Make-A-Wish trip, Day 3, Part 2

Dear People,
So I don't know about you, but my computer is getting really slow to load with all of these pictures. I have decided to compress the pics. The good news is that the page should load faster. The bad news is that some family and friends are saving these pics, and although they should look fine compressed on the webpage, they wont look that great when you use them for anything else (Mom). So if you are reading this, and would like to use the pics, just e-mail me what picture(s) you would like, and I will send it(them) to you in their original size. The pictures I have already uploaded to this point are in their original format.

Thanks,

Heidi


Day 3, Part 2

So after our Dolphin Encounter, and my break-down of tears of joy, we had to wash our hands of the lovely smell of the fish we were feeding to the dolphins. Well, they did. I didn't, because I was taking pictures the whole time. Don't worry though, I did take time out of my picture taking to take advantage of our amazing opportunity and pet the dolphins. I just didn't touch the nasty stinky fish.

From there, we went to check out the manatees. This was Kyley's special thing, she actually has manatee posters in her room, and they have a special place in her heart. We all have a lot of pics of the manatees, and there is really no need to post them all here, but I will show you some of my favorites.



Just to show how close we were



I like this picture of the boys, and their reflections



Three of my 4 favorite guys. Yes Rick is looking at his phone, but that is because he was taking pictures with it. He did an incredible job of leaving business in North Carolina during this trip. He was completely child-focused, and as the boss, I know how hard that must have been.



Apparently I am not the best map reader, plus Sea World's map is a bit hard to navigate. We waited for the Shamu show for an hour, only to find out that the show we were watching was not Shamu at all. Actually, that sounds worse than it was, because I am the only one who waited for the show. The kids and Rick took the opportunity to finally spend some of their money in the gift-shops. Plus, I was glad for the wait. I took advantage of Andrew's wheelchair, and just sat. After the continuos running of the last 3 days, it was nice. Turns out that it is a good thing that I am a bad navigator, because we saw an amazing show that we may not have seen if we had been in the right place. It was called "Blue Horizons", and starred (very cool after the morning we had) dolphins.






After the show, we were hungry. Those of you who know us well, know that Kyley and I enjoy healthier foods, while the rest of the family likes, well, junk. Sea World offers both, so we seperated. Unfortunately, we then spent an hour trying to find the others, and poor Rick had SIX by himself. But this was a good lesson, and we didn't seperate again during the whole trip, except for the times the boys were not big enough to ride.

After lunch, we went looking for the real Shamu show. We were hoping to get there early, and try to explain that this was Andrew's wish, Sea World not disney, in hopes that he would be chosen as the kid. But, because of my mess-up with the stadiums, and spending so much time at the wrong one, we got in with just enough time to get good seats. We all loved it!







Now for some rides. The Polar Express Experience at Sea World was cool, but we had been spoiled by the amazing 3 and 4-D adventures at Universal Studios, so the kids rated it pretty low. Also, we didn't get to see any polar bears, they were hiding.



On the other hand, the Journey to Atlantis ride was very highly rated for the kids. One of their favorites of the whole trip.





There were some kiddie-type rides, and because of the silly guilt Rick and I had about the whole line-jumping thing, only the younger kids rode these. It just seemed nicer for us to say to the ride-operator 3 or 4 than it was to say yes NINE of us want to be put on the ride in front of everyone who has been standing here for an hour. It was a silly guilt thing, and I know that without the line-hopping we would not have been able to do even half of what we did, and we know that this may have been Andrew's only trip to the Orlando attractions, so I am forever greatful that we had it.

Anyway, there was a lot more that we could have done at Sea-World. We were all dying to get back to Universal Studios, so we bowed out after making sure we did the shark exhibit. Our excitement and big rush to get back to Universal is also the reason that we didn't stop to view/purchase our professional dolphin encounter pics. I am still waiting to here back from Sea World about those.

So when we got over to Universal, after using the van as a changing room, (Some of us, me and Josh especially, were soaked after the Atlantis ride) we went crazy. I did not take a lot of pics of our final evening at Universal, mainly because I was like the kids, loving every minute of it. Who can be bothered with taking pictures in this amazing place?

I will just reiterate that Universal Studios was INCREDIBLE the rides were better than Disney, and they were so great with our VIP pass. We were able to jump on all the rides without any wait, ride them as many times as we wanted, and it was not obvious, they back-doored us. WE LOVE UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!!



We laughed, we played, we skipped and jumped. There is a reason Day 3 was so special for us. We were just all in the best of moods, and soaking in every second of it.

A funny story about this Jimmy Neutron ride, by the time we got on it, we had been riding so much, with no waiting, that we were actually super comfortable on the rides. They were becoming second nature to us, and when this ride broke out into a 4-D chicken dance, complete with throwing us all around, while other people on the ride were holding on for dear life, I looked over at Brooke, and then Kyley, and saw that the three of us were totally chicken dancing. We weren't riding the rides, we were living them!



So I'm not going into all of them, but the best rides according to our kids are The Simpsons, and Revenge of the Mummy





We had already decided that we were going to make it a late night, and not be back in time to have dinner at the village, so when the park closed, we spent some time at City Walk. It was crowded, it was neon, and it was exciting.







We got back to the village in time to order pizza. Yes, they also have free pizza delivery, until 10:30 every night, which they deliver to your villa. A few of the kids actually fell asleep on the way back to the villa. Good thing we ate a late lunch. But the ones that were awake for the pizza, all said it was the best they had ever had.

Also, might as well mention it now, The village is a gated community, and you have to be approved for entry to the gate, so when we got back every evening, we had to be buzzed in, and state who we were. It was always so cool to here "Welcome home McQueen's!" or "Yipee, so glad you're home!" Give Kids The World truly had every little detail covered. Amazing.

Day 2

On Day 2, I woke up early. I was just so excited. It was about 5:30, and I made a fresh cup of coffee, and sat enjoying my quiet-time. Rick soon woke up, followed by Josh. There was a Walmart about 1/2 a mile up the rode, and we needed new coffee, so Josh and I set out for the Walmart. How funny to discover that there was a whole Disney section inside of it. This was good to know, because lots of the apparel found in Disney could be found at this Walmart much cheaper.

The kids woke up, and we went for our first breakfast in the Gingerbread house. Delicious! Buffet style, anything you could want for breakfast, and again, all-you-can-eat.

Our plan for day 2 was Sea World. This was Andrew's main wish, and the first thing that he wanted to do. But, because the kids got off to a late start, we decided to save Sea World for the next day so that we could be there when it opened. I was really emotional about this. I just felt that because of it being Andrew's main wish, we should spend as much time there as needed. We made the decision to start with Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure. What we didn't know at the time, that we know now, was that Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure would be two of our favorite parks. These parks for us were better than Disney. I wish that we had spent a full day a piece at these two parks, but we just didn't know. We have decided though, that for our next Fla. vacation, we will invest in visiting these 2 parks.

So my big regret of day 2 was not taking enough pictures.



Straight off the bat we started with excitement. While our kids made all the height requirements at the Disney parks, This wasn't the case for Islands of Adventure. There were a couple of roller coaster's that the boys and Rainia couldn't ride. Kyley didn't want to try it, so I stayed with them, while Rick and the 3 other kids rode this:





They all loved it except for Andrew. He decided that roller coaster's weren't his thing. We had an amazing pass that was the golden ticket. I wore it around my neck, and when we showed it to the ride workers, they back-doored us straight to the ride. Usually it was through some back alley, up an elevator, and right onto the ride. Amazing!

From there, we went to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. On Marvel Super Hero Isloand. This ended up being one of our favorite rides of the whole trip. It was a 4-D adventure that was so thrilling. All of us could ride this one, and it was AWESOME. 4-D is like 3-D, in that you wear the glasses, and the visuals jump out at you. The difference between 3 and 4 D is the added senses. When you see the fire, you can feel the heat. If something is wet in the visual, you get wet. On this ride, it was done perfectly. On day 6 I will describe how 4-D can go tragically wrong. (I'll just give you a little hint. It involves the sense of smell.)





We headed over to Toon Lagoon, where we met Betty Boop:





After meeting Betty, we decided to head back over to Super-hero island to try to meet some characters there. The first one was Spiderman, and we went right to the front of the line with our make-a-wish pins. Our Spiderman picture came out blurry, but we did get the professional one. We got 1 picture free of charge, and decided to use our coupon on this one.

I had no idea, but apparently I have a thing for Spiderman. I didn't even realize it until Spiderman said "What are YOU giggling about Mom? Get over here." This is what Rick and the kids picked on me about for the rest of the trip. Yes people, I giggled like a little school girl when I met Spidey. Anyway, I got over my awe enough to shake his hand and pose for the picture. Spiderman then told us to head across the street, and up an alley for a special meet and greet with a bunch of the characters.

We met another Make-A-Wish family there who were also staying at the village, and we met plenty of characters. None of them, though, had the effect on me that Spidey did. I think it had something to do with the costumes. When I could actually see their faces, it wasn't so great. Capt. America did comment on my "rocks" though while we were posing for the pics. My reply? "Yeah, yeah." What is that? Yeah, Yeah? I don't know why I said that, but it made Capt. America laugh.




Mine and Jake's favorite guy:






Next, it was back to toon lagoon, where the kids rode a few rides. We then headed over to Jurassic Park, where we came face to face with so many dinosaurs. We also took the Jurassic Park River Adventure, and flew on some pteradactons.








We then headed over to The Lost Continent, where there was a talking water fountain. Not a drinking fountain, but a large water fountain that talked to the crowd. There was also another large roller coaster, but this time only Brooke and I rode it. There was also a show that we started to watch, which ended up broken, but that wasn't such a bad thing, because Josh was actually crying he was so scared.





The talking water fountain:



The roller coaster "Dueling Dragons"





Poseidon's Fury. This is what made made Joshua cry.




Finally, the last island was Seuss Landing. A magical place. We truly felt as if we had entered a Dr. Seuss book. It was really cool.











Back to the Spiderman ride for one more before heading over to Universal Studios. (We had park hopper tickets to the Universal and Disney Parks, meaning that we could hop from park to park on the same day.)



First up, watching Shrek in 4-D!



Next, the only ride that I remembered from visiting Universal in my childhood, ET. Here, Jake left his beloved CP3O. He did ask to go back to ET a few times, and we had to explain to him that CP3O and ET were now good buddies. Next was Men In Black. This ride was way too hyped for what it actually was. The cool thing about it though was that there were no bags aloud, not because it went upside down or anything. I think they wanted to make sure no photography got in there. Anyway, they had these lockers to put your bags in, and they were fingerprint operated. I totally felt like James Bond opening that thing.

It was late, and we were tired, but we had time for one more ride. The Simpson's in 4-D. This ended up one of our favorite rides of the whole trip! Everyone loved it.

When we got to the park in the morning, we had rented a wheel-chair for Andrew. He didn't use it for the first half of the day, but the boys did. By the end of the day, We were so glad that we had it, because Andrew ended up needing it.

Another thing I'm glad I did was take this picture, of our parking area:



We missed dinner in the Gingerbread house back at the village, so we went to Friendly's.





We were exhausted, but happy and content after such an exciting day.