The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Fortunately we are hitting Universal at a non-peak time - so crowds have been more than manageable.  However you never want to come to any theme park without a plan.  You need a plan for getting on the hottest rides with the minimum wait time, a food plan, transportation plan and a plan to rob a bank when you get home to pay for it all.  In the Prologue post - I noted that vacation planning become more complicated now that we have teenagers.  On the positive end, Jake has started to take over many of the daily planning aspects that usually fell on me to handle.  He came prepared with a park plan today to make sure we hit all the rides on our list and put all the water rides right before our Celtics game lunch break - so we could change out of our wet clothes.  Here is everybody getting ready for the water ride.. as you can see - some are more excited than others..

Earlier this year - I went midnight skiing and noticed that at my age - I was an outlier in the demographics.  That is starting to be the case in these thrill rides - as you see less and less people of "our age" on these rides.  Luckily Karen is still a trooper and likes to ride - so we can still go an almost all rides as a family.  I certainly feel slightly nauseous after most rides and my days of the really extreme coasters are pretty much behind me unless I am double dog dared.  

When planning this trip - Jake also noted that Orlando had been granted an expansion franchise in the MLS and would be playing a home game during our trip.  So we took off from the rest of the gang and went to the Orlando City v Toronto FC match in the Citrus Bowl.  If was a great crowd (>30k) and we had a good time and met our two sporting event minimum for the trip !

Of course no trip would be complete without a trip to Krispy Kreme.  Jake and I stopped at a shop on the way home from the soccer match to pick up some donuts for the morning.  Not that I am opposed to paying $5.25 for a small cinnamon role at the cafe at our hotel but thought the kids would enjoy the change of pace !