Birthday celebratrions!

I can't believe that my daughter turns 17 today! Where have all the years gone?

We started the celebrations with breakfast at the nearest iHop on the 192. Luckily the traffic was very good so we were seated at just after 10am. I managed to call Mum so she could wish Sophie a Happy Birthday and it was great to speak to her.

We had a lovely breakfast - Sophie and I went for the Smokehouse Combo which was smoked sausage, two eggs and hash browns served with pancakes. Mikey opted just for chocolate pancakes (what else?) while Keith had the Split Decision which was eggs, bacon, little thin sausages and pancakes. There was an unlimited coffee pot and the food set us up for the day!

After our meal we drove back to the villa, stopping to get some petrol on the way. The last time we filled up we put $30 in and you have to pre-pay if you are using cash. We weren't sure how much the tank would take, but $30 came nowhere near to filling it! Today we went for $50 and we did struggle to get it all in! It would have been a bit embarrassing going back into the shop to ask for some of our money back!

We had decided to go and see Jurassic Park in 3D which opened today so we left for Universal at just after 12pm, giving ourselves 2 hours to get to the park. As usual we became embroiled in a traffic jam on the I-4 almost as soon as we got onto it, so we decided to use the toll roads again which were great and much quieter.

At the park we went for the Preferred Parking again but stupid me missed the turn (road signs here are not the clearest I've ever encountered) so we ended up in the normal parking lane which was a bit annoying. However, the very nice man who was directing the traffic saw our sticker and told us to park right at the top of the line next to the escalators leading to the park so that was great. I have a feeling we were probably closer than the Preferred Parking anyway!

We arrived at the cinema with plenty of time and to our amazement they had lots of seats left for the showing of Jurassic Park. I thought that with it opening today we would struggle to get in. As an added bonus we saw the film in the IMAX theatre which was brilliant. American cinemas are certainly better than home ones with huge comfy seats that recline back and plenty of room to stretch out.

The film was fantastic in 3D and so clear, with the characters almost within touching distance. It had been a while since we'd watched Jurassic Park so it was great to see it again and I think that this year is the 20th anniversary of its release.

After the film we went into the Universal Studios park and rode Twister, much to the children's annoyance! I wanted Keith to experience it as it's quite silly and we all got wet again! In the ride you get to experience what a huge tornado feels like but it's good fun!

When we came out of the ride we saw the Parade going past, which we'd forgotten about. Like Disney, Universal have a daily parade of some of their characters and we managed to see Dora the Explorer, but we missed the minions from Despicable Me...talking of which, the wait times for this new ride never got under an hour! We'll try this next week if it gets quieter!

We treated the children to a Dippin Dots ice-cream and wandered past building work for the new ride which will take the place of Jaws. I really love Universal as I think it's a much nicer park and it certainly isn't as crowded as Islands of Adventure. There's also a lot of detail in the New York set with all the shops and restaurants there and it has a much more relaxed feel than the frenetic park next door!

We noticed a sign for the Fear Factor Live show which we hadn't seen before so we decided to see it at 6.30pm and we all thought it was very entertaining! How we missed this before we don't know! The show takes participants from the public and gets them to do various stunts and it's very entertaining. One poor lady had scorpions placed on her head while others had to drink a vile concoction of putrid fish, other nasties and sour cream!

Contestants line up in Fear Factor Live!

This poor lady was imprisoned with scorpions

Mixing up a nasty concoction!

After this great show we rode Men In Black and The Simpsons and then Mikey finally, after two years of waiting, got his turkey leg! It was huge but he said it was delicious and well worth the wait!

The park closed at 9pm and at closing time Universal put on their Cinematic show, a montage of all their films on a big screen with a light show and fireworks. By now it was quite chilly so we stuck it out for a while (it's spectacular) and then left for the Bahama Breeze restaurant on International Drive.

Even at almost 10pm, we were told there would be a wait so we went to the bar for a drink - Sophie had a non-alcoholic cocktail - but we were only there for a few minutes before we were called in to our table. It was a hard decision choosing our meal as there was so many delicious dishes, but in the end I went for chicken breasts with an exotic sauce and mashed potatoes, Sophie and Mikey chose burgers while Keith enjoyed a steak. Three of us were very hungry indeed so we had various starters - beef empanadas, hummus and pulled pork with a barbecue sauce - which were delicious.

No desserts for us tonight - it was back to the villa (I missed the turn for the I-4 and ended up in a very posh neighbourhood indeed) and straight to bed after our very enjoyable, but very tiring day!