Jacksonville, Florida to Orlando, Florida
From The beginning.... in Orlando, United States on Dec 23 '08
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Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - Christmas Eve
Packed up and headed for Orlando. Made Greggy take the kids to see a movie (the latest Jim Carey, 'Yes man' or something like that) so I could wrap and get myself sorted for tomorrow morning ! Santa DOES know we're here afterall.. he must have read our letter !
Oh Mickey you're so fine, you took my money and my time oh Mickey !
After the movies and removal of all evidence of Santa's workshop, we were on our way.
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Arrived at Fort Summit RV Camp and bought our tickets for Disneyworld. There's a free shuttle that collects us and takes us to the gate at 915am and then picks us up at 5pm or 10pm to take us back to the RV camp.. so that's pretty cool..we're set.
Hit the phones and called the family for Xmas... had a few drinks outside.. the weather was lovely and mild.. a nice change! While Greg and I were sitting on the outside wooden table and chairs, I looked at him and heard this big c-r-a-c-k... the wooden bench underneath him had given way and he was going down, down, down.. it was like slow motion.. crrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaccckkkk.. too freakin' funny if you ask me. He wasn't injured.. he just lay there on his back on the ground with the broken bits of dry rotted wood underneath him while I contained my piddle puddle and grabbed the camera.. (refer pics) Of course when he reported it to the office he told them it was ME.. no doubt more believable anyway !
We've decided to do a two day pass for Disneyworld. There are four parks or worlds within the park.
1) Magic Kingdom (which is the one everyone says the first timers should go and it has the castle).. this also has the big Christmas parade on Christmas Day, so this is where we'll be on day 1
2) Epcot which is based on imagination and space and future. We've heard this is pretty cool, so we'll head there on Boxing Day
3) Animal Kingdom - This is apparently meant to be pretty cool, with safari tours and the like, but we figure we're doing Disneyland in LA and also San Diego Zoo, we'll give this one a miss
4) Hollywood Studios (which used to be called Disney, MGM) - Again.. would be great to see it, but we're doing Universal Studios and figure we'll have it covered...
You CAN apparently get a 'park hopper' pass for a fee and go to the different worlds but considering some people say it can take 2 days to see ONE world, we'll stick to our selections.
Roll on Christmas morning !
Thursday, December 25, 2008 - Merry Christmas!
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Woke up, opened the Santa Sacks and headed to the shuttle to take us to Disneyworld. The kids were so excited .. Charlotte especially.. this is what she's been hanging out for since we arrived in the states.. so she was particularly sociable this morning! I have to say here that it was SOOOOOOO nice to see her happy.. finally really happy !
Okay.. so it all sounds fabulous.. waking up in Sunny Florida heading off to Disneyworld for the day.. well.. let me put an end to this fantasy... this was one of the WORST days of my life ! It was the absolute pits !
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So... in general, I'm not a theme park fan as I hate to queue, I hate large crowds and I AM the centre of the universe.. I am NOT number 74,999 !
Magic Kingdom reached its FULL CAPACITY today at 75,000 people. This is just in Magic Kingdom, not Disneyworld in total, but just one part of Disney! Imagine my joy seeing queue lines for rides that indicated a 170minute wait.. imagine my elation at lining up for the restroom for 15 minutes.. oh yes.. what a wonderful and magical day it was !!!!!!!!! From what I've heard, (as I've bitched to anyone that would listen since Xmas day), if the fire, health and safety officers didn't put a limit on the capacity of people, then they'd've let even MORe through the gate.. good grief.. I don't know how.. but there you have it.
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That damned Christmas parade brought them all in.. it's apparently a once a year thing and EVERYONE and their freakin' dog wants to be there ! Let me also state here that the Xmas parade is on twice.. and it lasts about 15 minutes! Yeah yeah.. it was pretty.. yeah yeah.. it was cool.. but really.. I'd be just as happy getting it on DVD !
Oh.. and another thing.. on TOP of the Christmas parade, they had their normal parades.. now let me tell you about the parades.. when the parade is on.. it's just like Movieworld's parade.. they BLOCK the streets and everyone scrambles to get a good spot and you're in close proximity to every race, culture and bad breath and body odour you can imagine ! I took a moment during one of these (not so) 'magical' parades and took myself back to a time of pure bliss.. last Christmas day where I was sitting on my sun lounge in 40 degrees celsius at the edge of my beautiful cool pool listening to Josh Groban singing Christmas carols drinking Illusion cocktails in the sun ! Aaaaahhhh... and to think, here I am standing next to god knows who, who has eaten god knows what for dinner last night and who had a shower only god knows when and to top it all off, I've paid $70 for this 'bliss' of a day! (well.. actually, $280 if you multiply by four).
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There was no where to go for lunch despite the fact that there are several restaurants around.. you needed to have a booking. Now really, how on earth would any tourist know that you'd need a booking at the restaurants, and how on earth would any tourist even know what the restaurants were called to MAKE a damned booking? So.. lunch was a long queue and a hotdog and popcorn and frozen lemonade ! There were people walking around with these hideous oversized turkey legs.. they looked absolutely VILE ! Something that Henry the 8th would have eaten.. errr no thanks.. we're good ! Jsut give us a hotdog.. oh.. but only when you're ready.. we're not in a hurry, we're used to be treated like black angus herded this way and that !
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Now let me tell you about the ride process at these theme parks. In January early this year when Big Charlie and I did all the theme parks with the kids on the Gold Coast they didn't have this system... Hey Charlie.. remember our enjoyable theme park days in January? Hmmm... well.. think of those days and multiply the hell by a million and we're pretty close !
They have this 'fast pass' set up. As you know, there's a wait time displayed outside each ride, (anywhere from 45 minutes to 170 minutes in a queue). This was our beef last year on the Gold Coast, that of all the rides at the park, it was really only possible to do 4-6 rides or so in a period of 6-8 hours due to the queues.. and then after waiting for so damn long, the ride is over in 3 minutes .. I'd rather be on a beach or by the pool chilling out.. but anyway.. back to my story.
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The 'fast pass' set up is this. You take your ticket and go to the ride you want to 'fast pass'. You swipe it in the slot and it gives you a time when you can come back to the ride to go on it and 'fast pass' the queue. This means that say if you went to a ride at 11am, you place your ticket in the fast pass machine and you get ANOTHER ticket that spits out to tell you to come back between 3 and 4pm (yes.. sometimes, 4 to 5 hours later) so that you can go in the 'special' fass pass queue so your wait time is reduced... not eliminated, but reduced. So if a standard wait at a ride was 150 minutes, in the 'fast pass' queue, the wait time may be reduced to 20 minutes.
So.. with this 'fast pass' system, why not 'fast pass' all rides? This is a good question, because logically, why not get to the park early, wizz around and fast pass all of the rides you want to go on and then have the 'fast pass' ticket spit out the time to come back and then plan your day? Well.. as all things are far too good to be true, so is the 'fast pass' (which incidentally should be named 'not as long as normal pass') - The CATCH is that you can only 'fast pass' one ride each hour and because you're using your normal addmittance tickets to put through the 'fast pass' machines, a 'fast pass' will not be issued if it hasn't been at least one hour since the last 'fast pass' was issued.
Hmmm.. great huh !
Now the OTHER thing is.. when you DO 'fast pass', you must do it at the actual ride that you want to go on. This means you need to walk the bezillion miles through the 75,000 smelly people to put your ticket in the slot and then walk away (back through the crowds) and then come back during the times that the fast pass ticket says you can come back..
In my opinion, and being the systems person that I am, I think they should have a 'fast pass' section that you can select your ride in a generic place so that you don't have to go TO the ride itself to get it sorted.. this would save a lot of backtracking and covering the same old ground.
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So.. tips for America.. sort out your Fast Pass System, set up a coat and hat checkin at your shopping malls (in an earlier blog) and get some chlorine that doesn't smell like vomit, and sort out your bland food and salads. I'm sure I can add to this list along the way.. we're only 2/3rds of our way through, there's bound to be something to annoy the bejeeesus out of me at another time.. mark my words !
So.. at around 9pm we watched the fire works, took the mono rail back to the car park, then waited for the 10pm shuttle to take us back to the RV.
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Good grief.. I need another pair of feet.. this was truly the worst Christmas Day ever... So.. is this how 'everyone' felt about their day? Well.. My Greg .. the man of so few words hates theme parks but isn't as passionate as I when it comes to giving his opinion.. I know he'd prefer to watch Carlton play with a scotch in one hand but I know he didn't enjoy it. Charlotte had a GREAT day, didn't care about the queues or the people, had an awesome time.. is really looking forward to tomorrow where we get to do it all again.. (oh god, someone shoot me now ).. and my little Al Pal.. you'll find out how he felt about today when I do tomorrow's blog.. but I CAN tell you, that when I tell people what he said on Boxing Day Morning, everyone cracks up and shakes their head in disbelief.
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So... lets just get some rest, amputate our legs for new ones and repeat the process tomorrow ! I for one can HARDLY wait !
Friday, December 26, 2008 - Boxing Day
So.. we've recovered.. (just) from yesterday's adventure.. let's see who can annoy the crap out of me today!
For the first time in the ENTIRE holiday, Princess Charlotte woke up elated and sprung out of bed without us having to squirt her with a toxic substance to get her motivated !! (ok, so that may be a slight exaggeration with the toxic substance, but you need to get the effect of what it takes to get her up in the morning.,. it aint pretty folks)!
Greg and I got up and showered but it was Al that set the tone..
From under his blankets... "No no.. don't make me go to that Disney place again.. I don't want to .. leave me here, I'll stay in the RV by myself, don't make me go to that Disneyworld place again"
So... there you have it ! I guess that sums up HIS yesterday. When you think of a ten year old boy not wanting to go to Disneyland, clearly there is something really wrong ! When we told the guy driving the shuttle, he was gob smacked, he couldn't believe it.. a ten year old boy being forced to the torture chambers of Disneyworld ! Who'd've thunk it !
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Well Al Pal, we paid for a two day pass and damn it, we're going to have fun I told him (un) convincingly !
So, off to the shuttle, and on the mono rail to Epcot, another 'world' of Disney. Well.. let me just say that clearly they got my memo ! We actually had an enjoyable day. The longest queue we were in was about 20 minutes and the numbers just weren't there today. Why oh why didn't we just give Magic Kingdom a miss and do it at Disneyland in LA when the 'happy holiday season' was over? Apparently, Magic Kingdom is exactly the same world wide, it's all built and set up using the same template, if only we knew this earlier !
So.. Epcot it was.. it was really good. The rides were great, the shows were great and we actually sat down and ate lunch and had a chair and tables to sit on while we ate.. pure heaven !
Epcot also has a world showcase, so wherever there's a Disney, there's a world dedicated to the country which is kind of cool. We went on pretty much everything and all before 5pm. Caught the 5pm shuttle, (even though Charlie wanted to stay until 10pm again) and then came back to camp feeling not nearly as shattered as yesterday.
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Tomorrow, we're dumping the RV for a couple of nights and going to Nickolodeon Family Suites at the Holiday Inn.. more space, and a catch up on some R&R ! Bring it on I say, Bring it on!
Saturday, December 27. 2008
We arrived at the Nickolodeon Hotel around lunchtime.. I did some washing before we checked out of the RV site and we packed up a suit case and filled it with souvineers as we have to start sending some gear home.. Gave the RV a good clean, washed all the sheets and towels etc and packed up and headed for the hotel.
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We went for a two bedroom twin suite.
http://www.nickhotel.com/sleep/index.cfm#
What a cool place this was. And CLEAN ! The kids went straight to one of the pools. Our room was right outside the Oasis pool on the ground floor (although the americans call the ground floor the first floor.. but then they also drive on the wrong side of the road so they're not entirely logical people) !
There were three TVs in our room.. aaah.. separation.. just like home! There was a playstation in the kids room which Al thought was the bees knees.
There's a mall inside the resort with gift shops, pizza hut, subway, coffee shop, bar and a few restaurants. It's pretty cool. To walk from one side of the resort to the other, the walkways are so nicely done with Nickolodeon characters in lakes and gardens.. really pretty.
So the first night the kids wanted to do the kids club. Oh no.. they want to leave us ALL alone from 5pm to 11pm? Really? What a shame.. we'll miss them.. NOT !!! What only until 11pm was how I was thinking !
So.. Dropped them off at 5pm to do the kids club thing..
They had dinner and felt slime and met some Nick Characters and watched a movie and decorated a Sponge Bob Color-a -Cookie.
Greg and I went for dinner and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Woke up and headed for breakfast. The kids just wanted to sleep and weren't interested in breakfast so Greggy and I went on our own. They have this 'Nick Toons Character' breakfast each morning which is uber cool ! You do a smorgasboard/buffet and then every 30 minutes a host of Nickolodeon characters come out with their 'assistants' and all the restaurant staff stop and they do this mini show in the middle of the restaurant... Then after the mini show the characters walk around to the tables to see if you'd like to get your picture taken with them.. so as I always have my camera glued to me, Greggy and I posed with the little cherubs .. ahhhh.. wait 'til we tell the kids.. we HAVE to get them here tomorrow morning.. Greggy is determined to get the kids in a shot with Dora the Explorer for his nieces Meg and Georgie.. so it looks like we'll be here for breakfast tomorrow !!!
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After breakfast, I headed for the pool where I stayed all day reading magazines from cover to cover while Greg spent the day indoors (what a surprise) flicking channels on the TV all day ! Charlie didn't feel like swimming either so she watched TV for most of the day.. only Alex came out and swum.. he met up with another kid from England who now lives in Adelaide (although I DID tell him that we ALL know there is no such thing as Adelaide) and alternated from playing the PS2 in the room to the pool.. I didn't move all day... Twas bliss ! Had a few cocktails in the sun and chilled out.
Around 5ish or so, headed back to the room to see all of them indoors (and rolled my eyes) and then we all watched some TV and then headed for dinner.. We're leaving the hotel tomorrow and it's back to the RV.. I think the next stop is Kennedy Space Center (Centre) at Cape Canaveral.
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