The Tale of the Grow Walk ….Hunh? DCL Magic and WDW Review

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The lined seemed to be moving super slow. I was amazed at how slow it was…and about every 2 minutes we heard dinosaur noses that got real old fast!

 

 

It was very much themed after Jurassic Park.

 

We slowly made our way on….and we found out why it was so slow. They only have 1 train on the track. I am not sure if they have a 2nd one to run or not but this track easily could handle it. While one is loading one could be going. I was super annoyed. The team members here were friendly and I felt bad for them because they really were working their rear off.

 

 

The ride was fun, but not fabulous. It is a very small coaster.

 

 

We moved on to find something else to do.

 

 

 

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I was hungry but for some reason we were waiting to eat….I can’t remember why now…but I do know it was some reason Skip had.

 

 

 

 

We next decided to ride the Flying School coaster. It showed a 15 minute wait and there wasn’t many people in line at all. This would move really fast! It was a hanging coaster and we like those.

So we got in line and waited and waited and waited. We watched the team members goof off with each other the whole time., They never had people get in the individual queues till after the coaster came back and had emptied. Then they would have some people directed to line up and then after they got on they would let a few more till was full. These were kids running this. They worried more about the fun they were having than working. There was an older lady running the ride controls and she just zoned out and didn’t pay attention to the kids. She didn’t have the Disney look…to put it nicely. So we slowly work our way up there and we are all getting more and more mad each time. Again, only 1 train running…and I timed the ride…I believe it was a total of 29 seconds. We should’ve left but we didn’t. Frank was the main goof off. Totally a jerk. He flirted with Amanda and goofed off with a couple of other guys. This ride had more than enough staff to keep it running fine…if they actually worked. Skip started calling Frank….Frank the _ _ _ _...You fill in the blank but it wasn’t nice. So we started making up stories about Frank the _ _ _ _. I started to voice how annoyed I was within earshot….none of them heard because they were too busy fooling around. Then Amandas shift was over, but Frank and some other buddy stole her sunglasses right as we loaded on. So instead of loading the train they chased around playing keep away from Amanda. I was raging mad at this time as were other people and we started saying things rudely to them…but they once again never hear.

 

So we took our 29 second ride and my head banged from side to side for all 29 seconds. WORST ride I have EVER been on. It was awful…and immediately I had a migraine. I was determined to go to guest services to complain on our way out…and I never did and I still kick myself for not doing it…but at the time I was tired and I just wanted out of the park.

 

Now I was hungry and had a headache. Skip and Claire wanted to ride some death trap ride, so I was going to go find a snack to hold me over….I never did.

 

I walked around and waited for them as we were going to eat a meal once they were done. I was so tempted to buy a snack but then I wouldn’t be hungry for the meal and I never found something small enough to tie me over.

 

 

 

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I believe this is the deathtrap that they were planning on riding.

 

 

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Where should I go next?

 

 

Miniland of course!

 

 

 

 

 

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There is just so much here to see and the detail is amazing….you could spend hours here.

 

 

 

 

 

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If you are a Star Wars fan, there is a huge section.

 

 

 

 

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This had brought back memories of the recent Disneyland trip I had taken and my tour day of Hollywood! I am hoping to head there again this year.

 

 

 

 

 

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A few more in Miniland.

 

 

 

I was now hungry. I had a raging headache from the flight school ride and hunger. I sat on a bench waiting for Claire and Skip. They had said they would meet me in this area at a certain time. I honestly had no clue if they could get on the ride fast enough or not and I just had to wait. Oh…and my husband left his phone in the car….on purpose too. I had told him when he made that decision that it wasn’t a wise one as we may get separated and will need to find each other but he had no desire to bring it in….and I was now cursing him.

 

They were a bit late and I am pretty sure I wasn’t very pleasant to him when they did arrive. He knows how I am with needing food. LOL.

 

We were going to just go to the pizza buffet.

 

 

I piled up my plate.

 

 

The food was just ok. Nothing fabulous but it did fill the need I had. Some of it was better than others.

 

A view of a death trap out the window.

 

[jenseib]

We made a couple of trips and new pizza was brought out. It was better when it was fresh.

 

We honestly were ready to leave now. We just were not impressed with Legoland at all. It was mainly due to the poor staff. They just really turned us off of the place. And the loading techniques were awful. What looks like a short line was actually long.

 

We wanted to watch the waterski show and one was starting while we were eating. Skip tried to push off eating till later to go see it but I said no way. There was one later in the day and as much as we wanted to see it we weren’t sure we wanted to stay in the park much longer. Even Claire, who loves Legos was not impressed with the place.

There was however one thing I had on my must do list before we left….the Gardens…so we worked our way towards them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A look at one of the death trap rides through the trees. (If you had followed my Disneyland TR, I explained all about death trap rides)

 

 

 

We could hear that the waterski show was still going on, so we went to see if we could see anything.

 

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Sadly it was just getting over.

 

 

 

I do think we would’ve enjoyed this show.

 

So we kept moving towards the gardens.

 

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Here we are. I am so happy they kept some of the gardens intact. This was a highlight for us.

 

 

Part of Cypress Gardens “thing” was they would have southern belles walking around the gardens. Legoland pays tribute to that.

Claire was pretty sure this was Belle.

 

 

 

We then entered the Gardens area.

 

 

Kitty!

 

 

Edited March 5, 2015 by jenseib

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Edited March 5, 2015 by jenseib

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Claire was pretty sure she found Cinderella too.

 

 

I don’t know what these little stumpy things were but they were kind of odd.

 

 

 

 

 

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Now there was one thing I knew I wanted to see at Legoland in the Cypress Garden Section and that was the Banyan tree. It is said it was Planted in a five-gallon bucket in 1939 and now stands like a cathedral of soaring limbs and aerial roots. A banyan tree is an East Indian fig tree, of the mulberry family, having branches that send out adventitious roots to the ground and sometimes cause the tree to spread over a wide area.

 

 

I have to say it really did take “root” since 1939!

 

 

 

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I believe there is a type of Banyan tree at the Polynesian out near the Spirit of Aloha.

 

 

 

 

Those 2 were done exploring the tree…I wanted to spend more time here.

 

 

 

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We did move on but they were faster than me. They can’t leave anyways…I have the car keys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I thought this was funny…as I had issues getting onto facebook at the park all day!

 

 

 

Isn’t this just so pretty?

 

 

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Once we were done with the gardens we headed up towards the front. I knew we had not seen the whole park but we were kind of annoyed with the place and had no desire to stay any longer. We all agreed the Gardens was by far the best part of the park, but we also really enjoyed miniland.

 

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Of course we had promised shopping for Claire so we tackled the stores. Skip is not a shopper and he often follows you around…I think to hurry you up. It annoys the heck out of me….but Claire had him with her this time.

 

 

I bought a magnet and Claire roamed and roamed.

 

 

We found that the prices were not good. They were even a bit higher than prices at places like Target. We told her to limit what she got and she could get something at home for cheaper and then we wouldn’t have to worry about packing. This was not so exciting to her. It also didn’t help that she was picking out some of the most expensive things, which we vetoed. It was becoming more of buying something for the sake of buying it rather than something she actually wanted.

 

After the shopping I think we made bathrooms stops and then worked our way out of the park.

 

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We headed back out to the car and then made our way back towards Disney for our last night. The ride was long and boring and I am pretty sure Claire took a snooze once again in the backseat. I think we stopped for soft drinks once again before getting on the main highway. Again, this is not a short drive to Disney. I would say at least an hour. I have heard people say it’s less and it could depend on traffic or how fast you drive, but I would not expect to get there in less than an hour.

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Our next stop was at Old Key West. I was knocking off another hotel on my bucket list of trying to stay at all resorts at some point in time.

 

We pulled in and it was hard to find a parking spot, but someone pulled out and I took it and then went in to check in. I was kind of tired and grumpy at that point, but the lady was pleasant. I totally forgot to request a first floor room…I always do, not sure why I forgot…but I asked if there was one available and she said no. I told her we had a lot of bags and it would be hard for us to carry up the stairs but she said we could put a call in for someone to do that. I had no desire to wait for someone to come and do that.

I asked if she could check again for a first floor as it was kind of important to us and she said no, everyone else who got them today were for medical reasons…..if I had been thinking straight I would’ve brought up Skips THREE hip replacements…however I wasn’t thinking. I knew I would be carrying those bags up the steps and yet I wasn’t smart enough to tell her the reason why I was the one to carry them up. Yes, Skip can carry them too, but I knew he would pull the hip card.

So then she points out our building and room. I think we were in one of the furthest buildings away from the main building….again not impressed and asked for something closer and she told me no, it was pretty full. Dang it. She handed me the parking pass and told me that parking had just gone up this week at the parks too. Wow! It had gone up while we had been cruising.

 

So I join my family and we drive all the way back to our building.

 

 

 

I parked and Skip said he wasn’t bothering with bags till later on. I told him to grab one now as I wanted to go through them and he said no. I was a little annoyed to say the least.

 

We went in the room and Claire showed Skip how to use the bands to open the door, but then let him know that it was her job to do so and then they plopped on the beds and I went down to get the bags and I explored our area a little bit.

 

The good thing was, we were pretty close to the bus stop.

 

 

 

 

I was working up a nice sweat…and this was my family.