Ok...normally I don't post any videos but this one I just have to. I can't get this song out of my head and I don't want to get it out :P....and the video just adds the oomph to it with Kareena looking ravishing in red saree and SRK looking dashing!! Enjoy!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Movie Marathon July & August 2011
Ever since I have been done with my masters degree, I have had some good quality time on hand to do other things. I have been able to hang out and get-together with family and friends more and I have been able to watch back-to-back new bollywood movies as they come out in theaters!! That's been a lot of fun. In less than a month, I have watched about 5 new movies - Zindagi na milegi dobara, Buddha hoga tera baap, Singham, Chillar party, and latest watched Aarakshan.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: It stars Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Kochin. One word for this movie, Refreshing! It was such a fun-loving movie where all the actors performed really well. For me, Farhan Akhtar steals the show where he was really funny in the movie and you get to see a comic side of him which is different from his other roles like in Rock On, Karthik calling karthik, etc. I simply loved him. He was brilliant. Other than that, all the actors look fab with their toned body and killer looks. Ik Junoon and Senorita are two of my favorite tracks and I assure you that you won't get tired of these 2 tracks if you listen to them over and over and over again :). And to top it off, you have beautiful Spain in the backdrop where you get the taste of its culture, places, and people! Don't miss this movie!
Buddha....hoga tera baap: This is a complete Amitabh Bacchan movie! As a whole this movie is ok, but it's entertaining because of Mr. Bacchan. He does comedy, action, drama, and even dances to his own tunes from the past which makes this movie a complete entertainer. It could be a timepass movie, but it'll pass your time with entertainment ...not with boredom or stupidity :p.
Singham: It stars Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj and those are the only two actors you need to know about. This movie offers action, action, and more action! Ajay devgan owns this movie, but it's not complete without Prakash Raj's gundagiri...hehe. Ajay looks fit and hit for the role he has been given and performs superbly well. Saathiya and Singham are two of my favorite tracks, one is soft and other is foot-tapping. Definitely watch this one!
Chillar Party: This movie casts the brilliant young kids which makes it totally adorable and cute to watch. Don't underestimate these kids...they will make you cry but will make you laugh twice hard. I think this movie works with kids well, but it's something that even adults will enjoy watching. It was a complete joy to see these kids perform brilliantly. Can you imagine a kid saying this dialogue: "Bole to bapu india ka woh bhai tha jisne angrezo ki vaat laga dali aur india se tadipar kardiya, samjhi kya?".....haha. It was hillarious.
Aarakhsan: Unlike other movies that I listed on the top, this movie is more on serious side focusing on a reality and topic of Reservation system. It stars Amitabh Bacchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Pratik Babbar. I thought the movie was good, but I also got confused in some parts where they talk about how the admission seating is assigned based on reservation and not. I think the movie keeps you glued to your seats until the interval (at least that's what I feel), but then after the interval the topic somewhat becomes on how people play politics to make money. The focus is still kept on making money out of education system, but still I think the movie looses the focus of its original topic of Aarakshan. I still enjoyed watching it. Amitabh Bacchan was good as usual. Pratik Babbar is someone to look out for. He acted well in Dhobi ghaat, and performs equally well in this one too. Saif Ali Khan was good in few parts but I felt he was left out in big chunk of movie. Deepika is also good....there are not a lot of movies that I feel she performs well in, but with this one she is good and I feel her role is more than of Saif Ali Khan's. On a whole, it's a good movie.
Well with that, I come to an end to give you my two cents on the movies I have watched so far. And there are a lot more movies coming up that I am waiting to see. But that's for later :). Until then, see ya!
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: It stars Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Kochin. One word for this movie, Refreshing! It was such a fun-loving movie where all the actors performed really well. For me, Farhan Akhtar steals the show where he was really funny in the movie and you get to see a comic side of him which is different from his other roles like in Rock On, Karthik calling karthik, etc. I simply loved him. He was brilliant. Other than that, all the actors look fab with their toned body and killer looks. Ik Junoon and Senorita are two of my favorite tracks and I assure you that you won't get tired of these 2 tracks if you listen to them over and over and over again :). And to top it off, you have beautiful Spain in the backdrop where you get the taste of its culture, places, and people! Don't miss this movie!
Buddha....hoga tera baap: This is a complete Amitabh Bacchan movie! As a whole this movie is ok, but it's entertaining because of Mr. Bacchan. He does comedy, action, drama, and even dances to his own tunes from the past which makes this movie a complete entertainer. It could be a timepass movie, but it'll pass your time with entertainment ...not with boredom or stupidity :p.
Singham: It stars Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj and those are the only two actors you need to know about. This movie offers action, action, and more action! Ajay devgan owns this movie, but it's not complete without Prakash Raj's gundagiri...hehe. Ajay looks fit and hit for the role he has been given and performs superbly well. Saathiya and Singham are two of my favorite tracks, one is soft and other is foot-tapping. Definitely watch this one!
Chillar Party: This movie casts the brilliant young kids which makes it totally adorable and cute to watch. Don't underestimate these kids...they will make you cry but will make you laugh twice hard. I think this movie works with kids well, but it's something that even adults will enjoy watching. It was a complete joy to see these kids perform brilliantly. Can you imagine a kid saying this dialogue: "Bole to bapu india ka woh bhai tha jisne angrezo ki vaat laga dali aur india se tadipar kardiya, samjhi kya?".....haha. It was hillarious.
Aarakhsan: Unlike other movies that I listed on the top, this movie is more on serious side focusing on a reality and topic of Reservation system. It stars Amitabh Bacchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Pratik Babbar. I thought the movie was good, but I also got confused in some parts where they talk about how the admission seating is assigned based on reservation and not. I think the movie keeps you glued to your seats until the interval (at least that's what I feel), but then after the interval the topic somewhat becomes on how people play politics to make money. The focus is still kept on making money out of education system, but still I think the movie looses the focus of its original topic of Aarakshan. I still enjoyed watching it. Amitabh Bacchan was good as usual. Pratik Babbar is someone to look out for. He acted well in Dhobi ghaat, and performs equally well in this one too. Saif Ali Khan was good in few parts but I felt he was left out in big chunk of movie. Deepika is also good....there are not a lot of movies that I feel she performs well in, but with this one she is good and I feel her role is more than of Saif Ali Khan's. On a whole, it's a good movie.
Well with that, I come to an end to give you my two cents on the movies I have watched so far. And there are a lot more movies coming up that I am waiting to see. But that's for later :). Until then, see ya!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Granby, Colorado - July 4th weekend
Happy belated 4th of July Bloggers!!
Sorry, it's little late to wish but it's because I was away on the 4th of July weekend to an amazing place called Granby, Colorado. One of the family friends had planned to go to Granby during the 4th of July weekend but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go or not. I finally decided a day before they were going to leave and I am so glad I went because the weekend was amazing. They had booked a room in snow mountain ranch (YMCA) for one night on Sunday and coming back on Monday.
We left around 2:15 pm on July 3rd and the drive was about 2 hours. We played GHOST (word game) on our way to the place. We made a stop after an hour at the Berthoud pass which was just beautiful. Here is a snap....
We got to the snow mountain ranch around 4:15 pm or so, dropped of our stuff in the room, and headed straight to the programs center to reserver some activities that we were looking forward to. Unfortunately, it turns out that everything was fully booked up until Tuesday, July 5th and we were going to leave on July 4th :(. I was really looking forward to the Zip line and Archary ....but too bad. Instead, we did something different. We rented mountain bikes to go on a biking trail to see the beautiful scenery. This was the first time mountain biking for me ever...and I was not sure what to expect, but there were 5 of us going so it wasn't like I am going alone to explore the place on some secluded bike trail. Well let's talk about that experience. Before you get on the bike to go on up and down hill route, know how to change the gears based on different routes (if you are going up or when you are going down). I could barely move my bike when we were going up the hill until one of the friends told me to change the gear. Boy, that made a big difference! If that wasn't enough, we had a 2 year old map which took us to a trail no where to be found on that map. We went so deep inside the trail that we hit such steep routes, really bumpy and at one point, really muddy path. This was all part of the adventure that I have never really experienced before. After 2.5 hours of mountain biking (god knows how many miles), passing through the rainforest, and some beautiful scenery, and falling down after loosing the balance, it felt good when we found our way back to the ranch. I wasn't worried in first place since there were 5 of us but I was definitely getting tired since it was my first time mountain biking. When we got back to the Ranch, I was barely able to walk apart from my entire body aching like hell!! But I loved it! I would definitly do this again, but this was a bit extreme for first time mountain biker. We wrapped up dinner by 9 pm and headed to their Kiva center which had bunch of Recreational activities. We spent 2 hours there and played table tennis, foosball, basketball, and had great time watching 2 teams playing volleyball and soccer. We got back to our room around 11:10 pm and decided to play some cards in the lobby area of the hotel. You won't believe this, but we got so caught up in playing skip-bo (just in first hour) and then Golf (super fun cards game), that we were up till 3 AM. I am sure we woke up some of the other visitors since the lobby was on the same floor as other rooms...but we were having a blast. Finally we called it a night around 3:15 am and went to bed.
None of us had the energy to get up the next morning, but my aunt forced us to get out of bed by opening the window curtains wide open which brought in a load of sunlight! Finally I drag myself out of the bed at 9 am, get ready and have some breakfast. It is July 4th day and there was already a carnival going on near the programs center with bunch of games. Our plan of today was to go on the 3 mile roundtrip hike to a waterfall near the ranch. But again we got caught in programs center to check out the games they were playing. We headed to our 3 mile hike around 12:15 pm and reached at the top of the waterfall in about 35 minutes. The hike was really nice as we got to witness the mountains closely with a lot of rainforest atmosphere. The waterfall was also really nice but it was really slippery when we tried to go in the waterfall to click some snaps.
We stayed there for about 15-20 minutes and then started heading back down. As we were marching down, an army of mousquitos were marching up to attack us...hehe. I literally had to have my hands moving in karate style to fight them off! We got back down in half an hour and headed straight for lunch around 1:30 pm. I wasn't really tired from hike since we already did a heavy-loaded activity the day before. After lunch, we played a lot more card games to kill the time before we head to Grand lake for the fireworks. We played cards until almost 4:30 - 5 pm and then headed for Grand Lake. We had to stop on the way to get the exact directions and it turns out that the gas station manager advised us not to go to grand lake since 1) we were already late to get to the place and 2) it was going to be rediculously crowded there before and after the fireworks since they only have 1 lane for going and coming in traffic. After much debate, we just decided to head back home to denver and see the fireworks in Denver Country Club. On the way back, I kind of fell sick and head really heavy headache which felt like my head would explode...but luckily felt better once we got out of the mountains.
We made it in time to denver to see the fireworks and it was indeed spectacular! It was around 10 pm but the day is not over yet. We ordered Pizza from Pizza hut and had dinner at home and before we leave, my friends convince us to stay little longer to play the card games. Well, that little longer was until 12:40 am....I had to go to work next morning but I had no idea how I was going to get up. Me and my brother got home around 1:30 am and I fell asleep right as I went to bed!! Aaahhh...finally some relaxing time...needed to get some sleep after 2 days of hard-core activities.
Overall, the weekend was fantastic, and Granby was such a beautiful place. I would love to come here again since they have so many activities to do here and coming with a big group is always a fun thing.
Until my next post, Ciao!!
Sorry, it's little late to wish but it's because I was away on the 4th of July weekend to an amazing place called Granby, Colorado. One of the family friends had planned to go to Granby during the 4th of July weekend but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go or not. I finally decided a day before they were going to leave and I am so glad I went because the weekend was amazing. They had booked a room in snow mountain ranch (YMCA) for one night on Sunday and coming back on Monday.
We left around 2:15 pm on July 3rd and the drive was about 2 hours. We played GHOST (word game) on our way to the place. We made a stop after an hour at the Berthoud pass which was just beautiful. Here is a snap....
None of us had the energy to get up the next morning, but my aunt forced us to get out of bed by opening the window curtains wide open which brought in a load of sunlight! Finally I drag myself out of the bed at 9 am, get ready and have some breakfast. It is July 4th day and there was already a carnival going on near the programs center with bunch of games. Our plan of today was to go on the 3 mile roundtrip hike to a waterfall near the ranch. But again we got caught in programs center to check out the games they were playing. We headed to our 3 mile hike around 12:15 pm and reached at the top of the waterfall in about 35 minutes. The hike was really nice as we got to witness the mountains closely with a lot of rainforest atmosphere. The waterfall was also really nice but it was really slippery when we tried to go in the waterfall to click some snaps.
We made it in time to denver to see the fireworks and it was indeed spectacular! It was around 10 pm but the day is not over yet. We ordered Pizza from Pizza hut and had dinner at home and before we leave, my friends convince us to stay little longer to play the card games. Well, that little longer was until 12:40 am....I had to go to work next morning but I had no idea how I was going to get up. Me and my brother got home around 1:30 am and I fell asleep right as I went to bed!! Aaahhh...finally some relaxing time...needed to get some sleep after 2 days of hard-core activities.
Overall, the weekend was fantastic, and Granby was such a beautiful place. I would love to come here again since they have so many activities to do here and coming with a big group is always a fun thing.
Until my next post, Ciao!!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Baymont Inn and Suites Disney World - Orlando vacation
For any vacation, accommodation is big part of it because you want to make sure you stay at good place and when you come back to the hotel, completely tired from sight-seeing, you want to come back to a really nice room to relax to. I booked the hotel and theme park tickets from orlandovacation.com, and they had couple of options to choose from for hotels and Baymont seemed the best option considering the price and amenities they offered. So here is my little feedback on the service of the hotel. I personally liked this hotel and would not mind staying here again if we ever come to Orlando to theme parks.
Room and Lobby:
To start with the lobby, it is huge and very impressive. They have couple of nice sofas and 2 big dining tables which could be used in the morning breakfast if the breakfast area gets full. We headed straight to the room where we had room on 4th floor and needed to get the elevator from outside the hotel lobby. Once we leave the hotel lobby, all of a sudden everything becomes pretty old-style hotel architecture. The elevators are not that great with few buttons having some marks on them and the corridors are ...yea..pretty old too. But to be honest, we weren't going to live in the elevators or the corridors, so I was looking forward to the room.
The room was really nice, big and spacious. More importantly, it was clean. After doing a quick run through of the room, the carpet, curtains, bathroom, bedsheets were all clean. It had nice 42"-45" plasma TV mounted on the big cabinet. It included two big wooden closets along with 3 drawer dresser with a desk and chair. Also they included iron and ironing board in the room along with pretty good size fridge (bigger than my dorm room fridge) and microwave. Choosing this hotel had another reason which was them providing a microwave in the room! This was important for us to make the maggie noodles in the room after we come back late from the parks :D. You even get separate kitchen sink with separate cabinet to keep food. I also liked how the bathroom sink and shower were separate already stocked with bath towels, hand towels, and wash towels. The air conditioner worked fine but it didn't look too clean, but we didn't mind. I was pretty impressed with the room and happy to make Baymont our choice of hotel.
Customer Service, Housekeeping, and Maintenance:
The front desk staff was very friendly and helpful everytime I had to ask them something. Check-in and check-out was very quick. Everyday, we left the room really early and came back late between 8:30-10:30 pm. When we left the room, it was pretty much in messed up condition with park maps scattered on the table, towels everywhere, bed completely undone, but whenever we came back, it was in exact same condition as it was on the first day we came. They did pretty good job in keeping it clean. Maintenance wise, they were pretty fast too. On the first day, we found out that the microwave was missing its tray and one of the lamps did not have the bulb, we called the front desk and the maintenance guy came within 5 minutes. We also needed more towels one day and the maintenance person was there within 5 minutes. No complains there.
Breakfast:
Baymont had free breakfast for guests every morning which was very good for us to start the day. The breakfast included wheat and white bread, muffins, bagels, donuts (what?), butter, jelly, peanut butter, 4 different cereals, 2% and whole milk, orange juice, and apple juice. No fruits though. It doesn't seem very healthy breakfast but at least something to get you started. They also had about 3 toasters where one of them would toast your bread by the time you come back from the parks...haha....I mean it was going at super slow speed. I used the slow one only on the first day and based on the experience I didn't use it the other days but I am sure the other 2 toasters worked fine. The breakfast area is pretty big and spacious too. The breakfast ladies were doing great job of keeping everything filled up. I was also able to fill up our water bottles every day from the breakfast place, and with choice of bread/peanut butter/jelly options available, I was able to make our lunch sandwiches from there which was pretty filling for us at the parks.
Shuttle Service:
So first thing first, here are the shuttle times that are offered by baymont:
PARK Morning drop-off Evening pick-up
Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC): 8:30 am 6pm/10pm
Epcot 10:50am/11:50am 9:45 pm
Universal Studios 9:25 am 7:45 pm
Sea World 9:25 am 7:30 pm
These are the fixed shuttle times that baymont offers to pick up from hotel and drop-off at the hotel. They normally say that the 8:30 am shuttle takes you to Magic kingdom but they don't. The shuttle takes you to TTC where you can catch buses for any park or monorail to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We used the shuttle for all 7 days and it worked out great. The shuttle drivers are very friendly and helpful too. During our stay, we had 3 different drivers. If you want to ask about transportation for the parks, just ask them and they will direct you to the right place. Out of the 3 drivers, I found Tony to be very helpful and friendly. One day I had to go back to the hotel for a very urgent manner from Epcot and when he came to drop off people at Epcot around 11 am, I told him my situation and he took me back to the hotel even though it wasn't one of his stops back. It was very nice of him. I also realized that a lot of times we were very close to missing our shuttle since we were in the parks till last minute or we had to catch another bus to get to the shuttle. In this case, always ask the driver if they have a cell phone you can reach them at....some drivers might just say they can't give it to you but some drivers will give you their personal cell number in case you need to reach them so you don't miss the shuttle. Tony was one of those nice drivers to give us his cell number. Only one of the disadvantages is that sometimes the shuttle will stop at a hotel or two before leaving for the parks but that would be just another 5 minutes. The only time it took really long time to go to the park was in the Epcot shuttle because the shuttle stopped at like 3 other hotels which took us 45 minutes to get to Epcot.
Other:
Other than what I already discussed above, the hotel has nice pool where I saw a lot of people hanging out on the last day so I assume the pool was clean :). They have said that there is fitness room but I didn't have time to check it out and didn't plan on knowing where it was either. I was on vacation, not on workout mission...hehe. They also have laundry facility which I saw people using couple of times. They have something called business center which is a small, really small, room with one computer and printer which can be used by guests. The printer came handy when I had to print the show times for Sea world park and very handy when I had to print my boarding pass. So it was good.
The only problem we had with the hotel on the first day was the water fountain, which is the only source of water in the entire hotel. The first day we got there, we didn't have water with us and the water fountain was broken as well. We asked the front-desk agent and he said they have reported the problem to the maintenance people and they don't know when it will be fixed...well, it was not fixed until we checked out so I don't know what their window is on fixing things. What I didn't like is that the front-desk agent didn't tell me that I could just get the water from the breakfast area where they also have water source from the juice machine. I found that out the following day. Other than that, I can't really think of any flaws that the hotel had and it was wonderful staying with Baymont. We were at the parks all day long from morning to night, so we mainly used the hotel in the morning for breakfast and used it at night to come back and relax and sleep. For the price we got the hotel room at, $47/night for 8 nights + $5.09/night service charge, I think it was pretty good deal we had. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to go for Orlando vacation which is really close to the Disney theme parks.
With that said, I also found that there are dozen other hotels within 1 mile radius of this hotel. Some of the hotels have display boards which shows you what they offer along with their room rates, and some of them seemed to be offering the same thing as our hotel. Also there are a lot of restaurants within 1 to 5 to 15 minutes of walk. Just few steps away (maybe 1 minute walk), there is Denny's and McDonald's. About 3-5 minutes away, there is IHop, and Passage to India. About 5 minutes away, there is Cici's Pizza, Golden Corral, and Burger King. About 1 mile away (about 15 minutes walk), there are even more choices such as Subway, TGIF, Taco Bell and some other restaurants. The area is safe too to be walking to these restaurants. The first day we came, we went to Cici's Pizza at around 9:20 pm and came back after 10 pm. We went there twice and also went to Subway once. Everything worked out great on this vacation from hotel to the parks to the transportation. It was perfect!
Room and Lobby:
To start with the lobby, it is huge and very impressive. They have couple of nice sofas and 2 big dining tables which could be used in the morning breakfast if the breakfast area gets full. We headed straight to the room where we had room on 4th floor and needed to get the elevator from outside the hotel lobby. Once we leave the hotel lobby, all of a sudden everything becomes pretty old-style hotel architecture. The elevators are not that great with few buttons having some marks on them and the corridors are ...yea..pretty old too. But to be honest, we weren't going to live in the elevators or the corridors, so I was looking forward to the room.
The room was really nice, big and spacious. More importantly, it was clean. After doing a quick run through of the room, the carpet, curtains, bathroom, bedsheets were all clean. It had nice 42"-45" plasma TV mounted on the big cabinet. It included two big wooden closets along with 3 drawer dresser with a desk and chair. Also they included iron and ironing board in the room along with pretty good size fridge (bigger than my dorm room fridge) and microwave. Choosing this hotel had another reason which was them providing a microwave in the room! This was important for us to make the maggie noodles in the room after we come back late from the parks :D. You even get separate kitchen sink with separate cabinet to keep food. I also liked how the bathroom sink and shower were separate already stocked with bath towels, hand towels, and wash towels. The air conditioner worked fine but it didn't look too clean, but we didn't mind. I was pretty impressed with the room and happy to make Baymont our choice of hotel.
Customer Service, Housekeeping, and Maintenance:
The front desk staff was very friendly and helpful everytime I had to ask them something. Check-in and check-out was very quick. Everyday, we left the room really early and came back late between 8:30-10:30 pm. When we left the room, it was pretty much in messed up condition with park maps scattered on the table, towels everywhere, bed completely undone, but whenever we came back, it was in exact same condition as it was on the first day we came. They did pretty good job in keeping it clean. Maintenance wise, they were pretty fast too. On the first day, we found out that the microwave was missing its tray and one of the lamps did not have the bulb, we called the front desk and the maintenance guy came within 5 minutes. We also needed more towels one day and the maintenance person was there within 5 minutes. No complains there.
Breakfast:
Baymont had free breakfast for guests every morning which was very good for us to start the day. The breakfast included wheat and white bread, muffins, bagels, donuts (what?), butter, jelly, peanut butter, 4 different cereals, 2% and whole milk, orange juice, and apple juice. No fruits though. It doesn't seem very healthy breakfast but at least something to get you started. They also had about 3 toasters where one of them would toast your bread by the time you come back from the parks...haha....I mean it was going at super slow speed. I used the slow one only on the first day and based on the experience I didn't use it the other days but I am sure the other 2 toasters worked fine. The breakfast area is pretty big and spacious too. The breakfast ladies were doing great job of keeping everything filled up. I was also able to fill up our water bottles every day from the breakfast place, and with choice of bread/peanut butter/jelly options available, I was able to make our lunch sandwiches from there which was pretty filling for us at the parks.
Shuttle Service:
So first thing first, here are the shuttle times that are offered by baymont:
PARK Morning drop-off Evening pick-up
Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC): 8:30 am 6pm/10pm
Epcot 10:50am/11:50am 9:45 pm
Universal Studios 9:25 am 7:45 pm
Sea World 9:25 am 7:30 pm
These are the fixed shuttle times that baymont offers to pick up from hotel and drop-off at the hotel. They normally say that the 8:30 am shuttle takes you to Magic kingdom but they don't. The shuttle takes you to TTC where you can catch buses for any park or monorail to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We used the shuttle for all 7 days and it worked out great. The shuttle drivers are very friendly and helpful too. During our stay, we had 3 different drivers. If you want to ask about transportation for the parks, just ask them and they will direct you to the right place. Out of the 3 drivers, I found Tony to be very helpful and friendly. One day I had to go back to the hotel for a very urgent manner from Epcot and when he came to drop off people at Epcot around 11 am, I told him my situation and he took me back to the hotel even though it wasn't one of his stops back. It was very nice of him. I also realized that a lot of times we were very close to missing our shuttle since we were in the parks till last minute or we had to catch another bus to get to the shuttle. In this case, always ask the driver if they have a cell phone you can reach them at....some drivers might just say they can't give it to you but some drivers will give you their personal cell number in case you need to reach them so you don't miss the shuttle. Tony was one of those nice drivers to give us his cell number. Only one of the disadvantages is that sometimes the shuttle will stop at a hotel or two before leaving for the parks but that would be just another 5 minutes. The only time it took really long time to go to the park was in the Epcot shuttle because the shuttle stopped at like 3 other hotels which took us 45 minutes to get to Epcot.
Other:
Other than what I already discussed above, the hotel has nice pool where I saw a lot of people hanging out on the last day so I assume the pool was clean :). They have said that there is fitness room but I didn't have time to check it out and didn't plan on knowing where it was either. I was on vacation, not on workout mission...hehe. They also have laundry facility which I saw people using couple of times. They have something called business center which is a small, really small, room with one computer and printer which can be used by guests. The printer came handy when I had to print the show times for Sea world park and very handy when I had to print my boarding pass. So it was good.
The only problem we had with the hotel on the first day was the water fountain, which is the only source of water in the entire hotel. The first day we got there, we didn't have water with us and the water fountain was broken as well. We asked the front-desk agent and he said they have reported the problem to the maintenance people and they don't know when it will be fixed...well, it was not fixed until we checked out so I don't know what their window is on fixing things. What I didn't like is that the front-desk agent didn't tell me that I could just get the water from the breakfast area where they also have water source from the juice machine. I found that out the following day. Other than that, I can't really think of any flaws that the hotel had and it was wonderful staying with Baymont. We were at the parks all day long from morning to night, so we mainly used the hotel in the morning for breakfast and used it at night to come back and relax and sleep. For the price we got the hotel room at, $47/night for 8 nights + $5.09/night service charge, I think it was pretty good deal we had. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to go for Orlando vacation which is really close to the Disney theme parks.
With that said, I also found that there are dozen other hotels within 1 mile radius of this hotel. Some of the hotels have display boards which shows you what they offer along with their room rates, and some of them seemed to be offering the same thing as our hotel. Also there are a lot of restaurants within 1 to 5 to 15 minutes of walk. Just few steps away (maybe 1 minute walk), there is Denny's and McDonald's. About 3-5 minutes away, there is IHop, and Passage to India. About 5 minutes away, there is Cici's Pizza, Golden Corral, and Burger King. About 1 mile away (about 15 minutes walk), there are even more choices such as Subway, TGIF, Taco Bell and some other restaurants. The area is safe too to be walking to these restaurants. The first day we came, we went to Cici's Pizza at around 9:20 pm and came back after 10 pm. We went there twice and also went to Subway once. Everything worked out great on this vacation from hotel to the parks to the transportation. It was perfect!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Bye bye Orlando!!
What a fabulous week we had with 7 amazing parks each unique with their own theme and style! It's been the best vacation ever! After we left Animal Kingdom, it had not sunk in that we will be leaving Orlando the next morning. We came back to our room from the park, relaxed a little bit, had some delicious maggie noodles, and we even had time to sit down and watch a movie, Avatar, in our room :). I mean, this is the first day when we have had such a relaxing time in the room :)....packed the bags, I wrote up the hightlights of day 6 and day 7. Luckily our hotel has a small business center, nothing fancy, but it comes with one computer and printer, so I was able to check-in and print the boarding passes. Finally went to bed to get up early...not to go to any parks ..but to go back home :D.
We had already bought roundtrip for Mears transportation when we arrived in Orlando and already scheduled the return shuttle 2 days before our trip, so the shuttle was going to come at 7:15 am to pick us up. That was king of early, but we were able to get ready and be done with breakfast by 7:10 am. The check-out was pretty smooth and quick as well. Our shuttle came 15 minutes earlier than scheduled but the driver was really nice and she waited until we had our breakfast. We were the only two passengers for the shuttle, so there were no stops and reached straight to the airport in half an hour. The airport wasn't crowded either so we got through security and reached gate in 15-20 minutes. We said our final good bye to Orlando and headed home sweet home in 10 am flight.
Looking back at all the parks, their rides and shows, I have few favorites that I would like to share with you and if you are ever in the park, don't miss those rides!
Top Rides:
- Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
- Peter Pan's Flight (Magic Kingdom)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom)
- It's small world (Magic Kingdom)
- Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (Magic Kingdom)
- The Simpson's Ride (Universal Studios)
- E.T. Adventure (Universal Studios)
- The Great Movie Ride (Hollywood Studios)
- Toy Story Mania (Hollywood Studios)
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)
- Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges (Islands of Adventure)
- Jurassic Park River Adventure (Islands of Adventure)
- Spaceship Earth (Epcot)
Top Shows (3D and Live):
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (Magic Kingdom)
- Micky's Philar Magic (Magic Kingdom)
- Disaster (Universal Studios)
- Twister (Universal Studios)
- Shrek 4D (Universal Studios)
- Horror Makeup Show (Universal Studios)
- Indiana Jones (Hollywood Studios)
- Lights, motors, action! stunt show (Hollywood Studios)
- Beauty and the Beast (Hollywood Studios)
- Poseidon's Fury (Islands of Adventure)
- Turtle talk with Crush (Epcot)
- It's tough to be bug - 3D (Animal Kingdom)
- Finding Nemo Musical (Animal Kingdom)
- Festival of Lion King (Animal Kingdom)
- All the shows at Sea World
Couple of Tips:
1) Arrive at the park as early as possible (possibly right when it opens) and stay until it closes to cover as much as you want. Arriving early helps you cover your top rides in first 2 to 3 hours. The park is not very crowded in the morning when it opens and the wait times are not more than 10-15 minutes (sometimes even less than that), so you get head start than everyone else.
2) Each park allows you to bring food and water, so pack lots of snacks regardless if you have kids or not because you might find yourself standing in line for 30-45 minutes to 2 hours (yes, this happens if the ride is crazy packed) and having quick snacks around really helps. We never had consistent time for eating because we would be eating handy snacks here and there and then have late lunch around 2 or 3 pm. Even for lunch, we brought peanut-butter-jelly sandwiches from our hotel so we didn't have to wait in long lines to get food and it saves money as well.
3) Drink lots of water!! Remember that it's extremely hot in Florida, always 90+ degrees and some of the parks don't have any shade, so you will be wandering around in sun and you need to drink lots of water so you don't get dehydrated. We always brought 2 water bottles filled from our hotel and then whenever needed, got them filled at the park from one of the restaurants. Don't hesitate to ask for water in the restaurants thinking they will say no, because they don't. We were never turned down when we asked for water...of course they don't fill your water bottles, but instead give you glass full of water and we always got iced water so that ice automatically melts in the heat and we get chilled water :)
4) Definitely bring sunscreen, a cap, and sunglasses. These are necessary to help protect your skin in the extreme heat!
Apart from these, don't miss any of the fireworks/night shows at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot along with the world showcases of Epcot. Wow...just re-listing these rides and shows makes me want to go there again.....:) I will be writing one more post about our hotel which will be the last post of this trip....I promise. Till then, see ya :)
We had already bought roundtrip for Mears transportation when we arrived in Orlando and already scheduled the return shuttle 2 days before our trip, so the shuttle was going to come at 7:15 am to pick us up. That was king of early, but we were able to get ready and be done with breakfast by 7:10 am. The check-out was pretty smooth and quick as well. Our shuttle came 15 minutes earlier than scheduled but the driver was really nice and she waited until we had our breakfast. We were the only two passengers for the shuttle, so there were no stops and reached straight to the airport in half an hour. The airport wasn't crowded either so we got through security and reached gate in 15-20 minutes. We said our final good bye to Orlando and headed home sweet home in 10 am flight.
Looking back at all the parks, their rides and shows, I have few favorites that I would like to share with you and if you are ever in the park, don't miss those rides!
Top Rides:
- Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom)
- Peter Pan's Flight (Magic Kingdom)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom)
- It's small world (Magic Kingdom)
- Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (Magic Kingdom)
- The Simpson's Ride (Universal Studios)
- E.T. Adventure (Universal Studios)
- The Great Movie Ride (Hollywood Studios)
- Toy Story Mania (Hollywood Studios)
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)
- Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges (Islands of Adventure)
- Jurassic Park River Adventure (Islands of Adventure)
- Spaceship Earth (Epcot)
Top Shows (3D and Live):
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (Magic Kingdom)
- Micky's Philar Magic (Magic Kingdom)
- Disaster (Universal Studios)
- Twister (Universal Studios)
- Shrek 4D (Universal Studios)
- Horror Makeup Show (Universal Studios)
- Indiana Jones (Hollywood Studios)
- Lights, motors, action! stunt show (Hollywood Studios)
- Beauty and the Beast (Hollywood Studios)
- Poseidon's Fury (Islands of Adventure)
- Turtle talk with Crush (Epcot)
- It's tough to be bug - 3D (Animal Kingdom)
- Finding Nemo Musical (Animal Kingdom)
- Festival of Lion King (Animal Kingdom)
- All the shows at Sea World
Couple of Tips:
1) Arrive at the park as early as possible (possibly right when it opens) and stay until it closes to cover as much as you want. Arriving early helps you cover your top rides in first 2 to 3 hours. The park is not very crowded in the morning when it opens and the wait times are not more than 10-15 minutes (sometimes even less than that), so you get head start than everyone else.
2) Each park allows you to bring food and water, so pack lots of snacks regardless if you have kids or not because you might find yourself standing in line for 30-45 minutes to 2 hours (yes, this happens if the ride is crazy packed) and having quick snacks around really helps. We never had consistent time for eating because we would be eating handy snacks here and there and then have late lunch around 2 or 3 pm. Even for lunch, we brought peanut-butter-jelly sandwiches from our hotel so we didn't have to wait in long lines to get food and it saves money as well.
3) Drink lots of water!! Remember that it's extremely hot in Florida, always 90+ degrees and some of the parks don't have any shade, so you will be wandering around in sun and you need to drink lots of water so you don't get dehydrated. We always brought 2 water bottles filled from our hotel and then whenever needed, got them filled at the park from one of the restaurants. Don't hesitate to ask for water in the restaurants thinking they will say no, because they don't. We were never turned down when we asked for water...of course they don't fill your water bottles, but instead give you glass full of water and we always got iced water so that ice automatically melts in the heat and we get chilled water :)
4) Definitely bring sunscreen, a cap, and sunglasses. These are necessary to help protect your skin in the extreme heat!
Apart from these, don't miss any of the fireworks/night shows at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot along with the world showcases of Epcot. Wow...just re-listing these rides and shows makes me want to go there again.....:) I will be writing one more post about our hotel which will be the last post of this trip....I promise. Till then, see ya :)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Orlando vacation day 7 - Animal Kingdom
It is the last day of our 7 day adventurous vacation. It's been great fun so far, so let's see what Animal Kingdom has in store for us. We had to get up early to catch the 8:30 am shuttle. We got to Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) and took the Animal Kingdom Disney bus from there. We got to the park and the first thing that takes your breath away is the Tree of Life. It is magnificent.
There were 3 rides on our mind that we wanted to cover first which were Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur, and Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were told by another tourist to cover the safari before 10 if we wanted to see the animals awake and outside, so we made that our first stop. But before we go there, we made a quick stop at Kali River Rapids to get the fastpass. The wait time for kali river rapids was only 15 minutes but we didn't want to spend time on this ride because that would have made us late for safari ride. Anyways, after getting the fastpass we headed straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris which unfortunately had 60 minutes wait :(. Finally exactly after an hour wait, we get on the safari truck and saw lots of animals, some asleep and some awake. It was all of 20 minute ride for an hour wait, but that's ok. It's just one time!
We then headed to Dino-land to see how the situation was with the Dinosaur ride. There was about 40 minutes wait, so we just took the fastpass for the ride and went to Kali River Rapids. This ride is short but fun and not to forget that it'll get WET! The main cause of getting wet is that there is a drop with at least 30 degrees slope and it drops your boat right in the water making it hit with the oncoming wave and drenching each one of the passengers. Right when we get out of the ride, there was Pangani trail which is about 10-15 minute walk. We saw big frogs, gorillas, Hippos, and couple other animals. It was already time for our Dinosaur fastpass. The ride was pretty good but it was extremely dark, fast, and loud ride. Also, it was completely unpredictable when the dinosaur came out from a corner out of the bloom.
There was only 25 minutes left for the Finding Nemo Musical show, so we hurried to the theater but the entire theater was packed. Luckily we got seats some where in the back but viewable area. This was the longest show about 40 minutes but very nice musical. Don't miss this show! The Festival of Lion King show was next so we started heading there since it was in the complete opposite side. This was another one of nice musical shows where it was half an hour unlimited fun. I also recommend seeing this show. Next, we went to see It's tough to be a bug which is situated inside the Tree of Life. DON'T MISS THIS SHOW! This was my favorite 3D show in the entire park. It's just 8 minutes long but completely worth the wait and time! The best part is when you are on your way to the show walking inside the tree, you get to see beautiful carvings of animals.
After this super fun 3D show, we headed to Expedition Everest which is a super fast roller coaster ride (without any upside down loops thankfully). There was minimum 60 minutes wait and they had run out of fast passes too so we had no choice but to wait in line. This is one super fast ride which initially goes backwards at 55 mph for 20 seconds and then takes you right into 80 feet drop...Aaaaaaaaaa! It was the fastest ride I experienced in all these days. It was truly a thrilling experience.
Last on the agenda for the day and for our trip was Flights of Wonder show. It's entertaining showcasing different birds from all around the world including eagle, parrots, owl, etc. We were done by about 5:20 pm so headed back to the parking lot and took the Disney bus to go to TTC and then took the 6 pm shuttle to go back to our hotel. This was the only day when we were back to the hotel really early but that's how we had planned it so we can get some time to pack our bags. Overall, this park was a lot of fun too, but unfortunately our trip comes to an end after 7 long days of non-stop adventure, non-stop fun, and unlimited memories :). We packed our bags, and did last minute run-through of our room to make sure we had everything. We had to wake up early next morning so went to bed early with some good night sleep of recalling all the blast we had during this trip.
Hope you all enjoyed the long, never-ending posts of each day/each park and I will be writing couple more posts to give you guys an idea of the hotel and how we bid goodbye to Orlando. Until then...see ya :)
There were 3 rides on our mind that we wanted to cover first which were Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur, and Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were told by another tourist to cover the safari before 10 if we wanted to see the animals awake and outside, so we made that our first stop. But before we go there, we made a quick stop at Kali River Rapids to get the fastpass. The wait time for kali river rapids was only 15 minutes but we didn't want to spend time on this ride because that would have made us late for safari ride. Anyways, after getting the fastpass we headed straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris which unfortunately had 60 minutes wait :(. Finally exactly after an hour wait, we get on the safari truck and saw lots of animals, some asleep and some awake. It was all of 20 minute ride for an hour wait, but that's ok. It's just one time!
We then headed to Dino-land to see how the situation was with the Dinosaur ride. There was about 40 minutes wait, so we just took the fastpass for the ride and went to Kali River Rapids. This ride is short but fun and not to forget that it'll get WET! The main cause of getting wet is that there is a drop with at least 30 degrees slope and it drops your boat right in the water making it hit with the oncoming wave and drenching each one of the passengers. Right when we get out of the ride, there was Pangani trail which is about 10-15 minute walk. We saw big frogs, gorillas, Hippos, and couple other animals. It was already time for our Dinosaur fastpass. The ride was pretty good but it was extremely dark, fast, and loud ride. Also, it was completely unpredictable when the dinosaur came out from a corner out of the bloom.
There was only 25 minutes left for the Finding Nemo Musical show, so we hurried to the theater but the entire theater was packed. Luckily we got seats some where in the back but viewable area. This was the longest show about 40 minutes but very nice musical. Don't miss this show! The Festival of Lion King show was next so we started heading there since it was in the complete opposite side. This was another one of nice musical shows where it was half an hour unlimited fun. I also recommend seeing this show. Next, we went to see It's tough to be a bug which is situated inside the Tree of Life. DON'T MISS THIS SHOW! This was my favorite 3D show in the entire park. It's just 8 minutes long but completely worth the wait and time! The best part is when you are on your way to the show walking inside the tree, you get to see beautiful carvings of animals.
Last on the agenda for the day and for our trip was Flights of Wonder show. It's entertaining showcasing different birds from all around the world including eagle, parrots, owl, etc. We were done by about 5:20 pm so headed back to the parking lot and took the Disney bus to go to TTC and then took the 6 pm shuttle to go back to our hotel. This was the only day when we were back to the hotel really early but that's how we had planned it so we can get some time to pack our bags. Overall, this park was a lot of fun too, but unfortunately our trip comes to an end after 7 long days of non-stop adventure, non-stop fun, and unlimited memories :). We packed our bags, and did last minute run-through of our room to make sure we had everything. We had to wake up early next morning so went to bed early with some good night sleep of recalling all the blast we had during this trip.
Hope you all enjoyed the long, never-ending posts of each day/each park and I will be writing couple more posts to give you guys an idea of the hotel and how we bid goodbye to Orlando. Until then...see ya :)
Orlando vacation day 6 - Sea World
Sea World!!!!! Yes, that's right...It's a Sea World time!!! I am going to see Shamu :)...haha. The reason I was so excited for Sea World is because I have never been there before and have always wanted to see Shamu..so here is the day. Anyways, let me move on with the post instead of bragging about it..:P. It was Sunday and day 6 of our trip. We were really tired from exploring Epcot but we got a late start since the shuttle was at 9:25 am. We got ready, took the shuttle and headed to Sea World. Since the shuttle stopped at Universal first and at Sea World second, it took about 45 minutes to get there and we reached at 10:15 am. This was one park where we didn't get on any rides except one simulation ride because most of the rides were either roller coaster kind or kiddie rides. What was more important to cover in this park was its shows and exhibits and we did not want to miss any!
We had already printed the show times the day before and planned out which ones to see at what times, so we started the day as we planned. First show had to be none other than One Ocean at 11 am which showcases the majestic killer whales, Shamu. Get to the stadium at least 30 minutes before the show starts to get good seats because the stadium fills up very quickly. Also the stadium is little away from the entrance and you have to walk little more, so plan accordingly to get to the stadium. Once you are at the stadium, if you want to get wet feel free to sit in the splash zone because the trainers purposely make Shamu splash water in the audience. Now about the show, it was fantastic! Shamu is so cute and it's amazing to see him so closely. You don't believe me? Here is a proof.
We had already printed the show times the day before and planned out which ones to see at what times, so we started the day as we planned. First show had to be none other than One Ocean at 11 am which showcases the majestic killer whales, Shamu. Get to the stadium at least 30 minutes before the show starts to get good seats because the stadium fills up very quickly. Also the stadium is little away from the entrance and you have to walk little more, so plan accordingly to get to the stadium. Once you are at the stadium, if you want to get wet feel free to sit in the splash zone because the trainers purposely make Shamu splash water in the audience. Now about the show, it was fantastic! Shamu is so cute and it's amazing to see him so closely. You don't believe me? Here is a proof.
Once the show was over, we went to the Wild Arctic simulation ride which was just like any other simulation ride like Star tours or Mission Space but this one takes you on the arctic journey showing the life of animals such as walrus, dolphins swimming around via underwater viewing. We headed towards the next show stadium which was at 1:30 pm so we had little time to cover the exhibits around it. We were able to see dolphin nursery where we saw dolphins very closely, saw turtles at turtle station, went to Stingray lagoon, and dolphin cove where it's home to all the dolphins. By the time we covered all this, it was already time for the 2nd show Blue Horizons which was a dolphins show with company of different kinds of birds. This was a really good show and dolphins were really cute too.
The next show we wanted to cover had little more time so we were able to go to couple more exhibits including Penguin encounter, Alligators, and Manatees. I loved the Penguin encounter place but unfortunately couldn't stand there longer than 3-5 minutes because the place was stinking like crazy :(. There were the cutest small penguins and the big ones too. At a point I felt those are not real because they wouldn't move a muscle but then there were few who were having fun in the water. We also checked out Sea Lions and Shark encounter. Shark encounter was really cool to see because they have an underwater viewing of sharks. We pretty much covered most of the exhibits and headed to the next show A'lure the call of the ocean which was showing at 3:30 pm. This show is mainly musical performance with a lot of gymnastic stunt performing actors. It's very entertaining.
We had about 45 minutes before the next show of sea lions at 5:15 pm but instead of roaming around we found a really nice spot near the lake and relaxed in the shade. Clyde and Seamore take on pirate island is a sea lions show and I highly recommend seeing this show when you are in this park. It's funny and entertaining and has performances by sea lions and walrus. This stadium is not as big as Shamu or Dolphin stadium, so you definitely want to get there 30 minutes before the show to get good seats. Just 15 minutes before the show starts, a performer comes to entertain the audience and make you laugh. Don't miss it!
The last show of the day that we had planned was being performed by the same people and animal...hehe. What I mean to say is that the show Sea Lions Tonight was performed by the same trainers, sea lions, and walrus but in completely different format. But before this show, we had an hour so we checked out The Journey to Atlantis Aquarium which was very small but cool to see. We didn't really have anything else left to see so we headed back to the last show location for 6:45 pm time. The lines started forming 45 minutes before but they opened the gates only 15-20 minutes before the show is about to start. This was the best show ever and here is why....there is a reason why this one is shown at the end of the day because they basically mimic all the shows of this park and make fun of them. It is really funny and completely worth your time!! MUST WATCH!
It was already time for our 7:30 pm shuttle so we had to leave right after Sea Lions Tonight ended. There were still 2 more shows that we couldn't see, Shamu Rocks and Reflections fireworks. We had already seen a lot of fireworks from Disney parks, so didn't really care for that and we already saw Shamu so just decided to leave in the scheduled shuttle instead of staying late at the park for these 2 programs. All the shows were 30 minutes long and I think they are all must watch if you are in this park. We also didn't see Pet's ahoy but we didn't have time for this one and it was similar to animals actors show from Universal so didn't mind skipping it. Due to the memorial day weekend, it was really crowded day. But the shows just made up for it :).
Well we got one last day of adventure left and one last park to cover....that isssssssss....Animal Kingdom. I can't believe that our vacation was coming to an end but didn't want to think about it since we still had one more park cover and enjoy that day to the fullest :D. It was good to be back to the hotel early and then sleep early. More excitement to come the next day...stay tuned!
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