Day 6: Islands of Adventure (last park day)
My feet hurt! That was the theme of my last park day. I had blisters on the side from the strap on the Crocs, and it felt like they were swollen or something. With that in mind, I kept my last park day somewhat short. I went in with only 3 things I "had" to do: Poseidon, Sinbad, and riding the Dragons. I left about the same time as I always did. They put an
HHN billboard on the giant advert wall in CityWalk. Here's the
lighthouse again. Funny, I'm just now getting this
pic taken.
I loved being in the Port of Entry. It smelled so good!! Pictures:
Fire Brigade,
Christmas Store,
Islands Gift shop,
Confisco,
Discovery Center
Since the first item on my agenda was to do some Dragon riding, I headed left through Seuss Landing.
pond,
Cat in the Hat, There's a
Zamp in the Lamp.
Here's a view of
Toon Lagoon from the bridge from Seuss landing to the Lost Continent. I had to wait here cause they opened the gates early again, and so the back part of the park was not open yet.
Marvel Island. I like the
Ministry of Magic signs they have up. Very authentic.
Finally the opened the back part of the park.
Dragons here I come!!There were a lot of
bones in the Dragons queue. And apparently they have the area with the pre-showed blocked off cause I heard it going on when I entered the castle but didn't go by it. I guess it's open when its busier. I got a pic of the
talking skull. Hmmmm,
choose my fate?. I think I'll pick ice first. I rode the Dueling Dragons a total of 6 times: 4 times on the front row of each, and then twice on the back row of each. I know I got a little obsessed with my trip, but I ran into a guy that made me look like an amateur. After he rode one side, he would literally
run through the re-ride doors and that back part of the queue to make sure he was on the immediate next train for the other side.
It was about 9:30 or so when I finished with the dragons. I headed over to Poseidon.....next show at 10:30. Snap!! What to do to kill an hour. I walked around a bit....and man was I hot. Well, Jurassic Park is right here. Let's go ride!! Made my way over to the entrance for
Jurassic Park River Adventure. No line at all!! I rode in the
front row. Quick note: the bigger stegosaurus was working this time, unlike the last time I rode it on my 3rd day.
Now that I was slightly dampened, it was still only right at 10 or a little after. I figured I'd at least head that way and see when they started letting people line up. The TM said 10:20. Double snap!! Not too far off though. Time enough to go hop on pop....I mean hop on The Cat in the Hat. Speaking of which: I ran into
him on my way. And the
Grinch And the guys from Green Eggs and Ham. Does anyone one know
his name?
Sam I Am joined us after that picture (he had wandered away as I was walking over). Random note: I remember reading on the National Banned Books list that
The Lorax is on the list. Anyone know why? I almost ate at
Circus McGurkus, but I wasn't quite hungry yet.
After my spin on Cat (pun intended), I headed back towards Poseidon. It wasn't yet 10:20.......but people were being let in the queue.
I like the
mural on the ceiling in the queue. I can sum up my entire opinion of Poseidon in one quick sentence: I liked the old show better.
I've always like the Lost Continent
"guards". The first show of Sinbad was a ways off, so I decided to go take a ride on
Hulk and maybe Spiderman. Hulk had a 20 minute wait time and the line had reached the enclosed part of the queue (Bruce Banner's lab?). I didn't feel like waiting. Passed
Cafe 4 Spiderman had a 25 minute wait time posted. Nah. I kept walking. Left
Marvel Superhero Island. I had dried off and was getting hot again, but I didn't want to get super wet so I skipped Popeye and Dudley. Might as well do
Jurassic Park again.
After my second ride on that, I was hungry, and it was now after 11 so the food places were open. Chip had got me craving gyros since he had found a place that had good ones at one of the malls. Luckily the
Fire Eater's Grill was open and sold gyros! Right after I purchased my food, the cast of the Sinbad show had come out to take pictures. I set my food down (where I could keep an eye on it) and got my
picture taken with them. Then I tucked into my yummy gyro. As I was eating I kept hearing this small clinking noise. Then I noticed Sinbad was tossing coins to passing children. One rolled underneath my table so I picked it up. I guess Universal is trying to rub it in that I opted not to do an HHN trip this year, cause the coins were from a past HHN.
Coin:
front,
Back. The stunt show was still a bit off time-wise, but I was tired and my feet hurt, so I decided to just wait in front of the theater. I stopped to chat up the
Mystic Fountain who was nice enough to do the water effect for my picture.....and not to get me wet.
Entrance to the theater.
I enjoyed the stunt show. Pics:
1,
2,
3
I headed back over to Marvel to try my chances with the rides over there again. Hulk still sad 20 minutes, but there didn't seem to be any line at all. and there wasn't. The front row was the best row and had a small line, but I lucked out. I rode two times, and each time I got in the front row line, there was a group of 3 people and a group of 4 people right in front of me, and both times the group of 4 let me in front of them to ride the extra seat for the group of 3. Woo!
I then decided to go ride
Spiderman a couple more times. In between my first and second ride, I went to go get my picture taken with
the man himself. I saw
this shirt in the gift shop, and it made me giggle.
I decided to ride Dr. Doom's Fearfall again, just so I could say I rode everything in IOA twice.
Another thing the DIS made me notice! The TM at the entrance told me that the single rider line would be quicker, and directed me towards it. He was right, there were only 2 people in front of me. I was at
Door 1. For some reason, I didn't really like this ride until that day. Its awesome!! The take off got me every time. And the view is spectacular. I honestly think Dr. Doom's Fearfall is my top, or second to top, favorite ride now. I rode it 5 times in a row. There was never anybody in the single rider line, so I was able to duck in there after every ride. After the 5th time, I decided to go. On my way out I got a picture of
Dr. Doom's Throne and the
arcade banners
It was now about 3 or 4, and I was hungry again (I got hungry quite a bit this trip). So I decided to head back to the hotel and meet up with Chip. I snapped this quick pick of
Dr. Doom as I was leaving. This was the only time the whole trip where I took a taxi to the hotel. It was I believe less than $5, not including tip. We decided to hit up the Burger King by the hotel. Here's
Chip again. To kill time we also went to the Walgreen's next door. They had some Halloween masks out so I decide to try a couple on:
1,
2. I also picked up something sweet to munch on. We vegged about the hotel room for the rest of the day. Later that night I headed back over to CityWalk to go to the midnight showing of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show they have at the cinema there. I was (surprisingly) still a "virgin" so I was excited to go. It was a really good production. The only upsetting part was that they ran out of "goody bags" before I could get one, but it wasn't that big a deal. I talked with some of the cast afterwards, since I was also a Rocky performer (we did the stage version that the movie was based on at my acting school). Here's me and:
Eddie (the role I played),
a Transylvanian,
Rocky,
another Transylvanian,
Frank-N-Furter, and the whole
cast. I tiredly walked back to my hotel (it was 2am) and quickly fell asleep.
