Shhh!! It’s a Surprise – Chapter 17: I don’t speak Spanish beyond hola and burrito

[Growin'upDisney]

Cast of Characters

Me = Tausha
DH = Chris aka Panda
DM = Julie (my mom)
DSF = Erick (my stepfather) aka Dude

As much as I love Disney, in my heart I am a thrill ride junkie. I have bungee jumped 680 feet in the Swiss Alps, gone skydiving form my 21st birthday, and am determine to ride the world’s best roller coasters and attractions. While visiting some friends in Illinois a few years back we drove all the way to Ohio for 2 days to experience Cedar Point and Millennium Force. So I was truly looking forward to Universal Orlando. By this time DH had realized that he was just along for the ride on this whole trip so he was very agreeable to a day at Universal. We had both heard so much about The Hulk that we couldn’t wait to compare it to Millennium Force and X at Magic Mountain

Mom and Dude were skipping Universal and taking the rental car out to Kennedy Space Center. Dude is a huge aircraft, aviation, and history buff so Kennedy was right up his alley. I have only seen the pictures, so you will have to look for Dude’s trip report to fill you in (call sign: stitchthealmighty here at the DIS)

Side note: there are no pictures to go along with this days trip report since I realized after about 15 minutes after we were dropped off that my camera was safely secure in the front seat of the rental cr. So it got a trip out to Kennedy and we have no pictures from Universal.

I had originally planned to go only to Islands of Adventure since I didn’t think there would be enough time in one day to go to both parks. But as we arrived we found very, very light crowds. So we maid the astronomically high price for 2 parks in 1 day and set off into IOA.

First stop: Hulk – I got a kick out of the finger scan lockers provided free of charge. This is an awesome feature that other theme parks should provide. The line was extremely short and we waited for the front row. As we were seated and strapped in we were anticipating a great ride. As we launched up the lift hill one thing became very apparent to us. It was freezing on this ride. Remember the temperature in Orlando in the early morning was hovering around 40-45 degrees and the fast moving coaster caused stinging pain in the cold air. Besides the pain, the ride was great. But I have ridden better. No way this coaster should outrank Millennium Force, X, or even XLR 2000. I thought Mission Space was even better than this. We rode it one more time, this time in back. The whipping action of the last car made the ride seem a bit faster but still didn’t meet my expectations.

Next on to Spider-Man. I have purposely stayed away from many first hand reports of this ride since I knew it was the first of its kind and didn’t want to ruin too many of the surprises. DH knew nothing of this ride. The line again was so short we were hardly able to enjoy any of the queue area. I guess I shouldn’t complain. All I can say is WOW. This is a very unique ride and I have ridden nothing like it. It was very well engineered and a true first in the motion simulator/experience ride. We rode it one more time just to pay attention to what we missed the first go around.

Next stop was a pin station. Dh walked up to the young lady who was working the booth and said, “Hola”. He often greets people this way thinking he is sharing his heritage I guess. She started firing back at him in Spanish and the look on his face was priceless. You see DH is half Mexican and half German. He has dark skin but has Anglo features. People immediately see him and assume he speaks Spanish. Well he doesn’t. I speak more Spanish than he does thanks to 7 years of it at school. He looked at the young girl, sheepishly smiled, said “Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish beyond Hola and burrito”, and quickly walked away with the figurative tail between his legs. Way to go white boy!!

We bypassed the water rides, as it was still too cold to get even a little bit wet. We headed around to Jurassic Park the Ride. Again there was no wait in line. The themeing of this ride is done very well. I really like the initial slow ride through the jungle type area. I thought the dark part of the ride was way too short. I could hardly believe that it was over so quickly once you got inside. I think they should have made that part much longer.

So we have been here less than 90 minutes and we have finished half of the park. At this point I was very glad we had decided to do both parks. He headed to dueling dragons and entered the queue. This had got to be the longest queue for any ride!!. I realize the queue feeds both coasters but man oh man, I think the walk must at least be a ½ mile. We rode Ice first and then used the shortcut door to jump back in the queue for Fire with bypassing at least ½ the walk. This is a great concept for a coaster and would like to see more of these spring up at local theme parks.

We missed the time frame for Poseidon’s Fury and headed to Dr. Suess’s Landing. We rode Cat in The Hat and had finished IOA before 12:30pm. Looking back I was surprised at how small this park is.

We were hungry for lunch so we joined other ParrotHeads and ate at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. This place looks like it would be a lot of fun at night and on the weekends. While at lunch my cell phone rang and it was my work. I missed the call but saw the number. I looked at DH

Me: “Uh-oh. Something major must of happened for them to call me.” I listened to the voicemail and realized,

DH: “ I hope everything is OK.

Me: ”Yep just as I thought.”

DH: “What happened?”

Me: “Donna wanted to know how many squares I wanted in the Super Bowl pool. They would have all been in trouble had they left me out!!”

DH: “Don’t those people ever do any work?”

Me: “Only when we have to.”

We paid for the meal and headed to Universal Studios for the second half of our assault on Universal.

 

[cpl100]

I must say that the Spiderman is my favorite ride of all rides, both parks. Glad you liked it.

 

[DisneyDame]

Hey there Growin'upDisney,

I'm new to the Disboards (this is my first post!) and just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying your trip report.

My DH and I usually head down to WDW and Universal at least twice a year. It'a gonna be a while before we head down again since were saving every penny for a house down payment, so reading your reports is giving me the quick fix I need.

Right on about Spiderman- it's one of our favorites.

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

What? You didn't ride Doctor Doom's Fearfall? That's the best ride there!

Great trip report!

 

[Growin'upDisney]

www_dine_junkie - we have ridden many many versions of this ride all over the place (Great America, Las Vegas, Cedar Point, DL, etc.) so in the interest of time we skipped it. But looking back we would have had plenty of time - oh well more reasons to go back.

 

[Okiamae]

Great reports, your hubby sure looks happy in all the photos!!
(now that I've caught up with your reports I'll have to try and figure out where to begin stitchthealmighty's version)

 

[pjpoohbear]

Tausha

May i ask the cost of the US/IOA 2 park 1 day pass. We are looking at this for our trip in very early november.

Penny

 

[denise5374]

I am enjoying your reports immensely and i wanted to make a side note about coasters.

A girl I work with and I drove 8 hours from near Philadelphia to Cedar Point to ride Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster...That parks is AWESOME! The only downside to riding Millenium Force is that all coaster seem to pale in comoarison (at least heght wise). I prefer the woodies!

I was going to drag my family to IOA for hulk...is it worth it??

Thanks for sharing your trip...I am glad your DH was surprised!!