The One With the Blue Men
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2007
1
15
24
Trip End
Aug 20, 2007
Orlando,
Florida,
United States
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Our waitress took our drink orders and we waited for her to bring them out before we went to get some food. Mom and dad got coffee while I got chocolate milk. When it finally came we went into the room next door to get our food. It wasn't the cleanest buffet we've seen but it wasn't too bad. Instead of the food being in a big buffet line it was all set up on different round tables around the room. It was a good set up that allowed you to get your food quickly without waiting on a huge line. I got a piece of French toast, a biscuit, a little croissant and some bacon. The bacon was really fatty though, and was skeeving me out. I was able to find a few burnt, crispy pieces but not many. And then when I went to put syrup on my French toast I got butter ALL over my hands thanks so someone dropping it all over the handle of the syrup bottle. Ew!
Mom, dad and I went back to the table and ate. The French toast was pretty good and the biscuit was delicious! I love biscuits! The two tiny pieces of burnt bacon were good, too. The croissant was as hard as a rock and gross, though. No biggie. When we were done eating we all went to get some more food. I got two biscuits and two more pieces of French toast. When we got back to the table we were completely surprised - our table was covered with garbage and our drinks were gone. What the hell is this?! We looked and looked for our waitress but she was no where in sight, so we went up to the girl at the front podium, plates in hand, and asked what had happened to our table. Oops, turned out they thought we had left. Why in the world would we leave all of our stuff at the table and just leave without paying? It's a buffet... did they really expect us to be at the table the entire time? UGH.
A Blue Man Group Banner
The girl eventually tracked down our waitress who moved the garbage off of the table and sat us back down. At the same table that was just covered in a mound of random garbage. Are you kidding me? We asked her to clean it off and she sent a bus boy over to do so, and we asked her for new drinks and more silverware. After sitting there for fifteen minutes our waitress never showed up with the drinks and some random guy brought us silverware that was covered in green and yellow moldy stuff. It was absolutely DISGUSTING. We'd had enough. For some reason dad left the waitress a $5 tip even though we hadn't seen her in twenty-minutes and she did absolutely nothing, and we left. As we were leaving our waitress came running up to us and asked where we were going since we hadn't paid yet. Paid? FOR WHAT?! We hadn't eaten anything, our table had been covered in garbage, our drinks were taken away before we could even drink them and after all that we had been brought filthy silverware. The manager came over and we explained to him what happened and he said that he was terribly sorry and we were on our way. What a start to the day! Moral of the story? You get what you pay for. Never again will we be going to any of the $4.99 breakfasts along 192, thank you very much.
Universal Studios
There was a Cracker Barrel right down the road so we thought about heading over there for breakfast but none of us were hungry after that whole mess. There was a 711 across the street so we just drove over there. Mom and dad got big coffees and I got a blue vanilla and wild cherry Slurpee. We drove back to the house and were back by 11:30. Then we really just hung out. I went online and surfed around on the Disboards and wrote to my friends on AOL and Facebook. Then I just read "Sex and the City" in my room and watched some TV. It was a very relaxing afternoon. After running around for over a week it was nice to just take it easy. 
Walking through CityWalk
We weren't planning on sitting around all day, though... we had a date with some blue guys. That's right - we were going to see the Blue Man Group at Universal Studios! We like to do something new on each trip - in 2005 it was Cirque Du Soleil La Nouba and the Titanic Exhibition, last year was Busch Gardens in Tampa and this year was going to be the Blue Man Group. This was one of the main things Michael was looking forward to on this trip. We see a lot of shows, both Broadway and off-Broadway, and his favorites are the interactive/experimental ones that involve lots of music, special effects and comedy. So this was right up his alley and he'd wanted to see the Blue Man Group for the longest time. Tickets to the New York show are insanely expensive though, so as soon as we found out that they were getting a permanent show at Universal Studios we knew that we had to get tickets, and we ordered them right way. They were cheap for great seats and we knew it was going to be a fun night.
CityWalk
We left at 4:45 for the 6:00 Blue Man Group show. Driving down 192 we realized that you could see the Animal Kingdom Lodge from right near the house. I thought that was really cool! I hadn't realized just how close we were to Disney. Of course at this point we still hadn't found the Sherberth Road shortcut which would have made our drive to Disney take no more than five minutes, but more on that later. It usually takes around a half-hour to get to Universal from the Disney end of 192 and this time was no different. We were pulling up to the parking gates by 5:15. The lines to get into the parking lot were SO long! They always have two gates open and it's a pain with there being so many cars. They should have more people working the lot. It took us ten-minutes to get up to the parking booth and we asked about free parking. My dad works at NBC and NBC bought Universal Studios three years ago so we get really good discounts here. We got free parking the first year but last year they cut out that benefit for NBC employees. Not cool! We told the parking attendant that we were supposed to get it anyway, and dad showed his NBC pass and we were given a parking pass right way. Thanks parking attendant girl! We pulled into the huge lot and parked in the Cat in the Hat section. It was a quick ten-minute walk through the series of parking garages and we were in CityWalk in no time.
Margaritaville
I love CityWalk! It's a big entertainment complex with restaurants, stores, clubs, a movie theater and more. The entire area is just gorgeous. There's a huge lake in the middle that's surrounded by trees, stairs to sit on, and lots of stores and carts selling cool stuff. They play the best music and there's almost always live bands playing too. It's the best! CityWalk also happens to be the home of my absolute favorite restaurant ever - Margaritaville. It's Jimmy Buffett's own restaurant and I love me some Jimmy Buffett. Could any music possibly remind you more of the summer? We ate here three times on our month-long trip in 2005 and Margaritaville and Jimmy Buffett have now become synonymous with the summer and our Orlando vacations. The only downside is that you can only make reservations ten days in advance and I always forget to call when it's so close to the trip; I'm used to calling six months in advance for Disney advanced seating reservations. So we walked over to Margaritaville and made 5:15 reservations for this coming Monday and Thursday. Good stuff.
Islands of Adventure
With that done, we walked around the lake in CityWalk to Universal Studios since the Blue Man Group theater was right next door. It was so hot and humid out. When we got to the theater we were still a little early so we waited out there with a small group of people before we were let into the theater at 5:30. We looked at the snack bar and they had some good stuff, including a huge Blue Man Group bucket of popcorn but it was all way overpriced. Mom, dad and I hadn't eaten since not having breakfast that morning but we decided not to get anything. We got our seats and when we were seated we were each given a long piece of toilet paper. Dad, Mike and I tied it onto our wrists but mom had to go all out and it wound up on her head, haha! The fact that they were giving out toilet paper to wear showed us just how much fun this show was going to be! Plus our seats were great - we were in the seventh row, center. The first five rows were the poncho rows - everyone in those rows wore ponchos and were told that they may get wet... and dirty! We were in the second row of the non-poncho section.
NBA City
Mom and I ran to the bathroom quickly and then made our way back to the seats and started talking to the older couple next to us. It turns out that they were originally from the Bronx! They had both grown up in the Bronx and then moved to Westchester in upstate New York. We have a ton of family in Westchester! After Westchester they had moved to Daytona Beach and they were spending the night at Universal Studios thanks to an anniversary gift from their daughter. They were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and were too cute! We had a good time hanging out and talking before the show started.
The largest Hard Rock Cafe in the country
The show began at 6:00 on the dot and I honestly don't even know how to describe it. It was INSANE! I've never seen such a fun and interactive show before; it was awesome! The music was the best part since it was all and nothing but rock. There really was so much participation. A couple arrived at the theater ten-minutes into the show and sirens started blaring and they shone a huge spotlight on them and put the cameras in their faces so they showed up on the huge screen behind the stage and just followed them like that all the way up to their seats. It was hysterical! There was also a part when a girl was brought up on stage and did tricks with a Twinkie with the three Blue Man Group guys, and another guy went up on stage and put on a body suit and was covered in paint. It was so funny! In the middle of the show, though, I had to go to the bathroom so bad even though I had just gone before it started. Uh oh... I didn't know what to do! I really had to go but I didn't want a spotlight and cameras following me in there! I waited until the rock concert part of the show where the Blue Man Group guys were playing all kinds of weird instruments and snuck out quickly, and made it back five-minutes later spotlight free. Phew!
Walking towards the Blue Man Group theater
And then came one of the two best parts of the show... one of the guys mashed up a banana and ate it, and then it came flying out of a hole in his costume. Well that mashed banana went spurting all over the place and didn't at all get on the people prepared in their ponchos but was ALL OVER dad! Literally all over him, and his head had been turned and it was all in his ear! Ahh!!! It was so gross but absolutely hysterical! At least it was just banana! It doesn't make sense for the banana to reach so far back into the audience when we weren't given ponchos but it was funny! The best part of the show, though, was the end. I wish I would have gotten it on tape or at least gotten some pictures. There were really awesome statues on both ends of the stage and when they spun really fast it looked like the statues were dancing. These were creepy metal statues and it was very eerie seeing them dance like that. Then they turned on the strobe lights and things got really crazy! Tons and tons and tons and tons of toilet paper started pouring out of the wall at the back of the theater and everyone started passing it over their heads to the people in front of them, until the toilet paper reached the front of the theater and was dumped on the floor. The entire last ten minutes of the show was full of the strobe lights going crazy, the scary statues dancing, and everyone being covered in TONS of toilet paper! It just kept coming; the ENTIRE audience was just covered in a sheets and sheets and sheets of toilet paper. It was the funniest, most absolutely AWESOME thing EVER. Literally ever! It was insane and amazing and so funny. None of us could stop cracking up! What a way to end a ridiculously amazing and outrageous show!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUoLh8p6Oms
Here's a video I found on Youtube! It's from the show in Amsterdam but I think all of the Blue Man Group shows end with this. I want to bring my little cousin Alison to see it because I can't even imagine how hard she would have laughed being covered in toilet paper like that. It was AMAZING!
The Blue Man Group theater
I 100% totally and completely recommend the Blue Man Group, whether it's in Orlando or any other city in the world. It was one of the most fun shows we've seen and it's as big of a phenomenon as it is for a reason. Really, go. You won't regret it! And I'm a huge fan of Arrested Development so the Blue Man Group already held a special place in my heart. Anyone who watched the show will definitely remember Tobias... haha! When the show was over the woman next to us said that she had lost one of her earrings in all the toilet paper, but luckily one of the kids working at the show found it. The theater was literally covered in mounds of toilet paper so I have no idea how he found it, but luckily he did. Then the people behind us heard us talking about New York and they wound up being from Brooklyn too. How cool!
Mom and dad with their toilet paper!
Mom and I ran into the bathroom again, and when we were done in there the three Blue Man Group guys were just coming out to take pictures with everyone. Now Michael gets excited about meeting celebrities up at SNL and Conan and at random places around the city, but he does NOT do characters. At all. And these were just some guys in a show so they were pretty much characters. As soon as they came out Mike's hand was around my arm and I was being dragged faster than the speed of light over to one of the guys! He was PSYCHED! It was absolutely hysterical because it was completely unexpected. Mike has the biggest smile on his face in the picture! The guys were all in complete character and weren't talking, but a blue dot came off of the guys hand onto Mike's shirt and it literally made the trip for him. All he kept doing was telling us to look at the blue dot on his back and screaming that he should be in the show now! What a nerd, haha!
Mike and I waiting for the show to start
The show was over at 7:45 and we were making our way out of CityWalk by 8:00. It had been such a great show and just a really good time. Go see it! We took a few pictures on the way out and then made our way back to the car. Back in the car, our next order of business was to head over to Pointe Orlando. Yes, after complaining about it earlier in the trip we were now going back. Why, you may ask? Because after spending $40 on four Japanese Cherry Blossom creams and a small bottle of perfume, I had come to realize that I was completely allergic to it. I'm allergic to everything but I usually wear Calvin Klein Euphoria and Burberry Touch perfume, and use the Bath and Body Works Tropical Passionfruit, Pink Grapefruit, Warm Vanilla Sugar and Exotic Coconut creams and none of these bother me. I had forgotten just how much other scents bother me and after spending so much money on this stuff I didn't want to just forget about it. Since we were already on that end of Orlando it wasn't a big deal.
Mike and I with a member of the Blue Man Grou
So we drove over to International Drive and it was packed. Between Universal Studios, Wet and Wild and all of the other attractions, restaurants and stores in the area, it was absolutely mobbed. We literally sat on the street for twenty minutes without moving. I thought dad was gonna have a conniption! We spent the time listening to the radio and taking in some of the sites, including a cute Pirate and Princess Party billboard! After a few more minutes of not moving dad pulled off of International Drive and used Maggie to reroute us through some back roads and we ended up at Pointe Orlando in no time. I told dad to just pull up on the corner and I'd run in since it was pointless to pay for parking when I'd be in there for no more than five minutes, but he insisted on parking so he did and we all went in.
A Blue Man Group banner
We ran into the empty Bath and Body Works and I exchanged my creams and perfume for five Temptations Frosting Forever creams. They smelled good at the time, but when I got home and started using them they smelled SO bad. Like plastic sweetness... it's hard explain but it was so bad that it actually gave me a headache and still bothered my allergies. UGH! A few weeks ago Bath and Body Works had a huge sale where my favorite summer scents were on sale for only $5 each or five for $20, and when I explained to them what had happened with the stuff I bought they said it was no problem. So I exchanged them yet again and wound up getting ten Tropical Passionfruit and Pink Grapefruit creams for the same amount of money! Sweet deal!
Me in front ot Universal Studos
Done with that, we realized just how hungry we all were. Mom, dad and I hadn't eaten all day and Mike had just had cereal this morning. We had been planning on trying Bahama Breeze but there was a Johnny Rockets in Pointe Orlando so we just headed over there. We've seen them at some malls on Long Island but had never eaten at one. We walked in and it was pretty gross in there. It was dirty and smelled sour... like ketchup or something. We were seated at a dirty, gross booth and decided to leave before we got even further into a bad situation, hopped back in the car and headed over to the Bahama Breeze on International Drive. We again took the backroads and got there really fast. I'd wanted to try Bahama Breeze for the longest time; I LOVE anything tropical and Bahama Breeze sounded like such a fun atmosphere. Plus seafood's my favorite so I really wanted to try this place out. In the past two years we just never got around to it so now was the time. We pulled into the parking lot and things weren't looking good... the place was PACKED. P-A-C-K-E-D. Insanely crowded. We went in through the bar and I loved it already. Everyone was out there sipping on tropical drinks with little umbrellas while a guy played the steel drums. This was my kind of place! I kept my fingers crossed that the wait wouldn't be too long as we made our way up to the podium and were told that there would be a... 60 to 90 minute wait. WHAT?! It was already 9:00 by now and there was no way we wanted to just sit around and wait another hour and a half to eat, especially after not having eaten all day. I was so bummed out, though! The food looked delicious and the atmosphere just couldn't be beat. Maybe next time.
Leaving CityWalk
Back in the car we went and we decided to just go to the Denny's down the road from the house. It took us twenty-minutes to get back to that end of 192 and we parked and headed on inside at 9:30. It was empty except for two or three tables but it was clean and smelled good. We were seated at a table right away and our waitress came over to get our drink order. Her name was Jiao and her nametag said she was from China. She was without a doubt one of the nicest and most attentive waitresses we had on the entire trip. She was so friendly and sweet and knew exactly what she was doing. She was the best! Mom, dad and I knew that we wanted breakfast so I got chocolate milk while they both got coffee, and Mike got a Sprite. Then we were given bread and butter to eat while we looked through the menu. This was the best bread and butter ever! The butter was so sweet, light and fluffy that it was like whipped cream, and the bread was hot and fresh. Delicious! Who would have thought the bread at a Denny's would be so good?!
Dad on a people mover in the parkign garage
We ordered our food soon after and then just talked and looked around the restaurant. It was very, very clean. There was a woman sweeping up some paper on the floor in the corner of the restaurant but aside from that it was spotless. It was definitely one of the best Denny's we've been to! Our food came out quickly and Jiao really was the best. We always order breakfast combos at places like Denny's that come with a lot of different sides, and something ALWAYS ends up forgotten. Not this time. Everything we wanted was out hot, fresh and exactly as we had ordered it. I got the pancakes platter which came with well-done, burnt bacon, sausage, ham, hash-browns, scrambled eggs and a biscuit. Dad got a different pancake platter with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and hash-browns. Mom got an onion and mushroom omelet with an English muffin, and Mike got a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich with fries. The food was so good! Really ridiculously good! It may have had to do with the fact that we were all so hungry but it was definitely great. DEEEE-LISH. And it was cheap, too. The bill came to only $40 before leaving Jiao a great tip. It was well worth it!We were back at the house by 10:30 and mom and dad walked Oreo before dad went right to sleep. Mom, Mike and I just hung out and relaxed. None of us felt like playing cards tonight. I eventually took a shower, read "Sex and the City" in my room and was asleep by 2:00.
That wasn't the end of the fun, though. I woke up at around 3:30 and everyone was asleep. Before I go to sleep, whether it's at the beginning of the night or after having woken up in the middle of it, I ALWAYS have to look out the window. I'm ridiculously paranoid and I just have to make sure that nothing weird is going on out there. So I looked out the window over my bed and there was the weirdest animal I've ever seen just walking through the street. It looked like the freakin' abominable snowman, I'm telling you! It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was huge and had the body of a really big cat with a long ratty tail (like the tail of a possum but longer), a big snout and fangs. I'm telling you that thing had fangs! And I know it wasn't just a possum because we have them around here and they look nothing like what I saw. I wish I would have taken a picture or video, but I was too freaked out. I watched it until it eventually disappeared into the woods and then made sure my window was locked before drifting back to sleep.
