Thursday, July 26, 2018

Remember when we registered for the hotel, we were given birthday surprises for us to celebrate L’s birthday?  Well, Thursday was the day we decided to wear the buttons announcing that we were celebrating her b’day and she received a bithrday card.  We also got a voucher for “treats” in one of the hotel’s restaurants, but never got around to using it for a couple of reasons.   I think by the end of the day Thursday, she was totally tired of hearing Universal characters and employees wish her a happy birthday.  There were lots and lots of b’day wishes from folks checking tickets as we walked in, the people in the parade, to random folks sweeping the street, or setting up for an event.  As I said LOTS AND LOTS of b’day wishes.  Kinda cool, but a little over the top, also.

Another trip to Voodoo donuts and we were ready to use our “get in early” pass to line up for the

Goblins hard at work tallying all the gold

 Escape from Gringots Ride.—which was one of the more exciting ones.  Again, 3-D, holograms, movement of cars we were on, and hot and cold sensations.  We ended up flying with the dragon as he escaped from the Goblins’ bank.  Along the way, we encountered Bill Weesley, Belatrix Lestrange, Voldemort, the Dragon and miscellaneous goblins.  Great fun!

We waited in line for the ride.

After enjoying the ride, we had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron , and enjoyed butterbeer.  Breakfasts were similar to the 3 Broomsticks with some few exceptions.  This place offered a pumpkin flan and fruit dish which I tried and was very interesting.

Since the trip was winding down and I still had not bought my obligatory shirt, we went shopping.  I knew what I wanted, and thought I knew where to find it, but it took some walking and reconnoitering to finally find “the shirt”. 



 I also bought some chocolate frogs and  Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.  If you’ve read the books/seen the movies, you know that these candies are very special to folks at Hogwarts.  Haven’t eaten a frog or tasted a (jelly) bean, yet, but I will.

Our Universal package included a photo shoot and we thought about skipping it.  We went and not only had fun, but got LOTS of cool pictures and a CD for free!  Well worth doing!

REALLY FUN!

I looked at adult “robes” which all the teachers at Hogwarts wear, probably because L wore hers (from Amazon) during our foray into Potter world.  Adult robes are partially lined and made of quite heavy fabric and generally cost $115 each.  I could make one for lots less, but for what occasion would I wear the robe?  I do have multiple capes and I wear them, but a robe?  Don’t think so!

There is a tall building in Potter world with a huge dragon clinging to the roof.  It belches fire and roars at times, and people stand around to get a good video of this occurrence.  

 We waited a couple of times, but never got a good action shot.   One thing we noticed about the layout of Universal studios is that there is very minimal sound bleed over.  The dragon was super loud and people reacted, but outside of Potter world, no one seemed to be able to hear him.  Many of the rides had dinosaurs making loud noises, or the Hulk, or Aliens, or really loud cars with tires screeching or whatever creatures being really loud, but outside the rides, the sound is not there.  Very ingenious planning and execution

After spending the time in Potter world, we headed to Jurassic Park
 

Guess who took this picture!

 to a “Discovery Center” with exhibits and hands on dinosaur stuff.  There were dino eggs, DNA information, large , sometimes moving, representations of dinosaurs. 

And she took this one, too!

  A good way to spend some time in air conditioned comfort and keep the kid busy.

There is a place near the Discovery Center with piles of rocks for exploring, a treehouse thing and WATER CANONS.  People standing up on top of the rocks could shoot streams of water down at folks (with their own water canon)  A water fight ensued, first with L just squirting the rocks below, then from kids below squirting L, then Lil and her dad shooting each other.  Just below this area is a “people drier”  which was a large really hot booth which didn’t really dry someone, but make them super hot.  They tried it, but gave up in awhile.  About the time we were looking for a place to eat, here came a deluge.  Even tho’ I had brought dollar store rain parkas for everyone, we didn’t stay dry.  Every place we tried to eat was either closed or packed with no place to sit.    

We hung around in one playground or another (yep, sometimes a chain was crossed) til the rain stopped. 

Not being able to find a place to eat, we walked (no boats available) back to the hotel to dry off and  find lunch.   Everywhere we tried to eat at the hotel had an hour or more wait  We finally walked back to Universal (5-7 min walk) and ate at an Italian place- we were too early for supper, but we’d missed lunch and were hungry, so we had “lupper- lunch and supper”

At the hotel, the guys decided a nap was in order, but the girls thought going back to see the parade at 7 might be a good way to end our Universal visit.

In Universal, N and L decided to do the Fast and Furious  ride again, and I waited and checked out the area.

Having seen a Disney parade years ago, this one was rather lame.  Short, not much music, but lots of dancing girls, and cartoon characters, 

  We watched the parade and then shopped a little more.  Fawkes the phoenix was for sale at the Magical creatures store and L fell in love with him.  We bought some souvenirs for friends and took the boat back to the hotel.  

She was tall enough for all the rides.

 Everyone was still asleep in my room when I returned.  Got ready for bed in the dark and went to sleep.