Florida Pt 3: Universal Studios

The man on the left was turning 88 and had so much spunk! He was actually more entertaining and hilarious than the Beetlejuice show.

With Shrek and Fiona

Donkey harassed Greg for having not yet proposed to me after 2.5 years of dating. He said he was 5 months past the puppy love stage and had no excuse! I got quite a laugh out of it!

Some creepy guy outside The Mummy ride and our creations using the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine. Greg was confused as to why I was taking pictures of the drinks and why I was so excited for them

AAAH! Jaws!

Saturday was our final day of fun in Florida, so we went to Universal Studios. In my opinion this park was much better than Island of Adventure because there was more to do and it had more personality. It reminded me of Disney Hollywood Studios except without the improv actors running around.

The park itself was insanely dead which was awesome because we could ride the popular rides more than once without having to wait. I personally enjoyed The Mummy indoor roller coaster, especially since it made Greg's hair look like a mad scientist's afterwards. The ceiling lighting on fire was super cool too!

We then went on the Jaws ride where I got squished by 3 huge manly looking guys. When Jaws popped up beside them on the boat the guy on the far side of the bench flailed and jumped to the right which made the other two guys do the same, resulting in little squished me. It was HILARIOUS!! Especially since I'm someone who gets startled super easily and even I didn't jump.

Oh and one of the coolest parts of the day for me (which I know most people won't find exciting) was getting to use the Coca-cola freestyle machine!! I had seen it on tv where they demonstrated how you used it and how you could make hundreds of different drinks just by mixing a handful of coke products! I made a peach and cherry flavoured sprite and Greg made a raspberry lemonade/ lime Fanta mix. Hence why his was a gross brown colour. They were both delicious though!

At the end of the day, once we had pretty much done everything at the park Greg and I decided to take a taxi home instead of waiting the shuttle... what a mistake that was.

Our first taxi driver told us when we got in that it was his first day and that he wasn't super familiar with all the streets yet so we would have to bear with him. Then once we actually got to the exit of Universal he asks us for step by step directions to our hotel. Um, sorry Mister, but I've been there for 3 days and it's been a different way to the hotel every time. I'm not from around here, so I have no idea. I am not a gps.

We told him the exact address of our hotel and the closest street and businesses but he still had no idea. 20 minutes later he pulls into a parking lot then calls dispatch to try and get directions, but does he talk to them? Nooo. He makes ME talk to dispatch! What the!?!

Now I'm not one to lose my temper and I try not to let things like this get me down, but I was getting flustered and he still had the meter running. So I asked him to take us back to Universal since he knew how to get there. That taxi cost us $10. I know we shouldn't have had to pay but we felt really bad for him and he apologized numerous times so we didn't mind.

When we got back to Universal we looked at the clock and noticed it was still 2 hours before the shuttle would get there. So we decided we would take our chances and try another taxi. Again... what a bad idea that was.

Before we even got in the taxi I told the driver our hotel name and address where we need to go and specifically asked him if he knew where that was before we got in. He said he knew where it was which was great. Greg and I were so relieved. Once in the car I reiterated the address of our hotel just to make sure he knew, since there were 2 Hampton's fairly close to each other.

Well, apparently he didn't listen because he pulled up to the other Hampton instead. I told him politely that it wasn't our hotel and reiterated the address for a third time. However instead of apologizing for mishearing me he proceeds to YELL at me because this is all my fault. He yelled at me for a good 5 minutes, like the kind of yelling you do at the top of your lungs when you really hate someone.

So I told him to drop us off and we would find our way back to the other Hampton, but he wouldn't let us go because he wanted our business. So he begrudgingly drove us to our real hotel. Then when we were about to leave the taxi he lectured me again saying I need to tell people the address of the hotel not just the name. So I just politely apologized and got out of the taxi as fast as I could.

Oi. Orlando taxi drivers. I had never been so stressed or had such bad luck with taxis in my life! It was a horrible way to end the vacation :(

To de-stress Greg and I grabbed some food, got in our pjs and cuddled up and watched tv for a bit before heading off to bed early for our 4am wakeup the next day to catch our plane. It was a bitter-sweet ending to our trip, but in the end the good memories were what made it an awesome trip!

I hope you all enjoyed my vacation story :)