5th May 2005 - Orlando Disneyworld

Thursday, 05 05 05, we decided to go to Disneyworld Magic Kingdom. Hey, how can one not go to Disney World when they are in Orlando?! I've been to Tokyo Disneyland, Paris Disneyland, DisneyWorld Magic Kingdom! I'm only left with LA disney and Hongkong disneyland! I must I must complete them all! Ok I'm getting delirious, let me carry on with my 'report' on florida...

That's me with Mickey the bush at the entrance of Disney world. Just when I thought that yes! I'm in disney.. I looked around and realised that I couldn't see the magic kingdom castle at all... basically I was just surrounded by water. That's weird.... then I saw....

a boat! yeah you have to take a boat across the river to reach the magic kingdom! oh my...
Interesting isn't it... Here's a shot of us with the boat and Mr. Popeye...

Look out of the ship and see Magic Kingdom Castle in the background.. it was amazing as we inched closer and closer to Magic Kingdom itself, the splendour of the park greeted us and we were enthralled...

Here's a shot of me trying to act cute in front of the park..

Apparently 050505 is a special day and there were shows, media, celebrities perhaps around us... whoa... hehe

This is a coin minting machine where we put in 2 quarters and a penny ..we mint the penny into pretty prints, it's beautiful.. I have collected quite a bit of pennys from everywhere, you guys should remind me to show you my pennys when i get back...
Basically Disneyworld, like all the disney theme parks in the different parts of the world have almost the same layout... there is the distinct castle which will form the focal point of the park.. here's a shot of me with the castle

Nice isn't it? Just that there are a couple of tents because of the media people who were there to cover disney's 50th anniversary (if i'm not wrong)
We played on many rides such as the Splash mountain as well as Space mountain and Sheena was totally freaked out... she's someone who doesn't really take rides.. she's been to Tokyo disneyland one million and one times but she has never taken the space mountain! We had to liberate her!

Hehe she was screaming her lungs out and draining the blood in my arms dry (by squeezing them too hard) too bad I didn't really take photos of it.... I still remember when we were at space mountain, sheena was talking to this little girl who was teaching her how to overcome her fear. "Keep real still and quiet. Put one hand on your stomach so that you don't feel sick" Hehe great advice!
Hmmm enough of wordy stuff, let me post more photos! What's the disney experience without Mickey and Minnie?!?! So we went to queue up with the little kids to take photos with the characters! (Ok we didn't really queue up, it happened to rain and we took shelter in this place where we can take photos with the characters)

I just love Mickey and Minnie.. if only Mickey kissed me :P

Check this out.... A crystal replica of the castle.. absolutely stunning.. at a hefty price tag of USD $1020 before tax. URGH... but I would love to own it... maybe when I'm like real rich next time...

One more last look at the magic kingdom and the overcast skies. Yes you see our purchases... I stuffed everything in my bag though.. but I spent 90+ USD... no that's not a lot compared to (shift your the focus of your eyes to the white plastic) Sheena :P At least $300 bucks. Haha ... ok sheena don't kill me...
Anyway after one day of Disneyland.. we decided to go eat at Kobe! OH man! I've always wanted to eat Kobe beef, thanks to my Ivan korkor who influenced me a long time ago :P Hehe, I went for the teppanyaki and it was fantastic. I ordered beef, scallops, appetizers and a glass of shiraz. Yes that meal costed me USD $40. Gourmet gourmet people... (ok I must take focus off from the gaping hole in my pocket)

Here's a picture of Sheena and I at the Kobe grill....
see the two ladies in the background? The lady in white is the mother of the lady in black. Sheena made friends with the daughter of the lady in black (she's not in the picture)... it was so interesting, we ended up chatting with each other around the teppanyaki table.
These ladies are from agentina and they stay at miami! The white lady cannot speak english at all and it was the young girl (the one sheena made friends with) who interpreted everything. The girl is only 5 years old.. we chatted, exchanged toasts, "Salus", and goodbye kisses. Sheena also exchanged contacts so that we can call her when we are in Miami or Agentina... Friends from all over the world.... priceless :P After dinner.. we went back to the hotel to sleep... to get ready for.... Universal Studios the next day! :D

May 4th 2005 - On the way there...

10.40 pm flight on US airways. At 9.45 p.m. we were still at home. Usually people board around 30 minutes before departure time but apparently the few of us were still at home at the point of time. Sheena had trouble getting leave from work, all the way till like around 9.00 pm that night, ting had to go pick her up from the office. However, ting took a really long time to park her car because she couldn't find any parking.

it was pretty stressful. I checked in on line at home and waited for ting to come back. At 9.50pm we called for a taxi and boarded it, reached the airport at 10.10pm and the counter people told us that the gates are going to close soon and told us to run... you have no idea how much we ran. We just ran and ran and ran and finally we reached the gates at 10.20pm and we thought we were so going to miss the flight. But by the stroke of luck, the flight was delayed by 30 minutes and so we managed to catch our flight. The attendant said "we apologise for the slight delay" but we thought to ourselves... "thank god for the delay".. phew.. and then we were whisked off to florida on the plane...

Here's Ramya and Ting looking shagged out after the run.. ramya had a really nice hair cut in the morning

Sheena and I, almost dying from the run. We are UNFIT.

I ordered fresh orange juice on the plane and it came in a can.. how fresh can that be? Well... at least there was a drink..
After the drink, I decided that I was really tired and I just concussed until I touched down. When we got down, we were wondering like lost bees. 2 a.m. in Orlando with no transportation cause our car only comes the next day. We walked for a short distance and this guy called Tony came up to us. He drives the shuttle bus and he got our butts over to Orlando Lake Buena Vista Comfort Inn. The entire ride set us back by 50 usd. Whoa. An expensive ride wasn't it?
We checked in at 3 am in the morning and flirted with the reception guy to expedite our checking in... I mean you can't blame us 4 girls.. we were really tired and the next day was a real long day! :P anyway here's a picture of our hotel room. Not too bad for a 2* hotel...

Did I mention that Orlando is really hot and humid? When I first step foot into the airport, the first thought that came into my mind was... this is so SINGAPORE! Haha, the girls all agreed with me. We enjoyed it for a while and decided that we were missing Philly's weather. *Shrugs* The grass is always greener on the other side huh?