Beryl, Breakdowns, Beauty and the Bates family - Day 13

[Nimbus]

Previously...
Pre-Trip
Day One - The Journey There
Day Two - Around the World at Epcot
Day Three - Swimming and Shopping
Day Four - Soggy at Seaworld
Day Five - Hollywood Studios
Day Six - Manic Magic Kingdom
Day Seven - Islands of Adventure
Day Eight - Wet at Universal Studios
Day Nine - More Splashing and Shopping
Day Ten - Sunny at Seaworld
Day Eleven - Back to the Future World
Day Twelve - Animal Kingdom

Day Thirteen - Wednesday 6th June 2012 – Park and Puddle Hopping at Universal

Day 13 of our holiday and an unlucky one for us.

For the three of you that may have read my pre-trippy thingy way back at the beginning of this report, you'll know that today was planned to be a day off from theme parks. Not that we'd been following the plan up to now. However, today we thought we'd try and see the new Cinematic Spectacular firework show over in Universal. We also considered having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in CityWalk. As we planned to be at the park later into the evening, we'd get the later bus to Universal and that meant we could have a bit of a lie in and a leisurely morning.

So, after the usual scrummy breakfast in the hotel, we spent the morning at the nearby Bargain World shop on International Drive. Here we bought some gifts for people at home and some other nick-nacks. Last of the big spenders, us!

Just before 11am, we hopped onboard the Superstar shuttle bus to the Universal parks.

The crowds didn't seem too large heading in - but then again we were a couple of hours later than the other times we'd been here and, by now, most people had already arrived. Once into CityWalk, we chose to visit Islands of Adventure first.

Just inside the turnstiles we were accosted by someone conducting a survey. We agreed - well, Michelle answered the questions whilst I chatted to the guy. I tried to find out a little more about what was going to appear in the old Jaws site at Universal but the guy was being cagey and not committing to anything (admittedly, he probably knew as little as anyone else).

Once that was done, we continued inside and picked up a 2-park map and guide. It was at this point that we discovered that Universal was open until 9:30pm this week instead of 9pm the week before. That meant the firework show didn't start until 9:30pm. Alas, we would have to be on the moving walkways heading for our shuttle bus at this time. So that meant that the firework show was probably out.



Sighing, we slouched into Seuss Landings. We did the usual rides - Cat in the Hat and the Caro-Seuss-el - and because it was reasonably warm and dry at this point, Hannah and I also went on the One Fish, Two Fish ride.



Great shot of us getting wet there!

After we'd done Seuss Landings we tried going on a bit further but found that the park was very busy. Queue times were greater than last week and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was crowded. We instead went round to Marvel Island to see if we could go on the Spider-Man ride. Sadly, the standby queue was 75 minutes and there was no single rider line operating this day. Hannah and I went on the Storm Force Acceletron (flashy tea cups) instead. And then we went for lunch in the Fantastic Four Cafe.

I was surprised to see that they didn't sell a pizza with pepperoni pieces in the shape of a "4" in here. What a missed opportunity! This counter service restaurant is okay but not terribly well themed.

I had another look in the superhero shops around here but, otherwise, Spider-Man and the rest of IOA was too busy for us. Deciding not to bother with the rest of IOA today we made our way to the exit where we spotted Woody Woodpecker:



As we walked around the lake to Universal Studios, we called into the Hard Rock Cafe to see if we could make a reservation for later in the day. However, like the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom, they didn't take reservations. Shrugging, we continued onwards into Universal.

Not long after we arrived, it started pouring down with rain. A couple of hours ago we had been happily getting wet on One Fish, Two Fish but now we rushed into the big shop near the entrance to avoid getting soaked. I had heard rumours on t'internet that there might be soft openings for the Despicable Me ride soon, so we marched through the shop to see. Sadly, Despicable Me was still not open.

We then dashed from the shop all the way to the other side of the park to go on the Simspons ride. There are various queues for this and today we were sent up to the highest entrance. Here's the view looking out over the lagoon.



As you can see, it was still raining. Also, just behind the Simpson's banners you can sort of see the building site that used to be Jaws. There's not a lot there at the moment.

After Simpsons, we considered the Men in Black ride next door. The queue system for this is a little bizarre - there's a long queue area inside but you have to wait outside first because they only let in a small number of people at a time. That meant there was a sizeable queue outside MiB when we looked and we didn't fancy waiting in the rain.



Instead, we wandered around to the Spongebob Storepants shop where, surprise surprise, Spongebob was meeting people. Hannah was really happy about this because she's quite a fan of Spongebob.



Funny that he was out and about today in the rain whereas last time we were told that the characters didn't come out when it was raining. And today it was really raining:



It was so bad that the child being carried in that photo was sobbing his heart out. The rain wasn't the heaviest we'd seen since we'd been here but it was close.

We bought some crabby patties for gifts here and then went on the E.T. ride. I resisted giving a stupid name as we entered and just went with the usual "Steve". However I think ET had forgotten who we were by the end of the ride.

Not quite knowing what to go on next, we wandered for a while. I found a shop next to the Terminator 3D attraction that sold DC comic books, Doctor Who t-shirts and other geeky paraphernalia which I browsed through for a while.

Eventually, though, we decided to go to Twister. Michelle and I had done this years ago and hadn't been terribly impressed with it. Perhaps it was better now? Well, no, it wasn't.The build up to Twister is far more dramatic than the actual experience itself. The videos they show whilst you're standing in the queue really do build up the tension (and got Hannah scared) but the actual twister itself is a bit of a letdown. Even though the flying cow is amusing, Hannah didn't like this attraction.

Outside it was still raining and, by now, we were thoroughly fed up. We decided to leave Universal Studios a little early - it was around 4:45pm - and eat an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. That way, we'd beat the evening rush.



And, indeed, we were seated quickly... after they'd taken the obligatory photo of us holding a guitar that they then try to sell to you later.

The Hard Rock is quite impressive (and huge inside) but it is rather loud. Maybe I'm showing my age but I would've preferred the volume to have been turned down a notch or two. The service in here wasn't that great either. It wasn't terrible but it was nothing special either.



That's Hannah trying out the huge touch screen in there.



I had the classic burger, Michelle had the twisted mac and cheese, whilst Hannah opted for the cheeseburger. These were nice but, again, nothing better than we'd had at other (cheaper) restaurants. Michelle said that hers was a bit bland after a while - she thought the cheese sauce was supposed to have peppers in it but that didn't seem to be the case.

We asked to see the dessert menu but, instead, someone came up and showed us the desserts on a tray, which was somewhat unusual. We were put a little on the spot as the server stood there waiting for us to decide. I hastily chose the New York cheesecake (in a glass?!?) whilst Hannah and Michelle shared a peanut butter and chocolate sundae. The cheesecake was nice but I would've preferred a slice.

Guess what? Outside it was still raining, though not as heavily as before. We looked around CityWalk a bit...



It had rained so much Hannah had shrunk!

Then we decided to get the earlier bus back to our hotel. We weren't going to see the fireworks - assuming the Cinematic Spectacular actually went ahead with all the bad weather - and we didn't fancy continuing to trudge around the parks in the rain.

Back at the hotel we relaxed and watched some American TV. Hannah discovered she quite enjoyed Friends, although some of the jokes were a little risque. We also watched the rain from our bedroom window:



Compare and contrast with the view from our window on our first day when it was sunny:



Today had been something of a disappointment. The bad weather had soured our mood. Plus the timings of the fireworks and our bus back hadn't aligned meaning we'd missed out on seeing Universal's nighttime show. Tomorrow's weather forecast was due to be similar to today's which also didn't help.

Wondering what we'd do the next day, we went to sleep.

Food Score: 7/10. Hard Rock Cafe was quite good but not brilliant.

Favourite Attraction: Meeting Spongebob?

Next…
Day Fourteen - Pool and Universal again

[denthefrog]

Aww! Rotten weather!
You get a sense of your disappointment whilst reading!
I hope things improved!
Thanks for sharing

[btrek]

Loving your trippy's... stayed in the Homewood Suites many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it...

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by denthefrog

Aww! Rotten weather!
You get a sense of your disappointment whilst reading!
I hope things improved!

See more...

In a way things did improve, yes. Like others who went in June, the weather was wetter than we were expecting which was a bit of a pity. It's still better than being at home/work though (and, let's face it, the weather over here hasn't been much fun either).

Originally Posted by btrek

Loving your trippy's... stayed in the Homewood Suites many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it...

See more...

The Homewood Suites was a very good hotel and I'd recommend it.

Thanks for reading!

[tnkrbell]

Such a shame about the weather today. Really does put a dampner on your day (sorry about the pun) have been reading your triP report and love it. Stayed in the homewood suites before and loved them. Great location too.

[mrsd08/10]

Enjoying your report looking forward to the rest

[disney owl]

shame about the weather

[WileyCoyote]

Oh what a shame about the weather but thumbs up for meeti ng spongebob. Hard Rock sounded a bit hit and miss .