I had a great time in Florida. I'll go ahead and list what places I went to and what I liked about them (and disliked).
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (Sunday)
(+)
-Revenge of the Mummy (my first roller coaster ride ever... kinda sad but I had fun. I felt like I was about to fly out of my seat...)
-Shrek 4D (It was hilarious)
-Some informative skit on makeup and costumes and so on. They picked an Asian lady (Chinese) as a volunteer, and she seemed to fit what they were looking for (shy, easily scared). It was fun.
-"Earthquake" was informative about special effects in movies. Had some interesting facts at first, kind of funny. See below for rest.
-Terminator 3D was cool. I'm still trying to figure out how the hell they got the real actors to go through the screen when it went to the movie part! If I took off my glasses, I bet I would have found out. Oh well, this did rock, but the show gave me a headache. (Loud noises, flashing lights, mist effects covering the entire room, and the 3D gets on you after a while)
(-)
-"Twister", by far, was the lamest thing there. If you ever saw the movie, think of that's realistic-ness, divide it by about 1000, and there you have the "ride" or whatever. At the end of the day, me and Brandon were in a survey and we complained about it. Supposedly, people from the midwest (who are prone to tornados) said they were unimpressed by it. I'm not surprised.
-"Earthquake" ended where you take a subway into a spot where an earthquake is about to happen. Several unrealistic things, but by far the worst parts were the subway jumping its' tracks and the gas-container truck (whatever they call them) exploding. The water was realistic though.
(o)
-MIB Alien Attack was fun, you go through the ride shooting aliens. I think they overdid the spinning parts... Also, what really annoyed me, was the fact that I was shooting things and not getting points for it. Argh! I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I got a score of like 47k while the guy next to me got 249k... Brandon also got up in the 200ks. I'm usually good at this kind of stuff too. :(
Everything else was so-so.
SEAWORLD (Monday)
I had mixed feelings about this. You could feed the animals and watch shows. I thought it was just a kiddy park, but it was actually fun. Don't go expecting to see more animals than Riverbanks... Then again, Riverbanks is one of the better zoos, so I can't blame them. Oh, and the girls in bikinis rocked. :P
WET 'N WILD (Tuesday)
Let's just say, I'm not a water park fan. I sat in the lazy river and surf lagoon for a majority of the day.
PIRATE'S DINNER AND ADVENTURE (Wednesday)
Most of the time was spent at the hotel room. Break time! We went to a Pirate's show thing, we got fed, but not nearly as much as I was expecting. (Brandon's relatives were suggesting fasting after noon to save room, but oh well)
Similar to Medieval(sp) Knights, you eat while watching a show. It's filled with songs and stuff like that, but they interact with the crowd. It was fun, but aimed towards kids mostly. They had a gift shop there, I coulda bought a knife or something but decided to get this cool statuette of a pirate loading a rifle.
UNIVERSAL ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE (Thursday)
I really didn't do much here either... :P
(+)
-Spiderman, the ride, was fun as heck. I have a fear of falling, but the scene where you "fall" is similated so I could tolerate it. Brandon told me he looked at the roof and instantly could tell that we weren't really falling. It was cool though.
(not a fear of heights, I just freak out when I either am about to fall or when I am falling. This started when my parents forced me to ride "Pirates of the Carribean" when I was a little kid... it scared me):P
-Sinbad (much longer name, but oh well) was good. It was a comedic show, kind of geared to kids, but didn't flaunt it's attempt like "Seuss Landing" (the 1/5 of the park dedicated to Dr. Seuss).
-Poseidon (also longer name, oh well) was cool. It's basically a show as well. What really impressed me is how they used a waterfall as a projection screen.
-The overall theme of the park was cool. We went into a restaurant in the Lost Continent part, it was shaped like a tree. A wizard wandered in to get out of the heat... ended up scaring someone too :P
-Got this cool medalion that they imprinted. It's got a Phoenix (don't have to explain what that stands for I hope) and a Cross, meaning protection.
-I didn't ride the Jurasic Park ride (80 ft. vertical drop isn't my style) or the Hulk Roller Coaster (You go 0 to 40 mph in 2 seconds flat) or the Dueling Dragons Coaster (You come between 12 inches of the other coaster, it's 2 different rides running together), but they looked like fun, if that's your style.
Yes, that's right. Kevin = wuss. Deal with it.
OUTLET SHOPPING (Friday)
At this point, I only had $17 left. You think I got anything? The only thing I saw was a $129 pair of headphones that looked awesome as heck. Oh, and a dick lighter. (And yes, BEFORE YOU ASK, it even vibrates. Too bad it's a 3-incher, haha![3 inches is a rough estimate, I didn't even touch it, the shopkeep told me about it])
Universal Studios [++++] (Fun to go to)
Universal Islands of Adventure [+++++] (MUST SEE)
Seaworld [++++] (Better than I expected)
Pirate's Dinner and Adventure [+++/] (3 and a half)
Wet 'n Wild [+++] (The one in Texas was 3 times better)
Outlet Shopping (Might as well, you're in a tourist trap after all)
I had fun.
PW was robbed Thursday while I was gone. The guy got nothing because the safe was closed and locked, only a select few know the combo. The guy got caught Friday, someone saw his liscense plate and reported him Thursday night. Supposedly, he may be the one behind an earlier robbing of Bi-Lo's. I don't give a flying fuck about Bi-Lo's (not trying to be mean, but the Bi-Lo's by my house sucks royal ass), but they better not hit Kroger. I go to Kroger's a lot at night.
My brother had a bad time in Philly. Long story. Let's just say, in the whole hotel they did not have one single First Aid kit when my brother stepped on a clothing pin in his room. The pool/spa was closed indefinitely (no one told him that when he asked where it was) and the exercise room was small and filled with messed up equip. He's still trying to put in complaints, but looks like they "have no records" of the ones he filed at the hotel.
Jason Bruns is out of town/state/region... He's with his relatives until the National Convention. Angel's not going to Atlanta, which does kind of suck. Jason's more disappointed than I am. I guess I'll have to bring my XBox and his PS2 to pass the time.
ATLANTA KICKS ASS for National Convention. Texas was my all-time favorite though... but that was when we were in the hotel in the airport and we could go find all these neat shops in the airport to go to.
I need to focus on scholarship hunting for now. I was thinking about getting a Pell Grant, but I doubt I can. My brother wasn't able to a few years back, I doubt I am now. Besides, I have so little time and have so much shit to dig up for it that I doubt it's worth the effort to even try. Hopefully I can score some scholarships, otherwise it's going to be a semester/year before I can go to college.
Finally, I'm going to keep my posts few in number but very long. I'll probably update weekly or something like that. Just letting you know.
-Kev