29.08.2012 – 29.08.2012  29 °C

We started our day by splashing out and cooking ourselves bacon and toast. It’s the one thing we haven’t had too much of on this trip, generally it’s just cereal and toast (or more often than not a bagel and cream cheese) but because we are renting a whole apartment D went all out and cooked up a storm for brekky.

Following our feast we made the decision to hit Universal Studios. Our hotel is about five blocks to the amusement park so it didn’t take us too long to get to the park. What took us the time was getting from the parking lot to the gate! When you arrive at Universal (either park not just the studio) you are shuffled into a toll booth style parking lot. You stop, buy a ticket and then proceed into one of two huge undercover parking lots. D decided that we would upgrade our parking ticket (from 15 dollars to 20) to get us priority parking. Apparently you walk less on a priority ticket…. Maybe this is the case in high season not so much in off! (We won’t get conned in to upgrading tomorrow). Needless to say, we parked the beast in the Jurassic Park parking lot and headed on the moving walkways towards the front door.

I got stopped at the gate and had my little purse searched. D and M were a bit more intelligent and hadn’t brought any baggage with them so they breezed thru. Once thru the baggage check we arrived in the shopping mall part of Universal. It’s pretty funny.. to get to either of the parks you have to walk thru this large pedestrian mall filled with stores, pubs and restaurants… They really want to make sure they get you to spend your dollars!

Anyway, we picked up our three day pass and headed into see some movie magic! Universal in Orlando is not quite the same as the one in LA. The main difference is that they don’t appear to actually make any movies at this park (unlike LA where they have the back lot area). This was our only real disappointment with this park otherwise we had a ball!

First stop was to ET, which we discovered was closed for maintenance… No great loss considering its probably the same as the ride I went on 13 years ago when I was last at Universal! Our next ride was not in any way disappointing… MIB! It’s a very cool setup with you being initiated as a new MIB operative, you get your training and then hop in these vehicles which lead you around and where you need to shoot the aliens. Very similar to the Toy Story ride I went on last year at HK Disney.. Very fun.. A big computer game that is also sort of a ride….. Our scores get displayed at the end and the other kids in our vehicle absolutely creamed our score! I guess you need to play a lot more computer games to get yourself a really great score and save the world from an alien invasion!!!

We were super pumped after MIB and ready to go find some more rides. Our next stop wasn’t quite a ride but was pretty fun, especially for M. The next stop was on the set of “Disaster, the movie”. M was one of the key actors in the movie, where she got to play an old grannie digging in her garden who is killed during a lightning strike. I can honestly say that M’s acting debut was a great success.. Not sure she was stoked to be put in the grey haired grannie category but hey, she made it on to the big screen! The ride is peculiarly reminiscent of a ride that is at the LA universal, because the movie ends with us all getting on a subway car and being nearly flooded and burned when the subway station suffers a huge earthquake… sound familiar anyone?

M’s movie debut wore her out somewhat so we stopped for a quick cuppa and a tasty morsel on “Fisherman’s wharf, San Francisco”. After we had filled our bellies we psyched ourselves up for the Mummy Revenge ride. At the outset I’m going to say that I was so proud of M on this ride.. The Mummy revenge is an indoor roller coaster.. and M went on it!!!!! I couldn’t believe it but yep she gave it a go… I think she regretted the decision when she got off but at least she did it! It’s the first time I can ever recall M hopping onto a roller coaster. D and I loved every minute.. it was one of those super fun, but not ridiculously scary type roller coasters.. The type I’m happy to go on, over and over again!!

We had to stop after the Mummy ride.. My mummy had, had just about enough and wasn’t even slightly interested in doing anything but resting her poor stomach. We managed to fix her up with a listen to a Blues Brother’s tribute show.. which was pretty good! I was especially impressed with the lady who played the character of Aretha Franklin… she was really able to belt out the classics. I might have to watch that movie again, I’d forgotten what great tracks the BB movie has in it!!

From the Blues Brothers we decided to actually have a proper stop and grab a bite to eat in the nearby pub. M and I shared some tasty fish and chips and D had some Cornish pasties! Quite interesting to get some English food in the middle of an American Theme Park. By now we had, had a good break so we got M back up and going and headed in to see the Twister show. Twister is not really a ride, it’s more a movie special effects show that happens right in front of you. You stand in a room and then you are suddenly in the middle of a twister storm. Plenty of wind and rain and some good lightening effects. Not too bad but not really heaps of adventure! Our last stop of the day at Universal was watching the Shrek 4D movie. It was actually pretty good; the seats moved, we got water sprayed on us, wind blown in our faces and thankfully, Shrek saved Fiona and the day!

By the time we left the park all three of us were pretty well worn out. We headed back to the digs had ourselves a bite to eat (left over cooked mushrooms, bacon and toast) before all three of us headed down to the Outlet Mall to do some shopping. This trip was not one of our random “lets go to the mall to waste time” activities, it was a deliberate trip with me hunting a backpack to use in Central America.

Hunting is an apt description of shopping. Especially, if you are not randomly shopping but are instead determined to find some specific item. You map out your terrain, site your prey and then move in for the kill. Today, I was super successful, I found myself a pack that although isn’t probably exactly what I want, will more than do me, with the added bonus that it was half price. I also found myself a very light weight green jacket (it folds down to a smaller size than my jeans!) Although it isn’t quite as warm as my blue Swedish jacket, it should be more than warm enough for the couple of weeks I’m in Canada before I head to Central America. My hunting expedition over, I rang up for M and D and we headed back to the joint where we all fell into bed utterly exhausted. Day 1 in Orlando well and truly done!

Song of the Day– Will Smith, Men in Black