Florida trip #6

Nadia and Ian have been on vacation in Florida six times in their lives. This is Oliver's fourth trip because their first two trips were in 2010 and 2011. The last time we were in Florida was in May 2015 with Paul's parents. We spent the past six days in Floriday. Last Saturday we were in Jacksonville, and we spent Sunday in St. Augustine. On Monday morning as we drove from Daytona Beach to the Canaveral National Seashore, we stopped at Dunkin for breakfast bagels. Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we got our National Park passport books stamped, watched a 15-minute video about the park, and picked up three Junior Ranger badge booklets. We then spent the next several hours at the beach. During our time in the park, we saw a variety of lizards, birds, and more gopher tortoises. Usually when I pack for a vacation, I like to pack two days before we're leaving because it gives me an opportunity to remember things I forgot to pack. Because we went to church and Knoebels two days before we left for this vacation, I didn't pack until the day before our trip. The things that I wish we had brought include: the kids' Union kepis, waterproof bag for the cell phone, bug spray, something from Nadia's Hermoine costume for her to wear at Universal, ChapStick, beach umbrella, and beach chair. I rented an umbrella and chair at North Beach on Tybee Island, but that wasn't possible at Canaveral. We had brought a shovel, bucket, beach towels, and a tarp for the sand. I don't ever want to spend that many hours lying on the sand again. It is not comfortable! The waves were a bit too strong for me. Of the five of us, Oliver is the least prone to getting sunburned, and Ian and Nadia are the most prone to getting sunburned. All five of us got at least some sunburn on Monday despite the fact we used a lot of sunscreen. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the Visitor Center so the kids could receive their Junior Ranger badges and patches, and we also used showers near the entrance to the park before changing out of our swimsuits. We had dinner at Olive Garden and then drove to our hotel in Orlando. The hotel had a pool, but we had already swum enough that day. 

On Tuesday morning I woke the kids up prior to 7:00am for the first time since the day we had left for vacation. I would have gotten them up even earlier than I did, but the hotel didn't start serving breakfast until 7:00am, and we wanted to eat breakfast as we only eat two meals a day when we are on vacation. We then drove a very short distance to one of Universal Studios hotels. We checked in many hours before our room was ready because the room keys allowed us to go in the Express lines for most of the rides. This was the entire reason we spent one night at one of their hotels. They didn't provide any free breakfast, we had to pay parking, and it was the only room I reserved during our vacation that didn't include a sofa bed for Nadia. Nadia slept on the floor as we didn't bother bringing a air mattress on the trip for just one night. The hotel also cost FAR more than we've ever spent for one night before, but it was worth it because we could use the Express passes for two days for all five of us, and those typically cost $110 per person per day plus tax. Also, we were allowed to enter the park an hour before it opened each day. I was trying to get in the park at 8:00 and go directly to Hagrid's motorbike, but by the time we checked in and rode the water taxi, it was about 8:20 when we entered the park. The line for Hagrid's motorbike ride was already 2.5 hours long, and that is one of the few rides that doesn't have an Express line. We stayed in the park until 9pm, and during that time according to my phone we walked 11.8 miles. I wasn't the only one having leg or foot pain in our family by the end of that day! 

Originally, I hadn't planned to buy the tickets that included the ability to directly from one park to the other. We never bought that kind of ticket when we went to Disney because it costs more, but we ended up getting them this time because it was the only way to ride the Harry Potter train. I personally have issues with how very expensive it is to visit Disney or Universal. It just doesn't seem worth the hefty price tag to me when I compare it to what it costs to go to Carowinds, Six Flags, DelGrosso's, or Knoebels. The kids had a good time, but I doubt we'll return to Disney or Universal again. In hindsight, since we bought tickets for two days, I think we should have skipped the two-park option. Although we spent a full day at the park on Tuesday, we really only needed a little time on Wednesday to finish up. If I had to do it over again, I would have bought park to park tickets for just one day. I think one full day would have been enough to do both parks. Considering it cost a LOT of money to spend a day there, we stayed until around 5pm while the kids repeated some of their favorite rides. They rode their favorite one a total of six times! The kids were not interested in getting photos with any characters, and we didn't watch the parade. We caught a minute or two of a couple of shows in Islands of Adventure, but we did watch two shows in Universal Studios. One show featured animals that have been in movies, tv shows, or commercials (dogs, birds, etc.). The other was a Bourne stunt show. The Express pass worked well most of the time. It didn't work well on a King Kong ride because we waited for 80 minutes even with our Express passes whereas the wait time advertised for the NON express line was supposed to have been 50 minutes. There were two popular rides that didn't have an Express line, but we waited until the wait time dropped under an hour and then Nadia and Ian used the single rider line. I think they waited about 45 minutes (much better than 2.5 hours!). There were many times we waited less than 10 minutes thanks to the Express passes. Our other "splurge" at the park was buying Nadia an interactive wand. The kids have wanted to buy a similar type of wand at Great Wolf Lodge, and we've never done so, but since Nadia is a big fan of the Harry Potter books and movies, we got it for her as an early birthday present. In my opinion it wasn't worth the hefty price tag. I'm thankful we only bought one wand. I saw many families who had purchased multiple wands. As it is our two days at Universal accounted for about 50% of the cost of our fifteen-day vacation.

Andersonville National Historic Park

On Tuesday we ate at the Leaky Cauldron, which was in Universal Studios. We planned to eat at Three Broomsticks on Wednesday in Islands of Adventure, but we got breakfast at Cinnabon inside the park since breakfast wasn't included (it was cheaper than what they were selling in the hotel), and since we didn't stay as long as planned on Wednesday, we had dinner at IHOP after we left the park. Although we didn't have a meal at Three Broomsticks, we did buy one cup of Butterbeer that Nadia and Ian shared. Since it tasted a bit like cream soda mixed with root beer, Ian really liked it because he loves root beer. The kids were lobbying to swim at the hotel's pool, but we just drove to Tampa. It is a bit ironic because the swimming pools at that hotel were MUCH fancier and larger than any other hotel we've stayed in for many years, and we didn't swim in them at all, but we were there not for the pool but for the "free" Express passes. We did ride two water rides on Wednesday and got so soaked that the kids didn't even want to ride the third water ride! Nadia and Ian rode far more rides than Paul, Oliver, and I. I rode the fewest rides because of motion sickness issues. 

On Thursday we visited our fourth and final amusement park for this vacation - Busch Gardens. I hadn't planned to purchase the Quick Queue passes for Busch Gardens. The only other times we've ever used any sort of "fast pass"

was at Disney (where they didn't cost money) and at Universal (where we got for free through our hotel). At Carowinds, we didn't regret that we hadn't purchased fast lane passes. The park opened at 10:00. It took longer to get from the parking lot and through security than I had anticipated, so we didn't actually reach the first ride until 10:30. The line was already very long. Nadia and Ian waited 90 minutes to ride the first rollercoaster. At that point I decided to buy two quick queue passes for them. I bought the "cheaper" option that they could only use once per ride. It was worth the $40 I paid for each because we used the pass on ten rides, and most of the time they had a very short wait. Oliver and Nadia used the pass for the two water rides, and Ian and Nadia used the pass for eight roller coasters. Oliver rode one of those roller coasters without an Express pass. I had purchased the Busch Gardens tickets using credit card points, and I had selected the pass plus "eat free" option. The Busch Gardens website only mentions a "eat free all day" option so I thought that is what I had purchased. I usually take fruit snacks and granola bars in my purse when we are skipping lunch, but I hadn't taken any snacks in on Thursday because I thought we were getting two free meals plus free drinks. We were

disappointed when we found out that #1 we could only get one free meal and #2 although the all day dining pass could be redeemed at Chick Fil A, the one free meal pass could not. Busch Gardens is a large park, and it was only open for 8 hours on Thursday. In addition to the rides, there are many animals there such as giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants, etc. We saw some of the animals, but didn't have time to see all of them due to the time spent riding rides. 

Our last hurrah in the state of Florida was snorkeling with manatees in Crystal River. In the winter there are 900+ manatees here on a daily basis. There are only 30-40 that stay there all year. We had to get up at 6:00am. Thankfully we were staying at a hotel that was only 6 minutes away from where the boat was launched, and the hotel began serving breakfast at 6:30. We wore wet suits for the adventure. As a child I loved spending time at amusement parks, but at my stage of life I much prefer snorkeling with manatees. This activity took almost four hours altogether. Not counting the two employees, there were three couples on our tour. We were the only American guests on the boat as the other couples were from Switzerland, Germany, and British Columbia. Next, we drove back to Georgia. It was raining duringp part of our 4.5-hour drive, but it still hasn't rained while we've been outside during our vacation, for which we are very thankful! While we drive, we alternate between listening to audiobooks and listening to the radio while two kids have screen time. At the beginning of the trip we were listening to a book from Lamplighter, but lately we've been using Audible to listen to The Man Born to Be King (BBC radio drama about the life of Christ) and The Candymakers. We will be in Georgia until Sunday night. We toured the Andersonville POW camp. It was overwhelming to think that there were 2,000 soldiers living in each acre of that small camp. The kids earned Junior Ranger badges, and then we went to a pizza place. 

I had planned on using gift cards for almost all of our meals on the trip. The exceptions were the two meals at Universal Studios and twice eating pizza. The pizza tonight was at a very simple place in a strip mall where most of the costumers were getting their pizza by carryout, but it cost a lot more than I budgeted. For one thing, they charged almost $2 for a cup of tap water!!! I hope I have learned my lesson to ask how much a cup of tap water costs before I order four cups of it. The price of one large pizza down here is almost the same as two large pizzas where we live. We got one cheese pizza, a chocolate chip cookie that we shared, and drinks and the bill was around $40! I had budgeted $25 for that meal. We then drove to our hotel. Paul and the kids swam in the indoor pool for an hour before we watched some Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle on television. Thankfully, we don't need to get in our vehicle until 8:30 tomorrow morning.