Post #38: Orlando Amusement Mecca

Iconic Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom

How to make the most of a theme park visit? From my perspective, that would be an immediate beeline to the most important interest for our grandson. And Cooper had chosen a Florida family destination specifically to go to Jurassic Park, a section of Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure, due to his fascination with the dinosaurs and characters of the Jurassic World movies. So once we had finally reached the entrance to Universal by driving from where we had overnighted at our Disney hotel, funneled into a multi-level parking structure, transported on several lengthy moving walkways, passed through metal detectors, ambulated through the expansive CityWalk entrance plaza, and made all necessary rest stops, I would have moved us most expeditiously and directly toward Jurassic Park, well aware that the overall day would be limited by time, patience, hunger, heat exhaustion, seductive diversions and differences of opinion.

But is that what we did? Well, not exactly. Even before we found our way to the Islands of Adventure entry gate, Stacy diverted Cooper in CityWalk to a big plastic photo op wave where he took his turn to strike a surfer pose. He nailed it!

Even on the direct route to Jurassic Park we had to pass through Marvel Super Hero Island, where Stacy encouraged Cooper to join another photo op line to meet awaiting Marvel super villains. Admittedly, the photos of Cooper with the Green Goblin and Dr. Doom (previously unfamiliar to Nana) were fun and memorable but continued to delay our Jurassic arrival.

And there was yet another stop along the way, as Stacy encouraged Cooper into a gaming arcade, buying tickets to attempt “winning” a toy with a very tricky hooking fork. Just an exercise in frustration, from my perspective. Even Dad Jason’s successful snagging of a soft pink, googly-eyed octopus did not satisfy Cooper who was still upset about not hooking a toy by himself. At least some arcade tickets and park time were used for Cooper’s playing Nintendo-type car racing and dino chasing games which were intrinsically fun regardless of the outcome.

We eventually continued to wend our way through Toon Lagoon and Skull Island (promising a later return to the Reign of Kong) to arrive at Universal’s Jurassic Park, where it finally made sense to me to obtain the photo op of racing from a terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex. Jason encouraged Cooper in their realistic enactment.

So enamored of the Jurassic films, Cooper unhesitatingly joined our first ride line for the Jurassic Park River Adventure, billed as an escape from the jaws of a T-Rex while traveling on a river raft. Seeing plenty of other young kids in line, Stacy figured the ride would be okay for 5 & 1/2 year-old Cooper. Although having seen the steep concluding raft drop on our way to the entrance, I had my doubts but assumed we would all survive, like so many other Jurassic visitors who concluded their adventure wetter but without any bodily damage. Given the noon-day heat, I was actually looking forward to the splashing. After passing through some intense interior dinosaur action scenes, the raft finally left the fearsome T-Rex behind in a giant ride-ending watery plunge. Phew, we all made it! And Cooper was so proud of himself for taking the scary ride while facing frightening dinosaurs.

“That was real, wasn’t it Mom?” asked Cooper, still youthfully sorting out fantasy versus reality.

We next proceeded to Camp Jurassic, where kids of all ages can climb and explore in a multi-level prehistoric playground. Going through tunnels, entering caves, traversing netted suspension bridges, and descending slides was a great energy release for Cooper. Nana overheated and wore out much sooner.

My favorite Camp Jurassic area had dino water canons that we could all spray on each other from different levels, and temporarily cool off.

Cooper had fun with them too until he thought his dad was targeting him unfairly. There was a minor melt-down, at which point Jason may have been thinking about a child swap.

We spent the bulk of the hot day in Jurassic Park, just what we signed up for. We may have been there during lunchtime, but all we wanted to consume was anything cold, gravitating to ice cream and beer.

Advertised in the US as the Australian beer, Aussie Jason has told us that Fosters is far from the favorite of native Australians.

We visited the Jurassic Park Discovery Center where there were lots of educational exhibits, but we mostly discovered all the dinosaur replicas and paraphernalia for sale. Allowed by his mom to pick out a favorite dinosaur, dino-savvy Cooper chose a Mosasaurus, which was an enormous aquatic dinosaur (who knew?).

Since the toy was quite large too, I asked Stacy, “Are you going to carry this around the rest of the day? Maybe you can buy it later. I saw a big Dino sign at a CityWalk store which we will pass on the way out.” The sales assistant confirmed that the entry store had several Mosasaurs in stock, but Stacy worried about their being sold out by later. Fortunately, the Discovery Center store could send a purchased item to the CityWalk store for later pick-up. So that’s what Stacy arranged, hoping that Cooper’s prized Mosasaurus would indeed find its way to pick-up as promised.

The Pteranodon Flyers looked like fun but the ride was limited to one adult accompanying a child. So while Stacy and Cooper waited in the 45-minute line, I checked out what else we might do in Jurassic Park. None of us were going to take the new Jurassic World Velocicoaster, the fastest launched roller coaster in Florida. Even the fairly tame Pteranodon flyers had worried Cooper as they dangled and swung high above Camp Jurassic.

That left the Raptor Encounter where we waited in line to briefly meet a “real” baby raptor up close and personal. Cooper was ready to challenge the raptor until he met the sharp-toothed creature.

Animated by its handler, the raptor was quite lifelike, puppy cute but unpredictably snippy. Cooper preferred to keep some distance. Actually, so did I.

“It was real, right?” said Cooper as we moved on. Admittedly, it was hard to tell.

I have to give Dad Jason and Papa Jesse a lot of credit for hanging back and going with the flow as Stacy and I bantered over each successive activity. The guys just resorted to more ice cream or beer.

Eventually we checked out a different Island of Adventure, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade. Personally, I love the Harry Potter stories, having read all seven of the books, seen the movies, and made my own pilgrimage to this amusement area six years ago when I accompanied Jesse to an orthopaedic meeting in Orlando. Cooper has just begun watching some of the movies and his main desire was to obtain a wizard’s wand, whose exorbitant price for a mass-produced, carved wooden stick was grandfatherly financed by Papa Jesse. So while I was struck by the contrast of the fake snow-covered English cottages in the blazingly hot Florida summer heat, Stacy was maneuvering Cooper through Hogsmeade village to stand in front of selected storefront windows where he might point his wand to cause a specific magical activity. It was somewhat tricky but worked better than snagging a stuffed toy in an arcade. That was the gist of our Harry Potter experience.

Hogwarts School of Wizardry, of Harry Potter fame

So while wizard Cooper indiscriminately waved his wand on our way to the next adventure at Skull Island, I reminded him to avoid accidentally poking other guests along the crowded walkways. Since King King is one of Cooper’s favorite monsters, having loved the recent movie Godzilla vs. Kong, Cooper fearlessly joined the Reign of Kong ride, willingly surrendering his wand to his mom’s backpack, oblivious to any dangers in the potentially treacherous island expedition to find King Kong. As we all wore 3D glasses, the ride had a very up-close and personal Kong encounter and was pretty scary for Cooper. Nana and Papa just went along for the ride. Kong who?

At this point, some time after 5 pm, weariness was setting in, and Cooper was pretty much done with the park. Stacy couldn’t even cajole him to take the Spider-Man ride. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to show Cooper the whimsical and kid-friendly Seuss Landing which I had visited previously. But maybe our dino and monster-loving grandson had already outgrown fanciful Dr. Seuss stories.

“I have a suggestion,” I told everyone, but especially directed to Stacy as she was the final decision-maker. “I think we’re all pretty hungry, since we didn’t really eat any lunch. The hotel dining choices are fairly limited, so let’s eat at Universal before we return. There are a lot of restaurants in CityWalk which we will pass on our way out anyway.”

The idea met with all adults’ approval and we headed in that direction. But Jason grabbed Cooper and a chance for one last ride before we exited the amusement area. I jumped in to join them on Storm Force Acceleration, a more intense, Disney teacup-like ride. Nana held tight while we were spun faster by Jason, quite visibly enjoying the day’s last ride.

Hot, tired and hungry, we all agreed to the first CityWalk restaurant we saw, Margaritaville, as Stacy ran off to claim the earlier-purchased Mosasaurus. I was anticipating dinner in refreshing air conditioning but we were seated at the only table available on a hot, sun-drenched patio. Weary as we were, I made an executive decision to seek another restaurant. Easier said than done, as most were filled with dinner reservations. While I went off to locate Stacy and Mosasaurus, Jesse checked for other restaurant availability, scoring us a table at The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar. Sounded like something for everyone. We didn’t get indoor air conditioned seating, but the patio was shaded with fans. Great, we had seating and eating, after a long hot adventuresome day.

Nana and Papa were pretty much ready to crash when we finally returned to our accommodations at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. We said goodnight, closed the adjoining door to our pirate-themed rooms, and left the Fiji family to their own devices.

Early to bed, the grandparents were early to rise. Well, Jesse always is. Anyway that gave me time before the family’s second amusement park day got going to figure out the Disney Genie service to link to our Magic Kingdom tickets stored in My Disney Experience Mobile App. Nana needed a clear morning mind to navigate this unfamiliar technology. The Disney Genie is a free feature that theoretically helps to organize your day at the park when you enter ideal ride and activity preferences. But this wasn’t ideal for us as Stacy wasn’t interested in taking any time to participate in this organizational App. However, the Genie+ Service, for which I decided might be well worth paying an additional $16 per person, included access to selected Lightening Lane entrances. In other words, we could occasionally bypass the lengthy ride lines for shorter ones. After being in some very long and wearisome Universal lines, this add-on feature sounded great to me, if it actually worked. Genie+ seemed well worth risking a relatively low additional financial commitment for a potentially time and aggravation saving result.

We learned that the Fiji family had a lot later night than the grandparents, as Cooper spent a long time in the bathtub with Mosasaurus. But like the day before, we eventually started our day with a convenient breakfast at the resort’s nearby Spyglass Grill. We took advantage of a Disney bus directly to the Magic Kingdom and soon found ourselves on Disney’s iconic Main Street in the “happiest place on earth.”

Do I have to be in this photo, Mom ?!?

Depending where Stacy led us, based on Cooper’s interests, I requested Lightening Lanes using Genie+ on the Disney App. The lane was not always available or we were given a window of time to use it, but it definitely minimized our wait time at Tomorrowland Speedway where every kid wants to drive a car.

In Tomorrowland we also went to the Carousel of Progress, a no-wait, relaxing animatronic show of household technology progress through the the 20th century, which surprisingly has not been updated for progress or racial differences much since I first experienced the “progress” carousel as General Electric’s premier exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. We also went to a fun Buzz Lightyear ride and entertaining Monsters, Inc. show, less familiar to the grandparents but more contemporary for Cooper and his parents.

In Fantasyland, we went to some tried and true standards: the Prince Charming carousel, the Flying Dumbo ride and the Mad Tea Party spinning teacups.

Just as on the hot day before, we only relieved our hunger and thirst with cold snacks and drinks.

We found our way to Adventureland, first climbing through the creatively furnished Swiss Family Treehouse. Where possible, I invoked our Genie+ to enter the Lightening Lanes, as we rode the long-time favorite boats of the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise. Stacy rewarded her brave little pirate with a pirate’s hat to embellish pirate play in our pirate hotel rooms with the pirate’s sword she had already bought for Cooper at the hotel.

Moving into late afternoon, we all wondered how much longer we might last, or would we go back to rest at the hotel and make a later return to the Magic Kingdom. I figured we ought to fit in a couple more attractions, as there was no return guarantee. Still in Adventureland, we enjoyed the Enchanted Tiki Room, reminiscent of Fiji family’s South Pacific life. No doubt we were all fading from the heat and activities, but I encouraged Cooper into one more ride. I didn’t ask Cooper if he was interested, as Stacy often did, I just said, “Cooper come with me. I have a fun surprise for you.” So we concluded our Magic Kingdom day on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, pretty much a flying Dumbo ride with a different theme.

We caught a Disney bus back to our Disney resort, and headed directly back to Spyglass Grill for a convenient, late lunch/early dinner, having again substituted ice cream for lunch in the heat of the day.

Back at the rooms the adults appreciated happy hour beer & wine, from the stash we had brought along with us. We all agreed to a cooling dip in the Spanish fort swimming pool with water slides that Cooper had enjoyed so much when we first arrived. (Was it only 2 nights ago?) This time Nana was ready for the water slides too.

And there was more to the evening, even though we didn’t return to the Magic Kingdom for their nightly light show, unfortunately just too much production. Rather we all took a round-trip sunset ride on the Disney Skyliner, a gondola ride with a station at our resort.

We ended up back at Caribbean Beach Resort’s main dining area for some evening snacking, and were pleasantly surprised to have a great view from the patio of some eye-catching day-ending Disney fireworks.

Three Orlando nights, two amusement park days, three generations, some differences of opinion, lots of smiles, a few meltdowns, countless memories.

So this blog post is the third one related to the Fiji family's Florida visit: #36 about Nana's planning for the visit, #37 about the first third of the visit, and this #38 fulfilling the main trip desires of grandson Cooper. And we're not done yet! There's still another half of their trip to report. Watch out for more Florida fun with Nana, Papa and other relatives to be continued in the next blog post.