As an attempt to make this trip report more convenient for you to read, I will post each portion of this report under the subject headings where you might be most likely to look for related info. I'll post links at the beginning of each report. If you have any questions at all, please please please ask. I paid attention to a huge amount of detail which can most likely be remembered if only you remind me.
Sat. 10/27 - Downtown Disney & Disney Quest
Sun. 10/28 - Animal Kingdom & Epcot
Mon. 10/29 - Disney MGM Studios
Tues. 10/30 - Sea World
Tues. 10/30 - Medieval Times
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
Thur. 11/1 - Open Day - All Star Resorts
Fri. 11/2 - Hard Rock Hotel, Islands of Adventure
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
HHN, IoA and HHN (Finally!!)
Sun. 11/4 - Round-trip Norfolk to Orlando on SouthWest
Characters & Plot: DH and myself returning to Orlando for our first wedding anniversary (which we like to consider the long-awaited second half of our honeymoon).
Modes of discount: Entertainment Coupon Book, Busch Gardens Platinum Passes, and a few wonderful members of this bulletin board <wink>!
End of Day 4
Tues. 10/30 Medieval Times
Medieval times (entertainment book coupon for buy one, get one free) was a logical choice for our 1st anniversary dinner, especially since we where married last year in a Medieval/Renaissance themed wedding. He bought the tickets and upgraded to the "royal package" which gives you a souvenir book, paper crown, banner to wave, and guaranteed seating in one of the first 3 rows. The music that played in the main foyer combined with the acoustics, made it difficult to hear any announcements that were made. As a result, I found out too late that for almost the same price that I'd bought the gold souvenir hurricane glasses with drink ($4 refills I believe) we could have gone over to the squire's table on the left side of the arena area and purchased the exact same glasses and received a quick anniversary accolade ceremony from the King. If only I'd known/heard . We'd let them know that it was our anniversary, and we received a free cake towards the end of the show The food in general was plentiful and very very good A little messy, but expected with medieval no-utensil dining. We didn't have room for the cake until the next morning! J Luckily, the cheering group that we where placed with was full of other folks that where willing to be a boisterous group and heartily cheer on "our" knight during the tournaments And boo the opposing side. Our servant had a wonderful personality and was quick with sharp wit and good ale. I have to admit, for us this was very exciting and romantic and probably the best possible way we could have celebrated our 1st Med/Ren Wedding anniversary. I'd recommend this experience to anyone who's willing to let their hair down and turn themselves over the fun side of ye olde "Medieval Times" for an evening Or even a day!
Day 5
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
This was most definitely the longest day of our vacation. We arrived later than we'd meant to (11am) and stayed until Howl-o-scream was over, after 2am 15 hours at the park! Except for the hour and a half that we went to Ihop for dinner. We used our platinum passes that we'd bought through the Busch Gardens Williamsburg website for free admission in the morning, but where denied the free parking and 10% discounts on merchandise that is supposed to be offered with the pass This change was evidently put out through a memo that the lot attendant was all too happy to show us. No biggee, I guess. I noticed certain subtle similarities between this BG and the BG in Williamsburg (which we frequent at least once a month) especially as far as some of the layout It's not obvious, but just enough to get a weird dejavu occasionally as you walk though it And just like BG-W Beer school and Free Beer! Except that in BG-W you have to go to the beer school to get the free beer and the amount that you get does not compare to here in Tampa. Enough about the beer Rides! Hubby did ALL the big rides except for Gwazi (he doesn't seem to like wooden coasters) and I concentrated more on the water rides. Hubby's favorite here hands down was Kumba. The park was very sadly empty, no waiting for even the wildest of rides. We were perhaps one of 20 people watching an acrobatic show in a HUGE venue. That has to be unnerving to performers Some try to professionally compensate by smiling even wider and some seem to consider this just another practice. Hubby and I did our best to fill the void by applauding for the absent masses. I LOVED the baby animal center and really wanted to take home that baby condor (ghaaa!). We both love animals in general and where able to see quite a few on the Rhino Rally tour. This was so comparable to the one at Animal Kingdom that I mistakenly called it that in my Disney World Trip Report section.
Howl-o-scream
When they shut down BG around 5pm, we went a few blocks down to IHOP to have dinner. Does anyone know what the GroupTech strike is all about? You can't miss it, since it's on the way in and out of BG. The main reason we'd gone on this particular day was that tonight was Halloween. I gotta tell ya' As much as I love Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, Howl-o-Scream has definitely given them some competition. My absolute favorite Haunted house was "Insanity" Really disturbing stuff guys, serious kudos to whoever designed this thing. I think perhaps we should have done this one last instead of first, since it had a "five skull" scare factor. A layout of a lock-down Psych Unit gone terribly terribly wrong was the motif. On a personal note, a few years ago I was an Art Therapy Intern in a lock-down Psych Unit of a local Veteran's hospital. I can appreciate the little "personal" touches they had put in each of the cells.
Actually, all of the haunted houses and most of the scare zones where very well done and the Scare-actors really made it worthwhile. Hubby is still laughing to himself about the big scary monster rising up at the end of the Egyptian themed maze and waving his hands around and saying in a falsetto ".ooogey-boogey-boogey-boogey!.." (Name that movie quote, folks). Despite the pretty big attendance that was there on that night (definitely a lot more than during the day), we managed to do just about everything that we'd wanted to do, and didn't miss out on a thing. Yes, the big rides where all open and the entrances to the animal areas where closed. I'd be very upset if they weren't. I'd even wondered if having such easy access to the Clydesdales was such a good idea There was a show featuring a singing (lip syncing?) dancing mad scientist, assistants, and monsters that was pretty much identical to the one done at Howl-o-scream in the festhaus at BG Williamsburg Except the choreography and theatre setting was much better.
We rode the Serengeti Railway, mainly get from one point to another without as much walking, and to see what there is too see of the Serengeti at night. You get a very eerie sense of danger when you are peering into the darkness trying to see what can be potentially dangerous animals, while off in the distance simulated mayhem is going on. I kept thinking to myself "What would happen if this train suddenly broke down??" For all the scariest simulation in the world, nothing is more frightening than you own imagination.
What's the difference between Howl-o-scream in Tampa versus the one in Williamsburg? Hands down, HoS Tampa offers more! The one in Williamsburg is more family oriented and is geared more towards young children You won't find any haunted houses (okay maybe one) or scare zones up here. The big draw up here is the Haunted train ride, which attendees will wait HOURS to ride. Our BG-W has been packed on the weekends with the largest crowds I have ever seen, they're not open year round, and in fact are now closed for the season. BG-W changes into its HoS theme in the afternoon and no extra entrance fee is required . But then again, it's not nearly as scary or exciting as Tampa's.
Sat. 10/27 - Downtown Disney & Disney Quest
Sun. 10/28 - Animal Kingdom & Epcot
Mon. 10/29 - Disney MGM Studios
Tues. 10/30 - Sea World
Tues. 10/30 - Medieval Times
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
Thur. 11/1 - Open Day - All Star Resorts
Fri. 11/2 - Hard Rock Hotel, Islands of Adventure
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
HHN, IoA and HHN (Finally!!)
Sun. 11/4 - Round-trip Norfolk to Orlando on SouthWest
Characters & Plot: DH and myself returning to Orlando for our first wedding anniversary (which we like to consider the long-awaited second half of our honeymoon).
Modes of discount: Entertainment Coupon Book, Busch Gardens Platinum Passes, and a few wonderful members of this bulletin board <wink>!
End of Day 4
Tues. 10/30 Medieval Times
Medieval times (entertainment book coupon for buy one, get one free) was a logical choice for our 1st anniversary dinner, especially since we where married last year in a Medieval/Renaissance themed wedding. He bought the tickets and upgraded to the "royal package" which gives you a souvenir book, paper crown, banner to wave, and guaranteed seating in one of the first 3 rows. The music that played in the main foyer combined with the acoustics, made it difficult to hear any announcements that were made. As a result, I found out too late that for almost the same price that I'd bought the gold souvenir hurricane glasses with drink ($4 refills I believe) we could have gone over to the squire's table on the left side of the arena area and purchased the exact same glasses and received a quick anniversary accolade ceremony from the King. If only I'd known/heard . We'd let them know that it was our anniversary, and we received a free cake towards the end of the show The food in general was plentiful and very very good A little messy, but expected with medieval no-utensil dining. We didn't have room for the cake until the next morning! J Luckily, the cheering group that we where placed with was full of other folks that where willing to be a boisterous group and heartily cheer on "our" knight during the tournaments And boo the opposing side. Our servant had a wonderful personality and was quick with sharp wit and good ale. I have to admit, for us this was very exciting and romantic and probably the best possible way we could have celebrated our 1st Med/Ren Wedding anniversary. I'd recommend this experience to anyone who's willing to let their hair down and turn themselves over the fun side of ye olde "Medieval Times" for an evening Or even a day!
Day 5
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
This was most definitely the longest day of our vacation. We arrived later than we'd meant to (11am) and stayed until Howl-o-scream was over, after 2am 15 hours at the park! Except for the hour and a half that we went to Ihop for dinner. We used our platinum passes that we'd bought through the Busch Gardens Williamsburg website for free admission in the morning, but where denied the free parking and 10% discounts on merchandise that is supposed to be offered with the pass This change was evidently put out through a memo that the lot attendant was all too happy to show us. No biggee, I guess. I noticed certain subtle similarities between this BG and the BG in Williamsburg (which we frequent at least once a month) especially as far as some of the layout It's not obvious, but just enough to get a weird dejavu occasionally as you walk though it And just like BG-W Beer school and Free Beer! Except that in BG-W you have to go to the beer school to get the free beer and the amount that you get does not compare to here in Tampa. Enough about the beer Rides! Hubby did ALL the big rides except for Gwazi (he doesn't seem to like wooden coasters) and I concentrated more on the water rides. Hubby's favorite here hands down was Kumba. The park was very sadly empty, no waiting for even the wildest of rides. We were perhaps one of 20 people watching an acrobatic show in a HUGE venue. That has to be unnerving to performers Some try to professionally compensate by smiling even wider and some seem to consider this just another practice. Hubby and I did our best to fill the void by applauding for the absent masses. I LOVED the baby animal center and really wanted to take home that baby condor (ghaaa!). We both love animals in general and where able to see quite a few on the Rhino Rally tour. This was so comparable to the one at Animal Kingdom that I mistakenly called it that in my Disney World Trip Report section.
Howl-o-scream
When they shut down BG around 5pm, we went a few blocks down to IHOP to have dinner. Does anyone know what the GroupTech strike is all about? You can't miss it, since it's on the way in and out of BG. The main reason we'd gone on this particular day was that tonight was Halloween. I gotta tell ya' As much as I love Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, Howl-o-Scream has definitely given them some competition. My absolute favorite Haunted house was "Insanity" Really disturbing stuff guys, serious kudos to whoever designed this thing. I think perhaps we should have done this one last instead of first, since it had a "five skull" scare factor. A layout of a lock-down Psych Unit gone terribly terribly wrong was the motif. On a personal note, a few years ago I was an Art Therapy Intern in a lock-down Psych Unit of a local Veteran's hospital. I can appreciate the little "personal" touches they had put in each of the cells.
Actually, all of the haunted houses and most of the scare zones where very well done and the Scare-actors really made it worthwhile. Hubby is still laughing to himself about the big scary monster rising up at the end of the Egyptian themed maze and waving his hands around and saying in a falsetto ".ooogey-boogey-boogey-boogey!.." (Name that movie quote, folks). Despite the pretty big attendance that was there on that night (definitely a lot more than during the day), we managed to do just about everything that we'd wanted to do, and didn't miss out on a thing. Yes, the big rides where all open and the entrances to the animal areas where closed. I'd be very upset if they weren't. I'd even wondered if having such easy access to the Clydesdales was such a good idea There was a show featuring a singing (lip syncing?) dancing mad scientist, assistants, and monsters that was pretty much identical to the one done at Howl-o-scream in the festhaus at BG Williamsburg Except the choreography and theatre setting was much better.
We rode the Serengeti Railway, mainly get from one point to another without as much walking, and to see what there is too see of the Serengeti at night. You get a very eerie sense of danger when you are peering into the darkness trying to see what can be potentially dangerous animals, while off in the distance simulated mayhem is going on. I kept thinking to myself "What would happen if this train suddenly broke down??" For all the scariest simulation in the world, nothing is more frightening than you own imagination.
What's the difference between Howl-o-scream in Tampa versus the one in Williamsburg? Hands down, HoS Tampa offers more! The one in Williamsburg is more family oriented and is geared more towards young children You won't find any haunted houses (okay maybe one) or scare zones up here. The big draw up here is the Haunted train ride, which attendees will wait HOURS to ride. Our BG-W has been packed on the weekends with the largest crowds I have ever seen, they're not open year round, and in fact are now closed for the season. BG-W changes into its HoS theme in the afternoon and no extra entrance fee is required . But then again, it's not nearly as scary or exciting as Tampa's.
