I arrived a few days early with my spouse (also attending from her institution) to do some touristy things. Man, the International Drive area is a strange place. Everything is big, artificial, and tourist-centered. There seemed to be a repating theme of not level buildings (1, 2). Our hotel was not the best Educause hotel we’ve been to. First the advertised wireless barely reached our room and second it wouldn’t connect to any site (DNS errors). It was fixed by Wednesday but was frustrating nonetheless. We wound up sneaking into an adjacent hotel’s patio to use their wireless one night. Also, on the first day our room door wouldn’t lock. We called the desk and they sent a technician over — a guy with WD-40. He sprayed the lock and it worked. The next day the lock wouldn’t open. The same guy came with the same can of WD-40. A few sprays and it worked! After that the lock worked fine for the rest of our stay.
We spent an afternoon at Universal Studios Florida. The movie attractions were rather fun. Unfortunately Jaws was not open and I had wanted to see that one most (I remember Jaws from Universal Studios California when I was a child and was looking to relive that experience). After the conference we went to Epcot since my spouse visited that when she was a child. This was Friday and the rain was starting (probably a precursor to Wilma). We managed to really mess ourselves up on Mission: SPACE. Heed the warnings on that ride. The warnings at Universal were largely overstated. This one left us feeling like we went through a wringer.
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