It\u2019s a late post today as we were up and out early to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure today. We\u2019ve just got in after dinner on the way home at Olive Garden. I had Lasagne and Paul had the Fettuccini Alfredo. We followed with mini desserts of tiramisu and choc mouse cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So back to yesterday and we were off to the movies. We decided to go to the cinema at Universal city walk rather than Downtown Disney as the timing suited us better but after getting there and realising we had to pay 15 bucks for parking Paul was not amused. He has requested that I slate Universal for this and tell all that cares to read not to bother with them if they can go elsewhere. For us we will certainly stick to Disney for the flicks in future, as the parking at Downtown is free. We rebelled in the car park by not parking in the next allotted spot but by driving round so as to be nearer the exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We paid $8 each for our seats and after getting the worlds biggest cherry coke \u2013 which scarily came with free refills but god only know who could drink that amount of soda \u2013 we made our way to our screen. We had the whole theatre to ourselves, not another soul came in. We sat in the middle and it was well chilly in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film was really good. John Brennan trying to break his wife Lara Brennan out of jail as she is wrongly convicted of murder. It was quite long at just over 2 hours but definitely worth watching. I won\u2019t tell you if they are successful or not so as not to spoil it for anyone who watches it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We came out of the cinema about 5pm and had a wander around City Walk. Paul looked through all the books in Hart and Huntingdon looking for inspiration for his next ink but failed to find any so it looks like no new artwork this trip. The shop was really empty so business looked slow (prices are not cheap there so not surprising I guess), we also knew that our usual artist Rob Jarrett had moved back home and was no longer in Orlando anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also took a look in the Fossil shop and I tried on a ceramic watch. Paul dropped the watch stand and the assistant nearly had a heart attack thinking it was the ceramic watch. The prices were not that far off other brands such as Armani, DKNY and Juicy, all of which I\u2019d rather have so I didn\u2019t purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We left Universal and went via I-Drive for a scenic route back to the 192 where we stopped at TGI\u2019s for dinner. Paul had the Jack Daniels burger and I had the Jack Daniels chicken. The food and service were good. We came home and watched 2 hours of Family Guy. Very funny but we can\u2019t believe it doesn\u2019t get loads of complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we were up and out by 11am after a row on the phone with Virgin who are refusing to give us anymore than $100 to replace the suitcase they broke. They\u2019re insisting we provide the original receipt!!! After a couple of escalations Jemma in Crawley promised to email Paul by the end of the day. We checked when we got in and no email so another call and row seems to be in store for tomorrow!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve had more bad news too. The Pool heater company are adamant the heater is working. We turned it on this morning and it was showing 80 degrees. Today we got back and it showed 78 degrees. It\u2019s been a scorching hot day (record breaking again!) so there is no way that heater can be working. We\u2019re off in 3 days so there\u2019s nothing we can do; it becomes the new owners problem and IPG\u2019s if they get any guests in the coming months as temperature drops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started in Islands of Adventure. We had to go to Guest Services first as our passes were from 2001 and had to be converted to new bar coded passes. We had 3 and the guy confirmed they each had 1 day\u2019s hopper left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started by riding Poseidon\u2019s Fury. Rides all seemed to have small queues and we waited about 5 mins before entering this one. It is more a show than a ride as you move through rooms and see the battle between Poseidon and his nemesis. It culminates as the room opens up to become Poseidon\u2019s temple and there is projection onto water spays. Not a bad show really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After this we caught the end of the Sinbad stunt show before we headed into the all-new Harry Potter land \u2013 it looked really good, the train, the shops and Hogwarts castle. There are a few pics below for you. As we went in we decided to try the Butterbeer. Apparently, when asked JK Rowling said she had made it up so there was no real recipe. People have made up there own alcoholic and non alcoholic versions and the Universal Studios one comes as a no alcoholic frozen version too with a caramel cream topping. It was nice though a little sickly as the cream mixed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wandered up through the village past the shops and the restaurant with its very typical English menu to Hogwarts. The castle has a walk through and a ride but it\u2019s a severe coaster so we gave it a miss. Instead we went on the Phoenix roller coaster, which used to be the Unicorn (Chris \u2013 Paul managed to get you to actually ride this once remember \u2013 though its probably a memory you\u2019re trying to suppress!!). The area has incorporated this and the duelling dragons ride (now called Dragon challenge) really well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We left Harry\u2019s land and went past the Jurassic park ride. We said hi to Lexy (Lexy Rexy the T-Rex) and I managed to get a really nice Amber pig in the store. Another for my collection. We still couldn\u2019t ride the Pterandon Flyers as you have to have a child under a certain height to ride with each adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was about 1pm so we decided to stop for a spot of lunch – burgers and fries. We then carried on though the park through the toon lagoon area with all the water riders. We used all our quarters on the water blaster machines where you can squirt water at the riders as they exit the ride. Just as they think its over and they are drying off we blast them with more cold water \u2013 such fun if in a slightly evil way. Millsy; I reckon you\u2019d love this past time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had some banana split Dippin\u2019 Dots as we sat for a while to rest our feet. We momentarily contemplated the water rapids ride but neither of us particularly wanted to walk round soaked so we gave it a miss and decided to move onto the other park \u2013 it was about 4pm by now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a new rollercoaster here called the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. This seems to be based on something musical but we\u2019re not sure what!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wandered past Twister, Shrek 4D and the Mummy Returns before heading into Disaster with Christopher Walken who plays an over the top movie director called Frank Kincaid. It\u2019s really clever the way he is projected onto the stage and interacts with the actual cast members. Audience members are selected to star in various scenes (this is the old Earthquake where Chris had a starring role once \u2013 none of today\u2019s were anywhere near as good as you ;-)) and are filmed in front of green screens. The final bit is still the old tram ride and it\u2019s on the way back from this that they play the pieced together scenes in a film trailer. It\u2019s not a bad ride this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We then went straight to Jaws and walked on with no queue whatsoever (the park was really quiet at this time which was great). The fire and steam effects in Jaws were way too hot given the weather though we do remember the time we used that ride to warm up on a freezing cold day a few years back. The ride\u2019s the same as ever with the cast member boat driver hamming it up as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We then went into the 5pm Animal Actors show. It was almost empty so we got front row seats. I do like the animals. The cat that opens the show by putting the sign up needed 3 attempts; bless it! Other animals featured were the Men in Black Pug, loads of dogs responding to verbal and visual commands, the usual cockatoo, pigeons a feature on a parrot flying in front of a fan so it pretty much hovered in front of a blue screen which is apparently how they get birds in flight on the right background in movies and of course the star of the show as always was the Orang-o-tang. There was also a great pig that kept popping in with various signs on its back for the audience\u2019s amusement. The pig was of course my fave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the show we made our way around the park to go onto ET. Again there was no queue so after getting our passports (the bar codes that register your name) and a quick meander through the forest queuing area we got onto our bikes (no peddling of course!) We heard ET say goodbye at the end and our names were loud and clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By now it had to be after 6pm but it was still really warm and still light. We walked past the restaurants to Terminator 2 – 3D but found it closed. Paul was a bit gutted as he really likes that show. With things clearly closing and our feet and legs pretty aching we decided to call it a day. We\u2019d done over 6 hours \u2013 less than we used to be able to so clearly a sign of our age is definitely catching up with us. I think Paul is finally starting to realise how his marching his family around at our younger pace was a bit if a killer for them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tomorrow we are going to go to the Mall at Altemonte. A final shopping day to try and finish all the Crimbo prezzies so we don\u2019t have to fret when we are back home. Though talking of home we may struggle to make it smoothly. The bad weather over there is set to continue for a few days which will play havoc with UK airports and may well delay our return\u2026although if it\u2019s only sat around in an airport we\u2019d rather get home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It\u2019s a late post today as we were up and out early to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure today. We\u2019ve just got in after dinner on the way home at Olive Garden. I had Lasagne and Paul had the Fettuccini Alfredo. We followed with mini desserts of tiramisu and choc mouse cake. … <\/p>\n