smiley519
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2016
Tuesday, September 13th – Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios
Part 28: King Kong and a Chatty Goblin
We woke up around 7:15 AM and were pretty sad that it was our last park day and we were flying back home that night. The weather seemed to match our moods because it was gray and overcast and must have poured in the early morning because there were puddles on the ground. It was actually the first overcast day of our whole trip. We finished packing up all of our stuff, and headed downstairs to eat a quick breakfast at the hotel and leave our luggage with the front desk to store for us.
As you may recall, we had to reserve tickets for the shuttle a day in advance and the hotel did not make any announcement before the shuttle left. We came outside a few minutes before the shuttle departure time, and watched the 8:20 AM shuttle pass us by. My husband thought it was a lost cause but since the next shuttle wasn’t coming for at least another 30 minutes (and we intended to make rope drop since it was our last day), I ran after it at full speed while it was stopped waiting to merge onto the highway, flagged Josh over, and we quickly climbed onto it. That was close.
We got off the shuttle at 8:45 AM and stopped for a quick picture with the Universal Orlando sign at City Walk. You can see how dreary the sky looked.
We made it inside IOA at 8:55 AM. We had one plan of attack for our final morning: ride the new Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride. The past 2 days, we had never seen the wait time drop below 75-90 minutes, so we knew we’d have to hit it at Rope Drop our final day. We bypassed everything and briskly walked directly there.
The posted wait time was 15 minutes and we waited 15 minutes to ride it. The queue was extremely well done (and a bit scary at parts). We luckily didn’t encounter any scare actors but heard screams further behind us in line. I tried to snap a picture of the shaman woman in the dark.
Our driver was Jinks, a hardened New York City ex-con who is wary of the island’s mysteries. I must admit that I did not know that the tram did not have a real driver and that Jinks was an animatronic. The ride has one of the most impressive and all-encompassing 3D screens that we had ever seen and the Kong animatronic at the end was equally impressive (that one I knew was an animatronic! ).
We enjoyed the ride so much that we got in line again with a posted wait time of 25 minutes. However, the ride broke down while we were in the queue so we ended up waiting closer to 30-40 minutes. On the second ride, we got to do the outside track since the inclement weather had cleared up, and we didn’t even know that there was an optional bypass that kept the ride completely inside until we googled about it afterward. We also had a different driver this time who was Will, the nephew of famed movie director Carl Denham.
A kind Universal photographer took this picture of us after our 2 rides:
We said goodbye to Kong and headed toward Hogsmeade. On the way, we heard the tail end of a conversation between a mother and daughter where the mom said “Stop talking like that! You’re Australian! Stop talking in that ridiculous accent!” We both started laughing and could only assume that maybe the little girl had been imitating an American accent.
We arrived to the snow covered rooftops of Hogsmeade.
We rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey via the standby line which was a walk on and then rode single rider (to limit walking through the long queue). We got in line for a third time in the single rider line but no one was on the ride and they were sending empty vehicles through, so Josh and I got to ride together. We were very fortunate with low crowds and this was our 9th time on Forbidden Journey in 3 days.
Next we walked onto Flight of the Hippogriff and got the first row. We decided to sing Heigh Ho to ourselves because we’re cool like that.
We knew this would likely be our last time in Hogsmeade this trip, so we decided to stop by Ollivanders Shop and watch the interactive show. I was hoping that Josh might get chosen since he was wearing his birthday pin, but two other birthday girls were chosen by Ollivander. We enjoyed the show and watching the wands choose the wizards.
We caught a bit of the Frog Choir performance and I met the conductor of the Hogwarts Express!
We next headed to the train station and took the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley.
We thought this billboard looked familiar and it’s the same billboard Dumbledore and Harry Potter stand in front of in the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Universal is all about the little details!
We said hello the dragon and got in line to ride Escape from Gringotts. We rode twice via the single rider line and got to sit together in row 6 which is the very back. We were just happy that the ride didn’t break down this time!
We next visited the Gringotts Money Exchange. Since visiting it on our first day, I had read online that if you ask some particular questions, you’ll get some pretty interesting answers. I got in line and we took video of our interaction with the goblin. Click the screenshot below to watch the video:
Here was our conversation:
Goblin: Yes you, madam. Did you have a question?
Lauren: Are there any dragons in Gringotts?
G: Yes, certainly. We employ several security measures within our vaults. Some require a key, while others have more…deadly outcomes.
L: Are you a house elf?
G: No, sir. Most goblins are referred to be a simple name. Seems much more efficient to me. Next, please.
L: What’s your name?
G: You may refer to me simply as “Sir.”
I thought this was so cool and have no idea how it works. Clearly it’s wizardry magic.
We saw the dragon breathe fire twice but didn’t try to capture it on film since we had already gotten pictures and video the first day. We were glad that the dragon was over its laryngitis and feeling better. We had also read online that if you visit the Leaky Cauldron sign, the cauldron actually does leak water into a small puddle on the floor, which was cool to see.
We also saw the team Quidditch pendants in the windows and visited Kreacher again at 12 Grimmauld Place.
Continued in Next Post
Part 28: King Kong and a Chatty Goblin
We woke up around 7:15 AM and were pretty sad that it was our last park day and we were flying back home that night. The weather seemed to match our moods because it was gray and overcast and must have poured in the early morning because there were puddles on the ground. It was actually the first overcast day of our whole trip. We finished packing up all of our stuff, and headed downstairs to eat a quick breakfast at the hotel and leave our luggage with the front desk to store for us.
As you may recall, we had to reserve tickets for the shuttle a day in advance and the hotel did not make any announcement before the shuttle left. We came outside a few minutes before the shuttle departure time, and watched the 8:20 AM shuttle pass us by. My husband thought it was a lost cause but since the next shuttle wasn’t coming for at least another 30 minutes (and we intended to make rope drop since it was our last day), I ran after it at full speed while it was stopped waiting to merge onto the highway, flagged Josh over, and we quickly climbed onto it. That was close.
We got off the shuttle at 8:45 AM and stopped for a quick picture with the Universal Orlando sign at City Walk. You can see how dreary the sky looked.
We made it inside IOA at 8:55 AM. We had one plan of attack for our final morning: ride the new Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride. The past 2 days, we had never seen the wait time drop below 75-90 minutes, so we knew we’d have to hit it at Rope Drop our final day. We bypassed everything and briskly walked directly there.
The posted wait time was 15 minutes and we waited 15 minutes to ride it. The queue was extremely well done (and a bit scary at parts). We luckily didn’t encounter any scare actors but heard screams further behind us in line. I tried to snap a picture of the shaman woman in the dark.
Our driver was Jinks, a hardened New York City ex-con who is wary of the island’s mysteries. I must admit that I did not know that the tram did not have a real driver and that Jinks was an animatronic. The ride has one of the most impressive and all-encompassing 3D screens that we had ever seen and the Kong animatronic at the end was equally impressive (that one I knew was an animatronic! ).
We enjoyed the ride so much that we got in line again with a posted wait time of 25 minutes. However, the ride broke down while we were in the queue so we ended up waiting closer to 30-40 minutes. On the second ride, we got to do the outside track since the inclement weather had cleared up, and we didn’t even know that there was an optional bypass that kept the ride completely inside until we googled about it afterward. We also had a different driver this time who was Will, the nephew of famed movie director Carl Denham.
A kind Universal photographer took this picture of us after our 2 rides:
We said goodbye to Kong and headed toward Hogsmeade. On the way, we heard the tail end of a conversation between a mother and daughter where the mom said “Stop talking like that! You’re Australian! Stop talking in that ridiculous accent!” We both started laughing and could only assume that maybe the little girl had been imitating an American accent.
We arrived to the snow covered rooftops of Hogsmeade.
We rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey via the standby line which was a walk on and then rode single rider (to limit walking through the long queue). We got in line for a third time in the single rider line but no one was on the ride and they were sending empty vehicles through, so Josh and I got to ride together. We were very fortunate with low crowds and this was our 9th time on Forbidden Journey in 3 days.
Next we walked onto Flight of the Hippogriff and got the first row. We decided to sing Heigh Ho to ourselves because we’re cool like that.
We knew this would likely be our last time in Hogsmeade this trip, so we decided to stop by Ollivanders Shop and watch the interactive show. I was hoping that Josh might get chosen since he was wearing his birthday pin, but two other birthday girls were chosen by Ollivander. We enjoyed the show and watching the wands choose the wizards.
We caught a bit of the Frog Choir performance and I met the conductor of the Hogwarts Express!
We next headed to the train station and took the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley.
We thought this billboard looked familiar and it’s the same billboard Dumbledore and Harry Potter stand in front of in the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Universal is all about the little details!
We said hello the dragon and got in line to ride Escape from Gringotts. We rode twice via the single rider line and got to sit together in row 6 which is the very back. We were just happy that the ride didn’t break down this time!
We next visited the Gringotts Money Exchange. Since visiting it on our first day, I had read online that if you ask some particular questions, you’ll get some pretty interesting answers. I got in line and we took video of our interaction with the goblin. Click the screenshot below to watch the video:
Here was our conversation:
Goblin: Yes you, madam. Did you have a question?
Lauren: Are there any dragons in Gringotts?
G: Yes, certainly. We employ several security measures within our vaults. Some require a key, while others have more…deadly outcomes.
L: Are you a house elf?
G: No, sir. Most goblins are referred to be a simple name. Seems much more efficient to me. Next, please.
L: What’s your name?
G: You may refer to me simply as “Sir.”
I thought this was so cool and have no idea how it works. Clearly it’s wizardry magic.
We saw the dragon breathe fire twice but didn’t try to capture it on film since we had already gotten pictures and video the first day. We were glad that the dragon was over its laryngitis and feeling better. We had also read online that if you visit the Leaky Cauldron sign, the cauldron actually does leak water into a small puddle on the floor, which was cool to see.
We also saw the team Quidditch pendants in the windows and visited Kreacher again at 12 Grimmauld Place.
Continued in Next Post