Babieemelly's travel blogs:
- Orlando, Florida: Three Weeks of a Million... 2007
- New York City: "There's no need to... 2007
- Rocky Point, New York: Beaches, Ports and... 2006
- Orlando, Florida: The Three-Week Disney Resort Report 2006
- Rocky Point, New York: A Weekend Threatened... 2006
- New York, New York: Life in the... 2005
- Orlando, Florida: A Month-Long Dream Come True 2005
- Rocky Point, New York: A Snowy Weekend... 2005
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania: A Return to a Childhood... 2004
- Rocky Point, New York: Midnight Beach Parties... 2004
- Long Beach Island, New Jersey: A Weekend... 2002
- Rocky Point, New York: Restoring My Love... 2001
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Day 21: Wrapping Things Up at the Theme Parks
Entry 25 of 29 | show all | print this entry |
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Today I woke up at 9:30 in the morning and went into the kitchen to have breakfast. Mom and dad were sitting out by the pool so I had cereal for breakfast and then watched some TV in the living room. At 10:30 I took a shower and got ready and then it was time to begin the dreaded task that I absolutely hate. It was time to pack. It's bad enough packing to go on a trip, but its pure hell packing when it's time to leave! I could have waited until the next day to pack but I wanted to be able to relax and take it easy on our last day in Orlando without having to worry about packing. As I packed I watched the "101 Biggest Fashion Mishaps" on E. It was even worse packing than I had imagined. My stuff was strewn all over the house and I had to go find it all. It was also a pain trying to determine what I would need for the next two days and what could be packed. Plus I had to fit all of my souvenirs in my bag since there was no way they were going to fit in the trunk. I eventually got everything packed away and then I sat in my room and watched TV for a while.
At 4:20 we left for Universal Studios. Mike was again dizzy and not feeling great so we had plans to just eat and take it easy. We were in the Universal Studios parking garage by 4:40 and were walking towards Mytho's in Islands of Adventure by 4:45. For some reason my legs were KILLING me! My legs hadn't bothered me the whole time we were in Orlando but now my calves were burning from the walk from the parking lot to Islands of Adventure. Oh well, we made it to Mytho's at last and checked in. We didn't have a priority seating but we didn't think that it would be a big deal since the place is always empty. This time was different, though, since the restaurant was packed! We had a ten-minute wait in the Mytho's lobby which we didn't mind since at least it was air-conditioned. As we were waiting to be called a very snooty British woman sauntered in, went up to the counter, slipped the waitress a $10 bill and said, "We're very hungry." Are you kidding me?! The girl at the podium gave the woman her money back and told her that she would have to wait to be seated. I couldn't stop laughing, what an idiot that woman was!
Ten minutes later our name was called and we were brought to a booth at the back of the restaurant. The booth consisted of one really long booth with tables and chairs in front of it. There was no one else seated at the booth when we got there but a few minutes later a father and his two daughters arrived and were seated right on top of us. UGH. We ordered our food and it arrived quickly, although the service this time wasn't as great as it's been in the past. We chalked it up to the restaurant being more crowded than it had ever been and we didn't worry about it. Mom and I again got the Grilled Chicken Club with applewood bacon, cheddar cheese and ranch dressing, and we shared it along with the Risotto of the Day which was rice with shrimp, scallops and vegetables in a wine sauce. Both of our dishes were delicious! The wine sauce on the Risotto was amazing! Dad got a barbecue steak sandwich and Mike again got the Pastabilities special which was a piece of grilled chicken on a bed of pasta with parmesan sauce. We all liked our food but the crowds in the restaurant put a damper on the experience. All of us left a little annoyed but we'll definitely be back. We've had nothing but good experiences at Mytho's except for this one time and even this time the food was still good. Before leaving mom and I ran into the bathroom. She always asks me to check to make sure she doesn't have lipstick on her teeth so she blacked out on of her teeth with lipstick and then asked me. It was hysterical!
After leaving Mytho's we decided to head out of the park. We made our way through the Lost Continent and then Toon Lagoon, not stopping to do anything on the way. Mike wasn't feeling great so we wanted to take it easy. We left Island's of Adventure and made our way around the back of the waterfront to Universal Studios. We past the Hard Rock Café on the way and there was some sort of press event going on in front of it. There were lots of people standing around watching and there were tons of television cameras. There were also a few people dressed like cyborgs up on a stage so we had no idea what was going on! When we got to the front of Universal Studios Zorro and Elena were just coming out to take pictures. There was only one family ahead of us so I got online and had my picture in no time. Zorro and Elena were really into their roles because they were speaking to everyone in Spanish. It was pretty cool.
When we entered Universal Studios we went into the main store for dad to look for a keychain. He wanted one with a regular keychain and then a clip so that he could keep his house and car keys on the keychain and his work keys on the clip so that he could take them off when he wasn't at work. After looking and looking and looking, and picking out several designs, he decided that he didn't like any of them and he put them all back. Our only plans at Universal Studios were for me to get an ET shirt at the ET Adventure gift shop. We made our way through Hollywood and over to Kidzone where we went into the ET store. The entire store was PACKED. As the ride ends guests are dumped out into the gift shop and the gift shop is really, really small. There was a man in a wheelchair trying to get from the exit of the ride out of the store but people were standing around and shopping and he couldn't get through. The layout in there is pretty crappy. I eventually picked out my $20 t-shirt and it came to only $11, including tax, with dad's discount.
On our way back to Hollywood dad was sure that you could take a shortcut through the Garden of Allah Villas, but mom and Mike didn't think so. So dad and I took the shortcut while mom and Mike made their way around Kidzone and we would up beating them. It was only by a few seconds but we pretended that we had been waiting there forever! It was really funny. We were right by the Horror Makeup Show and we decided to see it, so we asked the guy standing by the entrance when the next show started, but he said that all of the shows were done for the day. Oh well.
On our way out of Universal Studios we stopped in the Terminator store to see if they had any Universal monster souvenirs. Grandpa, dad's father, LOVES the Universal classic monsters and we wanted to get him a good souvenir but they didn't have anything. Universal originated the whole horror genre so how could they have so little dedicated to the movies? Ahhh. Dad did wind up finding a keychain he liked though. What was funny was that it was one of the exact key chains that he had picked out in the main Universal store when we first entered the park. I found some nice Universal postcards that I wanted to keep with the photo album I was putting together for this trip and dad bought them for me. While he was online I went next door to the exit of the Horror Makeup show (the exit was attached to the Terminator store) and took pictures of all of the posters and memorabilia from some of Universal's most infamous horror films. We then bid a fond farewell to Universal Studios and made our way out of the park for our last time this trip. It was really sad! We slowly made our way through CityWalk, taking it all in one last time. I would miss this place! We were at the car by 7:00 and we made our way off of Universal property. As we did so the sun was setting in brilliant shades of pink and orange; it was gorgeous! I tried to get a picture but it just wouldn't work out. I got a little bit of video but it really didn't do the reality of the scene justice.
We were all kind of hungry by then and a few days ago mom had gotten a really good Cinnabon pretzel at the Target food court. We decided to all get one so we headed over to Target. They only had one pretzel left, though, so they would only be able to make one specialty pretzel. We didn't want an old, leftover pretzel so we headed out. We considered driving over to Dunkin Donuts since mom was craving something with cinnamon but we decided against it and we were back at the house by 8:00. Back at the house we watched "America's Got Talent" and as we watched it I went online to amazon.com and saw about ordering mom a collection of Bug Bunny cartoons. While in Orlando we passed a TON of mob-looking cars and every time we did so mom would say, "What about me boss? What about me boss?" in all different voices like Bugs Bunny does when he deals with a mobster in one of the cartoons. She wanted to get that cartoon so I ordered her a collection of Looney Tunes cartoons and I also got myself the Tristan and Isolde book that I had been wanting forever.
At 9:00 mom, Mike and I played two games of California Rummy, the first of which I won and the second mom won. We then all went to bed. Well, I tried to get to bed but I just couldn't fall asleep. I watched MTV shows all night including "Next", "My Own", and the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge." I was finally able to fall asleep at 3:30 in the morning.
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