Maddie Mouse : Universal Studios Round 2

Last Tuesday I had my weekly day off; I spent it with one of my friends from work, Linda, and her roommate, Kylie, at Universal Theme Park. I decided it was totally worth it to buy an annual pass for Universal since the price of a ticket to one park was more than half of the cost of an annual pass. I was able to get a great deal because I am currently a Florida resident and because I had a cup from Wendy's, which has a discount on it ($25 off!); after those two discounts and a few other factors, I was able to get the pass for $70! That's about $15 less than the cost of a one-day ticket to one park at Universal......I was so proud of my couponing abilites; just call me the "coupon queen" (honey boo boo anyone?). It wasn't a very nice day out (rained on the way and for the first 45min we were there), but we were okay with that because it meant the wait for rides were minimal!

Universal Theme Park is made up of 2 parks: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. IOA is where Harry Potter, Dr. Seuss, Jurassic Park, and a couple other worlds are located. First thing we did was get our Butterbeer (the frozen version this time!) and drank it while waiting in line for the Harry Potter attraction, which of course was amazing again. Afterwards we went on Dueling Dragons; I wasn't so sure about that one since it's a roller coaster where your feet dangle. I love roller coasters and going upside-down and loops and whatnot, but the idea that my feet are just hanging off the ride by themselves as we pass over/around poles and things freaks me out (irrational I know, but still...). I enjoyed it though! We did most of the attractions at IOA (including the Jurassic Park water one I did with Erin and her family....we got just as wet haha) and the BIG roller coaster, The Hulk (such a rush!). One ride that was in Toon Lagoon, called Dudley Doo Right's Ripsaw Falls, we got SOAKED on. Kylie told us, "oh no I don't think you get that wet" so we decided let's do it....there's no wait! You tell me if we didn't get that wet:

Not sure why there are strange white blocks in the picture...

Once we finished the various worlds and their attractions at IOA, we headed over to Universal Studios. There was one big roller coaster at this park as well: Rip Ride Rockit. What's neat about this coaster is that each person gets to choose a song to listen to while on it and it plays through speakers next to your head in only your seat; I chose "Devil Went Down to Georgia". Also, this ride goes up at literally a 90 degree angle; it doesn't drop at one, but it is still a pretty substantial drop! I just love roller coasters so much! We did a bunch of other attractions....rides and shows. They were all so cool! One show we went to, Disaster Studios, picks audience members to star in a "movie trailer" about the relentless Mother Nature; I was picked for the part of "athletic individual wearing sneakers" (hahaha) and my part was to climb in a pit of green plastic balls and scream while waving my arms around (but not moving anything below my waist)....turns out it was to be used in a scene where I am being swept away by a flood! The finished product of that show was hysterical! The only one we didn't do, but wanted to was the Despicable Me attraction; the wait was way too long. But, now that I have an annual pass, we can go whenever we want to try again! It was a wonderful day off :)

Toon Lagoon