Wet Magic

As we pick up the story, our intrepid traveller has just arrived at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, let's see what he gets up to...

Wednesday

I moved from the car over to what was a novelty to me, a curbside baggage check in... Just like you'd see inside the terminal normally, but just with a bunch of guys hanging out at a desk and taking your bag before throwing it carelessly onto a conveyor belt... I guess it was kind of like that scene from Seinfeld from the episode 'The Airport', where Jerry and Elaine ask the baggage guy how much he gets tipped... Jerry tips, Elaine doesn't... Jerry's bags go to New York, Elaine's to Honolulu... Interesting difference to Australia - you get charged $25 at the baggage desk to check your bag despite paying for the full price ticket (I'm not sure if this is standard or if this is just Delta Airlines)

I entered the terminal, no massive bag, but also without a seat assignment.  I got to the security check and waited in the line, which wasn't as big as I expected for a pre-Thanksgiving travel day... I had my ticket and passport checked, I went through the body scanner and did the whole 'take off your shoes' thing... As an aside, the whole 'take off your shoes' for the security screening can fuck right off... It is such a pain in the arse... I tie my laces properly and then I get to the airport and my thorough fastening of my footwear works against me? Yeah, no, give me the shoes on Australian regulations any day!  I read a quote from John Oliver about gun control, but given my dislike of shoe thing I'm going to post it:

One failed attempt at a shoe bomb and we all take off our shoes at the airport. Thirty-one school shootings since Columbine and no change in our regulation of guns -John Oliver

I get that it is for my safety, as well as everyone else's safety, but it is so annoying having to take off your shoes all the while fumbling with a bag, a laptop that has to be out of your bag, all your valuables, and then your shoes... All while the line behind you is growing and people are impatiently trying to work around you while you use 4 tubs of valuables so you don't break any arbitrary airline rules... Anyway... Neither here nor there, this is the system we work within... Never complain about Australian screening processes ever again!

I got through security, took an age to gather myself and get my shoes on and all that, then made my way to the train to get to Terminal B.  The Atlanta airport is massive, and as Futurama foretold, it will only get bigger as it becomes an even bigger Delta Hub.

I found my departure gate and was told to come back an hour before departure so that I could get a seat assignment... While waiting around for my ticket to be assigned a seat I walked through the airport and chatted on Facebook to Adam about the upcoming AFL Draft which was going on at 3 AM the following morning for me... I also bought a pair of noise cancelling headphones, which I was happy with and used on the flight down! (I was later informed that Friday after Thanksgiving is 'Black Friday' and the biggest shopping day of the year... Had I known this I would have held off a few days and gone shopping on Black Friday... I reckon I'll still go shopping for the sake of it, if for no other reason just to question the existence of human beings on this earth (I am expecting the worst traits of humanity to be on show), but also to buy some jeans (my jeans that I've been wearing have developed a hole in the seat of the pants, which is standard for my jeans after wearing them for 2 years) and to buy some warm clothes/shoes for my trip up to the North).  There were massive delays all throughout the US due to weather and on Thanksgiving Eve no less... This is the largest travel holiday in the country apparently, so this was mayhem... Thankfully the weather in Atlanta was beautiful.

I got my ticket turned into a seat allocation and was offered an exit row... Yes please! So, whilst I did have to throw my bag underneath the seat in front of me, I did get a massive amount of legroom and the flight flew by... Yes, I did just say that... The flying time from Atlanta to Orlando is somewhere between the flying time from Adelaide to Melbourne or Sydney... I'm pretty sure our flight took 1 hour and 15 minutes or so...

Arriving in Orlando I was surprised to find that the weather was overcast and about 17 degrees, which wasn't bad, but it was raining intermittently which brought the temperature down a bit as far as I was concerned... I had booked a shuttle from the airport to my hotel, Super Shuttle, so for less than $20 I could take a shared van to my hotel and stop at other places along the way dropping off other guests... In my previous experience with this service, in 2010 in San Francisco, the terminal was well signposted on how to get to the shuttle buses and there were signs in the pick up area saying where each shuttle service stopped... This did not exist at the Delta Terminal in Orlando... So, I was forced to call them and ask them where to go, and then I waited for about 30 minutes for someone to show up to pick me up... If not for the fact that I'd already paid for it online I would have taken one of the dozens of cabs which were waiting at the terminal... The shuttle eventually came and I was picked up by a guy who looked like a Dungeons & Dragons master and, unsurprisingly, he made zero conversation the entire time... The little win was that the driver didn't have to pick anyone up for the rest of the time, so I had to wait for a shuttle bus to take me to the airport, but it was essentially like taking a cab, and with a much lower cost by comparison.

I got to the hotel, checked in, and then just killed a bit of time in my room before getting ready to go to the basketball.  I was going to the Orlando Magic v Golden State Warriors match.  As I'm sure you can imagine, I have booked a lot of tickets during my one week of planning for the trip, and I wasn't able to use the same method of ticket delivery, but trying to keep up with which tickets need to be printed and which ones are venue pick up is difficult at times... I found out that the tickets to the Magic-Warriors game was a print at home ticket... I hadn't printed anything... So, I left my room, went to the reception, and much to my joy and surprise they had a computer and printer for public use... It was like stepping back into 2005, but it did the job, and the print job was awful, but it did enough things right to get a barcode out of it...

I caught an Uber down to Amway Center, the guy driving me was from Nigeria but had been in the US for 8 years or something... He was going on and on about having driven Sean Parker (the guy who founded Napster)

Who? Moment of the Day
Sam: "So, how have you found driving an Uber?"
Uber: 'It has been good, I even got to drive Sean Parker'
Sam: *blank look*
Uber: 'You don't know Sean Parker?'
Sam: "No... Should I?"
Uber: 'He was the founder of Napster... He was the guy who told Zuckerberg to change the name of 'Facebook' from 'The Facebook' to 'Facebook''
Sam: "I still call it 'The Facebook' sometimes"
Uber: 'What?'
Sam: "Nothing... So, you're saying he was Justin Timberlake in the movie?"
Uber: 'Uh, yeah, I think so'
Sam: "Was he a nice guy?"
Uber: 'He gave me a fake name and then asked me why I was staring at him, I told him that he looked like Sean Parker, but he said he didn't know who Sean Parker was... But he was in town for a tech conference, and, like, if you're going to a tech conference then you should know who Sean Parker is...'
Sam: "Riiiight...."
Uber: 'Then we got to the end of the trip and he shook my hand and introduced himself properly and said that he was Sean Parker"
Sam: 'Ah ha... Makes sense...'

The arena wasn't too far away from the hotel... Too far to walk, but a very short ride in a car, even with traffic... The Amway Center is right next to the highway, though that is raised above the streets below, so it is safe to walk around the arena and all that... There was a play area like in Los Angeles outside Staples on a blocked off street and I went for a brief walk around the arena.  While doing that I downloaded the Orlando Magic mobile app, because I was of the understanding that you could potentially purchase unsold tickets.

Amway Center

Gratuitous photograph with Magic Girls

I waited around inside the arena for the Promenade Level to open (Promenade Level is the nicest way yet I've heard an arena call what are essentially the nosebleed seats).  I found my seats, then went for a walk to kill time before the upgrade options opened in the app.  To explain a little bit, I received an email a few days ago which told me that the Magic game was a few days away and there were options on the night to improve the experience; one of these options was downloading the mobile app and buying a seat upgrade.  The seat upgrade, I think, was buying unsold seats in better areas of the arena, at greatly reduced prices, and it did not allow entry into the arena, just allowed an existing ticket holder to upgrade to a better seat (so, if I paid $400 for a floor seat, I would still need to get a ticket to enter the arena before I could get to the floor seat).  I paid $35 for the ticket I had in my hand, I was in Section 219, Row B, Seat 1... This is what I saw when I sat down:

Nosebleed seats!

Magic banners

Free Xbox in the kids zone.. Very cool

A half an hour before the tip off the app allowed you to browse available upgrades.  I had a look at floor seats (which were $458, but Row A, on the floor), I had a look at the 'Ultimate Seat Zone' which was between $134-178 (see the black seats around the lower bowl in the photograph above), and then Lower Bowl Sideline seats (which were $34 to upgrade, $19 at the back of the bottom section; see the blue seats in the lower bowl in the photo above).  I struggled with the app, I tried to pay for seats that I had selected but I didn't really want to pull out my travel credit card in a basketball arena so I used my Australian card which I have stored in my head... In the end I spoke to guest services who told me I could only use the app, or have to go down to level 1 to sort out an upgrade, but with the players on the floor warming up I didn't want to miss any of the game... I ended up using my travel cash card, and boom, upgrade sorted... So with about 10 minutes before the tip off I made my way downstairs (and had a massive issue with the elevator staff member not understanding what I meant and so I had to ride the lift up and down twice before I got to my new section.  I was now seated in Section 107, Row 7, Seat 9... Only 7 rows from the court and behind the Magic bench... This was a much nicer view than the one from the nosebleeds:

Much better seats... Best seats of my trip so far

Happy about that upgrade!

I'd not really thought about the game much at all to be honest, but as the game drew nearer and the players were introduced and the national anthem sung (by an opera guy, amazing voice!) the atmosphere began to build for me.

The Warriors had some amazing players, and I'd even forgotten that Australia's Andrew Bogut played for them.  When then woman who was sitting behind me, who had taken the above photo, heard me speak she asked where I was from, if I was rooting for the Magic, and if it was my first game... We came to the agreement that she couldn't hate on Andrew Bogut all night if I rooted for the Magic... I didn't root anyone for the Magic, but that was because the Magic suck...

The first 2 minutes of the game told so much about the difference between the teams... By the first time out, with 9:48 remaining in the 1st quarter, the scoreboard read GSW 10-0 ORL... Hardly a brilliant start for the Magic.  They did come back and hit the front by the middle of the second quarter, but by half time the Warriors were in front by 13 points again...

Stephen Curry was a monster, such a pure shooter... As soon as the ball left his hand you knew it was going down, for the game he went 6-8 from 3 point range, and put up 28 points (before being benched for a large chunk of the last quarter as the Warriors played their second unit with the game in hand).   Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson were the other major scorers among the Dub's starters, though Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston had a lot of time on court and top scored for the second teamers.

From Orlando the players I knew best were Channing Frye (due to past performances for better teams), and Victor Oladipo (because I watched the draft the year he was drafted)... Without being too rude to anyone from the Magic, they were pretty poor for large portions of the game... Though the best line to come out of the crowd all night was yelled at Channing Frye after he'd committed his 3rd foul.

Random Magic Fan: "Hey, Channing! Three more of those and you can finally leave the game... For some reason the coach still thinks you should be out there!"

Maybe you had to be there...

The seats were wonderful though... I was close enough to hear the referees when they were telling the players to settle down, or telling the scorers desk who a foul was on... I was even directly across the court from SHAQ!... If only I'd paid for those courtside seats, I could have been sitting next to Shaq!

One thing that I've enjoyed about the USA is that at half time they have a form of entertainment going on... In Australia at half time in the footy I'm really happy going to the back of the grandstand and talking with friends, but when in the US by myself if I'm not always going to the back of the grandstand to chat to friends, and a lot of the time the lines for food are ridiculously long, so I've been watching the entertainment... In Indiana there was the acrobat with the dog... In Memphis there was the house band... In Orlando there was another acrobat, but this guy was stacking chairs and climbing as he stacked... It was pretty amazing... The Magic's mascot, 'Stuff the Magic dragon' even took the piss out of it later by stacking a single chair and climbing it, but with the help of the floor staff...

The second half was really just watching the Dub's second teamers play against the Magic first teamers and still beating them... Probably says more about the Magic than it does the Warriors second team...

Here are some of my favourite photos from the night:

National Anthem

Magic player introductions

Opening tip off

Bogut defending Tobias Harris

Bogut not happy about a foul call

Magic inbound the ball

Time out

Hard to see, but a big dunk going down

Free throws

SHAQ!

The half-time act

Half time

Stuff's answer to it

<---- Not in this house

Steph Curry

Andre Iguodala

All in all it was a very one sided game with maybe a half of competitiveness, and the final score really flattered Orlando even though it was a 15 point difference... Final, Warriors 111, Magic 96

After the game I chatted to the mother and daughter behind me until we were asked to leave by the ushers... There wasn't anything particularly interesting about it, mostly it was about my travels and Thanksgiving... I made my way out of the arena in search of a taxi (I have found that after a big sporting event it is too hard to get an Uber, so a cab is the best bet if I am not taking public transport), and had to do an entire lap of the arena before I found a bicycle cab, who refused to take me, but told me that there was a cab rank over the other side of the highway... So, I crossed the road, walked underneath the highway with all the other pedestrians and found the cab rank.  At the cab rank there was a random cab out the front, and then the orderly line... So, I walked to the front of the line and was accosted by the rouge cabbie, who got into a massive verbal shit fight with the cabbie who had waited in line for a fare... What was odd was that the cabbie who had waited in line had his wife, or significant other in the front seat of the car, which was a little off-putting... So, I one one guy trying to drag me to his rouge cab telling me that the other cab wasn't legit, and I had this other guy with his wife in the car telling me to get in while swearing at the other guy... Really weird end to the night...

I got back to the hotel and watched some TV and debated whether or not to go out to a theme park the next day... Being Thanksgiving I figured there'd be smaller crowds because everyone is at home with their family eating copious amounts of food... But the counter argument to that is that I wanted a day off from going and seeing things, having a sleep in and watching 3 games of football on a week day seemed like a good day to do that... It was a decision I would make the following morning...

Thursday/Thanksgiving Day

I woke up early enough to get to Universal Studios Florida at opening time factoring in a shower and travel time, but continued to lay in bed and debate whether or not to go out... Eventually I resolved to make the most of my day and head out to Universal, so I showered, got dressed and headed out to the front of the hotel to get a cab (Uber wasn't showing any drivers nearby).  The front desk called a cab for me, but about 30 seconds later someone got dropped off at the hotel and I just jumped into that cab... The cabbie was great, he was from Haiti, but we chatted mostly about the soccer... He was really anti-Messi, going on for about 5-10 minutes about how he isn't a team player and how if he had passed a bit more then Argentina would have won the World Cup.  There was no traffic on the road because it was so early in the day on a major American holiday, so the run in was fairly quick, and I arrived at the park at about 9 AM (which was close to opening time).

As some background as to why I chose to go to Universal Studios Florida rather than Disney; when I was last in Florida on tour I went to Disney, and I wanted to go to see Universal this time.  That is the reason I came back to many places I had already been, either to re-do things I loved or to see other things that I hadn't previously... Universal was one of those things... I had also heard that their rides were much better than the ones at Disney...

For those of you interested in my take on Disney, please enjoy a step back in time to 2010 with 2010 Sam's private journal:

Day 22 – Orlando, FL

Today was Disneyworld.  Left the hotel at 8:30, went to Disneyworld.  I did 3 worlds in the day, beginning with Magic Kingdom.  It was amazing, the size, the detail, the expense, the grandeur.  I’m not a Disney fan, but it was amazing.  The rides were decent, some were kiddy, but for the most part they were good.  Everything was so expensive, and I saw at least 3 kids cry, so much for ‘the happiest place on earth’ right?  It was eye opening.  They had a candy shop where they had cupcakes with icing on top the size of the cupcake cake part.  It was amazing, and I couldn’t finish it, and it turned my crap green.  We moved from Magic Kingdom to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which was essentially a different version of Movie World.  They had a ‘Tower of Terror’, which was a Twilight zone themed ride.  They had an Aerosmith rollercoaster, which was really good.  We then went and watched a stunt show, which was Indiana Jones themed.  It was average.  After that world we went to Epcot, which was the world with the sphere.  I was wrecked, but enjoyed the two rides I went on.  One was educational, but interesting, and the other was a space simulator with Gary Sinise narrating.  Then I went home and had dinner, hung out in the pool, hung out in rooms, and went to bed.  I was wrecked.

I'm only posting these excerpts because it was so well received last time... But yeah, for all you Disney fans, this is what I did last time... Enjoy!

The Universal Globe

Entry to Universal Studios Florida

Just as Disney has multiple parks on site here in Florida, so to does Universal.  There is Universal Studios Florida, and the Islands of Adventure.  Each had different things, and Islands of Adventure was meant to have much better rides and roller coasters.

I went to the ticket counter and the woman tried to upsell me with everything, just like Universal Studios Hollywood... She tried to get me to get the express pass (when I told her I was going to try to do two parks in one day she was very insistent that I obtain the express pass)... She tried to sell me a lanyard to put my ticket in (I had a wallet... That did a wonderful job... Anything good enough for my money, ID, cards etc is good enough for a cardboard paper with a barcode on it!)... And she tried to sell me a card which provided money off sit down dining inside the parks... Just doing her job I guess

I entered the park and did an anti-clockwise loop.  The sections of the park were 'Production Central', 'New York', 'San Francisco', 'the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley', 'World Expo', 'Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone', and 'Hollywood', in the middle of all of these is a massive lake, so I did these backwards.  I walked through the mock streets of Hollywood, then past the entryway to Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone... The interesting thing for me on that one is that I wouldn't have thought that many kids would know who Woody Woodpecker is, the only reason I know who he is is because I watch a lot of TV, and some of that TV has references to Woody Woodpecker (the last time I can recall seeing him was in From the Earth to the Moon which is a mini-series about the Apollo program)... I then walked by the best part of my morning, the time-travel train from Back to the Future - Part III and another DeLorean, this one wasn't boxed up, so I got to jump the rope and try to get into it...

Turns out that old people make awful photographers... And rather than ask them to take 5 photos until they get it right, or to just casually mill around the spot waiting for a competent photograph taker to show up and be willing to take a photo... This is one of the big downsides to travelling alone, you can't always get the photo that you want... Ultimately, these people are being nice enough to take my photo and I would be a dick to be overly critical of their absolutely awful photography skills...

The Jules Verne Train

The Time Machine

Trying to get into the Time Machine

I then made my way into Springfield... This was a way more in depth Springfield than the one they had built at Universal Hollywood... For example, they actually had a Krusty Burger, the Frying Dutchman, a Duff Brewery, a Moe's Tavern, a Luigi's Pizza, a Lard Lad Donuts and Cletus' Chicken Shack, that you could enter and get a meal... So, I could have had a Krusty Burger if I felt the need... I could've had a beer at Moe's if I was a drinker... I could have had a Flaming Moe... I could have had some 'Clam Chowd-arr' at the Frying Dutchman (legit, that was what it said on the menu)... All of these, with the exception of Lard Lad and the Duff Brewery were all in the same building (I.e. the facades were different, but they lead to the same serving area... Though Moe's was still just a tavern)

Krusty Burger

Lard Lad Donuts

He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance

Wiggum

The Duff Brewery and the 7 Duffs

Legit, the phone rang and it spoke to me... It was Wiggum

Chocolate, marshmallow, pretzels and potato chips... Its like a rocky-road on steroids!

Chocolate-Bacon Bar... Even a little too much for me

Moe's Tavern

"Do those sound like the actions of a man who had all he could eat?"

Luigi's

I had some Chicken Thumbs n Taters

Happiness is just a Flaming Moe away

Inside of Moe's

Better than Hugh Hefner

I would later have a meal in Moe's, but that would be at lunch time.  In the mean time I walked through Springfield and ended up at MiB headquarters where I would ride the Men in Black Alien Attack ride, which was essentially a family ride where you would fire at animatronic aliens and you would get a score... My awful shooting kept our entire team's score down, but I was cheering that being in the single rider line meant that there was no wait to ride... Average photos is the downside to being a solo traveller... Using the single rider line shamelessly is one of the perks of being a solo traveller

MiB & the World Fair Saucers

I then moved in to the Harry Potter area... Now, Harry Potter fans among those who read this can probably skip these next few lines...

This whole area was completely wasted on me... I have not read any of the books and I have actively not watched any of the films... This was easily the most popular portion of the park for everyone but me... Seriously, the place was packed! I'm sure all the facades and stores and things you could buy to wear or eat were well done and made clever references, but I had no idea what on earth I was looking at... So many kids buying wands, and wearing cloaks, and buying butterbeer... Every last reference was lost on me, and I sure as hell wasn't waiting in line for 75 minutes (75 minutes! No single rider line) for a ride that I wouldn't have understood... Here are a few photos, but I didn't stay long...

My entire exposure to quidditch was in the film The Internship

I'm assuming the dragon is significant?

Forgive me Potter fans, for I didn't really give two shits about Potterland... Although, now I know how you all feel when I go off on my sports reference tangents or my obscure TV shows... That entire section of the park may as well have been written in a foreign language (although, the plan is to learn one during my travels, but not this one...)... Sorry...

I then walked through the San Francisco area and the New York area, while walking by the Mummy ride (which I had already ridden when I was in LA, so I figured not to bother... I mean, how different could it be?)... I also walked through a candy shop where I found, but did not buy, cupcakes with the same ridiculous portions of Disney as I spoke about in my 2010 excerpt above:

That's a lot of icing!

I went on what I thought was a ride, but it turns out it was just a Tornado simulator and a recreation on a sound stage of the scene in the film Twister where a tornado hits a drive in theatre.  There was also a pre-amble with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt telling us how difficult it was to shoot the film and how much they felt like they WERE tornado hunters and all that stuff they'd have said in 1995 that we'd kind of laugh at now... Especially when the person telling you is Bill Paxton with a massive mid-90s mullet going! Seriously, in 20 years you'd think they'd have either updated the footage to show him not looking like a denim clad country music singer or they'd have updated the exhibit to a different film... Anyway, it wasn't too bad...

One thing that I did find in Universal Florida is that there were way more sit down restaurants inside the other theme parks that I have been to... Most opened at 11 AM, but also needed reservations to get in... I assume this is because it is more of a family holiday destination and most parents I assume wouldn't mind a sit down meal from time to time, even in a theme park... I, however, went back to Springfield for lunch...

I then went to a Hollywood Horror Show, which just went over the make up used in horror films, but it was performed by two really eccentric guys who were making pun after pun and interacting with the crowd brilliantly... It was better than the special effects display that we saw in LA when comparing the presentation, but that is just my opinion... They had some Chinese girl on stage and made a whole bunch of Made in China references (on the knife that they used to cut off her arm, but not really)... They also made reference to not being at Disney so they could be rude to kids (after singling out a kid from New York to use as joke fodder for the remainder of the show).

I then made my way to the Islands of Adventure, where the roller coasters were meant to be good.  If the crowd was down due to it being Thanksgiving Day then I'd hate to be here in peak season... I'd never have been able to do the entire two parks in a day otherwise.  The Islands of Adventure has the aptly named 'Port of Entry' for the entry area; 'Marvel Super Hero Island' which had the Hulk roller coaster which looked very fierce and a few other rides which I didn't have much interest in (due either to their similarity to Dreamworld rides or due to my prejudices against certain superheroes, such as Spiderman... Anyone who has heard me speak about Spiderman 3 with Tobey Maguire and Topher Grace will understand why); 'Toon Lagoon' with a bunch of old time cartoons from Popeye to Hagar the Horrible; 'Jurassic Park'; 'the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade'; 'The Lost Continent'; and 'Seuss Landing'.

As a general rule, I don't do roller coasters that I expect will make me queasy until the end of a day.  This is largely due to one bad experience at Dreamworld after having breakfast and then later having to buy new clothes inside the park because I had vomited on my original clothes, so, I didn't really want to repeat that.

I walked through Super Hero Island and on to Toon Lagoon.  I really enjoy the cartoons in the paper (as dorky as that sounds), and when I was a kid I used to watch Popeye the Sailor.  I also really enjoyed how this area of the park looked.

I also met a girl from Australia doing the Sam solo travel thing.

Solo Sam Moment of the Day
Sam: 'Excuse me miss, can you please take my picture?'
Female *heavy Australian accent*: "No worries, as long as you can do the same for me"
Sam: 'Sure thing, I like your accent by the way, where exactly are you from?'
Female: "Oh, I'm from Australia"
Sam: 'Yeah, no, I know that, I've got the same accent as you, where abouts in Australia?'
Female: "Oh, Sydney"
Sam: 'OK, cool, I'm from Adelaide'
*Each take other person's photograph*
Sam: 'Do you find it difficult to get good photos of yourself when other people are taking them?'
Female: "Oh my god, yes! I walked around the Magic Kingdom castle at Disney like 5 times and had a photo each time with someone different because each time it was taken terribly, after a while I just gave up"

Sam: 'Yeah, I usually give up after two tries. Are you here with friends?'
Female: "No, I'm travelling alone"
Sam: 'Really? Wow, so am I, how have you found it?'
Female: "Yeah, it's alright" *she begins backing away*
Sam: 'How long are you going to be in Orlando'
Female: "Oh, this is my last day, anyway, have a great trip!"
*Walks away*

Now, she took an awful photo, but true to the conversation I just tried again, but tried again by myself...

This was my own attempt... I knew I should've worn my tin-foil hat... Would've saved my hair from being messed up

I was thinking this before I came to the park

Hagar

Popeye the Sailor Man

I then figured I'd ride some rides, so I stowed all my gear in a locker and jumped on Dudley Do-Right's Rip Saw Falls, kind of like a log ride, where you were 'going to get wet'... This ride was fun, I was at the back of a log with 4 Latin Americans in front of me... I figured I would avoid most of the splash at the back... Yeah, not so much, I was wet before the mid-point of the ride, and at the end when we descended the major drop of the ride we got to the bottom to no splash, then rose about 3m just so we could descend again but into the massive splash point... This was fine, I avoided much of the splash... But as we slowly made our way to the disembarkation point there were sprinklers aimed directly at the log... So, if they didn't get you on the way down, they'd get you on the way to the end... I was thoroughly saturated... In summer this wouldn't be a problem, but in the late November weather, which was sunny but no warmer than Brisbane in winter, it took a little longer to dry... And whilst wearing jeans, it only made it more uncomfortable!  As I was already wet I made my way to the ride 'Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges' which was a ride which was just a circular barge with seats, kind of like the river rapids ride at Dreamworld... Once the water got into your seat it didn't properly drain, so you were sitting in water virtually from go to woe... My arse was thoroughly drenched, and again, wearing jeans, I was uncomfortable as hell!  I could have dried myself at a 'Human Dryer', but for $5... At that price I'd rather be uncomfortable!

"Welcome to Canada"

You don't get wet on the first descent...

It is the last drop that gets you!

I grabbed my stuff and walked through Jurassic Park.  There was a very kiddy section, and there was another water ride, but given that I didn't want to pay for another locker and I had already been on the ride when in LA I figured I would give it a miss (same as the Mummy Ride)... Walking around in wet clothes sucks by the way... I went and played this pissy DNA game in the Visitor's Center, and then ended up in a gift shop (as you tend to do a lot in theme parks)

Missed Opportunities
Without editorialising at all, if Universal Studios wanted to sell Jurassic Park t-shirts they need to do two things... Firstly, offer a shirt with just the Jurassic Park logo on it, like this:

Secondly, offer a shirt with some kind of 'Clever Girl' reference, photograph, meme or joke... If they had one like that then I wouldn't be looking, I would be going straight for my wallet... Shut up and take my money!

But regrettably for Universal's sake they haven't tapped into this market of simplicity and hilarity yet, so until then, I won't be buying any Jurassic Park themed shirts from Universal... I know others do exist on the internet with the Clever Girl quote, but they just haven't done it for me!  I expect there to be a spike on some level once Jurassic World is released next year, but anyway... Rant over

After Jurassic Park I headed back into the Harry Potter land, but in the second park... Again, this was completely wasted on me... Pretty cool to look at, but completely wasted on me!  Sorry Potter fans, you'll get no detailed write up from me...

The train is important right?

I then headed through to the Lost Continent and watched the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad Stunt Show.  The stunt show in LA I thought was better, though this one was enjoyable as well.  The pyrotechnics were a bit much for me in the enclosed space, and given that we were in a shady auditorium and I was wearing wet clothes (again, in summer I imagine it wouldn't be a problem, but in November it was a bit of an issue because my clothes didn't dry as quickly) I got cold very quickly.  At the end of the show I got up and found my seat completely wet in the shape of my arse... Thankfully after walking through the Seuss Landing kiddy section I began to dry off a bit!

Sindbad's quest for treasure and a girl

I decided the time was right to jump on the roller coaster.  I put my stuff in a locker (for free! I wish I had known that before paying $4 in Canada) and lined up in the single rider line... I waited 10 minutes in the single rider line... I would have waited 70 minutes in the regular line... The Hulk roller coaster was over in about 40 seconds, but my god what a rush; so many times upside-down, so many turns, and so damn fast... I got off very disoriented, failed to walk in a straight line and decided to pack it in for riding for the day...

One portion of the Hulk roller coaster

I went back to the locker, pulled out my stuff (but because my jacket was in there some stuff came out quicker than other stuff, and my camera dropped from a great height... Thankfully it was only scratched and not damaged badly) and then I headed to do my Thanksgiving Day turkey... When in America on Thanksgiving right?

When in Jurassic Park on Thanksgiving Day, do as the Americans do!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful that this gigantic leg filled me up and so I didn't have to buy dinner!

I then headed home.  It was 4 PM.  I had been in the parks since 9 AM and I wanted to catch a bit of the Thanksgiving Day football.  So I made my way out of the park and towards the place where I was dropped off... I saw this on my way out and thought it was funny, but it could just be me... And I'm not sure why I laughed... But I was standing there snickering to myself taking a photo, you can be the judge if it is at all funny:

Jurassic Park-ing.... I don't know, I thought it was funny

I got back to the hotel, got out of my wet clothes, and found the right channel just in time for kick-off between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys... I was expecting great things from this game, both NFC East teams, both with good records and fighting for a playoff spot through winning the division and all that jazz... The game was over early and I spent most of my time blogging with one eye on the game... The next game was the Seattle Seahawks at the San Francisco 49ers (although Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth made the point several times that they are the San Francisco 49ers in name because they were now based about 50 miles away in Santa Clara).  This game was Seattle's defence doing a job and wasn't hugely entertaining... Low scoring and close, sure, but dominated by one team... I then watched a film called 'Draft Day' with Kevin Costner playing the Cleveland Browns GM who is dealing with a whole bunch of shit on, funnily enough, draft day... I then chose to go to bed

Friday/Black Friday

"Black Friday" is the biggest shopping day of the year apparently...I don't know, it is built up on the TV News here, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary for my sheltered self.

I slept in really late, had a shower really late, and headed out really late... I kind of wanted a day just to rest up and not do much... So, I went to the closest mall I could find and just kind of watched the world go by... Thing of it was, if I was hoping to see a crowd and see all kinds of human instinct which would make me ashamed of our human race I didn't see any of it because I went in the afternoon when all us lazy, non-shopping types go shopping...

The Sam Empire ever expanding

I walked around for a while, watched people, browsed shops, and ended up across the parking lot at a Dick's Sporting Goods, where I bought some shoes for when I make it to the North and back to winter in a few weeks, and some Under Armour thermal compression pants and shirt, also getting ready for the trip up to the North... I don't think the deals I got were brilliant, but according to my Mum paying $70-80 for a pair of Timberland boots is good when considering they apparently sell for closer to $200 in Australia... But being a lazy non-shopping type I wouldn't know about it...

I headed back to the hotel, watched a bunch of TV and films, did some blogging and then called my Nona.  I was expecting to have at least a 5 minute chat to her, but she hung up on me after 35 seconds... So, that didn't go how I expected...

I then called my Mum and spent about an hour on Skype to her and my Dad who had just gotten up for Saturday morning/had just gotten back from a run.

I finally tried Papa John's pizza which was dinner... Pretty good for take out pizza, but it was take out pizza... They included some garlic butter dipping sauce for some reason, which I used on the crusts after I'd eaten the toppings... I'd have it again, but I'm not going to go out of my way for it...

I then had a text message conversation with my bus friend Jenna, who was on her way through Orlando and was going to have a stopover, but timing/logistics didn't work out for us to catch up... So, I spent the rest of the evening watching the awful film Battleship where they take an otherwise boring board game where you cheat the entire way through, and made it into an alien invasion film with only one or two obvious references to the pissy board game it was based on... Awful film, but for some reason I watched the entire damn thing

And now I'm writing this...

Tampa tomorrow and for the next couple of days of sports gluttony, and the seats I am most looking forward to... Row A, on the glass, for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators