I had this weird dream at some point throughout the night. Alarms were going off in my head. It turns out it wasn’t a dream at all. Joey had decided to cook himself some late-night bacon, but neglected to switch on the extractor fan. The resulting smoke, although nothing serious, was enough to trigger the smoke alarm. Sandy heard the alarm and moved into action, but not before Jae. She had already run downstairs to resolve the situation. I had barely registered that it was a smoke alarm in my subconscious, so I must have been in a deep sleep cycle or something.
When I woke up, Sandy was already pottering around in the front room. I casually asked her whether there had been an alarm during the night. She stopped dead in her tracks and glared at me indignantly, as if to acknowledge just how useless I was in that particular crisis.
I spent the remainder of the morning writing my blogs. Fortunately, that conveniently put me in a quiet, out-of-the-way space where I couldn’t remind people I was still there, occupying space and valuable oxygen for the rest of the family.
Eventually, Sandy and I convened a discussion about Jae. More to the point, I wanted to explore ways to spend some quality time with her. We ran through a few options before Jae emerged and chimed in with her thoughts. We eventually settled on the idea of visiting Islands of Adventure for a few hours before treating Jae to another visit to the Hard Rock Café for dinner, which she loves so much.
According to the internet, Islands of Adventure closed at 9 pm this evening, so we had a good 2-3 hours in the park if we moved quickly and got underway. Jae just needed to get herself ready. I waited for her, and waited, and waited. I messaged her that I was ready to get into the car, and thus was prepared to go when she was. I then waited, and waited, and waited some more. All the while I was waiting, I was standing in the kitchen, leaning on the countertop, slowly developing a backache. I caught myself getting progressively more irritated—we had limited time, and she was taking forever. It was eating into our scheduled quality time. Of course, disappearing for hours is something I tend to do when I’m in my writing zone, so it would have been a touch hypocritical of me to voice my annoyance. I did my best to suppress my growing frustration, since this was all about what Jae wanted and not about what I wanted. After around 20 minutes, Jae came downstairs and we set off.
Time was to be our enemy tonight, as it turned out. I programmed the satnav and we set off. The most direct route to the Universal attractions is along I-4, but traffic jams sometimes cause us to be rerouted away from the congestion, so I thought nothing of it when the satnav took me off I-4 and down 192. Jae was glued to her phone practically the whole time we were in the car. She was busy making arrangements with her friends about a Halloween party she was organising when we were back home. “I’m really enjoying this quality time we’re having together,” I quipped. She did her best to put her phone aside to engage in conversation with me, but it was short-lived. Even though I would have preferred that Jae spend more time engaged with me, instead of merely present, I wasn’t that upset. She was happily engaged in her world, and I was happy that she was happy.
After a while, I became aware of our location. We were passing by visual landmarks I had remembered seeing many years ago, but had not seen so far on this trip. Then the satnav destination came into view, which wasn’t anywhere near where it was expected to be. It appears that when I punched in a location, I had chosen ‘Universal Studios…’. The text that followed was off the screen. Instead of ‘Universal Studios’, I had inadvertently programmed ‘Universal Studios Ct.’, which was some random road off 192. We were still 30 minutes from our actual destination, so now we lost even more time, although this time it was my fault. Doh!
The final kicker awaited us when we pulled up to the parking payment kiosk, after finally arriving at the correct destination. I asked for standard parking and was met with a bemused face. “Are you heading into CityWalk this evening, sir?” he asked. “No, we’re heading to the theme parks,” I replied. “You do know Universal Studios is closed, right?” We already knew that park closed at 5 pm, but we were headed to the other one, which was still open until 9 pm. It was only 6:20 pm. “We’re going to Islands of Adventure,” I said with a smile. “That park closes at 8 pm tonight. Do you still want to pay the $35 for parking?” I looked at Jae. “Well,” she said, with a wry smile, “that’s what you get for using ChatGPT.” Jae and I have had more than a few discussions about the merits of relying on AI for ad-hoc information. In fact, I went back and checked after the fact, this is what ChatGPT’s response to my park opening time query was:
Here are the published operating hours for today at Universal Orlando Resort parks:
- Universal Studios Florida: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Universal’s Islands of Adventure: 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM
If you tell me which specific park you’re visiting (including Epic Universe or another), I can check the hours for that park too.
The information it provided was, in fact, correct. I had just misread it. In my haste, I read the 9:00 as the closing time instead of the opening time. Doh! Of course, this will do nothing to bolster my assertion that AI, when used correctly and appropriately, can be a reliable source of information. Jae remains stubbornly unconvinced, and this will only reinforce that belief. Sigh.
The walk from the car park into the theme park was now much more of a rushed affair, since we now had an hour less than we initially assumed. We headed straight for the far end of the park, to take in Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster, two of the main attractions we wanted to experience. It was such a rushed walk that I developed a severe backache and pain in my left ankle. Jae had her walker with her, but I had to borrow it to lean on as I was walking.
When we arrived at the Express Pass entrance to Hagrid’s, it was showing a wait time of 140 minutes for the regular queue. That meant we expected the Express Lane to be around 70 minutes. That would blow almost all the time we had, so we mutually agreed to forego Hagrid’s and move on to the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride, which was so far the only major attraction I hadn’t yet done.
However, before we went any further, Jae insisted on a glass of butterbeer. She also insisted I pay for it, but who am I to argue when we’re spending such quality time together?
Fortunately, the wait time for Forbidden Journey wasn’t onerous, and we enjoyed the ride. Well, I did. Jae isn’t that impressed with the rides that involve watching screens, including this one.
Before leaving the Harry Potter section of the park, I graciously volunteered another glass of butterbeer for my sweet and innocent daughter, for which she was eternally grateful. At least, that’s how I want history to remember what happened. It certainly wasn’t anything like my daughter dragging me—the wallet—unceremoniously over to pay for her drink.
Jae had downed her second glass of butterbeer by the time we had reached VelociCoaster, and we went through the now familiar routine of being led to an out-of-the-way lift to bypass most of the queue with the walking frame.
VelociCoaster is one of the most thrilling roller coasters in Orlando—if not the entire world. On stats alone (speed, height, etc.), it’s even more intense than Stardust Racers, and that’s saying something. Early on in the ride, there’s an intense launch up a near-horizonal climb at speeds of around 70 mph (113 km/h). The burst is designed to push the rollercoaster just enough so that it barely makes it over the hill, which itself is part of what makes the ride thrilling. Jae insisted we ride in the very back, so we’re the last passengers to scale that 155-feet (47-metre) climb. Jae was in fits of laughter after I apparently yelled, “Ah, please make it all the way over!” at that point in the ride where it seemed like it might not quite make it, and we’d all fall backwards instead.
Once again, I left a rollercoaster somewhat unsteady on my feet, and wondering why I keep subjecting myself to these near-death experiences. Jae loved it, although her enjoyment was probably further elevated by laughing at my reactions. She has always been an adrenaline junkie, even from a young age. Jae was getting hungry and yearning for her Hard Rock Café dinner, so we made a beeline back to the front of the park to tackle The Incredible Hulk coaster. That was our last thrill before heading out towards our dinner date.
Alas, disappointment awaited us when we made it to the Hard Rock Café entrance. It was closed due to a private event. Jae was crestfallen, but we put on a brave face and graciously accepted the $10-off voucher that one of the staff members was handing out to people as she delivered the bad news.
We had to settle for food court options in City Walk. They had a Panda Express there, which is Jae’s favourite, so that was a slight consolation prize. We later stopped at a nearby KFC for me.
Jae was chattier in the car on the way home. I suspect the fact that most people back home were now tucked safely in bed had something to do with that. Either way, we had a lot of fun on the way home, singing and playing our favourite video clips, like the Kee and Peele mispronounced student name sketch. That one never fails to bring us all to tears of laughter.
I wanted to spend some quality time with Jae tonight. Notwithstanding the hiccups along the way, I did manage to do that. As I’ve said before, you sometimes have to acknowledge that it’s not always about what you see and do when you get to a destination. Sometimes, it’s the travelling itself that is the destination.