THURSDAY MAY 1ST
We slept like rocks last night, I don`t think either of us woke the whole night and we did feel incredibly refreshed this morning so we were both up with the larks and along for breakfast which was nice as always.
There was a lady as soon as we walked in the lounge complaining her room hadn`t been serviced yesterday, well...if you leave the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, they won`t come in. Apparently that wasn`t good enough for them, some folks will complain about anything if they can. The staff deal with so many things and they do it so well!!!
We didn`t have much this morning as we had a plan for a mid morning snack and lunch in the park too, so some fruit and a very small croissant for us both today, tea for me and Tom`s usual coffee and we were done, a quick chat with the ladies and we headed down to get the boat as we planned to hit the Studios today.
We only waited a few moments for a boat and we were on our way and getting off in Citywalk the weather was a little odd, it was lovely and hot for the time of morning, but there was also a lovely little cool breeze too, odd as it`s usually one or the other. This is one of the reasons we love May, that blazing summer heat just hasn`t kicked in yet, the weather is usually perfect.
The Facial Recognition they have implemented is excellent, we never had to show our AP once going through the gates this trip and we never felt held up going through the turnstiles at any time which happened so many times before, so fingers crossed it stays that way.
Walking into the Studios is always lovely. When someone asks which park is our favourite, I would be tempted to automatically say IOA without thinking, but there is something about Studios, we spend a lot of time here and maybe this is our favourite park after all??
We love them both I guess.
Before we left in September the Wicked Store hadn`t opened yet, we knew it wasn`t a huge deal, just a few displays and of course merchandise.....but we still wanted to see it for ourselves and see if it was as disappointing as we had been told.
The Wizard of Oz is one of my favourite childhood movies, Wicked is our favourite Broadway show so some very high expectations to live up to. I had already dismissed the new movie as nonsense and will never watch it again nor will I watch the second part, but I did hope this little display would be decent.
As expected they had a variety of outfits from the cast and they did look good, just not as realistic as they are in the show, but it was nice to see and you would recognise most of them straight away if you know the story.
In the musical Shiz is the Co-Ed University and made up of different colleges a little like the way Oxford and Cambridge are, Galinda admits in the book Crage Hall is not one of the better college`s, ladies only and more akin to a general studies college.
Madame Morrible is the Headmistress and she is one of the best characters in the musical for sure. We`ve seen five different actresses play the part and by far the best one was Rondi Reed, most famous to us as Mike`s mum in Mike & Molly on tv. She was incredible in that part and the audience loved her, she had previously played the part in 2009 too.
Although we have seen different actresses play Galinda and Elphaba, my personal favourites were Alli Mauzey and Willemijn Verkaik, the latter being Dutch and had played played the role of Elphaba more times than any other actress in the world and the only one to play it using three different languages, English, Dutch and German.
(Getty Images)
Real men love pink!!!
I think this was our favourite display in the store, it does remind one of the famous scene in the movie with the wizard.
It was ok, nothing special, but a good place to enjoy the aircon and have a wander for 5-10 minutes. It is basically a merch opportunity and I do have to say nothing in the merchandise made me want to buy anything...which is unusual for me. I expected to want several items, but nothing stood out to me.
I would go back in again, but really just for a heat break.
It wasn`t too early in the day, but the park was still almost deserted this morning and that`s not a complaint, it`s practically perfect when it`s as quiet as this, and perfect for picture ops without folks in it, some days that just even an option when you have folks everywhere.
We did hope to do Bourne this year again, it started quite late in the morning for us and we might be gone before it did open, but it is such a good show to experience we did want to see it again, we`d try!!!
And of course the lovely Marilyn was out and about for pictures, so we had to get a picture, the man with her kindly took pictures of both of us instead of me just taking one with Tom. Someone had mentioned to me some of the handlers for want of a better word won`t take pictures anymore, but we hadn`t come across that yet.
This lady was a very good Marilyn!!
Five and Dime is a fun store to wander around, they used to have amazing HHN displays in here but it is a shadow of what it used to be for most of the year now, I forget what they did in September if it was a big deal, but the fact I can`t remember tells me probably not.
The lady who works here used to work in the Horror Make up Show for a few years after that one woman left who had been a greeter for many years. Some of the longer term visitors will remember she used to wander around the pre show area with a rubber hand and arm and would catch people out all the time by just gently touching them on the shoulder or hand as they wandered round the displays or were just waiting for the show. She was very slight and at times she blended in to the background, so much so you never really noticed her.
She looked a little like The Story Teller from HHN, she was a real iconic character over many years of that event. She was the main icon in 2005 for Tales of Terror that year and returned with some of the other Icons from past years including the infamous (and best) Jack the Clown, The Usher, The Director and The Caretaker for a later HHN.
I do remember several years ago through a SA couple we know we met one of the actors who played one of the Jack`s in that later era.....you would never believe it was the same person!!! Lovely guy, very soft spoken and quite gentle almost, and to then think of the Jack character, well it was odd!!!
In Five and Dime they have the same displays that have been there for a while and they recently in the last couple of years added the chair for photo ops, which was the chair that used to be displayed at the exterior of the old Monster Cafe which is now the Minions eating place. So, of course you have to sit on it and pretend you`re being shocked. Not the best actress below!!!
Five and Dime used to be incredible to explore during HHN`s. The displays were elaborate and well designed and probably this was the last year we felt they put as much effort into the store display when they had the infamous carriage as a centre piece and it was adorned with all sorts of Halloween and various horror memorabilia as well as the surrounding areas and walls too.
This was in 2019.
This is one of my favourite streets in the Studios, although....I do say that a lot too!!! There are usually plenty of characters around from The Simpsons, Scooby Doo and Marilyn of course, but it`s such a pretty street with some lovely facades.
The AP store in the Studios this year was in the old Williams of Hollywood, we didn`t go in today but we would have a wander on another day. TM`s can get discounted goods too so you do find them rummaging around and there are some very good bargains from out of season merchandise.
The Horror Make-up Show is one of the classics in this park, it has been running forever and is fabulous. It`s entertaining and has some cool props and clips from old movies. There is a little fake gore but it is family friendly.
Our favourite TM`s to do the show are the lovely Summer Aiello who is the wife of the famous HHN guru Mike Aiello and she has worked for UOR forever it seems and Robyn Kelly who was a proper actress before moving to UO, both fit the roles they play wonderfully. They are very entertaining, but even if it`s the other guy, I think his name is Alex, it`s still good but these two ladies have the perfect chemistry that lifts the show that little bit more.
It`s a show you shouldn`t miss.
I know I`ve mentioned this window several times before but Universal are wonderful at honouring past and present folks who were/are essential to the growth and success of UOR, it`s a nice touch and there are so many of them around the park where you could assume they were just made up names for effect.
Blaine Kern is known as Mr Mardi Gras He founded Kern Studios in 1947 and they created mahoosive and very elaborate floats for the annual Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana. From there it transformed into a huge entertainment business and he ended up with some incredible clients that he supplied to for their Mardi Gras parades most famously Universal Studios.
He died in 2020 aged 93, everyone described him as a man who could still light up a room till the day he passed. Sounds a decent guy, but his contributions to the success of MG at UOR is immense.
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We wandered into Central Park area and immediately noticed the huge statue of Lew Wasserman that used to stand outside of Louie`s Pizza restaurant, we had wondered where it had gone last year!!!
It had only recently been put in now what will be his final place and an excellent tribute to another man who helped make Universal Studios what it is too. He is described as Hollywood’s ultimate mover and shaker and the last of the legendary movie moguls. His history is impressive to say the least and some of the things he was responsible for are quite incredible.
It was time for ET.
A ride that will never leave UOR thankfully, it is utterly charming and although technology wise it`s not up there with the greats, it is however essential to ride it at least once every trip and usually more!
I lose count of how many times we give our name for our intergalactic pass and ET has never said our name at the end, it is a hit or miss usually, but we always do it anyway and use our real names which so many don`t do lol.....
Pictures through the line never seem to come out very well, occasionally we will walk through the regular line for them, but today the EP line was just Tom and I, not another soul in it, so we went straight to the front.
I like the seats on this ride, but I admit I find the first part of the ride before you fly to be incredibly noisy, I`m not usually averse to loud rides but this one hits different and I tend to cover my ears until we fly. I think maybe that`s just a "me" thing as no one else seems to feel it`s overly loud. Tom thinks it`s connected to me having Misophonia which is a strong reaction to things like people making a noise when eating and it a disgust reaction usually and I have to remove myself, same with some nose and throat sounds that some people make. I`m no expert so maybe he`s right.
I do however love loud music so who knows 
I have one friend who also has it, but she gets obscenely distracted by simpler things things like someone tapping a keyboard for more than about 5 seconds which is quite extreme and you can tell when she is getting "antsy" lol....we make quite the pair!
I digress again!!
We came out and the new area for Shrek and Dreamworks is right there, I admit this area is not really for us apart from Shrek that we do love, we have never seen anything Troll related nor have we seen the Panda movie, so it`s somewhere we explored once and that was enough.
I do however like King Harold`s Swamp Symphony. That is fun even as an adult to jump around and make the frogs play. Not too energetic even for this one!!
(Yes, I can jump)
More to come 
it’s a good idea though to check and recheck to avoid those darn charges!
I hope this one lives up to the rest, always lovely to read so many comments along the way 
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