Florida April 2011

[Nicky]

For my 21st birthday, me and my Dad went to Florida for 12 nights just before Easter. We went on a package deal with Virgin (less hassle).

Day 1 - 7th April

Flew out from Manchester on a brand new plane. Shame it was 2 hours delayed because of technical difficulties. That was all we get told. "This flight will now leave at 1pm because of technical difficulties." Then we got listen to them announce the boarding from the flight to Las Vegas instead.

So instead I abused the free 30 min wifi at the departure gate

I've flown with Virgin before but this was a much more modern plane with nifty new cup holders so you didn't have to use the whole table

I watched Morning Glory and King's Speech before my attention waned and I just flicked through Due Date, Despicable Me (seen already) and 30 Rock (spited by the pilot switching off the entertainment system with 5 minutes to go.

It was 8pm before we finally landed and got through Orlando airport. I seem to have neglected to take photos of our hotel so this will have to do:

We unfortunately had to go to the welcome meeting to get our invitation to the early entry for Harry Potter land the next day so it was a quick tea at Pizza Hut (portion sizes are ridiculous) before an early night.

Day 2 - 8th April

After a free continental breakfast, we started our adventure to the House of Blues, Downtown Disney. In hindsight we could have just walked but we didn't know how close it actually was. First was the 8am shuttle to the Transportation and Ticket Centre. Once there we grabbed our 14 day passes before trying to get a bus to DD. Unfortunately Disney are crafty because you don't have to pay to park at DD so they make it really awkward to get from and to the parks so you don't try and avoid paying. We were carless so we just got caught up in the system. It was a walk to the Polynesian resort where we could catch a bus to DD. A long walk from Marketplace to House of Blues. After picking up the stupid paper invitation we decided upon going to Hollywood Studios via Old Key West.

Fingerprint taken, we were finally allowed into the park. This is where I got really excited because it was the first park we had been to. I knew what I wanted to do so we headed over to Sunset Boulevard.

Fastpass for ToT gained it was over to Rock n Roller. Really should have got the FP for this but we had already made our decision so it was the standby queue.

The queue wasn't bad the first time through so we decided to do it again. That was a bad idea as it was being really badly batched. They just were letting loads of FP through without letting them wait even for five minutes so the standby queue crawled its way through. Really enjoyed it, haven't been on the one at Paris. I still get freaked out by launches, especially when they count down. The second time it failed to launch so we just got blasted with music without going anywhere. I expected it to be a lot rougher than it was.

It was then time for our ToT fastpass. ToT was having some cosmetic work done on the outside but it was still open. A lot of people thought the crane was just part of the theming so where really confused when it started moving.

I really enjoyed ToT. When it was only a seatbelt, I just thought that it wouldn't really be that forceful but I was surprised by how much you felt yourself raise up. The staff really do get into their roles, managing to creep quite a few people out. We saw the chicken lift a few times which was funny because it's a modern stainless steel lift. It looks really out of place when the doors open and its revealed. Considering it has a weird loading pattern, they really do fill it up as best they can and it never felt like you were waiting for long.

As we walked out and debated getting another FP for it, a random passerby gave us his saying that he didn't want them any more. So we went back on it straight away, luckily the cast member at the entrance had changed so it wasn't too suspicious.

Apart from Rock n Roller and ToT, I really wanted to go on Toy Story Midway Mania. Unfortunately this has the biggest queues and the FP run out really quickly. It seems to suffer as being one of only a few rides that have FP that the whole family can enjoy so that's where everyone uses there FP quota there.

Much disgust at the 90 minute queue we decided to find something else. It seems that no matter what park I am at there seems to be downtime period of the day where you just spend loads of time wandering around without actually achieving anything. We walked round in a complete circle trying to find somewhere to eat before deciding just to go on the Backlot tour. It wasted some time and it did involve a sit down. However before we watched some random volunteers get soaking wet filming some "special effects"

It does seem a bit random the whole thing and it is rather short without much being seen. It used to be longer but got chopped into by the car stunt show and when they opened Streets of America for public foot traffic.

I somehow managed to drag my Dad to Beauty and the Beast after lunch. It was soon becoming clear that you either ate burgers/hot dogs/chicken nuggets or you brought your own food. The food options were rather poor and some more variety would have been better.
Now B&B was completely on ffw so you only got a few songs and didn't see the yellow dress until the very end which was kind of disappointing.

Muppets was next on the list after Benin had recommended it. Found it really amusing to watch with some good 3D effects and a mixture of stuff actually happening in the auditorium. It was helped by being the first 3D show of the holiday so the fatigue and predictability hadn't completely set in. The hardest task of the day was getting a picture of Miss Piggy on the fountain with her facing the right way.

Having done everything we wanted to, it was time to brave the Toy Story queue. It was advertising a 70 minute queue. The amount of effort and attention to detail that has gone into the queue made it not so bad to queue in. At a basic level its a set of cattle pens, but there is so much to look at on both the floor, walls and ceiling. Small injokes too.

Even when the queue was so themed, it did get a tad depressing. All the adults in the queue seemed to have this glazed expression on their faces. Woody's roundup on repeat wasn't helping.

The extra bit of queue at the top of the stairs nearly killed me.

Considering the fact that there are a lot of cars on the track, it seems to take forever to get loaded up. It stops in a few places (with extra non-scoring rounds if you are stuck there for more than 30 seconds), especially at the end where it majorly stacks up.

Considering the queue and slow loading, I really liked it. That may have been because it was a shooting game that I was actually good at. It was enough to keep the adults entertained yet simple enough for smaller kids to score some points too. The gun adjusts with the lap bar so that it is close enough for each individual guest. I managed to beat my dad which may have also changed my opinion of it.

By the time we came off Toy Story, we had to head back to the entrance for our free shuttle back to the hotel. While they were a good idea, they did get a bit busy and for some parks there was only one drop off and one pick up a day. It meant you were limited to leaving the park an hour or more before it closed when it was getting quieter.

I didn't quite realise how long this post was so if you got to the end of it well done. Only another 11 days to go.

 

[alexr]

Great Report so far, I love Florida!

This is making me look forward to going more this year!

 

[Nicky]

Day 3 - 9th April

Thanks to Virgin this involved a rather early wake up. We got an invitation to...

ERT at Harry Potter!! So a taxi was taken at quarter past six in the morning...no shuttle buses at that time in the morning. It also meant we got to Universal before the sun had even come up.

So it was just us and a bunch of other jet lagged British. We had our fingerprint taken again to get our Orlando Flexiticket plus. I seriously got sick of having my fingerprint used every time we entered a park, used a locker (Universal) and then we had all of them taken at immigration.

We were all standing and waiting around to be taken down to Harry Potter when another group turned up. Hello ACE!

They got ERT on Hulk...

We got something a lot better but first we had to wander through a deserted Seuss Landing. It was very...bright, definitely practice for Nickelodeon Land

But finally we got to what we were waiting for. I was like a child in a sweet shop. I was just amazed. It was good to be able to walk around without getting mowed down by strollers and tourists.

First up was breakfast in the Three Broomsticks. Went slightly mad and also they had bottles of water so me and my Dad acquired 4 bottles for the rest of the day.

It's the third day and it is about time that my dad appears...with a very flattering photo of him

It was so close but it wasn't open yet

Once we had eaten breakfast and acquired a lot of water it was off back onto the main street. I was shocked that you couldn't even go to the toilet without having Moaning Myrtle talking to you. It was just the attention to detail in the whole thing. This carried on with the castle itself. We noticed a rush of people come past us and realised that they had let the hotel guests in. So we joined the stream and got to the top of Hogsmeade and saw the castle from the proper angle. Woah!!

(photo from later on in the day)

The ride wasn't exactly open yet but they were letting people into the queue. Having negotiated the locker system and discovering that our bag fit into the locker with about a mm to spare, we started moving through the queue. We laughed at how long it was and the fact we were walking straight through it. Stupid thing to do because we experienced it later on in the day.

Me and dark rides don't go together that well so the first time round it was with my eyes shut. Literally as soon as the scary stuff kept happening all the way to the end. Really had to work on that for the rest of the day/holiday. When we got off, we decided to use the poorly (I.e. no existent really) signed single rider queue. Walked straight past everyone to the front of the queue. The only downside is you miss out on a good part of the castle by using the queue.

Once me and dad had reunited and reclaimed our bag, we did the shameful ride of the day. It was a squeeze but me and my Dad just fit into Flight of the Hippogryff together so it was a quick ride round on that. Time for random photos just to break up the text since I kinda got a bit neglectful with taking photos. My excuse? I was walking around with my jaw on the floor...oh and spending money.

Next it was the one thing that is bad when there are no queues, you spend a lot of time walking through empty queue lines. It is the only time that you just wish for cattle pens that could be cut off. Especially when you have to do the queue twice so that you get both sides of Dragon's challenge.

After spending too much money in Dervish and Bangs and tackling the challenge of writing a postcard when you have to stick three huge stamps on it and leave the Hogsmeade post mark visible, it was getting really busy so we decided to head out into the other areas of the park. Hulk was first, it only said a five minute queue so we joined it. 40 minutes later and after a lot of spiraling we made it to the top. As much as I should like Hulk, I found it horrible. That inversion at the top of the tunnel just made me shudder. We really should have gone on it again but the queue was just too long. It was a Saturday.

We started heading over for Popeye but first stopped at Dr Doom. There was A/C, so much A/C I started shivering at one point. Also we discovered the delights of having different rooms but each with a cattle pen so you finally get out of one room and you see another cattle pen. Shot towers always scare me but there was just something a bit meh about it. The theme was odd, having only known Dr Doom from the Fantastic Four movies, so it took a while of getting used to.

Now...I had heard stories about Popeye but you never quite imagine how wet you actually get. I was expecting Valhalla on a bad day. I might as well have just got into the shower in my clothes it was that bad. I was spited by the lift hill stopping with me right under one of the water jets. It was horrible the first time you got wet but after that it was amusing because you couldn't get any wet. The law of karma appeared a few times, and people got their just desserts for laughing at others. It was also the shortest queue of the day which was really appreciated.

The best thing to do was to go for Dudley Do Right's. Just a shame it was a 70 minute queue so I dripped my way through it. I only stopped just as I got onto the ride. They fully load it which is never a good idea for keeping dry.

insert photo here just waiting for FB to like me

I was now soaking again so another trip on Popeye's was due. This time it was really evil to one person who got everything thrown at her. I'm not saying that I didn't get wet again but it just get hurtling at her. A/C became the bane of my life again while getting lunch. I was just so cold in there. I ordered a slaw dog and discovered two things. Coleslaw is a bit funky in the US and cheese sauce is just odd. My Dad was happy that he could get a simple sandwich.

While we ate our lunch outside I saw this and couldn't resist (you can also kinda tell how wet I was)

Drinks were the only thing we went large on. It was just nice to have something really cold rather than slightly lukewarm which is what we got from anything in our rucksack.

We seemed to get stuck at that side of the park for a while and doubled back on ourselves to go on Spiderman, another ride where I spent a good portion of it with my eyes shut but I was getting better at keeping them open. We decided to complete the circle and go back through to Jurassic park. We joined the queue for the river adventure while I looked up at Pternadon flyers and was sad because I couldn't go on it. The queue for river was meant to be an hour but they weirdly opened the express line and put people from the normal queue into it. Didn't ask questions, just did as we were told. Now I would have enjoyed this better if a girl hadn't been hysterical next to me. She seemed to think she was going to die or something so decided that I didn't need my ear drum any more.

After doing everything we wanted to do, we made our way back to a rather busy Wizarding World. We joined the queue for Forbidden Journey and got to experience the fun of going all the way through the queue. The one thing that is its saving grace is that because the ride never stops the queue never stops. I say this, it only stops when someone decides to take a photo and can't quite work out how to get a good picture with their camera. The misters they use in the queue are immense. They just really force the water at you which is a nice when the sun is up and you aren't under the cover of the greenhouses.

We came out eventually, having had my eyes open all the way round, to see the Triwizard show just starting. I know people struggle to catch it because it doesn't have any set times. So I finally got my camera out and took loads of photos.

She really enjoyed her job

Durmstrang

Beauxbatons

Once they had finished parading around, I grabbed a frozen butterbeer (with a souvenir mug aka spent more money) and me and my Dad headed back out of the park to grab the shuttle back to our hotel.

*is worn out*

 

[eagleshot]

Great read here! I love IOA. It's a great little park, with lots of great dark rides.

 

[nadroJ]

^Not exactly a 'little' park though is it?

Doing a trip report for a long holiday is annoying isn't it Nicky =] That's why I stopped after doing abut 4 days of mine XD

 

[Nicky]

Didn't help with exams. I will get back onto it soon...or at least do the first day I visited each park

 

[Nicky]

Very very delayed Day 5 - 11th April

This was our trip to Magic Kingdom. Now that we had a car we didn't have to rely on the hotel shuttles even though they weren't that bad.

Parked up and then got the tram to the Monorail station. It was annoying that you ended up parked so far from the actual park though the monorail wasn't that bad.

We have our bags checked by security before wandering into the park.

The first view of Cinderella's castle. Now I don't know whether this is just because I've seen Sleeping Beauty's castle at Paris but for some reason this seemed to be lacking for me.

Since it was still early we decided to head for Big Thunder Mountain so it was off to Frontierland

We grabbed a fastpass before joining the normal queue. It was walk on. We had the added surprise of when we pulled into the station at the end as long as no one was waiting for your row you could go round again. This was the first time that has ever happened to me. After two times round we decided to move onto other attractions while they had little queue.

Next up was Splash Mountain. All I thought of this was that it seemed to go on forever. It just lacked something. The drops were good but the inside bits seemed to go on and on. This may be because I wasn't familiar with the source material.

I finally worked up the courage to go on Haunted Mansion. This may sound stupid but I really struggle with dark rides and rides that are meant to be scary. For example it's only recently that I have managed to get on Duel. With the help of my Dad as a hand to cling onto, I managed to get on it with my eyes open. I was determined not to get home and regret not going on it. It wasn't as scary as I was expecting apart from the odd jumpy moment that made me swear under my breath.

After HM it was our FP time for Thunder Mountain. They use one station for the normal queue and the other for FP which was great when you had the FP. Overall, Thunder Mountain was good but I still preferred Paris's version because of the scenery that goes with it.

Pirates next and it was so good. Jack Sparrow's model was so life-like if you didn't know better you would have definitely thought it was Johnny Depp in the ride, especially at the end.

Jungle Cruise next since we walked past it. The queue was out of the actual line for it but it was only because they hadn't opened the switchbacks.

There was loads of little injokes in the queue line if you took the time to read them.

We reached the front of the queue and our boat turned up. Bomokandi Bertha

I wish that I was younger and could be taken in whole heartedly by the journey as there is always part of you thinking that this is corny but it just takes time to get into it.

We then crossed the park to the opposite side to get to Space Mountain but not before a picture of me in front of the castle...well to the side.

We grabbed a FP before joining the normal standby queue. It barely took any time to get through it so we walked past all the interactive games that would take part every few minutes like with Soarin' at Epcot. We ended up on the Alpha side not that it makes much difference. I enjoyed it even though it does take it out of you as you can't predict which direction you need to go in to stop yourself from being jolted. The seats are a bit awkward to get out of and I feel sorry for any who is quite large as it would be quite difficult since they are really low down. You don't realise how far away from the entrance you actually are until you have to get on a travelator to get back to the entrance.

Having always had a fond spot in my heart for monorails (I spent too much time on the monorail at Blackpool when I was younger) we went on the people mover.

It slows down as it goes round the station but is really deceptive at how fast it actually is. We had our carriage to ourselves

Time for a picture of my Dad.

It goes into the Space Mountain building but this time the lights weren't on inside so you couldn't see much other than hearing the odd screams as you went past it.

Since Stitch is one of my favourite characters we decided on that show next. I was really disappointed with it and just felt uncomfortable. I can imagine how scary it would be for any children and there was definitely a few kids crying. It just seemed to overstep a level that children are comfortable with. The over the shoulder harnesses don't help and prolonged periods of darkness.

Buzz Lightyear was next and Dad beat me on this. It just seems like I am only good at Toy Story Midway Mania. It was a good ride with a lot of UV colours.

We popped back to Space Mountain for our FP time and watched a mother and child in front of us was measured and was just on the height line that it was too close for the cast member to call. She warned that the child might be stopped before they got on the ride and that when he stands up he needs to think tall but not stand on his tiptoes. Every cast member we encountered measured him and he got through just each time.

It was now time to brave Fantasyland, which would better be described as Strollerland. It doesn't help that it is slightly smaller due to the construction work but it is just so crowded. We decided to get It's a Small World out of the way first. I haven't been on the one at Paris and while I have heard the song I have never really found it that annoying up until going on the ride. It really didn't help that we ended up stacked in the final room so it was just going round and round. How can a song be just so annoying?!!

Seeing the queue for Peter Pan's Flight meant that was avoided but I was expecting that. We grabbed fastpass for Winnie the Pooh and got a "surprise" fastpass for Philamagic at the same time. We had resorted to bringing our own sandwiches for lunch but then grabbing a desserty snack so I tried my first funnel cake today. It was weirdly awesome, especially with the amount of cinnamon and sugar on it. It was bigger than the plastic plate it came on and bigger than my head. There is definitely a saying about eating something that is bigger than your own head. I didn't manage to eat all of it before I was stuffed.

Sorry for the lack of photos here I just seemed to forget I had a camera all together even though it was sat in my pocket. We used our "surprise" fastpass for Philamagic which was basically just a way to get people to go onto it. I was amazed at how good it was. I was so engrossed in it I missed when the curtains moved and the whole screen expanded. It just showed how good the music is from Disney and how easily it is recognisable.

Snow White and Winnie the Pooh were next. They are pretty much the same ride apart from Winnie the Pooh bounces for quite a lot of the time which is a weird experience. Since we had FP we didn't get to experience the normal queue line but we could hear it. They have installed games and small play areas for the kids who are queueing which do generate a lot of noise. I guess it is better than listening to them crying because they are bored.

By this point we were getting tired and it was getting warm and busy. We decided to head for Monsters Inc Laugh Floor before heading back to the hotel. This was done really well with so much audience participation. It blends seamlessly with the pre-recorded bits with Mike. We had a family from Leeds which lead to a very large cheer from quite a few people. They pick on one guy continually who gets a sticker at the end of it.

continued

As we made our way out of the park, we found that the parade was starting meaning it was very difficult for us to get out. We found a spot and watched it go past.

Just seeing the sign now has the song stuck in my head already.

It felt a bit short but did have some cool moments.

Got to see my favourite princess Belle though I prefer the solid yellow dress.

And at the back of the Princess float the newest Prince and Princess

Once the parade had moved on we could start to head towards the exit but we were still going against the crowd. We decided to get the ferry back to the transportation centre as we didn't fancy the huge slope up to the monorail station.

By this point my feet had had it after the day at Epcot so I had to be unstylish and wear socks with my sandals. I could face the shame so that my feet weren't in that much pain.

We crashed out at our hotel for a while before heading to Downtown Disney for tea. We chose House of Blues and quickly had our burgers which were again really too big to be eaten. I really wanted to eat dessert but there was never room for it. We had an early night as we were going to Tampa the next day.