Day 9 - Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure / HHN
So after a bit of a bad end to yesterday, I woke up in the frame of mind to not let what had happened upset me any more and enjoy the trip we'd all been looking forward to for so long!
So that morning, after a hotel breakfast, we drove over to Universal, and got parked and in Universal Studios about 15 mins after park opening.
We had originally planned this day be spent entirely at Islands of Adventure, but we decided to start at Universal to do the things we were desperate to do again / missed first time round.
So we started by reriding HRRR - after loving it so much first time round, I was a *little* dissapointed this time round - the first time i rode it, my song choice was MC Hammer - great and this song really added to the fun of the ride.
However today I chose Daft Punk, and the song didn't really start til the ride was over
- and its actually amazing how much this had an impact into the overall enjoyability of the ride. Still though - by no means did it make it a bad ride, its still enjoyable - and the start going up vertically still scared me
just never choose Daft Punk.
We then rerode The Simpsons and The Mummy rides - both will hardly any queue. By this point it was already soo warm , and we all grabbed some vanilla milkshakes from Mels Drive In - I had mine with some Oreos, really really tasty - but inevitably melted really fast in the heat, so I couldn't finish it as it was all a bit sticky.
After some drinks we met the Madagascar characters, and Donkey and Shrek - Meeting Donkey was one of my must do's for Universal, so I was glad to get the chance to do this today after missing out our first day at this park. and I'm so glad we did this - it was so funny! Donkey was telling us how our Scottish accents were way better than Shrek's fake accent - to which Shrek acted up great!
We then went to check when Terminator would be on, as this was the only other thing we had to do before heading to IOA - we had about 30 mins to wait, but we went to buy tickets for that evenings HHN!
It had been quite a thing in the weeks prior to going to Florida that I was adament I wouldn't go - as just the online site scared me a rediculous amount, in fairness - i did want to go JUST to see the Saw house (as I am a big Saw movie fan) but the thought of the scare zones and people jumping out at me just seemed silly level scary. I can honestly say I got butterflies in my tummy just getting the tickets.
We had a little look around the big gift shop, I got myself some Spongebob PJ's and then we saw the whole Simpsons family just outside the Terminator ride as we were heading in, so stopped and got the pic (to be honest i found it quite random they were all here, and not just by the ride but oh well - worked out well for us!)
Terminator was wayyy better than I expected - especially after the longest dullest pre - show video. But once in the theatre I got into it and I was so loving the 3D effects and the little surprise at the end gave me the biggest fright - but hillarious too
So with a good couple hours at Universal we decided we ought to get to Islands of Adventure.
We got through to IOA, and decided to go around anti - clockwise, as we had already ridden The Hulk/Spiderman and wanted to experience some new attractions.
We spent a little bit in Seuss Landings - which was practically empty!
I do regret not spending a bit longer in this area - and to be honest most of Islands of Adventure , I feel we didn't stop and appreciate this park in the same way we did other parks. But it means next trip we have so much more to explore
We did go on the Cat in the Hat Ride and Seuss Trolley in the Sky Ride - The Cat in the Hat in particular I thought was great fun!
we continued round and went on Duelling Dragons, both sides (took soo long walking through the queue, not sure exactly - but I assume this is due to the Harry Potter works). But it was a good coaster all round, unfortunately we missed our bag collection from the lockers by about 2 mins and had to pay extra, but hey ho!
We managed to catch the Sinbad show after a minute in... I don't know if a lot of things are explained in that first minute, but it all seemed a bit random to me!
After the show we were all pretty hungry, and managed to grab a table in Mythos - it was great inside, and I loved the huge view of the other side of the park. We had more milkshakes which were delicious - more refreshing than ice-creamy , and I had a chicken/mash potato wrap - I could tell it would be better without the mash, and I kind of regret my decision to have that now if im honest when I think of all the other things on offer. Anyway here are some pictures:
Before leaving the restaurant we all got changed into our clothes, ready to head on all the wet rides.
We started with Jurassic Park - and I dont even think I got a drip of water on, so was still very dry!
But of course this all changed - and I couldn't have been wetter after Popeye and Ripsaw Falls - I loved Ripsaw Falls!! It was a little scary though!
We got dried off a bit, and had fun with the cannons to soak people on Ripsaw Falls. We then managed a ride on Spiderman and a couple goes on the Hulk.
We all felt we wanted to freshen up a little before HHN that night so we grabbed the car in hope of nipping back to the hotel and getting to HHN ASAP to get a head start - knowing queues would be crazy (not that i minded too much)
Anyway, somehow.. we got lost!! We must have missed a turn and pretty much drove all the way to WDW!! EEEK , finally about 45 mins later we got back to teh hotel
- a drive which should have taking 5 mins MAX
So after a REALLY quick change and stuff, we were in a taxi back to Universal.
We got in and wow i was SO scared even going through the turnstile!!
We found the nearest alcohol stand, and all had blood strawberry jelly vodka shots. yummmm - i defo needed some sort of courage!
And so we tackled the first scare zone - containment. We formed a line, me and leanne in the middle and scott and roy on either side - all arms linked, nothing was getting beside me! and I adoped a 'game face' and just focused on not looking scared (they feed on that!) and before I knew it , a couple of snarls later I made it to the other side
hehehe...
At this point i was on SUCH an adreniline rush - so proud of myself i did it lol, i'd got myself really worked up and it wasn't TOO bad really....
Note - this place really isn't for kids, there was one little boy, about 11 or so in this scare zone, cowering at the side about half way through teh zone - he had stopped and looked so scared - and rather than leaving him about 3 actors went over and made it 10x worse, I don't know what happened after but yikes!
We decided to queue for Dracula first... Oops - queue was about 50 mins and it was rediculously hot and sticky weather. Well we all got more jelly shots to pass the time, and silly me at the end of the drink managed to spill the remains all over my white/pink top! totally unsaveable. thank god it was dark - but for laughs heres the state of me.
anyway we finally got in to the house - and i pretty much attached myself to scotts ribs.. i think i mighta hurt him a little - through squeezing AND through hurting his ears with my screams
oops! I did warn him though!
Dracula in my opinion was the scariest of the houses we went through, at one point you passed a big row of coffins and I remember whimpering to scott "theres something in it, its going to open , i swear its going to open" - it did and I just about crumpled into a heap, gosh it was just so scary - but like the scare zone - once it was over, you can't help think that its the most fun thing ever - at the time scared wasn't even the word!!
We caught the Bill and Ted show after this , which was so so funny!
We split up for a little bit after the show - leanne and roy wanted to see the rocky horror show, but me and scott didnt really fancy it and time was running out so fast! so we went to go see the Chucky haunted house.
Im so glad we did this - and having time to ourselves again was lovely. We had to go through a small scare zone to get here but nothing bothered us at all at this point. I was a lot lot braver in this house, and it was actually lots of fun! There was only ONE bit that really really got me scared - you kinda start working out where the jumper-outers are so they dont scare you as much, but as we were walking up to a corner, it turned out it was like a bar and a chucky popped up with a machine gun - totally scared me!
the queue for Chucky didnt take as long as Dracula and was actually quite cool cause you got to go through barney's area - which was quite freaky to go through for the chucky ride i thought (the house was kind of kid toy / play house themed - it had one of those walkways with a twirly tube to start with)
So we grabbed some more drinks, and then went to meet Leanne and Roy at designated point - Krustyland! which looked SOO different at night, it went from being the happiest place during the day - to freaky as anything this night.
Leanne and Roy were nowhere to be found - so me and scott had a little walk around the lake , taking in the atmosphere. We got to the drive in horror zone - and I was a little anxious at this point, but was doing ok - until a dead cheerleader looked right at me, I whimpered then it practically followed me right up to the exit snarling in my ear
eek,eek
We caught up with Leanne and Roy and went to join the epic Saw queue - very long, but so so worth it. The little details, and bits i remembered from teh movie meant I wasnt AS scared - i was more like "OMG Awesome, look at that , Oh WOW!!". until the end - when it was just a pitch dark room, you could see the exit then about 4 'pig mask' characters came walking towards us from every angle feeling like we were being trapped - cue more screaming (i couldn't actually talk on the way home my throat was sooo raw!)
By this point, we had about 15 mins before park closing and we managed to run and get in one more house - the Silver Screams one, kinda the main theme for HHN that year - to be honest, perhaps i was just used to it, but there wasnt much to it i thought. it was still great - and it had the chainsaws at the end which freaked me out again..
then we made it! I survived
A really great night actually and I spose I would do it again - but it is reallly scary.
I was quite happy how much we got done considering we got there a bit late, and how busy it was - there was only about 2 or 3 houses we missed, although we did miss some scare zones. overall I think what we did do was enough to get the full experience!
We grabbed a burger king at the end of the night, then went back to the hotel REALLY late - about 1.30am, and we were planned to go to Epcot/DTD the next day , leaving early - EEKS! A really long, but fantabulous day!
and it really was a GREAT show and a GREAT way to get you in that Disney spirit ready for your day.
... so we ran off to meet Pinnochio too!
)
