 I let everyone sleep
in this morning while I puttered around cleaning up things and working
on the trip report a bit. They woke up around 8:30 and we were
out the door around 9:30 or so.  We walked over to
the parks, and as we approached Universal one of the employee's helping
characters announced that Scooby and Shaggy would be coming out in five
minutes. Maddy went crazy and started pelting up the
pathway! ;-) She is a heavy duty Scooby fan, and just loved
him!
 After
a quick stop at the bag check we walked over to
where there were two lines for the characters already there.
Chuckie and Angelica from the Rug Rats. They were just about to
leave, but we caught Angelica just in time. Then Scooby and
Shaggy came out. They moved us to a shaded spot and soon Maddy
was showing off all her Scooby attire. It was fun, and great
timing.
On to Islands of Adventure (IOA) and on into the park. Kristen
had seen the Cinnabon stand last night, and said that breakfast was
HERE today. :-) We stopped for our sugar coated breakfast,
and then headed on over toward the Hulk. No amount of
coaxing was getting Brinn on that thing (but she wasn't as bad as I
expected... I think she will eventually decide to try it in a
couple years. We passed that and did the souped up teacups
ride behind it. I never remember the name of this ride.
Then it was off to Spiderman.  Brinn loves this one
as do Kristen and I, but Maddy isn't thrilled with the 3D - she
wouldn't even TAKE the glasses with her! Loved it as
always, and then continued on. Through the help of an employee
outside the store we found Spidey inside and taking pictures. The
girls had fun with him for a few minutes, and then we moved on into
Toon Lagoon. Here we saw Popeye and Olive Oil and even
Bluto was walking around. We didn't want to be wet right now, so
we skipped the barges. The flume ride is WAY to big a drop for
Brinn to tolerate, and even Dinoland's flume ride was too much.
We bypassed all these. I can't wait until they are willing to do
all these, they are lots of fun - but for now it was nice staying
dry.
 Even the Dino Institute was closed
for
refurbishment. Bummer. The kids love playing in
there. They had the downstairs torn up quite a bit, but the store
and restaurant  were still
open. No attraction to see, but the money making areas in full
swing! ;-)
We continued into the next land and first up was the Flying
Unicorn. They love this one and did it several times. Very
short lines, and express made it even faster. Brinn and
Maddy even did it together, although Maddy prefers an adult there to
hold on to her. :-)
 We
moved and Kristen went off to do the Dueling Dragons
while we waited in the Enchanted Oak Restaurant. I was getting
VERY overheated - it was really hot again today. It was a
nice cool wait in the restaurant. Kristen returned after doing
both sides of the coaster, and it was really pretty fast. She
said it wasn't too busy at all. I decided to pass on this
for now. The girls had LOTS of fun playing with the talking
fountain, and proceeded to get soaked! So much for staying dry!
;-) It was fun, and they loved how he talked to
them.
|
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I think it was me that was most ready for a break
today. We quickly
moved into Seuss Landing and hit One Fish, Two Fish and the Cat in the
Hat ride, and then headed back for a nap. I was out in a second,
but
two hours later we were ready to head back. 
Tonight we HAD to do
Margaritaville. Brinn remembered the large volcano in this
restaurant,
and really wanted to see it again. It was about 4:30 so it was
pretty
easy to get right in. We had a very good dinner, and did get to
see
the volcano blow once. They were excited to watch it. 
We still had a couple hours left for the parks since it
was just before
6pm. (or so we thought!) So we headed back into IOA.
I headed off to
ride Dueling Dragons while the girls hit everything in Seuss Landing
again. I had a bunch of delays and they were running only ONE
train on
each side of Dueling Dragons. Took FOREVER, so I only rode the
Ice
side. It was great as always, and if I had more time I'd wait for
the
other side as well. Maybe next time. 
Back to find the
girls, and it had started to lightly rain. We met up
and hit the Flying Unicorn for about 5 more rides! It was a
complete
walkon for everyone, and we just did it again and again. They do
make
you exit and re-enter though, which is a bit time consuming. The
reasoning is so that your body has time to readjust after each
ride.
OK... ;-) The HULK this isn't... 
