2BoysMum&Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
In my hand-written notes I made at the end of Friday 23rd July, I spookily gave the days report the heading The Calm Before The Storm, only because it was the day before we flew out to Florida and didnt think at the time it was really a very good or apt title. I have decided to name all the parts of my trip report The Calm Before The Storm Tour, in honour of the climax of our trip - Hurricane Charley which gave us an extra day in Florida.
Thursday 5th August
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
Every time we deviated from our itinerary I thought What is an itinerary actually for? There are various possible answers of course. I must have spent hours and hours and hours and hours planning our every movement before we flew out on 24th July. There are so many factors to consider including variable opening times of parks (including E.E. days), p.s. booked meals, fixed date at Discovery Cove and SeaWorld access has to be done seven days around Discovery Cove. We also had two birthdays and our wedding anniversary to consider.
It became evident that the most efficient use of our time was to do a park in the morning, go back to CBR for a swim in the middle of the day and go back to a park in the afternoon (not necessarily the same park). This meant that the itinerary got changed quite often as my original plans didnt assume we would tire at lunchtime and need a mid-day break. Why is this a more efficient use of our time than staying at the park all day? I hear you ask. Well, I originally thought that with our boys the age they were, we could easily do a park for the whole day without a break if we took things easy and had a nice break at a restaurant in the park in the middle of the day. Anyone who has been to Florida will tell you that walking around in the Florida heat and standing in queues for several hours takes a lot out of the fittest of people. And, if you have been at a park since 8 or 9am, you will have done around four or five hours of this by lunchtime which really does take its toll. Going back to our resort and having a swim for an hour or so really really really does revitalise the system and we were as fit and keen to get going again as we were at 8am in the morning fit again until around 10pm in the evening. Saying that, we were really tired by the end of each day, but if we didnt have that mid-day break, we never would have survived!
Enough of the waffling. Today was scheduled as a whole day at Epcot as I had made a p.s. booking at the Rose & Crown for this evening so thought a whole day at Epcot was a good idea. But, as we had made some changes to the itinerary and had spent quite a bit of time at Epcot already and not so much time at the Animal Kingdom, we thought a morning in AK and the afternoon in Epcot might be a nice idea. So last night we had set the alarm so we could get to AK for a sensible time. Breakfast in the room and Piers wasnt particularly hungry, he never has been a breakfast person but we did get him to eat a packet of crisps! Obviously not ideal, but better than nothing and we could hopefully find him something nicer to eat at AK. We arrived at the park at a reasonable time and headed straight for Dinoland. Its A Bugs Life caught our attention before we got to Dinoland as it only had a queueing time of five minutes. Despite the fact that Trevor didnt enjoy this much last time, we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed. Trevor was really put off last time because of the amount of time we had to wait (despite having Fast Passes) and the fact we were sitting at the end of a row. He was convinced this would make a difference to the overall 3D effect. This time we got seats more centrally (and in the back row) and we all enjoyed it much better this time. I have a feeling the show was slightly different this time and I know some attractions are continuously changed slightly to keep peoples interest, but I couldnt quite place what was different about it. There were a load of bugs which came down from the ceiling, I couldnt recall that happening last time. After the show, Piers showed me some glasses (prescription glasses) hed found on a seat, we returned these to the woman CM who was collecting the bags of 3D glasses.
On to Dinoland and Piers and Trevor did Primeval Whirl. Michael and I decided to do our cowardly act again and sat this one out. Afterwards I regretted not doing it as I dont think it would have been that bad. A definite must do for me next time. Trevor said the queue for Primeval Whirl wasnt bad but the loading of the ride was slow, not sure if this is just incompetence or just a quirk of the ride itself. Trevor said it was no more scary than Splash Mountain, definitely will make the effort another time. I got Michael and myself sun-creamed up while we were waiting for them.
Next stop = Tarzan Rocks which turns out to be a rock concert sort of thing, but very entertaining. Theres a load of singing, acrobatics by Tarzan and Jane and a guy dancing around in a gorilla suit! Next stop = Festival of the Lion King. This is a definite must do a high profile attraction at AK and, in my opinion, a brilliant show. There are four floats on which enormous animated Lion King characters are wheeled out. Lots of singing, action, colour and audience participation.
Time to head out of the park and it starts to rain. This, unfortunately, turns into a very heavy downpour of solid water! Saying we got wet is the understatement of the century! We get onto the car park tram and I seem to get the brunt of the rain, it seems to be blowing in on me no matter which direction the tram turns! Had to get off the tram into the rain when it stops at our spot of course, theres nowhere to hide and we just have to accept the fact were drowned rats until we get back to our room. We give up on rushing around for cover, we are totally soaked from head to foot and unable to get any wetter, totally saturated. We might as well enjoy the free shower, just a shame we had no soap with us! The thought had crossed my mind that we must have looked like we had been pushed into a swimming pool fully clothed.
When we got back to CBR, we had something to eat and let it settle before deciding to go for a swim (despite effectively having a swim on the way out of the park!) and Trevor sorts out a load of washing. We had a great torrential downpour while in the pool. This made quite a few other people give up on swimming and went back to their rooms. Heavy rain definitely made swimming more interesting, but if you are wet already, whats the problem? I know a lot of people are worried if there is lightening, but there didnt seem to be any.
Out of the pool, dried and off to Epcot. Earlier in the day, I thought it would be brilliant to catch up with Chris and family (Earthbound) at the Ice Cream Social, but we massively overshot time-wise for that. Really wanted to do this at some stage but never found the time. First port of call Spaceship Earth in the golf ball. Second time of doing this and I dont think I would ever tire of doing it, nice and sedate no horrible loops or sudden drops!
Next port of call The Living Seas. A unique type of attraction and must be one of the most expensive ones of Disneys to create. There is a pre-show and then you are taken down in lifts to a huge area underground full of large aquatic tanks and exhibition areas. I suggest you allow a lot of time for this as there is a tremendous amount of stuff to look at and needs a respectable amount of time to see everything. We didnt have time to look at everything here, thinking we would make the effort to visit properly again the next time we visited Epcot.
Now off to sample the free drinks again sponsored by Coca Cola in Ice Station Cool. Trevor preferred the Beverley drink (which I think I mentioned the other day). Whats your favourite? Then the mandatory visit to the toilets afterwards!
We headed off towards the transfixing sound of Off Kilter, a brilliant bunch of skirted lads and I wish we had more time to listen to them. There were various people seated listening and a handful of people standing further back with cameras. There was nobody near the front of the stage and I took the opportunity to walk discretely down the side to take a picture from the edge of the stage. I was rumbled and they posed for me!
I thanked them and walked back with my prized photograph, heading around the back of the crowd. I then crept down towards the other end of the stage assuming I could get away with taking a picture of them performing in more natural poses WRONG
I was spotted again.
Now heading towards the UK and used the toilets in this area. Was very disappointed that inside here the facilities were still very American, never mind! We wandered about a bit and took some pictures.
Heading towards Hyde Park (around that left hand bend)
Rose & Crown in the UK
We found the Hyde Park area and sat down for a while. After a few minutes, quite a crowd gathered. The boys played in the maze area by the band stand and I wandered around the UK a little bit. I saw Earthbound and family on the other side of the street going towards Hyde Park but unfortunately didnt get my camera ready in time to catch them unawares. After a brief visit into one of the shops I headed back to Trevor and joined him on the bench. On the show times list, there was something about British Invasion and Trevor got quite excited. He is quite heavily interested in medieval history and automatically assumed thered be some sort of battle re-enactment going on. Couldnt be much further from the truth, of course!
The British Invasion, Beatles tribute band
The Beatles turned up and performed at around 7pm and we sat and watched for a while. Couldnt see Earthbound anywhere, but I suppose this wasnt his sort of music! I decided the chap being Ringo didnt sound enough like him, but the rest were good. We wondered off to the Rose and Crown at around 7.15pm to announce our presence for our booking at 7.20pm. My original p.s. booking for this evening was 8pm but I decided to move it forward a bit as I thought 8pm wouldnt give us enough time to eat before Illuminations. I really wanted 7.30pm but they could only do 7.20pm or 7.45pm. We asked the woman at the desk if we could have a terrace table. We were advised there was a 15 minute delay and we were given a pager. This pager would only work within the UK area, but at least it meant we wouldnt have to be stuck in one place waiting for our table.
We wandered into the shop opposite which had a nice display of swords and chess sets. I then spotted Earthbound and his family by the R&C desk and wandered over for a chat. I asked how his trip report note taking was coming along and Mrs E.B. pointed to his head saying its all in there, he hasnt written anything! Hope hes got a good memory; if they stuck to his itinerary they wouldnt have time to sleep so trying to write a trip report from memory is going to be challenging! Just as we are chatting, my pager goes off and Chris says can I have your pager? what cheek! No! I had just been explaining about the delay and that I had been given a pager. I immediately made my presence known again to the R&C staff and explained Id have to go and find my family. But no need, as if by magic, Trevor and the boys turned up and Chris asked the boys if they were having a nice time predictably they didnt answer being the shy pair that they are! We were led to a table on the terrace, a really nice spot right at the end.
What shall we eat?
Trevor ordered a rare steak and I had Harry Ramseys Fish & Chips which was mediocre. When Trevors steak first appeared, it was well cooked on the outside and raw in the middle. Sent it back of course and was ok the second time. Piers had the plain cheese pizza and Michael had a plate of chips (fries), typical of Michael! Pierss pizza came with a bowl of grapes. The service was generally slow and we had to ask every time we wanted a refill of soft drinks. Only two of us had puddings, I had the apple crumble with cream and Piers had ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles.
On one visit to the restrooms I found Chris and family occupying an inside table. They were disappointed not to get a terrace table and I told them theyd have to join us at 9pm for Illuminations. We never saw them again this evening
was it something I said! (I discovered later what happened, when I got home).
We had a good view of Illuminations, but because our terrace table was near the wall, there was quite a bit of the canopy in the way of the higher fireworks. It was still pretty good though.
Watching Illuminations from our table
We were at our table in the Rose & Crown for a total of two hours, which is rather longer than I expected. But it worked out ok, we got to see the whole of Illuminations from there and we were happy and tired by the end of it even if the service was poor and the food not the best we had ever had! Piers was rather bored at various stages. I was glad we brought his Gameboy, but even then he only played with it for ten minutes.
Time to depart and we head for the main entrance of Epcot, taking a few pictures of that big round thing on the way passed! I have only posted a couple in this thread as they are really just touristy pictures I took for our own benefit, but I did rather like them.
This is one of my favourites
Epcot by night
Another long and tiring day, but great fun as usual. Another fun packed day planned for tomorrow our final day at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. How many scary rides can I manage to avoid this time!
Time for bed! ZzZzZzZzZz
Thursday 5th August
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
Every time we deviated from our itinerary I thought What is an itinerary actually for? There are various possible answers of course. I must have spent hours and hours and hours and hours planning our every movement before we flew out on 24th July. There are so many factors to consider including variable opening times of parks (including E.E. days), p.s. booked meals, fixed date at Discovery Cove and SeaWorld access has to be done seven days around Discovery Cove. We also had two birthdays and our wedding anniversary to consider.
It became evident that the most efficient use of our time was to do a park in the morning, go back to CBR for a swim in the middle of the day and go back to a park in the afternoon (not necessarily the same park). This meant that the itinerary got changed quite often as my original plans didnt assume we would tire at lunchtime and need a mid-day break. Why is this a more efficient use of our time than staying at the park all day? I hear you ask. Well, I originally thought that with our boys the age they were, we could easily do a park for the whole day without a break if we took things easy and had a nice break at a restaurant in the park in the middle of the day. Anyone who has been to Florida will tell you that walking around in the Florida heat and standing in queues for several hours takes a lot out of the fittest of people. And, if you have been at a park since 8 or 9am, you will have done around four or five hours of this by lunchtime which really does take its toll. Going back to our resort and having a swim for an hour or so really really really does revitalise the system and we were as fit and keen to get going again as we were at 8am in the morning fit again until around 10pm in the evening. Saying that, we were really tired by the end of each day, but if we didnt have that mid-day break, we never would have survived!
Enough of the waffling. Today was scheduled as a whole day at Epcot as I had made a p.s. booking at the Rose & Crown for this evening so thought a whole day at Epcot was a good idea. But, as we had made some changes to the itinerary and had spent quite a bit of time at Epcot already and not so much time at the Animal Kingdom, we thought a morning in AK and the afternoon in Epcot might be a nice idea. So last night we had set the alarm so we could get to AK for a sensible time. Breakfast in the room and Piers wasnt particularly hungry, he never has been a breakfast person but we did get him to eat a packet of crisps! Obviously not ideal, but better than nothing and we could hopefully find him something nicer to eat at AK. We arrived at the park at a reasonable time and headed straight for Dinoland. Its A Bugs Life caught our attention before we got to Dinoland as it only had a queueing time of five minutes. Despite the fact that Trevor didnt enjoy this much last time, we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed. Trevor was really put off last time because of the amount of time we had to wait (despite having Fast Passes) and the fact we were sitting at the end of a row. He was convinced this would make a difference to the overall 3D effect. This time we got seats more centrally (and in the back row) and we all enjoyed it much better this time. I have a feeling the show was slightly different this time and I know some attractions are continuously changed slightly to keep peoples interest, but I couldnt quite place what was different about it. There were a load of bugs which came down from the ceiling, I couldnt recall that happening last time. After the show, Piers showed me some glasses (prescription glasses) hed found on a seat, we returned these to the woman CM who was collecting the bags of 3D glasses.
On to Dinoland and Piers and Trevor did Primeval Whirl. Michael and I decided to do our cowardly act again and sat this one out. Afterwards I regretted not doing it as I dont think it would have been that bad. A definite must do for me next time. Trevor said the queue for Primeval Whirl wasnt bad but the loading of the ride was slow, not sure if this is just incompetence or just a quirk of the ride itself. Trevor said it was no more scary than Splash Mountain, definitely will make the effort another time. I got Michael and myself sun-creamed up while we were waiting for them.
Next stop = Tarzan Rocks which turns out to be a rock concert sort of thing, but very entertaining. Theres a load of singing, acrobatics by Tarzan and Jane and a guy dancing around in a gorilla suit! Next stop = Festival of the Lion King. This is a definite must do a high profile attraction at AK and, in my opinion, a brilliant show. There are four floats on which enormous animated Lion King characters are wheeled out. Lots of singing, action, colour and audience participation.
Time to head out of the park and it starts to rain. This, unfortunately, turns into a very heavy downpour of solid water! Saying we got wet is the understatement of the century! We get onto the car park tram and I seem to get the brunt of the rain, it seems to be blowing in on me no matter which direction the tram turns! Had to get off the tram into the rain when it stops at our spot of course, theres nowhere to hide and we just have to accept the fact were drowned rats until we get back to our room. We give up on rushing around for cover, we are totally soaked from head to foot and unable to get any wetter, totally saturated. We might as well enjoy the free shower, just a shame we had no soap with us! The thought had crossed my mind that we must have looked like we had been pushed into a swimming pool fully clothed.
When we got back to CBR, we had something to eat and let it settle before deciding to go for a swim (despite effectively having a swim on the way out of the park!) and Trevor sorts out a load of washing. We had a great torrential downpour while in the pool. This made quite a few other people give up on swimming and went back to their rooms. Heavy rain definitely made swimming more interesting, but if you are wet already, whats the problem? I know a lot of people are worried if there is lightening, but there didnt seem to be any.
Out of the pool, dried and off to Epcot. Earlier in the day, I thought it would be brilliant to catch up with Chris and family (Earthbound) at the Ice Cream Social, but we massively overshot time-wise for that. Really wanted to do this at some stage but never found the time. First port of call Spaceship Earth in the golf ball. Second time of doing this and I dont think I would ever tire of doing it, nice and sedate no horrible loops or sudden drops!
Next port of call The Living Seas. A unique type of attraction and must be one of the most expensive ones of Disneys to create. There is a pre-show and then you are taken down in lifts to a huge area underground full of large aquatic tanks and exhibition areas. I suggest you allow a lot of time for this as there is a tremendous amount of stuff to look at and needs a respectable amount of time to see everything. We didnt have time to look at everything here, thinking we would make the effort to visit properly again the next time we visited Epcot.
Now off to sample the free drinks again sponsored by Coca Cola in Ice Station Cool. Trevor preferred the Beverley drink (which I think I mentioned the other day). Whats your favourite? Then the mandatory visit to the toilets afterwards!
We headed off towards the transfixing sound of Off Kilter, a brilliant bunch of skirted lads and I wish we had more time to listen to them. There were various people seated listening and a handful of people standing further back with cameras. There was nobody near the front of the stage and I took the opportunity to walk discretely down the side to take a picture from the edge of the stage. I was rumbled and they posed for me!
I thanked them and walked back with my prized photograph, heading around the back of the crowd. I then crept down towards the other end of the stage assuming I could get away with taking a picture of them performing in more natural poses WRONG
I was spotted again.
Now heading towards the UK and used the toilets in this area. Was very disappointed that inside here the facilities were still very American, never mind! We wandered about a bit and took some pictures.
Heading towards Hyde Park (around that left hand bend)
Rose & Crown in the UK
We found the Hyde Park area and sat down for a while. After a few minutes, quite a crowd gathered. The boys played in the maze area by the band stand and I wandered around the UK a little bit. I saw Earthbound and family on the other side of the street going towards Hyde Park but unfortunately didnt get my camera ready in time to catch them unawares. After a brief visit into one of the shops I headed back to Trevor and joined him on the bench. On the show times list, there was something about British Invasion and Trevor got quite excited. He is quite heavily interested in medieval history and automatically assumed thered be some sort of battle re-enactment going on. Couldnt be much further from the truth, of course!
The British Invasion, Beatles tribute band
The Beatles turned up and performed at around 7pm and we sat and watched for a while. Couldnt see Earthbound anywhere, but I suppose this wasnt his sort of music! I decided the chap being Ringo didnt sound enough like him, but the rest were good. We wondered off to the Rose and Crown at around 7.15pm to announce our presence for our booking at 7.20pm. My original p.s. booking for this evening was 8pm but I decided to move it forward a bit as I thought 8pm wouldnt give us enough time to eat before Illuminations. I really wanted 7.30pm but they could only do 7.20pm or 7.45pm. We asked the woman at the desk if we could have a terrace table. We were advised there was a 15 minute delay and we were given a pager. This pager would only work within the UK area, but at least it meant we wouldnt have to be stuck in one place waiting for our table.
We wandered into the shop opposite which had a nice display of swords and chess sets. I then spotted Earthbound and his family by the R&C desk and wandered over for a chat. I asked how his trip report note taking was coming along and Mrs E.B. pointed to his head saying its all in there, he hasnt written anything! Hope hes got a good memory; if they stuck to his itinerary they wouldnt have time to sleep so trying to write a trip report from memory is going to be challenging! Just as we are chatting, my pager goes off and Chris says can I have your pager? what cheek! No! I had just been explaining about the delay and that I had been given a pager. I immediately made my presence known again to the R&C staff and explained Id have to go and find my family. But no need, as if by magic, Trevor and the boys turned up and Chris asked the boys if they were having a nice time predictably they didnt answer being the shy pair that they are! We were led to a table on the terrace, a really nice spot right at the end.
What shall we eat?
Trevor ordered a rare steak and I had Harry Ramseys Fish & Chips which was mediocre. When Trevors steak first appeared, it was well cooked on the outside and raw in the middle. Sent it back of course and was ok the second time. Piers had the plain cheese pizza and Michael had a plate of chips (fries), typical of Michael! Pierss pizza came with a bowl of grapes. The service was generally slow and we had to ask every time we wanted a refill of soft drinks. Only two of us had puddings, I had the apple crumble with cream and Piers had ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles.
On one visit to the restrooms I found Chris and family occupying an inside table. They were disappointed not to get a terrace table and I told them theyd have to join us at 9pm for Illuminations. We never saw them again this evening
was it something I said! (I discovered later what happened, when I got home).We had a good view of Illuminations, but because our terrace table was near the wall, there was quite a bit of the canopy in the way of the higher fireworks. It was still pretty good though.
Watching Illuminations from our table
We were at our table in the Rose & Crown for a total of two hours, which is rather longer than I expected. But it worked out ok, we got to see the whole of Illuminations from there and we were happy and tired by the end of it even if the service was poor and the food not the best we had ever had! Piers was rather bored at various stages. I was glad we brought his Gameboy, but even then he only played with it for ten minutes.
Time to depart and we head for the main entrance of Epcot, taking a few pictures of that big round thing on the way passed! I have only posted a couple in this thread as they are really just touristy pictures I took for our own benefit, but I did rather like them.
This is one of my favourites
Epcot by night
Another long and tiring day, but great fun as usual. Another fun packed day planned for tomorrow our final day at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. How many scary rides can I manage to avoid this time!
Time for bed! ZzZzZzZzZz
