I have to go back

Monday, November 6, 2022

I woke up at 3:30am with the hurting heel thing that I have sometimes. I lay in bed wondering how I was going to hobble to the park before 7am, wait until it opened at 8am, hobble to Hagrid, hobble back to the hotel to check out before 11, then back to the park for the rest of the day. Mmmm. It seemed insurmountable. I wondered where to rent a wheelchair. I thought and thought and thought, but thinking at 3:30am is poor at best, and no solutions came to me. The fact that the hurting heel usually only lasts 5-10 minutes also eluded me. When the alarm went off at 6, I told Keith we should sleep more, because I had been awake worrying and my heel was hurt. He said he had decided that the guaranteed hour wait was probably not a good idea, so back to sleep we went. I woke up feeling very refreshed at 8:15 (which is when exactly – eastern time, and now standard time…when I think I am on central time…so maybe no time as passed at all). Anyway, we packed up – making provisions for changing out of Florida wear before we headed for the airport – dropped our bags at bell services and headed to the park.

We decided to hop into the 150-minute Hagrid line, because it was a good ride and what the heck. We stopped to fill our soda cup (using it a second day!) and laughed out loud when the machine said, “yeah, you actually have to pay the $11 before I’m gonna fill you up with soda.” Whooops. Then the Hagrid line was there – far, far, far away from the actual ride – so we jumped in. It just kept moving. And moving. No standing and standing like we did last night. It was the way lines should be. Our 150-minute line took 70 minutes, and we were over the moon. We chatted up some people and it was a grand time. So, we hopped right back into the 110-minute line after we came out. (Oh! We went to get a soda first, because we were thirsty – it is Florida out. The machine AGAIN reminded us we hadn’t paid yet. We are idiots. We laughed SO much.) This time it took 51 minutes. Wooohooo. It is great when the line isn’t as long as they say, but then you don’t know what to do with the information. I kept thinking, if this is actually 110 minutes this time, I will be so disappointed. Our third ride of the day was the best, because we really got into some good conversations with two different couples. We were talking to the people in front of us, when the people behind us asked to join in. Six-way conversation for a bit, then Keith went with one couple and I went with the other. She was a nurse and he was an aquarium specialist (taking care of fish for rich people) in Monterrey, CA. He asked me very interesting questions about keeping connected with family while we traveled. Their families are in the Midwest and they love what they do and where they live, but miss the family connection. Keith’s guy is in tech, but was in Florida for a national paintball competition. People do such interesting things! (I passed myself off as a high school teacher. I didn’t admit to not really having a job. I wondered about that later. I’m not embarrassed by my substitute status, so why? I don’t know.)

We Velocicoastered. I talked to a young man in the front car line who seems to spend his life riding roller coasters. Seriously. I held my own, though! He didn’t seem to find me extraordinary – but he should have. Not everyone knows a fraction of the amount he knew about US coasters, and without Benjamin’s influence, I wouldn’t have known all that I know (thanks, TB) (You would have liked this guy). He was on track to ride his 350th coaster (in his lifetime) tomorrow and I knew all of his favorites and asked about several specific other coasters. I love meeting the people!

We had lunch with a couple and taught them all the things we had learned over the past two days. They were delighted to learn – I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE WILL LISTEN TO TIPS! They asked good questions and discussed how things would change their plans. Fun!

I don’t like to take people’s pictures without their consent, and I doubly don’t want to share people’s pictures without their consent, but I took them and now I am going to share them. This little girl was SO CUTE wearing her Gryffindor dress with little lightning bolts on the skirt, that I had to take her picture and show you. This little boy was like every other kid in the park – wanting to carry a wand around. His, however, were just sticks. I think his older brother had an actual wand, but he was very proudly carrying his stick wands and I LOVED it.

I went looking for the giant squirt guns in the Jurassic play area. I have a history of being the only adult playing with them and could not let a trip to Universal happen without them. At first I thought they were gone – that Velocicoaster had taken their spot – but then I found them. YAY! But they were not turned on. Nothing happed. Sadness. I needed to find water in some other location.

The round boat ride here is the best round boat ride I’ve ever been on. Keith had no interest in getting wet, so before we left the park, I went on Popeye’s Bilge-Rat boats or something like that. I knew I would get wet and was (sort of) ready for it. There is just nothing better than the camaraderie you have with strangers getting whomped with water together. It is so funny. My first ride (in for one, why not two?) there was a guy who just got hit with everything, and he was hilarious. We all laughed and laughed, and everyone was completely soaked by the end. The next was just as fun, with all new strangers. It started to rain as we were on our boat, waiting to launch. We were quite put out. Everyone had already been on it, and we were all already drenched, but legitimately put out that rain was falling on us. Our attitude made it stop raining (I am sure of it).

I squelched my way to the front of the park, ready to refill my popcorn bucket with caramel corn (only one place to get caramel refills) and IT WAS CLOSED. NOOOOOOOO! That is why I have to go back. I need to get value out of my popcorn bucket. (I did have regular popcorn, but that is not good enough).

Back in the hotel lobby bathroom, I got my dry clothes on (using a T shirt as a towel. It worked). When it came time to brush my hair, it was an entirely new experience. I knew that 8 coaster rides had left it tangled prior to getting wet. Wet and tangled (I have very fine hair, you know) was realllllllly bad. A young girl came in to use the bathroom and as she was washing her hands as I was not very successfully trying to get the brush through the knots, I said “Lots of roller coasters and then getting wet doesn’t do much for your hair.” She just shook her head. I asked if she liked roller coasters, and she said no. I told her she was safe then. She said, “Good, because that looks like it hurts a lot.”

The bridge was decked out in Christmas for our exit. We Lyfted away. Keith got upgraded to first class and then he asked them to give me a comfort-plus seat, which they did. We are living large!! I watched The Firm – Tom Cruise when he was about 14. It was good. Credits rolled as we landed. Perfect.

We were on the moving walkway, on our way to Alexander at door 4 baggage claim (we landed 30 minutes early and he was early and it was perfect), and I turned around and told Keith to turn on the furnace with his phone. What a life we lead!!!