Day 5: Tuesday--nov. 15 (85 Degrees)
Universal Orlando
I Called Management This Morning. I Told Him That The House Was Still To Warm And The Pool Was Still Too Cold To Swim.
Found Our Way To Universal With No Problems. It Seems That Getting Back To Kissimmee Is Where We Get Into Trouble.
We Decided To Splurge And Use Valet Parking. Cost Us $16.00 Plus A $5.00 Tip, But It Was Worth Every Penny. We Just Hopped On An Escalator, Then A Moving Sidewalk, & Wa-la...we're In Universal City Walk! I Really Like The Layout Of Universal Here In Orlando. Hollywood Is Built On Hills, Orlando Is Flat.
We Stopped At Cinnabon For Bite To Eat, Then Made Our Way Into Universal Itself. I Had Pre-purchased Express Plus Passes For All Of Us Before We Left Home But That Turned Out To Be A Complete Waste Of Money. The Park Was Not Crowded At All And We Didn't Have Any Longer Waiting Time Than 10 Minutes All Day.
First We Went On Shrek 4d. It Was Pretty Good, But I Liked Philharmagic Better. Then We Went Into Terminator 2. I Enjoyed This One Better Than Shrek. Maybe It's Because I Was Seated Right In The Center. Et Came Next. I Loved It When Kyle Turned Around At The End And Said, "grandma, Et Said "thank You Kyle!"
One Of The Biggest Surprises This Day Was The "horror Make-up" Show. This Was Great! It's Pure Comedy With Audience Involvement. Tyler And Kyle Had Disneyland Tatoos Put On Their Arms At Mgm The Day Before, And One Of The Guys In The Show Began To Jokingly Challenge Tyler. "hey You. Yeah You! The Tough Guy With The Mickey Tattoo! I Can Take You, Mickey, And All His Pals On With One Hand Behind My Back." This Show Was Hilarious! We All Agreed... The Mummy, And This Show Were The Best Attractions In The Park.
We Rode Back To The Future Next. This Attraction Didn't Seem As Exciting As It Used To Be. Probably Because I've Been On So Many Of The Newer Ones With Better Technology. But The Boys Loved It, And This Is Why We Made Sure They Came With Us On This Trip...to See The Magic Through Their Eyes.
I Enjoyed Mib More Than Buzz Lightyear, But Still Couldn't Get Over 10,000 Points. Kyle Got 150,000. Sure Can Tell Who Plays The Video Games In Our Family!
Jaws Was Not Running...bummer, So We Went On Earthquake. Kyle And Tyler Thought It Was Cool When The Truck Exploded And It Looked Like The Bus Was Going To Get Swamped By Water.
It Was Time For The Big Attraction...the Mummy. Kyle Couldn't Ride This One Because He Was Too Little, So Grandpa And I Bought Him Some Popcorn And A Coke And Spent The Next 40 Minutes Or So Sitting At A Table Next To The Lake. We Passed The Time By Reciting All The Rides Kyle Had Ridden Since We Got To Orlando. The List Was A Long One. When I Reminded Him That Our Vacation Was Not Even Half Over Yet, He Let Out A Big "wahoo!"
When The Kids Got Back From The Mummy, It Was Dewayne's And My Turn. Chris And Corey Wanted To Ride Again, So We Headed Back Down The Street. Steve's Family Went Down To Fear Factor. Tyler Got Picked As A Helper. When We Got Near Mummy, We Noticed There Wasn't A Line And I Got This Creepy Feeling In My Stomach. Yep...the Ride Was Down. This Was The One Ride That I Really Wanted To Go On Because I Love Anything To Do With Egyptology. I Ask When They Expected It To Be Running Again. They Said In Just A Few Minutes. I Try The Sample Seat...no Problemo! Afterwards, We Go Park Ourselves On The Nearest Bench. 5 Minutes Later, The Mummy Was A Go. I Knew To Expect A Roller Coaster Type Ride, But Not Such A Great One. It's Short, But Intense. We Went Right Back And Rode It Again.
When We Came Out Of The Ride The Second Time, I Was Startled By Some Guy On Stilts Dressed As One Of Pharoah's Guards. Man..he Was One Mean Lookin' Dude! Hey..the Blues Brothers Are Singing Right Across The Street! They're Great As Usual. I Love Watching The Guy Do The Dan Akroyd 'running Man' Dance.
By This Time It Was Getting Close To The Park's Closing. The One Draw-back Of Going Off-season Are The Short Hours, But I'll Take The Short Lines Over Longer Hours Anytime. We Didn't Take In Twister Because We Knew It Was A 'standing' Attraction And Our Feet Had Just About Had It For The Day. Steve, Michelle And The Kids Went On Jimmy Neurton's Blast. Kyle Loved It As He Knows All The Cartoon Characters. Michelle Had Her Eyes Closed The Entire Time Because She Is Prone To Motion Sickness.
We Only Made One Wrong Turn On The Way Back To The Villa This Time. A Miracle Awaits Us! The Pool Has A Solar Blanket Over It And The Water Is Warm. Michelle Doesn't Feel Well, But The Rest Of Us Change And Jump Into The Pool. Aah! Such Sweet Relief From The Heat. The Darned House Is 81 Degrees Inside. I Found A Big Fan In One Of The Closets. Maybe I Can Get Some Sleep Tonight! Got Into Bed Around 10:00 Again.
Day 6: Wednesday--nov. 16 (84 Degrees)
Islands Of Adventure
Oh No! Weather Forecasters Are Watching Another Tropical Storm In The Atlantic. May Be Headed For Florida.
Michelle Is Really Not Feeling Well, So She Stays Home Today.
We Managed To Drive Straight Back To Universal Again. We Use Valet Parking. How Sweet It Is!
The Hulk Is Our First Ride. Tried The Modified Seat Outside...no Problem. This Was A Pretty Good Coaster, But Personally, I Like The Old Woodies Best. Next Is Spiderman. This Was A Great Attraction. I Loved It When Spiderman Jumped On The Front Of Our Car And It Bounced Like He Was Actually There. The Drop From The Building Into The Spider Web Was Great Too.
We Head For Toon Lagoon Next. We Stopped So The Boys Can Play A Couple Of Carnival Games. Corey Throws A Basketball And Wins A Prize On The Very First Try. It's A Huge Hulk Stuffed Doll...and I Do Mean Huge! It's As Big As A 10 Year Old Kid! We Haul Him To The Nearest Gift Store And Have Him Sent To The Front Of The Park To Pick Up Later. I Don't Know If Alaska Airlines Will Count Him As Baggage, But If They Don't, He's Staying In Florida Cause I Ain't Buying Him A Seat On The Plane!
We're All Wilting From The Heat, So We Decided To Go On Popeye & Blutos Bilge-rat Barges. All Of Us Got Soaked Except Dewayne. Darn Him Anyway...he Never Gets Wet On These Kind Of Rides! The Rest Of Us Were Nice And Cool Though.
We Walk By Ripsaw Falls...they're Closed For The Next 2 Weeks. Drats! Oh Well, We've Still Got Jurassic Park To Look Forward To. We Stop At A Picnic Table. Corey Removes His Shoes And Wrings Out His Socks. He Refuses To Put Them Back On, So Lucky Me, I Get To Carry His Wet Socks In My Bag The Rest Of The Day. Fortunatley I Remembered To Bring Some Zip-lock Bags With Me. Corey Will Come To Regret Not Wearing His Socks Cause He Gets A Blister Later On From His Shoes Rubbing Against His Bare Heel.
We Get To The Pteranodon Flyers. All Of Us Want To Ride It, But We Find Out That Only 1 Child And 1 Adult Can Go At A Time And There Is An Hour Long Wait. So It's Off To The River Adventure To See Speilburg's Dinosaurs. Wouldn't You Know It? The Ride Is Down Because Of Technical Problems. They Don't Know If It Will Run At All Today.
So We Keep On Trekkin' To The Lost Continent. Tested The Modified Seat At Dueling Dragons...it's A Go. So We Climb Way Up To The Top Of The Fortress And Decide To Ride "ice." This Thing Is Fast! I Think All The Blood Rushed From My Head Down To My Feet Because I'm Dizzy When I Get Off The Thing. I Thought It Was Just Me, But Everyone Else Said They Were Light-headed Too. The Older Boys Go Back And Do Fire...dewayne And I Stay With Kyle. Dragons Was A Bit Much For This Grandma & Grandpa.
We Came To The Building That Houses Poseidon's Fury. I Loved The Architecture! It Turned Out To Be Much Better Than The Show Although I Did Enjoy The Water Tunnel And Water Rushing Out Of The Fish's Mouths.
It Was About A Half Hour Before Closing Time, So We Hurried Over To Seuss' Landing. Kyle's Been Talking About The Cat In The Hat Ride For Months, So It's A Must-do Attraction. It Actually Turned Out To Be A Pretty Entertaining Ride.
Corey Is Now Limping From The Blister. I Happen To Have Had Some Moleskin In My Bag...just In Case. His Brothers Run Ahead And Find Him A Pair Of Socks At Some Store. It's Padded Enough So That He Can Walk Back To The Car.
I Don't Think We Got Lost Going Back To The Villa This Night. House Is Now 75 Degrees...better Than 81, But Still Too Warm For Us. We Hit The Pool For A Couple Of Hours, Then The Bed.
Universal Orlando
I Called Management This Morning. I Told Him That The House Was Still To Warm And The Pool Was Still Too Cold To Swim.
Found Our Way To Universal With No Problems. It Seems That Getting Back To Kissimmee Is Where We Get Into Trouble.
We Decided To Splurge And Use Valet Parking. Cost Us $16.00 Plus A $5.00 Tip, But It Was Worth Every Penny. We Just Hopped On An Escalator, Then A Moving Sidewalk, & Wa-la...we're In Universal City Walk! I Really Like The Layout Of Universal Here In Orlando. Hollywood Is Built On Hills, Orlando Is Flat.
We Stopped At Cinnabon For Bite To Eat, Then Made Our Way Into Universal Itself. I Had Pre-purchased Express Plus Passes For All Of Us Before We Left Home But That Turned Out To Be A Complete Waste Of Money. The Park Was Not Crowded At All And We Didn't Have Any Longer Waiting Time Than 10 Minutes All Day.
First We Went On Shrek 4d. It Was Pretty Good, But I Liked Philharmagic Better. Then We Went Into Terminator 2. I Enjoyed This One Better Than Shrek. Maybe It's Because I Was Seated Right In The Center. Et Came Next. I Loved It When Kyle Turned Around At The End And Said, "grandma, Et Said "thank You Kyle!"
One Of The Biggest Surprises This Day Was The "horror Make-up" Show. This Was Great! It's Pure Comedy With Audience Involvement. Tyler And Kyle Had Disneyland Tatoos Put On Their Arms At Mgm The Day Before, And One Of The Guys In The Show Began To Jokingly Challenge Tyler. "hey You. Yeah You! The Tough Guy With The Mickey Tattoo! I Can Take You, Mickey, And All His Pals On With One Hand Behind My Back." This Show Was Hilarious! We All Agreed... The Mummy, And This Show Were The Best Attractions In The Park.
We Rode Back To The Future Next. This Attraction Didn't Seem As Exciting As It Used To Be. Probably Because I've Been On So Many Of The Newer Ones With Better Technology. But The Boys Loved It, And This Is Why We Made Sure They Came With Us On This Trip...to See The Magic Through Their Eyes.
I Enjoyed Mib More Than Buzz Lightyear, But Still Couldn't Get Over 10,000 Points. Kyle Got 150,000. Sure Can Tell Who Plays The Video Games In Our Family!
Jaws Was Not Running...bummer, So We Went On Earthquake. Kyle And Tyler Thought It Was Cool When The Truck Exploded And It Looked Like The Bus Was Going To Get Swamped By Water.
It Was Time For The Big Attraction...the Mummy. Kyle Couldn't Ride This One Because He Was Too Little, So Grandpa And I Bought Him Some Popcorn And A Coke And Spent The Next 40 Minutes Or So Sitting At A Table Next To The Lake. We Passed The Time By Reciting All The Rides Kyle Had Ridden Since We Got To Orlando. The List Was A Long One. When I Reminded Him That Our Vacation Was Not Even Half Over Yet, He Let Out A Big "wahoo!"
When The Kids Got Back From The Mummy, It Was Dewayne's And My Turn. Chris And Corey Wanted To Ride Again, So We Headed Back Down The Street. Steve's Family Went Down To Fear Factor. Tyler Got Picked As A Helper. When We Got Near Mummy, We Noticed There Wasn't A Line And I Got This Creepy Feeling In My Stomach. Yep...the Ride Was Down. This Was The One Ride That I Really Wanted To Go On Because I Love Anything To Do With Egyptology. I Ask When They Expected It To Be Running Again. They Said In Just A Few Minutes. I Try The Sample Seat...no Problemo! Afterwards, We Go Park Ourselves On The Nearest Bench. 5 Minutes Later, The Mummy Was A Go. I Knew To Expect A Roller Coaster Type Ride, But Not Such A Great One. It's Short, But Intense. We Went Right Back And Rode It Again.
When We Came Out Of The Ride The Second Time, I Was Startled By Some Guy On Stilts Dressed As One Of Pharoah's Guards. Man..he Was One Mean Lookin' Dude! Hey..the Blues Brothers Are Singing Right Across The Street! They're Great As Usual. I Love Watching The Guy Do The Dan Akroyd 'running Man' Dance.
By This Time It Was Getting Close To The Park's Closing. The One Draw-back Of Going Off-season Are The Short Hours, But I'll Take The Short Lines Over Longer Hours Anytime. We Didn't Take In Twister Because We Knew It Was A 'standing' Attraction And Our Feet Had Just About Had It For The Day. Steve, Michelle And The Kids Went On Jimmy Neurton's Blast. Kyle Loved It As He Knows All The Cartoon Characters. Michelle Had Her Eyes Closed The Entire Time Because She Is Prone To Motion Sickness.
We Only Made One Wrong Turn On The Way Back To The Villa This Time. A Miracle Awaits Us! The Pool Has A Solar Blanket Over It And The Water Is Warm. Michelle Doesn't Feel Well, But The Rest Of Us Change And Jump Into The Pool. Aah! Such Sweet Relief From The Heat. The Darned House Is 81 Degrees Inside. I Found A Big Fan In One Of The Closets. Maybe I Can Get Some Sleep Tonight! Got Into Bed Around 10:00 Again.
Day 6: Wednesday--nov. 16 (84 Degrees)
Islands Of Adventure
Oh No! Weather Forecasters Are Watching Another Tropical Storm In The Atlantic. May Be Headed For Florida.
Michelle Is Really Not Feeling Well, So She Stays Home Today.
We Managed To Drive Straight Back To Universal Again. We Use Valet Parking. How Sweet It Is!
The Hulk Is Our First Ride. Tried The Modified Seat Outside...no Problem. This Was A Pretty Good Coaster, But Personally, I Like The Old Woodies Best. Next Is Spiderman. This Was A Great Attraction. I Loved It When Spiderman Jumped On The Front Of Our Car And It Bounced Like He Was Actually There. The Drop From The Building Into The Spider Web Was Great Too.
We Head For Toon Lagoon Next. We Stopped So The Boys Can Play A Couple Of Carnival Games. Corey Throws A Basketball And Wins A Prize On The Very First Try. It's A Huge Hulk Stuffed Doll...and I Do Mean Huge! It's As Big As A 10 Year Old Kid! We Haul Him To The Nearest Gift Store And Have Him Sent To The Front Of The Park To Pick Up Later. I Don't Know If Alaska Airlines Will Count Him As Baggage, But If They Don't, He's Staying In Florida Cause I Ain't Buying Him A Seat On The Plane!
We're All Wilting From The Heat, So We Decided To Go On Popeye & Blutos Bilge-rat Barges. All Of Us Got Soaked Except Dewayne. Darn Him Anyway...he Never Gets Wet On These Kind Of Rides! The Rest Of Us Were Nice And Cool Though.
We Walk By Ripsaw Falls...they're Closed For The Next 2 Weeks. Drats! Oh Well, We've Still Got Jurassic Park To Look Forward To. We Stop At A Picnic Table. Corey Removes His Shoes And Wrings Out His Socks. He Refuses To Put Them Back On, So Lucky Me, I Get To Carry His Wet Socks In My Bag The Rest Of The Day. Fortunatley I Remembered To Bring Some Zip-lock Bags With Me. Corey Will Come To Regret Not Wearing His Socks Cause He Gets A Blister Later On From His Shoes Rubbing Against His Bare Heel.
We Get To The Pteranodon Flyers. All Of Us Want To Ride It, But We Find Out That Only 1 Child And 1 Adult Can Go At A Time And There Is An Hour Long Wait. So It's Off To The River Adventure To See Speilburg's Dinosaurs. Wouldn't You Know It? The Ride Is Down Because Of Technical Problems. They Don't Know If It Will Run At All Today.
So We Keep On Trekkin' To The Lost Continent. Tested The Modified Seat At Dueling Dragons...it's A Go. So We Climb Way Up To The Top Of The Fortress And Decide To Ride "ice." This Thing Is Fast! I Think All The Blood Rushed From My Head Down To My Feet Because I'm Dizzy When I Get Off The Thing. I Thought It Was Just Me, But Everyone Else Said They Were Light-headed Too. The Older Boys Go Back And Do Fire...dewayne And I Stay With Kyle. Dragons Was A Bit Much For This Grandma & Grandpa.
We Came To The Building That Houses Poseidon's Fury. I Loved The Architecture! It Turned Out To Be Much Better Than The Show Although I Did Enjoy The Water Tunnel And Water Rushing Out Of The Fish's Mouths.
It Was About A Half Hour Before Closing Time, So We Hurried Over To Seuss' Landing. Kyle's Been Talking About The Cat In The Hat Ride For Months, So It's A Must-do Attraction. It Actually Turned Out To Be A Pretty Entertaining Ride.
Corey Is Now Limping From The Blister. I Happen To Have Had Some Moleskin In My Bag...just In Case. His Brothers Run Ahead And Find Him A Pair Of Socks At Some Store. It's Padded Enough So That He Can Walk Back To The Car.
I Don't Think We Got Lost Going Back To The Villa This Night. House Is Now 75 Degrees...better Than 81, But Still Too Warm For Us. We Hit The Pool For A Couple Of Hours, Then The Bed.
