That's Cuckoo Bananas *Updated 9/21 Complete*

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Next we were headed on Splash. Each time I’ve ridden this since COVID, I have thought it would be my last time, but here I was riding again.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they keep it open till after the 50th anniversary...I would LOVE to get one more ride on it!

We got in line for Peter Pan’s Flight. The extended queue is in Columbia Harbor House, I don’t think that’s supposed to be there.

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Someone is probably searching high and low for that back stage... ha!

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm glad you and C could take a trip together! I'm sorry you didn't have an easy time sleeping

Sounds like a good time at MK until the rain hit!

 

[ashw100]

I hate you had such a hard time sleeping, and the rain and buses.

But I love the dress you're wearing in the picture at the LMM ride!

Thanks, I am glad we got some pictures in before the rain.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they keep it open till after the 50th anniversary...I would LOVE to get one more ride on it!


Someone is probably searching high and low for that back stage... ha!

Lol, I hadn't thought about that.

I'm glad you and C could take a trip together! I'm sorry you didn't have an easy time sleeping

Sounds like a good time at MK until the rain hit!

We did make the most of it, despite the rain.

 

[ashw100]

Back to the Magic

We sloshed back to our car and then decided lunch at the McDonalds would have to do. Of course the line for the Mcdonalds took 30 minutes, because apparently nothing could be easy that day. We drove back to the hotel and I attempted to take a nap. Again, my mind just couldn’t relax enough to drift off to the sleep. The rain had slowed to slightly less than torrential downpour, so we decided to head back out. Our original clothes were soaked, thankfully C had backup clothes, I did not. I ended up wearing the clothes I had brought to sleep in. I also donned my cardigan sweater, because it was the only thing I had to keep warm, I took a picture to show my ridiculous outfit.

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I also wanted to show you our cool elevator at the hotel.

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Before going back to MK, I had a stop to make. There was no way I was leaving my sleep for the remainder of the trip to my body. We planned to go hard at Universal. I also had to grab something to get me through the rest of the day.

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Quite the combo, but the Red Bull helped me survive the rest of the day and the ZZZQuil helped me sleep that night.

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Looks like the rain was driving a lot of people out of the park

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We headed back to Tomorrowland first.

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We got in line for Buzz Lightyear, the line wound all the way through Monsters Inc. clocking in at 35 minutes.

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Next we decided to ride Space.

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The rain had finally cleared and the outdoor attractions were able to open once again. C really wanted to ride the Speedway, so we did that next.

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Tron Construction

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After our trip around the racetrack, we decided to head back to Fantasyland. I haven’t been on the tea cups in I don’t even know how long. It was a walk on, so we decided to take a spin. I let C do the spinning, and he loved to go very fast one way and then stop and go the other direction.

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I would have been fine skipping Storybook Circus this time around, but C really wanted to ride Dumbo.

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Another ride that I had purposely skipped the last few trips, C really had his heart set on, It’s a Small World. Of course, I said yes, motherly guilt and all that.

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It was dinner time and I was hungry. We decided to eat Peco Bill’s, so we placed our mobile order and waited.

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We both got an order of nachos and they were yummy. We still got all the toppings, but they were given to us in little, pre-packaged containers.

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We were very happy with how much we had accomplished during the day, despite the setbacks. We had a couple of rides we wanted to re-ride. Splash had a 35 minute wait, but we thought it would be worth it. We played lots of Heads Up and the wait ended up being about 45 minutes. It was the first time since COVID, we had actually waited more than the quoted wait time.

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After our visit to the Briar Patch, we figured we had time for one more ride. We of course had to ride Big Thunder at night.

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Even though we were done with rides for the day, we figured we had earned a treat from all the trials and tribulations the start of the trip had given us. A dole whip for C.

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And my new favorite Disney treat for me, the Kakamora Float.

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I found that the sugar rush gave me some extra energy to possibly squeeze in one more ride. There was one from our bucket list we did not get to check that day, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We trekked across the park, stopping at the Tangled tinkle spot quickly, so gorgeous.

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We got in line with less than 15 minutes left of park time. We chatted with the couple behind us, which made the time fly.

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With the park officially closed, we made our way back to Main Street USA.

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One last selfie for the evening.

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We stopped to get a PP before leaving.

r​

We remembered we could take our masks off

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And with that our day in Magic Kingdom had come to a close. It certainly wasn’t what I had expected, but I think all things considered we made the best of it. We drove back to our offsite hotel and I packed up to move to Universal the next day.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

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Quite the combo, but the Red Bull helped me survive the rest of the day and the ZZZQuil helped me sleep that nigh

Did the person who rung you up give you a weird look?

Looks like the rain was driving a lot of people out of the park

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all the better for you!

I let C do the spinning, and he loved to go very fast one way and then stop and go the other direction.

The back and forth in direction is def what would make me

 

[missangelalexis]

I had to laugh at the redbull and zzzquil- whatever it takes to make it through!

Sounds like the day turned around and you had a fun and successful night!

 

[ashw100]

Did the person who rung you up give you a weird look?

It's Florida, I'm sure they're used to weird

all the better for you!

We needed a break

The back and forth in direction is def what would make me

I don't get sick on spinning rides, but it didn't make my stomach feel very good.

I had to laugh at the redbull and zzzquil- whatever it takes to make it through!

Sounds like the day turned around and you had a fun and successful night!

Lol, you gotta power through!

 

[ashw100]

You're A Wizard

Thankfully, the Zquil I had purchased at the Walgreens allowed me to have a perfect night’s sleep. We woke up early, ready to get to Universal. We checked out and grabbed some breakfast before we left.

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I have to say, I wouldn’t normally recommend staying offsite, but this hotel was a really great option if you had to. While it’s not close, it’s also not that bad either. We even had time to come back for a break in the middle of the day. The rooms we huge, they could sleep 6 people. The price per night was cheaper than All Stars and you get unlimited Mickey waffles. Staying here made me question my adherence to staying onsite only for past and future trips.

We drove over to Universal. It didn’t take too long until we were seeing this.

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We parked in the temp parking and went in to check in and get our tickets. At the time they were taking temps at the hotels and then you got a wristband good for the day. You then didn’t have to get your temp checked again for the day. We were able to check in, but our room wasn’t ready yet. We left our bags with the bellmen and then went to the vacation planning desk to get our tickets. The whole process took about 30 minutes, but we had plenty of time before the parks opened.

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We moved our car to guest parking, where is would sit for the remainder of our trip.

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We stopped in the gift shop quickly. C needed a lanyard and we both wanted a Universal mask. We walked out to the bus line that was so long it almost reached the front doors of the hotel. Thankfully, they had buses lined up and they got us on quickly. Similar to Disney, they seated us in assigned slots for social distancing.

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Getting through security and everything was very efficient. The lines were SUPER long, but it really didn’t take us a long time. I really like the security here, I find it’s much more effective and efficient than Disney’s. Finally, we were in.

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Since Islands of Adventure had early park entry and we missed that, we decided to head to Universal Studios first.

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They had just extended Mardi Gras, which was supposed to have ended the day before. We were excited to check it out.

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They didn’t start letting anyone in until just about 15 minutes before 9. We were pretty far back though, so we got in right at 9. While we were waiting to get in, I was constantly refreshing the app to see when virtual queue passes became available for Hagrid’s. At 8:46 they released them and I was able to snag a return time of 11:15.

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This process was much less stressful than Rise, you didn’t have to be quite as fast.

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This trip was all about Harry Potter, so you know the first place we had to go was Diagon Alley. I really thought the experience would be enhanced by doing things in order, so to speak. That means we had to get our wizarding gear first.

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We got in line for Ollivander’s first. The line was already pretty long, I think the team member quoted us 45 minutes.

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The wait was almost exactly 45 minutes, and I am so glad we went there first thing. The line was cut off not long after we got in line and then you had to go on the waitlist which required more lines and waiting. We passed our time taking in the sights and thanks to mobile order I was able to sneak out of line and grab us our first of many butterbeers.

r

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When we were next in line, the team member gave us the rundown of the rules and what to expect. Even though it was a lengthy wait, it was 100% worth it to get to have your wand choose you. At the time, they were only doing one party at a time, so if you had one kid, they were guaranteed to be picked.

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It was dark, so my pictures are terrible, but here you go.

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C was absolutely ecstatic and of course wanted to purchase his special wand. We went into the shop and I picked up an interactive wand that was Sirius’. Universal was also running a promo at the time that if you bought a $200 gift card, you would get a free non-interactive wand. We knew we would easily spend the $200, so we purchased the gift card first and then paid for our wands with it. You could only pick up the free wand at the front shops, so we pocketed our receipt to pick it up later.

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[ashw100]

You're a Wizard Part 2

Wands in hands, we wanted to get in line for Gringotts before it got too long. We stowed our bags and new wands in a locker and got in line.

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The wait was 35 minutes, but we had so much fun checking out the queue.

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Sadly, just like Disney, the preshows were not taking place.

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This included the elevator ride “down”

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I really didn’t remember much about this ride, but it really is fun. The one thing I don’t like is that it technically changes the canon of the books, as a book purist, I don’t love that. I’m sure most people probably don’t even notice though. The parks had already been open almost 2 hours, and we still had so much to see and do. We asked a kind King’s Cross employee where platform 9 ¾ was, he didn’t know. We just had to find it ourselves I guess, silly muggles.

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There was no line for the train, so we were able to walk right through the platform and board the Hogwarts Express to Hogsemeade.

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They gave us strict reminders to keep our masks on and that we were under surveillance.

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Soon we were entering Hogsmeade Village and C was ecstatic.

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By the time we got to Hogsmeade, it was time for us to ride Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure. I literally went into this ride knowing zero about it other then it was a rollercoaster and they had cool animatronics of the creatures. We had to put other things in a locker and I left my cellphone there because I wasn’t sure we could bring it. Even with the virtual pass, the wait was long and hot. We waited an hour, but the line was constantly moving.

I’ll have pictures in another update, since I never made the mistake of not having my cellphone with me on subsequent rides. I heard a team member tell another guest this ride would be like nothing he had ever experienced before. I thought, “yeah right, it’s just a coaster” I was so wrong. When it was finally our turn, I was absolutely blown away. I am so glad I went into this ride without really knowing what I was getting myself into. This is part launch coaster, part drop ride, and it goes backwards. This was by far the coolest coaster I had ever been on. C didn’t seem too impressed, I think he was scared of it. But I think he liked it better after a couple of times, when he knew what to expect. I could not stop smiling after getting off this ride, it was that good.

After our ride, we were quite hungry. The line for the Three Broomsticks was all the way back to the bathrooms, but we got in line anyway. C had fun trying out his new wands on the windows here.

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We waited about 40 minutes before we were led to a table inside.

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Mobile order was required here, C got a pumpkin juice and I went with another round of Butterbeer.

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Our drink came quickly, but we waited another 15 minutes for our food. At almost an hour for overpriced, small portion, mediocre food it was not a great experience.

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But C was happy to be eating in the iconic restaurant and so I was happy too. I realized that my phone was almost out of batteries and the charging cord I brought had stopped working. We still hadn’t gotten a notification that our room was ready, but I was hoping it would come soon.

Just as we were finishing up, I got a text that our room was ready, so we decided we would head back so I could get a new charging cord.

Next Post​

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great start at Universal!!

 

[ashw100]

Collecting all the Beads

Just as we were finishing up, I got a text that our room was ready. We took the bus back to our hotel and picked up our luggage from the bellmen. We had a standard room (this hotel also had suites) and our room was located on the top floor. This hotel had just opened in December, so it was so new and clean.

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Now, I gotta compare to Disney since they are similar products. This hotel room blows any Disney value out of the water and I would argue moderates too. I loved how there was so much color in the room compared to the generic white that Disney is putting in all their rooms now. The room was big and airy. They had good toiletries and the bed were super comfy. The only thing I had a problem with was the noise level. The walls were very thin, but I find the same problem at Disney too. And at a price point less than Disney, this is the clear winner.

Our original plan had been to try and head to Volcano Bay for the rest of the day, however it was in the low 70’s and that was too cold for me. We were just going to have to try and squeeze it in the next day. I switched out my charging cord and then we headed back out.

I love how simple it was to get to the park, even with us being the farthest hotel, it was quick and easy. We decided to go back to Universal Studios, because we hadn’t even scratched the surface there. The float for Mardi Gras had performers on them, so C was able to catch some beads.

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While C was catching beads, I got us a virtual queue for Jimmy Fallon. The return time was only 5 minutes away.

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Soon it was time to ride Jimmy Fallon.

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We were immediately put into our pre-show group. I really didn’t understand this one. The preshow was turned off on most rides. It was frustrating to have to skip one like Hagrid’s or Gringotts, but here they packed us into the preshow, shoulder to shoulder and I really didn’t think this preshow was necessary. We watch the preshow, the doors flash to indicate they will open and then nothing happens. It was the strangest thing, everyone around us kept on talking acting like nothing had happened. There was no team member with us and we all just stood around. After ten minutes, with no explanation, the preshow starts again, thankfully this time the doors open. The ride was okay, probably bottom tier for me, but now I can say I did it.

After the ride, I tried to persuade C to ride Rip, Ride, Rock it. It had been one of my favorites from the last time I visited and I really wanted to try it again. C refused to go on it, so we moved on. We got in line for Transformers next. The wait said 45 minutes, but we only waited 20.

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Neither of us had seen this movie, so I didn’t totally get what was going on, but it was fun still. When we got back from Universal we ended up doing one of those private showings at the movie theater and we picked this one. Now, next time I go on, I’ll understand the story line better.

Bumblebee was out meeting when we got off the ride, so we had to say hello.

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He only plays music, which again at the time I didn’t understand, but he and C had a dance off which was fun.

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I hadn’t planned at eating at any of the Mardi Gras booths, but the beignets were calling my name, so we got an order.

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We found a spot near the water, the fountain show was going on, to enjoy our snack.

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They were a little deflated and hard, I wouldn’t recommend. Afterward, the wait times were looking not great, so we didn’t have much of a plan. Sadly, Homer wasn’t out meeting at that time. We did see Marilyn, though C didn’t want to say hello.

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We also saw this cool Mardi Gras person out.

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C also grabbed some more beads at the float near here. ET had about 30 minute wait, which is more than I would have liked to wait for this ride, but it was the shortest wait in the park at that time so we got in line. This is another movie that neither C nor I have seen, ET always freaked me out. But Joe and the boys watched it when we got home. The people behind us in line were the first people we experienced at Universal who didn’t use the distancing markers. We had had good luck most of that day, although subsequent days we weren’t as lucky. Anyway, it is no surprise that our ride on ET was interrupted several times for TMs to tell them to put their masks back on. Universal was far stricter than Disney was about enforcing their policies, as this was not the only ride that was interrupted to give guests the mask reminder.

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We explored around the area a bit before our next mission.

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C has recently become obsessed with all things Back to the Future, so he was excited to see the props out.

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I didn’t want to burst his bubble and tell them there used to be a whole ride. I did really want to go on the Simpsons ride, I remember it being really fun, but the line was something crazy like 85 minutes.

Men in Black however was 45 minutes, so we got in line. The wait was less than 30 though. I thought we had shown C this movie, but he claims he’s never seen it. I seem to be failing in the old movie watching side of parenting.

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It was funny, we got seated with another mom and young son in front of us. In both instances the kids were kicking the mom’s butts. At the very end both of us moms pulled ahead though.

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When we got off Men in Black, we noticed the park was getting super crowded, even though it was less than an hour before closing. We had heard a TM ask a guest if they were there for the UCF game, and they responded yes. We also noticed an insane amount of people in UCF clothes. I looked online but I couldn’t find any event that would have caused the increase in crowds.

 

[ashw100]

Collecting all the Beads Part 2

We headed back over to Diagon Alley.

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Apparently, this is C’s favorite sign, so we had to stop for a picture.

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We also chatted with Stan Shunpike and the shrunken head.

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Back in Diagon Alley, we took some time to explore the shops.

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C really wanted a robe, so we went in search of the perfect one.

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Robe acquired, let’s do some magic

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We had one last place to check out, Knockturn Alley.

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On our way out of London, C stopped by a phonebooth to see if he could get into the Ministry of Magic.

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Sadly, they weren’t letting muggles in that day. The time of park closing was rapidly approaching, but Fast & the Furious had almost no line, so we got in. I had heard bad things about this ride, but I thought how bad could it be? In the words of C, “well that was disappointing”. C is the easiest person to impress/make happy, so that is saying something. We fought the random UCF crowds to get out of the park and walked over to Citywalk for our dining reservation. Our dinner reservation was at Cowfish.

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We checked in 30 minutes early and were told that we would still have to wait the 30 minutes. We were starving but found a bench and settled in. Not even five minutes latter we were called inside.

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We hadn’t eaten in a restaurant since the previous summer, so we were super excited. We got an order of the parmesan bacon truffle fries.

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Wow, were these good. The fries themselves had great flavor and then the truffle was perfect, not too overpowering. The cheese, was to die for. I could have just had that and been happy. Since the menu was on my phone, I opted to just tell C the things I thought he would like from the menu. He wanted just a regular burger, so I ordered him the backyard burger.

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Clearly, I had missed the part of the description that said it had a WHOLE hot dog on it! It was way too much for him, but he enjoyed it. I went with the all-American bacon double cheeseburgooshi.

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It tasted exactly, like a burger and fries, but it a really cool package. Neither C or I was able to finish our meals, but it’s vacation, so we still got dessert. We split a Nutella shake.

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Our entire meal was great, from the service to the food. I would definitely go here again. We stopped at the Universal store in Citywalk to looks for some souvenirs that the boys might like for us to bring home. I sent N, my unicorn obsessed 6-year-old, a picture of the one from Minions to see if he would like it.

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I had my eyes on a Gryffindor shirt, but they didn’t have my size there. I knew they sold it at the gift shop, so we just purchased C a Hufflepuff shirt for the next day and headed out. We took the bus back to the resort. Sadly our hotel’s giftshop had already closed for the night. I was just hoping it would reopen before we left for the parks the next day. We had a long wait for the elevator, but as soon as we got in the room we showered and were in bed.

Next post​

 

[rdkeim]

What a wonderful trip for you and your DS. Nice to have so much one on one time. It's been a very long time since I've been to Universal - may have to give it another try! Some of the upcoming changes Disney is making are pretty disappointing. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

 

[ashw100]

What a wonderful trip for you and your DS. Nice to have so much one on one time. It's been a very long time since I've been to Universal - may have to give it another try! Some of the upcoming changes Disney is making are pretty disappointing. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

I agree with that, Universal is starting to look better every day. I would definitely give them a chance next time you plan a trip.

 

[ashw100]

Exploring Hogsmeade

We were up bright and early, ready for our only full day at Universal. I went to the gift ship, which was thankfully open and bought my Gryffindor shirt along with matching house masks for C and myself. We got in line for the bus, which was very short this morning.

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Getting through security and into Citywalk was a breeze this early in the morning. The line at the Starbucks in our hotel was super long, but the one at Citywalk was reasonable, so we picked up some breakfast there.

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We got in the insanely lone line into Islands of Adventure (all the way backed up to Margaritaville) and enjoyed our breakfast. It seems they hadn’t actually opened the stanchioned queue area yet, but once we did we moved all the way up to the ticket counters.

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About 10 minutes to 8, they started letting people through.

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Many people were headed straight to Hagrid’s which was backed all the way up to Poseidon’s Fury. Since we had ridden it the day before, we opted to take our chances with the virtual queue later.

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We were headed to Forbidden Journey first.

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Sadly, the ride was not yet operating, and they didn’t know when it would open for the day. It was a huge let down, especially since there really wasn’t anything else to do. We just hoped it wouldn’t be too long.

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We decided to take the time to really explore the land and do some magic before it got too crowded.

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We only had to wait about 15 minutes before the ride was ready to go. We stored all our belongings in a locker and got in line.

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I absolutely love this queue, I don’t think there is another one out there that beats it. Even if you’re not a huge Harry Potter fan, I think you’d appreciate it. I really appreciated how the preshow in the defense against the dark arts classroom changed, so we got different experiences each time. When I had been on this ride for the first time in 2014, I was blown away. It quickly became one of my favorite rides of all time, would it hold up after all these years?

Sadly, no. While I still think the ride mechanism and the physical sets are great, the screens are, in a word, terrible. They have really aged badly, the graphics just aren’t good. That being said, this now became C’s favorite ride and we rode it several times over the course of our trip. W

We had about 20 minutes until the park opened to everyone for the day, so we hopped in line for Flight of the Hippogriff.

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While we waited in line I jumped on the app to try and get a virtual queue for Hagrid’s. Even though times popped up, by the time it got to the second page the time was gone. After three attempts, all the virtual passes had been distributed. While disappointing, I knew I would have other opportunities to try and get one.

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We decided to hop over to Universal Studios via the Hogwarts Express. I knew that this end of the train backups pretty bad, so we wanted to do it first thing. We got in line about 10 minutes prior to US opening and the wait said 20 minutes, but that was severely under quoted. We ended up waiting almost an hour. Unfortunately with reduced capacity because of COVID, if this ride was a must do I just don’t see how you’d get around waiting less than that. For whatever reason, the Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade side never got this bad.

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Because our first hour of normal operations was wasted in line for the Hogwarts Express, it kind of messed up our plans. C really wanted to re-ride Gringott’s so we got in line despite it’s length.

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After Gringott’s it was almost 11 o’clock, and we really hadn’t gotten much done. However, we still had to visit Volcano Bay, so we decided to head out for a new adventure.

 

[ashw100]

Volcano Bay Fun

We were headed out of the park to spend some time at Volcano Bay.

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Voodoo Doughnuts was on my must do list, and in the middle of the day it was empty. I highly recommend avoiding mornings and evenings when it is completely packed.

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They would actually be for breakfast the next day, but now we wouldn’t have to wait in a crazy line. Before we actually, went in I was able to secure us a virtual queue pass for 1:45. That would cut into our Volcano Bay time, so we would just play it by ear.

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We quickly went back to the hotel and changed into swimsuits and then were back on the bus to Volcano Bay. We also packed all our park clothes, so we wouldn’t have to go back to the room again.

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We got our TapuTapu

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We dropped off our bags in a locker and went in search of a chair. We walked up and down the length of the park and not a single chair to be had. It as expected though, so decided to try and find lunch first. We got some flatbreads at Whakawaiwai Eats. It was delicious and filling. We knew we weren’t going to have time to do much, but it was fun to check it out. It was something I would have liked to get out of the way early in the day, but the mornings were just too cold, so a midday swim break was really all I could squeeze in. We spent all of our time in the wave pool, which C loved.

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We had a decision to make, stay at the water park or head back to the parks. The park itself was pretty crowded and it just didn’t seem like if we stayed we would be able to do much of anything, so we decided to leave. I am not really a waterpark person anyway, but I am glad we got to check it out. It will definitely be on the list when we eventually take everyone back. We quickly got changed and headed out of the park. Our virtual queue time started in 45 minutes, would we make it?

We took the bus over to City Walk. We got a little turned around in the parking garage, but eventually we made it out and into the park. We got a locker there and stashed our pool stuff. We were really cutting it close on time, so we walked as fast as out feet would carry us over to Hogsmeade. We were parched and we had just enough time to stop and grab a bottle drink to bring with us in line. We scanned our pass with minutes to spare.

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This time we brought our phones in line in case we had another hour long wait.

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The frog choir came out to perform which, so we got to enjoy their music while in line.

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Once again, Universal did an amazing job on the queue. Even though it’s not a set that you would recognize from the movies, it is every bit as magical as Hogwarts.

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I really like the area before you board. You can hear Hagrid above you on his motorcycle.

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One thing I forgot to mention was sanitizer. At Universal the team members squirt sanitizer directly into everyone’s hands. This gave some peace of mind that the surfaces you were touching weren’t also touched by dirty hands. I am reminded of this because the woman in front of us took her sanitizer and wiped it on her shorts. Well the TM wasn’t going to deal with that, so she made her come back and get more sanitizer and watched her rub it in.

Once again, we had an amazing time on this ride. This is by far the best rollercoaster I have ever been on.

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C asked if we could ride Forbidden Journey again, and the wait was about 25 minutes so we got in line. It didn’t really seem to matter the time of day, the ride was consistently about a 25 minute wait, so it was always easy to get on. After FJ, the Triwizard Spirit Rally was ending, so we watched the last bit.

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At this point, we still hadn’t checked out any of the other lands in the park, so we sadly said goodbye to Hogsmeade and went in search of other things to do. Quickly we spotted King Julian out.

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I had C stop for a picture in front of the Lost Continent statue for a side-by-side comparison.

19 year-old Joe

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Back in 2007, my family went on a road trip and Joe came along for a portion of it. It was our first vacation together and our last stop was Universal Studios. So we have a lot of fond memories there and I thought it would be fun to try and take some similar pictures.

We made our way into Seuss Landing.

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It was right about 4:00, so I hoped on the app to see if I could get a second Hagrid’s virtual queue time. Sadly, the same thing happened that had happened that morning. It would tell me a time and then when I clicked it, it would be gone. That’s okay, we still had plenty to try and do. We took a ride on the Seuss Trolley.

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After our aerial tour of Seuss Landing, we looked in some of the shops. Doctor Seuss is my favorite children’s author, so I had to restrain myself and not buy anything.

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Thing 1 and Thing 2 were out meeting.

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As we were walking through the park, I noticed so many families with Disney vacation shirts on. It is so weird to me that you would take the time to get special shirts made for Disney and then wear them to Universal. One family had Universal family trip printed on it but it was in Disney font and only had Disney characters on it. Not really a judgement, just a funny observation. Anyway, we made our way over to Marvel Superhero Island.

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[rdkeim]

Wow - what a busy day! You have covered a lot of ground. Nice you could check out Volcano Bay - it looks beautiful. It's great your DS is a Harry Potter fan. I'm sure that made your Universal days even more fun. Hope you eventually get on Hagrid's!

 

[ashw100]

Wow - what a busy day! You have covered a lot of ground. Nice you could check out Volcano Bay - it looks beautiful. It's great your DS is a Harry Potter fan. I'm sure that made your Universal days even more fun. Hope you eventually get on Hagrid's!

It definitely helps to have an HP fan along with me, but that also meant we never wanted to go to other parts of the parks

 

[ashw100]

Finishing up Islands of Adventure

I tried to convince C to ride Hulk, but he wasn’t having it. So we opted for the tamer Spiderman ride.

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Even though the rides are so similar, I like this one so much more than Transformers. We really didn’t have a plan, and were just kind of wandering. We saw Captain America out meeting.

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There wasn’t anything we wanted to ride in Toon Landing, but we did stop for some pictures.

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I tried to recreate a picture that Joe and I had taken in 2007, but I couldn’t remember where it was taken so we settled for an approximation.

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This was after we had ridden one of the water rides, I think Bildgerat Barges???

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Reign of Kong had about a 50 minute wait, but there was literally nothing that didn’t have a lengthy wait. I have never seen the movie (are we surprised at this point ), but last time I visited it was being built, so I wanted to give it a try. The queue is really fun and scary though.

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This wait honestly felt like it took forever, but it was only 30 minutes. I had no idea what to expect for this ride.

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It was…okay. It was very similar to Fast and Furious, which we were not fans of, but I think they do a better job here. However, I really didn’t like that it was mostly screens and it’s just not very believable. One thing I have to mention is the woman sitting in front of us. She videoed the entire ride and never took her eyes of the screen. Okay, that’s nothing unusual, even I can sometimes forget to put the phone down, but she literally took off her 3D glasses and put them in from of her phone camera lens so that the video could get the better view. To each there own, maybe she just really wanted a good video to show someone that was unable to come on the trip.

After the very mediocre ride, we were trying to figure out what to do with our final hours. Every ride we hadn’t ridden yet had over an hour wait or we just had no interest in riding. We really would have loved to do the velociraptor encounter, but the line was at capacity for the day. So we did what any true HP fan would do and walked back to Hogsmeade. On the way, we stopped to check out the Velocicoaster.

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They started doing AP previews the following week, but we saw it getting tested constantly throughout our trip.

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Forbidden Journey for us again. As I have noted, people had not been following the 6 foot rule for most queues, however we always did. We stayed on our line and gave the people in front of us distance even when we were not offered the same courtesy from the people behind us. So I was really taken aback when we got in line for FJ. We were walking past the outside of the castle and we had quite a ways before the queue would actually start, so there were no lines to follow really, but we had plenty of room between us and the man and child in front of us. Mind you we had people on our backs urging us along, but the man turns around and says please give me 6 feet! I felt like a chastised child and I hadn’t even done anything wrong. We made sure to give him and his daughter 6 feet and then some just to avoid being yelled at again. But it was definitely surreal to be one of the only ones trying to follow the rules and still get yelled at.

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After our ride, we were done with rides for the day. But we hadn’t had any of the Harry Potter treats yet, and that needed to be rectified.

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C got a bag of candy that he got to choose from an assortment. I went with the cauldron cake.

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This was not good. I am a huge fan of icing, but the icing on this was low quality and left a film in your mouth. The cupcake was dry and almost inedible, I was so mad I spent $11 on this. Needing a pick me up after the disaster of that purchase, we decided to ride FJ one last time to close out that night.

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We took some final pictures before leaving for the night.

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We grabbed our pool stuff from the locker and headed out for the night. Luckily our dinner location was a very short walk.

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We had to wait about 30 minutes, but the weather was nice and we talked about our day and people watched.

We were seated in on the upper floor, off in a side room. Not being totally comfortable dining out yet, and this being my first indoor restaurant experience in almost a year, I was glad to be in a less populated area.

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We were starving and the appetizer options looked too good, so we went with two, the chocolate almond bread and the avocado bruchetta. Both were delicious, although I would probably skip the chocolate before dinner next time.

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C ordered the BBQ chicken flatbread.

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I ordered the croque monsieur with Caesar salad.

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It was good, but nothing out of this world. Even though we were stuffed, we couldn’t leave without a milkshake. We split the confetti, which came with a whole piece of cake on top!

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Overall the dining experience was okay. The food was good, but nothing spectacular, our sever was great but it took a long time to get our food. On the way out I took a picture of all the fun milkshake options.

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After dinner we were exhausted. We had planned on checking out more of Citywalk, but we just couldn’t.

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We did not pass go or collect $200, just went straight to our hotel and fell into bed.

 

[ashw100]

Last Day

The one downside to going straight to sleep the night before meant, I had to wake up early to pack. Once we were all ready to go, I enjoyed my Voodoo doughnut from the day before.

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I took one last look out our window, to the pool we never swam in, and said goodbye to the Dockside Inn and Suites.

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We stopped at Starbucks for a drink and then were on the bus, ready for one last day in the parks.

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We headed to Islands of Adventure for Early Park admission and went straight to Hagrid’s.

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We only waited about 30 minutes and then we were on the ride. C had been asking to ride Minions and this was going to be our last opportunity, so we left IOA right after Hagrid’s and walked over to US to ride Minions. On the way over I also got us a virtual queue pass for Hagrid’s later in the day. We got to IOA a little after 9 and the wait was already 45 minutes.

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C really enjoyed Minions which is all that matters. He even got to pose with one after the ride.

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Our next ride would be Mummy, I was a little worried about it scaring C, but he was ready for the challenge.

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The verdict…he did not like it. It was too intense for him, but I am proud he at least gave it a try. The stilt walkers were out when we got off the ride.

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You know we had to head back to Diagon Alley since this was our last day.

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I had to get my picture in this section of Diagon Alley.

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We never made it to the Leaky Cauldron, the timing never worked out, but I still had to grab a picture.

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After one last look around, we were saying goodbye to Diagon Alley and US for the trip.

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Once again, the Hogwarts Express was a walk on, so we knew we had to take that back over to IOA.

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We had some time before our virtual queue, and our doughnuts had long since worn off, so we got in line for the Three Broomsticks. The line was much shorter this time around thankfully.

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We each got Butterbeer, I had lost count how many times we had this delicious beverage, but worth it every time.

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This time I went with the shepherd’s pie, while C got the pasties again. We also got a side of wedges to share, because we had heard a couple people raving about them, they were very good.

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I enjoyed my shepherd’s pie much more than my previous meal here. The meat was wonderfully flavored and the meal was filling, a much better value than the pasties.

It was time to ride Hagrid’s one last time, but first C wanted to chat with this fountain.

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The frog choir was out again, so we got to listen to that while we waited in this portion of the queue.

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Hagrid’s was spectacular as always, I am so happy we got to ride it four times this trip. C wanted to do some more magic, so I let him explore the land some more.

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C really wanted to ride FJ one last time as well, so we got in line.

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I don’t know why I thought it, but for some reason my brain decided to be thankful that no rides had stopped on us. I feel like at least once, if not multiple times a trip, when we’re at Disney, this happens to us. So I was just happy we’d had such good luck at Universal. You know what that means, right??? We got stuck on our backs in the spider scene. My immediate thought, was great, I jinxed us. We really weren’t stuck long though, but we did get stuck again at the dementor scene. Next time I decide to be grateful for my good luck, I’ll knock on wood. The Triwizard show was on again, so we stopped to watch.

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We sadly pulled ourselves away from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We had a little bit of time left to squeeze in some last rides. We chose Cat in the Hat, which was a walk on.

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We made our way over to Marvel Super Hero Island to ride one last thing.

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We chose Spiderman as our final ride of the trip.

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Afterwards, we slowly made our way out of the park. We stopped at the front gift shop to get out free wand, we ended up with Scrimegour’s. I also bought the two souvenirs to bring home to the other boys. It was crazy hot, and we were in the mood for a treat. We had planned to go to Menchie’s, but it was closed. So we settled for Burger King, C went with an ICEE, I just got a coke. We went back to the hotel to pick up our car. We stopped to get some gas in an area right next to the hotel. I did not feel safe there at all, so I am glad we decided to never leave Universal property while staying there. The traffic was bad, but we eventually made it to the airport. We dropped off our car and our bags and made it through security. It was a very uneventful flight home.



Overall, it was a really great trip. Couple observations to close out this trip report. I would never go back to Universal without Express Pass. Since we didn’t have control over our hotel, and we were trying to make this trip as cheap as possible, it just wasn’t an option. But moving forward, I would only stay at a premier hotel that has it included. I feel like Universal handed COVID better. I didn’t feel like I was missing something (except possibly the Harry Potter nighttime show) they were still able to offer shows and character meets and even a modified Mardi Gras. We obviously loved the HP stuff the most, there wasn’t much outside of that that I really loved. But I 1000% think a trip to Universal is worth it, even if you’re not a HP fan, because I think everyone can enjoy the incredible detail and immersion there. After I visited in 2014, I made the claim that both HP lands are more immersive and engaging than any themed lands Disney has done, and I stand by that. Disney has some great one off experiences like RotR and Be Our Guest, but none of their full lands do what either of the HP lands can do as fully realized lands. Thanks for reading!!!