OK, I'm here Nebo, thank Jaime for promoting you in her trip report.
Loving it so far. I am in total agreement about US, need to go there first before WDW. IOA is much better the US. IOA has great theming there. One thing about May, do not, repeat DO NOT go on a Saturday in May, even FOTL didn't help much at IOA. Too many school trips.
Disneyfreak92, you must do Millenium Force, it's AWESOME!!!
Puggymom? Jaime said something nice about me? Go on!!!
ANd I agree, the Force is incredible. 300 feet up. But the Dragster is 430 Feet. I still like the Mean Streak there, like I said, I love woodies.
Um wait, can I rephrase that?
Crap.
This isn't starting out well.
Oh, Janet, another tip I thought of. Tell them to go to Pat O'briens at Citywalk if it's a Tuesday. Drinks, including Hurricanes, are Two for One. But the best part is so are appetizers.
A little off topic for a moment here, but I want to share something.
That family that we were supposed to meet at the get soaked ride? She works at the Citgo right across the street just about from where we live. I stop there every morning for my coffee and paper.
A couple of years ago, they shot a movie scene there. I couldn't believe how many trailers and vans were stake out there for 3 days!
The movie starred John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton and Randy Quaid. It was directed by Harold Ramis.
Any Guesses?
I thought it was ok, not great, but didn't last to long in the theatres.
It was called "The Ice Harvest".
One night I walked over to the shooting, and they stopped production because it started to rain. So, I went back across the street back home.
WHen Diane got off of work, at one in the morning, it had stopped raining, and they were starting to film again. At TWO in the morning! And , what do they do? They set up all these sprinklers and hoses to make it look like it's raining! She yelled over at John Cusack,,,, he now comes for dinner evey Thanksgiving.
Just kidding.
The scene is about two thirds of the way through the movie, his big scene is throwing up in the john there. I taped a sign to the door that said, "John Cusack threw up here." It lasted a few days anyway.,,,,,,,,,,,
Anyway,, we are back in our room, still eating leftover chicken that we brought with us, just enough to tide us over till dinner. We change into suits, and we are off once again.
We have been to Portofino Bay Hotel before, but we wanted to really check it out more this time. I know they have three pools there, but we have only seen two. This is a very unusual hotel, let me tell you.
Here, this is the approach.
Once again, the lobby isn't near as impressive as Royal Pacific, but when you start wandering down some hallways, I guess it is.
Is dark impressive?
I don't know, but I saw lots of it then.
It's like Milan street scenes.
At night.
At two in the morning.
During a power faillure.
She found an elevator, I said "what the heck" and we hit "1".
What is it with these resorts where you think you're on the ground level only to find out you're on level 3?
We get off, and all it really seemed to be was fancy room corridors. I found a door and we went outside. We were in a courtyard, with fancy tables and chairs, but not a person in sight. We looked around, nodded our heads. "um, ok," then went back inside.
Or at least tried to.
That door was now locked.
No biggy, we walked around trying all the doors, and there were plenty!
Nope! This is not the Hotel California where you can enter but can't leave.
They don't want you to even enter!
So, we wandered. We eventually found the second pool that we had seen the last time we visited, but the gate was locked. She said "ok, now what?"
I bent over , locked my fingers together to give her a boost but she wasn't having any part of it. I see a another couple of doors, and the second one we tried actually opened. This was a good thing cuz by now I'm starting to get that, "Ok, I don't give a damn about the resort any more, I just want to get to the pool."
Back inside, we see it's really just a foyer. But, it did have a long , winding staircase.
"Great, stairs."
"Why'd it have to be stairs?"
We climbed, and now we're in a long hallway. As we go down it, it's all just banquet rooms, and then a dead end.
I'm losing it!
"They won't let us OUT! Cant' breathe, aak, aak, need air"!
And I don't think we have seen more than 3 people this whole time.
Back down the stairs, and into the pool area courtyard again.
Just then I saw a woman heading for the gate, and we shot right up behind her. She used her room card for the gate, and we were in!
Well, at least to the quiet pool area.
I tried to keep us nonchalantly behind her, to see what door she then went into.
The witch sat in a deck lounge and pulled out a paperback.
(boy, your uncle Nebo almost used a potty word there)
We started trying doors again. She found one that opened, and,,,, we're back in that same room that we had come down in. At first I was near tears, I just wanted to go into a corner and start playing with my toes. Then I realized, "Wait, we came down in an elevator, we can get back up that way."
She's looking at me like, "DUH"
So I put my shoes back on, and head over to where I thought the elevator was.
And almost slammed into a glass partition.
Nope, no going that way.
As I'm taking my shoes off again, she's looking around.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet, You know how I said you can't escape the music at the Hard Rock?
Well here it's just as bad. Only not rock, All Italian music.
And it won't stop. For two days I had "O Sol O Mio" or whatever it is, going through my head.
Then, we heard a "ding".
Both our heads shot up.
Behind this plant we could see the wall open up,
And we ran!
I was behind her, and I could see that the "portal" was closing again, I wasn't going to make it, and I wasn't sure if she would either.
I knew that if we didn't make it in time, the opening would just turn into a wall again. So, I did the only thing I could think of.
I shoved her.
She got half way through before the doors closed on her body, but it kept the doors open.
We collapsed on the floor.
Back on the lobby level, I thought of walking up to concierge and telling him, "Sir, we have been stranded in this resort for a half hour now, if you don't tell me the most direct way to the main pool, when I find it I'm going to pee in it."
But I didn't.
Diane figured out which way to go, while I dropped a trail of bread crumbs behind us.
Crap, I might have even taken a picture.
We got to spend about an hour and a half at the pool, It's actually very nice there, if you can put up with "La dona Mobile" in your ears the whole time.
We made it back to the room , and got ready to go to Citywalk for dinner. The plan is to eat in Jimmy Buffet's, after we spend a little time in Pat O'brians.
Ah, but nothing ever goes the way it's planned.
The Beast is a GREAT coaster!!! 
I won't sit in the back though! Can you say whiplash? 
Thanks for sharing so much of yourself with us
I'M 52!
I love this! I'm the kind of person that would say "Ummm, Ok...we won't take any pictures." I wish I were more like you guys sometimes.
