Tag Archives: Orlando Eye

Once More to the EYE

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It was time to leave the Animal Kingdom behind. The Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the other parks so as not to disrupt the animals sleep cycle or circadian timer. We have one too but if we choose to ignore it  that’s our problem. The animals at Animal Kingdom are at the mercy of their keepers and so far Disney has tried hard to give them a natural environment.

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Although dark it was still early so we decided to try the EYE again. If it was running we could take a ride. If not at least we could get some pictures of it after dark.

We pulled into the free parking and the EYE was right in front of us. When we parked earlier I didn’t notice what a great view there was from the parking garage.

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We spent more than a few minutes trying to find the best spot to see the great wheel.

Pretty quickly it became apparent that it wasn’t moving.

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Even so we went to the ground level and checked for spots to photograph it from there. It’s really a beautiful sight.

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Remember that restaurant. They had their lights on too.

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I just wish we’d had a chance to see Orlando from the top. I wonder if we could have seen the Fireworks from the Disney Parks?

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The Eye has it or Not!

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Remember when I started this series I said “Now remember, no trip is without its pitfalls. If you keep that in mind you will be able to handle the little trials that come out of no where.”

Well Our lovely day was about to hit one of those little trials. Up until this point the Orlando Eye had been slowly turning above our heads but as we finished with the SeaLife Aquarium they announced that it was temporarily down. Trying to get any information out of the desk attendants was an exercise in futility.

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We sat for a bit in the food court but pretty soon even a dedicated people watcher gets bored so we took a walk outside to see what restaurants were nearby. We might as well grab some lunch while we waited.

There wasn’t much in the “Eye” complex but we settled on the “Tin Roof”, a typical bar/pub. I can’t say it was a quiet lunch because there was construction going on and the whole side of the building was open so no sound buffering at all. The waiter was pleasant and the food plentiful. But I caught an “ear worm”. I kept hearing the B52’s sing Love Shack in my head….Tin Roof – Rusted!

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After lunch we headed back to the desk and were told the Eye was still offline and they didn’t know when it would be back online. It seems the “Eye” is down more than it’s running. From what I gathered it is something of a joke in Orlando because it is either offline or they are rescuing guests who are stuck on it.

Joe tried hard to get our money back but since we’d done 2 attractions and we’d only had to pay for 1 ticket there wasn’t much to refund. The best he could get was a promise to honor the tickets for 1 year. Of course I don’t know where we put the tickets now. I guess we’ll both have to search for them if I can get back to Orlando before the year is up.

It was time for plan B.