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

Day 12 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Today was going to be a great day, even though I was still under the weather, there was no way I was going to miss some of the best attractions on the property - located at the fantastic Disney's Hollywood Studios.

We arrived early, got a fast pass for the Rockin Roller Coaster, the Aerosmith rollercoaster, and made our way to the Tower of Terror.

The Tower of Terror is a ride that would make Anthony Glynn literally shit himself if he ever were to ride it. You get sat in an elevator, transported through the Twighlight Zone, and then shoot up and forced down then up then do...well you get the picture. This was an AMAZING ride,  no gravity force in this thing, you literally get shoved up, then swiftly shot down. The camera bag was between my legs and it was at eye level on the first downward pass, I quickly pushed it to the floor hoping that I hadn't smashed this new superdooper camera in the process, but really to overwhelmed with the ride to care.

Tanya said that it was way better than the sister ride in California, high praise indeed.

The spookiest photo taken on this trip...Ooooohhh

 We then took our turn on the Rockin Rollercoaster. I was looking forward to this one because neither of us new what to expect, flying coaster? Stand up coaster? Who knew? Not we, not we.

We moved into the recording studio and was given the rundown, we had to get to the gig quick!

Upon entering the ride chamber we saw the coaster in it's first position, awaiting the go at the entrance to a long dark tunnel. Stevie Tyler counts down and ZOOM, the coaster was gone! I don't know how fast, but it was bloody quick. This was going to be an incredible ride.

We were moved to the frontiest front there is... the front, something that Tanya was a bit nervous about, but something I new would be AWESOME! And it was. WHEEEEEEEE away we went into a hairpin and corkscrew IN THE DARK! WHOOOOOOO. Although I new that Tanya would get off the ride and give me the old "Veruca Salt" - "Matty I do not want a boat like this!", I thought it was terrific and wanted to go again.

We moved through the rest of the park, taking in the sights and sounds, me feeling slightly sicker at each turn, but pushing through. The Star Tours ride was great, getting caught in Darth Vaders force grip was a terrific feeling in the motion simulator - Tanya rode with her eyes closed.

Unfortunately this was the best photo I could get of both C3P0 and R2D2

Matt in front of the New York backdrop - pretty cool right?

 Then we did the studio backlot tour - and that was fantastic too!

NO NUKES NO NUKES

Herbie is just sitting out the back catching some rays.

I lifted this out a swamp with the power of my mind.

The moment before matt was tackled by the army men for calling them losers.

Day 11 - The second day of Magic Kingdom.

Today we went back to the Magic Kingdom to see the three other lands that we had not gotten to yesterday. Unfortunately it was also the first day that I really was starting to feel out of it, some kid must have sneezed on me somewhere, and combined with the humidity, my penchant for fabulous nosebleeds, and the fact that we were exhausted, I knew that I would need to take today a bit calmer than most. 

We started in Tomorrowland and the mighty ride, "Space Mountain". Tanya informed me that I would love this ride, and she was right! It was a terrific dark ride (inside rollercoaster). It was fast and had some mighty strong G-force turns, everything that a good rollercoaster needs - except an upside down bit - but I could make do without.

We had a multimedia adventure with Stitch, but the highlight of Tomorrowland was "Astroblasters", a laser shooting adventure against Zurg - Sworn enemy of the Galactic alliance - it was terrific, an amazing "interesting thing", to coin a phrase from my youth. Tanya was unable to figure out which laser was hers so she didn't manage to shoot much, but we had a great time nonetheless. 

Across the park to Frontier Land and a ride on Splash Mountain, which we had fast passed so it was only a 10 minute wait in line.

Frontier Land was great too - the Hall of Presidents was cool too, some very robotic/lifelike robots of each and every president on the USA. Kennedy looked a little sour for some reason, not the happy-go-lucky president I always pictured, but I guess that being made of wax and being forced to perform the same "nod" every 30 minutes and nothing else would put a dour expression on anyone.

I was starting to feel a little under it by now, I also realised that I hadn't had anything "Decent" to eat since my Aussie steak on Monday night, so my guts were full of deep fried gunk - probably not helping my plight - so I purcahsed an orange and we took a casual cruise on the Riverboat around Tom Sawyers island

Matt eating his Orange on the Riverboat 

The Haunted Mansion - another attraction that was in recovery mode, closed for the time of our visit. Pooh.

 We then headed towards Pirates of the Caribbean, the ride that inspired a movie, which inspired three more, which in turn re-inspired the ride. A lazy river cruise was terrific, nice and cool and filled with Pirates! YAhhgrhhh. I purchased my share of merchandise and we made our way to the Tiki Room.

In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki Room. I was really feeling the effects of my illness and god bless her, Tanya allowed us to return home to the hotel for a night in. It was 4pm when we left.

Lining up for the Pirates ride

The Castle on the beautiful afternoon which Matt had to be sick during.... 

The happy lady and the sick bugger, note the merchandise bag in his hand, this bag was number 17 of 26 that would be collected during our time in Disney.

Day 10 - The beginning of our Magic Journey in the Magic Kingdom

Today - Wednesday - was the end of our stay at the Grand Floridian. Unfortunately this hotel was an extravagance that we could not afford to keep up, but we were glad to have had the experience.

We did not know how today would go, we knew we had to be out by 11, and could not check in at the Holiday Inn near downtown Disney until 3pm, but we checked out and moved to our new venue at about 11am anyway in the hope that we would figure it out when we got there.

The drive from the Floridian was quite a long one, a $25 cab ride, probably 15 miles, to the Holiday Inn. We were told our room was not ready yet but they could hold our baggage until the evening if we wanted to do some sight seeing. We checked out bags, grabbed our Laundry bags to do some laundry and made our way to the laundry room, we discovered that we needed a butt-load quarters, between the two of us we only had a fanny-load so we went to the front desk to ask for some change. The lady at the front desk had changed - well thats probably not true, it was probably just a different lady - and she noticed my Disney badge "Happily Ever After" which they give to Honeymooners, said she was a sucker for weddings, offered us an upgrade to a room with a view that was ready at that point in time - which I gladly accepted and away we went to our room, with our butt-load of quarters. We did our laundry and moved to the cafe to have some lunch - it was pretty average.

After the laundry was done we decided to head to the Magic Kingdom and do Main Street USA and some of our shopping, might even catch the fireworks too!

I'll let the pictures do the talking from here. These are out of order for some reason, my apologies.

Tanya was feeling silly in the line for "It's a small world"

Tanya will not be crowned King of England

Matt will be crowned "King of the Idiots"

We rode on Cindarella's Carousel

Tanya picked the Clydesdale and couldn't get down 

I thought this was funny - this is in Mickey's Philharmagic, a 3D journey through the music of Disney - a terrific attraction

Terrific topiary

Overcast day, doesn't dim our happiness. Tanya in front of the mighty Cinderella  Castle

Matt in front of the Castle

Mickey, in the Parade, passes in front of the Castle

Matt prepares to steel the baby in that pram.

The gorgeous girl in front of "Partners" and the Castle

Matt wanted to get this rice crispie, then decided against it - his stomach thanked him later

Following the parade down Main Street USA

Aren't we the Hoi Poloi? 

"Everybody do the Michigan Rag!"

The Happy Couples

The Mouse family in the Parade

All Aboard the Walt Disney Express

At the beginning of our day, in front of the Train Station

One of many photos of the castle. It is truly amazing, huge, but beautiful.

This was taken in the afternoon, Tanya teared up a little. The crane in the background is  building the new additions to Fantasy Land - Snow White's House, Beasts Castle... should be good - we'll never get to see it complete, but it was great to see things being built around Disney.

There were a lot of additions being built and changes being made and repairs going on. Disney World certainly is in a state of perpetual growth.

This was to be the only Jiminy that we would see at Disney. He does not do signings or photos - a fact that upset Tanya greatly.

This guy was ok, he couldn't do the voice as well as me though...

At dusk, looking from the Castle, down Main Street.

Captain Hook on his Electric Ship

Mickey leads the parade.

The Mighty Bald Eagle brings up the rear - how very American

As usual, the fireworks are spectacular.