Jacquelyn11
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2000
- Messages
- 83
Continuation of our 13 day saga to the Worlds!
July 10 - We scheduled to go to IOA/US today. I bought 3 day passes on line from the US website for $10 off each pass. We arrived just after the 9am opening. The covered parking is nice and so are the "people mover" lanes to get to the entrance. From reading the boards we opted to go to IOA first and hit Super Hero Island 1st. We got an Express pass for the Hulk Coaster. We 'walked' onto Storm Accelatron (a souped up scrambler!) and then did Dr. Doom's freefall (somewhat of a dissapointment!) We waited about 30min to do the Superman Adv. This WAS a great 3-D ride! If we had had time I would do this again! Since my DS1 is 53 & 1/2 inches tall he did not get to ride hulk and he was VERY dissapointed. I had 'measured' him prior and warned him he might not get to ride. So DH and I rode twice! It's a bit rough but a fun coaster. We had the kids wait in the "child swap" area, an area where parents of young kids can 'take turns' riding the ride while the other parent waits. We spied the Super heros coming by as we went to the ride the Skipper Tour across to Jurassic Park. We Expressed the river ride (30min) and had no wait at the Triceratops encounter. We walk straight to where you could view the "Dinosaur". Just after the vet started the "exam" the animatronics failed and we had to leave so she could give the Dino a "sedative". Really! We waited around till our Express time for the river ride. We were on quickly but the skies were looking threatening again! We covered w/ ponchos to keep from getting too wet. It was very interesting (beats Jungle Cruise) and has a good drop at the end. But the thunder started and they stopped the ride while we were finishing up. Had to sit in the boat as it started raining harder. We exited and got in line for the P-Flyers. We had kids that fit the height requirements so we got to ride too. It's a fun short ride.
Off to Toon lagoon for the "Falls" and the "Barges" We FP both. Each ride has several express machines, and we begin to noticed that the machines gave our different "express" times. We did a bit of "over the shoulder peeking" and found a machine dispensing express passes just 15min ahead of current time! We "poncho" the bilge ride (ok, we were chickens!) but we didn't get drenched like several of our boat mates! This was a very fun raft ride, even better than Six Flags! We let the kids do the "Olive Ship" playground while waiting on the other Express time for the Falls. This was also a neat boat ride. Like the barges, never quite knew when it was going to end! We also bought the refillable popcorn bucket that was good at both IOA and US. About 4.50 initally and 1.50 for a full refill. We refilled a couple of times during our day there.
It was getting close to lunch time and my DH had a pizza craving after passing Cafe 4 earlier. We thought about Thunder Falls Terrace, a rotisserie chicken place, and the Comic Strip Cafe, a larger place that has four walk up lines, Chinese, American, Mexican and Italian. This also had individual pizzas, but DH was craving pizza by the slice. We went to Cafe 4 but the food and service was mediocre at best. Only 4 kinds of pizza, not a "create your own" like we thought. We checked out getting another Express for Spidey but the time was 7:30pm! We headed over to Seuss Landing. I wanted to try to catch the Birthday Bash since Ryan's BD was the next day. We had trouble getting our damp passes to work so an "Island Worker" (BTW, what DO you call their employees?) got us passes for "1 fish,2 fish" and "Cat/hat". I did notice their name badges also had their hometown location, very similar to the CM's at WDW. We did both of these and they were cute for the kids. The "Cat" ride is actually spins a little more that I would be comfortable with if I had a toddler. The Birthday Bash (at 2:45pm) had an area where the BD kids and family could sit, free of charge. Party hats and "Seuss/Thing 1&2" mylar ballons for the kids. The "ringmaster" of the Circus McGurkus Seussian Sing-a-Long look a little like Daryl Hannah with a bad blonde curly hairdoo! We had The Cat, Thing 1 & 2, The Grinch, Sam-I-Am do a show and spend about 5 min for autographs and pics. I did get my DS's 1 and 2 pic with the appropriate "Things"! The passed out cake to the entire restaurant. It was really quite tasty with a red rasberry filling. They also gave out a free game token to the birthday child. We will probably do this again for DS2 in December, even though he has a Nov BD. Can't do for one without doing for the other!!
Off to the Lost Continent. We Express for the Dueling Dragons (again, searching for a good time frame!) and found one about 45 min away. We opted for the Flying Unicorn, a tamer coaster ride for the younger set and their parents. DS2 really enjoyed this! We walked thru the line at DD and the "Island worker" took our passes but let Ryan go in w/o a height check! He wanted to ride is so badly that we sat him in-between DH and I. We rode the "Ice" coaster. As Ryan was about to sit in the seat he spied about $2 in change some one had "deposited" after the previous ride! It was a much smoother ride than the Hulk. We all 3 rode w/o incident, no child "flying" off the ride!! I had a very happy soon to be 9yo then!
We head over to Universal Studios to do a couple of "must do's" there, namely "Twister" and Men in Black. We get a quick dinner at Schwab's Pharmacy (where else for me?) of sandwichs and ice cream. They actually do sell a few 'over the counter' pain relivers, antacids and such. I asked if they checked to see if a patron was taking Coumadin before selling aspirin, but all I got was a blank stare. DH checked and they were no longer doing Expresses for the rides at US but the wait for Twister was only 15 min. We did Terminator 3-D which was a neat show, but the "standing around" waiting reminded me of why I didn't like this park. Also the Show Hostess had the "nails on a blackboard" kinda voice, but it was part of the act. We all cheered when she met a "Terminator" end! Off to "Twister" and another 'standing' preshow wait. Twister is my DS's favorite movie, knowing it so well they can quote the script! We enjoy the 'vortex' experience. We also do "Earthquake", where DH gets to be one of the extras. He 'fell' from a building, and came out draging his leg. We enjoy the quake, but it reminds me of Catastrophe Canyon. We go over to MIB and find out it is an hour stand by wait, and we decide to go ahead and do it. This was the longest wait we had of any ride at any park! Only one queue area was filled, and there were 3 others empty! Could'nt imagine a 4 hr wait for this ride! We finally get on and it is a neat experience (our car won!) but not really worth an hours wait. DH likes Buzz better! As we are exiting the ride the 9:55pm fireworks are starting and we D-R-A-G ourselves back to the car. The next time we are here I will try not to do it comanndo style!!
Tomorrow, off to MK and my DS1 9th birthday!!!!
Jacquelyn
July 10 - We scheduled to go to IOA/US today. I bought 3 day passes on line from the US website for $10 off each pass. We arrived just after the 9am opening. The covered parking is nice and so are the "people mover" lanes to get to the entrance. From reading the boards we opted to go to IOA first and hit Super Hero Island 1st. We got an Express pass for the Hulk Coaster. We 'walked' onto Storm Accelatron (a souped up scrambler!) and then did Dr. Doom's freefall (somewhat of a dissapointment!) We waited about 30min to do the Superman Adv. This WAS a great 3-D ride! If we had had time I would do this again! Since my DS1 is 53 & 1/2 inches tall he did not get to ride hulk and he was VERY dissapointed. I had 'measured' him prior and warned him he might not get to ride. So DH and I rode twice! It's a bit rough but a fun coaster. We had the kids wait in the "child swap" area, an area where parents of young kids can 'take turns' riding the ride while the other parent waits. We spied the Super heros coming by as we went to the ride the Skipper Tour across to Jurassic Park. We Expressed the river ride (30min) and had no wait at the Triceratops encounter. We walk straight to where you could view the "Dinosaur". Just after the vet started the "exam" the animatronics failed and we had to leave so she could give the Dino a "sedative". Really! We waited around till our Express time for the river ride. We were on quickly but the skies were looking threatening again! We covered w/ ponchos to keep from getting too wet. It was very interesting (beats Jungle Cruise) and has a good drop at the end. But the thunder started and they stopped the ride while we were finishing up. Had to sit in the boat as it started raining harder. We exited and got in line for the P-Flyers. We had kids that fit the height requirements so we got to ride too. It's a fun short ride.
Off to Toon lagoon for the "Falls" and the "Barges" We FP both. Each ride has several express machines, and we begin to noticed that the machines gave our different "express" times. We did a bit of "over the shoulder peeking" and found a machine dispensing express passes just 15min ahead of current time! We "poncho" the bilge ride (ok, we were chickens!) but we didn't get drenched like several of our boat mates! This was a very fun raft ride, even better than Six Flags! We let the kids do the "Olive Ship" playground while waiting on the other Express time for the Falls. This was also a neat boat ride. Like the barges, never quite knew when it was going to end! We also bought the refillable popcorn bucket that was good at both IOA and US. About 4.50 initally and 1.50 for a full refill. We refilled a couple of times during our day there.
It was getting close to lunch time and my DH had a pizza craving after passing Cafe 4 earlier. We thought about Thunder Falls Terrace, a rotisserie chicken place, and the Comic Strip Cafe, a larger place that has four walk up lines, Chinese, American, Mexican and Italian. This also had individual pizzas, but DH was craving pizza by the slice. We went to Cafe 4 but the food and service was mediocre at best. Only 4 kinds of pizza, not a "create your own" like we thought. We checked out getting another Express for Spidey but the time was 7:30pm! We headed over to Seuss Landing. I wanted to try to catch the Birthday Bash since Ryan's BD was the next day. We had trouble getting our damp passes to work so an "Island Worker" (BTW, what DO you call their employees?) got us passes for "1 fish,2 fish" and "Cat/hat". I did notice their name badges also had their hometown location, very similar to the CM's at WDW. We did both of these and they were cute for the kids. The "Cat" ride is actually spins a little more that I would be comfortable with if I had a toddler. The Birthday Bash (at 2:45pm) had an area where the BD kids and family could sit, free of charge. Party hats and "Seuss/Thing 1&2" mylar ballons for the kids. The "ringmaster" of the Circus McGurkus Seussian Sing-a-Long look a little like Daryl Hannah with a bad blonde curly hairdoo! We had The Cat, Thing 1 & 2, The Grinch, Sam-I-Am do a show and spend about 5 min for autographs and pics. I did get my DS's 1 and 2 pic with the appropriate "Things"! The passed out cake to the entire restaurant. It was really quite tasty with a red rasberry filling. They also gave out a free game token to the birthday child. We will probably do this again for DS2 in December, even though he has a Nov BD. Can't do for one without doing for the other!!
Off to the Lost Continent. We Express for the Dueling Dragons (again, searching for a good time frame!) and found one about 45 min away. We opted for the Flying Unicorn, a tamer coaster ride for the younger set and their parents. DS2 really enjoyed this! We walked thru the line at DD and the "Island worker" took our passes but let Ryan go in w/o a height check! He wanted to ride is so badly that we sat him in-between DH and I. We rode the "Ice" coaster. As Ryan was about to sit in the seat he spied about $2 in change some one had "deposited" after the previous ride! It was a much smoother ride than the Hulk. We all 3 rode w/o incident, no child "flying" off the ride!! I had a very happy soon to be 9yo then!
We head over to Universal Studios to do a couple of "must do's" there, namely "Twister" and Men in Black. We get a quick dinner at Schwab's Pharmacy (where else for me?) of sandwichs and ice cream. They actually do sell a few 'over the counter' pain relivers, antacids and such. I asked if they checked to see if a patron was taking Coumadin before selling aspirin, but all I got was a blank stare. DH checked and they were no longer doing Expresses for the rides at US but the wait for Twister was only 15 min. We did Terminator 3-D which was a neat show, but the "standing around" waiting reminded me of why I didn't like this park. Also the Show Hostess had the "nails on a blackboard" kinda voice, but it was part of the act. We all cheered when she met a "Terminator" end! Off to "Twister" and another 'standing' preshow wait. Twister is my DS's favorite movie, knowing it so well they can quote the script! We enjoy the 'vortex' experience. We also do "Earthquake", where DH gets to be one of the extras. He 'fell' from a building, and came out draging his leg. We enjoy the quake, but it reminds me of Catastrophe Canyon. We go over to MIB and find out it is an hour stand by wait, and we decide to go ahead and do it. This was the longest wait we had of any ride at any park! Only one queue area was filled, and there were 3 others empty! Could'nt imagine a 4 hr wait for this ride! We finally get on and it is a neat experience (our car won!) but not really worth an hours wait. DH likes Buzz better! As we are exiting the ride the 9:55pm fireworks are starting and we D-R-A-G ourselves back to the car. The next time we are here I will try not to do it comanndo style!!
Tomorrow, off to MK and my DS1 9th birthday!!!!
Jacquelyn
