Before we went to bed, I started to set my alarm for 6ish so we could eat a quick breakfast and get to WWoHP by 7:30am (8:00am opening for resort guests). But we were exhausted! Monday and Tuesday were really long work days, and I usually start the mornings with a 5:45am workout. Dog gone it, Will and I wanted to sleep in on vacation! I told Will we could sleep in IF he didnt give me any grief about waiting in a long line for Forbidden Journey the next day. He was definitely sold! So we didnt even set an alarm, and got up around 9am.
Had a great buffet breakfast at Islands Dining room at the resort. We felt so relaxed and in a much better place to face a crowded park!
When we got down to the boat dock, we just missed the boat (literally) so we decided to walk the path to the park and it was an easy 8-10 minute walk. Mainly shaded. We started off the day at Islands of Adventure.
We went to the Cat in the Hat ride first and were loving those Express Passes all day!!!
Cat in the Hat is a dark ride where NO PICTURES is strongly enforced. This was similar everywhere at US. What are they afraid of? Disney stealing their technology?!
Pretty cute, not a headliner, but was fun. We then went on Dr. Seuss Trolley, which is like the WEDway peoplemover in a way, but with an annoying announcer and less cool views. Comfy seats though!!
We eventually made our way to WWoHP and decided to reap what we had sewn and stepped in the 75 minute line (Tragically, no Express Pass option). Could have been worse. We wisely left any bags at the resort (I actually had a small passport-sized purse that I kept secured under my raincoat) so we got to skip the FJ lockers of doom, which must have shaved 15 minutes off the expected time as we were in and out in 60minutes instead of 75.
If you had not heard by now, the queue in FJ is ah-may-zing!!!! The ride is really intense but I thought extremely well done!! There is not much I am willing to wait 60 minutes for, but this is one of those things!
While in the Hogsmeade area we went on the Dueling Dragons roller coaster and waited for the front row, which was so worth it!! I love fast roller coasters. Loops I could do without though! I dont feel ill, just kind of confused as to what is going on when I am upside down!
Despite only being 4 rides in, it was past lunch time by now! We went to Mythos as we wanted a cool place to eat and this is the only sit down I know of located in Islands of Adventure. The wait was about 30 minutes.
I got the Pad Thai, which I did not take a picture of. It was ok, but not the best I have ever had. We then split the peanut butter-oreo ice cream cake dessert.
Was almost too sweet, even for me, which trust me, is saying a lot!
After lunch we wanted to push on and move over to US to continue rides there. I wanted to take the Hogwarts Express over there, but somebody (cough, Will, cough) didnt want the 15 minute wait and wanted to walk instead. It was so hot, that by the time we made it out to the front of IoA, we were overwhelmed. We started pacing ourselves and saying, ok, lets walk to that shade from that tree. Then we would regroup and look for the next shade. On one of our frequent breaks (seriously would not go more than 20 feet without trying to find shade) we saw on the map there was an American Express Lounge in US. If you buy your tickets with an AMEX card, you can enjoy free snacks and bottled water there. The pictures online looked swanky! So, we decided we could push ourselves and make it there to take a proper break to cool off.
Once we got in the US park, finding the darn lounge was a whole nother adventure. Once we finally found it, we were so happy to go in and cool off!
The lounge experience though was so weird!!! It did not look like the pictures online. It felt to me exactly like a Pediatrician office. Cartoons playing on a TV in the corner. Small chairs put together. Lots of people crammed in. The water bottles were the tiny ones but we were grateful for even those. We kept expecting a nurse to walk out and tell us it was our time to go back for our shots though.
We just sat in silence for a while and cooled off and eventually a lot of people left. At this point, I gave Will the option of going back to the resort for a while and coming back in the evening. He readily agreed! So we were able to make our way out and grab a boat and cool off in our room.
While Will was in a semi-heat-coma, I was trollin the DIS to see if there were any interesting updates.
Let me take a moment to share my observations of Disney fans vs US fans. I have been on the DIS for a while, all for Disney related info. People get into heated debates over everything with such a passion! The 7DMT soft-opening lookout thread was like 50 pages long. When I wanted to look up info on US, those threads are pretty bare!!! The Diagon Alley Soft-opening lookout thread had like one reply every other day!!! I tried other webpages as well, and in general, US threads just dont seem to get as much lovin!
Anyhoo, one of the Diagon Alley soft-opening threads mentioned that right at that moment they had opened!!! First day of it being opened to the general public, another technical rehearsal.
I told Will, BREAK OVER!
I knew there would be no guarantee that it would still be open by the time we made it there, but I knew I had to try!!
We rehydrated, reapplied sunscreen and hightailed it over to the boat dock. We had actually been at the resort for about 2 hours and in those hours the temperature had dropped 10 degrees and the difference was amazing. The rain clouds had rolled in and everything was darker and even misty. A boat came in lickity split and we walked as fast as we could to the Diagon Alley entrance
and
they were open!!!!!!!!!!
To be continued
..
Before Manta opened, this was my favourite ride in Florida. 
I am leaning towards going as the Blank Vinylmation couple from the short film. Would be pretty easy to pull off and we watched the movie on Valentines day and this is an Anniversary trip!
