After our last tiring 2 days, we felt no need to get up very early today, but still managed to get up at a decent hour, around 8.30/9am
were making progress on this time zone thing! We packed up our bag for the day, changed and headed on out of the hotel. Just as we were walking out, we spotted the Trolley at the stop so practically ran for it, and luckily we caught it. We were lucky in the fact that we were one of the first trolley stops on the way down I Drive, as it was usually empty when we got on which meant we could grab a seat.
Today we were off to sample the delights that International Drive has to offer! Our first stop was to be Air Florida Helicopter. I had already had a look at tours and prices on their website so we knew which one we wanted. We had also seen some helicopters fly overhead when we were in our hotel pool earlier in the week, so we were quite excited! Nevertheless when some people got on asking if the trolley was going to the WDW transfer stop I got quite jealous of them we werent going for another week! We continued to travel down I Drive and it was much bigger than I had realised!
We got off at our stop and found Air Florida quite quickly.
I think we might have been the first flight of the day, since it was quiet when we went in. I think the guy was trying to push the (more expensive) WDW Tour, but I was determined not to take it since I wanted my first views of Disney to be at Disney, I didnt want to spoil that first glimpse. So, we stuck to our original plan and chose Tour 3. I had printed out a $5 off voucher from their website, but of course I had left that at the hotel, so we paid up, and went through to another room to wait until it was time to go. We were given a key to small locker to put our bag inside, but we were allowed to take our camcorder and camera up. We soon headed outside with the pilot and had some photos taken I didnt know there would be a photo op and kind of wished Id made a bit more effort with my hair that day and put on a bit of make-up! Els let me have the front seat with the pilot and we put on our headsets so we could hear the pilot. I was going to record the journey on our camcorder and Els would take photos.
The take-off felt really weird since we in such a small aircraft, but we were soon up in the air, and our pilot began pointing things out to us as we passed them. One of the first things he said when we were up, was pointing out the Contemporary Resort I got extremely excited to catch a tiny glimpse of Disney! There was THE Contemporary! We turned and continued down I Drive towards the SeaWorld end. The cars looked so tiny and it was so strange flying overhead. We passed over Discovery Cove first which looked really cool from the air we would be going here in a few days, so that got us all excited! We could clearly see the dolphin interaction areas and it just looked awesome!
Next, we passed over SeaWorld, and we spotted the Shamu stadium easily. An image that not many people get to see is the large SeaWorld logo on its roof!
Kraken looked awesome and we couldnt wait to get on it!
We also passed over Aquatica in the middle of being built and snapped a few photos here.
Up we continued over International Drive, as the pilot pointed out places like Ripleys, the Convention Centre (which is massive!) and a few others. We were soon at our end of International Drive and we could see our hotel!
We went around the back of it, and snapped a few photos of Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.
Coming back around the front, we passed right over WetnWild and it was really cool to see all the slides from the air!
Our ride was almost over and it was back to base for us. The landing was almost as weird as take off, but we made it safely back to the ground before we quickly hopped off as another pair were waiting to go. We went back inside, collected our belongings, and was shown our photos. Now I had no intention of buying them because I looked awful, but Els really wanted to, and I thought were on holiday, what the hey, so we went ahead and bought the package, which was a DVD with all our photos on, including some extras of the parks from overhead, and 2 photos in a folder however the girl didnt wait long enough for these to dry and they stuck together a bit, leaving me with bits of my face missing. Just a heads up if youre going to the helicopter place, take money if you plan to buy photos. I will say though, that they were quite cheap compared to the parks to buy, I think the package was around $20-25.
We headed on out and over the road towards Wonderworks which was to be our next stop.
I had remembered the voucher Id printed out this time, so paid and went on in. We were greeted by around 30 hyperactive teenagers in matching t-shirts. Oh gosh. It looks like summer clubs take the kids to places like this, so bear this in mind if youre planning to go. They were taking over all the attractions, so we planned to wait a while until they moved onto the next level. We tried a few of the attractions on the first floor, such as the Earthquake, and a pins thing. I dont really remember much about here.
The second level was much better than the first, and had a lot more attractions. We had some fun playing with the bubbles whilst we waited for the big group to clear the floor.
There was a bed of needles, a huge pin pusher, a VR basketball game, some pulley things, and loads more.
The next bit I think was the space bit.
All the club children had gone into the simulator thing so there was a long wait for that, so we just tried out all the other things, where you can take a photo of yourself, and make yourself older, or combine your face with another persons.
(Why we shouldn't procreate)
The last bit I remember was an area where you could play the piano with your feet, test how cold the water was on the night Titanic went down, take shadow photos, and other little bits and bobs.
My Tom Hanks Impression
Overall we thought Wonderworks was good fun, and we spent about 60-90 minutes in there. Would be a good place to go if it was raining or something, but I wouldnt make a special trip to go there or anything. Its expensive for what it essentially is.
We were quite hungry after coming from Wonderworks, and had planned at grabbing something to eat at Hooters in the nearby Pointe Orlando, or going to the B-Line Diner at The Peabody and seeing the ducks at the same time. Now that we were here and it was boiling, I could see that the Peabody was going to be too far to walk, so we opted for Pointe Orlando. However when we got here, it was completely dead, only a few workmen about.
We decided we didnt want to be the only ones sitting in Hooters, so we figured wed have something to eat at the next stop, which was the Titanic Exhibition.
Continued in next post so I can add more photos!
Wherebouts in Wales are your friends from? Thanks for reading my report and the dining ones also! I did get fidgety on the flight, but it's not too bad
He does doesn't he! He didn't know I was taking the photo!
WOW those photos from the helicopter tour are fantastic - we might have to try that next time...
I love finding new things to do!
but i'm here now and all caught up! good stuff so far.....
Cant wait for the rest.
