Nelle's Stuff

Universal

It's quite funny - most of the rides have test-seats out the front so that you can check if your butt is small enough to fit in the seat (and they're not small seats)! Many of the rides also have rows with modified seats for those more King-sized folk. Although I've put on a little weight since I left home, walking around the themeparks sure does make one feel really thin - there are so many ridiculously large people! Many of them also hire little scooters to drive themselves around the park - it's not that they can't walk - they just elect not to!

We also went on a Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oil Ride, which is pretty much the Universal equivalent of the river rapids ride at Dreamworld. There is one small difference though - everyone gets absolutely drenched! You can't really tell from the picture below, but I am totally soaked here - my hair, my clothes, my underwear, everything! Really, I could have saved them all the trouble and just jumped in to the water!

We also stopped by Seuss Landing - which is really cute - barely a straight line or right angle to be seen and sooooo colourful. The kids would love it here!

Here's me and my newest best friend.... (and yes, I was the only grown-up around who felt compelled to meet the Cat!).

We also went on the Spiderman ride, which was really cool. You sit in a small shuttle, and it's part ride, part 3D film. With the cart moving around and the 3D imagery, it feels like you are flying around, and various characters jump onto the front of the cart and point guns and things at you. You then get pulled way up into the air, and fall head-first downward (at least it looks and feels that way) - landing safely in one of Spiderman's webs. This was one of the rides we went on with the longest queues - only about 40 minutes!

We also went on other rides, but I won't tell you about them all - I've got to save something to tell you about when I see you!

Over at Universal Studios, we did less rides. However, we did go on the Jaws ride, as we figured that was a must (another 45 minute wait). We also went on the Twister Experience, which lets you experience first hand what it would be like to be caught in a Tornado, the Earthquake Experience, which lets you experience an 8.3 (I think) earthquake first hand, and also watched the Shrek 4D movie.

Around 5pm we headed back to our hotel to meet up with Mack and Kerri for dinner. We had Japanese, which was a nice change from the greasy all-American TGI Friday's meal we had the night before. We all then walked back over to Universal to hang-out and watch the fireworks at Universal Citywalk. This is an area out the front of the two parks, which is free to get to. It has a heap of large restaurants (like a Hard Rock Cafe, a NBA-themed restaurant, a NASCAR-themed restaurant - which Nate would love, and many others), night clubs, shops, etc. From here, you can also watch the nightly fireworks - which were really good!

We also had some Dippin' Dots - which is this weird alternative to ice cream. You get a cup full of tiny little balls which look rather like styrafoam! They come in a range of flavours. When you put them in your mouth, at first you can't really taste any flavour and it just feels like you have a mouthfull of little balls of ice, but then as it melts, you get the flavour. Can't say I really like them! Much too weird.

This is Dave and I at the entrance to Universal Citywalk.

posted by Nelle @ 3:29 pm