Today we are going to hit Universal Studios, but didn't worry too much about being there right at opening. With the resort perk of Front of the Line passes it’s not really necessary to get everyone moving too quickly. Still after getting ready and eating a light breakfast in the room we got to the park around 9:30am. Even before we got inside Maddy spotted Scooby and Woody Woodpecker just outside the gates. I had to rush the defogging process on the camera which was still fogged up from being inside A/C all night long. Happens pretty much every day! :-)

After seeing Scooby and Woody Woodpecker we headed into the park. Another thing about the AP's here is that they have your picture on them. SOOOO much easier to get in than using those terrible finger scanners of Disney's. I'm REALLY glad they are replacing those and hope the single finger scanners will be much better. I think Universal had the single finger scanners as well for regular tickets.

 

We headed down the main street and hit Jimmy Neutron and then Shrek. Both were great and the girls got to see Shrek and Donkey after the show (JUST missed Princess Fiona). Both of these are family favorites. Next Brinn decided that she DID want to see the Twister show. I stayed with Maddy and Kristen and Brinn headed in. Brinn came out and said, "It scared me a little bit, but not enough that I wouldn't go on it again!". Maddy still didn't want to do it! ;-) On to the Mummy, but that turned out to be a bust. Maddy was GOING to go, but chickened out in the line. Then the ride went down for a while so we all just left together. We'll see it next time. In a few years…

 

We worked our way around the park and stopped for an early lunch of Pizza and salad. Good but pricey, but that is no big surprise! ;-) And NO dessert! Yea! ;-) Of course, the kids were bummed out about that…

 

Eventually we hit Men in Black, Back to the Future and ET. Then the girls rode Woody's Coaster a couple times and finally got completely soaked in the Curious George play area. As we walked back through the park we saw a f characters including a show with Scooby, Shaggy, Curious George, the Man in the Yellow Hat, Woody Woodpecker and his girlfriend! Lots of singing and dancing. And the girls got a picture with Marilyn Monroe as well! We stopped and looked round in the Lucy store and the girls had to see how they would look with a ‘fro. :-) After that we headed back to the resort. The girls were still pretty soggy by the time we got back to the resort, but that was good to lead into some pool time.

That evening we got ready and jumped the boat back to City Walk. We decided on Margaritaville for dinner and found that our resort ID even got us priority seating here. Our wait was only 10 minutes or so and we were off to a table with a decent view of the volcano. :-) The girls received Parrot-head masks and eventually had some cool balloon hats made for them as well. The food was excellent, and we had a great time.

 

After dinner we walked around City Walk a bit and hit a few stores. Then it was back to Universal Studios so we could see the new Universal 360 show. This is a fireworks/lasers/video show (lots of video from various Universal movies) that takes place around the main lake just before park closing. Images are projected on large white spheres in the lake, and my only wish was that the images rotated so that you could see them from any location. (Our spot turned out to see half of one side and half the other. Not terrible, but not the best either. The fireworks were OK, but I definitely prefer Illuminations and Wishes.

 

After the show we worked out way back out of the park and decided to walk back. It was a nice night, and that allowed for a few pictures of the resort along the pathway back. We grabbed some ice cream and then headed back to the room for some shuteye. A fun day and tomorrow would be Islands of Adventure!