Hey all,
Just got back from 3 days in the parks and figures I'd put together a quick report since you all have been so nice and provided so much valuable information while I was planning.
Before I start, let me say that we took a total of zero pictures on this trip... on purpose. We wanted to just enjoy ourselves and not have to worry about getting this picture or that picture. We are a newly married couple... so it's not like we're making scrapbooks of our kids or anything. I found it refreshing to not have to worry about a camera, and don't regret it in the least (in fact, each day I made a conscious decision to leave the camera in the hotel room).
This trip was just myself (30) and my wife (a little younger than me). The occasion was by 30th birthday, and the goal was to put together a relatively low-cost getaway and have a great time. I started planning, oh, maybe the middle of January.
3/25: Work > Travel > Sleep
Wednesday was a work day. We had packed the night before and were pretty much ready to leave right after work. We'd already checked in with Southwest, and had a pretty good section (A 20-something). Left home around 5:30pm, and headed for the airport. Flight was uneventful. We took the train/shuttle thing from the southwest terminal back to the main terminal, and grabbed a cab to our hotel. I requested a Mears Yellow Cab, as I'd got a quote on their website at $32.75 or something which seemed reasonable. Well, it came to I wanna say $41. I'm not sure if it was because the cab was a van or something else. I was tired and didn't feel like arguing, so I gave the cabbie $43 and proceeded to check-in. The hotel was the Hampton Inn South of Universal, which is on S. Kirkman, right off of I-drive a little north of Wet-n-Wild. I chose this one because it was easily identifiable by the amenities it had on Hotwire, had good reviews on Tripadvisor, and had free hot breakfast and shuttle to the parks (Universal/IoA, SW and Disney, but not Busch Gardens). Hotwire rate was $43 when I booked but I had seen it for $41 previously. With taxes and fees and all, 4 nights came in just under $200.
After check-in, we went straight to sleep as it as like 1:30am.
3/26: IoA > Universal > CityWalk
Next morning, I was excited like a little kid... I resisted the urge to get up at 6:15 when I first woke up... snoozed until about 7. I started getting ready and DW got up right on cue when it was her turn. We rolled down to the breakfast area for 7:57am, and spent literally 4 minutes making and wolfing down sandwiches from the breakfast bar (biscuit with sausage patty and egg) at which point I asked about the 8am shuttle. The driver was literally walking back to the bus to leave, and had we been 15 seconds later we would have missed the shuttle. The shuttle was a big yellow bus with US/IoA logos plastered all over it, and I think our hotel was the first stop because we were the 3rd and 4th passengers on the bus. The shuttle slowly snaked through different parking lots, picking up more passengers at like 5 more hotels and it felt like it was taking an eternity. Well that eternity turned out to be about 35 minutes, and we arrived at the parks in time to get our pre-purchased tickets and express passes from the e-ticket machine, and get in line to enter IoA at 8:43. We got the 7-day 2-park $99 tickets, and the 2-park express passes for 3/26 (Thursday) and 3/27 (Saturday) were $30.99 and $40.99 respectively. All-told, $340-something for tickets for the two of us. There were about 15 people ahead of us in line at 8:43am on Thursday 3/26, and the park opened right around on time.
First up, the Hulk. We walked right on with no wait and enjoyed the theming in the waiting line as we whizzed by it, knowing we probably wouldn't see that line area again later. Hulk was pretty intense, and we were both a little wobbly getting off of it... noticeably more wobbly than any other coaster I rode during this vacation. No time to recover though, because we needed to get some more rides in while there were no lines. Please note at this point that I am way more excited about the whole amusement park thing than DW, but she's awesome and understands my excitement even if it isn't fully shared. She was a trooper through the whole thing, and I'm very thankful to have such a cool person to share my life with.
Anyway, next up is Spiderman. Again, walked right on enjoying the theming, donned the 3D glasses, and WOW, what a ride. Truly brings the whole simulator class of rides to the next level.
Next in the logical progression is Dr. Doom... but it wasn't open yet so we kept walking. Through Toon Lagoon (we weren't ready to get wet just yet), jurassic park, and into the Lost Continent where we rode Dueling Dragons. I had read somewhere that Express Pass has been putting everyone on Ice recently, so I figured we'd check out Fire first. When we got to the loading area, there was no line for anything but front-row. There was about 8 people in the front-row line, so we waited for that. Let me say that front-row was worth the ~5-10 minute wait. I think you get a much better sense for the near-misses, and can see what's going on a lot better than elsewhere on the train. We got off fire, and found a short-cut back into the loading area... I'm not sure if it's an official re-ride for when the park is really slow or what (it said "Do Not Enter", but wasn't locked), it worked like a charm and we were back in the loading area and walked right on to the 2nd row of Ice within about 30 seconds of getting off of Fire. Riding both back-to-back like that was a little much for us, and we decided that we'd had enough of the thrill-rides for the time being. By now it was getting close to 10am. We took it slow walking around the rest of the park, stopped near Mythos to check out the great inland sea and just enjoy the atmosphere.
I think we rode the Cat in the Hat next (walked right on with Express, otherwise it was 25min wait... crowds were picking up by 10:30am), which was cute and very well done.
I drank a lot of water this day... I don't know if I was just dehydrated, or all the adrenalin, or the crappy hotel breakfast or what, but I think we went through 6 bottles of water (20oz, $2.75) plus 10 or 12 cups (10oz-14oz depending on the restaurant) of the free water you can get at the counter-service restaurants between the two of us. I also drank 2 or 3 beers (bud light, gotta stay hydrated), and found the drafts (20oz) to be a better value than the bottles (16oz) for the same price ($6). Something wierd was going on here because I had an insatiable thirst all day, but the liquids were just running right through me. I'm guessing my body needed some vitamin or mineral I wasn't giving it... I take Emergen-C drinks on almost a daily basis usually, but we were out for the trip so maybe that was it. I also had a headache most of the day that would be cured for like a half-hour by a bottle of water, then the water would run through me and the headache would come back. But I digress...
We rode Jurassic Park River Adventure (really cool for a boat-ride type ride), waited like 25 minutes for Psideon's Fury (which was absolutely TERRIBLE and I wish I could get that hour of my life back). We rode Spiderman again with Express; there was a 30-minute wait, but we walked right on with Express. In the afternoon we headed over to the Universal Studios side to get our money's worth for the Express Pass. Our priority was the Simpsons, but we ran into E.T. first so we used Express and went on that... I think it saved us about 20 minutes. E.T. was enjoyable, and I'd say well worth it if there's no wait.
Next up was the Simpsons (again with Express, maybe 5 minute wait)... wow. This is a really cool simulator. We sat in the back row and really enjoyed the ride. The way this ride is set up from a technical standpoint is really cool... and the illusion that they've set up is incredible for most riders. I only figured out how it worked on my final ride (3rd time through) when I was in the fun-house on the far-right, and was sitting in the front row. I won't ruin it for anyone, but suffice it to say that before you try to figure out how the ride works, sit back-row and enjoy the illusion.
Next was the Mummy. I love a good dark coaster, and this is probably the best one I've been on. Admittedly, I'm only comparing it against Space Mountain
.
Caught a few minutes of the Blues Brothers show, but it wasn't really our thing... too much "come on everybody" and "clap your hands" and whatnot. I don't go to a concert to be bossed around... make the music good and everyone WILL clap their hands and participate. If you have to beg for it, it's never gonna be heartfelt. Just my opinion.
I think we did Jaws next, Express, 5 minute wait. I give it a "meh"... I'd seen this before when it was part of the old tram tour at Universal in Hollywood. This one is a little cooler, and I can see how it would be better in the dark, but unfortunately the park closes before dark this time of the year.
After Jaws, we grabbed a footlong hot-dog from the Nathan's place on the midway by Jaws. We ordered the chicago style dog which comes with onions, sport-peppers, tomato and celery-salt. It was $7.75 (ouch!) and came with a few crinkle-fries. We split it, and it was a satisfying snack.
Next up was Men in Black. We went Express again, and had to wait maybe 10 minutes. The car we were on had only 4 people, so front and back row both had an extra gun. I grabbed the extra and we had a good time zapping bugs, I got the best score in the car with like 124k points on one of my guns. Later I realized that the overall score for your team is an average based on how many guns are used, so you generally will do better using one gun since it's a lot less chaotic and you're more likely to hit more stuff.
I know we did more than this, but I think I got all the highlights. It was quite a day, lots of walking, and we were ready for a good stiff drink and a snack.
We headed out to citywalk (~6:30pm), and decided to grab one of the infamous Hurricanes at Pat O'Briens. We sat in the bar area where sportscenter was blaring and there was no music whatsoever unless I wanted to pump money into the Jukebox, which I didn't. I'm not sure if the patio area would have been better, but we weren't eating much so I didn't want to hog up a table. Other than some lame "theming", there is nothing particularly redeeming about this place. We ordered 2 Hurricanes ($9.99 each) and the "chips and dips" appetizer. The Hurricanes were tasty if not very strong. They appeared within about 20 seconds, so were obviously pre-made (he mde them sneakily under the bar). I felt very little effect on a completely empty stomach. I think it would have taken at least 5 to get me drunk, and I didn't have $50 (plus tip!) and undoubtedly 2500 calories to spare. This "chips and dips" consisted of stale corn chips, a small bowl of some gross salsa (or salsa watered down with spaghetti sauce) and a small bowl of cheese whiz. All this for i think $8.95, incidentally the cheapest appetizer I saw on the menu. The bill for 1 round of drinks and this lovely snack was over $30 plus tip. I think I tipped $3-something because the bartender wasn't very personable, didn't offer to help out with the menu and disappeared as soon as he took our order. I was tempted to not tip at all.
On to Bob Marley, A tribute to freedom, right next door. Again, we sat at the bar. Immediately we were impressed by the ambiance, music and airy feel of the place. Bob Marley videos were playing on the TVs. This time I asked about specials. It was 6:50pm, so we still had 10 minutes left of Happy Hour. All 1-call well drinks were $2 or maybe $3. I think Domestic drafts were $2 also. Our bartender, Angel, was really cool and poured DW a really strong rum and coke and I got a red-stripe ($3.50 all day on Thurdays). Nine minutes later, we ordered another round to get the cheaper rum and coke before happy hour was over. They were also running half-price appetizers; DW wanted something with vegetables so I ordered some Blue Mountain Chicken dip, which was a chicken-salad made of jerk chicken with a mayo base. It was served with Celery and toast tips, and was pretty decent after a couple of drinks. If I were to eat there again I'd try something else. We ended up having a few more rounds and at 9pm the house band started up... the music was good and we had a great time. By 9:30 we were drunk and tired and our bartender was closing out all his tabs so he could go home. The bill came to $36 for 5 rounds of 2 drinks and the appetizer. Angel was great, so he got a $8-something tip. DW had her eye on a Bob Marley T-shirt from the gift shop, but the gift shop apparently is only open from 4pm (when the restaurant opens) until like 8pm, because it was closed by the time we were leaving. Took a quick circle through citywalk, but not much going on on a Thursday night and we didn't feel like drinking anymore so we headed out and caught a cab back to the hotel. Not sure if it was because of traffic or because we were clearly intoxicated, but the cabbie took the highway back to our hotel and it cost like $7.70 which is $1.50 more than it cost the following night. There seems to be a huge discrepancy in taxi prices in this area, so I guess its important to do your homework and have your wits about you if you're trying to save money.
I'll leave it here for tonight, and try and have the next installment up soon...
Just got back from 3 days in the parks and figures I'd put together a quick report since you all have been so nice and provided so much valuable information while I was planning.
Before I start, let me say that we took a total of zero pictures on this trip... on purpose. We wanted to just enjoy ourselves and not have to worry about getting this picture or that picture. We are a newly married couple... so it's not like we're making scrapbooks of our kids or anything. I found it refreshing to not have to worry about a camera, and don't regret it in the least (in fact, each day I made a conscious decision to leave the camera in the hotel room).
This trip was just myself (30) and my wife (a little younger than me). The occasion was by 30th birthday, and the goal was to put together a relatively low-cost getaway and have a great time. I started planning, oh, maybe the middle of January.
3/25: Work > Travel > Sleep
Wednesday was a work day. We had packed the night before and were pretty much ready to leave right after work. We'd already checked in with Southwest, and had a pretty good section (A 20-something). Left home around 5:30pm, and headed for the airport. Flight was uneventful. We took the train/shuttle thing from the southwest terminal back to the main terminal, and grabbed a cab to our hotel. I requested a Mears Yellow Cab, as I'd got a quote on their website at $32.75 or something which seemed reasonable. Well, it came to I wanna say $41. I'm not sure if it was because the cab was a van or something else. I was tired and didn't feel like arguing, so I gave the cabbie $43 and proceeded to check-in. The hotel was the Hampton Inn South of Universal, which is on S. Kirkman, right off of I-drive a little north of Wet-n-Wild. I chose this one because it was easily identifiable by the amenities it had on Hotwire, had good reviews on Tripadvisor, and had free hot breakfast and shuttle to the parks (Universal/IoA, SW and Disney, but not Busch Gardens). Hotwire rate was $43 when I booked but I had seen it for $41 previously. With taxes and fees and all, 4 nights came in just under $200.
After check-in, we went straight to sleep as it as like 1:30am.
3/26: IoA > Universal > CityWalk
Next morning, I was excited like a little kid... I resisted the urge to get up at 6:15 when I first woke up... snoozed until about 7. I started getting ready and DW got up right on cue when it was her turn. We rolled down to the breakfast area for 7:57am, and spent literally 4 minutes making and wolfing down sandwiches from the breakfast bar (biscuit with sausage patty and egg) at which point I asked about the 8am shuttle. The driver was literally walking back to the bus to leave, and had we been 15 seconds later we would have missed the shuttle. The shuttle was a big yellow bus with US/IoA logos plastered all over it, and I think our hotel was the first stop because we were the 3rd and 4th passengers on the bus. The shuttle slowly snaked through different parking lots, picking up more passengers at like 5 more hotels and it felt like it was taking an eternity. Well that eternity turned out to be about 35 minutes, and we arrived at the parks in time to get our pre-purchased tickets and express passes from the e-ticket machine, and get in line to enter IoA at 8:43. We got the 7-day 2-park $99 tickets, and the 2-park express passes for 3/26 (Thursday) and 3/27 (Saturday) were $30.99 and $40.99 respectively. All-told, $340-something for tickets for the two of us. There were about 15 people ahead of us in line at 8:43am on Thursday 3/26, and the park opened right around on time.
First up, the Hulk. We walked right on with no wait and enjoyed the theming in the waiting line as we whizzed by it, knowing we probably wouldn't see that line area again later. Hulk was pretty intense, and we were both a little wobbly getting off of it... noticeably more wobbly than any other coaster I rode during this vacation. No time to recover though, because we needed to get some more rides in while there were no lines. Please note at this point that I am way more excited about the whole amusement park thing than DW, but she's awesome and understands my excitement even if it isn't fully shared. She was a trooper through the whole thing, and I'm very thankful to have such a cool person to share my life with.
Anyway, next up is Spiderman. Again, walked right on enjoying the theming, donned the 3D glasses, and WOW, what a ride. Truly brings the whole simulator class of rides to the next level.
Next in the logical progression is Dr. Doom... but it wasn't open yet so we kept walking. Through Toon Lagoon (we weren't ready to get wet just yet), jurassic park, and into the Lost Continent where we rode Dueling Dragons. I had read somewhere that Express Pass has been putting everyone on Ice recently, so I figured we'd check out Fire first. When we got to the loading area, there was no line for anything but front-row. There was about 8 people in the front-row line, so we waited for that. Let me say that front-row was worth the ~5-10 minute wait. I think you get a much better sense for the near-misses, and can see what's going on a lot better than elsewhere on the train. We got off fire, and found a short-cut back into the loading area... I'm not sure if it's an official re-ride for when the park is really slow or what (it said "Do Not Enter", but wasn't locked), it worked like a charm and we were back in the loading area and walked right on to the 2nd row of Ice within about 30 seconds of getting off of Fire. Riding both back-to-back like that was a little much for us, and we decided that we'd had enough of the thrill-rides for the time being. By now it was getting close to 10am. We took it slow walking around the rest of the park, stopped near Mythos to check out the great inland sea and just enjoy the atmosphere.
I think we rode the Cat in the Hat next (walked right on with Express, otherwise it was 25min wait... crowds were picking up by 10:30am), which was cute and very well done.
I drank a lot of water this day... I don't know if I was just dehydrated, or all the adrenalin, or the crappy hotel breakfast or what, but I think we went through 6 bottles of water (20oz, $2.75) plus 10 or 12 cups (10oz-14oz depending on the restaurant) of the free water you can get at the counter-service restaurants between the two of us. I also drank 2 or 3 beers (bud light, gotta stay hydrated), and found the drafts (20oz) to be a better value than the bottles (16oz) for the same price ($6). Something wierd was going on here because I had an insatiable thirst all day, but the liquids were just running right through me. I'm guessing my body needed some vitamin or mineral I wasn't giving it... I take Emergen-C drinks on almost a daily basis usually, but we were out for the trip so maybe that was it. I also had a headache most of the day that would be cured for like a half-hour by a bottle of water, then the water would run through me and the headache would come back. But I digress...
We rode Jurassic Park River Adventure (really cool for a boat-ride type ride), waited like 25 minutes for Psideon's Fury (which was absolutely TERRIBLE and I wish I could get that hour of my life back). We rode Spiderman again with Express; there was a 30-minute wait, but we walked right on with Express. In the afternoon we headed over to the Universal Studios side to get our money's worth for the Express Pass. Our priority was the Simpsons, but we ran into E.T. first so we used Express and went on that... I think it saved us about 20 minutes. E.T. was enjoyable, and I'd say well worth it if there's no wait.
Next up was the Simpsons (again with Express, maybe 5 minute wait)... wow. This is a really cool simulator. We sat in the back row and really enjoyed the ride. The way this ride is set up from a technical standpoint is really cool... and the illusion that they've set up is incredible for most riders. I only figured out how it worked on my final ride (3rd time through) when I was in the fun-house on the far-right, and was sitting in the front row. I won't ruin it for anyone, but suffice it to say that before you try to figure out how the ride works, sit back-row and enjoy the illusion.
Next was the Mummy. I love a good dark coaster, and this is probably the best one I've been on. Admittedly, I'm only comparing it against Space Mountain
. Caught a few minutes of the Blues Brothers show, but it wasn't really our thing... too much "come on everybody" and "clap your hands" and whatnot. I don't go to a concert to be bossed around... make the music good and everyone WILL clap their hands and participate. If you have to beg for it, it's never gonna be heartfelt. Just my opinion.
I think we did Jaws next, Express, 5 minute wait. I give it a "meh"... I'd seen this before when it was part of the old tram tour at Universal in Hollywood. This one is a little cooler, and I can see how it would be better in the dark, but unfortunately the park closes before dark this time of the year.
After Jaws, we grabbed a footlong hot-dog from the Nathan's place on the midway by Jaws. We ordered the chicago style dog which comes with onions, sport-peppers, tomato and celery-salt. It was $7.75 (ouch!) and came with a few crinkle-fries. We split it, and it was a satisfying snack.
Next up was Men in Black. We went Express again, and had to wait maybe 10 minutes. The car we were on had only 4 people, so front and back row both had an extra gun. I grabbed the extra and we had a good time zapping bugs, I got the best score in the car with like 124k points on one of my guns. Later I realized that the overall score for your team is an average based on how many guns are used, so you generally will do better using one gun since it's a lot less chaotic and you're more likely to hit more stuff.
I know we did more than this, but I think I got all the highlights. It was quite a day, lots of walking, and we were ready for a good stiff drink and a snack.
We headed out to citywalk (~6:30pm), and decided to grab one of the infamous Hurricanes at Pat O'Briens. We sat in the bar area where sportscenter was blaring and there was no music whatsoever unless I wanted to pump money into the Jukebox, which I didn't. I'm not sure if the patio area would have been better, but we weren't eating much so I didn't want to hog up a table. Other than some lame "theming", there is nothing particularly redeeming about this place. We ordered 2 Hurricanes ($9.99 each) and the "chips and dips" appetizer. The Hurricanes were tasty if not very strong. They appeared within about 20 seconds, so were obviously pre-made (he mde them sneakily under the bar). I felt very little effect on a completely empty stomach. I think it would have taken at least 5 to get me drunk, and I didn't have $50 (plus tip!) and undoubtedly 2500 calories to spare. This "chips and dips" consisted of stale corn chips, a small bowl of some gross salsa (or salsa watered down with spaghetti sauce) and a small bowl of cheese whiz. All this for i think $8.95, incidentally the cheapest appetizer I saw on the menu. The bill for 1 round of drinks and this lovely snack was over $30 plus tip. I think I tipped $3-something because the bartender wasn't very personable, didn't offer to help out with the menu and disappeared as soon as he took our order. I was tempted to not tip at all.
On to Bob Marley, A tribute to freedom, right next door. Again, we sat at the bar. Immediately we were impressed by the ambiance, music and airy feel of the place. Bob Marley videos were playing on the TVs. This time I asked about specials. It was 6:50pm, so we still had 10 minutes left of Happy Hour. All 1-call well drinks were $2 or maybe $3. I think Domestic drafts were $2 also. Our bartender, Angel, was really cool and poured DW a really strong rum and coke and I got a red-stripe ($3.50 all day on Thurdays). Nine minutes later, we ordered another round to get the cheaper rum and coke before happy hour was over. They were also running half-price appetizers; DW wanted something with vegetables so I ordered some Blue Mountain Chicken dip, which was a chicken-salad made of jerk chicken with a mayo base. It was served with Celery and toast tips, and was pretty decent after a couple of drinks. If I were to eat there again I'd try something else. We ended up having a few more rounds and at 9pm the house band started up... the music was good and we had a great time. By 9:30 we were drunk and tired and our bartender was closing out all his tabs so he could go home. The bill came to $36 for 5 rounds of 2 drinks and the appetizer. Angel was great, so he got a $8-something tip. DW had her eye on a Bob Marley T-shirt from the gift shop, but the gift shop apparently is only open from 4pm (when the restaurant opens) until like 8pm, because it was closed by the time we were leaving. Took a quick circle through citywalk, but not much going on on a Thursday night and we didn't feel like drinking anymore so we headed out and caught a cab back to the hotel. Not sure if it was because of traffic or because we were clearly intoxicated, but the cabbie took the highway back to our hotel and it cost like $7.70 which is $1.50 more than it cost the following night. There seems to be a huge discrepancy in taxi prices in this area, so I guess its important to do your homework and have your wits about you if you're trying to save money.
I'll leave it here for tonight, and try and have the next installment up soon...
