mgmnut
08-08-2011, 10:29 AM
Day 5 - Universal IOA
ME
DW
DS - 13
DD - 13
Home: Boston, Ma
Staying at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge
July 16 -July 23
The wakeup call came at 5:30. I got up and let everyone else sleep. I needed to get to the car care center to pickup our rental car for the next 2 days of going offsite. Alamo opens at 6am and I forgot to schedule a pickup from the resort the day prior so I needed to get this arranged ASAP. I was able to get a hold of someone at 6:30 and scheduled a 7:05 am pickup. I waited in front of the resort and was picked up at almost 7:05 on the dot. I picked up the rental car and everyone was dressed and ready to go by 8:15 and we were off to Universal..
When we arrived it was just after 9am. Universal Studios website had said park hours started at 9am when I was trip planning, when we got to City Walk it was posted the parks opened at 8am…..Grrrrrrr. I wasn’t too concerned about getting there early to beat the crowds as I had already advance purchased 2 Day VIP tickets that gave us unlimited Express Pass use, my only concern was the passes did not cover the HPFJ ride or Rip, Rid, Rocket so I wanted to get to WWOHP because we were doing IOA first. No Luck, just in order to get into the area of WWOHP you needed a ticket with a time stamp on it (like a Disney FP) ours was for 11:20. Even after you get into WWOHP it was still a 90 minute wait for the ride itself. While we waited to get in we went and watched a magic show, which was really just a sales pitch on Magic Kits they sold, although the tricks were really cool. We did some more looking around until our time came around and we got into the WWOHP. The wait for the HPFJ ride was still 90mins and nobody wanted to wait that long. We decided we would take our chances and check back later. We used our express passes and rode The Dragon Challenge a couple of times and Flight of the Hippogriff. We looked around at the shop fronts, some of the lines to get into these shops were as long as the lines at the rides. We grabbed some Butterbeer, which seemed like a mix of root beer and cream soda with blended whipped cream as we exited WWOHP and headed toward Jurassic Park. The wait for JP was almost and hour, with our Express Passes we were on in less than 10mins. After JP, twice, we made our way around the park counter clockwise and rode, Dudley Do-Rights Rip saw Falls (twice), ate lunch at Blondie’s, watched Matt Hoffman’s stunt show, which my son loved, rode Spiderman, Dr. Dooms Fear Fall (twice), and the Incredible Hulk (twice). We made our way over to Dr. Seuss Landing and rode the Cat in the Hat (nostalgia) and then The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. After Dr. Seuss Landing we made our way over to The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show and then Poseidon’s Fury. It was now later in the afternoon and you could enter and leave the WWOHP without a ticket, so that is where we went. We rode Dragon Challenge again and then finally hopped in line for HPFJ because the wait was now down to 45mins. I could not believe it, they had a beer stand right in line, we all really enjoyed this ride. After HPFJ we went back and rode Jurassic Park again and then we all decided to call it a day. We drove back to the Resort for a night swim in the quiet pool.
Wakeup call set for 5:30 am, plan for next day Universal Studios
ME
DW
DS - 13
DD - 13
Home: Boston, Ma
Staying at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge
July 16 -July 23
The wakeup call came at 5:30. I got up and let everyone else sleep. I needed to get to the car care center to pickup our rental car for the next 2 days of going offsite. Alamo opens at 6am and I forgot to schedule a pickup from the resort the day prior so I needed to get this arranged ASAP. I was able to get a hold of someone at 6:30 and scheduled a 7:05 am pickup. I waited in front of the resort and was picked up at almost 7:05 on the dot. I picked up the rental car and everyone was dressed and ready to go by 8:15 and we were off to Universal..
When we arrived it was just after 9am. Universal Studios website had said park hours started at 9am when I was trip planning, when we got to City Walk it was posted the parks opened at 8am…..Grrrrrrr. I wasn’t too concerned about getting there early to beat the crowds as I had already advance purchased 2 Day VIP tickets that gave us unlimited Express Pass use, my only concern was the passes did not cover the HPFJ ride or Rip, Rid, Rocket so I wanted to get to WWOHP because we were doing IOA first. No Luck, just in order to get into the area of WWOHP you needed a ticket with a time stamp on it (like a Disney FP) ours was for 11:20. Even after you get into WWOHP it was still a 90 minute wait for the ride itself. While we waited to get in we went and watched a magic show, which was really just a sales pitch on Magic Kits they sold, although the tricks were really cool. We did some more looking around until our time came around and we got into the WWOHP. The wait for the HPFJ ride was still 90mins and nobody wanted to wait that long. We decided we would take our chances and check back later. We used our express passes and rode The Dragon Challenge a couple of times and Flight of the Hippogriff. We looked around at the shop fronts, some of the lines to get into these shops were as long as the lines at the rides. We grabbed some Butterbeer, which seemed like a mix of root beer and cream soda with blended whipped cream as we exited WWOHP and headed toward Jurassic Park. The wait for JP was almost and hour, with our Express Passes we were on in less than 10mins. After JP, twice, we made our way around the park counter clockwise and rode, Dudley Do-Rights Rip saw Falls (twice), ate lunch at Blondie’s, watched Matt Hoffman’s stunt show, which my son loved, rode Spiderman, Dr. Dooms Fear Fall (twice), and the Incredible Hulk (twice). We made our way over to Dr. Seuss Landing and rode the Cat in the Hat (nostalgia) and then The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. After Dr. Seuss Landing we made our way over to The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show and then Poseidon’s Fury. It was now later in the afternoon and you could enter and leave the WWOHP without a ticket, so that is where we went. We rode Dragon Challenge again and then finally hopped in line for HPFJ because the wait was now down to 45mins. I could not believe it, they had a beer stand right in line, we all really enjoyed this ride. After HPFJ we went back and rode Jurassic Park again and then we all decided to call it a day. We drove back to the Resort for a night swim in the quiet pool.
Wakeup call set for 5:30 am, plan for next day Universal Studios