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Old 09-06-2007, 07:28 AM   #1
Shell_of_the_South
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Thumbs up Universal was great last weekend!

For those wondering how the crowd levels are over Labor Day weekend, I am happy to report that they were very managable!

On Friday, we arrived at Universal at about 8:50 am. We could see that the Hulk was already running. We got to IOA when it opened, around 9:00. We walked on the Hulk the first time, and rode 2 more times with 5 minute wait. We did Storm Force, Dr. Doom, then headed to Spiderman, which had about a 10 minute wait. Walked on Dudley Do Right and Jurassic Park (twice). Waited for Dueling Dragons about 15 minutes because they shut down the coasters to add in more trains. The next ride was about a 10 minute wait. We took a short break and walked into the Sinbad stunt show. Walked on the Suess High In the Sky Trolley Ride - what a yawner!!! Even the 7 yr. old in our group was bored.

The only problem we encountered was at the Pteranadon Flyers, it was a 60 minute wait! So we skipped it.

Having done most of IOA, we ventured over to US. We walked back towards Jaws and had Nathan's hot dogs for lunch. During this time it came a huge thunderstorm and we were stuck there at the midway games for about 45 minutes. It finally slowed down enough for us to walk over to the Mummy. Very short wait times in the regular line, about 10 minutes. We used the singler rider line for a few more rides. After the Mummy we walked all the way back to MIB. We waited in the regular line for about 15 minutes. The rest of the time we used the single rider line. In about 90 minutes we probably rode 10 times!! We left there and went to ET which was about a 10 minute wait. After ET we walked into the Horror Makeup Show.

After doing both parks, we left Universal about 6 pm. Not bad to hit most of the major attractions of both parks in one day during Labor Day weekend!

We went back to IOA on Saturday. Arrived at park opening. Went to Spiderman first which was a walk-on. Hulk was about a 5-10 minute wait after that. We walked on Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish and left for Universal Studios.

We hopped over to Universal Studios and got in line for Shrek. We waited for 20 minutes. When we first got in line they only had one theater open, but they opened the second theater while we were in line. Next we went to the Mummy which was a walkon. We did Mummy several more times in single rider which is no wait whatsoever. In fact, we all rode together because there were so few people in the regular line. The main reason I did the single rider line is that it was shorter and less walking for me and my broken toe! Caught the Blues Brothers show in front of the Mummy. We walked back to Jaws and rode it with no wait time. By the time we got to MIB there were a good many people in the regular line so we utilized the single rider line for about 6 rides in a row! After MIB we walked back towards the front of the park to Terminator 2:3D.

We finished on Saturday in time to be back at PO-R by 3:30 kickoff for the GA Tech game!

On Monday (Labor Day), we decided to go over to Universal at about 1:30 pm. We walked on the Mummy again for a couple of times - single rider but the regular line was so empty. MIB was fairly busy but we used the single rider line for non stop riding. Then we left and walked over to IOA to see how the crowds were there. I kind of though IOA would be busier than US on Labor Day. We were shocked to walk on the Hulk! This was about 5:00 pm, and the lines at the Hulk were the shortest we encountered over the weekend.

In comparison, there were more people at WDW parks over this weekend than Disney. I think the free dining had drawn more people to the Disney parks.

Characters we saw: Spiderman at IOA
Zorro, Shrek, Donkey, Madagascar characters, and the Egyptians on stilts in front of the Mummy at US
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