Universal Orlando: Day 4, The last day in Florida

Today is our last day in the parks. We woke up later than usual. We entered Island of Adventure and took the Hogwarts Express to the main park to ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringots. The ride had not opened yet and there was already a long line outside. My sister and I went ahead to get our belongings in the lockers. The line had moved faster than we anticipated and we had a hard time finding the rest of our party. It was kind of cool getting to walk around the bank while we were looking for them. We wandered around Diagon Alley after the ride until 10:30 so we could get lunch for breakfast at the Leakey Cauldron. 

After breakfast we tried to get on the E.T. Adventure ride again but the wait was too long so we went to the kids area for a little bit. The kids area had a Barney and Curious George theme. According to my mom I was Barney's #1 fan as a kid. 

We sat down in a seating area while my grandma went to see an animal show. She thought it was really cute, comical and surprised that cats could be trained to do certain things. She wanted us to catch the next available show so we went to ride the Revenge of The Mummy and back to E.T. Adventure while we were waiting.

We didn't get out of the ride in time to catch the next showing of the animal show so went back to Hogsmede. There was a Frog Choir show going on and I got to catch the end of it. We did a little more shopping and happened to catch the next show on the stage. This show was the introduction of the 2 other schools participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute. Each school did a routine. The choreography was exactly the same as in the movie! 

My sister finally caved in and bought a wand in Hogsmede. At The Wizarding World of Harry Potter you can buy special wands that interact with displays in certain store windows. There are plaques placed on the ground with instructions on how to do a spell and you can try it out in the window. We discovered that some spells are harder than others

It started to storm like crazy as we were heading out of Hogsmede. The rain was so heavy that we had to find shelter. I've never heard louder thunder in my life. When the rain let up we rushed over to Marvel Super Hero Island and rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man again. The storm got worse but it didn't last very long. We got pizza at Cafe 4 to snack on while we were waiting for the rain to let up. It wasn't that great. The pizza resembled Chuck-E-Cheese pizza. 

After our snack we explored Toon Lagoon some more. One of the places we discovered was Popeye's boat the Olive. On the Second floor of the boat there's water cannons that you can use to soak passengers on the water ride below. My sister and I had some fun with that. 

The storm started to come around again so we went to the Comic Strip Cafe to hide for a while. It was getting late so we left for the hotel. 

On our way back we stopped at Red Oven Pizza Bakery, a pizza joint unique to the CityWalk. My mom got us an Alla Benno pizza that had prosciutto, heirloom tomatoes and jalapenos on it. We were originally going to take it back to the room but we ended up eating some of it there. It was a pretty sweet ending to our night. 

Universal Orlando: Day 3, More rides, Seuess Landing and possibly an earthquake

We got an early start in Hogsmede again and rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey because we enjoyed it so much last time . Then we tried Flight of the Hippogriff because the lines were really short. It was a short quick ride where you fly around Hagred's place in a Hippogriff. There wasn't much more to it. Maybe that's why the line was so short.

On our way out we went through Poseidon's Fury. Poseidon's Fury is a walk through attraction where you get trapped in an ancient temple with no way out and the only way you can go leads you deeper into the temple. At the end you find yourself in between a fight with 2 gods and are freed by Poseidon at the end.

The lines at Seuss Landing were short so we took advantage of that and hit The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. It was an overhead tour of Seuss Landing. You got to see Seuss Landing from a different perspective. The narrator also told stores about the residents of Seuss Landing 

We wanted to get lunch at the Three Broomsticks for lunch but they don't start serving lunch until 10:30 and we didn't want breakfast food so we made a quick stop to Honeydukes, a candy store in Hogsmede. They sold candy from the movies and the books like Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans and Exploding BonBon's. In the book Honeydukes is also the entrance of a secret passage between Hogwarts and Hogsmede. By the time we finished, lunch was being served at the Three Broomsticks. 

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks was really good! We ordered The Great Feast Platter which had ribs, rotisserie chicken, veggies and these amazing garlic roasted potatoes. It was hard to take our leftovers out with us because the restaurant didn't have take out boxes. I went to the front and got a few disposable cups with lids to put our food in and had to go to a retail store to get bags to put cups in.   

After all that food we were tired so we decided to go back to the hotel for a quick nap. We also needed to get the food into the fridge. 

When we arrived at Islands of Adventure after our nap we started things slow at Seuss Landing. This time we went on the Cat in the Hat and the Caro-Seuss-el. The Cat in the Hat is a slow ride that narrates the book and the Caro-Seuss-el is a wacky carousel with some of the animal's from Dr. Seuss's books on it.   

We had to pass through Toon Lagoon to get to Super Hero Island. Toon Lagoon is a retail and dining area based off of comic strip characters. Some of the characters represented there are Dagwood, Heathcliff and Betty Boop. Toon Lagoon is a really cool place to take pictures. There's little cartoon speech bubbles suspended around the area that say things like, "It must be Sunday... We're in color!" or, "I'm going to need a vacation from this vacation!"

At Super Hero Island we went to the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man attraction. This attraction was recently  upgraded with high-tech 3D, lighting and graphics. From what I heard there's also a 400ft. drop somewhere in there too.

We did some more shopping at Islands of Adventure, took the Hogwarts Express back to Kings Cross Station and headed to Diagon Alley. My mom wanted to get pictures of Olivanders wand shop and some other places she missed like the Gringots Money Exchange. The Gringots Money Exchange is a place where you can exchange muggle money for Gringots bank notes. This place is small and I don't think I've ever seen it crowded. One of the coolest things about this place is, you can interact with the head goblin while you wait in line. While we were in Diagon Alley we went back to Knockturn Alley to take a few more pictures.

After Diagon Alley we went to check out the Men in Black Alien Attack attraction, Disaster- A Major Motion Picture Ride and the Transformers ride again. The Men in Black attraction starts off as a training simulator but real aliens arrive and you have to zap them and chase them down. The Disaster ride was pretty cool. A cast of actors is picked from the audience and the stage crew demonstrates how some special effects are made. You end up getting casted and are put to work on a movie as an extra immediately. The scene they put you in is a underground subway train in San Francisco during the middle of an earthquake. While you're in the subway the crew sets off special effects and films your reactions. At the end of filming they show you the movie you've made. My mom thought it was especially cool because the section of subway they replicated was her subway stop when she was living in Oakland, the Oakland West stop.

It was getting late and we still haven't taken the Hogwarts Express from Kings Cross to Hogsmede yet. While you're in line you can see the people in front of you disappear into Platform 9 3/4. I thought that was pretty cool. There was different scenery on the trip back.

While we were in Hogsmede we ate a quick dinner at the Three Broomstics. I ordered shepherds pie, those fantastic potatoes and pumpkin juice. The potatoes weren't that great this time. I'm not quite sure what changed since lunch but it wasn't as good as they were earlier that afternoon. 

After dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks and retired to our hotel room for the night.

Universal Orlando: Day 2, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and the luxurious Hard Rock Hotel

Today was an early day today. Because we're staying on property we got early admission to Islands of Adventure. We passed through Suess Landing and went straight to Hogsmeade. There was still snow on the buildings! It must always be winter over here. We hit the feature ride first, "Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey." There's absolutely no space to bring any belongings on the ride so we put our bags in lockers. This first hour for the lockers was free and they charge you for time after that. Luckily we didn't have to wait longer than an hour to ride the ride. The line cue for this attraction is impressive. You go through Dumbledore's office, the defense against the dark arts classroom and the room of requirement. During the ride you get to tour Hogwart's campus and flirt with a little mischief. After the the ride we hopped on the Hogwarts Express to Kings Cross Station and checked out Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley is the newest attraction at Universal Orlando and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There's mostly shopping and dining but we were there for the main attraction, "Harry Potter and The Escape From Gringots." We grabbed lockers as quick as we could and headed to the line cue. The line cue for this ride was impressive as well. You start In the bank's grand marble lobby where there are many grumpy goblins hard at work. These guys look bigger in person. Then you shuffle to the back, around the corner, into a lift and down into the carts. My sister and I made a Haunted Mansion reference while in the elevator, "is this haunted room actually stretching, or is it just your imagination?" I don't think it was appreciated.

After the ride we took a bathroom break and went down the dark passages of Knockturn Alley. In Rowling's books Knockturn Alley is described as a shady shopping area associated with the dark arts and that's exactly how Universal portrayed it. One of the most notable shops is the infamous Borgin and Burkes where they have a very well rounded collection of dark arts objects, clothing and accessories.

The Weasley twins also have their own store in Diagon Alley called, "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." It's a colorful novelty joke shop with everything you need to cause any type of mischief. It was crowded so I didn't spend much time there.

We headed out of Diagon Alley into the main part of the park and walked through a small part San Francisco. There was a burger place, seafood restaurant, Ghirardelli factory and a replica of the Fisherman's Wharf sign. I took more pictures of the Fisherman's Wharf sign at Universal Studios than I ever have at the actual sign in San Francisco and I've been to San Francisco numerous times! I don't even think I have any pictures of the actual Fisherman's Wharf sign. Funny how things work out, I had to go all the way to the other side of the country and got a picture of the replica sign.

The next few rides we went on were, "Transformers: The Ride- 3D," "Despicable Me Minion Mayhem," "Shrek 4D," and "The Revenge of the Mummy." The Transformer ride was really cool. You get mixed up in a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons and have to fight to keep the all spark from getting in the wrong hands. The Despicable Me attraction was a cute one. Gru needs new recruits for his latest scheme and he chooses you! But something isn't right... You're not a minion and you're not trained! So you get morphed into a Minion and go through a crazy training course with the girls-- Margo, Edith and Agnes. After you leave the attraction there's a minion dance party where you can take pictures with minions. The Shrek attraction was lame but the Mummy one was awesome! At first I didn't think I'd like the ride because I haven't heard much about it. This ride is a lot like the Indiana Jones ride. It's a super dark ride with a lot of sudden drops and movements. This evil Imhotep has awaken and you have to escape his wrath.

After those rides we went back to Diagon Alley and explored Olivanders Wand Shop, Diagon Alley's premier wand shop and saw the show they had there. They took a group of people into the back room, chose a spectator at random and helped them find a wand. There was lots of theatrics involved. We also got lunch at the Leaky Cauldron while we were there. I ordered a cottage pie which, to me, was just like shepherds pie. I had bought wands at Olivanders and the packaging was a little bulky so I went back to the hotel to drop them off after lunch.

I passed through Springfield to meet up with my group at the "Men in Black Alien Attack," but it had just broken down. What to do? What to do?

The park was closing early today due to an event with the Mark Travel Corporation so we went to grab food at Mel's Diner before it closed. I had a burger and fries that I was not impressed with.

On our way back to the hotel we got drinks at the bar during happy hour. When we got back my grandma decided to pick up her welcome package and coupon book at the attractions counter. It turns out that her travel package didn't include a welcome package or coupon book but the clerk gave her a coupon book anyways. She went back up to the room and called the travel agency. We were on the phone with the representative for an hour. During that hour we found out that we could use any of the amenities at the Universal properties. After we got of the phone with the representative we took the river taxi to The Hard Rock Hotel, the most expensive hotel.

The Hard Rock hotel is luxurious but laid back.They had live entertainment, a sand beach pool and lots of Rock N' Roll memorabilia.

It was getting late so we didn't stay at the other hotel very long. We made the trip back to our hotel by water taxi and retired for the night.

Universal Orlando: Day 1, travel and exploring the CityWalk

We got to the airport at 6:05 am and saw a long line of people outside of the security check. We thought we were going to miss our flight! While we were in line we saw other people skip ahead to another line. It was the "pre-check" line and we decided to use it! I'm still not sure what the "pre-check" line is or how you qualify to use it but we used it anyways.

There was a few complications before we took off. The sensor on the cargo door said it was open but it was obviously closed. The pilot had to call maintenance to make sure it was ok to go. We had 50mins once we landed in salt lake city to eat lunch and find our next terminal. Every minute they took to sort everything out cut into our layover time. Once we got going we had a hour and a half plane ride to Salt Lake City. Delta doesn't provide free Wi-Fi but they had some free content that you could stream to your phone. I tried every which way I could to access that content but my device wasn't supported. My phone isn't a very common one. I decided to give up and take my tablet out of my luggage during our layover and try again on the next plane.

By the time we got to Salt Lake City we had to rush to the next terminal. Luckily we brought food so we didn't have to stop and get food and we could eat on the plane. Pre flight checks went smoothly and we were up in the air in no time. I took out my tablet and it wasn't supported by Delta's media content either! It was a 4 hr flight from Salt Lake City to Orlando. If they didn't have an in flight movie I wouldn't know what I would do! They showed the new Cinderella which was pretty cool. I liked it a lot. It was a lot like the Disney Classic Cinderella but with more realism and back story.

We arrived at Orlando on time and met up with our driver. The weather here is very humid but not as hot as I thought it would be. We get to stay on property at the Loews Pacific Resort Hotel as part of our travel package this time. How exciting! I've never stayed at a hotel on a resort property before. We had a 25min drive and we passed by a lot of theme parks and ad's for theme parks on the way. This is definitely the land of theme parks! When we arrived at the resort my mom felt obligated to tip the driver her last $5 she brought in cash because I pointed out a sign that said most of the drivers salary comes from gratuity. We need to find a bank! Not just because we forgot to get cash on the way out but I forgot my cards too! We checked into the hotel, used the ATM, my mom and I got our city passes and went up to our rooms. This hotel has a Polynesian theme to it and it's pretty cool! It's like staying in a rain forest hotel. After we unpacked we found a dead brown baby cockroach in our closet and our hot water didn't work. When we went downstairs to get my grandma and sister their city passes and head out to the CityWalk to get food we told the front desk clerk about our cockroach and the hot water they moved us to a different room. That meant we had to go back up stairs, pack and move and I was getting hungry! They moved us to a newly renovated room which is a lot nicer than the other room but a little bit out of the theme. This room was trendier.

We arrived at Universal CityWalk by water taxi. The CityWalk is a lot like Downtown Disney but smaller with entertainment options. It rained the whole time we were there. It was kind of odd because it was a warm rain. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep my jacket on or not. There are a few surf shops, boutique shops and regular retail shops here like Fossil and Element. Emeril and Jimmy Buffet have restaurants here too. The Blue Man Group has a stage at the CityWalk! I've already seen The Blue Man Group in Vegas so if I miss them here it's not such a big deal. After we explored we decided to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. We got our picture taken in the entryway. I've never had that done at a restaurant before. This is the largest Hard Rock in the chain with lots of pop and rock memorabilia. I ordered a Hickory Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger and it was awesome! The CityWalk also has a theatre, mini golf course and a night club. We were comp'd tickets for the night club so I might go there one night.

After dinner we took the water taxi back to the hotel, explored the hotel a little more and retired to our room for the night. The real adventure begins tomorrow!

Orlando, Florida!

A year ago today I was sitting in a cabin blogging from a cruise ship in Alaska.
This time I'm going to Orlando, Florida. Stick around. Some interesting blog posts might pop up!