Been home for a week now.

[Tinkerbellgal]

So not long back from a two week stay at Disney and let me just say that it was incredible. Hopefully I'll get started on my trip report soon, need to let school get started for a little bit then I'll be writing.


Highs and lows
I think there was a lot of highs to be honest, there wasn't really anything we didn't like
However, saying that there are a couple. WWOHP was one. Now I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, still waiting on my pottermore welcome email , but it was way too hot and crowded, so much so that we only did Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and waited two hours for it. It was amazing but so I thought it was worth it
The second low was the weather, not because it rained but because it was roasting most of the days. Which would lead me back to a point about Universal but I'll discuss that in my trip report.

So yeah, the UK disboards will be buzzing now as we are mostly all back. I can now start thinking about next year, we are intending to go to California as my dads friend lives out there, so I'm looking forward to a stop and the original Disneyland

 

[Pegasus928]

Welcome home
I am looking forward to hearing all about your trip so please don't keep us waiting too long

 

[skelfbsfb]

Welcome home, like you everytime we go to Universal it just appears to be really hot. Good to hear you had many highs. Looking forward to reading your reports.

 

[or8it]

Hi glad you had a great holiday Just to let you know our DD received her email from Pottermore on Friday, she was well excited

 

[Tinkerbellgal]

Currently uploading my pictures to photobucket, 75 pictures of food and 400+ pictures of other stuff Most of my sunday will be spent looking at the photobucket uploading page I think

 

[disneyholic family]

welcome back - we were there too - from the 15th to the 29th...

we did half a day at IoA - just for harry potter...

we enjoyed it, but thought there were some things that could have been greatly improved....e.g. the wand shop.....why is there only one? it could seem like one, but have you actually load into multiple stores so you wouldn't have to wait so long....we thought the whole wand shop thing was pretty lame...fortunately, we decided to do it first thing upon rope drop so we didn't wait.....but had we waited even 10 minutes for it, i would have been really annoyed....

as for the rest of IoA - as always, we thought it could be much better run than it is....
i doubt we'll ever go back to universal.....this was the third time we've gone....we're always disappointed...we went this time just for harry potter....and now we saw it...no reason to go back....

 

[Tinkerbellgal]

welcome back - we were there too - from the 15th to the 29th...

we did half a day at IoA - just for harry potter...

we enjoyed it, but thought there were some things that could have been greatly improved....e.g. the wand shop.....why is there only one? it could seem like one, but have you actually load into multiple stores so you wouldn't have to wait so long....we thought the whole wand shop thing was pretty lame...fortunately, we decided to do it first thing upon rope drop so we didn't wait.....but had we waited even 10 minutes for it, i would have been really annoyed....

as for the rest of IoA - as always, we thought it could be much better run than it is....
i doubt we'll ever go back to universal.....this was the third time we've gone....we're always disappointed...we went this time just for harry potter....and now we saw it...no reason to go back....

Yes Olivanders could be improved, we decided not to wait for it, considering the fact that out of a group of 30 only one person gets picked to get their wand chosen for them, don't think its worth it. We don't like Universal either, if we were to go back there I think I'd stay on their property for 2 nights just to get the early access thing, apart from that I wouldn't go back either :\

 

[wayneg]

For Forbidden Journey you need to pick your times carefully, best way is to stay onsite and get early access but this August we arrived for regular opening and straight round to Forbidden Journey 1st time said 25 mins but in reality it was 10 min went straight back on again which took 20 mins. Threads on the Universal boards advise best times to go. I would never wait 2 hours for any ride.
We have been Universal AP holders for about 7 or 8 years now, this trip was so busy we only used them 1 day, hope we get to use them again before they expire or £100 each for 1 day was a little pricey, I still love both parks as much as Disney.

 

[disneyholic family]

Yes Olivanders could be improved, we decided not to wait for it, considering the fact that out of a group of 30 only one person gets picked to get their wand chosen for them, don't think its worth it. We don't like Universal either, if we were to go back there I think I'd stay on their property for 2 nights just to get the early access thing, apart from that I wouldn't go back either :\

we did stay there - just for one night - to get the early access to harry potter....
originally we were going to do olivanders after the ride, but there was a family in front of us waiting for the rope drop.....it was their second day doing early access....they'd done the ride first thing the day before, but by the time they got off the ride, the wait for olivanders was already 2 hours, so they hadn't done it...so they were going to race to olivanders first thing after rope drop...

so we decided to do the same.....we made a dash for the line and were about 3 families behind them.....we all got into the first show....there must have been about 20 people in there, including the sweet young girls of this family.....well....the wizard or whatever you call him (i've never read HP or seen any of the movies, so i'm clueless about what anything is called), went right over and picked a teenager who was standing behind these two young girls....
i felt so sorry for them....there they'd come on the second day and made a point of going to olivanders first thing....and then this wizard guy goes and picks an older girl standing right behind them....the girl he picked was about 16 years old....why someone so old?
anyway, all the kids in our show were so disappointed that they hadn't been picked........but then the girl was offered to buy the wand....she didn't get it for free - she had to buy it if she wanted it....she was so confused by the whole thing....she really didn't know what they wanted from her..

we all found the whole olivanders thing strange in the extreme....
and we would have been really ticked off had we waited a long time out in that hot sun...

but the castle was amazing...and DS and DDIL said the ride was amazing!!
and everyone but me liked the frozen butter beer (i HATE butterscotch - one sip made me GAG!!!! ).....

after HP we did jurasic park 3 times, the bilge barge once, dudley dooright once, spiderman once, and that cute little elevated train once....then DS did hulk, and then we were done....checked out of the hotel and headed back to WDW!!!

 

[dixonsontour]

Looking forward to your trip report

 

[jockey]

Looking forward to your trippie

 

[MrsSparrow..]

Have also been back a week. Major Disney blues right now! I can't bring myself to do a Highs & Lows because it depresses me that I am already back

Glad you had a great trip and look forward to your TR. Sorry about your bad HP experience. We had virgin early entry, got to explore WWOHP when it was empty, my Step-sister got picked for Ollivander's and went on Forbidden Journey with a minimal wait. Though I agree with the shops being ridiculous! Unfortunately, JK didn't want big shops, Universal had to keep it authentic to the books and films for JK to be on board. It's a shame about your bad Universal experience, I'm a fully-fledged Universal 'homie', it's taken years of experience to know how to get the most from the park.

 

[MrsJobba1]

I'm in the same position , been back just 8 days and have a major case of the disney blues.

I've just started my trip report to try and cheer myself up

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=42506087#post42506087