We did some leisurely strolling. Skip’s feet and legs were killing him. I really noticed him hobbling around. I assumed it was his hip, but he swears it was his feet that bothered him.
I didn’t take a picture of (why I didn’t, I don’t know) but there were some fencing up around the lake area over here and it said it was a hot set. Nothing was going on, so we “think” they were taking stuff down from something earlier. We did see guys out in the lake on a boat though too.
Skip asked if there was a fireworks show going on later, and we were told no, which I was sure I had read wasn’t happening, but you never know. Someone did say they have something in the summer, and I know I have read TRs that showed pictures of it.
I think down this street is where the Nickelodeon studios used to be. I know we toured it a couple of times and Paige once went with her Dads family and got to do some sort of shout out on one of the shows she watched being taped. They gave them the day it would air and then we recorded it. I don’t know if we still have it on tape anywhere or not. LOL
We stopped and rested for a while and watched the guys in the boat and I kept taking pictures.
We headed over to Disaster. That was one thing I wanted to do before we left for the day, and Claire wanted to give it a try too.
It’s right by the famous Richter’s Burgers and we joked about it once again.
I laughed when we got in line because so many people asked what this was. The TM would say it’s an attraction that is a show and ride…and people look at him like he’s crazy. …..There are these youtube videos where they have these cartoon people being CM’s and the people ask what it is, and that’s the response they get…and it escalates to a frustrated CM. They are so dumb, but funny too, and this made me think of it immediately.
Here is one of those videos, it’s not the one I was thinking of, but it still is funny.
And this one is funny too.
We waited in line and Skip kept asking me what this was like. I told him it was called Earthquake last time I rode it and it appeared to look a bit different on the outside, so I wasn’t sure how similar it would be.
We had a little wait, but soon we were headed into the first room. This has changed from when I saw it last (as Earthquake). I don’t remember it exactly, but I know it was different before. We had a girl who was casting people for a new movie and it was fun. She picked some people to be part of the “show” and she was pretty funny and the guys she picked were funny too. Claire just loved this…Skip didn’t care for it so much.
Next we went into the next room and the actors did there “thing” and it was taped. Again, I thought it was fun and funny. We were introduced to the owner of the studios and it was Christopher Walken….as a holograph. To me this was SO amazing. He looked so real and no flickering at all. He interacted with things and I really don’t think Claire even knew that it wasn’t a real person up there. I was impressed. I think we went to the ride vehicle next. This was pretty much the same ride (though I heard they did change it up for safety reasons because someone had gotten hurt (or killed?) several years ago when it was Earthquake. This time though, we are all part of the movie and the ride is part of the show…years ago, I do believe that we went on a subway ride and then “all of a sudden” there was an earthquake. This time was corny and we had to all pretend to be frightened. Claire loved it, Skip still wasn’t impressed ,but did like the ride portion a bit more.
On the way back to the station they play the movie they have just made. It’s pretty funny, and we laughed at the corny movie they made which also stared the “Rock” as the main character. They combined the guest actors in shots with him and it was so silly.
When we got off, Claire declared that this might be her new favorite ride, or at least tied with the Simpsons. Skip said he hoped not to ever go back on it. LOL!
After we left Disaster we decided it was time to work our way back to the front and head out. Claire said she had seen something in the Shrek gift shop and she wanted to use her money to buy it. We walked slowly and even took a small break and just enjoyed the views.
I took these for Brook. She lives in NYC and there is a Starbucks on every corner practically.
We would watch this ride every so often…and there is NO WAY any of us would ever get on it. The 2 adults have lost all their spunk, and the little one is just smart.
We made our way into the gift shop.
And Claire went straight to him.
He was cute…but another plushy…oh well….
We did get 10% off with our AAA card.
And here are the princess dresses I had mentioned earlier.
And out we went, and I still had that camera clicking.
They are still working on the new Despicable Me ride.
Not a good picture, but here is the locker area.
I stopped in here and took a quick look around. They had the thing 2 tank top and I debated on getting it, but I decided to wait again and see if anything else caught my fancy first.
We headed out of the park and made our way to the parking garage. It’s funny how Skip and Claire now were walking fairly fast, but I was lagging behind this time around. ….. Mostly due to taking pictures though.
I thought this was really cute and hadn’t noticed it when we arrived that morning. It’s a mini golf course.
This is where we found that people were using the people mover walkways as a ride. (Skip did too at this point) It drives me bonkers. I don’t mind if you ride, but move to one side so people can pass you. Claire and I kept walking and said excuse me a zillion times as we walked. People would look at us like we were the nutty ones.
This is in the middle area where you chose which way to go to your parking garage. It’s a little gift stand and has a Jurassic park theme. I remember this from the last time we visited.
We made it back to the car. Skip was really sore and a bit grumpy now. We also had to fight with the car door to get it to unlock. I was so annoyed at the car. Why can’t it just unlock like a normal car.
We drove back and traffic was literally bumper to bumper near our hotel. Not sure what was going on, but we ended up going a long way around to it so we could turn at a light, as just making a left hand turn with no light was never going to happen. It still didn’t take us too long to get back.
Claire and Skip headed down to the pool. It was around 8 PM now. I took a shower.
If you have read my past TR’s, you might have noticed my hair is a little shorter this time around. I cut it last fall fairly short for me. I wanted to get off old perm and drippy ends and wanted a change. It was cute, but after a month, I no longer liked it. I am a ponytail kind of girl and I like to just throw my hair in one daily and not mess with it. Not happening with short hair. So I have been letting it grow out. And it’s going so slowly. I also can’t just wash and fluff dry and have it look decent either. It’s still got some old perm on the ends and it just looks awful in general. So if I go in public, I have to straighten it to make it look halfway decent. This takes time of course.
So while they swam, I took my shower and did the straightening of the hair process again. I put on a sundress and felt clean and fresh and ready to do something.
Skip and Claire came back up and Claire declared it was the best pool ever because it had a hot tub too. (She says this about every pool we go to)
I asked Claire if she wanted to take a shower and she said no, she just swam so she is clean. LOL! Ok, we are on vacation, let’s let it go for today. We got her dressed and her hair combed and dried, and told Skip we wanted to go to Beaches and Cream for icecream. He grumbled a bit about not being hungry, and I told him we would go without him then…..well he got moving then.
He did say he better not have to walk a lot because he was so sore and tired from me dragging him around for 17 hours straight…a “bit” of an exaggeration there.
We got directions from the front desk on how to get the expressway to Disney area and once again fought with the door locks on the car, then took off.
It didn’t take too long to get there. We pulled up to the Yacht Clubs parking gate and we were told there was a hard close, so we couldn’t park. I guess that means they have too many people there right now and only guest resorts or those with ADR’s could park there. I asked about the Beach Club lot and he told me it was the same. UGH! He did say go over to the Boardwalk and we would be able to park there. OK. But I knew the “walking” would be longer, but I didn’t mention that to Skip.
We were able to park at the Boardwalk, and wow, what a walk that was JUST to get to the resort. Us lowly people who are not staying onsite have to park really far out. I just kept my spirits up and ignored the complainers in my family. I really don’t think Claire cared at all, but since Skip grumbled, she thought she should as well.
My BW pictures aren’t very good because I was on the move and it was dark.
We made it out to the boardwalk, and some entertainment was just finishing up. It looked like it was good, because it had quite a crowd dispersing at the moment.
I tried to figure which way around the lake would be faster, but honestly, I don’t think either is, so we headed in the direction of the YC.
We kept walking the Boardwalk, trying to make our way to B&C. I didn’t want to rush and make Skip hurt more, so we strolled at a leisurely pace, but I had to hold myself back from walking faster……after all there was an ice-cream sundae with my name on it….just waiting for me.
As we walked by the Yacht Club I pointed out the room that Brook and I stayed in last Aug. Skip was like “What? Why did you stay here?” Almost like he was accusing me of staying at a nice place without his knowledge. Um…I had told him over and over where I had stayed…..he just doesn’t listen. And this is where we HAD to stay, it was part of the program, we didn’t choose our resort.
As we passed Storm Along Bay I took a few dark pictures. They were doing some construction and parts of it were shut down.
Soon we reach B&C and we went up to ask about the wait….30 minutes. UGH! Of course, I have grumpy along and now he has to wait. I said fine, but the guy offered that we go in the “to go” part, which Skip promptly said yes and the same time I said no. I told the guy I wanted a No Way Jose, and he then agreed, yes we would have to wait for that one. We grabbed a buzzer and Claire panicked. She was starving and could not possibly wait any longer for food. So I told them to sit with the buzzer and I would head to the market place and get her a pizza. I walked fast, but I had forgotten just how far away the Market Place was. I ordered her a kids pepperoni pizza and waited. Soon it was done and I got in line to pay. The gal told me this was a kids pizza and I had to get 2 sides and a drink. I told her I didn’t want that, just to charge me for the pizza. Couldn’t be done, it was the same price either way. So I told her what I would get as sides and a drink and paid and headed back to the refrigerator area and pulled out a pack of grapes, a cookie and a milk and off I went to find my gang…..only they were not where I left them. I took a peek inside of B&C and sure enough they were seated at the counter…in the same exact seats that Patty and I had sat in last summer. We even had the same waitress. Skip said he ordered. I was amazed that he even remembered what I wanted, but I did catch the waitress’s attention and let her know I wanted my No Way Jose with only vanilla ice-cream.
Claire started in on her pizza while we waited.
Skip and I nibbled at it too. I actually think Skip ate half of it. (Remember he wasn’t even hungry) We saved the sides and took them back to our hotel with us and nibbled on those for a snack when hungry later on.
Soon “heaven on Earth” was brought out.
Claire and I shared it and Skip got a strawberry milkshake. It was very large and they even gave him the mixer cup to refill his glass. He said it was very good. I did not take a picture of it though, as I was too busy admiring my treat.
I took this picture and posted it on facebook and had the caption “Where am I?”
Several people responded, and most were right, or close, but I got some off the wall answers too.
Claire and I dug in and oohed and ahhed and mmm’d. She agreed that this was absolutely wonderful.
I am proud to say that in August I ate every last drop by myself. This time Claire fizzled out early and I got to the point that I just couldn’t eat the last few bites. I hated not finishing it, but I was about to explode.
We paid and headed out. Skip decided we would walk the other way back to the Boardwalk because it looked closer to him. I really don’t think it is, but I didn’t care which way we walked. Everyone was in a better mood now.
And we headed out to the parking lot and into our car. We made the drive back to Quality Inn and I think a little someone had dozed off in the back seat while we drove…..though she would never admit it.
We were all tired at this point and got ready for bed.
We watched a little bit of TV and I checked out facebook on my kindle and before we knew it, we all drifted off to dreamland.
And that is the end of Day 2! 2 1/2 more full days left!
I woke up pretty early, I believe around 6:15 or so and got dressed and left the sleeping beauties alone. I grabbed my nook, phone and notebook and went outside and caught up on the happenings in the world via facebook and email. I had a message from a client, actually a couple, she sent me a couple via facebook and an email too. She was a transfer and when I left home, her reservation still hadn’t transferred over to me and I let her know that it should be done when I got home. Disney likes to take their sweet old time. Well…it went through, but her pay off date was on Thursday, so Disney wouldn’t let her make a final payment. I could tell she felt a little frazzled, so I emailed her back and told her I would call her and take care of it. She lives in a different time zone, so I went to writing notes in my notebook till the time came to call her.
I ate a little bit of breakfast and then checked on my crew in the room. It was so funny, because Claire would sleep with Skip, but hog the bed. She would squirm right up against him and I swear most times his rear was hanging off the edge of the bed. I took this quick shot, but it doesn’t even show how bad it was at times.
I still had time to waste, so I went back outside and took some morning pictures.
Not all the views were beautiful….like this abandoned parking lot next door.
After a little walk, I headed back upstairs around 7:30. Skip got up and was moving, and he headed out to get a bite to eat. I made my call to my client and got everything worked out just fine…I called Disney next and had it all taken care of in 15 minutes. Next job was to get Claire up and moving. She was a little slower today, but she eventually did get up and get ready for another full fun day.
We headed over to Universal and I think we were in our parking spot around 8:15. Not too bad. We didn’t make the rope drop, but we still were there for early hours.
We walked a little slower today. I was still excited, but my family didn’t feel the need to rush, which was fine. Once we hit City Walk, the camera was out again and I took a few shots.
And LOOK! They have a pick a pearl here too. It’s not as nice as the one at Epcot, but they do have that option.
The turn styles looked like a ghost town compared to the day before.
We started to go the way we went the day before and then stopped. We decided to try the other way around today, and also check on the time wait for Spiderman. Now honestly, I was not…..and still am not sure what all is open for early entry. But we thought we would check it out and see since we weren’t in a huge hurry.
I never even noticed this times board the day before.
I took a couple shots in the queue, but it was completely walk on, so they are not good as I was walking fast.
I don’t know how to describe this ride….but it was AWESOME!!!! I think one of the best rides I have ever been on. It had been newly refurbished, but I couldn’t tell you what was done. It’s in 3D and the graphics are just amazing. The best 3D I have ever seen. You move around in a car, not like a roller coaster, but not like a dark ride…...it was just amazing. I am not a fan of the Spiderman story, but I would ride this ride over and over. Claire and Skip both enjoyed it too. This is another ride that Disney needs to take some notes on.
After our amazing adventure we worked our way towards the WWOHP. Of course, more pictures were taken on the way.
I love how the music from the movies plays in the area. It totally gives you the feeling you are in the park. We found another jeep with dinosaur and I made my crew stop.
We strolled through…looking for the water ride…..and I couldn’t find it, ….well the entrance. We wanted to see if it was running and how long the wait was, but somehow we missed it.
We went to see if the Pteranadon Flyers were running. I swore I saw some dangling legs go by, but the line was closed.
One thing to note about this ride…it has some weird rules. If you are over a certain height, you have to be accompanied by a child. So really only 1 of us would’ve been able to ride with Claire, and the other would’ve had to wait…and basically do an adult swap. LOL!
Claire asked to check out the play area, but I told her not now…which really meant…never. LOL! I am not a fan of play areas at theme parks, so I avoid them like the plague. If we need some down time, we might do them, but for the most part…in years past with my older 2, it was more hassle trying to get the kids out and then of course crying followed.
