Florida Trip

OKAY - Now for a run down of the Florida trip...

Wednesday
Justin and I headed to Walterboro to meet my parents as well as Lori, Jeremy & Ron for dinner at Cracker Barrel. After dinner we dropped Mom & Dad's car off at Lori's house and hit the road. We made it to Orlando about midnight.

Thursday
Bright and early - 8:00am we met for breakfast in the lobby of our temporary home, the Wellesley Inn on John Young Parkway. Then we scooted to the "Official Tourist Information" outlet on International Drive to pick-up our Sea World tickets.

Sea World was BY FAR the best part of the entire trip. Dad splurged and got us an upgrade - the Adventure Express Tour. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone that is going. We got to go to the front of the line at the rides, get prefferred seating at the shows, and had lunch with Shamu!! It was AWESOME! Our tour guide was Gary - he was nice. Oh, we also got to feed Sea Lions, Dolphins, and Sting Rays. I think feeding the Sting Rays was my fav part of the whole trip. You would hold the fish's tail between your index and middle finger with the rest of the body going up if your palm was face down. THen, you put your hand on the bottom of the pool (only 1 or 1.5 feet deep). THe Sting Rays would swim over your hand and suck the fish up from between your fingers. ULTRA COOL!! We really did have a great time.

The Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island show was the best day show - and really, the best part of it was the pre-show that consisted of a mime making fun of all of the people coming in. Mom about wet her pants! :) haha. We returned to see Clude and Seamore that evening though for Sea Lions Tonight, which was a parody of the entire Sea World experience. VERY Funny!! We finished up the day with dinner at The Spice Mill because a seat on their patio was supposedly one of the best spots to catch Sea World's night show - Mystify. Yes, the seats were great, but the show was HELLA LAME! "Shamu, I Love You!" Was the only thing we took from that show. It was the story of this kid who spends the day at Sea World, and that night before bed he tells his mom that he wants to be Shamu's friend. That night, he has a dream that he is in the ocean. He meets dancing fish, and goes through a big storm, and gets chased by sharks - at which time Shamu saves him - and he declares "Shamu, I knew you would come. Only a true friend would - Shamu, I love you." Hurl! They did showcase some neat technology though, the projected video on a wall made of water that came from a fountain in the middle of the lake. Their fireworks were not even that good.

Friday
We met for breakfast at 8am again, and then headed for Disney property. Our intention was to park at Downtown Disney and catch a bus over to Epcot. WRONG! We couldn't find the buses, so we ended up parking in the Epcot lot. I already mentioned that we got stuck on Spaceship Earth, that my sunglassed broke on the way into Ellen's Energy Adventure, that Justin lost his glasses at Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, and we got stuck on The GM Test Track in a previous post. So, other things we did....

We had lunch in Moracco at the Tangerine Cafe, and dinner in France at Le Chefs de France. Lunch was pretty good, but dinner was AMAZING! Mom and Justin both had the "French Dinner" which came with a bowl of soup (French Onion or Potato Leek), 1/2 a roasted chicken with new potatos, and Creme Brule for dessert. Dad ordered a bowl of the Lobster Bisque, and the Beef Tenderloin which came with green beans. I ordered a mixed greens salad and the duck in cherry sauce - YUM! Dad and I shared assorted sorbets for dessert. It came with coconut, strawberry, and lemon sorbet as well as two small pastries that they called "Elephant Ears," but they were really just two cookies with powdered sugar. When it came we did not know what the flavors were going to be, but we quickly guessed Strawberry and Coconut. The other was yellow and we were thinking - mango, bannanna, or something. Dad was the first to try it and he made the craziest face!! I will admit - it was super sour! We finished up dinner just in time to watch Illuminations: Reflections of Earth which was SO much better than the lame, "I love you Shamu" crap we saw the night before.

On the way out we checked to see if Justin's glasses had be turned in. Nope- they were not, but he did get a phone number to call to see of they came in later. Oh - shortly after he lost them I used a penny to make a wish that he would get them back!

Saturday
Okay, we were suppose to head to Naples today, but I have already told that story. I will however, slightly embellish on the "we got kicked out of the hotel" part. Originally, a lady at the front desk said it would not be a problem for us to stay over at the hotel, and that all we needed to do was bring a credit card by at our original check-out time in order to stay over. Well, Sat morning was that time, but they told us they were all booked. TISK TISK. I asked if we could be walked, they said no. So, we packed and headed to the "Official Tourist Info" place again to find another hotel. We were planning to go there anyway because we needed to pick up Universal Studios tickets. They got us reservations at the Rosen Plaza initially, but it got changed to the Rosen Centre. They recommended that we go and check in then, but we decided to go on to Universal.

Once at Universal we picked up Universal Express tickets which allowed us to pass the line there. Similar to Fast Pass, but with Fast Pass you have to schedule your "skip the line" privledges. With Universal Express you just pay a flat fee and skip the line at just about every attraction and show once per day whenever you want. We enjoyed all of the rides there. Justin particularly liked Twister and Shrek 4-D. I think Shrek 4D was pretty dang cool too - it was the only thing we really had to wait in line for. You could not use Universal Express there. In a previous post I talked about how bad Back to the Future was. We had dinner at an Irish Pub on property called - Finnegan's. VERY tasty!! We planned to eat dinner at Emeril's on Universal CityWalk, but we got there too late - they were already booked up. Oh, and I think everyone's favorite thing at Universal was the Universal Horror Make-Up Show. It was HILLARIOUSLY fantastic! We also saw the Blues Brothers and Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue.

For dinner we left Universal and happened upon a Bennigan's. Mom started talking about how great their Monte Cristo sandwiches were and Justin reminded us that Bennigan's was Butter's favorite restaurant. (Butter's?? You ask - the character from South Park - his real name is Leopold Starch but he is also known as Professor Chaos.) It was kind of odd to eat at two Irish restaurants in 1 day, but it was good none the less.

So, after dinner it was time to go check in at the new hotel. It was not too far away, and when we got there it was like arriving at a small sub-city. The place was 24 stories tall and had 4 restaurants. It was right there by the Orange County Convention Center. We ended up using valet parking because everything there was so hectic. Mom had of course requested a smoking room, but there were out when they got there. Did I mention we only paid $57.00/night for these rooms? Anyway - Mom & Dad got upgraded to a Three Bay Hospitality Suite which rents for at minimum $400/night at at max $1500/night. Justin and I stayed in a Standard Double Double room which goes for $100+/night.

Sunday
Check out took FOR EVER because everyone was trying to check out at the same time it seemed, and all those people had apparently utilized Valet Parking as well because that's where the hold-up was. We finally got on the interstate and drove awhile before stopping to eat at a Bob Evan's restaurant. It was tasty! :) Then it was on the road again. We hit a good bit of traffic, and some rain. (Tropical Storm Alex was making Hell in the sky.), but made it to Walterboro around 6:30. We visited with Lori for a but before heading back to good old Cola town.

Overall the trip was pretty good. I still feel guilty about skipping the wedding, and I am still sick. FUN! But, PICTURES are up! ENJOY!

Gobble Gobble