When Fantasy Became Reality

USA Trip 2013:  Blog Post #9

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths". - Walt Disney 

It took a lot of persuading (and perhaps a bit of begging) to get Scott on our first cruise.  He had created a stereotype in his mind of the typical cruiser and it wasn’t us.   Perhaps more like a silver-haired couple called Bill and Mavis whose idea of fun is to discuss the hijinks of Coronation Street over club sandwiches and a nice hot cup of tea.  

Having the lovely husband that I do, he finally gave in and agreed to give cruising a go for my sake.   We spent a week travelling around the Easter Mediterranean and a week is all it took to have us hooked on this style of travel.  Gone are the days of cruising being only for the old and retired and now more and more young couples and families are discovering how carefree, fun, and affordable a cruise holiday can actually be.  I’m yet to get feedback from someone who’s tried cruising and hated it. 

In 2011 we took Oskar on his first cruise.  It was a New Zealand coastal cruise that I discovered one morning on one of those last minute grab a deal websites.  It was sailing during school holidays, it was priced from as little as NZ$25 p/p per day, and within 10 minutes I had snapped the deal up.  I still look back on that cruise proudly as being the most spontaneous holiday I have ever organised as well as the cheapest. 

At the price I paid, it almost feels wrong to complain about any part of that cruise.  However, it needs mentioning that the kid’s club on that ship was downright awful.  The youth staff seemed unhappy and unmotivated, their English was barely comprehendible, and their idea of entertaining children was sitting them in front of movies for hours on end.  On the first day Oskar lasted an hour at the club before we got a call that our child had been crying non-stop since we dropped him off. 

As happy as we are spending time with Oskar, we also enjoy cruising for the quality time we get to spend as a couple.  After a gentle talk and perhaps a little bit of clever bribery, Oskar agreed to give the club one more try.  Three hours later we picked up our bored, miserable son and agreed that we wouldn’t be sending him back. 

While I know that not all cruise lines have such poorly run kid’s clubs, it’s fair to say that this experience put us off cruising for a while.  Scott and I made a decision right then that cruising holidays would be put on hold until Oskar was a teenager and we felt sure that he would be happy to spend at least two or three hours of each day away from us. 

That was until I discovered the DisneyCruise line.   If there was ever a cruise company with kids clubs that Oskar would enjoy attending, surely it had to be Disney?

Beautiful peacock-inspired chandelier in the Disney Fantasy atrium.

I did some research and was blown away by just how much these Disney ships offered for both children and adults.  Then when I saw pictures of The Disney Fantasy, I became more excited about the prospect of cruising on this ship than I have about any other holiday.    It turns out I was right to be excited; this ship is stunning!   While our whole USA holiday was amazing, the cruise of the Fantasy was the undisputed highlight. 

A porthole with a view

One of three adult-only pools

Adults-only hot tub with glass bottom floor

I did have some reservations before this cruise that the adult areas and entertainment would play a poor second to all the child activities on offer, but I needn’t have worried.  With relaxing adult pools, beautifully themed bars, delicious adult-only restaurants, and affordable cocktails, I can understand why there are many adults who choose to cruise Disney even though they don’t have any children.    The pay-off for traveling on a ship with such a large percentage of under-age passengers is that the adult-only areas were peaceful, uncrowded and had no shortage of empty deck chairs.  While the same can’t be said about the family areas of the ship, we always managed to find the space to do what we wanted, when we wanted.

My other concern was around the weather.  Going into this cruise I was fully aware that September is the peak of the hurricane season.  The payoff to cruising at this temperamental time of year is cheaper cruise fares; it’s pretty much the reason we were able to afford to travel on this ship in the first place.  However, it also meant not getting our hopes up about any of the ports.  (A good captain will sail around a storm even if it means a complete change of itinerary). 

I felt like the weather gods were shining down on us this whole trip as our plans were only negatively affected by rain once during our 25 days travelling.  Our 7 nights cruising consisted of 6 ½ days of sparkling sunshine and ½ a day of scattered cloud and light showers.  Staff onboard commented that for this time of the year it was some of the best weather they had ever seen.  Apparently the poor cruisers on the journey before ours got 7 days of rain.

From my seat in the sun I could turn to the left and see Castaway Cay, this adults only pool, and some very talented live musicians.

I could turn the right and order another mojito.

If I had to criticize one part of the whole Fantasy experience it would probably be the food.  With the exception of Palo which was excellent, most of our meals sat somewhere between very good and mediocre.  I am prepared to forgive the Fantasy for it’s small handful of food-related errors given that every other part of the cruise was so wonderful.  But if there is one area that they could do with a bit of improvement in, I think it would be this. 

Our cruise was 7 nights with 3 full days spent out at sea, and 3 days docked at Eastern Caribbean Islands.  The first port day was at the Dutch and French Island of St Maarten/St Martin, the second was at the US Virgin Islands of St Thomas and St John, and the third was at the Disney’s own private Island, Castaway Cay.   Each of these destinations is a blog post on it’s own, as is our experience with the ship’s food, entertainment, kids clubs, and stateroom.  With so much I would like to say and document about this very special week, I have a feeling that this Fantasy post is going to be the first of many.

A stunning ship down to the tinniest details.

I'll Swap My Crab Cakes For Your Fish Tacos.

USA Trip 2013: Blog Post #8

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life” 

― Michael Palin

Seuss Landing

The only part of our first 3 days in Orlando left to blog about is Universal’s Islands Of Adventure (IOA).  Of all the parks we visited on our holiday, IOA had the biggest, scariest, and wettest rides.

One of the big, scary rides that we didn't try.

IOA consists of 6 highly themed lands that are situated around the outside of a lake.  Because of the layout of this rather large park, you are best to spend the day touring in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. 

Unless you are happy to do a lot of extra walking in the hot Florida sun, there is not really any quick, efficient way of hopping randomly between rides or returning to your favourite rides later in the day.  I found this to be a problem, as you don’t always want to do the rides in the order you approach them.  The water rides, for example, are best not done right before lunch (we learnt this the hard way).   If a show is not scheduled to perform, or a ride is having a few technical issues at the time you are passing by (in our case the Jurassic Park Ride), it feels like too much effort to return later in the day.  Lastly, when you take advantage of early entry, you start and finish your park rotation at Harry Potter Land.  This would be fine if the WWoHP wasn’t on the opposite side of the park to the entrance.   I’m probably sounding pretty lazy right now, but try spending a whole day in the Florida heat and humidity, wearing clingy ride-soaked clothing, and you’ll understand. 

Jurassic Park

Touring and layout issues aside, this park is pretty darn cool.  The lands are so different and intricately detailed, that it would be difficult to not be impressed by at least one area of this park.  For pre-school aged children, the most impressive area would most likely be Seuss Landing.  Full of bright, beautiful colours and fun, whimsical rides, this area is as sweet as candy floss.  Jurassic Park Land would also be pretty popular amongst young children as what kid doesn’t like dinosaurs. 

My son's favourite area was Marvel Superhero Island.  Where else can you see your favourite superhero in the flesh before jumping on a ride and helping him save New York City?  For those with similar aged children, I didn’t think the Adventures of Spiderman ride was too intense for my almost 6 year old,  This is with one exception.  There is a part in the ride where a female villainess jumps onto the bonnet of your ride vehicle and snarls at you.  I’m not sure who this creature is (please add her name to the comment box if you know), but her lizard-like face is the stuff that nightmares are made of.  During repeat rides even I closed my eyes 
during this scary part. 

Marvel Superhero Island

A few times a day Spiderman and the X-men took to the streets with their quad-bikes.

Because Disney now have the financial rights to Marvel Comics, I'm not sure what kind of longevity this land has.  If and when they do have to change the theme, it will be interesting to see what they change it to. 

Besides the WWoHP, my favourite land in the whole park was Toon Lagoon.  The ‘toons’ the land is themed after are a bit old school and the theming would benefit from an update.  But what the land lacks in familiarity, it makes up for with two fantastic water rides.   I never tried the Ripsaw Falls flume ride as at that stage of the day I wasn’t in the mood to get soaked to the bone. But going by the looks on Scott and Oskar’s faces, there was little to dislike about this ride.  What I do know is that it has a very steep drop that gives you a very large drenching; nothing that was going to stop the men in my life from doing this ride twice.

The other water ride is Popeye’s Bilge-rat barges.  At one stage we hit a wave so large that it crashed over the top of Oskar’s head.  Once we accepted that fact that we were in for a complete drowning, this ride had us laughing so hard our cheeks hurt. 

There were plenty of great photo opportunities to be found in Toon Lagoon.

The sixth, and final, land is the Lost Continent.  While I found this land to be the least interesting of the six, it is the place where we had lunch that day.  As far as theme park dining goes, Mythos Restaurant has a very good reputation.  I can see why.  The food and drinks were tasty, and Oskar’s fish tacos were a standout hit.  Scott and I both tried to swap our inferior lunches with his, but my son is no fool. 

Crab cakes with parmesan fries and tomato and watermelon salad.  

Fish tacos with potato salad and watermelon and tomato salad

I must admit that the heat and humidity did begin to fray my nerves as the afternoon progressed.  There was a point about about 4pm when I asked Scott to “get me out of here”, and feeling much the same way, he didn’t have to be asked twice.  That is not to say that I don’t think the park is great; we just knew when we had reached our limit.   For those with time up their sleeves, I would recommend touring IOA over 2 half days, rather than one full one.  That way you could ride the water rides straight after lunch, then return to your hotel and spend the rest of the day around the pool.  

My son is very tall for his age.  While he was tall enough for the big rides, I don't think he was mature or brave enough.

Minions, Moe's, and Men in Black: Our Day at Universal Studios

USA Trip 2013:  Blog Post #7

“I’ll be back” - Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator

Universal's Superstar Parade.

After surviving some intense Minion training, it was time to boogie.  Emerging from the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride we were greeted by 70’s disco music, a sparkling mirror ball, and a dancing minion who was beckoning us over to join him.    It was a fun ending to a thoroughly enjoyable ride. 

Megatron

Universal Studios Florida (USF) is Universal Orlando’s oldest park, and, in my opinion, the better of the two.  It seems that I am amongst the minority in this opinion (the WWoHP over at Island’s of Adventure is a pretty big drawcard), but there were just a few more attractions at this park that I enjoyed.

For a start, my favourite ride of the whole trip was in this park.  The Transformers ride uses the combination of a moving ride vehicle and 3D special effects to create the effect of being chased thorough city streets and being thrown off tall buildings by the evil Decepticons.  It provided just the right amount of action that had you screaming one minute and then cheering the next.  There is a similar ride over at Island’s of Adventure called Adventures of Spiderman.  It uses the same ride technology and follows the same good vs. evil storyline.  But for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, The Transformers one was better. 

I visited USF many many years ago as a teenager.  The park I remember from then is quite different to the park that exists now.  But a small handful of shows and rides have survived the passing years, and one of these is the ET ride.  It’s little wonder this ride is still around; it’s great.  The basic premise of the ride is that you board a modified bicycle and then ‘fly’ over cities and forests in search of ET.  When you find him at the end of the ride, he thanks you by name.  Young children, who tend to forget about the staff member at the start of the ride who asked you your name, find this little twist quite magical. 

The thing I liked the most about the ET ride was the smell.  As ridiculous as this might sound, I have an extremely sensitive nose and happen to think that Smell is a highly underrated sense.  Universal pumps an aromatic mystery scent into the room and it combines with the powerful air-conditioning.  The effect is one of flying over a fragrant rainforest on a cool summer’s evening.  I’m a fan.

Both Universal and Disney have created rides where you board a track-mounted vehicle and then travel around a scene shooting at targets.   Disney’s Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin are the best and worst respectively of this style of ride.  Universal’s Men in Black Ride sits somewhere in the middle.  It was such great fun competing against Scott and Oskar over who could accumulate the most points during our alien shoot-out.  Somewhere during my hours of holiday research I had read tips about how you should aim for the small alien targets in windows rather than the big formidable aliens directly in front of you.   I only gloated briefly over my far superior score, before coming clean to Scott and admitting that I had gone on to the ride with an advantage.   Scott got his revenge later in our holiday when he got twice my score on Toy Story Mania.

Don't bother

There are quite a few shows at this park and we made the time to attend three of them.  One was the Animal Actor’s Show, which was cute and charming, but not really a must-do.  The second was The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue and this show was downright awful.  I remember attending this show when I visited about 20 years ago and at the time thinking that it was quite good.  But the world has changed a lot in 20 years and this show just hasn’t aged well.  I felt like I was a spectator at a bad dress-up karaoke party where I sat looking at my watch and questioning whether it would be polite to stand up and leave.  Scott disliked it even more than I did.

The third show was the Shrek 4D movie.  Part show, part ride, I caution against participating in this attraction if you get lower back pain like I do.  Just about every ride in every park comes with a bad back warning and (perhaps irresponsibly) I always ignored this warning without issue.  This is probably the one time I should have heeded the warnings.  While the show itself was fun, the seats rattle and vibrate in a way that gives your lower back a really rough shaking; particularly the part where Shrek charges down a very bumpy road on a wagon.  

Only a few months prior to our visit, USF had put the finishing touches on the new SpringField USA.  Built around the already existing Simpsons' Ride, this land was a pretty good representation of the tv show.   It was great thinking on Universal’s part to put in so many permanent Simpsons' characters (statues).   They provide a great character photo opportunity that lasts all day, and they're much cheaper than paying actors to walk around in hot, over-sized costumes. 

For lunch that day we ate at Moe’s tavern.  The all American counter food was not particularly memorable, but the atmosphere certainly was.

Is it irresponsible to let your 5 year old test his level of sex appeal?

Even though I loved the Simpson’s Ride, we rode it only once.   It made Scott feel even more ill than the Forbidden Journey ride the following day.  Luckily these were the only two rides of the whole trip that affected him this badly. 

After a day of fighting Decepticons, shooting at aliens, and getting shaken around by Shrek, we were in desperate need of a swim.  One last attempt at being transformed into Minions and our fun day at this park was over.   There were a few attractions we never did get to try, such as Revenge of the Mummy and Terminator 3-D, but in the immortal words of Arnie, "I'll be back".  (Or, at least I hope that one day I will be).  

Don't spend too long looking at this guy and admiring his abs; he'll hunt you down.

We’re Off to See the Wizard

USA Trip 2013: Blog Post #6

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Hog's Head Inn

About 6 months before this trip I went on to Amazon and purchased the full box set of Harry Potter movies.  While I felt like a bit of a cheat for not reading the books instead, I barely have time to read the novels I’m really interested in, let alone the ones I’m reading because I think I should. 

After many hours of Hogwarts viewing, I felt as ready as I’d ever be to truly appreciate the theming of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP).  For anyone wondering if I think this prior research was worthwhile, I definitely think it was.  Obviously a huge Harry Potter fan will pick up the finer features of the park in much more focused way than I ever could, but for the short time we were there, my movie-watching research was sufficient.

The WWoHP is one of six themed lands inside Universal’s Island’s of Adventure.  However this land has such a loyal following that people often talk about it as if it’s a park all on it’s own. 

There are 3 rides within the WWoHP.  The Dragon Challenge is a pair of duelling roller coasters that looked way too big and scary for this timid family.  The Flight of the Hippogriff is a tamer, much more child-friendly coaster, but it’s uncomfortable jerky movements meant that once was enough for Oskar and I. 

The third, and by far most impressive, ride is Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey.  Coaster-come-Motion simulator, this ride is supposed to simulate a broomstick ride through many scenes from the movie.  It’s a difficult ride to explain, but it’s scary, exciting, technically brilliant, and a little bit nauseating, all at the same time.

Hogwarts Castle.  The Forbidden Journey ride is inside. 

 I was aware that scenes on the ride included giant spiders and Dementors, so I did a lot of research and asked a lot of online questions before finally deciding that I would take my almost 6 year old on the ride.  Once on the ride I was completely convinced that I had made a huge mistake.  The ride was far too scary for a child of his age.  I was so worried that I didn’t actually take the time to relax and enjoy the ride.  The seats are like small booths and your body is pressed hard against the back of the seat by an over the shoulder harness.  I was desperate to reach out and reassure my son, but from where I was sitting I couldn’t even see him, let alone touch him.  An audio recording of our ride would have been humorous as I’m sure I spent the whole ride yelling at Oskar to close his eyes. 

It turns out that my stress was all a waste of time.  Oskar admits to feeling a little bit scared, but found the overall experience quite enjoyable.  He was the only one of the three of us who did.  While I was busy panicking over my son’s wellbeing, Scott was busy trying to hold down his breakfast.   3D screens make my husband feel slightly unwell.  When paired with a seat that flings you around at every possible angle, the result was one of extreme nausea.  For the following half hour, Scott sat calmly on a park bench while Oskar and I tried out the Hippogriff coaster. 

The ride itself is only one part of the Forbidden Journey experience.  The queuing area is the largest I have ever seen, and it is also the most elaborately detailed.  Even if you have no interest in the ride, it’s worth taking the time to walk through the queue line.  The detailing is so intricate, it feels as though you have been transported into the movie and are taking a walk through Hogwarts castle. 

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the Forbidden Journey Ride has no express pass.  It is just so popular that adding an express pass option would make the standby queue far too long.  Also, entering through an express entrance would mean bypassing the interesting walk through the castle.  For this reason it makes sense to ride this attraction as early as possible in the day.  If this isn’t an option, leave it for the end of the day.  We rode it about 30 minutes into our hour of early entry.  Even at that time of the day, the queue had a wait of over 30 minutes - the longest wait of our whole trip.  If the huge queuing area was full, I can only imagine that the wait would be closer to about 4 hours.   While it’s a great ride, I don’t think there is any theme park attraction on this planet that I would be happy to wait longer than 45 minutes for. 

Ollivander's Wand Shop

The first half of our hour of early entry was spent at Ollivander’s Wand Shop.  Half of the shop stages a short interactive show.  Only about 10 people are allowed into this area at a time and then one lucky volunteer is chosen by Mr Ollivander to find the perfect wand.  As the lucky volunteer tries out a series of unsuitable wands, minor mayhem ensues inside the shop.  After all, it is not the wizard that picks his wand, it’s the wand that picks the wizard.  The show was cute and charming, but it would have been all the more special if it had been one of us who had been chosen.  Unfortunately it wasn’t our lucky day. 

Because such a small amount of people can enter the shop at the same time, the queues for this attraction get understandably longer as the day progresses.

After the show is finished, you’re a herded like cattle into the accompanying gift store.  Caught in the moment the temptation is strong to part with your hard earned dollars in exchange for what is essentially a pointless wooden wand.  With a large dose of self-restraint, we left the 

store empty handed.

After we had rushed around and ticked off the big-draw attractions, we had the time to relax and enjoy the theming of the area.  The first stop was Hog's Head Inn.  I was not going to leave the park without first tasting the famous Butterbeer.  There is a regular version and a frozen version, and from research it seems that the frozen version is more popular.  Unsure whether or not we would like it, we got one frozen pint to share.  This stuff is yummy!  One pint was not enough and Scott went back later in the day to get more.  I’m not sure how best to describe this non-alcoholic drink, but there are many websites which compare it’s taste to Creaming Soda.  I detected similarities to vanilla cola.  Either way, I do wish you could purchase it here in New Zealand.  Since returning home, we have suffered from some pretty strong cravings.  

Yum - Butterbeer!

Oh no, it's all gone!

A moving mandrake in one of the
shop's windows.

After finishing off our beer I went into the Moaning Murtle bathrooms to rinse out our souvenir pint glass. Then, for the next half an hour or so, I rushed around taking photos of the various shop windows.  I rushed so not to keep Scott and Oskar waiting.  They had not watched the Harry Potter movies with me, so the theming meant much less to them.  By this time they were ready to leave the WWoHP and do rides in the surrounding lands. 

In all, I thought the whole area was stunning.  I understand that JK Rowling was very pedantic about what she did and didn’t want included in this come-to-life version of her novels.  I am pleased she had such a strong say in the area's construction, as the result is pretty special.  Once they open the second Harry Potter area in 2014, the pull to go back is going to be strong.

The Owl Post

Honeydukes' Candy Store

Harry Potter fans are looking forward to 2014 when the Hogwarts Express comes to life.