Friday 10th December 2010

[09:44 EST]

A good sleep last night. I was feeling very tired by the time we got back from shopping as Publix. It was about 3am UK time before we got to bed. Still, from experience, it doesn't take too long to get into the swing of the local time zone.

We're heading down Universal way as Linda has a craving to see the Macy's Parade today.

[09:44 EST +1]

Last night was one of those - get indoors and collapse days, so I'm completing this the following day.

As we were leaving Terre Verde this morning, we were treated to an odd sight.

A group of vultures had decided to pick apart someone's rubbish bin that had not been collected by the trash man.

We got to Universal around 11:30 and headed up to the Starbucks near the entrance for a quick coffee.

Decorations are all up now so we were greeted at the entrance of Universal by an enormous elf.

Weather was comfortable. Linda was wearing her sweat shirt, but then we had driven here with the top down, so it can get a little windy sitting in the car. Sun was breaking through the early cloud and things looked promising.

Our first stop was at the Rip-Roarin' Rollercoaster. Now, there's a story here - THREE TIMES I've attempted to ride this thing. Each time before it was closed for maintenance (it has not long been built!) or had broken down and had 1+ hour wait times. But this time, the wait was 15 minutes and the cars were running.

The ride was OK - I still prefer Hulk, but it was enjoyable none-the-less. Save for the restraining belt, that one of the over enthusiastic assistants had leant down on before we left the loading area. He'd got the belt so tight that I found it impossible to take deep breaths! I thought that the length of the ride, being only 30 seconds or so, I could manage that before passing out. I did the ride, then BLAM, the ride stopped with me still 40 feet from the unloading area. I sat there, strapped in still, for a further 5 minutes whilst announcements about the ride being 'temporarily out of service' played around me. Never was I so glad to finally trundle into the unloading bay. Still, it could have been worse, we might have been upside down at the time.

Finally, off, I recounted my tale of woe to Linda.

She was suitably sympathetic ;-)

From there we wandered through the Holiday Area, decorated throughout and with Christmas stalls that appeared to be identical to those that were open for the Halloween Fright Nights a few months back!

We did some more rides as we moved down to the Mummy ride, here Linda stopped to watch the Christmas Blues Brothers show whilst I rode the Mummy ride a couple of times.

We stopped for lunch then continued around the lake back towards the entrance.

Once back there, we took up a position near to the tree to watch the Macy's Parade. From past experience we were near the final part of the parade, opposite where the tree gets lit - so we had a good view. They went heavy on the ticker tape this time, blasting it high into the air - it really added to the festive spirit.

Spirits were dampened just a little when one of the floats broke down right next to us and we were treated to the sight of security and cast members trying to get the float moving again by pushing it :)

Finally, Santa arrived with the Rockettes to light the tree.

All in all, one of the best parades I think I've seen recently.

We walked back towards the entrance but stopped to watch an acapella group perform Christmas songs. We left just as they started getting the audience up to sing with them... funny that.

Our final port of call was the time machine known as the Hard Rock cafe - where time has a, shall we say, elastic meaning. a 10 minute wait for a table turned into 45 minutes ;) Still the food was very good.We were even treated to a choir of 20-odd adults turning up in their dinner jackets to sing Happy Birthday to someone having their birthday meal!

Finally, back over the lake to the car park and home.