[jwdj4lfe]

Hey everyone!!! Im back!!!!! The first part of my trip was when my family visited my older sister in the Florida Panhandle, so Ill try to fast forward through that stay and get to IoA. I left friday the 11th at about 7pm. We stopped for the night in tampa. Sat we contunued our drive, and stoped at Gainsville for a quick tour of the University of Florida's campus (a college I might attend). We finally arrived at Eglin Air Force base at about 6:30 (we got thrown off with the time because the Panhandle is in the central time zone!! We didnt know that!) We visted with April (my sister) and her family that night. Sunday we met up agian and drove the 15 min. to Destin, where we went to Fudpuckers (a cool restuarant) for lunch. We visited with her for the rest of the day. On Monday we checked out started our drive to Orlando!! We stopped at the state capital (Tallahassee) and walked around the capital and went over to the FSU campus ( florida state U.). Now to the good part! We arrived at Orlando at about 8 o'clock mon. We had NO reservations what so ever to any hotel ( my mom decided to fly by the seat of our pants for this vacation..or whatever that saying is..)... We tried the Hard Rock- all booked, we tried the Royal Pacific-$208 for the first night, no vacancy for the second. The portofino wasnt even considered! lol. Our 3rd try was to the Radisson Hotel, right across from Universal. We got the Florida resident deal, and got a room on the 14th floor with a view of the Universal Resort for $81 a night!! The hotel was ok, the room was the typical hotel room. It seemed clean, so that was a plus, lol. We slept in on Tuesday (of course the ONE day we want to be up before 8!) We tried to catch the hotel shuttle to IoA at 9:55, but after 15 minutes of waiting we decided to drive over. It was my mom's, dad's and brothers first trip to IoA, so I was the tour guide so to speak. We started the day at Suess Landing, waiting 20 min. for The cat in the hat. It was ok, but not worth the 20 min. wait, lol. We journeyed on over to the Lost Continent and went on Poseidons fury(or should i saw saw poseidons fury). It was everyone's (including me) first time seeign this show. And I was BLOWN AWAY!! That show was amazing!! I totally would call it a "must see" attraction. We continued our path and went to Jurrasic park, went on the River Adventure. Really cool, but didnt get wet at all. After that we went on the family raft ride (Bluto's something something, lol) in Toon Lagoon. Got REALLY wet, which made us cold, so we went and ate lunch in the sun, lol. After that I marched the family over to Marvel Super hero's Island, where We waited 45 min. for Spiderman, now that ride was totally worth the wait!! Everytime I go on it I have a blast!! Its the most technologically advanced ride I've ever been on! Another one of those "cant miss" rides. We went back to the hotel for a short rest at about 5, we returned back to IoA at about 7. I convinced my mom to go on the Hulk with me, it was only a 25 min. wait. She went thru the whole ride screaming, I went thru the whole ride Laughing. lol. She thinks Im out to kill her now, ahaha:laugh . I tried to convince her to go on Dueling Dragons with me, but it was a no-go. lol. So we spent the next 3 hours just relaxing and walking around the park. We did pretty much everything we wanted to do that morning. The caro-suess-sel was empty, so we went on that. By now it was about 8, and the fireworks were at 9:55 so we sat down with icee's and just people watched. That was the most relaxing time i'd ever had at a theme park. On your next vacation all of you need to just sit down on a bench and watch the people walk by and listen to the music. Its so much fun. We watched the fireworks (called the Island Blast), they were great!! I think they could easily rival Disney's!! They just need better music. We got back to the hotel at about 10:30 and just blacked out on the bed, lol. We checked out the next day (wed. the 16th) and went over to Downtown Disney where we walked around and ate an early lunch at the McDonalds there. I got all excited for our trip next month to the AKL! We left DTD at about 1, and got home at about 3:45. All in all I had a great time!!!! I cant wait for next month! My family had a great time!! The only thing we would change on our next trip to Universal would be that we woud stay on site!! The crowds were ok, the average lenght of waiting time was about 20 min. Hope I didnt bore you guys to much, lol. If you have any questions about IoA or the Radisson at Universal, feel free to ask!

Joe:)

[Willbegone]

Sounds Great, we are thinking of going over there for the day when we go back to WDW in 2005. By then DD will be 5 and hopefully will enjoy it. I've never been to Universal so I'm also looking forward to it.