Florida Part III

Our final day of amusement park adventures came and went and it was a blast! I'm pretty relieved to be wearing something other than sneakers, a backpack, and a Disney poncho though. We slept in really late the third day because we didn't arrive home until nearly 3am from Magic Kingdom, after breakfast with Babka we checked online for details about Universal and saw that they were open until 10pm (or so we thought).

We got to the park about 1 o'clock thinking we had all day to browse Islands of Adventure, but when we went to purchase tickets the attendant told us that 'peak season' ended about a week prior so now the parks closed at 8:00 and 8:30. Also, if you want to see all of Harry Potter World you need to purchase tickets for both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios because Hogsmead and Diagon Alley are split up and are only linked together by the Hogwarts Express.

Not cool Universal, not cool.

So we splurged on tickets for both parks and rushed to fill the seven hours we had to see everything. We stopped at a couple rides that are near the entrance, and from afar I could see the main Jurassic Park building *insert happy gig here*

It was like being a kid in a candy shop! I've dreamt about visiting Jurassic Park in Universal for years, and to finally be there was so exciting. Even the gift shops were retail heaven for me, I ended up spending an unnecessary amount of time in them because I wanted to buy everything.

As far as the Jurassic Park ride goes, it was a blast! Once we actually got to ride it I mean. Imagine this... we are in line, literally the next people to get into one of the river boats, and suddenly over the intercom they announce that due to the impending weather the ride will be shut down. I was devastated, I thought that I wasn't going to be able to go on the one ride I had wanted to visit since I was a kid. And I started crying tears of distress, I panicked! One of the ride attendants standing near us saw my reaction and tried to calm me, she optimistically said that once the weather cleared up the ride should be up and running again. She hinted that if we mentioned her name on some of the other rides they would let us skip to the front, something we could do while we waited for the lightning to dissipate. 

So that's exactly what we did, we headed over to Hogsmead and shot to the front of the Hogwarts ride while there was an hour long wait. Thank you Tisha! Shortly afterwards the sky turned bright blue so we ran back to Jurassic Park and finally checked it off our list! *phew*

I know these attractions were geared more towards kids, but I got a huge kick out of them. This girl was in the nursery where a baby raptor had 'just hatched.' There was some cheeky animatronic effects going on but I didn't care. In the middle of the Jurassic Park area is a busted raptor cage, inside is someone dressed in this elaborate raptor costume, it would bob its head up and down and shriek while people posed for photos with it. The 'raptor handler' would calm it down and watch that it didn't bite people, one couple came up with their baby and it too started shrieking. I would have snagged this photo opportunity in a heartbeat if there wasn't a 50 person line and we weren't on a time crunch.

And then there was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This was unlike anything either of us had ever seen, the attention to detail was crazy, the sights, sounds, and smells were perfectly fitting. It was exactly like I pictured it, you feel like you are walking through Harry Potter's back yard! That's Hogwarts up above, to get to the ride inside you must walk through a maze of hallways lined with 'moving' paintings and floating candles. You can even take a tour of the castle, that's how intricate it is. Below is Hogsmead, it's set in the winter time so the poor park employees were wearing flannel pants in hot, humid, 90+ degree weather.

And of course we had to try butterbeer! It tasted just like you'd imagine, slightly cream soda-ish with a more caramel twist. We got them frozen, perfect on a tropical day like it was.

After taking the Hogwarts Express (which was a great ride in itself) we followed the crowd behind a building, and tucked away through a brick wall was Diagon Alley. Straight ahead you can see the massive dragon clinging to Gringotts Bank. Every ten minutes or so he roars and spews a massive fireball into the center of the buildings, you can actually feel the heat it's so intense.

Being short on time we really hadn't stopped to eat so we grabbed lunch at The Leaky Cauldron, there you can chomp down British foods like cottage pie, fish and chips, and bangers and mash. It was a nice change of pace from the chain foods we'd been filling up on recently.

We managed to do and see so much more in Universal than either of us thought we would, it was so much fun! And dare I say... the rides there were better than the majority at Disney... It's a bummer it wasn't open later, but I'd say we had a successful three full days of amusement parks. The City Walk stays open after the parks close so we browsed through the city of restaurants and grabbed dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe before heading home.

The next day we spent with the Placko ladies and the rest of the family doing breakfast and dinner. Man, grandmothers sure love to feed you until you're grotesquely full. And often. It was a great six days in Oveido, but the last day of the month we said our emotional goodbye's and headed to Tallahassee to split up our drive to New Orleans. When we left the squeeze's parents home on day one I set the tripometer to "0", as of today we have put about 3,000 miles on my car! And we're still not in Austin yet! Soon though...

Florida Part II

We were pretty beat after the previous night's shenanigans but on we mushed! After a good night's rest we made our way over to Epcot for the first half of the day. I have a photo of my parents standing in front of the big 'golf ball' so bits and pieces of our visit started coming back to me. We made it to several rides before the rain hit, we even managed to chug coffee in-between. That actually wasn't a particularly great idea because we went on Mission: Space afterwards where we experienced g-force in a centrifuge *barf*

For dinner the squeeze brought me to Mexico! No, but seriously, we headed to the World Showcase and dropped by a large Aztec pyramid. The squeeze was adamant about going inside for food, I wasn't entirely convinced by the exterior but I've learned to trust his suggestions, especially since he he's visited Disney nearly 100 times. 

Inside the pyramid we entered a little Mexican town set-up with stands selling handmade goods, he pulled me to the far back where this entire new Aztec pyramid amidst rows of tables was tucked away! There was a little river wrapped around the pyramid, and the volcano to the right would occasionally bubble up and create a low rumble. The food was delicious, and the margaritas were even more delicious! I loved this restaurant, it's probably one of my favorite stops in our three days of adventures.

After dinner we hopped onto the monorail and made our way to Magic Kingdom, it was gray and misty out but we made it work with our Disney ponchos that we bought at Animal Kingdom the day before. Plus, the rain made for some great photos once the sun went down!

Once we finished up at Tomorrowland we heard a thunderous *boom* so we ran back to Cinderella's Castle just in time to see the fireworks show, it was beautiful! We even managed to catch the Disney's Electrical Parade, finishing up the night around midnight, overall a very successful day! 

Then we had to get back to our car... at Epcot. It takes two monorails to travel between the two parks, and everyone was leaving Magic Kingdom the same time we were. We managed to get through one monorail trip, but the second one was closed so we had to take a bus back which didn't arrive until late. After all was set and done with stopping to get gas, we arrived home somewhere around 2:30 in the morning... I think... honestly it was a blur for the both of us since we slept until almost noon.

It was a memorable day for sure!

Florida Part I

When we first arrived in Oveido it was about dinner time so we didn't do much of anything. I did finally get to meet the the squeeze's famous Babka though, at the ripe age of 94 she is the peppiest grandmother I have ever encountered! I was also easily able to meet the other portion of their big family because all the ladies live in the same retirement community. Not only that, but they are also neighbors. And three out of four of them are named Anna Placko. They told us their mail gets mixed up and they receive phone calls for each other frequently, no surprise there.

The next full day we spent hanging out with these vibrant ladies, we have Anna Placko (Babka, they call her Anna B. Placko because her maiden name starts with a B), Anna Placko (we call her TA, short for teta Ancha in Slovak, or aunt Anna, she is Babka's sister-in-law), Anna Placko (just Anna, she is also Babka's sister-in-law), and Vera (Babka's actual sister). Milly, or Milka, who is TA's niece was also visiting from Delaware so we essentially stayed with five ladies for six days.

After settling in we headed to the parks! Day one we made our way to Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios. I haven't been to Disney in almost 20 years, not since my parents took me as a buffer after their divorce. I remember it being a great experience, minus a few bumps in the road like when our rental car was hit or the occasional argument between them.

I was pretty ecstatic when the squeeze and I got to Animal Kingdom, I've never actually been to this park so it was a great first time experience. At some point it rained. I mean it poured. We invested in Disney ponchos, wise choice on our part as it rained the next two days as well. We became so used to the rain it was easy to ignore that our shoes were squishy with water.

After a long half day at Animal Kingdom we made our way to what was formally known as MGM. Disney Hollywood Studios is wonderful, I love the roaring 20's theme throughout the park. We stopped and grabbed Mickey Mouse ice-cream per suggestion of the squeeze's dad and browsed the 'streets' of the park.

We managed to nab two seats at the Sci-fi Dine-in Theater Restaurant, it's basically this massive indoor drive-in movie theater set that's a restaurant. The cars are the tables and there is a large movie screen that was constantly plays 20's themed cartoons, clips, and commercials, it was such a cool set-up! The squeeze was adamant about eating here but I didn't know why, I'm so glad he pushed to come here!

And of course we had to go on the Tower of Terror multiple times! It's just as spooky as I remember, one of my favorites to date. I love rides that make even the experience leading up to the actual ride memorable. We didn't get home until about midnight, and then we did that two more times in four other parks. We've covered more ground in two weeks than I have ever!