The rest of Universal and the end of our trip.

We decided to take a look around the Islands of Adventure theme park - which is where the HP world is located. There was unfortunately little there to satisfy us - I think we were ready to move on and had unconsciously already prepped ourselves for Washington, crowds and rides where becoming dull.

So we moved to the Universal side of the park - the other park in this duo of madness.

We visited the I love Lucy shop, Tanya is a big fan especially of Vitameatavegimin. We saw some interesting things, I took a ride on the Simpsons ride - which was terrific, in fact the best bit was lining up cause they were playing the best of the simpsons on screens all over the place! - and we went on the Rip Ride Rocket -  a cool coaster where you choose your own soundtrack to listen too on the ride, Tanya and I both coincidentally chose I Will Survive! We took in the Shrek 4D ride, which we realised we had been on already at Warner Brothers Movie World, but it was still fun. 

Then we went home - only about 5 hours between two parks, we were a little less than impressed, but perhaps it is not the parks fault, perhaps Mr Disney has spoiled us for "Less than perfect" parks.

We decided to take in another evening of Magic Kingdom and video the Fireworks spectacular. We were in no hurry and we knew that Disney would not disappoint so we took it all in, we looked in all the shops, viewed all the amazing decorations along Main Street USA, did a bit more shopping and then settled into a spot to watch the fireworks. We saw another Electrical Parade whilst waiting too. It was a good way to cheer us up again after the ghastly Universal studios.

The park didn't close until Midnight that night so we were able to hang around whilst the throngs left.

A Lucy impersonator gets Tanya riled up

Outside the Lucy Store

Julie Andrew's Star

Lucille Ball's Star 

I had a hotdog here, it was all covered in filth, but that's just between me and you, squashed hat.

You two girls! Tell your friends!

Tanya tapdanced over Mr Kelly

We told jokes with Carol

ONE POINT TWENTYONE GIGAWATTS?!!@!

Matt standing next to the Model Train that he purchased, Tanya was not impressed.

After the adventures of Sunday, we used Monday to go to Downtown Disney again and repack our things - we cracked open Suitcase # 3 and jammed it with our goodies. Would we get to #4 by the end of the trip?

Matt purchased some Lego, and then a bit more Lego. Then some cigars.... fanciful ones at that.

Tanya bought little bits and pieces, Matt bought things that would ultimately decide the fate of the marriage.

We repacked, got ourselves ready for the next leg of our trip.

On the Tuesday we went back to Magic kingdom so that Tanya could say goodbye. We took some videos, interviewed each other about the good times we had experienced, then made our way to the airport and on to Washington DC.

Day 14 - Universal Studios - Harry Potter and more

We got up - I was feeling ok, which was more than I had been expecting to feel - so we caught the cab to Universal Studios.

We arrived and headed straight to Harry Potter World - along with everybody else! There were a lot of people - and I say that after spending 5 days within Disney parks - there were a lot of people. We took a ride on the Dragon Flight rollercoaster, we walked up to the Castle and discovered - shock horror - a Line! Once again America does it with Lines and Cues.

The posted note on the ride entrance said the wait was 120 minutes. With some quick calculations I worked that out to be two hours of my life waiting to get to the ride. And worse, the sign was a good 45 minutes further down the line - so the line was longer than where the timed section ended. I think the sign is only legally allowed to show 120 minutes as well, as if it showed 200 minutes and someone passed out or pissed themselves, Universal would have a lawsuit on their hands. So we begrudgingly decided to skip the Caslte - something I think we both now regret, but at the time we were happy with.

I think by now we were too "Disney" to remember what real theme parks are all about - standing in line with a bunch of snotfaced little buggers and their doped out parents to get to a mediocre ride or attraction - in short, we believed that Disney would have done it better.

We moved to the food hall, which was called something HP related... the Fartsbreath Inn or something... we ordered a lunch meal and a butterbeer... which was sweet and buttery, not much beer though. The shepards pie was quite nice, which was a welcome change for Theme Park Food.

Then we tried to go HP shopping - big mistake. The shops are the size of the waiting area at most Red Roosters, small, cramped and filled with people just wanting their FREAKING CHICKEN... ok I might have gone off track with the analogy there, but you get my drift. Alavanders was a joke, so we went to the candy and whizzbang shop which was the same. So we got a chocolate frog, some bertie bots beans and hightailed it out of there. All in all we were very happy to have visited and gotten a taste of the "Theme Park that could have been so much better had it of been done by Disney" and we were glad to leave too.

Sorry HP fans - Disney kicks your butt each time.

Feeling the "Magic" as we entered into Crowd Heaven

The famous Little Engine that Could

Tanya approves of the scenery

The proportional Castle - is it huge and far away? Is it small and close? It's the second one - still, a mighty good optical illusion until a crow sits on the spire and looks like a Dragon... that kind of throws the illusion out.

Butter Beer is gooooooood

....and frothy.

More Crooked Chimneys for Dick Van Dyke to try and dance on.

 More tomorrow morning - I hope.

Getting Back to Business - The Remainder of the Florida Leg

So - Friday was Disney's Hollywood Studios. But I left out the end of the day... so here it the rest of that day.

After all the rides, we lined up for FANTASMIC - a Laser, Water, Fireworks extravaganza where Mickey battles the forces of evil. We lined up too early, with the attendant telling us "We could have people from here to the big hat and still get you all in!" (The big hat was a good 700m away). So we got out of the line and got an "ice cream" - crazy Americans!

Anyway... I had been feeling sick for a couple of days, blocked sinus and bleeding nose on top of exhaustion was not a good combo, tonight would be my bodies final push to get me to slow down.

The only photo taken - the rest was in video - I'll upload once it's edited...

We sat in an enormous amphitheatre, the sun was going down, and right on cue my nose starts bleeding - both sides - and it aint stopping, pressure, ice, tilting be dammed. Coughing offers, now i look like I had some wierd tropical disease that causes me to cough blood...great! I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to my gorgeous wife who did her best to help me, and a fair few nice Americans who offered tissues, and kind words.

Eventually it did stop, just in time for the show, but it left me feeling worse for wear and I had pre-emptively asked Tanya for a day off, and she gratefully agreed. That would be tomorrow.

The show was amazing, a wonderous display of the best of Disney, all the old Disney Villans appeared projected onto giant water jet walls, Malificent showed up in her human AND dragon forms, and to an amazing soundtrack Mickey - true to form - conquered the evil of Imagination and brought the goodness of imagination to the fore and we all lived happily ever after.

The video might do it better justice than my words, but I think it was definitely a highlight - except for the bleeding nose bit.

We had Saturday off. All Day. I slept so much and still wasn't feeling any better for it. We ordered Pizza and had it delivered - interesting experience - some of the worst Pizza I've ever had - Tanya was satisfied with her order, though not overly. Seems like our "Hoop-de-doo" days were behind us.

Tomorrow we would head to Universal... lets hope that we were up to it - there are two parks at Universal and we were going to try and do them both in one day.

Out of Order Blog Post - WTC Memorial

Today is out of order, but it needs to be posted. No photos at the moment, they will come in when we are back in the regular course of events.

Today is cold, last night it rained and today the wind is picking up and it is a cold city. We are wrapped up on this 10 Degree Celsius day but it is still a bitter cold when coupled with the wind. There are still New Yorkers walking around in Tshirts though, so it mustn't be that cold!


Today one of the things we did was visit Ground Zero, the World Trade Centre Memorial site.

It was a very sobering experience, the ground is still under repair and construction and there is a lot of noise, a lot of police and security and a lot of people all around, however it was a very special place


The memorial is simply a park at the moment. The footprints of the Twin Towers have been turned into fountains 30ft deep, they are surrounded by the names of those who lost their lives in the attacks on 9/11 and the 1993 WTC bombing, nearly 3000 names in all.

The park is bare and barren at the moment, the grass has been covered with bark chips to protect it from the cold whilst it finds it roots, the trees have no leaves excepting one tree, the survivor tree. This tree was found in the aftermath of the attack, a bare 8ft tall stump. It was planted in a NY park and recovered, but it was ripped out of the ground during a heavy storm, it was replanted immediately on the WTC site and it bloomed that spring. It has remained on site ever since.

I cannot express the sense of grief and loss that still remains, this is a deep wound on the city's face, and one that will take a long time to heal at that. We looked up at the buildings that still surround the site and tried to imagine the terror that people must have felt watching this unfold literally 30 meters away from them across the road. We sat underneath the shadow of the new 1 WTC building and looked up at it's massive 1700 feet and tried to imagine it coming down.

It felt scary and sad.

There are questions on peoples faces in the memorial, but mostly there seems to be a lingering question of "Why?".

Why do humans do these things to each other?

But amongst the loss, there is a lot of positivity. St Pauls Chapel is an amazing site, the chapel stood without a scratch and became a lifeline for the men and women who recovered the site. Amazing, awful stories would have been told within it's walls, but a deep sense of friendship and pride remains there. There are smiling police posing with children outside, even the security guards who checked our bags prior to our entry were happy.

The recovery will be a long one, but from my brief time in this city I am sure that if there ever was a city that could recover, it is New York City.

It has been an exhausting day already.

I pray for the repose of the the souls of those who perished in the attack, and I pray for God to comfort the survivors and the families of those lost.

Take care of one another.

Love Matt and Tanya