More trip reports!!! It seems like I have had three a month since September. But the bank of fun has dried up. Time to buckle down and save money for more trips! Or groceries. Groceries would probably be more important that pins and plushies right? Probably not!
With anime posts on the back burner (but coming back soon promise) onward to more trips!!! Just a hop, skip, and jump away from Islands of Adventures is Universal Studios. Of course that part of the park was there first so you know...XD Time for fun?!
Um...lets not take our picture with this crazy thing.
With park hoppers you can ride your favorite rides even if they aren't in the park you are in. Also you can see all the characters from both parks. I think I could have made an entire day of just taking character pictures. They seem to come out rather frequently. Just make sure you are a little braver than me and push through the crowds. I guess people think if they are on vacation the rules don't matter. Especially when you won't see those people ever again. Just be polite but aggressive.
Banana?!
Now where did we go first? Obviously Despicable Me! The husband is such a sweetie, we must have rode this 5 times in the last month. I just can't help it. The detail in the queue is impressive and the preshows are really well done. My sister in law really loves this movie and I nearly talked her into buying an It's So Fluffy. But something about them moving to Japan and needing space in their luggage. Nonsense talk I think. Maybe that is a sign that they should make different sizes of Its So Fluffy. I mean I think my version was worth the price but its either the big version or no version.
I am sure it will be finished in time. XD
While waiting in line we took some pictures while I explained that across the way Transformers was being built at break neck speed. Some are doubting that it will be finished in time for Summer 2013. I look at the process and this it is possible. The Harry Potter expansion...it seems like it is moving along but not at break neck speed.. And The Simpson's expansion is moving along really slow. But I think the Transformers ride is where they are putting most of their energy and focus. It shall be finished! Of course my brother was like :( when will I get to ride it? Um....in three years? Send me back some Japanese Duffys first.
Walking around taking pictures is just as fun as riding things.
After getting our fill on the Despicable Me ride the others went on the Rip Ride Rockit. Once again I did not. And once again cast members were very....on point to make sure I wasn't riding the ride with all the stuff I was carrying. Maybe they are used to other people getting pissed that somehow they walked by all the lockers and are being told what to do. HOW DARE THEY! Don't cast members know that these guests are on vacations!
Angry chicken wants to know why I won't ride it! XD
But even though I never will ride this ride I can see how it is fun. It takes up a big chunk of the park without having to take down other rides. I wonder how the park looked under construction though. Was it a hot mess? I don't think I went during that time. While the others were on the ride listening to music I was off taking pictures. So its not like I was ever bored.
Shrek doesn't get a float? Why not?
We backed tracked a bit and ran over to the Shrek 4-D show. The wait time was zero minutes. XD The outside theming needs a bit of work. But if you take the time to read the movie posters outside you can see they are poking fun a bit at Disney and their attractions. Just got to pay attention to all the details. The show itself was cute but I noticed some of the seats get more of the affects than others. One seat I really felt the spiders while the other I felt nothing at all. I like the show though, it also adds to the movies instead of being random and out of place. Both times we watched this show we were seated next to people who didn't have their glasses and asked us where we randomly got ours. Um at the beginning of the room silly?
Look at all the cute floats!
Up next on the map (in regards to what we did) was The Mummy. Which means Tenchi sits out and takes pictures. Which I was okay with today. See the Macy's Day Parade was set to start in a week (or today) and the floats were being prepped to take flight soon. So throughout the park there were all the floats, just waiting for me to take their pictures. Here are just a few of them.
Christmas trees for everyone!
While it is not the same I am happy I got to see the floats. I totally understand why the floats were protected by barricades. Some guests are just crazy. These are balloons people! I do think that they should have put the info boards on the floats on the outside of the barricades. Like look here is a float and what is all about. I liked reading about those fun facts and taking their pictures.
I like the little store front though.
What would be cool though is if the Macy's building was actually a real building and not a fake front. There are a lot of fake fronts in Universal Studios which make for great photops. I don't even want the Macy store to sell Macy things. Maybe just stuff from New York type movies. Ghostbusters and what not. Or maybe I just want to buy mini floats...XD
Floats are always fun to watch yes?
After walking around and taking more pictures we decided to stop and watch the parade from the other side of the street. We parked ourselves near the Christmas Tree across from Macys and watched the Superstar Parade. The Lorax was not on the front float this time but we got to see its so fluffy. There is dancing during this parade, something we must have missed the first time from where we were sitting. Very interactive, perfect for kids right?
Run the tourists over!
On a side note there are many, many interesting tourists out there. Very. At one point someone was taking pictures over my head. Like I thought it was my husband which would have been fine but nope. Someone had their hands circled around my head to take pictures. Like what is this insanity. Maybe it is cultural but personal space. I needs it.
Here is a boat. Does that count as Jaws?
I thought my sister in law was going to pout to death when she saw Jaws was gone. Of course we were a little mean and were like time to see Jaws. Well we did!...You know the photop they still have the shark. XD She was like NOOOOO I loved this ride. But when I told her that Harry Potter was going to be in both parts of the park she was like oh that is better then. Until my brother reminded her that they were going to Japan. XD Maybe it will be done by the time you get back?
Why would you want to watch that show when you can watch the parade again?
All three days we went to Universal and we didn't see the Fear Factor show once. Weren't really interested. I think we did almost everything else so yay for us? The space just seems so big for the park. More rides could go there in its place. XD
Almost looks like the cranes are working on the Men in Black sign. XD
We rode Men In Black Alien Attack several times during our stay. I like that Universal Studios has free lockers all over the place so our stuff doesn't get all smushed. I guess since the park was so empty they didn't load both sides of the track. That meant during the ride other people weren't shooting at us. My husband continuously shot at the cars and got tons of points that way. I hit the red button twice so I got lots of points too. Yay for shooting things.
Tada its Christmas folks!
The Simpsons Ride was next on the map. Krusty has a little Christmas hat on his head. There is construction going all around the ride. Great things are to come people. We barely got to see any of the preshow this time XO. I guess everyone knew what was going on because they actually watch the show? Go me. The ride is cool but the husband doesn't like it, makes him dizzy he says.
Dance little doggie dance!
According to my notes in my brain we watched the Animal Actor show one day. We got there just in time for the show to start. It was a cute little show with animals from various movies including the little dog from Men in Black. Spoiler Alert: The husband got chosen to be the person who the bird flies to during the show. XD
Psht I am better than ET! I am a talking dog.
There is an entire kid land section that probably should be gutted and replaced with new kid land type things. We only did one thing in this section, the E.T. Ride. It was weird how this ride had 40 minute waits at some points in the day and zero waits. I had only ridden the ride once before so I forgot most of it. Cute little ride that is worth a bit of a wait. Say my name E.T. Does riding a fake bike count as exercise?
The future folks!
WOOHOO! We finally made it to the Terminator 2: 3-D show. I remember back in the day where there were continuous shows, not timed ones. But we got to see it so that made me happy. The husband thinks that the show is dated due to the technology used in the show. I thought the preshow was the most dated. Someone comes out to talk about their lovely company when Sarah and John appear. The video the host was showing was pretty...well special. And that is part of the preshow that could be redone now and not affect the rest of the show. Just tape new technology we have now and what not.
Maybe the minions can make some better technology for the ride?
But I liked the actual show itself. I like how Universal Studios has the actual actors/directors from the movies come and take part in the rides. Fast thinking there yes? Planning ahead. But I thought the actors on stage did good and the show itself was cool. Like an addition to the movie and not something slapped together to make the ride make sense.
This way to the exit!
And then we were back at the beginning of the park. Wee for walking in circles. Near the beginning of the park was where most of the character meets happened. We saw Shrek, The Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Men in Black, and Back to the Future. Oh wait Sponge Bob and the Hop movie had little dance shows going on near The Terminator attraction too.
Wave goodbye to all the fun!
I believe that ends our time at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventures. We ended up using our Universal Studios refillable cups and only ate meals in the park. Oh and we got some fudge. We took lots of pictures and had a great time. Hope you enjoyed this part of the trip. Up soon is the Disney World portion of our trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment