Wednesday 28 November 2012
Highlights: Universal Studios especially Cinematic Spectacular and Rockit roller coaster.

The wake up at 4.15 am made me question if I’m on holidays or not. The flight was scheduled for 6.59 am and took 3 hours to complete. The lounge access before and the exit row seat during made the morning more bearable.

The prearranged shuttle got us to the Orlando Hampton Inn just before noon and we were allowed to check in early. A quick visit to the close by IHOP for lunch and we were ready for the days activities. My mum caught the Trolley service (tourist bus) to go to the outlet malls. I walked the 25 minutes to Universal Studios. My plan for the day was coming together nicely.

I had a great time at Universal Studios Florida. The ticket seller tried to get me to upgrade my ticket so I could also visit Universal’s Islands of Adventure which is more ride based but I knew I wouldn’t have time. The ticket cost $92 with tax so it is not cheap.

I was at the park from 1.00 pm to around 6.30 pm. During my visit I enjoyed;

• Despicable Me Minion Mayhem an interactive ride which was very fun,
• Twister a presentation using effects to simulate the conditions in a twister incredible effects
• Revenge of the Mummy a ride with different efforts to try to scare you
• The Blue Brothers a street show with lots of music from the movie
• Disaster an interactive making of a disaster movie using members of the audience, extremely funny watching people try to act!
• Men in Black a ride where you shoot aliens as you move in your vehicle and get span around
• The Simpsons Ride a simulated ride with cartoon imagines as you try to escape Sideshow Bob (I had done the same ride in Los Angeles before)
• Terminator 2 – 3D a mix of live action actors and video action which included Arnold Schwarzenegger. A classic show which I’ve seen before but still very enjoyable.
• Rockit a great roller-coaster ride in which you can play rock music. I love this so much I did this ride a few times 🙂

At 6 pm the night show Cinematic Spectacular played highlighting Universals 100 years of film making by projecting imagines onto falling water which is very cool technology. This was accompanied by lasers and some great fireworks and commentary from Morgan Freeman. A very enjoyable day and night at this park, highly recommend this theme park.

Walking back I found that mum had had a similarly enjoyable day shopping at the Outlet Mall and purchasing presents for lots of family members. Kneeing into bed at 10 pm I was very tried but have another early morning tomorrow to get the shuttle to Walt Disney World at 7.15 am.

USA Photos