We (dh, dd8, ds6, nephew and myself) just returned from a 8 day/7 night trip to Orlando, FL--two of those days we went to US and IOA. We had a blast at both parks!!! We will definitely return and will stay onsite next time.
Some of the highlights of the trip were as follows:
We went to Universal Studios on Wednesday, August 4th and we rode the following:
Revenge of the Mummy. Had a 20 minute wait so we rode it immediately and did a parent swap. We all loved this ride.
JAWS. It was okay--maybe our tour guide wasn't in to it enough.
Back to the Future. We all loved it!!
ET. It was nice. I think that the name system was malfunctioning because we didn't hear our names when we got off.
Terminator 2. We LOVED it!! Twister. Wet!! Earthquake. We liked it.
We did a mid-day break and returned in the evening. My ds cried on the Woody Woodpecker coaster. (This is the same child who rode Mission Space without so much as a whimper.) By this time, Shrek still posted 90 minute waits, so I broke away from my group and queued up for it. I LOVED this ride. It was very well done and I will definitely ride this one again!! Unfortunately, I missed the fireworks show which happened just as I went into the actual ride. I met up with my family and we were allowed onto the Jimmy Neutron ride at park closing. This ride was so much fun. We all loved it!
We went to Islands of Adventure on Friday, August 6th. We arrived here after 10:00am (not my fault) and I knew that the kids were so looking forward to riding all of the rides. So dh and I decided to purchase Universal Express passes for the five of us at a cost of $37 apiece. That meant that we would not be able to go to SeaWorld. The kids seemed to be okay with that. Anyway, we rode the following:
The HULK. WE LOVED THIS RIDE!!! Unfortunately my dd was one inch too short and could not ride. She was so disappointed and cried. Next we rode Spiderman. WE LOVED THIS RIDE!!! Next up, we rode Jurassic Park--which was very cool! Then we made our way over to Toon Lagoon where we received a thorough soaking on Dudley Do-right's (better than Splash Mountain) and Popeye's barges. I took my shoes and socks off and placed them into the center bin. The kids wore their swimsuits/swim shoes so they were okay. On our way back towards the front of the park, we grabbed express passes for Spiderman and went on to ride The cat in the hat and one fist,two fish... Both rides were really cute. Before leaving the park, we saw my ds's hero--Spiderman. Especially cool was that my ds had on him Spiderman swim trunks and Spiderman t-shirt. We took a couple of photos with him and my ds was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.
We left the park for a midday break and returned to Universal Studios in an attempt to get an express pass for MIB. They were already distributed, but the single rider's line was moving along rather well. We rode it--had a great time and made a serious bee-line to IOA to use our express pass for Spiderman. It took us less than fifteen minutes to walk from the MIB exit area to the Spiderman ride's express entrance. We were people with a plan!
After that, my dh used his express pass to ride the Hulk while the kids rode Storm Force. After my dh exited the Hulk, my nephew and I used my dd's and ds's express passes to ride the Hulk again. We made our way around the park and rode Dueling Dragons. My nephew and I rode Fire and my dh rode Ice. This was a cool ride. The last ride we did was the Flying Unicorn--twice. My ds cried, but I "made" him ride and told him to squeeze my hand. He loved the ride so much that we immediately re-boarded and this time he held his hands up!! Go figure...
We loved US/IOA--especially IOA. We will definitely return and this time, we will go during the off season and stay onsite. We would not have been able to ride too many things had it not been for the Express passes that we bought.
Some of the highlights of the trip were as follows:
We went to Universal Studios on Wednesday, August 4th and we rode the following:
Revenge of the Mummy. Had a 20 minute wait so we rode it immediately and did a parent swap. We all loved this ride.
JAWS. It was okay--maybe our tour guide wasn't in to it enough.
Back to the Future. We all loved it!!
ET. It was nice. I think that the name system was malfunctioning because we didn't hear our names when we got off.
Terminator 2. We LOVED it!! Twister. Wet!! Earthquake. We liked it.
We did a mid-day break and returned in the evening. My ds cried on the Woody Woodpecker coaster. (This is the same child who rode Mission Space without so much as a whimper.) By this time, Shrek still posted 90 minute waits, so I broke away from my group and queued up for it. I LOVED this ride. It was very well done and I will definitely ride this one again!! Unfortunately, I missed the fireworks show which happened just as I went into the actual ride. I met up with my family and we were allowed onto the Jimmy Neutron ride at park closing. This ride was so much fun. We all loved it!
We went to Islands of Adventure on Friday, August 6th. We arrived here after 10:00am (not my fault) and I knew that the kids were so looking forward to riding all of the rides. So dh and I decided to purchase Universal Express passes for the five of us at a cost of $37 apiece. That meant that we would not be able to go to SeaWorld. The kids seemed to be okay with that. Anyway, we rode the following:
The HULK. WE LOVED THIS RIDE!!! Unfortunately my dd was one inch too short and could not ride. She was so disappointed and cried. Next we rode Spiderman. WE LOVED THIS RIDE!!! Next up, we rode Jurassic Park--which was very cool! Then we made our way over to Toon Lagoon where we received a thorough soaking on Dudley Do-right's (better than Splash Mountain) and Popeye's barges. I took my shoes and socks off and placed them into the center bin. The kids wore their swimsuits/swim shoes so they were okay. On our way back towards the front of the park, we grabbed express passes for Spiderman and went on to ride The cat in the hat and one fist,two fish... Both rides were really cute. Before leaving the park, we saw my ds's hero--Spiderman. Especially cool was that my ds had on him Spiderman swim trunks and Spiderman t-shirt. We took a couple of photos with him and my ds was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.
We left the park for a midday break and returned to Universal Studios in an attempt to get an express pass for MIB. They were already distributed, but the single rider's line was moving along rather well. We rode it--had a great time and made a serious bee-line to IOA to use our express pass for Spiderman. It took us less than fifteen minutes to walk from the MIB exit area to the Spiderman ride's express entrance. We were people with a plan!
After that, my dh used his express pass to ride the Hulk while the kids rode Storm Force. After my dh exited the Hulk, my nephew and I used my dd's and ds's express passes to ride the Hulk again. We made our way around the park and rode Dueling Dragons. My nephew and I rode Fire and my dh rode Ice. This was a cool ride. The last ride we did was the Flying Unicorn--twice. My ds cried, but I "made" him ride and told him to squeeze my hand. He loved the ride so much that we immediately re-boarded and this time he held his hands up!! Go figure...
We loved US/IOA--especially IOA. We will definitely return and this time, we will go during the off season and stay onsite. We would not have been able to ride too many things had it not been for the Express passes that we bought.
