It was a day for Blue...

On Sunday we were heading back to Orlando to catch the a Blue Man show, stay overnight and then do SeaWorld on Monday. Because Shayna had some car trouble, we were forced to take her boyfriend's BMW SUV instead, which I ended up driving because she's not on his insurance yet (due to her losing her license at one point several years ago -- teenage follies, sheesh!). Intimidated by the three and four lanes going each direction, I gave myself a pep talk and away we went. Kirk has a really nice vehicle but the brake was touchy and it took a little time to get used to how much pressure was needed for smooth slowing and avoiding jerky stops. I'll now have car envy until I can replace my aging Chevy truck!

Traffic was pretty good until we got near Orlando, at which point it crawled slowly...past all of the Disney World exits. Once past Disney we picked up some speed and finally made it to Universal Studios' City Walk, home of the Blue Man group.

After picking up our tickets, we wandered around the City Walk shops, purchasing some T-shirts at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville before finally finding a place to relax until the show began seating. We picked the NASCAR bar for our relaxation spot and chose a patio table where we could enjoy the breeze (until other patrons began smoking anyway) and sun. We had requested some chips & salsa but they were delayed and I finally canceled the order since we had to leave for the show. Seriously now, why should it take 30 minutes to bring out an order of chips & salsa???

I didn't know what to expect at the show, but it was really funny. There was a little boy somewhere in the section to my right that couldn't stop giggling at their antics. They never once spoke a word but used their facial expressions and body language to convey their emotions. They must have very good control over their bodies because not once did they crack up with humor. I would recommend the show to anyone, even children. My only complaint is that it was too loud (rock music). Many years ago I was at a speaking event and got stuck in a seat in front of some giant speakers. The volume projected by those speakers damaged my ear drums and I had ear pain for several weeks following. I had to listen to the radio at a whisper for awhile. Since then loud volumes like what concerts use (& the Blue Man show) hurt my ears. I wasn't expecting that kind of volume so it didn't even occur to me to buy some ear plugs to help filter the sound.

After the show we wandered some more before leaving to check into our hotel. I should mention that making those reservations was quite a feat. We didn't make them before heading to Orlando and, in fact, I made them using Shayna's phone as we walked over for the show. I had several automated voice menus to get through so it didn't immediately occur to me that I had a real person on the phone until some hesitation in the response. Recalling how I kept saying "repeat" because I couldn't hear, I was a bit embarassed. When you have automated menus, the briefest and most direct command is best so I apologized to the lady with the heavily accented English and explained that it was rather loud where I was at. She just didn't quite get it, though, that I didn't have pen & paper to write down confirmation numbers or etc and I began to get a little testy with her. THEN she got it and we had a room reserved. Oy vey...

The hotel was a Holiday Inn and very close to City Walk. While not a five-star establishment, it did have a TGI Friday's directly connected to it and I did expect decent accommodations. I was to be disappointed.

After checking in we headed back to City Walk for dinner. I tried to persuade Travis and Shayna to try the seafood place (it smelled heavenly) but they immediately "ewwed" that idea and we ended up at the outrageously priced Hard Rock Cafe. Our waiter was fabulous though and we enjoyed dinner before heading out to a bar where Shayna and Travis could use their "2 for 1" beer tickets. We found a cutesy little place called Pat O'Briens with a definite Irish theme going on. Once inside I noticed an odor that struck me as...well...cat poo. Neither Shayna nor Travis could smell it for some reason...maybe their beer was odorous. Shayna was too full from dinner to linger long and we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Once there, we immediately had to call maintenance because we discovered that the toilet had...issues. According to the surly maintenance guy, guests often lose their bars of soap in the toilets which causes obstructions. I was rather perplexed with that statement since I'd never considered that soap would find its way into a toilet that often but okay...as long as it was fixed. The next morning we discovered that the shower had only two temperatures for water flow...hot and very hot. I realized that there was something wrong with the water knob because it wasn't lining up correctly with the temperature marks around it, so I imagine the "gear" underneath was stripped. *sigh* With the so-so service and our experience with the facility, I would think twice before recommending that hotel to others.

Did I mention that our room key wouldn't unlock the back door? The little card reader box didn't light up when our key was put into the slot. We even had a replacement key made...

As we packed up to leave Monday morning, I was hoping traffic wouldn't be too bad. SeaWorld was our next destination.