Our Awesome Universal Trip 10/29-11/5

[dedex13]

We had such a fabulous time on our trip I just have to share!

We arrived at the hotel around 10pm on October 29, got our Express Passes and went straight to bed in anticipation of early entry to IOA.

Once at the park, DD got in line for Ollivanders and I hopped over to the fruit cart real quick for something to eat. Alas, they did not have bananas so I settled for a croissant which I stuffed into my bag as we were ushered into the shop.

Once that was done, we headed over to the Forbidden Journey (with me now stuffing the croissant into my mouth... which probably had a lot to do with why I then got queasy on almost every ride we tried).

Then it was on to Flight of the Hippogriff. Then Dragon Challenge where we got some nice pics of the castle.

And one of the Weasley's much abused car. (Doesn't my lovely DD look amused? At this point she is already starting to regret her promise that if we were to do this trip she was to allow me to take as many pictures as I wanted!)

We then hopped on the front row of the Chinese Dragon side. So awesome! We used the shortcut and got right back on the Horntail side (front row again!). My daughter was disturbed that it appeared we were riding in the dragon's mouth, but the front seat is by far the best! We liked the red side better... we were told the red is faster and the blue was twistier, so I guess we go for speed!

Time then for a break and some butterbeer. So into the Hog's Head, where we sat out on the patio and enjoyed our drinks.

I had not planned on doing the Dr. Suess area this day, but had read that the High in the Sky Trolley would be closing so we decided to hop on that. Unfortunately, only one side was running. This ride was really a lot of fun and I'm rather sad that we were only able to ride it the once (just another reason to go back, though, right?).

Then I thought we would watch Oh! The Stories You'll Hear! but it seemed we were too late, but we were able to grab a photo op with the Cat in the Hat.

And the Grinch, who my daughter would not pose with because she thinks he's creepy, but I had no such qualms.

Then we moved on to the Hulk, where we got some more PhotoConnect pictures.

This was our first time on this ride and whoaa! it is so much fun! Provided I'm not sitting in the back, that is. I had planned to ride Dr. Doom's Fearfall, but my daughter did not really want to and, as mentioned earlier, I was getting queasy on almost everything and figured we would skip it for now. This is the one ride that I really did want to try, but every time I told her I was going to do it a reason always seemed to come up where I ended up not. So I never did ride it (yet another reason we HAVE to go back).

Next we went over to Spiderman. We decided to wait in the regular line for the photo op, but they ushered us right by it! Very disappointing, but the ride itself was not. My daughter absolutely adores Spiderman. I don't know why since she is terrified of Spiders. On the Harry Potter ride I had to yell at her to open her eyes for the pictures (I wasn't always successful). This was the worst ride for my stomach and I ended up with my hand over my mouth and I may have turned a bit green. Surprisingly, while I was queasy while on the ride, as soon as I was off and drank a little water I was fine.

We decided to skip the two water rides in Toon Lagoon since we did not want to get really wet, but did chance JP River Adventure. Unfortunately, our ride was disrupted by a rude guest who refused to remove his hat. Evidence here that Big Brother is watching because they notified him 4 times to remove it (at first I thought it was part of the ride, but when you hear "you, in row 4 remove your hat" you can be pretty sure it's not) and finally halted the ride right below the tyrannosaur. He did remove the hat, but our ride was ruined since the tyrannosaur also ceased moving and geez, talk about banishing the illusion!

We had lunch at Mythos which had beautiful theming. I found the food to be just okay, but then something has to be really, really good for me to think it's more than just okay, so I'm not complaining. The gooey banana cake was outstanding, though. My daughter, who didn't want dessert, ended up eating at least half and then kept saying "but it was a small cake" when I ragged her about eating up my dessert. Next time she will just have to get her own!

By this time I was dead on my feet, so we headed back to the resort where I decided to lie down for a few minutes and then we were going to go down to the lobby so my daughter could get started on her math homework. Well I must have fallen immediately to sleep without even knowing it because I got up and told my daughter we could head down to the lobby and she was like, but Mom it's 4 o'clock... you were asleep for 2 hours! Yikes. So no homework for her this day, but on to Universal Studios.

We decided to ride the boat over and I must post this picture of my daughter I took while we were waiting because she is just so cute...

First we did Despicable Me. I was okay at the beginning, but again quite queasy by the end. Why are these rides so long? Then Rip Ride Rocket, Animal Actors show, and ET. I had intended to ride Transformers, but after feeling so bad on Spiderman, I decided not to risk it. Instead, we moved on to the Mummy.

This ride was so awesome! After the Mummy we rode MIB, which DD didn't really care for... she didn't like the spinning which surprisingly didn't really bother me. By then it was close to time for the Cinematic Spectacular, which we also really enjoyed.

We returned to the hotel and decided to have dinner at Jake's. We booth had the roast beef on a pretzel roll and were both a little disappointed. It was actually roast beef, not deli roast beef and mine was a little fatty. Regardless, the coolest thing happened while we were eating. After Spiderman, my daughter's next favorite character is Scooby Doo. And who should I see sneaking up behind her? I bit my tongue and hoped she wouldn't freak out (she doesn't much care for people touching her and she says the costumed characters creep her out).

But she didn't and was just as pleased as punch to meet him! It was a really wonderful way to cap off our first day. We had such a great time even with me getting sick on just about everything!

Next post... Unmasking the Horror and HHN!

 

[schumigirl]

What a lovely day you had.....really lovely pictures.

I love Scooby Doo too.....interaction with him in the hotel is amazing...they spend so much time with you.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip

 

[dedex13]

HALLOWEEN

I decided to do HHN on Halloween because I thought it would be less crowded. I was probably wrong, but we still had a great time!

Since I knew we would be up late, we slept in and then went down and had breakfast in the Islands dining room. Here is a more typical picture of my daughter:

Islands was a lovely dining area and the juice they served was quite delicious. I had the eggs benedict and my daughter had the "banana split" yogurt concoction. Both were quite good. When we were done with breakfast, we headed to the lobby so my daughter could get her math homework done. The internet connection was a bit slow, but she had it all finished in an hour and a half or so.

We then headed over to US where I wanted to take a quick look in the store for the HHN t-shirt I wanted. I wasn't able to find it, so we made our way over to the VIP lounge (my daughter thought it was funny that we exited the park about 5 minutes after we were admitted) and waited there for our tour guides to arrive. Since there was only one group, we got two guides, which was awesome.

The first house we visited was La Llorona

This house was so creepy and the detail was incredible. Half of the stuff I didn't even see when we went through the house later on. Like these sad little skeletons...

My daughter and I were discussing how scared she would be and thought she would probably be alright. The tour guide expressed the opinion that I was the one who would have problems, because I already looked terrified. I seriously don't know what he was talking about, but he did later manage to spook me by jumping out at me. I wish I could remember his name, because he was a really fabulous guide.

So after La Llorona, we took a break for drinks and bathroom (it was quite hot in there and we were all covered in sweat by the time we made it out), and then we headed over the the next house on our tour, Cabin in the Woods...

And I will have to continue later as I must now get ready for work.

 

[Metro West]

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[macraven]

i'm still with you on the trippie.


love your pictures

 

[SoarinSC]

Awesome trip report so far! Looking forward to more!

Love the Scooby pic

 

[dedex13]

HALLOWEEN CONTINUED...

We were very excited to see the Cabin in the Woods house since we love the movie. And it didn't disappoint.

First thing you see when you walk in is the cabin

We learned some interesting things here, like those are real logs and the coat them with fire retardant stuff every week. And they had originally planned to have a scare actor (the mother redneck zombie) out here, but with the brush that was lying around she would have no where to escape to if a guest came after her. Personally, I think that worked out for the best because it was cool just taking in the cabin itself.

The inside of the cabin was recreated in such detail it was amazing.

As was the cellar.

One of the things that impressed me the most on this tour was all the "little" touches that were included that are mostly lost when going through the house in the dark, but are included anyway. The amount of time and effort that goes into it is just incredible.

We toured through the installation. And learned an interesting tidbit about the blood. They didn't tell us how they make it... but they did tell us about "blood day" where they take one day and do all the blood in all the houses. Which sounds like a lot of fun! Here's a random picture, just because my daughter is so cute and all.

Well, this report is going to come in small bits since I only get on the computer for about an hour in the morning before work, and it is that time once again (for me to get ready for work).

 

[dedex13]

HALLOWEEN CONCLUDED

The last house we toured was American Werewolf in London.

Another of the interesting tidbits we learned here was that this area was purposely made super-cold to capture the atmosphere from the film.

This house is basically just bits from the movie, lovingly recreated. Like the bullet holes in the wall from the scene with the Nazi Demons.

We probably spent the most time in this house (which did not please my daughter because it was quite cold in there). The tour guide was obviously a huge fan of the movie and so in addition to the details about the house we learned some interesting things about the movie as well.

And how can I not include a picture of one of the incredible wolf puppets?

After the tour we had to skedaddle on to our Finnegan's reservation. We were only a couple of minutes late and so were seated fairly quickly. I have to say the Tipperary Corned Beef sandwich was delicious and probably my favorite meal the whole trip. When we were finished, we went out to join the masses waiting for the real fun to start.

My daughter and I had no clue what we were doing, so when we were released we just followed the crowd and ended up in line for American Werewolf in London. The effect of the entrance was impeded by the people in front of us who were taking flash pictures. But the rest of the house was a lot of fun. A nazi demon got me real good! So we were off to a roaring start.

I won't go into our experiences at all the houses, but I will say I turned out to be one of those people the scare actors targeted. Not necessarily because I was afraid, but because I am easily startled (everyone I work with knows not to sneak up on me). So everyone who leapt out at me got a reaction. My daughter would no longer walk behind me because I kept jumping backward into her. So she walked ahead and laughed at me every time I shrieked. My daughter, who tends to get paranoid about things jumping out at her, fared quite well (it helped that there were no spiders ). She insists at one point she stared down a zombie (I think it was in Walking Dead) who tried to startle her but slunk off in shame instead.

We did not find the event at all scary, but we still had a marvelous time touring the houses! The street experiences left much to be desired, though, not being Walking Dead fans (I mean, seriously, is there some zombie queen somewhere giving birth to those hordes? I watch it, but find the zombie stuff laughable). We did not go to either of the shows, since we did not arrive in those areas at a convenient time and didn't want to back track (also I was not sure how appropriate they would be for my 15 year old daughter). We rode a couple of rides, did American Werewolf in London a second time and were done before 10. The Express Passes really helped and we didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes for anything. In fact, I think we spent more time walking through those incredibly long queues (and exits) then we actually spent waiting!

Here are the pictures from the rides and you can tell by looking at them that my daughter was having a blast!

 

[schumigirl]

Love the ride pics..........looks like you really enjoyed your visit