The Adventure Begins

Florida 2013 – Day 10 – Islands of Adventure!

A bit of a lay in – got up and took the iRide Trolly south to look for some souvenirs. At the ABC Liquor Store, Hotdog swooned over the variety of beers from the micro breweries and the pumpkin beers – he so wanted to bring some back.

Dropped our loot back at the hotel and walked to Islands of Adventure. Did the Harry Potter park first as the lines were short. On our second visit, we spotted even more details that make this part of the park truly amazing – look out for the owls? Did the Dragon Challenge again before making our way through the park. Did HULK, which had a short wait time and Storm Force Accelatron, which is great too.

This was a more chilled out day as we decided not to rush around, but look at gifts etc. Hotdog had his eye on a Bubba Gump base ball cap, which he bought. However, when he tried it on back at the hotel the rivets popped off! Using the power of twitter he was able to contact customer services to arrange a replacement.

Decided to have an evening in with the TV. Popped next door to IHOP, We both had the Breakfast Sampler, which included pancakes – yummy! Returned to the hotel for TV, a few rum’s and an early night.

Aquatica Cabana

Florida 2013 – Day 11 – Aquatica Cabana Day

This was scheduled as a proper rest day at Aquatica. We hopped on the iRide to be at the park for 9.00, we arrived to find Aquatica closed – it opens at 10.00 – doh! We were told by the concierge at our hotel is was 9.00, but this was no big deal apart from the toilets being shut! Chatted to a nice couple who also got their time wrong.

We pre-booked a cabana on the private island between the two wave pools. There are only three cabanas here and we were the only people booked in – YES! The cabana came with a fridge containing 12 bottles of water, towels, sun loungers, chairs, a fan, a safe and guest services on hand to bring us drinks or food, which you had to pay for, obviously.

This was total bliss, away from the crowds and one of the best pre-holiday decisions we made. Once we settled into private space we made our way out to the water rides. As the park is only 5 years old everything felt new and getting up the stairs wasn’t as scary as Wet n Wild. The park was exceptionally busy, this was a Sunday and the weather was fairly hot. The rides are much tamer than Wet n Wild and on par with Typhoon Lagoon.

We had a bite to eat and settled back into our cosy cabana for a relaxing afternoon. I dropped off to sleep, whilst Hotdog sat reading GQ. When I woke, Hotdog said he was wondering how he could consume all those bottles of water without having a Forrest Gump ‘I gotta pee!’ moment!

The park closes at 5pm – the loud Tannoy does like to make you aware of this too and really spoils a fun day out! We did a few more slides, only missed Tassie’s Twisters and HooRoo Run. Our favourite was Ron’s Rapids and we would definitely go back again. $116 for the Cabana sounds steep, but it was worth it for the peace and quiet, and to be away from the crowds. If you are on honeymoon or want a special treat as a couple or a group of four – we would highly recommend this. Overall, we really liked Aquatica, the day flew by and it was time to leave.

Back to the hotel for a refresh. Decided on Black Angus Steak house for dinner – was OK, apart from a large group of ‘we are the loud latino brigade’, taking over the place and having little respect for other diners. We often found the waiter/waitress would walk us around the entire restaurant before sitting us at a totally unsuitable table, which was frustrating! Sometimes we were surrounded by huge loud groups other times we were shoved in a dark corner like lepers.

Back to our room for a cheeky snifter as tomorrow is Hotdog’s birthday and a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre!

Hotdog at the Kennedy Space Centre

Florida 2013 – Day 12 – A Happy Hotdog!

Today was Hotdog’s birthday, we planned a trip to KSC with Dolphin Tours, which we can highly recommend as our driver Pete was very humorous and knowledgeable, he also sold bottles of water for $1 – bonus!

I’m not a big fan of anything space and was probably going to be bored by lunchtime, however, once we were in the Atlantis exhibit my mood began to change to one of pure emotion and wonder. For Hotdog,  this was a lifelong dream to see a space shuttle up close, and you can’t get any closer than this!

We spent a good hour and a half at the Atlantis exhibit, which included the Launch experience, which was really good fun! There are plenty of gifts in the shop, however, we wanted to get over to the Saturn V rocket. KSC lay on buses to take you around the centre as it is quite vast. The drivers are really knowledgeable. The VAB is huge and we managed to get up close to the crawler and a launch platform being constructed.

We arrived at the Saturn V exhibit – again the presentation had me in tears. The rocket is huge and all the exhibits kept us occupied. We took lunch in the Space Cafe – Hotdog treated himself a beer, well it’s his birthday after all. We sat outside looking out to the launch platforms.

Headed back to the main exhibit area as we wanted to see Atlantis again and buy some souvenirs. I noticed Space Shuttle astronaut – Bob Springer was due to appear in the main gift shop so headed back there. We lined up – had a brief chat and he signed Hotdog’s visitor guide book with a birthday message and dated it. We also got a nice holiday photo of us with him – mega awesome!

As it was a Monday the Space Centre was fairly devoid of school parties and children, so the day didn’t feel rushed, which was nice. We departed the Space Centre for our journey back to International Drive at 5pm. It was a thoroughly surprising and enjoyable day out.

We stopped off at iDrive for some supplies, walked back to the hotel as the iRide trolley couldn’t be seen at each stop we passed. Back at the hotel we took a quick shower and headed to Red Lobster for a birthday dinner. Hotdog didn’t want a big fuss made so we kept the evening low key. Our waiter sat us next to another group of the ’we’re on vacation brigade’ spread out over several tables, we asked to be moved and he understood why. Hotdog had lobster, he had to wear a bib and use nutcrackers, which was quite amusing. I ordered the scallops, which were gorgeous!

“Today was the best birthday ever!”, Hotdog said making our way back to the hotel – it could only be topped by Lady Gaga dropping by to sing Happy Birthday! Like yeah!!!

Disney Holywood Studios

Florida 2013 – Day 13 – Hollywood Studios

We hadn’t planned any Disney for this holiday, but decided we needed a fix. Hotdog isn’t a huge Disney fan so it was likely the magic pixie won’t work on him. I have done Disney parks many times since the late eighties, but this was a whole new experience for Hotdog.

Our Shuttle was on time getting there and we were told to be at the pick-up point at Epcot for 6.20pm – remember this or you will be left behind and will need to pay for a taxi! We then took a Disney shuttle to Hollywood Studios, which took about 10 minutes.

We didn’t have park tickets, so just paid for the basic day park entry, which was $191 for us both. This sounds expensive and I’m sure people will think we were mugged, but few weeks before our departure we were going to splosh over £500 on Disney’s 14 Day Ultimate Tickets. So glad we didn’t as we could only fit in one day or possibly two.

First up was the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, which we both really enjoyed, then onto Star Tours. The Great Movie Ride was great, but Hotdog found the robotic mannequins a bit creepy – especially the gangsters with their evil eyes! Grabbed a bite to eat. There was a long wait for The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, so opted for the Studio Backlot Tour, really enjoyable with lots of insight and surprises. We then did Muppet Vision 3D – not the best 3D experience, but entertaining in typical Muppet fashion.

Time for Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – it had a 10-minute wait so we hopped on. This ride spooked us a bit as we weren’t sure what to expect!

Walked over to the Rock n Roller Coaster, but it had a wait of 40 minutes, so we sat and waited for Beauty and the Beast show, which I really enjoyed, even Hotdog was impressed and I cried at the end. Made our way back to Rock n Roller Coaster, which still had a 40-minute wait so we decided to do some souvenir buying instead. Hotdog was pretty impressed with the Halloween stuff. We got a present for the cats back home (Halloween 3D dinner placemats – really cool), a fridge magnet, and a Halloween Vinylmation figures.

Hollywood Studios was very entertaining for Hotdog the Disney cynic and it gave him a taste of what to expect if we were to do more Disney full on! Funnily the magic did seem to work after all!

Shuttle back to the hotel was on time. Back the at the hotel we decided on room service and a night in with the TV.

The Simpsons

Florida 2013 – Day 14 – Goodbye Universal

After a hectic few days, we decided to have an easy morning with a visit to the hotel pool. If you have been reading our posts you may have noticed we never take breakfast. We did – cereal bars and fruit etc. Spending 30 to 45 minutes a day going for breakfast would use up 7 – 10 hours of your holiday. Think of it as losing a whole day just eating breakfast.

Our shuttle to Universal wasn’t until 11.40 so we had plenty of time to start thinking about home. Hotdog made a Skype call to England to check everything was OK, our cats weren’t missing us and the weather has been reasonably pleasant!

Our shuttle driver was prompt and his banter was entertaining. Our plan was to spend 4 hours at the park, do a few rides we missed, pick up Hotdog’s replacement Bubba Gump baseball cap, a bit of shopping etc. But like kids in the candy shop went bonkers again!

Did Transformers, Disaster, Mummy and Shrek 4D – headed over to Islands of Adventure, hopped on HULK and Spiderman, watched the Marvel Avengers characters – their trykes were pretty cool! Got soaked on Jurassic Park River Adventure, paid $5 for the people dryer, popped into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, did Ollivanders, the Dragon Challenge (blue not as scary as red) and the Forbidden Journey for the final time. On our way out we even managed to fit in some of the Dr. Seuss rides before getting on the HULK again.

Four hours became six, but it was time to head back or miss the shuttle, picking up a few gifts along the way and Hotdog’s Bubba Gump hat of course!

As this was our final evening we headed back to CityWalk for a few drinks at the Lone Palm and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, which wasn’t too busy. We both had a pang of sadness as we left CityWalk for the last time. Hotdog wouldn’t look back when leaving the bright lights of Universal.

Jumped into a taxi back to our hotel for a few post-dinner drinks and TV. Hotdog fell asleep in his underwear on top of the bed, which became a regular feature of this holiday, I think he only slept under the covers on the first night!