IloveJack
10-21-2010, 10:31 AM
Friday, October 15, 2010: Islands of Adventure and Downtown Disney
We were up at 6:45 again, but with only one shower to take, and plans to make park opening, we were out of the room quick. We had breakfast at Everything Pop, three "bountiful breakfasts," and refilled our mugs, with which we refilled bottles to take with us to the park. I didn't realize that we got two drinks with our breakfast, but when the CM told us, we got two bottles of milk for Sammie to drink the next two days. She hadn't had much milk on the trip, so far.
After a quick stop at the room to put Sammie's milk in the fridge and drop off the refillable mugs, we headed to the car. Again, it took forever to get to the parking lot. Man, you pay for a preferred building, in one way or another.
We used David's GPS app to get there, and had no troubles at all. The Universal website says that parking is $14, but it's actually $15. Glad we had saved $20, just in case. We walked the long way to the park entrance through all the little booths and City Walk. Paige actually commented, "Man, they really want you to buy stuff." I'd bought our tickets ahead of time, so we just scanned them and were in... didn't even have to get out our photo IDs.
We walked straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and into line for the Forbidden Journey. Our jaws were on the ground at how "real" everything looked. Don't get me wrong; I love Disney, but wow, oh wow. This was amazing!
The wait was already listed as 75 minutes and it was pretty dead on, but we literally didn't stop moving for more than 30 seconds at any time. They did open up some more of the line just as we went through, though, so I was glad we were early. I took a ton of pictures on our way through Hogwarts. By the way, holograms don't appear on film. Quite ironic, as muggle cameras and wizards don't mix.
I hadn't intended to ride the ride, for obvious reasons, just walk through and then wait with Sammie. Well, as we should've guessed, Paige chickened out. David ended up riding by himself, a little perturbed with her. Sammie, Paige, and I sat in the baby swap room and watched Harry Potter clips on the tv. When David got off the ride, he came running into the room, and said, "Susan, you've got to ride this! It's not bumpy. You'll be fine." So we left Sammie with Paige, and I rode. It wasn't bumpy, but I should've known that it would bring out my nausea from being preggers. I was a little green for a while afterwards. I convinced Paige to ride with David after that, and she loved it, too. David was quite happy that he got to ride 3 times in a row, as Universal doesn't use fast-pass-type tickets for their baby swappers.
We'd planned to go straight to Olivander's, but didn't want to stand in the line, so we went on to Dervish and Banges. Wow, there's a line for everything here! We stood in line for Dervish and Banges almost as long as Forbidden Journey, and there were maybe 25 people ahead of us when we entered the line. I wanted to buy Sammie a stuffed Hedwig, but all they had were puppets, and they were $35, so she didn't get one. I was trying to get away from the crowded, shoulder-to-shoulder, filled with people shop, and walked through an archway, right into Olivander's! So even though we'd stood in line for a while, it was still much, much shorter than the line for Olivander's. We'd just gotten in the back way! Actually, Dervish and Banges, the Owl Post, and Olivander's are all connected.
I bought three post cards to put in my scrapbook. David bought Sirius Black's wand (boy, it was heavy and long!). And Paige let her wand choose her, by her birthday. I opted out of a wand, as they were $32 each. I figured David's will be enough for us both. You wouldn't believe how many kids we saw later "sword fighting" with them, smacking them into stuff, and just having them hang out of their pockets. They aren't all that sturdy, and I'm sure some were broken before leaving the park.
I was getting rather irritated by now. It was an absolute pain just to get the stroller through the crowd. It was quite obvious that pretty much everyone in Islands of Adventure was in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter right then. We finally just left the stroller parked and carried Sammie and our purchases, bumping into people everywhere we walked.
We stopped by the potties, which I wouldn't normally journal, but this time I will. When Paige and I walked in, we heard Moaning Myrtle. Yep, she talks to you the whole time you're in the restroom. We found this quite funny, although we couldn't actually understand her over all the flushing and washing of hands.
Paige wanted to go to Honeydukes, which is connected to Zonko's. This was our shortest line of the day, or at least our time in WWoHP. It was only 10 minutes. However, once I got inside and saw the prices, and the ridiculously long cash register line, David, Sammie and I made a quick exit.
We headed over to take pictures with Hogwart's Express while waiting for Paige. This was the only "character" around, so people were forming a line. Others were skipping line, and getting (not so) politely told to go to the back of the line. We got our picture with the porter in front of the train, and then a picture with just the side of the train. I tried to get Sammie's picture on the platform, but it's completely closed off by railing.
Once Paige came out of the shop, upset that I had her money, so she'd have to return later... we were hungry. I got in line for the Three Broomsticks with Sammie, while David and Paige went to take more pictures. Paige wanted pictures with the train, and David wanted some of Hog's Head Tavern (not knowing that we'd end up being seated there for lunch). The Three Broomsticks line was long, but moved along quickly. They had a little "window" where you could see what your meal choice would look like. Of course, that just made Sammie all the more ready to eat! She kept begging for a "bite."
Once we got to order, Paige ordered separately. David and I both got fish and chips. He got frozen butterbeer and I got pumpkin juice to drink. I ordered corn on the cob, also, as it's Sammie's favorite. Our meal was about $35. By the way, my pumpkin juice was $2.99 for a 16 oz glass. A bottle of it, outside at the carts, was over $6, and it wasn't any bigger than the glass! Paige ordered fish and chips and butterbeer, but I don't know her total.
All the tables were full in the Three Broomsticks, so we were seated in the Hog's Head Tavern. We enjoyed our meal, and really enjoyed the theming of the restaurant. We had fun trying to figure out who the initials belonged to that had been "carved" into the mantle.
We split up again after lunch. Paige went back to Zonko's to buy her little sister a Pygmy Puff, and David, Sammie, and I went to try to find a glass with the Hogwarts crest on it. I'd seen it, but couldn't remember where. We didn't find it, but did see some Gryffindor lanyards that we really liked. I asked where to find them, we met back up with Paige, and headed to Filch's Emporium. This was the only shop that didn't have a line, as it was the exit for Forbidden Journey. Again, maneuvering was an issue, and I had to wait 10 minutes just to see the pins (Universal trades pins like Disney). I finally got to them, and we bought a Gryffindor lanyard (looks like part of the quidditch uniform), an "I must not tell lies" lanyard, and 3 pins: Hedwig, Gryffindor crest, and a golden snitch. I also bought a bookmark for the scrapbook.
We had finally done everything we wanted to do in WWoHP, so we moved on. We headed to Marvel Island, as it had the big coasters, and David rode Spiderman, using the single rider line. Sammie had fallen asleep on our way into Filch's, so Paige and I sat on the sidewalk and let her sleep. We both called home and checked in with the family. Then Paige used what was left of her money to buy some Dippin' Dots.
When he got off the ride, we walked to Hulk and he rode it twice. The single rider line was super quick. He said he never stopped walking. He wanted something else big, so we went back to WWoHP so that he could ride Dueling Dragons... err, the Dragon Challenge. When he got off of it, he wanted to ride Forbidden Journey again, so I stayed with Sammie, who was still asleep, and he and Paige walked toward Hogwarts. I used this time to update the trip report and catch up with Facebook. Man, I love my new Droid X!
When they came back, Sammie was still asleep, so we decided to leave the park... but she woke up as we started to move. Sheesh, she'd been asleep for 3 hours! I'd wanted to let her ride something, so we went to Seussland. Paige met the Grinch, Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Sam-I-Am, then we got in line for the Caro-seuss-el. Sammie loved this, and begged to ride again. I let her ride it twice, and she would've ridden more, but Paige and David were bored. So she rode 1 fish, 2 fish with Paige.
We were up at 6:45 again, but with only one shower to take, and plans to make park opening, we were out of the room quick. We had breakfast at Everything Pop, three "bountiful breakfasts," and refilled our mugs, with which we refilled bottles to take with us to the park. I didn't realize that we got two drinks with our breakfast, but when the CM told us, we got two bottles of milk for Sammie to drink the next two days. She hadn't had much milk on the trip, so far.
After a quick stop at the room to put Sammie's milk in the fridge and drop off the refillable mugs, we headed to the car. Again, it took forever to get to the parking lot. Man, you pay for a preferred building, in one way or another.
We used David's GPS app to get there, and had no troubles at all. The Universal website says that parking is $14, but it's actually $15. Glad we had saved $20, just in case. We walked the long way to the park entrance through all the little booths and City Walk. Paige actually commented, "Man, they really want you to buy stuff." I'd bought our tickets ahead of time, so we just scanned them and were in... didn't even have to get out our photo IDs.
We walked straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and into line for the Forbidden Journey. Our jaws were on the ground at how "real" everything looked. Don't get me wrong; I love Disney, but wow, oh wow. This was amazing!
The wait was already listed as 75 minutes and it was pretty dead on, but we literally didn't stop moving for more than 30 seconds at any time. They did open up some more of the line just as we went through, though, so I was glad we were early. I took a ton of pictures on our way through Hogwarts. By the way, holograms don't appear on film. Quite ironic, as muggle cameras and wizards don't mix.
I hadn't intended to ride the ride, for obvious reasons, just walk through and then wait with Sammie. Well, as we should've guessed, Paige chickened out. David ended up riding by himself, a little perturbed with her. Sammie, Paige, and I sat in the baby swap room and watched Harry Potter clips on the tv. When David got off the ride, he came running into the room, and said, "Susan, you've got to ride this! It's not bumpy. You'll be fine." So we left Sammie with Paige, and I rode. It wasn't bumpy, but I should've known that it would bring out my nausea from being preggers. I was a little green for a while afterwards. I convinced Paige to ride with David after that, and she loved it, too. David was quite happy that he got to ride 3 times in a row, as Universal doesn't use fast-pass-type tickets for their baby swappers.
We'd planned to go straight to Olivander's, but didn't want to stand in the line, so we went on to Dervish and Banges. Wow, there's a line for everything here! We stood in line for Dervish and Banges almost as long as Forbidden Journey, and there were maybe 25 people ahead of us when we entered the line. I wanted to buy Sammie a stuffed Hedwig, but all they had were puppets, and they were $35, so she didn't get one. I was trying to get away from the crowded, shoulder-to-shoulder, filled with people shop, and walked through an archway, right into Olivander's! So even though we'd stood in line for a while, it was still much, much shorter than the line for Olivander's. We'd just gotten in the back way! Actually, Dervish and Banges, the Owl Post, and Olivander's are all connected.
I bought three post cards to put in my scrapbook. David bought Sirius Black's wand (boy, it was heavy and long!). And Paige let her wand choose her, by her birthday. I opted out of a wand, as they were $32 each. I figured David's will be enough for us both. You wouldn't believe how many kids we saw later "sword fighting" with them, smacking them into stuff, and just having them hang out of their pockets. They aren't all that sturdy, and I'm sure some were broken before leaving the park.
I was getting rather irritated by now. It was an absolute pain just to get the stroller through the crowd. It was quite obvious that pretty much everyone in Islands of Adventure was in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter right then. We finally just left the stroller parked and carried Sammie and our purchases, bumping into people everywhere we walked.
We stopped by the potties, which I wouldn't normally journal, but this time I will. When Paige and I walked in, we heard Moaning Myrtle. Yep, she talks to you the whole time you're in the restroom. We found this quite funny, although we couldn't actually understand her over all the flushing and washing of hands.
Paige wanted to go to Honeydukes, which is connected to Zonko's. This was our shortest line of the day, or at least our time in WWoHP. It was only 10 minutes. However, once I got inside and saw the prices, and the ridiculously long cash register line, David, Sammie and I made a quick exit.
We headed over to take pictures with Hogwart's Express while waiting for Paige. This was the only "character" around, so people were forming a line. Others were skipping line, and getting (not so) politely told to go to the back of the line. We got our picture with the porter in front of the train, and then a picture with just the side of the train. I tried to get Sammie's picture on the platform, but it's completely closed off by railing.
Once Paige came out of the shop, upset that I had her money, so she'd have to return later... we were hungry. I got in line for the Three Broomsticks with Sammie, while David and Paige went to take more pictures. Paige wanted pictures with the train, and David wanted some of Hog's Head Tavern (not knowing that we'd end up being seated there for lunch). The Three Broomsticks line was long, but moved along quickly. They had a little "window" where you could see what your meal choice would look like. Of course, that just made Sammie all the more ready to eat! She kept begging for a "bite."
Once we got to order, Paige ordered separately. David and I both got fish and chips. He got frozen butterbeer and I got pumpkin juice to drink. I ordered corn on the cob, also, as it's Sammie's favorite. Our meal was about $35. By the way, my pumpkin juice was $2.99 for a 16 oz glass. A bottle of it, outside at the carts, was over $6, and it wasn't any bigger than the glass! Paige ordered fish and chips and butterbeer, but I don't know her total.
All the tables were full in the Three Broomsticks, so we were seated in the Hog's Head Tavern. We enjoyed our meal, and really enjoyed the theming of the restaurant. We had fun trying to figure out who the initials belonged to that had been "carved" into the mantle.
We split up again after lunch. Paige went back to Zonko's to buy her little sister a Pygmy Puff, and David, Sammie, and I went to try to find a glass with the Hogwarts crest on it. I'd seen it, but couldn't remember where. We didn't find it, but did see some Gryffindor lanyards that we really liked. I asked where to find them, we met back up with Paige, and headed to Filch's Emporium. This was the only shop that didn't have a line, as it was the exit for Forbidden Journey. Again, maneuvering was an issue, and I had to wait 10 minutes just to see the pins (Universal trades pins like Disney). I finally got to them, and we bought a Gryffindor lanyard (looks like part of the quidditch uniform), an "I must not tell lies" lanyard, and 3 pins: Hedwig, Gryffindor crest, and a golden snitch. I also bought a bookmark for the scrapbook.
We had finally done everything we wanted to do in WWoHP, so we moved on. We headed to Marvel Island, as it had the big coasters, and David rode Spiderman, using the single rider line. Sammie had fallen asleep on our way into Filch's, so Paige and I sat on the sidewalk and let her sleep. We both called home and checked in with the family. Then Paige used what was left of her money to buy some Dippin' Dots.
When he got off the ride, we walked to Hulk and he rode it twice. The single rider line was super quick. He said he never stopped walking. He wanted something else big, so we went back to WWoHP so that he could ride Dueling Dragons... err, the Dragon Challenge. When he got off of it, he wanted to ride Forbidden Journey again, so I stayed with Sammie, who was still asleep, and he and Paige walked toward Hogwarts. I used this time to update the trip report and catch up with Facebook. Man, I love my new Droid X!
When they came back, Sammie was still asleep, so we decided to leave the park... but she woke up as we started to move. Sheesh, she'd been asleep for 3 hours! I'd wanted to let her ride something, so we went to Seussland. Paige met the Grinch, Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Sam-I-Am, then we got in line for the Caro-seuss-el. Sammie loved this, and begged to ride again. I let her ride it twice, and she would've ridden more, but Paige and David were bored. So she rode 1 fish, 2 fish with Paige.