Florida Update 2

We're up north now in Ocala, Florida, visiting a relative.

Our first two days were spent at a Holiday Inn Express a couple of minutes drive from Universal Studios in one of the tiniest hotel rooms we have ever stayed in.  That was certainly interesting for four adult size folk.

Universal Studios, and its sister park, Islands of Adventure, were fun but very expensive.  We did most of what we wanted to do and only had to wait in one really long line, that being for the newest ride, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, which was the last thing we did on the last night.  We went on the Harry Potter ride twice (Carol's lunch survived the second time) and Ben got to ride on the Revenge of the Mummy ride four times, as using the Single Rider lines cuts out almost all the waiting.  Some rides/attractions are in definite need of retirement.  I'm looking at you Twister, a short, portentious attraction based on a 17 year old mediocre movie.

The Pumpkin Juice in Harry Potter land was surprisingly great, a delicious mix of pumpkin and cinammon.  I really liked it.  The Butter Beer was also excellent, closest in flavor to a cream soda but with a cream topping.  Unfortunately, the color was all wrong.  See Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for how it's supposed to look.

Once we left Universal, we traded up to the Hilton Lake Buena Vista, an old-school comfortable and huge hotel, and spent Tuesday going a little slower.  We had lunch at Downtown Disney and did some shopping.  After a return to the Hotel, we had dinner at the California Grill at the top of the Contemporary Resort in Disney World.  Carol told them it was our anniversary and Rachel's birthday so they gave us the best view in the restaurant, overlooking the Magic Kingdom, and brought us free cake at the end.  It was a wonderful dinner.

Afterwards, we rode the Monorail around once before returning to the hotel for swimming and hot tubbing.  We'll return for our actual Disney stay on Friday.