Universal Parks

Walking around Universal’s “middly bits” can be a bit of a love/hate experience

Take ^ this place for example, I saw a beautiful dress in the window, which I really wanted to try on, but when I started towards Maryanne’s, Himself said “you know it’s not real…right?”

Heart.Broken!

From then on though, the experience was more enjoyable – mainly because I was prepared! You could go into some of them, but like in Harry Potter, they were mostly merchandise stores

In the late afternoon we explored Toon Lagoon

Where I got intentionally lost in the Betty Boop shop for quite some time – pretty much anything you could possibly want with her face on it, is there!

All around this area were thought bubbles, we found the perfect one to send home to family, just outside the Comic Strip Cafe

Next up was Super Hero Island, we had a great time looking around, but in comparison to other areas of the parks, this was definitely a hot spot with lots and LOTS of families with older kids moving around in big packs!

We had been hugely looking forward to the Hulk ride as we’d heard great things, but sadly it wasn’t to be, that whole section was being refurbished so it was a no go. We enjoyed the wander around Super Hero Island, but were quite happy when we reached the end of it – because leaving it – meant leaving the big crowds behind too!

I’m a big Dr. Seuss fan, so the fact that this area is geared more towards the littles, didn’t stop me from enjoying it massively!

You won’t find any rollarcoasters in here, but I recommend the Seuss Trolley Train Ride, you’ll get some great views of the area, so have that camera at the ready!

After a packed, non-stop day, we decided to head towards the shuttle bus to get back to our hotel – until we stumbled upon something very odd.

Himself was confused, I was confused, there was an awful lot of confusion flying around because we had found an Irish souvenir shop….like you were in Ireland….but you were in Orlando. We went inside to investigate further. It housed the tackiest, not Irish – but very American/Irish – souvenirs we have ever come across!

Really Universal…REALLY?!

While getting near the gates we saw Bumblee – he looked incredible, can bust quite the move and has excellent taste in music – what more could you want in a Transformer?!

Not too far from where we’d seen Bumblebee, we were brought up short again because The Blues Brothers concert had just started and I mean really, who were we to refuse!?!

We hustled over to have a sing and a boogie

The group performing were so talented, they had everyone clapping and singing along, Himself was in his element

It’s definitely worth catching one of their shows when you visit, so keep an eye on the map for show times!

Just when we thought we were out of there…we took one more pit stop and headed into the Christmas shop (it’s open all year round!).

Top tip: Give yourself an hour to get out of Universal because if you’re anything like us, once you start heading in that homeward direction, you’ll suddenly happen upon at least twelve places that you want to look at in greater detail!

Finally, we made it out of Universal and back to our hotel. To our surprise we found ourselves not that tired anymore (I have since been informed this was the evil, evil jet lag appearing for the first time) and so we booked ourselves in for a spot of bowling!

Lucky for us, that meant just a short hop, skip and a jump down to the mezzanine level of our hotel to Galaxy Bowl, where they served pretty nom cocktails!

Himself got a beer, but I had a pomegranate concoction that was very tasty. We ordered the sharing platter for two, which had lots of tortilla chips, guac and salsa, along with a few other bites, but nothing overly exciting.

Himself and I have gone on bowling dates many times over our 10 years of togetherness, so it was lovely to get to go during our Honeymoon too, it was a brilliant way to end the day!

(once, we went bowling at 4am – have you ever been to a 24hr bowling alley? I’m telling you, it’s the bees knees!)

Rxx