Day 05: Universal Studios

Lots of stuff going on today at Universal today - some new rides, some old rides and a change in the weather to top it all off. Tomorrow was another day for a water park, but we’ve added that into our plans for next week so its going to be a free day, taken up mostly by doing nothing and a visit to some shopping malls (which will please some of the older members of our party… and for older members read my dad)…

Universal Studios

Early bus to catch this morning and the kids were like zombies getting up. Skipped breakfast as no one was really hungry either. Don’t think we’ll do the meal deal today, although we got our money’s worth yesterday it was quite restrictive on what you could have and where you could eat and didn’t afford you little luxuries like ice cream or other snacks. Cups are still a good idea though and you can fill them up with over 100 selections including Orange Coca-Cola and Vanilla Root Beer.

Walking through the entrance arches with the Beetlejuice theme tune playing in the background and you cant help but get excited :)

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Straight to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem to queue. Even though Grace didn’t meet the height restrictions we were told that she could be seated in a special stationary seat - which was great because she loves Despicable Me. Amazing 3D visuals and effects during the ride with Gru, Margo, Edith, Agnes, and the Minions to accompany you :) Non-stop LOL fest - I was in tears by the end. Then as we exited just before the obligatory souvenir shop, we got to do some dancing with DJ Carl on the decks. Disco. 9/10.

Shrek up next, pretty funny 4D cinema fare based on events after the first movie. You’ll get sneezed on by dragons, free fall down a waterfall and get creeped out by spiders let loose on the audience. Decent, though the kids really did love it. 8/10.

Kids Zone

Cant come to Universal and not go on ET - it’s a classic! And with a really low wait time we pretty much walked straight on. It did have a height restriction but Grace was just tall enough so she had her own seat which she was really chuffed about and she even got her own wee passport. Hasn’t changed that much in the last 20 years (except the queue times) but still really enjoyable. 7/10.

Then we went to see Barney, that’s the big pink dinosaur, not the prehistoric compadre of Fred Flintstone. This was all for Grace as she was left out a little the day before and she seemed to like it, even getting her brothers up to dance at the songs she knew. Not going to give this a rating as its purely for the young ones (it just wouldnt be fair), oh and that big pink guy kinda creeps me out.

Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads…

So to the site of the late Back To The Future ride and theres now a big Krustyland with The Simpsons ride bang in the heart of it. They did still have Doc Browns train and DeLorean for a photo op which was cool!

In the queue at The Simpsons and my dad hits out with ‘Is that your Star Trek Log you’re working on?’, with the faintest of smirks on his face. Aye right Captain Kirk when did you suddenly become a smartass? So fine, it might be a little over the top, or a bit fluffy, but you know what? I don’t care, it’ll all for the sake of the memories - sure you can always recall some vivid images of what you did and where you went on a specific holiday but getting some hard facts, photos and anecdotes will really make it that much easier to remember all the good details, especially for the kids. I make no apologies whatsoever!

The Simpsons, wasnt built on my previous visits, but it was the same style of simulator as BTTF. In relation to the other rides, it looked a little dated for some reason, though shouldnt be, but it was still really great and absolutely hysterical, including the build-up through the not so big queues. Actually a word on queues, they were always shorter that the displayed wait time so never really had to wait long for everything save one later on. One of the reasons for that was I think we done the park backwards (counter-clockwise, I would imagine that folk would keep to the left due to the bigger rides available). So we saved some time. Simpsons gets 8/10.

MIB Alien Attack! Bit of a twist on this ride, you get to shoot things - well aliens specifically and score points as you do so. Great scenery and alien effects to be had on this and you even get to the see though worm guys drinking coffee in the break out area. You also battle against an opposing cart to see who can rack up the most points. My mums been great with keeping Grace company when were on the bigger rides (where we can be gone for over an hour at times) so Ann looked after Grace on this one as my mum said she wanted to go on it. So not wanting to gloat or seem competitive in any way but I did manage to secure a whopping 264,000 points. (in perspective, Patrick got 16,000, My dad, 7,000 and Robert 6,000). Oh my mum, the woman who expressed a real interest to go on this one? Yeah she got a big fat 0 (I really dont see how that could have happened, I think I scored points just at yelling at one particularly ugly three headed alien). Anyway, we still managed to pip the other cart to the post with points due to someone’s amazing alien blasting skillz ;) 8/10

Moving along we had some time to kill before the next show so jumped into Disaster! Didnt sound particularly enticing but thought we give it a shot. Similar to a previous ride, Earthquake this one adds an interactive trip through creating some special effects for a disaster movie ending in a simulated earthquake in a subway station. Now Charlton Heston headed up the previous ride, which is as cool as it sounds, but this time round it was a digital tag team of Christopher Walken and Dwayne 'The Rock’ Johnson which was integrated exceptionally well with the live action sets. Surprised. 7/10.

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!Beetlejuice!

So another classic, which I remember from my previous time as a kid. The guy who does Beetlejuice has got his character down to a T, even to how he sounds and the crass jokes and skits he performed. A mix of monsters play a few few classic rock tunes in a very glee-ish manner. A few of the singers sounded a little dead still but the teamwork and acrobatics from some others in the cast were great to watch. At this time however the kids were getting tired and Robert even fell asleep during the show. Patrick, loving his singing and dancing however was glued. (I’ll post a video at some point later of Patrick’s robotic dance routine he just happened to pull out the bag the other day - I was really impressed even though I was decking it :)

After we poured out of Beetlejuice, a crack of thunder roared through the sky and it started to bucket down. The first time Ive seen rain since I got here which isnt bad going and we got to cool down a bit. It was constant for about 20+ minutes and we were drenched (note to self: yeah when you buy a pac-a-mac you actually need to take them with you!). The weather didnt get much better after that though it did stop raining so decision was to head and get the first transfer bus home.

Transformers - Robots in Disguise!

Well not quite yet. We had skipped over Transformers earlier in the day doe to the length of the queue but we couldnt go without trying out this new ride. We had hoped the queue would reduce slightly but due to the inclement weather, everyone seemed to flock to this ride as it had shelter. Longest queueing ride so far on the holiday which was about 1hr 45 mins in total (still nothing like the 3hr we seen for Toy Story the other day though). My mum and dad decided to take a now sleeping Grace home instead of wait so it was just me, Ann and the boys. Due to the taking advantage of the free refills, Robert really needed the toilet after about 10 minutes of queue, so Ann took him. After she was gone, Patrick said he was bursting, so Ann took him when she got back. As soon as she was away, Robert said he needed the toilet again! AAARRGGHH! The pitfalls of neverending drinks bottles! Got there in the end though and the ride, was exceptional. A thrilling adventure, similar in style to Spiderman, though seeming much, much bigger. 10/10, best ride today, just slightly beating Despicable Me due to its sheer depth and scale. It amazes me how much work they put in to creating these attractions, its mind-blowing!

Headed home after sampling Twister, a ride based on the movie, which was ok but nothing to write home about (when compared to the bigger rides we had been on that day). 6/10.

Just a quick word to say that I had some Tilapia for dinner tonight for the first time. It was pretty nice and would definitely order it again. Washed it down with a little Raspberry sorbet. Nom Nom :)

Lazy-come-shopping day tomorrow so I wont be up so early and probably wont have much to talk about tomorrow, but after all that its probably a good thing :)

And finally a pic of Grace from today waiting in the queues, she’s just a wee angel…