Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure - Part Four

We spent our fourth and fifth days going between the two parks revisiting our favorite rides.  Here are a few random pictures from those days.

It was considerably cooler the last two days (only in the 60s), and I wasn't thinking clearly when I let the girls run through the Curious George splash park.  At one point, a boy pressed a button that made a HUGE bucket of water dump out all over Reagan and Kate.  They were freezing, and we had to go back to the hotel to change.  On the way, we saw Woody Woodpecker and Curious George, so we stopped for pictures, but you can tell that Reagan was cold!

We all had a lot of fun during this trip.  It was a very quiet week and because we stayed on Universal property, we had fast passes for everything but the big Harry Potter rides, so we were able to go through both parks without much waiting.

Some random observations:

• The parks were very clean, even the restrooms were clean and well stocked whenever I used them.
• I'm sure the timing of our visit had a lot to do with this, but the park was never overcrowded when we were there; that was very nice!
• I ate a lot of churros (we all did).
• The parks are definitely better for older kids who like big thrill rides, but there was enough there for Kate to enjoy.
• There are a few characters for photo ops, but not many.  This was fine for us.
• If you're looking for a good parade, go to Disney!  The parade was very short and there was no wow factor.  
• We didn't watch any of the shows; none of them appealed to us.

Favorite rides:

Tom - Hulk Coaster
Grandma Susan - Transformers
Tyler - Dragon Challenge
Collin - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Reagan - The Mummy and Rip Ride RockIt
Katelyn - She has a few favorites:  E.T., Flight of the Hippogriff, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish are the three she mentions most, but she also mentions the Simpsons and Spiderman regularly; she loves rides!
Me - Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts

Food:  It's an amusement park.  We don't like to spend too much time eating when we are in amusement parks.  For us, we are there to enjoy the parks, not sit down and eat.  We ate quick breakfasts in our hotel and grabbed something quick for lunch (usually pizza or something else fast) in the park for lunch.

Once we ate lunch at Emeril's restaurant, and we LOVED Emeril's Tchoup Chop (at our hotel) so much that we ate dinner there twice.  The food at Tchoup Chop was fantastic, really so very good, but the service was over the top.  I think it was the best service I have ever had at a restaurant.  The waiter cut Reagan's steak for her!!!  That meant she got special treatment (right up her alley) and Tom and I got to just sit back and enjoy our meal without having to cut the steak ourselves.  The second time we ate there, we sat at the kitchen bar where we could watch everything going on in the kitchen.  The kitchen staff were 100% cool and collected and incredibly organized; there were no Gordon Ramsay type moments!!  The chefs gave us treats and talked to us and it was a very nice experience!  Reagan had a few flavors of this Ramune soda at Tchoup Chop, and she loved them. She also liked the experience of the beverage because you have to push a marble down into the bottle before you drink it; it was just different and fun for her.

Overall, it was a great vacation and we would all love to go back someday.