So...back from sunny Orlando, Florida.

It was a great week spent with Collin, Kathleen, Beth, Peter, and Jessica. The weather was perfect, and as luck would have it, the only rain occurred while we were on an indoor attraction at Epcot.

Sunday:
Arrive. Flight was smooth. Somewhat disappointed in the resort but the suite is adequate. Got turned around in Celebration, Florida. It's a completely manufactured community. Remember G.I. Joe...and their enemy Cobra? Well Celebration makes me think of the Cobra town Springfield. A bit too wholesome for it's own good (kinda like Disney).

Monday:
Universal Studios. Fun but rather boring looking park. Their claims about "riding the movies" is slightly exaggerated. It was amazingly empty. We had very little in the way of wait times. Most of the time we walked right up and got on the rides. As for the attractions I'll use a 5pt scale.
Shrek 4D - 4pts. Very good and very funny 3D animated presentation...thus not a ride. Set sometime between the two movies. Used the voice talent from the movie. Worth seeing again.
Revenge of the Mummy - 5pts. Two words...Brain Fire. Too short but worth every second. If only the coster were a bit more thrilling....but BRAIN FIRE!!! We rode this three times.
Terminator 2 3D - 4.5pts. Another 3D show (again..not a ride). An early use of the technology...but they spent good money on it and it was well done. If only the third Terminator movie could have been this good.
E.T. Adventure - 3pts. At least it's a ride. Weak story about helping find some lost friends of E.T. is the reason for flying around and seeing scenes inspired by the movie. The ride is not exciting at all. Worth it for the way Speilberg hoored himself out for the video intro. The visuals and animatronics are also very good...surreal at the end when you reach E.T.'s home planet. Another odd thing...the staff asks your name before the ride, gives you this silly intergalactic passport...then takes it away with no explanation. Why was my name required? It's a mystery.
Men In Black: Alien Attack - 3pts. Simple indoor attraction. Cars are equipped with light guns and scoreboards. Think moving shooting gallery with aliens, fluorescent paint, and blacklights and that sums it up.
Back to the Future - 4pts. I liked this one more than the rest of the party. Sure it's old but I had fun. They could get Doc Brown and Biff...but it's clear that Michael J. Fox was too expensive to participate (or too big a star).
Twister: Ride it Out - .5pts. That's right. Half a point. This sucked hard. It wasn't a ride. Basically you watched a fake tornado tear up a set. Than goodness they had a flying cow on a wire. Waste of time. Not suspenseful or fun at all. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton appear in intros. It's clear they have never been to the ride. If they had...they would give their money back and fire their agents. Oh..and despite the name...there is no ride.
Earthquake: The Big One - 2.5 pts. Simple backstage peek with a simulated 8.5 earthquake. The ride was predictable but mildly entertaining. It would be perfect on a summer afternoon if you need to get out of the heat. The very lame audience participation was made better by the on-screen appearance of Chuck Heston (star of the Earthquake movie) and out MC, Voltaire. Your eyes decieve not...Voltaire. He was a lot of fun and what a great name. We weren't sure if it was his real name or not. I think we decided that his parents must be professors.
Jaws - 0 pts. It was closed. I've always wanted to ride one of the Jaws rides.

We had enough time on Monday to visit the other Universal park: Islands of Adventure and the crowds were still low enough that we made it through roughly half the park before we quit for the day. I'll get to reviewing the rest of the week over the next couple of days....