We went to sleep early Sunday Evening because Monday we were leaving for four days of theme park delight. We were nestled in our beds with visions of Alphabet worlds of wonder dancing in our heads, IOA, USF, MIB, JPRA, and Such. Well morning came and we were whisked to Orlando. We arrived at our Hotel and Requested a view of the park. Too late we were told, All rooms were booked well in advance and if you wanted one you would have to pay Moochoo bucks, However we have a nice parking lot view where you can see Uncle Mikes 58 Edsel. And your room isnt ready and we dont know when it will be so check back often. Well thats ok, we head for the park. We wait for bus that seems like it is never going to come, and when it does its full. Soon we are at the park, We wait in line with everyone else, and then are asked to pay the gross national product of Boliva for three five day tickets. Ok lets ride, first lets make dinner reservations. Oh I am sorry sir, If you booked with us you could have called 90 days ago, since you didnt you could have called 60 days ago and we could have told you Sold Out. Ok lets ride, worry about dinner later. Two hour wait, Hey were paying big bucks to look at some pretty asphalt. Sorry, thats why we call it Magic. We make your money disappear as we give you less and less. As we realize whats happened we all Shout OH NO WERE AT DISNE
.
I awoke in a cold sweat, the clock showed the time as 1:30 AM. I had trouble falling asleep until I rechecked all the reservations.
The clock chimes 4:00 and I dash out of bed. The car Service will be here at 4:30 to get us to JFK in time for a 7:00 AM Flight on Jet Blue for $180 roundtrip. Traveling today are myself, Oldest Son 17 and Daughter KC 11. We depart on time and are in Orlando by 9:20 AM. Our Town Car driver from ACL is waiting for us and we are headed for the Royal Pacific, round trip is $79 with $5 off coupon. The Hotel from the outside is impressive and quite large. Considering the last time we were there it was a big hole in the ground. Check in is smooth and short since we use the Loews First line. Our Hostess is very good and informative. She steers us to a Park View Room, but warns us it is far from the pool and Water Taxi. The room is on the 7th floor (top) in Tower II. The room number is 2752. The room number lays out the location of the room. The first number is the Tower, Second is the floor, and the last two digits are the room. Since each floor only goes to 55 room numbers, you can see how far this room is from it all. Tower two is closest to I4. Tower I is closest to the parks and Tower III is closest to the Water taxi. But what a view, It was a panoramic of the entire complex. In the middle of the view was Dr Doom and Hulk, you could see Jurassic Park River Adventure and Spiderman to the left. To the right was most of City Walk and you could see the Universal Entrance with the Shrek Head. The IOA lighthouse light would shine into the room. The nightly fireworks were excellent and it felt like we had a front row view for the high ones.
Anyhow the room was ready and we were headed to the Water Taxi by 11:00 AM. It was not bad walk and the view far outweighed the walk. We made our way to IOA and the Ceosk. We got our tickets, Five day with the US FAN Club discount at $89. We head towards to Spiderman to kick off four days of theme park bliss.
We head towards the express line and get our room keys scanned. I am told they are scanning them to how Hotel Guests are using the FOTL. During the week it seemed that the scanning increased to the point that every attraction was scanning room keys. During the week at MIB the guy doing the scanning told me how long it was since the last time I rode the attraction. Wonder what theyre planning.
Enough Editorial, Spiderman was great. All of the effects were working. Great ride. We hit Dr Doom and we encountered the longest wait of the trip. It took about 30 minutes. Next up was the Hulk, I didnt care for the fingerprint scan on the free lockers. But after five minutes we were being shot up the launch tube. Next up was Toon Lagoon. Dudley Do Right was down, so we headed for JP. KC was not up to JPRA so we went to the Burger Digs for lunch. We then hit the Lost Continent and Duel on the Dragons. First up was Fire and then a Front Row on ICE. The Clash with the Wall is still one of the best effects. Today the Dueling Dragon were a little off and our near collision with Fire in the loop was just missed. The posted weight for these bad boys was 10 minutes, I think we rode both in just over that time. KC wanted a ride on Cat in the Hat and we flashed the pass and we were in.
It was now about 2:30 PM and time was catching up with us. We walked back to the Royal and laid out in the room. KC wanted to hit the pool so by 4:00 PM we headed to the pool only to be turned away due to the approaching Storm. We decided for an early Dinner and headed back to the Water Taxi. Major complaint here, the Water Taxis were not running due to the weather. The 30 or so of us waiting for the Water Taxi did not know that. All of the Hotels and Citywalk need a PA System to alert guests when the Water Taxis arent running. After deciding that they werent running we headed for the bus or should I say the sardine can. This bus runs a loop between the three hotels and Citywalk/parks. It was packed until we got to the Portofino, then everyone got off. The loop is Royal Pacific, Portofino, Hard Rock, and Citywalk.
Since we were going to USF we decided to go to NASCAR. Food was Ok, but it was inexpensive and the Service was very good. Dinner for three was $38 with Tip and 10% off for US Fanclub, we ate there again there on Wednesday, what can I tell you were finger food type people.
We went to USF at about 7:00 PM and made a beeline for MIB. Flashed the pass and hit a wait in the Weapons room. We were buckled in about 5 Minutes from there and zapping aliens. First round scores were high five digits and no suits were scored. We Discussed some strategies with some ride-ops and were soon hitting 300,000 Scores rather quickly. I could never score well with the Noisy Cricket II Gun and tried to avoid that gun with a passion.
After three rides on MIB we hit Back to the Future, This ride is special to us since we previewed the ride back in March 91. The old girl still go some kick and is not showing her age at all. After that ride we headed towards the front of the park for a 4D treat.
The Shrek line at 8:30 was at two hours, we hit the express line, no scan and were soon in the preshow. I think Universal has really raised the bar on this one. Terminator II 3D is a good show, Shrek just adds some good comedy into the mix with some unique new twists, a must see. By the time we exited Shrek it was after 9:00 PM and the park closed. Jimmy would just have to wait until tomorrow. We took the Water Taxi back to the Royal. KC and I headed back to the pool but it was closed. By the time we got back the room Oldest Son was watching the fireworks. As I fumbled with my Camera, I missed the grand finale. Figured what the heck and got ready for a well deserved nights sleep. I laid off the late night snacks in fear off any more nightmares.
I awoke in a cold sweat, the clock showed the time as 1:30 AM. I had trouble falling asleep until I rechecked all the reservations.
The clock chimes 4:00 and I dash out of bed. The car Service will be here at 4:30 to get us to JFK in time for a 7:00 AM Flight on Jet Blue for $180 roundtrip. Traveling today are myself, Oldest Son 17 and Daughter KC 11. We depart on time and are in Orlando by 9:20 AM. Our Town Car driver from ACL is waiting for us and we are headed for the Royal Pacific, round trip is $79 with $5 off coupon. The Hotel from the outside is impressive and quite large. Considering the last time we were there it was a big hole in the ground. Check in is smooth and short since we use the Loews First line. Our Hostess is very good and informative. She steers us to a Park View Room, but warns us it is far from the pool and Water Taxi. The room is on the 7th floor (top) in Tower II. The room number is 2752. The room number lays out the location of the room. The first number is the Tower, Second is the floor, and the last two digits are the room. Since each floor only goes to 55 room numbers, you can see how far this room is from it all. Tower two is closest to I4. Tower I is closest to the parks and Tower III is closest to the Water taxi. But what a view, It was a panoramic of the entire complex. In the middle of the view was Dr Doom and Hulk, you could see Jurassic Park River Adventure and Spiderman to the left. To the right was most of City Walk and you could see the Universal Entrance with the Shrek Head. The IOA lighthouse light would shine into the room. The nightly fireworks were excellent and it felt like we had a front row view for the high ones.
Anyhow the room was ready and we were headed to the Water Taxi by 11:00 AM. It was not bad walk and the view far outweighed the walk. We made our way to IOA and the Ceosk. We got our tickets, Five day with the US FAN Club discount at $89. We head towards to Spiderman to kick off four days of theme park bliss.
We head towards the express line and get our room keys scanned. I am told they are scanning them to how Hotel Guests are using the FOTL. During the week it seemed that the scanning increased to the point that every attraction was scanning room keys. During the week at MIB the guy doing the scanning told me how long it was since the last time I rode the attraction. Wonder what theyre planning.
Enough Editorial, Spiderman was great. All of the effects were working. Great ride. We hit Dr Doom and we encountered the longest wait of the trip. It took about 30 minutes. Next up was the Hulk, I didnt care for the fingerprint scan on the free lockers. But after five minutes we were being shot up the launch tube. Next up was Toon Lagoon. Dudley Do Right was down, so we headed for JP. KC was not up to JPRA so we went to the Burger Digs for lunch. We then hit the Lost Continent and Duel on the Dragons. First up was Fire and then a Front Row on ICE. The Clash with the Wall is still one of the best effects. Today the Dueling Dragon were a little off and our near collision with Fire in the loop was just missed. The posted weight for these bad boys was 10 minutes, I think we rode both in just over that time. KC wanted a ride on Cat in the Hat and we flashed the pass and we were in.
It was now about 2:30 PM and time was catching up with us. We walked back to the Royal and laid out in the room. KC wanted to hit the pool so by 4:00 PM we headed to the pool only to be turned away due to the approaching Storm. We decided for an early Dinner and headed back to the Water Taxi. Major complaint here, the Water Taxis were not running due to the weather. The 30 or so of us waiting for the Water Taxi did not know that. All of the Hotels and Citywalk need a PA System to alert guests when the Water Taxis arent running. After deciding that they werent running we headed for the bus or should I say the sardine can. This bus runs a loop between the three hotels and Citywalk/parks. It was packed until we got to the Portofino, then everyone got off. The loop is Royal Pacific, Portofino, Hard Rock, and Citywalk.
Since we were going to USF we decided to go to NASCAR. Food was Ok, but it was inexpensive and the Service was very good. Dinner for three was $38 with Tip and 10% off for US Fanclub, we ate there again there on Wednesday, what can I tell you were finger food type people.
We went to USF at about 7:00 PM and made a beeline for MIB. Flashed the pass and hit a wait in the Weapons room. We were buckled in about 5 Minutes from there and zapping aliens. First round scores were high five digits and no suits were scored. We Discussed some strategies with some ride-ops and were soon hitting 300,000 Scores rather quickly. I could never score well with the Noisy Cricket II Gun and tried to avoid that gun with a passion.
After three rides on MIB we hit Back to the Future, This ride is special to us since we previewed the ride back in March 91. The old girl still go some kick and is not showing her age at all. After that ride we headed towards the front of the park for a 4D treat.
The Shrek line at 8:30 was at two hours, we hit the express line, no scan and were soon in the preshow. I think Universal has really raised the bar on this one. Terminator II 3D is a good show, Shrek just adds some good comedy into the mix with some unique new twists, a must see. By the time we exited Shrek it was after 9:00 PM and the park closed. Jimmy would just have to wait until tomorrow. We took the Water Taxi back to the Royal. KC and I headed back to the pool but it was closed. By the time we got back the room Oldest Son was watching the fireworks. As I fumbled with my Camera, I missed the grand finale. Figured what the heck and got ready for a well deserved nights sleep. I laid off the late night snacks in fear off any more nightmares.
