Vacation 2012: Universal Studios and our Disney resort.

Day 6, part 2: Universal Studios (again) and our Disney resort

As we walked from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios, we made a pit stop. When I emerged from the rest room, I found my family engrossed in communication (just not with each other).

Hey, SCOOOOB!

Rip Ride Rockit: Too much fun to
choose your own soundtrack

This ride stretches the length of Universal Studios. Ryan and
I had a blast singing "I Will Survive" the whole way.

As promised, we rode The Mummy again
so Ryan could join us this time.

Outside that ride we found
this really tall dude.

Make that a scary tall Egyptian dude!

Blues Brothers show

The Simpsons' RV (next to autograph area)

Barney, a real blast from the past

But of course, Ryan bought a donut
at the Kwik-E-Mart next to the Simpsons
Ride (Oooooh! Doooooonut!)

This time technical difficulties didn't get in our way!
What a fun motion simulator ride! Super funny and
just perfect for fans of the series like us.

Speaking of fans, we followed up on our plan to eat lunch at the Classic Monsters Cafe. The line was super long, but it was worth it to dine with the monsters.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon
followed us from New Orleans, I guess.

Closest I've been to San Francisco

The Jaws ride was closed late last year, but this massive shark display remains.

Like many tourists, Ryan posed inside those massive jaws...

...just like he did way back in 2006 at Universal Hollywood. (The pictures from that visit make me so sad! I can't believe how little the kids were!)

We enjoyed the Beetlejuice show, in spite of the cheesy monsters-as-rockers theme:

We also made a super quick visit to the Lucy tribute, much as we did back in '06.

Model of the I Love Lucy set

Making a Lucy penny
(I was just a little obsessed
with souvenir pennies.)

By mid-afternoon, fatigue was setting in, so we bid adieu to Universal Orlando. After a stop at an Orlando Walmart (cheap T-shirts! padded inserts for Katie's shoes! breakfast and other food!), we drove to Walt Disney World.

Because we missed our exit (my failure as a
navigator), we got to see the big sign twice!

Once we found our resort, we were checked in and in our room in no time. Our resort: Port Orleans French Quarter. (In WDW lingo, it's a moderate resort.)

Mickey towels

Mickey toiletries

Birthday button

Our room! I wish all hotel rooms had ceiling fans like this.

When we started talking about this trip, I figured we would stay at a value resort like Pop Century (wouldn't that fit us?) or one of the All-Stars.

And what a treat to have a corner room with the extra window.

But when I realized that a moderate would get us queen beds (as opposed to doubles), a larger room and wifi, I decided it was worth the few extra bucks. We also had a fridge under the TV, so that made our in-room "breakfast picnics" much nicer.

Double sinks! Some of the Port Orleans rooms have
pedestal sinks, but I was glad to have the counter space.

AND we had double sinks! And a curtain to separate the vanity area from the bedroom! And did I mention double sinks?!


Oh, yeah. This works for us!