Day 3: Lunch in the Lost City of Atlantis

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Sunday, July 23, 2006

001 - Hanging Out Around the House

I woke up at 9:00 this morning.  9:00 in the morning is not a fun time to be up, especially when on vacation.  I get up later for school on some days!  What I realized on this trip was that while a lot of people go on vacation to just relax and take it easy, our vacations are usually a lot more hectic than the rest of our summer.  Go figure.  Anyway, I got up and ran into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face, and then I did what any respectful person on vacation would do at 9:00 in the morning... I got back in bed.  I laid in bed for a while but I just couldn't fall back asleep.  Yes, it was early, but we were on vacation and there was fun to be had.  Don't get me wrong, when we're on regular week-long vacations we're all up bright and early so we can get out there and do as much as we possibly can each day.  But we would be in Orlando for three weeks this summer and it was only our first day so we were in no rush.  Still, I couldn't fall back asleep so I just got up.  Reluctantly.

002 - Hanging Out Around the House

When I went into the kitchen mom, dad and Oreo were all gone so I assumed they were taking a walk around the complex.  I was pretty hungry so I decided to continue my "delicious, greasy, completely unhealthy vacation breakfast" trend.  I looked on the counter for what my options were and... what?  Smart Start cereal?  Special K?  What was going on?!  I had eaten that cardboard for breakfast all year long so that I could pig out on vacation.  And now I was stuck with... more cardboard?!  Damn.  Okay, Okay.  Smart Start and Special K are actually pretty good so it wasn't too bad.  I was just sick of them both after eating them all year, but what can you do?  I had some cereal and orange juice for breakfast and hung out in the kitchen until mom and dad got back.  Dad took some video around the house and I was still in my pajamas so I was not a happy camper.  It's hysterical watching the video now, though, the look of pure annoyance on my face is priceless.

003 - Hanging Out Around the House

By 12:30 I was bored with lounging around the house so I took a shower and got ready.  When it came time to blow my hair, I had a little mishap.  Regardless of how many lights I turn off or power I shut down around our house, I can almost never get through blowing my hair without blowing a fuse.  Well, as soon as I shut the blow dryer off in the vacation home this morning, pop went the circuit.  All of the lights went out and I couldn't turn the blow dryer on to finish blowing my hair.  I guess it's my blow dryer... and I thought we just had really crappy circuit breakers at home.  Dad couldn't figure out where the circuit breakers were but he eventually found the box in the garage and everything was up and running in no time.  Whew.  I was finished getting ready by 2:15.  Wait, it took me an hour and forty five minutes to get ready?  Yep.  I took my sweet time and watched VH1 while I did my makeup and got dressed.  We were on vacation and I wasn't rushing!  Mom was in the living room checking her mail on the laptop when I went in there so we waited for her to finish.  Then we got all of our stuff together and were out the door by 2:25.

006 - Islands of Adventure

We drove out of the resort and while the long drive to Route 192 was still fun at the time, dad tried to take a shortcut.  We drove over to a back road that would take us directly to I4 instead of having to deal with the traffic on Route 192.  However, this back road really was a back road and we drove passed swamp, swamp, swamp, trailer park, swamp, swamp, swamp, trailer park, trailer park, swamp.  I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Shrek in his natural habitat but we would have to wait until we got to Universal Studios for that.  To make the whole situation even funnier, the shortcut added a good twenty minutes to our drive.  We (finally) got to Universal Studios at 2:55 and there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot.  By a long line of cars I mean that there were about twenty cars ahead of us.  The line was HUGE.  And do you know why?  Because there was only one parking attendant collecting the parking fees.  He sat in a lone booth as cars lined up on each side of it.  He would take money from the car on the left and give them their pass, and then take money from the car on the right, then back to the left and back to the right.  It took forever!  It didn't make any sense to me for the parking to be conducted in such a way, especially in the middle of the summer which is supposed to be high season.  Oy.  After a good ten minutes we pulled up to the parking attendant.  Dad told him that he was picking up his season pass but we were told that if he didn't have his season pass in hand we still had to pay for parking.  That's crap, pure and simple, especially since we had the season pass voucher.  Then mom mentioned that dad was an NBC/Universal employee and the guy at the parking booth said that he wasn't supposed to give us free parking since NBC employees no longer get free parking, but he gave it to us anyway.  Thanks!

005 - Islands of Adventure

Our elation from the free parking quickly subsided when we had to pull all the way up to the back of the parking lot.  We had never parked this far and we were getting nervous about the crowds at the parks.  We parked in the farthest possible section of the lot, in ET 256.  We got out of the car and were happy to find that it really wasn't that hot out.  It was definitely warm and humid, but we weren't sweating like animals like we had been last year.  We walked all the way through the parking lot and then through the left side of CityWalk.  Last year I had hated this walk.  Absolutely hated it.  It's a really long walk, and when it's so hot and crowded it's just not fun.  But this time was different... classic rock was pulsing through the speakers, the security guards were dancing (yes, dancing) and we were finally back at one of my favorite places in the world.  I couldn't have been more excited!  We made our way through CityWalk and were at the entrance of Islands of Adventure by 3:15.

008 - Islands of Adventure

Mom, Mike and I got through the gates with no problems.  We had our Costco three-month passes and they worked great.  Dad had some trouble, though.  He had upgraded his season pass from last year over the phone but I had lost his actual pass.  I don't think I'm the one who lost it since I don't remember ever taking it, but everyone decided to blame me.  Anyway, he had a confirmation number but he couldn't get into the park with just a confirmation number.  The girl at the gate called over another lady and she walked us over to the Vacation Services building.  It was pretty crowded in there but we were called right over to a desk where dad got his season pass and used the picture from last year, and mom, Mike and I took new pictures for our passes.  We were out of there within ten minutes and on our way into the park.

016 - The Many Adventures of Spiderman

We first walked through Marvel Superhero Island.  We wanted to go on Spiderman since it was a ride that we all liked.  On our way there we saw a woman standing outside of the Marvel Superhero store with a sign that said we could meet Spiderman inside.  I wanted to go in since I had decided that I was going to get pictures with as many characters as possible, but we just kept walking to the attraction.  Another vacation resolution I was already blowing off.  No characters, no good breakfast... not cool!  We walked over to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and there was a fifty-minute wait time listed.  We were surprised by that since last year we only had a twenty minute wait, but we knew that the park was crowded and there would be long lines for everything so we decided to just wait.  Last year we had been able to walk right in to the main pre-show room but today the line started outside at a long and winding queue at the back of the attraction.  It was a cool area, though, because it was set up to look like a back alley right out of a comic book.

021 - The Many Adventures of Spiderman

As we waited on line my Aunt Stacy called and said that Pinky, the Guinea Pig that dad had bought for Alison the week before, had died.  Are you kidding me?  Dad had spent a good $300 on that thing, along with the cage and all of its food, vitamins and accessories.  Aunt Stacy was going to get the receipt and return everything since it shouldn't have died after only a week, something must have been wrong to begin with.  Alison had grown to love that guinea pig throughout the week and I felt bad for both her and Pinky.  Poor Pinky.  Aunt Stacy told us that she was going to use her copy of our key to get into the house and she wanted to know where the receipt was, and she said that she would call us back later on.  Talk about putting a damper on the day.  But back to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman.  Within ten minutes we were in the indoor part of the queue and I love the line for this ride.  It was as if we were walking through the offices of the Daily Bugle.  There were Spiderman cartoons playing and desks set up that were meant to look like the cubicles of all of the employees.  We were on the ride within a half hour, which really wasn't that bad.  The time went by really fast.  That may have been due to the fact that we spent the entire time on the phone with Aunt Stacy trying to figure out where all the necessary paperwork was to return everything.

019 - The Many Adventures of Spiderman

When we got to the last part of the queue the line split up into two different rows.  We went into one row and everyone behind us followed us, not realizing that the ENTIRE other side of the ride was completely empty.  I guess standing in line is too complex of a concept to understand for some people.  Mom, dad, Mike and I were in the last row of our car and it was a great ride!  I loved it a lot more this year then I had last year.  The 3D wasn't that clear but I loved how immersed I got into the attraction and the world of Spiderman.  I flinched more than once and I always found myself pulling back and closing my eyes each time something flew out at us.  We were jerked around a lot and I loved it.  This is without a doubt one of the greatest attractions ever created and one of my favorite rides of all time.  Go Spiderman!

025 - Toon Lagoon

When we left we saw that Cyclops from X-Men was out taking pictures.  I wanted to take a picture but we decided to just keep going.  Damn, another missed character.  And this one made me sad because the guy playing Cyclops was ridiculously cute.  Except for his X-Ray eyes, but I was willing to overlook that.  At 5:00 we made our way over to Toon Lagoon, and they kept making announcements that storms were expected in the area so we wanted to make our way over to Mytho's in the Lost Continent.  There's nothing but water rides in Toon Lagoon so we were just going to walk through, but we saw that Popeye and Olive Oil were out taking pictures.  I never really liked Popeye; Michael was more into him and would watch the live-action movie with Robin Williams over and over when he was little.  I wasn't missing another character opportunity, though, so I got on line with mom, dad and Mike reluctantly following behind.  We were at the front of the line within five minutes and I got my picture.  It came out great except for the fact that I had my eyes closed!  Oh well.

029 - Jurassic Park

We then made our way into Jurassic Park.  At the entrance I stopped mom and dad to take a picture in front of the big gates.  There was a Kodak "Picture Point" sign in the dense foliage, meaning you should stand in that area for a great picture.  Dad took the sign a little too literally, though, and climbed up onto the ledge where the sign was, tripped, and went tumbling to the ground.  He didn't actually fall, but that would have only increased the hysteria.  Eventually mom and dad figured out what kind of picture I wanted, and we made our way farther into Jurassic Park.  We wanted to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure but there was a thirty-minute wait and the ride was currently closed due to lightening in the area.  We didn't want to just stand around waiting for the lightening to pass so we continued on to the Lost Continent after taking a few pictures.

032 - Mytho's

We reached the Lost Continent and made our way over to Mytho's by 5:30.  I had made a reservation for 3:30 but we had purposely skipped it since everyone decided that they would rather go for dinner than for lunch, and it was no big deal since the place was empty.  We walked through the maze of tunnels to the main seating area and were seated right by the big windows that looked out to the rest of the park.  I love Mytho's, the atmosphere can't be beat.  The entire restaurant makes it seem as if you're in the lost city of Atlantis with giant votive candles, little brass men holding up the banisters, faces carved into the walls, and large spiraling sky lights.  The food is also top-notch.  The restaurant was ranked the number one theme park restaurant in the world for the past four years and for good reason.

047 - Mytho's

Mom and I ran to the bathroom and dad ordered our diet Cokes.  When we got back to the table we had our homemade bread and butter which was absolutely delicious.  Ten minutes later our waitress took our order and then we looked around the restaurant and took some pictures.  Our food arrived fifteen minutes later and it was all absolutely delicious.  Dad started with the Tortilla Soup with fried tortillas and sour cream while Michael got the Cream of Mushroom soup.  Both of the soups were delicious, but we all decided that the Cream of Mushroom was better since the Tortilla soup was a little too spicy.

048 - Mytho's

For the main course I got the Grilled Chicken Club with applewood bacon, cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and fries, while mom got the Cedar Planked Bay of Fundy Salmon with mashed potatoes, citrus butter and asparagus and we shared both.  Both entrees were amazing!  I love salmon and this was without a doubt the best I have ever had.  And it was in a theme park restaurant at that.  Dad got the Cowboy BBQ Smoked Steak Sandwich with smoked cheddar, chipotle BBQ sauce and homemade chips, while Michael got the Pastabilities special which was a piece of grilled chicken on top of pasta smothered in a fried basil tomato sauce.  Both of them loved their food.

051 - Mytho's

When we were finished eating our waitress asked if we wanted dessert and we were all ridiculously full and were going to pass until she told us about the Banana Gooey Chocolate cake and dad had to try it.  It was a small piece of flourless chocolate cake under two pieces of fried bananas, surrounded by banana slices, caramel and cinnamon.  I don't even like bananas, I actually really hate them, but this cake was absolutely delicious!  We finished it within five minutes and then got the check.  With dad's 20% discount the bill came to $77.  It definitely wasn't bad considering the mount of delicious food we had.  Mytho's had once again amazed us, and we would be sure to come back soon.

054 - Mytho's

After we paid the bill we ran into the bathroom and then headed back out into the park.  The Poseidon's Fury walk through attraction was right across the path and the next show was starting in twenty-five minutes so we walked over there.  Mike started to not feel well, though, so he ran back into Mytho's to use the bathroom while mom, dad and I sat on a bench across from the restaurant.  Mike was back out within two minutes saying that someone was in there so we walked over to the entrance of the Lost Continent and he went into a bathroom over there.  Mom, dad and I spent the ten minutes he was in there sitting on a nice bench while listening to the Middle Eastern music and taking pictures.  I'll admit I was annoyed that we had to just sit around and miss Poseidon's Fury, but it gave us a chance to just relax and take in an area of the park that we wouldn't have gotten to experience if Mike didn't have such a weak stomach!

089 - The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley

When Michael was done he still wasn't feeling great so we didn't want to go on anything too crazy.  The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley had just opened this summer and we wanted to try it.  Since it was new there had been a long line all day but now there was only a twenty-minute wait.  We made our way over to Seuss Landing and took a few pictures in the area before getting on line for the Trolley.  The line was actually pretty cute; there were pictures and rhymes from parts of the story of the Sneeches, as well as a few extra surprises.  We were on the ride within twenty minutes and it was a cute ride.  A bunch of us got on a big train on the right side of the track (there were two different tracks) and we were given a tour of the area from above Seuss Landing.  We got a nice bird's eye view of the area but the ride was very short and wouldn't be worth a long line.  I was able to get a lot of nice pictures, though, so it wasn't a complete waste.  And what I thought was really cool was that while we left the platform on the right side of the tracks, we pulled back into the station on the left side of the tracks.  I'm sure kids get a huge kick out of that!  If they even notice it.

102 - Seuss Landing

The ride let out right near Snookers and Snookers Sweet Candy Cookers so we all went in there.  Mom filled up a bag with French Vanilla and Licorice jelly beans, and then a separate bag with all small candy bars.  While she was paying dad and I went across the street and took pictures by the Seuss Police Department.  They didn't come out as funny as Mike's had last year, though.  By now I really wanted to walk through Poseidon's Fury so we headed back over to the Lost Continent and got on the twenty-minute line.  Mom, dad and Mike all hate this attraction; they think it's nothing but a pain and a huge waste of time, but I think it's unique.  I wouldn't see it more than once on each trip, but it's fun to experience every once in a while.  The line for this attraction is great; it's like your walking through an ancient temple.  We were stopped halfway through the line and waited there for fifteen minutes before the show started and everyone was ushered into the huge first room.  The show was fun, but not as good as it was last time probably since I now knew what to expect.  I loved walking through the tunnel of water, though, and I took a few pictures and videos in the attraction.

113 - Poseidon's Fury

Poseidon's Fury was over by 7:15 and we made our way back to the Port of Entry.  We would have stayed longer and gone on more attractions, but Mike still wasn't feeling well so we decided to call it a night.  On the way out of the park we stopped at the Croissant Moon Bakery and mom contemplated getting coffee.  She didn't want to carry it through CityWalk, though, so we left.  When we got to CityWalk we walked passed Margaritaville where a live band was playing Jimmy Buffett music.  I love Margaritaville, the atmosphere can't be beat!  We stopped at a jewelry cart by the water and mom got a red ring.  While she was buying it I took some pictures by the water of all of the shops and restaurants since the area was gorgeous!  The sun was beginning to set and the light and pastel colors of the sky were reflecting off the lake.  Along with the low crowds and great music being played, the night was close to perfect.

146 - CityWalk

We then began our long walk back to the parking lot.  It wasn't a bad walk, though, since it was pretty windy out.  As long as there was a breeze and we weren't sweating, we were good to go.  We were back at the car by 8:30 and it began to drizzle as we made our way out of the lot.  We made our way back to I4 but since we still couldn't find our exit we just got off at a Disney exit with the intentions of driving through the property and making our way over to Route 192 West.  We drove through Disney for a few minutes before realizing that we were going the wrong way and making a u-turn to get back to I4.  It added an extra ten minutes to the trip but it was worth it just to see some of the Disney parks!  We eventually found the exit after the one we needed which brought us to Route 192 east.  We just made a u-turn and ended up on Route 192 west.

156 - Dippin' Dots

On the way back to the house we stopped at a shopping center and dad and I ran into Dip'N'Dots to get some ice cream.  He got chocolate while I got Candy Bar Crunch, which was chocolate and vanilla ice cream with pieces of different candy bars.  Mom and Mike ran into a $1.99 store but I thought they were in the gift shop next door so I ran in to meet them.  I didn't see them in there but I wound up spending $9.00 on a Cinderella mug with Cinderella and Prince Charming dancing in front of the castle and it says, "Dancing on Air" and a Little Mermaid key chain.  I love souvenirs!  I then met mom, dad and Mike outside, and we headed back to the house.

159 - 7 Eleven

Five minutes from the house we stopped at the 711 at the one intersection in Poinciana for mom and dad to get themselves coffee and Michael a chocolate milk.  Mike and I spent the time hanging out in the car and trying to think of the name of a Fall Out Boy song, and then we were back at the house by 9:30.  We wanted to hang out by the pool but we were all tired so we stayed in.  Our front door had a big, long, vertical window on it and it was really easy for people to see in.  We set out on a mission to find a way to cover the window at night so no one could spy on us.  Not that I think anyone was trying, but you never know.  We tried a sheet but we didn't want to put any holes in the wall by using a thumb tack to hang it, and it was too heavy to hang with scotch tape.  Then dad got the idea to take a few sheets of connected paper towels and hang them in front of the window.  It worked, and it was absolutely hysterical!

165 - Hanging Out Around the House

We all watched the Miss Universe Pageant until dad fell asleep at 10:30 and mom, Mike and I played California Rummy.  Mike won, and we decided that all of our California Rummy games would be a tournament.  Mike and I were now tied with one game each.  We were finished playing by 11:30 when mom went to bed, I changed into my pajamas and Mike took a shower.  I laid in bed and read my gossip magazine until I fell asleep at 12:00.  I was up twice during the night, but I actually got a pretty good night's sleep.  It had been a great first day at the parks.