Animal Kingdom

Yesterday morning I picked my mom, sister, and niece at the Grand Floridian and took them to Animal Kingdom for early entry. We met some of my brother’s family and headed to Pandora to ride Flight of Passage and the Navi River ride. From there we went to Africa for the Safari Ride and the Gorilla trail.

I waited with my mom while the rest went to ride Expedition Everest, then we took the Wildlife Express back to Conservation Station, where recently they had removed Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the Animation Academy, and the petting zoo to add a Bluey meet and greet and a kangaroo and wallaby habitat. 

Susan and the kids joined us for lunch at Tusker House, a character buffet. We saw Mickey and friends in safari outfits, and the food was pretty good. Luckily we got a cast discount to help with the cost. Following lunch Susan and the kids said goodbye and my mom, sister, and niece watched the Lion King show. We then watched the bird show, went on the raft ride, and walked the Tiger trail. 

We watched the Nemo show, and I grabbed some photos of the Tropical Americas progress before we watched the Zootopia movie in the Tree of Life. At that point my brother's family said goodbye and my mom, sister, niece, and I went to the Nomad Lounge for a drink to finish the day.They flew back to California this morning.

Grand Floridian

 

While Susan and I were visiting Kennedy Space Center, the kids hung out at the beach and hotel pool. Bryan and I drove back home Sunday evening; Susan and Jenn stayed another night and came home Monday morning.

Monday evening after work I met Susan at Magic Kingdom so we could get some of my brother’s family in to watch the fireworks and night parade. Like usual, Disney had put up Halloween decorations in early August and started holding Mickey’s Not So Scary parties. Last week they erected a big crane in Frontierland to work on the new Cars attraction. 

They’ve also been working on expanding the area where we park launches when not in use the last month, making it safer to tie them up. This had led to some disruptions in our boat service, although it’s been pretty well worked out the last few weeks. 

From Magic Kingdom we took the boat to the Grand Floridian, where my mom, sister, and niece were staying. We had dinner with them at the quick serve restaurant, Gasparilla Island, which we had not been to before. Their room looked over the main pool. 

Yesterday morning Susan got my sister and niece into Epcot, and in the afternoon brought my mom out to ride my boat. After work we had dinner and drinks at the pool bar.

Kennedy Space Center

 

Yesterday Susan and I visited Kennedy Space Center for the first time in almost 25 years. My mom and some of the family of my sister and brother went as well. I wanted to get there at opening but we ended up waiting for others, so it was almost 10 am before we got in the gates.

We made the mistake of checking out the Heroes & Legends exhibit first, which was interesting but took a while, so by the time we got to the bus tour line it was 10:45 and the line to get on the bus was two hours long. We decided to check out an IMAX movie instead. I think the IMAX movies used to be an additional charge, but now they are included with admission. They play several different ones throughout the day. 

After the IMAX movie we grabbed some lunch then checked out the exhibit on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Like most of the presentations, guests move through several rooms with media displays about the subject, then into a large room with the main attraction and several minor displays. In this case it was the shuttle Atlantis suspended in the room. 

Several of my relatives left at that point, and Susan and I got in line for the bus tour. The wait was about an hour at that point, and by the time we boarded it was after 2, so we only got a partial tour. Our bus drove out past the huge Vehicle Assembly Building to the building holding an exhibit on the Apollo program and a Saturn rocket. 

The presentation here was much more impressive here than the one we saw in Houston a few years ago. By the time we got back to the main complex, it was after 4, so even though we hadn’t seen everything, we started back to the hotel. Next time we will make sure we enter before opening, and do the bus tour first.

Cocoa Beach

This week the snack and dining coupons Susan and I get from Disney expired, so Monday after work we went to Disney Springs to use some up. We ate at D-Luxe Burger, the only restaurant at Springs that takes the holiday coupons, then walked around a bit. On our way out we stopped at a kiosk to use our snack coupons on a bunch of ice cream sandwiches to eat later. 

Thursday night we went to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Citricos. We ate here a few years ago with Bryan, but it had been remodeled along with the rest of the Grand Floridian lobby last year, and the menu changed. It was good, but we wouldn’t have wanted to pay full price. 

Friday morning we returned to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We had never eaten here, although Jennifer has with friends. It’s a character buffet, so pretty pricey if not using a coupon or if you don’t care about seeing characters. Cinderella, Aladdin, Tiana, and Mirabel from Encanto came by while we were eating.

Yesterday morning we drove out with the kids to Cocoa Beach for my mom’s 90th birthday celebration. My brother and sister and their families were there as well. We ate lunch at a restaurant at the pier, then hung out in the afternoon. 

We stayed at the La Quinta next to the pier. It was okay. We had mom’s birthday dinner at a restaurant downtown.

Aquatica

Yesterday, while Jennifer and Susan signed and sold books at the book convention, I spent a few hours at Sea World’s water park, Aquatica. Admission for it is included with our Sea World annual passes, and they gave me a $10 credit I used to buy lunch. There were several places to eat, but some were closed due to the low crowds. 

It’s a fairly nice park, but not as cool as the Disney water parks. It has several towers with slides coming off them, plus the usual kids splash area and wave pools. There is a small lazy river, although it was closed, as were a few of the slides. It also has a faster than usual lazy river which was a little different. 

A unique feature of the park is a dolphin habitat. A couple of slides run through the tank.

Yesterday evening, Bryan and I went to dinner at Boatwright’s at the Riverside Resort. Susan and Jenn went to Disney Springs and had dinner at T-Rex Cafe with friends from the book convention. 

Today they returned to the Hilton for another day of signing and selling books. I went by after work this evening to help them load up.

Book Events

This morning I helped Jennifer and Susan set up for a book convention at the Hilton next to Disney Springs.

Some of Jennifer’s friends came in early to enjoy some park time. On Wednesday Jennifer went to Epic Universe with them. They checked out the Dark Universe area and rode Mario Carts and ate at Pizza Moon in Celestial Park. 

Yesterday morning Susan and I got her friends into Hollywood Studios. The Animation Courtyard is now open, although the attractions aren’t opening until next week. We had breakfast at Hollywood & Vine, a character buffet where Mickey and friends were appearing in Halloween outfits.

Echo Lake was drained while the Dockside Diner is refurbished. After breakfast the girls went to Galaxy’s Edge to build lightsabers.

Last night Jennifer drove to St Petersburg to do an event at a local bookstore with another author.

Norfolk

 

We had gone to Norfolk so Jennifer could do some book signings, and on Friday morning we checked out of the Delta Hotel and Jennifer and Susan drove to a local bookstore so she could do one with another author.

In the afternoon they checked into the Hilton in downtown Norfolk. Their room had a view of the Elizabeth River. Friday evening they set up for a book convention at the hotel.

In the meantime I was trying to get home. My flight from Norfolk to Atlanta was fine, but then a storm over northern Florida caused a four and a half hour weather delay before my plane left for Orlando. 

On Saturday Jennifer and Susan signed and sold books, then started back to Florida that night. They stayed overnight in Fayetteville, then finished the drive home yesterday. They stopped at a few Buc-ee's on the way.

Last night Bryan went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal with a friend.As he’s done before, he bought a pass so he can go several times.

Busch Gardens Part 2

We continued on into Germany, the largest area. The Darkcastle dark ride had been replaced by a coaster, but it was closed. The kid area, Land of Dragons, was still there. Jenn and I rode Alpengeist, which we weren’t able to ride when we visited in 2005; it’s a suspended coaster that’s fast and tall and has lots of inversions. 

We ate a late lunch/early dinner in the Festhaus, then Jenn and I rode Big Bad Wolf: The Revenge, which replaced the old Big Bad Wolf coaster. Like Alpengeist it’s suspended, but more of a family coaster. Once the trees around it grow in it should be pretty nice. 

Finally we rode the new Verboten coaster, which is themed as a drive through the Black Forest; the theming is pretty good for a Busch Gardens coaster. Part of it goes through a show building. and it’s surprisingly intense.

We then walked through Italy, the second largest area. Jenn and I debated riding Apollo’s Chariot, but we were pretty coastered out by then. There were also two new coasters in Italy, but they both looked like they would make us sick. I rode the shoot the chute ride, Escape from Pompeii, but nobody wanted to do the raft ride.

By then we were pretty tired from being in the heat, so we skipped the new small Sesame Street area and made our way through Scotland and England and drove back to Norfolk.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

In Norfolk, we stayed at the Delta Hotel by the airport. It didn’t have a lounge, but did have a pantry where we could grab snacks all day. We considered doing something yesterday afternoon, but traffic was pretty bad, so we ate at the hotel restaurant and watched reruns. While Susan and I were driving to Norfolk, Jenn flew to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a signing at a local bookstore. 

This morning she flew to Norfolk, and we picked her up and spent the afternoon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The park was closing at 5, so we only had about 4 hours to enjoy it, but crowds were very light and we didn’t have to wait for anything. Our Sea World passes gave us free admission. 

We walked through the entrance area of England, then turned right and went through Ireland and France, stopping to look in some shops and at some animal habitats. Because it was off-season, most shows weren’t going, and several rides weren’t running. The last time we had been to BGW was in 2005, so some of the rides and shows had changed since then. Mostly to add coasters of course. In France for example, the car ride had been removed for a dive coaster similar to SheiKra in Tampa.

In the New France area, the only area not based on a country in Europe, Jenn and I rode a new wooden coaster called Invadr, then all three of us rode the log ride. I wanted to ride the skyway or the train, but Jenn said it was too hot for those.

North Carolina

This morning, Susan and I visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. We spent about an hour there. We could have spent more time in the visitor center, but we had learned a lot about the Wright Brothers when we went to Dayton Ohio two years ago. 

After looking around the visitor center, we walked out to the field where they flew their plane, then up to the monument on Kill Devil Hill where they launched their gliders. We then drove to Norfolk Virginia, where we stayed the night. 

Yesterday we drove from Fayetteville, North Carolina to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. After entering the park on the north end at Nag’s Head, we drove about an hour down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The lighthouse is currently being restored. We looked around the visitor center and watched a movie about how they moved the lighthouse back in 1999. 

We then headed back north, checking out the small towns along the way. For the most part, they weren't cute and were a little run down in spots. The road isn't very scenic because in most spots the view is of either bushes or sand dunes. We stopped at the Bodie Island lighthouse but the visitor center there was closed. We stayed the night in Kitty Hawk. 

We left home Monday morning, and stopped at a couple of Buc-ee’s on our way north, and in Charleston, South Carolina for lunch.  I wanted to stop at the South of The Border area for dinner, or at least to look in one or two shops, but Susan wasn’t interested, so we continued on to Fayetteville.

Sea World

Susan, Jenn, and I have been discussing getting new passes to Sea World for a couple months, and this week went ahead. Wednesday morning we spent a few hours in the park so we could pick up physical cards and the passholder’s perks for August. It’s been almost three years since we’ve had Sea World passes.

We walked around a bit and looked in some shops, then stopped and rode Exhibition Odyssey, which took the place of the old Wild Arctic simulator ride last year. It’s a pretty good ride, a lot like Disney’s Soaring, but smaller and a little faster, but not quite as well done. 

Adjacent to Wild Arctic is where Sea World’s next ride is being constructed. From what I’ve seen so far, it appears to be a simulated dark ride through the ocean.

The other thing Sea World’s added recently was Penguin Trek, a family roller coaster that replaced the Penguin trackless dark ride. It’s a fun coaster and uses parts of the old ride’s queue, so it’s decently themed for Sea World. Like the old ride and similar to Expedition Odyssey, the exit is into the penguin habitat. We grabbed some lunch at the cafe across from the ride, then headed out.

On Thursday, Jennifer released her sixteenth book. On Friday she and a friend drove up to Atlanta to do a book signing at an independent bookstore. Yesterday and today she and Susan sold her books at a market at Dezerland.