Thursday 17th December 2009

[09:29 +1 EST]

Another tomorrow post here. The WIFI here is OK, but it sucks when uploading photos. So last night I left the photos uploading and went to bed.

The day started OK - looking outside, the weather was overcast and threatening rain. However, by the time we left for Universal Studios we were still dry on the ground.

We decided to go to Universal so that I could have a go at the Rip Roaring rollercoaster which is new there. However, on arriving at the ride, I could see that the gate was shut. The ride is closed for TWO DAYS whilst they perform maintenance. Bit of a bummer. Also it means that we'll have to revisit Universal on Saturday to have any chance of riding. What makes matters worse was the ride was working - they were running empty cars continually for most of the day.

Instead, we wandered through the park, taking in the rides. Linda stopped to watch the Blues Brothers show whilst I managed four back to back rides on the Mummy before the show had ended. We stopped of for a meal just as the rain began to fall. It fell for a good hour, but there was no storms.We watched the parade from an earlier point on the route and it was much easier to see the floats.The wind had thankfully dropped a little so managing the floating balloons wasn't causing the handlers too many issues.We even managed to get a quick ride on the Simpsons (only 10 minute wait) which is the fastest we've done that ride. Linda almost managed to watch the whole ride without closing her eyes...almost :)Last ride was doing the Jaws ride - by this time it was dark so it's quite a new experience not being able to see where the shark will be popping up.

We moved on to Downtown Disney to do a quick bit of shopping but, mainly, to visit the Ghirardelli Sundae shop. Peanut Butter Sundae. Mmmmmm.Back at the villa I processed the photos. Today, Linda really has made use of her camera (a Sony T90) and took 245 photos, that was almost four times the number of photos I took today!