dpuck1998
<font color=blue>I'm innocent I tell you...innocen
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- Apr 28, 2003
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I finally got the "gump-tion" to write my latest trip report.
Our latest trip took place during our spring break from April 3rd - April 8th.
Day 1 - April 3rd
Arrived in the airport (MCO) around noon. Rented a car from National, we had signed up for emerald club for free thru mousesavers. Not really a necessity in Orlando it seems, but nice at other airports to avoid the desk. We had forgotten to get a car seat for our 14 mnt DD, but after a short wait they got one for us. We called my inlaws since we were meeting up with them. Headed to Gatorland since that was were my DS 5 wanted to go on this trip. sidenote, we had just done disney in Jan so we didn't hit the parks too much. Since my inlaws were running behind we went to the Beach Club to check in at the villas. We had rented points from a DIS member and had a two bedroom villa. Our room was ready so we took our stuff to the room and then headed out to Gatorland. We had a blast at Gatorland!! Its not "plush" or very "organized" but the boys loved it. My DS 7 got to sit on an alligator and get his picture taken. He was thrilled. We watched gator wrestling, gator-jumporoo, walked around the park and rode the train. All in all it was fun and I'm glad we went. Would want to spend more than 3-4 hours there, but the boys really enjoyed it. We even ate some alligator!! We had ADR's for Yachtsman for 7 of us at 5:35. We really enjoyed the Yachtsman. I've been there twice before and it was still as good as I remember. My DD 14 months was a huge fan of the creamed spiniach...as am I...YUM. I had the Strip and it was very thick, cooked perfectly and excellent. A good meal and good finish to our first night there. We retired to the BCV and got a full nights rest.
OMG, I forgot. Wife and I went to DD tonight. Took a bus and went to the adventures club. What a riot!! This place is awesome!! We stayed for a couple hours and left this kids with the inlaws. Got to see several skits and had an overall great time!!
Day 2 April 4th
Our only day at a Disney Park. Our plans intially involved going to MK today to get our DD haircut for the first time. However, MIL convinced me we could wait until Jan 07 to get her first haircut. Change of plans...we went to MGM. WHY? Well two DS 5 and 7. Guess what just started appearing on a regular basis at MGM!! STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY!! Our plans now revolve around this event. We hit MGM first thing in the morning. Take the boat from BC/YC. Not too busy for spring break. good!! We hit some rides the kids enjoy. Take DS's to Playhouse Disney...5 yo loves it as usual. We take FIL (82) on Great Movie ride because I know he will like it! We see Mickey and Pluto together in a short line so we hope in it since 5 yo loves Pluto. DD decides to be brave and walk up to Mickey. What a great photo op. Mickey gets close enough to pat her on the head and Pluto is a big ham as usual. Hes on all fours encourging her to get closer. She keeps a few feet away, but does well for a 14 month old. Great photos!! Next stop is STAR WARS!! We arrive at the site about 20 mins early and try to get the scoop from the CM's, maybe even a little "help" to get them on stage. They don't bite, but do give advice. Jump and scream like you really want to be on stage. About 10 mins before show time 5 yo decides he isn't really into doing it. He sits down with Grammy and Papa with sleeping DD and waits. Time for the show. We are up front around so other "jockey'ing" parents pushing thier kids up front. Did I mention we were the first ones there and in the front. By the time she show is starting at least two other kids have been pushed in front of us. The dark side of Disney...ahh well.... my kids are well behaved and not pushy. I tell them to just stay put and don't worry. Ok, back to show time. DS 7 is left with me. Show starts and he is jumping like a crazy fool...it's hilarious...he LOVES Star Wars!! First selection, one of the kids who pushed in front of us...good for him..he looks happy!! Second selection...my 7 yo who btw is quite tall for his age. Rode Dueling Dragons at age 6. Man is this kid excited. He duels with our neighbor almost daily. He knows how to handle a lightsaber
Hes onstage and I'm rolling the digital camcorder!! Priceless, worth every dime we have ever spent at Disney. Man does Disney know how make dreams come true....i am a little watery just typing this 
They go thru some training, he does well, then Vader arrives. They rush the kids to the side. The jedi trainer asks for a voulenteer. My 7 yo is quick to raise his hand and is the first one to battle vader. He is dancing all over the stage and confronts vader with everything his 7 yo mind and muster...WOW....it was GREAT. He gets back in line and watches the rest of the kids battle vader. Everything from kids really into it...to kids who really seem like they don't want to be up there. Like my 5 yo who is watching happily from the sideline. I am focused on my 7 yo who is re-enacting each battle from the sideline, ducking everytime and even swinging the lightsaber on accident once or twice...did I mention priceless yet! Okay he runs off stage with fist in the air after grabbing his padawan certificate. He is fired up and talks about it all day...the next day...heck to this day!! We go check out Sci-Fi to get a ressie, 12:30 is the earliest. Then 50s Primetime, we can get in there at noon. Sign us up. We hit Star Tours twice and both boys really love it this time. In Jan 05 they didn't care for it much. After riding its time for lunch. Our server was horrible. No joking around, she smelled like smoke after disappearing for 15 mins. Food was excellent and we still enjoyed ourselves. Lots of other servers making noise and having fun. Oh well, can't put a damper on this day....heck we are eating with a padawan!! Grandparents head home after lunch. We head out to some other attactions. Hit the backlot tour, haven't been on that in a long time. The boys enjoyed it and really liked the villians area after getting off. Time to head out and get ready for Dinner at Cape May Cafe. My uncle is staying at BCV at the same time, we are meeting them for dinner. My brother who lives in Tampa is coming over for dinner too. That makes 6 adults and 6 kids. Cape May is excellent, our server is awesome. The 4 older kids sit together at a seperate table right next to us. Our server get the 4 kids going and get them drinks and sends them to the buffett before even seeing us. What a great guy He takes care of us just as well. Great food on the buffett and a really great meal. We walk around the boardwalk after and check out some shops and put a finish to one of our best days in Disney. Did we ride a lot of rides...no. Did we see a lot of shows...no. Did we have one of the best days ever at Disney..YES!! Of to bed in our great BCV room.
Day 3 April 5th
More fun for the kids. My uncle is still there with his two kids. Boy 10 and Girl 6. They join up with my DS's on the Albatross Treasure Cruise. We drop them off at the dock and take a lot of photos. We sit at the pool with my uncle and aunt for 2 hours while they are on the cruise. DD enjoys the sand at the pool. I don't know how I'll ever stay anywhere else besides BC/YC anymore. We love it here!! After the boat returns and the kids talk about the cruise we spend the day at Stormalong. The 4 older kids play in the water, in the sand, down the slide and have a tug o war in the pool. I'm the anchor man for the adults. 40 kids just about pull my arms off The boys get a haircut, we play some arcade game, eat the hurricane hannas (man are they poorly run, slow and missing half our food) we eat ice cream at Beaches and cream...yum..dry off and go get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight...1900 Park Fare. First time for me. What a great place. The kids love it, we are with my uncle again tonight and his two kids. They all have a great time. My DS 5 isn't too sure about the characters though. He likes the big costumed ones, but Cinderella hes isn't so sure about. Odd child!! Goofy shows up to fill in for Fairy Godmother. Oldest 3 kids go see Goofy for photos and autograph. Funny Story here...My uncle is posing the kids so goofy starts moving around....he finally ends up next to me and my uncle and the 3 kids are stading by themselves as goofy is taking the photo!! Hilarious! Of course we get another with goofy this time!! After a few minutes the 5 yo decides hes ready to see Goofy now. Gets a photo and now LOVES goofy!!
Dinner was great and we had a good time. We take the monorail to TTC and a bus to the BC. I hate Disney busses. We walk by MK on the way to the bus. Its stange walking by knowing we aren't going to MK on this trip. At least we got to see it. Another night done...no parks, just fun...
Day 4 April 6th
Decide we should visit my brother today. He lives in Tampa right now, on the airforce base. Hes in the army. We hit DD shops in the morning, arrive before they open and grab McD's breakfast and play on the Lego playground. As soon as World of Disney opens we head in thru the spiting Stitch into the new Pirates Area. Neat area, not fabulous and a little small, but nice touches. The anamatronic pirate isn't very exciting and just talks a little. The boys love it here and pick out a pirate skull full of toys. Still have it and they still play with the small toys inside. We shop and pickout some stuff and then walk around to the scrapbook store and the christmas store. Wow has DD grown since last time I was there. Lots of new stores and I wish I'd had more time to spend here. We head out to meet up with my brother in Tampa. We arrive around noon and decide to meet them at PF Changs. YUM! If you haven't eaten here...go and eat there. It's great. We head onto base and checkout my brothers new digs. WOW, Million Dollar views for the soldiers. They desever it!! Nice new Duplexs in a great family area. Best base housing I've seen. We eat dinner and head back to Orlando, no not to the BC, but its time to change hotels and checkin to the Royal Pacific at Universal. We bought season passes last Jan for 99 bucks so we decide to stay here for two nights and take advantage of FOTL during this busy time. We check into a King Suite, check is great, nice toys for the kids at check in, room is nice. So far so good at Universal...it goes downhill from here.
Day 5 April 7th
Up Early to head to IOA and Character Meal at Confiscos. Our confirmation isn't a number, but the name of the operator we called...weird. Hopefully it works out. Well since there are 4 people in the resturant the confirm isn't a problem. Guess US crowd isn't into the character meals like the Disney folks. Good news is we have spidey almost to ourselves and our 7 yo DS takes full advantage. He and Spidey talk and talk. About being superheros, about being a good person, about all sorts of stuff. This was almost as much fun as the JEDI ACADEMY...well..maybe not...but fun though. Food was so so, not much selection. Price was okay, character interaction was great. Thing 1 and Thing 2 were there, but since they can't talk it wasn't as fun. Spidey came back to our table 3-4 times and talked and talked. I always feel bad when my kids asks too many questions or seems to take up too much time of the characters. However spidey I think enjoyed this just as much as my boys. He said to me "I love this, most kids don't talk to me, I really enjoy chatting with kids that are into it" This I think is the last good thing we got out of Universal..well almost. Off we got into the park. Hmmm..I know we just ate, but nothing is open...it's 9:30. Half the rides aren't up yet. We wanted to hit Jurassic Park..not "working". How about the flying unicorn? Not up yet. Lets get something to drink...non of the carts are open. Odd...whats going on..isn't it spring break? Guess we will hit SpiderMan first. The line is in the street. No biggie for us since we are using FOTL, but stange they can't keep the line out of the road. We hope in the FOTL and hit the ride. Great ride!! almost..until the end when the final effect doesn't work and the falling affect gets garbled and fails. Too bad....it might be the best part. Off we go to hit the rides. Jurassic Park is open now..got it working again I guess. Take the two boys on it. 7yo says this is his favorite ride now. 5 yo, not so sure he likes it! I forget how short this ride is, even with FOTL we wait about 10 mins. We hit several more rides. FOTL roxs, but this whole place just isn't run very well. Lines are messed up, FOTL entrys aren't checked very well. I think anyone could flash a peice of plastic and get in. I take the 7 yo on Deuling Dragons after a lot of convincing. He hops on and we take off. After the ride he likes it, but didn't like the corkscrews. Might not get him on another rollercoaster for a while. He did well though. I go back to Dueling Dragons via FOTL, also knows as the exit. Good luck fighting the traffic coming the other way. I get up there and the FOTL is backed up, guess what..ride is down..I leave. We hit some other favorites, go see Posiden and the Stunt Show. Good shows! US has some great attactions. The employees in general are awful. You feel like your bothering them. Guess I'm just Disney jaded. Let me back up a second. Since we are staying at the RPR we take the boat to IOA. It is scheduled to arrive 1/2 before park opening. hmm...doesn't seem like enough time, but we give it a shot. Guess what...boat is late..5 mins...but still come on...late boat to the park?? Wish I'd know I could have walked faster...lesson learned...we walk back. We arrive at the park after it opens. Man is that dumb. How does the hotel transportation get us there after park opening...Disneys bad busses are still better than this. Another poor image for US/Lowes, the ashtrays and garbage at the docks are still full from the night before. WHAT!! How can they not be cleaned out over night. Sick...we have fun at the park though. The rides are great dispite the poor organzation and customer service at US. We head back to the hotel and my brother drives over to meet us for dinner. We eat at the hotel. I call down from the room to get a ressie. The operator tells me for a party my size I need to talk to the resturant manager. Okay fine, she puts me thru....to his VOICEMAIL!! Are you kidding?? We want to eat in 2 hours and you send me to someones voicemail?? I call back and question this plan. After arguing with the operator she finally catches on that maybe she should step up the customer service before I move up the chain. She says she will call me right back. About 10 mins later she calls back and has a ressie for me. Nice save I guess. Odd that the operator for dining ressies can't actually make a ressie for me though. We get to Islands Dining room..the place is EMPTY. Guess its not such a tough ressie to get ehh...we get seated in the kids dining room. What a neat place. Kids tables and kids buffet. Little island in the middle with a bed type thing and two TVs for the kids to chill and watch. Neat place!! Glad we ate there...food was pretty good. Kids loved it. After dinner we go by the pool. Nice pool, we are just hear to look around, the kids get in on the limbo. Just for fun, but they give a free smoothie to the winner. Great, my kids don't stand a chance though...fine, but the poor little girl who was really good gets "hosed" They enforce the rules a little, but one girl keeps getting back inline dispite failing and somehow wins over the poor little girl who should have won. The MC on the mike apparently likes her since he ejected many other kids, but this one. ugh..my kids were out quick fairly and weren't close to winning...but I hated to watch this poor little girl lose to a cheater...ohh well...good life lesson for her. My wife is looking for diapers or something while we are doing this. She comes back with a nice report of her own. We ask an employee walking by where to find diapers. She sends us to a store that doesn't have diapers...oh well she didn't know..no biggie. The employee there sends us to another store where they do indeed have diapers. Guess who is working there...the girl who sent her to the other store. Odd...guess what she is doing. Talking on her cell phone. Does she hang up...no...doesn't miss a beat. Talking the whole time and slowly ringing up the purchase. WOW..never seen that at a disney hotel..have you?? Fun day...bad customer service. Back to the room for the night. Kids are asleep. I'll hook up to the internet...guess what...doesn't work. I work on computers for a living, it ain't my computer that isn't working. It's the internet connection. Works fine the next day.
Day 6 April 8th
Time to checkout of RPR. This is a very nice hotel, free breakfast in the morning. We enjoy that and then head to the room and call down for the valet to get our car and a bellhop to get our luggage. Bellhop arrives and takes down our luggage and we head down to meet him. Takes about 15-20 mins. Is our car waiting? Nope..we check the valet desk and I get a "hu" look. You want your car..ohh..we will get it. Hmmm...glad I called 20 mins ago. This sure is worth the extra money. Guess who gets no tip. The bellhop gets a good one however. We head to US and valet park. This is the best deal going. Not much more than normal parking and a lot closer. We head in hit Jimmy Neutron. This is the only place at either park that actually scanned our room key for FOTL. Sure is nice though. We walk on the ride and the boys LOVE it. If I had to pick one ride that they both love this is it. Off we go to the back of the park and head towards the Mummy. 7 yo is nervous but will go on it. Hes been on it before and loved it. But still a little nervous. WAIT....on the way we get stopped. A US employee? dunno...shes doing a survey..sure well help. Not a US employee, she wants our opinion on some new snacks for kids. Are you kidding me? I'm paying to get in here and your doing surveys for new yogurt snacks for kids....unreal. We stay and do the survey..maybe something free?? nope...just thanks..bye..ugh..what a joke. Off we go to Mummy..its closed...geesh..did I mention no carts are open again. It's Saturday...spring break...it's 10am..nothing is open....again. We goto Jaws and get in the FOTL. 1/2 wait already but we get on the next boat along with people who hate us because we are cutting...lol. After Jaws..twice for the 7 yo, the 5 yo sits out the second time around We check out Fear Factor Live. Kids love it, fun show. Lets hit earthquake...hmm...doesn't seem to be open. We stand in the FOTL area until someone comes out and tells us it's down. wow...just wow. We goto MIB. Love this ride and we go on several times. Both the boys have a good time. Back to Mummy...it's open. A few tears because 7 yo doesn't want to go on it. We make it and he comes off cheering. Favorite ride again. We buy a big mummy hat with the last of his souviner money. We hit a few rides, Jimmy Neutron two more times and head out. We are checking into the Hyatt at the airport before heading out in the morning to go home. I don't remember what we did for dinner?? hmm...thinking....its late ;-) I think we just did something quick on the way to the airport. Well that about does it. We check-in to the hotel, sleep well and checkout the cool shops in the airport in the morning. We even get to fly first class on the way home!!
We had a great trip. Disney rules, Universal has great rides. Can't believe we had such a good time and only hit 1 disney park!!
Thanks for reading...any questions I'd love to answer them.
Our latest trip took place during our spring break from April 3rd - April 8th.
Day 1 - April 3rd
Arrived in the airport (MCO) around noon. Rented a car from National, we had signed up for emerald club for free thru mousesavers. Not really a necessity in Orlando it seems, but nice at other airports to avoid the desk. We had forgotten to get a car seat for our 14 mnt DD, but after a short wait they got one for us. We called my inlaws since we were meeting up with them. Headed to Gatorland since that was were my DS 5 wanted to go on this trip. sidenote, we had just done disney in Jan so we didn't hit the parks too much. Since my inlaws were running behind we went to the Beach Club to check in at the villas. We had rented points from a DIS member and had a two bedroom villa. Our room was ready so we took our stuff to the room and then headed out to Gatorland. We had a blast at Gatorland!! Its not "plush" or very "organized" but the boys loved it. My DS 7 got to sit on an alligator and get his picture taken. He was thrilled. We watched gator wrestling, gator-jumporoo, walked around the park and rode the train. All in all it was fun and I'm glad we went. Would want to spend more than 3-4 hours there, but the boys really enjoyed it. We even ate some alligator!! We had ADR's for Yachtsman for 7 of us at 5:35. We really enjoyed the Yachtsman. I've been there twice before and it was still as good as I remember. My DD 14 months was a huge fan of the creamed spiniach...as am I...YUM. I had the Strip and it was very thick, cooked perfectly and excellent. A good meal and good finish to our first night there. We retired to the BCV and got a full nights rest.
OMG, I forgot. Wife and I went to DD tonight. Took a bus and went to the adventures club. What a riot!! This place is awesome!! We stayed for a couple hours and left this kids with the inlaws. Got to see several skits and had an overall great time!!
Day 2 April 4th
Our only day at a Disney Park. Our plans intially involved going to MK today to get our DD haircut for the first time. However, MIL convinced me we could wait until Jan 07 to get her first haircut. Change of plans...we went to MGM. WHY? Well two DS 5 and 7. Guess what just started appearing on a regular basis at MGM!! STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY!! Our plans now revolve around this event. We hit MGM first thing in the morning. Take the boat from BC/YC. Not too busy for spring break. good!! We hit some rides the kids enjoy. Take DS's to Playhouse Disney...5 yo loves it as usual. We take FIL (82) on Great Movie ride because I know he will like it! We see Mickey and Pluto together in a short line so we hope in it since 5 yo loves Pluto. DD decides to be brave and walk up to Mickey. What a great photo op. Mickey gets close enough to pat her on the head and Pluto is a big ham as usual. Hes on all fours encourging her to get closer. She keeps a few feet away, but does well for a 14 month old. Great photos!! Next stop is STAR WARS!! We arrive at the site about 20 mins early and try to get the scoop from the CM's, maybe even a little "help" to get them on stage. They don't bite, but do give advice. Jump and scream like you really want to be on stage. About 10 mins before show time 5 yo decides he isn't really into doing it. He sits down with Grammy and Papa with sleeping DD and waits. Time for the show. We are up front around so other "jockey'ing" parents pushing thier kids up front. Did I mention we were the first ones there and in the front. By the time she show is starting at least two other kids have been pushed in front of us. The dark side of Disney...ahh well.... my kids are well behaved and not pushy. I tell them to just stay put and don't worry. Ok, back to show time. DS 7 is left with me. Show starts and he is jumping like a crazy fool...it's hilarious...he LOVES Star Wars!! First selection, one of the kids who pushed in front of us...good for him..he looks happy!! Second selection...my 7 yo who btw is quite tall for his age. Rode Dueling Dragons at age 6. Man is this kid excited. He duels with our neighbor almost daily. He knows how to handle a lightsaber
Hes onstage and I'm rolling the digital camcorder!! Priceless, worth every dime we have ever spent at Disney. Man does Disney know how make dreams come true....i am a little watery just typing this They go thru some training, he does well, then Vader arrives. They rush the kids to the side. The jedi trainer asks for a voulenteer. My 7 yo is quick to raise his hand and is the first one to battle vader. He is dancing all over the stage and confronts vader with everything his 7 yo mind and muster...WOW....it was GREAT. He gets back in line and watches the rest of the kids battle vader. Everything from kids really into it...to kids who really seem like they don't want to be up there. Like my 5 yo who is watching happily from the sideline. I am focused on my 7 yo who is re-enacting each battle from the sideline, ducking everytime and even swinging the lightsaber on accident once or twice...did I mention priceless yet! Okay he runs off stage with fist in the air after grabbing his padawan certificate. He is fired up and talks about it all day...the next day...heck to this day!! We go check out Sci-Fi to get a ressie, 12:30 is the earliest. Then 50s Primetime, we can get in there at noon. Sign us up. We hit Star Tours twice and both boys really love it this time. In Jan 05 they didn't care for it much. After riding its time for lunch. Our server was horrible. No joking around, she smelled like smoke after disappearing for 15 mins. Food was excellent and we still enjoyed ourselves. Lots of other servers making noise and having fun. Oh well, can't put a damper on this day....heck we are eating with a padawan!! Grandparents head home after lunch. We head out to some other attactions. Hit the backlot tour, haven't been on that in a long time. The boys enjoyed it and really liked the villians area after getting off. Time to head out and get ready for Dinner at Cape May Cafe. My uncle is staying at BCV at the same time, we are meeting them for dinner. My brother who lives in Tampa is coming over for dinner too. That makes 6 adults and 6 kids. Cape May is excellent, our server is awesome. The 4 older kids sit together at a seperate table right next to us. Our server get the 4 kids going and get them drinks and sends them to the buffett before even seeing us. What a great guy He takes care of us just as well. Great food on the buffett and a really great meal. We walk around the boardwalk after and check out some shops and put a finish to one of our best days in Disney. Did we ride a lot of rides...no. Did we see a lot of shows...no. Did we have one of the best days ever at Disney..YES!! Of to bed in our great BCV room. Day 3 April 5th
More fun for the kids. My uncle is still there with his two kids. Boy 10 and Girl 6. They join up with my DS's on the Albatross Treasure Cruise. We drop them off at the dock and take a lot of photos. We sit at the pool with my uncle and aunt for 2 hours while they are on the cruise. DD enjoys the sand at the pool. I don't know how I'll ever stay anywhere else besides BC/YC anymore. We love it here!! After the boat returns and the kids talk about the cruise we spend the day at Stormalong. The 4 older kids play in the water, in the sand, down the slide and have a tug o war in the pool. I'm the anchor man for the adults. 40 kids just about pull my arms off
The boys get a haircut, we play some arcade game, eat the hurricane hannas (man are they poorly run, slow and missing half our food) we eat ice cream at Beaches and cream...yum..dry off and go get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight...1900 Park Fare. First time for me. What a great place. The kids love it, we are with my uncle again tonight and his two kids. They all have a great time. My DS 5 isn't too sure about the characters though. He likes the big costumed ones, but Cinderella hes isn't so sure about. Odd child!! Goofy shows up to fill in for Fairy Godmother. Oldest 3 kids go see Goofy for photos and autograph. Funny Story here...My uncle is posing the kids so goofy starts moving around....he finally ends up next to me and my uncle and the 3 kids are stading by themselves as goofy is taking the photo!! Hilarious! Of course we get another with goofy this time!! After a few minutes the 5 yo decides hes ready to see Goofy now. Gets a photo and now LOVES goofy!!Dinner was great and we had a good time. We take the monorail to TTC and a bus to the BC. I hate Disney busses. We walk by MK on the way to the bus. Its stange walking by knowing we aren't going to MK on this trip. At least we got to see it. Another night done...no parks, just fun...
Day 4 April 6th
Decide we should visit my brother today. He lives in Tampa right now, on the airforce base. Hes in the army. We hit DD shops in the morning, arrive before they open and grab McD's breakfast and play on the Lego playground. As soon as World of Disney opens we head in thru the spiting Stitch into the new Pirates Area. Neat area, not fabulous and a little small, but nice touches. The anamatronic pirate isn't very exciting and just talks a little. The boys love it here and pick out a pirate skull full of toys. Still have it and they still play with the small toys inside. We shop and pickout some stuff and then walk around to the scrapbook store and the christmas store. Wow has DD grown since last time I was there. Lots of new stores and I wish I'd had more time to spend here. We head out to meet up with my brother in Tampa. We arrive around noon and decide to meet them at PF Changs. YUM! If you haven't eaten here...go and eat there. It's great. We head onto base and checkout my brothers new digs. WOW, Million Dollar views for the soldiers. They desever it!! Nice new Duplexs in a great family area. Best base housing I've seen. We eat dinner and head back to Orlando, no not to the BC, but its time to change hotels and checkin to the Royal Pacific at Universal. We bought season passes last Jan for 99 bucks so we decide to stay here for two nights and take advantage of FOTL during this busy time. We check into a King Suite, check is great, nice toys for the kids at check in, room is nice. So far so good at Universal...it goes downhill from here.
Day 5 April 7th
Up Early to head to IOA and Character Meal at Confiscos. Our confirmation isn't a number, but the name of the operator we called...weird. Hopefully it works out. Well since there are 4 people in the resturant the confirm isn't a problem. Guess US crowd isn't into the character meals like the Disney folks. Good news is we have spidey almost to ourselves and our 7 yo DS takes full advantage. He and Spidey talk and talk. About being superheros, about being a good person, about all sorts of stuff. This was almost as much fun as the JEDI ACADEMY...well..maybe not...but fun though. Food was so so, not much selection. Price was okay, character interaction was great. Thing 1 and Thing 2 were there, but since they can't talk it wasn't as fun. Spidey came back to our table 3-4 times and talked and talked. I always feel bad when my kids asks too many questions or seems to take up too much time of the characters. However spidey I think enjoyed this just as much as my boys. He said to me "I love this, most kids don't talk to me, I really enjoy chatting with kids that are into it" This I think is the last good thing we got out of Universal..well almost. Off we got into the park. Hmmm..I know we just ate, but nothing is open...it's 9:30. Half the rides aren't up yet. We wanted to hit Jurassic Park..not "working". How about the flying unicorn? Not up yet. Lets get something to drink...non of the carts are open. Odd...whats going on..isn't it spring break? Guess we will hit SpiderMan first. The line is in the street. No biggie for us since we are using FOTL, but stange they can't keep the line out of the road. We hope in the FOTL and hit the ride. Great ride!! almost..until the end when the final effect doesn't work and the falling affect gets garbled and fails. Too bad....it might be the best part. Off we go to hit the rides. Jurassic Park is open now..got it working again I guess. Take the two boys on it. 7yo says this is his favorite ride now. 5 yo, not so sure he likes it! I forget how short this ride is, even with FOTL we wait about 10 mins. We hit several more rides. FOTL roxs, but this whole place just isn't run very well. Lines are messed up, FOTL entrys aren't checked very well. I think anyone could flash a peice of plastic and get in. I take the 7 yo on Deuling Dragons after a lot of convincing. He hops on and we take off. After the ride he likes it, but didn't like the corkscrews. Might not get him on another rollercoaster for a while. He did well though. I go back to Dueling Dragons via FOTL, also knows as the exit. Good luck fighting the traffic coming the other way. I get up there and the FOTL is backed up, guess what..ride is down..I leave. We hit some other favorites, go see Posiden and the Stunt Show. Good shows! US has some great attactions. The employees in general are awful. You feel like your bothering them. Guess I'm just Disney jaded. Let me back up a second. Since we are staying at the RPR we take the boat to IOA. It is scheduled to arrive 1/2 before park opening. hmm...doesn't seem like enough time, but we give it a shot. Guess what...boat is late..5 mins...but still come on...late boat to the park?? Wish I'd know I could have walked faster...lesson learned...we walk back. We arrive at the park after it opens. Man is that dumb. How does the hotel transportation get us there after park opening...Disneys bad busses are still better than this. Another poor image for US/Lowes, the ashtrays and garbage at the docks are still full from the night before. WHAT!! How can they not be cleaned out over night. Sick...we have fun at the park though. The rides are great dispite the poor organzation and customer service at US. We head back to the hotel and my brother drives over to meet us for dinner. We eat at the hotel. I call down from the room to get a ressie. The operator tells me for a party my size I need to talk to the resturant manager. Okay fine, she puts me thru....to his VOICEMAIL!! Are you kidding?? We want to eat in 2 hours and you send me to someones voicemail?? I call back and question this plan. After arguing with the operator she finally catches on that maybe she should step up the customer service before I move up the chain. She says she will call me right back. About 10 mins later she calls back and has a ressie for me. Nice save I guess. Odd that the operator for dining ressies can't actually make a ressie for me though. We get to Islands Dining room..the place is EMPTY. Guess its not such a tough ressie to get ehh...we get seated in the kids dining room. What a neat place. Kids tables and kids buffet. Little island in the middle with a bed type thing and two TVs for the kids to chill and watch. Neat place!! Glad we ate there...food was pretty good. Kids loved it. After dinner we go by the pool. Nice pool, we are just hear to look around, the kids get in on the limbo. Just for fun, but they give a free smoothie to the winner. Great, my kids don't stand a chance though...fine, but the poor little girl who was really good gets "hosed" They enforce the rules a little, but one girl keeps getting back inline dispite failing and somehow wins over the poor little girl who should have won. The MC on the mike apparently likes her since he ejected many other kids, but this one. ugh..my kids were out quick fairly and weren't close to winning...but I hated to watch this poor little girl lose to a cheater...ohh well...good life lesson for her. My wife is looking for diapers or something while we are doing this. She comes back with a nice report of her own. We ask an employee walking by where to find diapers. She sends us to a store that doesn't have diapers...oh well she didn't know..no biggie. The employee there sends us to another store where they do indeed have diapers. Guess who is working there...the girl who sent her to the other store. Odd...guess what she is doing. Talking on her cell phone. Does she hang up...no...doesn't miss a beat. Talking the whole time and slowly ringing up the purchase. WOW..never seen that at a disney hotel..have you?? Fun day...bad customer service. Back to the room for the night. Kids are asleep. I'll hook up to the internet...guess what...doesn't work. I work on computers for a living, it ain't my computer that isn't working. It's the internet connection. Works fine the next day.
Day 6 April 8th
Time to checkout of RPR. This is a very nice hotel, free breakfast in the morning. We enjoy that and then head to the room and call down for the valet to get our car and a bellhop to get our luggage. Bellhop arrives and takes down our luggage and we head down to meet him. Takes about 15-20 mins. Is our car waiting? Nope..we check the valet desk and I get a "hu" look. You want your car..ohh..we will get it. Hmmm...glad I called 20 mins ago. This sure is worth the extra money. Guess who gets no tip. The bellhop gets a good one however. We head to US and valet park. This is the best deal going. Not much more than normal parking and a lot closer. We head in hit Jimmy Neutron. This is the only place at either park that actually scanned our room key for FOTL. Sure is nice though. We walk on the ride and the boys LOVE it. If I had to pick one ride that they both love this is it. Off we go to the back of the park and head towards the Mummy. 7 yo is nervous but will go on it. Hes been on it before and loved it. But still a little nervous. WAIT....on the way we get stopped. A US employee? dunno...shes doing a survey..sure well help. Not a US employee, she wants our opinion on some new snacks for kids. Are you kidding me? I'm paying to get in here and your doing surveys for new yogurt snacks for kids....unreal. We stay and do the survey..maybe something free?? nope...just thanks..bye..ugh..what a joke. Off we go to Mummy..its closed...geesh..did I mention no carts are open again. It's Saturday...spring break...it's 10am..nothing is open....again. We goto Jaws and get in the FOTL. 1/2 wait already but we get on the next boat along with people who hate us because we are cutting...lol. After Jaws..twice for the 7 yo, the 5 yo sits out the second time around
We check out Fear Factor Live. Kids love it, fun show. Lets hit earthquake...hmm...doesn't seem to be open. We stand in the FOTL area until someone comes out and tells us it's down. wow...just wow. We goto MIB. Love this ride and we go on several times. Both the boys have a good time. Back to Mummy...it's open. A few tears because 7 yo doesn't want to go on it. We make it and he comes off cheering. Favorite ride again. We buy a big mummy hat with the last of his souviner money. We hit a few rides, Jimmy Neutron two more times and head out. We are checking into the Hyatt at the airport before heading out in the morning to go home. I don't remember what we did for dinner?? hmm...thinking....its late ;-) I think we just did something quick on the way to the airport. Well that about does it. We check-in to the hotel, sleep well and checkout the cool shops in the airport in the morning. We even get to fly first class on the way home!!We had a great trip. Disney rules, Universal has great rides. Can't believe we had such a good time and only hit 1 disney park!!
Thanks for reading...any questions I'd love to answer them.
