Day 3: Universals Islands of Adventure

Woke up bright and very early as the bus from "Quality Streets" (as Jayne now called it) set of at 8am, we got to Universal by 8.45 even before Islands of Adventure had opened so could take our time getting in, it was 9am by the time we entered the park and took a few snaps outside, it was very impressive, this wasnt built last time i was here and i had heard so many great things about this half of Universal, this was going to be even better !

We strolled through the old port at the entrance to a coffee and pastry shop where we leisurely had breakfast outside, coffee and danish we ate while we watched the crowds zip past us into the park, we have another day here so thought whatever we dont get on today we can do on our spare day.

After breakfast the first ride we got to was The Hulk Coaster !! it looked awesome and huge, you could basically see the structure from all over the park, a big green twisting metal spiral. Somehow and i cant believe i did it managed to get Jayne on the thing ! there was no queue at all surprisgly seen as its one of the main attractions in the whole of Orlando.
When we got to the front we srapped ourselves in the green and purple car, a little nervous as not knowing what to expect, as the cosater pulled away and started the climb the voiceovers were very loud and effects were great, the higher we got we knew there would be a surprise we were just waitinf for it.....and there it was half way up the ride sped from 0-40 in 2 secs uphill in the dark and out of the tunnel right into a twist and down a hill into a double inverted loop....WHOOOOOOOOAAAAH, it was awesome, the longer the ride lasted the more i enjoyed it, in fact it was one of the longest coasters ive been on, Jayne was just shreeking and had her eyes closed all the way round hahaha. At the end the applause rang out as the car headed back to the dock, we staggered out fo the seat with Jayne looking a little like the hulk himself, green ! The photo from the ride downstairs was huilarious, jaynes face was a picture of fear, mine was joy hahaha, we didnt get the picture but looking back i wish we had. My first experience of the Hulk ride, awesome awsoem awesome dosent even sum it up, it would ne be the last time i was going to ride that before the hol was over i tell ya.

After all that excitement we made our way to the Spiderman 3D ride in Marvel land, i read before we got here that this was voted the #1 theme park ride in the world, it was going to be something special to beat the Hulk !
we sat in the car with the goofy glasses on and the ride set off, the 3d effects were fantastic as the car turned this way and that and juddered and span around, the ride didnt really take off till we literally took off ourselves in the car, the 3d effects made u feel like you like we were flying round New York City, being flung this way and that in the air, the final bit was quite something a straight drop down to the ground from the top of a building, it really doid feel like you were falling to your death...that is until spiderman span a web and we landed in it before we splatted on the deck ! wow another great ride it must be said, Jayne loved this one better than Hulk thank god, but it didnt beat the Hulk for me but close !

As we walked thru the Marvel Characters section we got to Toon Lagoon, this was gonna be a wet ride section you could tell from the people walking around drenched from head to toe. We made our may to Popeye and Bluto's bilge barge rats ride, a sort of river raft canyon ride, we sat in the raft and took off socks and shoes as the bloke we met at the hotel earlier told us you will get drenched, indeed we did, but luckily everything was dry. We saw Dudley dorights Ripsaw Falls next but the wait time was over 40 mins so we got a fastpass for it, by the time we headed into Jurassic park land we were almost dry.

This part of the park has a bad memory for me you will know why later. We decided to queue up for the Jurassic Park Rive adventure ride, it seemed fairly tame with a drop at the end not too large...so i thought. as we sat in the big boat i decided to bust out the camera and get some snaps on this take ride, around we went very calm and snapping away, we entere the raptor pen where things started to wrong and the ride got a bit more intense, with all the shouts from jayne saying"chris put the camera now its going to drop" i still thought oh i cant be that bad and videoing the drop at the nd might be good film, so down the drop we went...a laregrr drop than i anticiapated and a LOT wetter than i thought, it was too late by the time i decided to hide the camera up my shirt, as by now i was drenched and so was the camera !! i was gutted to see the camera wet through but didnt suspect any damage as it just seemed to bve the outer casing, took some test snaps and all seemed fine.....

On we went towards Duelling Dragons where we saw this amazing tree made into restaurant, i took out the camera to get a shot and noticed a white blob right in the middle after the pic, i looked at the lens and water had got behind it and was all condensed over...oh shit !!! that ride did more damage than i thought, it was well and truely buggered and would take no more decent pics without the white blur till the last day of our holiday !!! gutted dosent even come close to how i felt. but at the end of the day cest la vie and i just got on with it, put on a brave face and tried not to think about it, it was hard tho. the rides did take my mind off it, as went on the very lame Flying Unicorn (for kids really) jayne enjoyed it compared to the Hulk.

Next it was right next door to Duelling Dragons, forst we rode the Fire one, it was great, a dual rollercoaster that intetwined 2 tracks with 2 different coasters crossing in the middle, after we rode Fire jayne didnt like it too much and decided to go get our gear from the locker whilst i rode Ice by myself.


After this time it was way past lunch and our time for Dudley Doright fast pass was here, we put our gear in the lockers outside the ride, theres no way i was taking my camera on another water ride ever again !!! this was supposed to best flume ride in the world, the ride itself wasnt to greta but it was worth it for the drop at the end, a huge drop with no real restraints in the log.....and yes we got soaked ......again ! more from the buggers at the end firing cannons at us as we made our way to the dock. bastards !

We went back to Marvel land for lunch, while we ate i turned the cam on and had the lens open in the sun hoping it would dry out, didnt really do much to be honest until the battery went in the late afternoon.
From lunch on we really took it easy just relaxing and sitting watching the world go by, well the hulk ride really must have watched itgo round like 100 times hahaha.

We strolled into the kiddie part Dr Seuss land nothing really to go on until we got back to the poseidon area where there was a crowd gathered outside a fountain, when we got closer we noticed the fountain was talking to the kids that were hiddles around it, very funny off the cuff stuff and every now and again the fountain would spit water or as he said a "water rendition" and soak all the kids, very amusing stuff we watched that for at least a good 30 mins.

7pm was fast appraoching and we got a fast pass for spiderman, jaynes fave ride ! on our way to the shuttle park we strolled past a margarita bar and popped in for one sat outside wactching the crowds in the hot sun. The bus was on time tonight and we got a seat, when it dropped us off at "Quality Streets" we had a stroll along the strip for a restaurant and stumbled across the real old town kissimmee, a street lined with bars, shops and locals milling around, it was very busy as it was the evening before Labour Day, we stopped and had a beer outside before we went to Pizza Hut for something to eat.

On the way back to the hotel i talked Jayne into going for a frozen Margarita at Logans the place we went to eat on the first night, we sat at the bar (after jayne got carded) and got talking to the waitress about Canada about green cards etc... when were ready to leave she asked if we needed any Disney Tickets, so we said yeh we did as we were just going to buy our 2 day hopper pass at the gate on tuesday, she explained she worked at Epcot and would sell us her "freebie" tickets for a price way cheaper than gate, we talked and struck a deal to give her $60 each for the 2 day passes, a real bargain as it would have cost us at least $160USD at the gate, we couldnt believe our luck !!! she was a really nice girl calledFiorella who even said she would pick us up from our hotel on the days and drive us to Disney ! you cant get better than that can ya.

A perfect end to a really fun day...now all that i needed to happen was for my camera to get better !