,, Hurricanes or whatever,,, for the price of one,,, but also,
TWO Appetizers for the price of one,,, we had dinner there that night with them, singing and drinking along! It was great!
Uni,,11 Dis. 8
Dinner was two orders of BBQ wings and I think on order of Mushrooms and one of Onion rings,,,, yeah,, they let you split them up if the price was similar.
man,, now that's some kind of good livin'!
The only thing not so special was the wings she ordered,,, not so good. Can't remember what the name was,, Bloody Mary Wings? There were a few choices for what kind of sauce you wanted for the wings,,, what she ordered though didn't work well. But of all that they had to offer,,,welll,,,
as was once said in a movie that's in my top ten,,,,
"she chose poorly".
And guess who is now interested in my Mushrooms and onion rings?
After a couple hours of this, we went on back to our room to get ready for an early exit tomorrow, not quite sure how itj's going to work out and I'll exlain in the next chapter.
But as much as I hate to leave our King Bed Suite,,,,Home is calling,
we are going back to Caribbean Beach baby!
thanks for the nod! I love it when people say a "smidge" of something...
) oh well!
Looks like you were there the same time as us also, around Thanksgiving? Ive missed a whole lot. Cant wait to read
Great story!
I got so far behind again! I had to stop in mid-catch up to tip my had to you yet again Ponzerooni. Exemplary work my friend.
