Category: Orlando

What happened to Wet & Wild Orlando?

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may have read Vickie’s blog entry on the water park,  Volcano Bay, that Universal Orlando is opening in May 2017. As part of preparations for the opening of Volcano Bay, Universal Orlando announced on its blog on June 17, 2015 that Wet & Wild Orlando would be closing on December 31, 2016 (http://blog.universalorlando.com/whats-new/wet-n-wild-orlando-closing/). This is not a surprise as Wet & Wild has been owned by Universal Parks & Resorts since 1998. Wet & Wild opened in 1977 and is considered to be the first water park in America, interestingly enough it was built by George Millay the creator of SeaWorld. Why close Wet & Wild? Because it was located on 53 acres of land on the opposite side of International Drive from the entrance to Universal not attached to the theme park. That land will end up becoming the site of more expansion so keep an eye out for more announcements. And when you visit Volcano Bay you may see rides from Wet & Wild.

Universal’s NEW Park

Universal Studios is opening a third park – a water park.  They have brought to life the culture and architecture of the fabeled Waturi islanders, eliminated lines and carrying inner tubes.

Opening on May 25, Volcano Bay will have 18 attractions – something for everyone.  In the middle of the park is a large volcano and some of the attractions travel through the middle of it.

Guests will receive a TapuTapu wearable (looks like a wrist band) that will stand in line for you — a virtual line, pretty cool.

For Thrill Seekers, rides include an Aqua Coaster, White Water Rafting, Body Plunge, Body Slide and Drop Slides.

Kids and Families will enjoy the beach, raft rides, tube rides, winding riving, lagoon and the reef.

The new park is on-property and Universal is taking reservations.

Call us for information on great vacation Universal Vacation Packages.

Epcot – Test Track

It has been a long time since I rode Test Track because we are line snobs and refuse to wait more than 30 minutes in a line but this visit we were able to get Fast Passes !!

Once again, in true Disney fashion, the wait is fun!  You get to create your own car for the test.  We started off creating a beautiful car and then we noticed that it had ratings on the top so we began paying attention to the ratings.  Then we noticed the countdown and had to hurry to complete the car.  Your magic band remembers your car.

While you are on the ride, signs show the car rankings.  Ours didn’t show because I didn’t press my magic band to the scanner at the correct time, instead I was moving out of the way so a man could take a picture of his wife on the ride.

Here is a ‘hidden’ gem.  Don’t just leave after the ride, more fun stuff awaits!

After you get off the ride, you have the opportunity to create a commercial using your car and it is emailed to you.  Here is the link to our commercial – warning, the car is not beautiful!  http://parklink.disney.go.com/media/ap/parklink/cards/testtrackvideo/video.html#testtrackvideo/2017-01-23/1f7522986a198095

After you leave that area, you can take pictures on cars and virtual cars – once again having them emailed to you.  Taking a picture with a virtual car is not easy.  Taking a picture with a real car is so much easier but still not easy!

Disney’s new Epcot Festival of the Arts — The Workshops & Seminars

This new festival celebrates the Arts and has both paid and complementary workshops.  I attended two complementary workshops – one on Henna and one on Photography.

Although the workshops are complementary, there are a limited number of tickets.  We arrived about 45 minutes early to get our tickets and had no problems getting a ticket but it was a Monday and they had waiting areas for tickets setup so it could have been more crowded over the weekend.

Both workshops were run by Disney employees who had worked with Disney for quite awhile and were very knowledgeable about their areas.  Both workshops were informative and entertaining and worth the time to attend.

Check out the remaining workshops for this festival here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-festival-of-the-arts-seminars-workshops/

Disney’s new Epcot Festival of the Arts — The Food

Disney has a new Festival — Festival of the Arts.  It seems like they are always trying something new to get us to spend our day (and money) at Epcot!  This festival takes place Friday-Monday until February 20th.

This festival isn’t quite as large as the Food and Wine Festival but it is still fun.

Neopolitan — Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry — Beer that is.  Cost $9.  Just had to give this one a try.

The strawberry was very sweet and the chocolate had a hint of chocolate flavor.  My daughter thought it tasted like coffee but I did not.  Neither of us cared much for the vanilla.

We then walked around the World Showcase to see what the festival was all about.  There are pavilions set up all around featuring different artists and foods.  The art was varied and included the original piece and some less expensive prints.  It was quite windy so none of the artists were able to demonstrate their work but they were all out talking to the people.

The food, of course, was good.  We had some Mexican food with sangria.

The food was excellent (under $20 for both items ) but the sangria was very sweet. It took us so long to drink the sangria that we didn’t purchase any other food or drink until we had completed our walk of the entire showcase.

After a breezy walk where we teased each other about being from Florida and freezing in 45 degree weather, we found a coffee I could not pass without trying.  Although the coffee was good ($10), it was small and not mixed well.

The food is delightful to the eye and I wish we could have sampled more.  I will be going back and I will be trying some of their beautiful food.

Here is a link to look at the food options during the festival: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-festival-of-the-arts-culinary/