Day 3 ~ Islands of Adventure ~

Amelia woke up at 6am and got in bed with us until 6:30am. I got up with her and she watched TV while I went and made tea and breakfast for everyone; a huge plate of toast, a selection of cereals from the Kellogg’s variety packs we bought with us, tea, coffee and orange juice. We went out onto the pool deck where I set it all on the table and I moved Amelia’s highchair out there so she could sit with us, then we went to wake everyone else up. They arose quickly knowing there was food waiting and we all sat outside. It was a lovely morning again and Oliver was already planning a dip in the pool after his cereal!

I had booked a table at Mythos in Islands of Adventure through opentable.com for today and had printed the menu which Dad was looking at and picking out what he was going to have.

I forgot to mention yesterday about the jokes we were having about Mum’s white sun visor. You may have spotted it in yesterday’s photos! Before we came to Florida, Tracy and I had warned Mum that she wasn’t allowed to wear her black leather bum bag (or fanny pack as they call them in the States!). She used to wear it on holidays when we were younger and caused us great embarrassment as kids. She informed us that she would be bringing it and Tracy and I plotted all the ways we could destroy it when we got there! Lol. You can imagine our horror when she told us that not only would she be sporting her bum bag, but she would be teaming it with a white sun visor!

Anyway, as we were sitting at the table on the lanai this morning, Dad said: “Your Mum’s getting into the swing of Disney now with her Disney pins”

 

Tracy: “Mum, you could put them on your sun visor!”

To this, Mum spat her tea out laughing all over me, the table and the Mythos menu and we were all in hysterics!

I wanted to leave the villa by 9am, but by the time everyone was showered, dressed and lubed up with sun cream and a couple of games of air hockey and pool were played by the boys, it was 10:30am before we were pulling off the drive.

We arrived at Universal and took a few photos as we walked through CityWalk.

And met Woody Woodpecker...

Bubba Gumps looked great. There was a lady standing outside blowing bubbles for the kids. We chatted to her for a bit and she offered to take some photos for us as we sat on the bench with Oliver’s feet in Forrest Gump’s shoes...

We took a menu and planned to go back there another night. Unfortunately though we never made it back there and I have added it to my list of things to do next time.

We arrived at Islands of Adventure and queued for what seemed like an age to get our virgin vouchers exchanged for proper tickets. No problems this time and we went through bag check and ticketing with ease.

Our reservation at Mythos was at 12:30pm and by now it was already 11:20am so we bypassed most of the park and made our way towards the Lost Continent part of the park where Mythos is located.
We walked through Seuss Landing and was a little astounded that IOA had employed a lady to just stand there and wave at passers by! She looked a bit strange just standing there on her own waving! Lol. We made a note to return here later as there were lots of things for Amelia.

We arrived in the Lost Continent at 12pm and decided to go into Mythos and see if we could be seated early. The lady on the front desk said it wouldn’t be a problem and gave us a pager and asked us to wait a few minutes while they got a table was ready.

It was SO hot outside, so the air conditioned lobby was bliss. However 35 minutes went by and Paul was getting agitated and was about to go up and have a moan. To be fair to them, it was really busy and the lobby was full of people waiting for a table who didn’t have a reservation. Some people were also turned away. But why tell us we could be seated early when we couldn’t? We could have seen a bit more of the park in that time. Anyway, luckily just as I pulled Paul back and stopped him making a scene the buzzer went off. Saved by the bell!

We were taken through and were wowed by the theming. It really is spectacular.

We were seated at a great booth table tucked away in a little cove almost.

Our server came over with some bread, introduced himself and took our drinks orders. Everyone had cokes and Mum, Amelia and I had an orange juice. We browsed the menu and picked out what we were going to have, although I think most of us had already decided back at the villa this morning!

I had the Mythos Burger cooked medium well, and Paul had the same cooked medium.

We both agreed it was the best burger we’d ever eaten. It was so delicious and juicy!

Dad had the Blackened Mahi Mahi. He said is was "lovely, really nice"!

Mum had the Mythos Pad Thai with BBQ plum roasted pork. She said it was nice, but a little too spicy for her (she doesn’t like anything remotely spicy). She polished it off though so can’t have been too bad!

Tracy had the Roman Panini with parmesan fries. She said it was gorgeous.

Oliver had the pepperoni pizza. He said it was yummy!

And last but not least, Amelia had Chicken Fingers with fries. I tried one and they were lovely. She left quite a few so we all helped her out!

Comfortably stuffed, we considered the dessert menu. I didn’t think I could fit anything else in. That is until I saw the dessert shots on the menu! Dad and Paul had a Key Lime Pie dessert shot and I had the same but Raspberry Cheesecake. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of these, but I have borrowed this pic from Google images... I hope no one minds.

They were just the right size. Often when I eat out I find the puddings to be too big and I always end up wasting half of it. I thought these were such a good idea. They were only $1.75 each too which was fantastic!

Tracy and Mum shared a Warm Chocolate Banana Gooey Cake...

Verdict: Delicious!

Oliver and Amelia both had Rice Crispy Sushi Treats. These were only $1.99, and I assumed they would be quite small so ordered them one each, but really they could have done with one to share as they were really big!

Oliver made a good effort with his and Amelia enjoyed hers but hardly made a dent in it.

The meal was perfect and good value for money IMO. The bill came to $144.27 which included 18% gratuity of $20.86 and tax of $7.54.

I loved it here and we will definitely be going back next time.

We came out of Mythos at 2:30pm. We took some photos of the amazing scenery in Lost Continent and then made our way to Jurassic Park.

Not sure why, but we didn’t do any rides. We just had a leisurely walk around. Until we came to this...

For a split second I thought it was a real baby dinosaur before sanity took over and I realised that of course it couldn’t be! The others were walking behind me, so I turned round to Tracy and yelled excitedly “Trace, Look at this!!” She clocked the baby dino and squealed “awwww” and then I watched as the realisation spread across her face the same as mine had! Lol. It was really funny!
The 2 “keepers” were really good and never came out of character. They told a lady not to touch its face as it snapped at her! The guy on the right has a sort of silver button in his hand down by his side which obviously operated it, but it was so life-like!

We watched the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride for a bit. Everyone looked soaked!

We made our way around to the Toon Lagoon area and as usual, we got split up from the group. One minute they were behind us and the next they were gone. Paul has a habit of marching off ahead of everyone while the others have a tendency to stop at EVERY gift shop they pass which makes for an annoying combination when I’m stuck in the middle of them all. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good gift shop (what woman doesn’t?), but it was extremely hot, time was getting on and I was getting tired. To make matters worse, the park closed at 5pm today. There was still so much to see. Paul wanted to go on Hulk, I wanted to see the WWOHP and take Amelia back to Seuss landing. Paul took Amelia into ‘Me Ship, The Olive’ where she played for a bit and went down the slides while I went to look for the others. I found Mum on the bridge watching the Bilge Rat Barges and she said the others were a little way ahead. How did they manage to get in front of us?? Pfft. I told her I would go back and get Paul and under no circumstances should she move from the bridge until I got back so we didn’t get split up again.
I went back and got Paul, we went back to the bridge to... no mum. I was getting really wound up now to say the least. We walked ahead a little way and as luck would have it, there they were.
Since we first announced that we would be going to IOA, Oliver had been going on about the WWOHP the whole time. “When are we going to Harry Potter?”...“Are we going to Harry Potter now?”...”How long until we go to Harry Potter?” And if the continuous questions weren’t enough, the horrible attitude he had to go with it certainly was. I was starting to get really annoyed with him. We were in Florida; most children’s dream holiday destination and we were in an action packed theme park. But it obviously wasn’t enough for him. You would think I’d just told him he was having all his teeth pulled out. I told him at last that we would now be heading to the WWOHP. But when we stopped for a drink he got all fiery again “I thought we were going to Harry Potter??” Think Kevin and Perry and you would be half way there to how Oliver was acting up. It was one of those “wait til I get you home!” situations. The real reason behind his attitude was that he was dying to buy a wand. He had been saving his birthday money since January and really wanted to buy one. There was no excuse though for the way he was treating everyone.

Mum, Dad and Tracy wanted to go on Bilge Rat Barges but I convinced them to come to Harry Potter first and then we would come back later.

So we finally made it. I was in awe and really wanted to have a good look around, but Oliver’s attitude stunk and I was getting quite upset by it. I asked him to stand in front of a Wizard sign and he told me he was “here to look at stuff, not ignore it.” I could have killed him at this point. He was being so mouthy and cheeky. I made him stand in front of a wizard sign for a photo and a forced smile later, I came up with this...

I spotted Honeydukes and asked him if he wanted to have a look in there. He snarled and marched off in its direction as a couple were having their photo taken outside. I told him to wait a minute until they had finished but he tried to ignore me and carry on through them. I had to grab him arm and pull him back. He threw a strop and tried to shake me off and I told him sternly to wait a minute. If looks could kill I think I would be dead by now. The couple moved and we went inside. Oliver marched off. I fought through the crowd to find him as it was really busy and despite his disgusting attitude, I didn’t want to lose him.

I caught up with him just as he bumped into a man. I apologised to him and told Oliver to be careful and to watch where he was going. He then told me that he “didn’t need to watch where he was going, people need to move out of his way”!!! That was it. I’d had enough. I would have turned him into a toad if I was a wizard! I saw Dad come in and Oliver was heading towards him, so I just turned around and went to the opposite end of the shop. I was overwhelmed with emotion and didn’t know whether to scream or burst into tears. Knowing I could do neither I tried to ignore it and looked around, sneakily taking photos as I didn’t know if it was allowed or not.

Paul came and found me and I told him what Oliver had been like. He was livid. When I had calmed down a bit, I went back to find the others. Oliver was now in tears because he wanted to spend $9.95 on a single chocolate frog in a box. Sure they were cool, and I would have liked one too, but as Tracy was trying to get through to him, it was 90°F outside and it would have melted. I also tried to get through to him that we were only on our second full day and if he spent all his money now, he would have nothing left for the next two weeks. He wouldn’t listen to reason though. I gave up and told them I was going outside to look around and I took some more photos.

The others followed so Oliver had to do the same.

We then headed to Ollivander’s so he could get his wand. I probably shouldn’t have let him buy one after his behaviour, but it was amazing the transformation in him after he’d gotten what he wanted! Funny that.

He bought a Voldermort wand and handed over the $34.99 of his own money to the wizard at the till. My Dad thought everyone in that shop were mugs paying that much money for a piece of wood... They must be raking it in as the queues to buy wands were phenomenal.

We went outside and Mum bought a postcard for my Auntie (also a Harry Potter fan) and got an official H.P frank stamped onto it.
We continued to look around and I took photos of Oliver with the station master in front of the Hogwarts Express. Amelia was asleep in her pushchair. I’m not sure if it was part of his character to act all annoyed that he was being asked to have his photo taken with children, or indeed he was really peeved at standing around in the heat in his suit, but he was very convincing!!

Next up was Dragon Challenge. Not sure what we were letting ourselves in for; Mum and I followed Paul into the 5 minute queue.
We walked around and around the empty queue system until we came to the front and boarded the ride. I sat on my flip flops .
We went on the blue side, but even so, it was quite intense. I couldn’t believe Mum had gone on it! I felt really dizzy when we got off and Mum was a little worse for wear too. She also felt dizzy and she had to stand to the side of the exit for a while to maintain her composure!

We met the others afterwards and Dad, Paul, Oliver and I went on Flight of the Hippogriff which was pretty tame in comparison. Everyone enjoyed it, but it was over very quickly.

We made our way to the exit via a Butterbeer stand. I queued for quite some time before the person in front of me was being served. I could see some nice souvenir tankards which I would have liked, but when I saw the lady in front handing over what I thought looked like $10 for a regular cup, I was a little taken aback. I couldn’t see any prices anywhere but had no idea it would be so expensive. Half of me wanted to leave the queue as there was no way I was paying $10 for a tiny cup of something I didn’t even know if I was going to like! I didn’t want to look tight though, so I kept my place in the queue. When it was my turn I was asked if I wanted a frozen or cold butterbeer and the confusion must have been written all over my face. He explained the differences (Frozen was like a slush puppy with no froth on top and cold did have froth). I decided to go for cold and was only charged $3.95 I think. Damn. Wish I had asked for the souvenir tankard now! I asked for some straws and he told me to make sure I drank a bit from the cup first before putting the straw in or it would explode all over me. Not sure why this would happen, but I didn’t want to find out so I took his advice!
I took it back to the others and we all tried a bit. It was nice, but very sickly and I couldn’t have drunk a whole one to myself.

We then decided that we would split up and meet back at Bubba Gumps at closing. Paul, Amelia and I went to Seuss Landing and Mum, Dad, Tracy and Oliver went back to Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges.

As Paul and I walked though Marvel Super Hero Island, we were gutted to see all the Super Hero’s sitting on their quad bikes before tearing off though the park. Oliver would have loved to have seen them. I tried taking some photos but it was so crowded that they didn’t come out very well.

We continued through and saw Hulk, but obviously couldn’t take Amelia on with us so we missed out on going on it. I was quietly thankful as it really didn’t appeal to me in the slightest! Maybe next time!

When we got back to Seuss Landing, I look Amelia on Caro-Seuss-el. I wasn’t really sure what to do and decided to sit her on my lap. But a staff member told me only one person was allowed per creature, so I sat her on her own, belted her up and stood next to her which worked fine. She held on tight and didn’t wobble or anything

She loved it so much that she wanted to go again. There was no queue, so this time Paul took her on.

Next he took her on One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish although she wasn’t too fussed by it.

.

We checked the time and decided we’d better make our way to Bubba Gumps. Everyone was leaving the park now and we just followed the crowd. We arrived at Bubba Gumps and sat outside, exhausted. We waited 20 minutes before the others arrived. They had gotten drenched on Popeye and Bluto’s!!

We stopped at the shop at the top of the travelators near the car parks and I bought Amelia a big Curious George with her money that my Nan gave her. She had pointed him out that morning when we had arrived. She held him the whole way home

We weren’t really sure what to do for dinner. Mum was worried about what she looked like. Although they were all dried off now after their soaking on Popeye and Blutos, Mum really wanted to get changed before going out or even better, go back to the villa and get beans on toast. We all disagreed with her though and said we were on holiday and would not be eating beans on toast! We came to a compromise... somewhere low key where it doesn’t matter what state you’re in... Dennys!

You’ll have to forgive my poor memory now as I can’t find the receipt and can’t remember what everyone had to eat. I don’t have any food photos from here either I know Mum and I had the Senior Grilled Shrimp Skewer from the over 55’s menu though! Oh the shame! Lol. I just really fancied shrimp and they didn’t have any on the normal menu. We finished up and skipped dessert, paid the bill and headed back to the villa. We needed a few bits so we stopped off at a small supermarket. I can’t remember the name of it but it was rubbish. They didn’t even sell dishwasher tablets. We came out with one of the three things we needed.

We arrived back at the villa and all went for a swim. After a while, Amelia and I got out and had a shower and we both got ready for bed.

Paul tried to get the hot tub working but to no avail. The water had leaked out again below the minimum line so that we couldn’t use it for a second day.

Amelia went to bed and Oliver followed shortly after. I uploaded my photos onto my laptop, updated my facebook status and was in bed by 11pm.