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Florida 2014: Day 26, Homecoming. COMPLETED

Re: Florida 2014: Day 5, Legoland Florida

Time for more, sorry it's taking a while to get this done, lots happening plus day 6 was a long one...and the one I was most looking forward to...

Wednesday 23rd July: Day 6, Disney's Magic Kingdom, WDW
The day I had been looking forward to for over a year and a half. My first Disney park and it would be Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Sleep was certainly problematic the day before, that I can tell you.

We wanted to get to the park in time for the Opening Ceremony as I had never seen it so we were dragged from our beds at 6:30 and left the villa to arrive at the gates of Magic Kingdom for just after 8am. We had arrived at the the resort before the monorail had opened so we had to catch a bendy bus from the car park over to Magic Kingdom. I of course had to take a bendy bus selfie

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Being our first Disney visit of the trip we got to use the Magic Bands which, after the bad experiences I had read worked exceptionally well and are a brilliant idea, but more on that later.

We pressed our bands to some moose ears at the gate and lights spin round and make a beautiful twinkling sound. So beautiful. I looked up and there was the entrance to Magic Kingdom.

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But first, let me take a selfie...
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After so much anticipation I was finding it hard to keep it together at this point but being the man I am I survived...for now. Before long an odd looking guy came from above and welcomed us to the Magic Kingdom, the Happiest Place on Earth. He was followed by several dancers to cheers from the gathering crowd.

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Suddenly a train whistle sounded and a beautiful scarlet steam engine rolled into the station. Off jumped Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, Mary Poppins and Bert, Snow White. It was brilliant.

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There was a finale with some fireworks and silver streamers, then on the dead of 9am the gates opened, the gates to a world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.

I had a very vague idea as to how Magic Kingdom was laid out, behind the entrance is like a town square which leads to Main Street. The gates to Magic Kingdom itself are in the two corners of the town square so obviously you have to walk around to get to Main Street and eventually see the castle itself.

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I knew that once I got to the start of main street I'd see the castle for the first time, the epicentre of Disney, we rounded the corner and there it was, one of the most beautiful and mesmerising things I have ever seen.

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I was unable to get a decent photo at this point due to my shaking...whoops

I'm not ashamed to admit I had tears in my eyes. Disney was such a big part of my childhood, and this is somewhere you always dream of coming as a child, yes I was 18, but where else can you be forgiven for feeling like a child in such a way? But enough of that, onwards and upwards.

The Maycocks have a tradition that Space Mountain is the first Disney ride they ride when coming to Florida so we made our way over to the back of Tomorrowland to ride it.

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The queue was fab, futuristic lights and screens, it felt immersive, my first taste of Disney theming.

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We rode Alpha first, the ride was basically walk on.

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This ride is amazing. It is so relentless, it's fantastic. It is pitch dark, apparently it's darker than your eyes can comprehend so you have absolutely no idea what is coming next. It tosses and turns through corner after corner, throwing you around, but it isn't uncomfortable. I was blown away by how good it is. Have an ORP

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As it was still fairly quiet we stayed in Tomorrowland for our next ride, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Again, the queue line theming felt so immersive it was brilliant.

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It was very good. You shoot at Z's which are the logos for the evil emperor Zurg. I wasn't too keen on how the guns were fixed to the car so you could only move them on a fixed axis. I really liked how you could change orientation of your car by spinning it around to maximise point potential. The scoring was a little random, I was on around 4,000 and suddenly jumped to 12,000 in the space of no time, whether it takes into account accuracy of your shooting of whether there are just different targets, I'm not sure but I suspect the latter. I like pulling faces, what can I say?

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Stitch's Great Escape was next, still in Tomorrowland.

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Again, it had an amazing queue line with some pretty fancy animatronics in two pre shows, I didn't take any pictures because I was watching the pre show. We were new security recruits and so we were briefed of our mission but of course something terrible happened and a level 3 criminal was captured! *Gasp*. The level 3 criminal was experiment 626, Stitch himself. We were all taken into a circular room and sat in chairs that lined the walls. Stitch appears in the middle of the room being all sweet but he soon escapes. He made noises on our ears and tickled our hair...oh and burping creating a smell that was **** awful and made me ill.

Eventually he leaves the room and is seen climbing the castle while a notice with 'Days since an Escape' was rapidly counting down from around 3,000,000 (that's over 8200 years if you're interested). I really liked this, a ride that touches you always adds to the fun.

Next up on the agenda was Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor where monsters try their hand at stand up comedy... This was either going to be really good or really **** and unfortunately it was the latter...

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Ok, so 'really ****' is perhaps a slight exaggeration, it wasn't too bad...I was just hoping for so much better. The idea is to get the audience to laugh enough to fill the 'giggleometer' with 'gigglewatts'. The jokes were ok but dated and mediocre (but like mine :lol: ). Children would be asked questions like 'is the Eiffel Tower in New York' and they'd answer 'yes' because they're thick as ****. It'd be fun to see what happens if just no one laughs for the duration...

Anyway, onwards and it was time to go to Adventureland. This gave me the opportunity to take some better pictures of the castle <3

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And Mickey and Minnie's bush...
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I also attempted a selfie with the castle because why wouldn't you?

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So, Adventureland!

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Jungle Cruise was up first.

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We queued for a good half an hour in the hot CATTLE PEN OF DOOOOOM

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A boat cruises around a river (as the name would suggest) passing various animal, and some human, animatronics, which worked very well, whilst guided by a smoking hot, witty tour guide. Our boat was called 'Amazon Annie' and before long we were off.

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Although the picture doesn't show it, the humans were moving up the pole trying to get away from the rhino.

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These hippos would just rise from no where out of the water.

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I yawn every time I see this picture

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The elephants squirted water at you

I thought this was fab, the idea of putting fake animals just worked so well.

It was now time to use our first pre-booked fast pass of the day, Splash Mountain. I shall now explain a little more on the Magic Bands. 30 days in advance (I believe it's 60 if you're in a resort hotel) you can book fast passes for up to three rides of your choice at any of the four Walt Disney World parks. So 30 days previous to us behind here, back in rainy England, Mr. Stephen booked three fast passes for this day, one for Splash Mountain and two others which I shall get to later. It does mean that you have to plan what parks you're going to visit on each day, for example the next day we went to EPCOT and did the same thing. Mr. Stephen found the whole process easy and was surprised to find that rides, including the brand new Seven Dwarves Mine Train, weren't booked up considering the fast pass system had already been open for 30 days for resort guests.

Anyway, Splash Mountain.

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It just looks beautiful, how can Disney just get everything to look so right? We scanned our Magic Bands in the fastpass+ queue and walked the long queue line to the station.

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We were in boat 37A which made me laugh because this is the house number I used to live in when I lived in Cambridge. The ride is based on the story of Brer Rabbit, a story I wasn't familiar with. The beginning of the boat ride is drifting in and out of rooms of a fox and big fat bear trying to catch the rabbit. It was all excellently done. I didn't take any photos this time round but I think I did later on in the trip so I'll post them then.

My favourite bit was the bee nests with bees buzzing around them, they looked so realistic. The first drop was good with nothing more than a minor splash, the second drop, the plunge part at the end seemed to go on for ages (this is why I liked Journey to Atlantis so much). The third and final drop is exceptional. It seems to go on for ages as you fly through the air, you get wet. At the end there's huge celebrations as Brer Rabbit is safe to the tune of Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-a-Dee-A with lights an happiness and a **** off huge boat. This is by far my favourite water ride, just amazing. ORP time!

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It was getting on for lunchtime by this point so it was time for a drink and a snack. We headed over to the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe which is near to Splash Mountain. You can't just go and sit down and then order, you have to be carrying food before you can get a seat which is actually a really good idea as it stops people just coming in for a sit down or from bringing in their own food. I had chilli chips. It was tasty.

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Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was next, my 2nd cred of the day.

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I didn't really know what to expect but I was just expecting a cute +1. We had to endure the longest queue of the day, 40 minutes worth but the queue was pretty fab.

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It gave way to some brilliant views of the coaster

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These remind me of the pools at Pamukkale in Turkey

The theming was fab, all Wild West and once again, felt so immersive. I rode on my own and wasn't really expecting anything much. My god how wrong could I have been? It was so good! So much ejector and airtime and happiness in one coaster, it just didn't let up, it flew through the corners like a proper runaway mine train should, up down, left, right. Amazing. I can't remember where it ranks but it is way up in the top half.

Next it was time to use our second fast pass of the day, this one was booked for It's a Small World.

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This was another ride I've been looking forward to. When I was little, my Grandma had a little train that went round a circular red track that played the tune so I was expecting the childhood memories to come flooding back. The station was themed beautifully. It actually felt quite Christmassy.

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Once we boarded I took a selfie with the five of us

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I think Angela fell asleep ;)

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It was a beautiful ride. Each room was themed to a different area of the world and in each room the lyrics to It's a Small World were sung in each respective language. There were odd looking animatronics doing various things as well as singing.

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The penultimate room everything was silver and grey with the lyrics turned up louder and in English. It was beautiful.

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In the final room were several signs saying 'goodbye' in a multitude of languages.

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I really liked it. So beautiful and relaxing. Next up was Mickey's Philhar Magic Show which is basically a 3D cinema.

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Mickey leaves Donald Duck to get the orchestra sorted and he fails, he loses his hat and the video is about him trying to get his hat back through many Disney films with their soundtrack, like Lion King, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast. It was so good.

Haunted Mansion was next.

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We only queued for 10 minutes. The queue was quite fab with various different things to press and do. This is a dark ride with a continuous train travelling through various rooms in this haunted house. As you travel around you wake up sleeping ghosts. There's nothing dark or evil about it though, it's all rather fun! What they have done with mirrors and projections is really cool, the ghosts are actually real people (as in they had been filmed, not live actors) and mirrors had made them appear transparent. It worked very well. At the end you get a hitchhiking ghost. Angela and I had a ghost take off his beard and try and put it on me. It was a great touch.

We then headed back over to Tomorrowland for Carousel of Progress. We stopped on the way and had some dole whip floaters which were **** AMAZING.

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Orange ice cream with pineapple juice, it's **** tasty

We also caught a little bit of the show that was happening outside the castle.

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So, Carousel of Progress!

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Another thing I had no idea what to expect or what this even was. A little background, Walt Disney himself came up with the idea for this in the 1960s and had it on show at the World's Fair in New York in 1964-65. You sit in a large room and the whole seating area spins around the stationary centre. You start off with the introduction whilst everyone is loaded, then you begin to turn to reach the next room. The first room is set in the early 20th century with new fangled devices like fridges and cars. A guy sat in the middle narrates the story and we get to meet his family.

The next room is around the 1920s. Ovens are new, everyone is getting ready for July 4th celebrations, the uncle of the family has developed a new system called Air Cooling. Electricity is in and of course, a fuse blows. Such fun. The next room is mid-1940s America at Halloween, more new technology, a small TV can be seen in the corner with some black and white people dancing. The final room is today at Christmas, flat screen TVs, voice activated devices, gaming console. It was all just genius and I loved it.

It was nearly time for our dinner time reservation but we had time for a quick look in some shops along main street before going to the Plaza Restaurant. Whilst on Main Street we got to see some of the parade.

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I took a much better picture of the castle too

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So, the Plaza Restaurant. It felt oddly posh and it was actually rather small, if you didn't have a reservation you wouldn't stand a chance. I had a pulled pork sandwich because pulled pork.

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It doesn't look like much but it was very filling and very tasty

I also had a mint ice cream sundae with strawberry sauce, I don't follow no rules ;)

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Our last fast pass for the day was for the brand new Seven Dwarves Mine Train. On the way we walked through the castle. Daniel took my photo in front of said castle.

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Disappointingly the inside of the castle is really rather bland.

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A couple of mosaic walls and that's about it...

I'd been looking forward to riding the Seven Dwarves Mine Train because I'd been following construction throughout and, after seeing images/footage of the animatronics I couldn't wait to see them for real.

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Just look at the attention to detail on the top right corner of the mine entrance, it's amazing

Before long we reached the station.

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I rode back row with Daniel and took the compulsory selfie.

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So the coaster, it is very smooth...perhaps too smooth as the coaster lacked character and there was nothing to 'feel'. It was also over way too quick, but the theming and the animatronics are **** amazing, they work so so well and look stunning, it's just a shame there are so few of them. I really liked it but I was left disappointed, I was expecting so much more. As for the tilting goes, I didn't really notice any until I was off the ride taking pictures of it.

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You can see that some of the cars are at different angles

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Our last ride of the day was Under the Sea with the Little Mermaid.

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I've never seen the Little Mermaid so I don't really know the story. The queue is brilliant with some amazing (fake) geology.

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Just look at those scour marks and honeycomb weathering they have themed in

So the ride itself, you travel to the bottom of the ocean and try and save Aerial from a fat woman with tentacles. I imagine someone having a field day writing a porno for the Little Mermaid.

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It was decent, the theme, 'Under the Sea' I got to know by heart by the end of the trip with the amount of Little Mermaid themed rides there are across the Disney parks. Of course, Aerial is saved by a handsome prince and they live happily ever after and all that ****.

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That was pretty much it. We waited an eternity for the steam train that runs around the circumference of the park to take us back to the entrance. It was **** boiling too and so humid. We caught the monorail back to the car park this time. I finally got to hear the famous words 'por favor me mantangese del ajlado de las puertas' which I have heard from the Maycocks an unimaginable amount of times.

On the way back to the villa we stopped of in Publixs and I bought a bright yellow lilo who I lovingly christened Milo, as he was my lilo, he certainly became the 6th member of the holiday.

An electrical storm that evening meant no pool so we ate crisps instead.

If anyone is still bothering, thank you very much for reading, that was a long one :P day 7 at EPCOT coming up when I have a spare several hours ;)
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 6, Disney's Magic Kingdom, WDW

Finding time to write these is proving hard, hopefully the pace will speed up when I get to the stage of posting about 2nd time round park visits :lol: anyway!

Thursday 24th July: Day 7, EPCOT Centre
Today marked the day of being in Florida for a week, and it certainly had been a great week! Luckily we still had another 3 weeks to go. So day seven and we were off to EPCOT. As there was no opening ceremony to watch we could arrive slightly later than we had at Magic Kingdom the day before. As we got to EPCOT for the start of the day there weren't many people around and we could park near the front of the car park. The sheer scale of the 'giant golf ball' took me by surprise, it sure is a sight to see!

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There'll be several more pictures of this throughout this report, that I can assure you of

I had to take the mandatory (sweaty and apparently not very smiley) selfie!

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We joined the gathering queues at the gates waiting for them to open at 9am sharp. Magic bands scanned and we were in! We headed straight over to Test Track for our first ride of the day. I took many photos on the way.

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Slightly wonky but even so, Amanda Thompson would be wetting herself!

So, anyway, Test Track!

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The Maycock's hadn't ridden it on their last visit to the Sunshine State due to a refurbishment but they had ridden it in 2010. It is now sponsored by Chevrolet and I rather liked the queuing area which contained some odd vehicle prototypes.

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You eventually enter a room where you design a car, it's general appearance, then you can pimp your ride, improving the power, responsiveness, capability and efficiency. You can add accessories to optimise your car further as well as change it's body shape. You only get three minutes to design you car so be quick. You save your car by scanning your Magic Band (I believe you can also use your WDW ticket too). This was my car, isn't the colour scheme delightful? :lol:

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Top NHS Jordan top tip, sacrifice the efficiency for a higher power and responsiveness, TRUST me.

Once done you pass into the loading area, six of you can fit into one car. Everyone who made a car must scan their Magic Bands again so the car you designed becomes the car you're in, plus you can compete against everyone else's car!

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Apologies for blurriness

The car is then 'tested' on wet, slippery roads in rain and snow, emissions and it's top speed. When you blast through the doors into the hot humid air outside it is like hitting a solid wall, it's disorientating. The ride experience is brilliant, I genuinely really like it. The top speed part is great with the wind whipping through your hair. The Maycocks insist the ride isn't as good as it was before the refurbishment, that's fair enough, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I shouldn't hasten to add that my car scored 206 which was the highest any of us managed for the total of our time in Florida ;)

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We headed over to the Cool Wash once we were done which basically just squirts cold water spray at you which is actually rather refreshing.

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By now it was time for our first fast pass so we headed on over to Mission Space!

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I took another selfie don't worry.

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There are two different experiences, a green 'less intense' training and an amber 'more intense' training. Dan and I went 'more intense' because we're manly 'n' ****.

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It is themed around going on the first manned mission to Mars. The queue area was pretty fab.

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No idea what its supposed to be mind you.

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Once you have been safety briefed you are all given a particular role to fulfil on the trip to Mars. I was the engineer so had to initiate hyper sleep and engage the wings for landing when I was told to do so. ATTACKHAMMER was commander and we had two randoms. Once you're in your seat the whole front console tilts up towards you, it's a very snug fit, not something for the claustrophobic amongst you. There are also sick bags for your convenience should you require them...

Once the ride begins you tilt back into the blast off position. I assume the whole ride then spins rapidly to give the feeling of being pushed far into your seat during take off. It really does pull some force on you, but it is a really great feeling. To maintain speed the rocket catapults past the Moon. Eventually my first role as engineer came, initiating Hyper Sleep! We awoke three months later to realise we had entered an asteroid minefield just above the Martian surface which we had to navigate through. Once through I had to initiate the wings to land on the runway, how there was a pre-built runway on a planet that no human had been to before baffles me. I loved this ride, easily the best simulator I've been on, really really great.

It was time for our next fast pass almost immediately, this time for Soarin'. We stopped at a shop sponsored by Coca Cola on the way. Scattered around the room were various pumps offering free fizzy drinks popular in seven different countries.

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I adored the melon flavoured Fanta, popular in Thailand, it was so refreshing and delicious. The tonic water, Beverly, was just AWFUL.

So then it was time to head over to The Land for Soarin'.

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When I was first asked if I'd like to go to Florida with the Maycocks I watched a poor quality POV of the ride and I thought it looked amazing, something really special, so I was really looking forward to riding. Magic Bands scanned and we were in, we asked to ride at the top/front as it is apparently better. The ride is narrated by Joe from Family Guy, he plays the part well, he has the perfect voice for the job.

Once the ride starts your seats lift high above the ground and right up to a massive screen. Wow oh wow. First you soar over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, then you soar over the high peaks of California as well as Death Valley, the beaches, fields, towns, cities, there are the smells of the countryside, the oranges, the breezes. It is truly **** **** fantastic. It is genuinely SO SO amazing. You can look up, down, left, right and the screen is always there. It's amazing. It'll be interesting to see if they update it in the future to 3D.

We were getting a little peckish after Soarin' so we headed to Sunshine Seasons restaurant which is also in The Land. I had a thai shrimp curry. It was so toasty, just the right spiciness.

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I broke my own rule of 'no green food unless it's broccoli or peas but it was still very tasty

I'm now going to break my own rule of stopping a day's report half way through. As I'm sure you can appreciate, writing these takes a while and this has so far taken well over an hour and I'm bored. The second half of day 7 to come soon.

Thanks for reading <3
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 7, EPCOT Centre, WDW, Part 1

Time to continue

Thursday 24th July: Day 7, EPCOT Centre Part 2

So after lunch we headed over to World Showcase, an attraction I couldn't wait to explore. World Showcase is a series of themed areas around the lake at EPCOT. The areas are themed to different countries like Italy, Norway, Canada, the UK etc.

Mexico was first but we had to get to Norway for our fast pass on Maelstrom.

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It's a viking boat ride through various scenes of Viking fights and sights. Dan had told me nothing but good things about this so I had high expectations. It is good fun with a backwards section, some fake waves and a drop but it doesn't really 'do' anything. I left a little disappointed. Rumours (are the confirmed yet?) suggest Maelstrom will undergo a re-theme to Frozen which I'm actually thinking will be an improvement.

The shop consisted of some trolls with phallic noses that I just had to take a selfie with.

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Norway looks stunning too. I really want to visit this country for real.

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Once we had done Maelstrom I went into a new Frozen walkthrough which was basically a mini-museum which links aspects of Frozen to Norway traditions and folklore.

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We then backtracked slightly over to Mexico. The striking feature in this area is the massive pyramid.

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In it is basically the whole area. At the front is a Mexican market selling all sorts of worldy goods.

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It genuinely felt like night, it was brilliant

At the back was a restaurant. We had a look at the menu to consider making a reservation for later on in the holiday but given that they're sat in near-darkness and the food didn't look that impressive, we never bothered. Located in Mexico was a little boat ride called the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros.

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It is pretty decent with the three Caballeros travelling Mexico and other iconic locations in the world.

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Next up in World Showcase was China! It looked really stunning.

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We went into a shop and lined up some animals around a box...There were pandas, dinosaurs and giraffes, as well as other animals. We were quite proud of our efforts.

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I don't really know why we did it either...

Next door was TombWarrior

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It is a walkthrough of several things that have been found in tombs from Ancient China, over 7,000 years ago. It was slightly odd I'm not gonna lie.

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Germany was next on the agenda. There was a Christmas shop full of decorations. EEEEEPP. <3

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There was an Oktoberfest and a Sommerfest.

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There was a caramel shop that smelt so perfect, it was delicious, almost like you could bite chunks out of the air. We had a cookie in there. I was expecting it to be sickly but I was pleasantly surprised. It was darn tasty.

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Italy next. not a great amount to do here apart from look around a fab glass store and watch some street acrobatics.

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There was a tall tower...

On our way over to the USA I had my picture taken with a bear.

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I'm sure he has a name but I can't remember it...

A storm was fast approaching so we ran into the American Adventure. A grand looking building with some pretty awesome singers as a pre-show awaited. They sang some songs which were clearly very patriotic to Americans. They sung the British National Anthem but with different lyrics. It was rather surreal.

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We were then lead through some pretty grand looking corridors to a beautiful looking 1000 seat stage.

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And then a show started. I'd love to tell you about it but I fell asleep, as did the rest of us. It lasted half an hour and I woke as the lights came back on. I can only imagine it was dull. I think it was basically some controlled puppets talking about American history for half an hour...you can imagine how dull that'd be ;)

Japan was next on the agenda. I had a weird drink which Dan and Sarah have whenever they go to Wok n Grill which is a Chinese buffet restaurant just outside Cambridge.

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You activate the fizz when you open it by popping the top. It's good fun.

The shops in Japan were brilliant. You could buy small, cheap tat. I had to buy a couple things, a fancy Weeble and a waving cat thing. After this we needed to head back to Italy for our dinner reservation. On the way we stopped off to watch some of the U2 tribute band called 2U. I don't really know U2's music but it was alright.

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Our reservation was at the Tutto Italia Ristorante. I had risotto.

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It was very nice and filling just overly expensive. Mine alone cost $26, I'd happily have settled for a greasy burger.

We got the boat back across the lake. I took a selfie of Dan, Sarah and myself.

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They seem unaware of this fact...[/img]

We saw that Spaceship Earth had no queue so thought we'd give that a go.

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I loved it. It is narrated by Dame Judi Dench, which already makes it a winner in my book. You travel through room after room which show how communications have evolved over time from ancient hieroglyphics on the walls in Ancient Egypt, through the invention of papyrus, the renaissance, the telephone, computer and internet. The whole car then turns so you're travelling backwards and you pass through a starry room which is just amazing.

You have a screen in front of you which, after a series of questions, allows you to create an example of what life in the future may be like. For example I said I didn't like chores so it created self-operating vacuum cleaners. I took a few [strike]high[/strike] low quality photos on the trip around.

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Before leaving we visited the giftshop. I gave in to temptation and blew $30 on a Disney tshirt which is now my favourite tshirt. At only £18 it's cheaper than pretty much all Merlin gooniform.

It was then time to leave. I took a picture of the golf ball at twilight.

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We were treated to an electrical storm when we were back at the villa. It was stunning.

Day 8, Busch Gardens for the second and final time tomorrow. To those of you that still are, thank you very much for reading <3
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 7, EPCOT Centre, WDW, Part 2

Oh go on then, have another update.

Friday 25th July: Day 8, Busch Gardens Tampa

Today we were off to Busch Gardens for the second and, sadly, final time of our trip. It was another early start as we had to get to BGT which is over an hour away. The plan was to get in and head straight over to Cheetah Hunt which Dan and I were spited on last time.

In the car park I took a selfie with a very tall, exceedingly handsome, guy.

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We virtually ran past a tour group which caused us so much pain on our last visit to queue for Cheetah Hunt!

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We only queued for 20 minutes, thankfully the BURDENOUS cattle pens were shut. We were getting closer and closer to the front.

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Finally we were on! We were in the first train in the station (they load two at a time) so we were dispatched first. The first acceleration is pretty decent but it doesn't feel altogether forceful. The coaster then feels dry slow as it goes up a hill and down into a tunnel. Then comes the second acceleration, which is the best of the three. it packs quite a punch but it just isn't as good as Stealth's (or, as I have now come to realise Baco's). You are then launched up high and you get a decent bit of airtime. The excitement soon tailed off as it soon slowed right down and went round what I believe is fundamentally a figure-8. It was slow and dull.

You then come back down, curve around, then the dull inversion. Then my favourite bit. The track weaves in and out of the terrain, it's fab, really great fun, before finally arriving back in the station. I was really looking forward to Cheetah Hunt but left feeling let down and disappointed. It had a couple of fab points but is overall dull. I bought an on ride photo nevertheless, with Mr. Stephen!

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Excuse the quality but now I'm at uni I can't afford the luxury of a scanner ;)

Not long after we got off a storm arrived. Joy. This meant all the outdoor rides were shut. We were booked on the Serengetti Safari at 11:30 so we didn't have time to queue for anything else anyway. As we were in such a rush to get to Cheetah Hunt early on we went back to the entrance and purchased our all day dining wristbands and checked in to our safari slot. We made our way back over to the safari in the rain. We were told if the thunderstorm hadn't stopped by 11:30 we'd be given the offer of a refund or rebooking. The rain was really falling now.

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The 11:15 safari had just been cancelled and the time ticked on to 11:30. At 11:30 nothing had changed so we were about to ask for a refund when the tour guide's radio cracked into life to say all clear. Yayyy :D. As we were making our way over to the safari trucks it started to rain again, but with no thunderstorms, rain is a perfectly adequate weather to go out in...apparently.

I really enjoyed the safari...after the wet start. There were so many animals! Giraffes, rhinos, zebras, wildebeest, etc. It was also really informative.

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F'kin fat ****

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The highlight of the safari was feeding the giraffes at the end. I couldn't believe how rough their tongues are!

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Before you ask, I'm moist because of the rain...

They are magnificent creatures so I had to take a selfie...

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Once done, it was getting on for 12:30 so lunch was in order. We headed over to the Pantopia Grill again and were entertained with the Burn the Floor show once again. I had a turkey and sausage sandwich and chips. It was tasty.

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I also had an apple pie.

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The final cred I had left to ride at BGT was Scorpion so we headed over to that next.

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There wasn't much of a queue but due to poor operations and the fact that Scorpion can only handle one train, it took a very long time.

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Normally I'm not a fan of being violently thrown around in a coaster but I actually thoroughly enjoyed Scorpion. I held my hands up as much as I could but this lead to me being thrown around even more. Ahhh well. It's pretty decent by all accounts.

Next we headed over to the Congo River Rapids.

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It started off with me staying reasonably dry but this would would soon change. There was soon deluge after deluge of water flooding over the side of the raft soaking my shorts. Towards the end you enter a cave which a massive waterfall at the end in which you get completely soaked. It was, by far, the best rapids I've ridden, great fun.

We went for another ride on Kumba as Sarah hadn't ridden when we rode last week. Apparently further forward rides better and, as we had ridden back last time, we decided to give front a go. MY gosh is this thing genuinely amazing! The forces this thing pulls and it is so much smoother at the front. It shot straight into my top 10 (it no longer remains unfortunately).

On the way out we grabbed some chicken. We went through the Animal Care centre purely so I could collect a couple extra LoG points.

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If you're there at the right time you can apparently see animals get operated on. Glad I didn't have to see that...

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Another thunderstorm was approaching so we decided to head off for an early tea. We went to the pizza buffet place again. It is just so good! Merlin, take note. Whilst visiting the restrooms I left my camera with the Maycocks...

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We were just sat around waiting for the storm to pass so we could ride some more ****. Our plan was to whore Montu for the rest of the evening so we headed over to it so we'd be first on once the rain stopped. On the way we passed a theatre which had a show, IcePloration, which was just about to start so thought we might as well give it a go.

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It starred a stuck up little girl who discovers the wildlife of Africa, the Great Barrier Reef and the jungle featuring people dressed up as animals ice skating. There were some real animals too.

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It was a really good show to be fair. Apart from the stupid brat of a girl, the show was really entertaining and enjoyable.

As we walked out a cheer went up as people realised the rides were open again. We rushed over to Montu which was basically walk on. We joined the queue for back before being told another **** thunderstorm was approaching. Great. Whilst we were waiting a group of 4 really good-looking American girls got talking to us and started poking fun at our accents.

When Montu finally re-opened again, we were thrilled. We boarded back row and oh my God. The forces this thing pulls are AMAZING. <3 If it hadn't been for Shambhala in more recent times, month would still be my number one, it is truly truly amazing. Next go round we got talking to another girl, Angela. She used to live in Macedonia but now lives in Tampa and visits BGT regularly. She joined us for the next five rides we had on Montu. She had quite a thing for your's truly, she deliberately rubbed my leg TWICE. She clearly wanted me ;)

I got her name so I could look her up on Facebook ;)

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That's her on the end next to me[/img]

It was then, sadly, time to leave Busch Gardens. It was really sad turning my back on Montu knowing it would probably be a fair few years before I ride it again...if ever!

Thanks for reading once again, up next Disney's Hollywood Studios!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 8, Busch Gardens Tampa

I fell asleep in the show in the America zone when I went too! - the singing is excellent though.

Oh - and the picture from the Tutto Italia Ristorante looks more like ravioli than risotto!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 8, Busch Gardens Tampa

Great report!
I forgot about how you left your camera in the pizza, pasta buffet. Haha!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 8, Busch Gardens Tampa

caffeine_demon said:
I fell asleep in the show in the America zone when I went too! - the singing is excellent though.

Oh - and the picture from the Tutto Italia Ristorante looks more like ravioli than risotto!

I've slept since then, it could well have been :P

ATTACKHAMMER said:
Great report!
I forgot about how you left your camera in the pizza, pasta buffet. Haha!

Cheers bud. Yup, I wasn't gonna let you guys forget that one ;)
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 8, Busch Gardens Tampa

Only a month since my last update, at this rate I'll be done by Christmas 2017.

Saturday 26th July: Day Nine, Disney's Hollywood Studious WDW

We didn't need/want to get to Hollywood Studios for opening so we had some more beautiful time sleeping <3. I didn't really know too much about Hollywood Studios other than it was home to Tower of Terror. We arrived by 10:00 and headed straight for the rest rooms.

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Aww thanks bae

It was an absolutely stunning day but my god was it hot. The car park and entrance were already quite busy

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From a distance you can see Tower of Terror standing proudly up tall across the Hollywood Studios skyline. It looked magnificent and I couldn't wait to ride.

Up ahead was the Sorcerer's Hat which I didn't realise at the time received so much disdain.

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As is compulsory in such situations I had to take (a rather sweaty) selfie.

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We made our way down Hollywood Boulevard, impressed by how much they had put in place given the success of Frozen.

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They even had snow falling...LET IT SNOWWW, LET IT SNOOWWWW, CAN'T HOLD IT BACK ANY MOREEEE

We made our way slowly over to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster because cred. Tower of Terror stood before us...

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...and to the left was a rather closed looking Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

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Yup. We were turned away, we were told the cred 'might open later' but they didn't really know. So we headed back towards the Great Movie Ride which celebrates the evolution of film.

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The queue area was themed quite extensively to Chinese art and design.

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We didn't queue too long and we were on. I'm not a massive film buff, I know some films but not a great amount so I suppose I didn't get as much out of this ride as I could have done. Here are some pictures throughout the ride.

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Singing in the Rain, I've never seen it but know the main theme well

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Mary Poppins, I love this film. I had great fun singing along with the animatronics

Suddenly, an explosion and FIRE :D. This room was portraying 'The Searches'. Then a live actor jumped out (making me jump) and he proceeded to scare away our tour guide. He then 'kidnapped' us. So well choreographed.

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Next up was Alien. I didn't take a decent picture here so I won't waste your time more than I have to. We then entered a pyramid or Ancient Egyptian themed area. I'm assuming it's something to do with Indiana Jones but I don't know.

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The kidnapper tour guide climbed up the pyramid and tried to get into a sealed chamber. A sudden whoosh of smoke happened and he had disappeared leaving a skeleton. Our old tour guide then reappeared.

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We then passed through a jungle of massive elephants and trees

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The penultimate room was the Wizard of Oz with all the Munchkins singing 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' in a terribly high pitched voice. Ugh.

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The last room showed a 5 minute montage of many films, it was really good actually, I know some of the films and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the ride too. You don't have to know all the films to enjoy it, and the likelihood is you know the music anyway.

It was nearly time to use our first fast pass of the day for Toy Story's Midway Mania so we made our way over to the Pixar Studios.

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Obviously being in the fast pass queue I didn't get to see much of the main queue but from what I did see it looked exceptionally well themed. I loved it. So bright and colourful.

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I sat on my own so I can't comment on how well I did but I certainly beat everyone next time we rode but that's another story.

I absolutely loved it. It jumped straight up to number one. You pull a little cord on the back of your gun and aim at targets in a 3D screen, each target has a score, the easier ones are worth around 100, but the small, moving ones are worth up to 5000, there are bonus rounds and other things to hit, you just fly through screen after screen. I loved it, loved it so much.

Next door is the Walt Disney: One Man's Dream exhibition so we thought we'd give it a go.

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The walkthrough part was basically a museum commemorating the life of Walt Disney from when he was a small boy up until he opened Disneyland and was planning Disney World (which became Walt Disney World after his death). It was beautifully compiled with merchandise and information points.

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The early plush toys. Forgive me but I think they look terrifying!

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A replica of Disney's office

And then began the planning for the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland California.

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Once Disneyland California opened, Disney turned his attention to a bigger better Disney World in Florida.

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Walt Disney died in 1966 so never saw his biggest and greatest dream, Disney World, open. His brother, Roy took over and decided to call it Walt Disney World in Disney's memory. The last room showed how Disney has thrived in the theme park area since WDW with DisneySea, Euro Disney, Disneyland Tokyo, Hong Kong, the list goes on.

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Next was a short film clip (around 15 minutes), a short biography of Disney's life, it finished of the Exhibition nicely. I really enjoyed this part of the day, it was moving as well as really interesting.

Next it was time for our second fast pass of the day, Star Tours.

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I've never seen Star Wars (I know, I know, disgusting), but thanks to Lego Star Wars for the Xbox I feel I know enough of the story line to get by (the Family Guy episode(s) also help ;) ). The entrance is themed well to the area where you race other storm troopers in the Lego version.

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I was impressed with how shiny C3PO and R2D2 were.

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It's a simulator and each video you see contains three different segments stitched together, apparently there are over 200 (how true this is I don't know) so the chances of you getting the exact same film a second time round is very unlikely.

I found it genuinely fantastic. The movement of the capsule was so in time with the screen it worked excellently, as did having C3PO as our driver. The 3D effects worked really well too. I really enjoyed it. It beats the NASA simulator I mentioned earlier on in my report, it's just amazing.

We then headed over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We were greeted by a rather impressive set.

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After a welcome, the show began with Indiana Jones blasting through the ceiling sending 'rock' flying, it looked so realistic. He then proceeded to jump over some shady looking ground which soon had massive spikes shooting out of them. I wouldn't like to get impaled by one of them! He nearly gets his head cut off, then he stepped on a trap door and disappeared through it. Then (this I was expecting) came a massive boulder which chased him across the stage. This (low quality) picture shows some fire and the spikes. I think I took video which is why I haven't any pictures. When I find the footage, I'll post it.

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The boulder caught up with him and ran over him, then someone yelled 'cut' and loads of cameras burst out onto stage. Turns out this show is about how you film the stunts...as well as seeing a few. The set is dismantled before your eyes, revealing a second set. The massive boulder is simply rolled back into place.

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Whilst dismantling the set, some 'extras' were 'randomly' picked from the audience to participate in the show. They were simply market goers, with what they were wearing it reminded me slightly of Assassin's Creed. The next scene began. There was a lot of fighting and jumping off things.

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Suddenly a car drove across the stage, a massive explosion with fire took place and the car flipped over. It was great to watch. Again, I think I have footage, and if I do, I'll post it soon.

Next was a scene with one of the 'extras', he was being taught how to stunt fight, he just seemed a little too good, alas, turns out he was one of the actors. I didn't see that coming, I was tricked!

While this was happening the set was once again being dismantled, leaving way for a set looking like a disused airfield.

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This was my favourite, just many stunts. Fire, explosions, fireworks, a broken plane. I loved it. I loved the show. Really entertaining.

It was now time for lunch and we had a reservation over at the sci fi cafe. I didn't know what to expect, I assumed a cafe themed to generic sci fi.

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Oh how wrong I was. There are around 100 cars all arranged so that it was like a 1950s drive in movie theatre. It was so amazing <3. I sat in the front of our car with Dan.

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We also watched some 'futuristic' adverts about the future (from a 1950s perspective) might be like. It was entertaining. I had a burger, it was amazing. No picture, sorry about that. Have one of Tom and Jerry though (between the adverts, they had short cartoon episodes).

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After lunch we went to Muppet Vision 3D which is a short 3D Muppet film, it was pretty decent as they used real puppets as well as filmed ones on the big screen. It is one of those 3D films that uses the whole theatre as it's stage, so a cannon on the back wall shot holes in the walls which was pretty fab.

Next we headed over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid but as there was 30 minutes to go until the next showing we bailed, so we went to see an extended 3D trailer of the (at the time) upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. I fell asleep so can't tell you much about it. I was tired, alright?

We still had some time to kill before our final fast pass so went to 'The Magic of Disney Animation', another short film. This one was quite fun. It consisted of a (smoking hot) live actor who (intentionally or not) appeared bored out of her mind talking to a stroppy animation on screen, it worked well and was very enjoyable.

Next was the ride I was most looking forward to, Tower of Terror!

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We looked at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster on the way but it had a queue of 90 minutes so decided to leave it and went straight to the fast pass queue of ToT. The whole area is themed extensively and brilliantly to an old fashioned, 1950s ish American hotel. We entered the pre show showing the hotel in her prime but then it all went wrong. We eventually entered our service elevator...

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...and slowly rose. I knew nothing about ToT, apart from it is an 'unconventional drop tower', so I was bracing myself for the drop at all times. We stopped at a floor where the manager person spoke and then a smashed window happened before we climbed further. Then the whole elevator lurches forward...this I was not expecting. We arrived at the front and ascended further, suddenly the front opens up so you can see Hollywood Studios in all her glory before plummeting to the Earth, then back up, then down, and up, and down. It was beautiful and amazing, my words cannot do it justice. Just amazing amazing amazing.

Thunder was rumbling overhead and we were knackered so we decided to call it a day. I got covered in snow walking back down Hollywood Boulevard.

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Back at the villa we had an interesting experience. We were about to go for a swim when the doorbell rang. It was a woman claiming her and her family were booked into our villa. After much faff calling whoever it turned out she had indeed booked our villa but for whatever reason, the booking was later cancelled (probably after we wanted it for 4 weeks rather than their 2 weeks), so her and her family who had been driving 16 hours had no where to stay. What is worrying was they had all the paper work and the codes for the key which is in a box next to the front door so if she had seen no car in the drive she'd have just waltzed in.

We finally got our swim and did not much else. I began writing this trip report that evening...way back in late July...I'm taking my time ;)

Tomorrow, Funspot! Thank you so much for reading <3
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 9, Hollywood Studios

Might as well keep 'em coming, this should be a short one.

Sunday 27th July: Day 10, Fun Spot America

A more relaxing day than of late so I didn't drag myself up until gone 10 and went out for a swim which was nice to do in the sun and tan up a little!

Daniel and Sarah eventually joined and we spent a good couple hours playing with a beach ball (we called him Terrance) but then disaster happened, I hit Terrance too hard against the net of the swimming pool (all the villas in Florida have a last structured net around the pool to stop insects, lizards and the like from getting in), he caught a screw and burst. Whoops. That was the end of that, thankfully a new beach ball was found, Terrance II,.

Mr. Stephen and Angela went to Publix to buy some lunch while the three of us set the table. What a feast was soon laid out before us!

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Yes, even salad...in America!

After lunch we boarded the car to go to a shopping mall...when we arrived there were no parking spaces with it being a Sunday afternoon and everyone is back from church, apart from in the valet area and **** that ****. There was just no where to park...so we were forced to go to FunSpot early! Eeeep.

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We saw White Lightning and already the excitement was building. As we had longer than we expected and wanted multiple rides on White Lightning we decided to buy the wristband.

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So we headed over to the first cred of the day...Sea Serpent...

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It was a **** +1. Next.

We broke the usual rule of riding a flat next before the next cred, it is a type of Enterprise that I had never seen before but Dan and I decided to give it ago.

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It wasn't anything special, just made me feel queasy to be honest with you.

Next cred was the reasonable looking Vekoma (I know!), Freedom Flyer.

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The ride was walk on. It's hard to see it in the pics but it is ridiculous just how much space you actually have in the seats, plus they are über comfortable. You could lean to the sides and in front, it was brilliant. But the coaster...wasn't. It was dull, forceless, meh. I was expecting better for some insane reason but ugh. Have some generic pictures of the thing.

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Yes I know, the stairs got in the way

Next was the 3rd and final cred of the day...the piste de resistance, White Lightning...

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I'd heard a fair amount from people who had ridden it in 2013 about how good it was and I couldn't wait to ride as consequence. We didn't have to wait long as it was pretty much walk on so Dan and I took our seats back row.

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It just looks beautiful

The lift hill clunked into like and we were off. There's a slight pre-drop before you reach the lift hill which is pretty cool. Then, the top of the lift hill arrives and...wow oh wow. Before you even reach the top the rest of the train pulls you over the top down a steep banked curve, then comes airtime, then airtime, corner, airtime, banking, more airtime, weaving underneath track, airtime, more airtime, even more airtime, more steep banking, more weaving before a final pop of airtime before suddenly braking. There is no other way to describe it other than AMAZING, like seriously, **** AMAZING. It jumped straight to number 2 but I did have to seriously consider the no.1 space.

What let it down for me was the urgent braking at the end, which whilst completely petty to even mention it, does slightly detract and therefore is important to mention. Over the course of the afternoon we rode it another 9 times making 10 total with 6 back row, 2 front and 2 in the middle somewhere. The front is very very good but not quite as good as the front. I took many photos, have a couple.

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I just loved it.

We headed over to the Sky Diner (underneath the 'World's Largest Sky Coaster')...

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...for a drink and quick snack before going out and seeing some more of what Funspot had to offer.

First up was Revolver.

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It was a nice ferris wheel which gave decent views of the park and nearby Universal.

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Universal and IoA, but they're coming up another day...

I also took a few selfies whilst on Revolver.

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I should just highlight, it was terrifying, no belt, you could unlock the door, it shook if you breathed, and was pretty high. Oh the joy!

Next we rode the Carousel.

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There was an upstairs, we didn't go upstairs, I'm assuming we weren't allowed otherwise I'd have jumped at the chance.

Rip Curl (apart from the final 4 rides on White Lightning which I already mentioned for ease) was the last tide of the day. I haven't laughed so much in ages. I had Daniel and Sarah pinned onto my ribs...it hurt like **** but for some hysterical reason it was just hilarious.

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We stopped in the tat shop, well you point at things you want whilst in the booth...not really a shop. They only did sizes up to L for a White Lightning tshirt but bought it anyway hoping uni would thin me up.

I really liked Funspot. It's what I'd imagine a proper American park to be without all the commercialism of Disney and Universal. Would I go back? For White Lightning yes, but it is a tad expensive.

On the way back to the villa we stopped off at Taco Bell...it was alright...bit ghetto.

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Not very filling either...

Early night because we had to be up at 6am the next day to get to Diagon Alley...

Thanks so much for reading once again, I hope you enjoyed reading, next part day 11, Universal Studios!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 10, Fun Spot America

Omg the Taco Bell looks anaemic! How depressing <//3

I **** love White Lightning. I only got to ride it once because I was with family who disapproved of Fun Spot, I don't even have the kiddie cred!

Can't believe we're 10 days in without Universal yet, I'd be practically foaming at the mouth!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 10, Fun Spot America

Because we were there for the best part of 4 weeks we had to split the tickets accordingly, 2 week tickets for BGT and Seaworld starting at the beginning, 3 week tickets for Walt Disney World starting almost a week in and the Universal tickets and IoA lasting until pretty much the end of the trip. There was no point having 4 week tickets for everything, it'd have been stupidly expensive.
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 10, Fun Spot America

That's pretty terrible about the other family turning up to the villa and finding you lot in there! I hope she found a replacement.

Nice report, keep em coming!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 10, Fun Spot America

White Lightning is one of the sexiest looking woodies IMO.

Nice Report! Look forward for the next update!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 10, Fun Spot America

So my plan is to get this finished before any trips this year...that gives me until Easter. Challenge accepted. This is gonna be a long one though so I might split it into two parts.

Monday 28th July: Day 11, Universal Studios Florida

I'd heard only good things about Universal Studios Florida and neighbouring park, Islands of Adventure, but today was purely about the former and I absolutely couldn't wait.

It was a stupidly early start, 6.00am...it was still **** dark. But we had good reason. We wanted to beat the crowds for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts in the new Diagon Alley area of Universal Studios Florida. I'm such a Harry Potter fan and was ecstatic. We left at 7am and made the 26 mile journey to the park.

The park didn't seem too busy, it actually appeared as if the majority of people were going straight into Islands of Adventure. We took this as a good sign, so we followed the signs for Universal.

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I took the customary selfie...

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I think there's one later one where I don't look quite so gross

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We were expecting to have to queue an hour or so to actually get into Diagon Alley and then who knows how many for the coaster, so you can imagine our astonishment when there was no queue to get in to the area and we just walked straight in!

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The Knight Bus!

You walk through the wall which Hagrid, in the first film, touches his umbrella to, to open and wow oh wow. You're in Diagon Alley. It looks so much like the films it is ridiculous. It is the most accurately themed, breath-taking, beautiful, immersive part of a theme park I have ever seen. Just astonishing. There was Gringotts, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Madame Malkin's, Ollivander's, Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlour, Gregorovitch's Wand Shop, it was spectacular. I'll shove in a load of pictures here as that makes most sense.

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I suppose you wouldn't usually smile in Knockturn Alley...

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So it was time to join the 3.5 hour queue for Escape from Gringotts.

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Not long after we joined the ride broke down, happily this meant several people in front of us bailed and left. The first half of the queue was painful, the hot sun and nothing to see, simply a queue at the back of a building. We played a game called Head's Up on my phone to pass the time. There was a replica cart in the queue, modelled on one in the film which looked pretty fab.

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I liked the signs on the wall.

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Good news was, Santa had come to visit! Clearly he needed to do something between Christmases.

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Finally we made it to the inside part of the queue in the amazing air conditioning <3. You enter the Gringotts foyer area.

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The goblin animatronics were impressive

Just to show you the attention of detail, the picture below is the animatronic of Bogrod, one of the goblins. The picture below is him in the films. The likeness is ridiculously accurate.

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You wind round a little before having your photo taken for identification. The Maycock's bought a copy, I would post it but I haven't seen it so maybe ATTACKHAMMER will provide you with that honour? :P There was some Harry Potter memorabilia including actual moving photos in the Daily Prophet!

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There's a pre show with Bill Weasley and a goblin explaining what the ride is and what you must do. It is decent enough. Then you're counted through and into a lift which feels really realistic as it 'descends' deep into Gringotts' underground vaults. A free-for-all ensues before picking up your classes and climbing a spiral staircase.

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The queue moved painfully slow. Finally we reached the top and it feels so awesome. Huge stalactites hang from the ceiling. Being geologically inclined, these turned me on. It felt so dark, dingy, damp which gave an almost claustrophobic feel to the whole cavern.

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I sat front row and the ride began. I'm not going to 'spoiler' this as it has been open for long enough for you to either know what it does, or know you don't want to know...if that makes sense?

To start you simply pass through some tunnels before you nearly have a head on crash with Bill Weasley and the goblin we saw earlier. Bellatrix Lestrange then appears with two goblin guards and tries to cast a spell on you which fails. Then you race along and spin a bit when Bill and the goblin appear again to stop your cart going through 'The Thieves Downfall'. This is successful until Harry, Ron and Hermione go through it ahead of you (the ****) and two huge statues appear, tearing up the track Bill and the goblin are on so you then go through the Downfall. The statues reappear and one falls into a massive crevice, grabbing your cart so taking you with it. The 3D effects work exceptionally here, fully immersive with wind effects.

Next comes my favourite bit. Bill conveniently reappears and manages to cast a spell that stops you crashing into the floor, when a dragon appears. Cue fire effect. Cue water effect from the spell 'aguamenti'. Harry, Ron and Hermione jump onto the dragon's back and take off with it (just like in the films). You spin some more before arriving at Lestrange's vault which randomly explodes and out flies Nagini (Voldemort's snake) which, with the 3D effects, made me flinch. Then Bellatrix and Voldemort himself appear. A small duel ensues, with the Dark Lord trying to kill you (charming, all I wanted was a nice day out at Universal). You then enter a very hot room with moving, molten melting walls (that's a mouthful). Voldemort appears again and blows a ball of fire at you. Cue hot air face blow. The dragon from earlier distracts Voldemort by blowing fire at him, to which he casts a shield. Hermione chucks a chain over to your cart and ties it round the dragon's neck. As the dragon flies up you get pulled up. You fly through more of the coaster, the trio tell you they're leaving you where you started before flying off on the dragon.

I wasn't expecting to go into quite so much detail but I wanted to :P. It is really excellent. So high tech and immersive. The only downside was that Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), didn't voice their parts, it spoilt it in some ways which was annoying.

We headed over to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

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I had my first taste of Butterbeer. It is literally like drinking happiness. You could taste the butterscotch. Writing this has made me crave a Wether's Original.

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Mmmmmmmmmmmm

I had a rather large burger for lunch.

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So much heart attack in one picture <3

We then had a quick look around some of the shops starting with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes which is pretty cool but nothing more than an overpriced joke shop.

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We headed over to Knockturn Alley (you've already had the selfie so no more of that I'm afraid), and Borgin and Burke's.

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Have a blurry photo of me with the Vanishing Cabinet.

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Daniel really enjoyed the area, the enthusiasm he shows in this photo is inspiring.

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We passed a few others but you've already had those photos so I shall move on.

The Maycock's had some friends from Cambridge they were planning on meeting early afternoon. Mr. Steven, Dan and I left Angela and Sarah to do some more shopping in the area while we went to meet them. I was surprised to realise I knew them too, I shall refer to them as Funky Dunk and Co.

Although we didn't ride the Hogwarts Express today, I did take some photos of King's Cross which I shall post now.

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https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 426a4a23cd[/img]
To those of you who aren't familiar with British Rail, the train operators are real, as are the locations...I am skeptical of all those trains being on time though...must have got the place on a good day...

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We headed over to the Simpsons area.

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Mmmm clitoris chicken...

Simpsons Ride was first up. It's fab. We only queued for half an hour despite the hour supposed waiting time.

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I can see Thorpe Park instituting this idea

The bad guy, Sideshow Bob I believe his name is (I regret to admit, I don't watch the Simpsons, my knowledge stretches as far as the video game, Hit and Run), is trying to destroy the roller coasters at a generic American theme park, in Springfield I assume (look at that knowledge!). It's really witty, fast paced, full of fun. Loved it.

Next we headed over to Men In Black: Alien Attack...another film series I know nothing about.

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There was a lift/elevator for this ride too, but it was so much s**tter than the one in HP&EfG I cannot even comprehend...but like the aforementioned Escape from Gringotts, a free-for-all ensued after the lift/elevator ride. We queued for around 40 minutes.

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It appears, I took very few pictures after this so I'll add ones from the internet for comedic effect.

It is really good. Instead of shooting at specific targets like on all other shooters I'd been on before, with this one you just have to aim at the alien and shoot and you'll get some points. I didn't understand the scoring system, 10 points for some, 1,000 for others. They'll all moving, popping out of windows or barrels, from behind walls, out of the ground. There's just so much happening at once, it's all very dynamic. I was in the lead the whole way until...the bonus. Being my first ride I had no idea such a thing existed. Basically, press your button first and you get 100,000 bonus points, completely eradicating the point of what you'd done up until then. I know you'll say 'just because you lost', and ok, fair enough, but what's the point in shooting everything, getting a great score of 75,000 when someone who is **** get's 12,000 but gets the bonus? I can't see the point personally, but there. Keep the bonus to 10,000 :P

Sarah and Angela were waiting outside. I think a major faff occurred, I forget, before heading over to Disaster Studios. I didn't know what this was but when we entered, Dan dragged me to the front of the room. The woman, who was chunky but lovely, wanted volunteers, a young child, a mother, a grandmother, two young adults and a hunk. Guess which won Dan won a place for? No, Serena, not hunk, but young adult! He had to produce a creepy laugh, and, erm, well he managed it...that's all I'll say. And we are? Moving on!

This next room was basically a pre-show with someone talking to the audience about what was going to happen. Pretty dull. And we are? Moving on!

In next room the volunteers were filmed doing stunts. The little girl had to lean against a wall acting as a pavement and look up at the Rock.

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The grandmother had to pretend she was gardening, the girl's mother had to look scared (surely the grandmother wasn't that bad at gardening?). Dan had foam rocks dropped on his head...Dan's helmet fell off, it was hilarious xD. The hunk was...well I'm not entirely sure but they zoomed in on him. And we are? Moving on!

Next came the creme de la creme [strike]caramel[/strike].

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We all boarded an underground train and travelled to the site of an earthquake! We were told we were all actors and had to 'just go along with it'. Florida never stops surprising me. First the cars just shook before they actually moved up and down. Signs around the tube station started to collapse and the ground crumbled, the roof began to cave in and fixtures fell off the wall. Flames sprung up as pipeline were ruptured. Another train came hurtling through on the adjacent track and crashed, derailing and flying on top of ours. Then a tsunami of water cascaded down the stairs completely flooding the station.

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They certainly don't do things by halves here.

As we were being taken back to the start we got to see the completed video with us all in. It was absolutely hilarious and so cheesy. My favourite bit was the grandmother being struck by lightning and just disappearing.

The last thing we rode that day was Twister...a Twister Simulator.

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It's based on the film 'Twister' which I'd seen in geography class a few years back but I didn't really remember it. There's a pre-show (quelle surprise) with an introduction to the ride before you walk through a house destroyed by a Twister. Then the simulator. A twister appears in the middle of the room created by spiralling winds and fake smoke one assumes. It's great, you get sprayed with water, the roof above you lifts up, signs get blown across the stage...as does a cow...dubbed Twister cow. It reminded me of this to those of you Brits young enough to remember.

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The petrol pumps break causing a massive fire. My only disappointment was there just wasn't enough wind...it didn't blow me away...ayyyyyyyyye. Oh dear.

That was pretty much it for us, we'd been up at 6am and even though it was only 5pm and we hadn't done a great amount we were knackered, and queueing for nearly 4 hours for the Gringotts coaster had taken a lot of time out of our day. We said au revoir to Funky Dunk and Co. and headed over to the NASCAR Sports Grille. We ordered an impressive plate of nachos to share.

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There was a small rumpus, I would love to type exactly what happened from my notes but I don't think that'd be sensible ;)

I had my second burger and chips for dinner. Om nom nom.

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On the way out I took a better selfie. For reading all that you deserve to see it ;)

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I don't know about you, but I reckon I should have got part of hunk ;)

We stopped at Publix on the way back and spent the evening in the pool.

That wasn't as long as I was expecting it to be, we didn't do a great amount thanks to the Gringotts coaster taking soooo long. Magic Kingdom was up on day 12 where the highlight of the holiday happened but that's to come. Thank you once again, so so much for reading, I really enjoyed typing today's day up.
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 11, Universal Studios

Great report!

The blue cow! Who rode the bus that went upside-down everyday, such a cred.
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 11, Universal Studios

So, let's continue:

Tuesday 29th July: Day 12, Magic Kingdom WDW

Given that yesterday was a really early start and we were planning on seeing Wishes at Magic Kingdom which don't start until 22.00, we decided we'd have a lie in and get to the park early/mid afternoon.

It was this morning that I started typing up the trip report...so I'm not taking my time with this and getting it done really quick as you can see ;)

The morning was spent in the pool, splashing around with the beach balls and Milo the Lilo. Angela and Mr. Steven went to Publix to get some lunch and provided another great spread.

After lunch we got in the car and made our way over to Magic Kingdom for the second time this holiday. Wooo. We had to get parking tram to the monorail station (which was open this time), so I had my first trip on the monorail to the park. (I'd already come away from the park on it).

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Thankfully, when we entered the park this time, my eyes stayed drier than last Wednesday so I was able to take a few more photos.

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We headed straight over to Space Mountain to use our fast pass.

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Thankfully we got to ride Omega this time meaning I could get the cred for this side! :D Omega is slightly rougher than Alpha but still a very good ride, it seemed to have a little airtime in places, I can't remember Alpha having much if any at all. Overall, I probably enjoy Omega more, it just feels that little more relentless in the way it speeds around the track. A really really good coaster.

Have a selfie of Mr. Stephen and I:

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And an ORP:

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We then rushed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as the queue wasn't too bad, we only queued 25 minutes. In the queue we realised you could 'detonate' stuff as the train passed, it's basically compressed air blasting out with some water spray, simple but a really nice touching, adding to the fab geological feel to the ride <3

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I love this ride. It feels so speedy and relentless, yet it is comfortable and really fun. A great great ride.

We headed back over to Tomorrowland (a little criss crossing, yes). On the way we stopped to watch a show outside the castle.

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We had a ride on Carousel of Progress as we were hot and bothered. I heard things that I didn't remember from last time, it is just great! When we came out a fully blown thunderstorm was going on before our eyes...so we went back on Carousel of Progress! Wooo. So another 20 minutes was spent learning about the progress of America over the last century. To be honest, I could ride this all day. When we came off it the second time the rain had stopped so we went to a nearby place to get a drink, only for a massive clap of thunder and the heavens opening again, this time with some serious gusto.

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We didn't fancy getting soaked so waited and watched the rain fall. It made me laugh how virtually all the pathways just miraculously cleared due to the rain.

After around 20 minutes or so, it finally cleared. Our next fast pass was due, it was for the 7 Dwarves Mine Train but due to the recent thunderstorm, it was down when we arrived so we went to the (indoor) Little Mermaid attraction, Under the Sea.

The fake geology on this ride is amazing.

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As are the animatronics.

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The 7 Dwarves was still down when we got off so we had a ride on the Mad Hatters' Tea Party Carousel.

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Cue sweaty selfie...

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We spun the fastest, and by quite a long way. When the ride stops the a brake is put on the spinning element causing us to be thrown violently to the side. It was hilarious.

For dinner we went over to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe again. I really like it here, especially with the tacky karaoke animatronic <3

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I had a burger. I'm wondering if I ate much else on this trip...

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Whilst eating, Mr. Stephen received an email apologising for 7 Dwarves Mine Train being closed earlier and said we could change the fast pass for another attraction in the park any time that day. But it was now time for what should have been our 3rd fast pass, but was in reality our 2nd...if that makes sense. Anyway, I digress, Splash Mountain!

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It was getting to be around twilight now. I sat front row with Sarah and we actually got mildly moist. I love this ride, the zip-a-dee-doo-daa bit at the end is just so much fun. Have an ORP.

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We headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean next.

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I'd been told it was similar, but 1000x better than Pirate Adventure at Drayton Manor (and that really is ****). This was actually quite decent. I think if I knew the Pirates of the Caribbean storyline, I'd get more out of the ride but alas. I enjoyed the scenes, especially the fake fire. One room has a big-ass boat which fired cannons, that was pretty darn cool. Have some low-quality photos.

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Apologies again for the low quality photos, I wouldn't usually put such crap photos in a PTR but that's all I had

By now it was dark, and the Maycocks were insistent that I needed to experience River Cruise in the dark because it is apparently wittier.

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Another low quality photo :P

The driver used many of the same gags the girl has used the last time I rode, which in a way ruined it for me because, and I know this is an ignorant assumption, but I'd assumed the gags were improvised. Ah well. It was good at night though, spooky perhaps, driving through the 'forest' in the dead of night with the Indians and the animals. Scary stuff!

But then it was time for Wishes, a show I had been looking forward to for months. We made our way over to the front of the castle, through the throngs of people waiting for the show. At 9.30, music started and suddenly the castle came to life with Disney characters beamed up onto the castle. There was Beauty and the Beast, Nemo, Up, Snow White, Lion King, Phineas and Ferb, Pocahontas, Wreck it Ralph, Walt himself with Mickey, and the finale was Frozen with Let it Go. It's fair to say I was blown away with all the songs and characters that essentially made up my childhood. I loved every second. Have some photos.

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I thought I'd put the video on YouTube, turns out I haven't, I shall post the video as soon as I do.

Turns out, this spectacle was only a warm up for the big event. At 10pm sharp, the lights across Magic Kingdom were switched off for Wishes, the greatest show on Earth. Tinkerbell flew from the castle. The fireworks, simple at first, to the Wishes theme, the castle changed colours, there were more fireworks. The whole thing is narrated by Jiminy Cricket. The was a huge finale with many fireworks and a huge applause from the crowd. I have never seen anything quite like it. Amazing amazing amazing. My words cannot do it justice though, they really can't. Have some photos.

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And a video (that I have actually put on YouTube).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubctfBRckFg[/youtube]

I was on such a high after that. Just amazing. Anyway. Onwards. We still had our fast pass from earlier to use so we thought we'd use it to let some of the vast crowds disperse from the Monorail.

We headed over to Tomorrowland.

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Tomorrowland looks even more impressive at night!

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And used it on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I thought I'd won with a pretty impressive score of 67,000 but no. Somehow, Mr. Stephen got 139,000! Bloody cheat ;) .

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Quite what I was doing, I just don't know...maybe I saw Angela's score and saw how bad she was doing, hehehe :P

Once we'd done with that it was time to leave :( I took some night time shots from Main Street.

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There was still a huge amount of people trying to leave and we had to wait around 20 minutes before we could get on the (very packed) Monorail.

Once back in the villa it was virtually straight to bed as it was gone midnight. Animal Kingdom, the fourth and final Disney park at Walt Disney World. Thanks very much for reading once again!
 
Re: Florida 2014: Day 12, Magic Kingdom WDW

As promised, the footage of Celebrate the Magic, the projection show at Magic Kingdom WDW.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st2gUyZD6eA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
 
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