W's go West, Day 13 Universal Studios

[RobynPrincess]

We were up and out of the hotel by 9:30am. While we were walking out to the car someone caught my eye at their big escalade, it was only James Van Der Beek! I grabbed Sy and whispered excitedly for him to look without making it obvious LOL it took him a minute longer to realise who it was, I guess he didn't have the same teenage crush as me LOL For those who have no idea who I'm talking about, he was Dawson in Dawson's creek among many other things. Here he is looking lush...





I'm just going to take a moment to swoon.....................

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Ok I'm done.


We were soon on the road to Universal, the half hour journey took an hour in the LA traffic but we were soon pulling into the car park and walking in. On the way in we saw Mario Lopez recording his E! Show with 2 women who I had no idea who they were. We stayed for about an hour watching it be filmed before heading into the park. We were right in the background though and lovely JoAnn managed to get a pic from her TV screen.





We grabbed a couple of pics while we were watching, in between takes. He's a very handsome man


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9295_zpsiztjga2l.jpg.html][/URL]








We headed inside the park, I had read online that we should go to the bottom level first as its busier later in the day so that's what we did. There were some cute actors hanging out of some upstairs windows, we stopped to watch them for a bit on the way. They were meant to be a couple, she was winding him up about me having a flower in my hair and why didn't he ever buy her flowers for her hair. They were really funny


We also stumbled across this guy...





We saw the new Harry Potter area being built.





I didn't realise quite how far down the next level was! That was a lot of escalators! We stopped half way to get some pictures





http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9307_zpsc28uminp.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9310_zpsztpbgcav.jpg.html][/URL]





You could see the Warner Bros and Disney studios in the distance if you knew where to look.


We hadn't actually eaten anything today yet and it was now 12pm so we headed inside the first food place we found, Panda Express. We were actually the odd ones out in there, everyone else was actually Chinese! We did notice all day how many Chinese tourists there were in US. We grabbed 1 meal and some spring rolls and shared.


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9314_zpsgched1n6.jpg.html][/URL]





The food was ok, nothing too special. Once we had eaten we grabbed the map and studied it... of course the first thing we wanted to do was the tram tour... and of course that was on the top level, Gahh!! We had already decided that we weren't too bothered about the rides here that we could do in Orlando so we prioritised the things we couldn't do there. First up we went to view some film memorabilia.


Sy was especially looking forward to this....


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9318_zpsjztajzep.jpg.html][/URL]





He is so into Back to the Future, he never made it to the ride before they replaced it with the Simpsons, something I don't think he will ever fully get over He even went to a geeky gathering in London at the secret cinema, everyone went to watch the show being broadcast outdoors last summer, but everyone who went had to register to get their character and then dress up. Super geeky!! hehehe


Some of the other memorabilia.


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9320_zpsvsxwvhnn.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9321_zpswpqocvi8.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9322_zps7qk0bv01.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9323_zpsssts0igg.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9325_zpsfn81htta.jpg.html][/URL]





We then headed back up to the top to ride the Backstage tram tour Sy was most upset as they town square used in Back to the Future was being filmed on so we didn't get to see it the tram ride itself though was AWESOME! Really blew us both away, worth the entrance ticket alone! We saw Desperate Housewives set, Jaws, King Kong, Psycho & many more.


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9327_zpsrdwhnpwr.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9330_zps0ulnylds.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9333_zpsrd5w4yzq.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9335_zpstjms8uoy.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9336_zpsbtu6ysvm.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9339_zpsn7vcsk0h.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9340_zpsd21zz2rr.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[RobynPrincess]

Afterwards we walked past the place to get one of the mahoosive doughnuts. Sy decided to go for a regular sized (which was still massive) Butterfinger one. He enjoyed it





I grabbed an ice cream from a different place across the street. The next show of Waterworld was coming up so we killed time eating our goodies and sitting in a bit of sunshine.


We headed in and grabbed a seat on the second row at Waterworld. Luckily we were not in the 'wet' seats and boy was I glad when I saw them emptying entire buckets of water over peoples heads before the show even started!!


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/P5180053_zpssqav6tgn.jpg.html][/URL]





The show itself was actually quite good, I enjoyed the stunts and watching other people getting soaked. There were some well known actors in it (but not well known enough for me to still remember who they were!).


Afterwards we went for a look around the Despicable Me area. I found a few friends


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9345_zpsyaclwyoq.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9346_zps9eooqj6z.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9347_zpsf2ej4wul.jpg.html][/URL]





We mooched around the shops for a bit and found a cute Minion keyring for Jane with her name on. We were missing her!


We decided to be really boring and actually ride the Tram tour again, seeing as we couldn't do it in Orlando and it was awesome the first time, plus Sy was hoping as we were the last tour of the day, that they might have finished filming and he would get to see the clock tower... sadly though he wasn't lucky


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/P5190057_zpsajmwmzu1.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/P5190058_zpswsgsvolw.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/P5190059_zpsejgdyem4.jpg.html][/URL]


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/P5190060_zps0e5t5wep.jpg.html][/URL]





There was more filming this time so we had parts of the tour which had to be done in silence so as not to disturb them.


Once the tour was over the park was coming up to closing, we decided to have a wander round Citywalk, we looked in some shops and at the many food places before settling on Tony Roma's for dinner. It was a very mediocre meal, well no that's not exactly fair. It was nice enough food but seemed to be expensive for what it was. Our waiter wasn't exactly the most helpful or attentive.


http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/watson_disney/media/West%20Coast/IMG_9352_zpsvlpe8bru.jpg.html][/URL]





We were brought some rolls while we looked over the menu.





We decided to get some potato skins to share as an appetizer.





Sy then had ribs of course, while I had chicken tenders.








None of the food was exactly hot, and tbh there was no reason as the place was empty and the waiters weren't busy rushing around. Ah well. We don't bother with it next time


We headed back to the car and then to the Grand California.


Once back at the resort we made our way to the room, I took a load of clothes and did some washing as this was our last time with a washing machine, and then we headed to DTD, I wanted to get my shop on I don't want to think about how much I spent in the World of Disney store :O but in my defence I did pick up a fair few things for other people so that huge bill wasn't allllll mine


I left Sy to pay while I ran back to the laundry room, I didn't want the washing to finish while I wasn't there and leave people waiting! I made it back just in time and moved the stuff over to the dryers and headed back to the room to do a bit more of the packing. I sent Sy down later to pick up the dry stuff


We fell into bed at about 11:30pm, we watched about 5 minutes of TV before we were both sleeping soundly... (or should that say loudly?)

 

[Disneymadhouse]

Sounds like a great day! Those do - nuts are huge! How did Sy manage one all to himself?!

Claire

 

[Chilly]

Dawsons Creek and Saved By The Bell, the golden years of TV