Day 6... A day at Universal Studios

We have successfully conquered another fun filled day!  AND, 'the troops' would like it to be known that we were up, showered, got ready, and were in the car on time!  Haha!  Today's adventures took us to Universal Studios where we were part of a VIP tour.  This gave us exclusive access to the back lot of the studios in a private tram, priority access to the front of the lines, a continental breakfast, a buffet lunch, and valet parking.  Our tour guide, Tony, also provided us with cold bottled water and ponchos for the water ride.

The continental breakfast was fresh fruit, ham and cheese croissants, and some much needed coffee!  Our first stop on the tour took us to the back lots of universal studios.  We saw the outside facades for movies/shows such as Jurassic Park, Tarzan, and Dukes of Hazard.  We then moved on to the courtyard area where many scenes from Back to the Future were filmed.  

Like the Warner Brothers Studio, Universal has a huge prop building. The place was massive!  Much bigger than WB.  We found E.T., the Lorax, and so many other iconic fixtures for rent.  This place was very impressive.

Our tour continued through the back lot where they keep a variety of well known movie and TV prop cars.  

Magnum PI

 Back to the Future

Back to the Future

The Flintstones

The Flintstones

Fast and Furious

Jurassic Park

We then moved on to see Amity Island from Jaws, the Psycho house, and the Bates motel.  We were not able to see Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives due to filming on the set.

After the back lot tour we did 3 rides- Transformers, The Mummy, and The Jurassic Park water ride.  Transformers was a simulated ride. The Mummy was an intense indoor in-the-dark roller coaster (Craig's and Carley's favorite of the day) and the Jurassic Park was a water ride that we all got completely soaked on-even with the ponchos!!!!  

By this time we were all getting hungry.  Our VIP tour provided a VERY nice buffet lunch for us at the Jardin De Paris. This place was beautiful and the food was delicious!! The lighting was horrible for the picture but the food selection was amazing.  Then the desserts... so many to choose from but nothing could beat the chocolate dipped strawberries!  Yum!!

Unfortunately the tour did not include a nap which was much needed after the food coma we were now in!  

We moved on to watch the Special Effects show.  This was super cool!  It gave an inside look how sound and props are incorporated into TV and Movies.  

Next we went on the Minion ride.  It was a simulator ride where Gru turns humans into minions. 

One of the most popular attractions of Universal is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.   We are not into Harry Potter but it was still a neat place to see.  The first ride was a roller coaster called Flight of the Hippogriff.  The second was another simulated ride-Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  Both of these were great (or so they tell me, I'm not much of a rider-especially simulated rides!!  The view was amazing from this part of the park and I enjoyed it.)  

Before we could leave the Wizarding World we had to buy a piece of the  famous Harry Potter Butterbeer Fudge.  

After we finished up in Harry Potter land, we parted ways with our tour guide and were left on our own to explore.  We watched several shows- Animal Actors and Water World.  The show 'Animal Actors' had appearances of the chihuahua 'Papi' from Beverly Hills Chihuahua and 'Kevin' the American Eskimo dog from The Proposal.  The Water World show was an action packed pyrotronic-stuntman-adventure-comedy type show.  It was Julianna's favorite! 

Before we left, they all wanted to ride The Mummy ride again.  They ended up riding it 2 more times and loved it!!  We left around 6pm and were exhausted.  We definitely banked way more than our daily 10,000 steps!!  

A couple quick pictures that we took along the way...

We picked up supper on the way back to the hotel... more Del Taco for Craig and a pizza for us girls!  

Craig is starting to come down with a 'California Cold'.  Pray he gets over it quickly!  Tomorrow is his day...he has something special planned for Father's day!  Stay tuned!

Until tomorrow...