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Our Trip to Universal Studios

Since our last major vacation (last year to Disney World) went so well, we decided to do something similar this year. We spent a couple days at Universal Studios this past November. Last year we took our vacation during the week of Thanksgiving and the places we went were packed. Turns out that Thanksgiving week is a very popular time. This year I did research on when the best time to go is, and it turns out that early November is much better - and it really was! Crowds were much smaller and lines were short.

See all the pictures from our Universal trip!
We drove down on a Monday and checked into our hotel that afternoon - the Hard Rock Hotel. It was overpriced, of course, with no microwave or mini fridge and the gym cost extra, but we stayed there because it was a 5 minute walk from the park and it let us use the express lines all day every day. The pool area was absolutely fantastic, including multiple hot tubs and even a water slide! After we took a look around and got settled in our room, we walked over to the City Walk just outside the park, a place full of restaurants, stores, and entertainment. We stopped for dinner at a place called Pastamoré and had some pizza. Afterwards we caught a movie, Free Birds, which we rather liked, being a funny animated movie and all. After the movie, we went back to Pastamoré and had some dessert. Finally, we topped the night off with a round of mini golf at Hollywood Drive-In Golf. There were two courses, Sci-Fi and Haunted, and we chose the Sci-Fi course. It was the best mini golf course we had played on in quite some time. The ambiance was fantastic. After the round of mini golf, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for the long day of theme park mania on the morrow.

We were able to get up at a reasonable time and get to the gate only a smidge later than we wanted. Because we stayed at Hard Rock, we were able to get into Islands of Adventure an hour early, so we decided to hit that park on day 1. Since that park is where Harry Potter land is, we figured we should hit that zone first and get it out of the way since it would likely be way more packed later in the day (and it was!). In this zone, DJ rode a couple rides by himself and we rode Flight of the Hippogriff together. We also caught a short wand demonstration show thing at Ollivanders Wand Shop. The highlight of the zone, though, was the glass of Butterbeer (non-alcoholic) that we shared. That stuff was AMAZING! It was kinda like a cream soda slushy. We were impressed with the sights and feel of the area - it was like being in the actual places in the Harry Potter movies. They did a very good job.

After that we went into the Jurassic Park zone. We sat in an area there and finished our Butterbeer and discovered a super friendly squirrel that did not seem afraid of us in the least. We had no bread for him, though, so eventually he left for greener pastures. Our first stop was Camp Jurassic, an interactive area with lots of cool dinosaur stuff. We learned some stuff, created mashups of us and dinosaurs, and saw a recreation of the lobby area of the movie Jurassic Park. We then rode the Jurassic Park River Adventure and got our first taste of being wet. We bought a parka for Kelley, so she didn't too wet all day, but DJ was macho and thus soaked.

Toon Lagoon was the next zone, and since we were already wet, we figured we'd all the water rides out of the way at once. Next up was Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, a toboggan style ride that was lots of fun and probably our favorite in this park. Once again, DJ got a lot more wet than Kelley, thanks to her poncho. After that it was time for Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges, a river ride where the boat spins and some people get under waterfalls and some don't. We escaped the worst of the drenching on this ride, but we still got even more wet.

Next up was some lunch at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous where there were a lot of birds inside the building (it had a very high ceiling with lots of circus type décor above your head). We fed the birds some crumbs from our meals. Since rides right after eating is usually a bad idea, we thought that some shows would be the perfect next stop. We went tot he Lost Continent zone and took in The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad Stunt Show. It was kinda cheesy, but still worth the time. After that, we checked out Poseidon's Fury, a guided tour type show.

Next, we headed back to the Dr. Seuss zone, Seuss Landing and checked out a variety of smaller attractions, like a carousel and a Cat in the Hat track ride. Next we did the drop-zone style ride, Dr. Dooms Fear Fall. Sometime around here DJ went off and rode the Incredible Hulk and the Spiderman rides by himself. We capped the day day in the park with another ride down the Ripsaw Falls.

We had dinner in the City Walk - DJ ate at the BK Wopper Bar and Kelley had Moes. After dinner we decided to take advantage of the awesome pool area at the hotel. Kelley spent the whole hour or so we were down there in the hot tub, while DJ got out a few times to hit the waterfall and swim around in the pool a bit while watching Kung Fu Panda 2 on the poolside projector. After that, we were bushed and called it night.

We got to sleep in an extra hour the next morning since we could not get into the main park an hour early like we did with Islands of Adventure. We got a super quick start to the day, beginning with Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Next, DJ rode the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, then we both tackled Shrek 4-D. The Twister show was next, followed by the Disaster stunt show. Than DJ rode the Mummy ride by himself. We then hit the Men in Black: Alien Attack ride - all of this was done before lunch! We hit lunch in the Simpson's zone in a building that resembled Krusty Burger.

Once again, after lunch we took in some shows, the first being the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue and the second being Animal Actors on Location. The Beetlejuice show was a song and dance this with classic monsters - pretty interesting and mildly humorous. The animal one was awesome with lots of tricks and cuteness. We then hit some random kiddie stuff then checked out the Horror Make Up Show, which was educational and really entertaining - best show in the park, certainly. At some point around here, DJ rode the Simpsons Ride on his own, we both rode E.T. and took in the Terminator 2 show. We also went on Men in Black several more times - maybe 4-5 times in all.

We hung out a bit to catch the parade, which was super short and disappointing, then we rode our last ride of the day, the Transformers ride, which was awesome and the best ride in the park. We capped the time in the park with Universal's Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories. It was decent - kinda underwhelming. We then left the park and hit the NBA City Restaurant for dinner. After that, we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for going back home the next day.

Tags | amusement park | Harry Potter | Orlando | rides | Universal Studios |