December 6 December 7 December 8 December 9 December 10 December 11	Friday December 7 Friday was Universal Studios day. We got up when we wanted to and had a decent breakfast at the Perkins that’s attached to the hotel. Then we donned our tourist garb and headed for the Universal parking lot. We wound up hitting both of their theme parks, starting at Islands of Adventure and finishing the day at Universal Studios. Today was the opening day for all the Christmas activities at both parks. For some reason, the theme parks have decided to scan fingers along with the tickets and use those demographics for readmission instead of the black light ink stamps that have been the staple for many years. Naturally, their machine wouldn’t read my finger at all.... The person working the gate at Islands of Adventure just let me in anyway. However, it caused a slowdown when we switched parks later. After explaining that they hadn’t been able to read my finger in the morning (“he must have been doing it wrong”), the girl finally let me through on my word. We didn’t go on many rides in Islands of Adventure. We spent most of our time just wandering around looking at things. I spent some time at the lagoon side taking pictures of the reflections and of the Hulk roller coaster ride. I like the geometric lines that the green and silver tubes make. We also walked out to the lagoon near the Popeye ship. I don’t think I’ve ever been in that deserted section of the park before. There’s some interesting little things to see there. The photos above show the patterns I found in the Hulk Roller Coaster at the Islands of Adventure. In the left photo, a carload of riders is hanging upside down! The photo in the center shows them ascending the left side of the ride. And the photo on the right shows a carload going through a splash effect near the beginning of the ride. The photo on the left shows the Mythos Restaurant and other portions of the Lost Continent reflected in the lagoon. The photo on the right shows the mailboxes for Popeye and his friends. We did go on the ride through Jurassic Park. It’s a fairly calm ride until you reach the end, when it drops over a waterfall. I lost my good sun hat on that ride... The hat had the elasticized sweat band inside which has kept it on my head during some pretty fierce winds, but that last drop just yanked it off!! I wound up buying a new hat when we entered Universal Studios later that day.... We thought about riding the pterodactyl ride in Jurassic Park, but the wait time was 45 minutes. Later, Kelly told us that the only adults that can ride that ride are those accompanying children. (sigh) So, we continued on around the park to the Lost World. The photo on the left shows the fountain and torch at the entrance to Poseiden's Fury. It had been a number of years since we had gone into the show called Poseidon’s Fury, so we stepped inside. The story line is that this is an archaeological dig that has released an ancient curse. Escaping the curse includes walking through a whirling vortex of water. It’s a fascinating effect. Water is shot out of water cannons at such a force that it forms a circular pattern and the crowd walks down the center of this circle of water. And my cell phone went off during the noisy part of this show (I had it on vibrate). Once we exited this show, I checked messages and found that Kelly had called to let us know what time our dinner reservation was. I called her back and we talked for a while. Since it was almost noon, we stopped for lunch at the nearby Mythos restaurant. It’s won awards for the last five or six years as the best theme park restaurant. It’s a sit-down restaurant. We split a chicken sandwich and rested our feet for a while. It was good, but we were expecting something else. It’s listed on the guide map as both a full service restaurant and a burger/sandwich restaurant. Yes, you can get a burger or a sandwich there, but, usually, if something is listed as a burger/sandwich place, something more self-service is expected. I don’t think it should have been listed as both... By the time we left, there was a line to get in. Carl’s timing strikes again! After lunch, we continued on to Seuss Landing, where Grinchmas was being staged. This was opening day for that performance, also. Universal has tried different versions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas over the years, but I think this version was the best. It was a stage show retelling the book’s version of the story with characters that came straight from Universal’s movie. In other years, they stretched the show out in fifteen minute segments that went on all day - you felt tied to going back to Seuss Landing every hour and had no time for anything else in the park. One show repeated every hour works better. And it was a good show! They managed to get most of the gags in, even the ones that are impossible with a live performance - cartoons or special effects help with such things as shoving a Christmas tree up a chimney, for example, yet they managed to imply all of them! Good job! The photo on the left above shows the Grinch scowling down from Mount Crumpet during the Grinch Show. The photo on the right above shows Max, the dog, getting some extra rehearsal time after the show we watched. With that, we were finished with Islands of Adventure. We had circled the park and were back at the entrance, so we walked over to Universal Studios. After a bit of a hassle at the entrance (see above), we finally got in and I immediately found my replacement sun hat. What a relief! We didn’t have many goals in the Studios, but we managed to accomplish all of them. We had just enough time for an ice cream before the next Beetlejuice Rock Revue show, so we stopped for gelattos. They were good, but not as good as gelato in Italy... Beetlejuice was as good as ever, but we must be getting old. I only recognized one song in the whole show.... The two photos above were taken during the Beetlejuice Rock Revue. The one on the left shows the Bride of Frankenstein's solo song, accompanied by Hip and Hop. The photo on the right shows the Wolfman drumming the beat on some skulls on Beetlejuice's chair. From there, we wandered over to Mel’s Diner where a 50s style band was belting out oldies. We recognized a lot more of those songs. Then back to New York Street to catch the Blues Brothers Christmas show. The lady playing Mabel can sure sing! From there, Carl went on the Mummy ride and I wandered around Balloonopolis (where they had some of the Macy’s Parade balloons tethered for display) and shot some other photos in the area. The walking portions of the Parade were strolling around the park, posing with guests, like the walking flower pots... And the performing elephant... The photo on the left above shows one of the tethered Macy balloons on display - Garfield reading a bedtime story. The photo on the right is a performing "elephant" and his handler.... The photo on the left above shows Carl posing with a potted plant before the Macy's Parade. Later, she was walking in the parade. The photo on the right shows Grover, another tethered balloon (Grover is a character from Sesame Street), leaning against a building in the New York section of the park. We finally made our way back to the area around Mel’s Diner (and another set from the 50s band) and found a place to watch the parade. Not bad for opening day! The rope restraint right in front of us was cut a little short, so one of the techs had to sit there and hold it during the whole parade... The photos above were taken during the Macy's Parade at Universal Studios. The one on the left is an oversized car with Curious George in it. The center photo has a pirate balloon. The right photo shows one of the costumed pirates marching under the pirate balloon. The photo on the left above shows an ice cream cone balloon floating over the Macy's Parade. The remaining two photos show part of one of the marching bands. After the parade, we sat for a while just people watching. As dusk deepened, I got the tripod out and tried some night shots around the park. The photo on the left above shows some palm trees and street lights as dusk approaches. The center photo shows some of the Christmas lights on the streets of "New York". The photo on the right shows Girandella's lights reflected in the lagoon. The photo on the left shows Curious George climbing the Tribune building, while the right photo shows the Christmas tree in front of Macy's. Once I tired of that, we headed back towards the gate, intending to stop for drinks and wait for Kelly to join us for dinner. About then, the cell phone rang again. It was Kelly. She was in City Walk already. So, we joined her and walked over to the outside bar near Margaritaville for a drink and to talk until time for our dinner reservation. Okay, technically, it wasn’t a dinner reservation, only a way to jump into the line a bit earlier. We had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory. We all had shrimp in one form or another. Yum! Dinner was good and, for a tourist area, quite reasonable. But noisy. so, back to the parking garage, where we went our separate ways. Kelly has a full day tomorrow and we were still a bit tired. Back to the hotel to crash for the night. Next...