Orlando November 2002

The Ramada Gateway International Hotel

Walt Disney World

Orlando, Florida

November, 2002

I was supposed to take Tuesday off in order to straighten up my house, go to the Laundromat, have a voice lesson before my trip, and generally not be in emergency mode before my trip. By late Monday afternoon, it became obvious that I would have to spend at least the morning working from home. I went to school Monday night and discovered I had achieved a 93 on my midterm (an “A”, whoopee!), then came home and tried to do as much work as I could. I arose on Tuesday to a slew of email from Europe and Asia indicating that my attention would be required for most of the day! I worked into the night to get things resolved, and then had to really start packing (more like, flinging things into the suitcase). I had only enough time after that to clean the kitchen, put out the trash, take a shower and hightail it out of there to the airport (pitstop at the local 7-11 for coffee and sustenance first).

It was a 6:05 am direct flight on Southwest from Long Island to MCO. It was raining steadily while driving to the airport. The wind kept whipping me in the side of my face as I dragged my suitcase and my sorry, sleepy a$$ through the dark parking lot to the terminal. I was wearing two shirts, a Disney pullover fleece with a hood, and a lined waterproof windbreaker with a hood. I checked my bag at the curb and ate my breakfast in the ticketing area, reading the election results in the local newspaper.

While standing on the security line, I noticed a family of four ahead of me in the line. Twin boys, about 4 years old, one of them with a teddy bear. The security guard took the bear and put it on the conveyor belt, and as it disappeared through the car wash fringe, the kid started screaming. And screaming. And screaming. The mother looked upset, and tried to take the kid through the archway, but he wouldn’t move, and threw an all-out tantrum. The kind of tantrum where the mother is pulling him by the wrist, but the kid is just hanging there, dead weight, dragging and kicking and screaming the whole time. He actually tried to dive through the car wash fringe on the conveyor belt to get his teddy. Finally, the security guard had a word with the person looking at the screen, and they nodded their heads to each other. The security guard reached through and retrieved the bear, gave it to the kid. He immediately shut up and walked of his own volition through the archway. However, the guard on the other side stopped them and tried to take the bear from the kid. More screaming, kicking and crying. A bunch of security guards came running with a cop, and an argument ensued. The father was irate, the mother was embarrassed, the one twin was screaming to beat the band, and the other just stood there silently watching the whole spectacle. The people on line for the security scan started murmuring, and finally shouting, “Give the kid his teddy bear!”. Meanwhile, this band of security guys is trying to wand the entire family, like there weren’t real criminals in the world that need to be watched for. Guess a four year old with a teddy bear that has already been scanned is huge threat to free society that must be muscled into submission.

My book for the flight was Mary Poppins, which I got for my birthday. I have long since determined that there is no sleeping on a flight to or from Orlando – too many kids = too much noise. The flight was uneventful, and we got into Orlando about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

The hotel was the Ramada Gateway Plaza on Route 192. I’ve only ever stayed off-site once, back in 1985, so this was a relatively new and different experience for me. Route 192 seems like Vegas to me – lots of ugly signage and crowdedness. It’s not at all like the serenely landscaped roads you find on site. The hotel itself is a bit on the run down side, but there was some painting going on and it seemed like they were attempting to spruce it up. There are two courts of rooms aside from the main hotel tower, and each has its own pool. There is a deli/convenience store, a bar with karaoke at night (and terrible, terrible singers), a piano in the lobby, a dining room with buffet breakfast, and a workout facility with a shower. The hallways in the main tower are clearly not air conditioned. At the end of each hallway is a small balcony, and on the side overlooking the lovely Econo Lodge, one can see a big, lone tree in the distance that looks like the Tree of Life, but it is in the wrong direction to be the actual Tree itself. So we were kind of wondering what that was – anyone know? The room we were in was big, with two queen beds, a little kitchenette with a sink, and a full bath that needed sprucing (fixtures starting to rust, exhaust fan didn’t work, etc.).

I quickly unpacked, and we decided to leave my brother ST home for a nap while we went out for a few groceries, most notably water. We intended to hit the local Walgreen’s, but I saw a sign that said “Celebration” and we decided to check it out. We drove around looking a the houses. One of the new constructions was on Spring Park Loop and it intrigued me greatly. It was faced in stone and had a fat “poet’s tower” as the entryway, with double doors. We parked in town by the lake, near the rocking chairs, and walked around a bit. We hit the local market to pick up spring water (I’m a water snob), and also picked up the little local newspapers. It’s amazing to read about all the rules and regulations of living in Celebration. I was thinking it would be a good place to retire.

When we got back to the room, we changed clothes and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at Cap’n Jacks, and afterwards fed the ducks and the fish. Then we took AN on the train ride and the carousel, and cruised Once Upon A Toy. I picked up my Babbling Boo doll there, and also a couple of packs of those little tiny “surprise” figurine toys. There are three toys to a pack and you don’t know what you are getting unless you feel through the plastic bag and the figurine is identifiable – for instance, you can fee the roundness of Spaceship Earth through the bag, and also the ears on the Earful Tower. I successfully identified the Pirate Ship! And of course bought that one! We ended the evening at Ghirardelli’s for hot cocoa and cookies. AD and ST stood on line while I took AN to the Lego place. They called me on the cell phone when they’d finally gotten a table. What did we do in the parks before cell phones? “Meet me at the fountain at noon!”, that’s what we did! Finally, we were all good and tired and went back to the hotel. I took a warm shower to facilitate sleep (warming up the midbrain will do that to a person), but really didn’t need to since it was now 11:00 pm on Wednesday and I’d been up since 7:00 am on Tuesday. I slept like the dead.

One of the advantages of living alone is that there is no one to complain bitterly that you snore. One of the disadvantages of bunking with your brother and his family is that they will never let you live it down. So ok, I snore. With the lungs and fortitude of a trained opera singer, I snore at apparently high enough volumes to wake the dead. My brother is a light sleeper. Nuff said! Next time, separate accommodations! As it is, none of us stirred from bed until 8:00 am and we got a late start. But that was ok, because we all needed sleep.

When my brother ST made these arrangements for this trip, he did not anticipate that I would be coming along for part of the time, and he negotiated some sort of deal with the hotel whereby he had vouchers for breakfast buffet at the hotel at a reduced rate. We only realized that I was not included when we got down there and had an “Ah-HA” moment about it. No biggie, I thought, I’ll just pay my own way. Well, breakfast buffet at that hotel is $10! Can you imagine? I had coffee and oatmeal, and it was $10! Well, never again. I had breakfast alternately at either the 7-11 or Perkins after that, bringing it back to the hotel patio. It actually gave me a chance to record bullet points for my trip reports, so all was not lost.

According to brother ST, it was a crowded day at Magic Kingdom, but I didn’t see any difference between the crowds then and the crowds when I was there during the ides of March. Our mission was to primarily do Fantasyland. I’ve never been to a theme park with a bona fide child, so I thought it would be a blast to take in all the Fantasyland rides with nieceling AN.

ST usually gets motion sickness and therefore takes Dramamine. He’d noticed a little motion sickness in AN too, so they bought her the children’s chewable version. We headed right for the Teacups. The line moved swiftly, and soon we were spinning away. After the ride, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum showed up and we got in line for autographs and pictures. AN started to act really cranky and bratty, like she does when she is tired. I started to feel really bad about the snoring thing, and started to talk about getting my own room for the remainder of my stay. ST owns his own business and started getting phone calls about problems back in the office on Long Island, so we decided to find a quiet spot to park the stroller and let ST make phone calls and let AN take a nap. We parked at a bunch of tables (Enchanted Grove) around the corner from Fairytale Garden. I went across to Starlight Cafe to get some food and when I brought it back, AN was out like a light. It was only noonish! There was something seriously wrong, and I was feeling more and more guilty. ST was looking a bit on the sleepy side as well, which only made me fee worse.

It was decided that SIL AD and I would leave them to their naps and venture forth on our own to Peter Pan’s flight. When we got there, it was 101. The boats were going by, but two CMs were standing outside telling people that the ride was under repair and should be back online soon. Bummer! So we did Small World instead. After Small World, we went back and found that AN was still sleeping and ST was still making business calls. We couldn’t understand it. It was time for ladies’ room break, and on the way out, we simultaneously hit on the same thing – it was the Dramamine! AD kept insisting that AN had not woken up at all in the night, so she could not understand why the child was so tired and cranky. Now we realized that at least in the nieceling’s case, it wasn’t Auntie’s snoring, it was the Dramamine! Whew, off the hook for that one! She was finally awake when we returned from the ladies room, and once fed, she was in a much better mood.

Off to Snow White we went. I’d never been on this ride before, and I can understand why some small children find it frightening – it is dark and scary! Peter Pan was back up, but there was a huge line. ST hooked some Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh, and to pass the time, we went on to the Haunted Mansion. There was something wrong with the audio – it was sort of crackly and skippy, like an old 45 RPM recording. Then we hit the steamboat ride, and AN went up to steer the boat for a while. ST stood outside and snapped some pictures of her at the wheel. ST and I crossed over to Splash Mountain during the parade and hooked Fast Passes for that, then went back to Winnie the Pooh. So we did Winnie the Pooh, which was very cute indeed, and then headed back to Splash.

Stop salivating, I mean something totally different than what you are thinking! Actually, once we were over there, I sent them for Fast Passes to Big Thunder Mountain, and I went to the camera place to get batteries for my old Magical Moments pin from last March. Learned my lesson there too - $4.00 for a 3v battery! OY VEY! But I wanted my pin to flash again, so I bit the bullet and paid. Next time, if magical moments is still happening when I go again, I lay in a supply of 3v batteries ahead of time.

A couple of weeks ago, I had taught Zippa Dee Doo Dah to AN while we were in the car going to the mall. This was her chance to see the song in action. However, she had this small fear of the big drop, but the thought of seeing all the characters that sing that song was enough to make her brave. Off we went to the Fast Pass line and we stopped at every portrait of every character along the way, so I could tell her, to the best of my recollection, what the story was about. She ended up loving the ride, we got soaked, and she sang her little heart out (even though the words I taught her were a bit different than those on the ride). After the ride, I bought her the little Splash Mountain car with the characters sitting in it with their arms up in the air.

When we got off Splash, we headed over to Big Thunder. As it turned out, there were no more fast passes being given out when I sent them over there, but the wait was listed as only 15 minutes, so we got on the line. Toward the end of the ride, it suddenly went dead. Complete stop, cute announcement telling us to stay put and we’d be going in no time. Several minutes went by before the ride resumed, and gave us a sort of anti-climactic ending.

We had a PS for dinner at Akershus, so we decided to leave the park and head over to Epcot. I persuaded the gang to cut through that Restrooms tunnel that goes from Frontierland into Adventureland, so we could swing by the Dole Whip shack. I wanted them to feel the sensation, but alas! The Dole Whip shack was shut down! Woe R Us! Ajax, I thought of you then, and how devastated you would have been, had it been you staring at the abandoned Dole Whip shack.

Since we’d driven to Magic Kingdom, we wanted to pick up the car and drive to Epcot. We hopped on the monorail to the TTC, and just as it was passing the beach between Grand Floridian and the Poly, it went 101. We sat there for about 15 minutes. The explanation offered was that the one in front of us was suffering from some sort of mechanical failure and we were waiting for a crew to come and fix it so we could move on. By this time, I was pretty tired of all the 101s, and was fretting that we would miss our PS. Finally, we got moving, got to the car and headed over to Epcot for our dinner.

This was my first time in the World during the Food and Wine Festival. It was dark upon our arrival, but I could still see the gardens that were set up with the topiaries of Lady and the Tramp, and Pumba and Timone. Also noticed the array of veggies planted there and the variety of peppers. This was also my first experience dining at Akershus. I was really pleased with the experience. The CM wait staff at Akershus is very friendly and helpful. The buffet was a marvel. I went in with the intention of taking a little bite of every single thing in the buffet, and I almost succeeded! I’m sorry, I just didn’t like the brown cheese. I could have made an entire meal out of the cold buffet, especially the shrimp salad and other cold fish offerings. For dessert, we got the mousse with the little chocolate sorcerer hats and horns (“catch da wabbit, catch the wabbit, catch da wabbit....oh, sorry, wrong cartoon characters!). I was only able to finish half of it, and the staff gave us little plastic sippy cups to take home the chocolate sorcerer hats.

After dinner, we waddled out of there and ST staked out a place at the lagoon for Illuminations while AD, AN and I went to Mouse Gear. AD was on a mission for gifts for our other nieces, and I was there to investigate any Tinkerbell watches that may have surfaced since my last visit in March. There were three that I hadn’t seen before, but I didn’t like one of them, so I only bought two! They are both purple-faced. OK, it is my weakness. I am a Tink Watch-a-holic. I have a shrine to Tinkerbell in my living room picture window, where I display my Tink stuff, most notably my watches. ST called soon to tell us that he was having difficulty holding off the hordes at the rail, and could we please come back. So we raced as fast as AN’s little six year old legs could carry her, back to the railing.

ST was engaged in conversation with a family from New Jersey that had found an advertisement in the classifieds for $59 a night at one of the All Stars resorts. We were jealous! Finally, the show started. It is just as wonderful as ever. At that time, I found out that all the while they had been down there, ST and family had spent nearly every Disney night at Epcot so they could see Illuminations.

When we got back to the hotel, I had the evil thought that we should go to Walgreen’s, so AD and I went over there. We bought those anti-snoring nose strips for me and we bought earplugs for ST! Thusly armed, we returned to the hotel confident that a good night’s sleep would be had by all.

For some other people, crossing 192 on foot might seem like a scary proposition, but this girl was brought up in the Big, Bad City of New York, so it was a cake walk. I crossed with the light, thank you very much, at Reedy Creek Blvd. and went to the 7-11 to fetch breakfast. Wished there was a Starbuck’s in sight within walking distance, but hey, we can’t have everything in life. Noted the presence of a Perkins across the street, and remembered that someone on Common Ground mentioned that they love to eat at Perkins. Made mental note to drag brother and co. to dinner there one night to check it out. Brought the breakfast back to the covered patio at the hotel and made some trip report notes, as would become tradition for this trip.

We parked in Jaws 117. Yes, we did. What a pain that loooooooong walk was. Even with the moving sidewalks, it was quite a hike to the park. Additionally, SIL was pushing the stroller, and you can’t go on the moving sidewalks with the stroller. Little 6 year old AN, who is reading everything in sight these days, informed us of such and chastised her father for same. When we finally got to the gate, we were presented with ticketing options, and since we all knew we’d be back in Orlando within a year, we all opted for the Annual Pass. From there we proceeded to the place where we got our photos taken for the passes. SIL suggested we head straight for Twister, since they’d liked it so much last year. Me, I’d never been to a Universal park before in my life, so I was open to all suggestions and followed along. On the way down the street, a car pulled up with a bunch of Ghost Busters inside, and they made a big deal out of capturing and restraining Beetleguise. They shouted out the show times, and we were really interested in going, but first, Twister.

The Twister attraction is really well done. For those who have not been there, a brief description. First you go into a room where you see clips of the film and the stars doing commentary. Then you are ushered into another room that is totally wrecked, as though a twister had just been through there. SIL and I kidded around when we saw the broken coffeepot – “Oh no, not the coffee pot – how will we live?”. At one point I saw the receiver of the telephone embedded in the wall. Soon we were ushered into yet another room where the fun begins. It is just a spectacular simulation of a twister, taking out the movie theater and other town fixtures. At one point the water comes, and I didn’t really appreciated being smacked in the side of the head with it at probably a billion miles an hour, then being treated to steady wind on that side of my body for the rest of the attraction. It was so loud, we didn’t realize that AN had burst into tears. Bro and SIL could not understand it – she’d been to the same attraction the year before and was fine with it. Now all of a sudden, the semi-collapse of the awning above us sent her over the edge. We got her an autograph book (it comes in a clear plastic holder with a special pen, very convenient) and she was somewhat cheered, but remained really sensitive to all the attractions for the rest of the day.

After Twister, we decided to hit the Beetleguise live show, and on the way I spied a Starbucks! Five minutes later, SIL and I were exiting with mocha fraps, tall, no whipped cream. However, mine was too full and spurted out the straw hole, causing a cascade of mocha all over my light blue faded denim sleeveless FAVORITE summer shirt. I found the nearest ladies room and cleaned the best I could, applying an extra dousing of that pineapple scented liquid soap in hopes that it would help to remove the stain. (NOTE: after returning home, I did some laundry, and no, the stain did not completely come out. didn’t put it in the dryer tho, maybe an application of Dreft with a toothbrush will help).

I have to say that the quality of the singing and performing was more than I was expecting, especially the woman that sang “I Will Survive”. What a set of pipes on that one, she was really excellent. Loved the “pre-show” – the CM (or whatever you call them at Universal) had a water gun and he conspired with the audience to shoot unsuspecting people. When they turned around, he and the entire conspiracy section of the audience were gazing at the ceiling, as if to determine where the water leak was coming from.

After Beetleguise, we went across the street to Richter’s for lunch. One of the things that bothers me about all theme parks is that the majority of the foods, even the salads, are not low fat options. This makes one come home from vacation with one's pants fitting much more tightly than when one left. Richter’s was no exception – seems like most everything on the menu is fried in some way, shape or form. Oh well – we’re on vacation. Gimme the fries!

After lunch, we headed over to Earthquake, where we were trapped in a “subway” car and watched as the street above us collapsed, a vehicle slid down the collapsed pavement and nearly crushed us, a train crashed next to us, and a water main broke threatening to drown us. The good thing about this attraction is that while you are sitting there watching, they start putting things back together. We could then point out to AN that it was just pretend, see, nothing REALLY got wrecked. She was only moderately convinced. Next up was Back to the Future, where you get into the DeLorean and race through time chasing Biff, who is clearly up to no good. At one point, we went back to prehistoric times and nearly got eaten by a T-Rex. I amused everyone in our car by playing with all the buttons on the dashboard. I know they don’t really do anything, but it seemed like every time I pushed a button, the vehicle would lurch or lights would flicker or some similar action would occur. After Back to the Future, we intended to ride MIB (no, not THOSE MIBs, I mean the movie attraction Men In Black) but the line was over 30 minutes long and the Express pass machines were all shut down, so we skipped it and headed to ET. I absolutely LOVED this ride! The idea of bicycles as the vehicles was ingenious, and the forest was extremely realistic. I ended up purchasing the collector’s edition DVD after the ride. I could have given it a second go, but the line was again long when we exited. We then ended up in the kiddie area, and I took AN on the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster, which she loved. My bro reminisced that last year they came on a day when the park was very nearly empty, and just sat on the Woody coaster for a long time, going again and again and again. We did some other kids stuff and then cruised over to Terminator, which was well done. Then we hit one of the souvenir shops on the way out before exiting the park and doing the LOOOOOOOOOOOONG walk back to Jaws 117.

When we got in the car to go home, I was reflecting on why I didn’t really have the best time at this park. My brother turned on the car radio and I promptly turned it off, saying, “Silence is good”. Then I realized, the park is really LOUD. Everything about it is extremely loud. The music in the streets is loud. The attractions are loud. Many of the attractions are violently themed, and I don’t usually go in for loud and violent. Also, when one lives alone, one is used to silence. Silence is very, very good. I’m not one of those people who has to fill up a silence. I think it is something to be savored. So I guess it was a bit of sensory over load for me.

I persuaded bro and SIL to go to Perkins for dinner, and we all just loved it! Whomever it was who mentioned it, thanks for the recommendation. Really good food at a really decent price, served in what could pass for your mom or grandparents’ kitchen - with frilly curtains, tchokees and everything. I vowed to make the perilous 192 crossing in the morning and come back for breakfast.

At some point, we got a phone call from one of our other brothers, informing us that he and his wife had arrived at their hotel. They were staying somewhere near Palm Parkway, much closer to Disney. They were meeting a relative for dinner in Downtown Disney. SIL AD and I had already discussed returning to Downtown Disney that evening for a true shopping expedition. So we dropped AN and bro off at the hotel and headed out together. We parked close to the marketplace and hit the World of Disney store for “stuff”. We still had another brother and his family back at home – they’d opted not to pull their three from school because it would be too much like work to keep up with schoolwork for the whole three of them while on vacation. So they needed compensatory presents. Also, SIL AD had been admiring my Disney fanny pack, which I’d picked up in March. It is rectangular and long enough to hold guidemaps, and generally more roomy than the typical triangular fanny packs. Mine says “2002” on it and has Mickey. So we were in that section of World of Disney, when I got a tap on the shoulder and it was SIL D! She had dragged her father and my other brother PD into the store after dinner at the Rainforest. We made some quick plans for the next day, and then took our purchases to the check out. I pooled everything and used my Disney Club card for the discounts, and we saved a bundle.

Since Bro PD and SIL D were only in Orlando for the weekend, they wanted to get to Islands of Adventure at the crack of dawn, or upon opening, whichever came first. They told us to meet them at the IHOP on Palm Parkway at 8:30am, whereupon we would drive caravan style to Universal and park together. Well, the four of us at the Ramada got up really early (four people, one bathroom, need I say more), and we phoned bro PD upon entering the IHOP parking lot. They weren’t even there yet! PD had forgotten his wallet, and they had to go back to their hotel. The Ramada Four opted to leave without them. Not for nothing did we all get up excruciatingly early.

We pulled up to Universal and decided to spring the extra 3 bucks or whatever it is to get the VIP parking and avoid some of that endless trek we’d done the previous day. The CM in the booth looked at bro ST’s annual pass and said, “Oh we have the same last name!” Now, we are all very Caucasian and she was African American, but my brother deadpanned, “you sound like you’re from NY – you must be our long lost cousin!”. Well, little AN thought this was a hoot, and thereafter, every time we entered a park by car and approached the booth, she would say, “Oh, maybe Cousin Jackie is working today!”

Immediately upon entering Islands of Adventure (IOA), we spotted Rocky, Bullwinkle, Natasha and Boris and of course had to stop for autographs and pictures. The kid on line before AN had a Disney autograph book and Rocky made much of holding his nose before he signed it. AN had her Universal autograph book, and he applauded her and held it up for the crowd to see, like it was an A+ on a spelling exam or something. AN was so pleased that she had the right autograph book!

So, ever wonder what operating system is behind the Universal Express ticket machines? Take a wild guess. First thing, we went straight to Dr. Seuss land and did Cat in the Hat. It was really fun, and I loved Thing 1 and Thing 2. After that, we wanted to get some Express passes for some stuff and headed over to the stand of machines by One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. The first machine kept getting a paper jam. The tickets were in there, you could see them, but they wouldn’t come out. The next machine boldly told us that we had an error writing to LPT1 – sounded and looked very familiar. The third machine cheerfully informed us that it was not yet time to be entitled to more Express passes. Expressless, and extremely frustrated, bro ST went into total obnoxious Noo Yawka mode and started dragging every CM he could over to the machines. Finally, one had a walkie talkie and radioed for help. The CM fix-it guy came and swiped his badge in the machines, opened them up and cleared them of the paper jams. Then he gave us a bunch of Express passes and admitted that a lot of the machines in the parks were not operating correctly– we’d seen this at MIB the previous day. This did not bode well for us. We live on short lines, walk-ons, Fast Pass and Express because SIL AD has a steel pin in her ankle. She had been limping the night before. Walking is ok, but the standing around in the lines really gets to her, and let’s face it, she’d been down there for over a week already, since Halloween.

When we first went to get our pictures taken the day before for our APs, bro ST had inquired about any special dispensation for a person with a steel pin in her ankle. He’d even shown said ankle with its bulging steel pin to the Universal CM, but they said they didn’t know what he was talking about, and turned a deaf ear to him. Apparently, one has to either be in a wheel chair or have a note from mother or something. This never happened to him at Disney, just at Universal. Now that the Express machines were failing us, he marched AD back to customer service and twenty minutes later, returned victorious with a front-of-the-line pass for the day. I don’t want to even know what he said to them to get the pass, but AD seemed greatly relieved – either that it was over, or that he had the pass, or maybe even a bit of both! In the meantime, bro PD and SIL D had arrived from the IHOP and taken AN on Cat in the Hat again. Then we all did One Fish, Two Fish and the Seussosel. We also walked through that little play area with all the interactive get-wet stuff and AN was quite soaked by time we were done in there. I have to say that the Seuss area is just as cute as can be and we all really had a good time in there.

We marched out of Seuss and were immediately deafened by the very loud music in the streets. The first item on the agenda was Hulk. bro ST, SIL AD and AN opted out – neither of them were at the point yet where they were willing to leave AN and go on a ride without her (but that tune changed later in the day!). We screamed and laughed our heads off – extremely scary but exhilarating! After that, we headed down the street to Spiderman. If you are going to Orlando and going to IOA, RUN DO NOT WALK and go do Spiderman! I have never in my life seen virtual reality that is so real – you are literally IN the living comic strip. Universal’s 3-D puts Disney’s to shame. It is head and shoulders far beyond anything you have ever seen at Disney.

I have to say, I never really sat down and thought about just how many comic strip characters Universal actually has. Dagwood and Blondie, Betty Boop, Beetle Bailey, etc. were all represented. We kind of cruised right through the games of chance, and headed directly for some food. The line was interminably long. There was quite a delay, whatever it was, and by the time we got our chicken platters (really just paper cups filled with chicken fingers and French fries), we were ravenous. Then we were all set to go on Popeye and Blutos’s Bilge Rat Barges. It was a really hot day and most of us wanted to get wet. Bro PD elected to go to Me Ship, The Olive and play with AN, since she wasn’t quite ready to get her second outfit of the day wet, and the rest of us went off. They wouldn’t let us go on the ride without having our sneakers on, which kind of doesn’t make sense, since you take them off when you get into the raft any way.

Ah, relative quiet! This area of IOA reminds me a bit of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the way it is so lushly planted with tropical foliage. Aside from the annoyance factor of the theme music from the film playing over and over and over and over, it was relatively quiet and peaceful. We got on Jurassic Park River Adventure to complete the soaking. Let me tell you, that 85 foot drop at the end is stupendous – I don’t understand how any water remains in the “river” after that. By this time, AN had lost all her fear of the scary stuff and didn’t even flinch when the huge dinosaur tried to eat us toward the end before the drop.

First order of business was the Flying Unicorn, a small roller coaster that AN loved and did twice. The rest of us sipped on our margaritas, and bro PD went and hunted down the elusive pretzels, which we downed ravenously. Next, we saw the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show, and did the inevitable round of autographs afterward. (I have to stop and mention again that this was my first trip to Orlando with an actual child. Now I now know what one of my friends meant when she came down there with me one year and was so happy to be childless because she didn’t have to stop and meet characters every where she went!) The show was really entertaining and the effects were well done. We liked when they put their hand into a cavern over there and the hand waved out of a hole over here!

Gratefully, we were done with this park and it was time for everyone to go back to hotels and change for dinner. Yes tonight was the big night at Narcoosee at the Grand Floridian! We hurried back to our rooms and showered and changed and headed over to the GF. We took Babbling Boo with us for company. PD and D got a little lost and called for directions and I talked them back. We had a 7:20 PM PS and managed to snag the last window table along the lagoon, with a perfect view of the castle. Just before our meal was served, the lights dimmed, the music started, and we watched the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. Ah, Disney! Then Tom, who was very attentive and witty, served our meal. I had the lobster in vanilla sauce, very tasty. I can’t remember what all everyone else had, but there was lots of swapping back and forth of bites. Bro PD found a piece of tinfoil in his potatoes and dessert was on the house! We had the mousse, of course. Sometime between the meal and dessert, we got a surprise. Of course I knew about the electric boat parade, but clean forgot that it would be coming through. We went outside on the porch so we could hear the music better. I’d never seen the boats before, and we were all delighted.

I did my usual sprint across 192 for breakfast, and came back to the hotel to find many, many veterans assembling there for a parade. There were flags and uniforms, and lots of cheerful old folks milling about. I had already packed my stuff and stowed it in the car, because ST was going to take me to the airport later and then reunite with the family at Epcot.

It was another glorious, hot Florida day, and soon the family emerged from the breakfast buffet and it was off to Disney MGM Studios. PD and D had gone on ahead of us and said they would meet us at the BAH (big-ass hat). Now then, I knew it would be Super Soap Weekend because I’d seen the commercials on TV, but I wasn’t prepared for the throngs of people entering the park. The CMs were actually directing people to park in non-spaces, even on the grass!

When we walked to the trams, AN and I got on, but AD and ST and the stroller were locked out by the throngs, so we went on ahead of them. As soon as the tram lurched forward, I realized a fatal error in that AN was sitting on the outside seat. I made her scramble over me and switched places with her. God forbid I should have to tell her parents, “Oh, she fell out of the tram on the way over here, didn’t you see her in the road as you passed by?” She is six, but she is still little enough to fall out!

We waited after the security check and it wasn’t long before AD and ST came along. We tried as best we could to navigate through the crowds to the BAH, but it was slow going. Finally made it there and found PD and D. AT that point, I whipped out an internet certificate I had printed out, and got AN her very own Magical Moments pin, which comes with an extra set of batteries. The certificate entitled me to a pin with Mickey sitting at a computer – very cute. I also used the courtesy phone to make a Priority Seating at the San Angel restaurant at the Mexico pavilion at Epcot for lunch. I just had to get back there and have another of their delicious mango margaritas that I’d had there in March.

At this point, we split up, because PD and D wanted to do two things that just weren’t up AN’s alley. One, the Rockin’ Roller Coaster and two, the 100 Years of Magic exhibit and film, which I’d seen in March and loved. ST, AD and AN went to live performances of Playhouse and Little Mermaid while we were doing those other things. Rockin’ Roller Coaster is a blast, and I love Aerosmith, so it was a good time. The film about Walt Disney’s life, One Man’s Dream, is just awesome. He was truly a genius, in my opinion.

Now I could clearly see all the gardens and exhibits from the Food and Wine Festival, and as we were walking over the bridge from Innoventions to World Showcase, we saw a baby duck in the water. So naturally AN had to stop and watch it, and soon there were a bunch of people hanging over the railing watching with us. We slowly made our way to Mexico and once inside the Mayan temple and out of the heat and sun, we were all very hungry. It is a very soothing restaurant, nice and dark. A little mariachi band came out and they were excellent. I got my mango margarita and we all ordered various Mexican dishes and shared them around. Totally stuffed, we waddled out of there.

ST and I made it to the airport in good time, and I checked my luggage at the curb, staying outside in the brilliant sunshine for as long as I could. I had all my winter stuff in the carry on, but didn’t want to change into it quite yet. Finally, I headed inside and thought it would be nice to have a mocha frap for the trip home, so I stopped at Starbucks and got one. Then I headed for the security line, which was considerable. When I finally got to the front of the line, they wouldn’t let me through with the Starbucks. They said I could either throw it out, drink it right then and there, or go back to Starbuck’s and ask them for a paper cup instead of plastic, but there was no way they were letting me through with the plastic cup! Huh? What’s up with that? Considering how long I’d been on line, I wasn’t going back to Starbucks to get a different cup, so I just ditched it. Boy was I disgusted with that one. The airport, the airline and Starbucks are all getting nasty letters from me. Why is Starbucks even using the dumb old plastic cups if they aren’t allowed through security? Sheesh!

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My Adventures

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