Friday was our first park day at Universal. Our priority was Hagrids since it wasn't open the last time we were there. We had early entry due to staying at Royal Pacific. The park opened at 9 with early entry at 8am. We got there at 7:30 (we walked from the hotel) and we were pretty close to the turn stiles. Walking was easy and hardly any line at security at that point.
Once we were let in, we went straight to Hagrid's. We loved it! I'm not a huge roller coaster fan but this was such a well themed ride. I highly recommend this one. After we got off Hagrids (it was pretty much a walk on for us) we went to the castle and did the forbidden journey ride. I love this one too, but the screens can make me a little motion sick. I had to close my eyes during the quidditich scene.
Once we were done with that, we went over to the Marvel area to do the Spider Man ride. This is another one that we had done before but really loved. It's a good use of screens and practical effects together. Next we went to the Kong ride since that one was new to us too. I thought it was fun. Not a top tier ride, but still really enjoyable. Again, a good mix of screens and practical effects.
Stopped for a Jurassic Park photo on the way
Then we walked back to the Harry Potter area and took the train to the other park. I love the way they did the train! Everything up until now had pretty much been a walk on so this is the first line we used the Express Pass on. With the Express Pass, we never waited more than 5 minutes at the most. Once we got to Diagon Alley, we just wandered around and took in the atmosphere, checked out the shops, watched all the kids doing their magic spells with their wands
We decided to save the rides on this side for later. We also caught one of the street performances.
Then we took the train back to Islands because we had a lunch reservation at Confisco's. It was a nice break indoors in the air condition. The food was pretty good too. They have a pork banh mi on the menu but I asked if they could make it with tofu instead. And they could! It was delicious. It wasn't too crowded in their either at that time of day so that felt good. After that, it was time for a break so we took the boat back to our hotel for a rest. I really liked that the hotel was close enough to walk but also had an option to take the boat when our feet were tired.
After a nap at the hotel we were refreshed and came back in the evening. We got a lot done on the Universal Studios side at this point. We just decided to go counter clockwise and just try all the rides we were interested in. We also did some window shopping on the way. I think the first ride we did was the Simpsons ride, which was fun. This is a really well themed area but it seemed like there was no shade at all. But we did have to stop and take a break for some Duff Beer
After that we got in Men In Black, the Mummy, Fast and Furious and Race through New York. Again, with the Express Pass, there were no lines. But once we got out of that last ride, it was pouring. So we ran over to the Monster Cafe to see if we could get food there but it was closed. So then we ran over to Mel's since it wasn't too far. We were able to get a table there to eat dinner. We hoped that the rain would stop by then but it didn't. So we just got our umbrellas out and ran over to Gringott's to get that ride in. I love this one! It did end up being around a 15 minute wait since the express line merged with the regular line before the pre-show. It was still raining so we decided not to wait for the night time shows and head out after this. Unfortunately, the boats weren't running because of the lightning so we walked back to the hotel. All in all, a good day in spite of the rain.
