Philrad71

^ Ahhhh...I see. I must have walked right by the area and didn't even give the building a second thought. Most likely, I was either tripping over my tongue while in a trance looking straight ahead at Montu, or said "Ooooh look - the Crown Colony has a pub in it!"

^ Thank you, Piers! I was saying to my Dad, "I love the decor, but how does this all tie in with the great movie ride? I knew there had to be a reason. And now I know...the rest of the story!

^ Is that the simulator that is Pirates 4-D that used to be R.L Stein's Haunted Lighthouse that used to be the Dolphin Theater back in the day? While Leslie Nielson might have rocked in 'Airplane', by the time I experienced Pirates 4-D I was just about sick of attractions with 3-D glasses and getting wet with mist and water spray. Bring on Soarin' over Africa hosted by David Puddy!

Day Three: Disney's Hollywood Studios Dad and I broke apart from the gang today and went to check out Hollywood Studios. The rest of the family wanted two days at Disney for the little one's and both of us wanted to check this park out being that we had never visited. For anyone wondering about how this place stacks up to Universal? Ummm...how about knee heighth? All kidding aside, it really wasn't that bad. I really shouldn't be harsh sounding towards the park as it does have one of the best drop rides I have ever ridden in Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror. This ride just blew away our expectations - just awesome! I will say though...that out of all the Disney parks we visited, this one seemed to have the least cheerful employees. Perhaps we hit it on a bad day, but they just didn't seem to be nearly as friendly and into their jobs as the one's at Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom & Epcot...and it was noticeable. Perhaps it was all of the raucous tour groups that made them so crabby? Just a little tongue in cheek humor there, people...please don't get offended! I will leave you with a shot of the Christmas tree as we depart the Planet of Studio Hollywood. Thanks for reading! Props to Liberace. I didn't understand the Japanese motif for the Great Movie Ride. Was this once a different attraction or something? In riding it, I would have thought it was one of the original attractions when the park was built - quite dated. And who wouldn't love to see them some squirtin' Miss Piggy? Muppets 3D! I thought that this was the 2nd best attraction. But before you scowl, know that we did not get on Toy Story - they sold out the FastPass and we did not want to wait an hour for it. I might not have known the name of the big robot thingie, but I do know this is CP-D2! Star Tours is in dire need of an upgrade. I found myself humming 'Major Tom - Coming Home' after going on this... Hey, there's one of those big robot thingies from Star Wars! I knew this just didn't seem right! I think I stayed at the Hotel Amsterdam when I visited NYC last year... They have the Castro at Hollywood Studios? Hooray, let's go! Set of 'Streets of San Francisco' starring Karl Malden. Okay, I might be stretching this a bit. RIP Karl... Herbie's last trip to the ghetto was not kind to him... Or the Yellow Submarine from the Beatles movie? At least I hope it was...our tour guide didn't mention it. And who could pass up a chance to photograph random space-like ATV's and the Acme truck from Road Runner? Big splooge of water topples over our heads, but the amount of wetness was minimal. Pretty cool set - no pun intended. Ahhhh...no water! It's only fifty! FIFTY, I SAY!! Truck catches on fire. Who knew? Hmmm...a canyon complete with a fuel tanker and a water tower. Wonder what will happen? "Take. These broken wings. And learn to fly again - learn to live and love so free..." Ball'o'Bones. Not sure what movie this is from. Then it was on to the tram tour - here is a war plane that may have also been used in 'Pearl Harbor.' They showed us how they made the "ship's going down" scene. They explained the effects used in the movie, 'Pearl Harbor' minus the part that apparently sprays the audience - it was still only about 50 degrees that day. Next up was the studio backlot tour... I loved the Fantasia theme with the dancing brooms! Eat your heart out FSMP! Taken from the Aerocoaster queue. We got the FastPass for the Tower then raced over to the Aerocoaster to get that one as well. Didn't know that you had to wait a certain period between getting the passes. We decided to stick it out and wait the half hour for AeroCoaster. This coaster we both thought was kinda "mehhhh." Not terrible, but nothing special. Kinda like the same way I feel about Aerosmith, so it all made sense in the end. Has anyone seen this shot before? No? Okay, good! Mickey's Hat - Yay! High School Musical 3 - Aaaaarrrghhhh nooooo! Quick...duck to the right and head for the ToT Fastpass booths! Dream of Californication. This was our people mover when we split from the Magic Kingdom transportation center. I wanted to ride the monorail, but that service only went from the lot to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Though you can't knock a quality ride on a Gillig bus with a Cummins engine in it! This is one of my customers that I deal with and when I toured the factory in Hayward, California a few years ago they were actually making Disney transit buses just like this! Welcome to Hollywood folks!

This definitely sounds like Soarin' but with a European flare...I think this will be a great addition to BGE's Ireland! I thought Corkscrew Hill was okay, but it would have nothing on a simulator ride through Europe...especially over Neuschwanstein Castle. I wondered what all those hang-gliders experienced when I saw them flying over the castle last October. Perhaps I will get to experience a similar trip without having to worry about plunging 2000 feet to my death!

Larry, Here is a picture of the Sandstorm at Busch Gardens I took last week. Turned out a little darker than I would have liked though... Phil

Day Two - Disney's Animal Kingdom Another cold, cold morning on Sunday. We opted to head to Disney's Animal Kingdom instead of Magic Kingdom being that this park closes earlier. We figured we could zip through the park before dark and be back at home base before it got really cold! First thing we noticed were all of the marathon runners (Hi Nay!) when we entered the parking lot - there were hundreds of them making their way around the resort area. Luckily the sun was out so at least it had warmed into the mid-forties so they could shed those garbage bags!! Before we entered the park, we watched them for a bit and cheered them all on as they passed in front of the entrance gate. Being our first visit (for any of us) to this park, we were all very impressed. I guess the only down-side that we hadn't considered was that because it was so cold a lot of the animals on the safari were "hibernating" in their caves waiting for the warmer weather to return! The tour guide was very gracious about it though as he commented on " this is where the white rhino's would normally be hanging out, but they're sleeping under the heat lamps" and "this is where lions roam...when it isn't snowing." But there were enough animals to keep us all ooohing and ahhhing throughout the tour - it certainly didn't disappoint. Expedition Everest was closed when we got there and I assumed it was because it was still very cold. After doing a couple of the animal attractions, we checked the ride wait sign and saw a thirty minute wait (loved those signs!) so we went and got our Fast Passes around noon. What a fun, original ride...we loved it! Dinosaur was another attraction that we enjoyed. Michael's younger grand-daughter (who is 8) wasn't too sure about this one at first, but was ecstatic after we rode claiming how she was soooo scared of the dark and thought the dinosaurs might have been real! It really is awesome to get the kids' perspectives after doing the rides and attractions! After watching the parade, it was just about time for the park to close. Dusk was settling in and the temps were dropping fast. While I wished it would have been a bit warmer so we could have done the Kali River Rapids and seen a few more animals, we all agreed that this is a great addition to the Disney chain! and finally...Crab Leggo, Lego Death Shark and some random fish that happens to be made out of Lego. Wish I could have come up with a less-lame caption for this one, folks...guess I better call it a day. I promise I'll try harder on my next update - thanks for reading! Lego-saurus Rex Ryan... They had Lego-agon... After dinner, we got to catch a sneak peek of another attraction coming to Orlando - Legoland! Is this Transformer giving us the finger? If you want to double the noise intensity, you can also request to eat in the ice cave. Is this where the Ice Bat was born? Similar to RainForest, every fifteen minutes or so, the lights would go out and there would be thunder/lightning in the ceiling and the dinosaurs would come to life and growl, scaring the living crap out of all the babies and little kids! So essentially, it was five minutes of effects followed by ten minutes of crying and screaming kids! Fun times! We rounded out the day at Downtown Disney at the T-Rex cafe. Basically, a Rain Forest Cafe with dinosaurs and better food. Roosting birds squawked at us and basically told us to get the heck out of their park so they could get some shut-eye! The first day in Florida we were all ogling over these until we found out there's like billions of them in Florida! Big colorful monkeys! The parade was very colorful and quite lengthy. It seemed much longer than the parade at the Magic Kingdom we would see later in the week. Minnie! At this point, we were reaching the end of the day so we grabbed some hot cocoa and coffee and settled in to watch the parade. I also read where they added this chimpanzee later when someone (Jane Goodall perhaps?) had noticed that they had not etched a chimp (only baboons/apes) into the tree. This is inside where you go to see "It's Tough to be a Bug." While the movie was a bit short, we all really enjoyed the special effects. Intricate baboon carvings in the faux wood. Let us check out the Tree of Life, shall we? And once you run out of track and go forwards/backwards for a bit, the Yeti makes his appearance, eats you and then poops you out at the bottom of the mountain - ride over. Aaaaawesome!!!! Train goes up and into the mouth of the mountain... Time to head for Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain! Dinosaur was a surprise hit with us! The kids and grand-kids flying high on TriceraTop Spin. This was identical to the one at Martin's Fantasy Island, but with some added theming to spice things up. Primeval Whir: standard spinning family mouse coasters - side by side. Our Fast Pass for Everest wasn't until 3:40-4:40 so we headed for DinoLand USA. Festival of the Lion King was a great family show...plus throw in the added bonus that it was warm inside!!! Of course, any Disney trip wouldn't be complete without the character pictures! I think we got just about all the character autographs and pictures for the Grandkids on this trip, but we couldn't let them have all of the fun! Everest in the distance....talk about scenery! I spy me an elephant! I recall reading afterwards that the cool looking African trees like the one in the back right are actually animal feeders! I had wondered on the tour if they were actually real because they looked like they had been there for hundreds of years! Meerkats!!! Err, I mean meerkat as I only saw the one! Termite mounds can only mean one thing... Can't remember this fella's name either so I'll stick with big-horned cow. Yay for hungry, hungry hippos! Can't remember the name of this animal, so I guess I will just call it a deer. Perhaps even a doe! We headed for Kilimanjaro Safari first in case we needed to get a Fast Pass. This was the line so we hopped right on! Yep...here we are! Animal Christmas tree! Nine of our eleven waiting for the tram to Animal Kingdom...BRRRRRRR!!!!!!

^ We wondered if they were the same tour groups following us from park to park! The last day we were at IOA, this woman in her forties tried to cut in front of us when Michael put his arm across and said to her, "Just what do you think you are doing?" She pointed to a group of her friends that were about ten people in front of us (so I knew she understood English) and I said to her, "Are you aware that park rules state that you are not allowed to cut in front of others in line? Why don't you have them come back to where you are in line?" She never said a word, but she was texting her friends and they were giving us dirty looks every time we passed them in the queue! You hate to be mean to these people, but it was so ridiculous that it happened on just about every major ride line we were in...we just got a little fed up and annoyed. We did speak to several ride op's about it and I have been very tempted to write letters to guest relations at all these parks to see if they can monitor this problem a little better and enforce the park rules. It isn't fair to the other families that are paying steep admission prices and following the rules, only to let these large groups break the rules and get away with it repeatedly.

You must have been there the same day we were! Seriously, there were Brazilian tour groups at EVERY theme park we visited in Florida. Apparently, no one explained to them the rules on line jumping. At one point, we had about thirteen kids pass right by us while we waited in line for Kraken. Finally, it got to the point where we were just simply not letting anyone cut in front of us for the rest of the park visits. While I can understand that there may be an issue with language barriers, the tour group leaders should point out that cutting in line is not allowed in the parks. I know this would never happen on a TPR trip to a foreign country, but then again being enthusiasts might be a bit different than someone who may have never been to a theme park before. I do know that we witnessed more line jumping (both young & old) at the Florida theme parks during my two week visit than I have witnessed in all of my other amusement park visits combined. It really did get a bit ridiculous...

Thank you, Nay! Yes, Orange Lake is huuuuge! We were all the way at the back of the resort on the Arnold Palmer Legends Golf Course so it seemed like it was about a five mile drive to get there!! We have talked about possibly going back for an extended weekend in the summer just to take advantage of all the amenities. We originally wanted to break up the theme park visits to give ourselves a rest and have just a pool day for the kids during the mid-week. But because the weather was so cold, we ended up doing five consecutive days of theme parks and then the pools on the last day when it actually got up into the 70's!

^Because we we were all so disappointed about missing IllumiGaytions that night, we upgraded our ticket for another three bucks and went to see it on Thursday night after Sea World! Unfortunately, my night-time shots turned out pretty sucky so I won't have too many photos to share, but there will be some!

Hi folks and Happy 2010! During the last two weeks, I was fortunate enough to be able to embark on an epic Central Floridian adventure and hit up just about every theme park in the area. We had swapped out this years Cape Cod time share to stay at the Orange Lake resort for one week. The resort is only a stone's throw away from the Disney resorts and is extremely large with plenty to do for everyone. I seem to recall someone who had started a topic wanting information on resorts near Disney and mentioned his parents being members of RCI. If you're reading this, you will not be disappointed if you choose to stay at Orange Lake!! I will say the weather was not what we were expecting with frost just about every night through the first week and actual snow reportings in some areas. But being from Western New York, we had already come prepared with winter jackets, gloves and sweatshirts - we were more than ready! We met Michael's son, daughter, in-laws, and four grand-kids at the airport and then checked into the resort. I had already purchased tickets to Sea World/Busch Gardens online, but we all opted to buy the four day Disney passes at the resort. I think it saved us a whopping $3 from the regular gate admissions, but at least it was somewhat of a savings. Dad also drove the motor home down and stayed at a campground on I-27, which was about a fifteen minute drive from the resort. Each morning, I would go pick him up in the mini-van rental so he could join all of us at the parks. Michael and I stayed the 2nd week with him so we could golf and do more theme parks. I'll kick this off this adventure with Epcot as we decided this would be the better of the parks to visit on a cold day. Plus, I knew that in order to get on Test Track we needed to hit this park first! By then, we had all had enough of Epcot and did not see IllumiGaytions on this visit. Contrary to my wishes of drinking my way around the world (I actually only had one beer), I was not feeling well, the kids were beyond tired and the temps had dropped into the twenties. Keep posted to see if we make it back for adult beverages and fireworks later in the week! Quick...everyone to Norway! They have an indoor ride and we can get out of the cold! What? It's a water ride? Awwww crap! Guten abend...zwei Spaten Oktoberfest, bitte? ...Limoncello in Italia? Peroni or... ...and with the help of Sam Adams, I'll get through ALL of these lands! ...and Morocco and Japan... I twirled my way through gay Paris... And jolly old England with it's Bass Ale...now, how could I possibly fail? I believe I may now stay, so bring on IllumiGaytions, I say! Oh Canada...glorious and free...can you spare a Molson or Labatts for lil' ole me? Wha...a Moosehead draft? Why, that would work just fine! Have I mentioned just how much I really love you, Canada? A Christmas tree! Yep, that's just great for January 9th...now where is the beer from around the world again? Dusk settling in and by now it is getting REALLY cold! Oh, how I wished I was in that nice warm monorail. Did I mention I also had a cold to go along with this freezing weather? Either I had to get some alcohol or meds in my system or I was going to go into complete meltdown stage like the Brazilian four year old did on the Living with the Land ride. Journey into Imagination w/Figgy. This attraction either seemed really lame, or I was thinking too hard about beers around the world showcase! Food Court. Yeah, I know it's boring, but it was the closest I could get to a picture of Soarin', which turned out to be one of the surprise hits of the trip and our favorite attraction at Epcot. Yay for David "you stole my Jesus fish" Puddy being the pre-ride host! And how 'bout smellin' them oranges, eh?? If you've never seen a manatee in captivity before...you'll need to close this browser and head over to Google Images now. Here you can see the awesome action shots I got of the fishes. I told them to quit moving, but they would not listen. The Living Seas. Ooops...I meant The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Next stop was Ellen and the Universe of Energy. I liked how they updated it to include her and the other actors/actresses into the Jeopardy game. Speaking of Jeopardy, my friend from work just won over $100,000 on that show...way to rock, Jason! Next up, we had to do the brain tumor, heart and aneurysm test. Seriously, I was probably more afraid to go on this than any of the other coasters we rode during this trip. There is always that "what-if" factor after those poor people died and I wasn't sure what to expect. We all enjoyed it, but agreed that once was definitely enough. This area soon to possibly feature acceleration and throttle testing brought to you by Toyota! Next stop - (formerly) GM's Test Track and soon to be Toyota...no wait, Honda? Either way, it was a very cool ride. And by cool, I mean getting pelted with stinging rain in the face at 65 MPH cool! Seriously, we all enjoyed it and were very glad we got to ride it before they closed it on Monday. Michael actually liked it! But he's Mikey, he likes everything! Haha! My first gulp! I really didn't think it tasted that bad, but then the after-taste hit me. What is up with that after-taste? Good God, man! Uh-oh...I have read about the infamous Beverly! Michael's grand-kids had heard about Club Cool and the weird soda's from around the world, so we hit that first. Also, we were already freezing and just wanted to be indoors! Let us pray to the silver golf ball that it warms up real soon! Marching into Epcot Center. Yeah, I still have the tendency to call it that after all these years! Heck, why not throw in a little bit of rain and drizzle with the 40 degree temps? Why, I feel right at home - this is like Western New York in April! Now I expect this in WNY, but in Florida?? WTF? Which overlooked a beautiful (and frosty) golf course. This would be our home for the week - one of the many towers at the Orange Lake resort. Spicy barbeque chicken wings!!! If I visit either Anchor Bar in the future, I am going to have to order these...they were awesome! Let's start this vacation off right with a couple of pints of beer and... Being that we got to the airport early in case of bad weather, we decided to hit up their version of the Anchor Bar, which is fairly new. And these were the low temps when we got to Florida....issshhhh! This is what we left in Western NY...

I sooo miss Germany...thanks for the pictures! While we did miss the surfers, we were able to get to the English Gardens and have a mas of beer and currywurst. Also sad we couldn't have visited the other castle at Neuschwanstein, but we took a guided bus tour. We did manage to get to King Ludwig's summer home (Linderhof), which was amazing!

Thanks for the report...I'll either be there on the 17th or 18th. PLEASE don't jinx me on this! I was there on what must have been the last time it was painted in 2006 because I never got to ride it and was extremely bummed. I'm all for good paint jobs, but hopefully they'll wait till after the 18th!!!

I have my fingers crossed that it won't close early as I will tentatively be there on the 10th. I have been looking mucho forward to this one!!

I think that the Colts will still be formidible, although they certainly need to open up the running game a bit more so they are not coming across as too one dimensional. Manning will still do his normal damage through the air, but playing a strong defense with a good secondary could cause this team problems. Even though they were resting a lot of starters yesterday, it seemed like they were not overly committed to the run despite the Bills last ranked run defense and horrible weather. Once the Colts went down by a few scores, it seemed like they pretty much abandoned the run. Believe me, I watched every Bills game this year and we would make rookie running backs look like the 2nd coming of Walter Payton! Speaking of the Bills, our new GM just fired ALL of their coaches today after yet another horrendous season - too bad it was about two seasons too late!

I have plowed my driveway twice today! If anyone saw the Colts/Bills game this afternoon, multiply the amount of snow at Ralph Wilson Stadium by two and that's what we got here South of Buffalo. I'd say approximately two feet since last night and it's still snowing now. But...I'm cool with it as long as it stops before I leave for vacation in Florida on Friday!

Cinema 180=awesome! I remember the one they had at Darien Lake years ago and people were running out of there puking...classic stuff! Great report!

^ & ^^ Or these people might be bisexual? I have had gay guys tell me that there are no real bisexuals but I do not believe that to be true. I know that there are a LOT of guys out there that may be married as straight, but also like to be with guys from time to time - I have seen tons of these types of ads on personal sites in years past. In fact, there are probably more of these ads out there than openly gay male ads. My favorites are the one's that say they are only "bi below the belt!" Believe me, if a guy who is married or is (supposedly) straight and has fantasies about being with a guy, he is going to eventually find a way to make it happen - religious or not. It's just too easy these days with the internet!

It definitely was an exciting finale, but I was kinda hoping for Philly to win it. Great atmosphere at Fenway though...I'm glad that everything worked out okay and it was another huge success for the NHL! Also glad that my Sabres were yet again able to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 last night...don't want Boston closing that gap for 1st place in the Northeast! Their putrid first period efforts in recent games is definitely starting to become a concern, but at least we have Miller back there saving our butts just about every game!

When are you going? We are going to Florida from January 8th-22nd and will be staying the 1st week at the Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee, which I believe is for both rentals and RCI members. We have swapped out our normal RCI time share to stay here, so I will be able to tell you more about it when I return. The website shows the resort is packed with plenty of things to do (four golf courses, a water park w/lazy river, Putt-Putt, spas, etc) so we are going to take one non-park day and just spend it at the resort enjoying the amenities (weather pending, of course). Look for a full trip report/review when I return at the end of January!

^^ You could always come coach for the Buffalo Bills? Heck, you could come up this weekend and take your pick of a starting job at: * QB * Tight end * Offensive line (pick a spot) * Defensive end * Linebacker (OLB or ILB) And if you wait till the 2nd half of the game, you might even be able to play in the secondary, special teams, wide receiver or running back...we usually only go three series (and five false starts) before someone gets hurt!

^ Really...things could be a LOT worse...say being a Buffalo Bills fan for instance and not even making the playoffs for ten freaking years? Heck, I would take 9-6 anyday, let alone 14-1!!!! Make that 15-1...the Colts play the Bills next Sunday. If the Colts played Archie Manning at QB and had a 3rd string linebacker playing running back, they would still pass for over 300 yards and run for over 150 against my hapless Bills!

Viper at Darien Lake...had my eyes closed the entire time!

1. What are your initial thoughts? I think it is a good idea and I am all for it! 2. Can you think of anything else we could be offering? I think someone else mentioned a bag-o-crap? 3. Is this something that interests you? Yes 4. Why would you NOT be interested in this? N/A 5. Any additional feedback you can give us based on the information you see here. * I had thought about joining ACE before I found this site, but since I enjoy reading the trip reports and people's posts, I have not really thought about ACE since. Plus, I really enjoy posting my own trip reports and reading people's comments they leave. I don't believe ACE has anything like this, do they? * If it keeps the pop-up and banner ad's off the site, I am definitely all in! * You guys do a great job of managing the website...keep up the great work!