A Holiday Visit To Universal Studios

We decided to do something different this year and chose to spend the New Years weekend in Orlando. Our first stop was at Universal Studios.

We got up before the sun rose and drove to Orlando in order to be at Universal Studios theme park as it opened. Unfortunately, we got there at 9AM and we discovered that the park had opened at 8AM. This meant that many of the rides were already filled up and the new Harry Potter area was locked down where visitors had to get a pass with a time-slot on it as to when we could stop by. Oh well, we weren't going to let that dampen our spirits!

Ok, well... Kinda...
I think Katrina has had too much caffeine already...

So, we had to go through Suess-Land to get in line for our Harry-Potterland passes.

A quick pose and... we'll be back...

We had to wait in the line for 45 minutes to get our "Return Time Tickets" and as you can see, time's a-wastin'...

By the time we got there, our time-slot was 3:00-4:00 PM. I'm looking rediculous because I just met a fellow geocacher giving out tickets (he saw my Extreme Geocacher hat) and we swapped info moments before.

You know, it's about 45 degrees out and people were actually riding the water rides. Good luck to them.

Since we had to wait for a whilel to get into Harry-Potterland, we went over to Suess-Land to goof off.

And to be honest, we are big Ted Geisel fans, so we were quite at home here.

We took the little roller-coaster ride which runs from building-to-building. Here is a picture we took as we were riding the coaster.

And another one...

Apparently, there are 2 different tracks and at this point, the trains crossed each other. I see you!

Wow! We must be in Who-ville because we came across this cute Who-ess blowing bubbles and posing for pictures with everybody.

And wouldn't you know it? The Grinch was hanging around in Suess-Land, posing for pictures too.

Next was the Jurassic Park exhibit, where we got to learn all about dinosaurs.
Rawr! Scary, huh?

Whoa! I think we pissed him off, because he's trying to stomp us out of existence!

This area is an interactive display where you use different testing techniques to determine what kind of dinosaur might be inside.

Whiel we were doing that, an announcement was made that one of the eggs was hatching, so we went over to see that. Nice animatronics.

In this interactive display, you are supposed to pose for a picture and then your face would be superimposed on the dinosaurs' face on the screen. Instead of putting my face near the screen when the camera took the picture, I put my geocaching hat up there instead, which made for the strange colors on its head.

Oh no! Another "Rawr" moment from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Look at those choppers!

This Stegosaurus has a camera and monitor system built into it, which lets you see through the dinosaur's eyes.

Ok, lunch time! We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes before we made it to the window to place our order. I felt bad for the people working the concession stand because they were constantly busy.

What did we order? Well, a chili-dog and 3 Greek lamb gyros. To go...

Now that our late lunch is over, we made our way over towards Harry-Potterland but first, a stop for a pose.

And here we are, entering Hogsmeade, the shopping area of the town.

But, we wanted to go take the Hogwarts thrill ride, so we headed over in that direction to get in line for that.

But first, we had to pass through Diagon Alley on our way over there.

And here is the Hogsmeade Express train, stopped at the station.

Yeah, there were lots of people everywhere.

Not sure what this human diorama is about, because everbody was so loud around us that we couldn't hear them talking.

Through the archway and into Hogwarts...

Such an imposing ediface.

We're getting closer.

Actually, the wait was about an hour long to get on the ride, then just before you get to the entrance, you met by this sign. If somebody didn't qualify to take this ride, it sure would have been nice to know BEFORE waiting an hour to see this sign...

Here we go, back & forth, & back & forth...

Oh yeah, still getting closer...

Katrina wanted me to get a picture of this mettalic plant. Got it, Squeak!

Meanwhile, Luann got a shot of the screaming plants in the 'garden'.

And, we are finally inside. If you have seen the Harry Potter movies, you'll recognize the imagery, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.



















When we were done with the ride, we stopped off at this tavern (which used to be this huge fake oak tree with a restaurant in it) to try some of Harry Potter's favorite drink, Butter Beer. Turns out, it is something like vanilla-cream soda with a butterscotch flavor to it. Not bad, actually.

The view as you belly up to the bar...

Well, we were pretty much done with our day here, so we started working our way out of the park. We paused here to watch these kites which were being pulled by a Jet-Ski.

And wouldn't ya know it, we came across The Cat In The Hat!

We couldn't help but to get a picture of Horton, the elephant in the Dr. Suess book, 'Horton Hears A Who'. it was kinda neat because our van is named Horton...

Of all of the times we have been going here, I had never noticed this windmill before today, so I took a picture of it to look at it in better detail later. Interesting...

Well, we couldn't say goodbye any better than the way Dr. Suess put it...