"Good Morning! No Sleeping!"- A Mother/Daughter January Getaway *Update 5/13*
- Thread starter Jazzabelle508
- Start date
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
looking forward to your next update.
Enjoy your spring break
Thanks
I really need the break so I am so happy that I can just relax! and yeah the next update will be a great one! I am going to be visiting my favorite boy wizard
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
Just followed you on twitter (I'm mugirl0307).
Yay
I am still getting use to twitter so it is taking me a while to get use to it but as soon as I am back on twitter I will follow you back and it will be a great one As a fellow harry potter fan i am sure you will appreciate it
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
"Your a Wizard Harry!" "I'm a What?"
Hi everyone So here is that long awaited Harry Potter Land update I mentioned a while ago! Would our decision to switch days pay off? How would our experience this time around compare to our first WWOHP experience last year: Would the crowds be easier to manage? Would the universal employees be nicer and easier to handle? and most importantly how would our own universal survival guide tips work out for us? All of these questions and more will be answered in the next few updates as we leave the magical disney gateway in leiu of a land of harry potter awesomeness!
On this morning my mom woke up at 6:30 am and then I woke up at 6:45 am. The park opened at 9 that day and we wanted to make sure we were there when they opened the not-as-magical gates to universal to the other guests. We got ready pretty quickly and gathered up our stuff for both harry potter and Via Napoli that night since we weren't sure if we would be stopping back @ POP before going to Via Napoli that night. For me that also involved a change of clothes. As we were getting ready I was slowly realizing that this wasn't going to be what I consider to be a good hair day. I kept contemplating whether or not i should leave my hair down that day. Right before leaving the room i eventually decided that I would leave my hair down that day (The hair went back up into a ponytail after about 5 minutes in the park and it stayed up all day until we left universal). We left our hotel room at 7:45 am, got some coffee/hot chocolate to go in our mugs and then were on the road by 8.
One of my favorite things about having an iphone in Disney is the built-in google map app. It was so easy to get to universal and back! All we had to do once we entered our car was type in Universal Islands of Adventure for our destination and make our starting point the current location and then we got to universal no problem. In fact: we made such good time that we had plenty of time to stop at Kmart to run a couple of errands before going to universal.
Since my mom and I have only left disney property mid vacation once before (and the first time we just went to harry potter land and then rushed back to disney because we really didn't like leaving disney property mid vacation at ALL) it probably won't be very surprising when I tell you that i really don't know orlando very well outside of Disney and this was my first time going to a conveince store EVER in orlando! I actually was excited to see what life was like for people in orlando outside of the theme parks! In the Kmart in addition to typical Kmart stuff they also had some unique disney merchandise stuff. A lot of there stuff in that section was only ok. I did see a couple of shirts that I loved but they were both kids shirts which made me really sad. One thing that really surprised me was how grouchy the people were that worked in the store. I would think being that close to disney would instantly make you happier (it would make me happier) but apparently that isn't the case. After we got our stuff we hopped into our car and talked to my dad for a few minutes on the phone and then were back on our way to universal (which was only a couple of minutes away from the Kmart). During this part of our drive my mom and I began to discuss what it must be like to actually live in orlando and constantly having to deal with tourists and then were wondering how residents feel about living in the theme park capital of the world. Both my mom and I feel like we would love being this close to all of these great places but could also see how constantly dealing with tourists crowds could be annoying as well.
After a couple of minutes driving it was time to park the car. We payed our money for parking (btw parking is 15 dollars at universal which is really annoying and even with our tourist tips we couldn't get around that one.
After we payed for parking we ended up being in the jurrassic park parking lot which was a bit of a walk from the city walk and park area but wasn't 2 far. It was closer than our spiderman spot last year so we were both happy about that one.
Once we parked the car we still had a few minutes before park opening so we walked quickly through the city walk area but still pointed fun and interesting things to each other (the most interesting thing we noticed was the robot outside of the bubba Gump shop!)
After walking to the park entrance it was time for us to test out our first touring tip for ourselves (these tips had worked really well for my brother and his fiancee in december when they went to harry potter land but we really wanted to test it out for ourselves). The first tip of wisdom to future WWOHP visitors is this: If remotely possible travel into the WWOHP AS LIGHTLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!!!! Last year when we went we traveled lightly but both of us had tiny bags with our stuff in it. Well, at disney that wouldn't really cause any problems on rides to carry a small bag onto a ride as long as you were able to hold onto it and still be safe on the ride. However at universal they make you pay for ride lockers if you have any kind of bag whatsoever! We found this out the hard way and spent at least 10 additional dollars on ride lockers and the all day lockers are scarce and fill up easily and if you leave the area during a busy time to get to the parks main entrance lockers you will face a strong possiblity of not being let into the park. So the best possible way around this BIG inconveinence is to only carry into the park your phone, camera and money and nothing else! in fact if you have 2 or more people in your traveling party only have one person bring in a camera. All of this stuff is important to have when in harry potter land.
The nice thing about not having any bags was just being able to walk through the no bags line and it easily shaved a couple of minutes off of our time between us and Harry Potter Land. We walked quickly to harry potter land making a mental note to stop in Dr. Suess land when we were leaving and then in no time we saw this.
[/IMG]
HARRY POTTER LAND!!!! This was our main goal for this day! We planned on covering every nook and cranny of this area of the park. I am definitely a very big fan of harry potter! I have seen all the movies and read all the books (each several times). I have pretty much grown up with the whole thing so harry potter has been a big part of my childhood so obviously this meant that I absolutely HAD to go there even though it meant going to the place that shall not be named!
Last year when we went we went through a horrible time with the universal cast members and it almost made us not return this year. However, both my mom and I love harry potter way 2 much to pass up returning to harry potter land again.
When we got to harry potter land we made a beeline towards the wand show. This was the one thing we didn't get to see last year and we really wanted to see it. The wait ended up being 45 minutes which depending on the day isn't horrible. Luckily the cast member working the line was nice and pleasant which made the experience more enjoyable as well. However, the WWOHP seriously needs to make the ollivander show more crowd condusive because they clearly didn't know how to properly manage those crowds. All in all i did like the show but overall this wasn't worth being smushed like sardines the entire time. The kid they chose seemed like he was around the starting age of hogwarts which made him a good choice but the adults thought it was cooler than he did!
After the show we went into the dervish and bang shop where we took a couple of pics with several of the character's wands
After the wand show where did we go next? stay tuned to find out! (p.s: sorry this update was so text heavy, just had a lot of stories to tell from early in the morning that I forgot to photograph, next updates I promise whi have more pics
Continued In The Next Post
Hi everyone
So here is that long awaited Harry Potter Land update I mentioned a while ago! Would our decision to switch days pay off? How would our experience this time around compare to our first WWOHP experience last year: Would the crowds be easier to manage? Would the universal employees be nicer and easier to handle? and most importantly how would our own universal survival guide tips work out for us? All of these questions and more will be answered in the next few updates as we leave the magical disney gateway in leiu of a land of harry potter awesomeness! On this morning my mom woke up at 6:30 am and then I woke up at 6:45 am. The park opened at 9 that day and we wanted to make sure we were there when they opened the not-as-magical gates to universal to the other guests. We got ready pretty quickly and gathered up our stuff for both harry potter and Via Napoli that night since we weren't sure if we would be stopping back @ POP before going to Via Napoli that night. For me that also involved a change of clothes. As we were getting ready I was slowly realizing that this wasn't going to be what I consider to be a good hair day. I kept contemplating whether or not i should leave my hair down that day. Right before leaving the room i eventually decided that I would leave my hair down that day (The hair went back up into a ponytail after about 5 minutes in the park and it stayed up all day until we left universal). We left our hotel room at 7:45 am, got some coffee/hot chocolate to go in our mugs and then were on the road by 8.
One of my favorite things about having an iphone in Disney is the built-in google map app. It was so easy to get to universal and back! All we had to do once we entered our car was type in Universal Islands of Adventure for our destination and make our starting point the current location and then we got to universal no problem. In fact: we made such good time that we had plenty of time to stop at Kmart to run a couple of errands before going to universal.
Since my mom and I have only left disney property mid vacation once before (and the first time we just went to harry potter land and then rushed back to disney because we really didn't like leaving disney property mid vacation at ALL) it probably won't be very surprising when I tell you that i really don't know orlando very well outside of Disney and this was my first time going to a conveince store EVER in orlando! I actually was excited to see what life was like for people in orlando outside of the theme parks! In the Kmart in addition to typical Kmart stuff they also had some unique disney merchandise stuff. A lot of there stuff in that section was only ok. I did see a couple of shirts that I loved but they were both kids shirts which made me really sad. One thing that really surprised me was how grouchy the people were that worked in the store. I would think being that close to disney would instantly make you happier (it would make me happier) but apparently that isn't the case. After we got our stuff we hopped into our car and talked to my dad for a few minutes on the phone and then were back on our way to universal (which was only a couple of minutes away from the Kmart). During this part of our drive my mom and I began to discuss what it must be like to actually live in orlando and constantly having to deal with tourists and then were wondering how residents feel about living in the theme park capital of the world. Both my mom and I feel like we would love being this close to all of these great places but could also see how constantly dealing with tourists crowds could be annoying as well.
After a couple of minutes driving it was time to park the car. We payed our money for parking (btw parking is 15 dollars at universal which is really annoying and even with our tourist tips we couldn't get around that one.
After we payed for parking we ended up being in the jurrassic park parking lot which was a bit of a walk from the city walk and park area but wasn't 2 far. It was closer than our spiderman spot last year so we were both happy about that one.
Once we parked the car we still had a few minutes before park opening so we walked quickly through the city walk area but still pointed fun and interesting things to each other (the most interesting thing we noticed was the robot outside of the bubba Gump shop!)
After walking to the park entrance it was time for us to test out our first touring tip for ourselves (these tips had worked really well for my brother and his fiancee in december when they went to harry potter land but we really wanted to test it out for ourselves). The first tip of wisdom to future WWOHP visitors is this: If remotely possible travel into the WWOHP AS LIGHTLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!!!! Last year when we went we traveled lightly but both of us had tiny bags with our stuff in it. Well, at disney that wouldn't really cause any problems on rides to carry a small bag onto a ride as long as you were able to hold onto it and still be safe on the ride. However at universal they make you pay for ride lockers if you have any kind of bag whatsoever! We found this out the hard way and spent at least 10 additional dollars on ride lockers and the all day lockers are scarce and fill up easily and if you leave the area during a busy time to get to the parks main entrance lockers you will face a strong possiblity of not being let into the park. So the best possible way around this BIG inconveinence is to only carry into the park your phone, camera and money and nothing else! in fact if you have 2 or more people in your traveling party only have one person bring in a camera. All of this stuff is important to have when in harry potter land.
The nice thing about not having any bags was just being able to walk through the no bags line and it easily shaved a couple of minutes off of our time between us and Harry Potter Land. We walked quickly to harry potter land making a mental note to stop in Dr. Suess land when we were leaving and then in no time we saw this.
HARRY POTTER LAND!!!! This was our main goal for this day! We planned on covering every nook and cranny of this area of the park. I am definitely a very big fan of harry potter! I have seen all the movies and read all the books (each several times). I have pretty much grown up with the whole thing so harry potter has been a big part of my childhood so obviously this meant that I absolutely HAD to go there even though it meant going to the place that shall not be named!
Last year when we went we went through a horrible time with the universal cast members and it almost made us not return this year. However, both my mom and I love harry potter way 2 much to pass up returning to harry potter land again.
When we got to harry potter land we made a beeline towards the wand show. This was the one thing we didn't get to see last year and we really wanted to see it. The wait ended up being 45 minutes which depending on the day isn't horrible. Luckily the cast member working the line was nice and pleasant which made the experience more enjoyable as well. However, the WWOHP seriously needs to make the ollivander show more crowd condusive because they clearly didn't know how to properly manage those crowds. All in all i did like the show but overall this wasn't worth being smushed like sardines the entire time. The kid they chose seemed like he was around the starting age of hogwarts which made him a good choice but the adults thought it was cooler than he did!
After the show we went into the dervish and bang shop where we took a couple of pics with several of the character's wands
After the wand show where did we go next? stay tuned to find out! (p.s: sorry this update was so text heavy, just had a lot of stories to tell from early in the morning that I forgot to photograph, next updates I promise whi have more pics
Continued In The Next Post
wakica
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2007
I'm LOVING hearing about Harry Potter stuff. We are so excited for our first visit to Harry Potter land this year. Done Universal lots but it was before WWOHP opened.
My guess on the Target employees. They could quite possibly be working at the busiest Target around due to all the tourist traffic they get. Maybe that's why? I'd want to work at a nice quiet location if I had to work in a giant box store like that. lol. but who knows
My guess on the Target employees. They could quite possibly be working at the busiest Target around due to all the tourist traffic they get. Maybe that's why? I'd want to work at a nice quiet location if I had to work in a giant box store like that. lol. but who knows
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
YEAH, the WWOHP is awesome!!! I love both of your t-shirts.
Thanks
and I agree! I loved the WWOHP I'm LOVING hearing about Harry Potter stuff. We are so excited for our first visit to Harry Potter land this year. Done Universal lots but it was before WWOHP opened.
My guess on the Target employees. They could quite possibly be working at the busiest Target around due to all the tourist traffic they get. Maybe that's why? I'd want to work at a nice quiet location if I had to work in a giant box store like that. lol. but who knows
Thanks
I'm glad I could give you some helpful advice on the WWOHP I had actually been to universal one time before WWOHP opened but I had only been there for half a day so WWOHP was my first full experience with universal. That is what I figured as well, It was merely a point of curiousity for me.
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
"Hogwarts, Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, OH MY!!!!!"
While we were in Ollivanders my mom fell in love with one of the wands in the shop so she was debating whether or not she wanted to buy it. When she overheard one of the staff members say that you could buy it and then get it shipped to the front of the park to pick up later she was sold! We didn't have to wait very long in line before we paid which was very nice, especially considering how busy the shop was that day. We had a nice lady who was helping us which was nice and a big improvement from this visit last year.
After we paid for my mom's wand we left the store and headed for our next destination, HOGWARTS!!!!! Both my mom and I were super excited to ride forbidden journey again! We were also excited to try out some of our own touring tips for this ride. What do I mean by touring tips? Well, last year when my mom and i came to the wizarding world of harry potter we had several rather unfortunate experiences with this ride, all of which could have been avoided had we had several peices of tips and knowledge ahead of time. We both took note of these experiences and conjured up a list of tips that we wanted to pass on to ANYONE ELSE WE KNEW THAT WAS TRAVELING TO THE WWOHP!!!! We wanted to prevent all of these unfortunate things from happening to anyone else that wasn't use to universal's way of doing things. We have already passed these tips along to several people and luckily they all found the tips useful! My mom and I were super excited to try these tips out ourselves!
As we left the wand shop we went straight to the filches emporium shop inside the castle. The first thing we learned about was a secret passage way into the main ride line. Unfortunately this part has a really long back story so for that I deeply apologize. Remember when i emphasized in the last trip report update that you should travel very lightly? Well, that is about to be explained as well.
Last year when my mom and i went to universal we traveled fairly lightly but we both had tiny bags (mine when around my wrist and my mom's around her waist). We had both explored disney with these bags all the time. We had ridden rockin roller coaster, space mountain, tower of terror and exhibition everest with these bags and never had a problem. Well, when we got to forbidden journey we waited for about a half hour just in the part outside the castle before you enter the main part of the line. When we got to the front of the line we discovered that the line split in 2. One half went to the left right towards the line (this was for if you had no bags at all) and then the other part went towards the right toward the lockers. My mom and I assumed that when they said no bags they only meant backpacks and purses and any other kind of bag that wouldn't fit in the safety restraint with you. Like I said before we had both ridden several very similar rides to this one (rockin roller coaster and this ride have basically the same safety resitraint system). There is this guy at the front of the line that is directing traffic in both directions. Obviously my mom and I go left because we had both traveled very lightly. Imagine our surprise then when we get stopped by this man directing traffic. After he stopped us my mom wasn't very happy with him and disagreed about the bag not fitting (we still disagreed after going on the ride).
However, we did as we were told and put our stuff in the locker (which btw is a very miesrable experience in itself because the whole locker area is cramped and you can only have the locker for a certain period of time so each time you ride it you have to go throught the same experience. on top of all of that half the lockers don't even work properly!). It was here we discovered the single rider line. We wanted to go on it once the regular way and then check out the single rider line. We went on the ride once and then when we came back we discovered that you could walk into the sotre from outside and then walk through the locker area and then go right to the main ride line whilst skipping all of that outside traffic before you even enter the castle shaving about 30-45 minutes of you total wait time. When we did the single rider line for the first time that trip we absolutely LOVED IT!!!! Practically no one went in the single rider line because they wanted to go on it together so you bascially could walk right on the ride. you bypass most of the castle decorations and rooms and everything but you do see some of it and you totally bypass the super long line. my mom and I pretty much walked right on the line time after time after time. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We went on it so many times that trip. combine that with my other tip about cutting through the store and you save yourself tons of time to spend doing other stuff.
Now that I told you that very long story about last year it is time to figure out how implementing those tips worked for us this year.
We walked right through the emporium at the ride's exit and then we walked right through the locker rooms (which btw weren't as crowded this year as they were last year but they were still crowded enough that I was glad we didn't have to use the lockers this year) and then went straight to the single riders line. OMG the single riders line was AMAZING this year!!!! We walked on that ride 5 times within a one hour period (might i add that was how long the wait was in the stand by line). We walked right on the ride each time which was awesome. Our first three times riding we kept seeing the same guy (who was very cute btw, he looked a lot like Evan from Greek actually) helping people onto the ride. On the thrid time we walked on he recognized us and said to me, "How many times are you guys going to go on this ride". To which I replied, "A lot". It was seriously so funny, i knew it was a matter of time until he recognized us. He had moved to the outside location later in the day and we saw him as we walked by. Here are some pics from our 5 rides in a row experience!
After we got our fill of Hogwarts fun for the time being we decided to go over to three broomsticks for a early lunch. Another we learned from last year (this time it was the easy way at least) was that you want to get to the three broomsticks before the main meal time of the day and contrary to popular beilef the three broomsticks is not super crowded and it was the one part of universal in general that i would say is run well! They have a whole system where you have to order first and then they escort you to a table AFTER you have your food. It really helped with over crowding.
At this point in the day it was about 11:30 in the morning so it was almost the main part of the lunch rush. Luckily by the time we got there it wasn't 2 crowded. in no time we had ordered our food (which was two orders of butterbeer and a thing a fish and chips to share) and were seated and eating. When we ordered our food one of the people who was helping us was from a town that isn't far at all from where we are from. We talked for a little bit about what was going on in the area (he hadn't been there in a long time) and then we went on our merry little way. By the time we were eating the place was pretty crowded which wasn't a big deal to us because we had already been helped. Here are some pics of our experience!
The display case of food
FROZEN BUTTERBEER!!!!! This stuff is seriously AMAZING!!!! Last year my mom and I tried both the regular butterbeer and the frozen butterbeer, my mom and i both liked the frozen butter beer A LOT better than the regular one! My brother and his wife liked the regular one better but the vast majority of people who i have met who have tried butterbeer liked the frozen one WAY better!
Butterbeer mustache pic #1
Butterbeer mustache pic #2
Our meal- Fish and Chips They are actually pretty good! I would say the disney ones are better but the harry potter food actually competes with disney food for me which i don't say very much about universal versus disney stuff.
After we finished up in the three broomsticks we decided we wanted to just relax in the sun and enjoy the atmosphere before moving onto our next stop on the WWOHP tour. Before we went to find a spot to relax we decided to stop at honeydukes for another one of our fav WWOHP treats!!!
Tongue Ton Toffees!!! Those of you who have read the books will already know why these are so awesome! For those of you who haven't read the book
these are an invention made by Ron Weasley's twin brothers in the 4th book (which is my fav of the harry potter books) and the results are interesting, bad and hillarious all rolled into one. Those of you who have read the books: this is one of my favorite fred and george moments in the series!
What we came into honeydukes for! These are called cauldron cakes and they are AMAZING!!!!!!! My mom and I had read about these on a food blog before coming on our first trip so we had made it a priority to try them. This is probably one of the best things i have ever tasted!!!! The frosting is a combination of milk/dark chocolate and cinnamon, the filling is like a chocolate mousse and they have a little peice of white chocolate in the center. The frosting alone is AMAZING!!!! My mom when she first tried it was thrilled because she had found what she pictures to the the "Chocolat`e" chocolate. But the frosting is nothing compared to the cake itself (which is not something I say alot). The cakes was super delicious and moist!!! It was like i had died and gone to heaven!!! It is fairly rich so my mom and i split it and it was perfect for us! i highly recommend this amazingness to EVERYONE!!!!
U-NO-POO!!!! This was another fred and george thing that I absoultely LOVE!!!! Last year I actually bought some of this just because I had to have u-no-poo!!! I love the campaign slogan they come up with!!! In case you haven't figured it out yet I think the weasley twins are AWESOME!!!! I didn't get any u-no-poo this year because I had only gotten it last year for the case but I couldn't leave without a pic.
After we left honeydukes my mom and I saw that the train conductor was outside taking pics in front of the train! Needless to say I needed a picture with him!
After we finished with the conductor we decided to find a spot to enjoy the sun. We decided to head over towards the hogwarts stage because they show either the frog choir or the triwizard dancers every half hour. It was almost them for one of their shows and both were amazing last year! We were hoping to catch both shows, would we?
I will leave off this part of the update here, will post more later, so need to catch up and get back on track with this TR!!!!
Continued In The Next Post
While we were in Ollivanders my mom fell in love with one of the wands in the shop so she was debating whether or not she wanted to buy it. When she overheard one of the staff members say that you could buy it and then get it shipped to the front of the park to pick up later she was sold! We didn't have to wait very long in line before we paid which was very nice, especially considering how busy the shop was that day. We had a nice lady who was helping us which was nice and a big improvement from this visit last year.
After we paid for my mom's wand we left the store and headed for our next destination, HOGWARTS!!!!! Both my mom and I were super excited to ride forbidden journey again! We were also excited to try out some of our own touring tips for this ride. What do I mean by touring tips? Well, last year when my mom and i came to the wizarding world of harry potter we had several rather unfortunate experiences with this ride, all of which could have been avoided had we had several peices of tips and knowledge ahead of time. We both took note of these experiences and conjured up a list of tips that we wanted to pass on to ANYONE ELSE WE KNEW THAT WAS TRAVELING TO THE WWOHP!!!! We wanted to prevent all of these unfortunate things from happening to anyone else that wasn't use to universal's way of doing things. We have already passed these tips along to several people and luckily they all found the tips useful! My mom and I were super excited to try these tips out ourselves!
As we left the wand shop we went straight to the filches emporium shop inside the castle. The first thing we learned about was a secret passage way into the main ride line. Unfortunately this part has a really long back story so for that I deeply apologize. Remember when i emphasized in the last trip report update that you should travel very lightly? Well, that is about to be explained as well.
Last year when my mom and i went to universal we traveled fairly lightly but we both had tiny bags (mine when around my wrist and my mom's around her waist). We had both explored disney with these bags all the time. We had ridden rockin roller coaster, space mountain, tower of terror and exhibition everest with these bags and never had a problem. Well, when we got to forbidden journey we waited for about a half hour just in the part outside the castle before you enter the main part of the line. When we got to the front of the line we discovered that the line split in 2. One half went to the left right towards the line (this was for if you had no bags at all) and then the other part went towards the right toward the lockers. My mom and I assumed that when they said no bags they only meant backpacks and purses and any other kind of bag that wouldn't fit in the safety restraint with you. Like I said before we had both ridden several very similar rides to this one (rockin roller coaster and this ride have basically the same safety resitraint system). There is this guy at the front of the line that is directing traffic in both directions. Obviously my mom and I go left because we had both traveled very lightly. Imagine our surprise then when we get stopped by this man directing traffic. After he stopped us my mom wasn't very happy with him and disagreed about the bag not fitting (we still disagreed after going on the ride).
However, we did as we were told and put our stuff in the locker (which btw is a very miesrable experience in itself because the whole locker area is cramped and you can only have the locker for a certain period of time so each time you ride it you have to go throught the same experience. on top of all of that half the lockers don't even work properly!). It was here we discovered the single rider line. We wanted to go on it once the regular way and then check out the single rider line. We went on the ride once and then when we came back we discovered that you could walk into the sotre from outside and then walk through the locker area and then go right to the main ride line whilst skipping all of that outside traffic before you even enter the castle shaving about 30-45 minutes of you total wait time. When we did the single rider line for the first time that trip we absolutely LOVED IT!!!! Practically no one went in the single rider line because they wanted to go on it together so you bascially could walk right on the ride. you bypass most of the castle decorations and rooms and everything but you do see some of it and you totally bypass the super long line. my mom and I pretty much walked right on the line time after time after time. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We went on it so many times that trip. combine that with my other tip about cutting through the store and you save yourself tons of time to spend doing other stuff.
Now that I told you that very long story about last year it is time to figure out how implementing those tips worked for us this year.
We walked right through the emporium at the ride's exit and then we walked right through the locker rooms (which btw weren't as crowded this year as they were last year but they were still crowded enough that I was glad we didn't have to use the lockers this year) and then went straight to the single riders line. OMG the single riders line was AMAZING this year!!!! We walked on that ride 5 times within a one hour period (might i add that was how long the wait was in the stand by line). We walked right on the ride each time which was awesome. Our first three times riding we kept seeing the same guy (who was very cute btw, he looked a lot like Evan from Greek actually) helping people onto the ride. On the thrid time we walked on he recognized us and said to me, "How many times are you guys going to go on this ride". To which I replied, "A lot". It was seriously so funny, i knew it was a matter of time until he recognized us. He had moved to the outside location later in the day and we saw him as we walked by. Here are some pics from our 5 rides in a row experience!
After we got our fill of Hogwarts fun for the time being we decided to go over to three broomsticks for a early lunch. Another we learned from last year (this time it was the easy way at least) was that you want to get to the three broomsticks before the main meal time of the day and contrary to popular beilef the three broomsticks is not super crowded and it was the one part of universal in general that i would say is run well! They have a whole system where you have to order first and then they escort you to a table AFTER you have your food. It really helped with over crowding.
At this point in the day it was about 11:30 in the morning so it was almost the main part of the lunch rush. Luckily by the time we got there it wasn't 2 crowded. in no time we had ordered our food (which was two orders of butterbeer and a thing a fish and chips to share) and were seated and eating. When we ordered our food one of the people who was helping us was from a town that isn't far at all from where we are from. We talked for a little bit about what was going on in the area (he hadn't been there in a long time) and then we went on our merry little way. By the time we were eating the place was pretty crowded which wasn't a big deal to us because we had already been helped. Here are some pics of our experience!
The display case of food
FROZEN BUTTERBEER!!!!! This stuff is seriously AMAZING!!!! Last year my mom and I tried both the regular butterbeer and the frozen butterbeer, my mom and i both liked the frozen butter beer A LOT better than the regular one! My brother and his wife liked the regular one better but the vast majority of people who i have met who have tried butterbeer liked the frozen one WAY better!
Butterbeer mustache pic #1
Butterbeer mustache pic #2
Our meal- Fish and Chips
They are actually pretty good! I would say the disney ones are better but the harry potter food actually competes with disney food for me which i don't say very much about universal versus disney stuff.
After we finished up in the three broomsticks we decided we wanted to just relax in the sun and enjoy the atmosphere before moving onto our next stop on the WWOHP tour. Before we went to find a spot to relax we decided to stop at honeydukes for another one of our fav WWOHP treats!!!
Tongue Ton Toffees!!! Those of you who have read the books will already know why these are so awesome! For those of you who haven't read the book
these are an invention made by Ron Weasley's twin brothers in the 4th book (which is my fav of the harry potter books) and the results are interesting, bad and hillarious all rolled into one. Those of you who have read the books: this is one of my favorite fred and george moments in the series!
What we came into honeydukes for! These are called cauldron cakes and they are AMAZING!!!!!!! My mom and I had read about these on a food blog before coming on our first trip so we had made it a priority to try them. This is probably one of the best things i have ever tasted!!!! The frosting is a combination of milk/dark chocolate and cinnamon, the filling is like a chocolate mousse and they have a little peice of white chocolate in the center. The frosting alone is AMAZING!!!! My mom when she first tried it was thrilled because she had found what she pictures to the the "Chocolat`e" chocolate. But the frosting is nothing compared to the cake itself (which is not something I say alot). The cakes was super delicious and moist!!! It was like i had died and gone to heaven!!! It is fairly rich so my mom and i split it and it was perfect for us! i highly recommend this amazingness to EVERYONE!!!!
U-NO-POO!!!! This was another fred and george thing that I absoultely LOVE!!!! Last year I actually bought some of this just because I had to have u-no-poo!!! I love the campaign slogan they come up with!!! In case you haven't figured it out yet I think the weasley twins are AWESOME!!!! I didn't get any u-no-poo this year because I had only gotten it last year for the case but I couldn't leave without a pic
.
After we left honeydukes my mom and I saw that the train conductor was outside taking pics in front of the train! Needless to say I needed a picture with him!
After we finished with the conductor we decided to find a spot to enjoy the sun. We decided to head over towards the hogwarts stage because they show either the frog choir or the triwizard dancers every half hour. It was almost them for one of their shows and both were amazing last year! We were hoping to catch both shows, would we?
I will leave off this part of the update here, will post more later, so need to catch up and get back on track with this TR!!!!
Continued In The Next Post
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
"A Goblet of Fire Fest"
When we sat down by the stage there was about 10 minutes left before the show was scheduled to start. We passed the time by eating the cauldorn cake (which was just as amazing as I remembered it!), playing a couple of quick rows of travel bunco and taking a few pre-show pictures.
In what felt like no time at all it was time for the show to start but they weren't out yet. There were a few people sitting down by us so we were all wondering if we had gotten the time wrong. Just as we were wondering that we saw the people in the show coming and we saw that we were going to be seeing the Triwizard dancers. We had seen them last year and they were amazing! The concept of this show is that it is based on the 4th book storyline of the triwizard competition and specifically the arrival of the two other schools in the competition (beaubaxtons and drumstrang). for the sake of the show and the movie beaubaxtons is the girls school and drumstrang is the guys school (in the book both schools are co-ed but the movies made hogwarts be the only coed school). In the show these two schools do the arrival dances they do in the movie. It is a really cool show! After the show they had a meet and greet where you could take a quick picture with the dancers so of course I took advantage of that opportunity.
After the Triwizard show we decided to go and check out the dragon challenge before the frog choirs performance. My mom didn't want to actually ride this one but she wanted to go through the line with me because this is another one that had a really cool line and last year when I went through the line I didn't get any pictures in the line because i went through the line alone. The line was practically non-exisitent! The wait sign said the wait was 15 minutes, but it was definitely less than that. We took about 15 minutes to go through the line but that was just because we were going through really slowly and taking pictures as we went along. Speaking of pictures here are the ones we took throughout the line.
Once we got to the loading area I chose the chinese fireball side and once my mom exited the line I got in line for one of the rows and in no time i was on the coaster flying through the sky trying to capture the golden egg the dragon is protecting (those of you who read the book will understand the reference here).
After I finished up on the dragon challenge it was almost time for the frog choir to start up so I met up with my mom and sat down by the stage and we played another round of travel bunco and waited for the show to start up again.
Continued In The Next Post
When we sat down by the stage there was about 10 minutes left before the show was scheduled to start. We passed the time by eating the cauldorn cake (which was just as amazing as I remembered it!), playing a couple of quick rows of travel bunco and taking a few pre-show pictures.
In what felt like no time at all it was time for the show to start but they weren't out yet. There were a few people sitting down by us so we were all wondering if we had gotten the time wrong. Just as we were wondering that we saw the people in the show coming and we saw that we were going to be seeing the Triwizard dancers. We had seen them last year and they were amazing! The concept of this show is that it is based on the 4th book storyline of the triwizard competition and specifically the arrival of the two other schools in the competition (beaubaxtons and drumstrang). for the sake of the show and the movie beaubaxtons is the girls school and drumstrang is the guys school (in the book both schools are co-ed but the movies made hogwarts be the only coed school). In the show these two schools do the arrival dances they do in the movie. It is a really cool show! After the show they had a meet and greet where you could take a quick picture with the dancers so of course I took advantage of that opportunity.
After the Triwizard show we decided to go and check out the dragon challenge before the frog choirs performance. My mom didn't want to actually ride this one but she wanted to go through the line with me because this is another one that had a really cool line and last year when I went through the line I didn't get any pictures in the line because i went through the line alone. The line was practically non-exisitent! The wait sign said the wait was 15 minutes, but it was definitely less than that. We took about 15 minutes to go through the line but that was just because we were going through really slowly and taking pictures as we went along. Speaking of pictures here are the ones we took throughout the line.
Once we got to the loading area I chose the chinese fireball side and once my mom exited the line I got in line for one of the rows and in no time i was on the coaster flying through the sky trying to capture the golden egg the dragon is protecting (those of you who read the book will understand the reference here).
After I finished up on the dragon challenge it was almost time for the frog choir to start up so I met up with my mom and sat down by the stage and we played another round of travel bunco and waited for the show to start up again.
Continued In The Next Post
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
"Something Wicked This Way Comes"
Before I begin this next update i want to first say sorry for doing so many updates in a row lately! I just really want to get this TR moving, I still have so many days to report on!
Now So not long after we finished up on the dragon challenge it was time for the frog choir to do their performance. We had seen these guys last year and knew they were AMAZING!!!! It was definitely a priority to see them perform again. Since it had been a year since we had last seen them I wasn't surprise to see that the frog choir was comprised of 4 entirely different people. I think the conductor was the same person we saw last year though which did surprise me. Luckily she did a good job leading the show which was good. The show that we saw was just as awesome as last year and the slytherin and the ravenclaw were both hillarious! They both were fighting to be the center of attention and that whole banter was hillarious! They also did some playful mimicking and talking back behind the conductor's back which was also hillarious! The hufflepuff girl this time seemed to kind of step back from all this while the gryffindor seemed indifferent towards it. As a communication major I thought all of these characters were very interesting, but maybe that is just me? all in all the show was absolutely HILLARIOUS!!!!!! Here are some pictures from the show!
After we finished watching the frog choir we decided to ride the hippogriff ride since we were right there. The wait time for this said 20 minutes but I think it was more like 10. This is another interesting line so between that, talking with my mom about the frog choir show, our day so far and our plan for the rest of the day the line went by very fast and before we knew it we were on the ride.
I love this ride and hearing hagrid give the safety instructions and seeing buckbeak at the begining of the ride but I do know that it is viewed by many as a younger ride, But to be honest I think that any harry potter fan and anyone that likes rides like goofy's barnstormer or big thunder mountain railroad would still enjoy the ride. Here are some pictures from our time in that line and on the ride.
After we went on the Hippogriff ride my mom and I decided it was time to ride forbidden journey again! This time we decided that we wanted to go through the main line so we could hear the full story again. we went through our little shortcut through the store again but this time we went towards the main line.
We really didn't hit very many crowds in the line untill we reached the greenhouse room. We got very lucky because when we reached the line we got stopped in front of the warning sign that all rides had and found their little drawings describing which medical conditions would be aggravated by the ride amusing. We particularly enjoyed the drawing showing a person puking and a drawing describing epilepsy amusing because of these were drawn in such detail.
All in all we waited in the main line for about 45 minutes which was better than we expected. We both realized though that we prefer the single rider line and felt that we didn't need to go through the regular line again in future trips and we really didn't miss much of the story in the single rider line after all. We would be missing some castle landmarks but we have several pics of those and we have seen them in person so we are good. Here are some pics we took the rest of the way in line (the ride was still amazing btw!).
After we finished up on forbidden journey that time we went on the single rider line one more time before we exited the park. The best part was that my mom and I ended up in the same car together! That has happened a few times to us in the single rider line here. That really is the ultimate in the single rider experience. Say what you will about it, and i completely understand why people would rather wait longer in stand by for rides but my mom and I both absolutely LOVE the concept of single rider, we really feel like it is worth it to be seperated when you get to experience the ride queue together and you still are riding the same ride, just in different ride vehicles.
After we rode forbidden journey for the last time this trip we decided to get some more butterbeer before leaving and we wanted to get some more pumpkin juice to bring back as well. We stopped at a butterbeer cart to get the pumpkin juice and then went back to three broomsticks for the butterbeer. After a short wait we got our butterbeer we went out side to enjoy the gorgeous day some more and to have our butterbeer. While we were out there we discussed our whole trip so far and chatted about what our favorite things so far have been and what we were looking forward to next in the trip. After we finished up our drinks we realized it was almost time to leave for our dinner reservation that evening. We debated whether or not to get another cauldron cake for back in the room but we decided not 2. We said farewell to universal through a few goodbye pictures and then headed back through Suess land. Here are the pictures from that last part of our time in the WWOHP!
My mom and I both agreed that we wanted to check out a ride in suess land before leaving so we decided on their version of the peoplemover. I think they called it the sneeches mobile but I really don't remember and I didn't write it down. However, it had a 20 minute wait so we then decided to check out there carasoul which had no wait. We then headed over there and both my mom and i chose to sit on a dog like creature (I forget what they are called in suess stories, yes I realise that is bad that I forgot a element of a suess story, I'm Sorry!!!! The ride was super cute and fun and both my mom and I enjoyed it! Here are some pictures of our journey through suess-land!
After we finished up in suess land it was really almost time to leave. We then rushed to the front of the park so my mom could pick up her wand. Luckily it was a pretty easy process to pick it up and then we were on our way back to the parking lot. Here are some pictures we took as we were leaving universal
After we exited the park it didn't take us super long to get to the parking area. However, it seemed like forever untill we reached our section of the parking lot! I seriously dislike the whole universal parking structure!!!!!! It is so complex and confusing!!!!!!!
Luckily we did find our car soon after finding our parking area. Having the mickey antennae topper definitely helps!
Once we found our car we got our park stuff and put it in front with us. I saw that there was a bathroom not 2 far from where we parked so I decided just to change there and that would save us from having to go back 2 the resort since my mom decided just to wear what she was currently wearing. We also decided to freshen up our makeup to save even more time there as well. Once we were all pampered and ready to go we were on the road in no time.
Continued In The Next Post
Before I begin this next update i want to first say sorry for doing so many updates in a row lately! I just really want to get this TR moving, I still have so many days to report on!
Now So not long after we finished up on the dragon challenge it was time for the frog choir to do their performance. We had seen these guys last year and knew they were AMAZING!!!! It was definitely a priority to see them perform again. Since it had been a year since we had last seen them I wasn't surprise to see that the frog choir was comprised of 4 entirely different people. I think the conductor was the same person we saw last year though which did surprise me. Luckily she did a good job leading the show which was good. The show that we saw was just as awesome as last year and the slytherin and the ravenclaw were both hillarious! They both were fighting to be the center of attention and that whole banter was hillarious! They also did some playful mimicking and talking back behind the conductor's back which was also hillarious! The hufflepuff girl this time seemed to kind of step back from all this while the gryffindor seemed indifferent towards it. As a communication major I thought all of these characters were very interesting, but maybe that is just me? all in all the show was absolutely HILLARIOUS!!!!!! Here are some pictures from the show!
After we finished watching the frog choir we decided to ride the hippogriff ride since we were right there. The wait time for this said 20 minutes but I think it was more like 10. This is another interesting line so between that, talking with my mom about the frog choir show, our day so far and our plan for the rest of the day the line went by very fast and before we knew it we were on the ride.
I love this ride and hearing hagrid give the safety instructions and seeing buckbeak at the begining of the ride but I do know that it is viewed by many as a younger ride, But to be honest I think that any harry potter fan and anyone that likes rides like goofy's barnstormer or big thunder mountain railroad would still enjoy the ride. Here are some pictures from our time in that line and on the ride.
After we went on the Hippogriff ride my mom and I decided it was time to ride forbidden journey again! This time we decided that we wanted to go through the main line so we could hear the full story again. we went through our little shortcut through the store again but this time we went towards the main line.
We really didn't hit very many crowds in the line untill we reached the greenhouse room. We got very lucky because when we reached the line we got stopped in front of the warning sign that all rides had and found their little drawings describing which medical conditions would be aggravated by the ride amusing. We particularly enjoyed the drawing showing a person puking and a drawing describing epilepsy amusing because of these were drawn in such detail.
All in all we waited in the main line for about 45 minutes which was better than we expected. We both realized though that we prefer the single rider line and felt that we didn't need to go through the regular line again in future trips and we really didn't miss much of the story in the single rider line after all. We would be missing some castle landmarks but we have several pics of those and we have seen them in person so we are good. Here are some pics we took the rest of the way in line (the ride was still amazing btw!).
After we finished up on forbidden journey that time we went on the single rider line one more time before we exited the park. The best part was that my mom and I ended up in the same car together! That has happened a few times to us in the single rider line here. That really is the ultimate in the single rider experience. Say what you will about it, and i completely understand why people would rather wait longer in stand by for rides but my mom and I both absolutely LOVE the concept of single rider, we really feel like it is worth it to be seperated when you get to experience the ride queue together and you still are riding the same ride, just in different ride vehicles.
After we rode forbidden journey for the last time this trip we decided to get some more butterbeer before leaving and we wanted to get some more pumpkin juice to bring back as well. We stopped at a butterbeer cart to get the pumpkin juice and then went back to three broomsticks for the butterbeer. After a short wait we got our butterbeer we went out side to enjoy the gorgeous day some more and to have our butterbeer. While we were out there we discussed our whole trip so far and chatted about what our favorite things so far have been and what we were looking forward to next in the trip. After we finished up our drinks we realized it was almost time to leave for our dinner reservation that evening. We debated whether or not to get another cauldron cake for back in the room but we decided not 2. We said farewell to universal through a few goodbye pictures and then headed back through Suess land. Here are the pictures from that last part of our time in the WWOHP!
My mom and I both agreed that we wanted to check out a ride in suess land before leaving so we decided on their version of the peoplemover. I think they called it the sneeches mobile but I really don't remember and I didn't write it down. However, it had a 20 minute wait so we then decided to check out there carasoul which had no wait. We then headed over there and both my mom and i chose to sit on a dog like creature (I forget what they are called in suess stories, yes I realise that is bad that I forgot a element of a suess story, I'm Sorry!!!! The ride was super cute and fun and both my mom and I enjoyed it! Here are some pictures of our journey through suess-land!
After we finished up in suess land it was really almost time to leave. We then rushed to the front of the park so my mom could pick up her wand. Luckily it was a pretty easy process to pick it up and then we were on our way back to the parking lot. Here are some pictures we took as we were leaving universal
After we exited the park it didn't take us super long to get to the parking area. However, it seemed like forever untill we reached our section of the parking lot! I seriously dislike the whole universal parking structure!!!!!! It is so complex and confusing!!!!!!!
Luckily we did find our car soon after finding our parking area. Having the mickey antennae topper definitely helps!
Once we found our car we got our park stuff and put it in front with us. I saw that there was a bathroom not 2 far from where we parked so I decided just to change there and that would save us from having to go back 2 the resort since my mom decided just to wear what she was currently wearing. We also decided to freshen up our makeup to save even more time there as well. Once we were all pampered and ready to go we were on the road in no time.
Continued In The Next Post
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
Life Update #3
Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since the last time i updated this thing. I totally have lost track of time. I am entering the last week of my semester before finals so the past few weeks have been incredibly busy in many ways. Before I get on with my trip update which I will post in the next update I wanted to give a little bit of an life update because this has been an incredibly busy but wonderful month and i have several things to share with all of you.
Speaking of which I want to thank all of my readers who have stuck by me throughout the TR. I am aware that I have a lot of lurkers as well as posters which is perfectly fine because believe me I have lurked on many a TR but even if you could just leave me one comment and never comment again that would be nice as well just so I know if anyone is still reading. After finals end and summer starts I can pretty much guarantee more updates
Anyway i apologize for that mini lecture, I just have seen many TR's that I am reading give that same lecture and I figured it would be a good Idea for me to do the same. Now onto my life update
The first thing I wanted to update about was my school life. As I mentioned before this is the week before finals so as you can imagine the past couple of weeks have been filled with various projects that I have had to do. I have done 1 Presentation and 1 paper so far and I am about to give another presentation tomorrow and then all I have to worry about is three finals and 1 more paper so luckily after that I will have plenty of time to study because activities are pretty much winded down and my finals aren't till later next week so if I am not on here again for a while, now you know why. That isn't the fun part of my school life though, I just thought that it might be nice for all of you to hear about the academic side of it 2.
Now don't worry, there has been a super fun side to my school life as well, it makes all of the school work worth it. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this to anyone on here before but I am actually in a sorority at my school. I absoutely LOVE it and highly recommend greek life to anyone who might want to join at any point that could still do it (i'm always sober though so if that was ever a concern i am proof that you can be in a sorority and not drink at the same time). Anyway so I have had a busy month with my chapter as well. This month we have had a couple of fundraising events and we had our big formal (on April 28th) we have once every year which was fun like always. I have pictures from formal but i'm having issues with uploading pictures to photobucket so i'm not going to be able to post them, sorry.
The next thing that has happened in my life involves my summer plans. Last weekend (april 27-29) I auditioned for a community production of Joseph and the Technicolor dreamcoat. The auditions themselves were on friday night and then if you had a callback they were saturday morning. I came home friday for the audition and to prepare for formal the next day. When was preparing for the audition i almost had a panic attack because I was really struggling with the song I chose. Luckily i knew another song really well that I could re audition with (i auditioned with this same song last year but luckily they didn't notice). Luckily despite the audition not going as I planned it still went really well. I had done shows with this group before which helped with the nerves a little but of course i was still nervous. I ended up getting a call back to be a brother's wife which was fun because that involved a bunch of choreography. The company had two tiers of wives and i ended up being a second tier wife which wasn't shabby at all and I was really proud of myself, especially considering this is a boy's show with basically no girl leads (except one) so even with the double casting you are still competing against the best. My mom and brother are also in the show as well. My brother is one of the pharaoh's and my mom is one of jacob's wives. This show will be a big part of my summer so i'm glad i'm actually doing a fair amount of stuff in the show.
My last annoucement is about something that hasn't happened yet but is happening this week and I couldn't be more excited! Remember me saying that I am not much of a drinker. Well, part of the reason for that is because I am under 21. However, in about 25 hours from now that won't be true anymore. Yes everyone, I am about to have my 21st birthday!!!!! my birthday is on May 8th and I couldn't be more thrilled! I am the youngest in my family and I have always been a little resentful that i was the only one that couldn't drink. I think the thing that I am most looking forward about turning 21 is the freedom to be able to try different drink samples when I go out to restaraunts and go on vacation to places like Disney. I am really not a fan of the taste of alcohol so i'm pretty sure i won't be much of a drinker even after my 21st birthday.
Some even more exciting news than my own birthday is that my mom's brithday is also coming up. What day do you ask? well my mom's birthday just so happens to be the day after mine!!!!! Yep her birthday is this wednesday on May 9th!!!!!! She wouldn't want me to disclose her age on her so I won't but i will say she is excited it is almost her birthday as well. My mom and I (especially me) are both people who LOVE birthdays!!!! I always look forward to people's birthdays (especially my own, lol). I think part of the reason I love birthdays is because i was raised by someone who loves birthdays. I am super excited about my gift for my mom as well. I won't say what i'm getting her on here in case she comes across it but i do know she will LOVE it!!!!!
That is it for the life announcements for now. Stay tuned for an update
.Continued In The Next Post
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
Return To Disney and The Dinner I Have Wanted For A Year
So as we were leaving Universal we got a little bit lost trying to find the exit to the park and the expressway. Once we plugged the directions into our phone and figured out our surroundings we were ok though. As we were figuring out our surroundings we figured out that we had entered the resort through the back way. Once we found our way to the expressway we were smooth sailing to Disney!!!!!! In what felt like no time at all we approached this sign...
THE MAGICAL DISNEY GATE!!! I have such a love for this thing it isn't even funny. I even have certain opinons about which gate you can go through to enter or leave Disney. I absolutely can't stand entering or exiting through the Downtown Disney gate. it just feels all wrong to me. It doesn't give the same impression of entering a secluded and magical place as the other two gates do. I think that is because of the shopping center that is right by there. anyway, no matter where we are going i make sure my mom takes the Disney Studios, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom exit. Why would I do that even if we are going to EPCOT you ask? Well, over my many, many, many, many years as a disney traveller I have learned that roads in Disney are much like the yellow brick road. Pretty much no matter what you will be on track if you just follow the signs. When we went back through the gate we immediately began to look for signs for EPCOT. It was a pretty quick ride to EPCOT once we got through the magical disney gate. When we got there I was pleasently surprised by how close we were able to park. We were in the amaze parking lot about 5 rows back from the front.
Security and entering the park went by in no time at all and quicker than you can say "Qudditch" we were in the park. Oh sorry, did I say qudditch? i guess my mind is still on Harry Potter, i'm sorry!!!!!
Before going into EPCOT my mom and I decided that we were going to decide between Test Track (which btw is getting a whole new makeover as we speak, I'm excited to see what the new one will be like but i'm going to be incredibly sad if it gets rid of all of the essence of what makes test track awesome, which it looks like it might) and spaceship earth by how long the test rack line was. If the single rider line wasn't long we agreed we would do test track. We only had time for one ride before dinner which is why we were even having the debate in the first place.
We went over by the fountain and looked at the wait times and saw that test track's wait time was about 15 minutes in the single rider line. That worked for us so we decided to head over there. btw this was my first time being at EPCOT on this trip so it was my first time seeing their new wait time center signs, I absolutely LOVED them!!!!!! I guess I have a weird thing about signs, can't help it; their AWESOME!!!!! This fountain has been known in my family since basically forever as "mom's fountain". Why do we call it mom's fountain? Well, my mom LOVES, LOVES , LOVES this fountain!!!!! I seriously think it is her absolute favorite thing in all of Disney World. If they sold fountains like this fountain my mom would absolutely need to own it!!!!
Anyway we got to test track and basically walked right through the first part of the line. We ended up getting stopped in the front of the first part of the line. While we were there I said to my mom that this didn't seem like it was going to be a 15 minute wait. Welll, i really should learn never to say stuff like that because it is always a jininx. We ended up waiting in that part of the line for 15 minutes alone. Then we walked right through the preview show room, which got me thinking about how i haven't seen that preview show in a while and I missed it and then we waited about 3 more minutes untill we got into our cars. Now it's time for a funny story. Right before we got seperated for the ride my mom pointed out a group of people that happened to be from our hometown and knew my brother (they barely knew him and didn't know me at all). Then right after she pointed them out it was time to board my ride. Right as I was boarding i realized that I was in the same car as the people whom my mom pointed out.
It was really nice to be reunited with this ride!!!! I missed it sooo much!!!!! I tried to figure out where the ride camera was on the ride and i thought it was in the part where you almost hit the car. However, when i saw the ride photo they briefly show across the screen i realized it was probably in the barrier area, oh well it was the first time riding that ride of the trip so I had plenty of time to find the picture area.
Once I got off the ride my mom was already off the ride. She couldn't find my picture before it disappeared again so i don't have a picture of my ride but she did manage to get her picture.
After we finished up on test track we decided we should head over to Via Napoli. On our way over we decided to call my brother and chat for a bit. After a brief conversation with my brother we decided to explore the mexico pavilion since we had some time. Here are some pics from our time in the mexico pavilion. We debated whether or not to sneak a ride on the 3 cableleros ride before dinner but that ride had an unusually long line so we skipped it for the time being.
After leaving mexico we headed straight to via napoli.
Once we got to italy we were about 5 minutes early so we decided to take a couple of pictures before checking in. This was our first time eating at via napoli and we were both super excited to try it, especially considering how many raving reviews we have heard about it.
When we approached the restaraunt they had a long line leading up to this podium outside. We were confused about if this was the line we needed to be in or not so I stood in line to make sure we weren't stuck at the very end of the line when even more people came. My mom was very quickly able to discover that we were able to check in inside since we had reservations. This line had practically no one any where near it besides the hostess so we quickly checked in. We waited about 10 minutes before being seated which was more than ok with me since this was my first time here and I really wanted to do some massive picture taking as you will see in the pictures below.
After 10 minutes the hostess called out name. We followed her and we ended up at a table on the right side of the restaraunt. Once we were seated the drink person (who was a girl named allessandra for us) came by and took our drink orders (mine was a sprite and my mom's was a diet coke). Once she came by at first I thought she was our waitress which initially disappointed me but she was great so I was ok pretty quickly after her taking our drink orders. Then I realized quickly after that that she was just our drink person so i started to play the game, who do you think our server is. Of course because I wanted a young, cute italian man to be our server I was only paying attention to the men who fit that description in our area. There were two guys that I was really hoping one of them might be our server and sure enough one of them came over to our table and introduced himself as simon and he was our server (cue halleliugah chorus). Both my mom and I knew exactly what we wanted as soon as he did the highlighting of our menu. We both wanted pizza so I got an individual cheese pizza and my mom got a individual mushroom and onion pizza. Once he took our orders my mom and i began to discuss the highs of our disney day so far and in no time at all our food came out and we got refills on our drinks pretty quickly 2. Here are some pictures of us at our table (the one of both of us was taken by the nice older couple sitting next to us), our server and our food.
Like I said earlier I ordered the chesse individual pizza and I LOVED mine!!!!! It was very light and delicious which is exactly what I needed after having a bunch of delicious but heavy harry potter land food earlier. I loved how fresh everything tasted. Even though I wasn't super hungry I finished about 3.5/4 of my pizza. My mom ordered the mushroom and onion individual pizza. While I think she enjoyed it I knew right away she wasn't loving it as much as I was. She kept saying it was good but she had that facial expression and tone of voice people use when they don't mean something as much as they are saying they mean it. Don't get me wrong i think she liked it, I just don't think she loved it.
Once we were done with our meal it was time to order dessert. Both my mom and I were stuffed but since we were on the dining plan we were still going to get dessert. We decided to get one dessert to go for when we were back in our hotel room and then to split the other one right there. My mom and I agree to get a tiramisu to go for us to share later. meanwhile I got to chose our dessert we would share there and thanks to the DISboards I knew what I wanted about 11 months ahead of our visit. I am defintely one of those people who is obsessed with the disney dining section of the DISboards. Actually scratch that, I am definitely obsessed with Disney Dining in general. I love to look at all of the wonderful websites full of food pictures and articles. As a result of this obession I have a very long list of what I want to try if I ever go to or next time I go to pretty much every restaraunt on Disney property. For via napoli the item at the top of my list just so happened to be zeppoles. Zeppoles for those of you who aren't anywhere near as obsessed with disney food as I am zeppoles are ricotta cheese friters (basically mini donuts) that you can dip into metled chocolate and whipped cream. It look amazing and I definitely didn't have to think twice about getting it. It was at this point that the restaraunt started to get busier and the service began to slow down. Luckily for us it was about 7:15 at this point so we had plenty of time before illluminations which was our only other must do at EPCOT for the night. To pass the time my mom and I started to play the ABC game which is something my mom and I do to pass the time and We usually come up with a theme that all of your words have to fit with. Anyway a little while later our desserts finally came. Our server already packaged up our tiramisu which was nice and after the following pictures we finally tasted this dessert that I had heard so many things about for months.
It was AMAZING!!!! Both my mom and I went into this trance when we ate it! All either one of us said while we were eating it was how amazing it was. I will say that I was very glad that we were sharing that because it was very heavy and very filling and I would never in a million years would have finished it! My mom said said several times since our visit how she wishes we could come here and just get those zeppoles. The tiramisu that we ordered to go was also good but it kind of got all messed up so I just have the picture of it on the menu for you for that reason. The zeppoles triumphed over it though. If i have read correctly isn't that actually allowed as long as you aren't trying to use the dining plan or have I misread that?
Anyway here is where some more of the night's drama comes in and the main reason why my mom doesn't want to come here again unless we just get dessert. While we finished our dessert our waiter came by our table with the check. My mom ended up getting really confused because we ended up getting charged for our meal despite being on the dining plan. After much trial and error with the system we figured out that in our desire to eat neither one of us ended up hearing that while individual pizza's are on the dining plan toppings are not (i know, weird right?). If you remember correctly my mom got a pizza with mushroom and onion. She then ended up being able to use the dining plan on everything else and just pay for the toppings. After that very frustrating ordeal we bid farewell to via napoli and headed for our favorite illuminations spot. Where do we like to go? How early do we get our illuminations spot? all of these questions and more will be answered in the next update.
Continued In The Next Post
So as we were leaving Universal we got a little bit lost trying to find the exit to the park and the expressway. Once we plugged the directions into our phone and figured out our surroundings we were ok though. As we were figuring out our surroundings we figured out that we had entered the resort through the back way. Once we found our way to the expressway we were smooth sailing to Disney!!!!!! In what felt like no time at all we approached this sign...
THE MAGICAL DISNEY GATE!!! I have such a love for this thing it isn't even funny. I even have certain opinons about which gate you can go through to enter or leave Disney. I absolutely can't stand entering or exiting through the Downtown Disney gate. it just feels all wrong to me. It doesn't give the same impression of entering a secluded and magical place as the other two gates do. I think that is because of the shopping center that is right by there. anyway, no matter where we are going i make sure my mom takes the Disney Studios, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom exit. Why would I do that even if we are going to EPCOT you ask? Well, over my many, many, many, many years as a disney traveller I have learned that roads in Disney are much like the yellow brick road. Pretty much no matter what you will be on track if you just follow the signs. When we went back through the gate we immediately began to look for signs for EPCOT. It was a pretty quick ride to EPCOT once we got through the magical disney gate. When we got there I was pleasently surprised by how close we were able to park. We were in the amaze parking lot about 5 rows back from the front.
Security and entering the park went by in no time at all and quicker than you can say "Qudditch" we were in the park. Oh sorry, did I say qudditch? i guess my mind is still on Harry Potter, i'm sorry!!!!!
Before going into EPCOT my mom and I decided that we were going to decide between Test Track (which btw is getting a whole new makeover as we speak, I'm excited to see what the new one will be like but i'm going to be incredibly sad if it gets rid of all of the essence of what makes test track awesome, which it looks like it might) and spaceship earth by how long the test rack line was. If the single rider line wasn't long we agreed we would do test track. We only had time for one ride before dinner which is why we were even having the debate in the first place.
We went over by the fountain and looked at the wait times and saw that test track's wait time was about 15 minutes in the single rider line. That worked for us so we decided to head over there. btw this was my first time being at EPCOT on this trip so it was my first time seeing their new wait time center signs, I absolutely LOVED them!!!!!! I guess I have a weird thing about signs, can't help it; their AWESOME!!!!! This fountain has been known in my family since basically forever as "mom's fountain". Why do we call it mom's fountain? Well, my mom LOVES, LOVES , LOVES this fountain!!!!! I seriously think it is her absolute favorite thing in all of Disney World. If they sold fountains like this fountain my mom would absolutely need to own it!!!!
Anyway we got to test track and basically walked right through the first part of the line. We ended up getting stopped in the front of the first part of the line. While we were there I said to my mom that this didn't seem like it was going to be a 15 minute wait. Welll, i really should learn never to say stuff like that because it is always a jininx. We ended up waiting in that part of the line for 15 minutes alone. Then we walked right through the preview show room, which got me thinking about how i haven't seen that preview show in a while and I missed it and then we waited about 3 more minutes untill we got into our cars. Now it's time for a funny story. Right before we got seperated for the ride my mom pointed out a group of people that happened to be from our hometown and knew my brother (they barely knew him and didn't know me at all). Then right after she pointed them out it was time to board my ride. Right as I was boarding i realized that I was in the same car as the people whom my mom pointed out.
It was really nice to be reunited with this ride!!!! I missed it sooo much!!!!! I tried to figure out where the ride camera was on the ride and i thought it was in the part where you almost hit the car. However, when i saw the ride photo they briefly show across the screen i realized it was probably in the barrier area, oh well it was the first time riding that ride of the trip so I had plenty of time to find the picture area.
Once I got off the ride my mom was already off the ride. She couldn't find my picture before it disappeared again so i don't have a picture of my ride but she did manage to get her picture.
After we finished up on test track we decided we should head over to Via Napoli. On our way over we decided to call my brother and chat for a bit. After a brief conversation with my brother we decided to explore the mexico pavilion since we had some time. Here are some pics from our time in the mexico pavilion. We debated whether or not to sneak a ride on the 3 cableleros ride before dinner but that ride had an unusually long line so we skipped it for the time being.
After leaving mexico we headed straight to via napoli.
Once we got to italy we were about 5 minutes early so we decided to take a couple of pictures before checking in. This was our first time eating at via napoli and we were both super excited to try it, especially considering how many raving reviews we have heard about it.
When we approached the restaraunt they had a long line leading up to this podium outside. We were confused about if this was the line we needed to be in or not so I stood in line to make sure we weren't stuck at the very end of the line when even more people came. My mom was very quickly able to discover that we were able to check in inside since we had reservations. This line had practically no one any where near it besides the hostess so we quickly checked in. We waited about 10 minutes before being seated which was more than ok with me since this was my first time here and I really wanted to do some massive picture taking as you will see in the pictures below.
After 10 minutes the hostess called out name. We followed her and we ended up at a table on the right side of the restaraunt. Once we were seated the drink person (who was a girl named allessandra for us) came by and took our drink orders (mine was a sprite and my mom's was a diet coke). Once she came by at first I thought she was our waitress which initially disappointed me but she was great so I was ok pretty quickly after her taking our drink orders. Then I realized quickly after that that she was just our drink person so i started to play the game, who do you think our server is. Of course because I wanted a young, cute italian man to be our server I was only paying attention to the men who fit that description in our area. There were two guys that I was really hoping one of them might be our server and sure enough one of them came over to our table and introduced himself as simon and he was our server (cue halleliugah chorus). Both my mom and I knew exactly what we wanted as soon as he did the highlighting of our menu. We both wanted pizza so I got an individual cheese pizza and my mom got a individual mushroom and onion pizza. Once he took our orders my mom and i began to discuss the highs of our disney day so far and in no time at all our food came out and we got refills on our drinks pretty quickly 2. Here are some pictures of us at our table (the one of both of us was taken by the nice older couple sitting next to us), our server and our food.
Like I said earlier I ordered the chesse individual pizza and I LOVED mine!!!!! It was very light and delicious which is exactly what I needed after having a bunch of delicious but heavy harry potter land food earlier. I loved how fresh everything tasted. Even though I wasn't super hungry I finished about 3.5/4 of my pizza. My mom ordered the mushroom and onion individual pizza. While I think she enjoyed it I knew right away she wasn't loving it as much as I was. She kept saying it was good but she had that facial expression and tone of voice people use when they don't mean something as much as they are saying they mean it. Don't get me wrong i think she liked it, I just don't think she loved it.
Once we were done with our meal it was time to order dessert. Both my mom and I were stuffed but since we were on the dining plan we were still going to get dessert. We decided to get one dessert to go for when we were back in our hotel room and then to split the other one right there. My mom and I agree to get a tiramisu to go for us to share later. meanwhile I got to chose our dessert we would share there and thanks to the DISboards I knew what I wanted about 11 months ahead of our visit. I am defintely one of those people who is obsessed with the disney dining section of the DISboards. Actually scratch that, I am definitely obsessed with Disney Dining in general. I love to look at all of the wonderful websites full of food pictures and articles. As a result of this obession I have a very long list of what I want to try if I ever go to or next time I go to pretty much every restaraunt on Disney property. For via napoli the item at the top of my list just so happened to be zeppoles. Zeppoles for those of you who aren't anywhere near as obsessed with disney food as I am zeppoles are ricotta cheese friters (basically mini donuts) that you can dip into metled chocolate and whipped cream. It look amazing and I definitely didn't have to think twice about getting it. It was at this point that the restaraunt started to get busier and the service began to slow down. Luckily for us it was about 7:15 at this point so we had plenty of time before illluminations which was our only other must do at EPCOT for the night. To pass the time my mom and I started to play the ABC game which is something my mom and I do to pass the time and We usually come up with a theme that all of your words have to fit with. Anyway a little while later our desserts finally came. Our server already packaged up our tiramisu which was nice and after the following pictures we finally tasted this dessert that I had heard so many things about for months.
It was AMAZING!!!! Both my mom and I went into this trance when we ate it! All either one of us said while we were eating it was how amazing it was. I will say that I was very glad that we were sharing that because it was very heavy and very filling and I would never in a million years would have finished it! My mom said said several times since our visit how she wishes we could come here and just get those zeppoles. The tiramisu that we ordered to go was also good but it kind of got all messed up so I just have the picture of it on the menu for you for that reason. The zeppoles triumphed over it though. If i have read correctly isn't that actually allowed as long as you aren't trying to use the dining plan or have I misread that?
Anyway here is where some more of the night's drama comes in and the main reason why my mom doesn't want to come here again unless we just get dessert. While we finished our dessert our waiter came by our table with the check. My mom ended up getting really confused because we ended up getting charged for our meal despite being on the dining plan. After much trial and error with the system we figured out that in our desire to eat neither one of us ended up hearing that while individual pizza's are on the dining plan toppings are not (i know, weird right?). If you remember correctly my mom got a pizza with mushroom and onion. She then ended up being able to use the dining plan on everything else and just pay for the toppings. After that very frustrating ordeal we bid farewell to via napoli and headed for our favorite illuminations spot. Where do we like to go? How early do we get our illuminations spot? all of these questions and more will be answered in the next update.
Continued In The Next Post
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
ChattaAlley
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2011
Happy Belated Birthday I just started this TR today and I am all caught up. Seems like you and your mom had a great time together. Can't wait to read the rest.
Jazzabelle508
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
lurker here. Thought I'd make an apperance since you gave us lurkers a telling off
Loving your TR.
We are dining at 50s for the first time ever this upcoming trip.
I love the look of what you had!
Your mum looks so much fun!
Sarah
Hello and offically welcome to the club
Don't worry about it, I have barely commented on most of the TR's i've read so i completely understand why people do lurk, I just like knowing whether or not people are actually reading. Sorry if I made you feel gulity though 
Thanks you! It was a really fun trip, sorry i haven't been very good with the updates, I promise that will change soon!!!
50's is AMAZING!!!!!! I highly recommend it! I absolutely LOVE the fried chicken there! it is sooo yummy!!!!!!!!!! I know for a fact that many people who eat there order the chicken and most of us who have ordered it love it. Have fun when you do there for the first time, I definitely think those who go to 50's should be aware of how crazy it can get. It is so much fun and the more you know about the place the better game plan you can have when you actually eat there. I have several times done things on purpose to help create that wonderful crazy enviroment. I will say that the amount of craziness depends on the server.
Thanks, she is soooo much fun and is a great travel partner!!!! We like alot of the same rides and shows and stuff so we rarely have a disagreement about what to do next.
I just started this TR today and I am all caught up. Seems like you and your mom had a great time together. Can't wait to read the rest.
and thank you for joining me on this wonderful journey known as my TR We do have a great time together, it is sooo great!!!! I love spending time with her and I can't wait to share the rest as well So happy your back. Been following along throughout. Just finished my exams so I understand the stress of it all..... good luck
thank you, it is good to be back! I hate when I get distracted from a TR. Last year I had another TR but I ended up quitting the TR right around this time of the year. I got distracted from the TR and then once i sat down to continue it i realized I didn't remember what had happened next in the trip. I promise that will not happen again though! I actually took trip notes this time around to make sure that doesn't happen again. Another problem I had before was simply being impatient and I was getting a little annoyed at how long i was taking. This time I think I have more patience as well.
Anyway, yeah it is really stressful. I am actually just about to watch american idol and study and then do some more studying which is basically NO fun!!! This weekend luckily I have 21st birthday stuff to look forward to which is my motivation to study. Thanks, I really hope I do well as well! Thanks for the birthday wishes, I love that my mom and i are a day apart, it makes birthday time alot more fun. May is basically birthday month in my house because my mom, brother and I all have birthday's in may and i have a lot of friends with may birthdays as well. I kind of have a brian association with may and birthdays now which is really bad. and yeah we both had great days! I got to get my over 21 license and low and behold I actually have a decent picture on my license. Illinois actually had a change in driving laws right around the time I was learning to drive and getting my license and part of that new change was that the licenses looked different if you got them after January 1st, 2008. i was one of the last people to get a license in 2007 so i always had the boring old license while my friends all had the new license. The bright side to that thought was that i still got to follow the older less strict rules about driving as a newly licensed driver while the other people had to wait longer to reach certain driving milestones. I also found out that my grandmother gave me her car so I have my own car now which is something I am beyond thrilled about!!!!! I also got to try my first drink on tuesday as well so I was very happy about that!
And I am looking forward to writing my next post as well!!!!
Queenofallthings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2008
I promise to be back on the weekend to get all caught up!!!
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