Tuesday December 9, 2003

I woke at about 8am, grabbed some breakfast from the lobby again, and dressed for heat, since the weather forecast on last night's news had predicted temps in the 70s today. When I left the hotel, I decided to try taking I-4 up to Universal and discovered that Tuesday mornings on I-4 were not terribly bad at 9am; I was in the park by 9:30.

Only to discover that most of the park was still closed. Wait, the schedule said the park would be open at 9, but in reality only the Port of Entry, marvel Superhero Island, and Suess Landing were open! And the only ride that seemed to be running was the Hulk; Suess Landing's several rides weren't running yet.

I'm a whiner, a complainer, a never-satisfied kinda guy, but I think that even a happy-go-lucky, glass-is-half-full person would agree that one ride and a few gift shops does not qualify as an 'open' park.

But, since I wasn't really in the mood for the Hulk before lunch, and there wasn't much else to do, I spent some time wandering around Suess Landing, taking pictures of the elaborate Christmas decorations until the rest of the park opened at 10. Suess Landing was more elaborately decorated than most of the park, since it was home to Universal's Grinchmas celebration. I took a bunch of pictures, till they finally opened the gates to the Lost Continent and I headed in to find something fun to do.

Next up was the Jurassic Park River Adventure. I love Jurassic Park, and the river adventure really puts you into the movie. I sat in the back seat for this one, since there was a bit of a line, and got pretty wet. Luckily, the day was already pretty warm so by staying in the sunlight I was able to stay warm.

Although I had grabbed a bagel at the hotel this morning, I was beginning to get hungry, and I was determined to try IOAs 5-star restaurant, Mythos, for lunch, so after I retrieved my camera and water belt from the JP lockers, I backtracked into the Lost Continent to Mythos. I arrived about 11:10, but the restaurant didn't open for lunch till 11:30, so I put my name on the list and sat in the lobby, making trip notes while I waited.

I also dried off a little. I was still pretty wet from Jurassic Park.

I looked over the menu and decided on a grilled chicken club, with a corn and Maine lobster bisque as an appetizer. The bisque came with some pretty good bread and butter that really came alive when I dipped it in the bisque, which was fantastic in and of itself. The sandwich was also top-knotch, well loaded with bacon and cheese, and came with thin, crisp fries which were more like potato crisps than french fries.

Overall, I rated the meal 5-star. I enjoyed every bite.

After lunch, I took a few pics inside the restaurant before leaving.

After leaving Mythos, I wandered back through Suess Landing toward the Port of Entry, but on my way I noticed a Grinchmas stage show going on. Characters from the Grinch movies, in excellent make-ups, were performing a song on stage to a large crowd of Guests. I stopped to listen to the music, which was very good, and took a few pics of the performers.

My next destination was Marvel Superhero Island, where I rode the Spider-Man adventure and browsed the comic shop. While in there, I found a graphic novel (which is a special edition comic printed on high-quality paper and bound with a cardboard cover instead of the typical newsprint that a normal comic is printed on) which I had seen before but not had the opportunity to buy. It was a special Spider-Man graphic novel in which all the Marvel superheroes help out with the recovery efforts after the World Trade Center 9/11 attack; but the book, though told from Spidey's perspective, was not about Spidey and the Marvel heroes, but about the every day heroes who performed the actual recovery and cleanup operations at the WTC site. I sat down outside the Fantastic 4 Cafe and read the whole book.

While I was reading,a car came out with a bunch of characters; I saw Wolverine, Storm, and Rogue from the X-men, accompanied by Captain America and Spider-Man. I took a couple of pictures, but there was a bit of a crowd, so I didn't bother trying to get my pic taken with any of the characters.

Back in 2002, I had a chance to walk through the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel and was very impressed with it. I had made up my mind afterward to try visiting the other two Universal resorts on my next trip, and this was it. Resort hopping at Disney is one of my favorite activities, and I was really looking forward to trying it at Universal.

In order to get to the Uni resorts, I first exited IOA and made my way to the water taxi docks at Universal's CityWalk. After a brief wait for the boat to arrive, I got on and was on my way to Universal's Royal Pacific Resort.

I was unprepared; Royal Pacific is a phenomenally beautiful resort! Beginning with the Grumman Albatross seaplane floating in the small lagoon across from the water taxi dock, I found myself immersed in an Indonesian atmosphere that captivated me immediately. The Indonesian decor reminds one a little of Polynesian decor, like that of Disney's Polynesian resort, but with more Asian influence. There's lots of bamboo, dark woods, and long grasses all over the place.

I spent about an hour exploring Royal Pacific, taking pictures of the lobby, the fabulous lagoon pool, an awesome fountain courtyard just off the lobby, a beautiful lounge with windows overlooking the lagoon pool, and various other areas.

I've never been to Italy, but I sure felt like I was there when I got off the boat at Portafino. Modeled after the Italian city of the same name, the Portafino hotel is an incredible 5-story super-luxury hotel that starts out with a beautiful bay, bordered on three sides by the hotel's buildings and a lovely Italian plaza. Fishing boats are pulled up onto the concrete 'beach', small Italian cars are parked along the sides of the plaza, and real shops and restaurants populate the ground level of the buildings. I walked through the plaza, deserted in this, the middle of the day, and spent about two hours wandering the resort. I loved the avenue of indoor shops off the lobby, made to look like an outdoor Italian alley at night (sorta like the Forum shops at Caesar's in Vegas), glass-roofed atrium in the lobby, the many small courtyards and balconies, and especially the fabulous pool, complete with a water slide, waterfall, hot tub, kiddie pool, and a beach with real sand surrounding a zero-depth entry.

I came away from the hotel completely enchanted with the place. If I can ever afford the rather steep price tag, I'd love to stay there for a few days.

On my way back to the boat dock, I stopped at a table in the plaza to take a rest and make some trip notes. Afterward, I wandered into the hotel gift shop, a fairly large Universal Studios Store located to one side of the main plaza. I was looking for something with a 2003 Universal logo on it for my digital photo album, and so far on this trip I had totally struck out in every Uni gift shop. The Portafino shop was no exception; since it was December, almost all of the 2003 merchandise had been pulled and replaced with 2004 merchandise. But the Universal employee manning the store told me that some of that 2003 stock would probably be available in the Universal outlet store at the Belz mall. I had forgotten about that store, but now I had high hopes of finding what I was looking for.

I was ready to leave Portafino anyway, so I got back on the boat to CityWalk. It was late enough in the day, and I had already done everything at IOA that I wanted to do, so when I reached CityWalk I headed for the parking garage and left Universal for the day. I wanted to get to the Belz malls and see if I could find the Uni 2003 logo items I was after, since Belz is in the Uni area.

The Belz malls, a large outlet complex at the north end of International Drive,have much more than just a Universal outlet. They also have two Disney outlets, and over 170 other stores. The place is huge, and is divided into 2 main buildings and 4 annexes. My first stop was one of the Disney outlets, Character Premier. I wound up not buying anything there, but when I got to the Universal outlet, I found just what I was looking for: a t-shirt with an IOA 2003 logo on it, and a picture frame with a USF 2003 logo on it. I bought them both and a few small trinkets besides.

As promised, my wait was just under an hour, and at 6:50 the pager started flashing, and I was soon seated in the restaurant. I was lucky enough to get a seat near the windows, offering a pretty view across the Seven Seas Lagoon toward Magic Kingdom; only because it was night, and the restaurant was brightly lit, I couldn't get a good picture of the view.

My server took my drink order and went to bring my appetizers, but he forgot to bring my drink until I reminded him. Otherwise, the meal was every bit as fantastic as I remembered from my last time there. I left 'Ohana stuffed so full I couldn't put my arms down.

Once I left 'Ohana, I went down to the lobby and checked with the front desk; tonight there would be another showing of Wishes, and although I wasn't inside the park, i certainly wanted to catch that show again. So I killed some time by wandering around the Polynesian's grounds taking pictures across the Seven Seas Lagoon; with a full moon and all the resorts lit up brightly, there were plenty of good picture opportunities.

After some Polynesian pictures,I hopped the monorail to the Contemporary, where I went up to the 15th floor and took some more pics fro the outdoor observation deck. I was surprised, though I shouldn't have been, that I could not only see Epcot's Spaceship Earth in the distance, but beyond to the giant bungie towers at Old Town on US 192! I later checked on a map, and the distance from Contemporary to Old Town is roughly six miles.

It was a little cold up there, so I decided to wait the rest of the time down in the Grand Canyon Concourse, where I got some apple juice and sat in the Outer Rim lounge to make some more trip notes. While down there I also found a Kodak digital photo printing/download machine in the Sundries shop; I hadn't known that these machines were in the Disney resorts as well as the parks.

When the time for Wishes drew near, I went back up to the ob deck, where only a few people were braving the cool breeze to see Wishes.

When the show started, I stood there, taking pictures and watching the show; from above, Wishes is a totally different experience and well worth the time and effort to see it. I enjoyed that show as much as I had when I saw it from inside the Magic Kingdom.

When the show was over. I went right down to the Contemporary bus stop and caught a bus to Pleasure Island. My car was right where I left it, and I was soon on my way back to my hotel, where I finished my day with a little TV before hitting the hay at about 12:30.