Spring break 2011 - Monday and Tuesday

Well, the bad weather continued to follow us. Monday was a complete washout... so we took advantage of the rainy weather and scheduled our owner's update meeting. This is Bluegreen's way of upselling to existing owners. We usually skip these meetings since we have no intention of buying more timeshare points... but between the bad weather, the lure of $75.00 off attraction tickets and the fact that we haven't done one in a while... we had a weak moment and signed up. 'Long story short' they restructured the system and it would cost $30,000 to buy 10,000 more points and add to our existing 15,000 points, so we can take advantage of the new system. That was not going to happen. Even though they swore up and down that it will take no more than 60 minutes, we were there for 2 hours... but in the end, we still said no. It's also a good thing the weather was crummy.

We explored the clubhouse, had a late breakfast at their Cup 'o Joe's cafe, walked around and went back to the condo.
That afternoon we went to Downtown Disney (in our requisite raincoats, slickers, or ponchos). After walking through the whole area including Pleasure Island, we went into Disney Quest which is 5-stories full of interactive games and activities. We played some virtual reality games (Ride the Comix), played human pinball (pictured) and rode some simulation rides. The best were the human pinball, the Pirates of the Caribbean virtual reality pirate ship battle and the Virtual Jungle Cruise where you "Plunge down a prehistoric river on a raft in the Dinosaur Age trying desperately to avoid dangerous obstacles in the running rapids" in an inflatable raft, complete with paddles.
Since this activity is indoors, it is highly recommended for rainy days but that is also the time when everyone else goes; so when it is raining, it will be crowded.
Tuesday - we finally hit a good day. The expected bad weather pattern didn't materialize, so we went to Universal Studios and spent a rain-free day in the park. The highlights were E.T. Adventure, Men in Black - Alien Attack, and the Simpsons ride.

My brush with fame on this trip... I saw the Simpsons drive right by us. Now that doesn't happen every day! :-)

I also went to 'Disasters' on my own which simulated making a fun disaster movie. Rosie went to a Horror make-up demonstration while Kyle and I went back to Men in Black a few more times... and tried to better our scores.
We learned that you can shave off a lot of time by going through the 'singles' line... even though you are not guaranteed to sit with each other. It is much cheaper (free) compared to the Express pass which they up-sell at parks to allow you to skip ahead to the front of the line. The cost is upwards of $50+ per day per person... so it should be a busy day and you should be planning on spending most of the day for it to be worthwhile. (Staying in some specific resorts gives you this valuable feature for free.)
We ate dinner that night at Lone Star Steakhouse which is a wonderful place for a good steak dinner. We all enjoyed that restaurant very much.