Day 14 – Orlando Trip Report, September 2018

Full disclosure, despite having been to Universal in the past and thoroughly enjoyed my time there this time round I was very underwhelmed. I found the majority of the staff to be rude and not concerned with safety (we were to told to “hurry up, move quickly!” whilst getting onto the moving walkway for Forbidden Journey ?!) and the rides to be a bit too simulator-y and lacking ride again appeal. Overall I would go back to Universal again but I’m not in any rush. Next time I’d probably dedicate one full day to the parks and that would satisfy my craving – however I do still want to go to Volcano Bay.

Here was our basic itinerary for the day:

• Morning Park: Universal Studios
• Afternoon Park: Islands Of Adventure
• Evening: Dinner in Hard Rock Cafe

Day 14 – Monday 17th September 2018

Today we didn’t really have a plan as such, because it’s my sister who’s really into Harry Potter we had left it up to her to decide how we were going to spend our time in the Universal parks. Today she wanted to see the shows she hadn’t managed to see so far, watch the Hogwarts castle light show and have a butter beer. We also wanted to do Jimmy Fallon and Fast & Furious because they were new rides to us. I opted not to go into the parks for the early morning because I woke up feeling a little sick, I think it was the start of my post-Disney depression. My mum and sister headed off around 8:15 whilst I lay in bed a little longer and took my time getting ready. I stopped at Emack & Bolio’s Marketplace and grabbed a bottle of water and a croissant for breakfast and ate them on the walk to the park – you can get a water taxi between the hotel and the parks but honestly it takes around 10 minutes to walk to the entrance of Universal Studios and the walk is quite nice. I met my mum and sister at the entrance of Universal Studios and we went on Minion Mayhem, fun and cute but definitely wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes for it. After the ride we purchased the Universal Refillable mugs. They were around $14 each as we purchased 3 at the same time and we could get free refills all day from any coke freestyle machine or slushy cart.

Then we headed off to Jimmy Fallon race through New York – this is a “queue-less ride”. You get given a card with a colour on it and you’re allowed to explore the areas whilst you wait for your colour to pop up signalling you can move on to the next area (1. Hall of fame museum type room, 2. Show room with live performers and iPad games & 3. A queue to the safety briefing). All in all it was a bit of a process, the ride itself was alright, good to do once but not one I’d rush to go on again and again. Next we headed into Diagon Alley to grab an ice cream and watch some of the shows. We watched both the Tales of Beedle the Bard and Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees and I have to say they were pretty good.

After we took the train over to Hogsmeade to watch the Triwizard Spirit Rally and the Frog Choir before going on Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff. Then we wandered back to Superhero Isle to ride Hulk and eat in Captain America’s diner – I had the chicken sandwich and some of mum’s chicken salad and both were pretty tasty. We refilled our mugs then walked back to Hogsmeade to do a little shopping and then get the train back over to Studios (benefit of a park hopper and no I wasn’t exaggerating when I said my sister was a major potter fan). Once back in Diagon Alley we rode Escape from Gringotts then headed to Men In Black and then on to Fast & Furious – this is one ride I will not be riding again. I’ve not seen any of the movies but the ride itself was so short and basically the same idea as Kong but with less impressive features & was a lot less immersive. After a disappointing ride on F&F we did a bit of shopping and then headed back to the hotel to chill for a bit.

Once slightly more refreshed we headed back out to Islands Of Adventure to watch the Hogwarts Light Show. It’s around 5 minutes long and seemed to run every 15 minutes. The staff basically cordon off the area and make guests stop in a crowd for 5 minutes whilst the show is on, meaning once the projections have finished a wave of people descend upon the castle and it can feel a bit panicky but that feeling soon disperses. After watching the show we headed to the Leaky cauldron for a butter beer and an ice cream before watching it for a second time and then riding Forbidden Journey again. My sister then did her major shopping of the holiday because even I will admit the gift shop as you exit FJ probably has some of the cooler HP merchandise. We exited Hogsmeade and stopped along the way to refill our mugs with lemon slushies (I think around our 8th refill of some sort of the day) before heading over to Hard Rock for dinner. I had the pulled pork sandwich which I always have at Hard Rock because it is one of the yummiest things on the menu and it didn’t disappoint. After our feed in Hard Rock we headed back to the hotel for some well deserved rest.

Thus marked the end of our final full day in Orlando, tomorrow we spend a bit of time in the parks before heading to the airport to fly home. Until next time…