What the hell FL?Follow

Well Im finally back in good old freezing Mass, after 3.5 days in FL. The Gods of humor decided to amuse themselves while we were down there. We only had one day that hit 91. The day we left, Orlando had a record low of a high of 55. If any of you heard echoing obscenities up and down the east coast yesterday I apologize. That was probably me.

While I would not recomend this place for peopls sans kids, if you have small ones, and you're ever looking to stay in the area, check out the Nickelodean Hotel, which is literally 2 minutes away from Disney. We stayed in a suite with kitchen, bedroom, decent sized living room and large bathroom for $150. The courtyard to our building housed the coolest waterslide
and poolwhich we got to check out one night. Husband had never been on a waterslide before, and would have declined if I were able to go on. Since I wasn't though, I happily sent him off to his doom with our son and laughed my *** off. If you notice the giant prange bucket on the top of the slide, it fills up with 400 lbs of water and then dumps it on unsuspecting people. Yeah, my family got hit with it

We did the Sea World and Magic Kingdom thing. I was happy to see that except for the roller coasters, I was able to do every other ride, so I wasnt left sitting under a tree for the 10 hours we were there. The lines were short at both places, and we have redoubled our thoughts to never ever go to Disney during a school vacation. Just looking at the areas where the lines *can* get to made us shudder. Worst line was 30 minutes for Thunder Mountain. We were able to hit every single ride we wanted to do and then do a couple of our favorites twice in one day.

A couple things I never get over is the wildlife there. Even in the heart of the cities, FL has some really cool wildlife hanging about. My son and I tried to catch the geckos while we were playing mini golf. We saw a few giant black birds that made us all go "whoa" and I looked them up this morning to find out they were vultures. And I had a giant grin on my face coming home after seeing my very first alligator in the wild, sunning itself on the banks of a swamp.

All in all, despite the freezing weather yesterday there, and being very sore from all the walking we did, we had a pretty good time.

what kind of pics are you looking for? I have some of my son making goofy faces, pics of some animals from Sea World, and pics of some of the rides at Disney. All standard vacation pics. And no, not one has me in it. I was the photo taker

Coolness! I was wondering what that was like inside. What did the rooms look like?

Here's a couple pics from our room.

living room area standing in the kitchen

flatscreen tv in LR.. also one was in the bedroom too

the kitchen

bedroom

Also, one of the animals I saw at Sea World, which was not an attraction but one of their fish living in the lagoon was this massive fish. I dont know what it is but I was fascinated by it. The thing looks like a blue goldfish, but it was about as big as my hand to my elbow. I couldnt help but chuckle thinking of it on a platter, served in one of their fine restraunts. Im still trying to look it up. If anyone knows I would love to find out what the heck it was.

Also, this was the vulture
we saw a few times. The first time I saw it was yesterday morning while we were sitting down to eat at a character breakfast. It was sitting on a lamp post across the lagoon, just staring. It was just huge!

Very nice. I stayed in the "french quarter" mardi gras hotel at disney, I cant remember the name now. It was very beautiful.

Yeah, it's been cold for the last two days here in Fl. bleh Too early for cold, dang it. Wait till like mid-December, Winter!!

Glad you had a good time, DSD.

Yeah, whats up with that??? It was almost as cold as it is here in Mass!!!

Edited, Oct 25th 2006 at 8:18am PDT by DSD

Sea World had a halloween thing going on while we were there that was free. You walked up and down the walkways and there were candy booths set up alongside.Kids were given a candy bag and they would go trick or treat at the booths. My son brought home a huge bag filled with sweets that he's only 1/3 through.

Disney had the Not So Scary Halloween thing that we almost did, but it was an extra $40 per person, and it just allowed you to ride the rides from 7pm-12am. Since we had been at the park since 10:30 and had done all we wanted to do we opted out. We were exhausted by 7.

Hubby and I did the Halloween thing at Universal 6 yrs ago on our honeymoon and we had a ball! But we decided sadly it was a little too scary for a 4 yr old. Great for bigger kids and adults, however. Both times we've been to the resort area has been October and we've decided thats the best time to go. So next time we go we hope our kids will be old enough to enjoy it and go there.

I too, think that time spent with the family is much more important than missing a bit of school. I have no qualms in taking our kids out next time and bringing their schoolwork with them if needed. The memories you make as a family I find are more important. Waiting in line for 2+ hours for a 30 second ride in 100+ heat during the summer is just not worth spending all that cash. If you're going to do it, do it right and really enjoy the time with your family. Both times Ive gone in October the waits at any theme park are no longer than ten minutes, except for Thunder Mountain. Even then, a 30 minute wait isnt too bad. As a child I never had any vacations like this and already my son is dying to go back. Only ride he couldnt go on was Space Mountain. If only he had been 2 inches taller Hes a rollercoaster nut, just like his parents

I'd like to go to Universal Studios more than Disney, I think, although I've never been to either. I don't like rollercoasters, or anything like that.

A rare pic of the Incredible Mr. Limpet.

I LOVED the Dueling Dragons at Universal's Island of Adventure! Oh and the shops! OMFG I could have gone there every day for a week and still not hit every shop.

Dunno what to tell you other than I'm paranoid that this year's winter is gunna suck if it's ALREADY cold.

You know you took the towels, did ya take the t.v's?