Chronicles of T'Ilia: Universal Appeal

On of our other stops in Orlando was Universal Studios: both the original and Islands of Adventure. We spent two days at Islands of Adventure, mostly at Suess Landing. This led to the discovery that it didn't so much matter which characters C was posing with, as the fact that she was posing with characters. Prior to our visit, I'd read a few Dr. Suess stories to C, with something of limited interest from her. However, she wanted to get pictures with the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 as well as Sam-I-am and the lead from Green Eggs and Ham. I pointed them out and she eagerly climbed out of her stroller to stand in line for pictures. I expected her to be very excited about the Caro-Suessel (A Dr. Suess style carousel), but that was not the big hit. She enjoyed the Cat in the Hat storybook ride, and the train that went around the whole "island" (that she was just barely tall enough to ride). The popular attraction though, the one she clamored to ride again and again, was the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue fish ride...probably because it had fish that sprayed water at the riders and she got to get wet. During her naps I got to ride on a few grown-up rides: the Hulk, Spiderman, and the Dueling Dragons. Fortunately for us, the days we went were light on the crowd factor, so I didn't spend the whole naptime in a line, but riding! Whee! We also wandered through the other "islands" looking at the shops and finding something for C here and there. In Toon Lagoon she spent a good hour on "Me Ship, the Olive," a playground of sorts, and in the Marvel area, she met and posed with Spiderman, who was astonished that she knew who he was.

On our last day in Orlando, we didn't have to be at the airport until 3:00 pm, so we were able to spend the morning at the regular Universal Studios. It was a good amount of time, as there was little to appeal to C there. When we arrived, we were fortunate enough to see her favorite character as we were walking in, heading for the Nickelodeon kidzone. That's right, Curious George was right there on the "main street." Again, she proved that the appeal was in posing with a character, any character and not just ones she knew, as she also posed eagerly with Woody and Winny Woodpecker, Bullwinkle and Scooby Doo. We spent an hour in Feivel's playground, filled with oversize objects that help you imagine you're the size of a mouse. She had her first experience with a ball-pit there. Then, we rode her first real roller coaster, which once again she was barely tall enough to ride: Woody Woodpecker's Funhouse Coaster. Unlike the "coaster" at Worlds of Fun, this one actually had a steep drop or two, and several rushing, sharp turns. She loved it. From there we visited another playground-style area, this one themed on Curious George. Most of this was water-play, so we weren't able to enjoy it as much as I'm sure she would have liked, but since we were flying back to Kansas that night, I told her we couldn't play in anything that would get us wet, and she obeyed my request. She did really enjoy pushing the buttons in the circus tent that made the sounds of the other animals we see on Curious George.