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Thread: Dad’s Taxi’s Best Day At Universal Studios - Part 7

  1. #1
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
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    Dad’s Taxi’s Best Day At Universal Studios - Part 7

    Here we go again, Part 7 - Dad’s Taxi’s Best Day At Universal Studios

    As the end of the holiday hurtles towards us, we still have a few things on our schedule to tick off. Tuesday is another rest and retail day, which sees us poolside for most of the day, then we drive up to the Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores for almost our last few items. I spend most of the time at this mall looking for a coupon booklet that will tip me over the edge of my dithering over one more pair of trainers at the Reebok shop, but without success. Lydia browses for a potential birthday present for herself from us, settling on a handbag and purse from Fossil. Mrs Dad’s Taxi spends her loyalty points that she has built up over the last week at OshKosh and Carters buying more clothing for our grandchildren and friends’ grandchildren, Kayleigh plays on the playground and Georgia searches desperately for free WiFi ! At our predetermined rendezvous time we all get back to the car and Lydia shows me the coupon booklet she has picked up. It’s definitely a sign that I need more trainers! So I nip back to the Reebok shop armed with a $15 coupon and grab the pair that I had already tried on and hidden, and my shopping for this holiday is complete. Well, for shoes at least.

    We have developed rather too much of a liking for Denny’s burgers on this trip, and once again the vote for our tea goes that way, so after another lovely meal we manage another early night.

    Wednesday is our last park day, and today we are doing Universal Studios. Having seen how empty the park was on Monday we take our time this morning, going via Golden Corral for another breakfast, and today I’m feeling fine and really enjoy it. Whilst at the omelette bar I was mentally writing for this report my description of the remarkably rude American lady who was in front of me, but several months have passed and I’ve calmed down now, so she will escape my written wrath.

    On arrival at the Universal parking garage, and having coughed up another twenty bucks, we are pleased to find it just as empty as it was earlier this week. It’s not long before we’re at the park entrance.

    Universal Arrival



    I have two objectives today - watch The Blues Brothers at least once, and go on the Minion ride. When we were last here the Blues Brothers was rained off, and The Minions was only weeks away from opening, so I’m pleased to say the weather looked promising for the Blues Brothers show, and Minions was very much up and running.

    I took a lot of photos today, I will warn you now that this report may need several parts. Hopefully from the photos you can get a feel for how quiet it was here today. For starters poor Dora and Diego had no one with them so Kayleigh ran over and said Hola.

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    And I will confess that we had no idea who Diego was, but Google saves the day again.
    We all love Scooby Doo, so this photo had to be taken

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    Kayleigh absolutely loves Curious George, and also loves getting wet, so first place we go is the Curious George Goes To Town playground. On the way she is thrilled to see George himself

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    along with Woody Woodpecker, but as Kayleigh was born after 1975 she has no idea who the big bird is !

    Whilst Kayleigh runs around and gets very wet, we sit and watch the world go by and get hotter and hotter, so I go in search of the drinks re-fill machines, having brought our cup from Monday’s visit. The cup is chipped, (as in micro-chipped,not as in a chip in a china cup) and can be reactivated for another day of use, I think it was $7 for another day of unlimited drinks. My search takes much longer than I anticipated, but on my way I wander into Springfield

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    So I decide that’s our next destination, once Kayleigh has had enough of the playground. Meanwhile I continue my quest for the drinks station.

    I’ll also continue this trip report below, to get more photos in…………..

    Last edited by Dads_Taxi; 14-07-2016 at 22:05. Reason: Attempted to add tags. Failed
    Dave.


  2. #2
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
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    Part 7 Section 2

    I’m still hunting for the elusive drinks station when I see something quite bizarre - fish on rollerskates !!

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    This has me slightly perplexed, it’s obviously a parade of some sort, and it’s a shame that there’s only me seeing this, as my gang are still at Curious George’s playground, but I have no idea what this is about. Then along comes the answer in a recognisable character, Spongebob.

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    I feel slightly sorry for all the characters in the parade, or whatever it actually was. It was very low-key and no-one was really watching them. Well at least I took a couple of photos of them as I strolled along.

    Eventually I find a place that can reactivate my cup, and I only have to wait for the guy in front of me to order for a family of seven, along with several trips back to his family to ask if they want fries, or mustard, or any other option that he should have asked before making sure he got to the order-point before me (grrr) then I can pay my $7, fill up the cup and go back to my gang.

    I’m itching to get back to Springfield to get some photos, so that’s our next port of call. I took LOADS of photos, being quite a Simpsons fan, but this is one my favourites:

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    Georgia had to have a Simpsons-Selfie

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    and it turned out quite well:

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    I was like a big kid in Springfield, I suppose this is how Kayleigh probably feels when she meets the princesses in Disney World. I can’t post all the pictures in this report, it would overflow the forum, but suffice to say I was snap-happy.

    Having said that, I still have nine more pictures I want to share, so on I go to Section Three…….

    Dave.


  3. #3
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
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    Part 7 Section 3

    As previously mentioned, I’m determined to watch The Blues Brothers show today, so after a great stroll around Springfield we split up, and I rush to New York to get a good view of the stage. I needn’t have worried, it’s not very busy when I get there. And it’s still not very busy when the Bluesmobile rolls into the street.

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    I’m a massive fan of the Blues Brothers’ music, and I bop away to them in my car on many occasions, so I’m fairly word perfect on their songs. I had a look around, there was absolutely no-one here that knows me - oh blow it, I’m going to dance !

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    And I just had a fantastic 20 minutes dancing and singing and hopefully there is no photographic record of this anywhere

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    The show is great, and when Jake comes into the street to start a “Shake a Tail Feather” conga line, I’m in there with the rest of them. And now I’m really pleased that the kids aren’t here with their phones or I’d be on Instagram within minutes. Sadly the show is quite short, and soon the band pile into the Bluesmobile and trundle away, and I’m grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

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    Later in the day I convince the family to come and watch the show with me, and I’m pleased to find that some of the songs are different, so there are at least two sets that they perform. I’m much more reserved with an audience so I tap my foot enthusiastically, and refrain from being stood right in front of the stage like a star struck teenager.

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    I think this was probably my holiday highlight.

    More photos are needed to finish this report, so I’m afraid I’m spilling over to a Section 4, here we go………..

    Dave.


  4. #4
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
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    Part 7 Section 4 (of 4)

    Having achieved objective one, it’s time to find the new Minions attraction, the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride. We refer to the park map, and plot a course which takes us straight past what looks like a construction site, but it’s actually the set for Beat Builders, who are just starting their drumming show, so we pause and enjoy their music.

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    It’s very clever and quite entertaining, and the concept is that they are playing tuned pieces of hardware, but unless anyone can prove me wrong I’m fairly certain that everything they hit just triggers a sound sample which sounds vaguely like a tuned scaffold pipe / bucket / adjustable spanner !

    After the drumming we arrive at Minion Mayhem, and the wait is just long enough for us to absorb the pre-ride entertainment and then we’re in. It’s another 3D theatre experience, not unlike the Shrek 4D ride, and it’s fun and brilliantly done, of course. And obviously as you leave you are funneled through the gift shop !

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    And best of all you get to meet a Minion, in our case we met Stuart.

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    The kids managed to do a couple of rides whilst I was dancing earlier, I think they had done Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers. Now we take advantage of the deserted park and go on a mission. Over the next couple of hours we tick off The Simpsons Ride, Shrek 4D, Men in Black Alien Attack and E.T. Adventure, and as mentioned earlier we watch a second Blues Brothers show, and also the Fear Factor Live show. It was just before 6pm when we had more or less had enough, and the breakfast was wearing off now, so we leave the last park of this holiday

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    On our list of places we want to eat is Ruby Tuesday, so a bit of Googling is required. Looks like the only one is on the junction of the Orange Blossom Trail and the 417 Toll Road. We program the satnav and it’s quite a long haul but when we get there we have a lovely meal, spoiled only by one of the TVs showing sports news, which would be bad enough if it was only showing news about sport, but we had regular updates of the fatal shooting of a football player killed during what appeared to be a road-rage incident. Not exactly pleasant dinner time viewing. As we are eating the sky goes pitch black, and then an almighty storm starts. Kayleigh relocated herself to a vacant table by the window to try to spot the lightning flashes. As there’s no way that I’m going out in this rain we decide desserts are justified, so we slowly eat our puds and thankfully by the time we are finished there is a lull in the rainfall and I gallantly dash outside for the car. By the time I’m outside the restaurant door the rain is back with a vengeance, so the gang dash in and we head for home. The journey home should have been a breeze, as we literally drove out of the car park and onto the 417 heading for home. Five minutes later the storm must have been directly overhead and it was pretty scary I can tell you. I had a hairy ten minutes crawling along with a few other cars, reluctant to actually stop as I was worried that some over-confident (fill in your own derogatory name here) would plough right into the back of us if we were stationary in such poor visibility.

    Eventually the weather improved, and my grip on the steering wheel relaxed a bit, and we were safely home half an hour later. It has been a great day, and sadly there’s only tomorrow left. At least the forecast is good for our final relax by the pool. I’ll show you a few of the last day pictures in the final part of this epic report soon. Well, soon-ish.

    Dave.


  5. #5
    Gold 5 Star Member E. Cosgrove's Avatar
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    Another great report Dave.


    Liz


  6. #6
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    Like reading your trip reports and hearing people enjoy their holiday. We recently visited Universal and this brought back some good memories.


  7. #7
    Gold 5 Star Member eagleydo's Avatar
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    Just what I needed another on e of your great reports with lots of pics. Thanks for sharing
    Jan


  8. #8
    Florida Chatterbox
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    Really enjoy reading your trip reports, and looking at the photos. Thank you.


  9. #9
    Florida Newbie MarkR's Avatar
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    Yep, gotta agree with most here. Great to read peoples holiday reports. Very well written and laid out. My countdown has us at 46 days to go until we get to Orlando. Really looking forward to it.

    Had a bit of drama on Saturday morning when we saw the breaking news that Lowcostholidayus had gone into liquidation as we had booked with them.
    It turns out that our flights are ok but the hotel accommodation has NOT been paid for. As we paid by visa we are chasing the rebate down that route and we should be ok. But some unfortunate people are not going to be so lucky.


  10. #10
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
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    Ouch, I hope that works out OK for you Mark. Are you able to stay at the accommodation you originally booked?

    You'll have a fantastic time when you get there, I hope the 46 days go quickly for you.
    Dave.


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