Orlando Trip Day 1: Sleep Deprivation

I wasn't able to pack or do laundry on Monday night (12/26) because we got in late from Chicago, and I needed to work 9-6 the following day. My mother kindly did my laundry on Tuesday while I was at work. I had some errands to run after work--to get library books about Orlando and to get a new battery for my car remote--so I got home at 9 PM.

The flight was at 6:30 AM.

I packed quickly (and did pretty well because I forgot only one thing) and napped for a couple of hours. I set all my alarms because I was worried that my mom would fall asleep. (She was staying up.) I got up on time, showered, and we jumped in the car to go to the airport.

When we pulled up to the long-term parking lot that my mom uses, the bus to the terminal was there, so we ran for it (which will have an impact later). The terminal was surprisingly busy, and I commented to my mom that all the people looked more awake than we did. The first flight to Miami left on time. We had a First-Class upgrade, which allowed us to stretch out to sleep. And sleep we did, the whole way except for eating breakfast at the beginning of the flight. When I woke up, we were out over the ocean coming over South Beach (I think?), and we landed shortly thereafter.

Our next flight was 2.5 hours later, but we managed to stay awake. I think that we also flew First Class on the flight to Orlando. We were a little confused how to get to the baggage claim and to find a cab in Orlando, but we figured it out.

We arrived at the hotel at around 2:30. Check-in time was at 4, but they gave us the room anyway, which we appreciated. We were pleased to find that the hotel had a food court, so we ate lunch. We then napped for a while, then ate dinner, and went back to sleep again because we planned to get up at 5 AM.

Orlando Trip Day 2: Epcot

Surprisingly, we woke up to a 5 AM wakeup call and got ourselves together. We thought that the restaurant opened at 6 rather than 7, and we milled around a bit waiting for it to open. The breakfast buffet was excellent. We then got on the bus to the main transportation point for the Disney parks. We were standing at first, but some younger people gave us their seat. (Maybe they thought that we were ancient -;))

When we got there, we picked up our tickets and asked how to get to Epcot. We took the monorail over there, which was kind of fun.

At Epcot, they were searching people's bags, not surprisingly. We rented a locker to throw our coats and purchases in later, and set out to explore the park.

We wanted to try the Soarin' ride, which simulates hang-gliding over California. I was a little nervous because I'm scared of heights and suffer from motion sickness, but I decided to try it anyway. We wanted to get a FastPass, which enables you to avoid waiting in line if you come back at an assigned time, but we couldn't figure out how it worked. Finally, we heard someone near us talking about a FastPass, and asked him how it worked. we went over to the ride and got our FastPass.

At that point, it was about 9:45. We weren't interested in most of the exhibits in the area called Future World, so we walked over to the area that contained pavilions from different countries (World Showcase). Each pavilion contains some buildings that are generally replicas of buildings in the country, some shops, and some restaurants. (I cynically thought that the true purpose of Epcot is to separate tourists from their money, but that's probably true of most theme parks.)

The first pavilion was Canada's. The area hadn't opened yet, so all we could do was look at and take pictures of buildings and gardens from the main path.

The next pavilion was Great Britain's. At that point, the shops opened. We stopped in a tea shop, which I hoped would serve tea, but they only sold it. We went into a souvenir store. My mom bought me a hooded sweatshirt that had a picture of a red English double-decker bus made out of the names of neighborhoods in London. I bought a water bottle that said, "Keep Calm and Carry On"; I figured that it would be appropriate for work.

The next pavilion was France's. We wanted to watch a movie that they were showing about France, but we had a few minutes to kill before the next show. We wandered into a souvenir shop, and I bought a t-shirt with a map of the Paris Metro on it. Then we returned and watched the movie. It wasn't quite a 360-degree screen, more like 100 degrees, but it still was a wide screen. The views of France were quite lovely. After the movie, we went to a patisserie and had some pastries.

Morocco had the next pavilion. I enjoyed exploring it the most, possibly because I never have gone there. It had a souk with sellers both inside and outside of stores. My mom bought me a scarf (brown with amber stripes). My mom fell in love with a lamp, but didn't buy it. The pavilion had a lovely indoor area with mosaics and a fountain. I learned later that the King of Morocco (or someone official) was involved with the design of the pavilion.

The next pavilion was Japan's. I took a few pictures, but I suggested that we start heading back to Soarin', and stop and see Canada's film on the way. And so we did. I didn't learn much about Canada, and could have done without Martin Short's narration, but some of the scenery was beautiful.

Then we went to Soarin'. I didn't have any problems with it at all. They do elevate you in the air and have an film displayed on a huge screen running, and the seats move slightly depending on whether you are ascending or descending, but there were no violent motions. The most fun was buzzing an aircraft carrier and flying over Disneyland.

We took a boat across the lagoon to pick up where we had left off visiting pavilions. We went back to Japan's, and checked out a store and some carts. I bought some Japanese crackers, and my mom, who said that she didn't want any of them, ate a bunch of them. She then said that she wanted to go back to the Morocco pavilion for the lamp, so I hung out and waited for her. She decided that the lamp was too expensive if you add shipping.

The America pavilion was next. I wanted to see the multimedia (and animatronic) presentation called "The American Experience," but decided to prioritize seeing the Italy and China pavilions first.

Then we went to the Italy pavilion. My mom fell in love with a mask that looks like it was made out of gold leaves (it's really cool), but decided to think about it. There weren't a lot of other stores, just restaurants there.

We just walked through the Germany pavilion and took a few pictures, but didn't spend much time there. We also walked through an area called "Outpost," which I think is supposed to represent Africa, but I'm not sure of that.

Then we arrived at the China pavilion. I loved it. It had some beautiful buildings and gardens. We saw a 360-degree movie about China, which was very beautiful and intriguing. We exited through the gift shop. (All the movies exit through the gift shop. Hmm.) I bought a t-shirt with a picture of Guilin (I think?) and the Chinese character for peace and the English word "Peace" on it. (I promptly wore it the next day.)

We looked into the Norway pavilion. My mom was interested in a ride in that pavilion called "Maelstrom". However, the FastPass times were during the time that we would be at dinner, so we left.

We walked through the Mexico exhibit and took a few pictures.

At that point, we left for dinner. We had reservations at a restaurant called the Coral Reef. One of its sides is a wall of a huge, salt-water tank. You can look at the fish there, eat fish, and hope that the fish in the tank don't notice -;) The food was excellent.

We also had reservations for a show called the Candlelight Processional, so we went back to the America pavilion.

The show was very different from what I expected, which was a show about different Christmas customs around the world. Instead, it was a retelling of the Nativity story. For our show, it was narrated by Marlee Matlin using Sign Language, which was kind of cool, and an interpreter for hearing folks. The narration was interspersed with orchestral and choral versions of Christmas carols, which were excellent. However, the show contained more of the religious carols, specifically the more triumphant ones. At the end, the last piece was the Allelula chorus from the Messiah by Handel, and some people in the audience stood up. Well, the rest of the people in the audience had to stand up too in order to see anything. The whole show had an Evangelical spin to it that made us a little uncomfortable.

After the show, we saw the fireworks display with which Epcot ends the day. It was quite good.

After the fireworks, we started to head back to the exit from the park. However, we stopped at the English pub on the way -;) My mom had a Shandy and I had Diet Coke.

When we got back to the hotel, we both collapsed.

Link to Epcot pictures

Orlando Trip Day 3: Harry Potter and the Interminable Line™

I could not get out of bed in the morning. We set our wakeup call for 5:30 AM because the bus for the Universal Studios park leaves at 8:50, but I just couldn't do it. I finally got up at 9. I thought that I really needed the sleep, and therefore I wouldn't be dragging myself through the day, but I knew that the tradeoff would be more crowds of people. (Little did I know...)

Because we missed the bus, we took a cab to Universal with a very chatty cab driver who gave us his card. We headed toward the theme park that contains the Harry Potter area, Islands of Adventure.

Universal's signage leaves something to be desired, but we found our way to the Harry Potter area. People there were taking "standby tickets". We asked where to get the "standby tickets," and were directed to another area of the park. We had some problems finding the line. The time estimate was two hours for the line. I deliberately didn't look at my watch because I thought that would make the time go faster, but I think that it was about an hour and a half.

Finally we got into the Harry Potter area. And it was beyond crowded. It was wall-to-wall people who often were bumping into you. We decided to brave the line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which was supposed to be a really cool ride. I'm not sure how long the line was, but probably the better part of two hours. There were warning signs that people who were scared of heights or suffer from motion sickness shouldn't take the ride. The part that gave me pause was that the sign also said that people with a prosthesis should remove it because it might fly off. I wondered how violent the ride was.

Partway through the wait for the ride, we had to put all our stuff in a locker. The room was jammed with people pushing against you, and I wondered if someone would fall and get trampled. Seriously, it was scary. The locker was free for an hour and 15 minutes, but we wondered if we would be back in time. As my mom put it, "Everything is in my purse." Me too.

The wait was a lot more interesting when we got into Hogwarts Castle. There were talking and moving pictures that actually looked painted, and I was wondering how they did that. At one point, Ron makes it snow, and the snow was actually wet, and I don't know how they did that either.

Finally we got to the ride. They strapped us in so that we couldn't move an inch. And off we went, moving backwards and forwards and up and down and sometimes on our back, which I hated. I spent the whole ride concentrating on not throwing up and telling myself that the ride would be over soon. The ride had a story to it, but it was lost on me. Finally, the ride ended and I staggered off. (I later asked my mom if I was as pale as I left, and she said that I was pretty pale.)

We went directly to the Three Broomsticks so that I could eat and settle my stomach. The Three Broomsticks has a level of planning and organization that the rest of the Harry Potter area sorely lacks. Someone gives you a menu as soon as you walk in; there's a line for ordering and a corresponding line for picking up your food; someone helps you find an empty seat. The food did settle my stomach, but it took quite a while.

A friend of mine in California is a big Harry Potter fan, so I went to the Owl Post store in the hope of getting a postcard to send him. The front door was closed due to "an accident," but you could wait in a longish line to enter another store that is connected with the Owl Post. At that point, the park had done the impossible, and I was sick of anything related to Harry Potter. I decided that I would e-mail a picture to my friend. I took pictures of the front of every shop in Hogsmeade, and called it a day.

The Harry Potter area is simply too small for the number of people who want to visit it. They need to expand it. I can think of ways that they could expand it (add the Shrieking Shack, create a ride with the Merpeople under the lake, etc.).

We had a hell of a time getting out of the park. We kept walking until we got to the line for the main Universal Studios park, which wasn't right. Someone there sent us back to the entrance to Islands of Adventure. Finally, we asked someone who gave us the correct directions. She said that the park was very confusing and that "some people use their GPS to try to get out". The Universal park made us appreciate Disney's parks, which are cleaner and have better signs.

My stomach was upset again later when it was empty, so I ate a late dinner. My mom wondered if I was getting an ulcer.

Link to Harry Potter area pictures