Best Friend Visit - Day Three

I was able to get a comp ticket with no blackout dates so we could go to Universal today.The last time Carey had been at Universal was over 15 years ago (and in California) so she was excited to see what there was to do there.

I wish we could have had a better start to our day but, in the end, we had a great time so all turned out well.  

We decided to go around 2:30 or so and we started in Islands of Adventure.  I had heard great things about the raptor encounter and it just so happened that it was beginning as we were walking by it, so we decided to get in line.  After about a 20 minute wait (and it was hot, hot, hot!!!), we were second in line aaaand....they shut it down due to expected inclement weather...grr.    

Here is a video of someone else getting their picture taken with the raptor.

They did give us a password to come back at a later time and skip the line but we never went back.  

After the raptor disaster, we went to the Jurassic Center to wait out the expected "storm" which, of course, never came.  So after another 20 minutes of waiting for this storm so severe they shut down the raptor encounter, we walked through sprinkles to Hogsmeade and got in line for The Forbidden Journey, which turned out to be Carey's favorite ride.  

By this time, it was raining a bit harder but we had no time to stay still...C.J. was waiting for us at Spiderman. So Zack wore the rain poncho and Carey and I walked arm in arm and shared the umbrella.  We joked about how many people would think we were gay (not that there's anything wrong with that...ala Seinfeld).  

The wait for the ride was about 30 minutes BUT it pays to have connections and, after running into a friend of C.J.'s, we were taken to the front of the line. No wait...no fuss...no muss...done.  

This is where things turned "bad" again.  We decided to head over to Universal BUT on the walk over, it started to pour!    Needless to say, our shoes and socks were soaked.  They eventually dried out sothat they weren't making a squishing sound as we walked but they never dried completely.  In hindsight, I wish we would have walked to the Comic Strip Cafe (which was nearby) and had dinner while the rain passed but no one knew it would start raining that hard.

We did a little shopping at the store at the front of the park and then went to see the Horror Make-up Show and, after that, walked across the street to Mel's Diner for dinner.  

The rest of the evening went so much better. We went on Mummy, Transformers, Gringotts, Men in Black, Simpsons, the Twirl and Hurl, and E.T.   The lines were not that long as most of the people seemed to have left along with the rain.  The only ride Carey did not like was the Simpsons.  


Gringotts - Fire Breathing Dragon

We did some more shopping before we left and then made a disappointing stop at Menchies.  They were out of a lot of the ice cream choices and did not seem at all concerned about replacing them...I'm guessing because it was the end of the night.  Pretty lame.