Harry Potter and Islands Of Adventure

Today we visited Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure – we almost never go to the Universal parks as their rides are all more extreme than Disney and not really what we like, but since the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, we’ve planned to check it out.

Queueing was the order of the day at Universal! It took more than half an hour just to get tickets …

First stop was Zeuss Landing where after another half hour of waiting, we rode something very tame, the High In The Sky train!

 

Eventually we made our way to Hogsmeade and some VERY CROWDED places! It seems that there wasn’t enough space to put the Harry Potter at Universal Studios, so everything is cramped; it was nearly impossible to shop – surely a huge missed opportunity, and exiting The Forbidden Journey was just crazy! Mind you, the long queue to enter that ride was spacious – although apparently designed to seem longer than it really is …

As for the Forbidden Journey ride itself, all the being thrown upside down, and the spiders, put Margaret off ever doing it again – Kate didn’t even risk going on! It was however much more tame than some rides at Universal (and no, we didn’t go on that one!)

Legoland Florida

Friends Pedro, Laura and Christian recently told us of Legoland Florida, so Margaret, Kate and I decided to visit yesterday. It’s a bit of a tedious drive from the Disney area, but not too far – and the park is quite a lot less busy than Disney Magic Kingdom, which is a positive! Legoland Florida took over failed Cypress Gardens which makes for a interesting day – much of the park is strongly “Lego themed” while other parts (like the garden, and the Island In The Sky aerial ride) are carried over barely changed:

There’s a Lego themed water stunt show that’s quite fun, too:

 

There are four roller coasters there, and Margaret and I rode two! The very scary Test Track with it’s fast and steep first drop, and a wooden coaster which again was “inherited” from the original Cypress Gardens park:

Another Wild Africa Trek

This week we repeated the excellent Wild Africa Trek, backstage at Animal Kingdom, but with Kate too! Lots more pictures, mostly just like last year, but still great …

 

On our way out we got to see an anteater take a bath!