The Vacation: Episode I: Orlando
Now that I have returned from vacation, and have had a few days to settle down and be completely stressed out at work, I will give you a summary of my vacation, well at least the first part.
Originally, we were planning to leave on Thursday night and spread the drive down to Florida over 36 hours or so, but we decided that we really did not want to see much of anything along I-75 so we just drove straight through with a minor couple hour stop south of Atlanta around 3am. Overall the drive was good. I enjoy driving, and so does Cathy. And I-75 passes through some very pretty landscape in Kentucky and Tennessee. I particularly enjoyed the sunset over the mountains in Kentucky. It lit up the low lying clouds and was absolutely breathtaking. But most of the scenery was just a backdrop. We spent most of the trip talking or listening to the audio books we brought along with us.
Actually, I think audio books are the main reason I like to drive places rather than take a plane. Sure you can read on a plane, but there is something nice about having someone read a book to you while you drive. It keeps your mind engaged, and is much more relaxing than searching for radio stations while traveling through 8 states. It also allows me to listen to books I would probably not read or put down after a couple chapters. Besides the five HArry Potter books, which we listened to two of them, we rented five books. Two were Stephen King short story collection, Smoke and Blood and The Standing Man. ONe was Tricky Business by dave barry. That is a really good book, especially on audio tapes. it is absolutely hilarious. We also rented a children's books called Tiger: The Five Ancestors Book 1 which was actually a very good listen. The last book Old Men Telling Stories sounded interesting, but was not a good audio book. There was a lot of description and it would probably be a better book to read so that you can absorb the information in it better. We only listened to the first CD before ignoring it.
So anyway, we arrived in Orlando around 1pm on Saturday and went to the Orange Country Resort, where we had booked our vacation. It is a timeshare place that Cathy and I looked at several years ago and thought we would stay there and see if we wanted to buy a timeshare. The condo we had rented was not going to be ready until 4pm, so we headed out into Kissimmee and grabbed lunch at a restaurant and drove around for a bit before heading back adn checking in. The condo was really nice. It was a two bedroom affair. It had a master suite with bath and jacuzzi tub and then a second bedroom with a second full bath. It had a full kitchen, living room, patio deck, and even a washer and dryer in the room. The place was nicer than mine and Cathy's first apartment. So we settled in for the night, since we really did not want to do anything after the long trip, grabbed dinner and went to bed.
On Sunday we got up early and went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. When we went to Florida on our honeymoon, two years ago, we had purchased 4 day Park Hopper Passes for Disney. We only used 3 of the days on our first trip, so we decided to use the last day this time. Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun. We got there early and went on the safari before the sun got to hot. Because of this we saw a lot of the animals moving around and being active. I took about 20 pictures, but I need to get them developed. After the safari we went to one of the stage shows and then on "McDonald's Presents Dinosaur: A time rover adventure." I am not sure why McDonalds wants to sponsor time travel, but I think they might be trying to introduce the McBronto Burger or Iquanadon Nuggets. Anyway, that was an okay ride, but there was little we wanted to see at the park that we hadn't seen last time. So we went over to Epcot to get lunch/dinner and then went back to the condo.
Monday started with the timeshare presentation. Supposedly, it was to last 90 minutes, but between breakfast and them trying to offer us the best deal, it took closer to 140 minutes. Cathy and I had already decided not to buy, but I am still interested in the timeshare idea. It makes sense when you can pay for it outright and not have to be stuck paying 15.9% interest on the value of the property. The accommodations were very nice, but Cathy and I are a bit more nomadic and feel that an RV would be a better investment for us. So we walked away with our money and $1700 dollars of free resort tickets, dinner shows, and golf. I find that a good paycheck for two and a half hours.
With the presentation over, we grabbed a light lunch and scheduled an afternoon tee time at Crane's Bend par 30 Executive Course. For those who don't play golf. A par 30 Executive course is a nine hole course with six Par 3 holes and three par 4 holes. It was a very difficult course with a lot of water hazards and Cathy and I are not the best golfers, but we had fun. After golf, we used our free tickets to the Arabian Nights dinner show. We went to this last time, but there are actually two different shows that are two parts of a full story. Last time we saw the Princess' Wedding and this time we watched the story that led to her engagement. The food was okay, but the show was excellent. The entire show is a riding demonstration with some absolutely gorgeous horses. I recommend it if you are in Orlando, but don't get the prime rib it is dry and tough, the lasagna is much better.
Anyway, on Tuesday Jen, a friend of Cathy's from her online groups, and her son Jamie met us at our condo. From the presentation we had family passes to Watermania, and so spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the water park before getting dinner and then heading back. They left in the early evening and we stayed in since we had both gotten sunburned and were exhausted. Fortunately, I heal fast and my sunburn was gone in a day or so, but poor Cathy got a serious burn that hurt until we got back to Michigan.
It is now Wednesday, and it was our last day in Orlando. We had free passes to Universal Studios theme park, so we went there for the day. Universal is a ten times more fun for an adult than Disney. We went on almost all of the rides, MIB, Jaws, Earthquake, the Mummy, Twister, Shrek 4D, and then caught the Monster Movie Make Up Show. The rides were a lot of fun, but as Cathy stated as we left, Universal should have the tag line, You might get wet because we got wet on every ride except for MIB, and I am including the makeup show and Shrek 4D.
We left the park around 2pm, just as a huge thunder storm descended on the park. We, fortunately, were in the parking ramp before the rain hit, so we didn't get soaked. We drove back to the condo, packed, loaded the car, and checked out. Although we could have stayed until Saturday, on the way down to Florida, Cathy and I had decided that we were not more than 10 hours from New Orleans. I have always wanted to see New Orleans, and we have friends there that were willing to put us up for the night. So we drove overnight to New Orleans, but I will tell you about that in my next post.
Originally, we were planning to leave on Thursday night and spread the drive down to Florida over 36 hours or so, but we decided that we really did not want to see much of anything along I-75 so we just drove straight through with a minor couple hour stop south of Atlanta around 3am. Overall the drive was good. I enjoy driving, and so does Cathy. And I-75 passes through some very pretty landscape in Kentucky and Tennessee. I particularly enjoyed the sunset over the mountains in Kentucky. It lit up the low lying clouds and was absolutely breathtaking. But most of the scenery was just a backdrop. We spent most of the trip talking or listening to the audio books we brought along with us.
Actually, I think audio books are the main reason I like to drive places rather than take a plane. Sure you can read on a plane, but there is something nice about having someone read a book to you while you drive. It keeps your mind engaged, and is much more relaxing than searching for radio stations while traveling through 8 states. It also allows me to listen to books I would probably not read or put down after a couple chapters. Besides the five HArry Potter books, which we listened to two of them, we rented five books. Two were Stephen King short story collection, Smoke and Blood and The Standing Man. ONe was Tricky Business by dave barry. That is a really good book, especially on audio tapes. it is absolutely hilarious. We also rented a children's books called Tiger: The Five Ancestors Book 1 which was actually a very good listen. The last book Old Men Telling Stories sounded interesting, but was not a good audio book. There was a lot of description and it would probably be a better book to read so that you can absorb the information in it better. We only listened to the first CD before ignoring it.
So anyway, we arrived in Orlando around 1pm on Saturday and went to the Orange Country Resort, where we had booked our vacation. It is a timeshare place that Cathy and I looked at several years ago and thought we would stay there and see if we wanted to buy a timeshare. The condo we had rented was not going to be ready until 4pm, so we headed out into Kissimmee and grabbed lunch at a restaurant and drove around for a bit before heading back adn checking in. The condo was really nice. It was a two bedroom affair. It had a master suite with bath and jacuzzi tub and then a second bedroom with a second full bath. It had a full kitchen, living room, patio deck, and even a washer and dryer in the room. The place was nicer than mine and Cathy's first apartment. So we settled in for the night, since we really did not want to do anything after the long trip, grabbed dinner and went to bed.
On Sunday we got up early and went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. When we went to Florida on our honeymoon, two years ago, we had purchased 4 day Park Hopper Passes for Disney. We only used 3 of the days on our first trip, so we decided to use the last day this time. Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun. We got there early and went on the safari before the sun got to hot. Because of this we saw a lot of the animals moving around and being active. I took about 20 pictures, but I need to get them developed. After the safari we went to one of the stage shows and then on "McDonald's Presents Dinosaur: A time rover adventure." I am not sure why McDonalds wants to sponsor time travel, but I think they might be trying to introduce the McBronto Burger or Iquanadon Nuggets. Anyway, that was an okay ride, but there was little we wanted to see at the park that we hadn't seen last time. So we went over to Epcot to get lunch/dinner and then went back to the condo.
Monday started with the timeshare presentation. Supposedly, it was to last 90 minutes, but between breakfast and them trying to offer us the best deal, it took closer to 140 minutes. Cathy and I had already decided not to buy, but I am still interested in the timeshare idea. It makes sense when you can pay for it outright and not have to be stuck paying 15.9% interest on the value of the property. The accommodations were very nice, but Cathy and I are a bit more nomadic and feel that an RV would be a better investment for us. So we walked away with our money and $1700 dollars of free resort tickets, dinner shows, and golf. I find that a good paycheck for two and a half hours.
With the presentation over, we grabbed a light lunch and scheduled an afternoon tee time at Crane's Bend par 30 Executive Course. For those who don't play golf. A par 30 Executive course is a nine hole course with six Par 3 holes and three par 4 holes. It was a very difficult course with a lot of water hazards and Cathy and I are not the best golfers, but we had fun. After golf, we used our free tickets to the Arabian Nights dinner show. We went to this last time, but there are actually two different shows that are two parts of a full story. Last time we saw the Princess' Wedding and this time we watched the story that led to her engagement. The food was okay, but the show was excellent. The entire show is a riding demonstration with some absolutely gorgeous horses. I recommend it if you are in Orlando, but don't get the prime rib it is dry and tough, the lasagna is much better.
Anyway, on Tuesday Jen, a friend of Cathy's from her online groups, and her son Jamie met us at our condo. From the presentation we had family passes to Watermania, and so spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the water park before getting dinner and then heading back. They left in the early evening and we stayed in since we had both gotten sunburned and were exhausted. Fortunately, I heal fast and my sunburn was gone in a day or so, but poor Cathy got a serious burn that hurt until we got back to Michigan.
It is now Wednesday, and it was our last day in Orlando. We had free passes to Universal Studios theme park, so we went there for the day. Universal is a ten times more fun for an adult than Disney. We went on almost all of the rides, MIB, Jaws, Earthquake, the Mummy, Twister, Shrek 4D, and then caught the Monster Movie Make Up Show. The rides were a lot of fun, but as Cathy stated as we left, Universal should have the tag line, You might get wet because we got wet on every ride except for MIB, and I am including the makeup show and Shrek 4D.
We left the park around 2pm, just as a huge thunder storm descended on the park. We, fortunately, were in the parking ramp before the rain hit, so we didn't get soaked. We drove back to the condo, packed, loaded the car, and checked out. Although we could have stayed until Saturday, on the way down to Florida, Cathy and I had decided that we were not more than 10 hours from New Orleans. I have always wanted to see New Orleans, and we have friends there that were willing to put us up for the night. So we drove overnight to New Orleans, but I will tell you about that in my next post.