Ok, we’re back from Florida and it was fun. The Hogsmead area of Universal Studios is indeed a crowd gatherer. Sunday the whole park save for Hogsmead was practically empty we practically had the run of the park. It was slightly drizzly for part of the day, but that was to be expected. The forbidden journey, definitely fun, but personally the walk thru the castle was my fun spot. The effects they used to make the murals talk and semi-interact with you was great. The whole enviroment was like you stepped into Hogswart itself save for the turn aisles and such.

Hogswarts should have been bigger though on a sidenote. I mean seriously, they could have taken the eastern Hollywood lot and turned it into Hogwarts and then hogmead next to it with room to spare to add a Hogsmead Hotel and have it next to the 3 Broomsticks. I think a Harry Potter theme hotel would make even more revenue, and an additional place in the world for fanboys/girls to go and just ZoMg it’s just like staying at Hogsmead Squee! 2nd day there we did go to the Universal Studios side of the park and checked out Shrek 4d, which came across as an inbtw of shrek 1 & 2, which was quite amusing. Then the Nick ride with Jimmy Newtron and the nicktoon cadre in reveiw. Kids loved it, especially the whole chicken polka routine (LOL). Afterwards we walked over to the Disaster Studios ride/show and HEY HEY Yours truly got selected to be a 1 of three *evil* henchmen in a Mock Christopher Walken ( who was playing the Producer) Disaster movie, even my wife got involved as a 1.5 minute screamqueen.

After that little trip, we went and rode on Jaws which wasn’t too bad if not a little corny nowdays. We then hit the Simpson’s ride ( no not jessica simpson either ) A 3d Imax Rollercoaster/Mini Episode of the Simpsons which was rather amusing as well. My all time faves though were the MIB Alien attack and the T2 4D Show, the building’s architecture was amazing I loved it! The T80’s looked really good, the show itself was a again another inbtw type from T2 & T3 which was cool because I had wondered what if the T1000 did survive? Which it did. We got one the meal deals there too were you pay like 20$ per person and you can eat at 1 of 3 restruants for free all you can eat throughout the day up to 1/2 hr before the park closes. We rode the ET ride, funny stuff there sorta takes place where ET goes back to the green planet and Aww hell go and check it out yourselves. It was a great time there. Butterbeer, tastes like CremeSoda but with extra Vanilla to it and the foam mixture they use to top it with reminds me of a coolwhip/marshmellow blend. Pumpkinjuice isn’t too bad, reminds me of Pumpkin cider, save for being cold.

After that we drove to Downtown Disney which was uber cool, had a nice layout, although I would shy away from eating there unless you don;t mind spending like 90$ to feed 5 people 3 which were kids. Planethollywood was nice, the T-Rex restruant was funny to look into as well. We visited the DisneyQuest building which was fantastic, they really outdid themselves with that one. I was hoping that during our stay there I would attempt to meet a few people I knew that lived in the general area of where we were staying at one of which worked at Disney for a bit of time in the art section of Disney, but come to find out she moved to california to work for some software company. Oh well, life goes on. We went back to the condo and practically passed out after cleaning up a bit.

Wensday we went to DisneyWorld and spent the day at Epcot center. The park itself was great, one of the once in a lifetime experinces if you’re an out of towner. The Spaceship earth ride was great and the center they have at the end of the ride was also pretty fun as well. Had some driver sim and a Powercity game which had you make use of electronic shuffleboard cues. We took on the TestTrack ride as well and that was so cool we rode it again at the end of the day.

Before that we spent 4 maybe 5 hrs expolring the international side of the park, even let the kids do the whole Kim Possible Missions fun activity as well. I got to visit the Norway section of the world village and was impressed if not a little and strangely homesick yet I’ve never been to stavanger in my whole life. I got myself a souviner beer mug from there too for free as well, which was unexcpected. Oh and The Japan section was also great we had lunch there and I and my daugther had the curry bowl (YUM!!!) and then afterwards we stayed around and watch a exhibition on how to create pieces of japanese art from candy, which was very educational. Afterwards we just enjoyed the rest of the day exploring the park doing the KP Missions. after that back to the condo and well I discovered I had 3 blistered 1 of which was/still the size of a silver dollar.

I had to take it easy after that and soaking in the jet tub in our condo there. Then Thursday we hit Disney Hollywood studios and checked out the Star Tours ride which was still closed for renovations (DAMN AND BLAST IT ALL) but I did get pics with the kids and Darth Vader and the stormtroopers and even got a quickshot of me on a Speeder on Endor. We had a great time took the Great Movie ride, which was a bit cheesy and amusing but overall enjoyable. We had lunch at the ABC Studios Commissary and took a stroll through the open area of one the animation studios there at the park. We also saw the Muppets in 3D and did the Soaring rides, we then hit back to the other side of the park and watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show and guess who got into the show? YEA YOU GUESSED IT ! “ME” which was very cool (even if my bellybutton did peek out during the screaming and waving of the arms scenes *blush*) and exciting! then we strolled down to the mock Hollywood and over to the Aerosmith Rollercoaster since My wife and 2 of the kids wanted to ride that before we left. We didn’t do the Tower of Terror due to the kids being completely scared crapless if we did try to go.

Friday it was back to Universal and Hogsmead to take on rides we didn’t get a chance to go on and shows we missed. Overall fun the hulk rollercoaster was a blast from what my wife told me, the posiden’s fury was pretty cool even though I passed on going in (just lost interest) but we did do the MIB Alien attack and The Simpson’s ride and such again. I got myself a T2 Endo-Figure and 2 MIB badges as souviners and we left. Got back to the condo and packed up a bit after enjoying some me and wife time alone at the restruant while the kids had pizza at the condo back at the starwood resort community we were staying at. Next morning we packed up, headed out about near noon, visited Downtown Disney since it was free and got one the kids a custom made lightsaber since the other one got a Mickey LightSaber and the oldest? She got a Stitch plushie (lol) then we headed towards the airport but stopped at Golden Corral to eat 1st, after that airport and then home where we crashed.

Since then I’ve been searching for a job the past 5 days, I did get a call from one the places I was hoping would call me but I didn’t get an exact time for an interview, the head of hr said she was going to hand my resume and refs over to the team leader for the roxio project to call and set up a interveiw time for me to meet with him. I’m hopeful at this point. Game wise Robert, Paul, and Bruce have been goving it thier all! I’ll post up a few shots of whats being done so far since I got back from vacation.

That’s about it for now. We’re still do some major 3d work right now. So I’ll be back to post up on progress maybe at the end of the month. Till then comments are always welcome and feedback needed.