Universal/Islands of Adventure Day Two

We spend today at Islands of Adventure, Universal's other park. We got up early again and took the 8:30 shuttle. We were in the park by nine, right when they open.

We rode the Incredible Hulk ride right away because there was no line. Al, Dewy and I took Andrew with us. Jake and CJ were too short to ride and Marc and Alex were a little nervous about riding. The ride was awesome to say the least! I haven't been on one of those huge looping corkscrew coasters in ages. We got all and the wait was still only five minutes so I went again and brought Peg with me. It was so much fun.

We decided to head over the the Harry Potter section of the park because we thought it was going to be really busy, especially later in the day. If you are a fan of the books you would love it there. Part of the area is Hogsmead (the town the students go to on break from school) and part is Hogwarts (the school). As soon as you walk in you see the engine for Hogwarts Express. Across the street is Zonko Tricks and Jokes where you can buy Sneakscopes and other things from the book. Next door is Honeydukes Candy store which sells Burt's Every Flavor Beans and chocolate frogs. There are several stands throughout the area that sells Butterbeer. It is mentioned in just about everybook so of course we had to have one. I am not exactly sure what it is, but it tasted sort of like cream soda. Yummy! There are several other strores including one that sells broomsticks and Ollivander's Wand Shop. There are a few rides there including a kid's rollercoaster called The Flight of the Hippogriff, an adult roller coaster with dueling dragon trains, and a simulator/ animatronic ride that takes you through many of the places mentioned in the books. Marc and I are big fans of the book and loved it all. Al and Jake have seen most of the movies and enjoyed it just as much. We spent a good part of the day there. The highlight was easliy Ollivanders. They only bring about 20 people in the shop at a time. There is someone working the counter and they pick one person from the group to participate, and they picked Marc. He got to try a few wands while looking for the right one. In the process he killed a vase of flowers and ruined a shelf of wands. Then they gave him a third wand and the lights dimmed except for a spotlight on Marc. Obviously, that was the right wand for him! Then they send you through to the next area where everyone else can pick their wands. Of course Jake wanted one too and ended up picking one out before we left for the day. It was easily one of our favorite things on the vacation.

We ate lunch at with the Wilinski's before splitting up for the afternoon. We did almost the same things, just not in the same order. There is a whole area called Seuss Landing that is geared towards little kids. There is a Caro-Seuss-el that has Seuss animals instead of horses, a fish ride similar to Dumbo, am overhead train, and a Cat in the Hat ride-through attraction.

In the Jurrasic Park area we each went on the River Adventure and plan on heading back there tomorrow to try the Pteranodon Flyers. Toon Lagoon has a few water rides. Both are like rides at Great America. One is like the raft ride, and the other is like the log ride. The Wilinski's were able to ride both, but we only got on the raft ride. We got completly soaked! We walked out of the ride and saw Peg waiting for the rest of the group. We compared notes and then kept going on our seperate ways. In Marvel Super Hero Island we rode Storm Force Acdelatron and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. We all thought of Uncle Dan in this area! There were larger than life characters all over and the Wilinski's even got to meet a few super heroes.

Once we got back to the hotel we started packing up our stuff before heading to the pool one last time. Tomorrow we have one more day to go to Universal. We decided on the park to park tickets, so we will be at both parks getting those last few things done. Once the park closes we will be getting on the road for the long drive home!