First thing we did when we arrived was hit the stores looking for a decent hat.  I'd brought my Six Flags hat, but it wasn't going to do me a lot of good sitting on my bed at the hotel (doh!), and i figured a li'l souvenir shopping was in order anywho, so we set about looking for a cap.  Wound up getting an "Ice" hat (for the Dueling Dragons coaster) -- wasn't the hat i wanted, but Seth was itching for some Hulk action, and i was getting fed up looking for the hat i wanted.  (By the way, i found the hat i'd wanted the next day -- at US -- ended up getting that, too.  Thought about asking if i could trade in the stoopid dragon hat that i didn't want in the first place instead of spending another $17, but even if i'd asked, it wouldn't have worked.)  Anywho, got the hat, hit the Hulk, and it was love at first "cobra roll."  Kind'a sikes you out at the start -- all the "linear-induction" coasters i've been on (both of 'em) rocket you right out of the loading station -- whereas with every other coaster, you spend half the ride going "clackety-clackety-clackety" up the long hill at the start.  Well, this one pulls slowly out of the station, starts up the first hill, and goes "clackety-clackety -- just kidding!" and rockets you out of this li'l tunnel thing right into a corkscrew loop.  But yeah.  Great fricken ride.  We ended up doing it two more times before the day was out.  And two or three more times later in the week.  =)

Immediately after that, i insisted we go on Spider-Man.  I'd read about it back in HS when i was in that awesome "Media Lit" class with that really cool teacher whose name i can't remember.  Basically, it's a motion-sim that actually moves (think Disney's "Horizons" or whatever it was called, but like 80x cooler).  You're in this little car-thing that holds like 12 people or so, and you've got these 3d goggles on, so you're seeing these images on a dome screen that make you look like you're moving really fast and getting jerked around a lot, but you're just kind of moving not as fast but still getting jerked around a lot.  And ... grrr ... idunno, there's no easy way to really describe it.  But it was swee-ee-ee-eet.

After Spider-Man, Seth insisted we hit Dudley Do-Right.  Now, i'd heard horror stories about this one.  But evidently they'd taken measures to make it not so rough since whenever it was that Sis and Seth last went.  It was your basic animatronics-laced log ride.  Think Splash Mountain but with a smaller boat.  Then we hit the other water ride -- Jurassic Park.  (Damn ... just remembered i never got a good picture of the gate.  Oh well.)  Good fun.  More animatronics.  A bigger boat.  And a followable story.  (Still not sure what was going on with DD there.)

After that, it was time for the Dueling Dragons.  Evidently, they're the world's first "dueling" inverted rollercoasters.  Another fricken sweet ride, but a tad rough in parts.  We ended up doing both the "fire" and "ice" sides before deciding it was time for a break.  (Both were basically the same coaster -- well, more like mirror images of one another -- but they weaved through one another and intertwined and all that good stuff.  Fun times.)

Both Universal parks (US and IOA) were linked by what they called the "City Walk."  Basically a bunch of bars and overpriced restaurants, a few souvenir shops and a slew of kiosks, and an arcade and theater to boot.  Judging by the way everything else was jacked up pricewise, we were a little wary of how the theater prices would be -- the only reasons we even considered it to begin with were 1) we were a little pooped after hitting both "dragons" in a row, 2) we were both a bit warm (my genius self brought nothing but black to wear), and 3) we had these "City Walk Passes" and weren't sure what they were for, thought we could use them to get in free to the movies.  Well, as it turns out, the CWP was only good for waiving the cover charge at the bars (should've seen the look on the movielady's face when Seth showed her his pass) -- however, the movie prices were no more than we were used to paying at Dutch Square or Columbiana Grande, so we were in.  =)   So, after my third helping (Seth's second) of Matrix Revolutions, we set back out to the park to ride Hulk again.  We were only able to get two helpings of Hulk in before they closed the park at 8p, and our bus wasn't set to arrive until 9p, so we ended up burning some time (and a fair amount of money) at the aforementioned arcade before heading back.

~ Jurassic Stuff. ~

Jurassic Waterfall.

Jurassic Splash.

Jurassic Raspberry.

~ Fantasyland -- oh wait, wrong park. ~

Poseidon's Fury.

The Enchanted Oak.

Dueling Dragons. Oh yeah.  =)

~ Hulkin' a-go-go, Baby! ~

Yay Hulk!

I think they call this a "butterfly" loop.

... and the ever-popular "tear-drop" loop.

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