Carsland here we come - Update 23/10

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Reserving my spot in the line!!!!

 

[alicia1506]

Joining in

 

[dabecs]

Bring it on I'm enjoying your writing style already.

 

[hjd0411]

Oh goody!! I can read about it before I go! Thanks! Great start. Always interesting to hear airline comparisons - and love the upgrade! Always makes for a good start to a holiday!

 

[shushh]

Woohoo! Sounds like a wonderful start.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Excellent start to your trip report . Can't wait to hear more. I'm particularly interested to hear about Hilton Universal as we plan on spending a couple of nights there next year.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Sounds like it was a nice smooth start to the trip-looking forward to the rest of the TR. Can't believe you have been and come back already though.

 

[Melbourne5]

Still August 23- gotta love the international date line !

Having survived our first theme park ride aka our shuttle transfer we arrived at the Hilton universal city- its well located just a few minutes shuttle ride upnthe hill to the park and city walk area. The shuttle goes every 10m or so and proved very popular as to walk was all uphill.

Not unexpectedly our rooms were not ready. It was around 10am local time (?3am Melbourne time) so with no finese at all we opened up the bags in the main foyer, grabbed our summer time clothes and all promptly went and got changed out of our Melbourne winter threads.*

The front desk and bellman were excellent and had our luggage stored in no time and didn't mind waiting for us to change and restore all the gear. There is a little coffee shop there so we grabbed coffee for the adults and some juice and pastries for the kids to start our day. The hotel is not too big , a few hundred rooms, so for a Hilton was very personalized .*

My choice of this Hilton was mostly location and in addition as a diamond member free wifi, breakfasts and potential room upgrades. This turned out to be a great choice of hotel and I will cover more a bit later.*

So having dressed for summer, cracked open the sunscreen and jumped on the shuttle we were off to universal studios. The shuttle drops you at city walk which is smaller than the orlando version ( for comparisons sake) but just as good. It was a 2m walk to the front gates of US.

We had to exchange our vouchers to tickets. A little bit of messing around, or perhaps we were all a bit tired and hot and by this stage would have been 430am at home.....in reality though the day reached a high of 35.0c so was hot by any standards. Everything done we grabbed the 2 day tickets and went through the front gates.*

We were in desperate need of hydration so our first purchase was made , a $15 transformers drink flask ( refillable for 99c ) and time to re acquaint ourselves with lemonade for the first time in a year since our last visit. Not wanting to press the point about being in the USA we left it at least another 5m before we had to have a sugar fix and 5 beautifulm, artery clogging churros came our way.

Having had a little drink and nibble it was time to take on the transformers ride. It's a new ride in 3d and did not disappoint. It's far the most popular attraction at the park at present but was still around a 30m wait.

The ride is very very good. Lots of video, animatronics . For those who like comparisons it uses the spiderman ( Orlando) ride carriages but has a similar feature as the Harry potter ride ( Orlando). In your carriage , you are a transformer and of course you are bashed up, fired upon, dropped and lots of other stuff. It's a great ride and the kids absolutely loved it 5/5 from them. I thought It was a little too quick with all the graphics , or maybe I am getting older.....

As the ride is right down the bottom of the park the next two rides were close by and had 10m waits. First up the mummy roller coaster ride. It's indoors ( which was good for us trying to acclimatizing and failing miserably and very fast with some surprise twists and turns. Rated 4/5

Last ride for the day was the Jurassic park 'wet water' ride and boy did we get soaked. I have been on this one a number of times in both Orlando and Hollywood and don't think I have been more soaked. Well at least it woke us all up as it was not too dissimilar to having lots of buckets of water thrown in your face!

We had a bite to eat for lunch, burger, salad and turkey wraps and more lemonade and some sprite ( their sprite is lemon, lime,soda version) and we decided that it was time to head back to check into the hotel as we were all tired, grumpy and feeling the heat ( our clothes had dried by the time we left the park). We took our time going back up to the top of the park and looked at some of the shops along the way. I noticed all the Halloween gear was already in store. We stopped for some shots by the universal globe and then waited for our shuttle back.

We walked back in to the hotel and before I could get to the reception desk one of the bell man mentioned to me that they were glad we were back as our rooms were ready. Very nice touch and friendly service. Front desk lady arranged for us to be on the floor 2nd from the top and interconnecting rooms . Wifi password given and breakfast vouchers provided ( bonus was all 5 of us got these for our stay, supposed to be 2 people only and extra bonus was snack vouchers for during the day too). Feeling very good about all this we headed off to the rooms and ready for a quick nap.

Rooms were good size, interconnecting a bonus and a fantastic view south towards Hollywood and LA with great mountain and pool views too. Very impressive.

We all used the time to freshen up and take a nap......however we know well that it's best to try and stay up to try and avoid waking up at the wrong time....besides I looked at my watch and in less than 4 hours I needed to be at the Greek theatre to watch Neil diamond perform his 40th anniversary 'hot August night ' concert.......

As I dozed off I did catch DS2 looking more than a little unwell......more on this in the next installment.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Wow, you were all go on your first day, I envy you your energy levels, I don't think I could manage a day at the parks on arrival day.

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's a jam-packed 1st, very long, day.

Hope that DS doesn't get too sick.

 

[Melbourne5]

Wow, you were all go on your first day, I envy you your energy levels, I don't think I could manage a day at the parks on arrival day.

Neither did we but no room available meant sleep in foyer ( not a good look) or park. I am just so glad we brought the buy 1 get 1 free ticket so we were able to use properly the next day. As you can guess it wasn't our plan!

 

[shushh]

I'm all for being active the first day to fight jetlag!
Mmmm for churros. Can't go to the American continent and not have any!!! Yay for the hotel. It sounds nice. Waiting for more. Hope DS2 wasn't too unwell...

 

[Melbourne5]

I'm all for being active the first day to fight jetlag!
Mmmm for churros. Can't go to the American continent and not have any!!! Yay for the hotel. It sounds nice. Waiting for more. Hope DS2 wasn't too unwell...

Churros are an integral part of the trip and we sampled a few this time around. I always say eating and drinking is a free kick when you are in the parks as you walk so much ( at least in my logic) We missed them last year on the east coast at wdw ( unless I missed every trolley in the park, but did find them at ioa - thankfully)

 

[Melbourne5]

What a great start to your TR! I particularly enjoyed reading your Qantas Virgin comparisons. Like you, we are long time Qantas customers and experiencing Virgin internationally for the first time in 4 sleeps. It's good to hear they stack up similarly.

Eagerly awaiting your next installment.

I am sure you will enjoy their service!

 

[Melbourne5]

That's a jam-packed 1st, very long, day.

Hope that DS doesn't get too sick.

He did, then we did but thankfully survived. Nothing like 30.0c days with almost no humidity to leech out all those Aussie winter bugs....

 

[AussieMumma]

Loving your TR so far, what a whirlwind trip! Love it!!!

 

[Melbourne5]

Loving your TR so far, what a whirlwind trip! Love it!!!

3 boys 14,11,6 tend to have two speeds - on and off . We live a very fast paced life! And holiday the same way.

 

[Melbourne5]

Loving your TR so far, what a whirlwind trip! Love it!!!

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[Andona]

3 boys 14,11,6 tend to have two speeds - on and off . We live a very fast paced life! And holiday the same way.

We holiday like that too! We always have a busy first day - try to stay up as long as possible. I think it pays off for the rest of the trip - you acclimatize very quickly

Really enjoying the TR report so far, but I'm a bit worried about DS2 - hope he wasn't too unwell!?!

Andona

 

[Mum from oz]

What a fab start to your TR. I wish I had the guys to plan a trip so quickly! Hope DS doesn't get too sick!