Day 23 - Back once again like a Floriday Master - Universal & The Cowfish

[Man v Disney]

We woke early, ready for our next Universal two day stint. Our aim for these two days was simple. We wanted to try and go on the rides that we hadn’t done yet and then revisit some of our favourites.

After setting off we had a fairly smooth journey over to Universal and found a space to park at Loews Royal Pacific Resort. The guy who checked us in was great and tested the kids with questions on the characters on the cards they chose. They both passed with flying colours. Josiah went for Spiderman, Eliana for the Hulk, Han had Simpsons while I had Harry Potter. Here are a few of the cards we have had this holiday.

We walked to parks using the walkway again and were in the parks by 10.15am.

Eliana decided that she wanted to give Rip Ride Rocket a go (yesss -I have a coaster buddy!) and after she had checked with the ride attendant about how big the drop was (157 feet, compared to over 200 on Sheikra) she was happy to ride. The queue went very quickly, although you have to go through a metal detector so no phones allowed – we popped it in a free locker instead!

I chose ZZ top, ‘Smart Dressed Man’ for my music and as Eliana wasn’t sure so I chose Limpbizkit, ‘Rollin’ for her. She absolutely loved the ride and thought it was amazing. In her mind it sits just below Sheikra and was full of herself when she got off – reliving the moment to Han and Josiah so much that they must have felt they rode it too!

After refilling the cup we bought last time (reactivating was $10.64 after tax each day) we wandered up and saw Scooby Doo, Homer Simpson, Penguins of Madagascar, all from a distance. Betty Boop was also out and everyone was queueing for the others and not her so Han felt sorry for her and made me and Josiah go for a picture – we took one for the team there!

Our next stop was Spongebob so that we had pictures of the kids with him everytime we have come here! Looking at the pictures we can we really chart their changes! They are growing up so fast!

We decided to ride ET as we were near there. We managed to help him save his home world and flew on the bike over where he lived. Good fun and not long to wait. For an old ride, the animatronics are still very good and it’s worth the ride for nostalgia’s sake.

As we came off this, Josiah, Eliana and I went on Woody Woodpecker while Han checked on some of the show times. The Woody ride is really short and we surprised Han with how quickly we were done. The two shows nearby, Barney and Animal Actors, were not due to start for quite some time so we left these and agreed that if we were near them when they were about to start we would pop in. Unfortunately we didn’t get the chance and the kids weren’t bothered but knowing we have outgrown Barney is a milestone moment really – even last time, the kids pretended they were too old but enjoyed it really!

Eliana wanted to have another go on ‘Men in Black’ so we popped in there to see if she could beat her last score. She was so desperate to get the red button bonus that she kept pressing it all of the way round! Unfortunately, she didn’t quite get there in time when she needed it so came off a little disappointed with her score. Still, we enjoyed this again, despite Eliana’s frustration at not getting the bonus.

The Simpsons ride was our next port of call. Last time we rode, this took ages – even with Express Pass, not the case today though. We were through the queue and in the waiting area in no time at all. The ride was great fun again, the humour in the Simpsons is very close to the edge sometimes though!

As we came off here we went onto Twirl n Hurl, which was also enjoyable, albeit a little short. It is very like Dumbo and Red Fish, Blue Fish but in the height of the sun a bit of a water spray would be a welcome addition!

We followed this up with a go on the Transformers ride which was really good fun. We were cheering and laughing all the way round. It’s very similar to Spiderman but it’s definitely what Universal Studios does well! The quality of the 3D glasses are very good here which makes a difference to the experience too.

Our stomach’s were rumbling by this point so we decided to do the Jimmy Fallon ride and then head out to lunch. Because we had the express pass, we could go straight in and not get a virtual return time. We liked the wait area, especially when Hashtag the Panda came out -he saw Han taking photos and posed in many poses just for her! The actual ride was good, although the seats win the award for being the most uncomfortable. It was not quite a race through New York as described due to an interplanetary part but was fun nonetheless.

With a lot of rides done we decided it was lunch time and that we would head out, eat and go back to the room to have a chill for an hour or two as rain was due later – after Eliana popped a few bubbles from a passing stall’s bubble wand!

Lunch today was at The Cowfish, we went and checked in and were given a 20 minute return time. As we needed a bit of air con we went into Fossil, which is opposite. Han looked at the crazy expensive bags and Josiah was very interested in their Gen 5 new watches, which were only released a week ago… they were very impressive, but we left before Josiah shelled out $300 that he doesn’t really have on a watch he wouldn’t really wear just for air con! We left quickly as we didn’t want to get the salespeople’s hopes up too much. As we came out our return time had arrived so we went in to get some food.

After being seated we ordered drinks from our waitress who was nice enough but seemed to have lost the ability to smile. She seemed a little tired (or maybe disinterested) and wasn’t interested in helping us with menu questions. Thankfully we figured it anyway due to research we had done before.

We ordered our drinks, a couple of cokes, a water and an iced tea. After a long look through the menu we made our choices. I went for the Cowfish Bento Box with Philly Roll sushi, Josiah went Tempura Sushi roll, Han went for Doug’s Filet roll and Eliana went for a classic burger, with only lettuce and bacon (which she didn’t eat! ).

These soon came out and we got stuck in. They were all fab – definitely one of our best meals. Josiah thought that his sushi was the best he had ever had, I loved the various elements of mine – especially the edemame which I wasn’t sure about to start. Han really enjoyed hers and Eliana polished off loads of her adult sized burger! It was really good to have a meal which was so different, a little lighter and really tasty. We would recommend it, the only thing is that I think you could easily spend a lot of money and make sure you have looked at google images and reviews first so you know what kind of thing you want. We didn’t go for an appetiser, dessert or one of their special milkshakes and it still came to $76.65 - $89.60 with tip.

As we left we decided on getting a Voodoo doughnut to take back to keep us ticking over later on. It was starting to rain so we had to put our ponchos on as we left. I went for the same as last time, a Chuckles, Josiah went for Universal Orange, Han had the Voodoo Doll and Eliana had had her eye on the Texas so went for that. It was massive! The doughnuts came to just over $20 this time thanks to the Texas!

We decided to get the bus back as the wind was picking up and the rain was getting harder. Well, by the time we got to the bus it was just like the intense storm we had on our last holiday as we got the bus back then! The spray coming in was soaking people and was knocking over the sign showing people where to queue. Fortunately the bus soon arrived and we took the relatively short ride back to the Royal Pacific Resort. Han had had a text while we were eating with our room number so they went to the room while I got the stuff.

We had a couple of hours in the room and Han had a snooze while the kids watched US Wife Swap – they really do find the extremes and the kids both said after that they are very happy for our family to continue life as we do it and not take some tips from those parents which included getting the kids to get the parents bed ready each evening for them to sleep and video cameras in each child’s room! After this we decided to go to the pool and had about half an hour in there - the kids were a little weirded out by the ducks which were swimming in there too!

Once we had dried off we agreed to go into the parks tonight and get some of our favourites done again.

The rain had died down a little so we headed out with our ponchos in our bag just in case. We went into Studios around 7.30 with the intention of using the Express passes to getting all of the Harry Potter rides as well as Hulk in the dark.

Josiah and Han went onto Despicable Me while Eliana and I went on Rip Ride Rockit again. We all loved these rides again and as soon as we got off we headed over to do Escape from Gringotts. We couldn’t help but notice how busy it was and with a standby time of around 35 minutes we knew that it was unlikely we would get everything done. Even with the Express pass this ride took quite a while but we all enjoyed it loads again and joined in the screaming that some of our ride sharers were doing!

We got out around 8.25pm, we headed out to the Hogwarts Express and saw that this had a queue time of around 25 minutes. I think we realised that there was no way that Eliana and I would be able to get across and then make it onto Hulk if we went on the train so we agreed to split up and meet back at the hotel.

Han and Josiah went on the Hogwarts Express hoping to get across in time to see some of the fireworks and projections onto Hogwarts and maybe do Forbidden Journey, one of Han’s favourite rides. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it to FJ as it took a long time to go on the train. They did see a bit of the fireworks though which was great.
Eliana and I raced all the way back across the park, exited and then went to IOA. We managed to get back in and make it to the Hulk for around 8.45pm. We were pretty tired, but got through and really enjoyed Hulk again. It really is very good at night!

We headed back to the hotel room and settled in. Han and Josiah arrived with a pizza in hand from Red Oven as we were a little peckish. She had used the app to do a mobile order before they left the park so expected it to be ready by the time they walked over but this wasn’t so… 30 minutes later the pizza came out and they had forgotten the cookie. Han went back and they gave her one so after that they had a quick walk back and we all tucked in. It was very tasty and actually wasn’t bad for the price – it came to around $20 and was good for 3 of us for supper - Eliana finished off some more of her massive Texas doughnut instead of joining in the pizza party.

Han also picked up some milk from the little shop at Royal Pacific for our cereal pots we brought with us for breakfast - for 263ml it cost $3.70! Mental!

Tomorrow – we are going to let the weather guide us. Definitely focus on Studios and maybe see if we can do Volcano Bay too.