The first trip of a lifetime trip report day 5

[jothp]

Day 5 Sunday 16th August - Universal and transfer to OKW - part 1
Well initially the plan for today had been an early transfer to OKW followed by a morning at Typhoon Lagoon. Since we had decided on one more morning here, we got up early and stored our bags with left luggage before our now traditional 7am breakfast in the club lounge. We were finished breakfast in record speed and were much nearer the turnstiles to IOA. As the park opened and the line started moving the CM at the front shouted to our line to make two lines because there were two turnstiles. As I saw it the family in front of us all went towards the left line and so we went to the right. Somewhere in this process the teenagers from the family in front decided to join the right line instead and ended up behind us. I'm not quite sure how it happened and it certainly wasn't our intention to cut in line - in fact if I had realised before they started making snide comments in a loud voice, or they had politely pointed out that they should be in front then I would have happily let them past. Once they decided to be rude I kind of got a bit cross too and let them stay behind us! I did feel quite guilty about it for the rest of the day so I guess I paid for it.

First up once we got in the park was for me to ride Forbidden Journey with the older girls. I had accepted that I wouldn't get to ride but I'm really glad I did. I loved it and think I preferred it to Escape from Gringotts. Today was Olie's turn to take repeated rides on the Hippogriff and somehow he managed six goes too even though we only took half the time on Forbidden Journey that he had taken yesterday. It was already hot this morning and we weren't planning on hanging around in Hogsmeade so we treated ourselves to 2 frozen butterbeers to share plus an ice cream for Evie (she didn't like butterbeer) even though it was only 8.40. Our first stop in the rest of the park was Pteranadon Flyers as it doesn't have express. For some reason I now can't remember, Olie wasn't with us when we arrived at the ride and Evie wasn't tall enough to go without an adult. I had all the bags with us (more than usual as we had checked out of RPR) and didn't think it was practical for me to ride so told the girls that they would all have to wait until their dad came to meet us before they could go on. It just so happened that there was a lady there who really wanted to go on but wasn't allowed because she didn't have a child. In a moment of madness I agreed for her to accompany Evie . I did then worry myself about what could happen the whole time they were on the ride. (that might be a bit of an exaggeration as the queue was non existent at that time in the morning and they walked straight on) Luckily they came off very quickly and all was well.

Olie was back by now so he took all three girls on Jurassic park. I am not a big fan of drops so I sat this one out. On their return they managed to convince me that the drop wasn't that bad and to go on. We got to the loading station and the girls were given the choice of sitting wherever they liked so of course they chose the very front row and we all ended up rather wet.



More water next with a trip for Olie and the girls on both Ripsaw Falls and Bilge Rat Barges followed by the girls and I repeating Bilge Rat Barges again. By this point we may as well have jumped into the swimming pool in our clothes so we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and get changed before our transfer to OKW.

 

[jothp]

Part 2
This bit is going to be a bit boring I'm afraid as not much happened. We got our luggage, changed into dry clothes and then relaxed in the lobby until our Mears driver arrived. I was a little sad after we had left to realise that we had taken no photos of RPR apart from our room. He was right on time and we were soon on our way to OKW. As we arrived at OKW our bags were taken out of the car onto a trolley and we were ushered inside to the check in desk. There was nobody else waiting so the process was quick and easy - although I will say that they asked for an email address but didn't explain until we were leaving the desk that they would use that email to let us know when our room was ready. I had given them an address that I wouldn't be able to access so we had to do that bit again with DHs email address. They did tell us we would be staying in the turtle pond area but not what building. There were some lovely ladies behind the desk who made some balloon teddy bears for the girls while we were waiting and we all got given first visit badges. On arrival we had been distracted by the excitement of checking in and it wasn't until we were about to leave the desk that they asked us what we had done with our luggage and we had a sudden panic as it had all been unloaded for us as we had been taken inside and we had no idea what had happened to it. Thankfully it was all sat on a trolley at bell services waiting for someone to claim it.
As it was now getting close to 1.00 we grabbed some lunch from goods to go. Not a great meal but it filled a hole. I was expecting it to be a while before our room was ready and we had a hire car to collect so we agreed that Olie would sort that out and I would spend the afternoon with the girls in the community hall - they would have loved a swim but all the gear was inside the cases at bell services.

Olie arranged for Alamo to collect him at 2.30 and came to join us for a while in community hall. The girls were enjoying the free craft and the cool down. Just before 2 we had an email to say that we needed to contact reception. Robyn was just finishing off her drawing so we left her put and the rest of us went off. Typically it was Robyn they needed as her magic band hadn't linked up properly earlier when we first checked in. Once we had fetched Robyn it was all sorted very quickly and our room 4111 was now ready so bell services took us and our luggage on a little cart right to our room.

Pretty much as soon as we got to the room Olie dashed off to catch a bus back to meet his Alamo shuttle. The timings worked out really well for us as I had some time to unpack with the girls watching telly between helping me. Some obligatory pictures of our room.

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Olie arrived back just as I was finishing off so we took the girls for a dip in the pool and collected our refillable mugs. After a swim we visited Walmart for what was meant to be a few bits for the room but managed to come back with over $200 of stuff! By the time we got back it was dark and we all went to bed ready for an early start the next day.

 

[dixonsontour]

Sounds like a smooth transfer. We love the turtle pond area. The alamo service to collect your car onsite is good - have used it a few times.

 

[jothp]

We were lucky that both our collection from the airport and the transfer went very smoothly. We booked a Mears private SUV for both as being 5 of us the shared shuttle worked out more expensive and we needed space for the luggage. We loved the Alamo collection service, by collecting the car once at OKW we managed to have a much smaller car than we would have needed from the airport to carry the luggage. We would use it again without hesitation.