theSurlyMermaid
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
Seriously.
Look, I'm not one for hyperbole but the Harry Potter themed areas of Universal Studios must be the best in the world. For a Potter-phile it is simply a must. I was blown away by Diagon Alley, simply blown away. And not even because of the ride. The rides are absolutely secondary, even though they are great. I mean the immersion. It is breathtaking, truly.
So we just got back. We were there from Wednesday (though that doesn't count as we did not arrive until Wednesday night at 10pm and basically went straight to sleep). We stayed at the Royal Pacific resort, more on that in a minute. It was me, DH, DS9 and DD6. We haven't been to Universal since Hogsmeade opened. Short kids, not enough for them to do, etc. etc. Plus we are DVC members so we always go to Disney. However, with Disney not offering enough new experiences and Universal having the big P (Potter) we decided to go back. My son finally finished the series and was on his second reread. I wanted him to know the story completely when we went.
So first things first, the resort. We've stayed at Royal Pacific before and it's nice, but nothing to write home about. We are already planning to do Portofino next visit. We are used to one bedroom DVC villas and the last one we stayed at was Grand Floridian so this was going to pale. We had a split reservation due to room availability, I guess, and they couldn't make it into all one reservation. I wouldn't say they went above and beyond to try to fix this, which was a mild pain because our room charge cards stopped working in the middle of the park the next day (because we had a new room we needed to check into) and we needed to re-check in and re-do express passes after our first park day on Thursday. It wasn't the end of the world but it was a bit of a pain to have to get up really early to do the early entrance and also pack our stuff up and leave it at the concierge. Just an extra thing to do when we were all tired from getting in so late the night before. And about that late night, the Universal shuttle we took from the airport was well over half an hour late. We called at least three times and they had a lame excuse each time and a promise to be there in "5-7 minutes", which of course did not happen. The best part was informing the staff at Royal Pacific about this and having the reaction be a collective, "Wow, really? Bummer." Not exactly going above and beyond to remedy the situation. In fact, they seemed surprised that there even WAS a Universal shuttle, which was a little startling. But again, more a mild pain and nothing that would ruin the trip.
But the parks themselves, specifically Diagon Alley, were what we were there for and they did not disappoint. Diagon Alley is simply stunning and it is world class in every way. I ate at the Leaky Cauldron for almost every meal and they were the best meals I had. I prefer it to the Three Broomsticks, which we ate at multiple times on our last trip. Hogsmeade in general always seemed more packed than DA. I am not sure if that's because there are more rides in Hogsmeade or because its smaller or what, but that's what I found. However, I preferred DA by a whole lot. As I said before if there's a better immersive theme park experience, I haven't visited it. So back to the Leaky Cauldron, I loved the food and I loved the smaller environment. We moved on from there to Florean Fortescue's, which we visited every day of the three days we were there. Incidentally, I tried to order Butterbeer ice cream with a topping and they said they can't put anything on it because its trademarked. So I changed my order. I had Chocolate Chili, Clotted Cream ice cream and Strawberry Peanut Butter each of the three days we were there. I'd recommend all of these.
Gringott's was a 45 minute wait made longer when the ride went down but the theming was so great and the weather so pleasant I didn't think it was too long. The ride itself was awesome, even with my tendency for motion sickness. Forbidden Journey is a no go for me but this one I didn't get any motion sickness on. I rode it twice (though not in a row). DS is also motion sickness prone but had no trouble. DD won't do any rides that make her "tummy feel weird" so she waited in the parent swap. She also didn't much love the dragon shooting the fire out of his mouth on the top of the bank but I thought it was amazing. I think it was a little too real for her.
Beyond the Potter-verse, the rest of the park is clean and pleasant, but nowhere near as incredible. That's not to say it isn't fun though. The Mummy is as good as remembered (it did make DS a little queasy though) but the real fun for him began on Rip Ride Rockit. He just hit 51 inches this year so this was his first time riding this ride. I LOVE that he'll do the thrill rides. Just a few short years ago, he was riding Woody Woodpecker six times in a row and look at him now. Anyway, I rode with him the first time and despite my mom-spazz that he be as secure as possible in his cart, he did GREAT. He picked some song by No Doubt while I went with Beastie Boys. I wasn't sure what he would think of it given that he was more "meh" on the Mummy, but he LOVED it and it was his favorite ride hands down. In fact, when DD and DH went back to the hotel to rest, DS and I hit the park again because we hadn't gotten enough of Diagon Alley and Rip Ride Rockit. We wandered through Diagon Alley after eating at the Leaky Cauldron again (another great meal) and he selected an interactive wand which has to be the single greatest theme park souvenir ever invented. It's totally genius. ALL he wanted to do with his Elder Wand was find magic spots and practice. I had to drag him on Gringott's again (20 minute wait!). Then we hit RRR in the dark. It was even better than the first ride. In fact, it wasn't until our fourth time riding on our last day that we had a bum ride….last row. It rattled my sinuses so much and made him motion sick. Bum cart? Last row? I don't know.
DD managed to find stuff to do despite her hesitation about rides. She discovered Woody Woodpecker and rode it 18 times over three days. Yes, 18 times. Its the first coaster she has truly loved, just like DS. God bless Woody Woodpecker. It's even better the Goofy's Barnstormer though I'm not sure why. She also liked the MiB Alien Attack ride and the Minions. But her heart belonged to Woody. Sure, she had some great moments on the Pterandon Flyers, but that line is so frustrating you just can't go on it again and again once it gets crowded. Anything over 20 minutes, forget it. It loads too slowly and only two at a time. But it is a great ride and she did love it.
Which bring me to my whine about DD. She would not ride the Flying Hippogriff. Her eagle eye determined it was faster than Woody (she's right, but whatever) and we could not get her on it. So at Islands of Adventure, besides Pterandon and Dr. Suessland she sat around a whole lot and waited for us to ride. I'm not sure how much fun that could have possibly been but she is a cautious, stubborn child. I almost didn't get her on Woody. But I'm patient and hopefully she'll be ready next time.
Islands of Adventure was a great time for DS. He rode everything. Jurassic Park River Adventure remains one of his favorite rides ever (mine too, come to think of it) and we rode it 5 or so times. We had a lucky streak of getting front row multiple times which was even better. Then he rode Dudley Do-Right and Popeye's twice in a row. He was absolutely soaked and so were we. Which brings me to a gripe. We had regular lanyards to carry our cards in and our paper Express passes and park tickets got totally soaked. Why paper tickets? Why isn't the express pass tied to the hotel key? I thought it used to be? I know not all the hotels let you do Express Pass anymore but surely there's a way around this. No need for so many tickets and paper ones at that.
Getting back to food, besides Leaky Cauldron we ate at Mythos (good food, slow service) and Cowfish. We enjoyed Cowfish and it was really refreshing NOT to have a bunch of reservations in advance. There is truly something to be said for winging it. I'm glad we tried this place, as I would have been happy just eating at Leaky Cauldron every meal. I very nearly did.
We finished out the trip hanging at the pool at RPR. I can't understand why the parks close at 6 on Saturday after closing at 7 (IOA) and 8:30 (US) during the week. But it worked out for us as I was dead on my feet after three days and just wanted to sit by the pool. But seriously, RPR, no pool slide? Really? This is another reason I'm going to go back to Portofino Bay. My kids love the pool and specifically pool slides. It didn't even occur to me that there wouldn't be one at RPR. BUT I did discover I am awesome at hula-hooping. I haven't done it since I was a kid but I still got it. I even got a small crowd around me cheering me on. Who knew? So we did end up having a great time by the pool and staying until they closed.
All in all, the trip was great and end of April is a GREAT time to go. It was more crowded Friday and Saturday but Thursday was awesome and the WEATHER. We last went in August which was utterly dreadful. It was a breezy 82-85 degrees every day this time. We will definitely be returning this time of year.
Look, I'm not one for hyperbole but the Harry Potter themed areas of Universal Studios must be the best in the world. For a Potter-phile it is simply a must. I was blown away by Diagon Alley, simply blown away. And not even because of the ride. The rides are absolutely secondary, even though they are great. I mean the immersion. It is breathtaking, truly.
So we just got back. We were there from Wednesday (though that doesn't count as we did not arrive until Wednesday night at 10pm and basically went straight to sleep). We stayed at the Royal Pacific resort, more on that in a minute. It was me, DH, DS9 and DD6. We haven't been to Universal since Hogsmeade opened. Short kids, not enough for them to do, etc. etc. Plus we are DVC members so we always go to Disney. However, with Disney not offering enough new experiences and Universal having the big P (Potter) we decided to go back. My son finally finished the series and was on his second reread. I wanted him to know the story completely when we went.
So first things first, the resort. We've stayed at Royal Pacific before and it's nice, but nothing to write home about. We are already planning to do Portofino next visit. We are used to one bedroom DVC villas and the last one we stayed at was Grand Floridian so this was going to pale. We had a split reservation due to room availability, I guess, and they couldn't make it into all one reservation. I wouldn't say they went above and beyond to try to fix this, which was a mild pain because our room charge cards stopped working in the middle of the park the next day (because we had a new room we needed to check into) and we needed to re-check in and re-do express passes after our first park day on Thursday. It wasn't the end of the world but it was a bit of a pain to have to get up really early to do the early entrance and also pack our stuff up and leave it at the concierge. Just an extra thing to do when we were all tired from getting in so late the night before. And about that late night, the Universal shuttle we took from the airport was well over half an hour late. We called at least three times and they had a lame excuse each time and a promise to be there in "5-7 minutes", which of course did not happen. The best part was informing the staff at Royal Pacific about this and having the reaction be a collective, "Wow, really? Bummer." Not exactly going above and beyond to remedy the situation. In fact, they seemed surprised that there even WAS a Universal shuttle, which was a little startling. But again, more a mild pain and nothing that would ruin the trip.
But the parks themselves, specifically Diagon Alley, were what we were there for and they did not disappoint. Diagon Alley is simply stunning and it is world class in every way. I ate at the Leaky Cauldron for almost every meal and they were the best meals I had. I prefer it to the Three Broomsticks, which we ate at multiple times on our last trip. Hogsmeade in general always seemed more packed than DA. I am not sure if that's because there are more rides in Hogsmeade or because its smaller or what, but that's what I found. However, I preferred DA by a whole lot. As I said before if there's a better immersive theme park experience, I haven't visited it. So back to the Leaky Cauldron, I loved the food and I loved the smaller environment. We moved on from there to Florean Fortescue's, which we visited every day of the three days we were there. Incidentally, I tried to order Butterbeer ice cream with a topping and they said they can't put anything on it because its trademarked. So I changed my order. I had Chocolate Chili, Clotted Cream ice cream and Strawberry Peanut Butter each of the three days we were there. I'd recommend all of these.
Gringott's was a 45 minute wait made longer when the ride went down but the theming was so great and the weather so pleasant I didn't think it was too long. The ride itself was awesome, even with my tendency for motion sickness. Forbidden Journey is a no go for me but this one I didn't get any motion sickness on. I rode it twice (though not in a row). DS is also motion sickness prone but had no trouble. DD won't do any rides that make her "tummy feel weird" so she waited in the parent swap. She also didn't much love the dragon shooting the fire out of his mouth on the top of the bank but I thought it was amazing. I think it was a little too real for her.
Beyond the Potter-verse, the rest of the park is clean and pleasant, but nowhere near as incredible. That's not to say it isn't fun though. The Mummy is as good as remembered (it did make DS a little queasy though) but the real fun for him began on Rip Ride Rockit. He just hit 51 inches this year so this was his first time riding this ride. I LOVE that he'll do the thrill rides. Just a few short years ago, he was riding Woody Woodpecker six times in a row and look at him now. Anyway, I rode with him the first time and despite my mom-spazz that he be as secure as possible in his cart, he did GREAT. He picked some song by No Doubt while I went with Beastie Boys. I wasn't sure what he would think of it given that he was more "meh" on the Mummy, but he LOVED it and it was his favorite ride hands down. In fact, when DD and DH went back to the hotel to rest, DS and I hit the park again because we hadn't gotten enough of Diagon Alley and Rip Ride Rockit. We wandered through Diagon Alley after eating at the Leaky Cauldron again (another great meal) and he selected an interactive wand which has to be the single greatest theme park souvenir ever invented. It's totally genius. ALL he wanted to do with his Elder Wand was find magic spots and practice. I had to drag him on Gringott's again (20 minute wait!). Then we hit RRR in the dark. It was even better than the first ride. In fact, it wasn't until our fourth time riding on our last day that we had a bum ride….last row. It rattled my sinuses so much and made him motion sick. Bum cart? Last row? I don't know.
DD managed to find stuff to do despite her hesitation about rides. She discovered Woody Woodpecker and rode it 18 times over three days. Yes, 18 times. Its the first coaster she has truly loved, just like DS. God bless Woody Woodpecker. It's even better the Goofy's Barnstormer though I'm not sure why. She also liked the MiB Alien Attack ride and the Minions. But her heart belonged to Woody. Sure, she had some great moments on the Pterandon Flyers, but that line is so frustrating you just can't go on it again and again once it gets crowded. Anything over 20 minutes, forget it. It loads too slowly and only two at a time. But it is a great ride and she did love it.
Which bring me to my whine about DD. She would not ride the Flying Hippogriff. Her eagle eye determined it was faster than Woody (she's right, but whatever) and we could not get her on it. So at Islands of Adventure, besides Pterandon and Dr. Suessland she sat around a whole lot and waited for us to ride. I'm not sure how much fun that could have possibly been but she is a cautious, stubborn child. I almost didn't get her on Woody. But I'm patient and hopefully she'll be ready next time.
Islands of Adventure was a great time for DS. He rode everything. Jurassic Park River Adventure remains one of his favorite rides ever (mine too, come to think of it) and we rode it 5 or so times. We had a lucky streak of getting front row multiple times which was even better. Then he rode Dudley Do-Right and Popeye's twice in a row. He was absolutely soaked and so were we. Which brings me to a gripe. We had regular lanyards to carry our cards in and our paper Express passes and park tickets got totally soaked. Why paper tickets? Why isn't the express pass tied to the hotel key? I thought it used to be? I know not all the hotels let you do Express Pass anymore but surely there's a way around this. No need for so many tickets and paper ones at that.
Getting back to food, besides Leaky Cauldron we ate at Mythos (good food, slow service) and Cowfish. We enjoyed Cowfish and it was really refreshing NOT to have a bunch of reservations in advance. There is truly something to be said for winging it. I'm glad we tried this place, as I would have been happy just eating at Leaky Cauldron every meal. I very nearly did.
We finished out the trip hanging at the pool at RPR. I can't understand why the parks close at 6 on Saturday after closing at 7 (IOA) and 8:30 (US) during the week. But it worked out for us as I was dead on my feet after three days and just wanted to sit by the pool. But seriously, RPR, no pool slide? Really? This is another reason I'm going to go back to Portofino Bay. My kids love the pool and specifically pool slides. It didn't even occur to me that there wouldn't be one at RPR. BUT I did discover I am awesome at hula-hooping. I haven't done it since I was a kid but I still got it. I even got a small crowd around me cheering me on. Who knew? So we did end up having a great time by the pool and staying until they closed.
All in all, the trip was great and end of April is a GREAT time to go. It was more crowded Friday and Saturday but Thursday was awesome and the WEATHER. We last went in August which was utterly dreadful. It was a breezy 82-85 degrees every day this time. We will definitely be returning this time of year.
DD2 & I went & did other stuff while she enjoyed her RRR marathon because I would have been pukey just watching her!! ROFL!
