A Fantasy Holiday - our first Disney Cruise, WDW, UOR, New York and DLR - COMPLETED 4/9
- Thread starter RachelleBeaney
- Start date
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 9 - Part 6 - Goodbye Castaway Cay
Jared and I made our way back to the Pelican Plunge area of the island on the tram. We did a little shopping and ran into Craig, the CM who had 'shot' Jared with the pistol on pirate night and had a lovely chat with him. He was from Scotland but had worked in Australia and had been to Perth, so it was nice to chat about home with him. We then slowly made our way back to the ship taking as many photos as we could of our beautiful surrounds. I really wanted a picture of these adorable pained anchors!
And how could we not get more pictures of the beautiful Fantasy and that beautiful water! Also the light was a lot better that afternoon so the ship looked better lit!
These next two are my photos - can you believe it!
The Aquaduck coming over the edge of the ship!
Her colours are really beautiful!
Some fun before we boarded for the last time...
We went back to our room and out onto our veranda to watch as we pulled away from our last port of call. As we pulled away from Castaway Cay we were treated to a multitude of different horns including when you wish upon a star, a dream is a wish your heart makes, be our guest, its a small world and a pirates life for me and others I don't remember now. The whole time we were backing away the staff on the island were on the port waving us away with those awesome giant Mickey hands! A fitting farewell to the Caribbean islands.
Unfortunately at this point I'd started to feel unwell again, but this time in my sinuses which often act us. I think I was just really run down and so, as I always am when I'm run down, I got a horrid head cold. That evenings final dinner was at the Enchanted Garden but I didn't really enjoy it too much as I was a bit too blocked to eat. Still it was good to have one final evening meal with our new friends. Then, our wonderful server Herry, cheered me up completely with a small touch of the Disney difference. When he came around to ask everyone what they wanted for dessert (and Jared ordered 3 this evening!) I told him I didn't want anything. Actually what I said (though it's not very grammatically sound) was 'I'll just have nothing' and told him I wasn't feeling to well. When everyone's desserts came out Herry bought me thing adorable plate of nothing!
It was so cute, and made everyone laugh and really cheered me up to! The Disney difference! At the end of the night we thanked our servers profusely for making the trip so enjoyable (there enthusiasm and brilliant service really did make the trip that much better) and gave them their tips (they were all tipped above and beyond because they went above and beyond). It was a sad moment because this fun little company of friends we'd spent the last week with would be breaking up soon.
And here is one final shot of Enchanted Garden...
And what I promise is the last lobby shot!
And that was it for our wonderful Disney cruise. Though we did have breakfast on the ship the next morning everything was packed so we have no photos of it. The cruise was one of the best parts of the holiday and we really really enjoyed it and would do it again in a heartbeat if we could (have to wait for the Aussie dollar to pick up against the US dollar though!). If you are reading this and considering doing a Disney cruise I would highly highly recommend it! The other part of the cruise that made it so wonderful was the friends we made. Todd, Kim, Derrick and Becky, if you are reading this, it was your friendship that really made the cruise the best part of our trip. Getting to meet and connect with some awesome people and share the fun together was really special and we really miss you guys now! I really hope we get to meet again one day (and hopefully take another cruise together sometime too) and if you ever come to Perth you have a place to stay!
Continued in Next Post...
Jared and I made our way back to the Pelican Plunge area of the island on the tram. We did a little shopping and ran into Craig, the CM who had 'shot' Jared with the pistol on pirate night and had a lovely chat with him. He was from Scotland but had worked in Australia and had been to Perth, so it was nice to chat about home with him. We then slowly made our way back to the ship taking as many photos as we could of our beautiful surrounds. I really wanted a picture of these adorable pained anchors!
And how could we not get more pictures of the beautiful Fantasy and that beautiful water! Also the light was a lot better that afternoon so the ship looked better lit!
These next two are my photos - can you believe it!
The Aquaduck coming over the edge of the ship!
Her colours are really beautiful!
Some fun before we boarded for the last time...
We went back to our room and out onto our veranda to watch as we pulled away from our last port of call. As we pulled away from Castaway Cay we were treated to a multitude of different horns including when you wish upon a star, a dream is a wish your heart makes, be our guest, its a small world and a pirates life for me and others I don't remember now. The whole time we were backing away the staff on the island were on the port waving us away with those awesome giant Mickey hands! A fitting farewell to the Caribbean islands.
Unfortunately at this point I'd started to feel unwell again, but this time in my sinuses which often act us. I think I was just really run down and so, as I always am when I'm run down, I got a horrid head cold. That evenings final dinner was at the Enchanted Garden but I didn't really enjoy it too much as I was a bit too blocked to eat. Still it was good to have one final evening meal with our new friends. Then, our wonderful server Herry, cheered me up completely with a small touch of the Disney difference. When he came around to ask everyone what they wanted for dessert (and Jared ordered 3 this evening!) I told him I didn't want anything. Actually what I said (though it's not very grammatically sound) was 'I'll just have nothing' and told him I wasn't feeling to well. When everyone's desserts came out Herry bought me thing adorable plate of nothing!
It was so cute, and made everyone laugh and really cheered me up to! The Disney difference! At the end of the night we thanked our servers profusely for making the trip so enjoyable (there enthusiasm and brilliant service really did make the trip that much better) and gave them their tips (they were all tipped above and beyond because they went above and beyond). It was a sad moment because this fun little company of friends we'd spent the last week with would be breaking up soon.
And here is one final shot of Enchanted Garden...
And what I promise is the last lobby shot!
And that was it for our wonderful Disney cruise. Though we did have breakfast on the ship the next morning everything was packed so we have no photos of it. The cruise was one of the best parts of the holiday and we really really enjoyed it and would do it again in a heartbeat if we could (have to wait for the Aussie dollar to pick up against the US dollar though!). If you are reading this and considering doing a Disney cruise I would highly highly recommend it! The other part of the cruise that made it so wonderful was the friends we made. Todd, Kim, Derrick and Becky, if you are reading this, it was your friendship that really made the cruise the best part of our trip. Getting to meet and connect with some awesome people and share the fun together was really special and we really miss you guys now! I really hope we get to meet again one day (and hopefully take another cruise together sometime too) and if you ever come to Perth you have a place to stay!
Continued in Next Post...
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Meemoo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2013
Wonderful photos is an understatement - If I come back with photos half as good I'll be sooo happy! Loving the Photo Pass Magic Shot too with Pascal! I ordered our Photo Pass Plus yesterday and am so glad I decided to get itWelcome to my newest Disney trip report - a Fantasy Holiday! My name is Rachelle and I am an avid Disney and theme park lover from Perth, Australia. I love to travel with my wonderful husband Jared, especially to the Disney or Universal theme parks!
Yep, that's us. This trip saw us embark on our very first Disney Cruise, visit Universal Studios Orlando and Walt Disney World, as well as head over to Disneyland and stop in New York.
This trip was organised for my husband for his 30th birthday, which fell in January this year. As school holidays in Australia fall in January and flights are much more expensive that time of year, we decided instead to travel in February and left on the 5 February returning to Australia on the 7 March. If you would like to read my pre-trip report the link can be found here.
We had such a wonderful holiday and I'd love to share it with you. I promise plenty of wonderful photos (my husband is a GREAT photographer - though I do apologize for the few iPhone photos that will creep in) and a few fun tales of the most magical places on earth! I've included just a few photos previews here so you can get an idea of what you're in store for. I hope you enjoy this report and that it takes you to the magic that is Disney!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Thank you - I'm glad you're enjoying the report and the photos. My husband uses a Canon EOS 700D which is a fairly mid-range DSLR camera and the kit lens Canon 18-135 zoom lens but he also has a Sigma 1.8 18 - 35mm lens which is a very good (it has a great tone when it takes photos) and, for a non-full frame camera, is probably the most recommended lens for Disney park photography . It is able to to get to a really low aperture which makes it good for night shots and dark ride shots. Its also a very popular lens because more lenses that go down to 1.8 lenses are fixed which means you can't zoom in at all with them. He also uses Adobe Lightroom to edit his pictures - which is really easy to use photo editing software (much easier than photoshop anyway!)
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Wonderful photos is an understatement - If I come back with photos half as good I'll be sooo happy! Loving the Photo Pass Magic Shot too with Pascal! I ordered our Photo Pass Plus yesterday and am so glad I decided to get it
Thank you - I will make sure to pass that along to Jared. I agree he is really talented! This is our first trip where we had a real proper DSLR camera and I was so happy with how the pictures turned out. The other thing to note though is that the ship and islands are so beautiful its pretty hard to get a bad photo of them! The Photopass photos were particularly good this time around! Sometimes you get one who is actually a photographer and knows what they are doing! Photopass Plus (or Memory Maker at Walt Disney World) is SO worth it. Our trip in 2013, before we really understood how to order the photo CD, we added in every one of our pictures and the total price, had we bought them all, would have been over $1000. And with Memory Maker we only paid $149! Great value (just make sure to take lots of pictures!).
Volunteer
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
I'm not caught up yet but I wanted to drop you a line to say I'm enjoying reading your report! I remember reading your Tokyo Trip Report and how much I enjoyed it, as well as taking some of your suggestions for my Tokyo trip! Good to see you writing again! 
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
I'm not caught up yet but I wanted to drop you a line to say I'm enjoying reading your report! I remember reading your Tokyo Trip Report and how much I enjoyed it, as well as taking some of your suggestions for my Tokyo trip! Good to see you writing again!
Thank you! That is so kind!
I'm so happy to hear my report helped you planning your Tokyo trip. That was one of the reasons I wrote it as most of the information I used to plan my Tokyo trip came from others trip reports (Tokyo Disney has so little in depth English information on the web!). I'm happy to be writing again, I really enjoy it, and I promise to continue writing reports every time we do a trip! - We are planning to head back to Tokyo Disney late next year along with Hong Kong Disney and hopefully the newly opened Shanghai Disney too!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 10 - A day I do not remember...
I'm going to start this report by saying I apologise for the lack of detail in this entry! The last night of the cruise was not a good one for me. I was too blocked to get much sleep and I was feeling pretty rotten the next morning as we ate our final breakfast and disembarked. Getting off the ship was very easy, and I think we'd pretty much disembarked by 8am after picking up our photo CD. Customs was a bit of a shamble. We found our suitcases easy enough (they make that fairly easy with the tags they give you indicating the colour and the character to look for to find your bags) but then it was really hard to find the end of the giant customs line. Still I don't think it took more than 30 minutes to get through as the line moved fairly quickly. We then caught a shuttle to the Alamo car hire place in Port Canaveral and picked up the car we would have our entire time in Orlando.
I knew I was in trouble when we got in the car because I could barely keep my eyes open. I am not good on too little sleep and I probably only had about 3 hours the night before. It was at that point that I told Jared that if our room was ready when we got to the Radisson Resort at the Port I would be skipping Kennedy Space Center. I knew Jared really wanted to see it so I told him he should go along without me. Unfortunately our room was not ready so I told Jared that I would go to Kennedy Space Center with him. We had Lunch with an Astronaut booked at 12pm so he told me I only had to make it until then (I think it was about 9 - 9:30am at this point).
When arrived at Kennedy Space Centre just after its 10am opening. We didn't really know much about the place (it's the one place I hadn't done any research one) but I knew I wasn't up to doing a lot of walking about so I asked Jared if we could just watch one of the 3D movies so I could rest a bit. We picked the one about The Hubble Telescope. It was interesting but also a bad idea as I was on the verge of falling asleep the whole time! After the movie Jared told me what he really wanted to do at Kennedy (if that was all he did all day) was see the Apollo rockets and the where they launched Apollo 11 from. Jared feels a bit of a personal connection to all that history as his grandfather was an engineer who worked at the space dish in Carnarvon in WA. It was one of the dishes in the Australian network responsible for helping transmit the pictures and audio from the moon and Jared's grandfather was even given a piece of the melted down eagle lunar module from NASA as a thank you for his involvement in the historical event. Because of that history, Jared really wanted to see the exhibit about the Apollo missions and there was a Kennedy Space Centre tour you could do to get to the exhibit, so we decided to do that next. It was about 11am and our lunch was at 12pm so we asked the staff 'will we be back in time' and they informed us we would (clearly they are not as knowledgeable about their complex as Disney staff about their parks but more on that later).
Anyway as we drove around the Kennedy Space complex in the bus I started to completely drift off, I could not keep awake. Additionally our bus driver, who was also our guide, was being completely condescending and treating us as if we were children who wouldn't listen to the history and facts he was telling us! Jared seemed to be enjoying what he saw seeing which made me glad we had come but I was so over it by that point!
As we drove around this is what we saw. Some of it I remember and some of it I don't so I'll try point out what I do remember. The most exciting part by far was the launch pad from which Apollo 11 was launched. I apologize for the badness of these pictures, they were taken through a bus window mostly! One of the most prominent things I do remember is that Kennedy Space Centre is rapidly moving from being a government based NASA facility to a public space port allowing private companies to work on shuttles for public use in the near future.
I believe this is one of the new launch pads that is able to be moved to different launch sites:
This was the Apollo 11 launch site.
This was the base that allows the first launch pad to move from one site to the other. It can move and tilt allowing the shuttle to stay stable and straight even when it moves up hills or inclines
And this was the track the base can move the shuttle along to the launch site.
We finally arrived at the Apollo exhibit (which was nowhere near the main visitors complex) at 11:45 and Jared and I resigned ourselves at that point to missing lunch. We were supposed to stay and watch some videos about the Apollo missions but Jared just wanted to see the exhibit and I was fading by the minute so we asked if we could walk straight through the videos.
News articles about the moon walk from all over the world!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2icJm2j]
The exhibit was really interesting. They had replicas of the Apollo rockets on display along with moon rocks that had been bought back, space suits wore by the astronauts and more.
After we'd walked around a while I told Jared I needed to go and wait for the bus back to the main complex. When we got to the main complex we did think about going to look at the Atlantis Shuttle exhibit but there was once again another video and wait time to get into the exhibit so we changed our minds.
Overall I didn't really enjoy Kennedy Space Centre. However, I don't think that's because the centre wasn't enjoyable. I think it's more to do with the fact that I was too sick and tired to appreciate it. The place is definitely more like a museum or science centre then it is a themed attraction. You need a lot of concentration and alertness to really take in all the facts that make the experience interesting and I definitely didn't have the capacity for that that day. I am sad that we missed the lunch with an astronaut and I do think that I'd like to go back on another trip and give the centre another go. Jared did enjoy what he saw of it, especially the Apollo exhibits, and probably would have stayed longer if I had been in any state to.
Continued in Next Post...
I'm going to start this report by saying I apologise for the lack of detail in this entry! The last night of the cruise was not a good one for me. I was too blocked to get much sleep and I was feeling pretty rotten the next morning as we ate our final breakfast and disembarked. Getting off the ship was very easy, and I think we'd pretty much disembarked by 8am after picking up our photo CD. Customs was a bit of a shamble. We found our suitcases easy enough (they make that fairly easy with the tags they give you indicating the colour and the character to look for to find your bags) but then it was really hard to find the end of the giant customs line. Still I don't think it took more than 30 minutes to get through as the line moved fairly quickly. We then caught a shuttle to the Alamo car hire place in Port Canaveral and picked up the car we would have our entire time in Orlando.
I knew I was in trouble when we got in the car because I could barely keep my eyes open. I am not good on too little sleep and I probably only had about 3 hours the night before. It was at that point that I told Jared that if our room was ready when we got to the Radisson Resort at the Port I would be skipping Kennedy Space Center. I knew Jared really wanted to see it so I told him he should go along without me. Unfortunately our room was not ready so I told Jared that I would go to Kennedy Space Center with him. We had Lunch with an Astronaut booked at 12pm so he told me I only had to make it until then (I think it was about 9 - 9:30am at this point).
When arrived at Kennedy Space Centre just after its 10am opening. We didn't really know much about the place (it's the one place I hadn't done any research one) but I knew I wasn't up to doing a lot of walking about so I asked Jared if we could just watch one of the 3D movies so I could rest a bit. We picked the one about The Hubble Telescope. It was interesting but also a bad idea as I was on the verge of falling asleep the whole time! After the movie Jared told me what he really wanted to do at Kennedy (if that was all he did all day) was see the Apollo rockets and the where they launched Apollo 11 from. Jared feels a bit of a personal connection to all that history as his grandfather was an engineer who worked at the space dish in Carnarvon in WA. It was one of the dishes in the Australian network responsible for helping transmit the pictures and audio from the moon and Jared's grandfather was even given a piece of the melted down eagle lunar module from NASA as a thank you for his involvement in the historical event. Because of that history, Jared really wanted to see the exhibit about the Apollo missions and there was a Kennedy Space Centre tour you could do to get to the exhibit, so we decided to do that next. It was about 11am and our lunch was at 12pm so we asked the staff 'will we be back in time' and they informed us we would (clearly they are not as knowledgeable about their complex as Disney staff about their parks but more on that later).
Anyway as we drove around the Kennedy Space complex in the bus I started to completely drift off, I could not keep awake. Additionally our bus driver, who was also our guide, was being completely condescending and treating us as if we were children who wouldn't listen to the history and facts he was telling us! Jared seemed to be enjoying what he saw seeing which made me glad we had come but I was so over it by that point!
As we drove around this is what we saw. Some of it I remember and some of it I don't so I'll try point out what I do remember. The most exciting part by far was the launch pad from which Apollo 11 was launched. I apologize for the badness of these pictures, they were taken through a bus window mostly! One of the most prominent things I do remember is that Kennedy Space Centre is rapidly moving from being a government based NASA facility to a public space port allowing private companies to work on shuttles for public use in the near future.
I believe this is one of the new launch pads that is able to be moved to different launch sites:
This was the Apollo 11 launch site.
This was the base that allows the first launch pad to move from one site to the other. It can move and tilt allowing the shuttle to stay stable and straight even when it moves up hills or inclines
And this was the track the base can move the shuttle along to the launch site.
We finally arrived at the Apollo exhibit (which was nowhere near the main visitors complex) at 11:45 and Jared and I resigned ourselves at that point to missing lunch. We were supposed to stay and watch some videos about the Apollo missions but Jared just wanted to see the exhibit and I was fading by the minute so we asked if we could walk straight through the videos.
News articles about the moon walk from all over the world!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2icJm2j]
The exhibit was really interesting. They had replicas of the Apollo rockets on display along with moon rocks that had been bought back, space suits wore by the astronauts and more.
After we'd walked around a while I told Jared I needed to go and wait for the bus back to the main complex. When we got to the main complex we did think about going to look at the Atlantis Shuttle exhibit but there was once again another video and wait time to get into the exhibit so we changed our minds.
Overall I didn't really enjoy Kennedy Space Centre. However, I don't think that's because the centre wasn't enjoyable. I think it's more to do with the fact that I was too sick and tired to appreciate it. The place is definitely more like a museum or science centre then it is a themed attraction. You need a lot of concentration and alertness to really take in all the facts that make the experience interesting and I definitely didn't have the capacity for that that day. I am sad that we missed the lunch with an astronaut and I do think that I'd like to go back on another trip and give the centre another go. Jared did enjoy what he saw of it, especially the Apollo exhibits, and probably would have stayed longer if I had been in any state to.
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 11 - We're off to see the Wizard - in Orlando!
We checked out of the Radisson Resort at the Port late the next day (we got a late check out at 1pm) after a very successful afternoon and evening of sleeping (well on my part - I think I had about 16 hours and was finally caught up again!). I'll just pause for a minute here to talk about how awesome the Radisson Resort at the Port was. It was comfortable, it was clean, it had a GREAT pool (even though we didn't use it), the beds were amazing (they had the mattresses that you could chance the firmness on either side of - which I loved!) and their room service was some of the best we'd ever had. Also, it wasn't to expensive. I would highly recommend the hotel to anyone pre or post cruise.
After checking out of the hotel we started our drive to Orlando for our stay at the Universal Orlando Resort. Yes, we were finally off to see the Wizard...ing World of Harry Potter and the new Diagon Alley. We arrived at our hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel, around 3pm (we did a detour to a Publix on the way to grab some essentials like fruit and cereal and juice) and were taken straight up to our room.
The Hard Rock Hotel was really lovely. It felt modern and classic all at the same time and the theme was certainly very fun!
I loved the water feature!
And this was our awesome room.
The mirror told you how tall you were compared to other rock stars! It was fun!
Even the art was musically themed!
We even had a small theme park view!
About half an hour after we had settled in Jared got a little birthday surprise!
We also had a beautiful sunset that evening!
We settled in for the evening with some room service happy about our choice to stay on property at Universal. The staff at the Hard Rock Hotel were so friendly. Everyone from the check in clerk to the bell boy was helpful and friendly. The bell boy even pointed out the features of the room such as the coffee machine and showed us how to use it. We were very easily able to print our tickets in the hotel lobby along with our unlimited express passes we could use to skip lines throughout the trip. We had bought lanyards we had used on a previous trip to Universal so we wouldn't have to keep the tickets in Jared's wallet and get them out every time we needed them. Additionally the staff member who delivered our room service that evening was so friendly and attentive, explained everything we'd ordered and told us he'd made sure to include extra parmesan cheese for us! This was unfortunately the last time we encountered really good service at Universal, but more on that in the next post!
Continued in Next Post...
We checked out of the Radisson Resort at the Port late the next day (we got a late check out at 1pm) after a very successful afternoon and evening of sleeping (well on my part - I think I had about 16 hours and was finally caught up again!). I'll just pause for a minute here to talk about how awesome the Radisson Resort at the Port was. It was comfortable, it was clean, it had a GREAT pool (even though we didn't use it), the beds were amazing (they had the mattresses that you could chance the firmness on either side of - which I loved!) and their room service was some of the best we'd ever had. Also, it wasn't to expensive. I would highly recommend the hotel to anyone pre or post cruise.
After checking out of the hotel we started our drive to Orlando for our stay at the Universal Orlando Resort. Yes, we were finally off to see the Wizard...ing World of Harry Potter and the new Diagon Alley. We arrived at our hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel, around 3pm (we did a detour to a Publix on the way to grab some essentials like fruit and cereal and juice) and were taken straight up to our room.
The Hard Rock Hotel was really lovely. It felt modern and classic all at the same time and the theme was certainly very fun!
I loved the water feature!
And this was our awesome room.
The mirror told you how tall you were compared to other rock stars! It was fun!
Even the art was musically themed!
We even had a small theme park view!
About half an hour after we had settled in Jared got a little birthday surprise!
We also had a beautiful sunset that evening!
We settled in for the evening with some room service happy about our choice to stay on property at Universal. The staff at the Hard Rock Hotel were so friendly. Everyone from the check in clerk to the bell boy was helpful and friendly. The bell boy even pointed out the features of the room such as the coffee machine and showed us how to use it. We were very easily able to print our tickets in the hotel lobby along with our unlimited express passes we could use to skip lines throughout the trip. We had bought lanyards we had used on a previous trip to Universal so we wouldn't have to keep the tickets in Jared's wallet and get them out every time we needed them. Additionally the staff member who delivered our room service that evening was so friendly and attentive, explained everything we'd ordered and told us he'd made sure to include extra parmesan cheese for us! This was unfortunately the last time we encountered really good service at Universal, but more on that in the next post!
Continued in Next Post...
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LivingforDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2014
That's a shame you were not feeling good on the day you went to KSC, we loved it there and the Atlantis Exhibition was amazing, sorry you missed it.
We were there from 10 till 4pm and then we went on a airboat ride, which was fantastic as well.
Did you end up getting back there?
Looking forward to the next part, this is such a good report
We were there from 10 till 4pm and then we went on a airboat ride, which was fantastic as well.
Did you end up getting back there?
Looking forward to the next part, this is such a good report
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 12 - Part 1 - Universal, you made me so mad!
Today was President's day and we knew the parks would be busy so we decided to only visit Universal Orlando for a half day (minus Diagon Alley) and put our Express Passes to good use.
We walked down to the boat dock at the Hard Rock Hotel and as we were boarding we told by the driver (who was also doing our security check) that we weren't allowed to bring water into the parks! At first we thought we was joking but he kept insisting so we had to go back to the room to keep our water bottles there (also making the 6L of water we had bought for the parks pretty useless!). When we got back the boat had left so we took one of the pedal cabs up to the Universal security check for hotel guests. We then had a conversation with the security staff member who said all the staff were told was that there was an incident at Mardi Gras and Universal had banned guests from bringing liquids into the park. I then informed him I was currently suffering from a medical condition that required me to drink lots of water (we had had 2x 1L water bottles to bring into the park) and that now I would have to spend money every time I wanted to drink (I can stomach the taste of the tap water in Orlando so I didn't want to use the fountains). It didn't make any difference, we were told flat out that no matter our situation we couldn't bring water in! Later that day we went to Guest Services to lodge a complaint and they gave us a $5 gift card to purchase water with (that lasted for 2 whole 600ml bottles which cost $6!). Before we move on I just have to say here that I think this was one the dumbest move Universal has ever made. I don't know what the reason for them banning liquids in the park was (possible excessive use of alcohol by Mardi Gras visitors), however to tell people they can't bring their own water into the parks and that, if they want drinkable water we would have to purchase it, is just ridiculous. Further, even after explaining I had a medical condition that required me to keep my water levels up (you have to with a UTI or it can recur) I was still only given a $5 gift card and, sorry, we don't really know why this is happening and you'll just have to deal! I know there were plenty of other complaints, I myself made one on Universal's facebook page, and then 3 days later (for our last day in the parks) the ban was lifted! Jared was also very annoyed and stated multiple times to security and Guest Services that Universal NEVER updated their website and it was still clearly written that guests could bring water into the parks. The answers we were met with when we asked why the policy was not clearly outlined on the website was that it was currently a temporary measure, but that advice sure didn't help appease the anger of guests who were being asked to tip the water out from their water bottles before entering the parks. Apparently (though we didn't see this as we entered from the hotel) the whole business was also causing a back up at security making crowds on an already crowded public holiday even worse. Dumb dumb move Universal!
Anyway, I promise that is the first and last rant you'll hear from me about anything on this trip I really don't like to dwell on the negative), but I feel it was worth ranting about!
After all the confusion we finally made it to the park.
Our first ride was the always wonderful Transformers. That definitely helped improve our somewhat sour moods - I do love that ride! Though perhaps not as much as Spiderman. Our Express Passes were also put to good use that day as the wait was around 30 minutes at that point of the morning.
On our way to our next ride, one of my all time favourites, we enjoyed the New York area of the park. This area is really fun and well done, and always quiet as there aren't really any attractions in the area (besides the one we were headed to).
After all that we went for a ride on The Mummy. The ride stopped briefly twice, which was a little jarring, but we still had fun. I did notice that the staff loading the ride that day had no clue what was going on. They loaded 2 people from one platform and 3 people from the other side of the platform at the same time into a row of 4 - of course that didn't work. And when our car finally arrived the lap bars on our row were still down and locked! I think perhaps I was noticing the mis-management of the attraction a little more because of my still slightly sour mode. I knew I had to get out of it quickly though, because sometimes I am my own worse enemy on a holiday when I get stuck in a negative mood! Still I was really missing Disney at this point of the trip (and in fairness I've never noticed a problem with the service of Universal staff before this trip - but even still - it isn't Disney level service).
Continued in Next Post...
Today was President's day and we knew the parks would be busy so we decided to only visit Universal Orlando for a half day (minus Diagon Alley) and put our Express Passes to good use.
We walked down to the boat dock at the Hard Rock Hotel and as we were boarding we told by the driver (who was also doing our security check) that we weren't allowed to bring water into the parks! At first we thought we was joking but he kept insisting so we had to go back to the room to keep our water bottles there (also making the 6L of water we had bought for the parks pretty useless!). When we got back the boat had left so we took one of the pedal cabs up to the Universal security check for hotel guests. We then had a conversation with the security staff member who said all the staff were told was that there was an incident at Mardi Gras and Universal had banned guests from bringing liquids into the park. I then informed him I was currently suffering from a medical condition that required me to drink lots of water (we had had 2x 1L water bottles to bring into the park) and that now I would have to spend money every time I wanted to drink (I can stomach the taste of the tap water in Orlando so I didn't want to use the fountains). It didn't make any difference, we were told flat out that no matter our situation we couldn't bring water in! Later that day we went to Guest Services to lodge a complaint and they gave us a $5 gift card to purchase water with (that lasted for 2 whole 600ml bottles which cost $6!). Before we move on I just have to say here that I think this was one the dumbest move Universal has ever made. I don't know what the reason for them banning liquids in the park was (possible excessive use of alcohol by Mardi Gras visitors), however to tell people they can't bring their own water into the parks and that, if they want drinkable water we would have to purchase it, is just ridiculous. Further, even after explaining I had a medical condition that required me to keep my water levels up (you have to with a UTI or it can recur) I was still only given a $5 gift card and, sorry, we don't really know why this is happening and you'll just have to deal! I know there were plenty of other complaints, I myself made one on Universal's facebook page, and then 3 days later (for our last day in the parks) the ban was lifted! Jared was also very annoyed and stated multiple times to security and Guest Services that Universal NEVER updated their website and it was still clearly written that guests could bring water into the parks. The answers we were met with when we asked why the policy was not clearly outlined on the website was that it was currently a temporary measure, but that advice sure didn't help appease the anger of guests who were being asked to tip the water out from their water bottles before entering the parks. Apparently (though we didn't see this as we entered from the hotel) the whole business was also causing a back up at security making crowds on an already crowded public holiday even worse. Dumb dumb move Universal!
Anyway, I promise that is the first and last rant you'll hear from me about anything on this trip I really don't like to dwell on the negative), but I feel it was worth ranting about!
After all the confusion we finally made it to the park.
Our first ride was the always wonderful Transformers. That definitely helped improve our somewhat sour moods - I do love that ride! Though perhaps not as much as Spiderman. Our Express Passes were also put to good use that day as the wait was around 30 minutes at that point of the morning.
On our way to our next ride, one of my all time favourites, we enjoyed the New York area of the park. This area is really fun and well done, and always quiet as there aren't really any attractions in the area (besides the one we were headed to).
After all that we went for a ride on The Mummy. The ride stopped briefly twice, which was a little jarring, but we still had fun. I did notice that the staff loading the ride that day had no clue what was going on. They loaded 2 people from one platform and 3 people from the other side of the platform at the same time into a row of 4 - of course that didn't work. And when our car finally arrived the lap bars on our row were still down and locked! I think perhaps I was noticing the mis-management of the attraction a little more because of my still slightly sour mode. I knew I had to get out of it quickly though, because sometimes I am my own worse enemy on a holiday when I get stuck in a negative mood! Still I was really missing Disney at this point of the trip (and in fairness I've never noticed a problem with the service of Universal staff before this trip - but even still - it isn't Disney level service).
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
No unfortunately we didn't get back there - we had a pretty packed scheduled while we were in Orlando. As I said I don't think my lack on enjoyment of the Space Centre really had anything to do with its quality but more to do with my sickness. I reckon we will plan to spend another day there the next time we head to Orlando to make up for missing it this time.
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 12 - Part 2 - London Calling - Part 1
After that we went to check out the new London area in front of Diagon Alley. This cheered me considerably as wow, was it well done. It took all my strength and will power not to take a peek at Diagon Alley that day (I knew it would be super busy and I wanted to wait and view it first thing the next morning when it wouldn't be as packed). Oh that reminds me of another grievance I had with Universal that trip - that the early entry for onsite guests was only for the Hogsmeade side of the park. And we knew if we wanted to get into Diagon Alley when it was quiet enough for pictures and riding Gringotts without a wait, we'd have to be at the park at least 45 minutes before opening! I was a little annoyed as I had emailed Universal at one point during the planning with our dates of travel to confirm that it was Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade, that was open early, and they confirmed it would be. But once again at the last minute they changed the policy! It didn't really make sense to me and I don't understand why they don't take an approach like the one at Disneyland where each side it open every other day. It wouldn't cost them any more to do that, as I'd imagine you'd have to employ the same amount of staff and resources regardless of which side was opened early!
Ok now I promise my rants are over! Anyway, getting back to London and it's brilliance...Well, it was brilliant. Everything looked and felt like you'd jumped over the pond and I loved the little references to parts of London seen in the Harry books, especially Number 12 Grimmauld Place and good old Kreacher! If you hadn't worked it out already I am a HUGE Harry Potter nerd (the books more so than the movies, I'm not the biggest fan of the movies but I read the books probably 4 times every year, they are my go to read when I run out of other new reading materials!).
King's Cross was really well done!
We enjoyed just sitting in the courtyard and staring at it all for a while!
I mean look at the detail they put into it!
The knight bus driver was fun to watch too, but we didn't meet him today.
I must be a member of the Order of the Phoenix who has read Dumbledore's special message about the location of Number 12 Grimmauld Place because I could see it!
And Kreacher could see me!
Continued in Next Post...
After that we went to check out the new London area in front of Diagon Alley. This cheered me considerably as wow, was it well done. It took all my strength and will power not to take a peek at Diagon Alley that day (I knew it would be super busy and I wanted to wait and view it first thing the next morning when it wouldn't be as packed). Oh that reminds me of another grievance I had with Universal that trip - that the early entry for onsite guests was only for the Hogsmeade side of the park. And we knew if we wanted to get into Diagon Alley when it was quiet enough for pictures and riding Gringotts without a wait, we'd have to be at the park at least 45 minutes before opening! I was a little annoyed as I had emailed Universal at one point during the planning with our dates of travel to confirm that it was Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade, that was open early, and they confirmed it would be. But once again at the last minute they changed the policy! It didn't really make sense to me and I don't understand why they don't take an approach like the one at Disneyland where each side it open every other day. It wouldn't cost them any more to do that, as I'd imagine you'd have to employ the same amount of staff and resources regardless of which side was opened early!
Ok now I promise my rants are over! Anyway, getting back to London and it's brilliance...Well, it was brilliant. Everything looked and felt like you'd jumped over the pond and I loved the little references to parts of London seen in the Harry books, especially Number 12 Grimmauld Place and good old Kreacher! If you hadn't worked it out already I am a HUGE Harry Potter nerd (the books more so than the movies, I'm not the biggest fan of the movies but I read the books probably 4 times every year, they are my go to read when I run out of other new reading materials!).
King's Cross was really well done!
We enjoyed just sitting in the courtyard and staring at it all for a while!
I mean look at the detail they put into it!
The knight bus driver was fun to watch too, but we didn't meet him today.
I must be a member of the Order of the Phoenix who has read Dumbledore's special message about the location of Number 12 Grimmauld Place because I could see it!
And Kreacher could see me!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 12 - Part 3 - London Calling - Part 2
Grimmauld Place was just so fun to photograph!
The rest of London looked pretty realistic too (for someone who has only seen it in pictures). I mean they even thought to stamp the fountain with it's 'maker' - The Cast Iron Co! I realise it must be a replica of something in London (I haven't been there so I don't know) but I was impressed how much attention to detail they gave to everything in an area that is essentially the front door step of the real attraction, Diagon Alley!
All in all we had so much fun just walking through this part of the park and taking photos. We probably spent about an hour just looking at it all and thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we did!
Continued in Next Post...
Grimmauld Place was just so fun to photograph!
The rest of London looked pretty realistic too (for someone who has only seen it in pictures). I mean they even thought to stamp the fountain with it's 'maker' - The Cast Iron Co! I realise it must be a replica of something in London (I haven't been there so I don't know) but I was impressed how much attention to detail they gave to everything in an area that is essentially the front door step of the real attraction, Diagon Alley!
All in all we had so much fun just walking through this part of the park and taking photos. We probably spent about an hour just looking at it all and thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we did!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 12 - Part 4 - Escaping the Sideshow
I should mention at this point that we were really noticing how much busier the park was than the other times we've visited (even the week we went around the Easter weekend). Public Holidays are definitely not the best time to be in the parks! Still we had our Express Passes, and they were so helpful, and we somewhat enjoyed the crowds and the bustle of people enjoying Universal (its funny how much more enjoyable crowds are when you don't have to wait in the long lines they produce!).
Our next attraction was The Simpsons Ride. I do love this simulator. I have to say that I am not one to complain about Universal's over-reliance on simulator technology. While I don't argue they don't rely on it (they do), I really enjoy the immersion and realism you can create with a simulated ride, if it's done well. And Universal certainly excels at doing simulator rides and motion based rides well.
The Simpson's Ride is probably the weakest form of 'creative simulation' at Universal (I mean it's almost a classic simulator in the way it's set up - a little more creative than something like Star Tours but still very banal compared to something like Spiderman) but I can never get enough of it's cheeky humor and wit, especially the way it pokes fun at theme parks. I mean, everyone says you've got to learn to laugh at yourself right! My favorite part has to be the line 'foolish humans, don't you know you must exit through the gift shop!' And ironically, you don't exit through the gift shop on this ride!
We did have a quick look through Springfield too.
Though we didn't have time to ride it today, we did enjoy taking photos of the Men in Black Ride. It's so well done (actually we saw what remains of the World's Fair in Queens that this facade is themed after while in New York. It is definitely not as well kept up as Universal!).
By this point it was time for our lunch reservation at Lombards. So we made our way back towards San Francisco (or what remains of it now that London is encroaching!).
Lombards does have great theme and an interesting atmosphere. We were so grateful that we booked as the maitre'd was telling guests the wait would be an 45 minutes for walk ins!
After lunch we headed towards our final attraction for the day - one of our favorites - ET. I've heard this ride slammed a lot for being outdated, and it is of course, but its very much a classic for us in the way Peter Pan's Flight is at Disney. There is something about flying off into the stars while seeing the silhouette of the bikes flying over the moon that charms me every time we ride, and this time we had the camera ready to try for a few dark ride shots! Oh but first we stopped in to see Jared's favorite car.
We left the park at about 3pm as I was fading a little, still feeling the effects of all the sickness i'd had. On our way back into the hotel we walked through the awesome pool area and stopped to get a few shots...
Continued in Next Post...
I should mention at this point that we were really noticing how much busier the park was than the other times we've visited (even the week we went around the Easter weekend). Public Holidays are definitely not the best time to be in the parks! Still we had our Express Passes, and they were so helpful, and we somewhat enjoyed the crowds and the bustle of people enjoying Universal (its funny how much more enjoyable crowds are when you don't have to wait in the long lines they produce!).
Our next attraction was The Simpsons Ride. I do love this simulator. I have to say that I am not one to complain about Universal's over-reliance on simulator technology. While I don't argue they don't rely on it (they do), I really enjoy the immersion and realism you can create with a simulated ride, if it's done well. And Universal certainly excels at doing simulator rides and motion based rides well.
The Simpson's Ride is probably the weakest form of 'creative simulation' at Universal (I mean it's almost a classic simulator in the way it's set up - a little more creative than something like Star Tours but still very banal compared to something like Spiderman) but I can never get enough of it's cheeky humor and wit, especially the way it pokes fun at theme parks. I mean, everyone says you've got to learn to laugh at yourself right! My favorite part has to be the line 'foolish humans, don't you know you must exit through the gift shop!' And ironically, you don't exit through the gift shop on this ride!
We did have a quick look through Springfield too.
Though we didn't have time to ride it today, we did enjoy taking photos of the Men in Black Ride. It's so well done (actually we saw what remains of the World's Fair in Queens that this facade is themed after while in New York. It is definitely not as well kept up as Universal!).
By this point it was time for our lunch reservation at Lombards. So we made our way back towards San Francisco (or what remains of it now that London is encroaching!).
Lombards does have great theme and an interesting atmosphere. We were so grateful that we booked as the maitre'd was telling guests the wait would be an 45 minutes for walk ins!
After lunch we headed towards our final attraction for the day - one of our favorites - ET. I've heard this ride slammed a lot for being outdated, and it is of course, but its very much a classic for us in the way Peter Pan's Flight is at Disney. There is something about flying off into the stars while seeing the silhouette of the bikes flying over the moon that charms me every time we ride, and this time we had the camera ready to try for a few dark ride shots! Oh but first we stopped in to see Jared's favorite car.
We left the park at about 3pm as I was fading a little, still feeling the effects of all the sickness i'd had. On our way back into the hotel we walked through the awesome pool area and stopped to get a few shots...
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 14 - Part 1 - Diagon Alley revealed!
So we did have a 4 day ticket for Universal Studios Resort but the second day of our stay there I had crashed again and I asked Jared if it would be ok for us to forgo going into the parks that day in favor of a nice relaxing day with lots of swimming and resting. He agreed that sounded perfect and so we stayed in bed and watched Grey's Anatomy episodes and then enjoyed an afternoon in the pool. The pool was amazing and so surprisingly shallow, which was great for someone short like me. It was great to be able to sit in the shallow parts and lounge and float through the heated pool as my body recovered from its exhaustion. The pool also had the added feature of having musical played under the water (this was especially fun when you were floating around and listening to music at the same time!). I told Jared if we ever got a pool at home we'd have to have speakers put underwater so we could listen to songs while we floated too! It turned out we picked a really good day to swim and relax as this was the one stormy day of our time in Orlando and the weather was not ideal for park going anyway! That evening we braved the wet and headed to City Walk to enjoy dinner at Vivo Italian Kitchen. The food was really good and you could tell the pasta was made fresh on the premises. We also enjoyed a lovely chat with our Canadian server about how we don't get Americans obsession with marzipan (yuk - I hate the stuff and you just don't get it in Australia!). Finally we were able to skype my Mum that evening which really helped raise my spirits (I love my mum!), so it turned out rest was a really good idea!
So the next day we awoke completely refreshed and ready to final experience Diagon Alley and the brand new Escape from Gringotts Ride! We arrived at Universal at 8:00am for a planned 9:00am opening and then Universal redeemed themselves slightly in my eyes by allowing us into the park at 8:35am (with no rope drop mind you - we were just able to go straight into Diagon Alley). Jared and I walked extremely brusquely to the entrance and then stole ourselves for the big reveal!
Wow, it was everything I imagined it to be and more! The area was absolutely stunning and the best part was that park staff were funneling everyone through the Carkitt Market side street to the Escape from Gringotts ride, so Diagon Alley was completely empty! As excited as we were to ride the ride we decided we shouldn't pass up such an amazing opportunity for photos of Diagon Alley empty!
We were here!
After the photos we walked pretty much straight onto the Gringott's Ride and wow, I loved it. There is a lot of debate about whether Gringott's or Forbidden Journey is the better ride but I have to say I fall in the 'Gringott's is better' camp. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Forbidden Journey and I love the feeling of flying towards Hogwarts and over a Quiddich match but I find that after a number of rides the transitions between the Forbidden Journey's projection screens and the live sets can be a little jarring. Gringotts did that part almost seamlessly and even though the ride was much more screen based than the Forbidden Journey, it still felt more authentic and real because of the way they inter-grated the action onto the screens with the sets surrounding them. The drop at the start of the ride is so amazingly fun and the range of motion and speed the cars is definitely greater than Spiderman or Transformers. The best way I have heard it described is as a cross between Transformers and the Mummy. There were only 2 things that annoyed me on the ride and mostly they are story related (since I am such a fan of the books). The first is that Harry, Ron and Hermonie were not at Gringotts when Voldermort arrived there and so they would not have fought (though I understand why they had to fight him for the sake of the rides story). And the second, and probably more annoying story mistake from my point of view, happens when Harry, Ron and Hermonie tell Bill they have the Horcrux and they are leaving. In the books they were very very careful never to tell anyone about the Horcruxes, as Dumbledore instructed them to, and Bill asks them at one point in the books what they are planning while they stay with him and they won't tell him. I understand that they needed to say they had got what they came for but did they really have to mention what it was. I suppose the ride is targeted at anyone, not necessarily Harry fans, but still, a non-Harry fan wouldn't even know what a Horcrux was! Really those are tiny small gripes based on my nerdy and obsessively good knowledge of the Harry Potter universe and otherwise I thought the ride was perfect! After we rode we asked the staff at the front of the ride if we could just walk into the bank for some pictures. She told us we could walk the entire line if we wanted with the camera! So we did! I just have to say the Goblins were amazingly realistic and the queue itself was an attraction (probably better than the Forbidden Journey queue in my book!)
The main lobby and the Goblin bankers!
Deeper into the line...
Bill Weasley's Office - the musion technology here is awesome! Holograms interacting with physical sets in the room!
Continued in Next Post...
So we did have a 4 day ticket for Universal Studios Resort but the second day of our stay there I had crashed again and I asked Jared if it would be ok for us to forgo going into the parks that day in favor of a nice relaxing day with lots of swimming and resting. He agreed that sounded perfect and so we stayed in bed and watched Grey's Anatomy episodes and then enjoyed an afternoon in the pool. The pool was amazing and so surprisingly shallow, which was great for someone short like me. It was great to be able to sit in the shallow parts and lounge and float through the heated pool as my body recovered from its exhaustion. The pool also had the added feature of having musical played under the water (this was especially fun when you were floating around and listening to music at the same time!). I told Jared if we ever got a pool at home we'd have to have speakers put underwater so we could listen to songs while we floated too! It turned out we picked a really good day to swim and relax as this was the one stormy day of our time in Orlando and the weather was not ideal for park going anyway! That evening we braved the wet and headed to City Walk to enjoy dinner at Vivo Italian Kitchen. The food was really good and you could tell the pasta was made fresh on the premises. We also enjoyed a lovely chat with our Canadian server about how we don't get Americans obsession with marzipan (yuk - I hate the stuff and you just don't get it in Australia!). Finally we were able to skype my Mum that evening which really helped raise my spirits (I love my mum!), so it turned out rest was a really good idea!
So the next day we awoke completely refreshed and ready to final experience Diagon Alley and the brand new Escape from Gringotts Ride! We arrived at Universal at 8:00am for a planned 9:00am opening and then Universal redeemed themselves slightly in my eyes by allowing us into the park at 8:35am (with no rope drop mind you - we were just able to go straight into Diagon Alley). Jared and I walked extremely brusquely to the entrance and then stole ourselves for the big reveal!
Wow, it was everything I imagined it to be and more! The area was absolutely stunning and the best part was that park staff were funneling everyone through the Carkitt Market side street to the Escape from Gringotts ride, so Diagon Alley was completely empty! As excited as we were to ride the ride we decided we shouldn't pass up such an amazing opportunity for photos of Diagon Alley empty!
We were here!
After the photos we walked pretty much straight onto the Gringott's Ride and wow, I loved it. There is a lot of debate about whether Gringott's or Forbidden Journey is the better ride but I have to say I fall in the 'Gringott's is better' camp. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Forbidden Journey and I love the feeling of flying towards Hogwarts and over a Quiddich match but I find that after a number of rides the transitions between the Forbidden Journey's projection screens and the live sets can be a little jarring. Gringotts did that part almost seamlessly and even though the ride was much more screen based than the Forbidden Journey, it still felt more authentic and real because of the way they inter-grated the action onto the screens with the sets surrounding them. The drop at the start of the ride is so amazingly fun and the range of motion and speed the cars is definitely greater than Spiderman or Transformers. The best way I have heard it described is as a cross between Transformers and the Mummy. There were only 2 things that annoyed me on the ride and mostly they are story related (since I am such a fan of the books). The first is that Harry, Ron and Hermonie were not at Gringotts when Voldermort arrived there and so they would not have fought (though I understand why they had to fight him for the sake of the rides story). And the second, and probably more annoying story mistake from my point of view, happens when Harry, Ron and Hermonie tell Bill they have the Horcrux and they are leaving. In the books they were very very careful never to tell anyone about the Horcruxes, as Dumbledore instructed them to, and Bill asks them at one point in the books what they are planning while they stay with him and they won't tell him. I understand that they needed to say they had got what they came for but did they really have to mention what it was. I suppose the ride is targeted at anyone, not necessarily Harry fans, but still, a non-Harry fan wouldn't even know what a Horcrux was! Really those are tiny small gripes based on my nerdy and obsessively good knowledge of the Harry Potter universe and otherwise I thought the ride was perfect! After we rode we asked the staff at the front of the ride if we could just walk into the bank for some pictures. She told us we could walk the entire line if we wanted with the camera! So we did! I just have to say the Goblins were amazingly realistic and the queue itself was an attraction (probably better than the Forbidden Journey queue in my book!)
The main lobby and the Goblin bankers!
Deeper into the line...
Bill Weasley's Office - the musion technology here is awesome! Holograms interacting with physical sets in the room!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 14 - Part 2 - She's a wild dragon.
After Escape from Gringotts we headed out into Diagon Alley to take some pictures. I asked one of the staff at one point how often the dragon breathed fire, so we could know how long to wait to get a picture and her response was 'well she's a wild dragon, so she breathes fire whenever she gets mad!'. This was a hilarious response, though not very helpful. Still we stuck around for a while getting photos of the beautiful Diagon Alley and waiting for her to get angry. She did, but we were on a weird angle so we knew we had to get better shots of her breathing fire later!
We also attended the Gringotts Money Exchange and exchanged our muggle money for Gringotts bank notes! I love the goblin in the exchange, he answers any question you pose to him. I asked him how old he was and his response was 'old enough'. I have pictures in the exchange when we came back for more money later on but for now these are the Gringotts bank notes.
\
Continued in Next Post...
After Escape from Gringotts we headed out into Diagon Alley to take some pictures. I asked one of the staff at one point how often the dragon breathed fire, so we could know how long to wait to get a picture and her response was 'well she's a wild dragon, so she breathes fire whenever she gets mad!'. This was a hilarious response, though not very helpful. Still we stuck around for a while getting photos of the beautiful Diagon Alley and waiting for her to get angry. She did, but we were on a weird angle so we knew we had to get better shots of her breathing fire later!
We also attended the Gringotts Money Exchange and exchanged our muggle money for Gringotts bank notes! I love the goblin in the exchange, he answers any question you pose to him. I asked him how old he was and his response was 'old enough'. I have pictures in the exchange when we came back for more money later on but for now these are the Gringotts bank notes.
\Continued in Next Post...
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LivingforDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2014
Can you spend that anywhere in the park?
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Yes you can use the Gringotts bank notes anywhere within the Universal Orlando Resort parks (not just the Wizarding World). It's definitely fun to feel like you can get access to Wizarding money - and the exchange is so fun to visit!
pierresgirl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
Signing on, love it so far. Business class, lucky girl! I love Virgin Atlantic I must say. Your husband took so many beautiful shots, my report is all iPhone pics lol! Love your Palo brunch top, I was rolled out of Palo dinner for sure! Next time I must try the brunch! What a shame you weren't well, Ive only had 2 UTIs, enough for me thank you very much!
CC is amazing, one of my favorite places in the world. Dd and dh parasailed together on our first cruise. A good excuse for you guys to go back! Love your Universal photos, esp London! I'm a UK transplant and try to get back every few years.
CC is amazing, one of my favorite places in the world. Dd and dh parasailed together on our first cruise. A good excuse for you guys to go back! Love your Universal photos, esp London! I'm a UK transplant and try to get back every few years.
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