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We arrived in Orlando after a particularly nasty flight, it was full of turbulence and more than once I was ready to get off the plane mid flight. After making it to our hotel it was time for a break considering Mark's sinuses were shattered and my nerves were in tatters. After chilling poolside with some lunch we decided to get some washing done in the coin laundry at our hotel and afterwards we headed across the road to a massive factory outlet. This place was huge! We had over 150 shops to look at and everything was extremely inexpensive. Of course we had to hit the Adidas store and Mark (eventually) walked out of there with a bag full of clothes and even a hoodie for me for less than $100AU. After perusing the shops for a couple more hours we headed home as we knew we had a massive day coming up tomorrow and one that I had been looking forward to in much anticipation.
The next day we (I mean me mainly) were up early excited by what today was going to bring. After a quick breaky we were off on our way to universal studios. The entrance to the park was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel, but straight away we noticed just how hot and humid it was. After walking through the the first part of the studios (mainly shops, restaurants and cinemas) we found the entrance to the Island of Adventure Island. Our first stop - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!! Well not technically as we had to walk another 20mins or so through Dr Seuss landing and the Lost Continent, which included Poseidon's Fury and The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad, we then finally we made it to HP world. The first thing you see is the town of Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts express train station. After taking in the sights we headed straight for our first ride of the day, the Dragon Challenge, after what seemed like the longest, twisty, darkest walk in history to get to a roller coaster, we jumped on (without having to wait at all mind you!) the Green Dragon (as they have two side by side with slightly different tracks) not knowing what to expect. It was a suspended roller coaster (so one where you sit with your feet dangling) and holy moly it was fast and full on. Neither Mark or I have ever felt so dizzy after getting off a roller coaster, we weren't sure if it was become of the insane g-force or if it had to do with the fact that you get off and walk straight into a dark twisty tunnel, or a combination of both. But it was safe to say it was freaking awesome and we enjoyed every bit!! Next up we went to check out Hogwarts castle and the ride contained within. It was a bit of a wait, but it wasn't too bad considering we got to spend it in aircon. After walking through corridors and classrooms, even Professor Dumbledoors office we found ourselves boarding a four person enchanted bench (made to look like a row of school chairs) then we headed on a journey through Hogwarts flying through Qwidditch fields and escaping dragons. It was really quiet cool probably one of the most high tech coasters we have been on considering you are really just looking at a wrap round Projection screens. Its really hard to explain, but like I said it is pretty cool! After the ride we decided to have a bit of a break, so we grabbed some butterbeers and checked out the gift shops. After cooling off slightly we decided to head back to the Dragon Challenge and this time we jumped on the Red Dragon. After another insanely fast twisty ride and getting our dizziness on again we decided it was time to head out of HP world and check out the rest of what universal studios had to offer.
The next stop was Jurassic Park, as it was a really hot day and we kinda knew what the ride had in store since it was the same as the one that we had already been on in Los Angles we decided to jump on in the hope of a quick cool off due to the water splash at the end. But this time we somehow managed to stay completely dry! To be honest the ride was a bit dodgy and nowhere near as cool as the one in LA! After our disappointing ride we decided to stop and have some lunch in the air-conditioned eatery. Mark picked out a massive turkey drumstick, the thing was so big! Neither of us had ever seen one before so it was certainly an experience! After lunch we went on to explore the rest of the park Which included Marvel Superhero island where we went on the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman ride, which again was a 3D adventure ride that was similar to the Harry Potter ride where most of it is done through simulators and projection screens. After helping spidy save New York we headed on to the Incredible Hulk Coaster which is a really massive roller coaster. It was so much fun we walked straight off and walked straight back on again! Lucky we had no lines to contend with! After feeling the heat after our quick turnaround rides we decided to stand for a little bit under the mist machines that they had all round the park, this one happens to be located right at the beginning of the first loop in the hulk coaster and while there we almost got taken our by a pair of flying prescription glasses that smashed into a couple of pieces on the nearby concrete. Looked like someone wasn't going to be enjoying the rest of there universal studio experience!! After failing at the attempt to cool ourselves down we decided to head to the Toon Lagoon and go on a log ride that we had seen people get drawing wet on earlier in the day. After what seemed like an eternity (45mins to be exact) wait we finally boarded our log and only after a couple of minutes we were practically soaked through! And this was only on the small drop offs! After only a matter of time we found ourselves hurtling towards the big lagoon and of course coming out the other side absolutely saturated to the bone. And if that wasn't enough some random guy decided to spray us unsuspectingly with provided water guns as we were coming to the end of our ride! After getting back onto dry land mark and I decided that we would pay our water soaking forward and spent a couple quarters using the water guns to further soak people at the end of their rides. I have to admit we had a fair bit of fun doing it to!!
We decided to head back to Harry Potter world to buy a few souvenirs and sink another butter beer. After grabbing our goodies we headed back to the entrance of the studios and decided to catch a movie for the evening. We watched Cowboys Vs Aliens and can't say we were that really impressed by it.... When we got out of the movies it was hammering down with rain (an obvious reason as to why it was so darn hot and humid all day) and thought it best to catch a taxi the five minutes down the road to our hotel as we were both shattered and really couldn't be bothered getting saturated again. That night we were so stuffed that we practically got home and went to bed without dinner, mind you marks turkey leg could have carried him through to the next day anyway! So it is safe to say we crashed and burned.
The next morning we were up early again to head to the other part of Universal Orlando, Universal Studios. We made the walk back down to the entrance to the parks an this time headed in the opposite direction of Harry Potter World and after walking through the front gates made a bee line straight to the one gigantic roller coaster called the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. After what could possibly be the best roller coaster either of us has ever been on we instantly lined up again to experience it once more. It was a gigantic coaster that took you up to the top completely vertical and also included the worlds first non inverting loop. It was very cool and included a video camera in each seat so that after the ride you could watch yourself experiencing the coaster, or like mark and I, watch the smallish kids camera. Ha, its horrible but we certainly got a chuckle out of watching the poor children almost die of fright.
After the coaster we headed on to the Twister Experience and to be honest we thought it was pretty average, they take you inside a set and create a twister vortex and some fake rain and throw in some fire and explosions and a flying cow or two and then that's about it. Like I said it was fairly lame and average. Again, like yesterday this day was a scorcher so after finding some drinks to help cool us down we wandered on through the studios that looked like smallish cities, like for instance they had San Francisco bay (which included the fisher mans wharf sign and everything) a Little Italy and others. After wandering round for a bit we decided to go on the Men in Black ride, Which consisted of us boarding a car and heading off through an alien infested world and having to shot invaders and score as many points as we could. I am happy to say that I beat Mark and not by a little, I killed him by over 100 000 points. Yes he was a bit miffed but he got over it because its okay to let me win every now and then! After MIB we watched the Blues Brothers concert and Mark ate another turkey drumstick and then we went on the Simpson's ride, which was another animation roller coaster, probably more aimed at smaller children, but none the less we still enjoyed it. After that it was on to the ET ride, which was a bit of a dodgy recreation of the Steven Spielberg 1982 movie of the same name. We then had to wait another 30mins in line before we jumped onto a flying bicycle and toured the world of ET then at the end of the ride ET says thank you for saving his planet and even calls you by your name. Like I said it was pretty lame...
After ET we grabbed something to eat from the diner, we then noticed the storm clouds gathering once again we headed to the gift shop to grab a few last pressies. While in the gift shop the heavens opened and it poured down. Lucky the gift shop sold ponchos (how handy for them) once all covered up and the fact that we had seen all there was to see in the studios we headed back out the gates and back to the movie theatre this time to see Captain America. We were lucky enough to be the only ones in the cinema and we really enjoyed the movie especially after the previous days disappointment. Once the movie was over we jumped in a cab and headed back to the outlet shops for what was going to be our final shopping trip in the US. We picked up a few more bargains, Marky scored a few nice new work shirts and some shoes and I got a couple of $80 summer dresses for $6 each. After shopping til we dropped, we headed back to the hotel to try and pack all our new goodies into our suitcases ready for the next mornings departure to Miami.
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