Day 5: Islands of Adventure…and relax.

Posted on by Y2Neil

As part of our holiday package, we were given two early access to Harry Potter World at the Islands of Adventure. Annoyingly they are only valid for the first seven days of your holiday so we thought we better use one of them! It’s Mothers Day here in the US so we hoped the parks wouldn’t be as busy as they were yesterday – we were wrong. It was just as busy as it was yesterday by the afternoon – but the morning. Empty.

Being in the park an hour before opening meant we could get on practically everything within ten minutes. First it was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, this is the ride where you get to queue through Hogwarts and it’s mightily impressive. As there was no line we didn’t really get to experience how fun the queue could be – there were talking and moving paintings, the sorting hat, the goblet of fire, everything Potter. With wait times reaching over two hours in busy periods, at least you have something to keep you entertained.

We then trotted off to the former dueling dragons ride, now re-branded as the Dragon Challenge. Again straight on but after another really long walk through the queue area. After this fun rollercoaster we waited in line at Ollivanders where only thirty people at a time go inside the wand shop and an actor picks a child and puts on a little magic show. It could have been more fun for everyone but it was an entertaining little show and afterwards you get to find the wand for you. Debora is now the proud owner of a birch wand with a unicorn hair core.

Then it was butterbeer time! Debora loved it.

Mmm, frothy.

Mmm, frothy.

With the rest of the park now officially open, we made our way to the Marvel Super Hero Island where we rode the Spider-Man ride and gawked at all the amazing merch and statues. As a Spider-Fan, I think this is the best ride, but as far as the 3D simulators go, the Harry Potter one probably has it beat. As well as the simulation and 3D video screen journey, it includes anamatronics and the such, it had me yelping on more than one occasion – no wonder it’s such a popular ride.

We then foolishly decided to go on the Popeye River Rapids, it had just opened it’s doors so we were straight onto the ride, on our own. It hasn’t been so hot today and a storm is surely brewing, two things we didn’t take into consideration on these rapids that stated “You Will Get Wet” as opposed to the other water rides at Disney where it said “You May Get Wet”. The sign wasn’t accurate. We didn’t get wet. We got soaked.

DSC07263

We tried to dry off, our clothes drenched through but then went on Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls, a log flume with an 75-foot drop. Any drying off we had done was wasted as once more, we were drenched. When in Rome and all that, we then went on another water ride – Jurassic Park’s River Adventure. This was a gentle ride until the 84 foot drop where – you guessed it – we got drenched. The drop wasn’t bad, it was after when gallons of water are shot at you. We would spend the rest of the day squelching.

We wandered around some more shops and I managed to get my photo with Cyclops – I’ll have to go back to get the rest – before we went on the Hulk rollercoaster. This shoots you forward straight out of the station and into twists and turns, awesome fun with great views of the park. Not only did Debora pose for the photograph on this ride – with her eyes open! She also conquered the Hulk.

It was then nearing midday and we’d done all the major rides. We headed back towards Jurassic Park where we ate our first garden burger and fries – it was a good lunch in a country where if you’re a vegetarian who doesn’t want cheese pizza, you go hungry. It was then a trip back through The Wizarding World of Harry Potter which was rammed now. We stopped in the sweet shop and picked up some fudge and then decided to pop over to Universal Studios. This would have been easier if Diagon Alley was open!

The Despicable Me queue was still huge – we’re going to have to go back first thing or in the evening for this one it seems, but we saw the Terminator Experience and saved E.T.’s home planet. It was only around 2pm and we were shattered so decided to head back to the hotel. We got out of the wet clothes and recharged our batteries before heading next door to Pizza Hut for dinner. Finally, an early night can be had and just in time too, for tomorrow we’re up early again to catch a coach to the Kennedy Space Center.

Yesterday, I was wearing my Wayne Stock t-shirt which got two comments from strangers. Today, I wore my Harry Potter shirt, which I got sent in the TeeFury lucky dip, this had four comments on how awesome it was. I win at t-shirts. Talking of which, I’ve seen some awesome ones I must own before we leave! We’re making a list of all the things we want to buy – one of those things that is on the list but sadly only a pipe dream are the replica statues of the Avengers. I was posing for photos with them all morning only for Debora to point out the sign that they were actually for sale! We asked the sales guy how much they went for…$6-7k each. If only…

Day 4: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Posted on by Y2Neil

Having booked transport tickets to the Magic Kingdom for an 8am pickup, we were up early again and left the hotel without breakfast. It was only halfway to Disney’s main park that we realised we had also left without our reservation information! Fortunately, thanks to months of entering the Virgin reference into the website and having my passport to hand, the staff were able to find us in the system so we didn’t have to turn around.

This was our first weekend day. Wow! The park was absolutely jam packed. After a “quick” pop-in to a bakery (which was cunningly disguised as a Starbucks) for breakfast we headed to Adventureland where we were greeted with tribal design and an Aladdin theme, including a giant camel. As we neared the camel, I heard some water splashing, I then saw a puddle on the ground. Just as I put two and two together, the camel spat water, all over Debora. I couldn’t stop laughing.

It was then onto the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, a tame water ride that’s been updated to feature Barbosa and Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. Then the fifteen minute queue for Splash Mountain turned into thirty, the fifty foot plunge weighing on Debora’s mind, but it wasn’t as scary as she thought. Fun little ride that one.

But the heat of the sun was proving too much and Debora had burnt her head! She needed a hat, pronto! To the circus tent where we picked up a floppy Minne Mouse sun hat for her and a nice iced drink.

As we wandered around the park – getting our picture taken at any opportunity – we realised that the Magic Kingdom was really geared towards the young park attendee. Again, it was hot and not a lot of shade to take cover in. We went on the Stich ride – really don’t understand what that was about. After two video chats it’s into a circular room where an anamatronic Stich (of Lilo and Stich) is shown messing around. It then plunges into darkness and the ride jolts as Stich “runs” around you before letting out an awful stench. This proved too much for some of the little ones who had to leave early.

But not all little ones were upset – as after Stich we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. This is an odd but strangely excellent live stand up comedy routine where the digital Mike Wakowski and friends interact with the audience. I assume there are actually actors in mo-cap suits behind the screens. They tell jokes and the story of Monsters Inc. and keep cutting to live shots of the crowd for ample laughter opportunites. Thankfully, when they described Sully as a hairy beast, they cut to someone else in the crowd with a massive beard. The star of the show was the tiny girl who they cut to for Boo, who kept playing peek-a-boo to audience and actor delight.

The park was so busy and our pick up not until 6. So we headed over to Epcot, thinking that people wouldn’t spend their time learning. We were wrong. Another 20 minute wait for the Spaceship Earth and a trek in the wrong direction in the heat saw us turn back and hang about in the air conditioned Coca-Cola shop. I tried a Japanese Cola, it was like flat Fanta.

The queue for Soarin’ was over an hour so we went on the Underwater Adventure with Nemo. Another ride I didn’t see the point of. You’re in a clam that moves along a track watching the abridged version of Finding Nemo. The scene in the current was alright, but the best part were the seagulls at the ride entrance who moved and declared “mine”!

DSC07180

Mission to Mars was next, we went on the timid Green version as the queue time was a tenth of the more intense Orange line. Don’t go on this if you’re claustrophobic or get sick in simulators. Otherwise, fun. Then one more trip to a shop where we bought Debora some Mickey Mouse shoes.

Another long queue – this time for the bus back to the hotel which wasn’t as air conditioned as it could have been. We had settled on an early night so went for a little walk down to Sweet Tomatos – the only place we can find that isn’t a steakhouse and offers vegetarian dishes!! On the way back we stopped at Walgreens for some supplies, a 24 pack of water so we don’t have to drink this awful rubber-water any more. By the time we got back, it was 21:20. So much for our early night.

 

 

Day 3: Universal & NXT

Posted on by Y2Neil

I’m writing this on the morning of Day 4, we’re both shattered so this will be brief until I can complete it later.

We started the day by grabbing a pancake at the Ihop. Debora had some banana brioche and I had the New York Strawberry Cheesecake pancakes. Very tasty stuff. Breakfast have been the most expensive meals we’ve had so far though!

We decided to go see Universal Studios in the daylight this time. Again, it’s boiling hot, highs of 33 today, but thankfully the rides are mostly inside. Despicable Me had a long wait time so we decided to leave it until later, the line was still long later so we will go back to it next time we’re there. We are going back as we both saw some merch we liked.

The first ride we went on was Transformers. This happened to be the best of the day. In the world of motion simulators with 3D effects, this was by far the one that outshone the others – I hope Spidey can live up to it! We then went to Twister – very dated but still enjoyable. On the Disaster movie ride I was selected to be part of the volunteers who got filmed and spliced into a movie later. Much fun.

Men In Black was next, another rather dated ride but fun nonetheless. Then we were finally in Springfield. The time wasn’t on our side but the line for The Simpsons was short so we stopped there but will have to visit all the themed shops again later, like Moe’s, the Kwick-E-Mart and Krusty Burger. The Simpsons ride replaced the Back to the Future ride but it’s using exactly the same premise/machine and I didn’t think it did it as welll.

We saw some of Diagon Alley behind fences, it looks great and its a shame it’s not open! As the day drew to a close we went on Shrek 4D – yet another 3D in a dbox chair movie. Again, it’s probably had its day in the sun.

Then it was a quick trip to the hotel where we hopped in our cab and off to the middle of nowhere for NXT. Despite the tickets saying we could pick up at 5.30 they didn’t open the doors until 6.30. There was then no water other than a fountain and this really was like wrestling in a bingo hall.

Our taxi driver assured us we had to pay him in full, for both the outbound and return journey. I asked him how we knew he’d come back since he’d now been paid for both trips, but he promised he’d be back.

What added to the disappointment was the fact there was only two rows of chairs. When booking the tickets online it sounded so tempting to be sat front row in the “golden circle”, in reality, you could still be sitting in the second row, have exactly the same view, you just had a seat. There were more seats in rows around the entrance and on the opposite side of the ring but still.

The arena got quite packed, standing room only in fact and even that was probably over capacity. We were treated to a meet and greet before the show, but I didn’t recognise many people, hopefully they’ll be stars one day. I’m sure the Big Bambino will be, he has the look and the gimmick to succeed. The two people I did recognise were divas – Bailey and none other than the Divas Champion Paige. What a treat. We spoke to her and she said she thought we had to be British, we were so pale!

Aiden English was at the show – but he didn’t sing and was in tag action against The Ascension. What should have been a squash match was actually really long and English got some great offence on the go. The highlight however had to be Adam Rose! He came out, said his catchphrase, threw out some t-shirts and then left again, but still, fun!

About half way through the show some fans, dressed as bunnies entered. Everyone had a good laugh at them until they started misbehaving and were eventually thrown out – not sure what for. Adam Rose would then tweet that he hates it when bunnies turn bad.

After the show we waited outside for our ride back. We waited and waited…Eventually even the wrestlers were leaving – after being accosted by the groupies which we were now looking like we were! I tried calling but my phone wouldn’t work so we had to go to the general public. On our third attempt, we found someone willing to help us out and call a cab, but Siri appeared to be misbehaving and finding nothing but Mexican firms. Just as she found a local one, our driver turned up. Half an hour late. Thank you to the mystery helper, but damnit, had this been a bad night.

DSC07083 DSC07003

Day 2: Sea World and Universal

Posted on by Y2Neil

The day started off with Debora getting a bruise on the I-Trolly. Actually, the day started with us walking to try and find the Enclave Suites where our rep was waiting for us. She was called Lisa and sorted out our monetary issue with the hotel and said we won’t be charged anything extra. We then booked some Disney travel tickets, our trip to Kennedy Space Center and the I-Ride tickets. We topped this off with a breakfast of hash browns, beans and toast. I got to use my tip calculator and Debora impressed by drinking her entire apple juice!

It was then Debora got her bruise. After a long wait we finally got on the trolley which took forever to get down to Sea World.

We went straight to the Shamu show where we entered the “Soak Zone” as it was so damn hot. The show was great fun and boy, did we get soaked! There were lots of school groups around and they loved getting wet…the first time, and then the soak zone strangley cleared out.

Jumping for the crowd

Shamu Rocks!

We saw Manatees, Penguins, Flamingos and a whole host of other animals. We tried to ride ‘Journey to Atlantis’ but it broke down whilst we were queuing so we took that as an omen. We went on the Kraken which was awesome and queued in the blistering heat for the Antartic experience. It was so cold in there, it was a welcomed relief, although the ride was a trifle disappointing.

Tired and our feet aching, we decided to leave but had to run for the I-Ride. We got off a few stops from the hotel and had a pizza buffet at Cici’s Pizza. I won’t reccomened it. No margarita pizza’s and a poor vegetarian selection – one of which was cheese and pasta!?

But the dessert pizza’s were devine! There was a cinnamon apple pizza, cinnabuns and gooey brownies. We ate more pud than main. We walked back to the hotel, avoiding some lizards which freaked Debora out a little for fear she might tread on them! We took our bottomless cups from Cici’s as the water here in Orlando tastes a bit like rubber!

Then after relaxing for five minutes, we headed out to Universal Studios as it was the only night (according to their website) that the Cinematic Spectacular would be showing. I remembered how much I love Universal. We were a little confused about how to get there from the I-Trolley, which we actually couldn’t – but we made it, after another dash to a bus!

The show was great, projections onto a wall of water and some fireworks – really invoked that scene from Inglorious Basterds where the face was projected onto the smoke. The wall of water was mind-boggling. How the heck do they do that? Water dropped in patterns to create images – I’ll upload a video of it soon.

On our exit we saw ROCKY HORROR is playing tomorrow and Saturday night at the Universal Cineplex. Debora agreed we could go but in Rocky fashion, it’s a midnight showing and we really don’t think we can do that. Sorry, we’ll watch when we get home.

Debora is still without a suitable hat but neither of us appear to have caught the sun – but we shall see what happens in the morning!

More will follow, but for now, bed.

 

Day 1: Arrival

Posted on by Y2Neil

 

After what seems like an eternity, Debora and I are finally on our honeymoon. This is coming at you from the Orlando International Palms Resort Hotel – or the Hotel of Some Disappointment.

Our room is rather large – which is good. Two double(ish) beds and the god-send that is air-conditioning – albeit a really loud unit. It’s like a triple room though as there are doors on either side connecting to other rooms. There is also no main light, but three lamps. Leaving it rather dark – probably hiding something.

But what has hurt the most so far isn’t the eight and a half hour flight, but checking in and being told there is an extra $150 charge for using the hotel facilities. They have said that there was a “communication issue” with Virgin upon this but some of us travellers have gathered together and refused to pay it. We are due to meet the rep in the morning to complain about this and I for one will be expecting Virgin to cover this cost.

Thanks to our “amazing” coach driver Jonathan Gomez, sorry we couldn’t tip you, but we had no change.

It’s SO DAMNED HOT! Even when the sun is behind clouds or setting. Christ.

We’ve been up far too long so heading to bed now. We had a little trip down I-Drive – it hasn’t changed since I was 12. Tomorrow we hope to get to Sea World. More to follow.

DSC06637 DSC06635 DSC06634 DSC06632

Day 0: Preperation

Posted on by Y2Neil

The honeymoon officially begins tomorrow when we get on the plane. Today, it is about making sure we’ve got everything we need.

We have booked all our tickets and some added extras to treat ourselves. We have a checklist, we have the sun cream, we’re ready. At least I hope we are.

As we’re flying from London Gatwick, it’s always going to leave a fear that we might forget something, but as long as we have our tickets and the money, we should be OK.

Tomorrow is going to be an awfully long day. We have to be at Flitwick train station for 6am, getting into Gatwick at 8 for a flight at 11. Fortunately, we have access to the Virgin Atlantic V-Room which offers unlimited food and drink and fast track check in.

This is  the first of (hopefully) daily updates and pictures from our honeymoon to record our memories forever.

Bags packed

Ready to go!