I know what your story is called! Belle and the Bounty Hunter! Update 3/25

[Felipe4]

Day 2- Part 2.

Next up, we wanted to ride Big Thunder, but it was down. We went over to Haunted Mansion instead, which had something like a 15-20 min wait.

We didn't have enough to time to play with all the interactive queue items, but that was OK. Still enjoyable as ever.

Since It's A Small World has a short wait too, we did that while we were there. L and I had the most fun, T was not really about it. We did it once, he didn't need to do it again.

Afterwards, it was time for our Peter Pan Fast Pass. Fastest pass we ever had. Line was about 75 minutes long at that point, so we appreciated it, although we didn't see the interactive queue.

By this time, it was HOT out. We went over to the Philharmagic for some nice indoor time. By the end, it was time for Seven Dwarves Mine Train!








At this point, my eye was kind of bothering me. I wear contacts and I had just put new ones in the day before, so something irritating it so soon was odd. It continued to get worse throughout the day.

By this time, it was time to head over to the Whispering Canyon Cafe for lunch. But first, more photos in front of the castle!



This time with T!


My favorite People


Magic Shot!





The Photographer said to strike Princess poses.

On the way out, we encountered some dancing parade. A cast member came up to me (to keep us out of Main Street) and started admiring my Snow White Disneybound. He also enjoyed my nails. He was a lot of fun.

The monorail wasn't running, so we took the ferry, which had just pulled up.

Lunch and more in the next post!

 

[Felipe4]

OK, so part 3 of Day 2.


T was a big fan of the interior of the Wilderness Lodge.



I guess I forgot to tell T & L that the servers tease you as part of the atmosphere. Our server greatly offended L with one of his initial comments, so it wasn't off to a great start. When he made comments about how we were dressed (I was Disneybounding Snow White, T just had Star Wars), he asked L, "What are you supposed to be then? A Ragdoll?" L did not appreciate it.

Our lunches were fantastic though. L and I each had a bottomless milkshake. T got a whiskey flight. I can't remember what we ate, just that it was really good.




T's Whiskey flight.

T also got a Moosehead... And then he needed more water - so our server brought him:


A GIANT jar of water. Here's T, surrounded by all the empty beverages (this included the waters L and I had and our milkshakes) and his jar of water.

We did refill L's water bottle with some of the water, but T finished it. A waiter brought over a fastpass for him for his feat. We thought it was a real one at first, but then laughed at what it was for.



T also got a milkshake with liquor in it. Never ending pit.

We weren't sure if we'd get cupcakes again, so L & I split a little fudge brownie. It was delicious.



But then the waiter DID bring out the cupcakes. L & I were too stuffed to eat them, so T and the server ate them instead.

Now we felt like the stay puft marshmallow man. We went back outside, put on some sunscreen, and took the ferry back to the Magic Kingdom just in time for the end of the Festival of Fantasy parade.





T got some great shots of the Maleficent float.


Right after the parade ended, L and I decided to try to meet Talking Mickey.


He sang Happy Birthday to us.

We tried to meet Alice before our Space Mountain fast pass, but the cutoff had already happened. We rode the Teacups instead. T was a monster and spun is all super fast. L and I tried to help but we had to give up based on how fast T was going.

Then it was time for our Space Mountain fast pass. The other rides (Splash, Mine Train) were to build T up for roller coasters.



He thought it was awesome. When I came out, I had tears in my eyes (partially from the wind in my face, partially from my eye bothering me.) It was indeed awesome.

We found the photobooth in the gift store and took full advantage of it.



It had rained when we were inside and was just about over. Perfect timing!

 

[Felipe4]

T wanted to get me some R2D2 Mickey ears for the next day (Star Wars Weekends!) and we had them sent to the front of the park.

While we were around the place, we scheduled a fast pass for Jungle Cruise later on. In the meantime we looped back to do Enchanted Tales with Belle (the actress wasn't the best) and Dumbo.



We went back over the Jungle Cruise and enjoyed our guide - L especially liked that when we were ducking and pulling over to the side, he used his foot to steer the boat.

Then, it was time for dinner. And I had a surprise!

Dinner was at Be Our Guest. We were still not SUPER hungry, but we were going to eat again! The downsides of having 3 full service meals in 1 day I suppose.

L was in love with the theming.



I had to ask our server about our cake, but T had to be gone. I sent L on a distraction mission and I was able to confirm our surprise cake for T.

For the record, I think I had the porkchops. They were delicious. Whatever T had, he really enjoyed the mashed vegetable (that was not potato).

Then, this came out.



Because L and I had our birthday pins on, we also got a little bit of the grey stuff.



We didn't come close to finishing the cake.



T was definitely a fan of it. The Chewy cake was a red velvet with grey stuff filling and chocolate buttercream fur.

Maybe next time I'll look into getting a mini cake instead of a 6".

The Beast was very gentlemanly.



Of course, the window:



Fireworks were just about starting when we got out. We watched a little bit of them, but my eye was really irritating me and L had her 90 minute drive home, so we left and watched some of it from the monorail.

It was a pretty successful Magic Kingdom day. When we returned to the room, we found that the mousekeeping seemed to be under the impression that we were celebrating a honeymoon. We assumed mousekeeping saw the canvas for my cousin's wedding reception and thought "J&S" were just married. We had a little card from Mickey and Minnie Mouse telling us congratulations. We got a kick out of it.

Because of our alarm fiasco, T made sure to set his phone as well. I contemplated setting a wake up call, but was too tired. It felt heavenly to take out my contacts and clean them. My eye was very bloodshot and red. I put in some drops and hoped it would be better when I woke up.

 

[Felipe4]

Welcome @soniam and @Hadley's Mom!

 

[Felipe4]

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios - STAR WARS DAY

This day was pretty much the reason why I decided to go to Disney in June. Star Wars Weekends.

A special thanks to everyone from the Official Star Wars Weekends Tips and Tricks discussion that helped immensely!

Here's what I had planned:

7:45 - Storming the Park
8:00 - Galactic Breakfast at Sci Fi
9:45 - Check in for Feel the Force Premium Package
10:00 - Toy Story Midway Mania Fast Pass
11:00 - FTF PP Parade
12:25 - Star Tours Fast Pass
1:00 - DTECH ME (surprise for T!)
3:00 - Stars of the Saga Fast Pass from FtF
4:15 - Rebel Hangar
4:50 - A Conversation with Frank Oz Fast Pass
7:10 - Jedi Mickey at Hollywood and Vine
8:30 - Dessert party and Symphony in the Stars

Here's how it actually went down:

Remember both T and I set our alarms the night before?

Yeah. Neither of them went off. Again. Apparently we needed to make them louder? I have no idea.

So we woke up at 7:00. Running WAY behind! I had to shower, dress and get to HS with T ASAP. Oh, and remember how my eye had been bothering me? It was pretty swollen when I woke up. Nothing a little eyeliner can fix. Didn't wear my contacts - thankfully I still had my glasses.

I had wanted to look like this for my Disneybounding Jasmine/Star Wars mashup


Wasn't going to happen as I'd wanted.

So we call an uber to take us to Hollywood Studios - the directions take our driver (this was his first job to Disney) to HS's employee entrance. They make him park and not let us out at drop off, annoying. It's about 8:05 when we get through the front gates. I'm panicking about losing our reservation...again. But we make it to the back of the park in time to check in. It's about 8:25 when we actually are called for our photo and to be seated.



I had a Tatooine Sunrise and yogurt, T had the Dune Sea. The food was kind of mediocre - T didn't think it was worth the price. We did enjoy most of the pastries though. T also got Bantha milk and liked it.

A Jawa came around and I realized in my frantic rush the night before that I forgot to pack jawa trading knickknacks. I grabbed T's anniversary pin that he refused to wear and let him trade that instead. The Jawa was very excited by it and really dug around to find something good. We got a toothbrush - but not just ANY toothbrush. A 1984 Princess Leia Toothbrush still sealed in the packaging. T looked up it's retail value - $20. Not a bad trade!

Greedo came by and I took a photo with him. He didn't think I was dating the right bounty hunter.



T lamented the prequel clip in the background.


After breakfast, it was nearly 9:45, so I checked us into our FTF Premium Package. We got the show we wanted: Stars of the Saga. I therefore cancelled our SotS for the next day and picked up another Star Tours Fast Pass.

Next up was Toy Story Midway Mania - that fast pass was WORTH IT. Line was about 75 minutes when we used it. T had fun - I was in the lead by about 2,000 points until the end when T blasted the final 1,000 point target repeatedly and came out about 30,000 points ahead. Oh well.

We headed over to the parade and our designated spot and found it pretty full already. But then, people were lining up to get into the area at 9:30. Here I thought the point of having a designated spot was so you DIDN'T have to wait a long time for a good spot...

We managed to find a spot in a shady corner though and had a good view of most of the parade. T was actually pretty into it and snapped a lot of photos of different troopers.





When the celebrities started coming, T exclaimed, "Wow, that guy is jacked!" I told him it must be Ray Park.



Then came Peter Mayhew



And Frank Oz!



I ate a mickeybar and grabbed a few sodas and waters for us to take for later. We meandered for a bit around after the parade, not hungry enough to eat lunch, and knowing we'd eat again at 4:00 for the Rebel Hangar. There was a short wait for Star Tours, so we did it - we got Hoth. There was some confusion when they changed ropes and people ended up going both ways through the queue.

Then it was time for our actual Star Tours Fast Pass - and we had a little surprise!

 

[Felipe4]

When it came time for our Star Tours fastpass, we realized Luke was up top surveying everything.



However, over on the bridge, was Frank Oz and his family!



We're not sure if everyone knew who they were, but we were excited.

We got Kashyyyk as a planet! T was definitely a fan of the ride! Lines were pretty long for other things. I think we did the Muppets afterwards. At this point, I had to tell him his surprise.

I told him he was going to be made into a figurine at D Tech!



He decided to become a Storm Trooper. I hope it turns out OK - I heard Storm Troopers tend to not look as good.

T told me he saw the D-Tech Me in materials online but was deterred because of the price - but if I wanted to get it for him, well, he wouldn't stop me.

We explored the rest of the pop-up stores after that. I got us drinks (mainly so we could get Boba Fett steins and glow cubes. I was on a mission to collect them all!). Watto's Grotto was the only place that still had glow cubes in the park - I got an Endor and T got something else. Either way, we were able to get the Millenium Falcon and Death Star glow cubes. I knew we could get an X-wing fighter at the Rebel Hangar later. T got a tank top that was exclusive to Star Wars weekends. He wasn't sure if it was a women's tank at first but got it anyway. (When he tried it on later, it became abundantly clear it was for a girl, so he decided he'd give it to his sister.)

We got a lot of question about where to get our Boba Fett steins (you'd think people would notice them at every drink/popcorn cart!)



We took some photos by the lego replicas of our favorites:





My headband was starting to break at this point. Granted, it was never intended to go that far forward on my head, the R2 hat made it more difficult. I also got it from Claire's, which isn't well known for quality.

I think we killed some time next at the Indy show, which had already started, but we did enjoy all the stunts. Didn't there used to be the giant ball as part of the show or is that in the beginning? We never saw it.

Next up: Stars of the Saga!

We saw a huge line just for the fast passes, but were able to walk right in with our FTF passes and get good seats. T was not amused by the trolling in the poll questions.



We did enjoy the pre-show skit! That was neat.

We were pretty excited to hear from Ray Park, particularly how he was mostly self trained! He did a great little feat with household objects as weapons that James Arnold Taylor had him do:



But of course everyone was psyched for Peter Mayhew!



He has a great attitude and I have no idea how he continues his role as Chewbacca with his health problems (he had double knee replacements!).

The best part though, was watching the new trailer WITH them. Ray was adorable and sat down to watch it like a child. JAT followed suit and Peter Mayhew turned his wheelchair around as well. It was AWESOME.



As soon as the show was over, we booked it to the other side of the park for our Rebel Hangar reservation at 4:15. T was getting pretty hungry by this point. He's also accustomed to eating early, at noon, and dinner. My lunches tend to be later in the afternoon.

 

[Felipe4]

I realized I got super side tracked with life and work since June 25th, but I'm going to pick this back up! The details for everything might not be as clear, but I still have my crazy organized schedule saved!

Seriously, this was my schedule.





I was about to get into Rebel Hangar stuff - that was fun! I have to find all the photos.

 

[soniam]

I realized I got super side tracked with life and work since June 25th, but I'm going to pick this back up! The details for everything might not be as clear, but I still have my crazy organized schedule saved!

Seriously, this was my schedule.

View attachment 134408

View attachment 134409

I was about to get into Rebel Hangar stuff - that was fun! I have to find all the photos.

Love Google Sheets. I use it for preliminary day planning at Disney and when making ADR/FP+ choices. I eventually put everything in a Touring Plan that we take with us.

 

[Felipe4]

So we headed over to the Rebel Hangar for our snack/drinks before Frank Oz. We knew we pretty much had to be in and out to go back to the stage. By the end of this day we got to know HS pretty well running all around it. I wish I had a fitbit or something to track how many times we walked back and forth.

Anyways. We were seated quickly for the Rebel Hangar - our table didn't have a really awesome figure on it, but we were seated right in front of a table where a lot of action happened!

I got some midori drink to complete our star wars glowcube collection:



I believe we ordered the fruit and cheese platter and the garlic fries.

Garlic fries were delicious. T loves goat cheese and I think there was some on the plate so he was happy.





Now as for the action - a bunch of star wars characters gathered around a table to play cards. The people who were being seated weren't very interactive with the characters, so they just interacted with each other.



At some point an Imperial Guard had one of them arrested by Stormtroopers. It was hilarious.



We liked the food from the Rebel Hangar more than Breakfast - much cheaper too.

Then we dashed off back to A Conversation with Frank Oz!



We enjoyed his anecdotes about Yoda and working with Jim Henson and George Lucas - like when he was getting notes for Yoda, but the notes were being directed to the puppet, not Frank underneath because Yoda was being addressed as a person!



I was really happy to have my frog togs because it was ridiculously hot. I kept rewetting the frog togs in water fountains - or the big fountain right outside the theater.

After A Conversation with Frank Oz ended, we knew we had a bit of time before dinner. As I was Disneybounding as StarJasmine I was hoping that Jasmine might be at Character Palooza by the ToT gates.

We hung around there for a little while and lo and behold the gates opened!

I got Genie, Pluto and Tiana.



I scratched Pluto behind his ear and he started kicking his foot out.



I told Tiana we were staying in the bayou at Riverside. She told me I had to get the beignets and put honey on top of them.



Next up was dinner at Jedi Mickeys!

 

[Felipe4]

At some point, we made a new fast pass for Rockin' Roller Coaster at 8:10 - but we didn't end up going. We also got some magic shots.

Talk to the Force -




They really should have you move farther forward for the Darth Vader one. He looks like a giant.


Anyways - we go to check in super early for our Jedi Mickey dinner - our appetites were wetted just enough at Rebel Hangar to stave off the hunger.
I remember waiting a while to be called in.

Mickey wasn't a fan of T dressed like Boba Fett.


We were sat at a little booth - I was silly and took the seat with my back to the window - this made all the photos have some terrible lighting.

We were sat at the end of the rotation - so Darth Goofy came around first.


Then came Chip - but no Dale! Chip came around twice so I'll post the other photo of him.

Next up was Leia Minnie - I forgot to take off my glasses (though luckily my eye wasn't really bothering me any more).



Then Donald. I think I remember asking him what was up, not thinking since they can't talk. He pointed to the ceiling. Ha.



There was a break, so we got our food after that. T got 3 plates worth.

T enjoyed our place mat sabers. He made one ala Kylo Ren.



We were definitely adulting when we had a light saber fight.

At some point, T whipped out his phone and started taking photos. I felt something pulling my R2 ears.



Probably my favorite shot from Jedi Mickey.

Finally Dale came around.



Even though T didn't want a photo, Dale was not taking no for an answer.




Another cupcake was brought out for me but I was pretty full. I asked to waitress to bring it to another child who might want a cupcake - pretty sure she just put it back. I kept the card - it wasn't signed by the Jedi Mickey characters but by the morning characters.

I told T it was time for the dessert party and he groaned! I definitely wouldn't do 4 of these kind of meals again!

I didn't take photos during the Symphony in the Stars - we were pretty late getting out of dinner since it took a while to seat us, so we grabbed a table all the way to the left side, right up against the barricades. T and I decided to get our money's worth by ordering lots of drinks. I definitely had like 4. And two or more plates of desserts. I remember one chocolate thing being really yummy. We also took our little glow cube centerpiece home with us to go with all the other glow items we acquired that day.

 

[Felipe4]

OK I lied - there was a photo taken during the Dessert Party. I found photos from T of the vacation which fills in some gaps. Together with my cell phone photos, his cell phone photos and fastpass we have nearly 5 GB of photos. That's more than twice the space of my mom's Gateway laptop from 1998 (2GB).



The day wasn't over yet though! We were also seeing Fantasmic as this was the only day we'd be in Hollywood Studios long enough.

We took a nice photo on the way back over.



Our light sabers from breakfast came in handy as mini flashlights.

T got another beer while we watched Fantasmic. I didn't take any photos. We were exhausted and went straight to sleep. This time, I set a wake up call - never trusting my cell phone alarm again!

 

[jandlinz]

Joining in! Sounds like a busy first two days. I can't believe how many ADR's you were able to squeeze in. It sure sounds like you made the most of Star Wars Weekend.

 

[Felipe4]

Day 4 - or All the Childhood.

My alarm went off, albeit silently again, but this time. THIS TIME. I had arranged a wake up call. This was entirely successful. Huzzah!

My eyes felt much better - so I wore my contacts again. My plan for today was to eat breakfast a BOG, maybe ride the Mine Train, Peter Pan to see the queue, and get a photo with Ariel since I was Disneybounding as her. Then we were going to hit up HS for our actual fastpasses (ToT, RnRC and I arranged another Star Tours FP). I also had another Rebel Hangar, but I cancelled it since T and I had basically seen it and the menu was somewhat limited. Later, L was coming back and she'd have dinner with us at Ohana! I had managed to score an 8:30 reservation and hoped we'd be able to see Wishes.

It begins.

We got to MK with plenty of time and went right into BoG. This time we were sat in the West Wing (I loved it last time). I was a bit sad there was no regular milk, so I poured a glass from the milk set aside for coffee. I had the Eggs Florentine I think T had the open faced sandwich. Everything was delicious and we scarfed down the pastries. Our breakfast was for 8:05 and we were definitely done by 8:45. We wandered outside and waited a bit before the CMs let us go to 7DMT - walked right on.





There was maybe a 10 minute wait for PP - We didn't really get to play with the queue, but we did see stuff happening.

Next we walked over to Frontierland and rode BTMRR - there was maybe a 20 min wait, but we got to play with the queue entertainment.

Then we figured why not do Splash again. It was about a 20 min wait by then.



T wanted to pose for it - but thought the camera was on the other side. I definitely got some water in my eyes. Soon afterwards I realized my eyes were starting to become irritated again. It dawned on me that it was the water from Splash (as my eyes were fine on our first morning until Splash). Note to self. Squeeze eyes shut after the camera drop or wear sunglasses.

I had wanted to meet Ariel, so we tried to get in line, but it was 40 minutes by then, so I decided not to.

We went to Space instead. T enjoyed the games (the last time we had FP so we breezed past all the games). The wait was maybe 40 min by then. T began to appreciate the FPs after a while, haha!



We decided to just leave after that and head over to HS. We hit HS around 12:00.

We were glad we had our Tower of Terror FP! Had very little issue walking in.

T grabbed my hand as the drop started - so we look like we're reigning champions or something.



Afterwards we headed over to 50's Prime Time for our lunch ADR. We still waited about 45 min past our designated time. Luckily there's the bar. My eyes were beginning to get really irritated again (darn you Splash Mountain water!) and luckily I had brought my glasses with me, so I went to the restroom to take them out. I totally didn't know H&V and Primetime shared the bathroom.

We were eventually seated and our waiter wasn't very stern, but he was a funny guy. Turns out he was from MA too near where T is from. I think I got the fried chicken and T had to help me finish it. However, since it was Star Wars Weekends, 50's Primetime was offering Bantha Milkshakes! I totally took the waiter up on that. It was delicious (for you non SW people, Bantha milk is blue - so it was a blue raspberry kind of milkshake). I think coming here for lunch might have been a mistake in hindsight - the food is pretty heavy since it's comfort food. Great for dinner before you go home, but in the middle of the day it might make you lag.

Neither of us were too stuffed like the day before though, so we went straight to our Fast Pass for Rockin' Rollercoaster. The only time we went, sadly. The line was just too long on the only other day we went to HS. The year before my friends and I had gone on RnRC and ToT like 10 times, and a few back to back (and we only went a week earlier in the year too). However, it was the last day of SWW, so that probably factored into the wait times.



T was nervous about Roller coasters that go upside down, but he still really liked it.

My eye was still not 100% and T thought we should just ditch our last FP (Another Star Tours) and go back to the hotel, but I was determined!

We got Hoth as our planet - so it was kind of worth it.

I was hot, tired, and irritated by the end though - and it was only 3:00. (I realize I sound just like a youngster who needs naptime, lol).

We got back to the hotel and decided to take a dip in the pool before we met L for dinner at 'Ohana. Cooling off definitely helped, though I wore my glasses the whole time. Sidenote: How do people go into pools with glasses?! I was afraid of getting a chemical buildup on them. I originally left them by our chairs but when I went to find T - well, that proved difficult. We still had fun - went down the water slide. Just chilled in the very crowded pool by one of the waterfalls. I think a DJ was playing oldies and testing trivia with the kids.

We headed back to the room to shower and I felt so nice and refreshed. We weren't sure if L was picking us up or we were meeting her there - so we ended up taking an Uber (if you ever need a discount code good for up to $20 towards your first ride, I got you covered). Well, L thought she was meeting us, but then had to turn around and go to the Poly.

Luckily, T and I were early and chilled in the lounge - we checked in like 30 minutes early. I asked if we might be able to be seated by a window for Wishes and he told us if we were willing to possibly wait longer than the original ADR time (8:30) he might be able to accommodate it. He saw my birthday pin and made a note that it was a birthday and to really try for the window. I'm telling you people, that birthday pin is worth it. In the meantime, T had a Lapu Lapu.



I met L and she joined us for a drink upstairs in the lounge. No sooner had she gotten her drink than they said our table was ready - and we had a PRIME window table. (It probably helped that our table was for 3, not 4 - because there seemed to be a couple tables that were only 3 seaters).

I apologize for these photos - my phone is terrible in dimmed lighting and refused to focus.



We were right against the window - that purple blob is the Castle.

Food was delicious.



L and T had seconds on the steak.

Not only did we get to see Wishes though - we also got to see the Electrical Water Pagent!

 

[Felipe4]

They brought out dessert first plus a little frosted brownie thing for the birthday.



Then - there was wishes. It was magical from our seats with the music piped in.



L drove us back to our hotel and took the other bed - she was joining us the next day for Universal!

This time I did the following:

Set the wake up call.

Charged phones and extra chargers.

Pre-packed my bag.

Pre-set my clothes.

I have LEARNED y'all.

 

[Felipe4]

Sidenote: Welcome @jandlinz !

 

[jandlinz]

What an amazing view you had at the Poly. I hope your eye feels better for your time at Universal.

 

[Felipe4]

Day 5 - Universal Day 1

We woke up to our wake up call at like 7:30. Oh the joys of sleeping in. Relatively speaking. Universal opened at 9:00 so we wanted to be there by about 8:30.

I was decked out in my Ravenclaw shirt from about two years beforehand when I went with L. Alas no Disney Photo Pass - luckily I just discovered the trove of photos T took. Muahahaha.

We arrived at the park and L had to buy her ticket - we had purchased ours online. We wanted to do Universal Studios first because we had not been to Diagon Alley yet. Our plan was to take the train between parks for a full day of Harry Potter because - OBVIOUSLY.

We still got in by about 8:45 - they had people behind barricades at the beginning of the park by Minions - however, there was a sidewalk going to the right that was open. We headed that way, thinking we'd be closer overall to Diagon Alley.

Well apparently all the gates were opened that way - so we just meandered into Diagon Alley. Well, there was a line, but it moved quickly. It was AWESOME.



We immediately went into the Leaky Cauldron for breakfast, which was pretty empty.



I had heard stories of the Leaky Cauldron being too full and not accepting any patrons who didn't stay on Universal's grounds with reservations, so this was GREAT (photo above was the line to get in after we were done). Most Universal restaurants are quick service, so we were able to get our food and eat fairly quickly.


Me and the Leaky Cauldron

It was interesting with the communal style tables.

I think we all had American Breakfasts - a cop out, but we were kind of unsure about black pudding.


L is ready for the day!





We took a video of the moving wanted sign of Sirius - but I don't know if I can embed it.

The first thing we did post-breakfast was get in line for the Escape from Gringotts - it had a 10 minute wait listed both outside and on the Universal App. We couldn't believe our luck. We were directed to lockers fairly far away since Universal doesn't allow you bringing bags onto the rides most of the time. We got back and got in line. It seemed to move fairly quickly through the bank with the goblins - T got some nice shots.







When we got downstairs though - oh man. The line pretty much stopped for about a 1/2 hour. Then it moved a teeny bit. Then it stopped. We ended up in line for at least an hour. Apparently the ride was malfunctioning.

We were here for a LONG time.



T's patience was being tried. He's not good at waiting.

Eventually we made it through - I loved the ride - a great indoor coaster like The Mummy.

Next it was time for me to get an interactive wand - because I clearly needed to cast all the spells.

 

[Felipe4]

Day 5 Part 2 - Universal Day 1



Wand shop was busy - I immediately got us into a line to see the Ollivander show.



There was a young girl in our group that wasn't really familiar with Harry Potter that was chosen. JIPPED, I TELL YOU.





This broom swept the ceiling by itself. MAGIC I TELL YOU.

I got a new wand and immediately proceeded to go to every spell station and cast spells. I made a skeleton dance, some water spout out of a fountain, stuff in windows move, and turn lights on and off. It was great. I think I spent an hour casting spells. L went with me and occasionally cast some herself. It was nice and cool in Knockturn Alley.





T went off in search of beer. He also documented everything.

Appropriate with T's beard.








The cast members for Gringotts were still talking about the issues the ride was having.



We had some butterbeer and went off to Platform 9 3/4.

 

[Felipe4]

Mmm. Butterbeer.

There was quite a line at the train by the time we got there.



When we got upstairs to the platform, we took some photos.







We loved the little movie they played about the dementor on the windows. I wish my wand had been interactive with it. That would have been sweet.



Arrival at Hogwarts.

When we arrived at Hogsmeade, we pretty much went straight to The Forbidden Journey. Long line again, but it was fun. There was virtually no line for Dragon Challenge so we tested T again with the loops and corkscrews. Such fun. Very yay.

Then we went into The Three Broomsticks. I had the chicken - I had it the last time I went and it was yummy. We were getting pretty stuffed by that point.

We spent the rest of our time in Hogsmeade just browsing the shops (I got some postcards so I could write some friends). I think L looked for items for her younger brother and T browsed for his sister.

We went on Dragon Challenge again - or a few times. The lines were so short. When we had our fill of Hogsmeade, we went over to Toon Town to go on the water rides (it was HOT). I believe we went on the Popeye ride (and had a long wait) - L & T got soaked. They were very pleased. I made sure to keep my sunglasses on so water didn't irritate my eyes. Next we worked our way back to Dr. Doom's Fear Fall (which was quite serene) and The Hulk. There was a very short line for The Hulk (the last time L & I went , we waited about 50 minutes) - we were impressed. All of the Roller coasters we did in the past had basically been working T up to this. He had fun.


Conquered.

By 6:00 we headed up to the Citywalk for our reservation at Pat O'Briens. We wanted to see the Dueling Pianos and drink Hurricanes (L& I did it last time and loved it). We were still pretty full from lunch, so we just ordered Hurricanes and a plate of beignets. There was no honey to put on top, sorry Tiana.



One of the pianists looked like Josh Groban - unfortunately he didn't know any of the songs.

We found out that when you ordered Hurricanes or other specialty drinks, you get to keep the glasses - L & I totally left ours last time. This time we came back with like 6 glasses.

L dropped us off at Riverside a few hours later. T & I packed everything up since we were going to Coronado Springs the next day.

 

[Madilynsmommy]

I am LOVING your trip report.