Day 2: Universal Studios

Got up and some ungodly hour like 8am (getting up at 8am on holiday sound daft dunt it !) but we were excited to be going to a park so we didnt care. Made our way over to the Quality Suites for the 9.15 shuttle bus via the petrol station next door called "racetrac" for a coffee for jayne and orange for me.

When we got to the hotel there was 3 families waiting with us , the bus was late..altho 1 did pull up but the driver never announced anything...apparently this was our bus, the guy behind the desk in the hotel told us to run over to the hotel next door as it would wait for us there..just as we got to the driveway the bus pulled out and left us stranded ! bugger !!! after going back to the hotel to rant and rave for a bit (hahaha thats rich isnt it ranting in a hotel were not even staying at) with the other yank family, the hotel provided us with a special minibus to take us there, by the time we got to Universal Studios it was now close to 11am, we got off the bus with the other family and made our way in.

Wow how it has changed since last time i was here in 91, it has a long walkway into a citywalk complex now with shops, bars, restaurants, clubs etc.... looks really plush and stylish, at the bottom of citywlk it splits into 2 , 1 way going to Islands of Adventure the other to Universal Studios, thats where we were heading today, lets see if this place has changed since last time i was here.

Got our tickets outside the gate at the automated machine which i had bought online, very quick and easy and we were in !
the place seemed familier with a big long main street like a movie set, the first we went on was Shrek 4-D, the lineup was surpringly non existent, it was good, got a bit wet in the theatre, the effects was good and it was a good start. The park seemed fairly busy but surpringly throughout the day the queues wernt that bad, longest we queueued was for Men in Black about 40 mins as it broke down and it wasnt even worth it. We got fastpasses for the Mummy ride for 3pm, so we wnt on Earthquake after that, got right to the front and they said it was closed, shit ! typical. After watching a bit of Beetlejuice musical revue we made our way to Fear Factor LIVE, it looked really good and we was right at the front of the queue. Great show, a lot like the telly show, there was seven a bloke from toronto competing.

After that 40 min show we went on Men in Black , i'll skip that part as it was cack (except jayne was gloating cos she beat me in the score where u had to kill aliens) we had lunch then at around 2 ish, a rip off hotdog, crisps and drink for $8 !!! daylight bleedin robbery, it costs us that much for our evening meal. By now it was time for our fastpass into the Mummy, we got to right to the front (after jayne had scared to death walking thru by some mummy extra jumping out on her) no bags were allowed so we had to go back out and put our stuff in some fancy fingerprint coded lockers, nifty technology indeed ! the ride was brill, a coaster in the dark that threw you back then shot off forwards around twists and turns we loved it !!
After that it was past mid afternoon and went over to kids land to see Mr Barney for Matthew and take a pic, wasnt much to see in this part as its geared for the little uns. Making our way round it brought us out near Mels Diner, i remembered this part from my last time, saw a few characters on the street and had my pic taken (my mission was to have as many pics taken with diffrent characters as poss, it wasnt planned it just sorta snowballed and thought it would be funny !)

Went in Terminator2 3-d next, a mix of live action and 3d effects , very impressive but a lot to live up to with the movie. By now it was closing on 7pm time to go and wait for the shuttle back, just time to go on Jimmy Neutron and Twister and the end tho and we popped in a few shops and had a gander and slowly made our way to the shuttle park for 7.15.
It was about 15 mins as the heavens opened. Bus was packed and had to stand to up all way back, jayne got a seat next to a english lady thanks to me by seeing i had my united top on she knew were brits !

The bus dropped us off at our "adopted" hotel, the quality suites and we went for dinner by now it was almost 8.30. We decided on Ponderosa (jaynes fave place) it was an all you can eat buffet place for $8.99 bargoon ! it was weird you had to choose your main course from pictures in the foyer then ordered and paid for it before you sat down, after that it was help yourself to the buffet, the steak was good and we stuffed ourselves.

On way back to hotel popped in a few gift shops for ideas on what to bring back for ourselves, i could go daft here and spend a bomb on disney stuff i tell ya, 11 was closing in and we headed back to the hotel to bed and rested our feet , long day, sore feet, but well worth it, only 5 more days to go of walking.