It was very crowded at both Universal Island of Adventure (IOA) and Universal Studios so I was very happy that we spent the extra money and got the Express passes. Basically, the Express pass is true capitalism at its finest. You pay extra money to be able to have 1 fast pass on the vast majority of the rides. And since we went on Saturday, July 3rd, it definitely made sense because we otherwise would have been waiting in lines for an hour to an hour and a half for some of the rides. We also got the Park Hopper, although we spent most of our time at IOA, I was happy we got it for the Simpsons ride.
IOA was my favorite, although I don't think that it is as kid friendly with the rides as Disneyland. Most of the rides are high speed roller-coasters so you would have to do Child Swap for most of the rides. Dr. Suess Land was really clever and was the most child friendly with a little train ride, carousel, and walking through the world of the Lorax. I had to take this photo for my sister Sarah as she called the dorms she used to live in "Chappy"
I loved the scenery around the Lost Continent area of the park (although we really didn't view any of the attractions there since they were not major rides)
The overall goal of these theme parks is to get you WET. We were SOAKED on the Jurassic Park ride and it seemed that nearly every ride involved squirting you with water. I loved this photo of "Welcome to Jurassic Park" and Hogwarts now being invaded by dinosaurs :-)
One of the funniest moments of the trip occurred when we were on the Simpsons ride. This ride was one of the most fun and entertaining, and even better when riding it with William. At one point, the ride had us crash down into water and we didn't get wet and so William comments "Finally, one ride where we don't get wet". Literally, immediately after he said that, we were all sprayed with water. The comedic timing was so perfect- just like out of a movie. Poor Adam missed the comment being on the end but Lianne and I could not stop laughing throughout the rest of the movie.
Some of my other favorite rides were the "5 . . 4. . . 321" of Dr. Doom's Fearfall, Spiderman, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls (it had one of the most surprising and fun drops I've ever been on for a log ride), and The Mummy. We were sad that we were not able to go on Rip Ride Rocket as it BROKE DOWN just before we were going to go on it and only shortly before closing the park. It was fun to be able to go on some more intense roller coasters, although Disney is still my overall favorite. We ate at this Irish pub that had the most amazing appetizer of shoestring potatoes AND onions combined- it was a real winner- and I liked my leek and potato soup.
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