Day 07 - Universal Studios
TLDR: Patrick’s Birthday at Universal. Later start, birthday wises and cards before the park. Few rides for the younger and older kids and then a killer roller coaster. A new ride through New York with Jimmy Fallon. Poor weather so skipped Harry Potter and Simpsons and ended up in an AWESOME chocolate factory for Patrick’s Birthday dinner. Couldn’t get a suitable cinema booking so hit Disney Strings instead. Lovely place. Shopped for an hour then headed home to sleep.
Happy Birthdaaay to Patrick, Happy Birthday to you…
So big day today, it’s Patrick’s 11th birthday! Where has the time went? We gave him a little card game based on American History for him to open (which he loved) as well as some money (which he also loved and as we all know is probably the best thing to be receiving when you’re that age). Some cereal for breakfast as no one was that hungry from the feast the night before and off we went to pick up the parents for a fun packed day at Universal.
We left around mid-day and when we arrived at the other hotel, everyone was waiting to wish Patrick a happy birthday and give him some birthday cards. Pauline and Kevin also bought him a nice big helium balloon, but he let it go when he went to open his cards, less that 5 minutes after receiving it, oops… Kevin had just returned from walking all the way to the shops and back again just to buy it too, sorry Kev!
We reached the park and the security guy remarked on my Final Fantasy VII t-shirt, which I was pretty chuffed about. A wee family pic at the Universal gates and then we went to get a big birthday badge for Patrick while we waited on the others.
First up through the doors was Shrek, a 4D experience with Shrek, Fiona, Dunkey and even Farquad who was back from the dead (for a short while anyways). I’ve done this a few times but there were a few parts which I didn’t recognize, now whether that’s a poor memory or they rotate the stories I’m not sure, I suppose I could go back through the previous years blog and check but its late one and I’m really tired after a hectic day. One specific part that really stood out for me was a Dragon Chase which mirrored the end of Star Wars: A New Hope. Shrek and Dunkey were flying through a high walled canyon and had to fire their blasters (sorry, dragon flames) at the the end to survive, with Dunkey shouting ‘Stay On Target’ too - LOL (well I found it funny anyway ; )
We then helped Optimus Prime battle the Decepticons in Transformers. Great thrill ride which mirrored Spiderman and the special effects were great. I really must get around to watching the movies as I’ve only seen the first one. The had a meet and greet with a few of the Autobots outside however as we had limited time before tonights dinner, we made our way straight to the next one, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem! Awesome simulator ride for the kids and adults alike, as we get transformed into a minion (and then back again unfortunately) and are taken through a wacky tour of Gru’s evil lair! All the more important to ride this one as we planned to see the movie later :)
Rock It!
Now came the moment I was dreading, Robert asked if he could go on Rip Ride Rockit, a big red roller coaster towering above the park with very very very steep tracks. Gracie actually asked if it was called The Red Hulk (as the green one in Islands in called The Hulk) - I have an absolute geek for a daughter, how cute! I didn’t mind accommodating Robert on the Islands coasters as they seemed not to bad, but this was one I even shuddered to look at. However, I wasn’t going to disappoint my new found adrenaline junkie son, so me, him, Michael, Kev and Corrie all headed to our impending doom. At the start of this roller coaster you go straight up vertical, like 90 freakin’ degrees up with just a lap bar to hold on to and then straight back down through a huge loop, that twists at the top. Yeah thanks for that Ro! One good thing about this ride though was that you could select your own individual track that plays throughout, while you’re scream your head off. I selected Beastie Boys - Intergalactic with hesitation once I seen it listed and it didnt disappoint. It was an amazing ride in the end and we were all glad we went on it. Robert was that buzzing as after it, he couldn’t even remember what song he selected too, haha XD
A bran spanking new ride up next - Jimmy Fallon’s Race Through New York. This replaces the Twister experience which was ok-ish st best so no big loss. They had a weird queuing system which kinda worked and we were presented with some clips from Jimmy Fallon while we waited. Then it was time for the ride, though we didn’t know quite what to expect, we all got seated in a theatre and donned our 3D glasses (which seems to be the norm with Universal rides). It was a simulator ride through the streets and other areas of New York and other areas that weren’t exactly New York too. It was pretty great and reminded me of the old Back To The Future ride minus Doc Brown & Marty.
I’ve got a golden ticket!
When we exited the ride, the weather turned and although we had 90 minutes to dinner, we didn’t want to risk getting wet prior to eating so made the decision to bypass Diagon Alley and The Simpsons land and head straight for The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium (or Chocolate Factory as we referred to it, it did really look like something out of Willy Wonka). We have a few days at Universal so didn’t really have any resistance from the kids on this one. The place was simply amazing! The place was all kitted out in Steam Punk decor (one of my favourite styles), complete with video panels revealing the insides of a working chocolate factory and table-visiting, mechanical men. They really did put a phenomenal amount of details into creating this, and I was in love even before I’d looked at the menu. We all skipped starters (to make room for desserts - it was a chocolate factory after all), and got down to picking our food. The food was really good, but now for the main event - the dessert! Gracie & I decided to split one and when I told her to choose one to share she picked S'Mores which was the same one as I was wanting - great minds! Patrick went for this monster brownie sundae and they gave him an extra brownie with a candle in it as it was his birthday. The desserts were absolutely enormous and probably too much for even two to share, though we gave it a good attempt (3-4 people could adequately share any of them). We ended up boxing Patrick’s remaining dessert to take away, which will likely fuel us for the next week.
Despicable Me 3 was released today and was included on Patrick’s birthday wishlist. We had been planning and looking forward to it for months. There was a cinema pretty much across the road from our hotel so instead of staying at Universal (Citywalk), we went and dropped my mum and dad back home and then headed to the cinema. Unfortunately it was completely booked out until late and we decided it would be too late and that we would need to go and watch it another time. Instead of heading home however we decided to take PG on a shopping spree to Disney Springs, which has a whole host of restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment. Its really lovely at night and its got a whole new area from the last time we were here so we will definitely be making a return trip or two before we leave. Patrick seen a Indy hat and sachel at Hollywood the other day, so we said we could go check out the shops to see if we could get them. Nowhere to be seen but he did manage to pick up a few Star Wars & Marvel comics. I also picked up a Star Wars hat too from the Star Wars shop (yes they have an actual shop full of Star Wars stuff, its awesome). The hat was similar to one I bought here when I was a wee boy (which I lost), so I was as giddy as a school boy (pardon the Indy reference, PG). Grace on the hunt for a Star Wars Furby - Furbacca - didn’t end up finding one so bought an Ewok instead. And Robert earned himself a Hulk t-shirt from us for being so brave with the roller coasters over the last few days.
Oh nearly forgot, Patrick’s Fun Fact of The Day. It’s not so much of a ‘fun’ one today, but here goes:
> The atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima in 1945 was code-named The Little Boy.
This was in reference to the Fat Man, also an atomic device which was dropped on Nagasaki and which can be found on a game we play, Fallout.
And for your patience here’s a video from last week from the Go Pro (now that I finally have a powerful enough Laptop to process it). Raw footage, but I’m definitely going to do a holiday montage.
Animal Kingdom, the last of the Disney parks on the plan for tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to this one because of the new Avatar area - Pandora.