Our 14 day whirlwind holiday! (Day 8 updated)

[crabbie1]

Wow Tiffanys Congratulations on your graduation as well. I want a pandora bracelet. Doubt I will get one

 

[Tinks1984]

Another fun day by the sounds of it! Shame you didn't find anything in Tiffany's!

 

[l_mccafferty]

Great TR laura. The lego area at DTD looks ace. Glad you liked t-rex.We took DD last year and were suprised how good the food was. It wasnt overly busy and lke you we shared a main but had the french onion soup to start which was ace.
What have you graduated in I graduate this year but never thought to put it as a celebration. Good thinking bat girl

Look forward to reading more.

I'm graduating this Wednesday with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biomedical Science.
I think you can go back and put it back in even once you've booked. Obv it doesn't guarantee you get anything but in this case Wade was really nice, he was asking us both all about it!

 

[l_mccafferty]

Great report!

I'm mentally making notes of where to visit next time. Le Cellier, T-Rex, Bubba Gumps, Candy Cauldron, Foodquest... I'm gonna need to save up!

And you met the M&Ms man! Jealous!

xxx

Le Cellier was around $150 for the 5 of us, TRex was around $105 for the 3 of us but we got a lot of food! and Bubba Gumps was $90!

We were just leaving when he came out so we jumped in a picture with him

 

[l_mccafferty]

Wow ~ congratulations on your engagement! Epcot is a great place to get engaged

What a nice day, sorry to hear you were feeling poorly though!

Thank you!

Epcot is my favourite park even without the proposal part!
After I'd had a rest, some water and then some wine I actually felt better! Then I was on happy adrenaline for the rest of the day

 

[l_mccafferty]

Wow Tiffanys Congratulations on your graduation as well. I want a pandora bracelet. Doubt I will get one

There was a place in Florida Mall selling beads (Didn't see bracelets) I *think* it was called Polka Dotz....

It seemed really reasonable! I was considering getting one too because you can get beads for every occasion but I still haven't yet!

Drop some serious hints!! Could be your Christmas present

 

[l_mccafferty]

Another fun day by the sounds of it! Shame you didn't find anything in Tiffany's!

It was a fun day I wasn't too bothered about not finding anything - I'm one of those people who hates people buying me things, so I suppose if I had looked reaaaaaally hard, I would have found something but I felt weird pointing something out to my parents!

I did get a present eventually though but that's for the last night

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Really enjoying your trip report .... l

 

[l_mccafferty]

Disney's Hollywood Studios and Star Wars Weekends

Today we got up at 4am to get showered and dressed before Mhairi came round around 4.45am.
We went to the lobby and called a taxi to take us to DHS.

The queues for actor fastpasses were big already!
Iain stood in the queue for Ray Park (Darth Maul), whilst me and Mhairi stood in the queue for Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca). We had thought one of us could give our fastpasses to Iain but they came round and put wristbands on us and told us we had to have the wristband, on our wrist with the fastpass to get the autograph.
Once we had our fastpasses, they opened the park at 8am and we walked to TSM and they told us to go through the fastpass queue! So we rode and then walked over to Star Tours and rode that too! Loved the update
We then rode R&R - Iain rode with Mhairi and I rode with a single rider.

Iain then sat outside as me and Mhairi rode TOT. I loved this last time but Iain hated it, it stopped him being able to go on other rides later in the holiday so he missed it this time!
Mhairi held my hand and screamed the entire way through! At one point I thought she was going to break my wrist!

We then headed into Jabba's Hutt (the SWW merchandise tent) all before 9.30am!! Iain and Mhairi bought the R2-D2 popcorn bucket.

We went to Starring Rolls - I had a cinnamon roll and Iain had the peanut butter cupcake (it had added darth vader bits and lightsabers)

We then headed round to the Ray Park signing. He was great! Especially when he realised we were from Glasgow!

We wandered around, did the great movie ride and the muppets and then went to the Peter Mayhew signing.
By this point it was sooo warm that we decided to head back to the hotel.

Next year we won't make the SWW but have booked tickets for Celebration VI so fingers crossed for less warm weather next year! But it is August so I'm not holding my breath!!

Coming up: Day 8 and Busch Gardens

 

[loobzuk]

just caught up with your TR. congratulations on your engagement.

 

[l_mccafferty]

Really enjoying your trip report .... l

just caught up with your TR. congratulations on your engagement.

Thanks

And I just learned how to multi quote!

 

[l_mccafferty]

Busch Gardens

Meant to say on the 7th that my dad phoned and booked the Busch Gardens shuttle bus from the Crab House location.

So we headed out to get the bus at 8.45am at the Crab House in Goodings Plaza to Busch Gardens.

We got on the bus and were given a slip of paper to remind us to pick up our return tickets and that pickup was at 7pm.

The journey went relatively fast and we then got off the bus, got our return tickets and headed in.
We went to the tour desk and booked the 1.45pm Serengeti Safari. As there was 7 of us, the man behind the counter gave us it for $20 pp instead of $33!
Mhairi, Clare and Alan bought the express passes for the day.

We split up, with me, Iain, my mum, my dad going one way and Mhairi, Clare and Alan going another. We wanted to do the animals and they wanted to do the rides.

Last time we went to BG me and Iain didn't get on a single ride! and this time we managed the SkyRide and Rhino Rally.
We wandered around and then headed back to check in for our safari. Me and Iain did this before and it was great, this time, there were more people on it and it made moving around quite difficult. Also the guide didn't tell everyone the same safety speech as we got last time! (to make sure you keep the lettuce above your head as if you don't the giraffe can put its head down then when it comes back up, can knock someone out!)

After the 30 minute safari - We drove round and saw the rest of the safari animals - Zebras, rhinos etc.

We went to the Colony house for lunch. The options here were really good. They had platters of chicken strips with pizza, turkey and cheese sandwiches and more.

We split up again after that and continued our wandering and went to Walkabout Way and fed kangaroos

We then went to the bus and headed back to the Crab House. After drop off, there was one of the times that me and Clare clashed. Big time. So no dinner tonight!

Coming up:- Day 9: Seaworld & mine and Iain's Beluga Interaction.

 

[irongirlof12]

Amazing photos

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Congratulations on your engagement .... and what a magical place to be proposed to

 

[l_mccafferty]

Seaworld June 12th

Today me, Iain and Mhairi were headed off to Seaworld around 9am and the rest were supposed to be meeting us later (after last nights argument, we weren't sure!)

So we got the Itrolley down to Seaworld and me and Iain went and booked in for our Beluga Interaction Program at 12.30. We had also booked the photo package for this so were given cards to say so.

Iain and Mhairi went on Manta, whilst I sat and people watched, holding the bags. Last time I went on Manta I hurt my back (the jerking caused a sciatic episode) meaning I could barely do anything the rest of the holiday so I wasn't taking the chance this time!!

We got some juice and crisps then headed through the aquarium bit. After this it was time to go and see if the others were headed into the park.

Alan and Clare split off from the group again but the rest of us just headed around the park, going in the direction of the Wild Arctic.
We met the instructor and the other couple doing the program beside the gold polar bear statue and then headed backstage to be fitted for wetsuits and boots.
Once this was done we then headed into the backstage of the wild arctic. We were shown some harbour seals that had been rescued and also got to see the section where all of the food is prepared. We were told about Seaworld having 3 polar bears and there was a chart with everything they liked to eat - this included watermelon!

We met the photographers and had a few photos taken, then we met the trainers that we would be with. Me and Iain were put together and had a female trainer (I can't remember her name but she was great!)
We were working with Maple, who the trainer told us loves to dance - at which point she started to spin!
We got the feed the belugas, do training techniques with them, hear their vocal range and get a kiss from them.
We also briefly worked with Klondike, who was huge compared to Maple! We got a kiss from him too.

I loved this experience and was actually really sad once it finished! I would recommend it to anyone! Also, they told us to be prepared, the water was freezing! However, coming from Scotland and having been in Loch Lomond, it was actually alright!

After the experience, we headed outside and met the others and decided to go for food before going to the One Ocean Show.
We ate in the QS restaurant just down from the Bayside stadium and they had chicken strips, fajitas among other things. we all had chicken strips.

My main issue with Seaworld is the lack of indoor seating. Those birds with the long beaks terrify me. So much so, I barely ate anything this lunch time as people were stupidly feeding the birds (There are signs saying not to!!)

Clare and Alan split off to head back to the hotel and the rest of us went to One Ocean. Me, Iain and Mhairi sat in the splash zone which became the Soak zone as we were so far down! My mum and dad sat way further back!
The show was good. I didn't like Believe that much anyway (the whole backstory ruined it for me!) but you definitely do notice the difference now the trainers aren't in the water.

After the show, we wandered a bit more, me and iain did the Wild Arctic then went to the penguins and puffins. The penguins were in their winter so there was no light on!!

We stopped to get our photos on the way out and they had printed 3 pics for us plus given us the CD! Well worth the money!

We headed back to the hotel and none of us can remember what we did for food!! I have a feeling we didn't have dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night


Day 9 - The one we'd all been waiting for! IOA

 

[kirstinemma]

The Beluga interaction you did sounds amazing! I think I'll definitely have to look into itfor the next time I go!