mark&sue
<font color=teal>I keep trying to convert everybod
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2004
- Messages
- 5,510
We packed up all our cases and sadly said goodbye to the treehouse. I am not as sad as I would have been if I had not already booked next March/April's stay at the Treehouse.
We make the fairly quick trip to The Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. We knew we had to stay on site as it is very busy time in the US as it is their school holidays (although not in England) and the front of the line pass is a must. Also as it turns out it would have been virtually impossible to do the Harry Potter ride without the early morning on site opening.
Luckily for us our room is ready.
As we are too late to do the early morning entry the plan is to do Harry Potter land tomorrow morning and the next day on the morning we fly home.
We take the fairly quick walk from our hotel to the parks. It is now around 11.00 and Mark, Kirsty and me need to queue up to get our annual passes as we only have the vouchers that we paid for a few months ago. It is a shame there is no front of the line pass for this as we have to wait for about 45 mins. We agree to split up from Vicky and Des and arrange to meet up for dinner tonight. Luckily when we come back in April we will all have our passes.
Finally we get our annual passes. There is no photo on it like in previous years (luckily so or we would still be waiting in the queue). We go to the original studios park and want to try the new rip ride rocket ride. It is heaving and there is no express pass. Mark and Kirsty go on the single rider queue and I wimp out (got to try it next year!!!). I enjoy waiting for them as the Brazillian tour groups are in full force and I have to laugh out loud when I see a guy come off the ride still holding his flag but looks the worse for wear.
Next it is off to the mummy for one of my fav rides here. Felt even better than usual but I get annoyed at having to use the locker and sit out the men in black ride as I can't be bothered to use it again.
Now to do another ride which is new, the Simpson Ride. We love this ride and get some photos to remind us when we exit,
You can see a Brazillian tour group in this photo but this time they have a blow up balloon thing instead of a flag!
We come across a character I have not heard of but Kirsty says we should get a photo with "Despicable Me" so we do
By now we are really hungry so leave the park and go to the new improved Nascar restaurant. The food here is much better and so are the cocktails.
Fully refreshed we take the river taxi back to the hotel to unpack and chill out.
We booked a suite and it is truly lovely
Note you can see the bucket of margaritta mix!! which we bring with us along with the vodka
This hotel is lovely and we much prefer it to the Hard Rock Hotel which we stayed in a few years ago and will definately try and book here next year. The themeing is lovely. We are really impressed.
We get ready for dinner and meet Vicky and Des in the lobby. We are hoping to go to Bubba Shrimp but the wait is at least 45 minutes and we are starving so try Pat O'Briens which is a walk in.
I think we all have a hurricane cocktail which is delish
some overhead photos taken on my way to the upstairs ladies!!!
The menu here is strangely not Irish but from New Orleans and I had some thing crayfish in it.
As you can see from the photo probably not the best meal of the holiday!
We finished off our meal and drinks and went and done some shopping in the shops opposite. Mark bought some more sunglasses this time some oakley ones and Kirsty got a jumper (she must have foreseen the miserable August we were due to have in the UK)
As we were due to get up early we made it back to the hotel after a lovely first day at universal (but still missing Disney of course)
Susan
We make the fairly quick trip to The Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. We knew we had to stay on site as it is very busy time in the US as it is their school holidays (although not in England) and the front of the line pass is a must. Also as it turns out it would have been virtually impossible to do the Harry Potter ride without the early morning on site opening.
Luckily for us our room is ready.
As we are too late to do the early morning entry the plan is to do Harry Potter land tomorrow morning and the next day on the morning we fly home.
We take the fairly quick walk from our hotel to the parks. It is now around 11.00 and Mark, Kirsty and me need to queue up to get our annual passes as we only have the vouchers that we paid for a few months ago. It is a shame there is no front of the line pass for this as we have to wait for about 45 mins. We agree to split up from Vicky and Des and arrange to meet up for dinner tonight. Luckily when we come back in April we will all have our passes.
Finally we get our annual passes. There is no photo on it like in previous years (luckily so or we would still be waiting in the queue). We go to the original studios park and want to try the new rip ride rocket ride. It is heaving and there is no express pass. Mark and Kirsty go on the single rider queue and I wimp out (got to try it next year!!!). I enjoy waiting for them as the Brazillian tour groups are in full force and I have to laugh out loud when I see a guy come off the ride still holding his flag but looks the worse for wear.
Next it is off to the mummy for one of my fav rides here. Felt even better than usual but I get annoyed at having to use the locker and sit out the men in black ride as I can't be bothered to use it again.
Now to do another ride which is new, the Simpson Ride. We love this ride and get some photos to remind us when we exit,
You can see a Brazillian tour group in this photo but this time they have a blow up balloon thing instead of a flag!
We come across a character I have not heard of but Kirsty says we should get a photo with "Despicable Me" so we do
By now we are really hungry so leave the park and go to the new improved Nascar restaurant. The food here is much better and so are the cocktails.
Fully refreshed we take the river taxi back to the hotel to unpack and chill out.
We booked a suite and it is truly lovely
Note you can see the bucket of margaritta mix!! which we bring with us along with the vodka
This hotel is lovely and we much prefer it to the Hard Rock Hotel which we stayed in a few years ago and will definately try and book here next year. The themeing is lovely. We are really impressed.
We get ready for dinner and meet Vicky and Des in the lobby. We are hoping to go to Bubba Shrimp but the wait is at least 45 minutes and we are starving so try Pat O'Briens which is a walk in.
I think we all have a hurricane cocktail which is delish
some overhead photos taken on my way to the upstairs ladies!!!
The menu here is strangely not Irish but from New Orleans and I had some thing crayfish in it.
As you can see from the photo probably not the best meal of the holiday!
We finished off our meal and drinks and went and done some shopping in the shops opposite. Mark bought some more sunglasses this time some oakley ones and Kirsty got a jumper (she must have foreseen the miserable August we were due to have in the UK)
As we were due to get up early we made it back to the hotel after a lovely first day at universal (but still missing Disney of course)
Susan
