A week from today, for a week -- September 22 through 29, 2017. And we're going to Florida. (Orlando area, which is in back in working order already.) I'll be bringing my tablet, so I'll be able to check in at least once in a while.
The announcement made just in case you haven't checked out the Calendar feature (which is up there in the upper right corner under the search box).
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I'm just now noticing this, or I would've already asked what specific sights y'all are planning to see. (My brother, my sister-in-law, and my two teenage nephews are heading down to Naples for Thanksgiving at a relative's condo there, if the condo's still standing, and they were planning to stop en-route for a stay at Shades of Green [the resort at Walt Disney World for military and their families] and at least one day's visit to Universal Orlando Resort.)
Well, my sister Nancy -- who initiated this trip -- is all about hitting the Harry Potter sections of Universal. Peg and I did Universal ourselves about a year and a half ago and had a great time; we actually got tickets for three days this time so we could hit everything we missed the last time. We'll also be doing Universal's "after hours" Halloween party thing on Sunday night. Beyond that, well, Nancy and a friend are planning on going to that Bible theme park (I can't remember the name, I just call it "Fundieland"), and there's a gorgeous arboretum that Peg and I discovered last time that we want to visit again (and which Nancy wants to see, too). That's a good four or more days out of the week there; we'll probably do one poolside day just to relax, too.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
And we're all packed except for the toiletry items that go into the bags after we use them tomorrow, we have our boarding passes printed, and we're already two hours past the bedtime we were supposed to crash at. Wish us luck. <grin>
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
And we're here. Peg and Nancy are out at the pool behind our condo, while I'm just collapsing here on the balcony listening to the waterfall that feeds the pool. The sun is just starting to set, and while it's a touch more humid than I'd prefer, it's still quite comfortable and there's a pleasant breeze.
Once I figure out how I can post pics from my phone, I'll add some to this thread.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
09-22-2017, 09:44 PM (This post was last modified: 09-22-2017, 09:46 PM by Mamorien.
Edit Reason: "I was being facetious." "Oh, I'm sorry. There's a bathroom right over there."
)
Holy Land Experience. We drove past it on the way to UOR in 2014 (we stayed at Royal Pacific and had one dinner there, one at Hard Rock Hotel and one at Portofino Bay).
EDIT: Sorry, but my inner Pedant Point collector woke up.
Yeah, that's it. As it happens, the friend has canceled on her, so that's no longer part of the plans. Also, it turns out the arboretum is closed due to hurricane damage. So that's off the list, too.
We're doing someplace called Mango's Dinner and Show tonight, and day 1 of Universal is tomorrow.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
So yesterday we spent the entire day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, and after dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe we spent the evening at a limited-access Halloween event at Universal Studios. We got home about midnight and had a little trouble unwinding, so we didn't get to sleep for like an hour afterward. Naturally we slept in this morning, and instead of heading back to Universal for our second day today, we decided to rest up and spend Tuesday and Wednesday at the parks. Hence why I'm posting on the forums right now instead of being out and about having fun.
(We actually were out and about for most of the day so far, and ended up with a late lunch at a nearby Benihana. The on-resort cafe two doors down is having a pizza night, with a movie by the pool, so that's our evening plans, after which we'll crash early and head off to Universal again tomorrow morning.)
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
And after two days in a row at Universal, we're pooped. But it's a good kind of tired, as the saying goes. Oh, to whoever it was 19 months ago who warned us that the restaurant pumpkin juice was inferior to the bottled and said to try the cauldron cakes, well, the pumpkin juice is still the same, but the cauldron cakes are different. I'll take a shot of the one we bought and are hoping makes it back to the condo intact, once we get back.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
(09-27-2017, 05:53 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: And after two days in a row at Universal, we're pooped. But it's a good kind of tired, as the saying goes. Oh, to whoever it was 19 months ago who warned us that the restaurant pumpkin juice was inferior to the bottled and said to try the cauldron cakes, well, the pumpkin juice is still the same, but the cauldron cakes are different. I'll take a shot of the one we bought and are hoping makes it back to the condo intact, once we get back.
Wasn't us. I didn't try either type pumpkin juice or the cauldron cakes; I was more interested in the butterbeer (which was very good). I hope you remembered to get Park-to-Park tickets, and to ride the Hogwarts Express in both directions.
09-27-2017, 09:38 PM (This post was last modified: 09-27-2017, 09:39 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
Oh, we did. And we made the trip several times. In fact, we used the express to go from the Studios to the Islands just to get lunch at the kebab place in The Lost Continent, then went right back to do most of the afternoon in Diagon.
As for the cauldron cakes, let me see if I can successfully attach an image.
...and no, I can't, because my tablet reports insufficient memory to attach and upload the image I managed to get transferred over from my phone. Dammit
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Android, at least, has apps specifically for resizing photos. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find something similar for iOS or Windows 8/10. Maybe you could try installing one (assuming you have space) and resizing the pictures down to something your tablet can manage.
I actually tried to look for an image editor that would let me resize, but my tablet is currently plagued by a repeating crash of the Play Store app that I have yet to solve despite a plethora of advice about the problem on the web. I'll have some time tonight in between packing to leave, though, so I'll try again.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Sounds like you're having a lot more fun than I had in my trips to Orlando. But I was there for a programming conference in late June, which basically meant I just stayed in the nice air conditioning and left my hotel as little as possible. Seriously guys, don't go in the summer. Though we got Charlie Stross as a keynote speaker at one of the conferences, so not a total loss.
I did make it to the Kennedy Space Center, which is always fun. The presentations there were a bit more... imagineered than I expected. It's like a theme park, except instead of imaginary history, you get to see actual artifacts of our space program. You can look at the rocket garden, and think, "oh hell, they strapped a man to the top of one of those?"
Don't go in late September, either. By the end of the week we were battling 95+ F temperatures and heavy humidity. (Yes, we're now home. Where a "cool snap" just broke NJ out of identical weather.)
KSC these days is very well-handled. I did it as a kid, in the 80s, and in the 90s, and really, what they're doing now brings it all together a lot better, and makes the history of the space program very understandable and relatable. And they're preserving stuff now -- like the Apollo rocket -- which had previously been left exposed to the elements. Yeah, it's obvious that they've turned the whole tour thing over to an organization that knows how to manage a tourist site -- but you know, it doesn't suffer for that. They're actually quite respectful and are not submerging the science and history under glitz.
Oh, and let's see if the cauldron cake pic uploads properly now:
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
09-29-2017, 06:17 PM (This post was last modified: 09-29-2017, 06:19 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
And yay, it does, but I can't figure out where that "Less than 1 minute ago" markup thing is coming from.
We haven't eaten yet -- we managed to get it all the way back to NJ with only cosmetic damage (smushed flames, which are a kind of stiff, dry frosting). It feels like basically a cake, spongy. I'm not sure what the outside is made of, but it's not a chocolate shell like the old cauldron cakes had. I'll report back when we've actually consumed the thing.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
09-29-2017, 08:17 PM (This post was last modified: 09-29-2017, 08:18 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
Update: The cauldron cake is exactly that. Instead of the confection made of seven different chocolates they used to sell, it is just a chocolate cake with flame-styled icing, baked and sold in a food-grade silicone cauldron. The bottom of the box even explains how to reuse the cauldron to bake new cakes.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
(09-29-2017, 08:17 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: Update: The cauldron cake is exactly that. Instead of the confection made of seven different chocolates they used to sell, it is just a chocolate cake with flame-styled icing, baked and sold in a food-grade silicone cauldron. The bottom of the box even explains how to reuse the cauldron to bake new cakes.
So ... the cake is not a lie? But how does it taste? (It looks, by the way, as if scooping it out of the cauldron would be a task not very well suited to "a slice for you, and a slice for you, and a slice for...")
Welcome home!
----- "The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that this was somekillerweed."
It was a very nice, very moist, very rich chocolate cake. But it was not easily shared, no. We did in fact end up scooping it out in chunks with a spoon.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Yeah. A big, round one, but yeah. And a hell of a letdown after the amazing chocolate creation they used to be.
I suppose there's a larger profit margin on a cupcake than there is on a labor-intensive sweet.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I just stumbled over the thread about our original trip to Universal in 2016. It was Shepherd who made the cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice recommendations. And he did describe them then as cupcakes, but I still remember them being something more like frosted confection with cake at the center than what they were selling this year.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
