Wednesday we started the day off with dry weather and the sun even peeked out a little! Carson and I got up and headed to Universal Studios for the day. There are 2 parks - Islands of Adventures and Universal Studios...both lots of fun! We decided to start the day at Islands of Adventures and do as much as we could before lunch...and that is exactly what we did. It has different areas, like Seuss Landing (my favorite), Jurassic Park, Toon Town, Marvel Super Hero Land...all very different and so fun!!! I had gotten mixed reviews on the Universal Parks and had even contemplated not going, but doing another day at a Disney Park, but we were right there AND...by far the coolest and best thing about the whole day is that we did not wait in a single line. Our hotel has an agreement with the parks that you show your room key at a special line at each attraction and you literally walk RIGHT ON! I didn't believe that it could really happen...but it did! Although the park was not packed, much less crowded than Disney on Monday, we still bypassed 30-45 min lines numerous times! It was because of this awesome little set up that we were able to ride everything we (well, me that is) wanted to in Islands of Adventures in just over 2 hours. There were two water rides in Toon Town that had signs that said "YOU WILL GET WET IF YOU RIDE!". I told Carson that I was not going to ride water rides and get wet, when for the time in two days I was actually dry! We did come back late in the day, right before the parks closed to ride them in the pouring down rain...hey, at that point I didn't care! :) One of the rides we rode was the Cat in the Hat ride (one of my faves) - it tells the story as you "ride" through the book - so cute! I even bought C & C "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" t-shirts! 
After lots of fun photo ops, etc... we decided we neededlunch, so we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe (it sits kinda between the two parks). It was fun and delish. The waitress told us it is the biggest HRC in the world. It had a pink Cadillac that Elvis had given to his Mom rotating above the bar area.
Next, we headed over to Universal Studios. This park was more "shows" or attractions that sort of combined rides with shows. We also go to meet lots of characters. Some of our favorites were Shrek 4D - this was a 4D movie where you felt like you were IN the movie...a lot of these shows utilize all of your senses, for instance in one part Donkey sneezes right at you and water sprays out of the seat in front of you and lands on your face; in another part Shrek throws a handful of spiders at the audience and something comes out of the arm rest and hits you in the arm! Gross, yes, but super cool nonetheless! We also liked the Men in Black: Alien Attack ride where you sit in a moving car and spin and twist while trying to "shoot" aliens with these laser gun things - Carson loved this one! We spent the whole afternoon at this park, then headed back over to Islands of Adventures late in the day, when it started pouring again, to ride the two water rides C really wanted to ride. The first was a log ride, that shoots you straight down a big drop and you plummets into a big pool of water - yes, not that we weren't already, but you get SOAKING wet! Then, we went over to ride Popeye and Olive's River Rat Barges...one of those big intertube rides where everyone sits in a circle facing each other and you bounce and bump through "river rapids". Well, Carson and I were the only ones in our raft...did I mention it was pouring down rain and most people with common sense had gone home...well, half way through the ride everything stopped. The "river" quit flowing and came to a standstill and this very robotic pleasant voice came over some loudpspeakers and said "We are sorry for the delay, but there is a problem with the ride. Please wait while we try to fix the problem." After hearing this over and over...and over again for about 10 minutes I was starting to get a little worried. Long story short, all of the rain had made the "river" too high and had triggered some sort of automatic shutdown and we literally had to be "rescued off the river" by the ride workers. They kept saying we are so sorry, etc...I said "Are you kidding, my sone thinks this is SO COOL...and he did!" We decided that it was time to go back to the hotel for a quick shower and rest before coming back to park with Kenny that night.
EMC hosted an event at Universal on Wednesday night. The park closed to the general public at 6 and reopened just for the conference attendees at 7. They had certain restaurants open for dinner, little "bars" set up all over the park with beer and wine, all of the normal park treats like ice cream, etc...and all of the rides open ...it was very nicely done. We had a great time eating dinner (we had dinner at an Irish pub that served Fish and Chips, Shepard's Pie and Bread Pudding), taking Kenny and some of his coworkers on some of our favorite rides (Carson loved that he was the "expert" on the park) and seeing even more characters, like Marilyn Monroe, Scooby and the Mystery gang and Lucy. It was a fun, but super late night. Thursday morning, and our 7:30 transfer back to the airport, came very early.
The ride home was uneventful. We actually ended up sitting by a guy on the plane who had ben in meetings with Kenny during the conference and was in the process of trying to get some business from AT&T - small world! Carson and I were SO happy to see Collier. I think he had a super fun week too, getting some one on one spoilin' time with Yaya and Grumpy (and I know without a doubt that they had fun with him!).
Some of other favorite rides were the Jurassic Park ride, the Pteregon flyers (a roller coaster, but you hung below the rails in swings) and the Spiderman ride...our favorite! It was a 3-D roller coaster that took you through the streets, you encounter all of Spidy's nemesis (who I know none of the names for), nearly get blown up, tossed of a building, etc...and at several points Spiderman comes and sits right in front of you on the car and talks to you. It was so funny watching Carson reach out to touch him. It was probably the coolest ride I have ever been on and Carson loved it too (although he is not really "into" Spiderman).
After lots of fun photo ops, etc... we decided we neededlunch, so we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe (it sits kinda between the two parks). It was fun and delish. The waitress told us it is the biggest HRC in the world. It had a pink Cadillac that Elvis had given to his Mom rotating above the bar area.Next, we headed over to Universal Studios. This park was more "shows" or attractions that sort of combined rides with shows. We also go to meet lots of characters. Some of our favorites were Shrek 4D - this was a 4D movie where you felt like you were IN the movie...a lot of these shows utilize all of your senses, for instance in one part Donkey sneezes right at you and water sprays out of the seat in front of you and lands on your face; in another part Shrek throws a handful of spiders at the audience and something comes out of the arm rest and hits you in the arm! Gross, yes, but super cool nonetheless! We also liked the Men in Black: Alien Attack ride where you sit in a moving car and spin and twist while trying to "shoot" aliens with these laser gun things - Carson loved this one! We spent the whole afternoon at this park, then headed back over to Islands of Adventures late in the day, when it started pouring again, to ride the two water rides C really wanted to ride. The first was a log ride, that shoots you straight down a big drop and you plummets into a big pool of water - yes, not that we weren't already, but you get SOAKING wet! Then, we went over to ride Popeye and Olive's River Rat Barges...one of those big intertube rides where everyone sits in a circle facing each other and you bounce and bump through "river rapids". Well, Carson and I were the only ones in our raft...did I mention it was pouring down rain and most people with common sense had gone home...well, half way through the ride everything stopped. The "river" quit flowing and came to a standstill and this very robotic pleasant voice came over some loudpspeakers and said "We are sorry for the delay, but there is a problem with the ride. Please wait while we try to fix the problem." After hearing this over and over...and over again for about 10 minutes I was starting to get a little worried. Long story short, all of the rain had made the "river" too high and had triggered some sort of automatic shutdown and we literally had to be "rescued off the river" by the ride workers. They kept saying we are so sorry, etc...I said "Are you kidding, my sone thinks this is SO COOL...and he did!" We decided that it was time to go back to the hotel for a quick shower and rest before coming back to park with Kenny that night.EMC hosted an event at Universal on Wednesday night. The park closed to the general public at 6 and reopened just for the conference attendees at 7. They had certain restaurants open for dinner, little "bars" set up all over the park with beer and wine, all of the normal park treats like ice cream, etc...and all of the rides open ...it was very nicely done. We had a great time eating dinner (we had dinner at an Irish pub that served Fish and Chips, Shepard's Pie and Bread Pudding), taking Kenny and some of his coworkers on some of our favorite rides (Carson loved that he was the "expert" on the park) and seeing even more characters, like Marilyn Monroe, Scooby and the Mystery gang and Lucy. It was a fun, but super late night. Thursday morning, and our 7:30 transfer back to the airport, came very early.The ride home was uneventful. We actually ended up sitting by a guy on the plane who had ben in meetings with Kenny during the conference and was in the process of trying to get some business from AT&T - small world! Carson and I were SO happy to see Collier. I think he had a super fun week too, getting some one on one spoilin' time with Yaya and Grumpy (and I know without a doubt that they had fun with him!).We headed back to Frisco on Friday morning and spent Memorial Day weekend at home hangin' out together and doing some projects. It was a really fun trip, especially for Carson and me. It was good to spend some "Mommy/ Carson" time together...something we have done a lot less of in the last year. We really missed Collier and Daddy though on all of our adventures. We can't wait to go back together as a whole family and experience it all again!
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