Disney Holiday Firsts At Last! - Final Thoughts Finally!

[mnmrmustard]

We had just wrapped up our time at TWWoHP and it was now time - cue the music -

WELCOME TO JURASSIC PARK!!!!

It was around 2:30pm and we were starving so we made a beeline for The Burger Digs. We turned in our meal deal vouchers for the day and got our armbands and some grub.

With the armbands you get an entree, side, and dessert. And you can go right back through for another round if you're not full. We got our fill, Roxy and PumpkinGirl took some cold meds, and we headed downstairs to the Discovery Center.

We said hi to this guy on the way down

He has quite the grin

When the girls were here a decade ago we waited around for close to 45 minutes waiting for a dinosaur egg to hatch. Never saw it. The girls were really bummed. This time one hatched in no time

They were less enthused than we expected but oh well. Bean and I played the trivia game for a bit. Then we headed over to see the big guys.

Of course I have to flash back to our last time in front of them

I followed PumpkinGirl

And then Bean

They enjoyed manipulating the dinosaurs and 'looking through their eyes'

Bean then moved on to creating herself as a dinosaur

We wrapped up our time in there and headed for the place that Bean had been waiting to see since she was 3 years old. That's right, we were on our way to The Jurassic Park River Adventure!!!!

She was VERY HAPPY!

PumpkinGirl was happy too by the way - lol

On to the doors

On in to the beasties - a big one

A small one

A couple of in between ones

Next up we make the most of The River Adventure and then hit Toon Lagoon!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 5 Part 5 - A LOT More River Adventures!

 

[mnmrmustard]

We come back to see a couple of watery dinos

Then we made our "wrong turn" into troubled waters

Love these little guys

Even if they did eat Donald

Bean was intently watching

There be something in that box

And in that control booth

We finished that run and then went around again, this time with Roxy sitting it out and holding the camera for our big splashdown

Now the first time AND the second time we made it without getting wet. But Bean wanted to go ONE MORE TIME!

..and we ended up in the first row.

Here comes splashdown number 3!

We shook it off and headed down to the photo spot

Then it was on to Toon Lagoon. The first thing we saw was Ripsaw Falls – the girls were enthused!

Next up we see exactly how wet we can get, walk amongst the toonscape at night, and grab some dinner


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 5 part 6 - Time to get REALLY WET!

 

[Trentmom]

Yay for Bean finally getting to go on River ride. Does that have a big hill at end like Splash? Looks like a lot of fun and looks like you guys didnt luck out 3rd time as far as wetness goes

That is so neat you could make pictures of yourself as a dinosaur

We went to Universal way back, I am guessing 2000 and my god we got so soaked in Toontown. I think it was Bluto's Barge. As soon as we stepped in raft, I think that was what ride vehicle was, our feet got soaked as floor was filled with water

Can't wait to see how wet you all get in the rest of the rides there

 

[mnmrmustard]

Yay for Bean finally getting to go on River ride. Does that have a big hill at end like Splash? Looks like a lot of fun and looks like you guys didnt luck out 3rd time as far as wetness goes

That is so neat you could make pictures of yourself as a dinosaur

We went to Universal way back, I am guessing 2000 and my god we got so soaked in Toontown. I think it was Bluto's Barge. As soon as we stepped in raft, I think that was what ride vehicle was, our feet got soaked as floor was filled with water

Can't wait to see how wet you all get in the rest of the rides there

Yes, she got her fill of that ride - finally! And Ripsaw Falls had a big plunge (which you will see us going down very soon) followed by a tunnel and a double hill arc immediately followed by a second splash. And when you finish and think you're done being wet other park guests can pay to soak you some more!

Bean really enjoyed creating a dinosaur of herself. You can pic dino type/diet/skin and other variables to make it totally your own.

Yup, Bluto's is the big soak. When we went in 2002 I didn't ride it, just didn't want to get that wet. This time however ..

 

[mnmrmustard]

After seeing the splash at the end of Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls the girls couldnt wait to give it a shot. At this point all of our shirts were mostly wet so what more could we get on this, right? We went into the queue and I was amazed at exactly how long the queue was. But then I thought of all of those really hot days and how many people would use this as their cool-down and it made sense.

As it was we walked/jogged/ran through the maze and into the ride structure and on and on. Eventually we made it to the ride queue, which was empty except the attendants. We hopped on board and followed the story of Dudley and the rest of the crew. I was impressed overall. Even though the ride itself is old, it is still the most involved log ride Ive ever been on as far as twists and turns/ups and downs.

Not the level of storytelling of Splash but still very entertaining. And it ends with this plunge!

Roxy had been waiting patiently, taking pictures of every log that came down until ours showed up. Yay Roxy!

No worries about staying dry in this one!

The log then travels under the bridge separating Toon Lagoon from Jurassic Parks Island. On the far side of the bridge they have a series of stations where you can spray the riders. I got nailed in the ear by one well-placed shot from a guy standing up there.

Here we come after running that last gauntlet

We got off and went right back through the queue for one more run on it. Poor Roxy saw a group come down ahead of us and thought it was us so there are no pics of our second plunge. But here we are going around that last bend again.

And here is the end result 3 very waterlogged parkgoers!

Since we were already that wet it was a no brainer to just head onto Blutos Bilge Rat Barges. Roxy was again nice enough to act as our photographer for two runs in a row on it we didnt even have to get off the barge in between rides :-]

And here is the end result of our watery fun

They had these People Dryers that you could pay $5 to have it blow hot air on you. We passed on that, but did go into the restroom and wrung out the excess water from our clothes. Then it was on down the lane of shops in Toon Lagoon.

A nice panorama of the area

More quiet spaces

Good Ole Popeye!

As you can see we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

PumpkinGirl stopped to have a quick thought about a friend

Go Betty Boop!

The girls take one last watery ride

By now it was 6pm and we were cold, wet, and hungry again. Fortunately we were right next to The Comic Strip Café, which had some nice Christmas touches

The place had a great selection of Oriental, Italian, and American fare. We ate our fill and I had a couple of red star Heinekens which were very nice after a long day of walking. We were still a bit on the cold and clammy side and by the time we finished up it was just after 7pm and time for park closing. I had us set for an 8:15pm MEARS pick-up instead of 7:15pm because I knew how far we had to walk and I had no intention on hurrying anywhere.


Next up we have a leisurely stroll through Marvel Superhero Island including a nice surprise, then on through the Marketplace and out through Citiwalk to our bus and back to POP for showers, dry pajamas, and sleep.


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 5 Part 7 - Our Universal Islands Day Comes to an End

 

[mnmrmustard]

We left Toon Lagoon behind and headed down into Marvel Island, which we had basically to ourselves except for random park staff going about closing up shop.

There’s a chilly fellow

Family wandering

Rogue has quite the kick

Hello Spiderman

It was after 7pm but they still had attendants out front at the Spiderman ride. We asked and they said come on in! No line, no waiting, right onto the ride – we were the last ones to ride it for the night!

And I really like the re-make of it, especially the hot blasts of heat that get sent at you. Those were so welcome for the girls and I in our damp clothes! Once we got off I snapped a shot Wolverine, who was green for some strange reason

Empty streets

The girls checking out Doctor Doom’s Drop

Bean wanted to take a ride in the mock-up of some sort of police hover-vehicle

We came upon the marketplace, which was also a ghost town. It looked very peaceful.

There was still some action across the lagoon

We found a motorcycle for the girls to pose on

Heading to the gates

The Island’s lighthouse looked very majestic

Another shot across the lagoon

Citywalk looked very colorful but also very empty – it was a Monday night after all

Is there a hotel up there?

We made our way the rest of the way out and back down the elevator to the MEARS pick-up area right at 8pm. The girls settled in and shared some music on PumpkinGirl’s iPod touch.

The bus was early and there weren’t many people with reservations so we were on the road pretty quickly. We were also the first stop once we made it back onto property so were at our room before 9pm. We did the ritual of showers and bathroom stuff. I texted myself the last bit of my TR notes for the day and grabbed tomorrow’s mad money from the safe, the ladies took their cold meds, and to bed we all went. All heads were on pillows and asleep by 10pm.

Tomorrow would bring us back to Universal Studios proper. We were set for an 8:25am pick-up by MEARS but I assured the fam that if they wanted to sleep longer I could call in and bump it back. Tune in next time for day 2 of our Universal side trip!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 1 - Making a Beeline for Gru's House

 

[Trentmom]

WOW, now that is what I call wet

Did you all have more than one pair of shoes with you for your trip? That was problem one trip where we all only had one pair of shoes, spent night blow dyring our shoes or trying to. That was only after a rain storm

Love empty it was. as you were leaving

That is cool They let you guys on Spiderman

 

[mnmrmustard]

WOW, now that is what I call wet

Did you all have more than one pair of shoes with you for your trip? That was problem one trip where we all only had one pair of shoes, spent night blow dyring our shoes or trying to. That was only after a rain storm

Love empty it was. as you were leaving

That is cool They let you guys on Spiderman

Nope, no other shoes - we hadn't planned on this being our "wet" day at Universal at all. Day 3 was supposed to end with the water rides with an early ending and plenty of time for the shoes to dry off back at the resort. Oops

But we were all wearing Asics or K-Swiss running shoes. I took off my shoes and socks and had the girls take theirs off after I finished eating dinner and was sipping on my second beer in Toon Lagoon. I wrung out the socks and the tongues of the shoes and squeezed the water out of the inserts.

They were mostly dry by the time we took them off at POP and to make sure I unlaced them and pulled the inserts back off and place them all on end near a vent. They were all totally dry by the morning

I always like those times when we have part of a park to ourselves. Unually I am the only one that gets to experience it when I do the early entry and take the road less traveled. It was nice to be able to have the whole family experience it

Plus the bonus of getting to be the last ones on the ride a ride, that always rocks. Gives you the feeling of officially closing a park

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

wow the park really thined out that night huh...seemed like you had the place to yourself.

 

[mnmrmustard]

wow the park really thined out that night huh...seemed like you had the place to yourself.

Yup, the park was pretty much ours!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Day 6 dawns with some of us wanting to sleep a bit more than others. Bean and I were up when the 7am alarm went off. Roxy and PumpkinGirl however wanted some more snooze time. So I called MEARS and reset their pick-up time for 10:25am and Bean and I went to the food court for breakfast and pin shopping.

The bus was a bit late so we said goodbye to POP at about 5 till 9am

Hello Harry!

The drive made up some time so we were driving past the US gate by 9:20am

I took a minute to take a couple of shots of the two themed miniature golf courses they have set up under the sky bridge. One side had the alien-themed course

And the other side was of course the monster-themed course with the Gru-like house

We headed past Citiwalk and on towards the Universal Studios entrance

After going through the turnstiles we headed straight for Minion Mayhem – it was pretty much walk-in when we got there. When you come in you are greeted by Gru and the girl’s living room. There are some really great touches in here from the movie.

The family tree

Family pics and Gru’s space helmet from when he was a kid

Looking down the length of the living room

The girl’s drawings

I thought it was odd that this was here, as it seems to be the bank president/AKA Vector’s dad

The shrink ray

I love that they brought this thing to life – lol

Gru and his original ‘kids’

You can see that Gru made this particular decoration a bit more kid-friendly

More family pics and a great mounted fish

The rhino chair

Gru and the girls

Once the group has finished filing in a video starts in front of us. Gru and the girls are up first

This is followed quickly by the testing process for designing the 3-D glasses we would wear. Several styles were tried before they settled on the one they would use

Coming up a very pic intensive look at the intro video


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 2 - Pic Intensive Minion Mayhem

 

[mnmrmustard]

We pick up with Dr. Nefario and a minion still trying to find the right 3-D glasses

Once they settled on the glasses to use they had to go through rigorous quality assurance testing

Gru interjects something important about the glasses

Almost done, I promise ..or at least done with this section ;-D


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 3 - Moving on with the Minions

 

[mnmrmustard]

Last of the quality assurance testing

Now Gru kicks back in, but is interrupted by the girls and talk of their first anniversary together as a family

Now we move into the next chamber where we have a larger screen setup. Gru explains the reason why we are all here  to be converted into Minions of course!

Gru explains his plan

Dr. Nefario spins up the machine

The first experiments had mixed results

Gru has to stop the orientation to make a command decision

A problem is found with someone in our group who apparently hadnt bathed and set off the biohazard alarm

Then the girls came in to attempt to derail the proceedings

Next up we finish our Minion transformation, take a ride with Shrek, and then grab some lunch while Roxy and PumpkinGirl play catch-up.


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 4 - Minions, Shrek, Rockit Riding, and a Monstrous Lunch

 

[Trentmom]

Love the minions. I could hear them laughing while going through your pics

 

[mnmrmustard]

Love the minions. I could hear them laughing while going through your pics

Yeah, that's why I couldn't edit down the pics I took for posting. They all had such great minion personality

 

[mnmrmustard]

We continue with the girls wanting to be part of the action and take over Grus plan for turning us all into minions

Gru starts to relent while minion start licking the glass for reasons that I cannot recall

He turns us over to the girls and soon enough we are sent shuffling into the theater/ride area. The ride is a lot of fun. It has kind of the motion feel of Star Tours without the enclosed feeling you get on it. Lots of things going on with the overriding plot of recovering Grus present. The end is very heartwarming.

When you finish you move into a dance/minion interaction area complete with minion helpers  you can see me snapping pics on the right and Bean in front as the crowd thins out

Bean then started dancing with the minion helper

We then moved on into the gift shop. Bean tried on some minion glasses but decided not to purchase

We then moved on across the street to Shrek  hardly any line there either

While in line I got a text from Roxy saying they were on the MEARS bus and on their way. I let them know what we had been up to and they said theyd be heading straight to Minion Mayhem as we did. After Shrek the ladies still werent here so we headed to Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. I had not been looking forward to this one, looked like the whiplash express to me.

The cool thing about it is you sit down and when the safety bar comes down it has a touch screen that allows you to browse music by genre/artist and have a totally custom track playing for each user for the ride. It wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be but Ill probably not ride it again.

When that was done we were hungry so we hit the Classic Monsters Café which was right across the street and was on our meal plan. We had a good lunch while Roxy and PumpkinGirl did Minion. We walked back across the street to Minion Mayhem

We met up with Roxy and PumpkinGirl at the exit area and I snapped pics of both girls with the Minions

They then wanted to do Shrek again, which I wasnt really into. So Bean went with them and I went around to the gift shop and did some browsing. In there I found a set of reasonably priced cool looking dragon figures. Bean is a BIG dragon fan so as soon as they came out I pointed them out to her and she flipped. We ended up getting the full set for her (youll see pics of them a bit later in the TR as she sets them in the window of our room with her stuffies).

Now Roxy and PumpkinGirl were hungry so we went right across the street to the Monster Café again. It was funny, we had been there for 3hrs now and had spent all our time at one street intersection of the park  lol Bean got another serving of fries on our meal plan and the ladies got lunch meals. I was still full so I walked around the restaurant and snapped pics of all of the cool monster movie memorabilia they had on display.

A brainy guy

Outfits from This Island Earth

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Fossil hand prop from The Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Invisible Man props

A fez I believe worn by Lon Chaney.

Phantom of the Opera mask warn by Lon Chaney and poster from the movie

Next up we have more Monster Memorabilia and a trip down Tornado Alley


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 5 - From the Monster Cafe to Tornado Alley

 

[mnmrmustard]

Lon Chaney mask

Munsters display

Bride of Frankenstein wig

Lab key from Frankenstein movie

Casting of Boris Karloff as Frankensteins monster

Original make-up kit and props from Bride of Frankenstein

Original script pages from same

Ray guns and helmet from misc. Sci-Fi films

While the ladies finished up I had a nice conversation with the manager. I think his name was Mike and he was a very nice guy and an attentive manager. He checked in on his customers to make sure they were having a good experience both in the restaurant and in the park itself. He also kept checking in on his staff, not in a micro-manager way but in a helpful way to make sure they werent getting in a bind. Kudos to him, he runs a great place!

A quick shot of the Monsters on the drink stand adjacent to the Café. The large construction wall in the background is part of the Transformers ride that is being built.

We gathered ourselves up and decided to head on down the street and check out Twister since the girls hadnt seen it and we knew the lines would be short for it too. Thanks to Roxys ECV we were able to get right up next to the wall of props in the outer waiting room

Next we were let in first down the house hallway consisting of the actual destroyed house from a sequence in the movie

There be a car in the ceiling

Just no privacy at all!

After a quick film narrated by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt we headed into the main room. At first all was calm

Next up the tornado hits and the girls ride the Rockit!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 6 Part 6 - Tornados and Rockits!

 

[Trentmom]

The Minion ride looks like so much fun

Love the minion glasses Bean tried on


Monster Cafe looks like a really cool place to eat with all those props

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Monster Cafe looks like good fun... I love all of those old horror movies... must check that out... do you recall what kinds of food they served...?

OMG... David will flip our for the whole Minion /Despicable Me ride... he is a HUGE fan... oh and a minion photo op... he will be beside himself...

Hmmm... so do tell ...exactly what is the drop like on th eJurrasic Park Ride? Much longer than Splash? I do think that Toon Lagoon Rides would be extra fun in the summer... July should be an awesome time to get wet... it's just that honestly... Splash Mountain ... that drop at the end... just freaks me a little bit... I can do all of the coasters... but something about flume drops... hmmm I guess I'm just going to have to man up... lol...

Great updates...

 

[mnmrmustard]

The Minion ride looks like so much fun

Love the minion glasses Bean tried on


Monster Cafe looks like a really cool place to eat with all those props

Minion ride was very cool. I don't know what I was expecting but I was happily surprised by all of the attention to detail with the theming and humor in the presentation of both the queue and the ride itself.

The minion glasses were cool for sure.

The Monster Cafe was very enjoyable, and the food had good flavors and was very filling.

Monster Cafe looks like good fun... I love all of those old horror movies... must check that out... do you recall what kinds of food they served...?

OMG... David will flip our for the whole Minion /Despicable Me ride... he is a HUGE fan... oh and a minion photo op... he will be beside himself...

Hmmm... so do tell ...exactly what is the drop like on the Jurrasic Park Ride? Much longer than Splash? I do think that Toon Lagoon Rides would be extra fun in the summer... July should be an awesome time to get wet... it's just that honestly... Splash Mountain ... that drop at the end... just freaks me a little bit... I can do all of the coasters... but something about flume drops... hmmm I guess I'm just going to have to man up... lol...

Great updates...

Monster Cafe was great, I love all those old movies too. The food was an interesting mix. I just copied and pasted the menu as it had quite the wide range of offerings.

Entree menu:

Quarter Rotisserie Chicken Platter $9.99
Monster Meat Loaf Platter $7.79
Four Layer Lasagna $8.99
Grilled Cheeseburger $7.79
Nathan’s Hotdog with Chilli and Cheese $7.99
Extra Large Cheese or Pepperoni Pizza Slice $7.49
Fresh Wedge Salad $7.99

All the entrees had great sides and desserts. And all of this was covered with our meal deal.

Oh, I'm sure David will go nuts over Minion Mayhem then. It is so fun and the photo op/dancing at the end is such a great touch. Also you'll see that there is a direct interaction with all of the characters including dancing and photos when I post day 3!

As far as the drops Jurrassic is a bit longer than splash and it does have a bigger splash. But you are in a bigger, more secure ride vehicle and you don't go into a tunnel at the end on it and can stay dry as long as you sit in the last couple of rows.

Ripsaw Falls is actually very similar to Splash as far as log ride action goes. The ride starts out with a small drop. Next comes a drop in a train tunnel, and you go down and back up, just like the laughing place drop on Splash Mountain. Then you drop one more time, and go up to the big drop. With the big drop you will notice the difference.

First that Ripsaw is noticably steeper and taller than Splash. Next that when you get to the bottom you go into the 'dynamite shack' which has a couple of little lifts/drops and more splashing and you come out the other side into a lot of water splashing at you from all sides. And you end with the possibility of other parkgoers spraying water at you from the remote-controlled nozzles on the bridge. You will get off that ride soaked.

And Bluto's Bilge Barges is a wetter version of Kali River so you know you'll get soaked on it too.


Thank you for the compliment on the updates! I'll get back over to your TR very soon and catch up there


And if you all like those updates then brace yourself because I did a bunch of work on updates and saved them as e-mail drafts. I'm about to rapid-fire post the rest of our day!