Double the fun : East & West coast Disney & Universal parks during the holiday season **COMPLETE 7/11/11** About This Page:

[Big Sister]

To read about the first leg of our holiday (Sydney), including our itinerary and introduction, please click here

DAY 4B: Friday, 12 November 2010

First of five nights at Universal Studios Hollywood

At 3pm, two hours before we were due to land in LA, we were served 'breakfast'. I was excited when I heard there was a choice between eggs and pancakes, as I wanted pancakes. I was so disappointed when it turned out the server had made a mistake, and the choice ended up being between eggs and French toast with sultanas Since it was choose the lesser of two evils or eat nothing, I chose the French toast and just ate the sides of watermelon and honeydew melon cubes, and croissant with butter. I gave Nest my tub of passionfruit yoghurt and cup of orange juice, as they would've made me ill.

I knew snoozing would be futile by this stage, so I battled with the crowds to use the bathroom for the last time, filled in our blue customs/US entry forms, then played solitaire for the remainder of the flight.

We landed in LA at 5.25pm, and were surprised to see it had gotten dark so early. We caught a bus straight from the plane to the terminal. Surprisingly, we didn't have any hold-ups getting through Security or Customs (I didn't have to give up any of our lollies or crisps we had purchased in Sydney ) - even our luggage came out within the first five minutes of us arriving at the luggage carousel! When Nest was getting my suitcase off the luggage carousel, as he plonked it on the floor, my meowing cat toy went off really loudly, and everyone nearby turned around to look at us questioningly

After retrieving our luggage, we enquired at the Information Desk where to catch a shuttle which would be going our way, and were directed to the Super Shuttle stop to our left once outside the terminal. A shuttle turned up immediately, and we were soon being whisked off into the bright lights of the big city at night with three other passengers. It was around 6.30pm at the time. It was just so nice for things to be going so smoothly for once, after the bumpy time we had experienced in Sydney.

From LAX, we drove all the way to Bob Hope Airport, where we dropped off an old lady, followed by two young women (who had been gossiping about Carly, Heather, and other people they knew) off at the nearby Marriott Hotel. Finally it was time for Nest and I to be dropped off at our chosen destination, the Hilton at Universal City Walk . I loved seeing all the billboards advertising Christmas at Disneyland, as well as the new Disney Wonder cruise liner, and was excited to know we'd be able to experience the former at least, during this holiday

It felt great to reach the area we knew would be ours for the next five nights. When we saw the sign for the Frankenstein parking area, we knew we were close . Our hotel was at the top of a very steep drive lined with trees adorned with silver sparkly fairy lights.

When we pulled up out the front of the hotel, I was helped out of the shuttle - it must've looked like I was going to fall flat on my face! Since we were over ten hours late , I was hoping our reservation was still being held. To my relief, it was. It was also a relief to see that other people were checking in at that hour. We were seen to quickly. The staff were very efficient, which was much appreciated, as it was getting late, and we wanted to get settled in and cleaned up. It was around 8.30pm at the time, as we had been travelling around in the shuttle for quite a while.

Out of the bank of elevators in the lobby, only two were working (cue strange feeling of déjà vu!), so since so many people with luggage were waiting to use them, a group of us were invited to use the service elevators.

Mine and Nest's room was number 968 on the 9th floor. When we finally worked out how to open the door, we couldn't believe our eyes - never before have we had such an awesome room! It was such a massive welcome after the matchbox we had stayed in in Sydney. Awaiting us on the day seat, was a complimentary welcome platter. The platter consisted of a bunch of grapes, bananas, an apple, an orange, a chocolate coated apple with sprinkles (on a stick), a jar of fruit chew lollies all different colours and flavours, and two bottles of water. Nest got stuck into the fruit straight away, as we continued exploring our room.

Our room was massive. It had two very comfortable looking queen size beds (with four pillows each), a writing desk with two super comfy desk chairs (which I enjoyed spinning around in ... yes, I'm 34), a lazy boy and footrest (which Nest claimed as his own), a coffee table with a variety of bottled waters and reading material arranged on top, and a tall boy housing a big TV, refreshment centre, and mini bar. The refreshment centre and mini bar were fully stocked ... and we had the keys to both of them!

Nest was massively happy in this room after the tiny one we had in Sydney

Getting stuck into the snackas already

We only partook of the sodas & water

We also had a large bathroom with a selection of complimentary toiletries lining the basin top, and a walk in closet containing more spare pillows (just in case four each weren't enough )

As for the view from our window, it was absolutely awesome! To our right, we could see Universal City Walk (including the famous globe) and the entrance to the park, and to our left, we could see the twinkling gold, silver and red lights of the city for as far as the eye could see, as well as planes constantly coming into land at what must've been Bob Hope Airport.

View from our room taken with my camera: Samsung Digimax V800

View from our room taken with Nest's camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital

As Nest still wasn't feeling 100%, we decided to have an easy night. First order of the evening, was to have a much needed shower. When I got out, I found that Nest had gotten into the refreshment centre, and had cracked open a tube of fun-sized Snickers, a jar of honey roasted peanuts, a jar of salted cashews, and a packet of mixed rice crackers That could only mean one thing - it was time for dinner! We spent a while pouring over the extensive room service menu, and were surprised that once I had placed the order, it only took 15 minutes to arrive.

To share, we had ordered:

· Universal hot platter: Chicken and beef satay sticks with peanut sauce; grilled ahi tuna skewers with soy sauce; vegetarian spring rolls with plum sauce; and, beef tenderloin focaccia flat bread with tomato, pesto and grilled cheese. Except for the grilled ahi tuna skewers, everything on the platter was sooooooo delicious! This was turning out to be the best meal we had eaten on our holiday so far!

· Beefsteak tomato salad: Huge thick slices of Californian tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella with mixed lettuce and caramelised onions, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and basil oil. I didn't realise this dish was going to be so big, and I was starting to feel really full by this stage.

· Chocolate eruption: A huge slice of very rich chocolate cake complete with chocolate icing, served with a generous portion of whipped cream (so yummy!), fresh strawberries, and strawberry jus. By this stage, I could only manage a spoonful of cake, before leaving the rest for Nest.

We ate dinner while watching the Comedy Channel and Nick at Night Channel. After dinner, we worked really hard on bringing our journals up-to-date while drinking all the Cokes out of the mini bar. We didn't get much writing done, as we kept on being distracted by the great view out the window, and seeing countless limos drive by, and wondering who was in them.

After an evening of total relaxation once having checked in, and our first big proper meal of the holiday, Nest was feeling much better. Even though we didn't want to be tired for the following day's activities, we didn't want to call it a night, as we were having so much fun and didn't want this great part of the holiday to end. It turned 4am before we called it a night

Next entry: 1st full day in the Universal Studios park

[chezp]

Yay - you've made it to the States! Wow, what a gorgeous room!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Great room!!! And that tomato and mozzarella looks deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious! Yummy!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you've made it to LA! What a great room you got!

[scrappyjae]

Signing up so that I can read about your fantastic trip later. So jealous, I would never be able to take such a long trip!

[clio]

Glad you made it to L. A. The room is really nice and big after the room your stayed in before. Your dinner looked really good. I can't wait to read about your day at Universal.
Liz

[pamcarey]

What a great room!! Looking forward to hearing about Universal!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

Yay - you've made it to the States!

It was a fantastic feeling arriving and having the stress of the unconfirmed flight postponment finally behind us!

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow, what a gorgeous room!

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

Great room!!!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Glad you've made it to LA! What a great room you got!

Originally Posted by clio

Glad you made it to L. A. The room is really nice and big after the room your stayed in before. I can't wait to read about your day at Universal.
Liz

Originally Posted by pamcarey

What a great room!! Looking forward to hearing about Universal!

Out of all the hotels we stayed in this holiday, the Hilton Universal City Walk was by far our most favourite! We stayed concierge level at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, which was super nice, but we still loved the Hilton the most. It wasn't even conceirge level - just a room with a view category. So if their general rooms are this nice, it has us thinking just how much nicer are their higher level rooms?! There's only one way to find out ... but first I have to finish paying off this holiday

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

That tomato and mozzarella looks deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious! Yummy!

Originally Posted by clio

Your dinner looked really good. Liz

The room service was FANTASTIC! Quality was super high and very filling, plus we never had to wait all that long for it to be delivered - excellent value for money. We never had the same dish twice, though wished we had the time to, as almost each dish we experienced became our new favourite .

Originally Posted by scrappyjae

Signing up so that I can read about your fantastic trip later. So jealous, I would never be able to take such a long trip!

for following our adventures. As we live in Oz, everything's so far away from us, so we made a huge effort to be able to visit everything at once (having to choose between the East and West coasts would've been virtually impossible!) As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I was hoping to add in a cruise (the 3 day Disney one that goes to Nassau), and a couple of days in San Francisco, but I couldn't afford it . I'm glad it worked out that way though, as we ran out of money during the early stages of our Disneyland leg , which is definitely not an experience I care to repeat (I can laugh about it now, but we definitely weren't laughing at the time!!) I am so greatful we didn't run out of cash earlier, and that Disneyland was the last leg of our trip.

[Big Sister]

DAY 5: Saturday, 13 November 2010

First full day in the Universal Studios Park

I know four hours sleep isn't much after a 15 hour flight, but we had set our alarm for 8am, and woke to the soft sounds of a Beach Boys song. Somebody went straight back to sleep afterwards, and didn't actually get up until 12.15pm (but at least that someone was feeling 100% by that stage, which was the main thing.)

While I waited for Nest to wake up, I stared out the window at the fantastic view for ages, took some photos, and finished writing my Wildlife World postcards I was meant to have completed while in Sydney. I also rang Disneyland to book a Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour for December 13. To save on luggage space, I hadn't brought any guidebooks with me. I also hadn't written the number to call in my diary like I should've, so after a couple of wrong guesses, I looked up the number for Disneyland in the phone book, and asked to be put through to the right number. Nest woke up just as I was ending the call, and mimicked me saying, "Thanks, Chad," for the next couple of days .

Once Nest had gotten up and ready, it was 1pm. We were just about to leave for the park, when our bro, Johnny, rang up to see how we were going.

On our way out of the hotel, we stopped at the store in the foyer to buy some international postage stamps, and then handed the stamped postcards in at the front desk for the people there to post for me. The lady I handed them to, made a big fuss over how neat my writing was I explained to her that the smaller I write, the more news I can fit in

After taking care of the postcards, we then stopped at the concierge desk to ask for walking directions to the park. We couldn’t believe it when the staff member there said it only takes seven minutes from the hotel, but they were right! The hotel also provides a shuttle bus to the park, but it only runs until 4.30pm, and the park closes a couple of hours later. As lazy as Nest and I can be at times, we never once caught the shuttle bus during our stay. When we walked back to our hotel at night after the park had closed, we always felt safe.

The view from our hotel from the Frankenstein parking structure across the road

Once at the park's entrance, we lined up to get my bag checked, showed our passes at the turnstile, then entered the park after having dreamt about a return visit for so long. It was a really hot sunny day (I had made a poor choice in deciding to wear a long sleeved top that day!), and the place was absolutely packed, which was a new experience for us where Universal's concerned, as there had been hardly any people in the park during our last visit back in early December of 2007.

We'd been saying all along how the first ride we wanted to go on was Jurassic Park, so we headed straight to the Lower Lot where the ride's located, on entering the park. The way to Jurassic Park's queue is lined with palm trees. There are little steam valves attached to the tree trunks, which periodically let off steam, which really added to the prehistoric atmosphere and our excitement.

On reaching the queuing area, the line looked pretty long. We were relieved to find that it was a fast loading ride, and handled the crowds well. While waiting our turn, we actually paid attention to the safety video, as it was really humourous for such a serious subject. Nest and I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the no eating rule. It showed a man sitting in the front row of the boat, getting stuck into a hot dog as if he hadn't eaten in a week, and you hear a dinosaur roar angrily in the background as if in protest at what he's doing. Even the no smoking rule was illustrated humourously - the same man in the front row, pulls out a cigarette and goes to light it, and the camera shows a close-up of the kid sitting next to him, glare over-accusingly at him. Unfortunately, I never thought to video these observations.

It was so wonderful experiencing Jurassic Park again after all these years. I was beside myself with excitement as our boat set off up the ramp on our way to adventure. I almost started crying from sheer happiness as we came to a set of giant double doors, which opened, revealing a relaxing lagoon covered by a light mist and populated by herbivores, and the well-known theme music started playing as Richard Attenborough's voice welcomed us to Jurassic Park. I had worked so hard to make this holiday a reality for Nest and myself, and was so happy to be living it after only having been able to just dream about it for so long

Like those of you who have seen the movie will know, awe and wonder soon turns to sheer terror on realisation that the carnivorous dinosaurs have escaped While I wasn't feeling exactly terrorised during this part of the ride (though at the same time, I was no longer feeling totally relaxed, either - ), I still couldn't help but duck down in my attempt to avoid the gigantic T-Rex that suddenly towers within touching distance over you, roaring, as you go toppling over the 84 foot drop waterfall. Nest and I had made a pact not to hold onto anything or close our eyes while going on thrill rides (thankfully, I was still permitted to scream!) Experiencing the rides according the Nest's rules, was such an exhilarating feeling!

Out of all the rides and attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood, Jurassic Park has got to be our favourite. It has humour, wonder, excitement, trepidation, and exhilaration. I didn't want to get off the ride once it came our turn to disembark

We enjoyed looking through the attached gift store, Jurassic Outfitters, afterwards. I casually pointed out a shelf of "World's Best Sister" Oscar statuettes to Nest , but he was distracted by an "I'm with dummy!" Patrick Star pin (think goodness he didn't get the t-shirt! )

We went over to Revenge of the Mummy : the Ride next, stopping only to stow my bag in a locker.

Last visit, we were always able to run through the pre-show area, then ride twice without having to get off. Not this time though, due to the crowds This ride didn't load as quickly as Jurassic Park, so we had plenty of opportunity to take in the pre-show sights properly for the very first time.

· Outside the entrance to the ride, was a bag with gold canopic jars spilling out.

· There was a hole in the wall in one of the dark tunnels we walked down, where if you put your arm right in, it may (or may not) be shot with an unexpected blast of noisy air (I noticed it didn't happen with everyone. Perhaps it depended on whether you put your arm all the way in or not, and how long you held it there for.)

· The Book of Life was on display in a lit up recession in a wall. If you went up and touched it, an unseen mummy screams menacingly in the background (who would've thought nightmare librarians existed way back then!)

· Further along, we came to a display window depicting a mummy's coffin having been destroyed from the inside out, with the warm glow of fire having taken the missing mummy's place. Propped up against the outside of the coffin, was a skeleton, presumably of a treasure hunter (that's how I interpreted it.)

· The last bit of pre-show entertainment I can remember, is a big oval shaped mirror featuring a ghostly woman presenting a scary folklore. The eyes of the Egyptian cat statues flanking the mirror, glowed red.

Once seated in your exploration vehicle, you begin by travelling under an Egyptian headboard, and enter a dark cave populated by bedraggled mummies with glowing red eyes. You then continue on under a webbed area, where these mummy arms hung down trying to reach you. They must be salivating at the thought of fresh meat, as sometimes you get dribbled on as you pass under this section.

As you travel under three skeletons tied to a non-religious cross, you soon find yourself in a hugely impressive treasure chamber. I so wish photography and video recording was allowed on this part of the ride at least, as it's a sight to behold (it's just as exciting as the treasure scene in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, although obviously different.)

The very dark part of this ride is super fast, at times the track is very curvy and you feel like you're travelling on your side, and there's also some very unexpected sudden drops. Speeding forward, you can see threatening sythe-weilding mummies come to life with the aid of fluorescent lights as you wizz by. You come to a very abrupt jarring stop at the end of the track, where the floor of your vehicle is covered with scarab beetles, and the effects employed here make you feel as if they're crawling all over your feet and up the lower parts of your legs. Then before you know it, you're flying back the way you came, only in reverse. Before you're able to escape into the disembarking area, you come face-to-face with a very mad Imhotep (no doubt angry that we had escaped with our souls), then suddenly blinded by a very bright light and surrounded by a thick cloak of steam. At the same time, you can feel your vehicle slowly turning around, which is all very disorientating (but fun, in this instance.) The exit hall is lined with mummies standing in front of an Egyptian mural.

Even though I know I had loved this ride from my visit back in 2007, the finer details had faded over time. Now that I had reminded myself of them after riding it for the first time this trip, I was elated as if I had just ridden it for the very first time ever. Nest thought the whole ride had smelt of body odour! He then went on to say that perhaps it was caused from the decaying flesh of all the mummies featured throughout the attraction

Speaking of the first time ever, Nest and myself looked through the Tomb Treasures gift shop ... for the first time ever, as we had unbelievably missed it during our last visit. There were so many nice things for sale - absolutely gorgeous t-shirts and reasonably priced ornaments I was really interested in ... but we walked out empty-handed, still not being able to break out of our 'saving for holiday' mode.

We walked back across the way and rode Jurassic Park again - Nest was wondering if the atmospheric steam was scented, it smelt so good, but I expected it was the burger place, Jurassic Cafe, next door. The ride broke down just as our boat began to pass the last water squirting dinosaur you come to before you reach the disembarking area. At least it was a nice warm day! And I had mentioned after riding it earlier on in the day, that I hadn't wanted to get off! We bought our photo once a staff member had attached an emergency plank from his side to our boat, allowing us to escape the terror of the constantly water squirting dinosaur.

Our hour free locker hire had almost expired by this stage, so we went to swap lockers before riding Revenge of the Mummy again.

Nest and I could've alternated between those two rides all day, but we decided to return to the Upper Lot to experience the brand new (to us) Simpsons ride, which had been under construction during our last visit. When I went to get my bag out of the locker, something went wrong and the locker door wouldn't open, so we had to ask a staff member for help. He said he'd need to see our ID, and match it with items in my bag, but I said that all our ID was in the locker. Luckily, he accepted our souvenir photo of our go on Revenge of the Mummy which we were holding, and matched it with the souvenir photo of our go on Jurassic Park, which was in my bag.

Somewhere along our ascent of the Sky Walk, we stopped for fresh churros (as opposed to the awfully stale ones at the Sydney Aquarium.) They were so delicious! It was 3.37pm at the time. I had recalled suddenly being super hungry while in the Lower Lot, but hadn't wanted to interrupt riding the fantastic rides to get something to eat. Strangely for us, we hadn't had a proper meal all day - I had just grabbed a plain dinner roll leftover from the night before, and Nest had grabbed some cashew nuts and a soda from the refreshment centre and mini bar in our room, on our way out to the park.

Krustyland was so brilliantly colourful and exciting looking! We joined the queue for the ride, thinking ourselves lucky that we had had a churro each for sustenance, as it turned out to be a very long queue. The length of the queue didn't matter though, as there was just so much pre-show entertainment to take in.

Hanging up in the carnival themed queuing area (dark blue walls with light blue stars, a huge map of the fictional Krustyland, and posters advertising rides and attractions), were strategically placed television screens, which you were able to see from wherever you stood in line. These screens played favourite moments from The Simpsons, as well as specially made for ride segments. Some of my favourite segments were:

· Dr Nick and Troy McClure doing an infomercial for the Jucinator. It was such a noisy product, yet they were acting as if it was quiet ...
Troy McClure: I can't hear a thing
Dr Nick: Yes, it's whisper quiet

· The product they advertised afterwards, was even funnier - super excellent/double action suncream. As Troy was rubbing it into his face, Dr Nick said, "Yes Troy, it also acts as a laxative!" Troy immediately stops rubbing it in, his eyes widen, and then he runs off camera.

· Krusty saying how much he loves kids, then Ralph comes up to him eating an ice cream, which promptly falls on one of Krusty's clown shoes. Krusty is furious, and Ralph starts crying. Krusty begins chasing Ralph, but they're running on the spot and not getting anywhere. Eventually the shot widens, and you see that they're actually running on a merry-go-round!

From this general queuing area, a number of us were then moved into a final queuing area. There were about eight lines divided by handrails, and flanking this queuing area, were animated sideshow attractions. Eg. Mole Man was on duty in the information booth, Patty and Selma were in charge of lost and found, Apu was manning the snack stand, and Moe was in charge of games (where you eventually find that he has nailed down the tower of cans, so that no one is able to knock them over and claim a prize.)

Directly ahead of you, are TV screens hanging from the ceiling, advertising Krustyland rides and products in a humourous way. Once the eight queue lines were filled to capacity, the TVs began screening an intro to the ride. Sideshow Mel finds out that Krusty is about to unveil his flagship ride at Krustyland, so Sideshow Mel escapes from prison in an attempt to ruin Krusty's dig day. Sideshow Mel gets up on the prison wall, and goes to jump into a truck full of pillows. As he jumps, the truck full of pillows pulls off, and a truck containing barbed wire quickly takes it place, which is the one Sideshow Mel lands in, to comic effect.

Back at Krustyland, Barney has a job entertaining people waiting in the ride queue while dressed as Scratchy. Krusty fires Barney for being drunk on the job, and demands the costume back before he leaves. Barney goes to take his costume off, but it's obvious after a point that he has nothing on underneath (eew!), forcing Krusty to hurriedly say he can keep it. As Barney leaves the premises, Sideshow Mel springs out from behind a skip overflowing with day old churros (where the ones at Sydney belonged!), and hit Barney over the head with one so he could steal Barney's costume, enabling him to take his revenge on Krusty and the Simpsons.

Here the storyline pauses, while your line is directed to these tiny little cartoon rooms situated along a corridor. The rooms only just fit eight people (the maximum allowed in each ride vehicle), and are decorated in a bright 2D cartoon fashion. The pre-show storyline continues on a huge TV screen half the size of the wall it's on, once the door to your room closes.

The screen comes to life, and you find the Simpsons have been chosen to be the first ones to ride the new ride. Maggie stays behind with Grandad, due to neither of them being able to ride (despite Grandad's humourous protest, before admitting defeat.) As Homer hands Maggie to Grandad, I laughed when he said something like, "You can understand each other's nonsense." Grandad falls asleep with Maggie on his lap. Maggie gets bored, and goes off exploring, ending up in a radioactive room and growing to giant proportions.

Once in the loading area, Krusty, Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa are held at gunpoint by Sideshow Mel. When asked why he's there doing what he's doing, he replies, "I'm here for a dish that's best served cold", to which Homer innocently asks, "Ice cream?", and Sideshow Mel explodes, "Nooooooo! Revenge!" Hilarious! He then goes on to explain how they're all going to die on the ride, as he has sabotaged it, and Lisa's there protesting how he'll never get them on it, then turns to see Homer sitting in the front seat. She expresses her disappointment, to which Homer asserts, "I've waited in line for over an hour - nothing's going to stop me going on this ride!"

We were then shown a humourous safety video starring Itchy and Scratchy. It showed how you were expected to behave during the ride, and what would happen if you didn't follow the rules. Scratchy was always the one to find himself illustrating what would happen if you didn't follow the rules, while Itchy was there with a halo over his head and a big smile on his face, being the perfect citizen (despite being the cause of Scratchy’s downfall on most occasions.)

Once the video had come to an end, the doors to our vehicle opened, and we were allowed to board. Due to Nest's towering height, he had been instructed to sit in the front row. It must've been for safety reasons, but they weren't clear to us. One of the safety rules illustrated in the video, was to watch your head while boarding the vehicle. In our hurry to get in the front row in case other people took it all up despite what the staff member had said, Nest copped a fair wallop on his head as he went to get in the vehicle - I felt so sorry for him. As everyone was getting seated, Homer came on over the sound system, to tell us to hurry up, and said he was going to make an annoying noise (which he did), to make us hurry even faster.

Once the safety bars were all locked into place, a seemingly nervous and not too bright male teenage character came on screen. You could see he was in charge of the controls of the ride, and was studying algebra at the same time. He was making worrying noises while reading his algebra book, and it turned out one of the reasons he couldn't understand it, was because he had the book upside-down (a mistake anyone of us could make concerning that subject!) Suddenly, the view of the teenager was cut from the screen, replaced with a few seconds of static, then a clear picture of Sideshow Mel came on, laughing maniacally and sending us off to our doom.

It felt like we were being hauled miles up into the air, the absolutely massive screen coming to life in front of us in the process. We zoomed up through the wooden supports of a rollercoaster (either The Traumanator or The Tooth Chipper - Krustyland has two coasters), until we had reached the highest point of the track. From there, you had a bird's eye view of Krustyland and the surrounding Springfield area - it was absolutely amazing! From there, your vehicle starts careening crazily down the curvy track after the vehicle the Simpsons are in. Homer's thrown from his vehicle, and is madly running for his life away from our vehicle, and somewhere along the way, he's also joined by a giant boulder intent on his destruction. Up ahead, the track breaks, and you feel as if you're actually flying through the air! As the action was so fast moving from this point onwards, I wasn't able to remember the sequence of things from this point, so here are my jumbled memories of the remainder of the ride, in dot point:

· I think from the broken rollercoaster, we land on a ride cart shooting through a huge replica of Krusty's mouth.

· Happy Little Elves in Panda Land: We're flying into this lovely enchanting looking children's ride right behind Lisa and Bart. They mention we should be safe here, then Sideshow Mel bursts onto the scene attached to a giant animatronic panda, and sets about trying to shoot us. We're thrown about trying to dodge Sideshow Mel, as well as other objects being thrown in our direction.

· I'm not sure of the name of the next ride we find ourselves in, but you bob along the water in a ride that strongly reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, especially when it came to the village part. Here, you are following Marge and Homer. Marge tells Homer not to touch anything, but he still goes ahead and takes a beer off one of the village characters as their boat floats by, which causes the whole scene to collapse around you and sent you shooting over a waterfall.

· From the waterfall, you land in a large pool that reminds me of the ones the killer whales perform in at SeaWorld. Sideshow Mel appears, telling Bart that he has foiled his plans for the last time, to which Bart laughs, "You've soiled your pants for the last time?!", which both Nest and I found really funny. Lisa rescues us from this particular situation on the back of a killer whale.

· Hell: Somehow, Sideshow Mel manages to send us into the fiery depths of Hell (indirectly ... Maggie's the one who grabs Mel and bangs him repetitively on the bonnet of our vehicle.) Before we hit rock-bottom, Professor Frink pulls our vehicle to safety using a special flying contraption of his.

· Springfield: Attached to Professor Frink's vehicle, you fly around the familiar streets of Springfield, and come across much loved characters. You then come to a giant Maggie situated on a grassy area in the middle of town, who thinks your vehicle would make a great new pacifier, and promptly pops you in her mouth, to Marge's protests of, "Noooooo, Maggie! You don't know where they've been!" While in her mouth, you're spritzed with baby drool and overcome by the strong scent of baby powder. Eventually Maggie spits you out, and you shoot through the air, landing in the Simpson’s lounge room. Only you're not really in their lounge room, as it all falls away around you, and you find yourself in outer space on top of the world's tallest vertical drop ride, which I believe is called the Death Drop! :0 On the way down, you hear Homer lamenting, "Ow, my bosoms are slapping me in the face!", which always made Nest laugh. You also hear Marge say, "Oh, this must be the time where they take your picture." We came to a stop in the Simpson's lounge room for real, and that was the end of the ride.

As our vehicle settled back down in front of the smaller screen we had started off with, Krusty came on holding a camera, saying, "I wonder what this does?", and a blinding flash goes off as the seats we're sitting on, vibrate. Despite what Marge had said previously, it turned out that this was the time our photo was taken, which resulted in a lot of hilarious candid expressions!

The Simspons ride has got to be the best simulator ride I've ever ridden, and I seriously can't imagine it being surpassed by another. I seriously hope Universal keeps it around forever!

Ever since my friend came back from an overseas trip and told me about Dippin' Dots (tiny little freeze-dried balls of ice cream), I've been absolutely busting to try them. On exiting the Simspons ride, Nest and I spotted a cart specialising in them, and headed straight for it. It was difficult to choose which flavour to get, as there were so many yummy ones available, but eventually we both decided on banana split - tiny little balls of yellow (banana), white (vanilla), pink (strawberry), and brown (chocolate) ice cream. It was so yummy!

Dippin' Dots in hand, we headed off towards the Studio Tram Tour, wondering how it had changed since part of the lot had been destroyed by fire back in 2008. We had timed it well, as by the time we got down the escalators to the queuing area, a tram was just pulling up to be loaded for the 5.15pm tour, which just happened to be the last tour of the day. Surprisingly, there weren't many people waiting to board, so Nest and I were still able to get great seats despite being the last ones to get on. The sun had started to go down big time by this stage, but we were still able to see things clearly, and it made the atmosphere that much more exciting.

Fantastic additions to the tour since last having taken it in 2007, were:

· Norman Bates: An actor has been employed to play Norman Bates as you drive past the hotel featured in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. I say drive past, but you actually stop as you spy a lone male figure go from room to room, and eventually come out of one holding a lifeless body, which he places in the boot of his car. Only then, did he realise we were watching him, and taking a large kitchen knife out from inside his jacket, walks rapidly towards our tram with a determined look set on his face. Luckily for us passengers, our driver got the tram going just in time to make a lucky escape up the hill. As we leveled out up the top and started on our way to Amity/Cabot Cove, some people in the tram behind us started screaming. Nest and I turned around just in time to see that Norman had ran up the side of the hill and was standing menacingly just outside the line of bushes.

This pic was taken the following day, but fits in better in today's entry

· King Kong 3D: As we had boarded the tram, we had been given a pair of 3D glasses each to hang on to. As we approached the entrance to a dark foreboding looking cave with skulls out the front, we were told to put these glasses on. What followed was a totally awesome 3D experience! The cave was sealed up behind us to omit any light, and suddenly the inside of the cave came to life alllllll around us, with a ferocious battle taking place between a 35 foot T-Rex and a seemingly just as large King Kong (with a couple of smaller dinosaurs fighting in the background, as well as what I viewed as the world's biggest spider - noooooo!) The air was filled with the battle roars of these battling jungle beasts, as well as the earthy scents of trees and stirred up dirt. What was happening on the right-hand side screen, was different to what was happening on the left hand side screen, and both beasts jumped on the roof of our tram to get to the other side, so that everyone got a clear look at everything that was going on. Each time one of the beasts jumped on the roof, the sound when they landed was really loud, and shook your vehicle around loads. Then while King Kong was on our right, he pushed our tram until the T-Rex who was on our left, went over a cliff. The only problem with this, is that the T-Rex took us with him :0 Peter Jackson specially wrote this segment for Universal to replace the King Kong section destroyed in the fire, and I think he did an absolutely awesome job (as did the team who helped bring the scenes to life.)

I will talk more about the Studio Tram Tour in tomorrow's entry when Nest and I go on the VIP Tour, but in the meantime, other memorable moments in tonight's tour, were:

· Seeing the jetty in Amity explode into flames as Jaws comes up to attack us.

· Spotting a far less threatening little bunny on somebody's front lawn in Wisteria Lane.

· As we were driving past the miniature model of Skull Island, a duck swam by, wrecking the scale (ie. It was as big as the model ship), and our tour guide suggested that the next movie Universal should make, is Attack of the Killer Ducks.

As our tour regrettably came to an end and we were disembarking from the tram, our guide said, "If you’ve got any questions, my name's Owen. Even if you haven't got any questions, my name's still Owen," which Nest and I found funny. I can never think of any good questions to ask when presented with these opportunities - it's only when the holiday's over, do I start thinking, "Oh, I could've asked such-and-such!"

Ascending the escalators from the Studio tram Tour area, we found ourselves within short walking distance of the Simpsons ride, so we decided to go on it again. It was an excellent decision, as we were pretty much able to walk right on due to the thinning of the crowds as park closing time grew near. We bought our souvenir ride photo afterwards, as it was nowhere near as bad as our first one (which we didn't buy.) We purchased the package which included a hardcopy of the photo (to be picked up at the photo kiosk before we left the park that night), and an electronic copy of the photo that would be emailed to my account immediately, which I planned on forwarding to my bros once I found an internet terminal, especially as we wouldn't be seeing them for another five weeks. I didn't have the correct change on me, so had to pay with my credit card.

The Lower Lot closes earlier than the Upper Lot, which we weren't initially aware of, so the only way we had left to go once off the Simpsons ride, was back towards the entrance (noooooooo - we didn't want to leave!) As we were walking past Shrek 4D, we heard a final call for the last screening of the day. As we had never seen the show before, and didn't want to leave the park, we ran through the empty maze of a queuing area to be in time for the pre-show introduction.

We found ourselves standing in a dimly lit dungeon. In the corner, were the three little pigs chained up in boxes made from the material their houses were constructed from (ie. straw, sticks, and bricks.) Beside them, was Pinocchio locked upside-down in a steel box with only his legs and nose visible. Occasionally, you could hear the pigs grunt and shift around in their boxes, making the boxes themselves swing, and Pinocchio would sometimes wiggle his legs. On the big screen, was a gingerbread man lying on a table in a different part of the dungeon. Eventually, the gingerbread man wakes up, wiggles off the table, and runs out of the dungeon, calling back to us to escape while we can, as Lord Farquaad is about to return.

Two oval shaped mirrors either end of the dungeon come to life, and re-cap what happened in the first Shrek movie (as the Shrek 4D show continues on from there), with running commentary provided by the three little pigs and Pinocchio. The ghost of Lord Farquaad then appears on the big screen, and tells us of his plans to kidnap Princess Fiona and make her his ghostly bride, where he will then set about taking over the underworld. He asks the magic mirror where he can find Princess Fiona, but the mirror lies to him and says he can only see in the past because his batteries are running low. Lord Farquaad then asks the same question to Pinocchio, and you can tell that he lies in his response, as his nose immediately grows longer. This makes Lord Farquaad mad, and he threatens to use Pinocchio as fire wood, and the resulting fire he will use to cook the three little pigs over. Much protesting ensues, and then it's time to move into the theatre.

Before the doors open and we can go in, the magic mirror tells us of some rules we must abide by, such as no photography. He had humourous consequences if these rules were broken, and I'm just so annoyed at myself for not being able to remember any of them. We were also told if we didn't want to be thrown about in our seats for the duration of the show, that there were a bank of green stationary seats you could view the show from in complete stillness.

The movie starts with a pretty sparkly fairy flying through the air, but all of a sudden she's caught by the long sticky tongue of a hungry frog. Luckily, she's able to escape the frog's sticky clutches, slamming into Donkey in the process. Donkey starts floating up into the air, along with the map he and Shrek were looking at. The pixie dust eventually causes Donkey to sneeze, bringing him back down to earth (and covering us, the audience, with 'snot' in the process.)

The scene then changes to show Princess Fiona crying in a carriage. After Donkey constantly incorrectly guesses what's the matter, Princess Fiona explains it's because the carriage is a giant onion, so Donkey lowers the top down so they can get plenty of fresh air. It is at this time, that Shrek discovers a scary looking shortcut to his honeymoon destination, and Princess Fiona's simultaneously kidnapped by one of Lord Farquaad’shenchmen on horseback.

Shrek and Donkey tear down the scary looking shortcut after the henchman, with Princess Fiona's screams causing a bird to explode. The seats you're sitting in are moving in a galloping motion too, which is so much fun. I thought it was funny seeing the banks of seats with no one sitting in them, moving even crazier. Eventually, you all see that you're rapidly approaching the Gingerbread Man's house. The henchman clears it with no problem, but Shrek and Donkey go crashing through it, sending candy corn flying everywhere. As they continue in their pursuit, they find that they've gained another passenger - an angry gingerbread man, who was shouting that he hoped they had lots of dough (ha ha ha) to fix his house with.

Another jump is executed to clear yet another obstacle. While Shrek and Donkey do clear it, they do so head-over-heels, landing in a haunted graveyard. Donkey is absolutely terrified, as ghost hands keep on grabbing his tail, so he whistles for his dragon friend to come and save them. Instead of Donkey's much wished for appearance of his dragon friend, a stone dragon brought to life by Lord Farquaad, comes after them instead. It almost catches them, but they're rescued in the nick of time by Donkey's dragon friend. A very fast zig-zaggy dragon chase ensues, with lots of fireballs and falling rocks being used as weapons (our seats moving in sync with the dragons' movements.) The bad dragon gets into some difficulty, and falls to his demise into the rapids miles below.

Down at the rapids, Lord Farquaad orders his henchman to set Princess Fiona off on a raft, in the hope that she goes over the waterfall and comes back as his ghostly bride. Luckily, Princess Fiona is able to break free from her ties, and uses the rope to stop the raft from going over the waterfall. Shrek jumps from the dragon onto the raft to save Princess Fiona, but the sudden addition of his weight causes the rope to break, sending them over the waterfall. Dragon is there to save the day, and flies them to their honeymoon destination after having taken care of Lord Farquaad with a blast of fire.

The last attraction we experienced that night, was the only one I ever fret about when at Universal Studios Hollywood - the House of Horrors! :0 Nest absolutely loves it though, so latched tightly onto his arm, I braved what awaited me inside. I was interested in looking at the horror exhibits they had on display in the foyer, but as there was no queue holding us up, we were waved right through.

Walking right behind Nest, I knew I'd be safe from the front, but not from either side or behind. Even though the monsters have a no touching policy, they still scare the life out of me whenever they burst from wherever it is they're hiding from.

I don't know why, but there was no photography or videoing allowed in this attraction. Perhaps it's so the flow of visitors aren't held up more than necessary, causing bottlenecks in the house. Because of this, coupled with my screaming and closing of eyes, my attention to detail wasn't what it usually was. There are so many parts to this house. Nest said there was a lot of great detail to take in for those of us brave enough to be able to take notice. Unfortunately, these are the only bits I can remember - please don't send me back to find out more

· Pretty much everywhere was dark. A lot of the times you found yourself walking down narrow corridors littered with the perfect hidey holes and hidden doorways for monsters to jump out from.

· There are thin dark threads dangling from the ceiling at the start, and because it's so dark inside, you don't actually notice that they're there, until you walk through them and feel them dragging over you. It really crept me out and gave me the shivers.

· Wrapped in plastic: One room you have to walk through, is full of bodies wrapped in plastic, hanging from the ceiling. You have to physically push your way through them to get to the door on the other side. I was half expecting an arm to come shooting out of one of these plastic cocoons and grab me. I remembered this room from our previous visit.

· The Chucky doll room: One room I didn't remember from our previous visit, was the Chucky doll room. We recently watched all the Chucky movies for the first time, so it helped give the room meaning, compared to just another place to get frightened in. The Chucky room had kind of a workshop feel to it, and there were Chucky dolls in various conditions, placed around the shelves and benches. As this was probably the first time I felt relaxed as I could be, considering the circumstances, and able to take in my surroundings, I was caught totally unawares when a person dressed as Chucky (complete with large kitchen knife), burst forth from behind some innocent looking barrels I didn't suspect for even a second, and came right at me! The funny thing was, he was half visible from behind the barrels, but because he was sitting so still, I just thought he was another doll!! It would've made for one hilarious and candid souvenir photo if the option had've existed in this attraction.

· Graveyard: This was a veeeeeeery dimly lit and spooky place to walk through. To make matters worse, the monsters were camouflaged into their surroundings (eg. a brown werewolf wasn't noticeable against the dirt ground until it was too late), and had tombstones to hide behind.

· Dr. Frankenstein's lab: You first see this area from above, and when we did, we saw a hunchback character lurching after a woman who was running off, screaming. It did wonders for my nerves, as I knew we'd end up down there ourselves in a few moments.

· Hall of mirrors: I wouldn't have known which way to run if a monster had come out at me here, what with all the optical illusions caused by the mirrors.

· The spinning tunnel: Here, you were expected to walk through a tunnel with spinning stripy walls, without falling over.

· Hoards of zombies: Sometimes we would walk past a darkened barred up area, when suddenly loads of bloodied arms shot out as you went by, straining desperately out to reach you. Other times, as we were approaching opaque sections of wall, it would be suddenly be brought to life by a blinding white light, and you could see the silhouettes of writhing zombies behind it, making droning hungry zombie noises.

I'm always so relieved to exit Universal's House of Horrors - it never fails to scare the life out of me whenever I go in there!

On our way out of the park, we had a look through a couple of the shops - Cartooniversal, and the Universal Studio Store at the entrance, but didn't buy anything.

From there, we went to Universal City Walk for the very first time, which we were greatly looking forward to, as we had missed it on our day excursion from Disneyland back in 2007. As it was Saturday night, the place was absolutely packed, making it virtually impossible to get around - it was seriously shoulder-to-shoulder in there. Still Nest and I did our best to make the most of it, taking in the bright neon lights and looking in all the shop windows. We kept a particular eye out for a shop called 'Them', named after one of our favourite olden days black and white creature feature horror movie about giant ants, only to find it didn't seem to exist anymore.

Shops we did go into, were:

· The Universal Studios Store: This one was bigger than the one in the park. I absolutely loved the big and bright Dr Seuss Christmas display - it was so sparkly and festive. The main products in this display, were a variety of Santa hats, and winter pyjamas with fun Dr Seuss designs on them. Inside the store, were a lot of goodies that appealed to me, particularly the Hello Kitty handbags (I need a new decent-sized cat themed handbag), t-shirts, and other associated products. They were all astronomically priced though, so I didn't feel right purchasing any of them.

· Hot Topic: This store was chock full of super fun t-shirts and hoodies. For an indecisive person like myself, it was impossible to choose between them. Speaking of t-shirts, Nest and I spotted a cart selling these awesome t-shirts which lit up and flashed in a variety of patterns. They really appealed to me, and I know Kib would've been interested too, but I didn't see a design he would be willing to wear (if only they had a "Fox" moto-gp logo one), and there was no design that really jumped out at me. Plus there was no sign anywhere, saying how much they were, and as the saying goes, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

For dinner, we went to the Saddle Ranch Chop House. It was so crowded both inside and out, that we almost didn't bother, but then I thought we had waited so long to dine here, that I didn't want to give up so easily. We asked at the seating podium thing for an indoor table for two, and were given a disc to hold. They said when it lit up and started to vibrate, that our table would be ready. While we waited, we looked over the menu while watching people take turns on the bucking bronco machine.

Much to our surprise, we didn't seem to wait all that long for a table to become available. Inside the restaurant, it was really large, and had a real friendly cowboy western feel to it (minus the honky tonk piano playing in the background.) Everywhere you looked, there was wood paneling, wooden tables, and wooden chairs. The restaurant had a really high ceiling, and up in the rafters, you could see flower boxes decorating the lower ledges of the faux window sills. The lighting was really dim inside, but everyone had lanterns at their table, so you were still able to see your food really well, and it just added to the great atmosphere of the place.

A bit fuzzy, but helps to give the general idea

Our server was Keira, and she was really friendly, helpful, and took a genuine interest in our holiday plans. For appetizers, Nest and I shared a platter of mini cheeseburgers which were served with a mound of fries. Even though this was our first substantial meal of the day, we felt ourselves starting to get worryingly full before we even got to the end of this very tasty dish.

In an effort to try something totally new instead of sticking to our favourite kind of dishes, Nest and I both went for the Thai peanut crunch for our main dish. It consisted of chopped romaine lettuce, chicken breast, carrots, cucumbers and cilantro tossed with chow mein noodles, rice noodles, wonton strips, peanuts, edamame and sesame seeds, mixed with Thai peanut dressing. It was such a massive dish for one person, that I knew straight away I wouldn't be able to finish it, and immediately began to feel guilty about it. The size of the bowl was of one a salad for many people to share would be served in. The salad was nice, but it didn't have an obviously satay taste Nest and I had been expecting and looking forward to. The peanuts and fried white noodles gave the salad a very crunchy texture, which I've never experienced with a salad before.

Ever since I had read the menu months before, I had been greatly looking forward to dessert ... one in particular - the cotton carnival: a three foot tall mass of cotton candy surrounded by chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, fresh strawberries, fresh banana, and whipped cream - SO YUMMY!

It started off at 3ft tall, but collapsed somewhat on the way over

For drinks, I had Coke, and Nest had diet Coke. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we paid for the first glass, and then were given unlimited free refills throughout the night, which we thought was really generous.

During our meal, the manager did the rounds, checking to see that everything was alright with his guests, which I thought was really good for business, as it showed that he cared. Also, a pair of guitar players came and asked if we had a song we'd like them to play for us, but we politely declined.

We blobbed all the way back to the hotel afterwards, carrying a container of leftover cotton candy and chocolate bakery products. We had intended to work on our journals once back at the hotel, but we went to bed at 3am-ish without having done anything of the sort.

The way back to our hotel from the park

Next entry: VIP Tour of Universal Studios Hollywood

[chezp]

What a great day at Universal - and very detailed descriptions of everything!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from Universal! Glad you had such a great time!

[pamcarey]

Wow, what a great day! I loved the Simpsons ride at Universal Orlando. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so fun!

[scrappyjae]

Another great update. Can't wait to read more.

[clio]

Great update. I love your descriptions of the Universal attractions.
Liz

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a great day at Universal - and very detailed descriptions of everything!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great pictures from Universal! Glad you had such a great time!

Originally Posted by clio

Great update. I love your descriptions of the Universal attractions.
Liz

Thanks so much you guys - much appreciated as always!

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Wow, what a great day! I loved the Simpsons ride at Universal Orlando. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so fun!

It certainly was an awesome day! I was surprised at how much we achieved despite the late start.

I'm with you in loving the Simpsons ride! As there was just so much going on, I've been wondering if there were any funny bits, whether during the pre-show or actual ride, that slipped my mind. I hope not!

Originally Posted by scrappyjae

Another great update. Can't wait to read more.

. I'm about to load another entry, and are currently half-way through writing about our deluxe tour at Warner Bros . It's taking me ages and sometimes I feel overwhelmed, as it was such a more detailed tour that Universal's, despite being two hours shorter.