I'm back!!
Oh good, I was only...wait...10 PAGES BEHIND??? ...Oh dear.
And within just a few minutes,
we found ourselves backstage
at Epcot trying to explain to
a not very happy security guard
that we were trying to go
to Universal.
By now, I had lost all faith
in our driver and began
giving him directions.
After all, being Canadian,
I of course have a much
better grasp of the
directions in and around
Orlando.
Oh no!! How unfortunate! It's easy for me to judge since I don't actually have to do the job, but I'd think that if I were driving for Lyft or Uber or something in Orlando, I'd want to be familiar with how to get to the main theme parks, since I'm sure a lot of their clientele is made of up tourists in that area.
Check in was painless and we got
a room that was fairly close to the
elevator which in turn was fairly
close to the lobby.
Nice! I like Royal Pacific reasonably well. It's a pretty resort, and you can't beat the proximity!
I gave my info to the young lady
behind the desk and she
seemed puzzled.
"I can't find a zip code." She said.
"That's because there
isn't one." I replied.
Been there!
I hung up.
It was going to be faster
to walk to the Four-Points.
In any event, paying for
a Lyft was going to be
less expensive then the
cost of the aggravation
I was getting on the phone.
Oh my goodness, I was getting frustrated just reading that conversation!
Holy crap...
I'd just changed my very
expensive Universal tickets
for an Annual Pass.
A Seasonal Annual Pass...
With blackout dates.
And... I seem to recall seeing
that the blackout dates were...
around now.
Oof! Close call! I'd like to hope that if you were currently in a blackout period that the team member would have checked with you before they upgraded your ticket, but you never know. Glad it worked out!
Since we were so close, we
just decided to walk from the
hotel to the park.
It's about a ten-minute stroll.
I love this about the Universal "deluxe" type hotels that are in walking distance.
Now I can't compare and say
that having the Express pass
benefitted us or not.
I can't compare our experience
to someone riding the same
rides without the Express passes
I think it can really depend on the crowd level, which can sometimes be hard to predict. We were there over Christmas once, like, actual Christmas day, and the difference in the express line was shockingly minimal. (I assume that was just a fluke that year.) But other times it's a huge difference!
Depending on the attraction, the wait
times were varying from 30 minutes
to over an hour.
We never waited more than five minutes
to ride any ride, except one or two where
we maybe waited ten minutes.
So comparing our experience to
the posted wait times...
Those passes easily paid for themselves.
And for your trip, it seems like it really was a huge benefit! Nice that it worked out so well to save you so much time. You really got a lot done this day!
Circle of life.
A mouse eaten by a cat
eaten by a dog eaten by
a lion.
I love the Iron Maiden
that's been child proofed!
These are great! As someone who doesn't do well with the motion simulator thing, I've never been through this queue before, so I thought these pictures were hilarious.
As for the ride... I think if
Diagon Alley wasn't there,
then this may well have been
our favourite ride in the park.
Agreed! As a kid/teen, back when I was braver (and didn't have any medical reason to avoid it) this was my favourite ride. It's excellent!
And... she beat me.
I don't know how.
But she did.
I'm sure it was either a glitch
or I had a faulty gun.
There can be no other explanation.
Perhaps she just has super quick reflexes for red-button-pressing? This can make a giant difference in who gets the highest score. (Information I've used to my benefit to beat Nathan, who's a better shot than me, more than once!)
<C-R-A-A-A-C-K-K-K!!!!>
The show was abruptly cut
short with a very close
(and very loud!) lightning strike!
Moments later, the skies opened
up and it began to pour.
Gotta love Florida weather.
Oh no! Florida weather, indeed!
At one point, some kid in the
audience said or did something.
(She'd asked for volunteers.)
Her response was:
"Watch it. I don't have to
be nice to kids...
this isn't Disney."
Fantastic!
We had passed Lombard's Landing
a couple of times and decided
that might not be a bad spot for dinner.
I've never been in here, even before I developed/identified my dietary restrictions. Looks like it was reasonably good, as far as fried food goes.
Suffice to say that it is quite well
done considering it really is simply
a shuttle from one park to the next.
Agreed! This was such an excellent idea.
He stood in the tub the whole time
they were there (about 10 minutes?)
and was on the phone talking
loudly the whole time.
I kept thinking "He's going to
figure out that he's annoying
everyone around him, right?"
Apparently not.
Oh my gosh!!! People are...weird.
[me, tip toeing away from being associated with that comment... 
