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DAY: ONE
- TWO - THREE -
FOUR - FIVE -
SIX - SEVEN |
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DAY
2: Monday, April 26th |
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| Conference:
Renaissance Orlando Resort at Seaworld |
| The alarm in the room
was set for, but I got up early and turned it off. For the next
three days I would be attending a conference at the Renaissance
Orlando Resort at Seaworld. I headed down to the car and it was
very pleasant out. I had directions, but didn't know which way to
turn leaving the resort. I chose correctly and within minutes was
on I Drive. It only took about 15 minutes to get to SeaWorld and
there was barely any traffic. I glanced down at the clock it was
an hour earlier than I had thought. The clock in the hotel room
had been wrong!!! It worked out well because I was a bit late
before and now I would be a bit early. The Renaissance Orlando was
right across the street from SeaWorld. I caught a glimpse of
Kraken and it looked cool. Parking for the conference was easy as
was the registration. The resort was really beautiful, no theming,
just really classy. Lunch wasn't that great (Mexican buffet), but
I ate out by the pool and tried to work on my tan. A few more
sessions and I was on my way back to the HRH. There is a ton of
stuff along I Drive. I saw the Hard Rock Vault and tons of resorts
and shopping! |
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| Hard
Rock Hotel: Beach Club |
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Joe spent his day at the
Hard Rock Hotel Beach Club (pool). When I arrived back at the
hotel he had racked up a nearly $50 bar tab! He should be good and
ready to go on the rides at IOA now!!! We both really enjoyed the
pool area at the Hard Rock. It was great to have servers take your
food and drink orders at your chairs. There were also lots of
different areas to sit in, sandy beach, tables&chairs,
cabanas, etc. You needed to show your room key in order to get two
towels and were given a wristband at that time. You also needed
your room key to get into the pool area from the parks. |
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| Islands
Of Adventure (IOA) |
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This was the first
time at IOA for the both of us. I really liked the theming as we
walked through the Port of Entry. It felt like we were entering a
distant land and added to the excitement. We went under the bridge
and there it was.....I had been looking
forward to riding the Hulk coaster for months and the time had
finally arrived!! Joe decided he should watch and hold the camera
while I rode. I got in line and was in the car in no time. Love
that FOTH! The acceleration up the hill was great. From there the
ride just flew by. I loved the tunnel and all the loops. It was a
great rush. I got off with a huge grin on my face.
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| Next up was Spiderman. We
almost bypassed the 3-D glasses pick-up since there was no line!
In some parts of the queue we wondered if we had accidentally
wandered into an unrestricted office area. It was quite realistic.
This was a great ride! I even had to close my eyes a few times. We
both gave it two thumbs up. On to the Jurassic
Park River Adventure. Again there was no line. We were seated next
to two kids who kept commenting on how fake everything looked the
whole ride. It made it less fun for us, but I thought the ride was
fantastic. We took in the scenery in the Jurassic Park area for a
while. |
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Confisco
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Joe
hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we headed for Mythos. It was
closed! I was really disappointed as this was one of only two
places I had planned to eat. I'm not sure why it was closed and it
was listed as open on the daily guide. We wanted a sit down
dinner, so we decided on Confisco. The restaurant was pretty empty
and we were seated right away. We didn't get a waitress for about
5 minutes though. The food and service were okay, but I wouldn't
recommend the place. The bar next to the restaurant was full and
looked like a fun place. |
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We planned to stay in
the park until closing and we still had an hour to go. It was
still hot out, so I suggested we try the water rides!! We headed
to Ripsaw Falls, but it had broken down (we overheard that this
happens quite frequently with this ride). So next was the Bilge
Rats Barges. The ride vehicle was just like the Kali River Rapids
at AK, but the ride was ten times wetter and faster!! When we got off
we looked like like drowned rats! It was
refreshing, but I hadn't dressed for the occasion and was quite
soggy. I thought about
going on Hulk to dry off, so we headed that way. Walking under the
ride, Joe was struck by a falling quarter. It actually left an
impression on his arm! Everyone around us scattered to grab the
change. It looked like some of them stand there all day waiting. I
decided I would rather dry off shopping, so we hit the store on
the way out.
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| Hard
Rock Hotel: Emack
& Bolios |
| Our
room was rather warm when we return, so I checked the thermostat
and it was 71. I had set it to 65 (the lowest you can set it to),
but it didn't seem to have enough power to cool off the room. Some
areas of the hotel were very cool and others were quite hot. It
would have been nice to be able to open the windows since it did
cool off outside at night. We decided to stay "in" and
take a tour of the hotel. Our first stop was ice cream at Emack
& Bolios. It was pretty good. Joe had had breakfast here this
morning and enjoyed the coffee and muffins. Next we stopped into
the hotel gift shop. I liked watching the monitors with webcams at
other Hard Rock locations. The shop attendant was very helpful and
gave us info on some of the costumes and props in the hotel. I
thought there would be more memorabilia around the hotel, but I
think what was there was done well. We got back to the room and
watched a little tv. I set the alarm and double checked the clock
to make sure the time was still right (I had fixed it earlier)!
Off to sleep.......
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