Back to the Future Trip Part 5

[Guest]

Tuesday 5th February 2002 – Day 4 - "Dance with a fishy, on a little dishy" at IOA!

Link to Back to the Future Trip Pre Trip!

Plan: IOA
Hours: IOA 9-6
US 9-7

Food: Breakfast: Room
Lunch: Circus McGurkus
Dinner: Race Rock

Notes: Seuss landing for Sally promised

Actual:

I can’t remember breakfast, just a “squashed” head feeling, so pop two more headache pills and Princess Fiona is ready for the day! Weather forecast low 60s.

We walk through the back gate, past the draughts board



and that lovely pool, and are waltzing into IOA 10 minutes after leaving our room, hard life at the Hard Rock! The whole place is empty, except for an astonishing 30-minute wait at Pteranodon Flyers, the ski lift thingy. We used our room keys twice today to bypass 5 minute queues.

First impressions of the park were excellent, it very much reminds us of Animal Kingdom in appearance and atmosphere, and we love Animal Kingdom. First stop, Hulk, twice, wow, then Storm Force Accelatron with Sally whilst Steve had his turn.



Teacups with attitude, but I wonder why it isn’t on the map? Laura is on cloud nine, Kate is not so sure, she only does the coasters so her younger sister doesn’t call her a wimp. However, we did bottle a no queue front row, which sitting here now I wish we’d done! Hulk and sinus flu = sore head, and very tickly and itchy ears, does anyone else get this on these coasters?

Now we go back to Seuss Landings to fulfil the promise, again it is deserted.



We bag Caro-Seuss-el and “One Fish, two Fish”. All of us are enjoying this, but after 1 fish 2 fish I remembered the squirty water, where was it, do they turn them off when it is too cold? Oh well, didn’t really want to get wet. We have to leave Cat in the Hat as it’s broken, and off we wander to Lost Continent.

This turns out to be our favourite “land” and we spend a fair bit of time here. First stop those duelling dragons, but we are so early only Ice was running, the detail on the walkthrough to this ride is fabulous, it seemed quite a way at full speed, no queues of course! Now I know, Duelling Dragons is my favourite coaster! We shuffle various combinations of three around several times, and then take Sally off to the Flying Unicorn, again a baby coaster like Goofy’s Barnstormer and Woody’s Nuthouse Coaster. We scream our way round, and Sally is brave enough to do front row, dragging me with her.

The munchkins are making their presence felt so with my meticulous planning we head back to Circus McGurkus Café Stoopendous for lunch and a circus show, not forgetting an appearance by the Grinch. Slight hitch in the planning, when there are only two other customers at 12pm, in the whole place, the show is not likely to be forthcoming, oh well. It felt a bit plastic, and strange being so empty. Food, except for $7 pizzas, was all right, especially the Caesar and fruit salad and fried chicken meal. $32 after discount, but a show would have been nice! We wibble and wobble our way back (no straight lines) to Cat in the Hat to find it functioning, and enjoy this ride too, and can’t pass 1 fish 2 fish without jumping on! I love that tune! Still no squirts!

We then got back to the plan as Seuss Landings was supposed to take until lunch time, and went to visit the dig site at Poseiden. This was awesome, and is a must! Fortunately we escaped, but the water arc is spectacular, and very disorientating, and the whole show and its effects was first rate. I’m not giving too much away am I? Laura and I could not pass up “Fire”, but I do admit to not being able to compare the two rides. I can’t keep up with which way up I am!

We seamlessley pass into Jurassic Park, as you’d expect it’s very jungley. The weather seems to be getting even colder, and we explore the Discovery Centre (I thought it was naff but the children enjoyed playing with things here) and the Triceratops Trail is quite well done. Steve, Kate and Laura went off to do River Adventure, pronouncing it “not that wet.” We are quite pleased with ourselves, as we are doing quite well with Sally, even with her aversion to dinosaurs and there are quite a few. Sally and I don’t do the 30 minute Pteranodon Flyers queue, and have a play in Camp Jurassic, again another very well thought out playground that keeps the attention of older children too. When the dry River Adventurers returned Steve and I went off and had a go, leaving Kate in charge and strict instructions not to stray.

River Adventure, IMHO, is quite wet, even in the middle near the back! There was a mad family in the front row videoing the ride, with a carrier bag for protection at “the” critical moment. Plenty of detail, which I love. We recovered the abandoned children and crossed into Toon Lagoon. We admired the Bilge Rat Barges from afar, there didn’t seem to be anyone riding, and hung around for the Toon Lagoon Beach Bash. We couldn’t find an arena, or a stage, it turned out to be more of a street party with characters. Sally hula hooped her way to a plastic lei necklace. Some horrible “child” volunteered me as a “Mom” to compete with a “dad” in a dancing competition. Now this is where the digital camera comes in handy, as the nasty pictures can be wiped! Hey, but I won a necklace too, a flattering purple shade! All the characters came out (Popeye, Olive Oyl etc) and we got lots of autographs. In fact the character interaction seems much better than Disney, probably due to the fact that there are not many people around!

Toon Lagoon was alright, the theming was probably the weakest in terms of “lands” but we moved into Marvel Super Hero Island, the loud and brash theming didn’t appeal to me. However, that’s not a problem as I can see that the variety of style is much broader at IOA than most of Disney, a bit less girly. I suppose I’m not keen on Tomorrowland either! Now my big boy was in his element. Someone had told us about this Spiderman ride (well quite a few DISers actually) but Angel gets full marks for Spiderman’s description “in the flesh” so to speak. Sally posed with Spidey, and Mr America and the baddy one, sorry I don’t know anything about Spiderman, whilst Steve, Kate and Laura rode “The Big One”.



My turn now please, wow, crikey, fantastic, scary but most of all “how did they do that?” Every time we rode it I ducked when the brick is thrown, and screamed when we hit the floor! Now, I’m big wimp who doesn’t like heights much, so after Spidey I wasn’t ready for Dr Dooms Fearfall, so we dispatched Laura and Steve to test drive, whilst those darned Storm Force Acceletron Tea Cups mixed up my head and insides. Never mind a last turn on Hulk, glutton for punishment.

The temperature is still disappointingly low, but we walk back through Port of Entry, and sit down with a nice cup o’ tea (terrible but only one of the day) and a cookie. Kate and Laura buy some very reasonable wooden necklaces and bracelets, 20% off with APs. Laura and Sally were the only ones in the pool that afternoon!

We change, and probably watched some telly, and after proposing three places I’d like to try; Race Rock, Café Tu Tu Tango and Sweet Tomatoes, I let them choose for dinner. Soft commando aren’t I! “Sweed Tom-ay-toes” won, and off we pottered around the corner. For $34 for all of us with drinks ($1.49<6, $4.49 6-12, and $8.29 adult) you help yourself to a huge and very fresh salad bar, then pay, and then there are soups, pizza and garlic bread, and baked potatoes. The pizza was not the best but everything else was tasty and great value, and you can return for more salad too. This is finished off with an “Ice Cream Factory” style ice cream bar, beautiful fresh fruit and bakery selections. A fresh, clean and efficient establishment and a refreshing change to normal “fast food.”

Wal-Mart, here we come. Well we did when we found it! We needed kit and relieved ourselves of $120 on 2 pairs trainers, a dolphin T shirt, socks, scrapbook stuff (sneaked that in Bev), more socks, 2 lovely pairs of Pooh and Mickey shorts dungarees for Sally and Laura, a pair of shorts for Kate, a gallon of milk, a packet of crisps and a box of fizzy beer for Jeeves. Not impressed with the women’s clothing, Kate’s shorts were not a bargain but at least they had some! The children and I were too tired, and I wasted $20 on a pair of trainers that didn’t fit Laura properly, so it was shopping with no savings.

We collapsed back in our luxurious pad and stowed the milk in the mini bar. My shoulders are swelling up, which happened for the first time over Christmas, I think I was allergic to the Christmas tree, but what has set me off now? Tonight’s cocktail, 1 antihistamine, 2 neurofen and lots of sleep. We’re having a great time, honest!

Tally: 1 cup of bad tea and 1 unopened bottle of B.A. Merlot still unopened, and it’s mine!

Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom/EPCOT or Typhoon Lagoon (or Universal Studios?)

Day 5

[ANGEL]

Ooh err, its like Deja vu all over again!!!

Still a great report princess Fiona .

In very royal style too, what no Dr Doom though? Shame on you (says Angel who's too much of a wuss to try Hulk or DD) ,

[ANGEL]

Ooh err, its like Deja vu all over again!!!

Still a great report princess Fiona .

In very royal style too, what no Dr Doom though? Shame on you (says Angel who's too much of a wuss to try Hulk or DD) ,

[Guest]

Wait for it girl!!  Can't you let me finish editing before pouncing!! ,

Anyhow, be a a patient Angel, all is not doom and gloom re Dr Doom, I'm not a wuss, just have a bad headache and a temperature!!!!!  ,

So there!

[BevS97]

sounds like a good day - I thought the theming in IOA was brilliant,  ahd Spiderman was excellent.

Couldn't you use your room keys for Pteronnanoenanenen Flyers?  Or is it only good for certain rides?

glad to hear you bought some scrapbook stuff! they have quite a bit in Walmart - I know,  I bought some too...

I think we'll add Sweet Tom-ahy-toes, to our list,  sounds nice

Bev

[Guest]

Pterenadon (getting good at spelling that&#33, is one of only two (?) rides that you can't use thr room key for!!  But then about two people ride every 3 minutes!!

[Guest]

another great report
The queue for pteranodon flyers was very long when we went never got to try it out
IOA was one of the boys favorite places  ,

[NatalieD]

We queued for an hour for the pterenadon flyers  , ,all for a ride that lasts about a minute and a half! - I did enjoy it though. Sweet Tomatoes sounds lovely - another 'to do' when we go back next time. Really enjoying your reports Fiona!

[Carole]

Great descriptions, Fiona. I could picture it all as you walked round.
Have to try this Sweet tomatoes place. A few people have mentioned it now, and it sounds good.

Scrapbooking stuff at Walmart? Another excuse to go there then ..

[Guest]

Really enjoying your reports Fiona - hope you feel better soon though.