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Published: January 28th 2012
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Today was one of the days I was most psyched about for the whole trip. Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. They are basically two theme parks joined by a shopping arcade. The main drawcard for me was Harry Potter World, which was inside Islands of Adventure, but there were also some amazing rides in both parks. I cant remember the exact order I did things, so I'm just going to list some of the things I did and explain them.
Hulk Coaster - It's this awesome launched rollercoaster (you get shot uphill instead of pulled) that has 7 loops. It was really nice and smooth. As you can guess, it is based on The Incredible Hulk, although the theming wasnt so great on this ride compared to others, it was just painted green.
Dr Doom's Freefall - This was just a vertical launch and drop ride based on Dr. Doom. It was well themed, but the ride was pretty tame. They shoot you up a tower then drop you back down. The plus side of this ride is you get to see just how immense the Hulk rollercoaster really is.
Spiderman Ride - this was a 4D
simulator ride. You wear 3D glasses and are put in a carriage that takes you around the city fighting Spiderman's enemies. It was really well done and very realistic. The fun part was every time Aquaman showed up there would be water squirted at you.
Dragon Challenge - Technically two rides, there are two rollercoasters that run on similar tracks almost in a mirror image of each other, but not quite. The intertwine through each other to make the ride look so massive and look like one big ride. This is a suspended coaster, so your feet dangle and the track is above you.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - this was another Simulator ride, similar to Spiderman. This one wasn’t 3D, but the screen was huge, and it took you into real sets as well as just simulated videos, which was really cool. I didnt appreciate being taken into Aragog's lair though, I hate spiders, fake or real!
Simpsons Ride - Yet another simulator ride, not as good as the others though. This one was geared towards kids, as you would expect from the Simpsons. You get to escape from Krustyland. The best part was
riding through Springfield, just because everything is so familiar.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit - This was the most insane rollercoaster I have seen ever. The start hill is vertical. You are literally on your back when you are being taken to the top of the hill. The rest of the rollercoaster is pretty awesome too, but nothing matched the first hill and drop.
Other than the rides we did a fair bit of walking. Walking around Harry Potter world was so cool, everything is set out so well, and they have pretty much all the shops from Hogsmeade. I actually got to have a Butterbeer (yummy!!!!) and bought some Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans. They actually have flavours like vomit, earwax, dirt, rotten egg and sausage. I tried the sausage one and it really tastes like sausage. According to some of the girls, all of them taste like they are supposed to. We also went to Fear Factor Live, which is like the TV show just using audience as part of the show. It was pretty funny.
There were definitely a couple of highlights for the day. The number one for me was Chloe's progress on rollercoasters.
At the start of the day she was pretty worried about them, and would only go on with her eyes shut. By the last ride of the day she was front seat of the Dragon Challenge Coaster and loving every minute of it. The other two highlights of the day involved Shaun. The first was during the Spiderman ride he absolutely went off his nut and squealed like a girl. Everyone got off thinking it was Chloe, but Shaun manned up and took the blame. The second was when we watched the video of him on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. He was trying to be brave and let got of the harness but lasted maybe one second before grabbing back on and screaming! It was all so much fun though that no one cared what wa going on. We all decided that today was just so much fun because we could act like kids without anyone caring.Tomorrow we head to Miami. South Beach, bringing the heat!
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