Saturday, August 28 continued
OMG Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was SO GOOD!! Wow I love that ride, and thinking back, I wonder why we didn't return to this ride during the rest of the trip...I guess we had other, more pressing priorites. I can't wait to go back to UO to ride it again. Also, none of us felt sick afterward. I had heard/read that it can be nausea-inducing, especially for those prone to motion sickness like Peter and Joey, but we didn't find that to be the case, even after we had just feasted at Three Broomsticks. Full disclosure, we had all loaded up on Dramamine prophylaxis back at the Hard Rock because we were afraid of feeling sick,
Velocicoaster was still down when we exited HPFB, so we made our way around to the Hulk, which was open. Again we tried to use our EPs and again, they wouldn't scan, but the ride operator let us through. Now we were on the Hulk in about 5 minutes. Only bad thing was...we hated it! Well, not hated exactly, but, let's say we didn't enjoy any aspect of it. Joey and Peter felt downright sick after it, and Joey and Emma both described sensations of "graying out" during much of the ride. We needed to sit down and chill, have some water and a soda, so we made our way over to Seuss Landing to sit on some benches. Peter grabbed us some cokes and a large pretzel, thinking perhaps this would settle the stomach. I think maybe the early morning wake up, the travel, the big lunch and HPFJ all caught up to us when we added Hulk to the mix? We decided to do the little Suess elevated train and the Cat and the Hat ride which was super trippy and made us laugh really hard and we were slowly feeling better.
At this point it was close to 4pm and I still hadn't heard anything from HRH, not even my welcome text, and as our EPs weren't working, I was starting to think something was wrong. I texted them and told them the problem with the EPs not scanning and asked if our room was ready. They said room was ready, gave me the number (room 1140) and as for the EPs, I'd have to stop by the front desk and have them reissued. We sat in Seuss Landing and chatted about what to do next, go back to the hotel or take the Hogwart's Express to US to check out Diagon Alley, and we unanimously agreed that the room could wait, we wanted Diagon Alley!
After another round of Dramamine, we headed into Escape from Gringott's for what we agreed was the best ride of the day! Again, we never made it back on this great ride and can't wait to return another trip.
Feeling quite un-sick at this point, thanks to some rest, some carbs, loads of caffeine, and more Dramamine, we decided we wanted to check out some ice cream at Florean's. We each tried 2 flavors, and all told the flavors sampled were clotted cream, sticky toffee pudding, lavendar, earl grey, chocolate chili, apple crumble, peanut butter and strawberry. The winner was the clotted cream, a unanimous 8 thumbs up! This award for most disappointing went to the sticky toffee pudding, which just tasted like caramel with stale cake in it. The strawberry and peanut butter made a great combo, like a PB&J! We made a pact we'd come back to Florean Fortescue's each day at UO.
As we finished our ice cream, now around 5pm, we noted that there was NO line at Ollivander's Wand Shop, so we decided to go in and catch the "show." There was only one other party in there, two women who were together, which worked out nicely for us, because it set Emma up to be selected (Joey is younger but Emma is smaller so gives the appearance of being the younger sibling). So she was selected, presumably because she appeared to be the youngest of the 6 in the room.
The show was adorable, we got a nice video of it, but we didn't purchase the wand that day. We had a blast browsing the shops and finally decided to head back to HRH to rest a few minutes and freshen up for dinner. HRH is perfect for th.is kind of thing...it is SO close to the parks, walking back and forth was so easy to do at any time.
We had booked a deluxe room, because it offers 3 sleeping surfaces (Emma and Joey get along great but don't want to sleep in the same bed), so the deluxe offers an option for us all to stay in 1 room.
I thought the room was spacious and efficient, but could use an update. The wall paper and carpet had seen better days. I think I might have read somewhere that these rooms are scheduled for a refresh soon, and that's great. Room 1140 is on the ground floor very close to the pool and also VERY close to the walkway to the parks on the end closer to the parks. While I might have prefered a higher floor for privacy and a room further from the pool for quiet (the pool music and activities are LOUD), the location for convenience was perfect!
Dinner was a 8:30 at Margaritaville, and we checked in a few minutes early. That place was crowded and busy and we had to wait several minutes past our reservation time, but it was great!
We had confirmed ahead of time that the Volcano Nachos were indeed gluten free and the chef had confirmed so we reminded the waiter of the special needs and he reassured us that the Nachos are alway GF. I tried to convince my family that the Nachos alone and maybe 1 or 2 other apps or entrees would probably suffice (they didn't believe me how big the nachos would be). So I don't have photos of the Cheeseburgers in Paradise (1 GF, 1 standard), Coconut Shrimp and Fish & Chips OR the Nachos, maybe because of the DRINKS! We ordered a variety of margaritas, a few Jalapeno Mangos, a Perfect and a Lemon Blueberry. All delicious...except for the Coconut Shrimp. Honestly, it tasted like coconut cake with a little shrimp in there. If you like coconut cake, this might be the dish for you, but it definitely wasn't to our liking. The Cheeseburgers in Paradise tasted like Whoppers with slightly thicker patties, so if you like a Whopper, you'd like this. The Fish and Chips were fine. The real stars were the margs and the nachos. I'd go back just for those. Drinks and Appetizer!
We were way too full to finish our mains, much less order any dessert, though we really wanted to try the Key Lime Pie, but alas, we'd have to save that for next time. We made our way back to the HRH easily and quickly and hit the hay nice an early as it had been a long day, and we had another planned for tomorrow. Next up, our first FULL day at UO!
