Florida / Oasis Of The Seas Trip Report From 12/7/17 - 12/17/17

This will be evolving over the week as I edit videos, etc :

12/7/17 - Landed in Florida -
When we landed we headed off to Waffle house and got breakfast because we had a 5 AM flight and landed around 8 AM ! After that we went to Hogans Beach shop, and for those who don't know what that is , its Wrestling Superstar Hulk Hogans Store, full to the brim with Hogan Merch and other Wrestling coolness, brought me back to my childhood for sure ! After we went down memory lane we went to the Orlando Eye complex, we had tickets for both Funspot parks, but could not go to them right away due to them opening at 2PM !

We started off with Sealife Aquarium and you will see Video below for this. Its a small, but awesome Aquarium and well worth the visit ! Sharks, Sea Turtles, Jelly fish, sting Rays, you get the point !
I went during IAAPA week and rushed through it, so this time, I wanted tot are more time and enjoy it more ! Glad I did !

When we were done, we then went over to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum , Again I did this during IAAPA week, but Since my GF had never seen any of this and she was interested, we went ! Lots of fun and goof pictures taken and I will make a better posting of some of the stuff on SFNEOnline's Main News page smoke sure you guys keep checking there! I do enjoy how a lot of the figures, look life like and you guys know me, i take goofy to the next level !

Once we finished up with the wax museum , we took our 25 minute spin on the Orlando Eye, a 400 FT Ferris Wheel and it was tough to get a lot of the great views, due to it being a bit foggy !

We did head off and get some lunch at outback and then decided to roll the dice and see if our hotel room was ready , which it was so people took showers, changed, took a quick nap and then we finally got to Funspot around 5/6 PM .

We headed to Kissimmee FunSpot first and got a bunch of rides on MineBlower, which I thought was a fantastic Coaster, A little shaky and intense and love the barrel roll, but I loved it more then what people have been saying about it ! When i rode it and each ride , I loved it more. I can understand why a lot of people do not enjoy it due to some of the turns are shaky and rattle people and I know a bunch of people do not like that, they re expecting something for being newer not like that, but I enjoyed it and for me it was a home run ! After that we bounced around between rides and go carts , got our moneys worth for sure ! I really enjoy going to the Funspot parks, its a nice get away from the big parks, relax and have some fun !

We did explore Old Town and went into a few shops, ate at A & W and did the awesome Haunted Mansion there ! I had done it last October and loved it, for being a two story walk thru and enjoying it, If you had been following our Halloween adventures this year, you would have noticed Jessica gets scared for real, way too easy ! This time it was the same layout, same props, but added some Christmas Flare to it and Jessica practically wet her self ! My arms ended up behind my back while squeezing them like trying to sue my arms like a pair of scissors lol If you haven't done it and its open all year long, you really need to do it, its fantastic and worth every Penney !

Once we left there, we headed off to Funspot Orlando and rode everything there, also tried the VR on their Junior SLC , I still hate VR, Dave's didn't work and not a fan of having to push buttons to shoot, the ride is much better without the horrible VR googles ! We did check out Gatorland section they have, feed some gators, listen to a bird swear at another bird and was hilarious ! Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel , get some rest for the next two days were spent at Universal Studios !

December 8th - Universal Studios & Islands OF Adventure !

We purchased two park, two day tickets with express passes, so we could hop between parks and make sure we enjoy them both, Last time Jessica had been to Universal was the 90's !

After we got the tickets and stuff we headed to Universal Orlando Side and go ride Gringots and check out the Harry Potter stuff. We did hop on the Train, since I had never done that before either. I just wanted to say I am very very disappointed with Universal Studios . Gringots for example, the area is beautiful, all the buildings and stuff they have is amazing, but Gringots is horrible ! The queue is awesome, especially animatronic figures, but on the ride, its crappy screens and a theme to a cave, no props, no animatronics, just screens ! If i want to ride screen the ride , Ill happily save the money and spin around my living room and watch a movie and get the same experience! It's a worrying trend with Universal ! Screens,Screens,Screens ! The Train ride is ok, but the window is a screen and the entrance wall to your train cabin is screens , tells a quick story and makes you feel like you're on a journey to hogwarts castle, then a different story for the way back ! They do have it set up if you pay attention that when getting ready to get to the train, there is something that makes it look like you are walking thru the wall, i guess to get to the station you walk thru a wall, no clue, not a fan of the movies hahaha Its a trick mirror thats attached to the luggage rack ! when you get to that spot, it's an actual doorway , so much for movie magic lol We were now on the Islands Of Adventure side and rode Hogwarts Castle, which to me this is the best of the Harry Potter rides, it actually blends perfectly , screens, scenery , props, animatronics and is a fun ride !

Now we went thru the line and circle around the park before heading back to Universal Orlando side, but we did ride Kong, since I had never ridden that and While I love Skull Island movie and the ride was just Ok, nothing mind blowing, and again too much use of screens and I understand why they did it because of the fights with kong and dinosaurs and making the truck move with the this , they do not have a real kong or dines, so screens it is to tell the ride story, with a giant Kong animatronic at the end . Wish it was something else, but it is what it is, still not happy with screen the ride, and so you know : FAST & Furious is going to be a reskinned Kong ride ! So enjoy Fast and furious , screen the ride ! Same ride system !

We did ride Dudley do right and jurassic , got soaked on Dudley, I love the ride, but i feel tis either going to get a retime or ripped out at some point, nobody rides it, it was plenty warm enough to ride it at 80 degrees ! We skipped Spiderman for this day but ride it the following day ! , though we did ride hulk and it's so smooth and with the sound track and upgrades it was a great ride! Loved it ! We managed to hit up Suesslanding and rode Cat in The Hat, took pictures with the Grinch and other Characters! Then went over to Hogwarts to the broomstick place to eat and I gotta say this was by far the worst food I ever ate in my life, it was disgusting and horrible food choices ! For me it's a must skip ! We then hopped back on the train and went to the other side and rode a bunch of stuff, we did not get to Simpsons and MIB we did those the following day !

We did check out the nighttime Christmas Parade and very enjoyable, I'm a sucker for parades and I loved it, awesome floats and that video is coming tonight !

I feel right now Universal Orlando is the better side with better rides due to there is less screen the ride on that side at the moment ! Universal is ever evolving so maybe in a couple decades it might be great parks, but they are decades away from even competing with better rides, right now i and such a bad taste in my mouth, not sure when Ill ever return to Universal ! Its over priced and not as great as people say ! We did check out the new Jimmy Fallon ride and as everybody says it sucks, its true, it does suck ! The waiting area is actually great ! The ride gets two thumbs down from me ! They should of just ripped down the building and built something else ! Rip Ride Rocket i feel will be gone in ten years or less, its so painful I got a headache before the break run before going thru the building ! I do love the minions ride, yes motion simulator screen the ride, but it tells a good story and who doesn't love minions ! Plus i remember when it was hanna - barbera in the 90's so same ride system just updated for minions and the character photo op with minions when you get off was cool. Jimmy Fallons ride was built in the old twister ride building and they could have done something much better with that !

Don't get me wrong I had a blast on this day at universal, just disappointed with they way they are heading with rides ! if it continues after Fast and furious, it will be a must skip park ! Ive ridden all the current rides enough that i wont miss them, though between the two parks they do have some awesome rides, but more and more are becoming crappy rides ! On a positive not I did check out the Chocolate Emporium and try out the milkshakes and were actually good, love the theme and the quality of the shakes were good, presentation was great too !

December 9th 2017 - Universal Part 2

We came back for Day two and rode a bunch of rides that we did not ride the day before , so of course we went to the Simpsons and the springfield area is amazing, but again the ride is dated , since it was the Back to the Future ride in the past, just needs to be gutted, make a dark ride themed to the simpsons , i think it would be awesome, or get a new theme since now Disney owns the Simpsons !

We went to Men IN Black Shoot Em Up Dark Ride and I still love that ride ! We also re rode Mummy and got lunch at Mels, took pictures with Beetle Juice, Scooby do and the gang, rode Shrek and rode the train again over to Islands OF Adventure and Rode Spiderman, rode the Carousel, Hulk and did Poseidon for the first time and that was pretty cool, a bit dated, but still entertaining ! We hung around until the Harry Potter Castle Projection show and I noticed that the projection looked like crap, not sure because of it wasn't pitch black for the first showing or needs an adjustment, I know Disney went thru the same exact thing when they started, but they fixed their issues, so i guess its more of a learning curve for perfection , i think if they get that right, it will be awesome ! We shall see!

Over all Universal has its work cut out for itself ! They need to stop with Screen The Ride, They need to stop using their safety net of Harry Potter, they struck lighting with Harry Potter, but its time for new themes , I have a video talking about all this coming out this week ! Then we can all debate if I'm right or crazy lol

I did for the first time as well watch the Horror Make Up Show , I had never seen it because the people i usually go with meaning the kids, didn't want to do it, so they weren't with me, so I did it ! I loved it and I have that video coming this week as well !

December 10th 2017 - Boarding Oasis OF The Sea's

At one point this was the largest Cruise Ship On The Ocean , Obviously not any more as two other ships in Royal Caribbean's Fleet is bigger ! This ship has a lot of cool features, things to do and I loved the Islands that we were going to on this adventure ! We were to go to Labadee , Haiti - Royals Private Island complete with a zip line, beaches and a mountain coaster !

We did get on the ship around 11 AM and headed for lunch at the WIPEOUT Cafe , which is a tiny buffet of pizza, burgers hot dogs, fries and pizza , we went their due to The bigger Buffett, Windjammer being packed as the entire ship went there ! After that our rooms were finally ready and we unloaded our carry on bags and chilled out for a few before exploring the ship and going down for the mandatory safety drill before the ship sailed off ! We did check out the ship and all the cool things it has to offer and we will dive into that in Part two of this trip report !

We did head to windjammer for dinner and had some amazing food !

We did earlier after the drill head to the Spa and got a tour of the place and added on a thermal spa suite for the entire week and had a bunch of fun with that ! Which is steam rooms, one for aroma therapy and one was dry heat and one was so hot it burned your butt cheeks ! They had 4 lounge chairs that were heated and two rain showers which you could also add on a special lighting and that was cool !

With the first day in the books with this with Hot tub time, spa time, food, carousel on board and getting ready to explore more and then enjoy the following next day at sea !

Part two coming soon with more videos, and stuff ! Stay Tuned !!!

Well here is part 2 :

What I did was create a bunch of videos, that we have posted on the SFNEOnline/Groveshow YouTube Page ! I will post them here, so you don't have to dig for them as, we keep posting tons of videos now all the time !

Here was a great show we say in its entirety from a group called " The Edge Effect " I loved it !

This was the Holiday Spectacular that they performed only once during the Cruise Aboard the ship !!

Here is a compilation Video of our time on the Ship !!

Here is the Brand New Music Video I created From The Trip !

Here is Universal Studios Macy's Christmas Parade !

Universal Orlando's Horror Make Up Show !

https://youtu.be/TWV8qa8qkRk

Hope you enjoy all the videos !!

Also added the Dragon's Tail Mountain Coaster POV from Labadee, Haiti