Paradise has its shortcomings!

Another gorgeous day in paradise! It is really nice to take a day off from having fun and just relax. Company is coming at noontime. This is the same cousin that we went to the Cape with last spring. They come to Florida from Michigan each winter to get away from the Michigan cold. We will spend a couple of days visiting parks with them and just visit to catch up on old times, family and friends.

The weather here has been pretty decent. The locals complain because it is cold but we are decked out in our shorts and light sweatshirts. The temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s with occasional ventures into the low 70s in the mid afternoon. For a brief time each day, we remove the sweatshirts and cavort in just t-shirts. The afternoon they arrived, we spent sitting around one of the many pools here in the complex. Some of them may be heated but this one wasn’t and the only people there sat in the sun. Other pools had people in them telling me they might be heated.

The next morning, we headed to Seaworld. Jan and Dave wanted to visit Shamu. We drove in and got a parking place right next to the entrance. We walked in, got our map and schedule and attacked the park. The first thing on the agenda was a sea lion show with a pirate theme. It was decent if not hokey. I have sensed a theme around the various parks that has changed many of the shows to kiddie level plot lines. More on that later. Shamu was only scheduled to perform twice in the whole day so we set up a schedule based on attending the 1:30 pm show. Our schedule based on this one event moved us willy-nilly around the park. I am not sure how many times we crossed the park but it was not the best way the attack the park. The show schedule said we should be at the Shamu 45 minutes before the show but there were not many people in the park so we got there 15 minutes early and were shut out (small crowd, 5500 seat theater?? Go figure!) Later, we were told that the early show always fills up in case people don’t want to stay for the end of the day.

I have noticed, by this time, that there are way more places to eat and buy things in all of the parks. They have all added more upscale places to eat which include meals rather than just fast food. Salads and wraps and ribs and smoked turkey legs have all made an appearance pushing the dogs, burgers and chicken nuggets into the back ground (don’t feel badly though, those fast food items are still big sellers.) There was a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tomorrowland but it was not open the Saturday we were there. One park (Universal) even had a food plan where for 19.95 for adults and 9.95 for children you could eat all day in various selected eateries.

Which gets me to “FastPass”? Years ago, FastPass was set up so that people wouldn’t have to always wait in long lines to get on the rides or shows. You were given a ticket with a magnetic strip when you arrived in the park and could put this ticket into any FastPass machine at a specific ride and get a ticket that was good at some future time of the day. You would then come back and go on the ride without waiting in the long lines that were always formed at these popular rides. I seem to remember that you could have 2 of these tickets outstanding at any given time. Disney still has the FastPass system in place but you are only allowed one ticket at a time. Before you get your ticket, there is a screen that tells you when you will be able to come back. They give you an hour’s grace (e.g. 12 to 1) and you may then go off and do something else while your imaginary surrogate stands in the line for you. This is still a good system. It allows you to bypass the lines for popular items but still see them. It is regulated by you only being allowed to have one out at a time so you can only use 4 or 5 of them in a day. Of course, someone has found a way to take that away from you and make it available to anyone with money. Universal took away the general FastPass system and put one in place that you pay for. With their FastPass system, you buy a FastPass and can use it to go to the head of any line; all day. As near as I can tell from a chatroom, it is $40 for Universal and $50 for Islands of Adventure. The FastPass is a single park ticket above and beyond the entrance fee. The universal FastPass people not only get in line ahead of you, they seem to get all of the front row seats in the shows. I am not sure that I like that.

While I am complaining, there was one more thing that bugged me. In the past, Disney has been the best keeper of the lines that I have ever seen. There were no shenanigans in the lines at Disney. There was definitely no cutting in line. That seems to have changed. There were two major types of line jumping; big groups and small groups. The big tour groups, predominantly South American, travel through the park in large groups using one or more “leaders” with triangular flags on sticks. These groups consist of children I would estimate from 10 to 14 years of age. They are simaliarly dressed (there were yellow, electric green, black with red, etc.. They travel in a large pack throughout the park at a high rate of speed. Once they get near a ride or show, the front section with a leader will speed up and pass groups of people and turn into the ride. Then, the leader will block the entrance until all of their numbers are in the line. Any stragglers cut the line to join up with their group. The other group is the small group consisting of one or more families traveling together. The parents will get in line and the kids will go off to some other ride. When the parents get close to the front of the line, they will call the kids on their cell phone and they will jump the line to get up with their parents. The parents don’t have to put up with the kids complaining about having to stand in line and the kids, well they don’t have to wait turn. Without trying to be prejudicial, 90% of all of these people spoke Spanish. Disney, who would never have allowed this in the past, seems to turn a blind eye to it these days.

Guess I’ll take a break and come back with a better attitude.


We have had a great time with our Pats Shirts. One or the other or both of us has worn them pretty much all of the time. We get comments from both Pats fans and Giants Fans. At this point in the season (week before Super Bowl), everyone is either a Pats Fan or a Giants fan as those are the only two teams left playing. In one park, one of the bag checkers sent Cheryl to a Non-existent line against a wall where there was nothing else. She looked confused but did as she was told. She looked funny standing there all by herself. The man then started laughing and waved her back to the line. He said he was a Giants fan and was from NY and couldn’t resist. They both had a good laugh and became friends for life. We have gotten these reactions everywhere except that there are more Pats fans and we are in the majority.

The Backpack has become the most used carry device everywhere we went. There are small ones and big ones and some that look like you could spend a couple of weeks in the wilderness. They are more than just carrying bags. They are weapons. People will wedge into a small space sideways and then turn and back up making enough room for their entire family. Backpacks are a little like driving the motorhome. If you do not have a good concept for the size of the entire unit you can cause mayhem around you.

We hit everything we wanted to: Disney (4 parks), Universal (2 parks and Citywalk) and Seaworld (just one lonely park). We did avoid the water rides (nuff said). I hit every coaster in sight. Cheryl hit most of them but did take a pass on a couple.

Well, here we are on the road again, headed home. All trips must come to an end. I have been a little lax about writing as the weeks went on but I will try to catch up in the next segment. We just crossed over into Georgia leaving Florida behind. We had a really good time but were busy most of the time. We struggled to take a few days just to sit around and use the resort’s facilities but failed miserably. We did use 3 of the resort’s pools (there were 5) but just sat around in the sun 2 of the times. Yesterday, we did hit the “other” pool in our complex; the heated one. Cheryl went in but I sat reading my book soaking up the rays. The pool was quite warm but few people were there as the weather was not ideal. We started getting things packed in the early am and about 11:00 changed to go to the pool. While Cheryl was gathering up her things, I stepped outside to find it pretty dark. So dark, in fact, that I checked my glasses to see if I had my sunglasses on. At about the same time I realized that I didn’t have them on, I noticed raindrops on the glasses. I started laughing out loud as I noticed that it was raining. Cheryl opened the door and said: “that laugh can only mean one thing…its raining!”

Later on, we went to the pool in bright sunshine. There was a hot tub at the pool and a sauna as well. I checked out the sauna. It was pretty nice and hot. Unfortunately, my doctors have recommended not using them (or hot tubs for that matter). We also used the basketball court. I hadn’t shot baskets since I left Birch Drive (14 or 15 years ago??) (longer for Cheryl) It didn’t take long for the pain to set in. We moved up to the tennis court but were already pretty much done in. There was a nice beach volleyball facility but there were only 2 of us. We watched a couple of teenagers try to play one on one and didn’t figure to try that one.

We checked out at 5 am. The desk was staffed but the person who was staffing it did not seem to know how to use the equipment. He was unable to give us a receipt. He spent about 10 minutes trying and then gave up. I will have to check the computer in a few days to make sure they charged it correctly. I did check the bill as of yesterday and it was ok (if you call $3.99 a day for a resort fee to cover things relatively few people use ok).

The road up through Orlando was quiet. A few trucks and some cars bur not too much else. This section of Interstate 4 is usually very busy regardless of the time. I could not get comfortable in the car and turned the driving over to Cheryl right after we hit 95 in Daytona. We soon took a break and got coffee and something to eat. My blood sugar was somewhat out of control and once I checked it, took some insulin and ate a small bite. That seemed to make me feel a lot better. I have had trouble with my blood sugar on this trip. Eating out a lot has been rough. I really have to get everything back in line. I tend to be a lot looser on what I eat when I travel and eat out a lot. In Alaska, we were on the road for 4 months but didn’t eat out much. We had trouble finding some of the special foods that I use but it was much easier to control the blood sugar.

I am going to send this off and drive for a while. When I come back, I will talk about the parks. See y’all in a while.

C