Day Two: Universal Orlando January 2010 Trip

Orlando, Florida: Early morning wake-up courtesy of a black lab that needed a potty walk. As I reached the end of the doorway and step outside to the pet park, I was slapped in the face by the cold air. A little to cold for the t-shirt and shorts I was wearing since I was too lazy to put on pants and a jacket since I was only planning on being outside for a few minutes. As I left the covering of the dense foliage, I began being pelted by sleet pellets….mission accomplished, my wife gets to see winter precipitation.

I went back into the hotel and woke her up to go outside and take a look at the falling frozen stuff. She woke up our son and they both went out to see the rare Floridian flakes.

We then drove into International Drive for breakfast at the Word’s largest McDonald’s Play Place. The two story McDonald’s features arcade games, two bowling alley lanes and an improved menu featuring the normal favorites plus omelets, paninis and more prepared by a chef. After breakfast we headed up to the second floor to play a few arcade games. While we were up there playing games, the sleet with an occasional flurry or two continued to fall.

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go brave the cold and visit the parks. We hopped aboard the shuttle boat and took the brief boat ride into the theme parks. We picked up our tickets and heading to Islands of Adventure.

This was the first time we have been to Universal since January 2006…much warmer then I might add, so much for Al Gore and his global warming scam. I was excited since my son was finally tall enough to begin riding some of the rides.

Many of the rides at the park were non-operational due to the mixed precipitation that continued to fall. But we did managed to get a few rides in, we rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Pteranodon Flyers and the Cat in the Hat, each of the several times. After we completed the circle around the park, we headed over to Universal Studios.

Universal Studios had more guests since the majority of the attractions. We circled the park, riding Shrek 4-D, ET Adventure, The Simpson Ride and Men In Black: Aliens Attack. After the rides, we stopped for lunch at Richter’s Burger Company where we had the Aftershock double cheeseburgers for lunch. Following lunch we headed back to the hotel to thaw out.

When we finally warmed up, we hit the road again, this time heading for Downtown Disney. We had intentions of eating at T-Rex café, but the large lines out in the cold kept us from doing that. So we went and browsed through the Lego store before leaving Downtown Disney.

Since dinner at Downtown Disney did not work out for us, we decided that we would head to one of our favorite Universal Orlando dinner spots. Sal’s Market Deli located in the Portofino Bay Hotel is one of our favorite places. The deli looks like a lunch deli from Italy and features pizza and Italian sandwiches. My son and I shared a pizza while my wife had a Toscana sandwich.

Following dinner, we headed back to the Royal Pacific Resort to call it a day and stay out of the cold. Temperatures were dropping into the upper twenty’s on their way to a record low of 26, defiantly a reason to stay in for the rest of the night.