First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 12 BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA BAY!

[Ollie]

Might as well start on some sort of trip report haha.

Anyway having had only a total of about 3 minutes sleep over the previous 48 hours we got up at 3am to start heading to Gatwick airport for out flight that left at 9:10am.
There we met up with our aunt and uncle and one of our cousins who's boyfriend was coming as well.

As usual our gate was the one that was the furthest walk away. The flight was sooo boring. I can never sleep on planes and I was exhausted from not having much sleep. I tried reading but soon gave up on that so just watched some TV on one of the little screens that folded out over the middle row (we were on the right hand row by the window) and about 4 rows in front. So I spent most the flight looking sideways watching TV that I couldn't change the channel on. Ben must have been choosing the shows as it seemed to be Ugly Betty followed by Glee followed some other program I can't remember that he probably also likes.

They also had a couple of films. First up was The Kings Speech which I was told was good but I got bored and tried to sleep for half an hour (which didnt work so I missed part of the film as well and lost track of what was going on). Then I think we had our first meal that was included on the flight which was breakfast. It was alright. Can't remember what we had but I know both me and my brother used our cups for the orange juice not realising that in 10 minutes they'd come along asking if you wanted a cup of tea.

Im going to skip as much of the flight now as I can tell you're bored reading this already.
The flight seemed to be taking forever. It was 9 hours long but I tried to avoid looking at the time. But it felt like 4 hours had past and I asked how long we'd been flying for and it turned out it had just been 2 hours. Urgh.
Then we had lunch which I got extras of as it was something my brother didn't like so he gave it to me (still can't remember what we ate so can't have been that good). Then we all went through our fruit bags and gave our dad our pineapples as they're disgusting.
Second film was Gullivers Travels which was alright.

Anyway we finally landed in America at Sanford International and picked up our luggage (ours is always last to come out for some reason). Then we picked up the cars which didn't have enough space in the boot for all out cases because of the stupid way it shut and decided to have the hinge things in the middle of the boot taking up half the room. So we set off and I was stuck in the back seat with a giant case next to me.

The journey to the villa should have taken just 45 minutes and it started off well and we went through loads of toll roads. I don't get why there's random tolls halfway down roads. I can understand on exits to it but when you're driving down a road and then have to go off onto a sliproad to pay a toll to come back on it's a bit pointless.

We also crossed over a bridge.

Forgot to mention as well that as soon as we set off in our cars it absolutely tipped down with rain. So it was a nice welcome to Florida having heavy rain all around you for the first 2 hours of your holiday.
Anyway as my aunt and uncle had been before we were following them to the villa. But after about an hour into the journey he pulled into a car park and then asked some people for directions as he'd got lost.
Apparently we were going in completely the wrong direction and it took about half an hour there sorting out where we had to go.
We ended up going past all the parks in the end. We went past Seaworld and in a big loop round Universal.
I did say to my dad why didn't we just follow the signs to Disney then go from there as it's just 3 corners away. But as usual noone listens to me and it wasn't until after when I asked why we didn't do it he said it makes sense and would have been a good idea.

Anyway.... After about 2 and a half hours I was getting pretty bored so was glad when we finally found our villa in Kissimmee. For those that have been and know where things are, our villa was off the road behind the Medieval Times dinner show.

Anyway the first thing we did was go to Walmart and stock up on food for the next 2 weeks.

Of course we had to get these as I haven't had them since I was about 4 years old. OMFG LUCKY CHARMS <333333!!!!1111!!!

Pop Tarts

They have massive containers of things we have in the UK as well.

And of course... How could America be America without a McDonalds every 50 metres.

Anyway we went and paid. They had a cool turntable thing for the bags which was quite a clever idea as you can be unpacking while the person behind the till packs and then turns it round for you. Only bad thing is that they're **** with their packing and only put one item in per bag.
Also they ID anyone who looks under 40 when they buy alcohol. So my aunt was well chuffed when she got asked for ID but then they said it was just for the credit car and not for the drinks haha.

I bet you're all dying to see what our villa was like aren't you? Nah I didn't think you would be either. But here's some pictures anyway.

American plug sockets look even more like faces than ours. I found it quite amusing.

Anyway for the first day we just settled in and chilled and tried to get an early night for the first park of the trip tomorrow. Disney's Hollywood Studios.

I'll try and do the trip report for that later today and then try and do at least one more a day after that. But I doubt many people can be bothered to read this as you've all probably been before lol.

 

[furie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

Actually Ollie, the step by step thing is really interesting to me as it's a trip I'll do one day

I find the naff cultural stuff oddly compelling too

 

[alexr]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

What was the name of the Villa You stayed in, I think I stayed in the same one.

Can't wait to see whats next enjoy writing the reports on it, I think I gave up halfway through the Holiday from mine.
Also if your going to Busch Gardens leave quite early as all the rides Minus Cheeta hunt are walk on then in the Afternoon start to get busy.

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

How comes this doesn't appear on the 'recent posts' sidebar on the homepage? Noone's going to read it unless they randomly decide to come in here.
Also I added a couple more photos above.

And alexr. It was the Sunshine Villas we stayed in. I think the road was called season blvd and it came off Oren Brown which was the road behind Medieval Times. Everything at Busch Gardens was walk on when we went apart from Cheetah Hunt (which was only 40 mins). But more about that when I get to that day.

 

[furie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

How comes this doesn't appear on the 'recent posts' sidebar on the homepage? Noone's going to read it unless they randomly decide to come in here.

Posts in topics only available to signed up users don't appear. There are members only areas and it's not right to have those linked on the front page.

I'm sure you can come up with some way of advertising the topic

 

[tks]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

FYI you can buy all those amazing American products in Selfridges. <3

 

[Snoo]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

Sounds about right. Also.. your villa looks exactly like my aunts house in Tampa. Woo for that!

Have fun slut.

 

[Ian]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

I usually find trip reports outside of the theme parks a bit turd tbh, but I enjoyed that. I'm genuinely surprised and genuinely looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 1

Posts in topics only available to signed up users don't appear. There are members only areas and it's not right to have those linked on the front page.

Not good enough I'm afraid. I say let the world know. And why do you have to be a member to read trip reports? lol

I'm sure you can come up with some way of advertising the topic

It's a trip report Phil. Not a Youtube video.

Anyway. It's the moment you've all (all two of you) have been waiting for...

DAY 2: Disney's Hollywood Studios
We agreed before we went on the holiday that because we were going in the middle of summer we had to get to the parks for opening time each day to make the most of it. Sadly this didn't happen once and it was a occurring thing throughout the whole trip to get to the parks several hours after they had opened.

This wasn't due to us getting up late. Everyone was up at 7am almost every day. All we had to do was get dressed, eat then go.
Sadly this never happened once because of my dad. Who HAS (and he says he really has to) have two cups of tea in the morning before he does anything. This is fair enough but it shouldn't take that long. Then after that there was loads of faffing about with bags (which we weren't even taking) and I don't know what. Stuff that generally wasn't needed for the day. Luckily on the first day we got to the park at about 10:30am (it opened at 9am) so we hadn't missed too much but it's frustrating being stuck at the villa wanting to get on and do things and then having to wait around for 3 hours.

Anyway we finally got in the cars and headed to our first park of the trip.

In the entrance we go.

Then you follow the maze of roads towards the park you want.

You then get to the stalls where you pay for the car parks. People moan that Alton is expensive. But here it's $14 a day (Universal is $15 and Seaworld and Busch are $13). Good job we didn't go in a tractor as that would have cost us $16 (yes they have a list of prices for vehicles like tractors haha).

So once Disney have already taken your money before you've even got there you're allowed to go in and park. This is VERY organised with plenty of staff and cones leading you in and filling the spaces ones by one. The bays are angled the direction you're going so you can easily drive in as you're not allowed to reverse into spaces in America (or at least Florida) as there's only a numberplate on the back of the car and it has to be visible at all times.
Anyway once you've parked you walk forward to the row in front (where they're already parked) and head down the road towards the tram stop. This is done very well and the way they fill up the bays so well means people aren't dodging cars or waiting for people to park.

Anyway each section of the (massive) car park has a tram stop. These comes at a constant rate (literally between 0-60 seconds between each one) and load up guests. Then it takes them DIRECTLY to the park entrance. These trams have their own closed off lanes as well so it keeps them away from other cars and traffic meaning no stopping and saving time. You also have a guard on the back who talks to you on the way to the entrance and tells you about the park and what times the shows are etc.

Anyway within no time we were at the rather basic looking entrance to the park.

For some reason when you go in all the parks and water parks in Orlando you have to scan your fingerprints as well as your ticket goes through the machine. I assume this so noone else can use your ticket but if anyone can confirm this then let us know.
I saw a couple of people where it wasn't matching and then they just kept trying and trying until it worked.
It is a good idea but can make getting into the park take minutely longer.
Here's a picture of the one at Blizzard Beach as it's the only one I got a picture of.

Once in the park there's a small street (don't know the name of it) that leads up to the central point where you can go off into all the different sections.

As soon as we got in the park a parade came out. This one here always seemed to be on when we walked past the area so it seemed like it was going non-stop all day lol. It comes out by the park gates and then goes up the street and stops in front of the big Mickey hat for a show.

Once we got to the hat we decided to head right and go straight to Tower of Terror. It's quite a long walk and there's not much down here apart from Tower of Terror, Rock'n'Rollercoaster and a couple of shows (including the gate which then turns into a really long path that takes you to where Fantasimic is in the evenings).
Anyway... Tower of Terror.

I think the board outside said the queue was either 30 mins or 45 mins. Either way we were on in 15 minutes.
Most the queue boards throughout the trip were SUPER unreliable. Almost always it was MUCH less than what it was so we didn't mind. But why have them if they're nowhere near what the queue actually is?

Anyway my aunt, uncle and cousin don't really do rides so they went to go see the Beauty and the Beast show while we went on the ride. Sam (my cousins boyfriend) decided after a while that he wanted to come on the ride with us.

I'd hate to be outdoors in the queue in the hot weather. Luckily we weren't waiting outside for more than 10 minutes.

A member of staff dressed as a bell boy. Sadly none of them seemed to be in character much at all which took away from the ride slightly.

The themeing inside the building is amazing. So much detail to everything.

After the pre-show room you go into yet another queue themed to the basement of the hotel. Here you go into one of 4 lifts and start your ride.

Anyway thoughts on the ride...

Tower of Terror
Was REALLY looking forward to this ride.
It started off well and the build up was done rather well. Loved the effects going up the lift but when you leave the shaft and go along the corridor it didn't have the feel I wanted it to have. On videos it seems like it's meant to be an optical illusion and you don't know whether you're going forward or not.

I know now this is probably not the case. But it was far too light in that corridor and you could see the track and down the sides of it almost the whole time. The bit with the stars was cool though.
Once into the drop elevator I was ready for some great airtime and ejector. Sadly it wasn't quite there. It didn't hold you up the top long enough to take in the view and it wasn't up high enough either and there was stuff blocking you seeing out as well. Also I found the drops rather weak. They were good fun but wasn't intense at all which was a bit of a disappointment.

I know it sounds like Im picking apart the ride. But I was really looking forward to it. And the weak drops and not having enough time to look outside at the top did take away quite a bit from the experience.
I've heard they have different sequences so maybe we had a crap one. But I did come off the ride thinking it was good. But having the air of disappointment around it.

As we came out the ride much earlier than we expected to we came out just before people in the show did. So I went to the toilet then we stood around for 10 minutes as people came out keeping an eye out for my aunt as there were about 3 exits to the theatre all spread out so we had to keep an eye on all of them.
We finally saw them and my dad was shouting for his sister. But the way he ran up shouting made him sound urgent and they though something was wrong (My cousin thought her boyfriend had fainted on the ride or something). So they relieved to find out it was just him letting them know he was there. haha

Once we were all reunited we grabbed a drink from the food place opposite. Before going on Rock'n'Rollercoaster we thought it might be a good idea to walk up to Toy Story Mania and get fastrack for it as someone on here before I went said that they go really quickly and it usually has the longest line with the slowest moving queue.
By the time we got there the fast-track said it was for some super late time in the evening just before the park closed. And by the time we'd stopped to look they'd all run out.
As we were there we said we might as well ride it and get it out the way. The queue board said it was only a 60 minute queue but we were on and off within 45 minutes.

The queue was well themed with stuff to look at on all sides and even above and below you.

At the end of the room is a giant animatronic Mr Potato Head. I thinks it's similar to the tree at Chessington where someone can see what's going on and talk to people. Although I can't remember now if it did or not so it may just be pre-programmed stuff.
The coolest bit is about every 15 minutes he takes his ear out. Really clever hows it's actually able to grab it and pull it out while gripping it and then put it back in.

Although the first time we saw it do this he pulled his ear out but dropped it on the floor. Then it just went into a quiet standby mode where it just stood looking around the room and moved slightly.
After about 5-10 minutes a rather embarrassed member of staff appeared and put his ear back in to the cheers of the people in the crowd and he was off again.

Once you've got round the massive cattlepen you pick up your 3D glasses before heading up some stairs and over and down onto the platform.

It was a neat idea how they had a separate bit of track for a car to go off so it can stop and load guests who are in wheelchairs without messing up the flow of the ride for everyone else. That way they can take as long as they wont and then just go off when they're ready.

Once you were loaded into your car and strapped in you were off.

Thoughts on the ride...

Toy Story Mania
LOVED this ride. I thought it was just going up and down shooting at screens but it was loads better than I expected. The cars spun quite a lot more than I thought they would and the layout was more mixed up than the simple up and down I was expecting it to be.
It was great fun going head to head with people in your car going from game to game. It was fast paced, easy to play and had loads of harder targets for players with better aim to hit and get more points.
Also enjoyed how you weren't just shooting the same things all the time. In one game it was hoops, another it was darts and another was balls. Really kept it fresh all the way though.

Also the ending was great where you started playing the long stall while moving sideways then you had to fire as rapidly as you could at the massive target to get those last few points in.
I won in my car with quite a lead and wasn't far off getting the high score of the day. My shoulder was absolutely killing though by the end of it and was hurting for the next few days.
But yeah. Amazing fun ride and not to be missed.

My aunt and Uncle didn't go on the ride so once we were out there was a lot of waiting around again trying to get hold of them and find where they were. We looked round the little outdoor shop area at some of the cool stuff they had.

I liked some of the attention to detail as well. Like painting this to blend in with the brick wall.

They also had cool balloons (they lit up as well).

The actors dressed as the green toy soldiers walking around was a nice addition as well.

Once we had all met up again we went to the Studio Catering co for lunch. Luckily we got her just before a massive rush so we didn't have to queue long.

After lunch we wanted to do something gentle and nearby. With the Studio Tram Tours within site we headed straight into it.

The queue for this seemed massive. But after about 10 minutes of waiting the whole queue emptied as it eats up loads of people at a time and has quite a large capacity.
I've been on the version in Paris and quite enjoyed it so was looking forward to this expecting it to be the same but on a bigger scale.

The first thing you go into is a show where they show you how they do some special effects on an action film. It's alright. Just some water and fire cannons and multiple tipping buckets to simulate a massive wave hitting the side of a building.

After this they send you into another queue past a house from Hannah Montana.

Then you go into a prop warehouse in which you queue some more waiting to get on the tram.

Finally we made it to the tram. Although due to the way they were loading it and the point we appeared, our group ended up getting separated with 4 of us right at the front of the tram and the other 4 right at the back.

We went past a plane.

Past the Earful Tower.

And past some windows.

Then into Disaster Canyon.

Here's a video I did of it. Not as good as it could have been because we were at the front of the tram away from most things.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qbANpvhf4I[/youtube]

After that section it's basically it. You just head back to the unloading dock via the metal structure behind the canyon and a junkyard or random crap from films noone's seen.

After the ride you go through another room with some more stuff from films.

And then after that you go into a shop.

As you can tell I wasn't really bothered to say much about the ride and you can find out why in...

What I though...

Studio Backlot Tour
It was ****. Such a long build up to the ride then going from one queue to the next. The actual tram ride was long and boring. Just took you past a load of junk and dragging it on as long as they could. The canyon bit was ok. But it seemed a bit out of sync and being at the front meant we were away from most the action in the middle.
At least in the Paris version you have two massive scenes like that (the other is London being destroyed by a dragon) and the stuff you go past is far more interesting.
But yeah. Came off rather disappointed and it takes up quite a bit of time as well.

Next we headed to Star Tours via this street with this optical illusion at the end making it look longer. We agreed that after we'd meet up and see the Lights, Motors Action stunt show together.

The queue for this said an hour I think but it was only 40 minutes. For those who don't know they've redone the ride so it's all in 3D and there's over 40 different destinations so each time you ride it it should be different.

The screen in this section was broken. It hasn't been open that long since they redid it.

The glasses are cool because they look like goggles.

Thoughts of the ride...

Star Tours
I'd been on the one in Paris but don't remember much of it so riding this was like riding it new again. Plus it was with all the new films.
It was alright. As far as simulators go it was good. The animatronic C3PO in the car was good and the motions were quite fluid and realistic. We ended up going to the Wookie planet. It's a bit generic where you're going along. Have loads of near misses etc and things go wrong. But it's quite fun and a couple of times during the ride the simulator tilts quite far so you're leaning forward pretty steep at one point which all adds to it.
So yeah. It was alright. For a simulator it was good but I wouldn't queue more than 30 minutes for it.

We headed to the stunt show next that they stole from Disneyland Paris.
I didn't get to see it when I went there and heard it was good so was quite looking forward to this.
We couldn't see our aunt anywhere and it was starting in a couple of minutes so we headed in. First off though you have to do a MASSIVE long walk around the stadium to get in. Right down the left hand side, along the back, then down the right hand side, then up the stairs and along to a seat.

Lights. Motors, Action
The show was really good. Gave you a good insight into how they film car chases and stunts. Car loves will probably enjoy all the technical details about the cars. The stunts are really worth watching although it does take a while to set up each one and move the sets around. But they try to keep you entertained in between. At one point they had Lightning McQueen from Cars who does a show style thing while they're setting up a stunt.

Here's a HD video I edited together with the highlights from the show. It's worth watching as it's got all the main stunts in it and I cut out all the boring or less impressive bits. Remember to watch it in HD.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cn102NRWLA[/youtube]

By the time we came out there was just 10 minutes before the Indiana Jones stunt show began. Everyone seemed to have the same idea as there was a massive surge of people down the street you saw earlier back down past Star Tours to the show. We go in and managed to find a space about 4 rows back. Although we were quite far over to the side.
It's quite a long show. And starts off looking like it's all going to be indoors. Here it's proper old style Indy with spikes coming out the floor, swinging axes and rolling boulders. All good fun to watch.

After the scene had played out the director shouted cut and they started packing away the scene to get the next one ready.

Shows how light the boulder is.

Then they started to pull apart the sets and it turned into an outdoor show.

While they've setting this up they bring out some people that volunteered about half an hour before the show started and made them act out stuff. There was also one person who was an actor who they used to pretend to fight with. Although he was pretty convincing to begin with by doing things like pretending to gesture people in his party to take pictures. This dragged on a bit long but it was something to watch while they were getting things ready for the next scene.

Then it moved on into it's third scene involving a plane and a massive man who must be at least 2 metres tall.

Indiana Jones: Epic Stunt Spectacular
I've always enjoyed Indiana Jones and enjoyed the first bit of the show in the temple. After that it soon seemed to go on for too long. Especially when they had people from the public with tea towels on their head and you could tell they were desperate for the next seen to hurry up and were trying to drag things up. The stunts were ok as well but nothing new. Just lots of fake fighting and falling off things. It's worth seeing if you're near it when it's on. But I'd rather go on a ride than see it again.

Once we came out of this we had a toilet break and refilled our water bottles at the water fountain.
As we'd come back out into the centre of the park again we decided to go on the Great Movie Ride.
The queue for this was empty but it took 10 minutes to get on as we had to wait for the doors to open for them to load the vehicles.

While we waited though there was a big screen showing really old trailers for the films were were about to travel into.

Each car has a guide who gives you information about the films you're travelling through. At one point the car stopped and an actor from the mafia came out and there was a shootout and then she hijacked the vehicle kicking our guide off and becoming our new guide. She was a great actor and stayed in character the whole time. We then went through some other films including Alien where you go through the space ship and get attacked by the alien.
At one point we went through an Indiana Jones scene and the mafia woman stopped the car and got out to try and steal the gem. This all turned out to be a trick and our original guide managed to defeat her and steal the car back. There were also some cool interactions between the guide and scenes. Like The Wizard of Oz. At the end of the ride the two cars pull up side by side and you watch a montage of the great movies that have been out.

Anyway here's what I thought...
The Great Movie Ride
REALLY enjoyed this ride. It's a nice combination of a track ride, well themed scenes from films, animatronics and live actors. Some scenes are fun, others are scary and it's a film nerds dream and also a great fun for the general rider.
Well worth doing if you go here and not one to miss.

The only ride we had left to do was Rock'n'Rollercoaster. As we were walking over there we noticed all the attention to detail, even with things like flowers.

We reached the other end of the park again where we began in the morning and got in the queue for our first coaster of the trip.

The queue inside was ok. But I remember the one in Paris being better and having much more to look at as you were going through a rock museum. Also a couple of times in the queue it seemed to stop dead for a while. The queue took about 40 minutes in the end.

Before the ride there's a small pre-show room which is themed to a recording studio and Aerosmith invite you to take their super super stretch limo to get to their concert.

After the pre-show it's into another short queue to get on the coaster. It does provide some nice views of the launch. Apologies for the quality of the photos. The lighting levels in there mean the slightest movement blurs your picture.

Rock'n'Rollercoaster
A good fun ride. Launching into the dark is great. Although after about 30 seconds (maybe even less) the layout seems to die and just roll around the edge of the building for ages. Just seems like it doesn't know where it wants to go. Also the themeing inside the coaster building isn't as good as the Paris version. In Paris there's lights flashing everywhere and massive lighting and sound rigs set up that you dive under. Here it's just a few street signs lit up in uv lights. It's still a fun ride. Just the Paris version is much better. The music still adds to the ride though and it's good fun having a soundtrack playing loudly out of your seat as you're going round. The exit station to this ride was cool and was themed to the red carpet and you going backstage at a gig. And as usual, you go straight into a shop.

After all the rides we were hungry so decided to get some food from Cantalina Eddie's. I got a massive burger and chips (sorry, fries) and they were om nom nom. It's making me hungry just looking at the picture.

Also forgot to mention. Before we went on Rock'n'Rollercoaster (at 7pm) there were already LOADS of people queueing up outside the gates to Fantasmic waiting for the 9pm show to start. And by the time we'd come out of the coaster (at around 7:40pm) there was an announcement saying that ALL the seats had been filled for the 9pm show and that the show was standing only and children would have a limited view. Crazy stuff.
We decided to head out the park as my dad wanted to try to get back in daylight the first night and we said we'd come back another night for Fantasmic.
So with that said we headed back to the car park.

Overall it's a good fun park. It's got some really good rides and shows but most the stuff it has Paris does loads better (even though the Studios in Paris is about half the size).

Sorry for the long report and loads of photos. I got a bit carried away. It may be a bit boring and crap as well as halfway through writing it CF went down and I had to do it again.
Anyway I hope those that bothered to read it enjoyed it.

Next trip report will be ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE which I'll try and do tomorrow.

 

[peep]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Interesting read Ollie. Surprised to hear your thoughts on Tower as so many peeps seem to claim that it's so much better than the Paris version. It looks really busy though, was that a common theme throughout the trip?

Intrigued to hear about the rest of your trip.

 

[Snoo]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Tractors are trucks with trailers love.

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Peep. The queues weren't bad at all throughout the trip. All the queues were under an hour apart from two which were 75 minutes. I haven't been on the Paris ToT as I went just when they were finishing construction so couldn't ride it. Spite.

And you're wrong Snoo. Let me educate you.

Tractor:

Truck with trailer (aka a Lorry):

 

[Snoo]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

You're in America son. Speak the RIGHT language.

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 2 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Nah. I'm not adapting to America. They have to do things our way.
If they want to drive on the right then fine. But I'm still driving on the left.

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

Is it time for day 3? I think it is.

Day 3. Islands of Adventure!!!

As usual we took ages to leave. But finally we got in the car and set off.
We made our way to the park and on the way we drove past Seaworld and Wet n Wild.

The waterpark looked great and I was kinda gutted we didn't have tickets for it. Apparently it's rubbish though although it certainly doesn't look it.

Anyway because we'd never been to Universal before it too us just over an hour to find it the first time (takes just half an hour if you know where you're going and the traffic isn't bad).

Once we'd paid the $15 car parking charge we drove into one of the largest multi storey car parks I've ever seen. It really is massive and goes on for ages in length and up about 6 floors. And if that's not enough there's another one the same size next to it.
As you can see the car park was deserted when we got there.

Nah just kidding. It was packed. But like Disney they are amazing at organising the car parks to get you in a space and off into the park quickly.
One massive tip is to remember where you parked. You had to remember what character block you parked on, what floor AND what row.

Then you have to hope you're at the side of the car park where the escalator is otherwise the long walk to the parks is made even longer.

Once you've gone up the escalator you then walk quite a way to get to the central point where the two multi-stories meet in the middle. To give you an idea of scale I've outlined everything on Google maps.
In RED is both Universal Parks. In BLUE is both the massive multi-storey car parks and the point where the walkways meet in the middle and then the other long walk after that to get to the City Boardwalk (which is marked in GREEN).

As you can see the car parks are almost the same size as each of the parks.
Moving on...

Once you enter the area where both the car parks meet you're already bombarded with stalls selling merchandise to the parks. Here's all the different car park sections.

Looking back at one of the car parks.

Heading towards City Walk.

City walk is similar to Downtown Disney. There's lots of restaurants, shows, bars and clubs etc. They also have a cinema.

Almost there...

As we had our tickets already we could skip this and go straight to scanning our tickets and fingerprints to get in the park.

Once in we picked up a park map and emptied out bladders at the nearest toilet. First is basically their Towers Street of the park with all the shops. And yes, that is a year round Christmas shop you see there.

As the park is built around a massive lake you have to decide which way you go round. We decided to go clockwise and headed to The Hulk first.

The queue was mainly inside and had TV screens to watch a preshow thingy on that's done like the cartoon series. It's fun to watch but once it's looped round a couple of times there's not much else to look at. The queue winds round and round. Almost like a cattle pen. Once you cover the whole ground floor you go up some ramps and round the edge at the top. Thankfully after that it's not long to the station. Anyway the queue board outside said it was a 60 minute wait but we were on and off within 40.

Thoughts of the ride...

The Incredible Hulk Coaster
Heard nothing but great things about this coaster. The build up was done quite well. The launch was great fun. As was all the bits over the lake. Unfortunately after you went over to the back the ride got too intense and it was hard to enjoy it. You had no idea what direction you were going and it was just constant forces. By the time it hit the final brakes I'd had enough. It's a shame really as it starts off amazingly. But then it just seems to run out of ideas and squiggled all over the place.
So yeah. Fun. But way too forceful in the second half and just ruins the ride.

Anyway next up was this.

The queue board said it was only 50 minutes and it looked like it would be shorter and that it just went down the side a bit before coming straight back and into the building.
I then spotted my aunt and co walking past and we stopped and spoke to them for a bit before they continued on round the park to head to the Harry Potter area (which is what they came back to Florida for).
After that we headed into the queue for the ride. Got round the corner and got greeted by the CATTLE PEN OF DEATH!!!

We were relieved when we FINALLY got inside the building. It can't be that much further till the station can it? We were wrong.

The queue inside seemed to go loads slower. At one point just before the station we seemed to stop dead for about 10 minutes.

So after around 75 minutes we finally got on the ride.

As usual. After the ride you exit into a gift shop.

My thoughts...

The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
This was another ride I was really looking forward to. Heard nothing but great things. It was good fun and the 3D was good. Although the movements of the car seemed out of sync. Like when Spiderman jumps onto the car we didn't move until a couple of second after. Also I always thought the seats would buzz like Pirates 4D in the electric bit but it didn't. Apart from that though the ride was good fun. The spinning was awesome and all the smoke effects and fire added quite a bit to the ride.
Also the final bit where you go up above the city was great and it's an amazing optical illusion. The 3D was a bit funny when you fell and you didn't know if you were facing up or down.
Overall it's a good solid ride though. Not as amazing as everyone makes it out to be but it is great.

We were getting slightly hungry after this so decided to get something quick to eat. We found a hot dog stall. It was quite expensive and the hot dog we got was tiny and crap. Bit it twice and it was gone. Oh well. Knew not to go back there.

After the disappointment of food we decided it was time to get slightly moist. So we continued to the next area of the park to ride some water rides. It's quite a weird layout to have all the water rides together in the corner of the park. You have the Rapid, Log Flume and Jurassic Park all squashed into a corner. And then no other water rides in the park. I'm not sure if I liked the idea or not to be honest.

Anyway they first water ride we hit was Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges.

The board outside said it would take an hour to get on. But once we were in the queue it was moving constantly and they were filling almost every seat and the it ate up the queue pretty quickly. We were on within 30 minutes.

Steven appeared.

But luckily there was a prison for Goons.

In the queue the people behind us thought it would be funny to make other people jump by shouting. It was funny the first time but this guy then kept doing it every 30 seconds and it soon got irritating. Stick him in the goon jail I say.

I liked the idea of having the bag hold in the middle of the boat to put your bags etc in and cover it up to stop them getting wet. You definitely need it on this ride as it's impossible to come off and not be soaked.

Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
Was one of the non-coaster rides I was most looking forward to on the whole trip. And it didn't disappoint. You were getting soaked within seconds of leaving the station. The rapid sections were insane and the boat was going all over the place. It's a good job it has seatbelts and netting on the sides.
It was great having the lift hill halfway through the ride and having stuff going on as you were going up it. It meant it didn't kill the pace of the ride and you didn't spend the start or end climbing a dull hill. The drop at the top is INSANE and its so sharp and steep I'm surprised the boat didn't flip over.
Also it picks up a fair amount of speed at one point and when we hit the corner at the bottom the other half of the boat just vanished beneath a massive wave of water. I didn't mind getting soaked either as the water was warm for some reason. I don't know if it's because it's heated or whatever but you didn't have the problem of freezing cold water going down your back like on other rides.
So yeah. Easily one of the best rapids in the entire world and not to be missed.


Once we got off my trainers were squeaking with all the water in them. Had to keep all the stuff that was in my pockets before the ride in the plastic bag for quite a while after as I was soaked.
We also realised we'd got a missed call from Sam (my cousins boyfriend) so we called them back and he asked if we could meet up to do the next ride with him. So we waited outside the entrance to Dudley Do-rights Ripsaw Falls (the log flume). We were waiting for a while so I don't know where abouts in the park he had come from.

While we were waiting we tried out the tested boat outside the entrance. I sat down in it and after about two seconds it became SCALDING HOT. Like so hot it makes you cry out and leap into the air, although you couldn't get out quickly because of how awkward it is to get in and out of and the bars being in the way. So to get out you have to lift your body up and wriggle your legs out. Of course while you were doing this your hands were burning.
Who's stupid idea was it to put a black tester seat out in the sun?
After finding out how much it hurt myself I told my brother to sit in it. I don't think he got why but he sat down and soon he was desperate to get out within seconds.

So with that pain and amusement out the way Sam turned up shortly after. We then got into the queue which was going to be 90 minutes apparently according to the board outside. It's a bit hard to find out which queue is which here. It's not clearly marked and where the queue looks like it starts is actually the single rider queue I think. Anyway luckily I had watched a video of it a few months before we went so knew the main queue went right round the back. We soon found the end of it and sat around waiting. We wriggled around an outdoor queue before heading into the mine.

Before going in though we saw this massive dead bug. So I took a photo.

After an hour of queueing (so much for 90 minutes) we were on the ride.

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls
Was the log flume I was most looking forward to on the holiday. It was good fun and I wasn't expecting the track section in the indoor drop so when we shot back up over a hill instead of splashing in the water it came as a nice surprise. The ride has great pace and there's always stuff to look at and the 'story' sort of develops as you go along. The last drop was great as well.
Overall it's a great ride and easily the best log flume I've ever done.

I'm going to leave it there for tonight as it's coming up to 1am and it's taking me ages to write these for some reason (I began this one at about7pm). It'll also break it up nicely.
So yeah hope you're enjoying it so far.

 

[nadroJ]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

I get the feeling, Ollie, that you've watched a LOT of POVs before going to Orlando, correct? If so, it's a bit of a shame as I feel you'd have a much higher opinion of the rides had you not had any preconceptions of what to expect. Oh well.

Also, your trip report is literally making me want to cry, I love Orlando SO MUCH! Your photos are very good, I can literally feel, smell, hear and.....taste.....everything just from looking at yours photos. So awesome =[

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

I've watched loads over the past 5 or so years. But as soon as I found out we were going I cut right down and only watched a couple before we went. I tend to forget what happens on all the rides anyway so riding most of them was like riding it with a fresh mind and not knowing what's coming next. But even so, my dad and elder brother haven't looked into anything or watched any videos and they thought the same as me on most rides.

Also glad that you're enjoying it. I'm trying my best to keep it interesting for those that have been. But also giving the people that haven't been a little more insight into the parks.

Anyway I'll try and get started on the next part now. Hopefully will be posted before midnight but at the the time it's taken me to write the last couple of days it'll probably be longer haha.

 

[nadroJ]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

^Then you are a very harsh judge =]

Also, I'd have been SO frustrated if everyone had **** about with cups of tea and bags etc in the morning and made me late. Your dad had just paid thousands of pounds for this holiday, did he never stop to think of that whilst making everyone wait another hour for him to drink a cup of tea. Also, could he not have invested in one of the hundreds of flasks on sale at the parks?

 

[Ollie]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

Islands of Adventure - Part 2

Before we continue have some more pictures of Ripsaw Falls.

I'll let you guess from the picture where we headed next.

The entrance to the area is pretty cool. Although that photo makes it look better than it looks in real life. If you zoom out it makes it look slightly less impressive.

The best thing about this area is how there's trees everywhere and it really does feel like you've left the theme park and gone into a jungle. It's the sort of foliage that Wild Asia needs to make it feel more authentic.
There's some nice themeing around the area as well.

We walked past Camp Jurassic which is a children's play area and has a credit that spites adults unless you have a child.

SPITE.

I've head that adults can ride on their own for the credit if you get there first thing after opening before there's a queue. Although I knew with my dad there we'd never get to anything for opening time for the whole holiday (and we didn't).

We got the the River Adventure ride (can't be bothered to say Jurassic Park River Adventure every time. (why does Universal love giving rides really long names? Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges, Dudley Do-rights Ripsaw falls, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. You get the idea)).
Anyway a picture of the final drop that you can see as you walk to the ride.

We then got greeted by a lovely number for a water ride. 60 minutes to sit in a boat? Urgh. We got in the queue anyway. The queue is just made up of some huts. The first one is a weird circular cattle pen shape where you zig-zag up and down but you also go round and round at the same time. They have a model of Jurassic Park to look at in the middle though although it's just some made up thing and not what the island from the film is like I don't think.
Once you're out that hut there's two more huts with the standard cattle pens.
Also there was a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) groups of girls that always seemed to be in the parks we went to. They (at least 100 of them) were wearing pink tops and they spent the entire time chanting and singing and blowing whistles loudly whenever we saw them. I think they were Spanish but it was hard to make out what they were shouting.
It was cool at first but being stuck in several queues with them isn't pleasant with the constant noise and shouting and whistles that hurt your ears.

Anyway I know you want pictures of the queue so here you go.

Luckily they didn't have to open up the outdoor cattle pens as well.

The queue moved extremely quickly and we were on in 20 minutes. What is wrong with the queue time boards in America? They are NOWHERE NEAR what they say. Don't say the queue is an hour if it's only 20 minutes.

Anyway thoughts of the ride...

Jurassic Park River Adventure
I love Jurassic Park and dinosaurs so was hoping to enjoy this loads. It starts off good where it gives you a tour and goes past a few dinos. The first tall one you see looked like it had it's next broken until it lifted up and then became quite impressive.
Of course something goes wrong and your boat gets knocked into the wrong path. I thought this happened much too soon as you go round two corners once you're through the gates and it happens. Would have preferred a bit of a longer dino tour before it happened. Also the lift hill needs more to look at while you're going up. I know there's Raptors there but they can be quite hard to spot and don't appear as suddenly or as clearly as they could of. Once at the top though it was back to some nice themeing. The T-Rex coming through the smoke before the drop is great although you could see it way before you got there. The final drop is fun but a bit crap as it's obviously nowhere near as tall as it appears from the outside and there's no airtime or anything. And the drop at the bottom doesn't get you wet AT ALL.
Overall it is a fun ride and much better than anything we get in the UK. Just that it's pretty short and by the end of it it's slightly disappointing.


The Jurassic Park area actually goes on for ages after the ride. Which is weird as there's nothing else there apart from another car and some Discovery Centre thingy. They could do so much with the space.

Once we emerged from the area a certain school of witchcraft and wizardry appeared in front of us.

HOGWARTS!!!

First impressions of the castle was how **** tiny it was. I know they couldn't obviously build it full size but in pictures it gives off the optical illusion that it's still massive. But when you see it you realise that if you stood next to it it's not that tall at all. Also half the castle is just a square box of a warehouse where the ride is and you can see this from several places where the castle theming just stops and it just turns into metal. It's a shame really but there you go.
We continued into Hogsmeade to meet up with my aunt again.

The area is AMAZING and so atmospheric. Obviously as soon as you enter there's masses of people everywhere and cattle pen queues just to get into the shops. We met up with my aunt quickly and all (apart from my uncle and her because my uncle has a bad back and can't ride much) decided to head straight for Hogwarts for the main ride. On the way there we past another group of the pink girls again. Urgh.

We've heard horrible things about the queue length for this ride and seen videos of it with a 90 minute queue just to use the lockers before getting in the main queue for the ride.
We were very relieved when we saw this.

The queue for the ride is AMAZING. There's so much to look at (until you get outside and go into the greenhouse) and it's a Harry Potter nerds wet dream. For those that don't want to ride there's a separate queue where you can just walk round the castle which is a good idea. Once you get inside though it's hard to tell which one is which as there's paths going off all over the place and it's very dark in the dungeons where you start so we had to find a member of staff to ask which path the main queue was as it wasn't signposted.

After the short indoor section you go into an outdoor cattle pen and then a MASSIVE one inside a big greenhouse. The wind also picked up and we felt some light rain so we were hoping we'd get undercover as it looked like there was going to be a big thunderstorm (never came in the end so we were lucky).

Also here's what I mean about the theming just stopping on he castle. And this is from the main queue so everyone can see it.

Once in the greenhouse of doom there was lots of zigs and zags. Although the queue moved quite often so it wasn't too bad. There was just **** all to look at in there apart from the backs of peoples heads and some plants.

The had some Screaming Mandrakes before you went back into the castle although it's a shame these ones don't make any noise or move like the ones in the shop window in Hogsmeade do.

Anyway after the boring greenhouse bit we finally got back into the castle where the epic themeing started again.

The moving portraits were cool and a nice effect and they spoke to each other (you had paintings of the founders of each house talking to each other across the room as well).

You then enter Dumbledores office with a projection of him and he talks to you and welcomes to the castle etc. Also if you look closely at the books shelves at the side, every 5 minutes of so one of the books come out the shelf and floats up or down to the top or bottom and then slides in another row. It's really clever and it's hard to work out how it's done as it actually goes in and out in-between other shelves as well.
It was here where we got an announcement that the ride had broken down so this extended out queueing time.

Have some photos while we wait.

After about 10 minutes the ride was working again. Yay.
The next room is the defence against the dark arts classroom. It's here where Harry, Ron and Hermione appear from beneath the invisibility cloak and urge riders to head to the Room of Requirement in order to sneak everyone down to a Quidditch match(setting up the ride). Ron then tries one of several spells which sets off effects in the room like creating a thunderstorm outside or even making snow fall from the roof. It's pretty awesome.

SNOW!

After this you go past the fat lady portrait who tells you safety stuff for the ride. Then you enter the Griffindor common room and then go down a another hall towards the room of requirement (which is the station) past the sorting hat who gives you more information on how to board etc.

The portraits don't like flash photography. If you use it then they don't appear in the photo after.

The images in this newspaper actually move.

In the station all you see is loads of benches moving sideways at quite a fast pace. You have to go across the moving floor and get into your seat quickly before it goes off.
Here's the only shot I managed to get of the cars. Sorry it's blurry as it's dark and they do move quite quickly. The queue in the end was 60 minutes like the board said (only time on the trip) but because of the breakdown we ended up waiting 70 minutes.

Of course as usual. You enter into a gift shop.

My thoughts on the ride...

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
OH. MY. ****. GOD. Words cannot even begin to describe just how AMAZING this ride is.
I've NEVER before in my entire life spent a whole ride with my mouth wide open in amazement in how good it was. From the moment you leave the station through green mist and get flung back onto your backs to the moment you touch down back in the station it's just non-stop action and so so good.
The transition between the sets you go through to the screens are just seamless and it's hard to work out how it all works and how it's done. Everything is in sync perfectly and the sounds, movement, lighting, themeing...everything is just done to perfection.

Spoiler

I had no idea about the scenes with the animatronics. The bit where you go along the bridge and it collapses and the dragon appears and blows fire at you is insane. And all the bits with the spiders and dementors are great as well.

.
Also stuff comes VERY close to you in the ride and it's actually a really scary ride. Probably had a few kids come off crying.
But yeah. Without a doubt the greatest ride I have EVER done by a clear country mile. You CANNOT go to Florida without riding this.

So yeah. Insanely amazing ride and it lasts a decent length as well (5 minutes long). At one point my brothers camera slipped out of his pocket. Luckily he heard it so managed to grab it in time.

Reading the wikipedia page on the ride I came across this.

Spoiler

Many Dementors emerge from the darkness while one descends and attempts to suck out the rider's souls. This effect is achieved by projecting the rider's faces onto a cloud of fog in front of the Dementor, blasting cold air towards the riders, and using a deep heart-beat played through the sub-woofers within the benches themselves.

I don't remember that happening at all. Has anyone else here that rode it seen this? As it's either broken or someone made it up.

Also I didn't want to fork out the stupidly expensive prices for a photo (I think they were $35 each (you think it's bad here)) so I decided to take a photo of a screen and get it for free.

Me and Andrew went first.

This one didn't come out as clear but from left to right. Richard, my dad, Laura and Sam.

Next up we decided to go on Flight of the Hippogriff. The queue for this was only 5 minutes and the throughput was amazing. They were dispatching trains within seconds. We were at the back of the train and were wondering why the lap bars had a net over it that covers your knees. Does anyone know? Quite a few kiddie coasters had them in Florida.

Hagrids Hut.

The station had some cool themeing above you.

The front of the train (for some reason the front row doesn't seem to have those nets).

Buckbeak

Looking at the track while going up the lift hill

Looking out over Hogsmeade and over to Universal Studios as we go over the top of the lift hill.

It's that time again.
My thoughts...

Flight of the Hippogriff
Looking at the coaster it just looked like a small family coaster and nothing more than a +1. Although because we were at the back of the train we FLEW round the track. I was taking pictures but we were going so fast I had to stop and hold on. Was really unexpected and great fun. Easily the best kiddie cred of the whole holiday. The speed took me totally by surprise. :lol:

After that fun little credit we decide to have a quick toilet break. We found the ones in Hogsmeade and they were pretty well themed (until you got round the corner and they just turned into clean ordinary toilets). I like how they had audio of Moaning Myrtle speaking though. Although in the film she's in the girls toilets but I'm glad they put it in both here as a nice little touch to try and keep it in with Harry Potter.

While I was waiting for everyone else to come out I took some more photos of the area and shop windows.

After everyone had emptied they're bladders we decided to do our first B&M Invert of the holiday.

Woosh!

The queue was walk on for both sides. Although it probably took us about 20 minutes to get on from the rides entrance as the queue goes on forever and there's no way to skip it.

The queue was super dark inside and I'd hate to queue the whole length as there was quite large cattle pens inside as well. Once you got past most the rooms you just winded downhill through these narrow caves for seemed like forever.
These floating candles were cool though.

It came to the point where we had to choose our side. First up was the Hungarian Horntail.

When we got to the station we headed towards the back of the train but had to wait for a while while they took a train off each side to reduce it from 3 to 2 as there was no queue.

After riding we heard a member of staff telling other people that there's a staircase you can take to re-ride and avoid most the queue again. It was lucky we heard it or we would have missed them. They're not signposted and it means you can avoid the massive outdoor path.

My dad decided to sit out on the other side as he found it quite intense. And Richard decided he wanted to sit out as well.
So me and Andrew ran off and up the stairs (which takes you to the bridge with all the flags going into the castle) to ride the red side.
As we got up onto the bridge there was a group of people moving really slowly in front of us. Because we knew how long the indoor queue was we decided to duck under the barrier to miss going round the goblet of fire. A member of staff shouted at us but we'd gone by then glad that we could just get down to the station quicker.
By the time we got there it seemed slightly busier and there was a 5 minute wait. But it's still nothing at all.

My thoughts...

Dragon Challenge
When I was younger I used to look at this coaster and thought it looked like the best one in the world. But I've been told by people that it's not that great which made me lower my expectations and Im glad I did. They're both fun rides (I think I preferred Red over Blue) but they're quite intense and there isn't as much interaction as there first seems. The red one had some weird element that was really forceful but the airtime hill was crap.
Overall their both ok coasters. Nothing amazing about them.

After Duelling Dragons (sorry, Dragon Challenge) we headed towards the front end of Hogsmeade to look at some of the shops and the Hogwarts Express.

The first shop we went into was Zonko's Joke Shop.

What I first noticed was how tiny the shop was. It was literally so small that if one person was in front of you in an isle you couldn't get past. The products are just the typical stuff that you see in joke shops and theme parks in the UK apart from a couple of things from Harry Potter like the extendible ear and Pygmy Puffs.

The shop is linked to Honeydukes which is the sweet shop next door which thankfully has slightly more room to move round in (but still not much). Here you can get chocolate wands, every flavour beans and chocolate frogs etc. Really expensive stuff. For a small box of jelly beans it's around $15.

We came out the shop and I queued up to get a Butterbeer from one of the stalls outside.

What I thought... (might as well do one)

Butterbeer!
Om nom nom. Didn't know what to expect (my aunt and cousin told me it tasted horrible). It was DELICIOUS. It's quite hard to explain. The drink is kinda like cream soda but the foamy stuff tastes so nice. If the queue wasn't so long to get one then I would have got about 5 more.
It was quite well priced as well $3.50 I think for one but if you wanted a plastic cup you could keep you could spend $10.50. No thanks lol.
But yeah. If you ever go you HAVE to try Butterbeer. It's amazing.

We had to leave after this as my dad said he was feeling tired and we wanted to go get something to eat outside the park. So we headed out past the two areas we hadn't done. I'd done everything I'd wanted apart from Posiedons Fury.

So we left the park and made our way back to the car. I thought it was nice that a couple of staff from one of the restaurants in CityWalk were outside entertaining people with skipping ropes and stuff.

We were going to eat in Bubba Grumps. But Richard and Andrew are fussy eaters (especially Andrew) and there was nothing on the menu he liked so we went to find somewhere else. It's annoying as there's loads of different foods I enjoy trying or having but we always end up having chips and burgers and simple things because Andrew doesn't like anything else. Me and my dad are the only ones who like fizzy drinks as well.

So anyway we left to the car park passing some construction below us. Does anyone know what it is? It's literally right by the entrance to CityWalk right at the front.

We stopped on the way back to the villa at the Ponderosa opposite Old Town (the one on International Drive is shut down) and had a steak and a buffet. Although I didn't have much buffet to begin with in case my steak was big (which it was).
The drinks are MASSIVE though. And they're refillable.

The food was great there. After we'd eaten we went back via Walmart to get a few more bits.

And that's it for day 3. Phew that took a while. I'm going for a rest now.

Tomorrow will be Blizzard Beach and Fun Spot/Old Town where we rode the worlds tallest Skycoaster.

Hope you're enjoying it so far and it's not as exhausting to read as it is to type.

 

[Brookes]

Re: First Time Evah in Florida - DAY 3 ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!

Nice report so far. Though I'm surprised you didn't like Hulk because you thought the second half was too forceful, I didn't think it was as good as people made out due to a lack of force! Though that was after riding Kumba for comparison. And as for Wet 'n' Wild as a waterpark itself it is good yes, but compared to what sits near it in the form of Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and Aquatica, it doesn't get close.

EDIT: Surely Hulk was the first B&M of your holiday?