Photo TR: Dave Goes To Orlando!

OK, before we begin, as always, it is time to review Dave's Rules Of Engagement for his PTRs:

- I am a writer, I get paid to write, and I like words, so there will likely be many more than you are used to in this Photo TR. Think of it as a learning opportunity.

- I suck at photography. I used to be able to use the excuse that I cannot see for this, but two years of eye surgery has not improved my photographic skills at all. So again, I suck at photography, and there will likely be images of "questionable" quality in this Photo TR. You have been warned.

- I am completely insane, and often say and do things that make no sense to anyone, and there's a good chance that one of more of these captions will make zero sense and/or may offend you. I apologize in advance. I will not, however, be paying for any therapy for anyone, so proceed at your own risk!

OK? Then let's begin!

First of all, yes, I know, this report is somewhat late. A lot of this is due to the fact that I spent about 17 days in my own house between the last week of August 2008 and January 1 2009. I have been busy. But since a small minority of you seem to be entertained by my nonsense (or are at least humoring me about it), I felt that I had to start posting these things. Besides, it's the off season, so what else is there to do? This has to be more entertaining than watching almost anything on TV, right? Right?!? Yeah, that's what I thought...

Anyway, Orlando. Halloween. What usually ends up being one of the best weeks of the year for me, because of all the crazy fun that we end up having. This year was no exception. We started the week by meeting at WDW and eating at Spoodles, followed by house preparation (there were three houses for troublemakers this year, the most ever). The next day was a lot of shuttling people around, and dropping some off at SeaWorld, while the rest of us wen to Hooter's. Now, I have no idea why we went there, as the food is just horrible, and I do believe I had the worst chicken wings ever. But at least the company made up for it. After that, it was time for a short visit to Old Town (some people stayed longer) and then back to the houses for more preperation (I did not take any pics of the houses for some reason, but Robb & Elissa goes all out in decorating these places and getting them ready for everyone. The amount of work they do on these trips is insane). Dinner at Carrabba's closed out the night.

The next day started at Wet & Wild. I have not been to a water park in years, and certainly not since all my eye surgery. One of the side effects of this surgery is that I am almost blind in bright sunlight (unless I have very dark sunglasses). So I wasn't sure how this was going to work. And knowing this group of people, none of them were going to help me, and just laugh at my misfortune if I managed to kill myself. I was able to get around better than I thought I would, but only did one slide, as navigating the stairs was a bit challenging. So I spent much of the day helping Robb & Elissa with Kidtums at the kids area, where we discovered she loves the slides. I did have quite a bit of fun at this place, but really need a helper if I'm going to go to one again.

After that, it was off to Epcot, where some attractions were visited before we began the annual See How Much Food You can Stuff Into Your Gullet at the Food & Wine Festival. This is always fun, and some of our group really tried to succeed in Drinking Around The World. The evening was capped with Illuminations, which, while it is a show, and I pretty much hate shows, at least this one does entertain as it features explosions and fire. I think I've seen it about ten times now, though, so I'm kind of done with it.

Anyway, enough of my yammering...let's go to the visuals!!!

dt

[robbalveySite Admin]

This TR makes me horny.

[gotdaneOh my cherries!]

Loves it...Was a most excellent time! Looking forward to reliving it here in this TR!

[RCFreakTPR's Favorite Beaner]

hahah this makes me want to post a TR of this, but I'm far too lazy to be bothered, so I'll let you do all the hard work! And what a start, Ice Bat and fire for the win.

[emily>piersWhen I grow up, I want to breed donkeys!]

Ha ha ha, good memories! Your pics are fab!

So all I will say about the activities at the house after that long day is that it is amazing what people will confess to after they've been drinking all day and are sitting in a hot tub at 1 AM...

OK, time for the next day of Orlando adventures, which this day would be a morning visit to Hollywood Studios, followed up by going to the Magic Kingdom for the Halloween event. The big draw at DHS was the new Midway Mania ride, which I had really low expectations for. But I ended up loving it, and thought it was one of the best new attractions I was on in 2008. Seriously, it was awesome fun, and I guess the person that explained it to me originally didn't do a good job of describing it, or I am dumb. Probably the latter.

We killed a good chunk of the day here, riding good tower and other assorted attractions. Though I did not ride The Great Movie Ride, which is not great in any way. But funny story time: while I sat out this travesty against mankind, a bunch of the characters came through the area, including CHIP & DALE! Plus I got a text from the people on the ride, as it had broken down, prolonging their torture! HAHAHAHAHA! At least I was amused by this.

That night we headed over to the Mickey's Halloween event. I think I've done this four or five times now, and it's pretty consistently awesome. I don't collect candy, but they really do give out a lot. The ride lines are usually minimal (though they seemed longer this year for some reason, even if the event wasn't sold out that night), and we always manage to ride all the major attractions. I really do recommend this event if you're in the area at this time of year, as it is a lot of fun.

Anyway, enough of my yammering...let's return to the visuals!!!

dt

Thanks for playing so far. Your torment will be at an end soon. But first, another installment of Orlando Halloween fun, this time covering...IOA & USf!!!

We started the day at IOA. This used to be one of my favorite parks anywhere, but the customer service at this place has been spotty in the past, and some visits are better than others. Today's was pretty "off". It wasn't horrible, but they just don't seem to be trying as hard as they used to. Plus there's a massive amount of construction going on here for the new Harry Potter stuff, and well, the whole place just felt "off" for some reason. We did manage to get lunch at Mythos, which I'm still amazed has not been transformed into Potter's Magical Burgers & Fries. Though given what they did to the Enchanted Oak, I can only imagine what they'll do to Mythos when they get around to it.

This was also the part of the day where we were all lucky enough to be given a walkthru of two of the haunted houses for Halloween Horror Nights by Manager of Show Development Michael Roddy. He is a cool guy, and you can totally tell he loves his job and pours his passion into making this event as good as it can be. Sadly, I had to skip HHN again this year, as the other side effect of my eye surgery is that it takes my eyes a long time to adjust going from light to dark, so I'm totally blind when walking into a dark area (like a HHN maze). I could do this event if I had a helper that would take me by the hand and make sure I don't walk into anything, but again, I didn't get this worked out beforehand, so had no one. But just walking through these two mazes allowed me to sort of see some of the stuff that I'd be missing that night, and it was cool. Besides, I had come up with some "alternate entertainment" for that evening...

Anyway, after lunch we went over to the Studios side for a bit. Rode some random attractions and just wandered around a bit. I skipped The Simpsons ride as it had a huge line, and figured I'd catch it some other time. I do look forward to checking it out at some point. Eventually the day came to a close, and the group headed off to HHN while some of us got takeout from Outback and then enjoyed an evening of entertainment, thoughtfully provided by me!

Anyway, it was a fun day, even if it was a bit short for me. But we still managed to have fun that night, as you'll see in a bit...

Anyway, enough of my yammering...more visuals!!!

dt

[gotdaneOh my cherries!]

More great photos! I remember that Jungle Cruise ride...Someone had just died or something.

And what hot tub?

[disneyfan1313If the donkey is rockin, don't come knockin!]

So I saw this thread and got all pissed thinking you visited orlando without telling us... then I realized that you just suck at doing TR's in a timely manner We miss you Dave!

And sadly, we come to the last section of this Photo TR. I'm sure you're all depressed and mournful...yeah, right! If you've made it this far, you have a higher tolerance for nonsense than most people!

So the first part of this day would find us taking the trek to Busch Gardens Tampa. This is a park that I think has improved over the years, and I wonder what the (eventual) new owners will do with the place. Hopefully they'll keep the quality up, as it's a really nice park. For some reason that I don't understand, I take almost zero pictures at this park. I'm not sure if I just get tired of using the camera at this point in the week or whatever, but if I come back from here with ten pictures, it's a lot.

Anyway, that night was the big house party, with more food and related items than you could imagine. It is awesome fun, and one of the highlights of the week. Again, Robb & Elissa really put a ton of work into this, and they are to be thanked endlessly for the good time they provide the rest of us with.

The following day saw people going home, or to other parks. Some of us went to Animal Kingdom and back to Epcot for more food before leaving for the airport. For some reason, AirTran wanted FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS for a flight back to Baltimore, so I got a hotel room and left on Monday. Airline prices always amaze me.

Anyway, the trip came to an end way too fast, but it was awesome fun, as always. Halloween in Orlando is one of the highlights of my year, and I look forward to doing it again. Thank you Robb & Elissa for all your hard work, and thanks to everyone that was there for tolerating me.

And for the final time in this Photo TR, enough of my yammering...let's go to the visuals!!!

dt