Tuesday, July 24, 2018

-->

We are up early even if last night’s sleep began late.  The hotel has a “breakfast area” with mostly serve yourself food—pastries, fruit, boiled eggs, and of course juices, tea and coffee.  

 Nick had some coffee and we waited for the rest of the group to join us—after everyone had eaten/drunk something (we didn’t eat a full breakfast because a complementary breakfast at the 3 Broomsticks was a part of our “package”)

Water taxi took us to the City Walk, where the main restaurants and some shops reside.  From there, we entered Universal’s main street

 and made our way by New York, through San Francisco 

to  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter/ Diagon Alley.   It was like walking into a book in another time.  Everything looked much as I had imagined it as I read the books.  

Add caption

 There were wizards and witches dressed in black to answer questions, take pictures and generally assist the visitors. 

We went to Olivanders to get Lil her wand.  Here a wand is not just a pretend stick to wave around-- it is interactive.  There are places all over Diagon Alley to make the wand“work”.  There are metal circles in the cobblestone street, to stand and wave your “official” wand and various things happen, such as water falling from a bucket, lights turning on, strange critters in shop windows moving or speaking.  The Harry Potter Wizarding World experience is not complete without a wand.  The wand shop (there are more than one) has them listed by the original owner.  A customer can buy a Bellatrix wand, a Ron wand, a Luna wand, Narcissa Malfoy, or most anyone in the stories.  Official wands are not cheap.

Our first ride of the day was from Diagon Alley/London to Hogwarts/ Hogsmede on the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross Station.  And YES, we walked through the brick wall to get to 9 3/4 with the magic of Universal Studios.  The ride from London to Hogwarts is a “ride” in itself.  Seeing characters from the books out the window, seeing Harry and Ron in his dad’s flying car and of course having the dementors enter the train looking for escaped convicts .  It’s a short ride, but entertaining.

After getting to Islands of Adventure ( the name of this area of the park with Hogwarts), we rode the first of the many 3D rides this one named Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey, an extravaganza in which we chased hologram Harry thru his adventures from the books.  There was danger, there was speed, the cars we were riding in never left the ground, but it felt like they did.  

 I’m certain this ride was too intense for some people- as there were warnings at the beginning of each ride about cautions for people with heart problems, pregnant women, etc.  Of course all a rider would have to do is close his eyes to block out the intensity- the carts did swing around fast causing one of our party to suffer from car sickness.

As I said this was one of many rides we enjoyed on Tuesday—some rides are very popular and have long lines.  Another perk of our “package” was a “fast pass”  where we were led to a separate line which moved faster than the others.  This helped greatly, but this was an expensive part of our package—well worth it—if you are limited in time take advantage of whatever you can to speed things up..

After the Hogwarts ride , we found the 3 Broomsticks for breakfast.  We had options for ordering :  Traditional English breakfast, American breakfast, Pancakes, Continental breakfast, and Porridge.   We were offered orange juice, coffee, tea, and pumpkin juice.

Butterbeer stands are available all over this part of the park and we tried regular and “frozen”.  We all decided that the frozen type brought about the fastest “brain freeze” we’d ever had.  Butterbeer is a butterscotch drink that is VERY sweet and is mentioned frequently in the books.

There are entertainments in this area at certain times, we heard some singers and we also heard the frog choir.  Interesting!

The food for breakfast was quite adequate and we finished up to go find another ride- this time in Jurassic Park, next door.

The Skull Island ride is very popular and for good reason- it seemed more intense, louder,  and generally more exciting.  The wait, even with our fast pass was long, probably 30-40 min, but we waited in air conditioned comfort and in a darkened area- getting us ready for the experience.   

The story of the ride is King Kong versus a T- Rex.  This ride not only was 3-D,  holographic, and had fast moving cars, but other senses were involved as well.  It was LOUD and when the large critters fought each other and snarled at the folks in the cars, we felt the “spit” from the critters. 

We wandered around Toon Lagoon and played on equipment          

Our next ride was Spiderman- which included sights, and sounds, but also temperature changes.  We were confronted by “ice creatures” which made the room cold, then by “fire creatures” which we could also feel.

We entered Seuss Landing and before we stopped for lunch, we tried the Cat in the Hat ride.  Not really threatening, and dangerous like the others,  the Cat in the Hat story was told with lots of  fast twirling around in the cars.  Obviously a kids’ ride.

How much do you know about Dr Seuss stories?  We ate at Circus McGurkus.  It is a HUGE circus tent shaped building with a REALLY, REALLY long line for ordering.  Not many options, but hamburgers, fried chicken, pizza and Caesar salad, which I watched them make.   It was okay and it fell into our meal plan which was bought and paid for when we booked the trip.  This meal plan includes one lunch (fast food type) one snack, one drink and one dinner per day.  Just show the card.  It was okay, filling, and got us ready for the afternoon.

Since we were in Dr Seuss area we went on the Sneeches ride—another kids’ ride- interesting, but not very intense.  After which we watched the Lorax show. 

 A woman recited the story to the audience while Thing One, Thing Two and the Lorax  and others capered around her acting things out.    It was fun and Lil and her mom enjoyed it most, I think. 

 Lil wanted to ride the One Fish, Two Fish ride, so I joined her.  Think amusement park, two person cars that go up and down while moving in a circle. 

 Lil took control of the up and down button and we stayed up most of the ride.  Nothing scarey, nothing to worry about, just a kids’ ride.  Then we rode the High in the Sky Trolly which went thru the Circus McGurkus.

Having had enough of the Seuss area, we rode the Hogwarts Express back the way we came-- to London back to Diagon Alley 

and shopped a bit before deciding to go back.

We got the water taxi to back to the hotel to rest up for the evening.  B and L planned to get in the hotel pool, but it was closed because of rain/lightening.

We headed to “Cowfish” for supper.  I’d never heard of it, before, but it featured all different kinds of sushi rolls.  I had a bacon cheeseburger and it was good.

Not counting boat rides, We enjoyed 8 rides- not a bad day.