The most fun 2 people could cram into a day!

[GreyStr0ke]

Pre Trip Report
I can honestly say that it's been a while since I have ventured to IOA, in fact I haven't been around all of IOA since HHN 15. Before the days of HHN 15, I was an AP holder for quite some time but I began to loose interest in the parks as no new developments were occurring. In fact if it wasn't for HHN I probably wouldn't go to Universal at all or at least until they build some new attractions. So when I was talking with my girlfriend about what she wanted for her birthday, she suggested that I take her to Universal & IOA for the DAY. I know I know it sounds crazy but it's most definitely doable during the month of June on a Saturday...

Since I had not been to the parks in quite some time and she really wanted to go, I agreed to it. I told her that since we could both only go on a Saturday and that we had a lot to accomplish in one day that I would probably need to invest in some Express Plus passes for us.

Universal Orlando is a 2.5 hour drive from Lake Worth (Where I live) if I drive the speed limit . The plan is for me to leave my house at 4:30 am drive to her house to pick her up and then be on the Turnpike by 5. This will probably mean that I drive for the entire time jacked up on Red Bull while she falls asleep and leaves me to talk to myself. This is just what I want to do at 5 in the morning on a Saturday. The plan is to drive straight through and then stop at "The world's largest McDonalds" for breakfast. My girlfriend hates McDonalds, especially their breakfast but she said that’s where she wants to go. I can't argue with that. I asked her if she was gonna even eat anything if we went there and she said, "Yeah, I'll order a hash brown and a biscuit". A what!?!?! Is she crazy? Who the hell goes to the world's largest McDonalds and orders a hash brown and a biscuit. Anyway, I figure if everything goes according to plan then we should be at McDonalds at around 7:30. We can take our time there and then get over to Universal by about 8:15.

I'm gonna try my luck with those new electronic ticketing machines because some of the Florida Resident offers are only offered online. I could print the tickets at home but I really hate carrying around a piece of paper for my ticket and a piece of paper for my Express Pass. So I hope to god that those machines work right.

Ok so plan is as follows. Were gonna get to IOA before opening and spend the morning/early afternoon there. I think that if we get there early enough that we should be able to get a lot of the attraction done without having to use our Express Passes. After we get a lot done at IOA we are gonna head over to Universal and probably have to start using our Express right from the beginning. Were gonna take our time at Universal and then probably go to an early dinner at Margartiaville. After that we will probably head back over to IOA and use our Express on anything we haven't used it on yet.

My girlfriend loves taking tons of pictures so I will have a lot of stuff to look at when I update. If anyone has any requests or anything let me know. We will be there the day after the Water show begins so I will try to get some pics of that for all of you.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Let me start by introducing the 2 of us that will be the main characters in this little Trip report:

Me: GreyStr0ke or more commonly known among the real world as Bryan. Soon to be 22 years old but doesn’t act a day past 12.

My Girlfriend: Ashley, the most amazing girl in the world and my girlfriend of a year and a half.

*Side note
The day was nearing when I would finally be returning to USO, not only would I be going but the love of my life would be joining me :wub:. Everything was good to go and the only problem that we would have to worry about was the weather. Upon checking the 10-day forecast every day for a week, it looked like we were guaranteed to run into a few thunderstorms. Our plan was to go over to USF if it did indeed rain while were at IOA since more of the attractions were indoors.


Part 1

The day before we were set to leave, quickly became the never ending Friday at work. I watched what seemed like every minute of the clock on my phone pass by. Everyday at work is bad but this was just unbearable. I was just to excited to be going that working on work wasn’t even an option. I relived my anticipation by constantly checking IOACentral and The Vault, back and forth with a few games of Spider Solitaire in there . After the never-ending day of work I stopped by my girlfriend’s house to eat dinner and hang out for a little bit. The entire week I had been fighting a cold so my may concern was going to bed early since I would be the one driving at 5am. However, Ashley knew it would be a long day too so she wanted to fall asleep early as well. We both were way to excited to fall asleep on our own will so we relied on the sleeping medication known as Xanax to help us out a bit. I went home and gathered the few things that we would actually need for this short trip. Basically it came down to a cooler to put sodas in for her and Red Bulls for me, my radar detector :smirk:, some towels in case we were soaked and my ticket confirmation. After I got everything together I sat my alarm for 3:55am and 4:00 am and then went to sleep faster then I ever have in my entire life.

3:55am-* (Insert most annoying sound in the world here)*

I woke up and turned off my alarm and called Ashley. She told me to call her when I woke up to make sure she wakes up so I did. To my surprise she was already up. I get up and begin to get ready so that I can leave my house by 4:30. However, that early in the morning I’m not functioning to well so I keep getting side tracked while I’m trying to get ready and end up leaving later then I wanted. Now just for the record I would not be driving my car because frankly I don’t trust it after HHN last year when it stopped accelerating on the Turnpike. So my mother was kind enough to let me use her Honda Accord which was much more reliable then my Found On Road Dead Mustang. Anyways, I got everything together and headed out to Ashley’s house. The traffic sure is nice at 4:45 in the morning :lol:. I picked her half asleep *** up and stopped to fill up the tank. After that it was time to get on the Turnpike.

By the time we got to the Turnpike it was 5:15. Map quest estimated 2 hours and 45 minutes until we would be at the USO parking garage. So I was expecting to get there around 8am. Well the drive up was amazing. I normally hate driving up to Orlando but time was going by really fast and there was no one on the road. I had cruise control sat at 85 pretty much the entire time.

Yes it was very early and we were both tired.

I don't understand how we are in different seats now cause I drove the whole time...?

Finally we get some light!

We had to stop at one rest stop because she had drank 3 cokes up to that point already so you do the math…

It was still really early and I noticed that we were really close to our exit. I began thinking this can’t be right, we should still have 45 minutes or so more to go. Well apparently when you don’t have to keep slowing down on the turnpike you make it to your destination a hell of a lot faster then you would normally when traffic is factored in. We got off the exit and headed on to I4 and then got off at International Drive. She still had her heart sat on going to “The Worlds Largest McDonalds”, so being the good boyfriend that I am we stopped there to eat breakfast, not that I was in no way shape or form gonna complain about eating a bacon egg and cheese biscuit. Now keep in mind that it was 5:15 when we got on the turnpike and it should have been about 8 by the time we got to Universal having not stopped to eat breakfast and what not. The time it was when we arrived at “The World’s largest McDonalds” was 7:30am. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Orlando. We had made extremely good time so we took our time at McDonalds...

I made a new friend.

Ashley made sexy time with Ronald.

I'm a guitarist, not a drummer.



Well I hope everyone enjoys it so far. It will pick up more in the next part, I promise.

 

[dsmom]

Loving this so far - keep it coming! We live two hours north of Universal and I hate the drive( I hate highway driving!)
I know you will hate hearing it but ya'll are SOOOO CUTE!

 

[WeirdEyes]

Great report! You and Ashley are adorable!

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Loving this so far - keep it coming! We live two hours north of Universal and I hate the drive( I hate highway driving!)
I know you will hate hearing it but ya'll are SOOOO CUTE!

The drive in the morning was surprisngly fun. The drive home....Thats a whole other story.

And thanks for the compliment!

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Great report! You and Ashley are adorable!

Thank You. When I get home from work I will update with part 2.

 

[WeirdEyes]

Thank You. When I get home from work I will update with part 2.

Can't wait to read it!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start - I would looooove to be able to drive to Universal and back in a day

 

[Fan2CSkr]

Fun trip report, looking forward to more! I agree, both adorable.

 

[tlinus]

Great report!!

You two are a striking couple!!

 

[MonoManBlue]

I have to leave for work and now im left hanging.......I will be back.......I will be back.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Aa soon as I get home I will update. I have pretty much the entire report written (all 14 pages single spaced on Word) but it's just a matter of resizing the photos and then uplaoding them to photobucket.

Thank you all for the very kind compliments.

The fun is just about to begin...

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Part 2

After McDonalds it was time to get down to business. We made a short drive over to the parking garage at USO and when we arrived it was only 8am. We still had 1 hour until the park opened. Regardless, we parked the car in Cat in the Hat section 357 and made our short walk to the front of IOA. Did I mention I splurged for Preferred parking?

Note how empty the walkways were

I had to pick up our tickets from the electronic ticketing machines so we went over to those and it worked very easy and posed no delay at all. We had gotten us each a 1 day/2 Park ticket and a 2 Park Express Plus Pass. We got in line at the turnstiles and were the second group in line. Woot Woot!

We really could have used a third person...

The team members notified us that they would be letting us in early so we figured that they would be letting us in at 8:30 and then holding us at either the bridge to Marvel or in between Seuss and Port of Entry until 9. Well, at 8:45 they let us in and there were no ropes blocking us from the islands like they do at Disney.

We walked immediately over to The Hulk but first Ashley had to check her purse into a locker. I remembered the lockers being near the exit of the hulk but it seemed they had been moved across from the entrance. No big deal though, but with the new location it was very hard to read the screens because the sun was facing right at them. As the day progressed we noticed that all of the screens were pretty hard to read and a lot of people were having problems with them (Usually non English speakers) . We got in line or more so walked through the line of the Hulk and decided to wait for the front row. 2 minutes later we were on the ride experiencing our first thrill of the day. We got off and got backing line and rode it again this time in the back with no wait at all. I noticed the upkeep of the inside of the loading station could use some TLC. For instance the green tube lights that are on the ceiling as you are coming back into the station, don’t look like the y have been changed since the park opened. There was mold growing inside all of them and one of them was out. I know this is a petty little thing to complain about but it seems like it would be something very simple to fix. So enough about that, we both agreed that we like the back better because it seems like you get more time to accelerate on the lift hill and it also seemed smoother.

Already we had gotten on one of the most popular rides in the park two times with no wait and it wasn’t even 9 yet. The next logical thing to do was go on Spiderman. We walked up to the entrance and got in the normal line and ended up only waiting 2 minutes or so.

As always, Spiderman didn’t disappoint and all the effects were working fine. In fact the heat from Doc Ock felt hotter then ever before.

The park had now officially been open for 6 minutes and we were making great time. We opted not to go on Dr. Doom cause either of us were in the mood for it. It was so hot out already that a water ride seemed like a good idea. We headed to the most appropriate place for doing that, Toon Lagoon…

Ashley had never been on Dudley before and I rarely ride it cause I don’t really like it all that much. As we were walking up to it, she said to me, “Everyone who is coming off of that ride is soaking wet.” Indeed they were and were about to be one of those people.

Before

Once again there was no wait and we had our own log to ourselves. BTW: NO LAP BARS on our log. The first 2 little drops got us completely soaked. As we were on the ride I just kept noticing how crappy everything looked. If any ride was in desperate need of a rehab, it was this one. From the filthy animatronics to the rusted walls of the logs path, it was just unacceptable. I’m sorry but there is no comparison to this and Splash Mountain. This ride is just awful. So after we are soaking wet we climb up to the final drop and get less soaked then we did on the first 2 little ones. As we are going under the bridge headed to the ride exit, the lovely people on the bridge didn’t think we were wet enough so they felt the need to shoot 3 of the cannons at us. Thanks a lot a$$ ho*es!
We got off and were soaking wet now but it was hot out and we had the whole day to dry off so we really didn’t care.

After

When we got off it was time for revenge. We sat on the bridge and took our anger for being blasted by the cannons out on other unsuspecting individuals.

Ashley was having a fit cause her hair was wet though (you know how girls are) and she needed a brush. For some reason the water tangled her hair up…? Our mission now was to find a brush and go buy sunscreen because that was the one thing I forgot and probably needed the most.

 

[Melanie230]

I am sad to hear that Dudley is in bad shape. We went last year the week before Easter and Dudley was closed. They were renovating it. So when we go next week it will be our first time riding on it. I guess they didnt renovate enough eh? Great report so far!

 

[ky07]

great report.
we had a great time when we were there june 5th to the 11th here are some pics.

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[dsmom]

Thanks for another great installment! Tell Ashley she still looks beautiful- wet hair and all.

 

[Holly Goheavy]

Great report! We're leaving at 4 am from Jax so we can be there early, and we're going for a week! lol

You and Ashley are adorable!

 

[wilma-bride]

Great installment - what a shame about Dudley's - it's such a great ride, it seems a pity that they aren't keeping it looking good.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Thanks for another great installment! Tell Ashley she still looks beautiful- wet hair and all.

Thanks! LOL, I'll let her know that.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

Great report! We're leaving at 4 am from Jax so we can be there early, and we're going for a week! lol

You and Ashley are adorable!

How far is Jacksonville from the parks? It definitely paid off getting there early. We didn't have any long waits for a good 3 hours after the park opened and this was on a Saturday.

Thank you the kind words as well.