The Busy Wet One

[UK-Trigg]

I woke quite early on my third Day in Orlando, it hadn't stopped raining from the night before. Now I know I keep having a moan about the rain but it had gotten to be real pain in the, you know what, already. I had been bragging at work about how nice and sunny it would be and I love the sunshine further more I had paid a lot of money to get me some.

It was a Saturday morning which meant Saturday afternoon back home, football time (sorry, soccer ). I Went down and grabbed some beers and nibbles, back up in the room I set myself up on the Balcony with my laptop where I watched a live stream Derby County (my team) V Cardiff. The match ended 2 each after Derby had been 2-0 down. I enjoyed the match, the result went OK in the end but above all the view was spectacular.

The beers were good too and to top it off the sun came out.......

I hadn't heard back from Mike yet, he was hanging out at CBBR and taking the kids out to lunch somewhere. I headed down to the pool bar to make the most of the sunshine, those beers on the balcony had gone down well so it was only natural that I ended up at the bar. It wasn't long before Mike was heading back to AKL which meant it was time to get ready for another trip back up the I4 for HHN.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Ive got some HHN pics of you from Saturday night if you want to go ahead and kick off your recap of that nights festivities

 

[UK-Trigg]

Sounds ominous Mike.

Been busy these last few days, will have the next installment up soon.

 

[UK-Trigg]

Sorry not added for a few days, real life got in the way. Any how I left off with myself, Mike and Steve heading out for our 2nd night of HHN.......

We were soon, set. Mike was driving and his wife, Jen was left once again holding the babies. Where I had met Mike and Steve before this was the first time had had met Jen and the Kids, Jen really does have her hands full with those little ones (and Mike LOL) she does a fantastic job with the family and I knew after just 3 days that Mike has and amazing wife and I had made a wonderful friend.

We parked at CBBR, as Mike had only checked out a few hours ago we were still technically OK to park there. The bus was already waiting so we were soon on our way for our second , hopefully dryer, round of HHN's :happy: Off the bus, up the stairs, past security (no bag line) and heading down ... you guys know he drill.

We had pretty much the same time frame as the day before, roughly an hour before park closing which gave us just enough time for a trip around DA. Through the brick opening for a second time and the sheer scale of it still drew my breath, it very much reminded me of Leavesden studios (funny that) only on a much grander scale and the stores and eateries here are all real, of course!

I followed construction threads religiously online yet I could never get a mental picture of Knockturn Alley. Back in the day when all we had were a few plans, words or aerial shots to go off this place had me intrigued the most. I could only envision a small dark alleyway and little else so I didn't really know what to expect as we followed the long pointing finger on the Knockturn Alley sign . Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness I was pleasantly surprised to find a place that was not only much larger in scale than I imagined but far grander in the depth of theming too. A cold, dark, damp and eerie feel leads to a quiet almost haunting atmosphere within Knockturn, the contrast from the bright openness of DA is striking, as it should be. The level of detail is unreal, animated wanted posters on the old brick walls, projected spiders crawl over the windows and dark clouds float across an even darker sky all adding to the look and feel of this part of the expansion.

Located in the very heart of Knockturn Alley is Borgin & Burkes, the high level of themeing found outside in the alley more than carries through into the dark arts store. Dangling skeletons, light fittings wrapped with cobwebs and death eater masks all decorate the store whilst props from the movies, original dark wizard merchandise and rows of dusty Skulls fill the shelves.

A truly fantastic place and I would be sure to visit again.

Stepping back out into the daylight and the hustle and bustle is a shock to the senses, your eyes take a minute to adjust to the brightness of the sun and the surroundings, for a moment or two it is all very surreal, only heightened by a massive dragon breathing fire at you.

It was nearing park closing so we made our way out of DA and over to Finnegans holding area for stay and scream. Once inside we made our way over to the packed out bar, even though it was so busy we were soon served, the girls in here do a great job hustling that bar and earn every tip they get. We ordered Hurricanes and sat out front with them passing the time watching the HHN crew bring out he props for the nights fun. Also keeping us entertained was Nintendo guy, this guy must have been in his 40s he was wearing this T Shirt

and was spinning around and bashing his Nintendo DS not only like his life but the whole world depended on it.

Somehow we ended right up front and when time finally came they rope dropped us to Dracula and from there, with Hurricane in hand, we lead the conga line all the way up to and through the first house of the night.

Pic blatantly stolen from Mikes Twitter



trip

 

[Hockeyman55]

Sorry not added for a few days, real life got in the way. Any how I left off with myself, Mike and Steve heading out for our 2nd night of HHN.......

We were soon, set. Mike was driving and his wife, Jen was left once again holding the babies. Where I had met Mike and Steve before this was the first time had had met Jen and the Kids, Jen really does have her hands full with those little ones (and Mike LOL) she does a fantastic job with the family and I knew after just 3 days that Mike has and amazing wife and I had made a wonderful friend.

We parked at CBBR, as Mike had only checked out a few hours ago we were still technically OK to park there. The bus was already waiting so we were soon on our way for our second , hopefully dryer, round of HHN's :happy: Off the bus, up the stairs, past security (no bag line) and heading down ... you guys know he drill.

Thank you buddy for those kind words about the misses. She really is amazing and said you were an awesome person as well, which is great. I showed the girls the video of you jumping on the bed at the hotel the last night and they kept asking when you were coming back over


I want to comment on the part about us parking over at Cabana and bussing over instead of parking in the garage. My thought process was that we would come back to Cabana after checking out earlier in the day to park for our night at HHN and would save us some time and headaches dealing with the traffic in and out of the garages. It has its plusses and negatives to this however. On the plus side when we got back to the hotel we parked right next to the bus loop and had a bus waiting for us as Mark mentioned so that was a huge win.

After HHN was a different story though. We closed out HHN and originally had planned on eating at Red Oven with Tryg, Meg and Cameron but were so exhausted and didn't feel like sitting in the line which was out the door so we headed to the hub area to catch a bus to Cabana . . . . along with everyone else at that time. As we turned the corner to go under the escalator area we saw the mass of people in the switch backs and decided we would take our chances walking.

So off we went, we cut across the bus parking lot and walked thru an opening in the bushes to get us on to Universal Blvd and that took us to our first obstacle, the intersection of Universal and Hollywood Way. The actual crosswalk for that intersection is on the south side of the road along with the sidewalk that only takes you as far as Royal Pacific (for now) so once you get to that point you have to cross back over to the north side of Hollywoodd Way. So knowing that I called an audible and took a gamble crossing Uni and Hollywood on the north side and after a few car honks we successfully made it over but then the next problem is you have to walk in either the grass or street up until you meet up with the sidewalk the is near the edge of Citywalk. Once you made it to the sidewalk it was smooth sailing for a bit until you get to Adventure Way. At that point you have a choice to make. You either continue on Hollywood and cross at the official crossing at Turkey Lake or you take your chance and walk along Adventure Way and enter the property at the front entrance like you would if you were driving. Well I let you guess which route we took


So moral of the story is im not sure if walking took the same amount of time as it would have if we waited for a bus. My guess is it probably took about the same amount of time but with a lot more risk.


On our way to Dracula. Never have been the first person in a house so thought that was pretty cool. And you can bet I took my sweet ass time walking also so I could take it all in with out having been stuck in a konga line.
20140920_174850 by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr


Mark and my brother waiting for me to get out of the Maskerade scarezone where I was trying to get some photos in.
DSC03533-Edit by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr


Mark having his model work the runway
DSC03601-Edit-3 by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr


Mark after a few drinks. Perma grin activated
DSC03670-2 by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[UK-Trigg]

Having necked our drinks and dumped the ice in the trash we entered Dracula untold leading the way, the sets start off really well with some knockout theming the rockwork inside this haunt was top notch. Scare actors were popping up all over the place and were trying their best to get a scare, the costuming was also fantastic. Moving deeper through you find more effects are in use, projections and smells are used to give the effect of burning houses whilst air cannon gives the impression that arrows are flying right by you. Fog, lights and music are also used to add to the atmosphere, this place has a lot going on! yet I came out the other side feeling somewhat underwhelmed giving it 5/10 at best. Was it because it was the first run of the night? Maybe as I hadn't seen the movie I couldn't relate it ? or could it be that it was still light outside, who knows? I didn't and I couldn't put my finger on it.

The plan was to hit TWD as this had by fr the longest lines the night before and it made sense to get it out of the way before the crowds were let in. This plan soon fell apart as TWD dead was not open yet so we hit AVP, mistake.

The line for AVP was short and we were soon up by the entrance , from here you can see the massive facade for TWD, very impressive.

AVP was a great house, not really for the scares but for sheer good looks, attention to detail and theme. I had several runs through this house so I will write more on it later, it was easy to tell though that this was one of the stand out houses in which was already proving to be a strong year.

Having exited AVP our earlier mistake was revealed, by now the park was open to the masses and all and sundry seemed to have condescended on TWD. We hit the line and it was a long one, the time dragged and dragged as the line didn't seem to be moving. Nintendo Guy was in line too, still bashing his DS and spinning around like the ballerina in the Dolls House. To pass the time we had blood shots, 7 bucks a pop and they taste nasty sweet, sticky, syrupy, yuk, and to be honest I only got them because the girl selling them was kinda cute :smiley:, damn that age old marketing ploy.

We should have waited for TWD to open and done that house with no wait then done AVP or another house but we didn't, so we waited, waited and waited some more. I was intrigued to see what they had done with this years TWD house, know I know people around these parts are just about done with TWD but the masses at HHN seemed to be lapping it up. Would it live upto the hype? would the longest maze effort be more than a gimmick? and would the huge amount of actors reported to be inside add to the terror?

Find out in my next post

 

[Hockeyman55]

Find out in my next post

Still waiting . .. . . haha


Also from what I heard during the event was we would have had a wait at TWD either way since they were letting the Express line in first. Oh well, we still had fun either way and gave you time to build some Nintendo guy material

 

[UK-Trigg]

Tell me mate, I will crack on again soon. 16 hours a week overtime, working a Saturday job plus family isn't leaving much time in my week. I will resume soon as I have some cool videos to share.