Anz n Andy - Days 10 & 11 Universal

[MsPennieLane]

Monday 26th Jan

I finally get to sleep around 5am so I catch a lie-in until 10am. We head straight for Universal. After a stop at Checkers for late brekkie/early lunch, we arrive at the Hard Rock Hotel just after 12pm. We’re gobsmacked – this place is incredible! We forgo the valet parking and park up in east side Abbey Road.

the front of the hotel

We go check in – the lobby is huge and full of great memorabilia. We’re on the 6th floor and have about a mile of corridors leading to our room 6015. We love our snazzy cards so we can charge stuff to the room. We wander round gobs wide open catching flies. Our room is huge. Lovely big bathroom too and a lovely view from the window. It’s set out really well.

our nice room

the view from our room window
There's a limo and a gorgeous Bel Air car parked outside and we discover that you can actually rent them from the HRH.

HRH's Bel Air for rental

With our gobs finally closing, we dump our bag and head off to Islands of Adventure. We catch the water taxi – great fun. We were told that the parks are about a 3 minute walk but stick with the water taxi so we don’t get to find out how long it takes to walk. The water taxi takes a couple of minutes and drops us by Citywalk.

the water taxi

The place is dead – there is nobody around at all. Hubby heads for Hulk and rides twice while I wait patiently. Hubby wants to drag me onto Spiderman as I rode it last time but I don’t want to ride it. I have no choice in the matter and hubby drags me on. There are no wait times at all. Big mistake! When we rode it in March 03, I was fine apart from a little dizziness. It’s obvious that since then, they’ve tinkered with the ride to make it more jolty and violent. It’s a heck of a lot more violent and really chucks you around, with more bad guys jumping on the car and you really get thrown about. I come off feeling terrible and head straight to the ladies, where I promptly throw up. Lovely. I was literally green. All I wanted to do was go back to the hotel so I left hubby to ride Hulk and Jurassic River Adventure and stomp back to the hotel feeling like crud. I have a long soak in the shower then curl up in a huge chair by the window. Hubby comes back about an hour later after 5 goes on Hulk and a go on Jurassic. I’m slowly starting to feel better and want to ride Popeye but hubby has a hand stamp and I don’t – there was no one there on the exit so I didn’t even think about it. I’m gutted! We wander round the hotel and check out the menus for The Kitchen and The Palm Restaurant. We’re not impressed and head out for Chilis. Boneless shanghai wings and combo fajitas for me and hubby has Monterey chicken, which is double chicken breasts covered in bacon and cheese. We stop at Walgreens for supplies then it’s back to the hotel. We have a few drinks at the Velvet Bar before heading up to bed about 11pm.

Tuesday 27th Jan

We’re up at 7.30 with the alarm so we shower and pack. They’ve put our bill under the door. We’re a bit miffed that on top of our room rate that we’re charged $15 in room tax and $6 parking. We weren’t told about the room rate when we booked which is a bit naughty. Anyway, we’re checked out by 8.30 and we dump our overnight bag in the car boot. It’s back to the water taxi and we head to Universal Studios...stopping at our fave brekkie place Cinnabon. Their cinnamon buns are out of this world and huge!

Andy at Cinnabon

the Cinnabon classic mmm

I want to ride Shrek so we head there first. While you wait in line, they play clips from the original film with interviews from the DVD extras. The workers are dressed in typical fairytale outfits. We then go through to a waiting area. It’s done out really well. There’s a “dungeon cam” TV screen with the gingerbread man lying on the tray. The 3 little pigs are in cages hanging up above our heads and Pinocchio is upside down in a torture device. They start talking to get set the scene and you find out that Lord Farquhad is back but in ghost form. There are warnings up for people with back and neck problems, motion sickness and expectant mothers. I panic a little but one of the workers puts my mind at rest saying it’s a huge theatre and huge screen and the chairs bounce around but that’s all. He’s right, it’s a little bumpy but it really does add to the feel of the show. It’s brilliantly done. You get a wet a fair few times too. Oh, and if you don’t like spiders then beware. The show is about 15 minutes long and great fun, you have to see it. It starts off just as the 1st film ends and all the original voices are here. We exit through the Shrek shop and there are loads of goodies. As we’re looking around, Shrek appears outside the shop so we head out and get a nice picture taken with him.

The picture’s great so I buy a Shrek picture frame to put it in once I’ve printed it off the digital camera. While we’re paying for our stuff, Shrek comes in the shop and starts picking things up, so funny. Back outside, we’re by Stage 54 which has a few cars from The Fast and the Furious, Mummy Returns and something else I can’t remember.

From here, we head to Terminator 2: 3D but it’s not due to start for another 35 minutes. We um and err and hubby hints that he’d like to go to Islands of Adventure so off we go. I don’t think there’s too much to do at Universal Studios – we’ve never tried Men In Black, hubby’s already gone on Back to the Future, and I know that it’s too jerky for me. Twister is quite good but once you’ve seen it, there’s no point doing it again. Hubby found Earthquake boring apart from the actual ride park and neither of us could be bothered with Jaws.

Islands of Adventure is much better. The pteradon(sp?) ride is down for maintenance so no kid stealing for us. Plus Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls has obviously been down for a while as there’s major fencing up and a crane. Hubby heads straight for Hulk and then we’re off to my favourite ride ever – Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges. The place is so dead that they’re letting everybody through the express pass way. There’s no queue at all and there’s only 4 of us in the barge. I’ve forgotten how much I love this ride, it’s fantastic.

Luckily we’re both in shorts and I’m wearing flip flops. Hubby forgets to remove his shoes and socks and he gets utterly soaked. We come back round and there’s still no queue so we go round again. Woohoo! We then walk to the Jurassic River Adventure so hubby can ride it again.

hubby on Jurassic

We then walk to the Burger Digs for lunch as we had a nice meal there last time. We’re very disappointed this time though. The food’s obviously been cooked a while ago and was just being kept warm. Hubby doesn’t enjoy his burger and my chicken burger is a bit blah. The only nice thing is the onion rings.

We then walk to Lost Continent so hubby can ride Duelling Dragons. We’re then both itching for more Popeye & Bluto. Again, there’s no queue so on we go – twice. We get off and I’m itching to go back on again. Hubby wants to take pics of me so he stays off. I run round and get back on. As I’ve just been on twice in a row, I’m saturated. One guy and his kid get on and they’ve never done this ride before. The dad looks at me and his mouth drops open. “I guess you get wet then,” he says. “Just a little,” I reply with a wink. He’s the first to get wet and he’s flapping about it, so I’m trying not to giggle but fail miserably. He then gets soaked by the big pipe and I can’t contain my giggles anymore. The funniest bit was when you’re heading up on the wood to the bubbles and water. The guy’s jaw drops and it’s obvious he’s expecting a big drop on the other side. He looks at me and I’m doing my Cheshire Cat grin. “It’s bad isn’t it?” he says. I tell him it’s not as bad as he thinks. That drop off is so great.

me (in red) on my fave ride

We get to the end and again, there’s no queue. Hubby is waiting and still taking pictures and I tell him I’m going round again so he jumps back on. I’m so wet by this time that it’s not just not possible to get any wetter. A Spanish family get on with their ponchos – excuse my rant but what’s the bloody point? If you don’t want to get wet then don’t go on a water ride – simple! Anyway, they argue with the attendant coz they want to remove their shoes and she tells them not to. When they finally sit down, they all take them off anyway. They tuck in every last bit of their poncho. Hubby and me are giggling coz we know how wet they’re going to get. The mum is sat next to me and she gets soaked first – soggy wet bum alert. They fuss and panic through the whole ride and one of them holds her hood tight over her face the whole time. They all get saturated anyway. I start getting dizzy so this is to be my last go for the rest of the holiday. Wahhhh. 7 goes I’ve had on it today.

We head back to the entrance so hubby can have another few goes on Hulk again. There are still no queues and yet the attendant makes them walk all the way back round to go back on – hubby wants to go on the front as soon as he comes off and the guy flatly says no, walk round. Git. We head back to Citywalk and grab the water taxi back to the HRH. What an experience we’ve had. Hubby gets dry clothes out of the cat and we go to the restrooms inside the hotel to change. We then drive back to Pop Century. Talk about coming down to earth! We’re exhausted I ring my mum and leave her a message and then we have a kip. We’re up around 7 for dinner – Chilis wins hands down of course. More boneless shanghai wings – this time hubby has the ground peppercorn burger and I have my chipotle blue cheese bacon burger mmm. Hubby’s really tired and we’ve both got mega aching feet so we decide on only a quick visit to the shops at Old Town. We park up and wander through the shops. I fall in love with a shop called Wound n Round. It’s full of nostalgic stuff. They even have Pink Ladies and T Birds jackets from Grease, they’re so cool. Hubby bought a metal Ford Mustang sign and I bought a few magnets. We stop at the General Store which is full of coca cola memorabilia. I could spend a fortune here. Instead I buy some Pez dispensers – Tigger, Pooh and Eeyore. Talk about paranoia – I spend only $16 and pay using a $20 travellers cheque and the guy not only asks for ID, he writes down my driving license number?? Cue the X-Files music! After half an hour, it’s back to our room. It’s gone 10.30 and we’re knackered. Hubby has a few cans but I conk out straight away.

Anz

 

[KayleeUK]

Loving the pictures

 

[highlander447]

Looks like a great time