Clearskies photographic Journey to the World and Beyond - 8 theme parks & much more

[clearskies]

In 2009, we ate and Narcoossee's and after dinner I took some pictures from the deck outside the restaurant. It was very nice but the fireworks appear a good distance to the left of the castle from that vantage point. Here is an example from 2009 for reference.

I figured that we would compare the vantage point from the Poly. The rest of our crew was tired though and wanted to head back to the resort. My SIL had taken the bus to MK and then monorail to the Poly and they were returning the same way in reverse. So, the rest of my family decided to head back with them and I was left with my car to use to get back to the resort after the show.

I made my way over to the beach to grab a spot. I have a few things to note before getting to the pictures. First, there are a whole lot of lounge chairs along the beach so there are plenty of spots to sit and watch the show. Second, I could hear the music from the show perfectly from speakers that they had. This was an added bonus for me since I was not sure if I was going to be able to hear it. Third, the Electric Water Parade seems to time being in front of the Poly during the show (at least it did the 2 times I was there this trip). So, though in some cases it gives an added dimension to pictures, in other cases it was not what I was looking for. Since I take longer exposure shots and the boats with the EWP move around a bit the EWP showed up blurry in many of my shots. My final observation is that the fireworks still appear offset to the left from the castle but to a lesser degree than from the grand Floridian.

Here are some of the better pictures I was able to come away with.

Overall I was pleased with the experience from the Poly beach. I have now seen the show from the 3 monorail resorts and I now prefer the Poly to the other two.

I am ending our day here since after the show I quickly headed out to beat any traffic and I did logged in and did some work when I got back to the resort which believe me is not at all entertaining. We'll start Day 6 next.

 

[mom2rtk]

What? never been to the Bronx Zoo and you are in New York? I'll give you a pass but my friend has something to say

That is a beautiful shot. I'm very sad I don't live near a respectable zoo. It would be a great way to give the photography gear a good workout between Disney trips!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Beautiful fireworks shots!

I am so with you on being late to reservations. I hate being late to them, so I can definitely relate.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm loving the fireworks photos too. It's amazing to me the difference of seeing them from the distance and up close. I still can't wrap my brain around the huge difference.

I still have not photographed them from any of the monorail resorts. (Well, I sort of tried back in 04 when we stayed at the Contemporary. But with no tripod and a slow lens, that hardly even counts.) That's definitely on my Disney "to do" list.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Am glad you managed to make it to Kona Cafe and add it to your steak reviews. Love the pics of Poly...can't wait to visit!

Great firework shots...it's nice to see the comparison between GF and Poly Also thanks for sharing the information about the lounge chairs and being able to hear the music clearly.

 

[clearskies]

That is a beautiful shot. I'm very sad I don't live near a respectable zoo. It would be a great way to give the photography gear a good workout between Disney trips!

Thank you Janet! This is one of my favorite animal pictures. I just love the connection with the eyes on this snow leopard pic as we stared at each other through a plate of glass. Fortunately, I am not terribly far from the Bronx Zoo as well as the Philadelpha Zoo. Both are great zoos and since the kids enjoy it as much as I do we all have a great time on our visits.

Beautiful fireworks shots!

I am so with you on being late to reservations. I hate being late to them, so I can definitely relate.

Thank you Danielle!
I think next time we go to BGT I may plan our dinner in the vicinity of the Busch Gardens park and not try to rush back to Disney.

I'm loving the fireworks photos too. It's amazing to me the difference of seeing them from the distance and up close. I still can't wrap my brain around the huge difference.

I agree, the perspective difference is really interesting comparing Main Street to the sites out of the park. I still prefer Main Street but I have enjoyed seeing the show at these other locations. At least when you are outside the park you don't need to contend with people coming in front of you. Especially those tall people that seem to have a conspiracy to move in front of me just before the show starts after I have been waiting over an hour (sore point on my part, you think?) or fathers that hoist their children on their shoulders. Yes, they certainly have a right to so and I harbor no I'll will toward them. It is just a little frustrating when it happens. This comes with the territory though in trying to capture the show on Main St.

I still have not photographed them from any of the monorail resorts. (Well, I sort of tried back in 04 when we stayed at the Contemporary. But with no tripod and a slow lens, that hardly even counts.) That's definitely on my Disney "to do" list.

The Contemporary is the last location I need to get back to with a tripod. Years ago I watched from the observation deck but I did not have a tripod at the time. The perspective is very different from there.

Am glad you managed to make it to Kona Cafe and add it to your steak reviews. Love the pics of Poly...can't wait to visit!

Great firework shots...it's nice to see the comparison between GF and Poly Also thanks for sharing the information about the lounge chairs and being able to hear the music clearly.

Thank you Tanz! I hope you enjoy Kona on your trip. I know you won't be eating the steak but I can tell you that my SIL had a fish entree and she said it was excellent.

 

[aprilisis]

Thank you very much aprilisis. Oh boy, I am not sure you want advice from me on touring the parks with a DSLR and multiple lenses since I carry around an awful lot more than most sensible people are willing to carry. It is also a bit tough to answer without knowing which lenses you have to work with. This is probably a case of "Do as I say, not as I do". I am used to lugging around a lot of equipment and I don't mind the heat as much as others. If you are not as accustomed to carring around so much and/or the heat (depending on when you go) then don't overdo it and push yourself to lug around too much otherwise you will likely be miserable by the end of the day and your primary objective should be to have fun first. Before you head out in the morning think about what your objectives might be and try to choose the best lenses to suit those needs. A lens that can cover a wide range of focal lengths may be best for you. If you want to get good pictures inside the dark rides (ex. Haunted Mansion) and some of the darker shows then bring along a fast lens (lens with the largest aperture). A 50mm 1.8 lens can be a good lightweight solution for having a fast lens. Also note that you should always have a spare battery as well as extra memory cards with you. If you want good fireworks pictures or some nighttime pictures of the parks then it is good to have a tripod but do not tote one of those around all day. If that is an objective then get a locker and store it there during the day. If you plan to take pictures on Splash Mountain then you should bring a waterproof bag with you and protect the camera and lens in the beginning and end of the ride. some people use a ziploc bag. I use a Dry Sack
(ex. Dry Sack Example).
This is some scattershot general advice. I figured I would stress some important points that came to mind. If you have any more specific questions then pease feel free to ask and I will certainly try to answer as best I can.

Thanks! I just bought the Canon Rebel T1i and it came with 2 Tamron lenses- a 28-200mm and a 75-300mm lens, but I was wondering if I should get a faster lens. Thanks for the link to the Dry Sack- I will definitely be getting one of those!! I'm going in May, so it should be pretty warm- but I am used to it because I've been in July & August before. The heat doesn't bother me too much, but I usually only go to the Parks with a point & shoot and not much else, so carrying a bag around will be new for me.
Do you have any pointers on shooting fireworks? Should I pick up a remote shutter release? I have a tripod to use- I have a MK view room at the Poly, so I was hoping to shoot from there. I'm too afraid to set up a tripod at the parks- I'm scared someone will knock it over. I'm SO glad I will be solo on this next trip because I want to be able to take my time photographing everything.
Thanks again for the advice & suggestions. I really appreciate the help!

 

[aprilisis]

You have GREAT fireworks shots! Did you set up a tripod on the beach at the Poly?

 

[clearskies]

Thanks! I just bought the Canon Rebel T1i and it came with 2 Tamron lenses- a 28-200mm and a 75-300mm lens, but I was wondering if I should get a faster lens. Thanks for the link to the Dry Sack- I will definitely be getting one of those!! I'm going in May, so it should be pretty warm- but I am used to it because I've been in July & August before. The heat doesn't bother me too much, but I usually only go to the Parks with a point & shoot and not much else, so carrying a bag around will be new for me.
Do you have any pointers on shooting fireworks? Should I pick up a remote shutter release? I have a tripod to use- I have a MK view room at the Poly, so I was hoping to shoot from there. I'm too afraid to set up a tripod at the parks- I'm scared someone will knock it over. I'm SO glad I will be solo on this next trip because I want to be able to take my time photographing everything.
Thanks again for the advice & suggestions. I really appreciate the help!

Congratulations on your recent purchase April. I am not that familiar with the Tamron lenses but you have a good range to work with. I just did a quick lookup and I see that the 28-200 has a max apertures of f/3.8-f/5.6 and the 75-300 has a range of f/4-f/5.6. I would definitely recommend a faster lens in addition to what you have for the darker attractions. The 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens is very reasonable.

As far as fireworks, I definitely recommend a remote shutter and a tripod. I will attempt to give you details on how I shot at the Poly.

1. First I found a lounge chair on beach where there were no people currently behind me (since there were 2 rows of chairs and I went to the front row). I then set up my tripod. That way if someone did eventually sit behind me they knew what they were sitting behind from the get go.

2. I then put a 70-200mm lens on my camera. Note that I have a full-frame camera body and you have a 1.6 crop. Thus on your camera, you multiply the focal length by 1.6 to get the effective focal length. So my same 70-200mm lens on your camera would have an effective focal length of 112-320mm (70*1.6=112, 200*1.6=320). I think either of your lenses will work. I would start at 100mm on your camera.

3. Next I attached a wired remote shutter release.

4. I set the camera to "bulb" mode. This means I will control when the shutter opens as well as closes.

5. I then set the ISO = 100

6. Next I set a small aperture. I played around from f/13 to f/22. I think I would opt a starting point of either f/18 or f/20.

7. I set to autofocus and I locked in focus on the castle and after I had the focus I switched to manual focus.

8. then I set my frame so that castle was in the bottom and towards the right hand side.

9. I took some practice shots before the show to "gauge" about how long I will keep the shutter open. About 10 seconds was about right. I also check to ensure the castle was focused.

I was now ready for the show.

Once the show started I would trip my shutter in anticipation of bursts and keep it open for multiple bursts and or combinations of the higher bursts with the lower fireworks that stream from the lower castle level. I would close the shutter after I thought the bursts were done.

I hope this helps. I f I think of anything else I will provide more into. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[aprilisis]

Congratulations on your recent purchase April. I am not that familiar with the Tamron lenses but you have a good range to work with. I just did a quick lookup and I see that the 28-200 has a max apertures of f/3.8-f/5.6 and the 75-300 has a range of f/4-f/5.6. I would definitely recommend a faster lens in addition to what you have for the darker attractions. The 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens is very reasonable.

As far as fireworks, I definitely recommend a remote shutter and a tripod. I will attempt to give you details on how I shot at the Poly.

1. First I found a lounge chair on beach where there were no people currently behind me (since there were 2 rows of chairs and I went to the front row). I then set up my tripod. That way if someone did eventually sit behind me they knew what they were sitting behind from the get go.

2. I then put a 70-200mm lens on my camera. Note that I have a full-frame camera body and you have a 1.6 crop. Thus on your camera, you multiply the focal length by 1.6 to get the effective focal length. So my same 70-200mm lens on your camera would have an effective focal length of 112-320mm (70*1.6=112, 200*1.6=320). I think either of your lenses will work. I would start at 100mm on your camera.

3. Next I attached a wired remote shutter release.

4. I set the camera to "bulb" mode. This means I will control when the shutter opens as well as closes.

5. I then set the ISO = 100

6. Next I set a small aperture. I played around from f/13 to f/22. I think I would opt a starting point of either f/18 or f/20.

7. I set to autofocus and I locked in focus on the camera and after I had the focus I switched to manual focus.

8. then I set my frame so that castle was in the bottom and towards the right hand side.

9. I took some practice shots before the show to "gauge" about how long I will keep the shutter open. About 10 seconds was about right. I also check to ensure the castle was focused.

I was now ready for the show.

Once the show started I would trip my shutter in anticipation of bursts and keep it open for multiple bursts and or combinations of the higher bursts with the lower fireworks that stream from the lower castle level. I would close the shutter after I thought the bursts were done.

I hope this helps. I f I think of anything else I will provide more into. Let me know if you have any questions.

Wow!! Thanks so much!! I am going to print this out today & tuck it into my camera bag. I bought that 50mm lens- it just arrived today, so I will try it out this weekend. I have the tripod, so I just have to get the remote shutter release before May. I have to admit, I feel a little "lost" with this camera. I can't believe I forgot everything I knew about photography in 10 years. Thanks again for the great advice & for your help and suggestions!!

 

[clearskies]

Wow!! Thanks so much!! I am going to print this out today & tuck it into my camera bag. I bought that 50mm lens- it just arrived today, so I will try it out this weekend. I have the tripod, so I just have to get the remote shutter release before May. I have to admit, I feel a little "lost" with this camera. I can't believe I forgot everything I knew about photography in 10 years. Thanks again for the great advice & for your help and suggestions!!

You're very welcome April. I Hope it helps. I made one minor correction in red. I said focus on the camera instead of focus on the castle. One other thing. If your lens has Image Stabilization then turn it off when you have it on a tripod. Image Stabilization (and vibration reduction) lenses look for vibrations in your camera in order to reduce it – however if they don’t find any (like when you are using a Tripod) they actually can cause it – and as a result actually cause camera shake.

 

[clearskies]

Welcome to Day 6 of our journey. Today we will be headed to Universal Studios for our daytime entertainment and later in the evening we'll head over to my wife's new favorite buffet on Disney property and I will also tell you about an incredible experience with some pure Disney Magic that came my way after dinner.

Since I was not as fearful of the crowds at Universal Studios as I was at IOA we took a little more time getting mobile in the morning and we ended up entering the park at about 9:45 AM.

Today we were meeting up with both my Sister and her family as well as my SIL's family. So, we were travelling in a fairly large pack of 12 for most of the day. Now, before I get into the day let me give some advance warning. This Universal Studios visit has far less pictures than any of the other parks we visited on the trip. This is because in many cases cameras were either not allowed on the attractions or pictures were not going to turn out for various reasons such as the attractions were simulators or in one case a 3D movie. I think there were 3 attractions total that we experienced in the Park that day where I could take pictures during the actual attraction. I did take a few as we walked around but not too many. The general themeing of the park sections did not excite me as much as IOA either. Thus, I am going to go through this visit fairly quickly.

I really did not have a touring plan for this park so I figured we would just head around the park in a clockwise direction. We started out in the Production Central area and out first attraction was Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. This is a motion simulator attraction. This is not a smaller seating area such as star tours or wild arctic. You enter into a fairly good sized theater with several sections of seats all facing a screen. The screen is static but the seats move around a whole lot. I am not really up to speed on the whole Neutron clan since my kids never really watched this show so I had no affiliations with any of the characters going in. The show was entertaining enough though from this non-Neutron fans perspective. I'll warn those prone to motion sickness though that you may feel the effects on this. I don't really feel any effects from star tours but I felt some effects after this show.

Even though you are being jostled around a whole lot I did make an attempt at capturing a picture.

Here is Jimmy with his friend the young Orville Redenbacher.

After we got done with Neutron we headed across the street to the Shrek 4D movie. There was a bit of a line but not too bad - about 15 min. There were some amusing posters of movie spoofs to entertain while we were waiting as well as a newspaper front page:

In the waiting area before entering the theater there is a dungeon setting

There is some pre-show entertainment by the 3 little pigs as well as other characters from the Shrek movies.

I am not going to get into the details of the show but I will say that this was a fun romp. Even I won't bother trying to take a picture in a 3D movie though so I don't have anything to share.

After Shrek we headed over to the next section of the park, the "New York" section. Our first attraction we went to here was Twister. I am not really sure what this had to do with New York but I guess they decided not to build an Oklahoma section of the park so sure why not plop it in New York. Come to think of it I don't see the connection of any of the attractions in the "New York" section to the actual city. The Mummy, well that certainly does not make me think of New York and of course the Blues Brothers were from Chicago.

Anyway back to the Twister attraction.

This is a walkthrough exhibit. The first part is somewhat snooze worthy. You watch videos of the twister cast who provide information on tornados. Perhaps captivating to aspiring meteorologists but for me, not so much. I wish I could say they presented it in an exciting manner but sadly that was not the case. The climax of the attraction is when you enter a room to see a simulated scene of a twister coming through. Now we are getting to the good part. Let me warn you though, this is LOUD.

After twister we made our way over to the next "New York" attraction, the Mummy.

Some of the younger kids including my daugher did not want to go on so about half of our crew went into the attraction. Note that this is another attraction where no carry on items are allowed so my camera stayed behind. So, how was the actualy ride? This was FANTASTIC! We love this ride. It is an indoor rollercoaster. It starts out slowly taking you through some scary scenes and then it kicks it up a notch and takes you on an exciting ride. If you are afraid of rollercoasters because of big drops then I think you will be ok with this. Oh, you'll shoot around fairly fast and there is an element that may surprise you but you won't get that stomach drop feeling. Once I rode it I said my that my daughter will like it so we went back out and to have another go with the rest of the crew. My young nephew did not want to go though so I stayed behind with him while the rest went in for a ride.

While I was waiting I took a few pictures of the area.

Another famous New York icon, Ben & Jerry's.

when they were done I was happy to see that I was right and my daughter loved the attraction as well! We found our favorite ride in this park.

I am going to make this a quick installment and stop here. I should be able to finish up the rest of the park in our next installment.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Am glad you enjoyed Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon blast and managed to get a picture! It's a shame there were not many photo opportunities at Universal Studios.

I agree - don't think New York sprung to mind when reading about any of the attractions in the section

 

[norybell]

Sorry I haven't been around...I seem to have been hypnotized by a gorgeous large cat of some sort. I just woke up now.

I have made and skipped an ADR at Kona on I think the last three of my Disney (cluck) trips. One of these days, I'll finally get there!

Funny thing: not only do we not have twisters or mummies in NY (at least, not so far as I know), we also don't have a point where Delancey and 5th Avenue intersect.

I'm still loving all the Universal updates...it's like this whole other world, that I know nothing about!

 

[IheartDDuck]

The Mummy is one of my favorite attractions! However, I totally wish it was longer. It just seems like one of those rides where poof! It's just over.

 

[aprilisis]

You're very welcome April. I Hope it helps. I made one minor correction in red. I said focus on the camera instead of focus on the castle. One other thing. If your lens has Image Stabilization then turn it off when you have it on a tripod. Image Stabilization (and vibration reduction) lenses look for vibrations in your camera in order to reduce it – however if they don’t find any (like when you are using a Tripod) they actually can cause it – and as a result actually cause camera shake.

Thanks! So far, I don't have any lenses with Image Stabilization. I'm so overwhelmed by all of the choices of lenses out there! I think I want a UWA lens next, but my budget can't keep up with my hobby!!

Isn't Revenge of the Mummy awesome?!?!? I LOVE that ride- I WISH cameras were allowed. I can't wait to hear what you think of the rest of the park & to see more photos!

 

[clearskies]

Oh boy, I am sorry for taking so long to reply to this. Things have exploded between work and some issues on the homefront. I shouldn't be taking the time to post here now but it has been far too long so I am going to quickly get through the rest of my Universal Studios day. First some overdue responses.

Am glad you enjoyed Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon blast and managed to get a picture! It's a shame there were not many photo opportunities at Universal Studios.

I agree - don't think New York sprung to mind when reading about any of the attractions in the section

Though the park was lacking to me in photo ops it was still a fun experience. There is also still so much more to look at than your standard theme park outside of Disney.

Sorry I haven't been around...I seem to have been hypnotized by a gorgeous large cat of some sort. I just woke up now.

I have made and skipped an ADR at Kona on I think the last three of my Disney (cluck) trips. One of these days, I'll finally get there!

Funny thing: not only do we not have twisters or mummies in NY (at least, not so far as I know), we also don't have a point where Delancey and 5th Avenue intersect.

I'm still loving all the Universal updates...it's like this whole other world, that I know nothing about!

I can't imagine what happened to you with that cat.

I would give Kona a try. It is definitely better to me than the other restaurant at the Poly, Ohana. Note that you might want to see someone about that vocal interjection you have there.

Well, I did see the king tut exhibit in NY once but that was just a stop on his Mega world tour. Interesting on the intersection. That much I did not know. I wonder why they put those 2 particular streets in the Universal intersection.

The Mummy is one of my favorite attractions! However, I totally wish it was longer. It just seems like one of those rides where poof! It's just over.

Love that ride. It starts out slow but yes, once it gets going it is quick. Though it does give you a moment where you think it is ending and then gives you a last thrill.

Thanks! So far, I don't have any lenses with Image Stabilization. I'm so overwhelmed by all of the choices of lenses out there! I think I want a UWA lens next, but my budget can't keep up with my hobby!!

Isn't Revenge of the Mummy awesome?!?!? I LOVE that ride- I WISH cameras were allowed. I can't wait to hear what you think of the rest of the park & to see more photos!

I only have one lens myself with Image Stabilization. I don't think it is as important until you get to longer focal length lenses. yes, there are so many choices. This can get to be a back breaking hobby both monetarily speaking as well as physically from carrying around gear.

I am with you on both aspects of the Mummy. I wish that Universal was not so darned restrictive with cameras on rides.

 

[clearskies]

Let's see, when I left off we had just finished an awesome experience on The Mummy. From there we continued our clockwise tour of the park and next headed to the San Francisco/Amity section of the Park.

we first passed by the "Disaster" attraction but the wait was 50 min. Waiting 50 min for it was going to be our own disaster for that attraction so we bypassed it for the time being and figured we might come back later. Thus, we continued on to our next stop which was Jaws.

Those are pictures while waiting for the attraction. Once again I was not allowed to take my camera out for this attraction. I think Universal Studios is too restrictive on their policies regarding cameras. I can see the restriction in some cases such as Forbidden Journey but on this ride the only risk I see to your equipment having an encounter with water depending on where you sit on the boat. I think a warning would be sufficient that you use your camera at your own risk. Anyway, let's move past this. If you want to get more action on this attraction then try to sit on the left side of the boat. I was on the far right and it seemed to me that most of what was going on was on the other side. My experience on this attraction also became frustrating since the boat captain has to stop multiple times and tell a man in the back that he had to stay seated. One would think that one warning would be enough for someone but she had to stop the boat and talk to him a few times. You could tell she was getting very annoyed and this detracted from the whole experience.

One we finished Jaws up it was about 12:30 and we decided it was time to re-fuel. My sister wanted to try the burger place "Richters Burgers Co" so we backtracked since this is between san Fran and New York. On our way over though we saw that the Disaster line had come down dramatically so we hopped in line.

I was happy to see Christopher Walken on the poster while waiting. If he is part of the attraction then it must have some redeeming qualities.

This is a show where for some of the attraction they pick people from the crowd to play parts similar to the start of the Backlot tour at DHS. The first part of the attraction consists of scenes where our Guide interacts with a holographic Christopher Walken. This was done exceptionally well. I thought the holographic image was superb and the way they blended in the live character with the holograph was outstanding.

The climax of this attraction is where you get into a mock "subway train" and experience a simulated eathquake. One piece of advice is to try to sit towards one of the middle subway cars and try to sit on the left hand side. I was in the last car.

At the very end they show a clip of our "actors" from the audience. They did a great job with the little clip that gets shown because we all got a good laugh from it. I enjoyed this a whole lot more than the backlot tour show.

ok, now that we were done with this pleasant Disaster we continued our quest to grab some lunch.

The food from Richters was mediocre at best. So, far the food experience at Universal had not really excited me too much. Next time we will definitely opt for a different place.


After lunch we walked back through San Fran but we were not stopping.

There was only one other thing to see in this area and that is a Bettlejuice Graveyard Review. I can't say that this show was enticing me so I was not disappointed to find there was a while until the next show so we moved on. It was time to go to the world Expo section. This section only holds 2 attractions but they are big ones. The first was the following.

The line here was fairly long and this was yet another attraction where my camera had to stay behind. There are no loose items at all allowed on this attraction. Again I think this was overly restrictive. I stayed behind with bags while the girls got in the standby line. The boys decided the heck with the standby line and they got on the single rider line. This was a wise move since they finished up well before the girls. They said the ride was a lot of fun and were heading back to the single rider line. My BIL that was with them stayed behind this time to babysit the bags and I went back with them. Conceptually this ride is similar to Buzz but obviously with a different theme. We all enjoyed it but I will still hold Buzz more dear in my heart if you ask me which I prefer. One thing to note is that this ride also spins you around a little. It is somewhat comparable to the spinning in the cat in the Hat ride.

After we had enough alien destruction we made our way over to the Simpsons.

This also had a fairly long line. Again no camera equipment is allowed but there really isn't much of a need on a simulator ride. Whoa, this ride is fun but boy it ranked up high in my book on the quease factor. This ride definitely got to me more than Forbidden Journey with motion sickness effects. Out of all the rides in both Universal parks I think this is the worst in that respect so be careful if you have issues. This sign while waiting was a good foreshadowing of what was come.

ok, it was not quite that bad. After this ride though we declared that we were done with simulator rides and spinning rides for the rest of the day.

I am nearing my pic limit so will finish up in the next post.....

 

[clearskies]

Next up was Woody Woodpeckers KidZone. At this point we were fairly hot and getting sapped so we really did not explore this area too much. There was only one attraction that I wanted to see so we headed on over to give a visit to ET. Fortunately the wait time was only about 10 min.

This ride is a classic dark ride similar to Peter Pan where your ride vehicle (in this case mock bicycles) are moved along via an overhead rail. I think I was in a funk photographically by this time from being shut out from most of the attractions. All the motion effects from the prior rides must have gotten to my brain because I was not thinking and I did not switch to the proper lens for the ride and thus I didn't come away from this ride with anything good. I'll give you at least one picture though.

Once we go off our bicycles we headed to our final section of the park, Hollywood.

I wanted to see the Horror Make Up Show but the next showing was too far off. So we skipped past that and made our way over the the Terminator 2 show. While waiting for the show in the Pre-show waiting area we were entertained by the "hostess". She played her part extremely well. I must have been really shut down at this point because I did not take any pictures at all of this show. That is very uncharacteristic for me. I think I was admitting defeat for trying to photograph this park. I thought the actual show was ok but nothing special. My wife on the other hand really enjoyed it so you have her thumbs up.

We were just about done at this point seeing what we wanted to experience but we decided before we headed out that we would take one more turn on our favorite ride in this park so we headed over to New York. We passed these guys along the way. They were waiting to drive up and start their next show.

We had another great ride on the Mummy and then skedaddled from the park. So, that's about it for our Universal Studios day. As I said at the start, this was not the best for photographs and I did not come away woth too many pictures but we did enjoy the park though. My wife actually enjoyed it more than IOA but I think that IOA is far superior. Our clear favorite here was the Mummy. Most of the other attractions provided solid entertainment to me.


Next up is my wife's new favorite buffet as well some truly amazing unexpected Disney Magic that came to me. It will be a good evening.

 

[aprilisis]

Great updates!!! I really love the Simpsons ride. I haven't been on E.T. in years & your photo has convinced me that I have to go on again next time I am in Universal. Your photos are awesome, as usual!