Universal Studios

Hooray for end of the summer vacations!

Josh and I just got home from our anniversary present to each other...a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  We had the best time hanging out in Florida with Jeremy and Kristin.

Kristin and I were going to plan a family vacation to the beach, but Josh and Jeremy decided to surprise us by going to Orlando instead.  We've known about the trip since June and have been counting down the days all summer long!

In the car on the way to Florida

 Kristin really should become a travel agent as a second job because she found the best deals for our weekend trip.  She booked us in the Radisson Hotel near the park but unfortunately for us the hotel was having air conditioning issues the entire weekend.  We did manage to get one night compensated because of all our complaining...I mean, it was 77 degrees in the hotel room.

Day 1- we were told to take the trolley car to the intersection in front of Universal where we would only be a short walk away from the main park entry. (It only cost $1.25 per person to ride the trolley so we thought we would save on parking.) WELL...it was not a short walk and we were worn out just from the trek from the trolley.  All I have to say is thank goodness for moving sidewalks and escalators once you actually get to Universal!

Waiting for the trolley

  The way Universal Studios is set up you first enter what is called City Walk.  Its an area full of shops and restaurants that link the two Universal parks together.  We had a three day park hopper pass so we could go to either Universal or Islands of Adventure.  We decided to head straight to Harry Potter World in Islands of Adventure first, but the wonderfulness of HP world will be saved for its own post!

Other than HP world there was tons of fun stuff inside Islands of Adventure.  The kiddo section of the park was themed after Dr. Seuss, but the teacher in me loved it!

The Lorax was always one of my favorite Dr. S books

Josh's favorite ride is the 3D Spiderman adventure.  We rode it a couple times because we discovered after we rode a ride once as a group, you could get in a much shorter line as a single rider and just wait for everyone to get through at the end.

Waiting in line for Spiderman

Jurassic Park is one of the older rides in the park and you can definitely tell the dinosaurs could use some updating, but it was still very fun.  Its a water ride but you don't get wet, you just travel in your little boat through JP to see all the dinos.

Day 2- Jeremy found another trolley route that would take us closer to the park than the first day, but it ended up being another long walk-not as long as day 1, but just not worth it.  This time we went to Universal and used our Express passes to ride almost all the rides with little wait time in the lines.

Yummy hamburgers and chicken fingers for lunch

There was even was a little San Fransisco area of the park that reminded J and I of our California getaway in December.

 Most of Universal was themed around big time movies like The Terminator, ET, Shrek, The Mummy.  There were more shows and 3D rides in this part of the park.

 Day 3- We finally gave up on trying to find cheap ways of getting to the park because both of the previous days we ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel because we just couldn't walk anymore.  THEN we found out that parking was only $15 a day and that was way better than all that walking.

The big roller coaster in Universal was called the Rip-Rockin' Roller coaster and it was actually closed the day before, so we went there first thing to try it out.  I'll say this...it was fun, but one time was enough for me!  You got to choose your own music to listen to while riding which was cool, but it kept slowing down so you think that it was over and then zoom off again.  I've decided that I am officially getting old because roller coasters have much more of an effect on me than they used to!

 After that coaster we headed back over to Islands of Adventure to re-ride some of our favorites.

 We saved all the water rides for then end of the day and we were glad that we did...when they say you get wet...then MEAN you get WET!!!!  We were soaked from head to toe!  I'll spare you any picture of us looking like drowned rats with squishy shoes.  Haha

I have to say one thing that I did like about Universal is when you are going to ride something (like a coaster) and can't take a bag with you, they provide a free locker for the duration of your ride.  It was nice to know that all of our stuff was safe in a locker and nothing would get lost or broken.