Universal's Islands of Adventure

Firstly let me say right away that we were soooooo looking forward to Universal we could barely keep the smile from our faces.  You see, for those of you not in the know, Universal's Islands of Adventure houses the ultimate in park attractions for millions of people around the world, namely The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Heaven!

As you can imagine, upon arriving at the park this was to be our first port of call.............or

so we thought!  We headed straight through the park, past the hoards of tourists queuing for Jurassic Park and Spiderman, with our sights firmly set upon Hogsmeade.  We rounded the corner to be told that the 'area' was at capacity and everyone wishing to visit had to get a return pass.  We'd heard about the great 'Harry Potter queues' but kind of thought that due to it being early in the day, midweek and the middle of February queueing would be in our favour.  Nevertheless, we hovered around the park and returned two hours later.  The 'world' itself is made up of the little village of Hogsmeade complete with many of the shops and sights from JK Rowlings imagination and Hogwarts castle. 

The Three Broomsticks, Ollivanders, Honeydukes and Zonko's were all present but were a little disappointing.  Choice of stock was limited and compared to Disney seemed very expensive.  The queue for Ollivanders alone was longer than that for any of the rides within the area, hence to say we didn't bother but all bought wands from the little stall outside Hogwarts.  Butterbeer however is delicious!  We bought 2 large tankards (which you get to keep afterwards) one was liquid and one was frozen - we had a great debate of which one was the nicest.  Without giving too much away Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a must.  The queueing area takes you through Hogwarts castle with many famous sights along the way.  Once through the queuing area we boarded 4 seater cars that took you on an amazing journey through Harry's world.  I'm embarassed to say I had my eyes closed for much of it especially due to inclusion of spiders!  You may be picking up a bit of a theme here that, yes, I'm basically a coward.

Now, other than the Harry Potter section of the park I have to say we were very disappointed on the whole with Islands of Adventure.  This may have a lot to do with the fact that, as I've said before, we're not big on 'rides' and this really is a 'rides' kind of park.  We did go in the Jurassic Park Discovery Centre and upon entering it all looked great, all decced out like in the movie but then after spending a bit of time in there it just seemed to be lacking.  We all agreed that it could have been made a whole lot better.

One things for sure though, we will never be returning to Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoopendus. The name Circus McGurkus Cafe Sick would be more appropriate!  The food here was just horrible - all precooked and left on warming plates, fries were like rubber and tables not cleaned.  In fact I had to clean our own table before we could sit down.  There just weren't enough staff to keep up with the sheer volume of customers.  The music was also ridiculously loud that you couldn't even hold a conversation.  Strangely enough, within 24 hours we'd all been a little ill!  We made our feelings quite clear to the market researchers who were keen to get our opinion outside the park.

So that's it, my post on Islands of Adventure is at an end and is probably half the length of the posts I've written on Disney.......................this should tell you something :)

A busy week!

Well, the clock is ticking and the weekend's drawing nearer.  I keep thinking that everything is now done and prepared for the holiday but then another little item crops up on my 'to do' list!

Cases are at least packed (kind of) but hand luggage is still to do.  I always have a real panic when we go to Cornwall for the week, always thinking there's something I've forgot to pack or do, so as you can imagine a 3 week holiday is a bit of a nightmare for me in the 'panic stakes'!

My quiet week has turn out to be 'not' so quiet.  My work list seems to be getting longer as the week gets shorter.  With risk assessments still to write, emails to send, bookings to deal with and accounts to manage, holiday packing is now becoming less of a priority as we try to tie up all the loose ends with the business before going away.  Who on earth takes a 3 week holiday when they run their own business?............hmmmm we do! Oh well, once we're there I insist that there will be no talk of health and safety (and yes 'P', that involves your overly critical assessment of any Disney attractions and whether they have a safe system of work in place! ;) ).

'S' is off to Baggeridge Country Park tomorrow with school on the Leadership Program.  He's really pleased to have been chosen to take part but as he's a little scared of heights he's also rather worried about the prospective zip wires and abseiling he may have to partake in!  I've already told him that he can use it as a practice run for the stomach churning things Disney and Universal has in store for us!

'A's had a good week with better results in her mental maths tests.  She's had a couple of maths tests to complete at home before we go away but we don't mind seeing as she's missing a bit of time from school.  She's also off to see a Michael Morpurgo play on Friday at the local theatre.

Ear Candling!

'P' and I had a rather different experience last week when we went for a treatment of 'Hopi Ear Candling'.  After 'P's cold and my ear problems whilst flying we thought it might be worth a try as we'd read some great things about it online.  The whole experience was quite pleasant and not at all uncomfortable.  It involves the insertion of a hollow tube or 'candle' just inside the ear and then the top is lit.  As this burns down to a certain point it creates a kind of vacuum which removes blockages from the ear.  Yes, I know it's a bit gross but after the treatment you can even open up the candle to see what has been removed - the results were amazing!  I'm popping back again tomorrow with 'A' to have a second treatment and she's also having hers done to help with flight pain.

School Choir

Music preparation has also been a little busy this week but this has been very productive as we now have some idea of an order for the school concert.  Still a bit of recording to do for the backing CD but at least Jo has some new stuff to be going on with while I'm not there on piano duty :)  After yesterday's rehearsal I don't envy her! Our 56 well behaved choir newbies have now settled in and are starting to push the boundaries a little! I'm sure she will have them eating out of her hand by the time I return though.

Ladies Choir

No worries on the ladies choir front.  It feels like we've been learning the songs for soooooo long now with all the concert postponements that we know them inside out! The only one we were still struggling with was Queen song 'Somebody to Love'.  There is constant 3 part harmony in this throughout the whole song along with Yvonne and I doing solo lines and the whole thing has been a bit of a challenge.  Over the last couple of weeks though, this one has really come together and all that's left to do is a bit of polishing to tidy up the timing and expression.  I've told them I'm expecting great things when I return in 3 weeks :)

Holiday Countdown

It is now 2 weeks until we set off to sunny Florida for a holiday of a lifetime and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am!  It's not just our imminent Disney encounter but for me it's the whole experience.  This will be the first time we've experienced a long-haul holiday as the furthest we've travelled before is Tenerife or Majorca.  Although I'm a little nervous at the whole 7 - 9 hour flight thing, I think 3 weeks in the sunshine state (and a few glasses of vino before the flight) will make up for any anxiousness.

We've hired a villa in the city of Davenport and we're flying over with Virgin atlantic.  We have 14 day ultimate tickets to Disney and Universal with extra tickets to Sea World and the Kennedy Space Centre.  I think though, the absolute pinnacle for us will be the visit we have planned to Discovery Cove on 4th March where we have booked to swim with dolphins.  'A's favourite creature is the stingray so she is over the moon at the prospect of being able to experience these lovely fish while we're there.

As we're visiting for 3 weeks we're hoping to also slot in a visit to one of the beautiful beaches and will maybe combine this with our trip over to Kenndy.  Our Sea World and Kennedy passes also include a free return visit so hopefully we'll get to visit more than once.

I can't believe it's now only 2 weeks till we go as I feel like we've been planning this holiday forever!  I feel like my life currently consists of list upon list, checking and double checking that we've done, bought and thought of everything we need to.  We're actually off to P's brother and sister-in-laws tomorrow night for a full on disney 'heads up' as they've done the trip twice before.

There are so many things I'm looking forward to, one of which will be the new Harry Potter world at Universal Islands of Adventure.  I have to say, I've never been a good 'rides' person but believe me, I will be making sure I experience everything there is to offer while we're there, with or without sick bag!