Hobbies, Family, & Geekery from a Stay-at-Home Dad
Way back in 2018, we were lucky enough to enjoy another staycation in a Disney Resort. I’d like to take this time to thank Disney for inviting us out there and taking care of us. It was awesome of them to do that. Oh wait, …Read More….
The final day in NYC was the wife and I adventuring on our own like we used to do in our younger years. Back before the kids were born, we would visit New York and spend night and day galavanting through the city. We’d stay …Read More….
Day three we took a break from public transportation and took a trip to my motherland. The Bronx is just a ferry ride and about a dozen train stops or so away, but by car, we’re looking at an hour and a half adventure across bridges and highways and parkways and traffic MY GOD THE TRAFFIC. I want to cry just thinking about it.
When you visit New York, you don’t really think about The Bronx as a must see destination. It’s got a pretty bad rap, even though it’s where hip-hop was born. Hahaha, sorry, dad jokes are getting more potent and harder to contain as I get older. The Bronx is a melting pot in its own, with so many pockets of so many cultures and nationalities, it’s like the United Nations in the form of a city. And a big city at that. The Bronx is enormous, home to the largest zoo in the U.S. – The Bronx Zoo – which was literally a 10 minute walk from where I grew up. The New York Botanical Gardens, a stone’s throw away from the zoo, was another glorious place full of beauty and tranquility. My father used to sneak us in through a hole in the side gate, and we would walk a bit till we found a small natural waterfall in the Gardens. Yeah, you can visit Manhattan and be fine never venturing off of it, but you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. You shouldn’t be afraid of The Bronx. Well, no, you should be afraid of some neighborhoods, particularly after dark. But overall, it’s an experience in itself that I’m proud to call home.
If you’re a fan of Anthony Bourdain – which, if you’re not, promptly X out of my blog here and never tell me because I will judge you – he dedicated an episode to The Bronx. Parts Unknown, his show on CNN which currently has a few seasons on Netflix, focused on it in season 2, episode 4. I managed to find somewhere that has it available to watch, so you can do so here. Netflix unfortunately doesn’t have season 2 available anymore. But it’s a great episode if you want to know more about the rich culture of the borough. He said something during it that made so much sense and is 100% truth:
“If the Bronx were a neighborhood in Manhattan, sort of shrunk down, you’d have hipsters crawling all over this place.”
Ok, obviously, I can talk about The Bronx for an entire post. But that’s not what this is about. Oh yeah, speaking of The Bronx, know why it’s called “The” Bronx? Back before the borough had a name, they were trying to figure out what to call it. They looked at the map and noticed The Bronx River was flowing all the way through it. The river – named after Jonas Bronck, a Scandinavian who died after settling on a farm which was located next to the river – was the determining factor in naming the borough. They changed it from “ck” to “x” though to make it easier to pronounce. So there you go. The Bronx is named after a river (which was named after a man), which is why it gets “The” before the name.
OK seriously, back to the trip. We took the cars because both families went and where we were going no subways reached. City Island is a glorious mecca of seafood nestled deep at the end of Pelham Parkway. I used to go there all the time as a kid and I never took advantage of it. I remember it being a lot bigger though.
It’s roughly the size of a cafeteria, but my childhood memory remembered it being the size of a mall food court. Still though, it’s great, fresh seafood. Fried shrimp, clam chowder, fish, lobster, clams, corn on the cob, fries. So much awesomeness and tastiness. And some ice cream to top it off too. Thick and rich, and approved by the youngest.
A big part of the experience is taking leftover fries – all the soggy ones that no one liked to eat – and going out to the edge of the water and feeding the seagulls.
I remember doing this as a kid and having a blast tossing the fries and watching the birds catch it in midair. They would swarm and cause chaos for those fries.
Unfortunately rules changed and there’s signs every few feet warning to not feed the birds. We didn’t want to test the waters. Hehe.
Another thing I used to love doing is putting a quarter in the binocular things that let you see all the way across the water to the other island. Only problem is that when I was a kid you can barely see anything out of them, so I can only imagine what they looked like now.
We left there with the intention of going deeper into The Bronx. We were going to go to Pelham Parkway, my old neighborhood, to get some John & Joe’s Pizza. This used to be our number one stop anytime we came to New York. By far, still to this day, the best NY style pizza I’ve ever had. Sure I might be bias considering I grew up a 2 minute walk from it, but still, it’s great. Sadly, we didn’t get to go over there. But, we WERE going to head to S&S Cheesecake.
Now, this place. Lemme tell you about this place. It’s the absolute, most bestest, creamiest, richest, most velvety cheesecake you’ll ever have. Follow the link above and you’ll be able to order yourself one for anywhere from $30 – $50 without shipping! In person, a small one is just $10 though so make the trip if you’re there. Again, while living in NY, I have no idea how my parents did not keep this stocked in the fridge at all times. I don’t know how it is now because we never made it there, but before the storefront for S&S was legit a brick wall with a door. That pic you see here is not mine, but that’s how it looked last time we were there. The first time I took the wife to get a cheesecake she thought she was going die. It looks like something out of a mob movie, where you go in thinking it’s a cheesecake bakery and you accidentally walk in on a drug deal and everyone in suits and gold chains turns around and looks at you as you ponder all the wrong choices you made leading up to that moment. MAN, I wish we just went. We didn’t though. It would’ve put us an hour out of the way even though it was measley 9 miles away. Little did we know what was in store for us as we left City Island.
We made a plan. We were going to go back to Staten Island, get the kids ready for bed, and leave them there with my sis and her fam while the wife and I went back out to the city in the evening. It would’ve been a long night for us but we rather have done that than go into the city the next day – the 4th of July – to do what we needed to do before heading home on the 5th. According to maps, it was going to take us 1.5 hours to get back to Staten Island thanks to traffic.
We WISHED it took that long.
We were stuck in traffic for FOUR HOURS. Four grueling, tortuous hours that had our tempers and rage at all sorts of levels. My sis and her hubs who left the parking lot a mere 4 minutes before us, were also following the GPS, and told us they were also in traffic. But decided to just follow their NY Jedi senses and turn off the directions and go back ways.
They made it home in about 2 hours. Meanwhile, I was getting cut off in midtown by Jersey and Boston drivers, trying to get into the Holland Tunnel. The wife finally figured out an alternate route as we made it to an intersection that took us 45 minutes to get to from the previous intersection. Good thing too because I would’ve freaked the eff out being stuck in that type of traffic while in the Holland Tunnel. Ever seen Daylight? A 1996 Sylvester Stallone flick which had him saving a bunch of people who were trapped in the Holland Tunnel after an explosion. Reeeeeeeeally good movie, I remember loving it a bunch. Sure it probably doesn’t hold up at all but whatever, it was great. Viggo Mortensen was in it to. Ugh, now I want to watch it. Anyway, really didn’t want to live it so yeah. And all that because I missed a turn because I was admiring the One World Trade Center we were passing. Yeah, that’s city life for you. Miss a turn and it sets you back 1.5 hours. Go me.
We made it home, finally. We drove and drove and more and more traffic. We saw the Seaport District, Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, so at least it was scenic. We got on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and I discovered that I have a DEATHLY fear of suspension bridges. Holy. Crap. I was like sweet, lets ride on the top level. Got up there, looked up at the tall towers seemingly touching the skies, and then below at the water that seemed so far that my hands are sweating just thinking about it as I’m typing. Seriously, while driving on it and discovering my newly found fear, my hands had sweat on them that I haven’t felt in ages. I tried getting the wife to take a picture and she refused to even look out the window. I was there screaming at people who DARED to change lanes as if we couldn’t fall to our death at any moment. Ok, I need to stop, I might pass out thinking about it.
It was too late to do anything after we made it back so we had to venture into the city on the 4th like we didn’t want to do. At least we had some good fried shrimp in our bellies. Or… memories, since we were hungry again after being in traffic for so long. Until the next and final NYC post!
Day two of our NYC family vacation! Missed day one? You can check it out right here. Moving on, this day was much more focused. The goal: explore a bit of Central Park and reach Bethesda Fountain. Also in the cards was to go to a …Read More….
Summer is in full swing and it’s vacation time! You know the deal. Every summer we try and do at least two vacays to bookend the kid’s time off from school – one where we actually go away somewhere, and a smaller one where we …Read More….
Before I get into the Carnival cruise, let me tell you how we’ve been doing here. We’re a little more than half way through the summer and it’s been a busy one. And no, I don’t mean with the kids driving us to the point of madness, that’s a different post. I’m talking about the things we’re doing for fun, both spontaneous and planned. We try to stay busy and try to keep schedules packed, as you do with kids. Especially at the age they are because heaven forbid if they have 2 minutes in the day that they’re not doing something fun or unforgivingly tiring. Coincidentally, this is also the age where they enjoy such things as vacations and spending time, and you know in the back of your mind they won’t always want to do things with you. Ugh, that’s another post, isn’t it? Anywho.
We’ve been doing plenty to keep on the move. The past few summers we’ve tried to do two vacations to bookend the time off from school. Something bigger at the beginning and then a smaller staycation at the end. I don’t know if you remember or not, but when we lived in North Carolina, we were coming back to Florida every chance we got. We love this city and the kids love to stay in hotels so doing a few days in one of the cheaper Disney hotels is usually a treat we all look forward to. But that’s another post! Like that? I’m feeding you breadcrumbs here for future stuff.
So! What am I talkin’ about here? Let’s figure that out together, eh? I… wha-how dare you! Of course, I know what I’m typing about! I have a plan, I’m focused. I don’t just start writing something and not have an end goal with it. I’m hurt!
Ok, so what, it’s been a while, I’m trying to get my writing juices flowing again, sue me. Look, see, I figured it out. Since it’s summer and I already talked about it, I’ll tell you what we did last year. I KNOW, old news, it’s like I don’t even care about you. But it’s stuff that was never documented here. And it’ll be like a warm up to start writing again. Plus, I already edited the pics so you’re kinda stuck with this. It’s ok though, it’ll be fun!
What did we do? Well like I mentioned, we are trying to do a bigger vacation in the beginning of summer and a smaller staycation at the end of summer. Like everything we do, it’s all for the kids. I remember summer vacations were always a big deal growing up for me and we always were on adventures everywhere. Well, mostly Florida because that’s what you did when you lived in New York. But we want to try and create traditions. So far, what we’re trying to stick to is the staycation at a Disney hotel I mentioned. It’s awesome living where everyone else in the country usually always vacations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it like that either!
Before I get into that though, last year’s bigger trip was a doozy. We took the kids on their first cruise! Oh man, it was soooooooooooooooo exciting… Till we got on the ship and they turned into little maniacs who apparently injected caffeine directly into their brains and couldn’t control themselves. I think it was around 6 minutes in that the wife and I were threatening to take our chances and swim to a deserted island and leave the kids with Miguel, the room steward. But what we weren’t seeing amongst the chaos, was that the kids were being kids. It was their first time experiencing all the epic grandeur that is cruising. We really should not have expected anything different.
Maybe that’s what this will be! Don’t worry, I don’t charge by the post, you’ll be fine. Ok, details: You can probably tell from the pictures we went Carnival. Carnival Victory, to be specific. A 4 day cruise going to Key West and Cozumel. I remember our honeymoon (our last cruise before this one) and cruises I’ve taken with my parents when I was younger, they were always 7 days. We didn’t want to overdo it with the kids though, especially with them being so new to everything, so we decided to just do a 4 day to….. test the waters…… GET IT?! Because it’s a SHIP and we’re TESTING THE—OK, never mind.
Let me say this about Carnival: They’re consistent with what they do. Not to sound like an entitled pompous jerk, but I went on a decent number of cruises as a kid. Well, teen, I think. And we almost always went on Carnival ships with only one time going on Royal Caribbean. The thing with Carnival is – at least with me – that every ship is almost identical. The layout, the bars, the restaurants, buffets, stores. It’s as if someone copy and pasted the same ship and just changed the themes and decorations for each one. I get it, they’re all under one flag, consistency, branding, blah blah. But there has got to be better ways to do that. And to see after 8 years of not being on one of these ships how much things haven’t changed – similarities going back to when I was a teenager – it shows how archaic their ways are. I guess if it ain’t broke… Anyway, I guess my overall thoughts are starting to show through, huh? Let me switch gears before I give it all away.
Despite the trail of destruction left in their wake, the kids had a blast! Sometimes at the expense of the wife and I’s sanity, but hey, kids, right? At the ages 7 and 4 at the time of sailing, they quickly found things they liked to do and routines to get into. For instance, breakfast was the little boxes of cereal that you can take as many as you’d like. And boy, did they, haha. We had boxes of cereal coming out of everywhere. Snack time? Which cereal do you want? The oldest was fine trying new things and branching out. But if they didn’t have cereal or bread on the ship, my youngest would have starved.
Another routine was going to the arcade, which we had to put a hard stop on because that mess ain’t free. At $1.25+ a game, it was equivalent to having a heavy drinking relative with you and on your tab. I mean, we let them go once a day, about a game or two each depending. But they could’ve stayed in there all day every day if we let them and that cost would have paid for another cruise.
We celebrated the youngest’s birthday while at sea. I remember he was so excited to turn 4. Thinking back, comparing to now, he’s come pretty far in a year’s time. It gets all blurred together sometimes and you forget. See! It’s good to have a blog, makes you recall all the sappy stuff.
Most of these pics you’ve been seeing were taken with the DSLR, but that’s about it for those. Almost the entirety of the cruise I took pictures with my phone. It’s not preferred as it is pretty terrible in certain situations. But it is always infinitely easier than carrying around a bulky camera. I was trying to think of how to place the pictures throughout the post, but a slideshow would probably be best. Have fun!
Now, I mentioned the arcade being a money pit and being able to go on another cruise with what could be spent there. Well lemme tell you about spending money.
Because this was our first cruise as a family, and really the first long vacation that wasn’t to Florida, we kinda sorta went overboard with buying pictures. (…GET IT?! OVERBOARD, because it’s a SHIP – I’m so underappreciated) That’s a huge business for cruise lines, with the photographers seemingly everywhere, asking you to pose on whatever is around to get a good picture for you. The kids had fun with it and were always smiling and looking all cute. It got to a point where we were hoping for the pictures to come out bad – a closed eye, a stain on a shirt, something – just so we didn’t feel obligated to buy it. But then… then we really messed up. Oh boy, what a doozy.
So we were getting our pictures taken and a different photographer comes up and starts talking to us, talking to the kids. He says hey, why don’t you guys follow me. So he was super friendly, chatting up with the kids, walking with them, carrying the youngest even though he was half his size. He’s taking us across floors, down stairs, all around, and then we get to a lounge we never even seen before. The hispanic in me was automatically thinking we were going to get something for free because weird stuff happens like that sometimes. No, no, no, quite the opposite.
We go in and in the back of this mysterious lounge is his photography studio where he’s the head honcho. It was a secluded, intimate, professional, studio and he asked if we wanted to take some pictures. Suddenly it hit me. I felt like I was led into a dark alley in some foreign country. I’m from New York, I’m smarter than this. I should’ve known by his amplified level of customer service that whatever he was getting at was going to cost us a lot of money. But no, we went with it. Sure! He looks bored with obviously nothing to do if he’s fishing for families to walk down to his secret hideaway. We’ll take a few pictures, see how they come out, maybe buy one, and say thank you so much for welcoming us into your Batcave and leave. No… it wasn’t that simple.
We took pictures, he said come back after dinner to see them. We did, and they were freaking. amazing. Like no wonder why they gave this dude his own Batcave hidden behind a lounge.
THEN… Then it hit me again. Like seriously, I’m so much smarter than this. I knowingly walked into a trap with this guy. TWICE! And the second time was all my fault because he wasn’t leading me with breadcrumbs this time. We went there by ourselves, willingly, like fish eating the suspicious land worm dancing around 20 feet deep. We had all of dinner to build up a tolerance to persuasion, but it did no good. He jedi mind tricked us into putting out a car payment’s worth of professionally done picture. My goodness, we’ve done some crazy stuff in the moment, but this is up there. Still… The pictures WERE amazing tho. Look at em! We were supposed to only pick a few but he gave us a little hush hush look and whispered he’d hook us up with everything he shot. So we walked away with about 15 pictures of the family that we will always look back on and remember how incredibly gullible we are.
Ok, I’m getting way more detailed than I was aiming for and this is getting rather lengthy. Let me wrap it up by saying this: Cruising… It’s not what it used to be. Well, with Carnival at least. I’m convinced that’s the common denominator here with whatever blahness we have with cruising right now. The shows were alright, I’m usually the one who really looks forward to them with my musical theatre background (stop laughing). So I watch them with a judging eye sometimes. Usually it ends with me wondering how the lead guy got that role, but I digress. Customer service in general with Carnival has taken such a nose dive over the years. And that goes hand in hand with the food which, aside from the omelettes, about 95% of the time left us feeling disappointed. At some points in the evening, if you didn’t eat dinner, the only option to grab a bite would be the 24 hour pizzeria. Which, c’mon, 24 hour pizza, that’s impossible to be mad at. But it is incredibly easy to be mad because the lines were always so long it would take an hour and a half to get one. Freaking savages.
Anyway, like I said, this was LAST year’s trip. Guess what? We went on ANOTHER Carnival cruise this year. I know, right? Fool me once. How did that one go? Well, I guess you’re going to have to wait and see.
We’re finally back from vacation! And by finally, I mean we’ve been here for like a month but I’ve been too lazy to do anything productive. Three cheers for procrastination! Seriously, I feel like a bum, it’s terrible. But at the same time, it’s ok! …Read More….
Born in the U.S.A. Now, I know what you’re thinking. This guy and his family sure do travel a lot! And I know it may seem like that, but I swear it’s not true. Yes, we’ve been going places like every month, but it’s a …Read More….
Alright, I guess it’s about time I get to blogging again. We’ve been back now for around 2 weeks.. or 3? Who the heck knows, I’m still on vacation time so everything has been out of whack. I’ve even tried to prolong the vacation atmosphere at home by neatly lining up on our vanity the single-serving bathroom amenities that mysteriously found their way into my bag. While it briefly gave the feeling of a hotel, it was like putting a bandaid on an open wound so here I am, sucking it up and accepting the real world again.
You can’t really blame me though. We had a fairly good time despite some messed up stuff that happened. I’d list the bad but you’ll probably wonder how we had any fun at all. No, I’ll go ahead and focus on the good times no matter how bad I want to tell you my wife fell down a few slippery steps at the hotel and broke 2 toes. Nope, I’m keeping it aaaaaall to myself.
So if you didn’t know, we went to Florida for the 3864th time with the ambitious plan of going to the theme parks 4 days out of the 5 we were there. The wife and I used to be huge theme park people when we lived there. I can honestly say being able to go to one whenever we want is the one and only thing I miss about living in that God forsaken sauna of a state. We both were talking about moving back just to give our kids the liberty of being able to visit the parks at a whim. But after spending a week under that unforgiving sun we’re both overly appreciative of living in a place where there are 4 seasons and you don’t have the urge to rip off all your clothes and jump in the nearest body of water after 3 minutes of exposure.
Anyway, we lucked out immensely because my parents live on the same street as a few Disney employees. We paid full price for Hollywood Studios, but we got in for free to Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom, and through a friend of one of the Disney employees we managed to get nicely discounted tickets to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. We even got into SeaWorld because my mom had some extra tickets laying around. So yeah, we saved like $26,392 just in theme park tickets, it was amazing!
Because we were so fortunate, 4 days of theme parks turned into 5 days. As you can imagine a lot of pictures were taken so I hope your eyes are ready for an onslaught. And I didn’t hit you with all the ones I intended to, so be grateful! That’s another reason why I was putting this post off so long. Too many freaking pictures to edit. Anyway, the wife and I were pumped and ready to tackle the week with our 4 feet and 18 toes!
So we hit Animal Kingdom first.
Another good fortune that shined upon us here was how the cloud cover blocked the sun and made it fairly comfortable for a summer day in Florida. Animal Kingdom was a favorite of mine when it first opened, and it kinda still is. If anyone is looking to do a Disney vacation and want to stay on property, I highly recommend the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We stayed there a number of years ago and it was amazing being able to wake up, open the curtains and see zebras and giraffes grazing outside your balcony. Incredibly amazing. Anyway, I digress. Animal Kingdom was a fun and great primer for the rest of the week.
It was Lucas’ first trip here and I’m not sure if it was how early he woke up or the excitement coursing through his veins, but he took a good 3 hour nap while we were there.
Yup. He was just like this for about 3 hours. Everyone was laughing and smiling as they walked by him, and for good reason. What sucked was as the days went on, his nap time decreased. Only an hour and a half on day 2, and by day 3 there was almost no nap at all. So it’s like this 3 hour one was him preparing for the week.
Second day was SeaWorld.
We woke up on this day and our bodies (toes especially) were wondering what the heck were we thinking with this 5 days of parks stuff. It was another lucky day of glorious cloud cover with no rain. Seriously, outside was so unnaturally tolerable, it was almost scary.
We got to check out the Antarctica area they set up there recently and the new penguin ride/exhibit. When we came like a year ago this ride was about 150 minutes long, but today it was just 15. See, lesson learned: If you wait long enough, the lines will go down! The exhibit was nice and insanely cold. It really did feel like the arctic compared to outside. It sucks I have a hard time not being depressed with penguin exhibits after watching Happy Feet.
Disclaimer: Like I said to a friend on Instagram, I know there is a lot of controversy behind SeaWorld and most out there don’t want to support them in any way, but I grew up with fond memories of the place. And while I do not support what they do, it’s hard to not go when given the opportunity. Movies like that documentary which I haven’t seen, and Happy Feet which I have seen and it messed me up big time, shine a light on the issues at hand. But you know what? My kid doesn’t care about any of that mess. And he’s at that age where he just doesn’t give a crap about anything unless he can see it or touch it. So when he gets older and is able to understand what’s wrong, I’ll tell him what’s behind the curtain. But as for now, if he has an opportunity to witness the majesty and absolute beauty of these living creatures, and it’ll be his only opportunity since we’re not going whale watching in North Carolina or Florida anytime soon, then I want him to experience it. And he did.
Third day was my wife’s favorite, the Magic Kingdom.
The sun must have gotten wind of the comfortable days we were experiencing so he made sure to fix it. It was unbearably hot. Ridiculously. I honestly have no idea how those people in the character costumes do it. I was out there for a whole 4 minutes before my fat started rendering, it was terrible. And we had no time to get accustomed to it so that made it worse. I’m so glad I turned down the temperature of the room to 62° because that was the light at the end of the tunnel. The heat was so bad it made Seb stand still long enough to do this:
We tricked Seb into riding the new Seven Dwarves ride, saying it was just a train. Oh come on, don’t look at me like that! Like you never did it before. It doesn’t matter because he figured it out before we got to the front but surprisingly kept his cool. By the end of the ride he wanted to go again! He freaking loved it. So piggy backing on his excitement we took him on Thunder Mountain and he liked that one better! Kid is insane. At his age I would’ve been crying and holding on to the height checking post for dear life. So glad there wasn’t anymore to take him on though because I probably would have been hospitalized. We mellowed out on The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean – two of my favorites. While riding Pirates I was testing out my camera’s low light capabilities and it turns out they’re pretty freaking good once I figure out what the heck I’m doing.
So all in all, another great time in the Magic Kingdom. Despite the 10 mile journey over like 9 means of transportation to the parking lot from the main gate, we always feel sad leaving that place.
Calling it magical may be cliché, but it just doesn’t do it justice.
The 4th day was two of my favorite parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
I’m all about Disney but there’s something about these parks that I always loved and this visit was no different. I mean, yeah, they could be more kid friendly, there’s a lot of stuff the kids can’t ride yet compared to Disney, but it’s still good fun.
While in the hotel we stayed at, I always had the tv on those vacation channels that talked about what there is to do around the area. Seriously, how can you watch anything else during a vacation? Well on this channel they talked about the Men in Black ride and shooting aliens. So all week, Seb can do nothing but talk about two things: going to Disney and fighting Darth Vader, and shooting aliens at Universal.
Well we get there and go to get on the line, but have to check his height first. We thought whatever because we measured him at home and he was 41 with no shoes. And he’s been getting on 42 inch rides all week and this ride was 42 as well. He gets under aaaaaaand he’s too short. Literally by a hair because his hair was touching the bar. We were upset because we swear he went on it last time he was here and he was way shorter. As we sadly told him he couldn’t get on it, knowing the bar was not accurate, I asked the guy at the front and he wasn’t budging. Almost looked too happy to say no. As I was walking away I thought “wait a minute.. my kid wanted to shoot aliens today, so dammit, he’s going to shoot some freaking aliens.” I went back and asked for a supervisor. Out came Emily. I explained the situation, how we remember him going on it before, how the bar wasn’t accurate, and how all he wanted to do was shoot aliens. And she was totally understanding and was wanting to help.
She said as long as he meets the height, he can ride, and that there was a more accurate height checker inside that wasn’t on a slant. So we went in and Seb was talking to her the whole way. Explaining how he came to shoot aliens and how much fun he was having. She was going along telling him how she wanted to show him her gun collection so we went to a wall where all the alien guns were displayed and Seb was like “I want that one!”, pointing at the biggest one. Then we went to check the height… He stood there and from where I was I could tell it was the same as outside, just baaaaaarely under it with his hair touching the line. She looked at it from different angles, made him stand straighter, trying to get him to fix his feet to get just a little taller. Then when she said “yeah, he’s good” I wanted to high five her. I know she wouldn’t have let us ride if he didn’t meet the height, so I’m incredibly grateful she took the time to fix him to stand right and everything. She then said to Seb, “ok, before you go shooting aliens I want to introduce you to some friends of mine.” My wife and I were both like huh?! We went down a flight of stairs that were behind a curtain and as she went to open the door that said something along the lines of MIB Personnel Only, she reminded Seb it was a special area only few get to see. She opened the door and we were in the control room! The area you see a floor beneath you when you’re standing in the line. And there, she introduced Seb to her friends, the twin aliens, Bweryang and Bob!
Seb thinking they were real because Bob’s eye kept following him around, didn’t want to get too close. We signed the guest book on a desk nearby and noticed a little room just off to the side where there were 2 MIB agents (i.e. ride attendants) on break, chatting it up on some futuristic chairs. Seeing that topped off the experience because it was hilarious and caught me off guard. We headed back upstairs and said bye to Emily, thanking her a hundred times, and then Seb finally got to shoot some aliens.
Also in Universal was the rather impressive Simpsons area. Last time we were there it was only the ride – which I’m still pretty bummed they took out Back to the Future for – but now it has everything you could imagine from the Simpson universe including Moe’s Tavern!
We all had a round of Flaming Moes which had to be the most refreshing citrus juice/punch concoction I’ve ever had. And the presentation was spot on! To chase the Flaming Moes down we had a giant world famous pink glazed Lard Lad donut! Yup, you can basically call me Homer from now on.
Islands of Adventure was full of even more win for Seb when he met Spider-Man and got on the Spider-Man ride.
It has always been, and still is, one of my favorite rides anywhere. And it’s upgraded! Everything is HD and it looks awesome! Seb got on it twice and looked a little scared the second time but looking back he said that was his favorite ride. When we were leaving the park I was walking around the store by the entrance and casually walked into Spider-Man! I was by myself and he just looked at me and said what’s up as he shook my hand. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty awesome and I may or may not have taken a selfie with Spidey.
Another great ride we experienced for the first time was Transformers. It was crazy intense and I felt like I was in the middle of a Michael Bay movie. Sadly, we only briefly walked through the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because it’s always so freaking packed.
I could spend all day there but when there’s so many people it kills it. We also missed the new Diagon Alley expansion by a few weeks so that sucked. At least I got to walk through the Jurassic Park gates again, that’s always fun. I even decided Jurassic park was my favorite area there. And over Harry Potter, that’s sayin somethin!
With plenty of other good times I know these parks will be some of Lucas and Seb’s favorites when they get a little older.
The final day of our insane journey was the reason for coming to Florida in the first place – Star Wars Weekend in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
If you’re not aware, Seb has turned into a Star Wars nerd. I honestly have no idea where he gets it from. I remember the last time we went to Star Wars Weekend they had Stormtroopers patrolling the roof of the main gate. That would’ve been awesome to see when walking in but we settled for some posters. Despite the Force telling me I shouldn’t, the first thing I wanted to do was sign up Seb for Jedi Training Academy, but more on that later.
Walking around Seb noticed Boba Fett patrolling the main stage and I think that’s where it hit him how cool this place was. We went to the Star Wars area to take in as much as we could, and we got on the Star Wars ride for the first of our five times we rode it. Sadly we caught the end of the big Star Wars themed parade. I know Seb would’ve bugged out seeing all the characters marching around and the Disney characters dressed as Star Wars people.
By the time we we got there everyone was on the main stage and the host of the weekend, James Arnold Taylor – who did the voices for a bunch of different characters I know, including Obi-Wan on The Clone Wars – was talking.
When that was done we walked behind the stage where I was able to get a shot of Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams before they left.
I even got one of Mark Hamill pointing at me! …ok, fine, maybe he wasn’t exactly pointing at me, but look! It totally looks like he is so in my mind that’s what happened. While walking around, Seb got to live another dream he had – meet a Storm Trooper.
They were really cool whenever we saw them because they always looked like they were in a rush or being bothered. They even talked through their helmets which sounded awesome and realistic. ….As realistic as I would’ve thought Stormtroopers sounded.. in real life..
So when Seb asked one if he could borrow his gun (like I told him not to ask) and he said “not while I’m on duty and patrolling”, it was super cool.
The rest of the day was full of fun from meeting and running into more characters..
To Seb chasing down and walking alongside R2-D2, which was pretty funny…
He did the same thing to Darth Vader when we were kinda stalking the spot he was taking pictures at…
We also rode the Star Wars ride a bunch more times. Don’t judge us, it’s a fun ride and every time is different! We were so focused on all the Star Wars stuff that we didn’t even go to one whole side of the park. So sadly, we couldn’t trick Seb into going on the Tower of Terror. But he probably would’ve taken it head on after his accomplishment. Because after waiting all day he finally got his chance at Lord Vader!
Note about the video: I’m truly sorry for the way the video was shot. As it turns out, my wife suffers from VVS (Vertical Video Syndrome). I never knew of her condition until now and I hope you do not worry because I am trying to find her help. If you or anyone you love suffers from VVS, please watch this video and try to guide them as their struggle is hard.
Seb is a very energetic kid. He knows what’s right and what’s wrong but when he’s in the moment, his excitement gets the best of him and all logic and care for how he should behave goes out the window, down the street, and gets hit by a semi. So while he was sitting waiting for his Jedi robes for the Training Academy, I tried explaining what to do and not to do – “listen to the Jedi Master”, “follow the other kids”, “DO NOT ATTACK DARTH VADER UNLESS YOU’RE TOLD”.
I know I might as well have been talking to a wall since fighting Darth Vader is all he’s been wanting to do, but it was worth a shot. Look on the bright side, I got a good shot of Billy Dee giving some dude his autograph!
I totally regret not getting his autograph, but it wasn’t about me, it was about our little Jedi. They got their robes, got in line, and headed toward the stage. At this point I’m still kinda worried about him getting us thrown out of the park because he assaulted Darth Vader, but I decided to just go with it. And you know what? I’m glad I did because as soon as he got up there he was as excited as a Toydarian betting on a podrace he couldn’t lose.
He had to get a little more attention than the other students, asking random questions and following the Jedi Master around everywhere, but for the most part he was controllable. About 3 minutes in they already knew Seb’s name and I’m trying to figure out if that’s bad or not. Either way, you gotta hand it to the Jedi, they know how to handle their younglings. Of course, this is all before a disturbance was felt and Vader with his Stormtroopers interrupted the lesson.
I couldn’t help but laugh at Seb who saw his chance and went for it before getting saved by the Jedi.
It was a long wait watching all the other younglings have their turn, but he finally had his chance at Vader and he did awesomely!
If you watch the video, at the end you see him take a few extra swings at him and by that point it was expected. Vader, not being one to just walk away, took one last charge at all the students!
But when the instructor told everyone to get safely behind him and use the force to repel them, Seb took it upon himself to take charge too! He came running out of formation and started force pushing Stormtroopers in an attempt to get one last shot at Vader!
The younglings and Seb’s force pushing was too much and Vader finally decided he had no power here.
The funny part was when they closed the doors on the Stormtroopers and they were left looking confused as heck at a closed door. When it opened they went in and waved goodbye (it’s all on the video up top). The instructor even commented to Seb asking if he was the one who closed the doors on them!
But when it was all said and done, and they gave him his training certificate stating he is now a Padawan, and he came running to us all proud of his accomplishment, I felt damn proud myself.
And not because he was a “Padawan” now. Not because it was Star Wars or that my kid is a dork like me and I’m living vicariously through him. But because he was beyond happy about what he did. Again, all he was wanting and all he could talk about for weeks was going to Disney to fight Darth Vader. The pride in his eyes when he came running down the steps to us was enough to make my day week month year.
About 7 years ago when we first went to Star Wars Weekend and we saw the kids at the Jedi Training Academy, my wife and I both said maybe one day we’ll have a kid and we could let them do that. Well, here we are, it happened, and thinking back on it now is an amazingly great feeling.
Well I’ve gone on long enough. There was our vacation from start to end. The phrase “I need a vacation from this vacation” is probably one of the most honest sayings anyone has ever said. We did an insane amount of stuff and came back home with tons of memories that we’ll be talking about for years to come. And people wonder why I, a grown ass man, love Disney so much. This is why. Those memories, those moments that we experience in those parks are so special and so unique, nothing can compare. I mean, do you comprehend what happened? My kid wanted to fight Darth Vader. And what did he do? He freaking fought Darth Vader. Do you understand how crazy that is?! It’s a dream come true. It’s what Disney does and for that, I thank them.
Thanks for reading if you still are. I know this was insanely long because it took me about 5 days to put it together. But it was a lot to cover and I’m glad I did. A lot of great times were had and being able to come back and relive them will be great. Again, thanks for reading and stay tuned for regular posts coming again in the near future!