Leaving Disney World this morning was a relief! I couldn’t wait to get away from all the brightly coloured plastic and cheerful piped music, so we departed with a squeal of tyres and smell of burning rubber. Not that we went far, just a few miles up the road to Universal Studios which is another huge theme park, based around the films and shows made by Universal. Apparently it has working film sets but we didn’t see those.
It turned out to be great fun and Jim and I went on what the guide books said were the best rides. In my humble opinion I’d place them in the following order: Hulk rollercoaster, Return of the Mummy, Back to the Future, Spiderman, Shrek, Jaws, and some others I can’t remember. All done extremely well with lots of special effects and screaming teenage girls. It’s definitely worth a visit, and you could probably spend 2 days seeing it all. Unfortunately we only had half a day but felt we managed to cram a lot in, helped by the fact that the park was fairly quiet so we didn’t have to wait long for any of the rides.
Universal Studios
We left Universal around 4pm and jumped on a plane to Key West. It twas a little twin-engined Gulfstream turboprop with just 19 seats, 1 either side of the aisle, rather like a minibus with wings. The flight was just over an hour, getting us to Key West airport around 7pm. As usual Jim had his camcorder clamped to his eye and got shouted at for dawdling to film on the tarmac after getting off the plane, which cheered Sue up no end!
The nice lady at the Avis desk upgraded us from our full-size car to a Suziki SUV which I was a little dubious about at first as I’m always ranting about how wasteful they are, but it’s actually rather nice so I think I might just hang on to it for a while to see how I get on with it. The high driving position is great as it gives a good view, and there’s lots of space with the seats down which will come in handy for picking up boat bits.
We checked in to the Sea Isle Resort in the Old Town, which is where I stayed in March with Chris and Andy. It’s a pleasant little 70’s style resort with around 20 rooms grouped round a central pool and bar and is about to be demolished to make way for six new townhouses, so we’re pretty much the only guests and have the place to ourselves which is nice. Dan, the manager, is very laid back and is rarely around so we feel very comfortable here.
After dumping our bags we wandered up Duval Street, taking in a meal and some window-shopping, ending up on Mallory Square to see a huge cruise ship docked alongside the quay. Sue tried to make friends with some local cats but they didn’t seem interested, so we jumped in a cab to take us back. Our driver was a very friendly lady called Jackie, with her dog Emma in the co-pilot seat. Jackie is an artist who lives on a boat in Key West, and was full of fascinating historical facts about the place. Yet another example of the the lovely people you meet here at the southern-most extent of the USA, which is why I love coming here so much.