Day 5

On Tuesday we were well rested and ready to go again. This time we were off to Universal's theme parks. There were two parks that we had tickets to - Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Islands of Adventure had more rides than Universal Studios so we started there. Of course, we started with the Marvel Superhero section of the park and of course, it was our favorite. Thanks to Joseph's pass that put us to the front of every line we cruised through the Islands of Adventure park, including a break for lunch at Mythos which is designed to make you feel like you are in a cave. Their desserts were absolutely our favorite thing we had to eat. We were full after eating lunch and were planning to say no to dessert but then our waitress came by with these delightful and fun looking desserts. There were 6 flavors in little glasses. They were less than $2 a piece and just the right amount for a taste but not so much you couldn't eat it all. Everyone but Nathaniel ended up having one of these desserts. After lunch we finished up Islands of Adventure (even repeated a few rides) and went next door to Universal Studios. We did the rides that interested us and some that we regretted and then we really had reached our ride limit. I thought my stomach would never recover. We finished both parks by 4:30 and then headed for the hotel for a nap/tv time before dinner. That evening we ate at Give Kids the World and then Dora came for pictures. Only Nathaniel was willing to have his picture taken with her but the other kids were happy to hang out at the theater and eat popcorn, slushies, etc while we waited. After this we still had most of the evening left and not much left to do - we didn't want to go to Disney until Wednesday because our pass was only good for one more day and we wanted the whole day not just an evening. We finally decided to find a movie theater and watch Batman: the Dark Knight. We had a great time and still think it is pretty funny that with all the other stuff we had to do we still found time to go see a movie.

What we rode/saw at Universal:

Islands of Adventure:

Incredible Hulk Coaster (Joseph's favorite of everything we did - he did this twice)

Doctor Doom's Fearfall (Joseph didn't want to ride this but he went anyway for his older brother and sister and found it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be)

Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Overall family favorite - also done twice - fantastic graphics)

Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges (You don't get this wet in the shower)

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls (just as we got to the top of the falls there was a technical

difficutly and we sat at the top for about 10 minutes before we went down - it really takes

the fun out to pause in the ride)

Jurassic Park River Adventure (another great dinosaur ride)

Dueling Dragons (two roller coasters that go in different directions - fun, most of the family

rode both. The Universal employee that helped us told us we could ride as many times as we

wanted but we were done after trying both sides)

High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Ride (we rode this and the next one because Nathaniel was not

tall enough to ride the roller coasters at Universal and was feeling left out)

Cat in the Hat

Universal Studios:

Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast (ugh! this ride made us all sick!)

Revenge of the Mummy (the best ride at Universal Studios!)

Men in Black Alien Attack (fun but not wow!)

The Simpsons (you watch a lot of Simpson clips before you actually start the ride and then it

is a simulator that made most of us feel sick - not our favorite)