Thursday, August 5, 2010

Universal Studios/ Islands of Adventure Day 2 (Part 1 )


We woke the next morning feeling refreshed after a good night sleep.  We needed to find a Wal-Mart before we started our day at Universal.  We had a few items we thought we might need.

We plugged in Emily (our GPS, yes we name our electronics,cars and cameras) and found the nearest Wal-Mart.  Isn't this the nicest Wal-Mart you have ever seen?



Things on our list to purchase at Wal-Mart:
*ponchos (because we got rained on the day before),
*band aids (in case we feel any blisters coming on),
*Rolaids (because mom's stomach was not used to greasy burgers and fries with dessert at each meal)
*Body Wash ( because Les forgot hers),
*nail polish remover (because I had already chipped my polish and we hadn't even made it to the cruise yet much less than our fancy dress up night)
* and then this.......


Seriously?  Only Greg could find something like this.  (this was hard to take coming from the man who had never heard of Bufferin)  He was looking to purchase some powder because it was so ridiculously humid, but Monkey Butt?  We had a good laugh with this one and he was teased uncontrollably the rest of the trip because of it.  No one wanted to carry it however. :)

After loading up on our much needed supplies to make it through the day at Universal we were on our way.  We parked, walked through the garage, walked through the people movers, walked through City Walk and arrived at Universal Studios Florida.



I was the one who really wanted to go to the original Universal park.  I get somewhat sentimental about certain rides and I don't feel like I have been to Universal without riding them.  ET is a big one for me. 


The kids and Greg teased me uncontrollably but I held my head high and felt no shame for my love of ET.  It is more than a ride... it is an experience.


What I love most about Universal is the creativity that goes into designing their rides.  Standing in line for the ride is sometimes my favorite part.  For example, while standing in line for ET you will find yourself walking through the Red Wood Forest.  You will hear crickets, see fog and it truly feels as if you are in a forest.  The trees are as tall as one can see....


Riders are asked their names while boarding the ET ride and as you leave the ride, ET will wave and say "Goodbye Greg, Rachael, Leslie and Nicholas".  He would say this IF in fact everyone gave him their real name.  I believe I rode the ride ONE time a long time ago where I was able to hear every one's name correctly.  Now I can hear Rachael and Leslie, but Greg and Nick always give him some weird funky name that the poor robotic ET can't even pronounce.  I don't allow it to ruin my experience anymore. 

I was happy after getting my ET fix.. then we walked around enjoying the rest of the park.  The newest ride at Universal is the Rockit Roller Coaster.  It was amazing. 


First you choose the song you want to listen to during the ride.  You have to be pretty quick about choosing because if you don't choose quick enough the ride will choose one for you.  (That was a little stressful for me but I found my song quickly "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas).

Only you can hear your song and it is loud enough that you feel the song with the ride.  Truly an incredible rush when you can jam to one of your favorite songs on a ride such as this.  The ride starts out going straight up into the air and even though you know the hill is not straight down it still scares you to death.


We walked around experiencing all the props and fun stuff at Universal.

Picture of Nick with a car advertising the drink I despise and won't let him drink...


Picture of Greg in the big city...




We enjoyed Twister where we had the opportunity to experience a tornado. (in the safety of a studio)



We stood under a shelter and felt the storm move in with high winds, rain and finally we could see the twister moving our way.  It blew up a gas station and sent a cow flying through the air in front of us.(not real of course)  It was a great show.

Revenge of the Mummy....



Instead of "yellows" we had "blues" this day... Nick was so happy


We ate lunch at Mel's Diner with a 50's theme, (with our "Meal Deal") it was really cute and had great food.






This was our last day with cell phone usage before we got on the ship...


This is where Greg started to get a head ache and I offered him a Bufferin.  He looked at me like I had just offered him Oxycontin or something.  He said "what on earth is BUFFERIN?"  I said "are you kidding me? You have never heard of Bufferin?"  He said "Obviously not...what is it?"  I laughed like I was going to die.  I said "Asprin, what rock did you grow up under?"

He dug through the bag looking for the "Bufferin" and turned around with these....

I like this picture because I was actually taking a picture of Leslie through the reflection on Nick's glasses. I told Nick to not smile and for Les to smile.



We visited Amity next but the line was too long for the Jaws ride... it too is one of my favorites, but I got to ride ET so I wasn't going to push for this one as well.




We did all we wanted to do at Universal and then headed back over to Island of Adventure to spend our evening at Hogwarts.... NEXT post will have Hogwart's Castle pictures... I PROMISE!  I am a stickler about chronological pictures so Universal had to come first... sorry I don't have enough hours in the day to blog all this stuff.

















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