please don't throw me in that briar patch!
Well, I'm back after my lovely stay in Orlando, bringing back Disney/Sea World souveniers for all and a sunburn courtesy of a hot day in Magic Kingdom. I'll post pictures and a longer description of everything later this week, but for now you'll just have to get the short description of my trip.
We started out on Wednesday going to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios). Our first Disney ride experience? Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which was absolutely brilliant. You start off going 60 mph and you go upside down three times and it's mostly in the dark which makes everything even more thrilling (oh, and there's also Aerosmith blasting everywhere!). Needless to say, we rode that twice. Then we went to the Tower of Terror, which was also awesome. Andrew and I rode it twice; the second time was much better because we got a better drop sequence and we kind of knew what to expect. We then went over to Star Tours, a Star Wars flight simulator (we got to fly around the Death Star and get shot at by Imperial ships, yay!). We also learned a lot about stunts in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Studio Backlot Tour. We then saw some literal flaily Muppet hands at the Muppets 3-D show, which allowed up to get out of the brief downpour that occured during that time. Finally, we went to the Fantasmic! fireworks/laser show, which was awesome - it had Mickey, lots of Disney villains, and "Night on Bald Mountain" (which immediately makes everything more awesome!).
On Thursday we spent half a day at Sea World because my dad had discounted tickets because his Kiwanis group was having a dinner there. We saw lots of sea animals, but things began to get not-so-good when it started downpouring while we were on the Journey to Atlantis log-flume-type ride. We were soaked, and it Would Not Stop Raining! After three hours of being miserable, we decided to go back to our hotel and change into some drier clothes before dinner. Once we were dry, we salvaged our day at Sea World by seeing a Shamu show and a water-skiing show.
On Friday there was no rain whatsoever, which made for a very hot (but very magical) day at Magic Kingdom. We did some epic Fastpassing to ride the three Mountains (Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) with minimum waits (we even rode Splash Mountain twice). We became master naviagators between Frontierland and Tomorrowland, and we got to see Captain Jack Sparrow on Pirates of the Caribbean - the ride even got stuck when we were right in front of him! We protected the universe on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, although I swear that there was something wrong with my blaster gun because I got a really sucky score. We saw an awesome 3-D show, Mickey's Philharmagic, in which Donald made his way through various scenes of Disney movies to retrieve Mickey's conductor hat in time for the orchestra (for some reason I was vaguely reminded of "Kingdom Hearts," except without Sora and the Heartless). We saw some ghosts at the Haunted Mansion, and then we ended our Magic Kingdom Adventure with none other than It's A Small World. But our day wasn't over! That night, we headed over to Universal Studios to see Blue Man Group, which was absolutely fantastic! It's basically three guys with blue skin doing wordless silly comedy (with lots of audience participation!) and some amazing percussion stuff (I want the soundtrack - you can choreograph some awesome tap pieces with the music).
We slept in on Saturday and then headed over to Epcot for a very low-key, but still fun, day. We walked around and looked at all the futuristic stuff over at Future World, and then we saw a show in which Ellen DeGeneres was educated by Bill Nye the Science Guy about the importance of energy. We visited The Seas With Nemo and Friends and saw lots of undersea life, including cuttlefish, which allowed me to spout my cephalopod knowledge. We rode Test Track and became living vehicle test dummies. Then we headed over to World Showcase and went around the world in 80 days two and a half hours. We visited Mexico, Norway, Germany, Morocco, France, Italy, USA, England, and Canada. The thunderstorms began when we were watching the American Adventure movie, but thankfully we missed the rain, which began again right as we were leaving the park.
So that's the fairly condensed version of my adventures in Florida; I have lots of pictures that I will hopefully get up here so you guys can share in the fun.
Also, I thought I would share how I did on my final exams and my final grades.
I did amazingly well on my finals; I honestly don't know how I pulled off some of the grades. I guess my beastly study guides really pay off. I got an A+ in everything except Geometry, on which I got only an A. My brain must have been on steroids or something.
My final grades (not final exams, final as in the whole year):
English: A
Latin: A+
Biology: A
Western Civ: A
Geometry: A
Scripture: A+
My GPA ended up as a 4.4, which is up a tenth of a point from last year, yay!
(Yes, you may all throw sharp objects at me now.)
We started out on Wednesday going to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios). Our first Disney ride experience? Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which was absolutely brilliant. You start off going 60 mph and you go upside down three times and it's mostly in the dark which makes everything even more thrilling (oh, and there's also Aerosmith blasting everywhere!). Needless to say, we rode that twice. Then we went to the Tower of Terror, which was also awesome. Andrew and I rode it twice; the second time was much better because we got a better drop sequence and we kind of knew what to expect. We then went over to Star Tours, a Star Wars flight simulator (we got to fly around the Death Star and get shot at by Imperial ships, yay!). We also learned a lot about stunts in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Studio Backlot Tour. We then saw some literal flaily Muppet hands at the Muppets 3-D show, which allowed up to get out of the brief downpour that occured during that time. Finally, we went to the Fantasmic! fireworks/laser show, which was awesome - it had Mickey, lots of Disney villains, and "Night on Bald Mountain" (which immediately makes everything more awesome!).
On Thursday we spent half a day at Sea World because my dad had discounted tickets because his Kiwanis group was having a dinner there. We saw lots of sea animals, but things began to get not-so-good when it started downpouring while we were on the Journey to Atlantis log-flume-type ride. We were soaked, and it Would Not Stop Raining! After three hours of being miserable, we decided to go back to our hotel and change into some drier clothes before dinner. Once we were dry, we salvaged our day at Sea World by seeing a Shamu show and a water-skiing show.
On Friday there was no rain whatsoever, which made for a very hot (but very magical) day at Magic Kingdom. We did some epic Fastpassing to ride the three Mountains (Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) with minimum waits (we even rode Splash Mountain twice). We became master naviagators between Frontierland and Tomorrowland, and we got to see Captain Jack Sparrow on Pirates of the Caribbean - the ride even got stuck when we were right in front of him! We protected the universe on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, although I swear that there was something wrong with my blaster gun because I got a really sucky score. We saw an awesome 3-D show, Mickey's Philharmagic, in which Donald made his way through various scenes of Disney movies to retrieve Mickey's conductor hat in time for the orchestra (for some reason I was vaguely reminded of "Kingdom Hearts," except without Sora and the Heartless). We saw some ghosts at the Haunted Mansion, and then we ended our Magic Kingdom Adventure with none other than It's A Small World. But our day wasn't over! That night, we headed over to Universal Studios to see Blue Man Group, which was absolutely fantastic! It's basically three guys with blue skin doing wordless silly comedy (with lots of audience participation!) and some amazing percussion stuff (I want the soundtrack - you can choreograph some awesome tap pieces with the music).
We slept in on Saturday and then headed over to Epcot for a very low-key, but still fun, day. We walked around and looked at all the futuristic stuff over at Future World, and then we saw a show in which Ellen DeGeneres was educated by Bill Nye the Science Guy about the importance of energy. We visited The Seas With Nemo and Friends and saw lots of undersea life, including cuttlefish, which allowed me to spout my cephalopod knowledge. We rode Test Track and became living vehicle test dummies. Then we headed over to World Showcase and went around the world in 80 days two and a half hours. We visited Mexico, Norway, Germany, Morocco, France, Italy, USA, England, and Canada. The thunderstorms began when we were watching the American Adventure movie, but thankfully we missed the rain, which began again right as we were leaving the park.
So that's the fairly condensed version of my adventures in Florida; I have lots of pictures that I will hopefully get up here so you guys can share in the fun.
Also, I thought I would share how I did on my final exams and my final grades.
I did amazingly well on my finals; I honestly don't know how I pulled off some of the grades. I guess my beastly study guides really pay off. I got an A+ in everything except Geometry, on which I got only an A. My brain must have been on steroids or something.
My final grades (not final exams, final as in the whole year):
English: A
Latin: A+
Biology: A
Western Civ: A
Geometry: A
Scripture: A+
My GPA ended up as a 4.4, which is up a tenth of a point from last year, yay!
(Yes, you may all throw sharp objects at me now.)