jenseib

We are now on our way down Main street, but I have to take a few pictures first…..like you are surprised by that? LOL Skip said he wanted to stop at a smoking area before we headed to pirates, so behind the castle we went. Claire decided to map out our route while waiting. And I took a few pictures. As we left the area we saw that Philharmagic was letting people in and Skip said we should go in there….OK. Funny thing is, he had no idea what it was. I know Claire and I have done it in the past, but I am not sure if Skip ever had. I kept telling him he had, but the more I think about it I do remember the one year Claire and I did it he had gone back to the room because he was in so much pain, which after months of testing we found out he needed a new hop…which still isn’t right after 2 surgeries. Anyways, I “might” have been wrong……but we’ll keep that secret from Skip. This picture cracks me up. One picture inside and then I put the camera away. After we enjoyed Philharmagic, I went to get a Fast pass for Peter Pan. I had “thought” that when you got a Princess FP, you could still get a regular FP as well. Well I was wrong, or this rule has changed because it would not allow me to get one. Oh well, I would come back and get one when the time was right. We headed off to Small World next. I know many people really aren’t fans of this, but I will always love it. The line was long, but it moved fairly fast. Soon we were on our boat and off to the land of singing.

Day 4 ~ Thursday March 29 I no longer have notes to go by, so I am going to wing this by memory and pictures. (I wish I would’ve taken the time to finish up those notes!!!) I woke up fairly early again. Probably around 6:30 and got myself ready and out for a morning stroll. I came back to the room to find this. It’s hilarious how much of a bed hog that Claire is. I think Skip got up around 7:30 or so and he said his mission this morning was to get some inserts in his shoes to hopefully make them more comfortable. He went off for breakfast and I stayed in the room. I think I woke Claire up around 8:40ish. We had a slight change in our original plans. Skip had wanted to add a Magic Kingdom day after we booked the Universal trip. We decided this would be the day we would go, but we would head to Universal first and then after half of a day there, head over to MK…that was scratched. We were now making a full day at MK. Claire got up and I got her dressed while Skip ran off to a drug store to fix his shoe problem. When he got back, we were ready. He just needed to cut his inserts to fit his shoes. Being the prepared person I am…I had a scissors packed in our bags. You will be amazed at how many times this bugger has come in handy, and it’s a must on my packing list now. Claire was impressed with the pieces he cut off and carried them around. LOL! She held them in the car like they were gold. Off to Mk we went. I took a few pictures on my phone as we drove. As soon as we got there I knew it was going to be crazy busy. We were in one of the further out parking lots from the looks of it. We parked and headed to the tram. There was some confusion about where to line up (yes there were a ton of people waiting for the tram already and some missed the previous one). A CM directed people to go further down as where we were standing was not right and you “may miss the next tram”. Skip about flung me over to the right spot. LOL> He got a dirty look from me……. He was trying to prove he knew more than I did…..good for him. I must admit, when it comes to parking at MK, I am not super knowledgeable. It’s been years since I did it…and I really don’t like driving to the parks and the trams, etc. I prefer Disney buses/transportation much better. Well good thing Skip did direct me to the right spot because we made it on the next tram and MANY did not. There were people LOUDLY complaining about not making it on for the last 2 trams…when the CM once again announced that they were in the wrong spot. We arrived at TTC and it was a mad house. Ok, most were running to the Monorail, but we had to get tickets yet. Since this was an add on, we decided not to pre-buy tickets beforehand …just in case we changed our minds. Believe it or not, we weren’t the only ones who needed to buy tickets, which kind of surprised me. There were quite a few people in line. Skip and Claire got in line and I kind of walked around and found a kiosk. I didn’t even know these existed. Skip saw me looking at it and hollered back to me and asked what it was. I told him it was a kiosk to buy tickets (mind you, not one single person was using them either) and you had to use a credit card to be able to purchase here. He jumped right out of line and pulled out his card. It was pretty easy to use (though I’m not sure he would’ve been able to, LOL, he doesn’t even have an ATM card), and soon we had tickets in hand! We headed to the monorail and the line was extremely long. I don’t know if we even looked at the ferry line or not, but I told Skip we would take the resort monorail. He was so worried we would get in trouble for doing so. I told him anyone can take it. I did also tell him that it might not be a lot faster because it makes stops, but at least we weren’t waiting in a long line. We basically walked on the resort train. Soon we were off to the Poly. Skip was just amazed this was “legal” to do. He kept asking people if they knew this train went to the MK. It was actually kind of embarrassing. LOL! Our next stop was the Grand Floridian. Both stops were short and sweet. And we made it to the Magic Kingdom! YAY!!!!! As we walked off the monorail I heard a couple with a baby stroller talking about how crowded it was. They were amazed that so many people would take their kids out of school. I kept my mouth shut, but I know TONS of people, myself included, do this regularly. This year was not one of them however. Claire had spring break that week, along with several other schools in the nation. I guess because they only had a baby they weren’t familiar with spring break happening for a month or so prior to Easter. They must’ve not done much research. I guess I was going for artsy here…or I was lopsided. And the clock is wrong…..we arrived at 10 AM! It was PACKED! We could tell right away that this would be a busy day. Claire had to go to the bathroom immediately, so Skip said he would head off to the smoking section over by the Emporium. I told him it no longer existed…How would I know that he said. Well I have been here twice now in the last year and it was gone and fast pass machines are now there. He still didn’t believe me. I rushed Claire off to the bathroom and went looking for Skip again. I thought he might be over there since he didn’t believe me and he wasn’t. I did pick up princess FP’s though for later. I don’t remember where we found him, but we did. The plan was to head towards Pirates of the Caribbean, which is my favorite ride…but our plans never happen the way we plan them. Look at the ugly skrim thing going on….takes away from a beautiful view. Trying for the balloon shot that I never get quite the way I want.

Thanks so much for reading along. I wish I could post more and faster, but real life gets in the way sometimes. We just got done with a crazy busy weekend, so I hope to get back at this and get our last 2 days finished up.

The lawnmower tree grew up around, and basically consumed, an old push-type reel lawnmower that was leaned up against it. What remains of the mower can be seen near the base of the tree. Thanks for the latest installment of the TR. So it is a real lawnmwoer then. I wasn't sure if it was "Disneyfied" or not. LOL

Claire was very worried we would miss the show sitting at the beach area. We kept telling her we had plenty of time, but she still thought we should be next to the building…waiting. We finally decided it was time to head over that way. We went ahead of Skip and were going to use the bathroom before getting in line to check in. I took this on the way over….the lawnmower tree. I really don’t “get it”. But I have seen it in other TR’s before. I tried to get a shot of the carriage…not so great…but I tried. The line for check in was pretty long and Claire thought we should skip using the bathroom and get in it. I told her no, why wait in a long line when we could just go to the bathroom and come back out…and hopefully it would be shorter. When we did get back out to the line, Skip was in it and it was much shorter. We trades spots with him and he went off to the bathroom too. We got checked in and then waited some more. This was my last “where are we” picture I posted. We just kind of sat around and waited. Many people were lining up by the stairs, and Claire thought we would miss it. Again, we told her that we could see the doors and when they opened we would head that way. When the doors opened we walked slowly that way and easily got in. There were a few others like us who didn’t need to rush in and be first. We have seen this show 2 other times, so we knew we didn’t have to be the first in. Your table has already been assigned. We had a decent table on the first floor. In fact the 2nd floor wasn’t even used. We had food waiting on the table for us and we dug right in. Drink orders were taken. Beer is included with the price and I went for that this night. Soon the show started. The Pioneer Players come in from the rear. They are always so much fun and they do mingle in the crowd too. The guy in the plaid pants has been in every show we have seen. There is a lot of singing and dancing and corny jokes. One thing to note…the Hoop Dee Doo song is no longer sung. I believe it was the song they came in to, and it might’ve been sung when they left too. I don’t remember the exact details, but Brook told me about it last summer at AEP. It had to do with something about…the guy who wrote it died and his family wouldn’t negotiate the rights with Disney, so they had to stop singing it. I spotted a cast member by our table and I was ready. I knew she was scoping us out! Claire was very embarrassed. When they sang the song about where you are from, we were one of the people they sang about. The will ask what state you are from and then make up a little song about it. It’s kind of funny. We live in Ohio, and the funny thing is, the other states they sang about were Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, all our bordering states. I guess it was spring break in our area of the country. The players then take a break and the main course comes out. Claire always wonders what they are doing when they disappear, so we often tell her that they are eating back stage. LOL The meal consist of ribs, chicken, mashed potatoes, cowboy beans, (which I find to be absolutely disgusting), and corn. I think it years past it was corn on the cob, but now it’s corn in a bowl. The food is decent…not nothing to write home about, but still good. And in the 3 times we have now gone, the first time the food was fabulous, the 2nd time it was just OK, and this time it was in between those 2 rankings. I would say it’s very similar to the skillet at Whispering Canyon Café. It couldn’t have been too bad, because I ate soooo much, especially the mashed potatoes. I swear I over indulged to the point of feeling sick…and Skip even ate more… After we eat for a while, the players come back out again. Again we were a lucky family, but I can’t remember what for this time. This guy is just hilarious. Claire’s favorite character…”Claire”. They sing “Oh My Darling” and act it out. Until I saw this show for the first time, I had no clue really what the song is about. Of course I hear Huckleberry dog sing it, but who knew it was a tragic story about a girl dying…and then the guy ends up with her sister. LOL Towards the end of the show is dessert time and they do a song about strawberry short cake…because that is what we are about to eat! And here is the only picture I got of the strawberry shortcake. It is DARN good stuff, but I was so full that I could only eat a few bites. Claire and I ran to the bathroom then really quickly. We knew it was close to over, and she had to go, and in a few minutes time the bathroom would have a line. At the end they bring out washboards and we get to make noise. Always a highlight for the kids…and kids at heart. (notice the big kid behind the washboard playing too.) It was time for the players to leave. We had a great time as usual. We headed out (and sure enough there was a huge line at the bathroom), and got in line for a bus to take us back to the front. This time we weren’t so lucky. It was jammed packed and it was one that went around the campgrounds making several stops along the way. We had to stand till it emptied out a bit more. We heard some people talking who were coming back from the Magic Kingdom and they made the comment that it was taking just about an hour to get back to their campsite. As much as I like Ft. Wilderness, this is a reason I wouldn’t want to stay there. It’s huge and spread out and involves a lot of travel time. If I stayed there, I would definitely want a golf cart to get around. Speaking of golf carts. We saw the redneck version of one as we made our way to the front. Grandpa had a scooter and about 4 kids piled in it with him. Even the bus drive was laughing about it. Once we got to the front we got back to the car and headed back to the Quality Inn. Claire completely conked out. She was a tired girl. When we got back to the hotel I tried to get a picture of her, but she woke up as I was getting the camera out. We headed off to bed, with a little bit of TV (Skip has to watch some before bed every night, no matter what the time) and we drifted off to dream land once again. The next day was going to be busy as well, but we made a slight change in the original plans and part of that was to let Claire sleep in just a tad bit. And Day 3 came to an end.

I guess if he hasn't heard of it, it's not any good or doesn't exist.

That would be fun! LOL

I believe that Claire and I woke up about the same time, around 4:45. She was ready for a swim. We got her dressed, I grabbed my notebook and down to the pool we went. I just sat at a table next to the pool and wrote notes while she swam. There was a lot of “Mom, look at this!” And “Watch me do this”. Also, she kept asking me where we were going to eat and when. I told her we had to talk to dad about that one. She said she wasn’t hungry, but as many times as she asked me about food, you would’ve thought she was starving. After a while, Skip came down and joined her. Actually he went in the hot tub and she joined him for a few minutes and then back to the pool she went. I had a little lizard friend next to me. I tried to get a good picture, but this was the best I could do. But his front side was really neat. He had this little red beard thing flickering; I swore he looked like a baby dinosaur. Skip took a quick Swim and then headed back to the room. Soon he returned because he had no key. He took mine and went back once again. Claire finished up her swim and we decided we should get showered and ready for the evening. I think she swam for more than an hour, which was heaven for her. I didn’t let her use the excuse that she is clean from swimming today. She had a shower and a hair wash. I handed her the hair dryer and I took one. The whole time she kept coming in to ask about food again. I told her to tell Dad to call the pirate place. He hem hawed around on that for some reason. He felt we should be able to just walk in and get seated. I had to tell him that it doesn’t work like that. It’s a show and which means reservations, AND we had no clue what time it started anyways. Finally he called and found out that the show was already going on and it was the only one for the night. He asked the price and couldn’t believe they would charge so much. I think it was like $60 is for adults. I told him that it was a pretty average price for a dinner show, and he didn’t believe me. By this time I am working on getting dolled up. I knew the option of going back to the parks was out. It was getting later, and we just didn’t have the urge to go back tonight now. Claire was having a fit about dinner at this point. I kept relaying messages to her to take to Skip who was lying on the bed watching TV. I suggested Hoop Dee Doo, no that wasn’t good, Spirit of Aloha? .......no that wasn’t good. Cheesecake factory…never heard of it, no good. I just kept giving Claire options to tell him and all were a no. There was NO WAY I was sitting in this room the rest of the night with a child “starving to death”, while he watch TV all night. So I came out, put my shoes on and said “We are going to the cheesecake factory and then to Downtown Disney, You are welcomed to come, and we can drop you off after we eat if you don’t want to walk around DTD.” He had a look of shock on his face. He asked why he didn’t get to help make the decision….yes, I smiled ….but inside I was about to jump across the room and kill him. I told him we gave him choices and he didn’t like ANY of them, so we made a decision. He then says, check and see if we can go to Hoop Dee Doo. Ok, now we are making progress. It was about 7:15 when I called. I asked if the 9:30 show had an opening and was told yes. Then the girl realized the time and said, “Wow, you are cutting it close, you better leave soon.” I told her we were on our way and we gathered our stuff and left. We weren’t sure how long it would take us to get there and then ride the internal bus to the back so we wanted to be sure to allow plenty of time. We got as far as MK and through the gates and told the guy we were heading to Fort Wilderness, and then go lost. I was looking for signs, but I just didn’t see one and soon we approached the Contemporary. I told Skip we should pull in and ask, because there was nowhere to go from here. We realized we should’ve turned immediately after going through the gate and turned around and got back on track. I took this quickly with my phone. I decided to play the “where are we” game again on facebook, and posted this picture next, which was horrid, but worked with the game, because it made it harder to tell where we were. We got parked and headed to the bus stop. This system confuses the heck out of me. There are a ton of buses and I have no clue where to go. I got to talking to a nice lady and she gave some directions of how to get there and how to get back later….thank you nice lady…. A bus came (I believe we had to take a bus that said settlement), and the lady told us that this was a good one as it didn’t make as many stops on the way. YAY! We finally got back there and we had over an hour to kill. Who would’ve guessed we would make such good time. I took Claire to the bathroom. And then went to the counter to get our tickets…which caused a bit of confusion. They couldn’t find us, and then I told her we had just called about an hour ago, and it was all settled then. After getting checked in we still had quite a bit of time to waste. Skip and Claire started walking, so I went on my own and tried to get a few pictures. Being that it was so dark, it really was hard to get anything good….that didn’t stop me from trying though. I spotted the Trading Post, something I really hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. I decided to mosey on over there and take a look. I also was hoping to spot what the 2012 zip up sweatshirt looks like. If you have followed me in the past, you know I have an obsession with sweatshirts, and I try to get one with the year on it each year. I didn’t find a sweatshirt, but there was quite a few other cute items. I had only been in the store for about a minute and guess who found me? …. Claire. She said she saw me walk in and Skip said she could join me, and she ran! LOL! She was worried I would be buying something without her probably. I was just browsing though. We looked at the Mickey Gnomes. Claire likes gnomes right now because she recently learned about the Travelocity gnome. How he came about….. because originally someone had stolen someone’s gnome out of their yard and took him on travels all over. I think they had him for a year or 2, but anyways, they returned the gnome after his travels with all the photos of where he had been. I can remember when this story was on the today show and I thought it was hilarious. I’m sure Travelocity paid someone good money to have the rights to using the Gnome…..Anyways, Claire didn’t know much about gnomes till one day she asked about the commercial and I told her the story. And being that I had taken Phineas and Ferb along for my August trip and taken photos of them, she really liked that story quite a bit. Back out to the porch we went. I then sent this picture to facebook for the where am I game. I was getting some guesses, some were right, but then people would second guess themselves. I believe my fellow TA Mindy was really working hard to figure it out and eventually she did. We headed over by the boat dock. And took a seat. Another picture for the where are we game. Which threw people for a loop a bit. Skip talked on the phone and Claire took her shoes off and played in the sand. It was a nice evening. One of those nights where you would need a sweatshirt, but at times it was warm enough to take it off, so we did a lot of putting it on and taking it off. While sitting there, I tried to get a picture of the life jacket bins. We pulled out Perry for a couple of shots. He needed to check his facebook messages too.

On to ET. Claire was a bit nervous about this because I mentioned that ET was an alien. I kept telling her he was a nice alien, but she didn’t want to believe me once again. The queue is set up cute and the line was pretty much walk through and get on. Not much of a wait at all. If I remember right there is a room for a preshow. (My memory is fading fast…I must be getting old) We are each given a card and we have to tell a CM our name. At the end, ET will say good bye to you, but we couldn’t understand him. LOL. Of course the people in front of us had names that were “strange” and the girl didn’t know what to type. I think she usually types them for sound, or just basic, spelling obviously doesn’t matter…..for instance you can spell Claire several different ways. But these names were probably NOT in the system. Finally we got through and on our bikes…..The ride vehicle looks like a big bike and at times we have ET in our basket in the front. We saved ET’s planet and all was good in the world again. I did try to listen for our good bye from ET. I think I heard Claire, but the rest we couldn’t tell. Claire declared that she loved it….Again Mom is right! Our next destination was to be the Simpsons. We just loved that ride! We took off and I knew we were going the wrong way, but Skip “swore” we could get through. I knew he was wrong, but I just let him lead and took pictures. I asked Claire if she wanted to go on the woody woodpecker roller coaster, but she frowned on that one. You can see good ole Woody on the front of the train….cute! We came to a dead end in front of the Barney area. I didn’t even get to get close enough to peek because Claire said Barney was for babies and she wasn’t going near it. Not too many years ago, she was a huge Barney fan….my how we change. When we turned around Skip wanted to get a drink and I decided it was Churro time. Claire and I snacked on it…we even let Skip have a few bites, but I think I ate most of it. I think this one tasted better today. The line for the Simpsons was longer today. I think it was about 40 minutes. Skip was actually kind of happy. Now we could watch all the little cartoons while waiting. Honestly, it doesn’t seem that long when you are watching the little segments. And some are pretty funny. I also caught up on facebook through my phone while in line. Soon we were in the preshow room. A couple asked me to take their picture and I did, then she took ours…and we got photo-bombed! She said “oh, it’s a bad picture, let me take another”. I think she must’ve noticed the extra family member. I think the 2nd picture was much worse. But photo-bomb guy is in the background laughing. Again, we just loved watching the screens sit with the character waiting for his/her turn to talk. Soon we were boarding our vehicle. We got the backseat this time. I noticed the motion much more in the back. So….if motion bothers you, try to get the front seat. I also hadn’t taken bonine either. We enjoyed it again. Still a top ranking ride for us after round 2. Skip did say he noticed the motion this time too more, and it usually never bothers him. When we got off the Simpsons I took some pictures of the area. It is just so cute. We then decided we were ready to head back to the hotel for a nap and swim and then would return to the parks later. We ran across this guy break dancing and stopped to watch for a minute or 2. I spotted Lucy walking up ahead and tried to get a shot, but she was too fast for us. And there is Scooby and Shaggy again…you can see Lucy too. We all took a look in the Mystery Machine. It was basically all wood inside with a wooden bench. Skip asked me if it was wood in the cartoon, and I am pretty sure it was just a stripped out van and they sat on the ground…Does that sound right? I don’t remember it being luxurious, but not wood either. We saw Marilynn walk by and she did a swirl for me…but I had the wrong settings on the camera and she was over exposed. I did get a better one then. And then we headed out. I stopped to get the Thing 2 Tank top and told Skip and Claire to keep going and I would catch up to them. I like the tank, but it’s not as stretchy as I like them to be. It also runs very small. I got an XL, and it fits more like a tight large. I took this picture of one of the resorts in the distance…and off the top of my head, I can’t remember which one. I caught up to Skip and Claire and we worked our way to the car. My Mom called and I talked to her a bit. She was surprised we were heading for a nap. I told her that Skip was tired and sore……and I guess that was the wrong thing to say because he was mad. He said “now your Mom is going to call everyone and tell them that I can’t hang…my hip is NOT bothering me, it’s these shoes!” Seriously, who cares? Why get mad over this. So he pouted and we left. He needed to buy cigarettes and I wanted some food. We stopped at a liquor store to get cigarettes. Why there I have no clue, but that is where he pulled in at. Claire and I waited in the car. He came back with a different kind as they didn’t have a selection…..go figure. I told him that I wanted something to eat, so we could take him back to the hotel and I would go get something, but he said no, he would just run through a drive thru since he might want a snack….which turned out to be a full meal. LOL We spotted a burger king right around the corner and got in line. We went to pay and the girl yelled at us for coming to the window. She told us to back up and pull forward. So we did. And then she said,” NO! stay back till I tell you to, Oh just pull around and we’ll bring out your food.” STRANGE. So we did and we waited…and waited…and waited. I finally said I was going in to complain, and then we saw a guy come out with a bag of food, and sure enough it was ours. We asked what the heck was going on and he said that our car didn’t trigger something right and they have to serve people in a certain amount of time and then they get a bonus pizza party. We were messing up her record with the way we triggered it. Of course as we pulled away, I grumbled about messing up her record some more, what poor service they had, and how slow they were…along with some choice words…..and they gave me the wrong Pop, which is a HUGE pet peeve. I drink diet with no ice. I am VERY picky about this.. I got regular….GAG…and it was FULL of ice. We headed back to the room, stuffed our faces, I complained about my pop and then got Claire ready for a nap. Skip had talked about going to the pirate show down the road, so I said I would walk to the lobby and get a flyer. He and Claire laid down, with Claire swearing she wasn’t tired, and would rather be swimming, to which I told her she couldn’t swim till she had really been truly asleep. I crept out into the hall and found Housekeeping. I told them they were napping, but grabbed some more towels and took them back to the room. I went down and got the flyer and called my Mom again and told her about Mr. Grumpy. She laughed. I felt better venting and went back to the room to catch a nap myself. Claire was snoring by the way…so I guess she was tired.

I am guessing I must’ve just put my camera away for most of Seuss Landing. We got in line for the High in the Sky Trolley again. Today they had both trains going, so the plan was to ask to ride the other one because I was given the tip that both trains are different. Skip decided to sit this one out. The line was MUCH longer today. So we waited….and waited…and waited some more. We came to a point where we just didn’t move at all. Finally an announcement came on that there were technical difficulties and it would be running soon. We decided to wait it out. But it really was taking a long time. The announcement came on 2 more times. Skip called wondering where we were. I told him we were about to leave the line as it was broke down. Soon the decision was made. The lady behind us mentioned that there were teenage looking kids trying to fix it….that doesn’t really sound all that safe to me. And watching them, it became clear, that none of them knew what they were doing. So several of us left the line…and as we walked out, we saw a train leave….go figure…. BUT as we were looking for Skip, we heard another announcement that again it was broke down and would be fixed soon. I think they ended up closing it completely for a while so someone who knew what they were doing could come and work on it. I don’t remember where Skip was, but I think he was fairly close to the entrance. Claire voted for Cat in the Hat again and again, todays line was much longer. We waited it out and when we boarded, the TM’s made a big fuss over Claire’s dress again today. She loves that. They did tell her to hold on to her pigmy puff so he didn’t fly out during the spins. We had another great ride, but I can only do that once…it’s a bit to “spinney” for me. We decided it was time to head over to the Studios. IoA was just a tad too busy today. We left with intentions of coming back later…hopefully when it was less crowded. As we headed to the front we saw this. I think one of them made the comment that he looked so real…..well that’s because he is. I had seen pictures of good Ole Spidey on my friend Jeanne’s facebook page. He was sitting on a counter and she said he had moved and scared the beegeesus out of her. As I was talking the 1st picture…Spidey moved and gave me another pose. Skip and Claire also just about jumped out of their skin. LOL I continued to take a few pictures on our way out. Today we walked over to US on the side of the lake opposite of City Walk. We went slowly. It was hot, and we were tired already, and just taking in the scenes. I think we actually sat down for a bit….most likely for a smoking pit stop. We also watched this ride from outside…..scary stuff…. We headed into Universal Studios and the crowd level was once again much less than IoA. We had also decided that we wouldn’t spend much time here today. Everyone was feeling a bit tired. Skip said he was going to go back for a nap today, and we both knew Claire needed one too. I agreed it actually sounded good….Are you shocked? I almost shocked myself with that decision. And even more shocking, Skip said he would get a taxi for Claire and him so I could stay, but I said, no, I was fine going back as well. So…..we had a couple of things we wanted to do before leaving. ET was on my list. I knew that Claire would find it fun, and it had been many years since I rode it as well, but I remembered liking it. With that on our agenda, that was where we headed. We didn’t get too far into the park and look who we see! Skip kept telling me to get a picture of Shaggy, He just loved his look. I tried to convince Claire to get her picture, but she refused. Finally Skip said he would, and then they told us they weren’t taking anyone else now as they had to leave for a little bit. Darn! So onward we went. We stopped and looked at the show time for the Terminator. I had seen it before….it was OK, and I wouldn’t be against seeing it again, but the timing was off right now, so we thought we would try to come back later. Claire didn’t like that idea at all for some reason. She has no clue what it is, but she was convinced it was something she wouldn’t like. We never did make it back, so I guess she won. Skips feet were also hurting a lot this day, so we were moving fairly slowly. We spotted ET. A potty break was needed before we rode though. I want to mention that I was not impressed with most of the Universal bathrooms on property. They were not super clean…….not filthy, but needed some major work. You could also tell the older bathrooms from the newer ones. It was almost like they just let the older ones completely go and only maintained the newer ones. This is one area where Universal could take some lessons from Disney. After the potty break a show was starting. We sat and watched a few minutes of it….we now found out why Shaggy and Scooby had to leave. Claire kept making comments that she didn’t know the man in the yellow hat was a real character. It doesn’t take much to impress her sometimes. LOL

Back to the Wizarding World we go. The line for Forbidden Journey was now at 90 minutes. Remember those ropes I saw on the Jurassic Park Bridge a while Back…that was a queue for the ride and it was filling up quickly. I was amazed at how insanely busy it was today. And Universal seemed to be prepared for this. They seemed to know that today was going to be much busier and had set that queue up early on. It was never up the day before while we were there. I wanted to ride it and so did Skip, but Claire did not. So the plan was for us to take turns and do the single rider line. It was crazy around the line area, and I’m not sure where the single rider line starts. I didn’t look, I had another plan, and it would cut out a little time for me as well. I went in through Filch’s Emporium and to the lockers. I put my bag in the locker and then went back to the line area that way. I cut across the line to the staircase and went up. That’s where the single riders go. I didn’t have to mess with all the other people waiting. Now the locker area is insane and not big enough for so many people, but I got through fairly quickly. Once you go up the stairs you have a very short line(you also miss most of the queue, so you won’t see all the great details). I walked straight through till a TM stopped me. I had to wait a few minutes and then she let the single riders go on through to the ride area. I was put in a vehicle immediately and the guy behind me in the single rider line was also put in the same one. The ride was great again and before I knew it, I was done. It literally took about 8 minutes for me to do all this and ride it. Skip and Claire had gone off to the Flight of the Hippogriff. They had just gotten off when I walked out as well. The line for that ride now read 30 minutes, so they hit it at a perfect time. It was Skip’s turn now. I took his bag so he wouldn’t have to mess with the locker. I showed him where to go and Claire and I headed off. We were going to look in the shops. We spotted the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students out performing. It was pretty busy in the area and hard to see, but I tried to get a couple of shots. Claire was not impressed with this at all, and even though I tried to convince her to stay a bit longer, she wanted to move…..shopping is her kind of thing…..even if you don’t like it or need it…you should always buy something…right? LOL I took a try at a few more window shots…they just do not come out well with all the reflections. The area is really themed well. Into the shops we went…WOW! These places are so small! Really, incredibly small!!!! It’s really hard to move around with all the shelves and people in there. Universal did not think this out very well. We entered Zonkos and took a quick look around and Claire spotted her love immediately! She chose a pink Pigmy Puff and we worked our way to the register. It’s not far, but you have to do a little zig-zagging around people. I did manage a few shots in there. Honeydukes connects to this store, so I got some shots if it as well. We made it to the register and the girl asked Claire if she wanted to name her Pigmy Puff. She said they would announce it to the store. Claire got real shy and said no, she would name it later…and I forget what she ended up naming it…but it was something really stupid. LOL!....Oh wait… I think it’s “Snuggles”. Very original. I was told later that they ring this bell when they do the naming ceremony. I wish I would’ve pushed Claire to do it. Skip called and told us he was off and we told him where we were. I told him to work his way over and we would find him outside. We took a look around the store a bit, but again, it’s hard to enjoy it with it being so small and crowded. I would’ve loved to buy one of these, or a chocolate frog…but the price tag was awful…something like $15. The door to leave is just a regular single sized person door…And it was really hard to get out. People were pouring in and I just stood there waiting. Finally we kind of pushed our way out. You would think others would be happy to let someone leave and make a little more room in there. We found Skip near the Three Broomsticks. I think we might’ve made another visit to the Moaning Myrtle bathroom too. A few more pictures and we said good bye to WWoHP. Claire was ready for Seuss Landing again. I took a few shots on the way. I must admit, I didn’t do a good job with pictures here for a little while. I barely took any at all once we hit Seuss Landing. I think we stopped and watched the fountain for a few minutes here. I love this ATM!

Now we enter Jurassic Park!!! I love how the music from the movies plays in the area. It totally gives you the feeling you are in the park. We found another jeep with dinosaur and I made my crew stop. We strolled through…looking for the water ride…..and I couldn’t find it, ….well the entrance. We wanted to see if it was running and how long the wait was, but somehow we missed it. We went to see if the Pteranadon Flyers were running. I swore I saw some dangling legs go by, but the line was closed. One thing to note about this ride…it has some weird rules. If you are over a certain height, you have to be accompanied by a child. So really only 1 of us would’ve been able to ride with Claire, and the other would’ve had to wait…and basically do an adult swap. LOL! Claire asked to check out the play area, but I told her not now…which really meant…never. LOL! I am not a fan of play areas at theme parks, so I avoid them like the plague. If we need some down time, we might do them, but for the most part…in years past with my older 2, it was more hassle trying to get the kids out and then of course crying followed. On we went. I spy, with my little eye…. A castle!!! The family refused to stand here…..Claire said she did it yesterday, and there was no need for another. We worked our way into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. HMMMMMM? Why do they have these ropes up on the bridge? ( I do find out later….) We made a stop in the bathrooms and once again the conversation between Claire and I was all about moaning Myrtle. She was so fascinated by her. Back outside we found Skip. And we headed to our breakfast reservation at the Three Broomsticks. I believe we had to check in with a gal out front and then were let in. We had a few choices to choose from. They had each meal displayed in the window, but this was the only picture that came out remotely decent. In case you didn’t see those plates…you could also read the description. We all ordered the pancakes and sausage breakfast. I got the cold butter beer this time. I wanted to give it a try and see if I liked it better. Skip was surprised I would try it again. Skip and Claire got juice. I was surprised that Skip ordered the same meal as us, because there were quite a few options he could choose from, and most likely he would finish off one of our plates too…..and I was right, because as soon as we ordered and directed to the pickup line (which I swear we got the longest one with the slowest girl), he said he wished he would’ve ordered something else. When I say our line was slow and long, I am not kidding. People who came in after us and directed to other lines had their food faster. Once you get your food, they have a condiments section you can pick up anything else you may need. BUT, they are supposed to give you syrup on your tray. I don’t eat syrup, so I didn’t notice it, but Skip does, so we had to have someone go get us some…and he came back with 2 packs…for 3 plates…..like I said, I don’t eat it, but Claire dips in it and Skip would need 2 or 3 for himself. After you pick up your condiments you wait for a TM to seat you. There seemed to be confusion with this, even though we were told this a couple of times throughout the process, and several people would just walk in and try to seat themselves. There also seemed to be a little confusion with the TM’s about doing this as well, but finally they saw us and took us to a table. For some reason we had a 4th member tagging along. There was a kid who was hanging around us when the TM came to get us, I think his family might’ve been getting condiments …and he sat down at our table. LOL! I told him that he was with the wrong family and he was embarrassed I’m sure and left to find his family. Here is the food porn. We placed our plates on the table and started eating…early on, I realized my plate has less food than Skip and Claire…..and then it hit me, I had the kids meal. LOL.. No big deal, Claire would’ve stole my extra sausage anyways, and I could eat any extras off her plate if I was still hungry. I must say that cold butter beer is MUCH better than the frozen. I would get this again. It is still very sweet, but I could handle it much better. I took a couple of pictures while eating. Skip ran out of syrup and I noticed the boy at the next table wasn’t eating any, so I asked if we could have it and he quickly gave it to me. I think I scared him. LOL I finished off my food, Skip finished his, and Claire didn’t eat a whole lot of hers…though she ate all the sausage. Skip and I dove into hers and he did a good job at polishing most of it off. I nibbled a bit at some of it, but when we left, most of her crescent was left…just no more room in our bellies to eat it all. I was seated next to a door and about halfway through the meal they opened it and there was a patio out there with seating. Before we left, I went out and took a couple of pictures. These next pictures were taken about 10 minutes later, and I can’t remember where. My guess is that we went to a smoking area in Jurassic park and I took them.

Day 3 ~ Wednesday, March 28th I woke up pretty early, I believe around 6:15 or so and got dressed and left the sleeping beauties alone. I grabbed my nook, phone and notebook and went outside and caught up on the happenings in the world via facebook and email. I had a message from a client, actually a couple, she sent me a couple via facebook and an email too. She was a transfer and when I left home, her reservation still hadn’t transferred over to me and I let her know that it should be done when I got home. Disney likes to take their sweet old time. Well…it went through, but her pay off date was on Thursday, so Disney wouldn’t let her make a final payment. I could tell she felt a little frazzled, so I emailed her back and told her I would call her and take care of it. She lives in a different time zone, so I went to writing notes in my notebook till the time came to call her. I ate a little bit of breakfast and then checked on my crew in the room. It was so funny, because Claire would sleep with Skip, but hog the bed. She would squirm right up against him and I swear most times his rear was hanging off the edge of the bed. I took this quick shot, but it doesn’t even show how bad it was at times. I still had time to waste, so I went back outside and took some morning pictures. Not all the views were beautiful….like this abandoned parking lot next door. Sort of a self-portrait. After a little walk, I headed back upstairs around 7:30. Skip got up and was moving, and he headed out to get a bite to eat. I made my call to my client and got everything worked out just fine…I called Disney next and had it all taken care of in 15 minutes. Next job was to get Claire up and moving. She was a little slower today, but she eventually did get up and get ready for another full fun day. We headed over to Universal and I think we were in our parking spot around 8:15. Not too bad. We didn’t make the rope drop, but we still were there for early hours. We walked a little slower today. I was still excited, but my family didn’t feel the need to rush, which was fine. Once we hit City Walk, the camera was out again and I took a few shots. And LOOK! They have a pick a pearl here too. It’s not as nice as the one at Epcot, but they do have that option. The turn styles looked like a ghost town compared to the day before. We were in the park by 8:30. We started to go the way we went the day before and then stopped. We decided to try the other way around today, and also check on the time wait for Spiderman. Now honestly, I was not…..and still am not sure what all is open for early entry. But we thought we would check it out and see since we weren’t in a huge hurry. I never even noticed this times board the day before. Hulk was running, but I didn’t actually see people on the ride, so it might’ve been just doing testing. Spiderman had a 5 minute wait…Now’s the time to do it! I took a couple shots in the queue, but it was completely walk on, so they are not good as I was walking fast. I don’t know how to describe this ride….but it was AWESOME!!!! I think one of the best rides I have ever been on. It had been newly refurbished, but I couldn’t tell you what was done. It’s in 3D and the graphics are just amazing. The best 3D I have ever seen. You move around in a car, not like a roller coaster, but not like a dark ride…...it was just amazing. I am not a fan of the Spiderman story, but I would ride this ride over and over. Claire and Skip both enjoyed it too. This is another ride that Disney needs to take some notes on. After our amazing adventure we worked our way towards the WWOHP. Of course, more pictures were taken on the way. We stopped here and watched empty logs fall for a few minutes.

That ice-cream is to die for.....Something about it...I can't duplicate at home...and I tried. The pizza was actually not too bad for Disney Pizza, not great...but not too bad!

We headed out of the park and made our way to the parking garage. It’s funny how Skip and Claire now were walking fairly fast, but I was lagging behind this time around. ….. Mostly due to taking pictures though. I thought this was really cute and hadn’t noticed it when we arrived that morning. It’s a mini golf course. This is where we found that people were using the people mover walkways as a ride. (Skip did too at this point) It drives me bonkers. I don’t mind if you ride, but move to one side so people can pass you. Claire and I kept walking and said excuse me a zillion times as we walked. People would look at us like we were the nutty ones. This is in the middle area where you chose which way to go to your parking garage. It’s a little gift stand and has a Jurassic park theme. I remember this from the last time we visited. We made it back to the car. Skip was really sore and a bit grumpy now. We also had to fight with the car door to get it to unlock. I was so annoyed at the car. Why can’t it just unlock like a normal car. We drove back and traffic was literally bumper to bumper near our hotel. Not sure what was going on, but we ended up going a long way around to it so we could turn at a light, as just making a left hand turn with no light was never going to happen. It still didn’t take us too long to get back. Claire and Skip headed down to the pool. It was around 8 PM now. I took a shower. If you have read my past TR’s, you might have noticed my hair is a little shorter this time around. I cut it last fall fairly short for me. I wanted to get off old perm and drippy ends and wanted a change. It was cute, but after a month, I no longer liked it. I am a ponytail kind of girl and I like to just throw my hair in one daily and not mess with it. Not happening with short hair. So I have been letting it grow out. And it’s going so slowly. I also can’t just wash and fluff dry and have it look decent either. It’s still got some old perm on the ends and it just looks awful in general. So if I go in public, I have to straighten it to make it look halfway decent. This takes time of course. So while they swam, I took my shower and did the straightening of the hair process again. I put on a sundress and felt clean and fresh and ready to do something. Skip and Claire came back up and Claire declared it was the best pool ever because it had a hot tub too. (She says this about every pool we go to) I asked Claire if she wanted to take a shower and she said no, she just swam so she is clean. LOL! Ok, we are on vacation, let’s let it go for today. We got her dressed and her hair combed and dried, and told Skip we wanted to go to Beaches and Cream for icecream. He grumbled a bit about not being hungry, and I told him we would go without him then…..well he got moving then. He did say he better not have to walk a lot because he was so sore and tired from me dragging him around for 17 hours straight…a “bit” of an exaggeration there. We got directions from the front desk on how to get the expressway to Disney area and once again fought with the door locks on the car, then took off. It didn’t take too long to get there. We pulled up to the Yacht Clubs parking gate and we were told there was a hard close, so we couldn’t park. I guess that means they have too many people there right now and only guest resorts or those with ADR’s could park there. I asked about the Beach Club lot and he told me it was the same. UGH! He did say go over to the Boardwalk and we would be able to park there. OK. But I knew the “walking” would be longer, but I didn’t mention that to Skip. We were able to park at the Boardwalk, and wow, what a walk that was JUST to get to the resort. Us lowly people who are not staying onsite have to park really far out. I just kept my spirits up and ignored the complainers in my family. I really don’t think Claire cared at all, but since Skip grumbled, she thought she should as well. My BW pictures aren’t very good because I was on the move and it was dark. We made it out to the boardwalk, and some entertainment was just finishing up. It looked like it was good, because it had quite a crowd dispersing at the moment. I tried to figure which way around the lake would be faster, but honestly, I don’t think either is, so we headed in the direction of the YC. We kept walking the Boardwalk, trying to make our way to B&C. I didn’t want to rush and make Skip hurt more, so we strolled at a leisurely pace, but I had to hold myself back from walking faster……after all there was an ice-cream sundae with my name on it….just waiting for me. As we walked by the Yacht Club I pointed out the room that Brook and I stayed in last Aug. Skip was like “What? Why did you stay here?” Almost like he was accusing me of staying at a nice place without his knowledge. Um…I had told him over and over where I had stayed…..he just doesn’t listen. And this is where we HAD to stay, it was part of the program, we didn’t choose our resort. As we passed Storm Along Bay I took a few dark pictures. They were doing some construction and parts of it were shut down. Soon we reach B&C and we went up to ask about the wait….30 minutes. UGH! Of course, I have grumpy along and now he has to wait. I said fine, but the guy offered that we go in the “to go” part, which Skip promptly said yes and the same time I said no. I told the guy I wanted a No Way Jose, and he then agreed, yes we would have to wait for that one. We grabbed a buzzer and Claire panicked. She was starving and could not possibly wait any longer for food. So I told them to sit with the buzzer and I would head to the market place and get her a pizza. I walked fast, but I had forgotten just how far away the Market Place was. I ordered her a kids pepperoni pizza and waited. Soon it was done and I got in line to pay. The gal told me this was a kids pizza and I had to get 2 sides and a drink. I told her I didn’t want that, just to charge me for the pizza. Couldn’t be done, it was the same price either way. So I told her what I would get as sides and a drink and paid and headed back to the refrigerator area and pulled out a pack of grapes, a cookie and a milk and off I went to find my gang…..only they were not where I left them. I took a peek inside of B&C and sure enough they were seated at the counter…in the same exact seats that Patty and I had sat in last summer. We even had the same waitress. Skip said he ordered. I was amazed that he even remembered what I wanted, but I did catch the waitress’s attention and let her know I wanted my No Way Jose with only vanilla ice-cream. Claire started in on her pizza while we waited. Skip and I nibbled at it too. I actually think Skip ate half of it. (Remember he wasn’t even hungry) We saved the sides and took them back to our hotel with us and nibbled on those for a snack when hungry later on. Soon “heaven on Earth” was brought out. Claire and I shared it and Skip got a strawberry milkshake. It was very large and they even gave him the mixer cup to refill his glass. He said it was very good. I did not take a picture of it though, as I was too busy admiring my treat. I took this picture and posted it on facebook and had the caption “Where am I?” Several people responded, and most were right, or close, but I got some off the wall answers too. Claire and I dug in and oohed and ahhed and mmm’d. She agreed that this was absolutely wonderful. I am proud to say that in August I ate every last drop by myself. This time Claire fizzled out early and I got to the point that I just couldn’t eat the last few bites. I hated not finishing it, but I was about to explode. We paid and headed out. Skip decided we would walk the other way back to the Boardwalk because it looked closer to him. I really don’t think it is, but I didn’t care which way we walked. Everyone was in a better mood now. I took a few more pics of the Boardwalk area once again. Have you ever eaten at the “Lyin Ish?” LOL We decided we should have a potty break before heading out. I must say the lobby reminded me a lot of the Yacht and Beach Club Lobbies. I didn’t see a restroom sign jumping out at me, so we asked a CM and he directed us in the right direction. It was very similar to some of the bathrooms at the Yacht Club too. I was taking too long with pictures, so Claire ran ahead and joined up with Skip. I really think this place looks beautiful…another one to add to my list of places to stay. I found them here. And we headed out to the parking lot and into our car. We made the drive back to Quality Inn and I think a little someone had dozed off in the back seat while we drove…..though she would never admit it. We were all tired at this point and got ready for bed. We watched a little bit of TV and I checked out facebook on my kindle and before we knew it, we all drifted off to dreamland. And that is the end of Day 2! 2 1/2 more full days left!

After we left Disaster we decided it was time to work our way back to the front and head out. Claire said she had seen something in the Shrek gift shop and she wanted to use her money to buy it. We walked slowly and even took a small break and just enjoyed the views. I took these for Brook. She lives in NYC and there is a Starbucks on every corner practically. We would watch this ride every so often…and there is NO WAY any of us would ever get on it. The 2 adults have lost all their spunk, and the little one is just smart. We made our way into the gift shop. And Claire went straight to him. He was cute…but another plushy…oh well…. We did get 10% off with our AAA card. And here are the princess dresses I had mentioned earlier. And out we went, and I still had that camera clicking. They are still working on the new Despicable Me ride. Not a good picture, but here is the locker area. I stopped in here and took a quick look around. They had the thing 2 tank top and I debated on getting it, but I decided to wait again and see if anything else caught my fancy first.

I love those videos. Some of them are exactly things you can just see the CM's thinking....and some are really what people do.

Thanks...thanks for reading along.

We did some leisurely strolling. Skip’s feet and legs were killing him. I really noticed him hobbling around. I assumed it was his hip, but he swears it was his feet that bothered him. I didn’t take a picture of (why I didn’t, I don’t know) but there were some fencing up around the lake area over here and it said it was a hot set. Nothing was going on, so we “think” they were taking stuff down from something earlier. We did see guys out in the lake on a boat though too. Skip asked if there was a fireworks show going on later, and we were told no, which I was sure I had read wasn’t happening, but you never know. Someone did say they have something in the summer, and I know I have read TRs that showed pictures of it. I think down this street is where the Nickelodeon studios used to be. I know we toured it a couple of times and Paige once went with her Dads family and got to do some sort of shout out on one of the shows she watched being taped. They gave them the day it would air and then we recorded it. I don’t know if we still have it on tape anywhere or not. LOL We stopped and rested for a while and watched the guys in the boat and I kept taking pictures. We headed over to Disaster. That was one thing I wanted to do before we left for the day, and Claire wanted to give it a try too. It’s right by the famous Richter’s Burgers and we joked about it once again. I laughed when we got in line because so many people asked what this was. The TM would say it’s an attraction that is a show and ride…and people look at him like he’s crazy. …..There are these youtube videos where they have these cartoon people being CM’s and the people ask what it is, and that’s the response they get…and it escalates to a frustrated CM. They are so dumb, but funny too, and this made me think of it immediately. Here is one of those videos, it’s not the one I was thinking of, but it still is funny. And this one is funny too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuAyQec-_M&feature=related We waited in line and Skip kept asking me what this was like. I told him it was called Earthquake last time I rode it and it appeared to look a bit different on the outside, so I wasn’t sure how similar it would be. We had a buddy hanging with us too. We had a little wait, but soon we were headed into the first room. This has changed from when I saw it last (as Earthquake). I don’t remember it exactly, but I know it was different before. We had a girl who was casting people for a new movie and it was fun. She picked some people to be part of the “show” and she was pretty funny and the guys she picked were funny too. Claire just loved this…Skip didn’t care for it so much. Next we went into the next room and the actors did there “thing” and it was taped. Again, I thought it was fun and funny. We were introduced to the owner of the studios and it was Christopher Walken….as a holograph. To me this was SO amazing. He looked so real and no flickering at all. He interacted with things and I really don’t think Claire even knew that it wasn’t a real person up there. I was impressed. I think we went to the ride vehicle next. This was pretty much the same ride (though I heard they did change it up for safety reasons because someone had gotten hurt (or killed?) several years ago when it was Earthquake. This time though, we are all part of the movie and the ride is part of the show…years ago, I do believe that we went on a subway ride and then “all of a sudden” there was an earthquake. This time was corny and we had to all pretend to be frightened. Claire loved it, Skip still wasn’t impressed ,but did like the ride portion a bit more. On the way back to the station they play the movie they have just made. It’s pretty funny, and we laughed at the corny movie they made which also stared the “Rock” as the main character. They combined the guest actors in shots with him and it was so silly. When we got off, Claire declared that this might be her new favorite ride, or at least tied with the Simpsons. Skip said he hoped not to ever go back on it. LOL!

We do have some huge portions, don't we, but this was beyond huge.

We really loved the ride and the theming. Skip found that so hilarious too.

We kept moving along, just taking it in. We came upon the mummy and we decided we wanted to do it…well “we” meaning Skip and I. I figured this would be too intense for Claire so Skip headed off in the single riders line and Claire and I just roamed the immediate area. We used the restroom and waited under an awning they had near here. At some point in time Claire had asked me why no one had ever told her about Universal. I thought that was so funny……… Like we had been hiding this place from her for all these years. She really liked this place! Soon Skip called and said he was out and we met up with him and I took a turn on the Mummy. Again, this ride is just really cool, very different than Disney rides. It was a bit of a roller coaster, but it would stop here and there and show Mummy scenes. I loved it….BUT Claire would’ve hated it. It would’ve been too intense of a ride for her and too scary as well. Skip and Claire were still sitting under the awning when I got off and we took off to find the Simpsons. Of course I took more pictures on the way. I don’t know who this statue is, but he had a bird on his head with bird poo dripping down….poor guy. Here is Richters burgers…the place I had been told was NOT very good. Skip said he was going to go and eat there, but he didn’t of course…. This bird was walking along with us and when I turned to take his picture he turned away, like he was pretending he wasn’t really walking with us. We checked out Disaster, but the line was pretty long at this point. The last time I rode it, it was called Earthquake. It was pretty cool, one of the rides I clearly remember liking from previous trips. Wait? Are we in Disney? This area is where Jaws used to be. You could hear the construction going on behind the walls. This is a really bad picture, but they had people blowing bubbles in the walkway and they were just having a great time. Skip said that would be a great job to have. They did leave the shark up! Claire wasn’t too impressed with him, so we didn’t stop to get a picture there. On the other hand…when I took Paige and Michael many years ago, they had no fear of the shark what’s so ever…they even got a little cozy with him. We passed Fear Factor…ICK. I hate this TV show, and was disappointed to hear they brought it back. And there it is…..The Simpsons…. But wait! There’s Men in Black too. Let’s hit that one first. We had to put our bags in a locker for this one. Again the process is fairly easy, but crowded. You have to use a computer screen to get your locker. I found that if you use your fingernail rather than you actual fingertip, the touch screen responds better. I did have to wait in a line to get to the screen, each locker section has one, and when you return, you have to go back to that screen to get your locker open. You need to remember your locker number and they also do a finger scan. We got in line, which wasn’t too long, I think maybe a 40 minute wait was posted, but the time went much faster. I am guessing we waited 20-30 minutes. A lot of it was walk through. They had some really cute queue areas. It was like you were really walking through the MIB agency. We joked a bit while waiting too. Early that morning while waiting for the wand show, there was a guy, an older lady and a couple of teen girls in front of us in line. We assumed that the lady was probably the Mother in law. They started talking about men and Black and the MIL had never seen the movies. The guy proceeded to tell her about it….in every detail possible. He started at the very beginning of the movie and gave her every scene…play by play. Skip was laughing and joking about it while we were behind him, and it was hard not to laugh. I could see the MIL’s eyes glaze over at one point. A little later a TM had come over and said that if people needed to use the restroom, they could get out of line as long as one person in the party stayed……the WHOLE family went, except for the guy. Skip found that hilarious. He figured they were happy to escape and was guessing they would never come back. They did, but just as the guy reached the front of the line, LOL! So while waiting in the MIB line, we joked a bit, and pretended like we were giving each other a play by play of the movies, making up stuff of course! I got some tips on this ride as well. First off I was told to hold my gun button down the whole time and it would score. (This ride is kind of like Buzz lightyear, where you shot at things for a score). I did this and scored a big fat zero. Now I haven’t relooked at my tip sheet, but maybe I had remembered wrong? But this didn’t work for me and I swore I had a faulty gun. Then at one point you are told to hit a red button. Hit this button as soon as you hear him say it and keep holding it…and you will score big…this DID work for me. I hit it before the other 2 and I got the big score and took the lead and won….but only because I got mega points from the red button. Claire was mad because she didn’t even hear him say to hit it, so I told her next time I would help her. Skip only tapped his. I think only one person per car is awarded those points, so be quick to hit it…and blow your family away! After MIB, I ran back out to get our bag and had to wait in line for the computer so I could get the locker open. I had like 5 people in front of me, and then they all walked away…seriously, why does a group of 5 all have to stand in the crowded locker area AND all stare at the screen. It’s much easier if you send 1 (or in my case 2 because Claire is nosey) to the locker and just get in and out as fast as you can. We made another pit stop at the bathrooms near there and walked over to the Simpsons. I think it was posted as a 20 minute wait and we hopped right in line. Look how tired someone is. Another photobomb! And a very unflattering picture of me. I guess all those nachos puffed my tummy out, because it does NOT look like that…I swear! Skip loved this queue because they play Simpson cartoons. It prepares you a bit for the theme of the ride. It shows different clips and commercials that relate to the ride and just general Simpson characters. There is also a part that pays tribute to the Back to the Future Ride. I shows how Doc got some loan to keep the building and a Simpsons character comes back in time to help Doc save it, but runs over the loan officer, so now Doc has to sell the building to Krusty. …(for those who don’t know, the outside queue has television screens all throughout the line and fans blowing as well) I was happy to see that….as I said before, Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorite rides and movies. Claire had watched the Youtube video over and over at home and talked how “this” was the ride she wanted to ride, but once we got there she was scared. She thought we would be taking big drops and we reassured her it would be fine, but she was EXTREMELY nervous through the whole queue. She never believes me when I tell her things will be fine, and she didn’t believe Skip because he never even watched the video or been on the old ride before. Before we knew it we were walking into the prep room. They had several screens around the room and each screen would take turns talking, some about the ride, some more like a commercial. Skip laughed so hard and watched Apu. He would just sit there and wait till it was his screens turn to talk, but he would blink and just kind of look around. Skip found this hilarious. After this little show we were led into our preboarding rooms where it gave you a bit more of the story on a video screen. It told you how Homer’s family won a chance to be the first to ride this crappy roller-coaster at Krustyland…Basically he was set up by Side-show Bob, who wants to kill the family. Now I have a question before I go on for anyone who is a Universal expert. I read online that Back to the Future had two rooms with screens, one in front and one in back. I have rode Back to the Future two or 3 times and this trip we rode the Simpsons 3 times….I have never gone to the back of the building for a ride. I have gone to the upper level and the lower level, but always at the front of the building. Is it true there is a 2nd screen somewhere? This is what it says on Wikipedia….”The buildings for Florida and California had completely different layouts. In Florida the two arenas were back to back. Designers found that this led to some operational problems so the California building was designed so that the arenas were on opposite ends of the building with the queue and pre-show in between them.” Ok….. Back to our regularly scheduled Trip Report…. We entered the next room and got in our car, which is supposed to be like a roller-coaster car. You can set your bag off to the side on the floor. We were in the front seat this time around. We were soon lifted up and enjoyed the ride. For those who don’t know, it’s kind of like Soarin’…in a way….. It’s a HUGE screen, bigger than Soarin’, and it has the feeling that you are actually riding what you see, but it’s a simulator. There are several other cars loaded (2 levels of them in fact) and viewing the same screen, but unless you are looking, you wouldn’t even realize it. You feel like you have this place all to your own. This ride is AWESOME! It has a few scents floating around at appropriate times and it is great fun. I do caution that you may get motion sickness. I tend to and could feel it. I actually took a bonine pill while waiting in line to help ward off the sickness. I also found after riding it 3 times over the course of our trip that sitting in the front seats made me less queasy than sitting in the back. Skip even mentioned that sitting in the back seat made him a little queasy too and he never has motion problems. Now don’t be scared off…Do ride this, but take the precautions prior to riding. I would suggest to actually take bonine earlier in the day. We got off all smiles and Claire and Skip both declared this the best ride EVER!!!!! Claire said she was nervous for nothing and just loved the ride. Skip was amazed at how we felt like we were actually doing what we saw, yet were just in a car that was moving us around. There is a part at the end of the ride where they say that this is the part you get your picture taken and a flash goes off. I wasn’t sure if they actually took your picture or if it was part of the story, but I have read online after I got home that they do take your picture….where this is displayed at, I never found. We made a stop off after the ride for Claire to take a phone call. The phone has someone talking, but I’m not sure what it said, but Claire was making faces. We wandered over here to look at the fence. I tried to get Claire to lean up against the fence and pretend she was in trouble too, but she refused. She did however pretend to be helping Bart use the spray can. We then took another sit down break and Skip went off and refilled the mug. I got up to join him after he came back and someone yelled at me to get my attention. They let me know I left my bag…..the bag that Skip was in charge of! Thanks goodness the kind person let me know, and I let him know my husband was supposed to be carrying that bag and if he had not said anything, it would’ve been left there for sure!

I forgot to mention that we did look at the wait for Spiderman as we walked by. It was 50 minutes. We passed on that. Maybe we could check it out later. We are now off in search of lunch. The first place we came across was Jimmy Buffets Margaretville. Skip said to take a look and see if it had a wait. Nope there was no wait at all. They asked if we wanted inside or out. I asked how cold it was inside. I surely didn’t want my wet little Claire complaining through the meal about how cold she was. Skip said let’s just go outside. It was a great decision. It was nice there. There was a breeze and they had fans blowing and it was the perfect temperature. We debated on what to eat. I asked Skip if he wanted to share the nachos and he said yes. My thinking was we could get dessert then too! Skip said he was going to get a turkey club as well. I told him that I was pretty sure the nachos were big and he wouldn’t need a sandwich, but he didn’t believe me. He said he didn’t want to get stuck with 12 nachos to share. Ok then, I won’t argue. We had an excellent server and we made our order. I told him I was just sharing the nachos and he said OK, but I almost felt like he thought I wouldn’t have enough to eat….but I swear I had seen pictures of here before and the nachos were fairly big. Claire colored while we waited. She did complain a bit about being wet. I had a change of clothes for her in the car, but she was wet right down to the underwear and I didn’t have an extra pair of those with me…..I knew I should’ve as in years past we have had to change her right down to the underwear. Oh well. She said she was fine, but she did grumble. Soon the nachos arrive….Let’s just say I told you so! I think Skip’s jaw fell off. They were huge and good. We did notice later though, that the table next to us just had a big bowl of guacamole and chips and we kind of wish we had just went with that option. Claire loves guacamole…or as she calls it “morraca~ole” and she would’ve eaten more that way. And I think I would’ve too as after a bit, the bottom layer got soggy. But it was still good! Not long after the nachos arrived we also got this! I ended up eating half of Skips sandwich too. It was to die for. I’m not usually a club kind of person, but this one was REALLY good. Claire got her usual…chicken strips and she ate almost everything, with the exception of a few fries. She was a hungry girl too. And she had only had a small donut for breakfast and then half a churro later on. It was nice and relaxing. I had a water and it never tasted so good. I had a headache from the heat and hunger, so I did take a couple of ibuprofen and they were working their magic as well. Skip did tell me I looked awful and red….Can you feel the love?...….he said not sunburn, just red from heat…and I told him I felt awful too. The rest and food was exactly what I needed. Perry had to help finish off the nachos though! Claire and I headed off to the bathroom and I didn’t think to leave my AAA card with Skip. So we did miss out on the 10% off there, as he paid while we were in there. I took off Claire’s shorts she had on under the skirt and she felt a little better with that. We also put her skirt under the hand dryer and tried to dry her up a little better. The waiter gave me a plastic bag and we threw her shorts in there (they were red and we didn’t want them dying anything they touched) and then we put the bag in the famous backsack. With bellies now full and feeling much better, we headed off to Universal Studios park! Skip was starting to complain about his feet and shins hurting too. I have had this before, and I knew how awful it was, so I showed him some stretches to do to help relieve the pain. We just walked slowly over to the park. I love palm trees! We’ve made it! This area looked very slow…..I was hoping that was a good sign. Getting through the gates at Universal was painless and easy. It looked fairly empty too. We walked up the street and tried to decide what to do. We decided that Shrek would be first. The line wasn’t too long; we got in the next show. I took a couple of shots as we waited. I loved these posters. The show was cute. Be aware that some of the shows…this one included, has a little adult humor in them. It isn’t awful and flies by most kids head, but I picked up stuff that was kind of funny, if you knew what it meant. I also think that Universal does 3-D better than Disney does. If you have been to Universal years ago, this show is located where the old Alfred Hitchcock show used to be. After the show, we walked out through the gift shop and Claire spotted a very cute Puss n Boots. She said she may want to get him later on. We saw Shrek, Fiona and Donkey out for a meet and greet, but Claire refused to go see them. Skip and Claire decided they were thirsty and got in line for a drink while I headed off to the bathrooms. Skip bought one of those refillable mugs. I think it cost 89 cents to refill it and it said it was good for only that day. We never tried it the next day, so I’m not sure how strict they are with this. I personally didn’t think this was a good deal, but Skip did so he got one. And then he got a drink that I don’t care for, so I only sipped on it a few times to quench my thirst. We headed off, just roaming randomly. Someone called Skip so we stopped while he talked…and look what I found! Something I had hoped to see! YAY!! I was actually surprised to find it here, as I thought it would be close to where the ride used to be. Skip kept chatting away and Claire and I checked out the car. Claire really has no clue about this movie. I have it on DVD, but I don’t think she has actually ever seen it. And she didn’t think this looked like a very fancy car. Back in the 80’s though, this was the “BOMB!” Who didn’t want a Delorean after seeing that first movie? I have actually seen the Delorean before. Supposedly one used in the movies. Years ago we would have a custom rod auto show in our area once a year. We knew the guy who put it on, so I would work it each year. My Dad and I would go to the airports and pick up the stars and transport them back and forth from the hotels and I would take/sell pictures as well. One year my job was to take pictures of people sitting in the Delorean…of course I got one too. It’s a Polaroid though and I’m sure I don’t have it scanned. Did you see Skip in that last picture? He’s carrying the famous bag around his neck. LOL Agent P thought this would be the perfect spy car. We continued on. I don’t think we had a definite plan of where to go though. I didn’t like how the tracks came out here. It ruins the theming.

The ydo have fabulous theming.

I continued my walk around Toon Lagoon while I waited for my soon to be drench rats. This is another area that is very stimulating on the eyes. I was worried about being late back to find Skip and Claire, so I never went inside any of these places. I wish I would’ve though. But hunger was also calling my name, so I basically just did a quick walk and snapped away. Yes we are!!! I went back to the Popeye area and Skip and Claire were just getting off….and they were wet! Claire was very excited about how wet she was too. She was soaked right through and even the shorts she had on under her skirt were soaked. Skip told me that they had a spot to put the bag in and it was completely dry. Thank goodness for that. I was worried his phone would be no good…and he has an old phone as it is, so I’m sure it wouldn’t take much for it to die. After Claire told me all about her exciting wet ride, we proceeded on. Our mission now was lunch! I couldn’t wait any longer. I’m not sure why that person has an umbrella. No rain in site…I’m guessing she was shading the sun? As we walked we discussed dining options. I was impressed when Skip mentioned there was a NASCAR restaurant…that meant he really read and paid attention to my tip sheet! I told him it didn’t matter, that was a good choice, or Bubba Gumps…which proceeded into a conversation of Does it have seafood? Does it have anything else?...or Margaretville as another option. Even on the fly and starving to death, I thought to get a picture of the rental building. LOL Bye Bye IoA!!! Food here we come!!!