Alan's blogging tonight and if Sarah has anything constructive to add it will be in orange.
Today's outing was to Islands of Adventure, the other half of Universal. We arrived there at the park opening time which is something of an achievement for us.
First stop was the Incredible Hulk roller coaster which of course Sarah opted out of. I went on it and it was barrels of fun - very fast and full of loops and rolls and all that fun type of stuff that I like. You take off slowly as it pulls you up the initial big hill but half way up it all of a sudden launches you at top speed. It's a very unexpected and unusual start.
After that bit of excitement we went into the Spiderman 3D ride. We had no idea what to expect going into this one but we both really enjoyed it. It's a 3D thrill ride as you careen through the streets with Spiderman protecting you from all the bad dudes who are trying to get you.
Next up was a trip into the wet ride area of the park. First was Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls, which is a log flume ride similar to Splash Mountain. It's not a bad ride, but the walk to get in there takes forever and actually getting into the boat is ridiculously hard if you're more than 6 inches tall or 6 inches wide. The problem is that they've squeezed 5 seats into a space which houses 4 usually. Both Sarah and myself found it very difficult trying to get in and out of the boat.
We didn't get overly wet on that ride, so we went over to the next water one straight after. This was Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges which is a white water rapids type thingy. We didn't know beforehand, but clearly the purpose of this ride is to give every person on board a bath because we all came off completely saturated from head to toe. I've never been wetter on any ride ever. The ride itself didn't get you that wet. It was the number of hoses that are pointed directly at you ensuring that you didn't have a single dry spot.
So with us being totally drenched we thought we may as well keep doing the wet rides and went on Jurassic Park. We've been on this before at Universal in California, but I think this one was longer and more enjoyable. You sit in a boat and travel around a dinosaur infested compound before going down a big drop and getting very wet at the bottom. The first time we went on it, we both banged our knees and nearly flew out of the boat when we hit the bottom, but we were more careful on the subsequent 4 rides. After that we'd had just about enough wetness as we can handle in one day so we went off to find something new. I had one ride more than Alan because he was incapable of getting a photo of me the first time down on my own.
We wanted to go on a little chairlift type ride called Pteranodon Flyers, but with a wait time of 45 minutes we decided to come back and try again later.
There was a little childrens coaster called The Flying Unicorn which we both went on. I'm sure for little kids it would be pretty scary and I seem to recall Sarah having a bit of a squeal in my ear. I was squealing with excitment, not fear. It could also have been the fact that Alan was squishing me on the corners.
Next on the agenda was the big one - Duelling Dragons roller coaster. This is an amazing suspended floorless pair of intertwined duel coasters that are just too much fun to describe. You choose either Fire or Ice and then the coasters take off together and wind in and out of each other, coming within 30 centimetres of each other at one point. Numerous times you think you're going to crash into the other train but then it takes a sharp turn at the last moment possible. Needless to say that Sarah wouldn't go on this in a million years, but I went on both Fire and Ice twice each and there were grown men screaming like little girls at times. Grow some balls you bunch of wussbags!
After that exhiliration we settled in for a more sedate experience - the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show. To be honest I was trying hard not to fall asleep during the show. The queue for Pteranodon Flyers was still at 45 minutes so we didn't end up going on it.
We were starting to dry off so we headed back around to Jurassic Park after that so Sarah could stand in the splash zone while I took her photo. It took 3 goes to get a decent shot by which time she was pretty well soaked again. Sometimes I think he plans for me to get wet over and over again. I was planning on going on Ripsaw Falls again so Sarah could get a photo of me, but the wait time was 25 minutes and I decided waiting that long to squeeze uncomfortably into that little log flume wasn't worth it so we gave it a miss.
Time for me to have one more ride on the Incredible Hulk coaster before leaving the park and walking next door to Universal Studios.
All we wanted to do there was ride the Revenge of the Mummy coaster once again as we'd both really enjoyed it 2 days earlier. We got lucky in that the queue was very short so we had our ride and left the park. It was a bit scarier this time. Twice I felt myself leave my seat. Lunch today was at the relatively early time of 3.30pm.
With a second straight day of sunshine, we went back to the mini golf course across the road from our hotel to take on the 2nd course. I gained sweet revenge for my unlucky loss the previous day when I kicked Sarah's butt by a huge 11 shots. She was complaining about everything from the ball to the putter to not trying to win. Yeah whatever! Firstly I thought it was the ball but later discovered it was a bent putter. It is people like Alan who use them as a walking stick that ruins the fun for other people.
We had another swim in our hotel pool tonight but didn't stay in as long as last night as it was getting a bit cool.
Trivia for the day: Parking at the theme parks here in America is so well orgainsed. In Australia everyone just drives in and parks wherever, but over here they direct you where to go so all the cars line up next to each other one by one. It makes parking much easier than driving around for ages looking for a spot.
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