I'M GOING TO...Universal? TRIP REPORT!

Here's a photo of my sister Lynn waiting to apply to be a minion.

Dan getting eaten by "Jaws" outside Richter Burgers after lunch. If he looks a little grouchy, it's because the teeth were actually fairly sharp, and I kept "directing" the photo op - needed him to get his head out of the shadows or else his face wouldn't have been clearly visible.

Before I get into Day 4, I'll echo what Mase mentioned in his ongoing video trip report - it was HOT HOT HOT in Florida last week. Hot even by Florida standards, with the high temps a good five degrees higher than average. But the humidity wasn't high, so I didn't feel horribly uncomfortable. I was glad for all the climate-controlled restaurants, attractions, and shops, though.

On to Day 4 - Islands of Adventure.

I don't recall what time we finally got up Tuesday morning, but it was later than usual. Tim, Dan, and I made it to the park before the hotel bunch and hit the Seuss Landing area first. I'd missed out on that area when we were there in 2011, and since it featured rides that wouldn't trigger motion sickness I wanted to check it out.

This area is very well themed and really feels like a page out of a Dr. Seuss book. The Cat in the Hat attraction in particular reminds me of some of the classic Fantasyland rides like Peter Pan's Flight or the now-gone Snow White's Scary Adventure. It isn't quite as elaborately imagined, but it's still well done and is probably my favorite attraction at Islands of Adventure (this is not an unqualified endorsement because there are very few rides at IOA that I can handle with my motion sickness issues). Also in the Seuss area, the Trolley Ride is a little like the Tomorrowland People Mover, but not nearly as interesting and a little too juvenile. Finally, we hit the Caro-seuss-el, a carousel featuring fanciful Dr. Seuss animals instead of horses. Nice to ride once, not something I need to do every time I pass by.

After Seuss Landing we headed for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, my relatives' favorite area and the reason they're huge Universal fans. We started out getting in line at Ollivander's, which simulates the "wand-picking" in the books and movies. From the group of people in the shop, the staff member chooses one person (almost always a child) to be "chosen" by a wand, which the child's parents then have the privilege of purchasing for the lucky new witch or wizard. we were in line for Ollivander's the rest of our group arrived, with some joining us in line and the others heading for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.

Lynn wasn't inclined to try anything that might trigger motion sickness, so once done at Ollivander's (and after an obligatory tour of the gift shop at the Ollivander's exit), she and I did the Forbidden Journey walk-through while the others hit the ride. We were in Potterville for a while, so I think the others must have ridden Forbidden Journey more than once. I don't recall; standing around waiting while others ride stuff kinda all blends together into one big blur.

So - around 2:00 the general consensus was to get lunch. We planned on hitting Three Broomsticks, but the relatives wanted to save that for dinner, so we set off in search of someplace that might have food the vegan niece could eat. We ended up at the Comic Strip Cafe in Toon Lagoon, which features a wide variety of mediocre amusement park food. I got chicken strips and fries and wished I hadn't; the strips weren't all that good and there were more of them than I wanted to eat. Others in our party got spaghetti and meatballs, fish sandwich, fish and chips, and burgers. And the vegan niece got onion rings because there were no vegan entree options.

After lunch we visited Seuss Landing agian, then headed off to Poseidon's Fury. The concept - we're trapped in the abandoned Temple of Poseidon and have to battle a dark wizard to get out. The "tour guide" does most of the actual battling, but there are waterfalls and explosions of fire and a really cool water tunnel that we walk through to get from one room of the temple to the next. It's not what I'd call a headliner attraction, but when you can't handle most of the really cool rides you take what you can get. Next on the agenda was the Jurassic Park River Adventure, which I chose not to do because I prefer not to do water rides unless I'm dressed appropriately. So I waited outside with Scott, who also didn't want to get wet, and watched as our group finally came down the really big hill and got totally soaked. Better them than me!

Even though we didn't get lunch until around 2:00, we decided to hit Three Broomsticks next to make sure we'd have time to eat before the park closed at 7:00. Lynn's group of five ordered the four-person "Great Feast Platter" featuring chicken, ribs, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, and veggies, along with some extra sides for the non-meat eaters (Kat the vegan and Lynn, who doesn't eat red meat or poultry). Dan ordered the shepherd's pie. Because we'd eaten lunch so late I wasn't terribly hungry. I'd been warned not to try the "hockey pucks of doom," aka the Cornish pasties, but I decided to take my chances because they came with a green salad instead of the heavier potatoes and corn. I lucked out - my pasties had apparently not sat under a heat lamp for several hours and were actually quite tender and flaky. Not bad, although I'm sure I'd get better pasties at a real British pub or restaurant. Unlike the Comic Strip Cafe, I would eat at Three Broomsticks again. And because the relatives also weren't especially hungry, I got a sample of one of their ribs. They're...okay. I also tried a roasted potato and thought they were pretty good.

Dinner was followed up by more Harry Potter, so more standing around waiting for me with some shopping mixed in. And aside from some hanging out at the timeshare drinking gin and tonic, that was it for Tuesday.

Next on Day 5, more Islands of Adventure and we finally make it to Ohana.

The Caro-seuss-el. (Taken in 2011, but I wanted to include a photo because it's pretty cool.)

Hogwarts in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Day 5 - back to Islands of Adventure, and Ohana.

Since we'd been to Islands of Adventure just the day before, this day involved a lot of repeat attractions with a few new things thrown in. We started the day in the Marvel Superhero Island area, which we hadn't visited at all Tuesday. Even though there are NO attractions in this area that I can experience due to motion sickness, it's my favorite area in IOA because I was a humongous ginormous comic book geek when I was younger. (I haven't read comics in years, but I still catch all the latest superhero movies, so I think I still qualify as a geek.) So, there was a lot of standing around for both me and Lynn, who still wasn't taking any chances with thrill rides. We stood around the Hulk roller coaster, stood around the Dr. Doom Fear Fall ride, stood around the Spider-Man VR attraction. We did a little shop browsing, and were front and center when a bunch of superheroes cruised up on their three-wheelers and posed for photos. This is always pretty cool in my book. I generally don't wait in line, I just snap photos of the heroes posing with, or for, other people.

From there we went back to Potterville so the thrill seekers could enjoy the Forbidden Journey again. On the advice of the relatives, I decided to try the Flight of the Hippogriff "kiddie" coaster and REGRETTED IT IMMEDIATELY. It didn't ruin my day, but I was right on the edge of queasiness when I got off. A Coke helped settle my stomach along with walking off the queasiness, which always seems to help when I'm only a little off. I did enjoy the view of Hogsmeade from the top of the lift hill, but I'll have to miss it next trip.

Good thing I didn't feel too bad, because lunch at Confisco's was next on the agenda. We'd eaten at Mythos two years ago and thought it was both good and affordable for a theme park restaurant. Confisco's, not so much. Lynn, who got Pad Thai both places, said it was much better at Mythos. I got a veggie pizza; it wasn't the worst I've ever had but was far from the best. Poor Kat ordered a pasta dish with substitutions for her vegan diet - no meat and plain marinara instead of a cream-based sauce. It was supposed to come with black olives and peppers, but when the dish showed up sans peppers, Kat was told the peppers were cooked with chicken and thus weren't vegan. If our server had told her that up front, she wouldn't have ordered it - she was mainly looking forward to those peppers. Other dishes at our table included fajitas, which looked pretty good, and a burger, which looked like your standard burger. If I find myself at IOA on some future Orlando trip and want a table-service meal, I'll head straight for Mythos and skip Confisco's.

The afternoon included a return visit to Seuss Landing and another trip through Poseidon's Temple for those of us skipping thrill rides. We also visited the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show, which we hadn't seen two years ago. It's not bad. Think of the Indiana Jones stunt show at DHS, but without people pretending they're real stunt people taking a break from making a movie. The Sinbad show is just a show. For that reason, I think I liked it better than the Indiana Jones show. The concept that the guy in the show is actually Harrison Ford's stunt double is getting harder and harder to believe as time passes.

In the vicinity of the stunt show is an attraction called the Mystic Fountain, and it's a real hoot. Think of the interactivity of Turtle Talk with Crush, but without the animation. It's just a fountain, but somebody behind the scenes makes it talk and squirt water on people. Occasionally an unsuspecting passerby will get squirted out of the blue, but usually it's kids playing with the fountain waiting to see what will happen next. Fun to watch, but I didn't get close enough to get wet.

We finished up our day in Potterville yet again, then walked to the exit by way of Marvel Superhero Island because I wanted to buy a T-shirt. It features some old-school female superheroes from the 70s and 80s with the legend "Ladies Night." Very cool. I'll take a picture and post it later.

Now, time for Ohana! IOA closed at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, so we had plenty of time to get over to the Polynesian, and had the added advantage of knowing where we needed to go thanks to our drive-by Monday. After a brief stop at the timeshare so some people could change clothes, we were on our way and arrived quite early, before 9:00 for a 9:35 reservation. We checked in anyway; I've learned that it never hurts at a Disney restaurant to check in early. And it paid off; we'd barely sat down in the Polynesian lobby before our pager started to flash and vibrate. So yay, we didn't have to sit around killing time.

Our "cousin" for the evening (sorry, I forget her name) showed us to our table, took drink orders (and asked Kat for her ID, which she "didn't have on her" - her 21st birthday was actually the weekend after the trip, poor kid), and immediately brought our salad. I know most of you have eaten at Ohana, so I don't have to tell you how delicious the food is. But I'm gonna do it anyway! The dressing on the salad was scrumptious, and I'm so glad I found the recipe online. Next came the pork dumpling and chicken wing appetizers - the dumplings were so good I think I must've eaten 8 or 10 of them. Meanwhile, our server knew we had non-meat-eaters at the table and brought a couple of different vegetarian appetizers for them. One was pita chips with a couple of different dips, the other a vegetarian sushi that looked good and, according to Kat, tasted yummy.

The main course included noodles, stir-fried vegetables, and four different types of meat grilled on skewers. The pork was good, but not my favorite. I absolutely LOVED the beef and wished I'd skipped the pork so I could have more of it. The shrimp was also excellent. I didn't try the grilled chicken; we still had chicken wings on the table, and I decided if I wanted more chicken I'd eat some of them. And the peanut sauce that went with the meat was also quite good. I didn't think the beef needed any sauce at all, but I enjoyed it on the pork and shrimp. Meanwhile, the non-meat-eaters were brought a vegetarian entree of stir-fried vegetables with tofu. I sampled a veggie, and I have to say it was quite tasty.

We were finishing up our main courses when the lights dimmed. Everyone wondered what was up - hubby thought maybe there was a special show - but as soon as I heard the music I knew what was about to happen. Wishes! I looked toward the windows, and sure enough, there were the first lights of the fireworks. We all shifted our seats so we could see the show, and it was magnificent, an absolutely magical way to end a wonderful meal and to celebrate Lynn and Scott's anniversary and Kat and Ben's birthdays.

When the show was over, our server brought our bread pudding and ice cream along with four cupcakes and more ice cream for the anniversary/birthday people. She offered to bring Kat some Toffuti, but Kat decided to cheat a little and ate a cupcake even though it wasn't vegan. As for the bread pudding, it was delicious. I am SO glad we were able to have dinner at Ohana. It's now our favorite WDW restaurant and will be a must-do on every future trip. But as stuffed as we were after that meal, Dan and I decided to cancel our Kouzzina reservation the following night and eat light back at the timeshare.

Even with being seated early, it was quite late by the time we were finished with dinner, so we split up and headed back to hotel or timeshare hoping our overfull bellies would allow a decent night's sleep.

Coming up on Day 6 - Cape May Cafe character breakfast, Blizzard Beach, and the relatives go home.

Captain America poses with a random child.

Lynn and Kat chatting with Cyclops. You can see my "Ladies Night" T-shirt on a mannequin just inside the shop doors. I'll post a photo of mine in a few minutes.

"There's a WHAT behind me?"

My new T-shirt.

Day 6 - Cape May Cafe and Blizzard Beach - and Day 7 - Home Again

We were up relatively early Thursday morning for our Cape May Cafe character breakfast. This was only our second character meal, and our first buffet breakfast, but based on last year's Tusker House lunch and online menus for the various breakfast buffets, I had a general idea what to expect.

The food did not disappoint. It was mostly standard American breakfast fare - eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, French toast, Mickey waffles, fresh fruit, hot cereals, breakfast breads, and pastries - with a few less standard offerings like smoked meats (I believe there was salami among other meats as well as two different kinds of smoked salmon) and cheesy grits (maybe not unusual down South, but odd to us Northerners). Hubby tried the pastrami-style salmon and loved it; I stuck to more standard fare. We generally don't keep yummy things like bacon and sausage in our kitchen, so when I have breakfast out I like to indulge. I don't care for eggs or cheese, but there was still plenty to fill my plate - bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, fruit, French toast, and Mickey waffles. I topped my French toast and waffles with macerated berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries) along with a little maple syrup, and BOY were they tasty! I especially enjoyed the Mickey waffles, they were very well made and delicious. Definitely not just for kids.

The characters du jour were Goofy (the main reason we chose Cape May Cafe, since Dan is Goofy's biggest fan), Donald, and Minnie. I got a nice photo of Dan with Goofy, and he snapped one of me with Donald, but he hasn't forwarded it to me yet. Near the end of our meal Minnie came by and our server offered to take a photo with both of us. Unfortunately I didn't provide sufficient instructions on how to take a photo with my cell phone, and the photo came out fuzzy. So no photo with Minnie. She did sneak hubby a kiss on the cheek when I wasn't looking, the hussy.

After breakfast we went straight to Blizzard Beach, where we planned to meet the relatives. Thursday was their departure day, and what with packing and checking out they were running late. So Dan and I rented a locker and then made for the lazy river, our favorite feature at both Disney water parks. I love the fact that they don't make you ride in a tube because after too much time even they can make me a little queasy. In the past I've just gone swimming in the river; this time around they had foam floaties, which other people were calling "noodles." They made it quite easy to paddle around the river while still staying mostly submerged. I enjoyed the noodle so much I never did get around to swimming.

The first step into any water attraction always seems to be COLD, but I adjusted to the water temperature quickly and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the water was a good bit warmer than I remembered from last October. And the weather was just about perfect - warm enough to be comfortable even when wet, but not miserably hot or too chilly to stand around wet for very long. After a couple of trips around the park in the lazy river, we headed back to our locker to check the time. Tim's flight home was earlier than the others' and he had to be at MCO by 2:00. Dan offered to drive him so the relatives could enjoy more time at Blizzard Beach, since they were paying out of pocket where he and I were admitted on old no-expiration passes. The relatives caught up with us at the lockers, Dan headed out to pick Tim up at the timeshare, and the rest of us headed back to the lazy river.

Around 2:15 the others headed up the hill to try the water slides. I generally can't handle them due to the usual motion sickness issues, so I went back to the lockers to wait for Dan. He arrived a little past 2:30, and we headed for Lottawatta Lodge to meet the relatives so they could get lunch. (Dan and I just got Cokes since we weren't even remotely hungry after the Cape May breakfast.) Lucky for Kat, they had a veggie burger option, so nobody went hungry.

After lunch, the young'uns wanted to try Summit Plummet and some of the other big scary nasty water slides. We old farts split off and did a run down the toboggan racers, which I can handle because it's just down, no tight curves to make me queasy. I could've happily ridden it several times, but Scott couldn't handle it right after eating, so - you guessed it - it was back to the lazy river. Not a problem, really; I can't think of a better way to while away the time at Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon.

We all met back at the lockers around 4:30 so the relatives would have plenty of time to make their flight. After showering and changing clothes at our timeshare, they were off, and our vacation was nearly over as well - we spent the rest of the evening packing and finishing off some of the food left over from the week. Dan and I have got timeshare eating down to a science, but the relatives seriously overbought at the supermarket, so it was all their food we were finishing off. And we didn't finish it all off. Hope the housekeeper was able to use some rice, cereal, milk, fruit, eggs, celery, juice, salsa, chipotle sauce, and leftovers from Three Broomsticks.

The next morning I finished off a little more of the cereal and milk and made Dan an omelet with the relatives' leftover eggs and veggies, and then we were off for the Sanford airport after a stop at a nearby convenience store to put some gas in the rental and buy Dan some cigarettes (filthy nasty habit, wish he'd quit, end of rant). We reached the airport well ahead of our flight, easily made it through security (love these smaller airports), and then I headed off to find some lunch - Dan wasn't hungry after his omelet, but cereal doesn't keep me full very long. The Sanford airport, like Harrisburg, doesn't have a lot of dining options, so I ended up with a hamburger that was made to order and surprisingly good. The onion rings also looked awesome, but I didn't want to overindulge in case the flight was bumpy. Fortunately, it wasn't. And roughly two hours later, we flew down the Susquehanna River past the state capitol and then touched down back in Pennsylvania.

Before the trip, I thought it would just about kill me being so close to WDW and not going to any of the major parks. Happily, it didn't. I'd compare Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure to Disney's Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom - not as much fun IMO as Magic Kingdom and Epcot, but fun enough to keep me happy. Of course, the liberal doses of Disney that we got at Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach, Boma, Ohana, and Cape May Cafe really helped. And I do love taking trips with the relatives, so that helped make the lack of Disney major park visits a lot easier to handle as well. And on the bright side, there's no post-Disney blues to deal with.

Now, the economy and my job status willing, I'm starting to plan a REAL Disney trip for maybe sometime in early November or December.

Dan and Goofy and Cape May Cafe.

Forgot to mention the best part of coming home again...

Those are just two of several kitties residing in our home. None of the current bunch sulk when we've been away, although we had some who did in the past. One of the current bunch (born feral) is skittish and it takes her 30 minutes to an hour before she feels comfortable having us around. I can tell it's not sulking because she'll approach me and then run away several times, each time getting a little closer, until she finally lets me pet her.

My favorite part of the trip...hmmmm...no offense to Universal, but it was definitely something Disney. Probably our dinner at Ohana, although all four WDW restaurant meals (Boma, Earl of Sandwich, Ohana, and Cape May Cafe) are at the top of my favorite moments list. But that Ohana dinner, with the great food, fireworks, birthday/anniversary celebrations, and having the whole crowd of us there, was just about perfect.