Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom (Grad Nite), MGM (long)

The Barberton, Ohio High School senior class trip was to Florida, which included Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom, and MGM. I am going to tell about the entire trip, so it might be kind of long. Anyway hear we go.

Thursday April 28-

Arrive at Orlando International at 2:30, very nice airport. We ride the Monorail to the baggage claim area and pick up our stuff and then we are off the hotel. We stayed at the Ramada Resort. Decent place. We get settled ain and then its time to go to Universal City Walk. We ate at NBA City. Worst restaurant ever. I expected teh scaled down menu since there was 110 of us.

After dinner we werre allowed to walk around the city walk. I like this place, but we were there too long, not much to do except shopping. I liked the street show, my group and I watched it twice since were out of ideas to do. Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville was sweet and so was the Nascar place.

Friday April 29-

After the City Walk we went back to the hotel to sleep. We wake up at 7:30 and go to The Sizzler for a breakfast buffet, then its off to Islands of Adventure.

At first glance this place is amazing, we arrive at 10 am and get into the park at around 10:45. The theming is amazing and very nice. We go straight to the Hulk, and so did everyone else. The Queue is pretty cool, but I like to see the ride in action. 90 minute wait, 2 train op. They ran the 3rd train but it was empty, can someone tell me why? Sat 2nd row, I was looking very foward to riding this, and boy it didn't dissappoint. The launch was incredible and the ride was very forceful from start to finish. Simply amazing.

Next we walked back to the Dueling Dragons and we arrive there to see it is down, so we went to the little stand to buy some drinks. The guy said it would be down for a couple hrs. But after I bought my water it was open. This queue is so long and I love going through the cave. We waited 20 minutes for Fire. They added 2 trains making a 2 train op on each. Last back row. Now I really didn't get the dueling effect since I sat in the back, but the ride was fast, forceful, and smooth. I like the ride but I will take Raptor any day.

We went to Jurrasic Park next and rode the River Adventure. 35 minute wait. Fun rid, the T-rex kind of got me at the end. I was dissapointed that I didnt get soaked, since it was pretty hot out.

Next we went up to Spiderman, 35 minute wait. When we entered the building they came over the speaker and suspeneded all outdoor rides due to the weather. This would be the final ride at IOA. This ride blew me away. It really feels like you are falling and all of the effects are so great. Blew me completely away.

After we came out, it wasnt raining to hard, but there was lightning so I decided to get something to eat. i found one of the places that sold turkey legs. It was next to the Hulk queue. As I was standing in line, it started pouring By the time I got my turkey leg I was soaked. So walked around with a turkey leg soaked. $5 got me some of the best park food ever. Very good.

We had to meet at 4:45 so that was it for IOA. We needed more time, I think we should of skipped Grad Nite and spent more time at Univseral.

Overall IOA was excellent, the theming, the rides, the food, the employees were great. Will visit again for sure.

Back to the hotel for some downtime before Grad Nite. On the way down I cought at nasty cold, so i needed some sleep, so I skipped our pizza party to sleep. Now doing IOA and MK in one day is enough but doing Grad Nite from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. is insane.

The grad nite experience is neat, but I wasnt a big fan of Magic Kingdom, it was nice and the theming was good, but the rides are to tame except for Space Mountain. Great ride, loads of fun

Grad Nite was ok, but they played the same rap songs over and over. I hate c-rap to begin with so i was going crazy, and I am not a big fan of punk. Simple Plan was going to perform so I watched them. They arent bad, I will give them that, but I dont like punk, especially that boy band type punk, but anything is better then c-rap (thanks Kevin, lol) Give me Metallica any day!!

After a really long day I needed sleep, but we had got back to the hotel at 5:30 and had to be up at 10 for lunch at a nearby Ponderosa, then MGM.

MGM is a great park. Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster are worth the price of admissnion alone. Not to mention the great shows and other attractions they have. The Backlot movie tour was great since my 4 friends were in the show. Tons of fun

Rockin Roller Coaster- 2 rides that day. First ride we waited 30 minutes, 2nd, 10 minutes. The launch was great, but I still like the Hulk's better, its more powerful, its incredibly smooth for a Vekoma!?!? The pre-show was cool. I love when you are getting off there is the red carpet!!

Tower of Terror- 60 minute wait, pretty fun ride. You are out of your seat for most of the ride.

After leaving the Park at 8:30 we were supposed to take the bus to the Caribbean Resort, and get off at Martinique, then take the bus to Downtown Disney for a later dinner at Planet Hollywood, now this is why I wasnt a big fan of Disney, its way to big. I took 45 minutes to get there.

Downtown Disney is really nice. Tons of shopping and what not. Didnt get to look at anything since we were later, but from what I saw it was amazing.

Then back to the hotel at midnight, time for some much needed sleep, but we still had to wake up at 7 am. Had to catch a 12:30 flight from Orlando to Cleveland.

And thats it, that was my senior class trip. Was pretty fun. I cant believe I will be graduating in June, seems like it was just yesterday that I was starting Pre school. (14 years ago)