Yesterday we visited Universal Studios, a great theme park which provided a totally different experience than Magic Kingdom disregarding the fact that it wasn’t Disney. The car park is a giant multistory which is a reasonable distance from the park entrance but way closer than the car park at Magic Kingdom. This pleased Matty and Luke who didn’t appreciate having to travel by tram and then by Monorail to get to the park entrance yesterday.

Anyhow, picking up our park tickets was much more laborious as unlike Disney the guest relations at Universal was only running on 45%-50% capacity. Waiting in-line in the sun was hot and so I sent Lizzie and the boys into the shade and waited alone (what a hero!!), taking one for “Team Hawkes” !

The park only sports one physical roller coaster and loads of virtual reality ones or some that are hybrid and move within very limited parameters and use massive wrap around 3D projections to provide the overall thrill.

We weren’t let down, Transformers 3D was superb and the Megatron outside welcoming you all was totally awesome. Overall 90% of the waiting in-line was undercover which even if it wasn’t fully air-con was a blessed relief to be out of the sun. Typically because we bought ponchos yesterday and carted then around with us all day it didn’t rain. In some ways a small rain shower would have been a most welcome diversion on such a hot afternoon.

Luke was delighted to have met various Simpsons, Mystery Inc (Velma…) , we saw Shrek and donkey, minions and Megatron.

Matty and I rode “Rock-it” where you listen to your choice of tune as you travel around a massive red roller coaster. I chose “The devil went down to Georgia” , Matty chose “Happy” I guess this shows the difference in our musical tastes and possibly the age gap too !

Everyone had loads of fun and once again we arrive back at the hotel tired. Matty insisted on going for a swim in the hotel pool. Apparently you can’t be officially on holiday unless you’ve swum in the hotel pool.