OutandAbout

It’s Sunday already and as the chance of thunder is 70% we decided to change the plan of a water park to Universal Studios as most of the rides are inside. Of course the weather during the day was lovely and warm and the only rain we had was late afternoon, well timed as we sat having an ice cream under a big umbrella.

The park opened at 8am but closes at 5pm so some quick planning and we were off. First problem, someone left the entrance tkts in the house -…….returning to pick them up we lost Lucy and Adi so we ended up driving to the carpark on our own, fortunately we bumped into them as we walked from the carpark to the entrance of the park.

We entered the park, took a right and then a left and found the Transformers ride at only 10mins wait so we all hopped on. Whoosh …. a virtual ride where we were helping Optimus Prime save the world! The boys had spotted the big rollercoaster next door but with a cart being dragged vertical up a pole before being thrown down, round and upside down through the ride, I declined to go on, along with Bob, Frank and Mary – enjoy kids …
Can we go to Harry Potter Gringotts ride now PLEASE? I was so excited to go and it was only 15min wait so we bypassed other rides to get to Diagon Alley and ride the Escape from Gringotts Bank. The set as before was amazing, the boys brought their wands and after the ride we walked through the shops and did magic spells in the windows of some of them.

Feeling hungry now so looking for a snack and I’ve spotted Starbucks nearby but Men in Black ride had no queues and was closer so we rode that first, once again saving the planet from destruction!
After a break we set off again, backtracking to The Mummy which had a 30 min queue, lots of dark passageways led us up to the carriage that took us round the ride, scaring us a bit as we ducked away from mummies, scarabs and goolie things.
It was now nearly 3pm so we positioned ourselves on the route of the Parade, right next to the Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon ride – another virtual ride. Must say I’m pretty much getting overload on virtual rides.

Frank was worried about the charge on the mobility scooter so he took it to customer services and they plugged it in for him while we rode a few rides. We made our way to the
Shrek show while he was doing that. This was a sequel to the shrek movies where he has to rescue his Fiona from the evil lord who is a ghost trying to kill her so she can be his ghostly princess. Some funny bits but as it was in a theatre the whole chair shook and bumped with the movements and they weren’t very comfy- I think the hardness of the seating has deteriorated throughout the day!
One of the longest queues of the day was the minions ride,

50 mins at one point but it had gone down to 35 so we joined it. Funny antics as we were trained to be minions. By the time we came off the ride it was around 4.30 and the park closed at 5pm and we wanted to ride the Hogwarts express train to the Island of Adventure Park before it was closed down. However, Frank wanted to ride the big rollercoaster and queuing was down to 10mins so he did it with Adi and the boys – not sure if he enjoyed it though !
As we approached Kings Cross the queue said 55 mins ! As Frank had the scooter we were sent through a different gate and into a lift where we were processed through in about 10 mins and we were on the train, in a carriage just like the ones in the film – so happy !

We emerged 3/4 mins later in the other park.

Time now to finish off the rides we didn’t have time for last visit.
The Poseidon adventure was excellent, walk through tour with Taylor, the professors assistant who has to take control because the Professor has gone missing. Our Charlie got picked to be Taylor’s assistant so if anything went wrong it was Charlie’s fault haha! As we explored and found the Trident so that Neptune could fight and beat the bad guy and therefore save the seas from evil.

After all that saving we decided ice cream was essential and as we sat down under a big umbrella the rain came! 10 mins and it was gone and we could continue to the weird animal Carousel in Dr Seuss land and Cat in the Hat ride.

 

The boys still hadn’t done the Terror Drop ride so they joined the 25 min queue but were done in 10 mins. They also wanted to do the Hulk rollercoaster again in the dark so as it was 7.30 ish “the parents” decided to make for home, picking up something for dinner on the way and the kids could come straight home when they were done. Ha! Picking up a small basket of shopping – 5 mins – paying for them 20 mins ! So annoyed, a woman with a bag full of discount vouchers and an extremely slow cashier caused blood pressure to raise and they didn’t even apologise for keeping us waiting, Publix your service is crap !!!
Cup of tea, food and bed I think such a lovely day up until this. Tomorrow is water park Aquatica hopefully not as busy as Volcano Bay was.

 

Ah a rest day for the parents – well some of them. Lucy,Adi and the boys were planning to go to Bucsh Gardens today but as they arrived home around 11pm last night, they couldn’t get up early enough.  They left the house a good l hour later than planned and then appeared back at the door 5 mins later having decided that it wasn’t worth the hour + long trek now as the park closed at 5pm. Change of plan – go to Kennedy Space centre today and Bucsh Gardens next week. We waved bye to Frank & Bob too who were playing golf down the road today. Mary and I sighed with the quiet and started collecting washing to do, making beds, cleaning bathrooms and generally tidying up . Once everything was organised we showered and had breakfast and a cup of coffee before settling on a couple of sun beds with our books.

Frank and Bob returned around 3pm, tired and hungry so we had a snack to keep us going and decided to go out for dinner around 7pm. We tried a Perkins cafe up the road and a mooch round a shopping centre afterwards before coming home for a cup of tea and and a few games of pool in the garage!.

The family returned from their day out, full of the excitement of a space centre and with a different car – a white one – Dodge- lots of gadgets- Adi happy. Apparently a light came on the dashboard on the way home so they called at the airport and just swopped it.

Weather was lovely today, much less humidity but forecast for next few days is thunder and high humidity so not sure if we can stick to the plan for tomorrow.

Night night, happy dreams xxx

Up and out early again today, to the new water park at Universal – then we realised the Park doesn’t open until 10 am. We were there not long after opening but I think they must let all the resort guests in early as it was already packed. Next was the tikitaka bracelet we all had to wear and touch it onto the totem pole by a ride we wanted to do, to then be told it would be a 40 minute wait – go and play in the rapids, lazy river or beach area until we were called (by the watch buzzing). Almost an hour later the buzzer went off and we went back to the ride to wait another 15 minutes on the stairs up to the ride before getting on it. A 5 person ride down a shute in a turtle boat, however, there was a weight limit and not ANY 5 people could ride together,  so as a family we had to split into 3 and a 2. Only now after doing that ride could we tap in with the watch to book another ride but now wait time was 170 minutes for some rides. At lunchtime we wandered over to one of the restaurant cafes and stood in a very long queue to order pizza and salads. The salads were in a fridge to “pick up and go” but this meant get it yourself and join the food ordering queue to pay for it! Requesting a hot drink we were told to go to another cafe as they only did cold drinks here. Must say we won’t be coming back to this park and we will be leaving some serious complaints with the park. However, the boys just enjoyed playing in the water and digging in the sand as children do.

Adi wanted to go to International Drive to see some old cars that were being shown off so we drove to the area and drove up and down looking for it. Having no success we stopped at a hotel and asked the consierge who informed us it was at Old Town Kissimmee! Back onto the I-4 motorway and 20 minutes later we pulled up into the Old Town.  The first thing the boys saw was a go kart track but they had to wait til we had  perused the cars and checked out the Town. Not much to see, a band playing country music , bars, cafes, touristy stuff and a brawl by some drunk people, so we headed back to the go-karts. Personally I thought they looked far too fast for the boys but Daddy and Grandad Frank wanted to go on them too so they jumped into their seats and were off. Dan raced in front, Charlie and Grandad Frank clashed and Daddy just couldn’t quite pass Dan so after some 10 mins they came to the end of the race.

Us Grandparents weren’t wanting to eat a big meal now as it was almost 9pm so we decided to head off home for a light snack

 

while the “youngsters” went off for Mcdonalds burgers and a bit of outlet shopping. Tomorrow was grandads golf day and Nannies day off ???

   

Frank having a snooze 

Off to Universal Island of Adventure today, hoping that the ride queues aren’t too long as we don’t have fast passes for Universal parks. We did look at buying them but it was 65$ each so we decided to risk it and see how it went.

First ride was the Hulk 30 minute wait-  great big green rollercoaster that shoots you out of a tube into a double twist and then proceeds to shake your body until you don’t recognise anything – mmmm think I will have a quiet coffee with Mary (Adi’s Mum) while the rest of them go!

Now something a bit quieter, Spider-Man virtual ride – suits me much better and everyone enjoyed it. Next up,  time to get wet- as Bob and I don’t have ponchos, the boys donated theirs to us as they had quick dry T-shirt’s and shorts on. WHAT a waste of time, the first corner threw about a bath full of water into our circular boat and drenched me to my pants ! Haha fun ride but once you are wet it’s too late to worry … so best do the other wet ride now before we dry off.

decided to leave the park for lunch as it was just burgers, hot dogs or pizza at nearly 20$ each. Found a lovely grill restaurant in City Walk, lovely food just had to wait almost an hour as it was cooked to order.

Back into the park for Kong – much improved on the old King ride and more exciting.

Adi, lucy the boys and Frank wanted to get wet again as they saw the Jurassic log ride so bob mary and I watched and photographed them.

At last the queues for Harry Potter have died down and we are at 30 minutes. So off we all went, they really know how to entertain here. Right from the start, you wander through the “greenhouse”, the sets are amazing, the virtual people very real looking and lots to explore and look at as you wait in the queue makes the time pass. The ride was in a carriage and we flew all around Hogwarts and joined in a quidditch game, swooping and turning, chased by dementors, over hills and through the Hogwarts castle. The kids wanted to go in the Buckbeak train ride but Bob, Mary and I went to explore the hog warts village with it’s lovely snow covered roofs and brightly lit windows. When lucy, Adi and the boys joined us they bought the boys wands which, when pointed and moved in front of some windows, made magic. Great fun for all the children – expensive for all the parents. lol.  Looking forward to the Hogwarts train ride on next visit as the park was closing now at 8pm but by the time we got out, walked to the car park and drove home it was late.

 

Another amazing day, it started with Lucy missing the table with a whole bowl of cereals in it – so clean up done and we were off to Epcot.

We couldn’t get fast passes for the Testtrack ride so our first stop was to join a queue at just after 10am and snake our way to the final ride at 11.30. Excited, we climbed in and we were off ……. 2 minutes into the ride it stopped in the dark as inclement weather (peeing it down) was causing the track to be unsafe …. We waited and waited in our car and about 15 minutes later we set off but the thrill of the ride had been dampened. Complaining about waiting so long to be disappointed we were given free return fast passes for later.

Next was the future world slow ride looking at the changes since the turn of the century – very educational.  Soarin was the next ride with a fast pass – we love this as we passed the 60 + minute wait queue in 3 minutes and we were on the ride – the boys were amazed as we flew into a 360 degree screen on our “hangliders” climbing over mountains and along rivers around the world – well worth a wait. A stop for a bite to eat now and on to Nemo ride and the aquarium.

Adi had fast passes with the boys to Mission Space so the rest of us started the walk round the countries of the world. We hadn’t got far before they caught us up, excited about their ride and wanting us all to go and be spun around too – haha NO WAY!

We continued around the world, visiting Canada, the U.K., Norway – see pic Brit – Japan, China, France etc. stopping for ice cream half way round and watching the crew move the equipment onto the lake for the fireworks later in the evening.

On our way out Adi, Lucy and the boys decided to have one more ride on the Orbiter, a sort of space crafts on arms that went round – they weren’t impressed.

Everyone was hungry by now so we went for a drive to International drive and stopped at Denny’s – we remembered that we liked this restaurant chain from 25 years ago – but we were so wrong, the food was microwaved, tasteless and extremely oily – not going there again!

Finally home to the villa and the boys had to just have 10 minutes in the pool before bed. Funny how they suddenly seem to get lots of energy the moment we say bedtime ? Haha

 

 

After settling into the villa yesterday evening and the boys first dip in the pool we had a reasonably early night ready for today’s adventures. The day started well with breakfast at 7am with 2 very tired boys after a long long day yesterday. After a short 15 min drive we arrived at the carpark of Disneys Magic Kingdom and the boys were getting excited, but it took another 30 mins of walking through the carpark, ticket collecting, bag searches and a monorail ride to get into the park. As is the way, we found out that as Frank has a wonky knee his hired mobility scooter allows us access to disabled parking – after we had parked in the normal place and walked half a mile ! Note to self – tomorrow park in disabled space !! Our first fast pass was for Thunder Mountain, a fast runaway train ride round a mountain which allowed us to jump the queue and instead of the 65 minute wait, we were straight on within a couple of minutes – everyone  loved this ride. We went from ride to ride,  Space Mountain (roller coaster in the dark), Speedway, Peter Pan, It’s a small World, Peoplemover and after lunch we had a couple of shows with Monsters inc comedy and Carousel of progress,  then a great ride shooting targets from a moving spaceship in Buzz Lightyears Space ranger Spin where Bob won with a huge 202,000+ points compared to around 20,000 for the girls ! Adi, Lucy and the boys finished the day off with a ride on Astro Orbiter while the “grandparents” rested! Today the park closed at 7pm for a ticketed Halloween party so we left and tried to find somewhere near home for dinner – failing to find anything NOT burger ish unless there was a 40+ minute wait, we picked up chicken, pizza and salad from the supermarket and headed home for dinner.

Epcot tomorrow …… Night x