Day 14 - Sunday 9th December 2012

Last night was another night of so many thoughts running through my head. Luckily I had my Biffle to talk to, even though I kept my Biffle up so late. I'm sorry, but it was good to be able to talk to talk ro you for that long. It felt like i was back home, apart from the fact that I wasn't able to call my Biffle :( I don't know what I would do without my Biffle. If it wasn't for you I would have probably done something stupid a while ago. Thank you for always being there for me. Please know that I am here for you whenever, no matter the time or day :)

So anyways, I didn't really end up sleeping. I ended up talking to my Biffle till the morning here in the US. I probably had 30 mins of my eyes being shut. So really waking up wasn't a problem when I was already awake. The real problem was trying to wake up my cousin and my sister so that they could get ready to go Universal Studios. As me and my sister finished getting ready we went down stairs to the living room to wait for my relatives to finish getting ready. During that time I managed to talk my sister into painting her nails. And usually she declines my offer but for some reason she agreed, so i painted her nails a turquoise colour.

The car trip to Universal Studios was so intense with my cousin and her dad talking really loudly about the travel arrangements of the up coming events. We ended up getting a bit lost and I had to redirect my cousin using her navigation app on her phone.When we finally made it to Universal Studios we quickly found parking and made our way to the Universal  CityWalk. It was like walking through an alley of shops on either sides. It was beautiful and the vibe of the place was just so great.

We made our way to the entrance of the Universal Studios Park, there were a lot of people who were also making their way into the theme park. As we walked into the gates of the Universal Studios Theme park, the first thing I noticed was that it was that time of year called Grinchmas.  And then I saw some Whos, they looked so great and exactly what I imagined they would be like and look like. If you don't know or haven't seen the movie the Grinch. I suggest you watch it, its a classic Christmas movie. I remember every year watching the movie during my childhood. Anyways because this was such a rare occasion that I see Whos from Whoville obviously I took photos. They were all so jolly it made me feel jolly too.

So we made our way further inside and decided to go to a show at Water World. The exterior of the stage and the interior was decorated with sheet metal and fisherman equipment. I dont even know how to describe the inside. It was just incredible to see how they had set this up and they even had trained actors who were in the cast. The audience had to sit on the stands that surrounded the stage. The seats were labelled with Soak Zone, Wet Zone, and Dry Zone. This obviously meant that some what in the show we would get wet. However knowing that we stayed in the Wet Zone because you cant get that wet right? We were wrong. The show had a lot of effects, there was water effects, fire effects, etc. At one point there was even a plane that crashed and landed at the barrier of the stage. Oh and the fire effects were so close I could actually feel the heat from it. Overall the experience I had at the show was incredible and I didn't expect the show to be that engaging and entertaining.

Next we decided to go into the House of Horrors because it was close by as well as the fact that my cousin suggested it. I didn't know what to expect walking into a house of horrors. Inside it was so dark and limited on lights. I was leading my sister and my relatives into the house of horrors. I guess that was a bad idea because it was so dark I felt so blind. On top of that people dressed up in scary stuff kept jumping out at me. Literally the scariest house of horrors I ever walked into. I think we managed to walk through half way and ended up in a room full of mirrors and we were all confused so decided to exit the house of horrors. I regret going into a house of horrors with my cousin and sister all they did was walk really slowly and kept screaming and jumping out of no where which also scared me. It would be a while till I ever walk into another house of horrors.

After leaving the house of horrors, we walked around to forget about the horrors that were seen in the house of horrors. We walked around the set up streets, which had old english shops and french patisseries. The streets were too decorated with Christmas decoration and fake snow. We eventually made our way down to the Shrek 4D area. At first we entered a hall and was shown a short introduction. The hall was slightly dark with just enough light. The walls were decorated with images and also a few props. Afterwards we were shown into the Auditorium for chance to watch a small segment of a non released Shrek scene with 4D effects. There was a lot of chair movements, water effects, air effects as well as fog affects. Overall the experience I would say was enjoyable and entertaining. I even got to see Shrek and Fiona on my way out, it was a shame I didn't get a photo with them because they were rushing off somewhere.

Afterwards we headed to the Universal Studios Tour. There was so many people already lined up. Luckily there are tour bus constantly running so the wait was not too long. When we finally go to our tour bus we were lucky to sit in the front of the second carriage. So the tour lasted for about 45 minutes and it had showed us around all the different studio stages as well some of the staged houses and streets. We drove from the streets of New York to the Suburbs and then to the streets of Europe, literally. It felt so real like we were travelling through movies. We were even lucky enough to experience of the 360 King Kong. It was crazy and felt so real again they used water affects. I don't know what is with the water effect but Universal Studios sure loves it. We then travelled through the town of Whoville and were greeted by the Whos. They even performed a special song for us too. As I mentioned before I grew up watching up the Grinch so seeing this was just amazing. Me and my sister was just on the edge of our seat.

Next up was the Mummy ride we didn't know what to expect because the ride was inside. All I knew was that it was a roller coaster ride that had a lot of warnings. I was not too scared unlike my sister, I had to try and talk her into going on the ride. The line up for the ride was pretty long as the ride was a popular ride.  However when we finally did go on the ride, it didn't last as long as I thought it would have which was a down side but it was a good ride and the sharp motions it went just added to the excitement. There was also props and effects that were along the walls during the time of the ride. However at the end of the ride it suddenly stopped and traveled back through the ride backwards which was unexpected.

The next ride that we went on was the Jurassic Park ride. It was a water ride, where were in a vessel travelling on water. As we traveled through it was like we were travelling through the actual Jurassic Park. There was scenery like a forest and  there were mechanical dinosaurs as well. Travelling through this ride felt really magical and mystical. However the end of the ride was really unexpected it was like a fall that was really steep and ended up driving into the water. And we decided to seat in the first row we ended up getting wet, me getting more wet then my sister. But we did really enjoy our time on the ride. If the line up for the ride wasn't so long I would have gone a couple of more times.

We were walking towards the Transformers 3D ride and discovered that the line up for the ride was at least an hours wait. The ride was a new ride and a quite popular ride so I guess that is the reason for the long line up. At least I got to see Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime and I even got to have a family picture with Bumble Bee. So I guess it was okay.

We then walked to the Simpsons ride, it was getting darker and colder so all we wanted to do was get into the shelter. Again this was another popular ride so yet again the line was long and we had to wait quite. When we finally got to the ride we were showed into a room where there was a carriage. At first i just thought it was one of those rides where its just a screen and the carriage would just move. But I was so wrong. We were lifted up into a big dome where there was other carriages and there was a big screen. It was a virtual roller coaster with effects, mostly water effects but it did feel quite real. It was quite unexpected and amazed me.

We then went to the Terminator 3D pavilion to see what it was about. We were all tired and I really did not know what to expect from this place. Again we walked into a small hall for another introduction, the hostess was played by an actor. She had to constantly say "super" in a high pitched and exaggerated tone. Afterwards we moved in towards a cinema style room where we could wear 3D glasses to view the show that was put on due to the effects that are used. However for some reason it was not so engaged with the show. To be honest both me and my sister fell asleep during the show and the only bits that woke us up was the loud sound effects that were used. After show was finally finished we made our way out towards the gates and towards the car.

On our way out we decided to go to an All You Can Eat Buffet, because we were all starving. So after the long ride home, we finally made it to the All You Can Eat Buffet that was near our house. It was very much different to what I was use to back home at Marconi Club. The food was different and the variety as well, but there was snow crab. At first I struggled getting the crab meat out from the shell. But after a while I got the hang of it, eating so much snow crab I think I could start tasting the salt water from the crab meat. That was then followed by a few more plates of food. However after eating so much at the Buffet, I started to get a bit sick. So I went home and got some rest to try recover from a food coma. And that was the end of one heck of a long day.

Kodiak moments and memories are always the best when they include people who are most important in life. 

xoxo bmnt