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[Kristof]

September 14, 2006

We got up early again today for a visit to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.  Francisco and Keith drove us to the parks and joined in the non-Disney fun.

Islands of Adventure was the first park we would visit.  As we passed the Port of Entry, we headed towards seuss Landing, a collection of kiddie rides, based on the stories by Dr. Seuss. Since the park was empty, without any people queueing, we decided to give "the cat in the hat" attraction a try.  It's basically a Disney-style darkride (like Snow White), but with additional movement by the ride vehicle.  The achievement made by Universal Creative (their Imagineering) wasn't that bad.

Next was the recenlty opened High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride.  Now that was the worst ride ever!  You board a tram shaped vehicle that drives over a track high above the other attractions.  A few decorations and stattic figures were added on top of the roofs of the other show buildings.  And that was it.  The ride was over even before we realised it started.

We left Seuss Landing into the direction of The Lost Continent.  First ride we did was Poseidon's Fury, basically a special effects show with fire and water combined with footage on screens.  The actual effects weren't that bad, but the lack of a decent storyline and quality acting kinda ruined the whole thing.

Dueling Dragons was the next best thing, so we passed by the beautiful themed queue to get into our ride vehicle in the most unoriginal loading station ever.  First we did Ice, followed by Fire.  Both are great coasters, but Raptor prefered Fire.

As we left The Lost Continent, we entered Raptor's favourite place: Jurassic Park (he's a huge Jurassic Park fan).  After buying a few cinnamon churros (Flor's favourites) we headed over to the Discovery Center, which is incredably themed and is quite similar to the one in the first movie.  The main staircase we had to take to get on the ground level was located right next to the dinosaur skelettons as seen in the movie.  There were lots of activities for young and old here, including x-raying dinosaur eggs and Mr. DNA quizes.  As we were strolling through the area, a nerdy guy suddenly came on stage with a baby dinosaur animatronic under his arm.  

Raptor said goodbye to the baby Triceratops and decided to get a ride on the Jurassic Park River Adventure.  Basically a boat ride through Jurassic Park that suddenly goes wrong as your boat drifts away from its normal direction and heads to a Velociraptor contaminated area.  Hightlight is a steep drop between the legs of a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex.

While drying in the sun we quickly passed by the Toon Lagoon area in the direction of Marvel Super Hero Island where we rode the Spider-Man attraction first.  This attraction can best be described as a combination between Stars Tours, Honey I shrunk the Audience and Armageddon, les Effects Speciaux.  It's great ride system that should make its way to Disney parks soon.

Islands of Adventure got concluded with a visit on the Hulk Coaster and a meet 'n' greet with Spider-Man and friends.

[To be continued]

[Kinou]

Did ou do SpiderMan the Ride? It was a total blast for me! Best attraction ever of my trip alongside with Indiana JOnes Adventures in California! The technology is amazing and the combination of 3D and real effects is cleverly astonishing!

[Kristof]

Did ou do SpiderMan the Ride?

where we rode the Spider-Man attraction first.

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[DisneyBud]

Sounds good there, some good rides and stuff (obv not as good as Disney though ), I'd like to do dueling dragons.

[Masamune]

I loved the Jurassic Park ride in Univeral California... and the guy playing SpiderMan had really nice legs, and he was coming on to me... :lol: apparently I'd make Mary Jane (or whatever she's called) very jealous, just by standing next to him while he was hugging all over me...

[Kristof]

September 14, 2006 (continued)

We hopped over to the neighbouring park: Universal Studios.  As we strolled over the New York streetset, we stopped by the Lucy -  A Tribe.  A band accompanied by a Lucille Ball character entertained the guests.  We were all impressed by her resemblance to the late actress.  We continued our stroll on the streetset and decided to give Twister... Ride it out a try.  This attraction went down last year while we were queueing so the whole thing was new to us.  You start off with a preshow showing some footage with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt explaining something about tornados.  Then we moved into the actual attraction, which was a scene from the movie (with the drive-in).  A whole bunch of special effects were then let loose on us, including wind, fire, water, a "tornado" (made of smoke) and cows on a string.  We enjoyed the ride, but quickly moved on to Revenge of the Mummy.  The coaster element still hurted and the animatronics were still as bad as last year.
When it suddenly started raining we sought shelter at Louie's Italian Restaurant, were we had a huge and delicious cheese pizza!

The sky cleared up so we left the New York area and walked to the San Francisco / Amity.  Here was another attraction that was closed last year: Jaws.  We had to board a boat that was operated by a skipper who would give us a tour (using Jungle Cruise humour) on the lake where Jaws caused much havoc many years ago.  To make it short, the shark snaps a few times to the boat but gets killed by an explosion caused by the skipper.  Although over 15 years old, this is still an entertaining ride.

A ride on the ET Adventure was next (read our review for this attraction in our last years trip report) and then went to see the Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue.  Too bad we wasted our time on this, we could have done a decent attraction, but instead we saw a bunch of old horror movie characters (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, ...) dancing and singing popular songs.  

After the show we couldn't get on any other attractions, as they were closed because of a thunderstorm in the area.  Keith and Francisco drove us back to the Walt Disney World and dropped us off at Disney-MGM Studios.  We went for a stroll around the park and got some pictures, including a whole bunch of Tower of Terror and its queue line.

We concluded the night at Pleasure Island's Mannequins with way too much cocktails...

Photos: http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/14_sep_06

[Miss Tinkerbell]

Great TR and fantastic photo's too!!!

[Kristof]

September 15, 2006

Today we could finally move the our other resort, Raptor's big dream: Animal Kingdom Lodge with savanah view.  We handed over our luggage to the luggage handlers and tok the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge were we hopped over on the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus.

We were both impressed by the huge African entrance hall. So far so good.  We checked in and were told that room 2469 was ready for us.  Once arrived we got stunned by the beautiful interior (Raptor loved the bathroom tiles) and even more by the incredible savanah view.  First animals we noticed were girafes: 3 adult and one baby.  We saw how they got feeded, cast members were putting branches on one of the trees.  

Raptor enjoyed the real American television programs on the television: television judges, infomercials, hilarious!!  But that didn't take long as Francisco and Keith came to pick us up for a visit to a Halloween store in the area.  We had to finish up our Halloween costumes for later that evening.

Before we knew it, it was already time to get ready for Mickey's not so scary halloween party.  Raptor dressed up as Sorcerer Mickey and Flor was Belle's prince.  We got joined at the Magic Kingdom by Francisco as Gaston and Keith as Yen Sid.  (To match our costumes).  

Main Street USA colourful lit up and decorated with a few temporary decorations.  We stopped by the castle for a few photos with the Disney Villains and then decided to wait for the Boo to You parade.  First the headless horseman trotted by, bringing along a huge rain shower.  The parade just went on, but caused a float to breakdown along the route.  We liked the parade and the floats, as they had lots of characters.  

When the last float with Goofy drove by, it stopt raining.  We followed Gaston and Yen Sid to Adventureland for some real American trick or treating.  When we got in the park, a Cast Member gave each of us a small plastic bag that we had to use for the trick or treating.  Basically you just go to the designated areas where a cast member will put candy (a few pieces or a handful, depending from cast member to cast member) in your plastic bag.  After our first experiences, we headed back to Main Street USA for the Hallowishes performance.
Like the regular Wishes, a huge amount of shells are being launched, even from the side of the park!

After the fireworks we returned to Adventureland for a photo with Tarzan and Jane.  After some more trick or treating we continued our stroll around the park and headed over to Toon Town, but suddenly stopped when we heared It's Halloween -Lo -Ween coming from the Castle Stage.  We didn't bother to stay and watch it, so we continued our stroll towards Toon Town.  

At the Judge's Tent we found Aurora & Philip and Cinderella & Prince Charming.  The character host loved our costumes and even asked if she could get a picture of our group.  We posed for her and got pictures for our own with the royalties.  Raptor went looking for Mickey Mouse, but discovered that he just missed his last meet 'n' greet for that night.  Disappointed we left Toon Town and passed by some cheap wooden 2D decorations in Fantasyland.  More trick or treating here were we got lots of candy from a nice Cast Member, causing his collegues to get mad at him for giving away too much.  
It was nearly midnight, so we left the park and got "topped off by a Snickers" (as the sign said at the exit).  The Snickers was actually 2cm by 2cm tall!  :lol:  We took the ferry to T&T and returned to our resort where we finally got to take off our soaked costumes.  It was a fun night, but nothing can beat our Halloween party at DLRP!!!

Photos: http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/15_sep_06

[The Butlin Boy]

Another great report. I really liked the look of the halloween parade, they've used some great ideas. And as always, great photos!

[DisneyBud]

Really good report - again! Loved all the Halloween stuff (though isn't it a bit early) and thought your costumes were really good.

[Dlrpfan]

WOW really cool report yet again!! and like butlin boy i love the halloween parade pics!

[Anthony]

Great costumes!! :lol: Raptor is scarily convincing as Sorcerer Mickey...  :-k

[Kristof]

September 16, 2006

We slept in today and went in the afternoon to Epcot.  We did Spaceship Earth and Club Cool before meeting Francisco and Keith at the United Kingdom pavilion.  As we were hungry, we went to Marocco for a quick meal.  Flor got the chicken Shoarma and Raptor enjoyed a delicious vegetarian dish, not even the piece of plastic in the olives got ruin it!

A ride on Ellen's Universe of Energy (she's so hilarious) finished of our visit to Epcot.  We hopped over to Disney-MGM Studios next where we did the Journey into Narnia.  The whole thing is basically a long trailer, topped of by a visit by the White Witch character saying a few words and disappearing again.  While exiting we passed by a few props from the movie.

Later that night we finally went to see Fantasmic, but unfortunately the Steamboat Willie float was in 101 so all the characters come on the stage, performing their routine.  And when Sorcerer Mickey finally appeared, his hat fell forward in his face.  A hilarious performance of a great show.

The night got concluded with a visit to Downtown Disney for some souvenire hunting and a relaxing swim in the resort pool.

Photos: http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/16_sep_06

September 17, 2006

We confirmed our return flight to Mears for the Disney's Magical Express.  A call of 15 minutes with Raptor's Belgian cellphone...  After that we headed over to Animal Kingdom for yet another ride on Expedition Everest and again lunch at Restaurantosaurus.  

We decided to go back to Disney-MGM to watch the parade.  We took place on Hollywood Blvd. and watched all the stars and motor cars drive by.  The parade is still as boring as last year...

At the Streets of America we went looking for the Cars characters, but they were unfortunately surrounded by a group of kids.  No queue lines here...  While waiting for the Power Rangers near the Motors Action Stunt Show Spectacular (closed for refurb) we met Francisco and Keith who helped us out with getting a photo with the Jetix heroes.  

When we walked back in the direction of Hollywood Blvd., we saw Snow White, Dopey and Belle walk by so Raptor got a few snapshots from them...  The Great Movie Ride was next and followed by a visit to the Beauty and the Beast show.

We ended the day at Muppet Vision 3D where we were very fortunate of having the opportunity of getting a photo with Sweetums, the show's live star!

Keith and Francisco asked us along for diner at the Rainforest Café where we had a delicious meal and a great entertaining waiter.  

Photos: http://www.photosmagiques.com/gallery/17_sep_06

[The Butlin Boy]

As we were hungry, we went to Marocco for a quick meal.

That sounds so much cooler than it actually is! :lol:
Another great report Raptor.

[Liesbeth]

It's quite funny. I was at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure the same day you were and went to MNSSHP the same night too. But I didn't see you. I didn't dress up.