My Happy Place

Yep, it's time for another travel blog!

Ever since I was little, my family and I always try to go to one theme park whenever we go to Florida. I mean, how can we not?! We would be silly to miss the opportunity, plus it's fun, of course.  As wonderful and magical as Disney is (well, it's full of Brits and as much as I love it, the magic isn't always there.  More on that in another blog) my favourite place has always been Universal Studios.  Whenever I enter through those gates I feel like I am transported to another world. Maybe this was the point in the theming of the park, you see, the clue is in the name. It is supposed to make you feel like you are walking through a filming studio lot, so you have certain areas dedicated to certain 'countries' or places.  New York contains the Mummy ride (themed as a museum) and has the likes of the Blues Brothers performing down the street.  Whereas London contains the Harry Potter land Diagon Alley and Kings Cross station. It sounds cringey (like most of my blogs) but all of my worries and thoughts drift away.  I guess because I have been going there from such a young age, maybe I feel at home in a weird way? I'm not sure, but when my family decided to return to Universal Studios last Summer I was so happy. 

We had a personal reason for deciding to return, as my dad had been trying to lose weight to go on the Harry Potter ride.  In particular, 'Escape from Gringotts'.  However, we decided to go to Islands of Adventure on the first evening of our trip and then go to Universal the following day.  As we aren't big ride people we knew we wouldn't need long in Islands of Adventure, which contains the larger rides such as the Hulk rollercoaster.  My dad had decided to see if he could fit onto the Forbidden Journey ride just in case he could ride it.  We had done some research prior to this and had figured out that my dad might fit on if he sat in one of the modified seats near the back of the carriage.  Due to the ride using over the shoulder restraints we knew it would be a tight fit for anybody (not to mention you're sort of riding in a cupboard-box thing), but we were so happy when my dad found out he could fit in the regular seats! All of that hard work was definitely worth it! My dad was so happy that he even had a picture with the ride attendant who said he was able to fit in the regular seats. 

I then had the absolutely brilliant idea of going on a water ride in the evening.  In particular, Popeye and Bluto's Bildgerat Barges. See, I could remember coming off of the ride fairly dry when we rode it previously. HA. Yeah, that didn't happen this time.  As soon as we went down the first little drop and felt a tidal wave of water soak us we knew we would not stay dry for long.  It was also at this point that my dad realised he still had his phone in his pocket.  Unfortunately, his phone was a write-off and we were soaked.  But for some reason, we were still happy at the end of it...? See what I mean when I say Universal has a positive vibe there?!

After we had finally dried off a bit, we decided to leave Islands of Adventure and catch the Hogwarts Express over to Universal Studio.  It is worth mentioning that we had found an incredible deal, we had unlimited access to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay (the Universal Water Park) for 2 weeks at a low price of £200(ish) each.  Considering the Disney Parks are at least $100 per person, per day, per park, it was a no-brainer for us! Since my dad had managed to ride Forbidden Journey, we thought we would see if we could ride Gringotts too.  Especially since we knew the wait times would be horrific the next morning.  After a short 30 minute wait, we were able to ride this one too!

After this ride, we decided to leave the parks and head for CityWalk.  In CityWalk, there are loads of restaurants and clubs, including a karaoke bar I had read about called Rising Star.  Now I believe after 10pm only those aged 21+ can go in, and we were all so glad we went there! Naturally, people were a bit merry when we got there, so there was a huge line to sing on stage, but since we are live music lovers anyway it was the perfect way to end our day.  A band was on stage playing any song you wanted whilst you lived your dream of being 'famous' on stage in front of a load of strangers.  It was definitely hilarious seeing 2 middle aged guys singing 'Man, I Feel Like A Woman' by Shania Twain!

We are lucky enough to have visited Universal quite a few times, but on this particular trip, it was definitely one of our favourite trips. Why? We had stayed 'on-site' in Loews Royal Pacific Hotel, and we were given free fast passes on top of this incredible deal.  We had used them in Islands of Adventure the night before and we were still allowed to use them the day of checking out, which was absolutely brilliant news for us! Now I actually have a tip here.  Most people walk straight ahead towards the new Jimmy Fallon ride and work their way around that way.  Instead, we turned right towards the (now gone) Terminator ride and it was so much quieter this way! Yes, it's not the most direct route to the most popular area, Diagon Alley, but it is definitely worth it if you want to avoid the crowds.  A hidden gem that we were also told so many times about was the Rocky Horror Makeup Show.  We had never seen the show before but it was so entertaining and I highly recommend if you want to escape the heat for half an hour.  We had gotten to the park at about 10:00am and by 12:00pm we had managed to go on 3 rides and saw 2 shows, all thanks to the wonder that is fast passes.  Admittedly I did feel a bit bad when we walked past all the people waiting 45 minutes to go on the 'Men In Black' ride when it was a 5 minute wait for us (in fact we decided not to go on it again because we felt that bad!) but apart from that it was great! 

The one thing we didn't manage to watch were the street shows, in fact, we only saw the Marilyn Monroe show but you have to save something for your next trip, don't you? 

Universal Studios is still my favourite park to go to regardless of being there a few times previously.  Each time we go there, there is always something new to do.  Whether that is a new ride or a new show to see the visits never get boring.  For us in particular there was the small matter of a new water theme park to go to, Volcano Bay...

Beckora x