My Orlando trip report: Part 8

[marc]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

Dunno tbh reading it back you have been rather negative, maybe I'm reading it different to what you mean. We all say things differently etc.

Don't get me wrong some of the stuff you've said I agree with.

Universal I loved the 1st time I went hated it the 2nd and 3rd time but liked it again the 4th time.

Sea World is a dump.

As said maybe I just read stuff wrong.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

Yeah, most people seem to be in agreement with a lot of the rides in Orlando. I've been negative about a few things, but there always seems to be someone who agrees with it.

But in general, I loved it over there, and I cannot wait to get back. Especially WDW.

 

[marc]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

I agree with you we cannot all like the same things.

Tbh last time we did not even bother with Shrek. Like all 4d shows they date even the well put together ones.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

Chances are when we do go back we wont bother with Shrek, Disaster, Twister and Simpsons.

The thing with those types of attractions is that they're not very re-ride-able.

And like I said before, if there's nothing new at Busch Gardens, we might not bother going back there. We liked splitting the days up, with 2 parks, or 1 park then going off doing something else. With the public transport, you're stuck for the whole day at Busch. It is a 'good' park, dont get me wrong, but with Islands of Adventure up the road, Busch just doesn't seem worth the effort IMO.

 

[marc]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

We are the same with sea world if there is nothing new we won't go back, and the penguin thing is not enough.

If Busch had not got their new coaster we would not go back there either.

Twister I've done once and that was more than enough.

The best time we've done Disaster was when there was no pre show, it was straight to the train. The new pre show is better than the original, but don't think I could sit through that again.

 

[Lofty]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

The reason you give your boarding cards is due to the large ETA animatronic at the end speaks your name to your car. That's the only reason, it's not just to give to the ride op, they then load that information on to the car for the finale.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 5 - Universal

So day 6 started fairly early, as for obvious reasons I wanted to get to Islands of Adventure for opening!

Guess where we were heading?

Spited again </3

So we headed over to Hogsmeade

And to the Forbidden Journey

Still loved it! And as I said before, I'm not even a Potter fan really, but this ride is just incredible!

I don't like how the Dragon's are hidden from view. Unless you join the queue, this is all you can see!

When then hung around the Lost Continent area. It's nicely themed, but there's not much to do really.

We joined the queue for this, not knowing anything about it. And annoyling, we still dont. I guess something went wrong as everyone left the queue after about 20 mins of not moving an inch

Trolly train thing - which is such a Mack Powered cred!

With everything being walk-on again, I jumped straight to the front of Hulk <3

These are a bit of a let down for such an amazing park. They're tiny and they're only run on a single shot mode. Well themed, but I would never queue for them.

Good view of Hulk though!

Spiderman was absolutely brilliant!

Didn't really like the Rapids.... besides having water thrown at you from every angle, not much happened.

On the other hand, Ripsaw Falls was great!

I had a lot of love for the Jurassic Park River Adventure too!

We then minced around the park again, going on most things a couple of times, before heading out for some tea at Hard Rock Cafe, then back to Downtown Disney for a bit.

They do like some Crazy Golf with their aligators!

I like Downtown Disney, just dont visit in the evening at the weekend!

Had another snack in the Rainforest Cafe before speninding a couple of hours in DisneyQuest!

It's weird. $44 entry is illegal. How can they charge that much?!!?

I liked the Pirates thing though, but that was about it (as you can see, she still wasn't impressed!). Yeah we obviously didn't do everything, but I couldn't be bothered to stay in there. It was very much 'meh'.

And that's it for day 6.

I'm getting all sad now, going through the pics again!

 

[peep]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 6 - IOA

This just reminds me that I need to continue writing mine up before I completely forget things.

Can't believe you didn't enjoy the rapids! They're awesome, you might get a bit too wet but it's still fantastic fun.

Urgh, did you actually pay for Disney Quest? We randomly popped in there towards the end of our trip, it's just very dated. That pirates thing was amazing though, quite hard if there are just two of you but great fun was had. Did you do the Aladdin Virtual Reality thing? That was awful, I wouldn't mind doing an updated version of it though as it was a cool idea.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 6 - IOA

Hell no did we pay, it was on our tickets!

That Aladdin thing was hilariously bad! I cant believe Disney allow such a dated 'attraction' to be used!

I think the Pirates thing was new, wasn't it? So it's a sign that they can come up with some good stuff, lets just hope the rest of it can be sorted.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 6 - IOA

Awesome report!

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 6 - IOA

Our next day started with the Magic Kingdom. Considering it was dead on our visit on Sunday, I was expecting more of the same today (Thursday).

Everytime we entered the MK, there was some kind of parade going on! Don't know whether that's good or bad timing....

First up was Pirates. Only had 10 min queue so that was ok. Have to admit though, I felt a little short changed, it didn't last very long at all.

Then nipped around the corner to grab a fast pass for Splash Mountain. 60minute queue, not good!

Thunder Mountain was showing a 40 minute queue, but we joined it anyway, as it does seem to go down quite quick. You can only really see the coaster from the queue line, you can get some good photos though:

T'was then time for Splash Moutain <3

I seriously fell in love with this ride!

Haunted Mansion was closed on Sunday, so I was looking forward to getting on it today!

It's not exactly impressive looking, and if you weren't concentrating, you could probably miss it!

Goofy queue line was goofy.

I was looking forward to the Haunted Mansion being the English version of the Phantom Manor, but it wasn't. There wasn't really any kind of a story line, more just a generic random haunted house - a good one at that, though it seemed to be a lot more child friendly than the likes of the Phantom Manor.

It's still a very, very good haunted house attraction, just not as good as the Paris version - same for Pirates.

As we exited, we got stuck in another parade!

Then made our way around for some Philharmagic <3

More fancy show stuff taking place by the castle.

Ridiculous hotog with pork and coleslaw topping, it was pretty **** delicious!

We were sitting outside Casey's, having out dinner when some chap came out, all dressed up, and played the piano! It was fab, and it's the stuff like that, that really sets WDW apart from the rest of the world! :lol:

The Magic Kingdom is AMAZING park, a park that I would be happy to just walk around all day, with out riding anything. Yes, there's is some crap rides in there, but only a few, and they don't take anything away from the magical feel you get in the park.

Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin and Stich's Great Escape were AWFUL. They failed with the execution here, on both attractions.

Monsters Inc Laugh Floor on the other hand was hilarious. But that's more down to the concept than anything else. Stich Live and Turtle Talk are equally as good.

My camera is crap at night, so I didn't get many photos. But we stayed for Wishes, which was fab, and we just minced around the park, enjoying ourselves. We done the Pooh dark ride, which was good, and Peter Pan, which I didn't find particularly good tbh - no music through out the ride made for a weird atmosphere.

Pretty sure I went on Space Mountain about 10 times, you just cannot get bored of how insane it is! Carousel of Progress was pretty neat too.

And that's about it for day 7, probably the busiest day for parks so far, but it was only the major rides which had queues (Space/Splash/Thunder), everthing else was around 10mins - walk on.

I'll try and do the next installment a big sooner, promise!

 

[Martyn B]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 7

The next started with the morning at Sea World. Because of where we were staying, we had free breakfast vouchers for Sea World, and it would have been rude not to use them!

I made a friend at breakfast!

Manta is VERY pretty coaster! And the aquarium queue line is quite neat too!

Missed this last time. Was quite cute seeing them swim around, poking out of the water!

And just around the corner is the dolphin pool, where you can feed them for something like $7. And it is $7 well spent IMO.

Hey little kids, THIS IS WHERE THE TRAY IS SUPPOSED TO STAY!

British tan </3

Next up, was Turtle Trek...

Ugh, don't bother. At least you get see the big turtles in the tanks.

We then venture round to Journey to Atlantis for another ride, or 5.

**** knows why, but I absolutely loved JtA!

There was some thunder in New York or something, so Kraken had to close. :roll:

Annoyingly, the Tower was closed again (which was the main reason we kept going back), so as we were headed in that direction, we opted for Wild Arctic. Which is basically some animal enclosures that you NEED a helicoptor to get to. Or you can walk.

Back in the park, the weather had improved in New York, so all the big rides re-opened. Had a go on each, then left.

Went up I-Drive so she could do some bloody shopping! Apparently after 8 days of theme parks, we needed to do something SHE wanted to do! Selfish cow!

So, yeah. USA Taco Bell really isn't as good as what we have in the UK.

Premium Outlets up the north end of the drive.

After an hour or two, I got bored, and I wanted to check out Magicl Midway. Never heard of it before, and therecould have been a sneaky hidden cred!

Ever such a weird place. No creds but a Star Flyer, Ejector Seat, S&S Space Shot and some Go-Karts. The Go-Karts looked fun, so I thought I'd give them a go.

SO glad I gave them a go, they were SO good! I literally came off buzzing, I was on such a high. They were so **** quick, with INSANE steep drops that have "NEVER IN THE UK" written all over them. And lots of polished wooden floor where you just slide all over the place, banging into each other. Luckily I had a kart that was a little bit quicker than a few others, so I took much enjoyment out of overtaking people on the outside going up one of them helices.

Then grabbed some pizza and chips and headed back to the hotel!

I was literally loving every minute of this holiday!

 

[Gazza]

Re: My Orlando trip report: Part 7

Posiedons Fury is more of a show, hence waiting 20 mins and nothing moving.
But a big group gets let in so it's alright.

 

[Lofty]

Magical Midway was directly over the road from our hotel. We never bothered to go in it, we wish we had now