Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

The last time I’d been to Universal Studios was in 1999, right after Islands of Adventure and CityWalk had opened (almost 12 years ago!) so I was really looking forward to our visit today.

We walked over from our hotel and were in line before the park opened at 9am. Through the gates, we made a beeline for the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit roller coaster. The line was pretty short, and just by luck my daughter and I ended up in the front car. It’s a sweet coaster: you get to pick your own music from a list of about 30 songs (and apparently there are hidden tracks too) via a touchscreen in your seat and, as you can see from the photo, the first hill pulls you straight up while you rock out. Instead of the traditional over-the-head restraint system, it’s just a large lap bar, which at first seemed a little scary but it holds you in pretty well and frees up your arms. Every row in the train has a camera that records your ride and at the end you can purchase your own “music video” (more on that later). My daughter loved it so we got right back in line and rode it a second time while the line was still short.

My wife and daughter had been to Universal a few times over the summer and there were quite a few rides my daughter didn’t want to go on again (even with me!). Since I hadn’t been on some of these rides ever, I ended up doing a few by myself utilizing the single-rider line or Universal’s Express Pass Plus option (which we got for “free” since we were staying at a Universal hotel). It worked pretty well so I was able to go on Disaster (formerly Earthquake), Jaws, Men in Black, The Mummy (another cool roller coaster), and Twister (what’s with the cheesy cow-on-cables that flies by?) in relatively short order.

The Simpsons ride was cool, although I would have preferred it if was still Back to the Future (at least I got to see the DeLorean). The first part of E.T. freaked my daughter out (the chase through the woods), but she got a kick out of E.T. saying her name at the end.

By late afternoon we had pretty much done everything at the park we wanted to do so we headed back to the hotel so my daughter could do a little homework. We also all ended up taking a short nap, which was nice (yay, vacation!).

For dinner we went down to the Orchid Court sushi bar in the hotel and had a great, leisurely meal. Overall, it was a very pleasant day. The park was not very crowded and we were able to do everything we wanted to without feeling rushed or stressed.

Tomorrow, we brave the early crowds at Harry Potter.