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.