Stephs version of our vacation. She is a better writer
Hey, everyone, just got back from Orlando, Florida, here's how it went (I'll post some pics somewhere later).
The first day, four days ago, was a bit tough, exhausting, I'm not even sure how many hours we actually travelled because of the time changes and the landing/take-off stops... but it was something like 5 hours or so. We got to Sac Airport around 8 am, and there were people coming out of the kazoo. Long check in lines, long security lines, very crowded everywhere. Stupid spring break crowds, grumble, grumble.
Then, due to misunderstandings, in an attempt to save time by having Jason wait in one line while I waited in another, we managed to get seperated and lost from each other for half an hour and actually lose a lot of time; so, three puplic address system pages, two courtesy phone calls (because Jason didn't bring his cell phone, though I had mine, since it would be roaming out of Sac and thus expensive to use), and one hysterical crying panic attack (from me) later, we managed to hook back up again just minutes before our plane was to leave, just barely making it on in time but having to sit in seperate seats on opposite sides of the plane. Then I find out that "non-stop" doesn't mean what I thought: sure, we won't have to get off the plane, but that doesn't mean the plane can't go up and down many times to drop off and pick up customers. So we stopped at Ontario (SoCal), Arizona and New Orleans before getting off in Orlando, but at least we were able to move seats to sit together once we got to Ontario.
Southwest Airlines kinda sucks: along with the many-stop service, there is no in-flight movie and no meals (just snacks). Anyway, when we got to Orlando, it was like 10 pm Florida time, and then we found out that unlike what I had mistakenly understood from the Reservations hotline, there was no free airport shuttle to the hotel, so by the time we got a what I think is overpriced ($25 per person round trip) shuttle arranged, it was midnight when we got to the hotel. Long, crappy, stressful day. But at least we made it (and I think the only reason we didn't lose our luggage, which otherwise Murpy's Law would have dictated, was because we only had carry-on).
The next day went much smoother, much better. We found a great deal: go to a 90 minute early morning time-share presentation that included breakfast, and get both our Disney theme park tickets at half price (the regular tix are up to a ridiculous $58 now!). So by 11 am we were at Disney-MGM Studios theme park, where we enjoyed the Aerosmith Rocking Roller Coaster, the backlot tour, and a ride whose name I don't recall but was essential a movie-themed version of It's a Small World (with animatronic munchkins instead of animatronic ethnic children). The best ride we saved for last: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a drop ride with an abandoned 1920s hotel as seen by Rod Sterling theme, very scary with the multiple drops and rises, some in the dark, some overlooking the backlot. I was hoarse for three days from all my screaming!
Also very cool at MGM was the "Sci-Fi Dine-In" which, though indoors, looked like a 1950s drive-in movie theater, complete with '50s topless car booths, car-hops and a big screen playing clips of classic '50s sci-fi and horror movies and concession-stand comercials. It was a lot of fun. Good food there too. Another cool restuarant had a '50s home theme, and every booth looked straight out of a '50s ktichen and had its own tv set playing things like Leave it to Beaver. One thing I discovered is that Disney Co learned from its mistakes: people always complain about how the food at Disneyland is gross and overpriced without many options, so at all the other parks, there are various wonderful food options.
The third day, we were tired, we had stayed up late the night before, so we took it easy, sleeping in, getting coffee at a local Mexican-beach themed coffee house with the cool name of "BadAss Coffee," and doing some walking along International Drive, a touristy street full of shops, mini-theme-parks and arcades and other attractions. We particularly liked the Wonderworks building, which was on the outside a completely upside down building: what an impressive piece of facade architecture!
At 5 pm, we picked up a rental car so we'd have it the next day, and used it to drive to Downtown Disney to look at their interesting shops, including a cool movie memorabilia shop which had among other interesting objects these accurate facial-cast busts of Picard, Worf and Data that were one-of-a-kind, used in Star Trek the Next Generation to help the makeup artists make sure that they were consistent with makeup everyday and to help with appliance fittings (such as Borg attachments) on the actors rather than having to test them out on the actors themselves.
We really liked the African-themed resort hotel next to Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. The entire hotel surrounded a mini-wild animal reserve that even non-paying non-hotel-staying guests could check out for free by walking around the pool area and observation areas. So we saw giraffees and zebras and other typical four-legged African prey.
Finally, the third day, we drove to the Kennedy Space Center area, and checked out at the police museum, where we got an exciting, scenic $25 six-minute helicopter ride that went over the water and skirted the outer edge of the space center, giving us a glimpse of the platforms and such. We also checked out the NASA gift store and saw some of the old shuttles and missles they had on display outside. Then after an excellent rock shrimp lunch at the Dixie Crossroads restuaurant, we drove to Merritt Wildlife Refuge, where we went on a 2 mile hike and managed to see 2 armadillos, a mama alligator and its 3 babies, s turtle and some interesting fish and birds. We also went to the Manatee observation deck, where, what a surprise, we saw manatees, which if you don't know what those are, imagine big lazy fat seals the size of cows. Then we went back to the hotel, jumped in the in-room hot tub (oh, did we mention that the manager upgraded us at no additional charge to the honeymoon suite with a king-size bed, fridge, microwave and a large comfy bubbling hot tub spa?), and attempted to get drunk on the pre-mixed drinks we brought in from the liquor store across the street.
The next day, it was time to go home, which despite an actually get-off-the-plane stop in Phoenix, Arizona, actually went faster and smoother than the ride there. And it's good to be home. Overall, a great, memoriable, fun, exciting trip, but there's no place like home.
The first day, four days ago, was a bit tough, exhausting, I'm not even sure how many hours we actually travelled because of the time changes and the landing/take-off stops... but it was something like 5 hours or so. We got to Sac Airport around 8 am, and there were people coming out of the kazoo. Long check in lines, long security lines, very crowded everywhere. Stupid spring break crowds, grumble, grumble.
Then, due to misunderstandings, in an attempt to save time by having Jason wait in one line while I waited in another, we managed to get seperated and lost from each other for half an hour and actually lose a lot of time; so, three puplic address system pages, two courtesy phone calls (because Jason didn't bring his cell phone, though I had mine, since it would be roaming out of Sac and thus expensive to use), and one hysterical crying panic attack (from me) later, we managed to hook back up again just minutes before our plane was to leave, just barely making it on in time but having to sit in seperate seats on opposite sides of the plane. Then I find out that "non-stop" doesn't mean what I thought: sure, we won't have to get off the plane, but that doesn't mean the plane can't go up and down many times to drop off and pick up customers. So we stopped at Ontario (SoCal), Arizona and New Orleans before getting off in Orlando, but at least we were able to move seats to sit together once we got to Ontario.
Southwest Airlines kinda sucks: along with the many-stop service, there is no in-flight movie and no meals (just snacks). Anyway, when we got to Orlando, it was like 10 pm Florida time, and then we found out that unlike what I had mistakenly understood from the Reservations hotline, there was no free airport shuttle to the hotel, so by the time we got a what I think is overpriced ($25 per person round trip) shuttle arranged, it was midnight when we got to the hotel. Long, crappy, stressful day. But at least we made it (and I think the only reason we didn't lose our luggage, which otherwise Murpy's Law would have dictated, was because we only had carry-on).
The next day went much smoother, much better. We found a great deal: go to a 90 minute early morning time-share presentation that included breakfast, and get both our Disney theme park tickets at half price (the regular tix are up to a ridiculous $58 now!). So by 11 am we were at Disney-MGM Studios theme park, where we enjoyed the Aerosmith Rocking Roller Coaster, the backlot tour, and a ride whose name I don't recall but was essential a movie-themed version of It's a Small World (with animatronic munchkins instead of animatronic ethnic children). The best ride we saved for last: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a drop ride with an abandoned 1920s hotel as seen by Rod Sterling theme, very scary with the multiple drops and rises, some in the dark, some overlooking the backlot. I was hoarse for three days from all my screaming!
Also very cool at MGM was the "Sci-Fi Dine-In" which, though indoors, looked like a 1950s drive-in movie theater, complete with '50s topless car booths, car-hops and a big screen playing clips of classic '50s sci-fi and horror movies and concession-stand comercials. It was a lot of fun. Good food there too. Another cool restuarant had a '50s home theme, and every booth looked straight out of a '50s ktichen and had its own tv set playing things like Leave it to Beaver. One thing I discovered is that Disney Co learned from its mistakes: people always complain about how the food at Disneyland is gross and overpriced without many options, so at all the other parks, there are various wonderful food options.
The third day, we were tired, we had stayed up late the night before, so we took it easy, sleeping in, getting coffee at a local Mexican-beach themed coffee house with the cool name of "BadAss Coffee," and doing some walking along International Drive, a touristy street full of shops, mini-theme-parks and arcades and other attractions. We particularly liked the Wonderworks building, which was on the outside a completely upside down building: what an impressive piece of facade architecture!
At 5 pm, we picked up a rental car so we'd have it the next day, and used it to drive to Downtown Disney to look at their interesting shops, including a cool movie memorabilia shop which had among other interesting objects these accurate facial-cast busts of Picard, Worf and Data that were one-of-a-kind, used in Star Trek the Next Generation to help the makeup artists make sure that they were consistent with makeup everyday and to help with appliance fittings (such as Borg attachments) on the actors rather than having to test them out on the actors themselves.
We really liked the African-themed resort hotel next to Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. The entire hotel surrounded a mini-wild animal reserve that even non-paying non-hotel-staying guests could check out for free by walking around the pool area and observation areas. So we saw giraffees and zebras and other typical four-legged African prey.
Finally, the third day, we drove to the Kennedy Space Center area, and checked out at the police museum, where we got an exciting, scenic $25 six-minute helicopter ride that went over the water and skirted the outer edge of the space center, giving us a glimpse of the platforms and such. We also checked out the NASA gift store and saw some of the old shuttles and missles they had on display outside. Then after an excellent rock shrimp lunch at the Dixie Crossroads restuaurant, we drove to Merritt Wildlife Refuge, where we went on a 2 mile hike and managed to see 2 armadillos, a mama alligator and its 3 babies, s turtle and some interesting fish and birds. We also went to the Manatee observation deck, where, what a surprise, we saw manatees, which if you don't know what those are, imagine big lazy fat seals the size of cows. Then we went back to the hotel, jumped in the in-room hot tub (oh, did we mention that the manager upgraded us at no additional charge to the honeymoon suite with a king-size bed, fridge, microwave and a large comfy bubbling hot tub spa?), and attempted to get drunk on the pre-mixed drinks we brought in from the liquor store across the street.
The next day, it was time to go home, which despite an actually get-off-the-plane stop in Phoenix, Arizona, actually went faster and smoother than the ride there. And it's good to be home. Overall, a great, memoriable, fun, exciting trip, but there's no place like home.