Universal Studios ~ All The Rest

There is so much to do at Universal Studios. We couldn't possibly do it all in three days (two of which weren't full days). However, we enjoyed everything that we did manage to do. I think the family's favorite non-Harry Potter ride was The Mummy. It was a dark coaster ride that had tons of pyrotechnics. At one point,  I opened my eyes to see the tracks in front of us on fire. I closed them again...lol! Tim and Elijah did this ride more than once. 

We also enjoyed the Men in Black ride, Race Through New York City ride and the Despicable Me ride, which were all more tame than The Mummy. 

David in front of the Back to the Future Delorean.

We loved the Mardi Gras parade which ran every night. They threw tons of necklaces into the crowd and the kids got several each. It was one of the best parades we have ever seen. 

We found staying at the parks until closing time was our favorite time. It was less crowded after dinner time and the heat was much more manageable. The lines for the rides were much shorter and we were able to do several. We didn't leave the park each night until 10 pm. One night we got in line for Voodoo donuts in the Universal shopping area right outside the parks. We stood in line for about an hour to get these famous donuts. They were good...but not so good that I would stand in line for them again. 

We really enjoyed our one fancy dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was delicious and everyone was excited to finally eat in this iconic restaurant. 

Timothy especially loved the Jurassic Park section of The Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure. In the Discovery Center there were many great displays, including a really impressive animatronics display of a dinosaur hatching from an egg. Universal Studios really is impressive and cutting edge. 

We liked the Poseidon's Fury show. It was exciting and had some really cool water features. The air conditioning was pretty wonderful, too. Temperatures were in the 90's in early April. Florida is too hot for me. 

Skull Island was an exciting ride. King Kong was so realistic. One of the things that Universal does very well is making the lines for rides really entertaining. The attention to detail is truly impressive. 

Only Timothy, Rebekah and I had the energy to go back into the park on our last day. Elijah and Dad had really enjoyed themselves but preferred to sleep in at the hotel. We spent our time mostly in Seuss Landing, embracing our inner child....lol. Actually, the train ride around Seuss island was pretty fun and who can skip a carousel ride, not I.

We returned to the hotel and packed up. The guys were satisfied and didn't want to go back to Universal. We still had a few hours until it was time to catch our train. We checked our bags in the hotel storage and headed out onto the street across from our hotel. There was entertainment everywhere. We decided to have lunch at Red Lobster and then play mini golf. This was a different mini golf place, because there were live alligators behind fences at every turn. It made for an exciting match. 

We walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags, ordered an Uber and got some cold drinks from Starbucks. It was a wonderful trip. 

We traveled by train overnight in coach both ways, which was an experience of its own. We enjoyed the train, but we didn't get tons of sleep. We had a very noisy sorta weird person going to Florida and yet another such person on the return trip who kept everyone awake. Next time, we will try to get cabins. 

Blessings, Dawn

Universal Studios ~ Harry Potter World

We had a most marvelous time at Harry Potter World in Universal Studios. We went during Spring Break which I would not advise, but it was the only time we had this year and we made it work. I watched a dozen or more videos on Youtube and planned our trip very carefully. We upgraded to a Universal Resort hotel so that we could get into the parks an hour before opening to the general public each day. The resort also provides transportation which is very reliable and convenient. We stayed at the lowest cost resort hotel that Universal Studios offered (Endless Summer Dockside) and it was wonderful and perfect for us. I would compare it to a Holiday Inn with more food options (including a Starbucks in the lobby) and a much nicer life guarded pool.  It also helped that we are not scary ride people so the most popular rides were of little interest to us. We also downloaded the Universal App when we were still at home and learned how to used it. It helps with mobile food orders, seeing line wait times in real time, making reservations and more. 

Now, back to Harry Potter World. The world of Harry Potter is spread across two parks. Universal Studios holds Diagon Alley and Kings Cross Station. You can catch the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade in Universal Adventure Island as long as you have a park to park pass. For the purposes of this post, I am going to share our experience from place to place instead of the order we did it in. We did whatever worked with the crowds, but that would be confusing to explain in a post. We began our journey in the London section of Universal Studios. We visited the knight bus and talked with Stan and Dre Head. They were very funny and picked up quickly on our houses (Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff) Only I was actually wearing a house t-shirt. Elijah is Gryffindor, but he sat down to watch and didn't interact with Stan. 

We walked "through" the brick wall into Diagon alley and were amazed by how much it truly felt like we were inside the books and movies. Universal has done an amazing job with all the details. We went to the money exchange and got some wizarding money. You can use debit cards in the park, but wizard money is fun. The goblin in the exchange is very snippy and expects to be called "sir". I knew this from watching videos and enjoyed bantering with him. 

We went on the "Escape from Gringotts ride" which is an indoor dark rollercoaster. It was pretty exciting with a fun show in between quick drops and speeding from scene to scene. The line was filled with preshows and lots of wonderful working displays.
 

Gringotts Bank

Every 10 minutes the dragon puffs out fire. The heat is intense if you are close enough.

Goblins in Gringotts

One of the vaults

The preshow in Gringotts

Hagrid's Motorcycle

What is she doing with the wand? Is she trying to cast a spell on me. 

We went to Ollivanders Wand shop to get an interactive wand. All of the wands purchased at Universal Studios have a sensor in them and you can follow a map around Harry Potter World and cast spells. Some examples of the spells are making trolls do ballet, making an umbrella rain, turning on a water fountain, making plants grow rapidly and so on. It was lots of fun and we did about half of them during our visit. 

We visited Borgin and Burkes and listened for the bird in the vanishing cabinet. 

A mermaid skeleton in Knockturn alley where the more unsavory witches and wizards shop. 

We did some shopping and loved all of the details inside Weasley's Wizard Wheezes joke shop and the pet store. 

Joke Shop

Next we headed over to Hogsmeade on the Hogwarts Express with our park to park pass. This is more than a simple train ride. While on the train, you watch the world of Harry Potter go by outside the window and hear snippets of conversations between characters going on in the corridor. The show is different both ways on the Hogwarts Express. 

Hogwarts Express coming into the station. You can see Hedwig the owl waiting to be loaded. 

We loved being able to walk "through the wall" at platform 93/4's. The details were just amazing. 

Hogsmeade was just as amazing as Diagon Alley. We made our way to the castle after having some sweet treats at Honeydukes. The ride inside Hogwarts Castle was too scary for us. Lots of people report that it makes one feel ill. We really wanted to see inside the castle and were told that we could stand in line and bail out at the end. We found that many, many people opt out at the very end because of the ride's reputation. The inside of the castle did not disappoint. We loved the preshow and seeing the talking pictures and sorting hat. 

Drinks from the Leaky Cauldron ~ Pumpkin Juice, Tongue Tied Lemonade and Butterbeer. We ate breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron twice.  

Rowena Ravenclaw is the house founder of Ravenclaws

Harry Potter World was so much more than we hoped it would be and that was just the beginning of our adventure. I will post about the rest of our trip in a few days. 

Blessings, Dawn