Photo TR: UO, WDW, St. Pete, etc.

[dandaman]

Since I’ve heard it was the better side by a fair margin, I chose Fire first. (Sorry for the blurriness, but it doesn’t look too bad with the photo subject.)

Ice was immediately after, and I was actually the first rider for that, too! Overall, the ride has an incredible unfolding storyline for the queue’s eye candy, and eye candy it is. The ride itself has quite a few close calls and near-miss fly-bys, some of which you might see here. My 6’1” body could barely tell that my feet wouldn’t touch other people’s feet.

This wall was probably the most OMG moment of them all!

So I more or less did some random rides, and all of these next pictures are slightly out of order in which I rode. I tried to compile most of the shots into one subject.

Here comes the other “oh-of-course-I-wouldn’t-ride-THAT…” roller coaster of the trip:

 

[dandaman]

Aah, yes… the part of IOA made famous by a certain movie… though the name escapes me.

rawr

See, Epcot? They keep their “Discovery Center” open! =)

Hold your horses, I’m gettin’ to ya…

Next up is a tranquil ride down the river, straight through dino country and past a few very safe raptor enclosures.

It doesn’t look all that bad…

…OMG!

Alas, the only coaster I didn’t ride… Pteranodon Flyers… mostly due to its 45-minute wait after an hour of park opening, and the fact that I needed to steal/persuade a kid under 48” to ride with me.

 

[dandaman]

Look! It’s the land where you find all the comic strip characters you forgot, never cared about, or knew existed!

The star attraction here was me.

Or, at least it involved my nationality.

Ripsaw Falls was a rip-roaring good time. I love all the witty, bordering-on-cheesy references or jokes throughout the ride. Though, the highlight was getting completely soaked, going underwater, and having airtime on the secondary drops with absolutely no lapbar. AWESOME.

Hey again Connor…

Wheeeee!

For me? Oh, you shouldn’t have. (I’ll take it in small bills, please.)

Hidden Rocky!

I didn’t actually go on this… frankly I was drenched enough on Dudley Do-Right’s.

Just to segue back into our next thrill ride:

 

[dandaman]

Here comes the 20-photo onslaught of the most photogenic ride at Islands of Adventure: The Incredible Hulk! Synopsis: Launch uphill at 40 mph, barrel roll, cobra roll, loop, lots of other crazy track twists not really visible from the park paths. Yep.

 

[dandaman]

…End transmission.

 

[dandaman]

Pretty trees in Seuss Landing…

I’m sure the backside of Mythos appreciates being my 3000th picture.

“I’m angry #3001... Could you at least GIMME SOME CREDIT?”

Hey, Poseidon, Satan called… he wants his fondue fork back.

This next attraction looks a lot better from the outside.

Sure, a crazy water tunnel gets some good points, but the “battle” seemed a little lacklustre. Oh, well. (The show is a bit too complicated to describe.)

Some of you might have seen this talking fountain on Ellen, and it’s even funnier in person. I literally spent an hour by a bench near him. I was just out of “firing range”, but that didn’t stop him from squirting water at my feet just to “keep me on edge”. Then he asked for some of the popcorn I was eating at the time. Honestly, any fountain that says anything, especially “What’s crackalackin’, tall guy?” is the greatest fountain ever. :lol:

 

[dandaman]

The only stage show I saw was the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad. A lot of humour, wit, action, drama, and pop culture references make this one a real winner.

I love the details here… if you look close enough, there’s dynamite and rockets embedded in Dudley’s head, and Snively Whiplash is tucked behind the bushes with the ammo.

The aftermath of Ripsaw Falls. (I kept this one small so as not to scare the children.)

If that’s Captain America’s ATV… then…

omg omg omg its captain america!!!1!1!!one

Doctor Doom’s Fear Fall (or according to below, octor Doom’s Ear Fal) was a good ride, but I still think Power Tower at Cedar Point’s more forceful. (Speaking of which, I just opened up my mail… my season pass arrived!)

Forgot this: Mom and sis were chosen for a group of 150 people yesterday back at the Studios to participate in a live NBC show!

They sometimes have celebrity appearances, while other times they have giveaways. They both got new $100 curling irons. (Meanwhile, I rode the Mummy, thank you very much.)

Since I felt guilty for having no candy pictures yet.

And I felt hungry, so…

I spent an hour watching the Hulk in a more tranquil place of the park and ate the sundae. That and the Pier tie for most relaxing moments of the vacation.

That about covers it for today. I’m to sail to another port of call for now, which actually involves a steak dinner (Fire Dragon had the right idea!)

‘Till then, folks…

 

[Uponastar]

Sure, a crazy water tunnel gets some good points, but the “battle” seemed a little lacklustre. Oh, well. (The show is a bit too complicated to describe.)

Some of you might have seen this talking fountain on Ellen, and it’s even funnier in person. I literally spent an hour by a bench near him. I was just out of “firing range”, but that didn’t stop him from squirting water at my feet just to “keep me on edge”. Then he asked for some of the popcorn I was eating at the time. Honestly, any fountain that says anything, especially “What’s crackalackin’, tall guy?” is the greatest fountain ever. :lol:

I love that crazy water tunnel!

“What’s crackalackin’, tall guy?”

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I am filing that one away for future use!

 

[dandaman]

I am filing that one away for future use!

Crap. :lookaroun

 

[Uponastar]

Crap. :lookaroun

:kiss:

 

[MAF]

I love that crazy water tunnel!

“What’s crackalackin’, tall guy?”

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I am filing that one away for future use!

I laughed out loud to that one as well! :lol:

 

[nibblesandbits]

I love that crazy water tunnel!

“What’s crackalackin’, tall guy?”

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I am filing that one away for future use!

:lol:

That is awesome! :ROFLOL:

 

[Connor002]

Hey Connor

Truer words were never carved into/printed on a sign. :lookaroun

Hey again Connor…

I WANT THAT SIGN. :lookaroun

 

[sillyspook13]

They sometimes have celebrity appearances, while other times they have giveaways. They both got new $100 curling irons. (Meanwhile, I rode the Mummy, thank you very much.)

I've never heard of a $100 curling iron, and I'm a chick!:lookaroun

 

[palmage]

After the tour (sometime around lunch), the family decided to explore the rest of the city. This next part was probably the most surprising part of the trip… I never even knew it existed.

The St. Pete Pier: Home to the best darned restaurant view in the world!

I’d never been to this side of Florida before… simply stunning.

And now, a word from our sponsor.

“This Photo TR is brought to you in part by the new AT&T: Raising the bar.”

Pelicans: Given the chance, they WILL peck your eyes out.

The city itself is also really beautiful.

Glass elevators are always cool, right?

St Pete is a fantastic place, it's a great secret.
Gawd I love this town.
BTW Cha Cha's is OK but you should try the Columbia next time:animwink:

 

[dandaman]

Day 5: Déjà Vu

As the title implies, I did a little of both parks today, just to revisit most things (and a couple of new).

…Hey, I finally got it right!

Welcome to Universal Studios Florida Florida.

The first thing I neglected to see before was Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue. I was surprised at the PG-13 content of the show, but I thought it was more hilarious than offensive. It’s nice to have a theme park where you can have such a show with no real limits on humour.

Mick Jagger makes a special guest appearance. (Let’s rob him!)

 

[dandaman]

Last New York shot, I promise.

Even this little guy’s getting in the Mardi Gras spirit…

The next attraction was one that I could’ve done over and over again. Probably the funniest 3-D show I’ve seen. And I’ve seen a whole 6! :lookaroun

The most memorable moment was the Magic Mirror’s safety instructions.

“Please move all the way across your row, or you will be FLOGGED! Flash photographers will be burned at the stake! And please do not wear your OgreVision Goggles until safely seated inside the theatre, unless you really, really like falling over.”

That’s officially it from USF. Exit stage right, folks!

 

[dandaman]

Hopped over to IOA to do something I was just DYING to do…

It looks like roller coaster track… and it has curves and gradual downgrades… therefore it’s TOTALLY EXTREME!

That “One Fish, Two Fish” song is permanently carved on my brain… (Even though this is the Carou-Seuss-el)

Well, c’mon! You didn’t think I’d go the day without a Hulk picture, right?

Final picture from Universal Orlando is fairly unremarkable… but, as with them all… decent bacon cheeseburger. =)

Hasta la bye bye!

Leaving the Universal “complex” brought the only real clouds of the entire trip! (I’d never seen “The severe storm is 23 miles southwest of Animal Kingdom” as a Weather Channel ticker’s reference point until that day.)

Since you’ve all been so patient over these past few Universal days (and for some of you it’s probably been hard to experience…), here’s a nice big Disney billboard to cap off the day.

(By the way, we never did end up getting that storm. )

 

[dandaman]

Day 6: *yawn*

Just a little pic: We left Orlando at about 9 a.m., and finally hit a HUGE rainstorm while driving on the Turnpike. Even stranger than that, however, was seeing this little guy on a flatbed!

He even had his “real” license plate and everything! Before you say “Lights, Motors, Action”, keep in mind we were heading AWAY from Disney property.

So, because it was race weekend in Atlanta (and we would have been hitting rush hour on a Friday no less), we decided at (my first ever) Cracker Barrel that we’d take a little detour and rejoin I-75 at Knoxville. Now, I’d never gone this way before, and it was a little stressful to navigate through rural routes with a U.S. map. Though it felt like trying to find your town on a globe, I got us through to Cherokee, North Carolina for the night. We unknowingly got a really good deal on a Comfort Inn Suites ($53), and it might well have been worth $150 in the summer!

 

[dandaman]

Day 7: On Top of Old Smoky

Here’s the view from our “discount” room‘s balcony, which would be even prettier in the summertime.

Cherokee, NC is just south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Never been in my life, but then again, this trip was full of firsts!

I expected something like the “typical” I-75 mountains of Tennessee… naturally, my expectations were shattered, re-assembled, and shattered again.

Simply amazing.

3-D visitor center map says, “GIMME SOME CO-ORDINATES!”

Remember, kids: Only YOU can prevent burnt marshmallows.

Here comes the hour-long part of the drive where I simply stared slack-jawed and kept taking pictures no matter what.