Winter Holiday 2015/2016- Gatorland

Gatorland used to be my favorite Orlando theme park. It's a total tourist trap with lots and lots of gators; what's not to love? With all of the best intentions of rekindling my love, Dan and I spent a morning at Gatorland on New Years Eve 2015.

We arrived shortly after park opening and it was packed. On my previous visits, the park had always been fairly empty, but this time, we were lucky to find a parking spot. We even had a long queue at the ticket counter. Gatorland is a half-day attraction at best, and the base tickets ( you can add on other experiences, like zipping over a pit gators= no thank you) were 26.99 for adults.

Here is what you see as soon as you walk inside. Gators Galore!

And brave birds who hang out with the gators.

We arrive just minutes before the first performance of Gatorland's famous Gator Jumparoo show was about to begin. The show takes place around a stage set up in the middle of a lake. There are no seats for the show, it's standing room only around the perimeter of the stage/lake. Since we were late, all of the prime viewing areas were taken, and we found a spot behind the stage to the side, which gave us a view of half of the gator action, and mostly the backs of the performers.

The whole idea of the Gator Jumparoo show is to get the gators to jump out of the water and grab pieces of meat. The performers ring a dinner bell and the gators come swimming to be part of the show. I don't really remember the characters in the show from previous visits, but this time they had two guys playing dumb hicks, who bumble around the stage and make you feel like they are about to do something really dumb and get hurt. A MC comes out and he gets the two hicks to compete for who can get the gators to jump the highest, splitting the audience in half to each root for a guy. They go out on a bridge in the middle of the water and dangle meat, with the gators just narrowly missing their fingers.

The characters in the show are ridiculous, but that wasn't the issue that turned me against Gatorland. As they were warming up with a preshow, one of the guys walked close to where we were standing, and I think he thought that it made him look tough, but he kicked a gator that was sunning itself, trying to get it to hiss or be aggressive. He kicked this gator several times, and we even thought we saw blood. We were horrified. I have no problem with the jumping gators, as they are being enticed, rather than forced to participate in the show. However, if a gator just wants to sleep, leave it alone and certain, don't abuse it. It was upsetting. I wrote a letter to the park, and unlike the quick response that we received from Universal Studios Orlando, we received no response from Gatorland.

Here are pictures from the Gator Jumparoo show, the blonde guy was the kicker. I wanted to kick him back, see how he liked it.

The Gator Jumparoo left such a bad impression, that it marred the rest of our visit. We did not take the kids here during our summer trip either. We spent about another hour touring the park, leaving much earlier than we would have, if we had not had that negative experience.

Gatorland is home to non-gator animals too, like Florida panthers, goats, and ducks. They even have a petting zoo with animals that you expect to find at petting zoos.

One of my favorite parts of the park is the Breeding Marsh. Even on a busy day, this area was quiet. and we were alone on the giant observation platforms that overlook the swamp area. I like this, because it feels like you're in the middle of nature, but it's lacking the element of danger. Sure, Gatorland is park that feels like it's one step away from a safety catastrophe, but I get the impression that it's the vibe they are wanting to portray, rather than the reality. It's fun to feel like you might be in danger. In any case, it's a pretty view from the observation deck and fun to look for gators swimming or sunning below. Make sure to bring quarters for fish food.

Dan doesn't like snakes and I'm allergic to mosquito bites, so naturally we went on the Swamp Walk. We lasted about five minutes, when reading the warning signs, and realizing that we were alone out there, made us chicken out. It was creepy in the swamp.

Gatorland Humor

I love this sign.

And this species of bird...I have no idea what it is, but isn't it the most "Jurassic Park looking" bird you've ever seen? It's not pretty and it wasn't even remotely fearful of humans. If an animal is going to take over the world, it's going to be these guys. They already rule Gatorland.

Gatorland has pretty birds too and more fabulous bird signage.

Fun facts or fodder for Gator themed nightmares? You decide.

A beautiful albino gator.

As we left, I gave a nod to Owen Godwin, the founder of Gatorland. I didn't hear it during this visit, but the park used to play a recording of Owen's Gatorland Theme Song. It was just as corny and fantastic as you're imagining.

Winter Holiday 2015/2016 - EPCOT (First Time)

The title to this post might be a little misleading; this was not the first time that Dan or I had ever been to EPCOT, but it was the first time together, and the first time on this trip. Time permitting, EPCOT is not a one visit per vacation kind of place. Not only is it massive, but it's the type of park made for strolling, and enjoying at a more leisurely pace than perhaps, Magic Kingdom. We picked EPCOT to follow our massive Universal day, precisely for its laid-back vibe.

Just look, cute topiary when you enter the park.

The first stop, always, is Spaceship Earth. The park was still fairly busy with holiday crowds, so we made sure to get a Fast Pass for Spaceship Earth and breezed right on inside.

One of Spaceship Earth's highlights, is the end, where you can create "your future" by answering a series of questions based on your likes, such as "wind or solar" or "city or country". When you exit the attraction, sometimes you can catch your picture on the wall. Here we are, in our future, floating in space. Dan's wearing green and I'm in orange, we are wearing the other person's favorite color.

Next we visited Figment at the Imagination Institute for the Journey Into Imagination attraction. No Fast Pass needed, the queue move fast here.

I love Figment! He's mischievous and silly. I still have a small Figment stuffed animal from my first trip to Walt Disney World, when I was thirteen.

There are several, creativity testing games in the Imagination Institute. I thought that when we brought the kids to EPCOT the following summer, that they would enjoy this more than we did. I can verify that we enjoyed hopping on squares that make noises, as much as the kids do.

After all of that expended energy, we needed a nap...on to Ellen's Universe of Energy.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Ellen's Universe of Energy, but sitting in the dark, in a slow moving vehicle always seems to induce a nap. For better or worse, this classic attraction will soon be no more. I'll miss Ellen and Stupid Judy.

Bouncing back to high energy, we used another Fast Pass for Mission Space, an attraction that was new to Dan. It's exciting to watch someone experience a new attraction. I probably get more excited about it than they do. We went hard core and did the orange training, which is the intense, "you might need the barf bag" ( they really do have barf bags on the ride) version. There is a less intense version for people that get motion sickness, but want to experience the story part of the attraction. I can just barely handle the intense version, but I always feel slightly queasy for a few hours afterwards. Dan loved it.

Back to low energy, we walked over to The Land pavilion and rode Living with the Land, a leisurely boat ride that teaches about agricultural techniques. At the risk of sounding dorky, this has long been one of my favorite EPCOT attractions. I love the education aspect and it's just really cool to float through a greenhouse and see unusual produce. On a previous trip, I took the, Behind the Seeds Tour, which is a guided walk into the green house for a closer look. It's so cool, inexpensive, and totally worth doing!

When we excited the pavilion, the sun was setting, and we took these pictures of the fountains. So pretty.

And back to high energy with Test Track. Test Track is arguably the best attraction at EPCOT and usually has a long queue, so we used our last Fast Pass of the evening. I was surprised by some of the changes that had been made to the attraction. First, a design studio has been added to the queue. In the Chevrolet Design Studio, you can create a virtual car, which is then tested on performance against other car designs during the ride. It's a lot of fun. We knew that Felix, my car-crazy stepson, would go nuts over this during our upcoming summer vacation. He loved it, as did his older sister. The actual attraction had some changes too. They had made it look more sleek and futuristic, which honestly, was a bit uninspired. I miss the cow.

In our marriage, we have a little game we play, where Dan wants a new car and I say no. Right now, he is keen for a truck, so we had to spend a good chunk of time checking out the Chevy trucks, while Dan explained why we need one. I think he will wear me down eventually, Dan is good at playing the long game!

Dan left all of the dining planning in my hands. I was in heaven. I also had an eye towards hitting restaurants that I knew wouldn't be on the agenda on our summer trip with the kids. Dan looked longingly towards the Yorkshire County Fish and Chips in the UK Pavilion, as we kept walking toward Morocco.

I had dined at the Marrakesh Restaurant once, many years ago, and I had a positive experience. Although many of the restaurants in the World Showcase are very good, coming from Los Angeles, nothing seems too exotic or special. The Marrakesh Restaurant is probably the most unique, although I'm sure a similar menu could be found at several restaurants in Los Angeles. We have recently moved to Portland, Oregon, which although is much smaller than LA, it is considered a "foodie" city, and I'm also sure that any type of cuisine offered in the World Showcase, could be found here. The world is rapidly becoming more and more accessible.

That said, we dinned at the Restaurant Marrakesh and ordered a dinner sampler meal called, Marrakesh Feast, washing it down with a pitcher of sangria. I really enjoyed the Beef Brewat Roll; cinnamon and beef are a surprisingly delicious combination.

As we walked back through the World Showcase, we stopped in the UK Pavilion and marveled at the insane prices for UK products. Similar to our local English market, the export prices are outrageous. If you have a lot to buy, it would practically be cheaper to fly to Europe and stock up at Tesco. We got a kick out of the Union Jack cardigan and Downton Abbey themed jewelry. Oh, and Excalibur, you gotta have a sword to be a proper UK Pavilion.

Spaceship Earth looks so pretty at night. See you for round two in a few days EPCOT!

Winter Holiday 2015/2016- Universal Studios Florida

With our tummies full of Margaritaville yumminess, we headed to Universal Studios Florida.

The park was decked out for the holidays, and although we missed it, they have their own version of the Macy's Day Parade with those famous enormous balloons. Universal Studios Florida, seemed more in the holiday spirit than Island of Adventure.

It was the early afternoon and the crowds were quite a bit heavier than what we had experienced at Islands of Adventure. Most of the attractions had long waits. We were finally able to make use of our Universal Express Passes, to jump ahead in the queues.

First attraction: E.T. Adventure.

I totally miss the E.T. Adventure at Universal Studios Hollywood. Although it wasn't my primary attraction, I was trained there and even led training classes for new hire groups. I always think that every visit to Florida will be my last chance to experience it. Happy to see that it's still running.

Here I am, very shiny, and hoping that E.T. will say "Good-bye Karen", and not "Good-bye friend".

Near the E.T. Adventure, we found this; A mash-up of my two favorite things. Excellent. Immediately, we craved a Dairy Milk bar and missed our cats.

We visited Springfield.

Next, we headed to my favorite USF attraction, Men in Black: Alien Attack. Many of the attractions have a strict policy of not allowing any loose items on the ride. This means cell phones, wallets, purses, hats, et...pretty much anything. It doesn't matter if it's small, they are very firm on this policy. Universal provides free temporary lockers near the rides with the "no-stuff rule", which in theory sounds great, but on a busy day, it's chaos. We spent about ten minutes putting our stuff into a locker, only to walk towards the queue and discover that the attraction was down. No big deal, this happens. As a former theme park employee, I don't get worked up when a ride breaks. We removed our things from the locker and headed to the second part of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which includes Leicester Square and Diagon Alley.

Leicester Square really does look like London. It's beautifully done.

We entered Diagon Alley and immediately became part of a slow moving mass of tourists. I've never seen any section of any theme park quite this crowded. Diagon Alley was so magical and wondrous, that I was able to tune out the crowds and just enjoy the spectacle. Everyone around me was in awe as well. It was exactly like I had imagined when reading the books, heck, even better than I had imagined.

My biggest regret of our Universal day is that we didn't go on the attraction in Diagon Alley, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. The line was absolutely massive, over three hours, and since we couldn't use our Universal Express Pass, we skipped it. This will be the top priority on our next trip to the park.

The shops were also crowded, many with a queue to get inside. We went inside one, Magical Menagerie. I can't ever resist anything to do with animals. The Magical Menagerie is a Diagon Alley- must do. It's adorable, filled with unusual creatures and many interactive elements. In fact, all of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is full of interactive elements and surprises.

I insisted on waiting thirty minutes for a frozen Butterbeer = totally worth every minute spent in the queue, and every calorie consumed.

We tried to enjoy Diagon Alley, but after the initial awe-factor wore off, the crowds began to take their tole. There were just too many people to really take a good look at everything. We headed back into the main park.

Memories of another favorite, long-gone attraction. I miss you Jaws!

We headed to Revenge of the Mummy and placed our belongings in the lockers. We walked up to the Universal Express Pass queue and we were told that although the ride was operational, the Universal Express Pass queue was temporarily closed. We were welcome to wait in the normal queue ( over an hour wait) or try again later. I don't remember reading about this in the fine print when I spent double our ticket price on the Express Passes? Rather than get upset, we left our stuff in the locker near Mummy and went over to Transformers The Ride 3-D. Same thing happened.

We were now officially frustrated, as were many other pass holders. We've ridden Transformers many times in Hollywood, and we were not going to wait in the massive queue. Heading back to Mummy, we see an employee trying to hard sell the Universal Express Passes. I want to yell, "Don't fall for it people". Based on our experience, I'm guessing the passes were over-sold.

We get back to Mummy and see an angry mob of Universal Express Pass holders about ready to take down the employee guarding the gate. It's still closed, with the regular queue open, wait time rapidly increasing. Seconds after we approach, she gets word that she can reopen the Universal Express Pass queue. Frustration is turning to anger, and I want to ask her why they would open and close it, rather than hold off the regular queue, but I'm afraid that the gate will close as quickly as it had opened, so in we go. I'll take up this concern with guest relations later.

Revenge of the Mummy is a fun coaster. I feel a little like a traitor for admitting this, but the Orlando version is far superior to the Hollywood one. It has a more cohesive story. As we exit, we see that once again, the Universal Express Pass queue has closed. It's like getting past the velvet rope at Studio 51. We paid a premium to be treated like crap. My blood pressure is rising just thinking of this nearly a year later.

We get our stuff, go back to Men in Black: Alien Attack and put our stuff in the lockers there. A bit of advice, if you visit Universal, leave your stuff at home. Or rent a big locker at the front of the park and try not to get your things until you really need them. We played the "locker shuffle game", which on a average-crowd day is annoying, but on a busy day, it's a killer. Add it all up and we probably spent over an hour just dealing with the lockers. I'm a calm person, I handle crowds well, but I was ready to murder someone after all of the locker-shuffling.

We get in the Universal Express Pass queue, which although substantially shorter than the regular queue, is still a forty-five minute wait. Considering Disney's Fast Passes, do not come at an additional cost, and usually cut the queue to a 10-20 min wait, the Universal Express Pass is looking even more like a terrible value. When we hit mid-queue, the ride goes down. Again, as a former theme park employee, I know this happens. I'm frustrated though. We wait it out and finally get on the ride about ninety minutes after entering the queue. It's still one of my favorite attractions, but we are feeling low.

We exited the ride and started walking around the park. It's beautiful at Christmas, but I'm hitting a breaking point.

I started crying. Seriously crying, in the middle of a crowded theme park. We found a quite spot so that I could have my little melt-down. In retrospect, I think this was like a wedding. I had poured so much effort into this one day at Universal. I had planned it out and spent so much money to surprise Dan. I needed this day to be perfect, but it wasn't. I spent nearly fifteen years working for Universal and it's a place I hold dear to my heart, so I was really let-down. Dan didn't care if he ever visited again. It was a disaster.

We needed cheering up and it had to happen fast. We closed out our visit with the Animal Actors Stage. Cute animals always make everything better.

On the way out, we saw a walking candy cane! More cheering up.

And a little bit of home.

When we returned home from our trip, I wrote a letter to Universal guest relations explaining our disappointment with the Universal Express Pass. In the end, we had only used it for two attractions, E.T. Adventure and Men In Black: Alien Attack. I received a call within a week of sending my letter, and had a long chat with a very understanding employee in guest relations. She couldn't/wouldn't explain why they close down the express pass queues when the attraction is operational, but as she could track our pass usage ( It's scanned at every attraction entrance) and knew the park attendance was high, she agreed that we did not get value for money with our passes, and gave us a full refund.

I was satisfied with the resolution, but I would caution people against buying the Universal Express Pass. It's a perk that they also give to guests staying at property hotels, and many years ago when I stayed at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort, this was a fabulous bonus. However, paying for it, especially when it does not include The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions, is an enormous waste of money.