Saturday, January 28, 2012

Orlando Vacation 2012 Last Park Day

Hollywood Studios

I went to this park when I was very young and it first opened. It is a new park and has a lot of nice things and I think it was the best park of all. We started off with Star Tours which is another ride emulator with a movie. It is a cool effect but I like Simpsons better.

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 6

Animal Kingdom and Epcot

We got a late start because I was so sick. We got to Animal Kingdom which in truth we could have skipped completely. The animal part was ok Kilimanjaro Safaris but the only real attractions were It is tough to be a bug (another 4d movie), Everest which I can't believe I went on and made me feel really sick. It loops you backwards and drops you a number of times with big drops and saw the show Lion Kingdom. We went to the Dinosaur (not good) and the whirl ride. The water one was closed. We had ice cream and headed back to Epcot.

Epcot

The main goal seemed to be finishing the countries stamps. We got stamps at animal kingdom too. We did not really do too much else besides getting the stamps and we did the America show which is a great show, Canada which is not great and Nemo which we ran to like crazy and it was not worth it. We ended with seeing the firework show. They do an amazing job with the firework show. Very impressive

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 5

Harry Potter

We got up really early and made it first to the Harry Potter Castle. This was to be the highlight of the trip. The place is a bit silly with adults and kids wearing harry potter outfits. Thank G-d we were there early because the lines picked up right after. We hit the Castle and buckbeaks ride and Yehuda went on the dragon roller coaster. We also went to the wand shop which was a waste (just a sales pitch to sell wands- we told the kids no) and moved on to Jurastic park. They had a cute flying ride and off to the water park. I was really sick at this point. I came down with a flu and could hardly move. I skipped the water drop and rested and just tried to make it through the day. We went to the superhero area and saw the Spiderman ride and Yehuda went on the hulk roller coaster (the kid is crazy). Yehuda did free fall and they all did the spinning ride. We left there for Dr. Seuss land and did a few rides there before we called it a very early day as I was so sick and went right to bed.

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 4

Universal studios

We decided to leave Harry Potter for Monday when it would not be as busy. We went to Universal Studios. It is an impressive park which we did the whole park except for disaster. Ys went to rip and rock roller coaster and I took the Es to ET. We met at the Simpsons Ride which I thought was the best in the park. The boys bought a magic trick after seeing the magic show called the Levitator- which is a piece of well hidden string and cost $38. WE saw the Shrek 4D movie which is ok. The kids were afraid of the Revenge of the Mummy but we all went on that roller coaster. The younger kids and I went on the water slide and we finished off with terminator and twister which was a bit scary for the kids. We stayed until the park closed ate dinner and called it a night.

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 3

Shabbat at the Gitty and Yehuda Shapansky

The Shapansky were great for taking us in. They are trying to get the Orlando community off the ground. Yehuda is the head of a school with a partner. They had other guests whose name escapes me (Chaim is his first name but he runs the Z Berman Jewish book store in Passaic). We davened in the Rabbi's home since the community is 15 families. The Rabbi davened Sefardic even though everyone is Ashkanazic, since the sefardim brought him. Motzei Shabbat we went back to the hotel.

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 2

Epcot

We decided to go to Epcot for day 2 as it was a short day and we figured we can make up what we missed on a later day (we got the hopper pass). We started a bit late to the park due to waiting for a minyan. Rabbi Schwartz from Ohev Zedek was there and he finally got his baali Batim and sons to show and we got a minyan. Test Track was closed and that is considered the highlight ride. We first went to the great Epcot ball attraction called Spaceship Earth. It is very cool ride. We then went to Captain EO which I have found to be a silly movie (3d or not), I saw this went it first came out and wondered even then how it got past any sane person reading the script or seeing it for the first time. It was our time for SOARIN which was a great ride. It was actually the only ride we did 2x. It is really cool. We moved on to the Circle of Life, Imagination Pavellon and Figment all of which were not so good. Debra had the kids take some pictures with charachters. and we went to the Country displays. We ate lunch and the kids got very excited with a sky writer plane telling us to turn back to G-d. We went to a bunch of countries and got stamps and headed off for Shabbat.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Orlando Vacation 2012 Day 1

Disney World- The Magic Kingdom


We got a really late start on Day 1. The reason was not only because of our late arrival but due to the late minyan at Chabad. It wasn't supposed to be so late but it was Jewish time so it turned out to be late. We went shopping first and got to the park at around 11:00am. We decided to quickly fast pass space mountain and we went on our first experience of Stitch's Great Escape (a lame sit down adventure which a movie charchter is supposed to cause havoc. After that we did the Tomorrowland Speedway (a racetrack with go carts that keeps you to the track so the kids got a chance to be the drivers). Next we went to space mountain which is by far the highlight ride of Disney World and Buzz Lightyear . We left Tomorrow Land and went to Fantasyland which was really not for our kids. We fast passed the Peter Pan and went to lunch. After Lunch of Tuna (our normal travelling lunch) we took in Snow White's Scary Adventure, Peter Pan's Flight, Mickey's Philhar Magic and it's a small world. The kids were not really into these. President Obama was at the Park but we did not see him live (although they closed off parts of the park for him, we did not even notice). We next hit the haunted house, The hall of Presidents and Splash Mountain which the kids loved. Big Thunder was closed and they all really love roller coasters so that was a bit of a disapointment. It was getting late and we were all tired so we took pictures on main street and got in the Laugh Factory before calling it a day. I was "That Guy" who they kept picking on in the show. Eli tried to protect me at some point but we told him it was all just fun and he should keep his seat. He is such a good boy. Everyone was wiped out and fell right asleep. We did not stay for the final parade or fireworks show.