What are some of your favorite Universal vacation memories?

[Snoopymom]

There are a lot of these type of threads (...marriage proposals, seeing a child's reaction to a character, a silly moment, an embarrassing relative, an unexpected act of kindness by a stranger, a special CM interaction etc.) on the WDW board, and I'd love to hear some happy, funny or even sentimental memories that will help those of us who are going to Univ & IOA for the first time, get excited. Thanks a bunch!

 

[lfdianne]

Ok, I'll go first. My daughter is 14 and LOVES Spiderman. She has Spiderman posters, calendar, t-shirts, etc in her room. She had to write a paper for her 9th grade English class on their hero, and she wrote hers on Spiderman. So the ride and the chance to meet Spiderman were big on her list of things to do at IOA. It was late in the afternoon when she and I met up again (she and our 9 yo had gone off on their own for part of the day), and headed back to the Spiderman photo op location. As we were walking up the street, we heard sirens, and an announcement over the speaker that the superheroes were coming. and they all came riding atvs down that main street, pulled into a courtyard, jumped off and ran to their locations. We followed Spiderman to his spot and were like 3rd in line. When she got up there, she turned shy, and slightly embarrassed because most of the kids in line were little boys. lol So me, being the pushy mom I am, got her up next to him and started snapping away, commenting about how much she loves spiderman, etc. I couldn't help myself. LOL Then he kissed her on the cheek and I thought she'd fall over right there. Of course, we had to buy the photo they took and chose the cartoon style. While we were waiting for the picture to print, he came back over to me and said he hoped he didn't embarrass her and that she was very cute. We shopped for a few minutes in the store and she bought another spiderman tank top. Then we went back to the counter to pick up her picture, and Spiderman came back over, gave her another hug and kiss, then asked if he could sign her picture. He jumped on this little wall in true Spiderman fashion and signed her picture "To Lauren, My one true love. Spiderman XXOO" It's adorable and really a highlight for her.

 

[Sherrilatte]

What a great story...14 years olds get embarrassed at a moment's notice, so Spidey was very kind to make her experience enjoyable and special.

 

[BonnieA]

Ok, this is a sentimental one. This happened on my last trip with my father about 9 years ago. On approaching the King Kong ride, we found it to be temporily closed and the line shut down (but there were people waiting in the line). The employee out front of the ride said she didn't know when it would be back up. We had already gone on it once the day before and were in no hurry so we sat on a bench right outside and waited. About 10 or 15 minutes later the employee said that the ride was open again. And because we were so patient, she would personally escort us to the ride. With that she took us up the back way and right to the front seat of the ride. It was a small thing but we felt like royalty. That was my father's last trip to Universal with me, he passed away a few years later. Now I have that very special memory.

 

[Metro West]

Mine is short and sweet. The experience that really stands out for me is riding the Hulk in the front row. That was the first time I'd ever ridden Hulk and WOW..what a rush!

 

[shl1108]

Mine is short and sweet too. Maybe not my favorite memory, but a memory none the less.
We unfortunately stopped at Margaritaville on the way into IOA..Hulk to be exact. I had not drank much, but my husband...another story. He told me he didn't feel like riding the ride, but I was really disappointed and told him he could handle it.
Needless to say, he was white as a ghost and sick the rest of the day. Ruined the day!!!!! I was so bummed. (it was mosty my fault for making him go on the ride after drinking)

We went to Busch Garden's the next day though and hit some big fun coasters/ridesw.

On a quick note, we were there 5 weeks after 9/11 and the parks were ghost towns, so we got to ride as many rides as often as we wanted in both parks.


Airfare from Seattle to Orlando RT was $105!!!!!!! (after 9/11)

 

[tinaluis]

My favorite Universal Vacation memory is when they put DH and me into a Star Trek movie in 1994. I was a Vulcan and he was the Captain of the Enterprise. We still have the movie and our DDs watch it ALL the time. We went back in 1996 when we had our first DD and tried to have a movie made with all of us in it but the machine wasn't working. The next time we went it was completely gone, replaced by a Universal Vacation Services store. Bummer.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Spiderman story is precious.
King Kong welled up a tear.
Star Trek brought back memories.
Nothing beats a relative getting drunk and sick!

I'm trying to narrow it down to one but I'm having trouble. I have fond memories from almost every trip and have shared a lot of them already. I guess the biggie for me was all 9's on MIB. Both when my son did it on his 14th birthday and when I did it 3 years later.

 

[Snoopymom]

These are great!

Wow, ds was looking forward to seeing Spiderman, but now I am too, LOL!

We'll be sure to hit Margaritaville on our way out, LOL.

Keep them coming please, they really give you a feel for the parks, characters, restaurants, etc.

Thanks!!!!

 

[fiveforall]

Last December, we visited Universal on my daughter's 7th birthday. She had on one of those tacky birthday hats and got so much attention. The highlight was as we watched the Macy's parade and as every new group walked past, someone would walk over to her, give her candy, a balloon, or even dance with her. She was just so thrilled.

Also, a magical moment for me was going on the ET ride with my children and husband and remembering back to being nine years old and crying when ET went home.

We also had an unexpected surprise while eating at Circus McGurkus and hearing a pounding on the window outside our booth. We looked up and there was the Grinch growling at us.

I LOVE UNIVERSAL/ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE!!! I want to go back!!!!!!

 

[Sherrilatte]

My first:
Sinking into the HRH bed after my first full day at US/IOA..aaaahh..zzzzzz

My second occassion:
Sinking my teeth into that enormous turkey leg in jurassic park and the meat just fell off the bone!.....yummmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[pauldents]

Our favourite memories are using the FOTL room keys for the first time and my daughter meeting Barney and Dora.

Sat around the Mystic Fountain is quite memorable too.

 

[Hockeygoalie100]

my favorite memory is on rotm and the workers there kept recognizing me (cuz i rode 32 times) and they always sed funny things wen i came back and one ride they all stared at me in those creepy faces and followed me in the ride it was alot of fun and creepy at the same time.

 

[becobscot]

I have many! Here are some of my favorites!
My then 4yo DS waited patiently in line to see Spiderman. When it was his turn he just ran up and threw his arms around Spidey and gave him a big hug! The picture of him and Spidey we had put on his 5th birthday cake!

On our 1st trip, my DH(who is 6'5) raised his hand everytime they asked for volunteers and he was picked every time!

I love the HRH pool and slide!

Ok I'll stop now.

 

[BWVPam]

Our first trip to Universal and my daughter was only 3 yo. We had been standing patiently in line for her to see Angelica from Rugrats, when an obnoxious teenager hit her over the head. Of course they had to rush the castmember out of there. My daughter stood there crying. A nice castmember came up and told us to meet her at a spot behind the scenes where she would get her a private session with Angelica. We went at the designated time and Angelica was there with all of the rugrats. Angelica then took her into a souvenire shop and bought her an Angelica doll. That was so sweet.

 

[xoxpluto88]

this is a great thread.....i've only been to universal and IOA once last August and we're going there again this august......i remember a lot of things that happened on this trip but one of those was when me, my sister and my dad were in line for dueling dragons (it was our first time going on this ride and we were looking forward to riding this since we booked the trip months and months before hand) and all of a sudden we were next to go on and they had to close the ride because of the weather....we were so bummed out but the next day we were able to ride!!!

keep them coming!!

 

[Eeyore's Girl]

During our Sept. 2003 trip, we made it into the Slime Time Live audience. My daughter's friend was chosen as a game contestant. It was a lot of fun and the show wasn't aired for about 3 weeks, so we made it home in time to record and show-off to all our friends.

 

[JessicaR]

This is a great thread. Love reading all the replies. I have a few special memories after all this is my most favoritest place to be.

My first favorite happened during out first trip. We stayed at Portofino and it was just before Christmas. It was freezing for Florida and that played its part as well. The hotel was holding a "reading" on the Piazza. They rolled out an enormous red velvet plush carpet and added a stage with lots of twinkle lights. The kids gathered round the stage on the floor and suddenly a man that resembled santa soooo much appeared to sit in the rocking chair and read to us all. After the night before christmas was over The Grinch showed up to talk with santa and each child. They were all given a candy cane. Set up during the reading they had tables of warm huge baked cookies, milk, hot cocoa and choc milk. I got some great pictures of my boys totally enjoing the moment...we did to!

One more...Upon entering IOA one morning we were greeted by The Wanderer (he's no longer a character in the park ) His tale was amazingly spun and he had us all intrigued! Talk about fitting your character, he was wonderful!

Last and funniest! We just got off JPRA and we were all soaked! My sons were ahead of my husband and I and as we were walking I started noticing people starring oddly at my son. I called out to him and saw BLUE everywhere! His face and his legs and arms, all skin was a vivid blue! At first I was like huh??? It was then we realized he was wearing a brand new not washed really BLUE shirt! We grabbed him and I ran and bought new clothes in the park and my husband took him into the mens room...well...you can take the blue clothes off the kid but not off his SKIN! It lasted a while

 

[Motherfletcher]

I love the Smurf story, Jess!

 

[brer rabbit 28]

this makes me LOL every time!!
mum and i got on jurassic park just before they stopped it for the storms.It started to rain just as we went up the ramp into the building so we knew we were in for trouble when we came out!
So we came down the drop into the water.....and the water just kept on coming!! The rain storm was in full force and we were stuck in the boat!The worst thing was that for some reason the crew stopped our boat from docking...6 FEET FROM THE PLATFORM!!! We had to sit in the soaking rain for 10 minutes until they decided to let us out.Everyone in the boat was screaming like mad and all the people under the queuing shelter were laughing and taking photos of us!!Oh the humiliation!!!
I have learnt my first Orlando lesson,never board an outdoor ride if the storms are coming!!