Advertisement
Published: December 20th 2010
They picked the 'hoodies'...
In a few years from now we will show this photo to them and they will cringe. Amazing, nay staggering the number of 'families' with Dad as 'Thing 1', Mum as 'Thing 2' and the kids numbering numerically from there on down...No shoes to choose,
No malls to peruse,
Today the kids meet Dr Seuss..
Poor attempt, but whatever...
The mild temperate clime of Florida caught us out today with a cold, cold one...high of 13 and low of 6. No rain but dreary and grey and again, cold! Hence the need to get the kids hoodies...and letting them pick meant we ended up with what you see...
Today we started the Orlando theme parks and started with the twin parks of Universal Studios and Adventure Island. Only went to Adventure Island today but have three further days to share between the two parks. Scheme the parks run here is a decreasing daily rate the more days you but, the decrease is drastic and very good marketing. One day costs US$112 per adult. 4 days costs US$139 and as you require 1 day each for each of the parks for an additonal (2 days costs US$124) for an extra $15 you get the option of going back 2 additional days of your choice but must use 4 days within 14 days of purchase. Disney offers similar schemes but even more dramatic in the discounts.
Minor trip up is
that Disney includes the sales tax in their ticket price...Universal doesn't so you get hit for an extra 6.5% or 8.5% on top which on a $500 bill adds up a little. (Why don't they build the sales tax into the price up front?)
Regardless of all that, here for a good time and not a long time, and when we can prise Sandy out of malls and outlets then its all about the kids.
Started with Adventure Island because seemed a better introduction and a little more there geared towards Caitlin with the Dr Suess area - 'Seuss Landing' (hence the clumsy rhyme at the commencement). It was busy but not manic - and certainly less congested than the Florida Mall yesterday..
Now a lot of research went into this and for the silly amounts of money you spend its worth making sure you think you've got the right options. We disregarded SeaWorld because the kids have been twice in Brisbane, and while it will be significantly different it is equally significantly the same. None of us had been to Universal so after checking the attractions etc (courtesy of 'Frommers - Walt Disney World & Orlando'
2011 edition we decided to give it a whirl.
In 'Seuss Landing' there are 4-5 main attractions aside from the decor, actors, water spouts and merchandise...the main of these being the 'Cat in the Hat' ride - about 3-4 minutes through an indoor set of different Dr Seuss stories and characters. Did that twice, two of the others here twice also and the 4th once and a few minutes in the fifth.
From there into the 'Lost Continent' and a show called 'Poseidon's Fury' featuring towering flames, jets of water and a 360 degree water vortex you walk through (now that was pretty impressive). Caitlin loved it! (not) Flames are shooting out of the walls and floor and Reubs pipes up, "man if they gave us marshmallows we could have toasted them.." This is rated as the number 2 attraction here (by some anyway) and it was really a bit of humour.
'Jurassic Park', no points for getting subject matter here. A number of attractions but the favourite here for the day was the Pteranodon Flyers' where you are suspended beneath large models of Pteranodons funnily enough, and flown on a rail around the course above the
Jurassic Forest. Fairly low key but very effective...we did it in the dark so lots of flames etc around below as opposed to the actual forest etc.
Most impressive area had to be 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter'... this is the parks newest, and seemingly largest area and is very, very popular and was the one area that was heaving. Despite that Sandy and Reubs were able to do the 'Flight of the Hippogriff' roller coaster (described as family friendly but dad and Caitlin thought we'd let that one slide regardless) without too much of a wait, just about 25-30 minutes. The town they have built around Hogwarts, and the castle itself are really impressive and the merchandising is off the charts and was being snapped up at an amazing rate...winter scarves in the colours of the Hogwarts houses were undoubtably the biggest sellers of the day, hands down.
The food here is obscene...the size of the portions is gargantuan (still not sure that really is a word) and there is so much unhealthy food. Not being total strangers to junk food, still amazed at how much variety of basically bad food there is. What is a
little more surprising is that there is also a good quantity of healthy food available but it is seldom seen being consumed. Took our own lunch and will continue to do so for economic as well as cholestrol based reasons.
A growth industry here has to be in wheelchairs...so many people using them.
We had arrived at the park just a shade after 10am. Had intended to get the tickets in advance from the Blue Heron but they let us down on that but that is another story and not overly interesting...so needed to queue to get tickets at the gate. Again pleasantly surprised as this only took 20 minutes or so and the surrounds were interesting for the kids. And on the subject of queuing...it really was not a big deal. Longest wait was probably around 30-40 minutes and as the lines kept moving and there was normally interesting enough stuff around it was just not an issue. The organisation for the events is phenomenally well run.
We got back to the car just before 7:15 pm...kids tired and hungry, but very happy.
All in all a good day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0269s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Karen
non-member comment
Hoodies
Loving the hoodies! Shame you didn't get one too Mike! Really loving the blogs and hearing what you are up to - it sounds like you are having an amazing time!