Welcome back to my trip report, and sorry for the lack of updates recently, but holidays and life have generally got in the way! Many, many apologies and a smack on the wrist!
Anyway onto day four!
We woke up at a reasonable time and decided to head off to the studios that day, as IOA had a media day for Harry Potter that we wanted to avoid. I also did the cardinal sin of Disney vacaions- wore new shoes! My converse were still wet from the day before, so I decided to wear my new trainers. Luckily these were very comfy, but it was sheer luck! We left the room for around 8.30 and arrived just before opening at 9am. Our original plan was to head to Rip Ride Rocket first (Murray only), as it was the newest ride, then ride Revenge of the Mummy. However after we arrived at the park we ended up being told to wait where we were, half way up the main pathway with no rope or anything to stop people moving forward. This was all very confusing, as they weren’t stopping people going down other paths, just the main one.
We guessed it was the queue for RRR or Mummy, but there weren’t many people to ask. It all seemed pretty disorganised! Rather than stand in the meaningless queue, I went to refill the mug, and planned to meet Murray after he had single-rider-ed (new verb there) Rip Ride Rocket, as I am a bit of a wimp for outdoor coasters. However whilst purchasing the drink, the crowd seemed to have been allowed to move, so I scuttled to my pre-determined meeting place, only to find that there was now a big crowd outside RRR just staring at the ride. I found Murray, who informed me that they weren’t allowed in a the moment, but would wait a while longer before making a judgement. A couple of minutes later (very much like Harry Potter the day before) we were told to leave as the ride was broken down.
As this was the second time in two days we had been left standing outside a ride with little communication, we were a bit annoyed to say the least, especially since we couldn’t use our express passes for this one.
So we headed over to the Mummy and literally walked on with our Express Line pass (oh how I loved that pass!).
Both Murray and I loved this ride, fast enough to take your breath away, but not so bad that it cause me to want to hurl- the perfect balance! We then headed over to my ex-favourite shooting ride (recently usurped by Toy Story Mania)- Men in Black.
This had to be Murray and I’s favourite ride for sheer fun and competitiveness! I pretty much failed on the first time, since I was in the middle row, but the other times we were pretty much even until Murray hit the button to kill the bug at the end. We even had a couple of goes in sunglasses, because we are simply that cool!
Weirdly we didn’t take any photos of the ride photo... We also found out that if you have express pass, you can cut out the whole spiel at the beginning about being diverted from the official tour. This meant we could maximise our locker time, and it made it a walk on!
We then headed over to Jaws, which was Murray’s first every ‘skippered’ ride where you have a person doing the narration and taking you through the ride. Our skipper was fantastic, and really got into it! Universal obviously hires it’s best actors on Jaws! However the poor little boy behind me really freaked out! I can completely understand this as I did when I was a child, and it still makes me jump to this day! I did feel sorry for the little guy though.
We also had to stop for the obligatory stupid photo with the beast himself...
Murray acting the fool as usual!
We then headed over to Disaster, which is pretty much just a revamped Earthquake. The queue line was stupidly hot, especially as we were in Express Pass line, which was the surface of the sun!
However the air con when we got inside has never felt so good! The ride was generally ok; Murray quite liked the movie at the end and the amazing holograms. I liked that they had made it more explicitly into a movie set- therefore less scary for small children. No crying 6 year olds on this ride!
I then also got my way in buying a healthy snack. I am so glad they have started selling more healthy snacks in the parks nowadays, plus this fruit looked delicious all surrounded by ice!
Yum!
At this point we decided to go ride ET (for nostalgias’ sake), again using the express line pass, which was a real benefit, mainly because I used to always get freaked out in the queue line of this ride, and we got to almost completely skip it. Hurray!
Murray thought the bike ride vehicles were cute, and that the theming was great, but we both wondered how many young children have seen ET nowadays.
We then popped back to the Mummy again before heading off to lunch.
We decided to try Louie's Italian Restaurant, as just before I went on holiday I kinda got addicted to spaghetti out of a can. Anyway some real spaghetti and meatballs sounded right up my street and Murray agreed. Plus the air conditioning was fabulous!
Now I don’t know if this was just because I really craved some spaghetti, or because I was preparing myself for theme park mush I am so usually used to. However this was really nice! The spaghetti wasn’t overdone- which is really surprising since it was serving at such high volume! The meatballs were moist and flavourful , and the sauce was good and tomatoey. Plus it was served with some lovely soft and warm doughy breadsticks. Yes this isn’t anywhere near gourmet, but pretty darn good! In fact I would pretty much like some now!
We then decided to head out of the park, since RRR had only just re-opened and Murray couldn’t be bothered to wait. We did detour via the globe for some photos.
Then took the water-taxi back to the Royal Pacific, which is great because it was so hot!! Even the queue is air conditioned
We then stayed around the resort for a relax, nap and a bit of tv watching! We also sorted out our free Seaworld bus for the next morning- with slightly dismissive member of staff- I found the system pretty confusing!
We next went to City Walk for dinner. I was still pretty full from lunch, so I didn’t really want have a sit down meal. We decided to try Panda Express- a Chinese fast food place. Murray had fried rice, orange chicken, Bejing beef and spring rolls, as well as some orange juice.
He said it was very tasty, but nothing really special. I had chow mein, pepper chicken and broccoli beef. I had mine in a takeaway box, because I knew I couldn’t eat it all in one go! I thought it was nice but pretty greasy!
We then went back to the room and watched Goldmember on TV- which was groovy baby! A nice relaxing way of end a pretty relaxing day!
Next: Seaworld!
I might do the queue and go for the 'chicken exit' though and will definitely be looking around Hogsmeade. 
