The Florida, Fringes and Other F Words Tour Day Four

[mkingdon]

Previously on this tour...

Pre Trip Ramblings
Introduction
Day One
Day TWo
Day Three

Day Four – Wednesday 26th August

I awake from my slumber quite stiff. That was quite some dream!

I also notice that my legs are feeling very achy and stiff. Must have been that gym session yesterday, working different muscles than the ones I'm used to using... you know, like the ones in my body.

It is only 6.30am, again. I curse my body clock, and tumble out of bed. I would stumble to the kitchen and pour myself a cup of ambition, but a) we don't have a kitchen in this room, and b) my ambition is to spend more time in bed, so that would defeat the object really.

I do however make coffee for everyone, once I have spent about forty minutes working out how the coffee maker works. It is one of those fandangled ones that you put little capsules into and out pops a full english breakfast.

Louise is awake and demanding quick results so the pressure is on to deliver.

After a frustrating half hour putting things in the wrong hole, Rebecca wakes up and I have to make the coffee after all!

We had to pack again, but we're soon done and heading down to breakfast at 8.30. The Islands Dining Room is chosen as it is both open and the firtst place to eat we find.

We order -

Louise – Eggs Benedict



Dad - I'm sure it was some sort of Crab Cake Benedict



Girls – Breakfast Banana Split



Mum – A little bit of French Toast!



Me – Fruit Platter. Yes, you read correctly.

We had juice and coffee and a conversation about Fernando Torres with the waiter, which helped his tip!

$140ish inc tip.

Overfull, apart from me, who was already hungry again, we make our way to the water taxi.

Rebecca snaps some random wall art.





The girls nip to the loo, and the results end up with me confiscating the camera. I can't have them wasting “film” I say, all Dad like. Trouble is, they don't know what film is!



Whilst waiting for the taxi we lard each other up for the day. Not sure what factor that KY was that Dad is applying here!





Continued...

[mkingdon]

We are soon into Universal,



and the first ride is to be Jimmy Neutron, a firm fave with the girls from our last time here.

It was good, especially with a sizeable queue to wander past, but the jiggling about seemed rougher than I remembered, or maybe I just had more to jiggle about this time?

We all wander across to Shrek, apart from Louise who is complaining of stomach ache. After half a dozen eggs and a whole load of benedict, I'm not surprised.

Even with Express, the wait is considerable, but once inside we love it. Great fun.

We meet up with Louise again, and it appears she has removed some of the benedict from her system and it is now en route to the Atlantic. She feels better, and we, that is we four, decide to try for Rip Ride Rockit.

So Mum & Dad wander off, with Ryan, and we arrange to meet later. We quickly see that the queue is over two hours and sack that off as a bad idea.

This is a photo from slightly earlier, of the queue, waiting to get into the queue. They only opened the ride at 10.30, so these had been waiting since the park opened to get into the queueing area!



Instead we walk down to the Mummy and ride it twice in a row, without a break. Something that hasn't happened in our house since 1996.

We walk back to Shrek when it is time to meet up with Mum & Dad and we sit on a bench waiting for them.

NOTE - By some strange turn of events, I now also have all my Dad's photos from the trip. Best not to ask...it is a long story involving his 106 year old camera and a lost driver disc.

Here are some from their wanderings, with Ryan.







Dad resorted to random family snaps.



They even had the nerve to ride the Simpsons without us!



Continued...

[mkingdon]

As we wait, spirits are high, and even Emily gives us a smile.



as does Louise...all the better for the earlier ejection.



Reunited, we wander on, Rebecca again in camera control.







Up until now, I had restroomed approximately seventeen times...only for numbers ones, but still highly inconvenient, and something I wished to put a stop to. Alas, I have to go again, opposite I Love Lucy. She's trying to not let on I'm having a wee right behind her.

This strange condition lasted just today. It is the last time I have a healthy breakfast!



We enter the Terminator 3D show, spend five minutes in the wrong queue and then join our elite friends in Express, saving at least twenty seconds of queuing time.

It had been a while since we've seen this, and the integration of live action and film stuff is very clever.

We walk up the street and notice that the Horror Make Up Show is starting and we have never done this, so in we go. Emily is a horror film freak, so she loves this. Emily is pretty much unscarable by film. Rebecca on the other had caught five minutes of Halloween one night in the villa and spent the rest of the holiday sleeping in our room!

Anyway, the show is more fun than gory, so all is well. A good show.

Now, I really want to do the Simpsons...to be honest, I'd prefer Jessica to Ashley, but I wouldn't be too bothered either way.

Coincidentally, we go on the new Simpsons ride next. The Express queue took forever. The ride is good fun, with probably the most entertaining waiting area of any ride. We sat in the back of the car, and it is very much like Back to the Future. One point to note, we couldn't see all of the screen from the back seat, so bear that in mind.



Men in Black is next in line, which means another ridiculous wrestling match with a locker. Surely Ryan is not oversized? So why then do they build lockers that would only accommodate Tattoo from Fantasy Island's scrotum?

Eventually, we crack the Da Vinci Code to get a locker, and somehow shoehorn Ryan in. The Express queue here is great...straight to the front.

I score a frankly majestic 199,000, and I am the sole reason that our car wins. We leave the ride, use the lubricant Dad bought from CVS to free the bags from the locker, and feel spots of rain.

The girls want a slushy ice thing, so they get one.



We wander through the Jaws bit, past the midway stall things, and take shelter for a moment or two from the rain, and give the girls chance to finish their ice things. Neither of them can, so we bin them and head for Disaster... the ride that is, not some sort of catastrophic event. Louise wants to sit outside in the sun, so we queue up, again with the Express taking far too long for my liking.

This is a long “ride”, with many different stages, but a good one.

We collect Louise from her griddle in the sun, and move on to the 4pm Beetlejuice show. After a five minute wait we are allowed in, and being Express we manage to bag a front row seat.





Dad really enjoyed this one, but for me it was a little cheesy.

Now that we are the furthest possible point from both rides, the girls want to do ET and Woody Woodpecker. Off we set, on the hike across the park.

I've gone off ET as a ride, as the wait to get in annoys me. I know the delay is waiting for everyone to give their name and get a card, which never works. Anyway, we're past the name giving bit (Alphonse this time), and into the forest to queue for proper.

The ride has broken down, probably as the lady couldn't spell Alphonse, and we wait ten minutes going nowhere. The ride itself is looking a little tired too in my view. Time for a change I think Mr Universal.

To rub salt in the wounds, ET actually says goodbye to us. Should have given my real name after all.

Continued...

[mkingdon]

Next, the wood pecker... that dream came back to me suddenly, and it couldn't be helped I'm afraid.



Oh, and this ride happened for the girls too. They go on tiwce I think. Both totalling no more than seven seconds. We annouce the park done, and set off for tea at the Hard Rock having been thwarted last night.

The place is fairly quiet, and as I discover on yet another restroom trip, the entire top floor is closed. Very different to previous visits when you had to book in around December for an August table.

We have -

2 lots of nachos to start

Me – Sirloin Steak Open Sandiwch
Louise – Beef Fajitas
Emily – Chicken Fajitas
Rebecca – Chicken Club Sandwich
Dad – Burger
Mum – Chicken Fajitas

No photos for some reason.

About half way through the meal, the music gets a little louder and Thriller by Michael Jackson starts.

Half the staff congregate in the middle of the restaurant and do a very good rendition of the dance routine...all of it. It goes down a treat, apart from with those still waiting for their food.

With three beers and a wine, including two souveneir glasses (which of course we now use all the time and are in no way shoved in a cupboard gathering dust) it was $236 including a mandatory 18% tip added on.

We drag our paunches around Citywalk for a bit, before heading back to the hotel at around 8pm. We pick up our luggage from, not surprisingly, luggage services, and unvalet the car.

Some might say that we got lost on the way home. I prefer to say we broadended our knowledge of the International Drive area.

We called at the supermarket for “bits”, and we're home by 9.15. No-one is awake beyond 10pm.

Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom, and the Wishes Dessert party!

Day five is here

[mrsdtob]

Woo hooo day 4

[Guest]

a fab read... you have a great way for telling these reports, and i am loving them!

[Guest]

Very funny as always.

[Jollymon]

Seems like i was waiting ages for this! worth it

[KarenG]

Fabulous

[colinzy]

Glad to see Ryan seeing some different sights.
Great day 4!