Vacation
Got back late last night from a week down in the Orlando area of Florida. My friend Gloria rented a huge house down there for her birthday and invited a bunch of people to come down and hang out. First off, the house itself was amazing: semi-indoor pool with jacuzzi, home theater, pool table, huge balconies, marble pillars in the foyer, etc... I got to spend a week hanging out with my friends in an incredible place, eating good food, and hitting the theme parks every day, all week. Every. Day. This, as it turns out, has it downsides.
So, on day one Jessica and I hit the Magic Kingdom. We only went on five rides - Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Haunted Mansion - but that's all we wanted to go on. My perspective on the place is a lot different than it was the last time I was there, over 20 years ago, and it's obviously more for kids, but it was still fun. On day two we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, where I picked up a combination fan/spray bottle to deal with the heat. Yeah, it's dorky, but it was well worth it. We got to go on Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Coaster before the skies opened up and dumped a ton of rain on us. BTW, Disney has a very cool fastpass system, where you put your card in a machine at the ride, and it gives you a ticket telling you when you should come back. Then you can go and do other things instead of waiting in line for an hour, and when you come back, you only have to wait a few minutes before you get on. It made me think of the time Jessica and I went to Six Flags and got to go on all of three rides the whole day.
On day three we went back to Hollywood Studios to do Star Tours and the Indiana Jones stunt show. Then it rained on us again. A lot. We went home in time for the weather to clear up (more or less), so we spent the afternoon at Epcot, mainly visiting the various countries. I learned that Norway is primarily made up of trolls, polar bears, and oil rigs, and that they make really good caramel in Germany. That night we went to a restaurant called Cafe Tu Tu Tango where you bought a bunch of little dishes and shared with everyone. While the food was good - particularly the steak skewers - the desert was amazing. Maybe the best brownie sundae I've ever had. Maybe one of the best deserts I ever had, period. The next day we hit Blizzard Beach, which is one of the water parks, where Jessica yelled at a bunch of kids who tried to cut in line in front of us. Also, we were in line for our last slide of the day, with only about 5 people in front of us, when the announcement came that they were shutting down the park because of an approaching storm. Then we got rained on again. A lot. That night we all went out to Downtown Disney, which is a collection of shops, restaurants, bars and the like, with lots of color and noise and so on. I particularly liked the Lego store, which had some amazing outdoor Lego displays, including a huge sea serpent sitting in the lake.
Saturday Jessica and I went with all my friends in a group to Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park. The first stop was the Harry Potter section of the park. I've only just started finally reading the books, and so I'm not really a fan per se, but I was impressed with the set-up, which included a very detailed recreation of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. The latter held the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride, which is a mixture of classic "dark ride" animatronics and special effects along with giant-screen video segments that create the illusion that you're flying on a broom. Disney's Star Tours was similar, but as it was much older, it was also much smaller in scale, and you could see how it was a precursor to the Harry Potter ride, which was really well done and probably the most impressive ride I went on all week. Jessica bought pumpkin juice and butter beer and a chocolate frog and candy floss and Bertie Bott's Beans and a Slytherin T-shirt and mug and basically had Pottergasms the whole time.
Anyway, aside from that we pretty much hit the whole park, going through the Lost Continent (Arabian Nights meets Greek Myths), Jurassic Park, and the Marvel Superheroes section. The latter featured a Spider-Man ride similar to the Harry Potter Ride, but with some very impressive 3-D. That was the most time we spent at any one park, and by the end of the day it began to catch up with us. My feet and legs were aching from a week of walking, and blisters were forming on my toes, and while it didn't rain, the heat was so brutal that I was happy to get soaked on one of the water rides, even though I hate walking around in wet clothes. At that point, I had about had my fill of theme parks, but we still had the rest of Universal Studios to do, so the next day we went back and did that park. Fortunately, the lines were mostly short and under shade, and the park wasn't that big. It was still a lot of fun, but I was happy to limp back to the house and relax in the pool.
Finally, Monday we all had to pack up and go. Jessica and I had booked a late flight so we could stretch out our vacation as much as possible, thought by that time I was ready to go home. Instead, we hit one last park - Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was actually a pretty nice park, with lots of attention put into recreating parts of Africa and Asia and such. There were only a few rides, including a safari, and had I not been so sore and the day not been so hot, I probably would have appreciated it even more. As it was both of us were happy to leave by midday, have a late lunch, and then go to the airport, where we found our flight was delayed by an hour.
So that's it. If we're friends of Facebook, you can look at some of the pics I posted from the trip.
So, on day one Jessica and I hit the Magic Kingdom. We only went on five rides - Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Haunted Mansion - but that's all we wanted to go on. My perspective on the place is a lot different than it was the last time I was there, over 20 years ago, and it's obviously more for kids, but it was still fun. On day two we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, where I picked up a combination fan/spray bottle to deal with the heat. Yeah, it's dorky, but it was well worth it. We got to go on Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Coaster before the skies opened up and dumped a ton of rain on us. BTW, Disney has a very cool fastpass system, where you put your card in a machine at the ride, and it gives you a ticket telling you when you should come back. Then you can go and do other things instead of waiting in line for an hour, and when you come back, you only have to wait a few minutes before you get on. It made me think of the time Jessica and I went to Six Flags and got to go on all of three rides the whole day.
On day three we went back to Hollywood Studios to do Star Tours and the Indiana Jones stunt show. Then it rained on us again. A lot. We went home in time for the weather to clear up (more or less), so we spent the afternoon at Epcot, mainly visiting the various countries. I learned that Norway is primarily made up of trolls, polar bears, and oil rigs, and that they make really good caramel in Germany. That night we went to a restaurant called Cafe Tu Tu Tango where you bought a bunch of little dishes and shared with everyone. While the food was good - particularly the steak skewers - the desert was amazing. Maybe the best brownie sundae I've ever had. Maybe one of the best deserts I ever had, period. The next day we hit Blizzard Beach, which is one of the water parks, where Jessica yelled at a bunch of kids who tried to cut in line in front of us. Also, we were in line for our last slide of the day, with only about 5 people in front of us, when the announcement came that they were shutting down the park because of an approaching storm. Then we got rained on again. A lot. That night we all went out to Downtown Disney, which is a collection of shops, restaurants, bars and the like, with lots of color and noise and so on. I particularly liked the Lego store, which had some amazing outdoor Lego displays, including a huge sea serpent sitting in the lake.
Saturday Jessica and I went with all my friends in a group to Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park. The first stop was the Harry Potter section of the park. I've only just started finally reading the books, and so I'm not really a fan per se, but I was impressed with the set-up, which included a very detailed recreation of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. The latter held the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride, which is a mixture of classic "dark ride" animatronics and special effects along with giant-screen video segments that create the illusion that you're flying on a broom. Disney's Star Tours was similar, but as it was much older, it was also much smaller in scale, and you could see how it was a precursor to the Harry Potter ride, which was really well done and probably the most impressive ride I went on all week. Jessica bought pumpkin juice and butter beer and a chocolate frog and candy floss and Bertie Bott's Beans and a Slytherin T-shirt and mug and basically had Pottergasms the whole time.
Anyway, aside from that we pretty much hit the whole park, going through the Lost Continent (Arabian Nights meets Greek Myths), Jurassic Park, and the Marvel Superheroes section. The latter featured a Spider-Man ride similar to the Harry Potter Ride, but with some very impressive 3-D. That was the most time we spent at any one park, and by the end of the day it began to catch up with us. My feet and legs were aching from a week of walking, and blisters were forming on my toes, and while it didn't rain, the heat was so brutal that I was happy to get soaked on one of the water rides, even though I hate walking around in wet clothes. At that point, I had about had my fill of theme parks, but we still had the rest of Universal Studios to do, so the next day we went back and did that park. Fortunately, the lines were mostly short and under shade, and the park wasn't that big. It was still a lot of fun, but I was happy to limp back to the house and relax in the pool.
Finally, Monday we all had to pack up and go. Jessica and I had booked a late flight so we could stretch out our vacation as much as possible, thought by that time I was ready to go home. Instead, we hit one last park - Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was actually a pretty nice park, with lots of attention put into recreating parts of Africa and Asia and such. There were only a few rides, including a safari, and had I not been so sore and the day not been so hot, I probably would have appreciated it even more. As it was both of us were happy to leave by midday, have a late lunch, and then go to the airport, where we found our flight was delayed by an hour.
So that's it. If we're friends of Facebook, you can look at some of the pics I posted from the trip.