We wanted to get on some rides, but the Lucy: A Tribute attraction was right near Guest Relations, and my mom and I LOVE Lucy, so we had to go in there. It was a small museum with lots of information and memorabilia from the show. There were blown-up pictures of famous scenes from Lucy, like when she dressed up as Superman and got stuck on the ledge outside of their building during Little Ricky's birthday party
There were also miniature recreations of the Lucy sets (including the kitchen, living room, and bedroom of Lucy and Ricky's NYC apartment, and Ricky's club) which were really interesting. They had a special section dedicated to the Life and Times of Desi Arnez, and Lucy's career before the TV show. They also had a really fun trivia game. You had to answer different questions about I Love Lucy, and with each question you answered correctly a little car carrying Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel would move a little farther west from NY. The ultimate goal was to get the four of them to California. My mom did great, as did I (OK, I cheated a little bit and looked at mymom's answers once or twice... shhh!
)
My mom by the entrance of Lucy: A Tribute
The section dedicated to Desi Arnez
My mom and Mike playing the trivia game
Recreations of the "I Love Lucy" sets
The Lucy gift shop was connected to the museum, and was just as big, if not bigger, than the museum itself. They had a lot of cute things, but nothing that I hadn't seen before. I got a Lucy afghan for either Chanukah or Christmas two years ago, I don't remember which, with a picture of Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel in the car driving to California, and they had a bunch of different afghans that were nice. They were pretty expensive, though. Definitely more money than the one I had gotten, and it was fromthe exact same company. I wound up getting a Lucy swivel key chain. It's a big silver heart, and in the middle is a thick heart that has the outline of Lucy's face on one side, and says I Love Lucy on the other, and it swivels around. It was $6.95 + tax, but wound up paying only $4.95 (tax included!) with my dad's 35% employee discount! Nice! My mom just got a pressed penny that said "I Love Lucy". The Betty Boop store was also connected to the Lucy store so we looked around for a little while, but we didn't buy anything.
We left and walked down the main street, Hollywood Boulevard, to go find some rides. Jimmy Neutron had a 60 minute wait and Shrek 4D had a 45 minute wait, so we decided to skip them. It was a lot of fun walking around the streets of Universal. Since NBC now owns them they had huge posters and billboards all over from NBC shows, including Joey and The Apprentice. They also had other NBC memorabilia, as well as memorabilia and props from Universal films. I absolutely LOVED it!
Walking down Hollywood Boulevard
The Classic Monster Cafe
The "Twister" building, adorned with billboards for NBC shows
The New York Public Library
We passed Twister: Ride It Out next, and there was only a 20-minute wait, so we hopped in line. Well, my dad and I did. For some reason my mom thought it was a simulator, and Mike realized that it didn't and wanted to go on something that actually moved, so they didn't come on. I kept assuring my mom that it was just a special effects show, and I told Mike that I knew he would like it, but they both refused to listen, saying that I had never been on it before. Maybe not, but don't you know that I'm an expert on all things Orlando?! I KNEW what the attraction was, but whatever... they're loss. Dad and I got on line, and they had all memorabilia and props from the movie. They had the truck that Heather Hunt and Bill Paxton used to chase the tornado in the film, and a water tower saying "Wakita", which is where the movie took place. The line moved pretty quickly. It was SO hot out, and the line was outdoors, but we hardly felt the heat. Universal had HUGE fans and mist machines all over the place, and they really cooled the area down. Throughout our trip Universal DEFINITELY did the best job of keeping everyone cool.
The Wakita water tower
The storm-chasing van
After about 20 minutes, the time approximations were always right, we were let into the pre-show room. We were towards the front of the line when the doors opened, so we went all the way to the front. We all stood in a big room, and the lights dimmed and a movie came on. It was Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt welcoming us, and telling us about how they made the movie. They showed some of the most action-packed scenes from the film, including when a family tries to run down to their cellar but the dog is left outside, so the dad goes back and lets the dog in, but the wind is too strong for him to get the door closed again, and he winds up blowing away into the tornado. Mike and I LOVED this movie when it first came out, and that part always really scared the crap out of us, so it was cool to see again!
They also talked about the different categories of Tornados. It's pretty crazy and very scary how powerful those things are
Finally Helen and Bill told us how making the film was one of the craziest experiences either of them had ever lived through, and now it was our turn to experience the sheer force and unpredictability of a tornado. I was SO excited... our first Orlando attraction!
Next we went into another room, which was really just a long row with a little curve that brought you to the doors to the next room. It was really dark and damp, and there were fallen trees and broken furniture all over the place. We wound up standing in front of the middle of three doors, right under a huge car crashing through the roof
It was set up to look just like the destroyed house in the movie, and it was very, very cool. After a few minutes the lights again dimmed and a few small screens throughout the room started showing real footage shot by actual storm chasers. It was RIDICULOUS; why people are crazy enough to go chase after a tornado, I don't know. The footage was amazing, though.
After two to three minutes the doors opened and we were ushered into the main room, which was set up like a drive-in. The man moving us along was warning us that there was a tornado warning issued in the area, and said that we were crazy to be going to a drive-in. There were three rows with a railing dividing them, and each row was a little lower than the one behind it so the people in each row could see. We went into the back row, and walked all the way down to the end.
After a few seconds the room went completely dark, and the sound stage came to life. You could see a horror movie playing on the screen, and cars parked all around. All of a sudden lightening started flashing and there were loud claps of thunder. Then we saw the tornado in the background, coming closer and closer by the second. Out of nowhere it started POURING on the sound stage, and they dropped water in the back of the three rows, so of course my dad and I got our backs wet. I wasn't expecting that, and I screamed like CRAZY when that water hit me!
it was hysterical! As the tornado got closer we could hear the whistling of the wind, and the rain kept getting harder and harder. Eventually the tornado was right in front of us, and we were in the middle of the action! Power lines fell and sparks flew, a car crashed into the gas station and exploded with intense heat, a cow flew past us... it was great! Finally the tornado reached us, and the tin oaring above us came flying down really fast... it seriously looked like it was going to smack us all in the face. Then the floor shook and the lights went out... and the exit doors opened. AMAZING! Definitely the best sound stage attraction I had ever seen.
We were let out into a gift shop, where my mom and Mike were waiting for us. We told them how fun the attraction was, and how it wasn't a simulator. We decided to come back another time so we could all see it again. While we were seeing the show, my mom and Mike had gone over to The Mummy to try to get Universal Express passes, but the return time was for 8:00, and the ride was broken down, so we decided we would do it another time. My mom bought two ankle bracelets in the Twister gift shop (using my dad's discount, of course
), and then we left to see what else we could find to do.
Coming Up Next - I'll Never Go Back in the Water!
I see you're from Breezy. EVERYONE in my neighborhood belongs to the Breezy Point beach club! What are the odds of that?!
However, he didn't mean to wake me up, he was just getting the camera so he could charge the battery. It was my mom that woke me up, anyway 
