August 26th, Part 2
When we got to Hagrid's it was still raining a little but we got into the EP line and hoped for the best.
I tried taking some pics of the queue but it was hot and we were moving fast, trying to get on the ride before that weather hit. I love the details though, like the moss on the rock wall.
We got to the point where we scanned my pass and then got into the regular line, so we knew we would have about 20 or minutes before we would even be able to get on the ride.
Here's the child swap room where parents wait....
And the TM kindly took a photo of us in the loud room.
And here's a good look at how many people that room holds. The right-hand side is the single rider line, which looks super busy tonight!
When we got up to the single rider line, I was going to be the one pairing up with a stranger so I went first and then a young lady followed me, followed then by Rob and Kira. As usual, I asked my riding partner how long she had waited in the single rider line and found out that she didn't speak English. Well, she knew a few words but that's it. Kira tried hard to communicate with her and by the time we had gotten to the boarding area, they knew where each other was from and their names and their ages. Turns out that this young lady was also 12, from Brazil and was named Zara. So, seeing that they were hitting it off, despite not speaking the same language, I quickly swapped spots with Kira and told her to go with Zara. I figured, even with the language barrier, she would have more fun with someone her own age. Kira doesn't like being with strangers, which is why I usually opt to be the odd man out but in this case it was a good experience for her.
Another fabulous round on Hagrid's and just as we were pulling back in, we were stopped for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to grab a few pics
I looked over at Kira and Zara and they were very chatty, which is funny because I knew they didn't understand about 99% of what the other person was saying but it was so nice to see.
We finally pulled in and got off the ride and these two were chatting the entire time. Kira had grabbed her phone and had gotten Zara's phone number.
We got in line to get our ride photo added to our account and then Zara gave all three of us hugs and we said good-bye! I wasn't fast enough to get her and Kira's hug but I got Rob's.
Hahaha, I love it when stuff like that happens. ☺
So not only were we lucky enough to ride before the weather had hit us but Kira made a friend who didn't even speak her language.
When we got off the ride, we were all very hungry so we decided to head over to Mythos to see if we could get a table. They told us they would have a table ready for us in about 30 minutes. Perfect! Kira wanted to go ride Spidey but none of us wanted to make the trek way over there so we decided to ride something a little closer...
By then, it was exactly time for our table to be ready so we headed back to Mythos and we were excited to finally get to eat here!
Our first visit to this park was the year it opened in 1999 and we were so broke back then so we didn't eat here. Same for 2000 and 2003 and then we were going to do it in 2005 but I ended up getting sick.
I was soooo close to going in 2016 and actually had a reservation to go with some of my co-workers during a special get-together we had but my Lupus was kicking my butt that time and they went without me.
So, I feel like this was 20 years in the making. Better late than never, I guess
Oh my dog, it was GORGEOUS inside!!!
I am actually really glad we did it for the first time with our kid, especially since she appreciated it so much with her new-found love of Greek Mythology.
I should mention here that Rob wore his 2000 Dueling Dragons shirt today and when he does that in this park, he always gets comments from the Team Members. He started keeping track of how many comments he got each day and it became a running joke with us and the two of them had a little competition each day to see how many comments they each got on their shirts. HAHAHA! I think Rob finished the night off with 13 comments and Kira got 5 or 6.
Even the cutlery was fancy!
I took so many pics
I wasn't sure what to eat, I didn't want anything heavy as we still (hopefully) had some theme parking to do so I ordered a dish I have heard so much about, the fork, knife & spoon grilled cheese, Rob got the salmon and Kira was unsure of what to get since she had already had chicken fingers for lunch. I recommended that she get the beef medallions and so she did.
Our server brought us out some bread...
Rob's salmon, which he said was good, nothing special.
Kira's beef, which she LOVED!!!
And mine...which I ended up not eating past 2 or 3 bites. The flavour was just weird for me. I wanted to love it but I couldn't even eat it.
Our server offered to take it off the bill or bring me something else. I didn't want to eat anything else and our food had actually taken a very long time to come out and I didn't want my family sitting there waiting for another meal just for me so I declined. Kira shared the last bit of her meal with me anyway and that was delicious and even though I was still hungry, I knew I would be fine. I fast at home all the time and can easily go all day without eating.
Just as our meals arrived to the table, the sky finally opened up and it POURED!!! I am really sad that we missed it as it was the only major storm during our entire 10 days!
We watched some of it from afar, through these windows...
It was still pouring by the time we were done our meals but it took forever to get our bill. Our server was very nice but the service was super slow. It had taken about 20 minutes just to get our drinks after we had sat down and we were PARCHED and then it was another 30 or 40 minutes before we got our meals.
While we waited for the bill, Kira and I went to check out the bathrooms and I took some more pics.
By the time we finally got our bill and paid it, it was still raining out but just normal rain and not the massive deluge that we had been getting for the past 30 or 40 minutes.