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Day 3 Universal Studios
Day three was rather overcast, but luckily not too cold, we went to Universal Stuidios, just to have a quick look round and get some Ice-cream from the Harry Potter shop. We have a ride pass for next Tuesday so we weren’t going to go on any rides.
It doesn’t look like too much has changed from last year, but it was nice to walk around and take some pictures that we missed last year.
The Salted Caramel Ice cream which was so delicious last year in Florean Fortescues, was downright disappointing, they had obviously changed it for a soft sickly sweet version, so we won’t be trying that again.
We also had a walk round the Marvel part and I don’t remember seeing these before
Still have quite a few days to get through so bye for now….
Epcot day 2
Just a quick post, as I appear to be getting very behind, we went to Epcot on the Monday.
I’d read and been told that we had missed a whole load of stuff at Epcot last year, and they were correct. We had just walked round the outside of the countries and not investigated into them.
The following pictures are just for Ann….
We also did quite a few meet and greets, also because the memory maker came as part of our holiday package we made the most of the on site photographers.
We had fast passes for a Mickey and pals for later in the day and for the Epcot fireworks.
Simon appears quite taken by Minnie…
Unfortunately once we came out of the Mickey and pals it quickly became apparent that the fireworks were going to be cancelled as it was tipping it down and we were right in the middle of a thunder storm.
We got soaked going back to the car but at least it wasn’t cold!
Monday, Downtown Disney
Yes, you can guess by the title we didn’t get to the Harry Potter experience today, we had early passes, for Harry Potter, which meant, apparently getting up at 5:30, I was up at 5:30, Simon not so much. Simon didn’t feel well, or up to doing an early morning, anyone who knows him, knows that he doesn’t do mornings at the best of time.
We moved Harry to wednesday and had another lazy morning, and decided to go to Downtown Disney instead.
Dennys for breakfast, and then Downtown Disney, which is in the process of being upgraded to Disney Springs (or something similar) it had the added bonus of having free parking, not sure how long that will last after the upgrade.
Downtown Disney is basically a shopping center with a Disney influence.
It appears I didn’t take any photos so this is going to be a pretty short post.
We bought some ‘stuff’ Simon got a shaving kit and I bought some T-Shirts.
Tomorrow Discovery Cove and Swimming with Dolphins..
Sunday, Universal Studios
After doing a lot more walking than anticpated the day before, due to having to walk up to Thunder Mountain twice because of it being closed the first time, we had another quite morning.
In the Afternoon we went to Universal and had a walk around there.
Universal isn’t quite as slick an operation as Disney, which came as a bit of a surprise, you would have thought that being in the same place that they could have taken tips from Disney, they had one carpark ticket taker for two lanes in several places and instead of a first come first served, it was a right lane then left lane scenario, it would have been better to just close one lane.
The directions for the carpark which was a multi storey were also a bit sketchy, there were also no helpful little trams to pick you up and drop you off, but a 5 -15 minute walk from the car to the ticket gate depending on where you parked.
We saw Dr Seuss landing, which unsuprisingly looked just like the books.
We had lunch at Universal, we both had lobster rolls at Lombards Landing, looking across the water I thought that looks like the statue from the Simpsons, and it was.
Then there was the Back to the Future train and car.
Can’t remember what this exibit is called.
Every where you looked there were, larger than life super heroes and Super Villians
There are two parts to Universal, and I’m not sure if I haven’t got them mixed up.
There is a lot to see and I haven’t put any photos of Harry Potter in this post as we are going to do the Harry Potter Experience tomorrow
Disney, Epcot
Today, (Friday) we decided to go to Epcot in the morning and do some rides in hollywood studios.
The main thing that stands out in Epcot is the topiary
This is just a selection of what they have, it just seems that if it is a disney character they have cut a plant into the shape of it.
They also had a water/fountain feature.
They have an area around the back that has various country setups, London, Paris, and so on.
We then went back to Hollywood Studios to see the Indianna Jones Stunt spectacular, and movie history ride.
Sorry it is a bit blurry, the Stunt Spectacular wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, there were the stunts which were amazing, what we weren’t expcting was all the ‘show’ crap that went with it, I suppose that it does make it more of a show but it did get in way of our enjoyment. As far as I can work out they were pretending that they were at the actual filming of raiders. The stunts the were done were the boulder scene from the beginning, then the kidnapping scene from the bazaar and the one at the areodrome where Indy fights the Large man while Marion is trapped in the plane.
The Great Movie Ride experience was also not what we expected, what it was, was a ride through lots of sound stages with set up of certain famous scenes, such as Gene Kelly swing round a lamp post from Singing in the Rain and the farewell scene from Casablanca. Some of the Animatronics were quite similar to the actual actor and others not so much. I don’t know what Simon was expecting, but I was expecting a more interative experience with video and more of a walk through the history of the movies, instead of just one dodgy movie set after another.
We completed day three with takeaway Pizza.
Disney, Hollywood Studios
Last night we went to the Red Lobster for dinner and I had Lobster tail and half order of snow crab legs which were delicious, Simon had the Ultimate Feast which consisted of Lobster tail, snow crab legs and two types of shrimp. we did have a bit of drama, while cleaning the butter off my hands my wedding ring and engagement ring just popped off and fell on the floor. My Wedding ring I found immediately, my engagement ring not so much, the staff were very helpfull and took the bench seat apart to find it.
Both rings are back on my hand, and if we go back to the Red Lobster my Rings are staying at home.
We started the day with brekfast at Dennys
Disney, Hollywood Studios….
Hollywood Studios was every thing we expected it to be, it was great to walk round, lots of things to see and take photos of.
Mickey, obviously was everywhere, but there were sections for StarWars, The Muppets and Indianna Jones, to mention a few.
At either end of one of the roads was a mock up of San Francisco at one end and New York at the other
‘Star wars’ shot for Denise
Epcot and a few rides tomorrow, (i might even catch up with my days, at the moment I’m one behind.
Disney, The Magic Kingdom
Day one:-
We spent a lot of time in the car today, there were a couple of things that we had to do, we need to go to the Virgin offices ( do they never get tired of wearing red?) and register the Villa.
We then had a late breakfast at Dennys
we decided to do The Magic Kingdom first.
it turns out that one of the problems with my little panasonic camera was that the SD card in it wasn’t fast enough, as you can see it had no problems taking these photos while moving…
Once at the carpark you get on a little tram which takes you to the ticket offices, where I was complimented on my dress, not blogged about yet.
we took the ferry instead of the monorail, over to the actual Magic Kingdom.
The Magic Kingdom, at first sight is everything you think it is going to be, it is only after you have walked around for half and hour or so that you realise that something is missing, or rather not living up to my expectations. I suppose that i thought there would be Disney characters around every corner, and there isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, it is an amazing spectacle, the time and effort that has be put into one of the most well known theme parks, probably in the whole world.
One thing I was impressed with apart from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, was how clean and well organised it was.
Hollywood studios tomorrow….
Disney, Florida
Well our Florida holiday started yesterday, 8 hours on a Virgin areoplane, we decided to go Premium Economy, very good decision and one I would highly recommend. The main reason being the amount of extra leg room available, the meals served on china is a bonus and the constant bringing round of drinks is a plus as well but on a 9 hour flight the extra space priceless. to put it into context, a Premium Economy row had four seats in two set of two, where economy had six seats per row. So not only did we have more leg room we had more space in general.
Getting our baggage out of the airport was a bit of a palava, we picked them up off the first carousel, then they were taken off us again so they could be sent to the main building, where we then had to wait around another 20 mins for them to arrive.
we picked up the car and Simon then proceeded scare the shit out of me, when driving out the carpark, he drove in front of a pillar as he was supposed to and i wasn’t expecting the car to be at that angle, ( I suppose to be fair I scared Simon with my yelp of fear)
45 minutes later we arrived in one peice at the Villa, which is very light and airy, it has four bedrooms, an open plan living space and a pool.
pictures to come later.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 