provide shuttles into the theme parks, but these camps cost $50 or more a
night. Based on this we had expected to pay through the nose in order to
camp in Orlando, although the savings we made were soon offset by having
to pay $8 or $10 a day to park at Universal Studios - a little harsh given the
cost of entry to the park itself.
We had a five-day pass for the theme park, which is actually made up of two
different parks - Universal Studios and Islands Of Adventure - and this proved
to be ample time to see everything. Unlike Disneyland the parks were not
uncomfortablely crowded on the whole - not surprising as all the children were
back at school after the Christmas break. This probably goes some way to
explaining why we decided that the parks were better than Disney's LA
offerings. The other reason is simply that they were better - or at least they
were more in tune with our tastes. Universal felt more like Disneyworld's MGM
Studios park, with cooler, more grown up rides themed around films or TV
shows we were really into.
The original park on this site, Universal Studios itself, mainly contained
the film rides, and of these Shrek, Terminator 2, and Men in Black were our
favourites, offering something a little different from the standard fare of roller
coasters or spin-you-round-really-fast-until-you-are-sick rides. Plus there was
another ride that had good therapeutic qualities.
Emma visited Universal Studios some years ago and one of the rides
still there from that previous trip was Jaws. Emma is phobic of sharks.... you
can see where this is going can't you? She decided to re-visit the ride and I
was prepared for sobbing, clinging, and possibly some reaction from Emma