Our Month-Long Trip to Orlando (7/9 - 8/6) I'M BACK! TRIP REPORT COMPLETE!
- Thread starter babieemelly
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Great trip report!babieemelly
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mjmcca said:
That's too funny, I'm right near the Plaza. I'm over in Marine Park.
babieemelly
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mjmcca said:
I have a lot of friends over there. We also always go food shopping at the Waldbaums in the Georgetown shopping center, and then go over to the FYE and and IHOP
mjmcca
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I can walk there if I had to. My hubbys cousin lives with us and walks there a lot and to the mall of course.babieemelly said:I have a lot of friends over there. We also always go food shopping at the Waldbaums in the Georgetown shopping center, and then go over to the FYE and and IHOP
babieemelly
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mjmcca said:
It's cool to know there are locals on here
ChIP&DaLEfan
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i really am enjoying your trip report! i hope there's more soon 
babieemelly
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We walked around the back of the park, and wound up in Kidzone. ET was right there, and there was only a 15 minute wait, so of course we had to go on it! My mom and dad saw ET in the theater when it first came out, and Mike and I grew up loving it, so we were really excited to see what the ride was like. We got on line, and the whole zig-zag section of the line was closed off. They let a large group in at a time, while the next group being let in waited in a big open section right in front of the doors. As we walked to that section there was a group being let in, but we were cut off right when we got to the front of the line. It was only a 10 minute wait, though, and it went by really fast.
When we were finally let in, we walked to the front of the first pre-show room. We watched a video of Steven Spielberg talking about the making of ET, and how he never imagined that it would become the classic that it is today. He then told us that in the next room we were going to have to give our name to a flight attendant in order to receive a boarding pass for ET's planet. The door then opened up, and there were girls sitting at the end of long rows, on computers. We had to give them our name, and they would type it into the computer, swipe a card under a scanner, and then give us the card. I knew that ET would say everyone's name at the end of the ride, so my mom said that her name was Alison, so we could video tape ET saying my cousin's name. She LOVES ET, and we knew she would get a kick out of him saying her name!
The next room was really dark, and was set up like a forest. It was really damp, and there were tons of trees all over. It was supposed to be like the part of the movie when Elliot is in the woods trying to escape with ET, and it was very, very cool! Every few minutes a REALLY big ET-looking creature, who was supposed to be ET's teacher, would come out of a part of the "woods" to tell us how important it was for ET to get back to his home planet. It was really cute. The line was moving really fast until we got to this point, when they decided to close down one side of the ride. There were two different vehicles leaving at the same time on separate tracks, and when they closed down one of the tracks the line completely stopped for a good ten minutes. However, the line was really fun to look around, and the wait inside was only fifteen minutes, so we didn't mind.
When we got to the front of the line we boarded our "bikes". What a cute idea, I loved that! There were three rows of four bikes, and in the front of the ride vehicle was a basket with a cover over it. Throughout the ride ET would stick his head up in the basket, like he does in the movie. The ride was SO much fun... definitely my favorite dark ride of the trip. While it was made for kids, the ride is pretty intense. We really get swung around, especially in the first half of the ride when we were trying to escape from the city. There were life-sized police cars all over, some of which come really close to us and start beeping their horns and flashing their lights. There are a lot of loud noises, and it looked as if we were going to crash into a few walls.
My favorite part of the ride was when we finally started flying. We looked down and saw an entire city below us (kind of like on Peter Pan's Flight, but bigger). We also see a moon in the sky, and as we "flew" past it we saw the reflection of kids on bikes flying past the moon, just like in the movie. Very, very cute! Then we went through a whole time warp to get into ET's planet - there were psychedelic lights flashing, a meteor shower, and LOUD noises!
When we were finally there, the ride calmed down and was really cute. There were tons of aliens, most of which looked like little ET's, welcoming us home, and thanking us for saving their most famous resident. At the end of the ride ET waved and said "Goodbye" to everyone. I heard everyone's name but mine
oh well, at least we heard Alison's name! My dad videotaped most of the ride, and I'm glad he did because this was one of my favorites of the entire trip!
When the ride was over we went into the gift shop. They had three different scenarios from the movie set up, that we could take pictures in. We weren't allowed to take our own pictures, though, and the Universal Studios cameras were broken, so we didn't take any. They had one where you could sit on the bike with ET in front of the moon, one where you stick your head in between a bunch of stuffed animals with ET, and one where you stand next to ET and he is all dressed up in a wig and dress
Very cute! I wound up buying (well, my dad bought for me) a big ET in a blue robe for myself, and a small ET key chain in a red sweatshirt for Alison. I love ET!
We then walked over to the Hollywood section of the park, and saw that Terminator 2: 3D had only a five minute wait. Perfect! We got on line and walked right through the queue to the pre-show room. Wow, that's a long pre-show. Everyone stood in a large room with a big screen to the left, and a small balcony above us. A girl soon came out onto the balcony, and she was supposed to be a Cyberdine employee. She told us about how influencial and caring the company was, and how they were slowly changing the world for the better. Then the theater went dark, and a video was played. It was Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong telling us how the company was trying to take over and destroy the world, and it was up to us to help the Terminator defeat the company. Then the lights came back on, and the girl on the balcony looked very confused. She stammered that she had no idea where that video had come from, and that everything that was just said was a lie. We then donned our 3D glasses and were let into the theater.
There was a motion-sickness warning for this ride, which really confused us. I had seen a lot of specials on it on the Travel Channel, and not once did they say it was a simulator. I thought it was just a regular 3D movie. I KNEW it was, actually. Once again, though, my mom didn't want to listen to me, so my dad, Mike and I all sat together in the regular seats, while my mom sat in the stationary seats.
This was such an awesome show! When it first started, the lights in the theater dimmed and there were huge Terminator-looking robots on each side of the stage, shooting at each other (not on the screen, but actual animatronics). Throughout the show the 3D movie was mixed with live actors on stage, so it looked like they were coming right out of the film. The people on stage looked nothing like the actors in the movie, but it was still fun. The 3D video from the movie was kind of blurry, but at one point there was a big spider-looking robot that came to each side of the screen (the screen wrapped around the entire front of the room) and it was digital, so it looked AMAZING! It really did look like it was coming out at us!
At the end of the show the evil robots were defeated, and a HUGE cloud of smoke came rushing towards us from the stage. It was dry-ice, and it was really cold and felt great. Right as the smoke completely covered the audience the seats shook a few times, and the show was over. That's why there's a motion-sickness warning?!
My mom could have sat with us! Anyway, I have to admit I spaced out a few times during the show. I'm just not a big Terminator fan, but a few parts were really, really good. I would see it again.
By now it was 9:30, and we didn't know what else to do. The fireworks started at 9:50, and I wanted to see them, so we just walked around for a while. We ended up at the Cartoon store by the front of the park, and I bought Alison a Dora the Explorer doll. She LOVES Dora, so I thought it was cute. We wanted to get her a Dora backpack for school, since she started pre-k this past September, but they didn't have any. When we went to pay, my dad showed the girl at the counter his NBC/Universal ID to get the 35% discount, and the girl just looked at it and smiled, and said, "That's Nice". She must have just thought my dad was some weirdo guy showing her his ID, to brag about working at NBC He pointed out that he get's a discount, and she finally realized what was going on. It was hysterical! 
We then went over to the Twister store so my mom could get herself another ankle bracelet, and two for my Aunt Stacy. When we were in the store my Aunt Stacy called my mom's cell phone (they talked, literally, 45 times a day while we were in Florida, just like they do at home) but my mom couldn't hear in the store, so I took her phone and called Aunt Stacy back from outside. When my mom was done in the store we want back to the very back of the park, where the fireworks were being shown over the lagoon. They were nice, but not great. They were done to the music of different Universal movies, but there wasn't anything special about them. That's why I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the new fireworks spectacular they're begining to show this summer!
I wanted to stay and see the whole display, but everyone else wanted to leave before it got too crowded. My mom and I ran into the bathroom before we left and there was a HUGE roach running around in there
I have the WORST bug phobia and was SO skeeved out! There was a custodian in there and my mom told her, but either she didn't speak English or she didn't care, because she just smiled at us.
We left the park at 10:00, and started our long and VERY HOT walk back to the car. This was the worst night yet. With the humidity and so many people crowded in one spot, the heat was ridiculous and just really overpowering. I felt really sick and was sweating like crazy. We eventually made it back to the car, and my dad wanted to go to IHop for some dessert. I really didn't feel well, though, so I asked to be dropped off at the house. We decided to all just go back to the house, though, after picking up an apple pie at the bakery in Publix.
When we got back to the house I put on my pajamas, while dad and Mike had some snacks. Mike had cereal and dad had a piece of apple pie. We then all watched Anchorman (a theme for this trip... we watched it at least 45 times!) and then Ferris Bueller (another theme for this trip!). At 12:10 Mike and I watched some of Reno 911 on Comedy Central (I LOVE that show!) before I went up to bed a 12:30. I fell right asleep.
Coming Up Next - Day 5: An "Unsinkable" Ship
When we were finally let in, we walked to the front of the first pre-show room. We watched a video of Steven Spielberg talking about the making of ET, and how he never imagined that it would become the classic that it is today. He then told us that in the next room we were going to have to give our name to a flight attendant in order to receive a boarding pass for ET's planet. The door then opened up, and there were girls sitting at the end of long rows, on computers. We had to give them our name, and they would type it into the computer, swipe a card under a scanner, and then give us the card. I knew that ET would say everyone's name at the end of the ride, so my mom said that her name was Alison, so we could video tape ET saying my cousin's name. She LOVES ET, and we knew she would get a kick out of him saying her name!
The next room was really dark, and was set up like a forest. It was really damp, and there were tons of trees all over. It was supposed to be like the part of the movie when Elliot is in the woods trying to escape with ET, and it was very, very cool! Every few minutes a REALLY big ET-looking creature, who was supposed to be ET's teacher, would come out of a part of the "woods" to tell us how important it was for ET to get back to his home planet. It was really cute. The line was moving really fast until we got to this point, when they decided to close down one side of the ride. There were two different vehicles leaving at the same time on separate tracks, and when they closed down one of the tracks the line completely stopped for a good ten minutes. However, the line was really fun to look around, and the wait inside was only fifteen minutes, so we didn't mind.
When we got to the front of the line we boarded our "bikes". What a cute idea, I loved that! There were three rows of four bikes, and in the front of the ride vehicle was a basket with a cover over it. Throughout the ride ET would stick his head up in the basket, like he does in the movie. The ride was SO much fun... definitely my favorite dark ride of the trip. While it was made for kids, the ride is pretty intense. We really get swung around, especially in the first half of the ride when we were trying to escape from the city. There were life-sized police cars all over, some of which come really close to us and start beeping their horns and flashing their lights. There are a lot of loud noises, and it looked as if we were going to crash into a few walls.
My favorite part of the ride was when we finally started flying. We looked down and saw an entire city below us (kind of like on Peter Pan's Flight, but bigger). We also see a moon in the sky, and as we "flew" past it we saw the reflection of kids on bikes flying past the moon, just like in the movie. Very, very cute! Then we went through a whole time warp to get into ET's planet - there were psychedelic lights flashing, a meteor shower, and LOUD noises!
When we were finally there, the ride calmed down and was really cute. There were tons of aliens, most of which looked like little ET's, welcoming us home, and thanking us for saving their most famous resident. At the end of the ride ET waved and said "Goodbye" to everyone. I heard everyone's name but mine
oh well, at least we heard Alison's name! My dad videotaped most of the ride, and I'm glad he did because this was one of my favorites of the entire trip!When the ride was over we went into the gift shop. They had three different scenarios from the movie set up, that we could take pictures in. We weren't allowed to take our own pictures, though, and the Universal Studios cameras were broken, so we didn't take any. They had one where you could sit on the bike with ET in front of the moon, one where you stick your head in between a bunch of stuffed animals with ET, and one where you stand next to ET and he is all dressed up in a wig and dress
Very cute! I wound up buying (well, my dad bought for me) a big ET in a blue robe for myself, and a small ET key chain in a red sweatshirt for Alison. I love ET!We then walked over to the Hollywood section of the park, and saw that Terminator 2: 3D had only a five minute wait. Perfect! We got on line and walked right through the queue to the pre-show room. Wow, that's a long pre-show. Everyone stood in a large room with a big screen to the left, and a small balcony above us. A girl soon came out onto the balcony, and she was supposed to be a Cyberdine employee. She told us about how influencial and caring the company was, and how they were slowly changing the world for the better. Then the theater went dark, and a video was played. It was Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong telling us how the company was trying to take over and destroy the world, and it was up to us to help the Terminator defeat the company. Then the lights came back on, and the girl on the balcony looked very confused. She stammered that she had no idea where that video had come from, and that everything that was just said was a lie. We then donned our 3D glasses and were let into the theater.
There was a motion-sickness warning for this ride, which really confused us. I had seen a lot of specials on it on the Travel Channel, and not once did they say it was a simulator. I thought it was just a regular 3D movie. I KNEW it was, actually. Once again, though, my mom didn't want to listen to me, so my dad, Mike and I all sat together in the regular seats, while my mom sat in the stationary seats.
This was such an awesome show! When it first started, the lights in the theater dimmed and there were huge Terminator-looking robots on each side of the stage, shooting at each other (not on the screen, but actual animatronics). Throughout the show the 3D movie was mixed with live actors on stage, so it looked like they were coming right out of the film. The people on stage looked nothing like the actors in the movie, but it was still fun. The 3D video from the movie was kind of blurry, but at one point there was a big spider-looking robot that came to each side of the screen (the screen wrapped around the entire front of the room) and it was digital, so it looked AMAZING! It really did look like it was coming out at us!
At the end of the show the evil robots were defeated, and a HUGE cloud of smoke came rushing towards us from the stage. It was dry-ice, and it was really cold and felt great. Right as the smoke completely covered the audience the seats shook a few times, and the show was over. That's why there's a motion-sickness warning?!
My mom could have sat with us! Anyway, I have to admit I spaced out a few times during the show. I'm just not a big Terminator fan, but a few parts were really, really good. I would see it again.By now it was 9:30, and we didn't know what else to do. The fireworks started at 9:50, and I wanted to see them, so we just walked around for a while. We ended up at the Cartoon store by the front of the park, and I bought Alison a Dora the Explorer doll. She LOVES Dora, so I thought it was cute. We wanted to get her a Dora backpack for school, since she started pre-k this past September, but they didn't have any. When we went to pay, my dad showed the girl at the counter his NBC/Universal ID to get the 35% discount, and the girl just looked at it and smiled, and said, "That's Nice". She must have just thought my dad was some weirdo guy showing her his ID, to brag about working at NBC
He pointed out that he get's a discount, and she finally realized what was going on. It was hysterical!
We then went over to the Twister store so my mom could get herself another ankle bracelet, and two for my Aunt Stacy. When we were in the store my Aunt Stacy called my mom's cell phone (they talked, literally, 45 times a day while we were in Florida, just like they do at home) but my mom couldn't hear in the store, so I took her phone and called Aunt Stacy back from outside. When my mom was done in the store we want back to the very back of the park, where the fireworks were being shown over the lagoon. They were nice, but not great. They were done to the music of different Universal movies, but there wasn't anything special about them. That's why I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the new fireworks spectacular they're begining to show this summer!
I wanted to stay and see the whole display, but everyone else wanted to leave before it got too crowded. My mom and I ran into the bathroom before we left and there was a HUGE roach running around in there
I have the WORST bug phobia and was SO skeeved out! There was a custodian in there and my mom told her, but either she didn't speak English or she didn't care, because she just smiled at us.We left the park at 10:00, and started our long and VERY HOT walk back to the car. This was the worst night yet. With the humidity and so many people crowded in one spot, the heat was ridiculous and just really overpowering. I felt really sick and was sweating like crazy. We eventually made it back to the car, and my dad wanted to go to IHop for some dessert. I really didn't feel well, though, so I asked to be dropped off at the house. We decided to all just go back to the house, though, after picking up an apple pie at the bakery in Publix.
When we got back to the house I put on my pajamas, while dad and Mike had some snacks. Mike had cereal and dad had a piece of apple pie. We then all watched Anchorman (a theme for this trip... we watched it at least 45 times!) and then Ferris Bueller (another theme for this trip!). At 12:10 Mike and I watched some of Reno 911 on Comedy Central (I LOVE that show!) before I went up to bed a 12:30. I fell right asleep.
Coming Up Next - Day 5: An "Unsinkable" Ship
siestakeys04
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You have had a wonderful trip report so far i can not wait to read the rest. I love the details and the pictures!!!!!
ChIP&DaLEfan
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love your report! 
glass- slippers
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I'm enjoying your report, can't wait to read more!!
babieemelly
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Day 5: Wednesday, July 13
Today I woke up pretty early, at around 8:30, but I stayed in bed and fell back asleep until 9:30. I got up and my mom came into my room and told me that she spoke to my Aunt Stacy, and it was all over the news in New York that a girl had a heart attack and died on the Tower of Terror. What?! We went downstairs and turned on a few news channels but nothing was said about it. We later found out that no one died on the ride, but a girl fainted on line for the ride, due to dehydration. How it got so misconstrued that the media had this girl dying on the ride, I don't know. Thank God she was OK, though.
My mom and dad walked Oreo at around 10:00, and I had a chocolate donut for breakfast in the living room while I watched Goonies (
that movie!) I then looked through my souvenirs in my room, just trying to pass the time. It was supposed to be really hot out today, so we decided to do an inside attraction during the day, and then head over to Island's of Adventure at night. I took a shower at 10:30 and was finished getting ready by 11:30 (yes, I take forever 
) My mom woke Mike up at 12:00.
By 12:15 Mike and I were sitting in the living room, watching TV and trying to decide what to do that afternoon. Then Mike dropped the remote, and the whole thing just completely shattered The remote was in two separate pieces, with the batteries flung on one side of the room, and a bunch of cable sflung to the other side. Uh oh... Luckily my dad knows all there is to know about electronics and was able to put it back together. If he hadn't have been able to fix it... well, then... Mike did it
After sitting around a little longer, we decided to go to Titanic: The Exhibition, and we left the house at 12:30. We hadn't been to International Drive yet at that point, and the Titanic was located at the Mercado, on I-Drive. We eventually found it, and it was a pretty nice area. All of the hotels looked gorgeous and the restaurants were pretty big and all nicely themed. It was a lot nicer than the areas surrounding I4 and Route 192. We passed Wonderworks on the way to the Mercado, and I LOVED it! The whole building was upside down, and it looked awesome. I had read that a lot of the stuff inside was for kids, but we decided to think about checking it out later in the trip.
We finally got to the Mercado, and it was a nice area. It's like a Mediterranean village with restaurants, shops, and a few small attractions. We parked and walked all the way around a huge building in the front of the parking lot, which we thought would house the Titanic attraction. Of course that wasn't it, so we walked all the way back and found the ticket office. My mom and Mike were ahead of my dad and I so they went in, and then met us outside. They said that the man working there told them that we had old tickets, and asked where we got them. We had gotten them on Ticketmania, and were sent four random tickets. Each ticket has a name on it, of an actual passenger or crew member on the Titanic, and usually when you buy the tickets at the Titanic Ticket office they give kids the names of kids, girls the names of girls, and guys the names of guys. We had 4 guys, though, but we didn't think it would matter. My mom also said that the guy in the ticket office was very snide and weird, so we hoped that was the end of our encounters with him.
We walked over to the entrance of the attraction and saw that the next tour started at 1:30. It was now 1:20, so we took a quick walk around the Mercado. We went into the food court to use the bathroom, and then walked through the small, winding streets. It really did look like a marketplace on the Riviera... very nice. We ended up in a small candy store that sold all different types of Saltwater Taffy, so my mom decided to come back and get some later. The Mercado really was a nice area, so it'sa shame that they're knocking the whole thing down to build condo's
We went back to the front of the Titanic entrance, and just waited around. There were a few other people waiting around, but not many. There was a big puppet store across the way from the Titanic, and my dad had to go over there to look. My brother is SO afraid of all puppets and dolls. He claimed that he saw "Child's Play" when he was too young, but who knows? I DO know that we all LOVE to make fun of him for it! There was also a fountain right by where we were standing, so it was a nice area to wait around in.
At a little after 1:30 a guy with a British accent, and dressed in peasant clothing from the early 1900s, came outside and screamed, "All Aboard!" He took everyone's ticket and looked at the name on it, before giving it back to us, as we walked through the turnstiles. I had a guy's name on mine, so as I walked through the turnstile he said, "Oh, a little shorter but you have the mustache!" Lmfao What a funny, funny guy 
He really was funny, and wound up being a great tour guide.
As we entered the building we all stood in a big, round room. The room had actual pictures from the Titanic all over, and there was a TV in the corner of the room. The lights went out and we watched a film on the screen, with a guy who was supposed to be Astor (the builder of the Titanic) telling us how magnificent and virtually "unsinkable" the Titanic was. I have to admit I wasn't convinced The lights then came on, and our tour guide told us that he was "an engineer on the ship".
We then went into a room which was set up to look like a shipyard, with a HUGE propeller. We were told that the propeller in the room was only 1/4 the size of an actual propeller on the Titanic. This thing was BIG! We were told about how the Titanic was built, and how it actually worked. Our tour guide (who's name I can't remember) told us that 10 tons of coal were shoveled by hand in temperatures above 100 degrees in the basement of the ship, each and every day of the Titanic's voyage. Because of that he now tells all the kids who come on the tour to get an education or plan on picking up a shovel There were also three huge pictures in the room, one of the man who created the Titanic, one of the man who was in charge of the building of the Titanic, and one of the man who owned the Titanic. He said it was created by the British, built by the Irish, and owned by the American's, and not much has changed in business today He also warned us that the tour could get a bit politically incorrect, but it was really funny!
The next room we went into was set up like the dock that led to the entrance of the Titanic. It was really cool... there was a huge recreation of a piece of the Titanic with a mirror on each side which made it look like it was much bigger than it really was. There was a long, wooden plank above us with mannequins dressed in luxurious outfits, and they were supposed to be the 1st class passengers, entering the ship. We were supposed to also be 1st class passegers, but we were in the 3rd class entrance to the Titanic. We were told about the crazy tactics used to check the health of the 3rd class passengers. For example, to check for pink eye they would use toothpicks or their nail to flip the eyelids of everyone coming on to the ship, and there were so many passengers that the medics didn't have time to wash their hands between each examination. So... yes, they were actually spreading the infection themselves
We then all entered the ship, which was a pretty crazy feeling, and we were in a big room with actual artifacts from the ship, and huge pictures of all the famous people who were on the ship (including the "Unsinkable Molly Brown"). Our tour guide left us at this point, and told us to meet our next tour guide at the Grand Staircase in 10 minutes. After we looked around the main room we walked through a recreation of the 1st Class Lounge, which looked exactly like it did in reality (and in the movie, and the computer game that Mike and I have loved since we were younger!)
Today I woke up pretty early, at around 8:30, but I stayed in bed and fell back asleep until 9:30. I got up and my mom came into my room and told me that she spoke to my Aunt Stacy, and it was all over the news in New York that a girl had a heart attack and died on the Tower of Terror. What?! We went downstairs and turned on a few news channels but nothing was said about it. We later found out that no one died on the ride, but a girl fainted on line for the ride, due to dehydration. How it got so misconstrued that the media had this girl dying on the ride, I don't know. Thank God she was OK, though.
My mom and dad walked Oreo at around 10:00, and I had a chocolate donut for breakfast in the living room while I watched Goonies (
that movie!) I then looked through my souvenirs in my room, just trying to pass the time. It was supposed to be really hot out today, so we decided to do an inside attraction during the day, and then head over to Island's of Adventure at night. I took a shower at 10:30 and was finished getting ready by 11:30 (yes, I take forever ) My mom woke Mike up at 12:00. By 12:15 Mike and I were sitting in the living room, watching TV and trying to decide what to do that afternoon. Then Mike dropped the remote, and the whole thing just completely shattered The remote was in two separate pieces, with the batteries flung on one side of the room, and a bunch of cable sflung to the other side. Uh oh... Luckily my dad knows all there is to know about electronics and was able to put it back together. If he hadn't have been able to fix it... well, then... Mike did it
After sitting around a little longer, we decided to go to Titanic: The Exhibition, and we left the house at 12:30. We hadn't been to International Drive yet at that point, and the Titanic was located at the Mercado, on I-Drive. We eventually found it, and it was a pretty nice area. All of the hotels looked gorgeous and the restaurants were pretty big and all nicely themed. It was a lot nicer than the areas surrounding I4 and Route 192. We passed Wonderworks on the way to the Mercado, and I LOVED it! The whole building was upside down, and it looked awesome. I had read that a lot of the stuff inside was for kids, but we decided to think about checking it out later in the trip.
We finally got to the Mercado, and it was a nice area. It's like a Mediterranean village with restaurants, shops, and a few small attractions. We parked and walked all the way around a huge building in the front of the parking lot, which we thought would house the Titanic attraction. Of course that wasn't it, so we walked all the way back and found the ticket office. My mom and Mike were ahead of my dad and I so they went in, and then met us outside. They said that the man working there told them that we had old tickets, and asked where we got them. We had gotten them on Ticketmania, and were sent four random tickets. Each ticket has a name on it, of an actual passenger or crew member on the Titanic, and usually when you buy the tickets at the Titanic Ticket office they give kids the names of kids, girls the names of girls, and guys the names of guys. We had 4 guys, though, but we didn't think it would matter. My mom also said that the guy in the ticket office was very snide and weird, so we hoped that was the end of our encounters with him.
We walked over to the entrance of the attraction and saw that the next tour started at 1:30. It was now 1:20, so we took a quick walk around the Mercado. We went into the food court to use the bathroom, and then walked through the small, winding streets. It really did look like a marketplace on the Riviera... very nice. We ended up in a small candy store that sold all different types of Saltwater Taffy, so my mom decided to come back and get some later. The Mercado really was a nice area, so it'sa shame that they're knocking the whole thing down to build condo's
We went back to the front of the Titanic entrance, and just waited around. There were a few other people waiting around, but not many. There was a big puppet store across the way from the Titanic, and my dad had to go over there to look. My brother is SO afraid of all puppets and dolls. He claimed that he saw "Child's Play" when he was too young, but who knows? I DO know that we all LOVE to make fun of him for it!
There was also a fountain right by where we were standing, so it was a nice area to wait around in.
At a little after 1:30 a guy with a British accent, and dressed in peasant clothing from the early 1900s, came outside and screamed, "All Aboard!" He took everyone's ticket and looked at the name on it, before giving it back to us, as we walked through the turnstiles. I had a guy's name on mine, so as I walked through the turnstile he said, "Oh, a little shorter but you have the mustache!" Lmfao
What a funny, funny guy He really was funny, and wound up being a great tour guide.As we entered the building we all stood in a big, round room. The room had actual pictures from the Titanic all over, and there was a TV in the corner of the room. The lights went out and we watched a film on the screen, with a guy who was supposed to be Astor (the builder of the Titanic) telling us how magnificent and virtually "unsinkable" the Titanic was. I have to admit I wasn't convinced
The lights then came on, and our tour guide told us that he was "an engineer on the ship".We then went into a room which was set up to look like a shipyard, with a HUGE propeller. We were told that the propeller in the room was only 1/4 the size of an actual propeller on the Titanic. This thing was BIG! We were told about how the Titanic was built, and how it actually worked. Our tour guide (who's name I can't remember) told us that 10 tons of coal were shoveled by hand in temperatures above 100 degrees in the basement of the ship, each and every day of the Titanic's voyage. Because of that he now tells all the kids who come on the tour to get an education or plan on picking up a shovel
There were also three huge pictures in the room, one of the man who created the Titanic, one of the man who was in charge of the building of the Titanic, and one of the man who owned the Titanic. He said it was created by the British, built by the Irish, and owned by the American's, and not much has changed in business today He also warned us that the tour could get a bit politically incorrect, but it was really funny!
The next room we went into was set up like the dock that led to the entrance of the Titanic. It was really cool... there was a huge recreation of a piece of the Titanic with a mirror on each side which made it look like it was much bigger than it really was. There was a long, wooden plank above us with mannequins dressed in luxurious outfits, and they were supposed to be the 1st class passengers, entering the ship. We were supposed to also be 1st class passegers, but we were in the 3rd class entrance to the Titanic. We were told about the crazy tactics used to check the health of the 3rd class passengers. For example, to check for pink eye they would use toothpicks or their nail to flip the eyelids of everyone coming on to the ship, and there were so many passengers that the medics didn't have time to wash their hands between each examination. So... yes, they were actually spreading the infection themselves
We then all entered the ship, which was a pretty crazy feeling, and we were in a big room with actual artifacts from the ship, and huge pictures of all the famous people who were on the ship (including the "Unsinkable Molly Brown"). Our tour guide left us at this point, and told us to meet our next tour guide at the Grand Staircase in 10 minutes. After we looked around the main room we walked through a recreation of the 1st Class Lounge, which looked exactly like it did in reality (and in the movie, and the computer game that Mike and I have loved since we were younger!)
babieemelly
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We then waited by the Grand Staircase, which was in the next room, and it was pretty crazy. It looked exactly like the real Grand Staircase, complete with a cherub on the base of the stairs. I thought it was funny that they were playing an instrumental version of "My Heart will Go On" in there. It was definitely a surreal feeling, and having always been so interested in the Titanic story, something I was glad that I got to experience.
After five minutes of taking pictures by the Grand Staircase, our new Irish tour guide came to meet the group... and it was the guy from the ticket office! We walked through a few small rooms with artifacts from the Titanic, before we ended up in the boiler. Right next to where we were standing was a gate separating the boiler from a small staircase. It was a gate just like the ones used to hold back 3rd-class passengers, to keep them from coming to the 1st class lounge areas. It looked just how it did in the movie.
We then all stood in the boiler, while the guide told us the true story of the Titanic. He told us about how boys were considered men at the age of thirteen, so young boys had to stay behind as the women and children got on to the few lifeboats available first. There were also only 20 lifeboats on hand, while the capacity of the ship would have needed at least 75. Also, many lifeboats were broken amongst the clamor, and almost all of them left the ship less than half full. The lifeboats couldn't go back to pick up more people, though, because they would have been bombarded by passengers trying to climb up into the boat, and the lifeboats themselves would have sank. We were then told that the Titanic did not sink because of an iceburg, but because of human stupidity. This part of the tour took about a half-hour, and while Michael was completely bored, I thought it was very interesting, and even a little emotional.
Our tour guide then told us that the launch of the Discovery had been canceled. We had wanted to head over to Daytona Beach for the launch, but we knew that it could be postponed at any time, and we didn't want to pay extra, and deal with the crowds, to see a launch that may not happen. We were all glad that we had decided to skip the Kennedy Space Center for the day, and we were let through a door to explore the rest of the Titanic museum on our own. In the next room was a huge block of ice that was at the freezing temperature (35 degrees Fahrenheit). There was a sign saying to keep your hand on it for as long as possible, and I lasted for about 10 seconds before my hand started BURNING. The temperature of the ocean the night the Titanic sank was only 30 degrees Fahrenheit, five degrees beow freezing. As our tour guide had said earlier, only God's help could have allowed people to live for 2 hours or more in water that cold after the ship sank.
In that same room was a replica of the steering wheel used on the Titanic, and replicas of the ship itself. There were also a few Morse code machines, which were used to relay messages from ship to ship. I love Morse code... I think it's so interesting. As my 1st grade science project my dad helped me create a Morse code machine of my own and it was amazing.
The next room was my favorite part of the whole museum. It was a replica of a deck on the Titanic. The room was really, really dark and FREEZING. There were "stars" twinkling in the sky, and there was water you could look down at, which was pitch black. It was such a surreal feeling, and it was actually scary. It was just SO dark and SO cold. As I was looking over the railing into the water I kept thinking something scary was going to come springing out of the water, like at the end of the first Friday the 13th
I can't even imagine what it must have been like for those poor people on the actual ship, being thrown into this pitch-black body of below-freezing cold water out in the middleof nowhere, with no where to turn for help 
babieemelly
DIS Veteran
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- 2,972
In the next room were all news articles and pictures from newspapers and magazines right after the disaster occured. I've always loved history, so it was sointeresting seeing first-hand evidence as to how the world reacted to the tragedy. It transported us back to a time in history that we usually could only think of as a fictional story... it's so interesting and really hits home the fact that all of the horrible things that we learned happened in the past really were real.
In the next room was information of the course of the Titanic, and all the men and women divers who have made trips to the wreckage site. There were replicas of what the ship now looks like, and actual artifacts that they brought back from the site. It was very interesting.
The next room had posters, props, and costumes from different Titanic films that have been made throughout the years. There was a whole separate section for everything from the James Cameron Titanic film, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio. I'm sure you've all seen it, I LOVE it!
That was the final section of the tour, so we left and went into the gift shop. It wasn't until after we had already left the main museum that we realized that we had missed the big memorial wall, where you can see who lived and who died. The name on your ticket was the name of an actual person on the Titanic, and you got to see if "you" lived or died after the disaster. I really wanted to look, but none of us even remember seeing the wall... I'm guessing it would be hard to miss considering it contained the names of every single person on the Titanic Oh well.
We looked around the gift shop and my mom wound up buying another ankle bracelet, and I got a Titanic keychain. It's really cute... it shows an old wooden lounge chair on the deck of the ship and says, "Titanic, Ship of Dreams" and then "Orlando, Florida". When we went to pay, the girl at the counter, who was about my age and was dressed in clothing from the early 1900's to go along with the whole "living history" museum theme, saw the name on my mom's ticket. She said that the name of the guy on my mom's ticket was the same name as her dad's. At first I thought she was kidding, and was acting as if she was the daughter of the guy on the ticket, and it was all part of the show. However, that really was her dad's name, so my mom gave her the ticket
All in all, it was a good tour. I love living history museums (like Sturbridge in Massachusetts, and Colonial Williamsburg) so I really enjoyed it. My dad liked it, and my brother and mom HATED it. Oh well I wouldn't do it again (it's pretty small, and once is enough to take in all of the information), but I don't regret going. If you're at all interested in the Titanic, it is definitely worth seeing. They were saying that it's the only permanant Titanic exhibition in the world, but with the demolishing of the Mercado, I don't know what's going to happen to it When we were done at the Titanic we went back to the candy store that we had been in earlier. They had such cute tins that you could fill with candy... they were like the old tin lunch boxes kids would bring to school in the 50's and 60's. They had tins with Lucy, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and the 3 Stooges. They also had one from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Audrey Hepburn, and I REALLY wanted it... I love that movie! I didn't know what I would do with it, though, so my mom just filled a bag with some coconut and vanilla taffy and we left.
On our way out there were SO many geckos! They were everywhere, regardless of where we went in Florida. They're like Florida's version of our North-Easterner squirrels! We then got in the car and headed back towards Emerald Island.
Coming Up Next - One Wrong Turn After Another
In the next room was information of the course of the Titanic, and all the men and women divers who have made trips to the wreckage site. There were replicas of what the ship now looks like, and actual artifacts that they brought back from the site. It was very interesting.
The next room had posters, props, and costumes from different Titanic films that have been made throughout the years. There was a whole separate section for everything from the James Cameron Titanic film, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio. I'm sure you've all seen it, I LOVE it!
That was the final section of the tour, so we left and went into the gift shop. It wasn't until after we had already left the main museum that we realized that we had missed the big memorial wall, where you can see who lived and who died. The name on your ticket was the name of an actual person on the Titanic, and you got to see if "you" lived or died after the disaster. I really wanted to look, but none of us even remember seeing the wall... I'm guessing it would be hard to miss considering it contained the names of every single person on the Titanic
Oh well.We looked around the gift shop and my mom wound up buying another ankle bracelet, and I got a Titanic keychain. It's really cute... it shows an old wooden lounge chair on the deck of the ship and says, "Titanic, Ship of Dreams" and then "Orlando, Florida". When we went to pay, the girl at the counter, who was about my age and was dressed in clothing from the early 1900's to go along with the whole "living history" museum theme, saw the name on my mom's ticket. She said that the name of the guy on my mom's ticket was the same name as her dad's. At first I thought she was kidding, and was acting as if she was the daughter of the guy on the ticket, and it was all part of the show. However, that really was her dad's name, so my mom gave her the ticket
All in all, it was a good tour. I love living history museums (like Sturbridge in Massachusetts, and Colonial Williamsburg) so I really enjoyed it. My dad liked it, and my brother and mom HATED it. Oh well
I wouldn't do it again (it's pretty small, and once is enough to take in all of the information), but I don't regret going. If you're at all interested in the Titanic, it is definitely worth seeing. They were saying that it's the only permanant Titanic exhibition in the world, but with the demolishing of the Mercado, I don't know what's going to happen to it When we were done at the Titanic we went back to the candy store that we had been in earlier. They had such cute tins that you could fill with candy... they were like the old tin lunch boxes kids would bring to school in the 50's and 60's. They had tins with Lucy, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and the 3 Stooges. They also had one from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Audrey Hepburn, and I REALLY wanted it... I love that movie! I didn't know what I would do with it, though, so my mom just filled a bag with some coconut and vanilla taffy and we left.On our way out there were SO many geckos! They were everywhere, regardless of where we went in Florida. They're like Florida's version of our North-Easterner squirrels! We then got in the car and headed back towards Emerald Island.
Coming Up Next - One Wrong Turn After Another
mjmcca
DIS Veteran
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- Jul 16, 2004
- Messages
- 1,663
I was in Florida that day! We bought a house last year in Clermont and when school was over last yea DH packed the car and the kids and his cousin and went down to paint the house and do some work before we rented it. I flew down and met them for a few days. We were going to try and see the launch too but the traffic on the beeline was outrageous. We ended up going to the beach in Melbourne.
babieemelly
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,972
Done with the Titanic, we drove over to I4 to get back to the condo. There was TONS of traffic on I4, though, from everyone coming back from Cocoa Beach after the Discovery launch was canceled. We were right by the Epcot entrance to Disney so we decided to take a shortcut through Disney property. The condo was about 3 minutes from the Magic Kingdom entrance to Disney property, right by the MGM main entrance, so going through Disney would be a breeze, right? Well, we wound up making a wrong turn and instead of driving to the Magic Kingdom entrance we went in a big circle. Ten minutes later we were back on I4, in the same exact spot as we were before
We got back on I4 and decided to get off at the next exit, to take the back roads to our resort. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but that's never a good idea when you don't know the area well We ended driving around the back of Disney, where there were Mickey power lines! I had never seen anything like that, or thought that they even existed. I LOVED them, how cute!
We continued driving and passed through a lot of traffic. I don't even know what road we were on. We eventually ended up by the Champion's Gate Golf Resort. It was a really gorgeous area! The road we were stuck on was really busy and there was no stopping on the road leading into the resort so we had to just sit there and wait for a clearing so we could turn onto the highway. That wouldn't have been a big deal, but there were about 12 cars in front of us trying to doing the same thing. Needless to say, we were stuck there for a while... but I got to take a lot of pictures!
We got back on I4 and decided to get off at the next exit, to take the back roads to our resort. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but that's never a good idea when you don't know the area well
We ended driving around the back of Disney, where there were Mickey power lines! I had never seen anything like that, or thought that they even existed. I LOVED them, how cute!
We continued driving and passed through a lot of traffic. I don't even know what road we were on. We eventually ended up by the Champion's Gate Golf Resort. It was a really gorgeous area! The road we were stuck on was really busy and there was no stopping on the road leading into the resort so we had to just sit there and wait for a clearing so we could turn onto the highway. That wouldn't have been a big deal, but there were about 12 cars in front of us trying to doing the same thing. Needless to say, we were stuck there for a while... but I got to take a lot of pictures!
babieemelly
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,972
Once we were able to turn onto the highway we had no idea where to go from there, so guess where we ended up? That's right... I4 near the Epcot entrance to Disney! We decided to just follow it up to 192 and deal with the traffic. Dealing with the traffic in the beginning would have been a LOT easier... we would have been a lot closer to the condo than we were now. There were a lot of signs for Gay Days at Disney all around, so I took a picture. I went to a comunications and arts high school, and of the 4000 students, 3000 of them were girls. Of the 1000 guys, around 700 of them were gay My gay guy friends are some of my best friends in the world, so I wanted to show them the pictures. I also took a lot of pictures of the area.
My dad pointing out the exit we should have gotten off of on Disney property... it's too late now!
Back in Kissimmee we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner at Shoney's. On our way there we got a call from my Uncle Marc (my mom's brother), saying that he had just heard that a girl had a heart attack and died on the Tower of Terror. The story was traveling fast, but we still hadn't heard anything official. Anyway, the Shoney's in Florence, South Carolina had been gross, but I had heard good reviews of the place and we figured the one in Orlando would be nicer. We parked and went in, and the place was empty! There was only one table occupied in there, but everything was very clean and the place looked pretty nice. We got a table and decided to give it a try.
There was a buffet with four meats, salad and a bunch of side dishes, as well as a menu to order off of. You could get the buffet and get the meat they offered for a set price, or you could order something off of the menu and for only $1.99 add the buffet without the meat. None of the meat up there looked too appetizing so the deal looked good to us. I ordered the fish and chips, my mom and Mike got chicken smothered in Alfredo sauce and bacon, and dad got chicken fried steak. Ahh, nice and healthy!
After we ordered we went up to the buffet and loaded up our plates (I think I gained 45 pounds on this trip
) I got salad with honey mustard dressing, steak fries, a corn muffin, and mashed potatoes. The food was all SO good! When our main food came it was all just as good, but wow... Shoney's REALLY likes their deep fryer! I've never seen anything fried as deeply as our food was, especially the onion rings I had ordered instead of fries (since they had fries at the buffet), but it was delicious! All diets and eating healthy go out the window when we're on vacation, and the food here was great When we were done eating, my dad ordered banana caramel cream pie for dessert. None of us like bananas, but he said it was great! When we were done eating we got back in the car and headed towards the condo.
A giant gift shop we passed every day
We decided to just follow it up to 192 and deal with the traffic. Dealing with the traffic in the beginning would have been a LOT easier... we would have been a lot closer to the condo than we were now. There were a lot of signs for Gay Days at Disney all around, so I took a picture. I went to a comunications and arts high school, and of the 4000 students, 3000 of them were girls. Of the 1000 guys, around 700 of them were gay My gay guy friends are some of my best friends in the world, so I wanted to show them the pictures. I also took a lot of pictures of the area.
My dad pointing out the exit we should have gotten off of on Disney property... it's too late now!
Back in Kissimmee we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner at Shoney's. On our way there we got a call from my Uncle Marc (my mom's brother), saying that he had just heard that a girl had a heart attack and died on the Tower of Terror. The story was traveling fast, but we still hadn't heard anything official. Anyway, the Shoney's in Florence, South Carolina had been gross, but I had heard good reviews of the place and we figured the one in Orlando would be nicer. We parked and went in, and the place was empty! There was only one table occupied in there, but everything was very clean and the place looked pretty nice. We got a table and decided to give it a try.
There was a buffet with four meats, salad and a bunch of side dishes, as well as a menu to order off of. You could get the buffet and get the meat they offered for a set price, or you could order something off of the menu and for only $1.99 add the buffet without the meat. None of the meat up there looked too appetizing so the deal looked good to us. I ordered the fish and chips, my mom and Mike got chicken smothered in Alfredo sauce and bacon, and dad got chicken fried steak. Ahh, nice and healthy!
After we ordered we went up to the buffet and loaded up our plates (I think I gained 45 pounds on this trip
) I got salad with honey mustard dressing, steak fries, a corn muffin, and mashed potatoes. The food was all SO good! When our main food came it was all just as good, but wow... Shoney's REALLY likes their deep fryer! I've never seen anything fried as deeply as our food was, especially the onion rings I had ordered instead of fries (since they had fries at the buffet), but it was delicious! All diets and eating healthy go out the window when we're on vacation, and the food here was great When we were done eating, my dad ordered banana caramel cream pie for dessert. None of us like bananas, but he said it was great! When we were done eating we got back in the car and headed towards the condo.
A giant gift shop we passed every day
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