Trip report...finally!

Well, I'm finally not lazy enough to actually write a review of my trip although I will do it a day or two at a time as to not drive myself crazy. It was the first time I had been to WDW in 6 or 7 years which I assure you will not be the amount of time between now and the next trip. I'm almost half tempted to just move to florida. I had had such an incredible time, the trip could not have been much more perfect although it didn't exactly start that way. Here we go...

Day 1 + 2

We left for florida at 10pm central time 2 tuesdays ago with a 20 hour trip ahead of us. It started smoothly enough, until we missed our exit and seriously got turned around (this was somewhere past chicago) and we couldn't just turn around and go back because there was major traffic for whatever reason (at midnight mind you) on both sides with traffic at a stand still on the other side, and my sister didn't know how to read a map so I had to wing it. When it came down to it, we lost about 3 hours and almost just went back home, but got back on track and had a smooth trip until we hit Georgia.

I ended up getting pulled over in Georgia because I was apperently deviating from my lane, but as soon as the officer realized I wasn't drunk he let me go, no harm done.

Heading into Florida, we ran into one hell of a storm, but managed, although we were headed to my aunt's in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, in the rain which made it next to impossible to find, but we did. We were on the rode for 23 and a half hours by the time we got there which I drove all but 4 hours of which I'm still not sure how I did.

When we got to my aunt's it was about 10;30, maybe 11 and no one was home except for the dog that wanted to bite our faces off, so we said screw it and drove another 2 and a half hours to Orlando which I must admit would have been way toooo much to pull off twice a day for five days (didn't realize it was that far).

We ended up staying at the Howard Jonhson on international drive right next to universal for 45 bucks a night which I thought was quite a deal. We stayed there all week and it worked out beautifully. The next day we went to universal IOA which was our one and only day there. Will post that tonight.

 

[martinthesparta]

Day 3

It was our first day at the parks. After the previous night and the forcast for the week, I was concerned the weather wouldn't be favorable, but it turned out perfect.

This day it was IOA. I must say I was rather impressed with the theming from the get go. The port of entry was beautiful and I wish we had had more time to explore it, but oh well. It's kinda hard to compare IOA's theming and construction with WDW. In many instances IOA facades look more impressive (ie Posidon's Fury, Ripsaw Falls ect), but WDW's look more polished and professional with a more indepth attension to detail, but I was still pretty impressed. The one thing I did notice though that kinda bothered me was the maitnence of the rides in general. They seriously look like they have not been touched since they opened. I don't remember specifics, but i remember that many effects did not work real well (and certainly were not on par with disney to begin with) and were in disrepare other wise (lots of chiped and worn paint).

The first ride we went on was Spider-Man with a 45 min wait, but it was worth it. The queue was a little blah, but the ride itself was incredible! Best ride I have ever been on! The combination of 3d and real effects was more than effectivley handled. I love both the part in the air at the end and when hobgoblin throws the pumkin and it makes a hole in the actual set piece building. Outstanding.

Next was Popeye. Great freaking raft ride. I didn't go to AK, so I can't compare the two, but I can't imagine this one could be topped. I loved the popeye props, and the octopus was cool. Also love the lift hill through the car wash or whatever that was. The only problem was after this ride, my feet were not dry for the rest of the day, which left them suseptible to blisters, like 10 of um, for the rest of the trip, but I managed. Getting wet on rides at this park just seems to be a running theme in general whether a little or a lot.

JP river adventure was next. Decent ride. Dinos don't even compare to even UOE. And the fact that you are much closer to them and in direct light probally doesn't help, but when the rubber starts flappin around when they move, that's kinda bad. The T-Rex and the drop at the end were worth the entire ride though, that's for sure. The raptor containment area was pretty niftey too. That's one steep freaking lift hill.

We stopped for lunch at the pizza place at jurassic park. The prices were just as expensive as WDW, but really felt like I got my money's worth (for a themepark anyways). The pizza was good, highly recomended, and the optional cesar salad was a nice touch. And the cashier girl was makin eyes at me. She wasn't half bad herself. All in all, very nice stop.

On to lost continent and dueling dragons which litterally had no line. That is probally the longest queue line ever, but walking through is almost as good as the ride it self. Loved the stain glass movie window. Nice touch. The coaster itself was phenominal, one of the best. Did fire and ice back to back. The area in general is also just so cool. The enchanted oak looked awesome. But then there was posideon's fury. I was in awe!. Amazing looking facade. The show inside was lame, but oh well. I however love the water tunnel effect. Very cool. We didn't even bother to see Sinbad. The guide book said it was not inspiring, so we didn't want to waist our time.

Cat in the hat was next and in my opinion a bust. Nothing real special about it. And a pet peeve of mine is on rides like this when you are supposed to be in a foreign environment and you can see the rafters and lighting. Just takes me out of it completely. Feels like i'm in a warehouse and not the land of dr. seuss.

By this point we made the round trip and went on the hulk. A little bit of a wait but worth it. Not as smooth as dragons, but just as good if not better, went on it twice. And we did dr. doom just for the heck of it. Not bad, but nothing new or special. If it had any kind of a line we would have skipped it.

We did popeye again and then ripsaw which we skipped earlier in the day due to the line much like we did with hulk. The line was still long but we went for it anyways. It was definetly fun. The props and effects were worn and paled in comparison to splash anyways, but the drop was great and much better than splash. The facade to this ride is also so cool.

Did JP again and walked through the discover center which was a waist of time, but the view across the lagoon was worth it.

Then it was back to LC and dragons one more time, and dinner at the enchanted oak. It was decent. I was a little ticked that my turkey leg was so tough, but the rest of the meal, which I can't remember exactly what it was, was decent. The ambience was nice too. Nice music.

In between all the rides we checked out the shops whci had decent merchandise. I got a speder man keychain and a plush ice dragon cause I love dragons and it's freakin sweet to begin with.

It was back to Spider man to round out the day. I was hoping to get on atleast twice, but there were three things I wasn't counting on. One being I thought the park closed at 9 when it closed at 8, so I think we got on just in time, the single rider line was closed, and the darn thing shut down. We were 5 minutes from it shutting down for the night, but we got lucky and got on one last time. By the time we got out it was already 9:15.

On the way out through the city walk I wanted to buy a pharoh hat, but it didn't fit well. It would have been fun to wear on the trip back to milwaukee and see what kind of looks I got. Another time perhaps.

All in all, the day was a success, I would certainly go back, and was the perfect start to our week. Tommorrow i'll add day 2 at the parks, Magic Kingdom.