Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Orlando day 3

Last night we decided that today was going to be a relaxing day.  We would do no walking and we would stay out of the sun.  The heat just about did me in yesterday and Monday.  We slept late (very late) today and it felt wonderful.  We went and ate lunch and then came back to the hotel to rest again.  We decided to go to the movie and we saw Red.  I think there were only about six people in the theater.  We stopped and had dinner before we came back to the room.  We do plan on returning to Tallassee tomorrow if we leave early enough.

Universal Studios

This morning we got up on time and were able to have breakfast in the hotel and it was good - no frozen dinners.  We got to Universal Studios around 9:30 and it was not too hot.  Of course that did not last long.
The first show we saw was Shrek 4D.  It was fun to feel all four dimensions.  We then walked to the New York area and all the store fronts looked as if we were in New York.  Linwood tried to take my picture on the steps of a book store but the camera would not work.  It was the same place I took a picture of Rebecca when she and I went to Disney World and Universal in 1994.  This place has changed so much since then.  Linwood enjoyed several of the storefronts.


I remember TVs like this.

You can tell he likes these vacuum cleaners.



Next was the San Francisco area.  
Here we saw Disaster movie being made.  The 'director' picked 7 people out of the audience to participate in shooting different scenes.  We were then put on a subway car to film another part.  Of course this is where the earthquake happened and the flood.  It was cheesy but fun.

Fourth of July on Amity Island was next --------JAWS


I am happy to say that on the boat ride we killed the shark.  There was a lot of noise and a lot of water and a lot of Jaws coming out of the water.

In the Kidszone area we were able to help ET get home.  We rode on bikes (5 in a row) connected together.  We rode up in the air and pass the stars to help ET.  We did enjoy this ride.

Hollywood was next


 I think we enjoyed this section the best.  We was the Universal Orlando's Horror Make-up Show.  They showed how make-up artist use special effects in horror movies. 
We also spent some time in the Lucy Tribute.  They had lots of pictures and articles.  We ate at Mel's Drive In.  In the parking lot were old cars (most were from 50-60s)

The large park area was decorated with pumkins and more pumkins.
We had a wonderful time but we were so tired when we returned to the hotel.  I took a long nap and then we showered and went to the Crab House for dinner.  It was very good and of course we ate too much.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Universal Islands of Adventure

This morning started the same way yesterday did.  We had requested a 6:30 wake up call and when Linwood woke up at 7:10 we knew we were in trouble.  We needed to get dressed, call a cab, and get to the lobby by 7:50.  We made it!!!!!  The hotel has a shuttle to Universal but it comes at 8:30.  We needed to be there by 8:15, so that is why we called for a cab ($12).  Once we got to the Island we had to go to the 'will call kiosk'.  It took forever to print all our tickets and we were worried the machine was going to get them out in time.  We did get to Three Broomsticks in time for our 8:30 reservation.  The cost of our breakfast was included in our package.  We had our first taste of Butterbeer with our meal.  I am not sure I can describe the taste.  It is kinda sweet, a taste of vanilla, form on the top, and no alcohol.  Linwood liked it, but I think I would have enjoyed it better at a different meal.

From breakfast we went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.









We took a tour of the castle.  While waiting in line, we were in the 'garden'.  Some of the plants were strange looking..


We then rode the Flight of the Hippogriff.  It is a rollercoaster.  The entire time I was squeezing Linwood's arm and had my eyes closed.  We watched the Frog Choir, but they were terrible.  It was two girls and two boys singing.  Two of them were holding a large frog sitting on a pillow.  We went into the store that sold wands and robes.  Here are two pictures of Linwood in his finest garb.


We then went to the Jurassic Park section. 

We took the Jursassic River Park Adventure which is a large raft  We saw large and small dinosaurs and one of them spit water all over us.  As we were going up the first 'hill', Linwood was saying "oh,baby...oh baby" and I was holding on so tightly.  At the end of the ride we went down a 50 foot fall and of course we got very wet.  You must see our picture when you come to the house.  Linwood is screaming and I once again have my eyes closed.

The next section we went to was Seuss Landing.  Everything was about Dr. Seuss and I loved it.  We once again rode a rollercoaster but it was much 'tamer'.  There was a book store with just Dr. Seuss books in it.  Everything is this section was happy. 




We then walked through Toon Lagoon.  The Spiderman ride was NOT something we should have done.  We asked the man at the front if it was a rollercoaster and he said "no".  Once we got in, we were given 3D glasses and then shown to a ride car.  When we got out, I was so glad that ride was over.  It stopped, it turned, it back up, it whrilled, and it was too long.  The 3D part was very good.

By 4:00, we were exhausted and ready to return to the hotel.  I was so hot and sick to my stomach.  After resting for about an hour and a half we took showers and decided to go down to the hotel restaurant and eat.  When we walked into the room, the cashier asked if we wanted to take the food back to our room and we said we would just eat there.  She said it would take about 20-25 mintues to prepare.  Linwood ordered Turkey meatballs, potatoes, with mixed vegetables.  I ordered spagetti and meatballs.  Since it was going to take awhile we into the lobbly and watched the news on TV.  After we sat down at the table to eat, we saw the cashier putting a plate into a microwave.  I looked like spagetti.  After she took that one out, she put another plate into the microwave.  I told Linwood I thought we were paying $12.95 each for frozen dinners.  We started laughing and he told me not to laugh when she brought our food to the table.  Of course, that made we want to laugh harder.  When I saw the plate, I knew I could not eat it.  The veg. looked still frozen.  My meatballs looked freezer burned and the spagetti noodles were hard.  Linwood had to eat his meal since he had taken his Byetta before we went down.  When she came with our ticket, she looked at my plate and asked if everything was okay.  I sweetly told her the food was terrible and that we did not realize it was going to be a frozen meal that was heated in a microwave.  I really felt sorry for her.  She asked us to wait and she went to the mnanager and he gave us our meal free.  Thank goodness Gayla had made us brownies to bring on our trip.  I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Orlando trip

We had planned on leaving home around 6:30 a.m. this morning.  Well, we did not hear the alarm therefore we did not leave Tallassee until 9:20 a.m.  We did not plan on getting to Orlando after dark but that is what happened. We got to the Holiday Inn around 8:30 pm.  On the way down we stopped for lunch, gas, and supper.  We have to get up early in the morning because we have to be at Universal Park at 8:30.  We have reservations for breakfast at the Broomstick Resturant.  I will let you know about our first day at the park tomorrow night.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Day 10, Saturday, May 29
We were able to sleep a little later this morning since we did not arrive in Ketchikan until 10:00.  While coming into Ketchikan we saw many float planes coming and going. 


Once we debarked we walked around town.  It is larger than Skagway and Juneau.  Well, the shopping area around the pier is larger.  About three blocks from the ship is Creek Street. 


It was the red light district when the town was first settled.  All the 'buildings' are still standing, but are used for a different purpose now.  One building is a museum honoring "Dolly's Home".



In each of the towns we visited there were jewelry stores EVERYWHERE.  I have never seen so many.  We did a lot of looking, but no buying.

When we returned to the ship we decided to eat in the Horizon Room.  As we walked in we were told to sanitize our hands.  We always do that anyway, but this time we were handed our plates.  At each food section, a server was standing to place the food on our plates.  We knew something different was going on.  Later in the afternon the Captain came on the intercom and said we were having a problem with Novovirus.  It seems there is a rash of gastro problems.  He asked everyone to wash their hands often.  So far, Linwood and I have not had any symtoms.

Day 11, Sunday, May 30
We slept in this morning and when we got up we could not see land anywhere.  the Pacific Ocean was somewhat rough.  Today was the first day the ship was rocking.  It was also raining when we went to eat lunch.  After lunch we walked around and looked at two photos that were taken when we left the ship in Juneau and Ketchikan.  We decided not to purchase those photos.  We also went to see the library on the ship.  It is a pretty panelled room.  Activities were still going on all day but we did not attend any today.  Our luggage has to be outside the door of our stateroom by 10:00 tonight.  We are packed and ready for our steward to come and get them.

Day 12, Monday, May 31
Today when we woke up it was raining hard.  All we had to do was get dressed and put all the left over items into the backpack.  We did go up and eat breakfast.

We left the ship around 8:45 a.m.  The cruiseline is so organized.  It did not take us long to go through security and customs.  We got a cab to take us to our hotel in Vancouver.  After checking in we went across the street to a small diner.  We had hamburgers and they were great.  We are tired of "fancy food."

We took a tour of Vancouver.  It is a pretty city and very clean.  It is a very busy city with lots tall buildings.  It is also a very diverse city.  On the corner across from our hotel is a 'Peep Show" for $0.25.  Starbucks are everywhere even across the corner from each other.  I guess they want to get your business coming and going.  There are food markets on every block.  It reminds me of the neighborhood stores I have seen in the movies about New York.  It seems there are flower shops everywhere with flowers on the curbs.  I thought about Ashley when I saw them.  All of our Vancouver pictures will be in the Shutterfly album.

Day 13, Tuesday, June 1
This morning we started with a tour bus ride at 8:00 a.m.  The tour took us to Victoria Island.  The ride to the BC Ferry was about 45 minutes.  The ferry was huge.  Our bus was parked on deck 2.  There was food on Deck 5 and Deck 6 so of course we went to that level.  The trip across took 1.5 hours.  We saw a pod of Orca whales, they were not very large.  Victoria Island is the capitol of British Columbia and very pretty.   We were each given a pass to one of four museums.  We knew we were going to be there for only three hours so we decided to go to the Miniature Museum.  It was okay but I am glad we had not paid extra for it.  We did see a beautiful lawn where about 50 women were dressed all in white.  They were playing lawn bowling.  We enjoyed watching them.  They were so serious about it. 

At 3:30 we left the harbour to go to The Butchart Gardens.  It is 55 acres of the most beautiful flowers.

  I never saw a weed anywhere.  I wish Mother and Daddy could have seen this because they would have loved it.  Please see the rest of the flowers on our Shutterfly email.  We did not get back to our hotel until 9:30 pm.
Tomorrow we will be leaving here for home.  We have enjoyed every tour, every adventure, every person we met and most of the food.  I tried several things that were new to me.  Linwood was much better at that than I was.  We are ready for home!!!!
Wednesday, June 2
Today we were supposed to get home, but our plane was late getting leaving Vancouver due to mechanical problems.  We missed our plane in Minnapolis so we ended up staying at the Mall of America without any luggage except our medicine.  We finally got to b'ham on Thursday around 11:30 and Bobby was waiting for us..  The only problem was that one of our pieces of luggage had gone to Atlanta.  It arrived at 1:00 and after we stopped for a quick fix at my dentist in b'ham we were on our way home.  Please take the time to look at our pictures.  This is the last update until our next trip.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Day 8,  Thursday, May 27
This morning we woke up early and we were already docked at Skagway.  The White Pass Rail Depot was right at the dock.  The train took us up to the summit.  It followed the path that the early miners travelled to get to the Yukon gold mines.  No gold was found near Skagway, but that was where the miners bought most of their supplies.  At some places on the ride it was a sheer drop off. 



After the 3.5 hour train trip we returned to the ship and had lunch.  We then went back into town.  The main part of town consists of only two blocks.  Most of the shops are jewelry stores - I really think at least 80% were jewelry stores.  We went into several of the stores but did not buy anything.  I did not find anything as pretty as my rings so we left empty-handed.  I did hear one man say his wife has just spent $52,000.

Today was our warmest day and we were glad to return to the ship.  Tonight was Italian in our dining room.  We once again decided we wanted to eat alone.  After the meal, we sat on our balcony.  The ship was supposed to leave at 8:30 but it did not.  We were wondering why since everyone had been told several times to back on the ship by 7:45.  About 8:50 a bus load of people got off at the end of the dock.  We think their tour just did not get them back on time.  We heard later that the captain was not happy.  We will be sailing all night.

Day 9:  Friday, May 28

When we woke up this morning we were in Juneau.  This is the only capital city in the US that can only be reached by boat or plane.  There are not any roads into the city.  We had scheduled our helicopter ride to Mendenhall Glacier for 8:30.  It took us about 20 minutes to get to the airport.  First we had to watch a safety DVD.  Then each of us had to put boots over our shoes.  The soles had short metal spikes on them to help us from falling on the glacier.  The helicopter ride was beautiful. 
When we landed on the glacier, all you could see was ICE.  To the right of us there were slabs of jagged ice.  We had to walk very carefully.  We were told the reason the ice is blue is that it is so deep (over 300 ft) that it absorbs all the colors of the light spectrum except the color blue and it is reflected back up to the surface.  At one point there was a cervice with water pouring through it.  Our guide showed us how to get down and drink from it.  Most of the people decided not to do it.  We decided since this would probably be our only chance to taste glacier pure water, we would do it.  The getting down was not hard, the taste was cold and delicious, the getting up was harder but we did it.  We were on the glacier for about 30 minutes and I am so glad we had warm clothes.  I cannot write the words to describe the beauty we saw today.

After lunch, back on the ship, we were able to see hunchback whales.  They were very large.  After dinner we attended the production show called Piano Man.  It was  good and the costumes were beautiful.  The music  highlighted piano songwriters like Neil Sedaka, Billy Joel,  and others. 

We have decided to make it an early night.  It is now 10:15 and it is still light outside.  It does not get dark until around midnight here.  I hope to be asleep before then.  Please make sure to look at all our pictures on Shutterfly. 

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Day 6:  Tuesday, May 25

We slept so good on our first night on the ship.  As soon as we got into our stateroom last night, we unpacked all our bags.  It was so good to have everything in its place and not have to hunt through the bags to find what we were looking for.  We had to be at our muster lesson at 9:00 a.m. this morning.  We found out how to put on the lifevests and exactly where to go if an emergancy happened.  After our lesson, we ate breakfast at  the Horizon Room.  It is a large buffet with lots of choices.  We then walked around to try to figure out where things were.  Our stateroom is on the Aloha deck which is Deck 12.  There is NO Deck 13.  Deck 14 is where the outside and inside pools were located. (no, we did not swim).  We did stop and play BINGO for awhile.  I have not played BINGO in years and Linwood used to call BINGO at the Senior Center.  We did not win any money but it was fun. 

After a short nap, we had a late small lunch and then went on the front deck to see Hubbard Glacier.  It was beautiful and large. 


Tonight is our first formal night.  I think we looked great.


Our dinner was so good.  We ate in the dining room for the first time.  We had chosen 'anytime' dining and I am so glad we did.  That way we could eat whenever we wanted to.  Tonight we decided to eat alone.  After our meal we went to a magic show and then "An Evening with Elvis."  He was a young man who loved to sing Elvis songs.  He did not try to be Elvis, he just sang.  We enjoyed dancing to his music.  It was a late night.

Day 7:  Wed, May 26
We had a late start today.  After breakfast we walk around for awhile.  We then got our picture from last night.  There were several good shots but we had to make a decision.

We then went to the front top deck and sat for the next few hours looking at Glacier Bay.  Linwood had told me what to expect but it was way more than I could imagine.  It was not until around 2:00 that we saw the largest glacier which is called Margerie Glacier. All the way into the bay we were surrounded by HUGE hanging glaciers.  While we watched parts of it fell into the water.  That is called 'calving'.  It made a loud sound like thunder.  The natives call it 'white thunder'. 



Thank goodness we had our heavy coats and gloves.  it was very cold on the deck. 

Finally we went in and had lunch.  Of course, we both ate too much.  Then it was back to our stateroom for a nap.  I know it seems we are taking lots of naps.  I think it is because of the altitude.  We are more sleepy than tired. 

Tonight we saw the ship's large production show.  It was called "So You Wanna Dance".  They did a great job.  After the show we had a late dinner.  Looking at the glaciers was very special for us.  We are so thankful to be sharing all this beauty and fun times.  We are so blessed.