Wait this doesn't have alcohol? Oct 2014 TR *Updated 4/30*

We decided since we were there we would get some ice cream, its not like we just ate or something:rolleyes1. I got the butterbeer which was soft serve and my dad got the chocolate chili. The butterbeer was meh, I had just gotten nasal surgery the month before and I was still healing so my taste was affected but, to me, this just tasted like vanilla. My dad thought the chocolate chili was good but didn’t finish it because it was too much. I had a taste and it taste like chocolate with a spicy after taste, weird. While we ate our ice cream, we walked round an took more pictures waiting for the show to begin.

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The show is from tales from Beetle the Bard. They act out one of two stories. Today they were doing the Tale of the Three Brothers which is in Deathly Hallows part 1 and one of my favorites part of any of the movies. This is such a beautiful part in the movie and is the thing that really ties the entire series together and I was excited to get to watch it acted out.


Seriously, this show is awesome. The pictures really don't do it justice but it is so much more than a puppet show. After an amazing performance, I wanted to go back to Knockturn Alley to get some pictures inside Borgin and Burkes. This is the Dark Arts shop where many dark artifacts from the movies are located.





At this point, I could tell my dad was getting bored. I could have stayed for a lot longer taking in every little detail but we decided it was time to move on. It was time to ride the Hogwarts Express.
 
I took my mother last April. She and my son were getting worn out and bored right around lunch, on the first day there! So, I took them back to the hotel, made them sandwiches, and swam in the pool. I see why people do solo trips.
 


ashw100 said:
I got the butterbeer which was soft serve and my dad got the chocolate chili. The butterbeer was meh, I had just gotten nasal surgery the month before and I was still healing so my taste was affected but, to me, this just tasted like vanilla. My dad thought the chocolate chili was good but didn’t finish it because it was too much. I had a taste and it taste like chocolate with a spicy after taste, weird.
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Chocolate Chili??? Wow... I mean I love chocolate... but I'm just not even sure I could convince myself to order that.

ashw100 said:
Seriously, this show is awesome. The pictures really don't do it justice but it is so much more than a puppet show. After an amazing performance, I wanted to go back to Knockturn Alley to get some pictures inside Borgin and Burkes. This is the Dark Arts shop where many dark artifacts from the movies are located.
Click to expand...
I'm glad you enjoyed the show! I've heard good things about it, but I haven't really seen any pictures. I didn't even realize it was a puppet show.
 
Gracefulskinny said:
I've seen the performances on youtube. They really did do them beautifully.
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It really is a must do in my opinion, so great.

chs27 said:
I took my mother last April. She and my son were getting worn out and bored right around lunch, on the first day there! So, I took them back to the hotel, made them sandwiches, and swam in the pool. I see why people do solo trips.
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Yeah, me too. You can do whatever you want whenever without having to worry about others needs, maybe one ay I can do it.

afwdwfan said:
Chocolate Chili??? Wow... I mean I love chocolate... but I'm just not even sure I could convince myself to order that.

I'm glad you enjoyed the show! I've heard good things about it, but I haven't really seen any pictures. I didn't even realize it was a puppet show.
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Lol, it was an interesting flavor to say the least. Its a very good show definitely worth your time if you make it there.
 
Then, we decided it was time to ride the Hogwarts Express. The wait was about twenty minutes and it was super cold in there. Again, the theming is spot on. I have been to the real King’s Cross and while not identical you do get the feel what it is like.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qBpiDV]

At one point you cross from the main area onto platform 9 ¾ which is freaking awesome. You see the people cross over. I tried to capture it best I could with pictures but it is really something to must see in person.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qz86rd]​
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjQAN9][url=https://flic.kr/p/qjQ9Uf][url=https://flic.kr/p/pEpb3w][url=https://flic.kr/p/qBphZP]
The ride simulates a trip over to school. The windows are actually screens that show you passing from London into the countryside and doors are made to look like frosted glass and you can see and hear people passing by. I think they had the lunch trolley lady and then Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The one really off putting thing here is Hermione’s voice. They couldn’t get Daniel Radcliff or Emma Watson to come back to voice the characters or do the acting in Escape from Gringott’s so, they used other people. For the ride, I barely noticed because I was having too much fun but on the train, wow. Fake Hermione sounded nothing like Emma Watson and for me, it really ruined the affect. I mean how do you go to so much detail for every last thing about WWoHP but not find someone who even remotely sounds like one of the main characters. Okay sorry, rant over. Once we arrived in Hogsmeade, I was excited to explore it during the day. First things first, I NEEDED to get on Forbidden Journey again. The wait was only about 20 minutes so not bad.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjQ9tL]

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After another amazing ride we went to the Hippogriff ride. This is a little dinky roller coaster that I normally wouldn’t have wasted time on but I wanted to see Hagrid’s house so we went. Somehow I lost most of the pictures from this ride.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qBpgZc]

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We saw the Hogwarts singers out which was cool.


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By this time it was 10:30 and we were wiped. I felt pretty accomplished with what we had done so we went back for a break. [/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
 


After a pretty long nap we got up around 1 I think. I really wanted to check out the pool so we decided to go swimming. I didn’t even bring my phone so I have no pictures but this pool is awesome. It was nice to relax with some tropical drinks and soak up the sun. I think after about an hour we got out and ready to head back to the parks as there were still a few things I wanted to do. We went to IOA first.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qBe3L4]




We went straight back to Hogsmeade Village and decided to ride Dueling Dragons. I tried to tell him we had done this in 2007 before WWoHP but of course we didn’t remember.


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We chose the Hungarian Horntail side.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjRdHs]​



This is fun coaster but to me nothing you couldn’t get at your local Six Flags. I really wanted to check out the Three Broomsticks so we went there for a beer.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qz83XW]

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[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjRdqd][url=https://flic.kr/p/qBpfKD]

I made sure to remind my dad about Butterbeer :rotfl2:and we both went with the Hogshead brew.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qBpfzi]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjXyYV]​
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qjXyYV]

While drinking our beer we were trying to decide what we wanted to do. There were only two things left I wanted to experience but since we were near my new favorite ride we decided to go again. This time we wanted to try out the single rider line. We walked all the way to where the lines spilt up. I was a little nervous because I know my dad needs the modified seat. They needed a party of two so we got to ride together the only problem was that the two girls with us got on first and took the modified seat. And of course, we got this tiny little girl team member who couldn’t get the seat to click three times. Well this is a continuously moving platform and platform was about to end so we had to get off. We were taken backstage and filtered back to the split off area. And then we had what was probably the worst experience of the trip. The team member there was very rude. She made my dad get in the test and said it must light up green. I think he got it to light up yellow but it was a no go. The team member said he couldn’t ride. We tried to explain the situation, he had already ridden twice, we didn’t get the modified seat, blah blah blah. She was horrible and mean about it. This type of situation requires a delicacy and sensitivity which she had neither. I was on the verge of tears, it was embarrassing for my dad and I felt bad for him. She said I could ride by myself but there was no way in heck I was leaving him. I was sad because I was hoping to ride this again the next day but there was no way I was going to possibly subject him to that treatment again so we just left. Now I am in no way upset that he couldn’t ride. I get it, safety has to come first but, the situation could have been handled a whole lot better than it was. After that experience, I was feeling pretty dejected but I didn’t want my dad to feel worse about me not being able to ride so I put on a smile and trucked on. I honestly have no idea what we did after this and I have no photos. I think we probably headed out of the park and went to Citywalk. At some point we ate at Emril’s restaurant and had a nice dinner there. We had some drinks at the outdoor bars and again at the bar in the hotel and then went to bed. Sorry there isn’t more to this might but like I said I was sad about the ride so we ended drinking, having a good and just spending quality father/daughter time together. [/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
 
ashw100 said:
At one point you cross from the main area onto platform 9 ¾ which is freaking awesome. You see the people cross over. I tried to capture it best I could with pictures but it is really something to must see in person.
Click to expand...
Wow... cool! I do need to get over there sometime and check out all the new updates to the park!

ashw100 said:
The ride simulates a trip over to school. The windows are actually screens that show you passing from London into the countryside and doors are made to look like frosted glass and you can see and hear people passing by. I think they had the lunch trolley lady and then Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The one really off putting thing here is Hermione’s voice. They couldn’t get Daniel Radcliff or Emma Watson to come back to voice the characters or do the acting in Escape from Gringott’s so, they used other people. For the ride, I barely noticed because I was having too much fun but on the train, wow. Fake Hermione sounded nothing like Emma Watson and for me, it really ruined the affect. I mean how do you go to so much detail for every last thing about WWoHP but not find someone who even remotely sounds like one of the main characters. Okay sorry, rant over. Once we arrived in Hogsmeade, I was excited to explore it during the day. First things first, I NEEDED to get on Forbidden Journey again. The wait was only about 20 minutes so not bad.
Click to expand...
First of all, the train ride sounds amazing. That would be really cool to check out. As for the voices, that's a big disappointment. I agree, for all the effort they put into everything, they could surely find someone to do the voice better.

ashw100 said:
We went straight back to Hogsmeade Village and decided to ride Dueling Dragons. I tried to tell him we had done this in 2007 before WWoHP but of course we didn’t remember.
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Well, it was a much different experience back then. :rolleyes1

ashw100 said:
This is fun coaster but to me nothing you couldn’t get at your local Six Flags.
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::yes:: Agreed.

ashw100 said:
While drinking our beer we were trying to decide what we wanted to do. There were only two things left I wanted to experience but since we were near my new favorite ride we decided to go again. This time we wanted to try out the single rider line. We walked all the way to where the lines spilt up. I was a little nervous because I know my dad needs the modified seat. They needed a party of two so we got to ride together the only problem was that the two girls with us got on first and took the modified seat. And of course, we got this tiny little girl team member who couldn’t get the seat to click three times. Well this is a continuously moving platform and platform was about to end so we had to get off. We were taken backstage and filtered back to the split off area. And then we had what was probably the worst experience of the trip. The team member there was very rude. She made my dad get in the test and said it must light up green. I think he got it to light up yellow but it was a no go. The team member said he couldn’t ride. We tried to explain the situation, he had already ridden twice, we didn’t get the modified seat, blah blah blah. She was horrible and mean about it. This type of situation requires a delicacy and sensitivity which she had neither. I was on the verge of tears, it was embarrassing for my dad and I felt bad for him. She said I could ride by myself but there was no way in heck I was leaving him. I was sad because I was hoping to ride this again the next day but there was no way I was going to possibly subject him to that treatment again so we just left. Now I am in no way upset that he couldn’t ride. I get it, safety has to come first but, the situation could have been handled a whole lot better than it was. After that experience, I was feeling pretty dejected but I didn’t want my dad to feel worse about me not being able to ride so I put on a smile and trucked on. I honestly have no idea what we did after this and I have no photos. I think we probably headed out of the park and went to Citywalk. At some point we ate at Emril’s restaurant and had a nice dinner there. We had some drinks at the outdoor bars and again at the bar in the hotel and then went to bed. Sorry there isn’t more to this might but like I said I was sad about the ride so we ended drinking, having a good and just spending quality father/daughter time together.
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Oh wow. Sorry about that. Not the way you want to end your day at the park at all. I'm sorry they didn't handle the situation any better than that. Not cool at all. I hope it didn't end up putting a damper on the rest of your time in Universal.
 
What a horribly rude team member! That's up there with the lady at Target today that assumed I was pregnant (I'm not) and then patted my belly and said "You should really look in to wearing a girdle." :rolleyes:
 
afwdwfan said:
First of all, the train ride sounds amazing. That would be really cool to check out. As for the voices, that's a big disappointment. I agree, for all the effort they put into everything, they could surely find someone to do the voice better.
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Right? I mean it can't be that hard to find someone who sounds like her, voice actor imitate voices all the time.

afwdwfan said:
Well, it was a much different experience back then. :rolleyes1
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It definitely was different he still wouldn't have remember though :rotfl2:


afwdwfan said:
Oh wow. Sorry about that. Not the way you want to end your day at the park at all. I'm sorry they didn't handle the situation any better than that. Not cool at all. I hope it didn't end up putting a damper on the rest of your time in Universal.
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Yeah, it was definitely poorly handled, thankfully we moved on and had a fun night.

Gracefulskinny said:
What a horribly rude team member! That's up there with the lady at Target today that assumed I was pregnant (I'm not) and then patted my belly and said "You should really look in to wearing a girdle." :rolleyes:
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OMG, people are ridiculous, I am sorry that happened.
 
This morning did not start off well. After one drink too many the night before, I was not feeling well. Thankfully, I got hydrated and was good to go soon enough. We checked out of the hotel and left our bags with bell services and made our way, one last time, to the parks. We went to IOA first because I wanted to take the train back to London. We got to the parks and it was about 10:30. There weren’t many options for food so we stopped at a pretzel stand thinking that they would be nice and fresh and hit the spot. We were so wrong. The pretzel was so stale that it had to be from the night before and I got a coke that tasted so funky I had to throw it out. After another miss at IOA I was ready to get moving. We got to Hogsmeade by 11:15 and made our way to the Hogwarts Express.






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Hogsmeade was crowded. If I had one complaint about this area, it would be it was too small. I completely understand wanting to stay true to Harry Potter. However, you won't find a bigger Harry Potter geek than me and even I would have taken bigger walkways and stores for a better guest experience here. For anyone who doesn't know, the ride back is completely different. It simulates you leaving school and entering London. It has to be done each way.
Once in Diagon Alley, I needed one more Butterbeer before we left.


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My dad got the Dragon something or other beer. It was a dark which my dad isn’t fond of but he drank it anyway. I sat on the step which is the stage for the performances and called my boys. It was nice to just sit there sipping my Butterbeer soaking in my last few moments in this magical world.
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Once we left, we decided to try out the Simpson’s ride to see if it was really that fun or the beer clouded our judgment last time:rolleyes1. This ride should have been a walk on with the Express pass but they held as the doors for 15 minutes. We could see streams of people being let in from the regular line but no one let us in. The people in line were getting very impatient and I don’t know what the problem was or what but it was annoying. Finally, when we were let in to room we waited another 15 minutes for our ride vehicle. But, I can finally report this ride is really fun whether you have liquid influence or not:thumbsup2. By this point our nasty pretzels were wearing off and we were hungry again. I really wanted to try out the Simpsons QS so we went to try again. The line was not as long but still was about 4 switch backs. They have a very interesting system here. Everyone waits in line and they have different windows similar to Cosmic Rays. They hold everyone in line and then let groups of people in to the order area. I have to say it was very organized and even though the line looked intimidating we only waited about 15 minutes. Once you order and get your food, you pay and then a team member finds a table for you. WDW defiantly need to adopt these practices. I got a Krusty burger. It was okay, pretty much a normal burger but, I got to eat it in Moe’s Bar so that was pretty cool.



IMG_4706 by ashw100, on Flickr​
After our lunch I wanted to ride E.T. since that was the only ride I remember from Universal Hollywood when I was 8. It is a cute little ride and I hope they don't get rid of it. Next, I tried to get a picture of Spongebob for the boys but ,he was on break. I had to settle for the Pineapple not under the sea.

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We had one more ride to try and that was The Mummy. This ride was really fun, I wish I had ridden it again.
We also got in rides at Transformers since it was a walk on with the express pass. Finally, I had to en with Rip, Ride, Rocket. This is such an intense rollercoaster but so much fun. Fun thing though, As soon as you start heading up the incline and are basically flat on your back, my only thought was why the @#!% did I want to ride this again. That is some scary stuff but so fun.
https://flic.kr/p/pECup4
Soon, it was time to leave :sad:. I wanted to try Menchies because, I had heard great things about it. I got to try their dole whip. I haven't had the one at WDW but, I am assuming they are the same since this was Dole pineapple soft serve. I still can't wait to get one at WDW though. After stuffing our face with ice cream, it was really time to go. I didn't want to have the vacation end but, I was very glad to be going home to my boys. The trip back was uneventful and it was good to be home.

That's all folks! I'll do a wrap up and final thoughts post soon.
 
ashw100 said:
There weren’t many options for food so we stopped at a pretzel stand thinking that they would be nice and fresh and hit the spot. We were so wrong. The pretzel was so stale that it had to be from the night before and I got a coke that tasted so funky I had to throw it out.
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Yuck... That stinks.

ashw100 said:
Also, why is okay to see a big steel rollercoaster in Hogsmeade but not make things bigger and easier to navigate in large crowds:confused3, just sayin.
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I can't disagree with that logic! It is a tight area to navigate, for sure.

ashw100 said:
Once we left, we decided to try out the Simpson’s ride to see if it was really that fun or the beer clouded our judgment last time:rolleyes1. This ride should have been a walk on with the Express pass but they held as the doors for 15 minutes. We could see streams of people being let in from the regular line but no one let us in.
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That's frustrating. If you're paying extra, or paying for one of their hotels to get that Express Pass, you expect them to let you use it as intended.

ashw100 said:
Finally, when we were let in to room we waited another 15 minutes for our ride vehicle. But, I can finally report this ride is really fun whether you have liquid influence or not:thumbsup2.
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I'm glad it didn't let you down!

ashw100 said:
They have a very interesting system here. Everyone waits in line and they have different windows similar to Cosmic Rays. They hold everyone in line and then let groups of people in to the order area. I have to say it was very organized and even though the line looked intimidating we only waited about 15 minutes. Once you order and get your food, you pay and then a team member finds a table for you. WDW defiantly need to adopt these practices. I got a Krusty burger. It was okay, pretty much a normal burger but, I got to eat it in Moe’s Bar so that was pretty cool.
Click to expand...
Sounds convenient. And big bonus for eating in Moes!

ashw100 said:
After our lunch I wanted to ride E.T. since that was the only ride I remember from Universal Hollywood when I was 8. It is a cute little ride and I hope they don't get rid of it.
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Give them time, I'm sure E.T. will be gone too. Everything else is... :rolleyes1

I kid though, I love the new additions that they've made to the parks there, but I do miss Jaws and Back to the Future!

ashw100 said:
Finally, I had to en with Rip, Ride, Rocket. This is such an intense rollercoaster but so much fun. Fun thing though, As soon as you start heading up the incline and are basically flat on your back, my only thought was why the @#!% did I want to ride this again. That is some scary stuff but so fun.
Click to expand...
Excellent choice to end on! So much fun!

Looks like it was a good father/daughter trip overall!
 
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