Guigon Travels

HELLO! Well today we went to Universal Studios, and well it was AWESOME!! We went to the Blue Man Group, and well it was AWESOME!!! It was soo funny! But the day started off with me feeling like a dork not being able to understand people when they were speaking Spanish… and the breakfast wasn’t the best… But the first ride we went on was Shrek 4-d… not my favourite. Then we went to the Simpsons ride, SOOO MUCH FUN!!!! THE BEST ONE WE WENT TO! Then we went on the Jaws Ride… it was OKAY but… ehh. The last one at that one park was the MIB ride. That one was really fun! Very spinny. Then we went to the other park, And I convinced my brother, mom and myself to go on the log ride… oh and did I mention it had the steepest water drop ever made… ugh, Mum will tell the story when I’m done writing. After the log ride we went to Emirils Restaurant, IT WAS SOO GOOD! RIB EYE DELICIOUS! BAKED POTATO DELICIOUS! I got gifts for Maggie, Sonia, Monique, Jessie, and Sydney… although I might keep Sydney’s gift and get her something else… IT’S SOO SOFT! By the way, WE SAW LITTLE GECKOS! THEY WERE SOOO CUTE! AND WE SAW BAMBOO.

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

So I’ll let mum tell you about the log ride now:

Okay. I’m tired. Whew. Where to begin. Well, we walked to Universal this morning. It was a nice 20 minute walk and Jarod was quick to spot a few creatures on the way, including birds we think were probably Golden eagles, and geckos. Dan was quick to point out the incredibly tall bamboo just inside the driveway to Universal. We never did get around to using the water taxis we saw though.

Universal Orlando can be done in one day, but would be better in two days. We went first to Universal Studios park. I would direct Martin at this point to take a look at our photos and then pay up when I see him at Christmas. You know what I mean, Brother.

Our first ride was on Shrek 4-D, which was a pretty cool virtual ride with special effects you can feel. Think feeling Donkey sneeze wetly on you.

I’m posting a cool picture of Dan with the original Millenium Falcon. How many of you know what I’m talking about on this one? A hint: we had lunch at Mel’s Diner.

After lunch we made our way to The Simpson’s ride. In case Jessica wasn’t clear enough above: BEST RIDE EVER! If we had had two days we would have done this ride at least once more. It was a virtual roller coaster better than I’ve ever been on before. Leaving this ride we happened upon Homer posing for pictures with people. Jarod almost didn’t get this picture when Homer saw what shirt Jarod was wearing (Stewie from Family Guy saying ‘You are under my control’).

This ride was followed by Jaws and MIB. Jaws was an okay ride. The driver was entertaining doing her part, but the ride itself was pretty tame. If memory serves me, I believe the Universal Hollywood Jaws ride was way better. Of course, that was 28 years ago, so I might be combining two different rides in my head. Anyway, MIB was better fun and involved shooting at bad aliens and trying to shoot at other cars to make them spin. Someone kept nailing us, so I was pretty dizzy by the time we were done. I’m pretty sure Jessica got high score for our group, but being so dizzy from the spinning I could be wrong.

It got hot and humid today, but was bearable and cooled off fairly quickly in the evening. Dan and I both agree it came nowhere near the heat and humidity we got in Montreal in July a few years ago. Anyway, we took a break after MIB. Don’t bother getting the pretzels there; they’re kind of dry and way too salty.

We decided we’d better get over to Islands of Adventure at this point or we wouldn’t be able to get there at all. As it was we still had time for only one ride. Yes, that would be the Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls (the log ride). When we read the description of this ride we were all interested in doing this ride. Then we got a look at ‘one of the steepest water drops ever created’ and started to think twice about it. We watched it a few times and then Jessica said she would go on if someone went with her. Jarod agreed to go when I conceded I would go too. But we all agreed Dan should not go on this until we knew what it was really like. So we handed all our stuff to Dan and he stayed to watch. By the time we got in to the ride itself I was getting a little apprehensive, but a promise was a promise. Jarod was nervous too, but stuck it out. Apparently it didn’t hit Jessica what we were doing until she sat in the front seat of the log. As soon as I sat down I couldn’t help reminding Jessica this was her idea. As the log started moving she turned around to look at me and her face was completely terrified with a the look of “oh, my God, what have I done?” Yeah, ‘apprehensive’ didn’t describe the look on Jessica’s face. So I laughed and told the kids, no worries, it has to be better than the Vancouver ride! That one was just a nightmare. So we go through this ride, turning here, turning there, down a hill in the dark, up the hill in the dark, turning again, turning again, down another hill, up another hill, getting wet the whole way, and then we start climbing the BIG hill and we know we’ve gotten to the really worrisome part. Jessica is sitting hunched up in the front seat, Jarod’s between us and too short to really hunch down any further, and I’m just holding on for dear life and laughing hysterically. We get to the top of the hill go a short distance and then pause ever so briefly at the top of ‘one of the steepest water drops ever created.’ Now, I don’t know what Jessica was seeing at the front of the log, but that could be because that was the point I closed my eyes. A mere moment after that I began screaming as the log began to fall, after which I quickly lost my breath. We were not yet at the bottom when this happened. There was still enough of a drop left for my stomach to fall some more. Apparently Jarod screamed his way down this drop as well, but I honestly couldn’t hear him over my own screaming. By the time we came around to the exit I was laughing hysterically again and totally pumped. We got out of that log ride and even though we were terrified going through it the first time we all agreed we would totally do that ride again! Once we’d been through it we wanted to do it again. However, we still agreed Dan should not go on that ride. At least not at the end of a long day like we’d just had. Just to play it safe.

Unfortunately, we did not have any further time to do this ride or any other ride as we were due at Emeril’s for supper before too long. So we headed over there. And believe me when I say the meals we ate were totally worth the extensive dollars we paid for them!

After Emeril’s was Blue Man Group. What a great show! It was so much fun. Totally recommend seeing them if you get a chance.

By this point we were getting tired, but Jessica convinced us to get some dessert, so we stopped in at Bubba Gump Shrimp for the dessert we were too full to have last night. Jessica and I shared the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae while Dan and Jarod shared the Alabama Mud Pie. Well, they were both delicious, but the mud pie was probably three times bigger than the photo implied. They didn’t get around to finishing it.

So that was our day two and even Jarod said he would have no problem writing his journal entry for school today. Take care and we’ll ‘see’ you tomorrow!

Adelle

Adelle with a Blue Man

Dan amidst the Bamboo

Dan with the Original Millenium Falcon

ELB’s Time Machine

Goofing Off at Our Hotel

I win, Little Brother! Pay Up…

Jarod and Homer

Jess and Curious George

Jess Saving Jarod from Jaws

Lunch at Mel’s Diner

Scooby and Shaggy in the Mystery Machine

The Blue Man Group Musicians These guys were really awesome!

The Delorian

We Look Good in This!

Jessica Wearing Forrest’s Shoes

Adelle and Jess with Julie Andrews

The Ride We Didn’t Get To

Mission Launched!!!
Day Four

Today was our day to move to Disney World. Our Ace Luxury driver was really nice and talkative. We took advantage of early check in at Port Orleans Riverside, had our luggage stored, and took off straight to Epcot by bus. Of course when we got there one of our children almost didn’t make it through security again. We all neglected to make note of Jarod’s new bag bearing the Universal Studios logo. At security they check everyone’s bags. The security guard said nothing, but indicated with his facial expressions his ‘displeasure’ with the Universal logo getting past security. Of course I apparently didn’t do it right either when I tried to let him look in my bag while it was still around my neck. I actually got a verbal reprimand for not taking it off.

On the way to our first stop Jessica was going to stand in line to get Daisy’s autograph and photograph only to realize we forgot to bring pens. By the time we purchased a pen Daisy was gone. Our first stop (none of this was planned, by the way) was to get the Fast Pass for Soarin’, after which we went to see Figment at the Imagine pavilion. That show starred Eric Idle as the Professor, which seemed promising, but it really wasn’t quite up to our expectations. It was only mildly entertaining. We then moved on to see Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, starring Rick Moranis and the cast from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies. This was slightly more entertaining than Figment. It was a 4-D experience that included physical special effects, like ‘feeling’ the mice scurrying under our feet and the dog sneezing on us.

We went for lunch at Le Cellier at the Canada pavilion at World Showcase. It was modeled after the Chateaux Frontenac in Montreal. We sat in the Alberta section. The meal was really excellent, the staff was all Canadian and provided excellent service, and we even met our local Yellowknife representative, Jessica. That was pretty cool.

We’re really starting to wonder about Florida’s obsession with turkey legs, though. Both at Universal Studios and here at Disney they sell turkey legs for snacks. And they’re not small turkey legs, either! Their Flintstones huge! Any thoughts on this? Dan swears he’s going to try one before we leave. I’ll let you know how that goes.

The best ride of the day was next, Soarin’. This was a simulated hang-gliding experience over California. The coolest part was when we could smell the oranges flying over the orchard!

We wandered to the other side of the park, stopping along the way to do some shopping and cooling off in the stores as the weather was the hottest and muggiest day yet. During this time we caught Chip and Dale signing autographs, so Jessica and Dan got in line for their signatures and a photo only for them to ditch the fans before Jessica could get to them. Her heart was broken. Too broken to consider waiting around for them. She did understand, however, that the cast members were probably suffering from heatstroke.

Our goal in this walk across the park was the Mission: Space ride. We chose the ‘lite’ version of this as there were several warnings that the regular ride was ‘intense’ and figured it would be safer to try the lite version first. It was pretty cool flying to mars in the simulator, but we were all pretty much in agreement that we’d probably be okay in the intense ride. However, at this point I was feeling a little heatstroke myself and the rest of the family didn’t seem to want to go on without me, so we moved on to the next ride.

Which was the Universe of Energy and involved a slow ride through Ellen Degeneres’s dream about where energy comes from and how it is used. It was a funny story, but only an okay ride with not bad animatronics and a dinosaur that drooled on Jessica. There was also an animatronic Ellen, probably the only one in existence.

From there we mosied over to Space Ship Earth, which was actually pretty cool. It was a slow ride from the past into the future and included some computer graphics we got to play with. It took our pictures in the car and superimposed our faces onto cartoons about the future. The animatronics in this ride were absolutely spectacular! Their movements and costumes were totally believable and natural looking. At the end we got out of the cars and got to play with futuristic type games before leaving. It was pretty fun.

Then we decided to walk around World Showcase and sample some of the foods being featured for the food and wine festival that is taking place. We were getting pretty tired by this point, though, so we didn’t end up trying very much and decided to just finish walking the showcase and go back to our hotel. We ate a little bit at the food court, went to our room, got our luggage and groceries delivered, unpacked, wrote this little ditty, and went to bed somewhat earlier than previous nights. All in all a rather slow day, but we needed a slower day today anyway with all the excitement so far. Time for me to sign off and let Jessica type her entry. She’s been hovering over me for a few paragraphs now. Later!

Adelle

HELLO Peoples! From now on I will be calling my part of the blog Juice’s Corner. So let me begin:

Well I got an Autograph book today. And within the first like 10 mins I saw Daisy… BUT I HAD NO PEN! So I couldn’t get her autograph. Then I saw Chip and Dale! But they bailed on me! Selfish, selfish, selfish. So the first ride we went on was the Soarin thing, IT WAS SOO FUN! It was like we were flying! The rest of the rides were okay, but Mission Space was REALLY FUN! And I got more gifts today, I wanted to get myself this AWESOME Minnie Mouse Sweater, but it was like 50$! Dude! What the heck! So instead I got an AWESOME Goofy Watch… by the way, according to my Goofy Watch it is 11:14. And I also got a Mickey Bag, It is awesome if I do say so myself. Oh and by the way, Sydney’s Gift is not Sydney’s gift anymore… too cute and soft, so I got her something else… This one is not soft… But Really cute… I think… can’t really remember what it is… it’s still downstairs in the general store. Oh and I got a Goofy hat! Only 20$!! At the round the world food festival thing I had a perogie… 1 perogie for 4$…  RIP! So I had some breadsticks from the food court at my hotel… THEY WERE THE BEST EVER!!! Logging off Juice’s Corner… NOW!

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

PS Monique I hope you get the Juice’s Corner joke… If not, here’s a hint “I will puke down your back”
PPS Today I published the blog entry 🙂

Juice’s Corner:
HELLO peoples!! Well today we went to Hollywood Studios. IT WAS FUNNN! The first thing we went on was the tower of terror, and to all you peoples who said it was bad YOU WERE WRONG! IT WAS THE FUNNEST RIDE EVER!!! But I couldn’t ride it twice because it got late… But the second ride we went to the Indiana Jones stunt show thing, and it was good and funny! Then we went on the flight simulator for star wars, THAT ONE SUCKED! IT WAS SO MUCH LIKE JUST A NORMAL PLANE RIDE THAT I GOT CAR SICK! WHAT THE HECK! Then we went to the back lot tour and that was VERY interesting. Then we went to the Car chase stunt show thing… Ehhhh not my thing. IT WAS SOO REPETITIVE! IT WAS JUST DRIVE THIS WAY… DRIVE THAT WAY… But the jumps were cool! Then we had supper. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! MUSHROOM AND GOAT CHEESE RAVIOLI! MMMM! THEN I HAD CHEESE CAKE DESSERT! YUM! After the supper, we went to the Muppet Show 3-D IT WAS FUNNNY! After that we had just enough time to get to the Fantasmic… IT WAS SOO COOL! THEY HAD MIST SPRAYING UP LIKE A SCREEN AND PROJECTED LITTLE CLIPS ON IT! WOOO! SUPER FUN! Once again no autographs L But tomorrow we are going to Magic Kingdom and we are going to CINDERELLAS DINNER CASTLE THING! Kewl… So ya, that’s about it… bii! Loggin off of Juice’s Corner… NOW

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

Well, Jessica summed things up pretty well. We were up around 9:00 this morning and had to do laundry before we could leave for Hollywood Studios, so we didn’t get there until about 11:30. Jessica and I had agreed that we should get the Tower of Terror out of the way before going for lunch. While waiting in line we talked to these two young girls (maybe eight or nine years old) and their mother. It turns out they have been on the ride repeatedly and they were very encouraging for us first timers. So we go on this ride expecting the worst (thanks to Micheline and Cheryl who swear they will NEVER go on this ride again). We sit down and buckle in and Jessica immediately grabs my arm. So I offer her my hand to hold instead and she actually takes it. This is how nervous she is. The ride starts and we go up and see the apparitions and then the doors close and it goes dark. Then all of a sudden we’re flying up! Then all of a sudden we’re dropping down! Then the doors open and we go forward through a Twilight Zone hallway and then we stop and everything goes dark again. Then all of a sudden we drop, and then fly up and we can see outside the top of the building but before we can actually identify anything we’re dropping and dropping and dropping! Yes, there was screaming from one of us and Lamaze-type breathing from the other one of us (you figure out which). Then we stop and I figure there’s no way we’re done because that would be too easy. I was wrong! It was actually over and I’m thinking, what? That’s it? That can’t be it, I can handle more than that! Well we got off and Jessica was ecstatic and I was trying to sort out my feelings when the two young girls came running up to us to see how we liked it. They were just as excited as before and I had to tell them I actually liked it but would need a little break before I could do it again.

We then moved on to the Indiana Jones show, which was, as Jessica stated, interesting and funny. It was a really good show worth watching. Then we went to Star Tours, which I totally expected to be something much more elaborate and like a thrill ride, but was disappointingly boring. I hate saying that being a Star Wars fan and all. Jarod, however, loved it.

Next came the Back Lot Tour, which had a fun show involving torpedoes and straffing machine gun fire before the tram tour. The tram portion included a demonstration of water destruction through a canyon with exploding gasoline trucks and an earthquake under the tram. It was entertaining. We followed this tour up with the Lights, Motors, Action show, which was a stunt driving demonstration. It was Jarod’s overall favorite show of the day. I found it entertaining, too, but Jessica was pretty bored with it. Oh, well, we all have to make sacrifices.

Lights, Motor, Action let out just in time for us to walk in to our reservation at Mama Melrose’s restaurant. Nice Italian place with good service and really good food. The pasta was fresh made and the sauces were really good. Jessica obviously loved her ravioli, while Dan had an Italian sausage pasta dish, I had a shellfish pasta dish, and Jarod managed to get a plain old cheese pizza. Of course, being on the Dining Plan we also got to have dessert, which was really tasty: Dan and Jarod had what we would call Chocolate Lava Cake, Jessica had a Hazelnut Cheesecake, and I had a lemon custard with strawberries and raspberries. Mmmmm.

Next was the Muppet 3-D Movie, which actually turned out to be 4-D as they had real bubbles falling from the ceiling, water spraying on us, the old guys puppets in the balcony, the Swedish Chef running the projector (and firing cannons at one point), the big harry monster (I forget his name, but it’s not Dan), and Beanie Bunny in the other balcony. This was a typically funny Muppet Show episode and really quite entertaining.

We got out of that with just enough time to get to Fantasmic, which really was a good show, although not quite what I expected. I thought there would be more fireworks, but it was more about mini-clips shown on backgrounds of mist and characters playing out scenes. It was really entertaining and fun to watch.

Overall a fun if not exciting day that ended early enough that we had time to wind down before going to sleep. The humidity was really high today, so Jessica and I felt the need to have a shower to wash off the perspiration from the day. We’re nice and relaxed now, so I’ll sign off and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day at Magic Kingdom.

Juice’s Corner

GUESS what! After 2 days of characters bailing on me, I finally got some autographs! At the beginning of the day I saw Pluto and Chip N Dale in this sort of circle of trees, and after the HORRIBLE DITCHING from Chip N Dale, I decided to go to Pluto. So I stood in line for like a half hour and I got his AUTOGRAPH! Then later… at three or sumthing like that, we went to the Judges Tent to see Mickey and Minnie, We got pictures with them and their autographs! Then we went to Cinderella’s Castle and I got a picture with her and Mum. We turned out Shiny caus it was SOOOO HUMID AND SWEATY OUTSIDE! I ALSO GOT HER AUTOGRAPH!

Well now about the rest of the day, our first ride was the log ride. IT WAS SUPER FUN! We even went on it once more. Then our second ride was the Pirates of the carribean. That one wasn’t the best, I was hoping It would be a thrill ride. Then right after that we went on the Aladdin ride. That was pretty fun. After that we went to the haunted Mansion… not very fun… kinda boring. Then we went on the Peter Pan Flight… it was kewl, we got to fly over London.  Then we went on the Stitches Great Escape… Oi. IT HURT! The restraints pressed down on your shoulders soo hard! GAA! After that we went to the Buzz light years space ranger spin. My gun locked up a quarter of a way through. But after that we went on the space orbit ride thing… I thought I was supposed to sit with dad, so we JAMMED in… not comfy. Then we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh floor thing. IT WAS REALLY FUNNY! Then we went to supper, and we caught the Wishes fireworks display, but it was blocked by the castle… BOO. Anyway dats about it… I think…. Hmmm… ya. Okay ya logging off Juice’s Corner Now.

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

Hello, everyone. Today was a long day, but we once again managed to have fun. Go figure. We went to the Magic Kingdom today and Dan was happy because not only did we get to ride the monorail to get there but we also took the train to get to our first ride. And that first ride was Splash Mountain, which, as Jessica has already pointed out, we managed to ride twice because it was so fun for all of us. We followed that up with Pirates of the Caribbean, which was just a boat ride, but the scenes were pretty great craftsmanship. Next came Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which was pretty much a kiddie ride, but managed to go high enough fast enough and the kids got to control the height and angle of the ‘carpet’. From there we moved on to lunch, followed by The Haunted Mansion. That was a fun if not terribly scary ride. I think Jessica was bored though. Dan and I really enjoyed the special effects, especially in the dining room. Peter Pan’s flight was next. It wasn’t as interactive as I thought it would be, but it was still a fun ride through the skies from Wendy’s home to Neverland. Both Dan and I also found the ‘flight’ over London pretty impressive. Stitches’ Great Escape was not remotely as entertaining as we thought it would be and was a real disappointment. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was a fun laser gun ride, although the scorekeeping was kind of screwy. We’re not sure what happened there. And the Astral Orbit  was very cool, if short, although as Jessica mentioned her and Dan should have taken individual rockets. Finally we got to our supper reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle, which was again a wonderful meal. This time we were allowed to get appetizers on our dining plan. Jess and Dan both got the BLT salad and pork chops, while Jarod got the roast chicken with mashed potatoes and I got the salmon and crab cakes and the lamp chops with potatoes gratin. For dessert Jarod got the ice cream sundae while Dan got the Crème Brulee and Jess and I got the chocolate cheesecake cake (cheesecake was in the centre of a dark chocolate cake with icing). It was so yummy. There was also a show put on by Fairy Godmother and two of Cinderella’s mice, for which the kids each got an autographed card. Jarod even got a kiss from each of the lady mice. Too bad we missed getting a photo of that. Jess and I did get a photo with Cinderella though, although I kind of look trapped. Hard to explain and I only have printed photos, no digitals, so I can’t post it right now. We finished off the night watching the end of the parade and sticking around to watch the Wishes fireworks. Unfortunately we ended up sitting WAY too close to Cinderella’s castle and did not get the full effect. However, it was impressive from whichever corner you saw it when Tinkerbell zip-lined from the top of Cinderella’s Castle to somewhere in Tomorrow Land. Oh, well. Next time we’ll do better. So that’s about it this time around. Still having a great time. Tomorrow is Animal Kingdom and Cirque du Soleil.

Adelle

Well, today was a relatively short day, even though it was still 10:00 p.m. before we got back to our hotel room. We slept in a little bit before heading out to Animal Kingdom. Our first stop was to pick up a new hat for Dan because he really wanted to get one. Then the girls and boys split up for the first half hour or so. Dan and Jarod took a walk through the Oasis, which was a kind of wild animal zoo with things like anteaters and pig-deer and turtles and birds and womprats and swamp wallabees and iguanas… Jarod took plenty of pictures there, it was right up his alley. While they were there Jessica and I went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug, a 4-D interactive show where we got ‘stung’ by wasps, harassed by spiders, and crawled over by other bugs. It managed to get a surprised scream from Jessica and was actually pretty entertaining. We both agreed it was no place for Jarod and we were wise to let the boys do their own thing for this.

After a snack we went to the Kali River Rapids. As it was hot out today rather than very muggy, so we were looking forward to a good soaking. While it was a fun, but short, ride we ended up sitting on the wrong side of the raft and barely got wet at all while the people sitting directly across from us got completely soaked. Therefore we were quick to get a Fast Pass for another ride. While waiting for that we walked across to Africa and went on a safari. That was pretty cool and we saw plenty of wildlife, although it was difficult taking pictures while the truck drove over the bumpy road. Jessica mentioned afterwards she was too scared Jarod was going to drop his camera as he did not put his wrist guard on it that she missed quite a bit on the ride. Once off this ride we went directly to the Kali River ride and this time not only did we get on faster because of the Fast Pass but we also managed to sit in the right spot to get completely soaked! We all felt much better after that.

After lunch we split up again with the boys going to Dino-Land and the girls going to Camp Minnie-Mickey for autographs and photos. As Jessica describes below, she finally got her photo and autograph with Goofy, along with a few others. In the meantime, the boys went on the Dinosaur ride, which Jarod says was really fast and a lot of fun but too loud. Apparently the photo they took during the ride was of Jarod covering his ears. By the time the girls caught up with them they were coming off the Primeval Whirls, which was a short roller coaster type thing with teacup style cars that twirled around the corners. They went on this ride a second time with us and I have to admit that although I don’t normally like spinning rides this one was a lot of fun.

By this time some of us were getting pretty tired from the high heat, so we decided to leave by bus to Downtown Disney. We actually had to take the bus to Port Orleans French Quarter and then we hopped on the water taxi the rest of the way to Downtown Disney. Once there we hopped to another water taxi to get to the Cirque du Soleil.

Cirque du Soleil was absolutely amazing! I highly recommend catching Cirque du Soleil whenever you can. The choreography and talents are spectacular and take a tremendous amount of practice and trust in each other to pull off. Really totally worth seeing.

Supper was at Planet Hollywood, which was okay, good service, good food, but way too loud. We took the water taxi back to our hotel again, which was a nice leisurely ride on the river. Tomorrow is Blizzard Beach.

Adelle J

Juice’s Corner

TEEHEE! Guess what! Today I finally got my goal autograph! I FINALLY found Goofy! Today was actually a pretty good autograph day. I got Lilo and Stitch first when I went to Camp Minnie-Mickey. Then after that I saw Pocahontas, THEN I GOT GOOFY! After that I decided to go see Donald Duck. Later when mom and I were trying to find Jarod and Dad, we saw Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger… Tigger kinda stole the show.

Anyway, when we first got to Animal Kingdom, we went to the first giftshop and saw these Monkeys. AND GUESS WHAT SONIA! WE FINALLY ARE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A REPLACEMENT MONKEY! Anyway, we went on the It’s tough to be a bug… FREAKY!! We also went on a roller coaster thing… DAT WAS FUN! OOOO AND SOO WAS THE RIVER RAFT THING! Soo ya dats about it… O wait! WE WENT TO CIRQUE DE SOLEIL! IT WAS SOOO KEWL!  So ya… dats it… ya okay.. bi logging off of Juice’s Corner NOW!

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

This is going to be a fairly short blog today. We went to Blizzard Beach, which was quite a bit busier than it normally would have been due to Typhoon Lagoon being shut down due to technical difficulties. Therefore, we did not have as much time to do as many rides as we would have liked. What we did do was fun enough though and after a brief stop at the hotel we went on to have dinner at T-Rex Dinosaur Restaurant in Downtown Disney. Although it was noisy and extraordinarily busy it was pretty cool with lots of animatronics dinosaurs all over the place and a simulated meteor shower. Jessica loved her lasagna, Dan enjoyed his fish and chips, Jarod was happy with his mini-corn dogs, and I found my parmesan shrimp and fettucini extremely tasty. From there we went to catch a movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3-D, which was so hilarious we spent the entire trip back to our hotel quoting our favourite lines from the movie, which were extensive.

Adelle

Juice’s Corner

REALLY fun today! We went to Blizzard beach, but it was REALLY busy because Typhoon Lagoon was down. We waited a half hour to go on the raft ride… not worth the wait. Then we also went on the River rafting thing. I LOVED THAT ONE! Very relaxing with a touch of raceness. Ya.. after that we went to T-Rex in Downtown Disney. That was really cool! LOTS of animatronics. My lasagna was DELICIOUS! MMMMMMM!!! And so was the smoothie! YUMM! Then we went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3-D… not very 3-D…. BUT SUPER FUNNY! Well I had already seen it, but STILL! It’s a LOL movie! (Laugh Out Loud… just in case you didn’t know) BUT STILL! YA… BY the way… to anybody at Willie Mac, how was the sock hop?? Oh and also… I AM BEING GOOFY FOR HALLOWEEN! YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT, BUT STILL! I’LL UPLOAD A PICTURE LATER! SEE YAA! Logging off of Juice’s Corner NOW

Juiceness/Jessica:D

Hello, everyone. Today was a pretty laid back day that began with a load of laundry and a swim in the pool. Then after lunch we spent the afternoon at Disneyquest, which is a five-story arcade. One entry fee and everything except the food was paid for. We could play as many of the games as many times as we wanted to. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it was something I ate or just the humidity level in the place, but I got pretty nauseated near the end of the afternoon and felt pretty miserable for about 45 minutes. As with any arcade, it was really noisy in there, but we managed to find a couple of favourite games. For Jess it was the human pinball game. For me it was Champion Bass Fishing, of all games. For Jarod and Dan it was a speed boat racing game.

At about 5:30 we left to meet Mom and Andy at the hotel. They arrived without any problems and, although tired from the long day of travelling, were in good spirits. We got them checked in to their room and took them for supper at the Boatright Dining Hall. As usual, excellent food and service. Pretty tired now and gotta still finish packing as much as we can tonight before we take off for the cruise ship tomorrow.

G’night, all!

Juice’s Corner
HELLO peoples! Well today I got to SLEEP IN! I was happy, but the housekeeping kinda got frustrated with me caus she couldn’t clean the room while I was in it. ANYWAY, today when I finally got up, we went to the pool by the laundry place and did the laundry and Dad and Jarod went in the pool.I was too tired… still only got like 10 hours of sleep… (ONLY ha). Well later we went to Disneyquest (an arcade) VERY loud. But was still fun… Not nearly ACed enough… nearly had a heat stroke in my goofy costume… By the way… WE FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? So after the 6 hours of sweating in a turtleneck, we went back to the hotel to wait for Grandma Clair and Andy. Did not take very long… yet we didn’t get to supper until 8. But Grandma Clair bought me a Goofy plushy! And now I am writing the blog… Well iz getting a little late… ha me saying its getting late.. IT’S HALLOWEEN! AND IT’S ONLY 9 IN YELLOWKNIFE! Geez… Anyway… going on the cruise tomorrow… 😀 O and I got a little tigger pen for sonia.. caus well her gifts aren’t very destuingishable as Disney or Universal… I think I have everybodies gift now… And if you don’t get a gift… I’m sorry, but I’m not made of Money… or time… So I’M SORRY! DON’T GET MAD AT ME! Anyway. Seeya soon… Loggin off of Juice’s Corner Now
Juiceness/Jessica 😀

Cruise ship day! All six of us were up an hour earlier than planned today thanks to forgetting that it was daylight savings time. We had breakfast, checked out, and went for a walk with more than enough time to wait for the van to pick us up and take us to the port. The drive was a little over an hour long, but due to computer problems at the terminal it took nearly two hours to go through security and get onto the ship. So we’re standing in this long, winding line up, patiently following the pack, passing the same people every time the line wraps around again, when Dan notices a guy wearing a Saskatchewan Roughrider’s jersey. So the next time we pass him I nod at him and ask if he’s Canadian. Sure enough, he is. So we have brief conversations a few times around the line before we’re no longer passing each other. Along the way I also started to notice there were a significant number of people with tattoos and Harley’s paraphernalia. So I asked one lady as we were walking by if she could tell me why and it turns out that half the ship’s passenger manifest is comprised of Harley Davidson bikers because they are holding their Hogs on the High Seas Rally on this cruise. I couldn’t help but laugh at that! What are the odds that we would pick the one cruise where Dan would not stand out with his long hair and bushman style?

As Jess mentions below, the ship is huge. Up until two days ago it was the largest passenger ship on the oceans. We even managed to find the Guiness Book of World Records certificate posted on one of the walls to prove it. Now, however, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis is the largest.

Other than walking around the ship a little bit, trying to get our sea legs, and having supper we didn’t really do much yet. Supper was magnificent! The onion tart was amazingly melt in your mouth good.

Anyway, the ship is sailing through somewhat choppy waters and the weaving of the boat is making me dizzy and hard to concentrate. No nausea yet though. Woo-hoo!

Adelle

Juice’s Corner:

GOOD day peoples! Well today we got ON the cruise ship. MAN IT’S BIG! You couldn’t even get it into one frame for a picture!! It took 4 hours to get on… but we’re on now so… ya. But the pool looks so fun! There is also a surf rider thing that looks really fun. OOOhh and there’s an arcade! Well anyway, When we got on the ship, we got these cards that are basically our credit cards J And we went to the restaurant… and the Onion tart was GOOOOD! But it was mums. I also had pork medallions… they were okay… Tomorrow we are on the ocean… And apparently there’s some teen stuff going on, like a prom or sumthing… Whatever… I’m going to the ARCADE! And it’s also Grandma Claire’s birthday tomorrow! Not much else really has happened… so ya. That’s about it… ya bii. Logging off of Juice’s Corner NOW

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

The walkeay from our Disney hotel

The kids in front of the waterwheel

Dan enjoying the architecture at DPOR

First shot of our ship.

Second shot of our ship.

In line at the cruise terminal

The line (actually, two) at the cruise terminal

Boarding the ship

On deck

First dinner in the dining room

Juice’s Corner:

WELL… today was our first full day on board. First off, the breakfast was DELICIOUS!!! Then mum and me went to a Tuscan Pasta making demonstration. The pasta was really good. Then after that we went to this shopping thing….VERY BOORING! It was one long commercial. So we met up with Dad and Jarod and went to Johnny Rockets for lunch… It was filling. Then we went to the arcade. Woah. I won the claw game twice. (pretty good eh?) and one of the things I got was an Apu J. and won two prizes from Skittle Ball. Oh I also played the jump rope game in the arcade… I only got like 10 jumps, but I think it’s pretty good. Anyways. We went to a fancy shmancy restaurant for Grandma Claire’s birthday. I got the Caesar salad (Eh I spelled Caesar right) and then filet mignon… Yumm. Then we had birthday cake for dessert. After we came back to our rooms and found dog pillows with glasses on. I like the housekeeping… Their fun! Then we went to the pool…. Then I started writing this… so ya… dats it…Oh and I had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. It was good. Oooh and we saw what we think is a buoy in the water… BUT WE AREN’T SURE! Anyway… see yaJ

Juiceness/Jessica 😀

Well, the waters did not improve as of this morning, but by mid-afternoon they were much better. It’s taking longer than I had hoped to get my sea legs. Even now, this late at night, the boat is starting to weave again making it hard to write this.

Started the day with breakfast buffet at the Windjammer Café. Very impressive spread. Jess and I went to the pasta demonstration while Dan and Jarod went to find the table tennis and go rock climbing. Apparently Jarod only made it half way up the wall, but I intend to encourage him to try again when Jess and I try it later this week. The four of us got together for a quick bite at Johnny Rockets before Mom and I met for our spa manicure/pedicure appointment. That was Mom’s birthday gift to me, even though it was her birthday today! It was really nice though and felt good to get done. Mom went to meet Andy after that, who was relaxing on the deck waiting for her, while I went to play bingo. I spent $32 and won $25. That’ll do.

While I was at the spa Dan and the kids played in the arcade and went shopping. I thought I saw a submarine while I was at the spa and called the kids on the walkie-talkies to go look, but it turned out to be a barge being hauled by a tug boat. I didn’t see the tug boat until after Dan and the kids went to see what I was talking about. Trust me, it was an easy mistake to make from the angle I was looking at it because it was painted the same gunmetal grey that a submarine might be coloured and the writing was similar white block letters, too. I did wonder at why there weren’t any nationality markers on it, though. Ah, what do I know anyway, right?

Supper was for Mom’s 60th birthday party at Portofino’s Italian Restaurant. Oh, my God, was it ever good. The service was exceptional, the food was amazing, the cake we ordered for mom was out of this world, and they still pushed us to take more dessert back to our rooms to consume later. I definitely have to get some exercise tomorrow!

We followed supper up with a short stop at our rooms where Andy gave Mom her birthday present. He intended to give it to her at dinner but forgot to bring it with him, so we did it in our stateroom instead. It was a lovely set of silver-grey freshwater pearl earrings. A very nice choice that he bought on the ship. After that we all went for a night time swim in the pools. It was really nice, and kind of odd as with the ship rocking back and forth the water in the pools would move with it like the tides being pulled by the moon’s gravity. I’d be swimming across the pool at a constant pace, but my progress would vary from a standstill to speeding forward. It was weirdly fun!

Anyway, we’re back in our rooms now and the boat is rocking again making this hard to keep up. We have to be up a little earlier than today tomorrow as we land at our first port, Labadee, tomorrow. Zip lines and Aqua park, here we come!

Adelle

Jarod Rock Climbing

Jarod Letting Go

The Royal Promenade at Night

Mom’s Birthday Supper

Mom’s Birthday Cake

A towel gift from housekeeping for the kids.

A towel gift from housekeeping for us.

Juice’s Corner:

BONJOUR! Today we went to Labadee. First off, Our safe with our Passports in them died. Uh-huh. So mum almost missed breakfast waiting for someone to fix it. BUT she did get breakfast. So when we got TO Labadee, Mum and I went on the ZIPLINE. The LONGEST zipline over the open Ocean! IT WAS FUN! I EVEN SPREAD MY ARMS OUT! But dad got a picture of me when I was coming in for a landing, so it looks like I’m holding on for dear life. After that we went to the market, IT WAS SOO KEWL! I GOT THE PRETTIST AWESOMEST NECKLACE FOR LIKE 1/6 OF THE PRICE I WOULD HAVE GOT IT IN YELLOWKNIFE! We also got these AWESOME watermelon seed necklaces. 3 for 5$! So we got six. But when we had to walk through this one street full of markets… O MY GOD! We were just aiming to get to the beach, not wanting to buy anything, we wound up leaving the market with a flute, a dress, a magnet, a bag, and a wooden mask. That’s how pushy they are. They were like “Hey! Wanna see sumthing you’ve never seen before? I’m not pushy, I know pushy I’m not pushy” in really heavy French accents. And when they were trying to sell us sumthing and another guy came to try and sell us something, Man they had mouths… Litterally “Pardon my French.”  Then when we went to watch Dad and Jarod go in the water park thing, It looked like they were having fun, but apparently they weren’t. Apparently the water was full of garbage and the bottoms of the stuff were covered with barnacles and all kinds of stuff. Then we went back to the ship, and during supper, our waiter taught us this thing with spoons, where you basically slingshot it into the glass… I got it in like 3 times! Uh-huh! Ya… anyway. Hmmm ya we went to the pool and soon we are going to watch Angels and Demons.. so ya… see ya soon!

Juiceness/Jessica

So ‘Juiceness’ has pretty well explained our day today. It started out with a minor annoyance in the in-room safe malfunctioning, but it was fixed and we got our wallets to go out into Labadee today. Jessica and I did get the better end of the deal in our shore excursion. The Dragon’s Breath Zip Line was totally amazing. The hardest part was being pushed off the ledge. The line started 500 feet above sea level and was 2,533 feet long – the longest zip line over water in the world.

After a quick break for lunch provided by the ship we went shopping in the market and got a few things there and then went looking for Jarod and Dan’s ‘event’. Unfortunately this path took us through the vendor street, which was not really a pleasant experience, as Jessica has described. This unfortunateness continued for the boys as the Arawak Water Park was situated directly next to a commercial fishing dock and the water was dirty with garbage floating around, and the inflatable water ‘toys’ were covered in barnacles and several handles were broken. They only stayed in there for about 20 minutes and were done. We went back to the boat then and enjoyed the fine, clean facilities there.

However, my luck with the on-board electronics continued with my room key demagnetizing. I went down to guest services to get a new key, which they gave me, only for that key not to work either. They ended up giving me an extra key to use in the door.

Anyway, a swim in the pool followed by a viewing of Angels and Demons ended our day. Tomorrow is Jamaica.

Adelle

First shot of Haiti

First shot of the ship while on the tender

The family in Labadee

The boy on the beach

Jessica on the zip line

Zoomed in on Jessica on the zip line

The boys on the water trampoline

The man on the slide

First full shot of the ship from the tender

The boy with the ship’s Guiness record

The girl with the Guiness record