Saturday, December 17th 
Leaving the Holiday Inn Express behind, we headed straight for the Universal parking garage, found a space for the SUV, and headed to Guest Services outside the entrance to Universal Studios. We had some “administrative” things to take care of on this trip and figured this early morning start would be a perfect time to get them out of the way. We had pre-purchased one annual pass online before our trip, and had a gift card to purchase the second one (we had tried to pre-purchase the second AP with the gift card using the online purchase page AND by calling Universal directly, but apparently their system does not allow purchases by gift cards except at the parks
…..weird). So, in an nutshell, we needed to get our pass purchases all settled and picked up so we could get access to the parks for the balance of our trip.
Despite being a Saturday and a week before Christmas Eve, the line at Guest Services was surprisingly short. While we waited behind less than 10 other families for our turn at the next available wicket, I texted our friends Kerry ( aka
@dsmom ), Robert and David to let them know we would be inside the park gates within the next little while. They were just heading down to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and they promised to let us know when they had made it from Portofino Bay to the Studios.
The sun was blazing and OMG, it was hot
. We thought we’d melt as we stood in full sun in that slow-moving line. What a shock to the system to go from -18 Celsius to 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the matter of 36 hours.
When we finally got up to the window, the very friendly TM at Guest Services was able to process the first of the two annual passes (the one we pre-purchased online with a credit card) with no issues, but the second one proved maddeningly frustrating. We stood there and stood there as they tried and tried to put the transaction through with the gift card. The TM eventually disappeared into the back to beckon a manager, and we stood there for more than 20 minutes before they emerged from the back. They swiped and swiped and attempted to reprocess, and the manager had no more success than did the initial TM. We had been standing at the ticket window for 45 long, hot minutes when they finally decided to try a different terminal and ….. voila! It worked!
Everyone was apologizing and thanking us for our patience and good nature as they finished processing the second annual pass and handed it to us through the little window……we couldn’t be mad or upset at all, because they really were trying their hardest to get the system to accept the card (and there was never any inference that they doubted the balance that we said was on it). The TM then inquired,
just the two of you this trip? I answered yes, and he told me to hold tight for one more quick minute. His terminal started printing out a series of small pieces of paper, and he handed them out to us in a neat little pile. He smiled at us and said,
Thank you so much for being so patient and understanding. Here are 8 Express Passes to help make up your time. Enjoy your day at Universal Orlando Resort!
We thought that was very kind
.
With our AP’s finally in hand, we proceeded to the turnstiles and entered Universal Studios. Let the holiday fun begin!
There was one more small task that we needed to take care of before we were free to just enjoy the balance of the day, and that was to pick up our Photoconnect card at the On Location store just inside the park entrance. Knowing that we would be purchasing annual passes to the parks at Christmastime, we purchased the annual photo card when it was on sale on Black Friday for $79.95 (a substantial savings, as the same card in the park is $149.95 in the park
). I had my printed confirmation in hand as we approached the TM at On Location, and hoped that this would be a quick pit-stop since we had lost almost an hour of our early start at the ticket window.
Of course, that wasn’t the case
. Are you sensing a theme here?
The staff at the store entered the confirmation but nothing would come up. They try a second, third, and fourth time…..nothing
. The staff try to tell me that the transaction did not go through when I tried to make the purchase the month prior. I call up my credit card statement on my phone for November 2016 and showed them the charge to my Mastercard that was processed on Black Friday. They give me a skeptical look and tell me they will have to call a manager. I tell them, please do!
(
and make it snappy!!……okay, no, I didn’t say that out loud, but I thought it loud enough that they may have heard it
) As we wait (and wait, and wait…..
) for the manager to make his way from wherever he was in the park to the store, the staff repeatedly keep saying that the purchase did not go through, which truly stirred my ire when I had already shown them confirmation of the transaction. By the time that the manager arrived, I think my annoyance was no longer well hidden
. I gave him a run-down of what had transpired so far, showed him my confirmation of purchase, showed him the transaction on the credit card, and told him he had two choices: issue me the card that I had purchased, or refund my $79.95 (which was a whopping $107.82 after conversion from US to Canadian funds
). The manager was a good fellow, and didn’t hesitate to direct his staff:
“Issue her the card she paid for. We will figure out the rest later”.
Hallelujah!
Within five minutes, we’re out the door and FINALLY able to start enjoying the park.
We decided to stroll through Hollywood and make our way toward Diagon Alley. After the frustrations of the morning, and as the temperatures continued to climb in the searing sun, a Butterbeer (or something stronger) was definitely in order
.
We were just walking down the street, breathing in all the sights and sounds of the morning (and admiring all the wonderful Christmas decorations
), when this sight for sore eyes pulled up:
The Simpsons!!!!
We’ve been fans of the show since Jake was a baby [yes, our sense of humour is apparently as odd at Matt Groening’s
], and we always find the interaction with the Simpsons characters to be a real hoot. What an awesome way to kick off our Universal visit!!
Meeting characters at Universal is easy and fun…….there are never huge lines or copious amounts of waiting. The TM’s are relaxed and friendly, and have a wonderful knack of keeping order while still allowing the meet-and-greets to be informal ad spontaneous. There was a Photoconnect photographer at this particular character meet, so we were able to get our picture on our freshly-issued card
.
By the time we had finished with Bart and Homer, the Spongebob Squarepants characters had appeared in front of Mel’s Diner: there was music, there was dancing, and there were more fun and impromptu meet-and-greets!
While there were no park photographers with this particular group, the TM’s with the characters were wonderful at offering to snap photos with guest cameras.
We were both feeling pretty light on our feet, and had definitely started to reflect the fun and festive atmosphere of the park, as we continued our way toward Diagon Alley. The Christmas decorations were very impressive…..especially the HUGE balloons in celebration of the Macy’s Holiday Parade. They were enormous and must have been 30 feet high.
We turned at Mel’s and headed up toward Transformers. I knew Steve
loved that ride.....it was a favourite of his and Jake's.....but I also knew he wouldn't want to ride it himself and leave me standing outside alone (he's rather a sweetie about things like that, no matter how much I encourage him to go and enjoy himself). My mind started formulating an idea.....I had said that this trip I would put on my big girl panties and give a few new things a try. My heart was beating a mile a minute, but I couldn't help thinking: there's no better time than the present. It was do it now or lose my nerve.
I asked if he wanted to use two of our Express tickets to ride together, and after he got past the initial shock of the offer, he JUMPED at the chance. In we went.....this was a big step for yours truly!!!
And the ride? Well, it turns out that I LOVED it!
I can't believe I hadn't been brave enough to try it in all of our previous trips
. I felt like Queen of the World and the bravest person in the park as we exited, and I think Steve was just about the happiest guest of the day
. Topping off the whole fun experience, as we wandered back out into the sunshine, we saw that one of the Transformers was out meeting guests
. To celebrate my "big personal accomplishment", we took a quick detour to get in on a photo. We waited less than five minutes for our turn …. so awesome!
After Transformers, we continued to meander our way toward Diagon Alley…….we’d be VERY ready for a beverage by the time we finally got there!!
......taking in some of the park sights and little details along the way. For the first time in all of our visits, we stopped to take a better look at the large statue in the New York area that we had never really took the time to notice before.
It turns out he’s quite an important fellow where Universal is concerned. Who knew?
The Beat Builders were also out performing, and we stopped to listen to their awesome music for a bit. The streetmosphere performers at Universal Studios are all amazing, and their music and energy add such a wonderful flair to the “feel” of the park.
We stopped to admire the Grover balloon:
……and the Scooby balloon:
……and then finally, we made it to London! We were SO thirsty by this point, we could hardly wait for something cold to drink
. Bring on the Butterbeer!!!
Diagon Alley was still remarkably peaceful. Crowds were still pretty low, which was simply beautiful.
There was probably more of a crowd at the Hopping Pot than anywhere else in Diagon Alley, but the line moved super quickly. As we waited our turn, Steve perused the menu and decided he would try something other than Butterbeer to kick off the trip: while it was still a cold Butterbeer for moi, he opted for a Wizard’s Brew.
Finding an open table, we settled in to enjoy our beverages as we soaked up some much-needed Vitamin D in that gorgeous Florida sunshine. We raised our glasses in a toast: cheers to a GREAT vacation
.
Next: the fun continues at Universal Studios!
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. I can only imagine where this thread will go when you're all left unattended!!
Not sure who's better qualified to supervise and keep the fun going!
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