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August 20, 2007

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

As you all know, I was in Florida for the past couple weeks. At the beginning of my trip, Brent came to visit for five nights and we had a great time. First, we went to Universal Studios where we stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort and spent one day at Islands of Adventure and the next and the regular Universal Studios.

To travel from our hotel to the parks, Brent and I took the water taxi which would have been a lot of fun if it didn't involve 20 minute waits in the heat. To entertain myself, I took pictures of this weird looking duck:

On the way, we passed the Hard Rock Hotel. Having been to both the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas and the actual Colosseum this summer, I wasn't overly impressed by this:

First stop was Islands of Adventure:

Actually, first stop was really a little hot dog stand where Brent wanted me to order and eat a hot dog in the sunshine with a heat index of 110 degrees. I said no and we ended up getting lunch at a really cool little restaurant right inside Islands of Adventure.

Here's Brent in Seuss Landing looking a little out of place in his Rehab t-shirt I got him in Las Vegas. Why doesn't he look excited?

We went on a Cat in the Hat ride that really creeped us out in the kind of way drug addicts must get when they overdo it. There were all sorts of crazed talking animals and attacking black-lit neon swirls. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it.

The Lost Continent:

Weird:

That giant tree stump is actually a restaurant:

Dueling Dragons was actually not that exciting of a roller coaster:

This was our favorite roller coaster, The Hulk:

See the steep incline on the left? I'm used to getting slowly dragged up these to give you time to panic as you see the ground getting farther and farther away only to plummet toward it moments later. The Hulk, however, slowly drags you up for about 5 seconds and then shoots you up as fast as you can imagine, making you think that you might actually rocket off the jump and land across the park in a mangled pile of people. It was terrifyingly brilliant.

We went on a lot of other rides at Islands of Adventure including the Jurassic Park water ride which got us SOAKED, the Spider Man ride, some sort of "Dr. Doom" thing, and the flying unicorn ride (Brent was so happy). I don't remember all of them, but it's definitely worth going for yourself!

At the end of the day, Brent and I went to Universal's City Walk which is right in between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and has lots of restaurants, stores, bars, clubs, etc. We ate at Emeril's restaurant where we both had delicious steak:

City Walk:

There was a band playing a cover of "Seven Nation Army" with an emphasis on the bongo drums that actually sounded pretty cool:

We took the water taxi back to the hotel where we both passed out almost immediately. Walking all day in 100+ temperatures is exhausting!

Some night pictures from the water taxi:

We checked out of the hotel the next morning, but not before I snapped a few pictures:

After having a buffet breakfast and packing our suitcase into the car, Brent and I went over to Universal Studios to spend the rest of the day there.

We went on the Twister "ride" which I thought was great (I had been on it before) and Brent thought was pretty stupid. Brent likes things that move fast and the Twister ride is more of an experience than a ride I guess. It really made me miss my storm chasing days... I'm going to have to do that again sometime:

We also went on the Jaws ride which takes place in the made up town Amity, but was actually filmed by Brent's house in Martha's Vineyard. I took some pictures of stuff that Brent said looked just like it does at the Vineyard:

The people who work at the Jaws ride must hate their jobs so much. They have to pretend they're being completely serious about everything going on. It's much more of an acting job than anything else.

After Jaws, we saw the penguins from Madagascar:

So creepy:

Doesn't it sort of remind you of the one in Billy Madison?

Cool street at Universal Studios:

We went on a bunch of other rides including Earthquake, Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and Shrek 4-D, but I think our favorite was absolutely The Mummy. It's an indoor roller coaster in the dark that's surprisingly more creepy than it is ridiculous (animatronics are almost always ridiculous). We went on it about 12 times because we didn't have to wait on any lines! If you're a guest at one of the Universal Studios resorts, you get to go in the "express lane" rather than the normal line. In Disney World, there's something similar called the "fast pass" but it's nowhere near as good. With a fast pass, you have to select a certain time to ride and you can't go on over and over. Also, so many people have fast passes now that it's hardly any faster than the regular line. With the express lane pass, you literally get to cut to the front of the line and can ride over and over and over if you want to, which we did. Brent and I have a picture of us on the ride that I'll hopefully be able to scan and post sometime soon.

Coincidentally, we ended up walking past the Twister ride right as a storm came rolling in:

Monsters:

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure:

We stopped at City Walk again where we went to the Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville store:

I knew my dad would be jealous so I got him a t-shirt.

Pretty palms:

By this time, we were both exhausted and wanted to go to bed so we drove back to Daytona Beach. Pictures from the rest of our trip in Daytona Beach will be coming soon!

In the meantime, I have to go to LaGuardia airport with my dad to fight with American Airlines about them losing ALL my stuff!

Posted by lauren at August 20, 2007 09:20 AM

Comments

Posted by: brent at August 21, 2007 09:56 PM

Posted by: G at August 26, 2007 07:40 PM