Universal Studios

 

This morning we got up early and made the short drive to Universal Studios. Bryan wanted to go since he hadn’t come with the rest of us when went in 2018. We paid extra for early access to the new Super Mario World, so we got there a little more than an hour before park opening.

 

We got into the park and headed down to the lower lot, entered the Super Mario World area, and got in line for Mario Kart. A half hour later we were on the ride. It was pretty cool, although a bit confusing for those who have never played the game, like Susan and I. Once we were off the ride Bryan and Jennifer played the mini-games in the land for about an hour, then we headed to the upper lot to take the tram tour. 

Although much of the tram tour of the backlot was the same as it was in 2018, there were a few differences. It also seemed a bit shorter. We finished a little before 11:30, and headed back to Super Mario World for our lunch reservation at the Toadstool Cafe.

We ordered our food then waited in a fairly long line for a table, then waited some more for our lunch. It took almost two hours from entering the restaurant until we were done. The food was good, but expensive. By then the park was hot and crowded. The kids went on the Mummy roller coaster; we wanted to go on the Jurassic World boat ride but the wait was over an hour, so we left the lower lot and walked through the upper.  

We rode the fairly new Secret World of Pets dark ride, which was cute but not worth the half hour wait, and looked through the stores, then decided to leave around 3 pm. I wanted to watch WaterWorld again but the next show wasn’t until 4. We looked around CityWalk for about an hour and grabbed some Voodoo Doughnuts. They replaced the Hard Rock Cafe with a Toothsome Chocolate Emporium earlier this year.