I woke up just before the alarms that I never actually turned off this week. It was moving day. Eventually I got up and got dressed and then woke up Nick so I could turn lights on in the room. We got packed up, ate some doughnuts, and made sure we had everything. We weren’t in a massive rush today, although my goal was to get into Diagon Alley before early park entry ended, but we still managed to be walking out of the room about 7:00. We headed for the lobby, stored our luggage, took a picture of the claim tag, and then headed for the boat dock.
Although we didn’t get to the boat dock until a few minutes after 7:00 this morning, we still ended up on the first boat from the resort of the day, because the boats were behind schedule. Go figure.
This morning’s boat captain must have been a former Jungle Cruise skipper because he was PUNNY. It was great! It was an even more enjoyable ride over to CityWalk.
It was a short walk to the front gate of Universal, where there were really only a handful of people waiting. I debated our opening strategy until they opened the gates at 7:45, and then we headed for Minions.
Minions was cute, but rough. I think this might have been a Jimmy Neutron ride the last time I was in this park?
After Minions, we headed back to Diagon Alley. Time to see it in the daylight!
Our first stop was Gringotts. At 8:15ish AM, it was still basically a walk-on. Knowing all the reviews suggested anyone bigger than me wouldn’t fit on this ride, I made Nick do the test seat before going inside. He fit! So we both headed in and were on the ride pretty quickly. This was a really fun ride!
After Gringotts, I did some picture taking on our way to get some real breakfast.
Nick was sweets’d out and needed some real food. Leaky Cauldron it is! At this hour (about 8:40?), the line was minimal, so pretty soon we were inside. Nick got the American breakfast which includes eggs, meats, and a croissant. I got the apple oatmeal flan breakfast which came with fruit and yogurt. I also got the pumpkin juice.
Breakfast here was delicious. Mine was the winner, but Nick announced his was exactly what he needed. Pumpkin juice is (and I knew this, which is why I was willing to try it) essentially spiced cider, and that was quite tasty. Not the cheapest breakfast by any stretch of the imagination, but it was filling and pretty satisfying.
After breakfast we did a lot more picture taking before leaving Diagon Alley.
After breakfast we did a lot more picture taking before leaving Diagon Alley.
When we left Diagon Alley, more pictures were necessary. Not pictured, because I wasn’t fast enough, but…we even saw Kreacher in the window at Grimmauld Place!
Now…the NOLA picture probably stands out. The NOLA decor was obviously because of the Mardi Gras festivities. So why’d we need to take a selfie with it? Well…NOLA is kind of our favorite city. AND…next year’s February vacation includes some time in NOLA, because we’re (hopefully) finally getting back on a Disney Cruise. And we are sailing out of NOLA! So…just a little preview of next year’s trip report!
Picture taking mostly complete, we started working our way around the park, hitting the majority of the attractions. First up was Men in Black. This was fun. I mean, really…anytime you’re shooting things on a ride, it’s usually fun. As an added bonus, it wasn’t a screen-based ride.
Next up was the Simpsons. This is essentially a simulator, making fun of Americans on vacation at a theme park. It was amusing, if not a bit rough. And there was a very accurate sign in the pre-show area. Vacations summarized!
From here it was off to a classic: ET. We basically walked on. This is one of the few rides that I also rode 20ish years ago. It’s cute, and a nice change of pace from the simulators.
After ET, I texted the hotel that we had checked out. Remember, Universal doesn’t let you charge to your room before you have a room number or after you vacate the room. You have until 11:00 to check out, and you can check out via text (or front desk, or email). I’m in points hoarding mode right now for future vacations we are mapping out, and one of the easier ways currently for me to rack up points to use for travel is to earn at places that code as travel. Hotel stays, including room charges code as travel. Random expenses in theme parks do not. So I waited until we had done things like re-activate the Freestyle cups, on the room charge, before checking out. Yes, Nick eyes glaze over when I start talking about this stuff, but hey…the points strategizing helps us go more places!
Next up was The Mummy. I guess I was expecting more of a roller coaster here. Instead The Mummy was like a cross between a dark ride and a roller coaster, and neither quite hit the nail on the head. Nick’s review at the end, however, was terrific. Direct quote: “my nuts hurt”. The mummy had hard plastic seats with cheek imprints and a lap bar with a plastic piece between the legs. Apparently it was a problematic combination and it’s a good thing we aren’t having kids.
From here it was off to Transformers, where we snuck by a 60 minute standby line, and waited about 15-20 minutes with Express Pass instead. This one was a lot like Spiderman, but Transformers instead. Having never seen Transformers, but listened to a lot of young children talk about them, I was surprised by the intensity of this one’s content, but apparently that’s typical for Transformers.
Our last attraction, because who needs to ride Twirl n’ Hurl or Rip Ride Rocket, and Nick doesn’t like Jimmy Fallon, was Fast and the Furious. This one merges the Express Pass queue way too early, so it did us no good at all, but the wait was only as long as it was because of apparent ride vehicle loading mismanagement. We were on the ride in 20ish minutes or so. I’m not really sure how to describe this particular attraction.
Back to Diagon Alley! I wanted one more ride on Gringotts. Nick decided to sit this one out, so I left my stuff with him, including my phone, rather than fighting with the lockers, while he filled up the Freestyle cups (that we had reactivated earlier in the morning). He said he’d meet me in Diagon Alley, so I headed for the ride. The posted standby wait here was about 45 minutes. I’m not sure where they stop calculating that, but using Express, I was in the preshow in about 5 minutes. Gringotts was very fun again, actually more fun, because I wasn’t thinking about whether or not Nick liked the ride. I was just focused on the experience.
When I exited Gringotts, I looked around and…didn’t find Nick. I checked the obvious areas, and then I started looking for the areas in Diagon Alley with the most shade, because NH boy. And I found him. He’d found a back corner under cover with a bench to park himself on to charge his phone.
Once Nick had been located, and had wrapped up whatever level of whichever game he was playing on the phone, we made our way to Florean Fortescue’s for some ice cream! Surprisingly, given that it was well after noon, the line wasn’t very long and we had ice cream in hand pretty quickly. I got the butterbeer soft serve ice cream in a waffle cone, and Nick got the soft serve toffee apple in a cup. Nick said his was basically the flavor burst stuff they sell at the beach, which made him very happy. I have no idea what mine was, but it was delicious!
Ice cream consumed, I took a few more pictures and then we went in search of actual food.
This led us back to the same booths we went to the day before. One more round of poutine and gumbo please!
From here it was back to the Colombia booth for another refill of the Coco Loco. This was a lot heavier on the lime today, but still pretty good.
While consuming more empty calories, we discussed our game plan, and eventually determined there was nothing else we just had to re-ride. So we made our way to the Tribute Store. This was pretty cool. Apparently it changes seasonally, so right now it’s all Mardi Gras. It’s several rooms of merchandise, sweet treats, and displays. Looks like at some points in the day they have music too.
Next up, was the main store near the entrance to kill off the last few dollars on the Universal gift card. I picked up a photo album in case I ever get around to printing 5+ years of vacation pictures. Then we made our way to the exit of the park, pretty happy with how this leg of the trip had gone, and pretty amazed that we had finished everything we wanted to do in both parks, before 2 pm of our second park day.
We strolled pretty leisurely to the boat dock, where they once again, moved aside queue rope and directed us to a boat that others had boarded and been sitting on. This time we sat up front because that’s where the seats were, and we departed almost immediately after Nick and I boarded. It was, as usual, a quick ride back to Portofino.
Back at Portofino we hung out for a bit in the comfy chairs off the lobby, right near some big windows overlooking the water. It was a great spot to chill and kill some time until it was a logical time to move to the next hotel.
A little after 3, we headed for luggage services where our luggage was quickly retrieved, and the dude seemed surprised that our 5 bags (two carry ons, 2 suitcases, and a Bubba Gumps bag full of souvenir cups) was all we had. I mean, there are only 2 of us!
We headed for the car and were a bit more successful with the parking garage elevator this time than we had been upon arrival, and had no issues finding the car, exactly where we had left it. We loaded the car up, programmed old Google, and we were on our way.
Traffic on I-4 wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated, but there was plenty. We were at our next hotel within about half an hour, me marveling over how built up the Flamingo Crossing area had gotten so quickly. I used to use the exit right next to it from 429 coming down from the Villages, and that wasn’t THAT long ago.
Anyway, I left Nick in the car while I ran in to check in to the Towneplace Suites Flamingo Crossing. Check in was quick, and pretty soon Nick and I were headed up to our room, 206, a king bed studio room. This hotel definitely knows its audience, given the Galaxy's Edge appearance of the elevators. The room showed that it gets some serious traffic, but was clean and extremely well appointed for the price.
We settled in and eventually started deciding what we wanted for dinner. I considered a few options but eventually realized that I liked the idea of eating in relative quiet. So…we ordered a cheese pizza and asiago pepperoni bites from Flippers and, after a stop at the Target across from our hotel for soda, where it was essentially confirmed by the amount of Pedialyte being purchased by others (including one guy that reeked of vomit as he walked by) that a stomach bug was rampant, I went to pick them up. The online ordering was super easy, and Flippers was just one exit down the highway, and RIGHT off the highway. It was not as easy to get back to the hotel, because why with 6 hotels, shopping, dining, and apartments out here are there no traffic lights coming off the highway? So I drove down Western Way about a mile towards Disney, banged a U-ey, and then worked my way back to the hotel, instead of trying to go left off the highway.
No pictures, but dinner was delicious. After dinner, I showered and crashed early.
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