#WDW2017 - not really disney, but Universal Studios and Island of Adventure (day 9)

Today we all got up relatively on time to try and make to Universal Studios Florida around opening.  Devin was moving a little slow, but we all thought it was just his normal stomach aches and pains.
We loaded up in the van and off for the 12 minute drive to find the parkade, to park the van for the day and venture around.  We had lots of park to see as we were doing both parks in 1 day, since we missed a day with the flu.

We packed a lot in today, and we felt like we saw a lot. We decided to start in Island of Adventure, and our first stop was for Starbucks for AA as he forgot to grab a coffee on the way out when we left the hotel.   Then off to the first ride of the day The Incredible Hulk Coaster.  DD, AA and Lola were up for the challenge.  Lola like always was anxious and questioning why she agrees to go on the ride, but screamed the whole way.  It was a lot of fun!

We then walked through Toon Lagoon, and making a stop at Skull Island: Reign of Kong.  It was full of big bugs, gorillas, and lots of special effects.  Not my favorite, especially the bug guts.  We child swapped so all 4 adults could go on the ride.  B tried to make herself taller to be able to be able to go on the ride, but T was definitely not quite there.  I am not sure T would have enjoyed it anyways. He didn't really enjoy the walk through maze to get to the child swap area, and I think the ride was scarier than the walk.

Next up, AA and Lola headed to the Jurassic Park River Adventure (DD went on this ride so many times before that he decided he didn't need to go on it again), so the rest went into the Jurassic Park Discovery Center to kill some time, and see more dinosaurs.  The River adventure sure got AA and Lola wet, but it was still a good ride.

We were making decent time around the park, skipping things that were not top interest to all.  But we had to wait inline to see a real live Dinosaur, in the Raptor Encounter.  The velociraptor was very real like.  Letting the children go first to meet the dinosaur was a good choice, and B really liked the dinosaur expert that was guiding the line in and out of the photo opportunity.  She was a little confused with the difference between the Disney princesses and this lady just making sure the dinosaur knew there were children around and getting people moving through the line up.  The staff seemed like they had never seen that before, it was so cute! Once it was AA and Lola's turn, the dinosaur knew the kids were gone, and had no mercy.  Lola didn't think she would be so scared, but yep that velociraptor was pretty sneaky.

Next up was to enter MBM's favorite part, Harry Potter.  She was excited about everything, but I have to say for not a Harry Potter follower, the atmosphere was rather neat and the set up was really good. We headed to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  Winding back and forth in and out, and through the castle to fly on our brooms with Ron Weasley.  This ride was more of a motion simulator, swinging and flying, it wasn't my favorite, and a little too long, had to close my eyes at some points as my stomach was twisting.  This ride we also did a kid swap, and after the 4 of us were complete, MBM wasn't feeling so hot, and Lola was hungry.  So we stopped at Three Broomsticks... this is where things started to go south.  DD wasn't feeling so hot, fed the Twinkies, but barely could eat his Sheppards pie.

Next we headed on the Hogwarts Express: Hogsmeade Station using our park hoper to get to Universal Studios.  It was a really neat ride, and MBM was super Pumped about it.  We wish we knew how far you were really going, but there were no windows to the outside "real" world, only to harry potter world.  We got off the train on the other side at Hogwarts Express: Kings Cross Station. This area looked like London England.  We stepped from one side of the streetscape into the other, and were magically transformed back into Harry Potter world.

We walked around a little, but DD wasn't looking so hot.  We found a washroom for the ladies, and convinced DD that he should let AA drive him back to the hotel.  Luckily we didn't wait too much longer, as DD barely made it into the hotel room before having the same thing as the other 4 of us 2 days earlier.


While AA was on his journey, MBM, Lola, T and B walked around looking at the sites, oh and why not catch a parade!  It was way shorter than Disney, but a good way to spend sometime.  B slept the whole time, and T loved the puppies from a Pets Life.  We did a little shopping and walked around so that the Twinkies could sleep, and finally met AA about an hour later.  Good thing our hotel was close.

On the journey we walked through Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone (too much water to let the kids out), the simpsons area (where we had no interest) and down Hollywood Boulevard.  We did a little shopping and walking, and eventually met up with AA at the Entrance, where B really wanted a pretzel! So she got one while T slept.

AA and Lola then went on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, where we picked to listen to Sabotage by the Beastie Boys as we rode the roller coaster.  This was fun, but Lola didn't really enjoy how there were no shoulder bars, only a lap bar.  At least it was tight!  We walked past the new Race Through New York Staring Jimmy Fallon Ride, which Lola and AA were very disappointing it isn't open yet, as they have tried to watch every episode since he has began on the tonight show.

Back to walk through NYC and San Francisco, to head back to Harry Potter Land.  MBM and Lola were going to be brave and go on the motion simulator/roller coaster called Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, while AA cruised around with the Twinkies (see previous blog post by AA). This ride was one of the newest at the park, and a highlight of the day.  The goblin tellers in the bank were amazing, and just the detailing of the entire journey through the ride was great.  And we didn't get too motion sick like we anticipated.

Time to take the train back to the other side.  The train ride was different and T made friends with the lady in the same car as us... those eyes and cute waves. Oh and AA got a beer for the journey!

Lola and AA went on the last Roller Coaster of the day, Dragon Challenge, which was 2 intertwined roller coasters.  It was fun, but the least favorite of the day.  We went on the blue one, and didn't have enough screams.

Last stop of the day was to finally let the kids do some rides, into Seuss Landing.  They went on the Caro-Seuss-el, which T enjoyed only half the time as well as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  We had a blow out by B in between rides, but recovered like a champ.  The fish ride also had water, where Lola and B avoided the water, and MBM and T seemed to be a little wetter.

That was the end of universal parks as we made it to 6:51 and the park closed at 7:00.  To the exit, off to Jimmy Buffets Margerittaville for supper, quick stop at walmart and back to the hotel.  DD was sick all day and we will see how he feels tomorrow.  Lola gave the kids a bath in their bathtub, which they thought was pretty amazing.

I am fading fast and we have our last day tomorrow, and don't forget its Valentines day.

Lola.

A little down time on Day 9

Today Uncle AA took the twinkies while Auntie Lola and Mom went on a ride.  Here are some pictures from their adventures.

First stop was just outside of the Simpson's exhibit at Universal Studios.  They posed, T smiled.

Second photo op was with Chief Wiggum by his cop car at the donut shop.  T smiled.  B wasn't into it.

Next up was the Delorean from Back to the Future.  B was upset she couldn't get inside the car.  T smiled.

Last stop was in a small New York Central Park-esque garden overlooking the pond across from the San Francisco mock-up.  B was tired of pictures; T smiled.

End of Post.
AA

#WDW2017 - Kennedy Space Center!

Luckily everyone woke up not feeling too terrible.  After having some breakfast, the crew loaded up in the van and made their way to Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) which is about 1 hr away from the hotel.

T wasn't feeling the greatest so we were hoping he would last the trip, and he did for the most part.  He wasn't his usual self in that he wanted to cuddle a lot but Lola didn't mind too much.

The drive was pretty good - we had a hitch hiker for the first part of the journey as a gecko / lizard was clinging to the van wiper arm:

I think Lola was too slow to get a picture of the hitch hiker

Once at Kennedy Space Center, the crew made their way to talk to the information desks to ask about tours.  DD had learned that SpaceX was planning a launch of one of their rockets next Saturday and that they already had the rocket setup on the launchpad - he wanted to see if one of the tours would get close.  The lady pointed out a few options but wasn't sure how close one of the tours would actually get since the rocket is setup.  Instead of taking the 2.5 hrs tour, the team decided to take the normal tour to the Vehicle Assembly Building and then to the Saturn V center.  And they were not disappointed.

One the drive, the bus driver showed everyone the location of a bald eagle's nest, which apparently can weight as much as 800 lbs and has been around for over 50 years.  Sorry folks, no picture of it as this was on the other side of the bus from AA.

The first tour around VAB showed us the 4th largest building by volume in the world (#1 is the Boeing 747 plant in Seattle).  Just to give perspective - each of the stars on the side of the building in the American Flag is 6 feet across; the height of the flag is over 20 stories tall.  Incredible.

Around the side of the building is the new launch base for the new Space Launch System (SLS) which is being developed for the next Orion space capsules which will replace the Shuttle.  Pretty cool.

We also got to see the crawler tracks where the launch bases and rockets move along from the VAB to the launch pad.  Lola was impressed that the depth of aggregate was 7 feet.  Nerd ;)

Once at the Saturn V center, the sights were amazing.  You got to see each of the four phases of the rocket, the command module, lunar module and capsule all aligned in order.  It was incredible to see the shear size of this rocket.  The total amount of thrust from the rocket was the equivalent of 210 F-18's.

We continued touring around the center, finding Snoopy:

RR1 being cute

After a short lunch break, we made our way outside to see if we could find out when the SpaceX rocket would fire its engine in a static engine test.  At one point, we weren't sure we would be lucky enough but DD's persistent checking of Twitter paid off:

At 4:30, we got to experience the engine ignition for 3.5 sec.

It was awesome but somewhat less than anticipated.  I guess there is only so much noise that can be generated in a 3.5 sec engine ignition as compared to a few minutes of continuous thrust being generated.

After the Saturn V exhibit, we made our way to the Atlantis Space Shuttle exhibit which is a new addition since MBM and DD were last in Florida.  We were not disappointed with this exhibit, with the Space Shuttle Atlantis suspended in the middle building, it was amazing:

AA even tried landing the Space Shuttle in a simulator but failed three times - just when he figured out how to do it, his time ran out...

The last part of the adventure was spent wandering through Space Ship Gardens with full-scale models of the different types of Space Craft that were used by the USA during the Space Race:

DD and kiddos riding in the Apollo capsule

This was by far AA's favourite part of the trip and could have easily spent  3 days at the Space Center, not just one.  Oh well, MBM and DD said they will need to bring AA and Lola to the Johnson Space Center just outside Houston.  AA cannot wait...

The view across the NASA Causway