Once we finishing making the rounds with the various Dr. Seuss characters, we decided it was time that we went over to check out the other park. So far this trip we had only checked out Islands of Adventure since that was where the WWoHP was. We had also promised our little girl that we would take her to see a special show, and that show was over at Universal Orlando.
We didn’t get too far making our way out of Islands of Adventure before we stumbled upon another friendly character.
Why, yes, that would be Woody Woodpecker! Do kids nowadays even know who that is? Our little girl sure did, or seemed to. She was so excited to meet ……Red Robin! (yum!) Yes, she thought it was Red Robin, from one of her favorite restaurants. I found it hilarious. If anyone tried to argue with her and say that it was Woody Woodpecker, she would get very upset and defensive. “No! It’s Red Robin!” Okay, okay, sheesh.
Anyways, back to our mission at hand. It was time for the show over at Universal. We were heading out to A Day in the Park with Barney.
Sigh. Yes, we were going to watch the big purple dinosaur in action. As we were researching the trip, we saw this Barney show and knew there would be no escaping it. We would have to go see it at least once. We were a little early for the next show, so we passed some time at the indoor play area. Then it was time for a little preshow.
Our little girl watched the little show, but really, she was only there for one reason. Barney.
Now, as much as I cringe whenever I hear his voice or hear some of the insanely catchy songs (because I know they will then be running on repeat in my head) the show actually was pretty cute. It was basically the most popular songs from the show sung by Barney, Baby Bop and BJ. Plus, it was just short enough that I enjoyed it, at least once. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it if I had to sit through it multiple times. The other bonus – the theater was air conditioned.
Our reward for sitting through the Barney show was a special meet and greet after the show ended. I had done my research on the show and taken note of which exit would ensure an early spot in line, the faster to get it all done and over with. Well, my research paid off, we were second in line.
Does it surprise you that our little girl gave Barney the biggest hug?
She looks like such a big girl in this picture, it makes me a little sad. They grow up so fast!
After saying good-bye to Barney, we high tailed it back to the hotel. It was swimming time. Those of you who have traveled to the World in the summer know that those pool breaks are a life saver. We were anxious to cool off before the daily thunderstorm rolled in. It was also our third day at Universal and we were only there for one more night at the Hard Rock. So it was back to WWoHP for the evening, our last planned venture there.
I definitely enjoying touring Hogsmeade more when it’s evening. The sun has set and it just gives the area a slightly more authentic feel, probably because the books tend to get darker and gloomier as they progress.
The sign at the entrance says “Please respect the spell limits.”
I seriously do love the Hogwarts express. If they really do expand the park and include rides on the train, I am so there!
I mean, I already have this fantastic little lanyard. Yes, while I would like to think that I would be sorted into Gryffindor, I am pretty sure I’d end up in Hufflepuff instead. We’ll just continue to pretend and go about in my little fantasy, shall we?
This looks like a fun little plant shop, no?
Since that was one of those false store fronts, I decided it was about time I headed inside the Three Broomsticks.
See the windows at the top?
Every once in a while, you would see a shadow pass the window or across the ceiling. I stared at the ceiling for a long time with my camera hoping to capture it, but to no avail. There is only so long I can stand there before I get summoned by the little one.
We had fun just walking around the park and going on a few rides. Of course I ended up on the Dragon’s Challenge about 4 more times, in a row. We split up briefly so our neice and nephew could go on the Hulk and we took our little girl on one last walk through of Seuss Land.
It was definitely getting late by that point and we decided to head back to get some dinner at Citywalk.
We ended up at Bubba Gump Shrimp again, mostly because it was the one place we could all agree on and that didn’t have a super long wait. The next morning, we packed up our bags and checked out of the hotel and loaded the car. Our Universal park tickets were still good for that last day, so we wanted to get all squared away early on. We would move to the new hotel later on in the day when we were done with the park.
We had already done all the attractions that we had wanted to do over at Islands of Adventure, but barely had any time over at Universal, so that was where we were planning to spend a majority of our day. That was the plan anyways…..
I don’t have a ton of pics from this day, but I do remember that we hit up the Simpson’s ride, the Men in Black ride, the Mummy Returns ride and visited the purple dinosaur again. My thoughts on the rides??
Simpsons – um, as I was never really a huge Simpsons fan, it isn’t something that I would need to do again. I made the mistake of listening to everyone else around me when they said that our little girl would be fine on this ride. It is motion simulator type ride, but it was definitely not for my little girl (the no thrill seeking type of girl). She had the death grip on my arm and I was holding on to her for dear life. It didn’t help that we were apparently trying to escape an evil clown or something from killing us. Um, scary much? Funny part was that both my husband and my brother-in-law were in the back row of the car with hands over their eyes because they were so nauseous. Nice. Please don’t throw up on us over in the front of the car.
Men in Black – fun, but nothing special. Reminds me of a darker version of Buzz Lightyear. I did okay on the scoring, but the random guy next to me totally blew my score away. Our little girl was off with my husband during this ride. He was pretty much done with rides at this point, so we had a single rider in our car. I think our little girl was off with my husband at this point….
The Mummy ride – I really liked this ride! I thought it was a lot of fun and made my husband go on it afterwards. I told him he wouldn’t feel sick and that he would like it. Funny part – I ended up sitting next to the same single rider again. Weird coinky-dink.
My hubby will kill me for posting this pic, but…….
There was barely any wait for most of the rides and we were also able to utilize the express pass thing since we had stayed on property so we knocked out a ton of rides early on. The rest of the family decided to go on the ET ride and Jaws, but I decided to hit up Fievel’s playground with our little girl.
She wasn’t able to slide down so she decided she would just walk on down instead. Probably better since I’m sure the surface was piping hot. It was getting hot out.
This playground also had a mini “waterpark”/splash area and our little girl thought she would test out the splash area.
Apparently I should have packed an extra change of clothes because she got carried away.
Dripping wet. Soaking wet. Good thing it was super hot out. Don’t worry, she soon dried out and was still a happy camper.
(continued - 2 posts for this update!)
that ride.
A lot of the Universal characters seem out of date to me so I'd imagine there are a lot of confused kiddos.
for arriving back at Disney!
more on that to come.
Butterbeer shots maybe????
I remember when that ride was still Back to the Future. Definitely not a ride for a non-thrill seeker. 
I think someone may have had a flight delay.
Woo hoo for DTD!
