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Old 6 Apr 16, 03:04 PM  
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Happyhaunt1000
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Brett & Jo’s ‘This Changes Everything’ 2015 Orlando Adventure - Day 12: DHS & HHN

The voice memo I did for the early part of the morning is… shall we say… sketchy, at best! I make no mention of the time we got up or the time we left. I simply say that we get up, get on a bus to DHS and that the bus driver is driving extremely slowly! So that's all I really have to go on!

I do remember not feeling hungover or sick, which surprised me... I think I just felt tired more than anything else. One thing I do recall happening almost as soon as we got into the park is me and Jo having a row about getting something to eat. We were round by the ABC Commissary and I can't recall exactly why we argued (I think it was something to do with ‘where’ we should get some breakfast) but needless to say, we were both digging our heels in about where we should go… to the point where I carried on walking the way I going and Jo about turned and went back the way we’d just came. For the next 20 minutes I have no idea where Jo was, or what she was doing.

All I did was carry on walking (in a strop), did a loop of the park, and eventually found myself at Starbucks, where I promptly went inside and got myself a Very Berry Hibiscus drink. That's when I think Jo messaged me and I told her where I was.






A few minutes later she got to Starbucks and we just stood there in silence for what felt like an eternity… but was actually more like 20 seconds. She then said she was getting something to eat inside and asked if I wanted anything. Still being in a mood (but unsure why) I just shook my head. She came outside a little while later and we walked round to the side of the store (still not talking) and we sat there whilst she ate her disappointing egg and bacon croissant. In situations like this it's normally me that breaks the ice and speaks first… which is what happened here.



As I said, I think the argument had been about food and where to eat. I vaguely remember it also being about Jo feeling sick from not eating and me telling her that she shouldn't let herself get to that position and I'm happy to stop and grab a snack or a bite to eat whenever she needed to. We kiss and make up and it's instantly forgotten about.

Me and Jo hardly argue or fight... it's just not who we are as a couple. And when we do it's normally about something stupid or not important. I think that when you're away on holiday and meeting up with as many people as we do, sometimes tensions are created, not voiced (because you’re with other people) and so they are buried. But then the moment you’re alone for the first time, something small and innocuous (like the chat about eating) comes up and because you've been bottling up other stuff… it all comes out in one hit. Then as soon as you're done b**ching about something that isn't really that important it's like a reset button has been pushed and you're back to normal again.

I know it seems like I'm going off on one of my famous wordy rambles… but it's only when it comes to listening back to voice-memos four months later that things suddenly become apparent. Like for instance… the fact that me and Jo haven't had a holiday where it's just the two of us in four years! That might not sound like a big deal, especially as we’re having loads of fun when we’re meeting up with all these other people… but even though I'm totally being myself around these new friends, I still feel like I have to be ‘on’, if you get my drift. Sorry to get so off topic… you know me though… I leave nothing on the cutting room floor when I'm writing my TR. I think I’ll come back to this when my when I write up my final thoughts at the end of the TR. Anyway…

I feel like I should backtrack just slightly, as we have lots of plans for today… we were here in DHS to use our one FP for TSM, have some lunch at The Brown Derby, make our way over to Universal Studios for a few hours... and then meet up with fellow Dibber Kanickie and her husband Neil for some late night HHN fun. But more on this later!

Jo finished eating her rubbish Starbucks croissant, and as we were leaving the seating area I took this photo of someone else seemingly enjoying the ‘reclining facilities’ provided to park guests by Disney!





For no other reason than to kill some time before our TSM FPs, we headed up to look in the ToT store, and then round to Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster.





As we were taking a slow amble to TSM we bumped into Nicki and Dean! Nicki was looking a lot better this morning than she had looked when she said goodbye last night… although the three of us were looking a tiny bit worse for wear, and the blazing hot sun was doing nothing to make us feel better.

Whilst we were standing there someone from the DVC booth came over and was trying to give us the hard sell. He asked when we were leaving and when we told him not until Saturday... he kept saying that he could pick us up on Saturday, drive us to the resort… that we’d get free ice cream(!) and yada, yada, yada… He eventually got the message and after giving the Jo and Nicki some stickers he left us alone.

We chatted for a few minutes longer, and then they headed off up to ToT and we carried on to TSM. I'm not sure how this had been arranged (I'm guessing I must've said something on Instagram in the morning before we left the hotel) but it turned out that Sir Charles (Shelby) and Charlotte also had a FP for TSM at roughly the same time… so we were meeting them outside the ride and I issued the ‘highest score’ challenge (for nothing more than bragging rights!)

We got to the attraction and they were already there waiting for us.



As I said yesterday… they’re a lovely couple, fun to be around and it felt like we’d known them for ages… not just 24hrs! We chat through the queue about everything that went on the previous day and how much of a laugh it had been… but then it's down to the serious stuff! We decide to play couple vs couple, and also man v man. I won't linger on this except to say I had a stinker and Sir Charles beat me!



Once we’re done we say our goodbyes, and me and Jo take the short walk to the Brown Derby. We've eaten here a few times and each time had a really nice meal. My only issue is that I always feel like I'm bloated and sleepy after I've eaten, and the last thing I want to do is continue walking round a park.



We wait a few minutes for our table to be ready and we’re then ushered to our booth.

Today was going to be another one of those days where I look at the menu, see what the most expensive thing is…and then order it. If we’re not going to end up using all our dining credits, I at least want the meals we do have to be good ones. I order the Pan Seared Black Grouper which comes with a herb crusted half lobster tail and is served with an orzo salad, and Jo chose the steak (I didn’t make a note of exactly what it was or what it came with, but I know it was a bit more expensive than mine!)















The food, as always, is delicious and we’re both stuffed after our mains. Of course, we’re asked if we’d like desserts, but neither of us particularly want one. The woman suggests getting the three mini desserts and sharing them. Jo picks a couple she likes the sound of and I chose the other one. I don't actually remember what we had, but I had one spoonful of each and was done… I couldn't eat another thing!



So... $45 for my main… $49 for Jo’s… would I be happy if I paid full whack for it… errr…. this one is a little tricky. I think it's lovely food and very well cooked, but I don't like eating food like this when I'm IN a theme park. If you were trying to show someone that parks did really good food, you could take them here. But I've always felt this restaurant is out of place in the park. I always feel underdressed and a little awkward in there. (But maybe that says more about me than the restaurant itself?!) I guess I think this is one of those borderline calls. I really liked the food, but I always think it's a little on the pricey side for what you're getting. Is it worth two TS credits? Probably. Will I eat there again? Probably. I know I'm being a bit weird about this place, but I'm just finding it hard to put into words why I'm not absolutely raving about this place when I thoroughly enjoyed the food? I’ll say this… if you're on the DDP, go there and enjoy the food. If you’re not… maybe try elsewhere.

Jon had messaged me earlier asking where we were, and I'd told him we were just about to eat and once we were done we’d be getting a cab to Universal as we were doing HHN again. Jon said that he’d meet us outside the restaurant after we’d finished, and I gave him a rough guess at what time we’d be done. Turns out we’d timed it to perfection because as we came out and walked round the the left, there was J&L walking towards us.



I gave him a bit of stick for chucking up when he got back to the hotel and talked a little about what we’d got up to when him and Lisa had left. One thing I did notice was that Jon had also burnt the back of his neck like I'd done. Here is the photo to prove that you must always remember to reapply the sunblock when you’re spending all day in the sun!



I told Jon that both Nicki and Dean, and Sir Charles and Charlotte were in the park and he should message them to see what they were up to. This was to be the final time we’d see Jon and Lisa as they were heading back home the following day. We all hugged, said how great it’d been to spend time together, how much fun we’d had yesterday at Epcot, and headed off in different directions.





We left DHS, jumped in a cab and was at Universal in no time. It was around 3:45pm when we got into the park, and we had no real plans or any attractions we particularly wanted to do. We were only really at Universal to do Halloween Horror Nights with Nicky and Neil.



Nicky (Kanickie on the Dibb) and Neil had got married a week ago and were now spending their honeymoon in Orlando. We’d arranged a while ago to meet up when we were in Florida, and HHN was the perfect event to meet at (what with them being such horror movie fans). But we were still a few hours away from meeting them so we had some time to kill. When we arrived I sent Nicky a message to say that we were here. She replied by saying that they were going to get something to eat in CityWalk and would message when they were done.

With no particular place to go, we swung a right when we got inside the and ended up looking in the Cyber Image shop (next to Terminator 2: 3-D). Normally, this is one of the shops I really enjoy looking around… thanks mainly to all the nerdy/geeky items they have on sale. But since we’d been in ‘Think Geek’ (thank you to Dissie and Joface23 for telling me the name of it) this store looked like the poor relative and had nothing on show that really excited me. We came out of the there and went to look around at the props in the waiting area of the Horror Make Up Show. We were the only two looking around in there as there were no more shows for today.







After taking a few photos Jo suggested doing Twister one last time. Not one last time this trip… but one last time EVER (what with it closing down very shortly). I know it's not a great attraction, but I’ve always actually quite liked it in a ‘this is rubbish, but so rubbish it's good’ kind of way. We stood in the back row, waited for the little ‘drop’ that the walkways do (this is another attraction they suggest isn’t suitable for expectant mothers!) and thankfully we didn't get soaked with the stale water from the roof.



The next part of the day was a little tedious, but something we had to do. We had to pay a visit to Guest Relations to speak to them about a discount card we'd been given four years ago. We’d got it as a perk when we bought Annual Passes to the Universal parks (we had two trips to Florida in the space of a year so buying APs for WDW and US was a no brainer.) When buying the passes, the guy selling us the tickets gave us this card for 20% off all purchases made from the main Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure stores. This card had no expiry date… and the guy said “so in effect, this runs in perpetuity”.

When I'd tried to use it on a previous visit to HHN, the person serving me got confused, wasn't sure what the card was (as he’d never seen one) so called over a manager, who in turn had never seen one… so called over HIS manager. The woman who came over looked at the card, asked me where I'd got it, what it was linked to, when I got it etc etc… she also had never seen one of these cards, but she’d at least heard about them.

She tried to tell me that the card was linked to the AP that I'd bought four years ago and that it was no longer valid. I said that's not what perpetuity meant, and that I'd had no problem using the card on previous visits. She then went away… obviously spoke to someone senior to her and came back and said “ok, on this occasion we’re going to let you use it. But you can't use it anymore after this purchase”. I said I didn't agree with that, and would go speak to someone in Guest Relations about it. It was the end of the night when all this took place, so we just wanted to get out of the park, not stand around in GR explaining the whole situation again of how I came to have this card in my possession, so we left.

So here we were, about to go to GR and try to explain what had happened and find out if there was any way of validating the card so I'd not have to go through the same experience every time I used it. We walked in and waited a few minutes before a guy called me over to the desk. I showed him the card, explained the situation, told him what had happened when I last tried to use it and how I'd been told that I couldn't use it anymore. The guy looked at the card, said he’d seen these before and that they did indeed have no expiry date. He asked if he could take a photocopy of the card so they could use it as part of training new cashiers. Of course, I let him take his copy and when he returned he handed me a gift card with $5 on it apologising for any inconvenience I had suffered.

He said when using the card in the future, that I should ask to speak to a manager before purchasing my items so they could either ring the sale up themselves or point them towards someone who would know what the card was. I thanked him for his help and we left. I was half expecting the same attitude and dismissiveness that I'd received from the manager the other night, but clearly the guy in GR deals with stuff like this day in day out… so the whole thing was painless and quick.

It was now getting close to when the park was turfing all the daytime guests out, so I thought I'd send Nicky a quick message to see where we were, then we could decide on a ‘holding zone’ to meet at. Turns out Nicky and Neil had made a rookie mistake. They’d left the park to get food, and hadn’t made it back in before normal park closing, so would now be trapped outside in the huge queues waiting to get into the park for HHN.

While I'm sending messages to Nicky, Jo tries to buy a bottle of drink as she's feeling dehydrated… but the vendors won't sell her one. They tell her that she’ll have to go into one of the holding zones… but once you go in, you can't come out… and because at this point we weren't sure what house we were going to do first we didn't want to walk into a holding zone to get a drink as we’d then be stuck. Because we weren't sure exactly where all the holding zones were we asked one of the guys putting out the HHN park maps if we could have one so we could look at where the scares zones were. His response… “No, you can only have a park map when you're in a holding zone”.
“Yes, but we want to know where the zones are so we can pick one, so can I please at least look at the map”.
“No, I'm afraid I can't hand them out”.
“Ok, can you then tell me where the zones are”.
“I'm sorry, I'm not sure myself, you can ask in Guest Relations”

HOLY MOTHER OF FONZI… is this guy for real? The answer is yes… he was for real. So, not wanting to wander round and find another zone, we decided to just head into the one by the entrance where we’d waited last time. We go in and immediately get a Sprite for Jo, and a cocktail for me. Not one of the nasty blue ones…. this time it was something with rum in it. I was taking photos of me drinking it and sending it to Nicky to wind her up… saying that if she’d stayed in the park, she could have been enjoying one of these… but instead she’s stuck outside in a queue to get back into the park! Needless to say… she called me a few sweary names.



At 5:40 they started to let us out of the holding area… and instead of being allowed to go to which ever house we wanted, we were funneled straight into the line for ‘25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem’ which Jo had said she really didn't want to go into again because of her last experience. As we’re being herded in, the wait time is saying 5 minutes. That turned out to be a lie. Unlike last time when we walked straight from the holding zone straight into the house, this time we we kept waiting in a line. We got as far as the back of RRR and then stopped.





We ended up waiting for around 30 minutes before the line suddenly started moving and we walked straight into the house.

I'd like to be able to tell you that because we’d already done this house, we didn't jump once. But I can't. I'd also like to be able to tell you that at no point during the walk through did a Jack jump out on Jo. But I can't. We both jumped A LOT. And Jacks appeared left and right… and every single one of them seemed to jump out on Jo again! The Phantom of the Opera got me again, even though I knew exactly where he was and exactly what was about to happen. We came out of the house and Jo's first words were “I flipping (not flipping) hated that. I hate that house”. I on the other hand loved it.

As we were making our way out, I tried to message Nicky but my phone battery was at less than 10%, so I asked Jo to send her a quick message and let her know where we were, and find out if they’d made it into the park yet. It turns out they were just down by Despicable Me, so we walked down that way. We got to the ride but couldn't see them anywhere. Finally we spotted them with beers in hand, and we went over and hugged, kissed and said hello. I’d been chatting with Nicky for a while so it felt like seeing an old friend again.

We decided our first house would be Freddy Vs Jason. Just as we’re walking towards the entrance for the queue, Nicky suddenly runs off. Turns out that she’d spotted someone who’s YouTube channel she watches. (Apparently it's called ‘ViewFromtheCheapSeats’.) After a minute she comes bounding back to us saying he wouldn't shake her hand because he said he had a cold!





We get to the queue for FvsJ and it says 25 minutes. We get in line and the conversation is jumping around all over the place… one minute they are asking about how our holiday has been, the next we’re talking about Nicky and Neil’s wedding, then it's about the houses we want to do tonight, then it's onto another random topic. It rare that you meet a new couple and find that both of them are lively, chatty people. Normally one tends to be a little quieter or a bit shy. Not the case with these two… they are both very funny, talkative people! As we’re winding our way through the line we get to a woman selling shots of alcohol. I buy three shots and a bottle of water for Jo. They ask why Jo isn't drinking… and we decide to tell them that Jo’s pregnant! They offer congratulations and we tell them it's very early days and we've not made an official announcement as we won't have our 12 week scan till after we get back from holiday.

The queue snakes back and forth, and i can't help noticing the sky is throwing up some crazy colours. These two pics were taken just a few minutes apart.





Thankfully those grey clouds from earlier didn't produce any rain, so I'm holding out hope that it will be a dry night. Before long we’re about to enter the house. I take the lead, Nicky is behind me, Neil is behind her and Jo’s bringing up the rear. I've already talked about this house in a previous day so I won't go through it all again. What I will say is that Nicky was hilarious. All I could hear the whole way round was “yeah, Freddy” or “go Freddy” or “get him Freddy”... she's clearly a Freddy fan! And I occasionally felt her hands on my back, (or her fingers) pushing me to move faster. I think a couple of the scareactors got her… but I personally didn't experience any scares myself. They were either happening way in front of me, or just behind me. This was my second time through this house and I still wasn’t a fan. Nicky and Neil, however, really liked it.

Once out of the house we stopped at a drinks booth and grabbed some cocktails, and had a little walk around a few of the scarezones. We then let them pick what house we did next, and after hearing us talking about Body Collectors they said that was what they wanted to do next. We adopted the same order (with me at the front, Jo at the rear, and N&N in the middle).





Nicky wasn't keen on some of the aspects of this house. She said some of the imagery freaked her out and she didn't like looking at it. She got sprayed with the water in the spine cracking scene, and Neil told her about one of the Body Collectors who sidled up to her and was walking beside her, but she’d had no idea it was happening! I thoroughly enjoyed it again and really do think it's one of my favourite HHN houses ever.

When we came out we walked around for a bit, snapping a few pictures in Shadybrook before getting round to where the movie characters were.





This is where Nicky wanted to get her photo taken with loads of the horror movie icons. When we've walked through here on previously occasions it's a real free-for-all as people scramble to get their pictures taken with a character… it's like a feeding frenzy. So I was expecting to be waiting for a bit as Nicky waited her turn, jostled with the other park guests and eventually got her photo opportunity… but that didn't happen. What I'm about to say might come across as if Nicky barged people out of the way and pushed in ahead of others that were waiting for a picture… but that wasn't the case. What happened was weird… not just because of how it happened, but that it happened identically three times in a row. People just seemed to move out of the way and scatter when Nicky got close to the character she wanted a photo with. It was like she was Moses parting the Red Sea!

She walked towards Freddy, people just vanished and suddenly she was there standing next to him with Neil taking a picture. Jason appears, she walks over… he’s crowded, as she gets a few feet away, the crowd disperses and she’s left alone with him. She gets her photo, spots Chucky and the exact same thing happens again! I was watching all this go on and it was just making me laugh. On one occasion I think Neil took two or three photos… but no matter what he did, they didn't come out completely clear and not a little blurred. Never mind. In fact, some of the photos added later in the report aren’t 100% clear, but I liked them too much not to include them… so apologies in advance at the varying quality of the pictures.





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Old 6 Apr 16, 03:09 PM  
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Continued...

On to the next house of the evening and it was one that me and Jo hadn't done before... RUN - Blood, Sweat and Fears. The wait time said 15 minutes and that was about right. This house though… urghhh… I hated it. I'm not even going to waste my time writing about it. Instead you’ll get a very brief description. It was basically like that 80s action movie starring Arnie called The Running Man. (Don't know it? Look it up!) We were walking through caged areas with fighters wearing shoulder pads with spikes… carrying weapons… banging on the cages. There were severed heads (fallen competitors) in other rooms, girls in construction gear wielding chainsaws, scenes where they projected fights onto screen so it looked like you were seeing their shadows fighting and, ultimately, killing each other. I just disliked it from start to finish. It might have worked better as a scare zone… but as a house, it just didn't do anything for me.





The funny thing is… I listened to various podcasts about HHN and people providing their lists of ‘Best and Worst Houses’ and this always ended up somewhere around the middle…. which I really don't understand. Maybe on that one walkthrough we did, we ended up with the least enthusiastic Scareactors and/or they were just tired?

The best thing about it was on leaving the house, we were basically in some sort of backstage storage area… and as we were walking through to get back to the main park again, Jo pointed out at the far end of this warehouse was Jaws! It's obviously one of the sharks from the end of the old attraction as it has a lot of burns on the side of its body. Being a massive fan of Jaws (it's my favourite movie ever), seeing the old shark sitting there in storage was very cool.



After we got back into the streets, we carried on walking around the park and ended up in Springfield where the clowns with chainsaws were hanging out as usual, and we decided to stop in Moe's Tavern and get a drink. Jo was feeling a little hungry so she got herself a little pizza while the rest of us necked beers. We had a go on the famous love tester… and as you can see… I'm apparently a wet fish! (Machine must've been faulty!)













Once again I’m let down by my own voice-memo about the rest of the evening, as when I listen to it, I'm jumping about all over the place with the events that went on, and the actual order they occurred. So Nicky and Neil, I apologise if my retelling of the events isn't quite in the right order!

So after we left Moe's, we did another house… The Walking Dead. The wait time is only about 20 minutes and as we go to enter the building we were held in place by an employee who tells us to wait a while… then about 30 seconds later we’re told to go in. I’d love to say that this second walk through of this house revealed so much more and we were wrong to give it such a terrible review… but I can't. It was just as bad the second time around. The best part about the house was that there was nobody in front of us, so we could actually take our time as we walked through. I also don't think there was anybody immediately behind us as I remember getting into one area of the house (a point where it was quite open) and stopping, turning around, and the four of us kind of congregating in the centre of this area and just looking around at the all the effects in the room. We stayed there for no longer than 30 seconds, but when you’re used to being ushered quickly through a house, actually being able to stand there and look around was strange.



After the house, we went down past the stage where the Jack show would be starting in a little while. Up ahead we could see that something was going on at the furthest of the small stages, down near Terminator 2: 3D. We arrived in time to see a five minute show, where the Icon (in this case, an old-timey cinema usher) performed a ‘killing’ on the stage. They basically had another scareactor dressed like a member of the public standing out with us in the crowd, then dragged him up and played out as if he was being murdered on stage.









When it ended everyone clapped and then quickly walked down to the next stage (back the way we’d just come). Clearly all these people knew more than the four of us, so we just followed along with them. A minute later, another Icon appeared and the same thing happened again where someone was killed/tortured on their stage. We did this all the way down the street… watched an Icon kill someone in their own gruesome way, then moved to the next stage.



At one of the stages, one of the ‘helpers’ of the Icon was standing next to me and just staring at me. I looked at her and without missing a beat, she simply pointed at me, and then at the stage… indicating that I should be watching her master… not her!

With all the little shows done, we were back at the main stage where the Jack show was just starting… and as good as it was the first time we watched it, N&N weren't that bothered with standing around watching it, so we decided to get another drink before tackling our last house of the night.









I have no idea how many drinks or shots Nicky, Neil and me had consumed at this point. Every time we passed someone selling shots or alcoholic blood packs we stopped and got one. We were doing shots in the queue line… and had tried almost every speciality HHN drink they had on offer. I’m pretty sure we were all a bit tiddly at this point… all except Jo of course. Poor not-drinking Jo… who said to me afterwards, had actually had a really good time regardless of the lack of alcohol.









One other point I should like to make is that by now it was about midnight! The past six hours had absolutely flown by, and aside from the Extra Magic Hours night the previous week, it had been the longest we’d stayed out in the parks this holiday.

So as I said, before the final house of the evening, me and Neil decided we needed a little dutch courage to tackle it. The reason for this is both of us were a little worried about doing this particular house for different reasons. The house I'm talking about was the Insidious house. When I watched that movie for the first time, the Lipstick-Faced Demon in it just freaked the living daylights out of me. I can't exactly put my finger on what it was, but something about that character just gave me chills… so the thought of doing a house where it would no doubt be jumping out on me every two minutes filled me with dread.

Neil on the other hand seemed slightly afraid of another scary antagonist from the movie… namely the old white-haired lady. I can't say she spooked me anything like the bright red Devil, but could understand why Neil didn't like it. The girls both seemed totally fine about doing this house and couldn't understand why we were being little fraidy cats!

So, as it’s my round, I get in the drinks queue leaving the other three standing out of the way. I suddenly forget what drink it was Neil had asked for, so I turn round and shout “Neil… what was it you wanted?” He shouts his response, and as I turn back round to face the queue, the four girls in front are all now facing me with their mouths wide open.
“Oh my god… you’re English!” one of them says.
“Yeah, from London” I reply.
They all squeal and start talking at me at the same time… asking me what my name is and telling me how much they love the British accent. They've all clearly drunk as much as we have… so as well as being excitable, they are all quite giggly. They then proceed to give me sentences to say out loud… as well as asking me to say their names. The weirdest request was when they asked who I was with, and when I said “my wife, Jo” they asked me to say “Jo I love you”… but I think they seemed to have some sort of Downton Abbey moment going on in their heads. (Those of you who know me are probably thinking ‘he’s more Eastenders than Downton Abbey’... and you would be right!)

A couple of the girls who were in the queue for drinks splintered off and went over to Jo, Nicky and Neil and start chatting to them. There was still one girl in the line who was chatting with me, asking if this is the first time I'd been to Orlando, if I like it here, etc. When I tell her this my 11th visit and we actually got married in the US (in WDW) she thinks I'm winding her up. It's not till we get our drinks, head back over to the rest of the group and Jo confirms what I've said that she finally believes me. She even asked to take a selfie with the group and posted it on IG. We drink our drinks while chatting with the girls (who it turns out were from New York) and then part ways and it's time for me and Neil to man up and brave the Insidious house.









Wait time is about 30 minutes and up in front we can see the facade to the house is actually a house… the house in which the Lipstick-Faced Demon resides! Just like I have the whole evening… I go at the front of the group and keep telling myself it’ll all be over in less than ten minutes.





In we go and straight away we’re in a child's bedroom with people sitting round conducting a seance. I'm looking at the people round the table trying to figure out if they’re dummies or real people… when suddenly over the speakers there's a loud shriek (like they use in horror movies to make you jump) and from the left a LFD jumps from behind a curtain and lunges for us. Ok… so now my heart is officially racing… but it was just like every other house we've been in… it’s just a quick shock which makes you jump, but then you laugh (because you're nervous). I of course let out a massive swear when he leapt at me and called him something like a ‘red pr**k’.

They are combining scenes from the first movie and the second at this point, because next is a room with a woman and a shotgun... frozen still but then suddenly moving towards us as the sound of shotgun fire blasts over the speakers. They are using lighting very cleverly in this house to hide where the scares are coming from. As we walk down a corridor with billowing curtains down each side, I know that at some point something is going to pop out from behind them… and lo and behold, a few Demons and creepy old brides come at us.

In one scene, on the left it looked like they'd used a Pepper’s Ghost effect to project the face of the LFD onto the window, except it wasn't a projection! He was actually behind the glass… and as we reached the end of the room and turned left, he jumped out on me from behind the wall with the windows in. It made me jump, but I was so impressed with how they’d tricked me, I just said “flip (not flip), that was clever!”

Another scene had the same scary shotgun woman in a living room, drawing your attention to her… and away from the open doorway where the old white-haired lady came running out from. In a room towards the end of the house there were bodies covered in sheets, all perfectly still as we walked through the centre of the room. Obviously they weren't all dummies… so we knew at any moment one (or more) of them was going to get up or lurch at us. As I shuffled through this room, trying not to look at any specific body, one got up and grabbed at the person in front of me (which made her scream so loudly). We walk into another long corridor with a row of open doors on each side, each one containing old scary men, Demons or old ghost ladies. This corridor was so narrow, that the scareactors were literally in your face as they appeared out of the darkened doorways, it was brilliant. This house was right up there with my other favourite (Body Collectors) and a perfect end to a perfect evening.

It was now gone 12:30am and time to leave the park. We took a slow walk back to the exit, (scareactors in the streets still jumping out on guests) and then through CityWalk and to the taxi stand. N&N had ordered an Uber and supposedly it was going to be there any minute, so we said goodbye and jumped in a Mears cab. Our cabbie is only in his early 20’s and extremely chatty. Not in an annoying way, but it was nice to have a cab driver that wasn't spouting off racist/aggressive rants about the state of his country or the people who now reside here (which we've encountered quite a few times in the past). He was telling us about the different types of holidaymakers he picks up and how the people from each country treat him differently. After a fairly quick drive considering we got stuck for a bit in all the roadworks going on around the DTD area, he pulled up outside our hotel and Jo wearily climbed the stairs. I really did feel sorry for her at this point, but she said she’d had a really fun time and it was only now that she was feeling utterly exhausted. Preparing for bed took all of two minutes and the pair of us were out for the count within what felt like seconds. (Thankfully not dreaming about the Lipstick-Faced Demon!)

What a long day... starting off early with a stupid row about nothing, and culminating in a fantastic night at HHN with two people who we’d never met before but again, felt like we were hanging with old friends. Neil and Nicky were such fun to be with and as I've always said about HHN… doing it as a group really adds to the experience. It goes to show how comfortable we were around them and how much we were enjoying ourselves that we didn't get out the park till gone 12:30am. Jo certainly deserves an award for lasting as long as she did this day.

Not long to go now folks before another TR is complete… three more days, if my maths is correct. So be sure to join us for Day 13 where another meet-up takes place… a DADC Florida meet-up!

Thanks for reading...
I love you byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee xx

#Dibbafterdarkiswherethelipstickfaceddemonlurks

P.S. A few of you have messaged asking when this day was going up and were concerned that everything was ok... everything is absolutely fine... NOW! Basically I'd been a bit stressed with my last few weeks at work and hit a wall with the editing stage of the TR... as I'm now on Maternity Leave, I'm back on it, so-to-speak, and the rest of the report should be up within two weeks (hopefully before Baby Harding decides to arrive!) Jo x

Day 13 can be found here

Edited at 07:58 PM.
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Old 6 Apr 16, 03:52 PM  
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Redrach1903
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I had to have a wee chuckle at your silly argument. Sounds like Chris & I. It’s always over something stupid and food normally makes everything better

OMG what a faff with that discount card, but I’m glad you got it sorted in the end. Oh and the guy with the maps? Jobs worth much? Wow.

LOVE that you saw Jaws in the warehouse, that is awesome. So much nostalgia <3

Jo really is a trooper, bless her! Such a fun night had by all I love the accent story, so funny!

Glad to hear everything is ok and looking forward to news of the newest Dibber in town

xx

Edited at 07:54 PM.
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Old 6 Apr 16, 07:23 PM  
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Wonderful as always 😊
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Old 6 Apr 16, 07:42 PM  
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sheluk
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I am amazed you didn't have a hangover. Wow! I think you two are the most social people on holiday I have ever known! Massive well done to Jo on a mammoth day.

I think those arguments happen to us all. Food is normally the reason with us too!

You almost make me want to do those houses you sound so enthusiastic about them. But in a scardy cat so it'll never happen!

Glad to read alls well hope Jo enjoys her mat leave and all goes well with baby Harding!
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Old 6 Apr 16, 07:54 PM  
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Jesslydevie1
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What a fantastic day ! Jo you are a trooper , good luck and am sooo excited for baby Harding to arrive hehe ,can't wait to hear about Brett tackling fatherhood lol !
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Old 6 Apr 16, 08:24 PM  
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Great report👍
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Old 6 Apr 16, 08:56 PM  
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Great read as usual!

We loved HHN, didn't get to see Jack though!
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Old 6 Apr 16, 11:21 PM  
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Another great day!

Glad to read all is well, enjoy your mat leave whilst you can
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Old 7 Apr 16, 04:32 PM  
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Great read I'd love to do the Freddy Jason house, big fan of Freddy
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