Thursday, January 7th.
I worked on Thursday, and then met up with my daughter, husband and MIL for our traditional weekly Family Dinner. We went out for steak (yum) and then I watched Garbage Time with Katie Nolan from Wednesday night with Dave, because we always watch it together and we didn’t want to wait a week to see it. After that, Brit and I loaded up the car and drove to the airport hotel we were staying at. We got checked in, and then took the car over to the parking lot (we got free off-site airport parking with the overnight stay, which is why we went.)
It was a Holiday Inn Express, so fairly basic, but it was just what we needed. We fiddled with our luggage a bit, both took showers, and by 11 or so we were tucked into bed reading. I don’t know when I finally fell asleep, but I didn’t sleep well because I forgot my Benadryl! For the last few years I’ve taken Benadryl at night to sleep, with my doctor’s blessing. But I didn’t have any and so it took me forever to fall asleep, and then I woke up multiple times.
We wanted to catch the 9:05 shuttle to the airport, so by 8:30 we were up and dressed. We went and picked at the free continental breakfast, but neither of us are big breakfast eaters, so we didn’t eat much. We went back to the room for our bags, checked out of the room, and right at 9:05, the shuttle showed up.
It was pretty crowded so we weren’t able to put our rolling suitcases on the little shelf inside, we had to hold them, but soon enough we were at the airport.
One of the things I like about DTW is that each terminal has its own security line, and there’s a couple others. We dropped our checked bags and were through security in almost no time at all, but that was good, because the 10:40 flight started boarding at 9:55. We had just enough time to grab water and snacks from a nearby store, and go to the bathroom, and then it was time to get on the plane!
We had the middle and window seat, so of course I let DD21 sit by the window, because that’s what mom’s do. Our third row-mate was a woman who never said a word to us during the flight, but honestly, that’s fine by me. I’m not huge on stranger interactions and there’s nothing worse than being stuck next to someone chatty when you’re in a confined space.
We took off, and the pilot told us we’d be landing a bit early (yay, tailwinds) and so I settled back to read on my Kindle. Eventually I got sleepy so I put on my headphones and listened to the book I was listening to overnight trying to sleep - Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes. I love that book, so it’s good “comfort reading”.
I dozed, and soon we were landing.
Landing so early, there was still another plane at our gate, so we had to wait. Looking at my texts to my husband, at 1:05 we had landed and weren’t at the gate yet.
When we got off the plane it took me a few minutes to find the Universal Store. We’d booked a package, which I know isn’t always the best, financially, but I wanted everything in one place. We were taking their new Superstar Shuttle to the hotel. They texted me saying where to meet them, and then when a different shuttle was sent to us instead, they texted me again with an update of the shuttle number. We got all our stuff from the Universal Store in a cute little binder, and then we were off to grab our bags and find our shuttle parking spot.
There was a bit of a wait, but soon we were on the shuttle with a family of three going to RPR with us, and a large family (Mom, dad, grandma and two kids) going to Cabana Bay. We dropped off the Cabana Bay family first, so we got a look at our Almost Hotel. It’s cute, but after a stay with Express Pass, I can’t imagine we’ll ever stay there.
Soon we were pulling into RPR! It’s so pretty! It was so nice to see so many green things, coming from Michigan. It’s been cold, but hardly any snow, which I’m not complaining about, of course! We checked in, and our room was ready, so off we went. We were in Tower 3 - room 3445. It didn’t look to be refurbed (the thermostat was obviously not original to the wall treatment, as you could see the spot the old one had been removed from) and there was a big ding on the edge of the door (someone’s luggage, I’m guessing) but it had a fridge, and that’s really what I was worried about.
Also, Tower 3 seemed so perfect for us - quick walk to the boat docks, and the pool, although we never made it to the pool before the weather changed, unfortunately.
Our view was pretty nice, though. (I know i took a picture of our view, but I can't find it!)
We were probably in the room for all of about ten minutes, because by 3:09 I was texting him selfies of us on the boat. We gathered up our park bags, went down to the lobby and printed our Express Passes, and we were off!
We decided to go to USF first, so we could experience the Harry Potter stuff “in order”. We got up to the gate, and my Problems With My Thumbprint started.
Here's us on the boat!
Like, the very first time I used my ticket, it wouldn’t register. After a few tries, the guy shrugged and did whatever magic they do on those screens, and we were in.
We start walking, and DD21 immediately sees Shrek, and wants to do that, so we did that. It was cute, and we had a spot in a row pretty close to the front. All weekend she kept saying she couldn’t wait to get home and watch Shrek again. We also did Transformers, which she loved so much, we did it twice.
We then continue our plans to go to Diagon Alley. We went over to the Knight Bus first, and DD let me take some photos of her. Then, it was INTO THE ALLEY!
Wow. So, it’s amazingly detailed and every time we stopped to look we saw something new, but oh man, was it crowded. I realize it’s a big draw of why people go, but there were times when it was super overwhelming to me. We went into Weasely’s first, and then off to Olivander’s. Brit didn’t get picked, a little boy did, and Brit wondered how jealous his older brother was! After lots and lots of trying to decide which wand to get, she finally settled on Luna’s. (She already has Draco’s and Snape’s - she’s a Slytherin, after all)
We rode Gringott’s and tried to do the spells, (they sometimes worked. I quipped that it was a fantastic money grab - buy this $50 wand, it does magic! but then half of them don’t work.) By 5:30 we’d left Diagon Alley and went and did the MIB ride - our first experience with the ride lockers, and it went pretty well.
5:50 we were taking pics outside of Grimmauld Place and the phone booth, and suddenly one of the Universal Photographers was there, and then he dragged us all around the lagoon - over to the Simpsons, and took what must have been 20 photos of us - with all the cool Simpsons statues, etc. Every time we thought he’d gotten bored of us, he was off again. He told us to look for him by the Universal Ball later, but we didn’t see him. He finally got tired of taking our photo, so we said goodbye. According to my FB post, we finished up with him at 6:02. We decided we were hungry, so we decided to split some tacos from Bumblebee Man Tacos - we had dinner reservations at 8:30 but we hadn’t really had lunch (or much breakfast), so tacos it was.
It hit the spot perfectly!
We looked around the Simpsons area but didn’t do much there. At 7:19 we’d done Transformers twice (this would end up being a theme) and then we went back to the room to drop stuff off before going to dinner.
Dinner was at Margaritaville, and I spent more than I’d planned to, but we each got two drinks and our waiter was nice, and we had a coupon for a free appetizer and no one was really complaining. We walked around Citywalk after for a bit while finishing our second drinks (which the waiter put in a to-go cup for us) and then took the boat back to the room.
We both showered and then settled into bed. I’d picked up some Benadryl at the Detroit airport, so I was able to sleep, hooray!
