Weekend in Orlando
I'm hiding on my computer to avoid the packing dervishes that are whirling around my house right now. Man, these people are efficient! I just hope they don't accidentally pack the twins. I thought a good way to distract myself would be to write an update about our long weekend in Orlando.
After surprising the boys at summer camp on Friday, we drove directly to the airport and caught a flight to Florida. We arrived at our resort, Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort, in the early evening, and after checking in we had a quick dinner and explored our surroundings. The hotel was themed for a 60's retro vibe - picture 'The Jetsons' and you've pretty much got it! The boys absolutely LOVED it... the vibrant colours, the hustle and bustle, the noise, the feral kids running around. In Aaron's words: "Orlando is like my paradise". As you can imagine, from Clem's perspective, it was about as far as you can get from paradise as humanly possible!
We had a lazy start on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day poolside or enjoying the lazy river. It's so much nicer vacationing as a family now that the boys are a little older and can swim independently; consequently, Clem and I were able to relax with a few beers while the boys played.
Next we blazed our way through Toon Lagoon, Marvel Super Hero Island, Seuss Landing, and the Lost Continent. Our visit would not have been the same if we hadn't splurged on the Express Passes that allowed us to bypass much of the queuing in the park. The other thing that helped enormously, was the Child Swap areas in each ride - it's not what you'd first think, although there were moments I would have liked to have swapped our kids - it is a waiting area at the front of the ride line where parents can wait with younger siblings and swap out to take a turn. After their initial shock on the first ride, the twins appreciated this very much. Clem or I would take Sam on the rides and then report back on whether we thought they would like it. There were luckily only a few they opted out of! Exhausted we headed back for an early night.
In all honesty, I was really rather dreading this vacation. I'm not really a fan of crowds, queuing, or of other people's bratty children. I'm also rather stressed at the moment (what with the move and everything!), so the idea of an exhausting few days in a theme park in Florida's blazing heat and humidity was not all that appealing. That being said, I can honestly say it was an amazing few days. Yes, it was hot, busy, crowded, and full of annoying, bratty kids (including my own). But seeing the look of wonder and awe on Aaron's face as we rode bicycles across a starlit town with ET in a basket in front of us made all that insignificant. Having my almost grown up and too-cool-for-school Sam, for the first time in ages (and possibly the last?), seek out my hand to hold as we walked together... absolutely priceless. And hearing Ethan's response to the question, "what did you enjoy most about this trip?"... "Spending time with my family." Worth. Every. Penny.
After surprising the boys at summer camp on Friday, we drove directly to the airport and caught a flight to Florida. We arrived at our resort, Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort, in the early evening, and after checking in we had a quick dinner and explored our surroundings. The hotel was themed for a 60's retro vibe - picture 'The Jetsons' and you've pretty much got it! The boys absolutely LOVED it... the vibrant colours, the hustle and bustle, the noise, the feral kids running around. In Aaron's words: "Orlando is like my paradise". As you can imagine, from Clem's perspective, it was about as far as you can get from paradise as humanly possible!
We had a lazy start on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day poolside or enjoying the lazy river. It's so much nicer vacationing as a family now that the boys are a little older and can swim independently; consequently, Clem and I were able to relax with a few beers while the boys played.
Sunday was our first day in the Universal Theme parks. As we were staying in one of the Universal resort hotels, we had early access to the park - and it was a bloody good job we did, too! We were up at the crack of dawn and in line to enter the park gates by 7:30 am. By this point, Sam was literally bouncing on the spot like an overexcited puppy. As soon as the gates opened, we followed the crowd straight to Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We continued riding the wave of humanity, not really sure where we were going, until before we knew it we were obediently stuffing our bags into complimentary lockers and entering a dark passageway to our left. I momentarily caught sight of a warning sign with something about minimum heights and motion sickness before we were being strapped into seats with the twins asking what was going on. You have got to realize that it was very early, I had only had one coffee, and everyone else seemed to know what was going on - clearly I am a sheep! As it turns out, we were on the 'Escape from Gringotts' ride. Now, while I'm not a crazy adrenaline junky, I do enjoy a good roller coaster ride - and this was a great one - but the twins had never been on anything like this before. Aaron and Ethan were both a little side-swiped by this sudden introduction to theme park activities, and it took them a moment or two to regain their composure on exit! We then spent the next couple of hours visiting Ollivander's, riding the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmede, getting candy from Honeydukes, practicing spells with our new wands, and having lunch in the Three Broomsticks.
It took a bit of persuasion to encourage the boys to leave the Harry Potter attractions and move on to the rest of the park, but eventually we ended up in Jurassic World and on the River Adventure ride. I'm not usually one for buying the ride photos at the end, but in this case I just had to. Now, I've promised Sam and the twins that I will not share the photo we bought as they're a little embarrassed. But take a look at the picture below and imagine a row of three boys with variations of this expression on their faces. I laughed for about 10 minutes straight, and I'm still sniggering occasionally even now!
Next we blazed our way through Toon Lagoon, Marvel Super Hero Island, Seuss Landing, and the Lost Continent. Our visit would not have been the same if we hadn't splurged on the Express Passes that allowed us to bypass much of the queuing in the park. The other thing that helped enormously, was the Child Swap areas in each ride - it's not what you'd first think, although there were moments I would have liked to have swapped our kids - it is a waiting area at the front of the ride line where parents can wait with younger siblings and swap out to take a turn. After their initial shock on the first ride, the twins appreciated this very much. Clem or I would take Sam on the rides and then report back on whether we thought they would like it. There were luckily only a few they opted out of! Exhausted we headed back for an early night.
Monday began just like before, but this time we headed straight to Hogsmede (our Express passes didn't include the most popular HP rides so we hit those during our early access period.) We then spent the day in the original Universal Studios visiting classic film attractions such as ET, Shrek, Minions, the Mummy, and Men In Black. We stopped for a Duff beer at Moes' bar in the afternoon, before watching an Animal Actors show - Aaron was picked from the audience to go on stage and perform with the animals, which as you can imagine made his day! As it was our last day in the park, we wanted to stay for the fireworks finale at 9:45 pm, but with tired boys in tow, we decided to take things down a notch. We had dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe and then went to the cinema to watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The final show in the park rounded off a magical couple of days and we headed back to the hotel with tired, but very happy boys.
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