anierodzik
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
- Messages
- 98
We woke up the next morning, and I packed a small overnight bag for the family, which I snuck into the car while they were eating breakfast. They had NO CLUE where we were headed, in fact they thought we were headed home.
If you remember, the theme of this trip is NO lines. We had been to Universal/IOA in May of 2010 for a 4 night trip. We stayed at the Royal Pacific (club level) and loved it, both the hotel and the express benefit. Harry Potter was not open, but it was complete, and we could see Hogwarts and Hogsmeade behind the temporary walls. We even saw a young Hogwarts student run by, point at us, and laugh "Muggles!" We knew we would be back.
I priced out the Express Pass for our family, and for the days that we were there it would cost almost $100 MORE to get the passes than to reserve a hotel room. I decided on the Hard Rock Hotel, and booked a room using my Annual Pass, which I purchased online. We bought the rest of the family's tickets through Undercover Tourist, and as the end of the time, ended up upgrading them to Power Passes. I know some people check in the hotel for a night while they have a hotel room elsewhere, and then don't stay onsite, but I thought it would be fun for a change of pace.
Because we would not be able to easily take advantage of early entry to WWOHP our first day at Universal, we went to Universal Studios on the first day. It took us pulling up into the hotel parking lot before Lill-E said "What does it mean Hard Rock?" Much excitement followed! So we checked into the hotel (and our room was ready), got our room tickets, and headed to Universal Studios.
Our first stop was here:
Rip Ride Rockit. On our first visit only T was tall enough to ride, and since Bug had released that he was a coaster-kid, the guys headed off for the ride while Lill-E and I poked around the new Despicable Me gift shop. (Which, of course, was open even if the ride wasn't. Rip Ride Rockit does not use the Express Pass, which is why we wanted to ride is as early in the morning as possible. The ride broke down as the guys were close to boarding, and they passed the time chatting with the nice ride attendant. Well, that paid off, because when they exited the ride, he let them ride a second time without having to get back in line.
We headed down the street, mourning the fact the the Minion Ride wasn't open. We rode Twister, which set my younger two on edge, so when it came time to ride The Mummy- well, it wasn't happening for them. Bug remembered watching the movie a while ago, and recalled us turning it off because it was too scary for him. He as quite and active imagination, and scary things can trigger nightmares. We tried to talk Lill-E into it, but she was not having it if her brother wasn't. So we used child swap, which made T happy because he rode it twice. After that it was on to Disaster! which redeemed the time for us. In the set-up part of the ride, they chose audience members for different parts, and DH was chosen as one of the evil villains. He is a ham, and the kids LOVED it! This was a fun experience for us. After that we went along the long walkway of board walls covering up the what was the former Jaws area.
On to one of our family's favorite, the Men in Black Ride. Express pass let us ride twice, although during ride two, the car stopped. The ride shut down. Really shut down. They lights came on, and after about 30 minutes they came and evacuated us from our car. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Bug and I were getting hungry, and neither one of us function well when we are hungry. We were the final group of people to be led out of the ride, and as we walked out they offered a complimentary Express Pass to one ride. When we said no thank you, we already have Express Passes, they handed us what we have come to call the "Golden Tickets" Express Passes to Rip-Ride Rockit, or Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Yes, thank you, we'll take it. 
After a forgettable lunch (really, I can't remember what or where we ate), we headed over to ride the Simpsons. The day was starting to get more crowded, so we were very please with our Express Passes at this point. While we all really like the Simpsons ride, it was the only one that had my motion sickness kick in, so the rest of the family rode the second time while I sat it out. We passed over the Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone, just like our last trip, so I couldn't even tell you what it was like, and rode ET, which is a sweet little ride. After that it was Terminator 2, which the boys really got into. We then realized we skipped Shrek, so we headed back over for that.
And now it was time for the new parade. I knew I wanted to be hanging out where the parade (in particular the Despicable Me portion) stopped in front of us. We headed back to Mel's Drive In where we got a couple of milkshakes to share while we were waiting. Hmmm... the parade crowds are not what they are at Disney. In fact, there weren't any. So after a bit o' discussion, we decided to position ourselves at the first parade stop, up in the New York area. That way we could just scoot on out out the park as soon as it went by, which is what we did. But not before my son, Bug, took many, many pictures of the parade. Here is one of his favorites:
At this point it was mid afternoon, and we headed back to our hotel. As we walked through the pool area, we stopped at the cold water station. (Which, by the way did NOT taste like Florida water.)DH and T headed out " Men bring back food!" while we rested in our very cool room. WE needed to be well rested because of the next surprise:
We had front row seats to Blue Man Group! Oh my word, you must see this show once in your life. It was fun, weird, silly, and very very entertaining. And for Lill-E, messy. She was the only one who really needed the provided poncho. I'm glad she was wearing it, although I think I could have gotten out the blue paint handprint from her hair and the mashed us banana from her clothes anyway. We are a musical family (both playing and listening), so this was all just right up our alley. And the dance party at the end was SO much fun.
As we left the theater, we encountered the first real rain of our trip. So we trotted back in the rain, and fell into bed happy.
Tomorrow: Finally! Harry! Islands of Adventure!
If you remember, the theme of this trip is NO lines. We had been to Universal/IOA in May of 2010 for a 4 night trip. We stayed at the Royal Pacific (club level) and loved it, both the hotel and the express benefit. Harry Potter was not open, but it was complete, and we could see Hogwarts and Hogsmeade behind the temporary walls. We even saw a young Hogwarts student run by, point at us, and laugh "Muggles!" We knew we would be back.
I priced out the Express Pass for our family, and for the days that we were there it would cost almost $100 MORE to get the passes than to reserve a hotel room. I decided on the Hard Rock Hotel, and booked a room using my Annual Pass, which I purchased online. We bought the rest of the family's tickets through Undercover Tourist, and as the end of the time, ended up upgrading them to Power Passes. I know some people check in the hotel for a night while they have a hotel room elsewhere, and then don't stay onsite, but I thought it would be fun for a change of pace.
Because we would not be able to easily take advantage of early entry to WWOHP our first day at Universal, we went to Universal Studios on the first day. It took us pulling up into the hotel parking lot before Lill-E said "What does it mean Hard Rock?" Much excitement followed! So we checked into the hotel (and our room was ready), got our room tickets, and headed to Universal Studios.
Our first stop was here:
Rip Ride Rockit. On our first visit only T was tall enough to ride, and since Bug had released that he was a coaster-kid, the guys headed off for the ride while Lill-E and I poked around the new Despicable Me gift shop. (Which, of course, was open even if the ride wasn't. Rip Ride Rockit does not use the Express Pass, which is why we wanted to ride is as early in the morning as possible. The ride broke down as the guys were close to boarding, and they passed the time chatting with the nice ride attendant. Well, that paid off, because when they exited the ride, he let them ride a second time without having to get back in line.
We headed down the street, mourning the fact the the Minion Ride wasn't open. We rode Twister, which set my younger two on edge, so when it came time to ride The Mummy- well, it wasn't happening for them. Bug remembered watching the movie a while ago, and recalled us turning it off because it was too scary for him. He as quite and active imagination, and scary things can trigger nightmares. We tried to talk Lill-E into it, but she was not having it if her brother wasn't. So we used child swap, which made T happy because he rode it twice. After that it was on to Disaster! which redeemed the time for us. In the set-up part of the ride, they chose audience members for different parts, and DH was chosen as one of the evil villains. He is a ham, and the kids LOVED it! This was a fun experience for us. After that we went along the long walkway of board walls covering up the what was the former Jaws area.
On to one of our family's favorite, the Men in Black Ride. Express pass let us ride twice, although during ride two, the car stopped. The ride shut down. Really shut down. They lights came on, and after about 30 minutes they came and evacuated us from our car. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Bug and I were getting hungry, and neither one of us function well when we are hungry. We were the final group of people to be led out of the ride, and as we walked out they offered a complimentary Express Pass to one ride. When we said no thank you, we already have Express Passes, they handed us what we have come to call the "Golden Tickets" Express Passes to Rip-Ride Rockit, or Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Yes, thank you, we'll take it. After a forgettable lunch (really, I can't remember what or where we ate), we headed over to ride the Simpsons. The day was starting to get more crowded, so we were very please with our Express Passes at this point. While we all really like the Simpsons ride, it was the only one that had my motion sickness kick in, so the rest of the family rode the second time while I sat it out. We passed over the Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone, just like our last trip, so I couldn't even tell you what it was like, and rode ET, which is a sweet little ride. After that it was Terminator 2, which the boys really got into. We then realized we skipped Shrek, so we headed back over for that.
And now it was time for the new parade. I knew I wanted to be hanging out where the parade (in particular the Despicable Me portion) stopped in front of us. We headed back to Mel's Drive In where we got a couple of milkshakes to share while we were waiting. Hmmm... the parade crowds are not what they are at Disney. In fact, there weren't any. So after a bit o' discussion, we decided to position ourselves at the first parade stop, up in the New York area. That way we could just scoot on out out the park as soon as it went by, which is what we did. But not before my son, Bug, took many, many pictures of the parade. Here is one of his favorites:
At this point it was mid afternoon, and we headed back to our hotel. As we walked through the pool area, we stopped at the cold water station. (Which, by the way did NOT taste like Florida water.)DH and T headed out " Men bring back food!" while we rested in our very cool room. WE needed to be well rested because of the next surprise:
We had front row seats to Blue Man Group! Oh my word, you must see this show once in your life. It was fun, weird, silly, and very very entertaining. And for Lill-E, messy. She was the only one who really needed the provided poncho. I'm glad she was wearing it, although I think I could have gotten out the blue paint handprint from her hair and the mashed us banana from her clothes anyway. We are a musical family (both playing and listening), so this was all just right up our alley. And the dance party at the end was SO much fun.
As we left the theater, we encountered the first real rain of our trip. So we trotted back in the rain, and fell into bed happy.
Tomorrow: Finally! Harry! Islands of Adventure!
. We head in, and they were amazed. It's just like the movies! We shuffled over to the far side and... T was chosen! Oh my word! How amazing was that! He was thrilled! We of course bought the wand that chose him, and we went through the shop to let the other two pick out their wands. Lill-E chose Ginny Weasley's wand, and Bug chose Professor Snape's. (We used the AP for a 10& discount and had the merchandise sent to the front of the park.)
. Can't wait for more!
) We also have Platinum passes from BG Williamsburg and will have "rock star" parking.
We love a good roller coaster so we are all really excited about BG Tampa! Our trip is coming very soon. (Just checked my ticker) 
