Universal Studios / Shopping - 19/8

Guess who went to Universal Studios and who went shopping?

No surprises here: Ioana didn't enjoy the rides at Disney parks and decided to go shopping instead, while the rest went to have some more fun :-)

Universal Studios

And fun it was!

Yoram and the kids arrived a little late to Universal Studios Florida park (there are 2: Universal Studios Island of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. The choice was hard, but the first looked a little more extreme, so we chose the second). Ioana dropped us at the park and went to spend some money.

Entrance to Universal Studios Florida

Universal Studios parks are a little different than Disney's: while Disney parks have all kinds of roller coasters and a lot of attractions designed in a Disney atmosphere, Universal Studios park are all about movies. There are roller coasters and other simple rides, but there are a lot of rides that are a mix of roller coaster (either real or enhanced 4D like) and a movie, i.e., you feel like you ride inside of a movie, which is amazing!

We started with Transformers 3D movie, which was actually a Terminator 3D movie (we entered the wrong theatre). Started with a demonstration of real Terminator robots showing off their fire power and then the movie, which is integrated with real actors (looking similar to the characters in the movie) running on stage. The movie looks pretty real. Tamar was a little frightened. Maybe it's not suitable for her age...

We moved to E.T ride, which was absolutely amazing. There is a silly plot that the ride goes by (E.T. should return home to save his friends with his healing abilities. Told you it's stupid), but it is amazing. The coach has 4 seats in a row (we all sat together), which are like bicycles, and you experience the movie while riding in the coach (including flying over the city on the bicycles).

Then a simple roller coaster and a fun slide into water.

A "simple" roller coaster

Water slide

And Amit and Tamar

Knight Bus

And then Harry Potter ride, which was even more amazing than E.T. (during the very long wait to the ride you pass through Gringotts, the goblins bank, with goblins that look very very real on the sides of the path, you see news papers with moving pictures, etc.). And then you go on the ride, which is something else. 

Diagonal Alley, and a dragon 

Not to mention strolling in Diagonal Alley (where Harry Potter goes to buy stuff for school), which looks exactly as in the movie (and where the boys got themselves 2 good looking wands and Tamar got a school bag just like Hermione's).

Still Diagonal Alley

Still in the alley

The capes are so expensive

Wands Store, like in the movie

The kids practicing magic with newly bought wands

Yoni with the Simpsons

Lunch with the Simpsons

We went also to the Simpsons area, where we took a 4D Simpsons ride, which was really nice and then had lunch in a Simpsons restaurant that showed Simpsons episodes all the time and had a lot of fun.

DeLorean from Back to the Future

Another ride that shows how films are made (called Disaster) and a Shrek 3D movie, which was not that good.

The restaurant from Back to the Future

Eaten by Jaws

That's it. It was getting late and Ioana finished her shopping, so we had to leave the park and head back home. We had a lot of fun.

Shopping

Not much to tell. 8 hours resulted in a lot of clothes for the full year - Desigual won for being the leading store with the higher amount spent and WhiteHouseBlackMarket won the ״revelation of Ioana" - being a such a nice store she knew nothing about. 

We all arrived home very tired and couldn't pack for tomorrow - when we need to leave the house at 11:00 after all the new shopping are in the  suitcases.

Kennedy Space Centre & Cirque de Soleil - 18/8

We are almost at the end of the trip. The special birthday present for Yoni and Amir is today - taking them to see the circus. So we can't visit a park today since the show is at 18:00.

Visiting NASA is a good opportunity to have a break and rest a little. We didn't travel for 3 days and the one hour drive looked very long. Also, the tolls on the way there are very annoying - we stopped 4 times to pay.

At the entrance to Kennedy Space Centre

The expectations of the kids from the visit were not very high, but.. we started with the Atlantis room, as suggested by the lady from information. The show they put on is impressive. First u enter a room with a big screen where a short video is explaining about the journey of NASA team to achieve a ship that will be re-usable and that can make several trips. Then we are moving to another room where the movie is all around u - on the ceiling and on the lateral walls also and it show the travel to the moon and then when it is over, the screen transforms to be transparent and Atlantis ship is revealed in front of our eyes. Very impressive.

Atlantis Space ship

There are nice explanations on the external arms and the Hubble space telescope, but as I said: not a lot of enthusiasm from the kids, so we read the explanations to ourselves.

Tunnel outside the "ship"

The fun began when the kids saw that there are some interactive thinks to do - like walking through a transparent tube that is located above the room, which mimes the walk in space, or the big slide which is like the entrance back in the atmosphere. Slowly they got impressed and even watched a short video explaining about the life in a space ship. How the astronauts sleep and eat, what their day to day routine is and so on. There were also some simulators, but rather disappointing. Yoram, Amir and Tamar did a ride on a device that almost took them to space. It was really nice, a preview of what awaits us tomorrow...



At the end of the visit there is a place where all the astronauts that died in a mission are mentioned, so I couldn't stop myself from a small Israeli proud moment

Ilan Ramon

After that we could drive with the bus to see Apollo/Saturn launching site but due to time limitations we skipped that.

So, after a visit to the cafeteria (we had lunch and Tamar even got a non gluten burger) and to the shop museum, we drove back to Orlando to be ready to the show. We arrived exactly at 17:00, as requested, to take our tickets.

Ioana and the boys saw the show that was really amazing. We have also bought the video so we can remember. 

Cirque de Soleil - the finish applause

Yoram and Tamar took a walk on downtown Disney and bought a ... doll (Elsa again joined our family). They also rode a Harley Davidson...

A Lego dragon in the lake

And we are not over yet - we saved a surprise for the kids. Remember that we bought with Disney tickets also 2 other parks? So one of them was the water park, and the other one we selected "Disney Quest". This is a 5 floor building full with video games and simulators and electronic games and small rides. We spent there 2 hours from 20:00 to 22:00 (when they closed) and we could easily be there more. All had fun and rode a lot of stuff. 

Tamar is too small to reach the pedals 

We were pretty tired after all that but also hungry. Close by is the Splitsville restaurant, which is also a bowling place. They have a wide variety of gluten free dishes but Tamar chose the pizza,

Eating at Splitsville, downtown Disney

That's it. Very tired we got home and went to sleep. 

Disney Typhoon Lagoon Park - 17/8

This day was dedicated to a water park. As part of the package we bought, we chose to use the  tickets for a water park. We arrived pretty late, at around 11:00, since the kids and us were very tired.

The entrance to Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

The place was packed and it was pretty hard to find a place in the shadow. Immediately the boys went to the water roller coasters (Tamar is too small) an Yoram also. All day till 16:00 when a big storm came, they were all around the place, trying almost all the existing attractions. The park is very nice arranged, having a big pool in the middle which is also creating big (really big) waves. Around it there is place to sit in some kind of real/artificial sand and there is a river where u can draft on top of a tire and then more places to stay and all the roller coasters, all with water. 

A river for slow ride on tires

It was a fun day and in the evening, while all were resting at home, Ioana drove to one of the outlets and bought some pants. 

Orlando - illusion, fantasy or just a sweaty slam - 15-16/8

We left the 5 last days for Orlando fantasy parks. Our flight was a very early one, but, miraculously, the kids woke up on time and we left the resort just as planed, without the 2 Skunks that visited our porch. Ioana arranged the garbage in the evening and since she didn't see any cats around (there are no cats at all on the streets), she assumed it is ok to leave the garbage outside. Well, looks like there are other animals that like to eat from the garbage and we met them. They where a couple, messing together. But we were brave and together with the broom stick we showed them the way away. Still we had to clean after them....

Anyhow, we reached Orlando already at 12:00 after we took an identical car to the one we returned in Richmond, only red. The place we booked is ready only from 16:00, so we had time to go to eat and also to buy tickets for Disney World for the next day. We concluded with buying tickets for 3 parks. Magical kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon park (which is a water park) and an additional one we can choose from the less expensive ones. The rain frighten us and lowered the mood, since as u know we don't like it so much. But, no worries. We will stick to the plan - tomorrow Magic Kingdom, the day after water park, then NASA and then Universal Studios. The weather needs to go along with that. We also bought tickets to Cirque de Soleil for Ioana and the boys. Since this is the only thing they are doing without Tamar (it's their birthday, after all), there were no compaints. That's it. We were very tired so we went to sleep preparing for the big day.

our dinning room

Tamar in the salon

Jacuzzi

Jacuzzi with our guys

Disney - Magic Kingdom
We got there very early. At 9:30 we were at the gates, after parking our car in Simba 21 parking lot. And Simba is a hero, but we didn't know that. And this is very important since it took us around one hour to find the car in the evening. So, we parked, we walked to the gates, we embarked a bus that took us to the entrance to the park. On the way, we saw a sign to Epcot.

The main street in Magic Kingdom

Disney's Castle ahead

With every ticket we got 3 fast passes (a fast pass allows you to reduce the waiting time for a ride), that need to be selected an evening ahead. We did that, since we tried to be organized. The scheduling and all the Disney app usability is very complicated and not friendly task. The trick is u can't choose the attractions, then the people that want to participate and get the hour to be there as expected. U are choosing the persons and u choose one attraction, but the computer automatically choose the other attractions for u. So u need to choose all the three in advance, but the people who want to go there are not the same.... Anyhow, after a lot of modifications we got more or less what we wanted. Since the app is such a mess, they have people on site helping with scheduling and changes. But enough with the engineering part. 

We started with Adventure Land, by shooting at some figures. And the annoying part is that after u pay 105$ per ticket, u need to buy coins to activate this. Small money but a little bit annoying.

Yoni with a very big gun

Then, the first ride is Big Thunder Mountain. The four heroes of our family joined the ride and even arrived to the other end intact (Ioana not included). They enjoyed it very much.

Big Thunder Mountain

Then we went to see the Tom Sawyer Island and it was very hot. Very hot. We moved to the next challenge we had, the speedy cars in Tomorrow Land followed by another small but shaky roller coaster. The cars are not a big attraction. This time Ioana rode with Tamar and the boys together.

Since it was so hot, and the park setup some kind of sprinkles, the kids used it a little bit too much and they got wet from head to toe. So wet that we had to buy them new clothes.

The kids cooling down

How convenient that Disney stores are everywhere. The truth is that if they weren't so wet, we would never buy such expensive T-shirts. Yoni was not wet but he wanted a bracelet that is used here instead of the ticket (and also diners invitations, and anything else you purchase in Disney).

After a short meal in a very huge cafeteria with surprisingly good food and a doll as an entertainer we continued on. Ioana and Tamar took a break to buy an icecream and Yoram and the boys went back to the roller coasters.

And that's why u need to come here more then once. First u need to see the place and choose what u want to do, but it is so big that it takes u a whole day, and then u need to come again to do al the rides u want. The rain started around 17:00, so we decided to go to downtown Disney to show Tamar the boutique in Disney store which "transform girls into princesses" and for only 200$ gets u a dress, a hair fix and a look of one of three princesses. There are also cheaper packages but Tamar is a smart girl and didn't want to do any of them.
We drove the bus to downtown Disney through a resort. The transportation system and all the surroundings are really a big industry. From downtown Disney, where of course, we also bought some Lego we wanted to return home again using a bus to the parking lot.

Remember Simba? Well, we confused the sign we saw in the parking lot and the fact that a buss took us from the parking lot to Magic Kingdom and assumed we parked near Epcot. So we took the bus there. But no Simba parking in Epcot. So, we took the train to Magic Kingdom where the villains and the heroes parkings are. And Simba is a hero. So, after driving all the possible transportation methods of Disney, we arrived home at around 23:00, without seeing the fireworks or a parade. Quite disappointing.

Virginia - 13-14/8

The (very) long driving from Washington to Virginia brought us to a wonderful resort. Yes, we had no idea that we will reach 'club med'. A resort is a resort. That is, it has a closed area with pool, mini golf, tennis court and others utilities we didn't visit. The accommodations includes a house with two bedrooms, a leaving room, two baths and a kitchen. And, of course, a porch and even a washing machine. So, for the third (and last) time we did some laundry. Those are two floor houses and we got the ground floor with another couple who was on the upper floor. And two skunks that visit our garbage (more about that later). 

As usual, we arrived very late, so there was no time to enjoy the facilities. That's why on the next day, instead of staring the day by going out, the kids went to the pool. Actually, the morning started with Ioana and Tamar making a discovery tour of the place in the attempt to buy milk and eggs for breakfast. That's when we saw the location of all the fun stuff. 

the main house 

After the pool, around noon, we decided to visit the naval base in Norfolk. 

This is the biggest base in USA. It serves the Atlantic side. The tour is 45 minutes, in a bus and a naval police officer is doing the talking. The tour is, of course, a small peek and as much as they want to show. So, we saw some naval destroyers and helicopter carriers and also a submarine. The aircraft carriers where not there. Also the navy have aircrafts and we saw some of them. 

Norfolk Naval Base

The base is huge and there are a lot of facilities which we saw only from outside - like simulators, survival pool and many more. They also did some kind of open expo of houses from all kind of states in USA. Those houses are occupied by colonels and up. They are really very big and fancy. 

The kids were impressed. In the tour it was They mentioned that before 9/11 anyone with a valid Id could visit the base and now u need to be in the army in order to enter. Ioana remembered from her visit in Virginia that she walked on the pier and visited an aircraft carrier.  

On our way to Norfolk, there is a bridge after Hampton where u drive part of it above and part beneath the water. Nice. Not as nice as the bigger bridge that connects to the.... Peninsula.  But we didn't reach it eventually.

ocean view

The tour started at 14:00 so since we are near the see, we decided to go to the beach. The closest one was in Oceanview. The beach was almost empty. Nearby there was a fisherman pier with a restaurant. Never mind gluten free or not, Ioana is hungry so better to go and eat. Indeed, we got a place on the upper terrace. The food is mostly seafood, very good. So we found tuna for Tamar, shrimps for Ioana. The kids and Yoram ate wings and chicken sandwich. But the view was so beautiful and peaceful. 

After lunch we decided to have ice cream and coffee in Virginia beach, where we can see some people. But as we went to the main road we saw that there are traffic jams, so we decided to return back and stop on the way home for a coffee and for some food for the evening. We stopped in Newport News for Starbucks and since a Target store was close by we visited it and bought some more stuff (not a lot). We reached home again very late, at around 21:00. 

The day after, Yoram woke up at 10:00. Yes, first time since we are here we are laying back a little bit. This time we have to take advantage of the mini golf court. 

sal's pizza

We felt safe enough to let the kids go alone. And after mini golf, they wanted to visit the pool again. So during this time, Ioana arranged the luggage since we wanted to have balanced weight for the flight to Orlando. Around 14:00 we were all very hungry so we went to visit the Italian restaurant next by: "Sal's pizza". Actually, this was the best restaurant we visited since we are here. A good Italian restaurant (American food is oily and disgusting). 

And then, some history. We are so close to Colonial Williamsburg, that we went to visit it. The visitors center closes at 17:00, and it was already 16:00, so we didn't buy any tickets, but went by foot to visit it. The place is part of the Revolutionary War against the British empire. All the small village looks as it is in 17th century. The people wear epochal costumes. We didn't know but at 17:00 there is a central exhibition which tries to bring to life the battlefields. So we saw soldiers marching, playing, performing arm firing exercises and even firing an old canon. Seems that Tamar and Ioana were the only ones delighted by the show. The boys were very busy with planning their minecraft battles.

colonial williamsburg

We concluded the evening pretty early since tommorow we need to wake up around 4:30 .