Orlando Days 3 & 4 and a Wrap Up

 On day 3 we went to Disney's Epcot park.  (If you haven't been there, the park has an international theme where many different countries each have a pavillion that showcases their country.  Each pavillion has some kind of ride or movie or something that tells about the country, some kind of food shops and restaurants, and shops that sell items made in the country.  People that work in each pavillion must come from that country, which makes for a delightful experience.)  Yes, we avoided the two high-velocity rides but went on most of the other rides.  We ate lamb shwarma in Morocco, chocolate mousse in France, and pot stickers in China -- not bad for one day.
I expected that we would go around the park at a steady pace and be done by early afternoon.  But once you enter an amusement park, time seems to change and slow down so that it felt like I only looked at one or two things and all of a sudden another two hours had gone by.  We did manage to get around and see the entire park (not in depth, though) by 5:30 PM.  We could have stayed for dinner and seen the famous light show but by then we were tired and cold (yes, cold in Orlando -- there's a reason all my photos show me wearing a jacket or sweatshirt) so we went back to the hotel.

I learned from a friend after I got home that we missed one of the fun things at Epcot -- the drinking fountains.  Apparently when you take a drink, you might hear a voice talking to you from inside the drain, or fun lights might go on -- the fountains are all different.  So remember that when you go to Epcot.

For our last day, we went to the Universal Studios park.  The park has sections for Hollywood, San Francisco, New York, New England, and various movie-character themes (like Shrek, Men in Black).  Each section has rides -- the San Francisco ride was particularly interesting.  Basically we went into a very realistic BART station and boarded a BART car and started off.  Then a really big earthquake happened and the ceiling started to collapse and an on-coming BART train almost crashed into us and we bounced around a lot.  Funny for most of the riders but a wee bit less funny for those of us who live in earthquake country.


Ronya falls in love.


We saw the Blues Brothers in the New York section; saw a show that featured a bunch of Hollywood animal actors (they had a skunk, rooster, pig, a bunch of dogs and cats, doves, cockateel, vulture, falcon, and an orangatan).  We saw a horror movie makeup show -- very cool.  They picked out a young woman from the audience and plunged a knife onto her arm that looked like it was amputating the arm, complete with blood. She was laughing the whole time.  We had lunch at the famous Mel's Drive-In, where we sang along with all the oldie-moldie songs and I fell in love with the flamed car.

Again, I expected that there wouldn't be many things of interest in this park, but by the time we saw everything we wanted to see, it was the end of the day.  So we took the water taxi back to our hotel, packed our bags to prepare for the next day of travel, and spend a long, leisurely evening in a quiet, poshy hotel bar.  (And we discovered that bourbon is just as medicinal as tequila! It's so good to know these things.)  By the end of four days of solid amusement parks, I was done, done, done, DONE.  Great fun but four days of constant stimulation (music everywhere, people screaming on the roller coasters, people everywhere, bright colors and bright lights and lots of movement) turns out to be my max.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS  (in no particular order)
1. Universal parks are a lot louder than Disney parks.  And the Universal music is more beat-driven.
2. Although Universal parks do accommodate wheelchairs, Disney really has it down to a science and makes it much easier to get around on wheels.
3. You end up spending a LOT of $$ in these parks -- every little thing is marked up a lot. No surprise there.
4.  Buying a package deal and staying in a hotel right on the park property makes life much easier.
5.  Both parks have lots of bathrooms but Disney has a bathroom every two feet (well, it seemed like it).
6.  The walkways at Disney parks are wider and more comfortable.
7.  Disney has fancier landscaping and marks things in multiple languages.
8.  My guess is that Universal targets teens and young adults whereas Disney targets families.  The addition of the Harry Potter section in the Island of Adventure may be a new direction for Universal.

LASTING SNAPSHOTS IN MY MIND
At the Universal Island of Adventure park, there were lots of little Harry Potters and Hermiones running around in their Hogwart's robes and house scarves, carrying wands and broomsticks -- most with the price tags still dangling -- and all looking like they were on top of the world.  It was adorable.

At Epcot, the Norway pavillion has "storybook dining" where you can eat with a princess.  Needless to say, the park was filled with lots of little girls in princess dresses (two little girls even wore their princess dresses on the plane home).  I couldn't help chuckling at the end of the day when I saw stroller after stroller roll by, each filled with a drooping, pooped out princess.  I guess magic only lasts so long.


A Gryffindor sweatshirt, some butter beer, and the Hogwart's Express conductor.



Orlando Day 2 -- More Harry Potter

Early on the second day, we decided to do the major Harry Potter ride, called Harry Potter's Hidden Journey.  I think it is the best ride I've ever been on.  First you walk up to Hogwarts and then walk all through the castle.  We walked past Dumbledore's office where Dumbledore talked to us.  Now I know it was a holographic projection, but it was done so well that it really, truly looked like a real person standing there talking to us.  And as we walked through lots of corridors, of the course the portraits all talked to each other and to us.  We even walked past the sorting hat and the portrait of the fat lady that is the entrance to the Griffindor common room.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read the Harry Potter books.)  At one point Harry, Hermione, and Ron told us that we needed to hurry out to the quiddich pitch. 

Eventually, we arrived at the great hall where all the candles were suspended from the ceiling and that's where we got into the seats for the ride.  They really lock you down in the seats (good thing, too because we got tossed around during the ride), and before we knew it, Hermione cast a spell on us and the floor dropped out from under our feet and we started flying.  Then Harry showed up on his broom and we followed him, soaring over Hogwarts and then we dipped down onto the quiddich pitch and started playing quiddich with Harry and the team.  Amazing!!! Then, of course, the dementors showed up and Harry told us to make a run for it by following him and we were off on a crazy ride through the forbidden forest (met up with a bunch of spiders and got spider spit in our face) then did a wild turn through the whomping willow and back onto the quiddich pitch where we had to dodge dragons.  Eventually we made our way back to Hogwarts, zooming through the corridors, and received a wild reception by Dumbledore and all the Hogwarts students who all told us how brave we were.

The ride is not really a roller coaster and it doesn't do the high velocity G-force stuff that roller coasters do, but nevertheless, it is a wild and very jerky ride.  We were tossed right and left and tilted up and down.  I admit that I closed my eyes for a few seconds a couple of times.  But wow what a thrill.  And it really felt like I was on a Firebolt playing quiddich.  BEST RIDE EVER.

For the rest of the day we did almost all the rest of the rides and shows in Island of Adventure.  Very fun.  By the end of the day we were very tired puppies (hey, it's not easy having this much fun!) so we needed some more of our favorite Jimmy Buffett medicine. 

Orlando Day 1 -- Harry Potter

My sister and I went to Orlando for four days, and believe me, four days of going to amusement parks is enough.  We had a wonderful time but I am parked out!  On the other hand, I highly recommend going during low season -- it never really got horribly crowded and we were usually able to just walk on to most of the rides -- very little waiting time, if any.  That's worth braving a bit of cool weather.

As a quick aside, I tried a new shuttle service to get to the airport and they were ON TIME (which is not my experience with most airport shuttle services).  So I recommend VIP Shuttle Serivce, 1-800-235-8VIP.

We stayed at the Portofino Hotel,, which is a poshy, Italian-themed hotel inside the Universal Studios compound.  We bought a package that included the hotel, VIP pickup at the airport, water taxi transportation from the hotel to the parks, entry passes to the park, early park admission (a very important benefit), and express access to rides (you get to skip the regular line and get on the rides faster).  It was a really good deal and I recommend doing that.  It allowed us to have a great time without renting a car and spending lots of time driving and lots of money on parking fees. 

And I must say that the Portofino is a luscious hotel.  Elegant, relaxed, comfortable.  It sits on a little bay and looks at bit like a little fishing village -- very well done.  And the restaurants and bars are great.  We especially appreciated its relaxed and quiet atmosphere after spending all day in max-stimulation at the theme parks.

OK, on to Harry Potter.  The Universal compound contains three hotels, two separate amusement parks, and one central entertainment area called Citywalk.  Citywalk has lots of restaurants and clubs -- more on that later.  The amusement parks are Universal Studios and Island of Adventure.  The Harry Potter stuff is a big section in the Island of Adventure.

On Day 1 we arrived at the entrance gate one hour before the regular opening time (which we did every day) and dashed in with the rest of the crowd and walked directly to the Harry Potter section.  When we arrived at the entrance gate to Hogsmead, we did what everyone does -- we stopped dead in our tracks, looked around, and said "Wow."  And then started taking a ton of pictures.  Universal really did it right. They recreated the train station with the Hogwart's express, Hogsmead, and Hogwarts.  It is truly amazing.  Really.  They paid attention to every detail.  We spent a lot of time just slowly walking around and looking at everything.  We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks -- ho hum food but great atmosphere (you really need to make a reservation). As we sat there eating, various shadowy things happened in different parts of the restaurant -- great fun. And we had our first taste of pumpkin juice and butter beer.  Pumpkin juice is a combination of apricot and apple juices, with pureed pumpkin mixed in.  Actually tastes pretty good.  But the real treat is butter beer, which is only served on draft from carts in the street.  I wanted so badly to bring home a bottle but there was no way.  Anyway, it it hard to describe the taste -- a hint of root beer, a hint of cream soda, and some other stuff, and topped with lighly-whipped cream.  Yum!

We wandered into Honey Dukes (the chocolate frogs are just plain milk chocolate but the packaging is fabulous -- the fizzing whizbees were simply peanut clusters -- and of course, they had lots of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, but I wasn't brave enough to buy any of those, I probably would have gotten a box with earwax flavor). And we went into Zonko's (no puking pastilles or skiving snack boxes but they did have extendible ears and pigmy puffs and lots of other fun stuff).  All the shops are small, the shelves go to the ceiling, and the aisles are narrow.  All-in-all a wonderful feel but a tad frustrating in the middle of the afternoon when the place is crammed with people and baby strollers.  They have a version of Flourish and Blots but it has a different name that I can't remember, which sells all kinds of wonderful things, including small snapping books that will bite your finger if you're not careful. And of course, we went to the interactive experience at Olivander's Wand Emporium, where we met Mr. Olivander who picks out one child and then helps that child select her first wand.  Mr Olivander was played by a marvelous actor, who was perfect in every way, and the little show was mesmerizing.  There is an owl post area with lots of owls (not actually real ones but amazingly realistic).  And Mr. Filch's Emporium that sells all kinds of stuff like Hogwarts robes, scarves and ties for each house, three different models of broomsticks, etc.

There are three Harry Potter rides. The Dragon Challenge is a high-velocity, twisty roller coaster.  We skipped that one although it is reputed to be great. The Hippogriff ride is a smaller, more gentle roller coaster that rides around Hagrid's Hut and you even get to see a hippogriff.  Very fun.  In the hippogriff cars, the seating is two across, so my sister and I sat together. The seats are very low and narrow, so by the time we sat down the two of us were pretty well wedged in.  At the end of the ride, we had to unwedge ourselves and step up, which was not easy, so we looked at each other and started trying to get up and couldn't.  Then we got to laughing so hard we couldn't move at all.  By that time we really needed to exit the ride, which we did accomplish, but we both had visions of having to keep going on the ride, around and around, because we couldn't get out.  I don't think anyone knew why these two old ladies were laughing their heads off.

We did the third, and best, ride on Day 2, so stay tuned for that description.

Oh, I almost forgot about the singing toads.  They have an acapella quartet that does shows and they hold large toads on pillows.  The group is very good and the toads provide the base background for the group.  It is a great show!

So all in all, we spent a large portion of the day, although not all, at the Harry Potter section.  I must confess that by 11:30 am we both started aching so we went back to the hotel to ice our feet and knees and take a wee snooze.  After two hours we both felt quite refreshed and went back to the park to see some of the other sections.

At the end of the day, we left the park and wandered around the Citywalk and decided to stop at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant.  What a hoot.  We loved it.  Drank margaritas (of course), sang the songs along with the rest of the crowd, watched the volcano blow a couple of times, and ate great cheeseburgers (what else! -- after all, we were at Jimmy's place).  They've really created a wonderful place to have fun and everyone there was in a happy party mood but not ugly drunk.  Just a typical Jimmy Buffett crowd.  And very medicinal -- when we left our feet and knees felt just fine.

Discoveries about retirement

I've been retired two months now and am starting to notice a few things.

• I've saving a lot of money on gas (no more commuting).
• I'm running the dishwasher a lot more often. Also, I'm running the furnace more often.
• I'm buying a lot more groceries and eating out less often.
• I'm going to the movies during the senior discount days -- saves a bunch of money.
• I'm starting to enjoy the formerly unimaginable luxury of reading for half an hour before getting up in the morning.
• Grocery stores are a lot less crowded during late morning.  For that matter, most stores are less crowded during that time.

This retirement thing is getting interesting.

New Orleans in 3 days

After Girlfriend Weekend, we scheduled 1 day to recover and then planned to drive to New Orleans for a 3-day visit.  (Neither my traveling friend or I had ever been there so this was a great opportunity.) 

Well, first off, the idea of "recovery" was a joke.  It takes more than 1 day to recover from a weekend like that, and then we decided to go with our hosts (also good friends) to see 2 movies.  Why not?  But the real highlight came after the movies when we drove to the drive-up window of the take-out daiquiri place.  We just drove up to the window and ordered from a huge menu (hey, you can even order daiquaris by the gallon!).  They handed back the frozen drinks in unmarked styrofoam cups with a piece of tape over each lid so that technically they are closed containers.  Then we put the straws in the drinks and drove off, drinking all the way home for the 1-hour drive.  And those drinks weren't watered down, either.  What a hoot!  Definitely an only-in-Texas moment.

Anyway, we hit New Orleans just at the beginning of Mardi Gras season.  (Silly me, I always thought it was just a 2 or 3-day celebration, but noooooo, it is an entire 9-week season.  Which follows directly on the heels of the 4 to 5-week Christmas season.  I don't know how they survive.)  We actually got to see one parade, which was unexpected.

So what did we do?  Day 1 we slept late then ate a fabulous lunch at the Commanders Palace (incredible food, amazing service, and 25-cent martinis -- how can you go wrong with that?), then wandered across the street to the Lafayette cemetery and ended up joining a walking tour of the cemetery and the Garden district to a bunch of houses that have ghosts.  The guide explained a lot about how the tombs function, told us great stories about the houses, and provided a lot of historical info.  It was great!  By the end, we were so tired that we could not bring ourselves to stay up and do the town.  (Well, in our defense, we still had not fully recovered from the weekend!)

Day 2 we got up early and tried to get on a bus tour of the city but it was scheduled for the afternoon so instead we went to a warehouse where they make the parade floats for most of the krewes (those are social clubs that put on the mardi gras parades -- each krewe has it's separate parade, which is why there are parades every couple of days during the season).  Being able to get up close and personal to the parade floats was amazing.  Everything is really huge -- something you don't realize when you're standing far away watching.  Then we had a wonderful lunch in a hotel overlooking the Mississippi River (every time I see the word Mississippi I think of jump rope rhymes when I was a kid).  The afternoon city tour by Greyline was really good -- it was very comprehensive.  Yes, we saw some Katrina devastated neighbornoods (lots of blocks with 4 or 5 refurbished houses, 2 or 3 houses that still haven't been fixed up, and lots of empty lots), but we didn't go into the worst sections (that was another tour and we really didn't want to look at storm victims like they were in the zoo).  We had dinner an another notable restaurant, Irene's, but were definitely disappointed -- the food was just ho hum.

By the time evening came, we were ready to tackle Bourbon Street.  Our B&B was located right at the beginning (or end, I don't know which) of Bourbon Street, so we ended up walking the entire length up and back.  And what an experience.  The cacaphony of music blaring out the doors of clubs, and barkers trying to get you to come into the clubs and the girlie shows, and people walking the street with signs for cheap beer and cheap drinks, and the bright lights almost felt assaultive -- but also fun. Clearly they are geared towards people who want to get drunk as fast and as cheap as possible which is not something I'm interested in doing. Not sure I'd need to do Bourbon St too many more times.  We ended up in one club listening to New Orleans-style jazz for awhile, and then finished the evening at a blues club.  The interesting thing was that I asked a couple of people during the day about where they go to hear good music and the answer was "home."  Apparently a lot of the musicians have not returned to New Orleans and the music scene just isn't was it used to be.  Of course, you can hear good stuff in small clubs and bars throughout the city, but those places are hard to find if you only have 3 days.  I liked what I heard, so I was happy.

Day 3 we took a bus tour to 2 plantations, one American and one Creole.  I learned that the two cultures were very different -- different architecture for the plantation houses, different social rules, different religions and languages, different ways of running the plantation.  It was fascinating.  And one of the plantations was part of the origin of the Uncle Remus Br'er Rabbit stories (although at the time the stories were collected by folklorists, there was no Uncle Remus -- he was invented later).  And we capped our trip by a return trip to Commander's Palace because we just had to try a few more things on the menu.  It was SO worth it!!!!

So now I'm home trying to rest up and get ready for the next trip which is next week.  On to Orlando and Harry Potter.