Our biggest reason for going to Universal Studios was to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but we certainly weren't going to miss all of the other attractions at the parks! Everyone raves about the theming at WDW, but we were equally impressed with the details at Universal.
Ready to go!
We even saw sunrise the first morning!
The kids have watched just enough Jimmy Fallon clips to think he's hilarious...
This roller coaster is the one that Jimmy Fallon took Kevin Hart on; if you haven't seen the clip, you should definitely take a look on YouTube! On our third day in the parks, we didn't feel like we needed to rush back to the Harry Potter parts. We lingered near the roller coaster and were among the very first to ride that morning. The picture on the left is Rudy before the first ride, very nervous and not at all excited. The picture on the right was taken after FOUR consecutive rides!
As we were getting in line, I said that I'd ride once but they wouldn't get me on twice in a row. But....then there was no line, so I couldn't pass it up the second time. James and I bowed out after that, but the boys wanted one more ride. James and I waited at the bottom and James took their picture as they came through the last loop. They weren't smiling, so we made them ride one more time - telling them to be sure to smile big! If you can, you must zoom in on these pictures to see their faces!
We saw this big guy swimming in the water near Hogwarts...
Rudy wasn't sure about Free Fall. Brady and I went first and convinced him that it was easy. So then we had to take a few more turns each. It's a slower descent than some of the other drop towers, so it worked for Rudy.
Like many of the rides in the parks, the Spiderman ride was a combination 3D movie and roller coaster. We thought there were pretty amazing design concepts to put these attractions together!
There isn't nearly the focus on character meet and greets at Universal, but we did see a few. Scooby Doo and Shaggy:
Doc Brown:
Men In Black. This was the actual pup who played Frank the Pug!
Transformers...more than meets the eye...
Minion Mayhem was a fun experience, but I was most impressed with the waiting area which was styled to look like the inside of Gru's mansion.
I insisted that we all ride the Cat in the Hat ride. I did something similar with the Peter Pan ride at WDW; it just seemed like an iconic must-ride attraction!
Jurassic Park...
This building looked like a replica of the visitor's center from the movie.
Someone (me) decided we should ride the water rides. It was early-ish in the day, so I wanted to get it over with so we'd have time to dry out. We got DRENCHED on the Jurassic Park boat ride, so then we figured we might was well go big and go on the flume ride too. Rudy was MAD. The boat ride was just like a ride might have been at the Jurassic Park theme park. Well, without the actual dinosaurs...
Hahaha...
Another late night...
One of our best meals was at Cowfish. Sushi and burgers sounds like an odd menu plan, but it worked. And we convinced the boys that there is some sushi that they like!
You know that punchy feeling when you're really exhausted? I think that's where they were the night we ate at Cowfish. Fun with chopsticks...
The hotel wasn't very far away at all, but it was too far for everyone to stay awake for the whole ride home:
No comments:
Post a Comment