I woke up at 5:30am and lay there somewhere between sleep and awake until my alarm went off at 6:45am.
I got in the shower and we all got ready for an action-packed day at IOA .
Paul packed all our 'stuff' while I did my make-up and got myself and Amelia dressed. She wore the Thing 1 and Thing 2 dress that I made her, and Tiger-Lilly had to come with us today too
It was a bit nippy this morning so we wore cardigans. We went down to the lobby to check out and took our luggage to the car. We were allowed to use the car park for the rest of the day which was good.
We dumped our bags in the boot and were heading back to the hotel when I spotted a tiny little lizard on the path. We'd seen a lot of them since we'd arrived in Orlando, but they were always too quick to pick up, much to Amelia's annoyance! She was desperate to hold one. I don't know if this one was sleepy, or hung over from a night on City Walk, but it just sat there and let me pick it up! I couldn't believe it! I called the others back and showed them and Amelia had a little hold and then it scurried back into the bushes. It was so cute!
By the time we'd arrived at the bag search for US, it had warmed up, and the cardigans went under Amelia's pushchair. We flashed our room keys at the next set of attendants to get in early. Early entry was Diagon alley again this morning. I'm not sure if it ever changes.
Amelia spotted a Dora the Explorer back pack when we were waiting for the Star Card yesterday and wouldn't stop going on about it as we passed the shop. I honestly didn't want her spending her money on it, as she's not really into Dora, having only watched it about 3 times in her life. I told her we'd come back later for it if she still had any money left after a day in the park, but I secretly hoped she'd forget about it!
Once we were back in Diagon Alley, our first stop was Ollivanders, which coincidentally, is Oliver's nickname (his surname is Verlander). Just thought I'd throw that in there. A little fact for you
Paul went off for a sneaky cigarette while I took Oliver to buy his Dumbledore wand. Amelia kept asking for one too, but she's too young yet and was too small to do the spells yesterday, so Oliver told her she could have a few goes of his. She'll have one on our next trip I'm sure!
We all followed the map (which comes with each wand), trying out the spells, some of which worked first time, others were a little harder. We did all them except maybe two or three. The whole time we doing it, Paul still hadn't returned and I was beginning to get a bit worried as we didn't want to spend too long in Diagon Alley and needed to start heading over to Kings Cross Station soon, as well as finding somewhere to have breakfast. Daniel and I both tried calling him but couldn’t get an answer. Then just as we went outside to look for him, he was coming in through the "wall". Apparently he'd got collared by some old boy who was telling him his life story, and then on the way back he ran into one of his customers from work who was there taking her grandchildren to Universal FOR THE WEEKEND! Alright for some!
We were getting hungry now so we headed back to South Street where we'd passed a Starbucks earlier on. Sam had run in and got herself something when we'd passed earlier as she wasn't feeling too great (writing this now, 9 months later, we now realise why she wasn't feeling well as she's just had another baby girl! ), but the rest of us were just eager to get to Diagon Alley I think. It was 9am now and we were hank marvin! Paul, Oliver and I all opted for bacon breakfasts and Amelia had a sausage breakfast. They were all sooooo good! My mouth is wishing I was back there right now! For the 4 breakfasts, a latte and three vanilla milks, it came to $32.71.
Daniel came in shortly after we sat down and got himself something, and then we all headed over to Kings Cross Station to catch the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmead.
The journey on the Hogwarts Express was amazing. The attention to detail is second to none!
Hogsmead was just as I remember it.
We had a few photos taken in front of the train (even though we'd just come off the real moving one - they didn't think that through did they? I'm not sure where Paul and Oliver were in this pic! I took some for Daniel, Sam and Sarah too and then we went to get the kids some Chocolate Frogs from Honeydukes.
Sam got Sarah a plate of breakfast from the Three Broomsticks and she sat with us and ate it while she and Daniel put the FOL passes back into action and went on Dragon Challenge.
Have you ever noticed the cheeky little imps in the cauldron in Hogsmeade? It took me a while to work out where the noises were coming from and then I looked up and saw them.. We watched them for quite a while.
Oliver wussed out of Dragon Challenge, so when they got back, just Paul and I rode the blue side (I wussed out on the red side!). He tried to get me to go back on again on red, but I was having none of it!
Forbidden journey was our next ride of the day. This was a first for us as the queue was about 2 hours long when we came in 2012. We did rider swap which seemed a bit unorganised, and the "holding room" was pitch black. I was quite glad to get out. Oliver wussed out again, so Paul and I did it alone. The ride was amazing but made us feel really sick. Paul had to go outside as he thought he was going to throw up!
Next was Flight of the Hippogriff which Amelia absolutely LOVED. So much so that we rode it twice! Paul and Oliver sat this one out after still feeling queasy (and wussy!). Daniel took Sarah on. I must say, it did feel a little bit joltier the second time around and I nearly crushed Amelia coming round one of the bends as you can't help but slide to the side of the cart. Sarah really felt it though, as she hit her eye and started crying at the end. We spent ages searching for a paper towel and some ice and the CM's seems uninterested when Sam reported it. After about half an hour, we eventually found some restrooms and Sam got a paper towel from inside (and some ice pinched from one of the drinks carts) and applied it to her eye. She did have quite a bruise, bless her, which put her in a sulky mood for the rest of the day.
I had made reservations through opentable.com for lunch at Mythos at 12:15pm in the Lost Continent. So we decided we'd better make our way over there. It didn't occur to us that we were going in the wrong direction when we reached River Adventure...
…Or Toon Lagoon…
I eventually found a map on one of the carts and realised it was right over the other side of the park!
We hurried over there and made it just in time. When I booked, it wouldn't accept a table of 7, so we had to book two separate tables. I told them when we checked in and asked if we could all be seated together and they said it was fine. They gave us a pager and we waited only a couple of minutes before it went off and we were taken through to table 62, right next to the one we'd ate at in 2012!
None of us were particularly hungry but I didn't want to cancel our reservation as we had such a nice meal here with my Mum and Dad on our last last trip and had great memories of it.
Paul had the Mythos Burger and Oliver, Amelia and I had kids pizzas! The food was excellent as usual.
After the meal, we stumbled upon the Mystic Fountain who was HILARIOUS! I quickly took Amelia to the restrooms and slipped her swimming dress on as I knew she would be getting wet! The interaction was great. He gave everyone a name. Paul was Smee because he had a stripy top on, Oliver was 'Birthday Boy' because he mistook the Captain America emblem on his T-shirt for a Birthday badge and he sang the Oliver Twist song to him! He said he loves England as his Brother lives here whose name is Stone Henge! I have uploaded a few videos on my You Tube channel if you want you want to have a look. There are a couple on there. The first one can be found below...
Paul wanted to go on Dudley Do Rights Rip Saw Falls so we headed in that direction.
When we got there, only Paul wanted to go on. He managed to persuade Oliver to go on with him and the rest of us watched from the bottom. We seemed to be waiting forever and I took photos of about 10 boats before I found theirs!
While they were soaked, they thought they might as well go on Bilge-Rat Barges next which I had no interest in going on after seeing so many drenched people walking off it. I took Amelia to Toon Popcorn where we got a drink to share and a packet of Lays Chips (walkers crisps!) for Amelia ($6.59) while everyone else went on. There was a pretty long queue and I hoped by the time we'd been served, they would be off. But when we walked over towards the ride exit, they were still at the lockers and hadn't even been on yet! I was getting a bit fed up a bit of hanging around waiting for everyone all the time and not actually going on anything now and I was getting tired and grouchy. Hopefully the drink would help. I took Amelia on Me Ship Me Olive. She loved the slides, but they did make me panic a bit when she ended up on the floor below me each time. I told her when she reached the bottom she had to stand as still as she could and not move until I got down to her!
When I thought their barge might be round any minute, we stood on the bridge hoping to wave to them/squirt them with water. We waited a while and a few barges passed us, but no sign of them. I said we'd try the other side, and just as we turned around, they were walking towards us, soaked to the bone! Amelia got really upset because she wanted to wave to them while they were on there and started crying. I think she was getting tired too which didn't help. We took Paul on to show him the slides she'd been going on, and then we made our way out with the promise of Dippin' Dots.
We continued through Toon Lagoon, through Marvel Super Hero Island where we checked out a few shops, and then this happened…
Paul and I went on first and I was absolutely BRICKING it. On every trip we've been on, I've always been too scared to ride this resulting in Paul having to do a single rider. He promised me that it is nothing like Rip Ride Rocket, and I used the same mentality as yesterday… you only live once. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't ever do it again. I tried to get Oliver on with us too but he declined. Amelia however really wanted to go on! Unfortunately though, she was nowhere near tall enough. Maybe next time
There was no queue, which I wasn't pleased about on this occasion as I didn’t have time to psyche myself up for it. A queue would have prolonged my fate! I was shaking on the inside and think I may have had a mild panic attack as we neared the front a I couldn't hear or focus on anything Paul was saying. I felt like I was in a black hole on my own with blood rushing around my ears. I could barely swallow as I got strapped into the seat. And then, we were off! Oh My God!
I LOVED IT! Usually I scream on rides, especially when there are drops, but I didn't scream once! Paul thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't make a sound, but I was just enjoying it! It was so smooth!
Daniel and Sam went on next and loved it too. Then we made our way over to Seuss landing so the kids could go on some rides. We went on the Caro-Seuss-el followed by One Fish Two Fish…
Paul's photography skills never fail to amaze me…
Then we all went on the High in the Sky Trolley Train Ride. When we got to the part where it goes through the shop I noticed they sold Dippin' Dots, so we hurried over there as soon as we got off but unfortunately they were just closing. It was only 4pm which I found a bit strange, but hey ho. We did find a little cart that sold them as we left Seuss Landing though in lots of different flavours. We eventually settled on two tubs in banana and 'rainbow' flavours ($10.63 for both tubs). Mmmmmmmm…
We had a reservation at Ohana tonight for dinner, so decided we'd better head back to HRH to get the car and then go back 'home' to OKW. The "parade" was in full swing as we passed.
We seemed to be waiting a long time and Paul's OCD was beginning to kick in and he was getting very stressed about being late for dinner.
Once he came out we headed for the exit via On Location where Amelia and I ran in and bought that sodding Dora the Explorer back pack (the one that's been in a toy box under her bed since our return). I also snapped this pic of my nemesis RRR which looked pretty cool at dusk.
Once back at OKW, I unpacked and hung up our swimwear that was still wet from yesterday. Somehow Paul managed to bring a HRH towel back with us. Only a washed out floor towel you get out the shower onto. It didn't even have HRH written on it or anything which was disappointing. I hoped we wouldn't get charged for it (we didn't).
We got showered/bathed and changed, met the others and drove to TTC, parked in Hook 85 and then caught the resort monorail to the Polynesian, arriving just before our 7:10pm reservation. I forgot my camera which I was GUTTED about. The only photo I managed to get tonight was this rubbish poorly lit one on the way in before the battery on my phone died
Dinner was, as always, LUSH! We had one of the best tables in the restaurant, over-looking Cinderella's castle. We were brought our drinks and then had a bit of a wait for the food to come round. We had pork dumplings (my favourite!), chicken wings, noodles, salad and veggies to start and then they brought round steak and pork and shrimp on the big skewers. There was lots of speculation before we went about them changing the menu, and I can confirm, there was definitely no chicken on the skewers as there had been on our last trip. I did kind of miss this actually.
I wish I had of grabbed something for Amelia from Goods to Go on the way as she hardly touched her dinner and fell asleep on the chair again . Service was slow in between them bringing seconds of everything. But the food great and cooked to perfection. All of us had the giggles tonight which helped with the slow service as I guess it could have been a whole different atmosphere.
We watched the electrical water pageant and then Paul heard the people on the next table ask if they could be moved to our table when we leave so naturally we took as long as possible and ordered more coffee. For the three adult meals, plus Amelia's kids meal, the bill came to $166.78 including tax. Of course it didn't cost us a thing though thanks to the dining plan.
We took the resort monorail back to TTC where we saw Holiday Wishes from it. If only we'd ordered another cup of coffee! We could have watched the fireworks from our table.
We had the best tram driver EVER on the way to the car lot! She was hilarious! Because we were in such a silly mood, everything she said was just hilarious and none of us could stop laughing, which made everyone else on the tram laugh. It was contagious! She spoke really fast in her hick Floridian accent which went something like this…
"Welcome back aboard the Heroes tram. Now as you listen to this safety message, should you drop anything from the tram, take a cue from our friend Elsa… (sings) Let it go, let it go, then come back and let me know… and we'll get someone to retrieve that item for you. Please make sure you're holding on to everyone and everything, especially hold on to those balloons, we wouldn’t want you going home holding on to expensive bits of string… The speed limit in our parking lot is an roaming, believing … dare I say…. 15 MILES PER HOUR!
Should you encounter any trouble with your vehicle today, like you can't find it, it won't start, or maybe ya' locked your keys in there for safe keeping, not to worry, head back to the tram that dropped you off and flag down security. They're the white SUV's with blinking green and yellow lights on top and a mickey mouse logo on the side that says Security. They're more than happy to assist you..
And to find our one and only exit, please follow the giant white arrows located in every row of our parking lot, they will lead you towards that exit. If you don't follow those arrows, I'll see ya later
Our first stop tonight will be the heroes of Alladdin. Allabeen, Allagime, Allabino, to your drivers left hand side…
As we approach our stop, please remain seated until our tram has come to a full and complete stop. That is when the tram and the ground are moving at exactly the same speed.
You're going to exit to your drivers left hand side, the drivers left hand side only.
On behalf of the driver and myself, thank you folks for visiting us today at magic kingdom, we hope you had a magical time and a magical journey in this magical place on this magical day (whispers: magical…)
We were wetting ourselves laughing (not literally). It probably doesn't sound funny at all when reading this and it's probably a case of you had to be there. But that evening made our holiday and we still talk about it (magical).
DISCLAIMER: I most certainly did not in any way shape or form, record that announcement on my phone later on in the holiday when she was on our tram again. And I most certainly did not just sit here playing it over and over again, stopping and starting the video every few seconds so that I could write it down in my trip report. That would just be insane.
When we arrived back at OKW, Mousekeeping hadn't done anything at all in the room. The towels were left on the armchair like she intended on changing them bur forgot. The bed wasn't made and our towels were still in the bath where we'd left them. There was a slightly damp smell when we came in too which I out down to the towels, but it remained for the rest of the trip, although I couldn't find the source. Despite not doing anything, she still took the mousekeeping tip and the cadbury's Freddo bar we left out for her!
We had a cup of tea on the balcony and then went to bed, exhausted again after our two early mornings.
UNIVERSAL SUMMARY:
Great couple of days. The one night stay at Hard Rock Hotel was worth every penny for the FOL passes alone. I wish we could have had more time to use the pool as we had great fun in there, and we also missed all of City Walk completely.
The Star Card/Photo Connect: I wouldn't say this is not worth the money as it was quite inexpensive to book in advance, but in comparison to the Disney parks, there really wasn't that much character interaction at all. I think we only had about 10 photos at the end of our stay. They could make this so much better, just the same as the parades. I just felt there was no spark, no enthusiasm from any of the CM's and certainly no magic. But maybe it's because we have been spoilt for the past 7 days in the Disney Parks. Maybe in future visits we should do the Universal parks on our first two days.
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