The “Whips, Dips, Hips and Chips” tour – day 6

[BONZO]

The “Whips, Dips, Hips and Chips” tour – day 6

Tuesday 21st August

The Cast:
Me – Shaun 40 something ~ chief snorer
DW – Alison 40 something ~ chief planner
DD – Alexandra 14 ~ daredevil with attitude
DD – Laura 12 ~ coupon queen

Weather: Hot, hot hot! And dry again!

Had a great nights sleep in the king size bed, Alison always remarks what a difference 6” makes! Great mattress, pillows and perfect room temperature – oh the joy!

We made use of the express checkout by placing the room bill in the drums in the foyer and then dropped the bags into the car. (By the way they didn’t charge us for parking – so that saved us $12!)

We decided to use Emack & Bolio’s Marketplace for breakfast again, always nice to have proper Starbucks coffee to get you going in the morning.

2 x coffee
2 x bagel
1 x cruller
2 x yoghurt / granola / bottom of budgie cage mix

Total $29

As Alexandra is champing at the bit to do IOA this is what we are going to do today, first chance for some real white knuckle rides. After the soggy debacle on Kali River Rapids we take a change of clothes and footwear to the park with us today to make things manageable.

All other bags lobbed into the car boot and walked to the parks, through a cursory bag check and straight to Seuss Landing to do all the rides there (as Laura wants a gentle run up to the big coasters here, which she’s never been tall enough for before!) then headed for the main action of Super Hero Island.

Sadly Hulk has broken down:



Clunky enhancement to Hulk

Alexandra is not impressed but decides to do Dr Doom for the first time ever. Why oh why she chooses this ride but refuses to do ToT beats me. There’s always something of a “brown trouser moment” for me on this ride, it’s not the going up that does it but that initial drop! – Gulp!

Laura remained unconvinced and stayed at the ride entrance until we returned, shaken and stirred in my case. I noticed that Storm was posing for pictures although she’s been on the pies and let herself go a bit since the last X-Men film!

Onto to Spider-Man, the first time for both girls and thankfully they both loved it. I still rate this highly although the girls didn’t reckon on getting a little blast of water though.

Hulk was still down due to mechanical problems so we went to Seuss Landing and finally checked out The High in the Sky Seuss trolley train ride or what was going to be Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Very Unusual Driving Machines which was going to be one of their signature attractions. Quite why the name change and why so long to get this open is anyone’s guess. But was it worth the wait? – probably not although it may appeal to pre-school kids as a fun, safe ride.



Monkey-thingy pointless ride in the sky

We stopped off for lunch at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous for a bite to eat.



Inside Circus McGurkus from the above (taken when falling asleep)

1 x Spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread
1 x Cheeseburger and chips
1 x Chicken, chips and corn on cob
1 x Chicken Caesar salad and bread

Total cost $29

Suitably refreshed and mindful of our time on Kali River Rapids, we went back to the front of the park to the lockers to get changed into alternative clothes for the wet rides. No, not punk gear or a Vivienne Westwood creation but swimming costumes under old clothes with pool shoes / crocs.

Bilge rat barges – what can you say apart from wet, wet wet – you have been warned! No matter how much cover under poncho’s and the like, you will get soaked to the skin. Fantastic ride and even better second time around as you get on with all the people dry as a bone and asking “do you really get that wet?”

Ripsaw falls next and yet another great ride even if the character is virtually unknown in this country. We really were totally drenched by now so the girls took the opportunity to get even wetter!


Soggily shuffled over to Jurassic Park all of us to do this ride. Nice and gentle introduction before the pace picks up and out of the dark and into the light with a respectable splash!

Drying off a bit now so we move across to Fire and Ice which up to know Laura has always been too small to go on. Due to short queues we all ride the front row of Ice accompanied by Laura shrieking all the way round either through fear or excitement, just not sure really.

Alexandra and I double back and ride Fire and have the age old discussion on which is the better ride and whether front or back gives the best experience. The rear seats actually give you more weightless “air time” on either coaster.

At this time Alison and Laura decide to call it a day for the big rides and head back to get changed into dry clothes while Alexandra and I queue up to do the Hulk.

Despite having FOTL access the queue was huge as I suspect that the ride had recently re-opened after a long delay. Nevertheless, the ride lived up to expectations and you never get tired of the initial launch.

The girls decided to carry on with the national sport of shopping before we left to pick up a few bits and bobs then we headed over to the Universal Studios.

On our last trip only Laura and I did the Horror Make up show and she’s not stopped talking about it ever since. The main reason it was so good was that the lady pulled out from audience couldn’t speak any English which made the whole thing even funnier. This time was very funny again although Alexandra wasn’t too sure about it (not one for blood and guts that girl!)



Kitchen at home!

Troops were flagging by now so the girls walked back to HRH on their own to swim and cool down while Alison and I (armed with the largest ever Cinnabon bun things to keep us going) rode Earthquake and Revenge of the Mummy on our own.

Oh the joy of being able to tour the parks on our own without the kids in tow! – possibly the shape of things to come in our dotage ?

We went back to HRH to collect the girls who had been having a great time in the pool. I had a nice refreshing swim to cool down and Alison sat and wrote up her trip reports. Laura then decided she wanted to have a hair wrap so she got that done and we bundled up the swimming kit and bade farewell to HRH. It’s a real point of honour for me to park as close as possible in a car park, to wear we want to go, so I felt the need to take a picture of my parking spot here!



Oh yes! - Perfect parking spot!


We fired up the car and headed back down I4 to Disney – which had a real homecoming feel. We’re starting to get slightly irritated with the drive to Port Orleans from anywhere though (because of the positioning of Port Orleans, even using a couple of short cuts/back roads). We found a large towel animal sitting on the air con unit today:



Swan / Dog / Duck towel animal thingy

After a quick change for dinner we went to McDonald’s for 3 x Big Mac and 1 x Filet o’ Fish near to All Stars – cost $24.

Alison fumbled about in her tardis type handbag as we went back to WinterSummerland for our half price golf on the summer course after our previous days golf – cost $22. Another good round’s golf (with me winning yet again! )

Alison had another drive of the wagon back to POR and home about 10:30. Good old Alexandra went and got drinks from the refillable mugs but was some time in coming back, somehow she managed to get lost! We all sat and watched TV (quite probably the Suite Life of Zach and Cody – we were getting quite attached to it!) and had a beer or two along with some chips (crisps) and dips…(which is the DIPS in the title!)

Girls had a late night swim and then all tucked up ready for another day.


Pre Trip Drivel

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

[mariechez]

The Hulk looks in a rough state there well done on the driving Alison

[Guest]

Love your trippies, glad your having a great time

[Guest]

I am loving your reports. Thank you

[Strommie]

Great day, am really enjoying your reports

[Guest]

Another good day

[TinkTatoo]

Sounds like a great day - and we too will look forward to a time when we can go on a few rides on our own

[Guest]

Another brillant day, your trip reports are excellent.

[shirley]

dr soom is just awful im with you on that one. shirley

[Guest]

great day loving the parking spot