Day 18 (Disney day 8)

Universal studios!!!! Only the four of us today, Lalie + Matt say nothing for kids to do and Fern says its a waste of money - they think we mad!!!!! So after a long night  of celebrating NEW YEARS, and bringing 2012 in,in style, we woke up at 6:00 and left the hotel by taxi on our way to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS !!!!!.  The drive is about  30 minutes tops so by 7:45 we were waiting in line to enter.  The tickets were US$100.00 to get in so about R810.00 per person - we have been spoilt so much. We started at Adventure land as there are two different lands now .....AND WE WERE OFF !!!!!  We dashed the mad dash to the FAMOUS Harry Potter RIDE and OMG it was amazing you ride like your on an actual broom flying around Hogwarts.  Harry is on the broom in front and guiding you through the maze of scenes.  Definitely would have queued for that ride if we had had to.  Apparently yesterday the queue was 3 hours long.....can you believe it.  Next Britt & I did TWO incredible roller coasters that were two dragons, from Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, and wow they were AMAZING , we then made our way through the streets and boy oh boy did it feel like you were walking in the movies, they had Olivanders and the book store and a mini Hogwards that was just mind blowing bcos it really looked awesome!!  They had the sweet store with the chocolate frogs and all the other crazy candy from the movies.  Mom bought us wands, Harry's , Ron's and Hermannis - exact replicas of the ones in the movies.  We grudgingly left Harry Potter's area and then made our way down to the Jurassic park and it was Erin's turn to ride and the next thing the ride broke and to our amazement there were actually people fixing it and not just a sign saying "out of order" people were actually fixing it and then within 10 min it was fixed and there were people riding it again.   Spiderman ride, this was amazing too, its a mix of a coaster and a movie with scary scenes and because if was 3D everything jumped at y0u - you even feel the tingle on your forehead.......whoop whoop!!!!!!   The amazing HULK coaster, Mom + Erin toke on look at this ride and the people screaming on it & wouldn't do it Britt & I  did it of course & WOW it was our favorite ride yet!!! loops, sprays of water, upside down, speed,  height you name it....wooooow!!!!!! Next was Cat In The Hat,  calm and relaxed ride compared to the rest....lol.  After that was a break for lunch - so sick of this yucky food, the fast food here is terrible - tasteless and boring.  Moving onto Universal Studios the older of the two parks, not that you would guess it but Mom told us.  First ride was Shrek 4D, it was an amazing show & you can definitely see the difference between 3D + 4D here.  After that was The SIMPSONS RIDE, ja Mom was like really...... but it was fun......ha ha We then went on the Jaws Ride, this was on of the oldest rides in the park but again it looks new and it was brilliant, ship wrecks, fire on water, big splashes, Jaws attacking our boat - really good fun.  We were totally exhausted at this point, our feet and legs are aching - we been walking and up since 06h00 and it was about 18h00 so twelve hours of fun - Erin fell asleep in the taxi on the way back and we were all fast asleep by 21h00.  What an awesome day - its definitely OUR FAVOURITE PARK, the four of us agreed that we would choose this over Disney World any day.  The rides are close together much more exciting, faster and more fun!!!  The decor and sets are exactly like they are in the movies - its as if all the movies were filmed right here in the parks.  There  was loads to do for Josh & Jamie age - pity my cuzzies did not go, but next time guys.

Day 15 (Disney day 5)

Rest day......badly needed, our feet, legs and bodies are aching.  We slept in had a nice "chillax" and by lunch time we all headed out to Downtown Disney.  We went by boat from Port Orleans to Downtown Disney - about a 20minute ride.   I really love this area - loads of shopping, restuarants, pubs, candy shops, stalls, lego land, dino land you name it....easy to spend a good 4-5 hours before even realising it.
Since we were so nicely rested we decided to head down to Epcot Centre to do some night rides during the Disney Magic Hours - which are for residents of Disney World ONLY.  It was so nice and quiet queues were 5-10 minutes long.  Our first ride was Soaring - a ride that simulates a peaceful hang-gliding flight over the Golden State of California - many sights to be seen and quite an exciting ride.  We all got the giggles because above us on the screen we could see all the feet of the people on the Hang-glider above us - but it was still an excellent ride.

Next was Epcot Mission Space......this ride.....OMG......The ride begins with the launch countdown, and they throw in some psychological effects that help build the tension you might experience before a launch. As the countdown approaches, the seats tilt back into the launch position of facing the sky on your back. At lift off you feel the engines roar and blast off. The ride creates large G Forces, and a tremendous feeling of increasing speed as the craft escapes the Earth's gravitational pull, your chest sucks in and you can bearly breath........As the flight continues there is a simulated feeling of weightlessness. Each member of the four people in the vehicle has a mission to accomplish during the simulated flight to Mars. I was really worried about our Flight Engineer as everytime I asked if he was ok all I got was a deathly grunt.......but we all made it safely back to earth.......thank heavens...

Guess where we went next......shopping for space food of course.......we are now qualified astronauts and it was imperative that we went all the way - unlike Virgin Airlines......hee hee he.....

It was midnight when we queued up for more autographs from Mickey himself, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy......,Erie's autograph book is looking good right now !!!!!!!!

Off to bed we go.........

Day 13 (Disney day 3)

Magic Kingdom
Started the day at "Cinderella's Castle" again today, as they put on an amazing show on the steps in front of the castle, very well done and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, all the Princes and Princesses were out and dancing etc etc.
Next was the Jungle Cruise at the Magic Kingdom which takes you on a 10 minute tour of four continents this ride is definitely one of the funniest at Disney World. You'll board a boat with names like "Amazon Annie" with your trusted guide?? at the helm. While they all follow the same "shtick", the guides are what make this attraction so much fun, especially if they throw in a few ad-libs. Even when you've heard the same corny joke a thousand times before, you can't help but laugh. Very enjoyable ride!!!!
Lunch at the Crystal Palace Restaurant, a buffet of American cuisine as part of Character dining, here the kids met Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet (who Fern called "The Big Ham") Piglet clearly did not have a good sense of humour.......
Feeling a little exhausted we all went back to the hotel in the rain - the first we experienced - soft but dampening, Shan & Britt stayed at Magic Kingdom alone and carried on with rides etc........very safe the kids can do things on their own and just catch the bus back - very proud of you girls!!!!
Erin, Jamie, Josh and Lans + Matt all went for a nap.  Fern & I dashed off to Downtown Disney - WOW awesome shopping here - but we were really after some cheesy shirts, the in-thing here is for big parties to all wear the same shirts, yip same colour, same cheesy lines etc......Well we went and got shirts for the 9 of us for New Years Eve - if you cant beat them we gotta join them, giggled all the way there and back...cant wait to see if Matt + Lans are actually going to wear these!!!!!!
Dinner - Polynesian hotel - "Spirit of Aloha Dinner".....OMG this was worse than the ho-down dinner......lol!!! The theme - supposed enchanting music, South Sea island costumes and traditional dancing plus an all-you-care-to-eat dinner created from the islands of Tahiti and Fiji. The stage is set in the open air theatre on the Seven Seas Lagoon,  our waitress was so old - everytime she disappeared for more than 10 minutes we thought we may have lost her - poor old duck !!!  Fern was pulled onto stage by the "professional folk" dancers.......lol.... the rest is history!!!!!  We ended off the evening with a "little shopping" at the Polynesian hotel adding to our huge collection of badges, lanyards and over-weight luggage!!!!!!!!

Day 14 (Disney day 4)

Hollywood Studio's
We started off with "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" where you go under the sea with Ariel and her friends in this live action musical.  The opening sequence (Under the Sea) is really well done and is a real showcase of what good puppetry really is.  Everything in Disney is done to the max - no short cuts no cost savings - mind-blowing !!!!!
Next was an incredible STUNT SHOW, Lights, Motors, Action!  35minutes of a high-octane stunt show.  An experience of unbelievable excitement as cars accelerate towards each other and swerve away at the last second, motorcycles smash through windows, Jet Skis leap out of the water, a stunt person falls off a 5-story building and massive fireballs explode in the air this all right before your disbelieving eyes!
This extreme Stunt Show is inspired by the smash-hit Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular - what a show!!!!!!
The Great Movie Ride, the thrill begins when you enter the full-scale reproduction of Hollywood's historic Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Then you're ushered onto The Great Movie Ride for a journey that'll put you in the middle of the action from gritty gangster flicks of the 1930s to the adventure of contemporary classics such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Casablanca, Fantasia, Mary Poppins
Next was a Toy Story Midway Mania ride - 4D - mix between a ride and a show - great fun!!!!
Queues at this park are long and not many rides can be done in a day - you walk and walk and walk and walk !!!!!!!
Dinner we went to Epcot Studios to Norway (World Showcase) we went for an amazing medieval dinner at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, another Pincess Storybook Character Dining.  We met Mary Poppins, Snow White (who asked us if Joshie "went to slay a dragon" as he had disappeared from the table and was hiding from her..... well that had us all in hysterics)........
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, a mesmerizing fireworks, laser and water show featuring a rousing soundtrack that brings together the past, present and future of our planet and its colorful nations. Breathtaking fireworks, brilliant bursts of fire, laserlight effects, dramatic fountain barges, a truelly awesome experience.
Obviously we hit the shopping areas again - our collections are definitely not complete as yet!!!!!  Not sure how the hell we are going to get this stuff home !!!!!!!


  

Home Sweet Home

British Club class was amazing once again, BUT we did not sleep well at all...Erin was a little miserable on the flight - complaining of nausea and stomach cramps etc.  Britt seemed to sleep well - Shan & I ended up watching movies most of the night.....yawn!!!!!
We arrived at 06h25 this morning, collected our luggage and exited through the arrivals gate, OMG to the most amazing surprise ever - there was Clyde, Sandra, Justine, Barry, Sonia, Micky & Ty & Tyrone, with A HUGE SIGN - "Welcome Home Nic Chicks"......what an amazing home coming, I was so close to tears was fighting them back all the way - such amazingly special people in our lives - we are truely blessed.  Thank you special friends - we will never forget what you did for us - love you all madly!!!!!!!!!
Arrived home - chilled had a bath and tried to sleep - hopefully tonight will be successful and we will start fighting this jet-lag !!!!!!!!!!!
So nice to be home !!!!!!!!!!

Day 21 (London Day 3)

Alarm went off at 06h00 this morning, we had only just fallen asleep, but hey things to do and things to see in magicial London.  We were up and at breakfast by 07h00.
Caught a London Cab to Buckingham Palace, its still dark outside, it is freezing cold and the rain is pelting down but the Nic Chicks are adament we are seeing Buckingham Palace.  I dont think our cabbie had any sleep either as he was as crabby as can be - well he only received the fare and not a cent more - old arsehole.....oxygen thief....coffin dodger.....ok ok its early for us too ok.  We did giggle a whole lot not sure if oru sense of humour was in full force or we giggled from exhaustion - but it was funny.
We spend a whole 20min admiring Buckingham Palace and then tried to find Victoria Station in the rain, gave up and called a cab, at least he was a bit more pleasant clearly had a good night sleep - lucky bum!!!
Off to the London Eye,which is walking distance from our hotel, day is clearing beautifully and has warmed up a bit, more tourists are creaping out of their holes and we are now in queue to get on the amazing London Eye ride, the worlds tallest observation wheel.  The view is breathtaking, you can see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben a gorgeous view of the River Thames and just a stunning view of London City.
After this we went to see a 3D show on London and the London Eye - bit boring but Shanie and I were highly entertained by a dumb Chinese chick who was filming the whole 3D show on her phone without the 3D glasses cause she was wearing those and seeing a perfect picture on her phone.  We giggled so much - lucky the show was short or we would have been kicked out for sure...lol.....
We then went souvenir shopping for our friends and family back home.
12h00 midday was our transfer to the airport for our flight home, we are exhausted......but happy to be going home....but sad to leave this gorgeous city!!!!
Our flight leaves at 17h50.
Missing our friends and family and looking forward to the flight home and some rest, our legs and feet have been exercised to the max - if we had to add up the km's we have walked in the last 3 weeks I am pretty sure we would have done the Comrades....maybe even twice!!!!!
We have made some incredible memories, some breathtaking moments, spent some magical time making dreams come true....been close together through the most incredible three and a half weeks of our lives.....we have no words for what we have experienced - we can only try and put what we saw into words but what we have are memories and these will last forever !!!!!

DON'T CRY BECAUSE IT'S OVER......SMILE BECAUSE IT HAPPENED !!!!!!!

Day 19 (London day 1)

The girls and I did this leg of the trip alone, three days in London just the four of us.....rest have all ventured home on different flights in different directions. We arrived at 06am at Heathrow terminal and then went in search of "hotel by bus" the people who would transfer us to our hotel. Park Plaza County Hall, gorgeous hotel and in an awesome location so central to everything - walking distance to Big Ben, London Eye, Thames River, London Aquarium and Waterloo underground tube station. Sandy I can honestly recommend this hotel to you for your clients -amazing!!!!! We checked in went for breakfast and since our body clocks were still on USA time and it was only midnight and we were totally shattered decided to go and have an hour or two sleep before we venture out in to the freezing city, we got up after 3ish (few hours more than we expected) and got tickets with "Big Bus Tours" its a hop on hop off system with live commentory. We jumped on and rode for about 1 1/2 hours seeing the sights, tourist attractions and getting familiar with the city.  We were expecting to jump off back at the stop at the hotel BUT low & behold if the damn bus did not dump us off at Baker Street stating last stop. OMG now to navigate our way home - this city is so damn huge, we found our way to the Baker Street underground, found out we need the Jubilee line and to get off at Waterloo, what an introduction to London.....holy cow!!!!!! We were meeting Gilly at 18h00 and were now running late, we got out of Waterloo station and it was pitch dark, we had no idea if our hotel was left or was it right - the maps were not helping.....WTF tired + lost + late + exhaused and did I mention we were tired!!!!!!!  Gilly to the rescue - she walked all the way to the hotel and when she found out we were lost told us to stay put and she found us...YAY for Gillie.  We then jumped back on the underground and went to Hyde Park where they were having the last night of the Winter Wonderland.....lights, stalls of food from every country, BIG fun fair, shopping, Mull Wine of which Gilly and I dived in - YUM it is like Gluvine - definitely needed to calm the nerves and to warm us up.
Dived into bed at 22h00.  Need to be up early tomorrow we have a full day planned.