“Big Jay?” “Yes Baby Jay?” “I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”- September 8th-18th 2017 TR

Hi guys!! Thanks for sticking with me..well hopefully lol. I'm really going to try to have less time in between updates for future postings so I'm really sorry for the delay. Already here's an update for you all :) :)
 
Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 2

So here is where we headed after leaving the airport:

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Welcome to Universal Orlando Resort :hyper::hyper:

This above picture is when you are still in CityWalk. I almost forgot to take this photo lol.

So originally we were going to use our arrival day as a relaxation day and head to Disney Springs (DS). Back in 2011 we arrived on a Saturday and went straight to Magic Kingdom. This time around I wanted to take it easy. Well as with WDW vacations you’ve got to have flexibility. Knowing Sunday and Monday were going to be impacted we decided to go ahead and use one of our days for Universal for arrival day. Universal days originally were 9/10/17, 9/11/17 and 9/16/17.

By 12:50pm we were parked at one of Universal’s parking garage. Judging by the amount of cars there it wasn’t a busy day at Universal. It costs $20.00 per day currently to park there ($18.77+1.23 in tax).

Since we hadn’t eaten really that day other than a quick bite at 6am at the airport we went straight for food after walking from our car, through security, through CityWalk and to the entrance to the Studios. But first we stopped for a few photos on the way.

They had stopped the globe so we were able to get this picture which is past CityWalk and just before you enter the Studios:
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This is the entrance to the Studios:
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A kind Team Member (TM) offered to take a picture of us. We really appreciated this:
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On our way to the Simpsons area we saw Optimus Prime (from Transformers) doing photo ops:
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Originally I wanted to eat at the taco food truck in the Simpsons area (which was new to us at previously there was just The Simpsons Ride) but that was closed at that time so we ended up in Fast Food Boulevard (that might be the area that the taco food truck is technically in as well). It was 1:30pm when we entered the building through Krusty Burger. Basically it’s multiple store fronts but inside it’s one big place to eat. We decided to share a turkey wrap that came with chips and drink water from a water fountain. The wrap with tax cost $10.11. I forgot to get a picture of it so apologies on that. But it was basically just your ordinary turkey wrap with chips (though they were apple chips..didn’t quite taste the best with the combination of the turkey wrap) that you see in those clear containers.

After lunch we headed over to an area we hadn’t been able to see yet and that was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter-Diagon Alley. This opened up in July of 2014 so we hadn’t had the chance to see it back in 2011. I was sad though that JAWS was no longer around (got my last ride of it back in 2011 ).

This was a picture taken on a bridge just before you get to the new Harry Potter area:
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So now we are in the new Harry Potter area which used to be Amity Island, etc:
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 3

Harry Potter photos continued:
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You can enter the actual Diagon Alley way in two ways but both are designed to be normal everyday looking when you enter and then be completely different on the other side in the Wizarding world. The entrances also aren’t very wide.

This is one of the entrances from the view inside Diagon Alley:
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More photos:
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The structure on the left on the above picture I believe is the tracks used for Hogwarts Express (please correct me if I am wrong).

Here is the Leaky Cauldron which is a quick service place to eat:
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 4


Harry Potter photos continued:
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Apologies for the dark photos below. Knockturn Alley is designed to be dark inside it so it can be hard to get good photos:
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It may be hard to see but the above picture has a Wanted poster for Bellatrix Lestrange.

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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 5

After exploring Knockturn Alley we went back outside to see this:

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Quite frequently this occurs. It may be hard to tell but just before the climax of the video you can hear growling and whatnot (video is taken by me and uploaded to my YouTube page):

At just before 2:15pm we decided to go on Escape from Gringotts. The posted wait time was 25mins. We got to the pre-show portion (after you’ve had your picture taken inside the queue) about 2:40pm and by 3:00pm we had exited the ride.

Here’s some pictures of the queue:
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When you're headed down you can see this on the wall (video is taken by me and uploaded to my YouTube page):
 
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 6

More photos of the queue:
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Here's a video of the above picture as it has movement to it (video is taken by me and uploaded to my YouTube page):

Here is the loading area for the ride:
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The ride was not bad. Aaron really liked it but with my motion sickness issues I had my eyes shut at times throughout the ride. I would say it is less intense than Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
 
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 8

Photos continued:
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At this point we decided we had done enough exploring in Harry Potter and looked at Universal’s app for wait times. Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was a 5mins posted wait so we decided to walk that way.

This is where Universal has their nighttime show that was new to us called Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories:
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Unfortunately we would be unable to see this show because the next time we would be back at the Studios Halloween Horror Nights would be going on causing the show to not go on.

Aaron likes to ride more intense rides than me so I didn’t go on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit ride. He walked through the entrance to the ride at just after 3:15pm. If I remember correctly he rode it a few times at that time.

Around 3:40 I made reservations on the Universal app for Race Through New York starring Jimmy Fallon for basically at that time-the window was 30mins. Once Aaron got done riding Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit we walked towards Jimmy Fallon. This attraction operates primarily as a Virtual Queue meaning you are essentially making a FP for the ride and there isn’t standby line (though at times they will have Standby). Due to crowds being low that day the queues inside were slightly different. We just walked towards the area upstairs where you wait for your color (which is a card given to you by the TM at the entrance to the attractions) rather than hanging out on the bottom where there would be some entertainments going on while you waited.

We did take a few photos though before going upstairs:
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 9

Race Through New York starring Jimmy Fallon photos continued:
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Upstairs they had areas where you sit and watch clips from the show while waiting for your color to be called. We were called in around 4:15pm. This ride was fun. Aaron liked it quite a bit. I would go on it again but I do still have to take care with my motion sickness. After we got done with the ride we browsed around the store.

After this we decided to walk back to Harry Potter area and go on Hogwarts Express from the Kings Cross station to go to the Islands of Adventure side. On our way we took some photos:
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This new ride was supposed to be open in 2017 and I had really hoped it would be open for our trip but alas it ran into delays and is now scheduled to open Spring 2018 according to Universal.

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Finally we had made it back to Harry Potter area and into King’s Cross Station. It was a walk on in a sense that the queue was not full and you were just waiting on the train to arrive. Here are some photos of the queue which was cold inside the queue part; sorry in advance for some blurry photos as we were walking while taking them:
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(forgive my husband’s elbow there lol)

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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 10

King’s Cross Station photos continued:
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And here’s the train that has come back to the station:
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Here’s the inside of the train:
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The person in the picture’s entire traveling party videotaped (including the person in the picture) the whole ride. You aren’t supposed to video tape it. When you’re trying to watch the scenes I will say it’s a bit distracting to have people’s phones all up filming. Also it’s darker inside the rooms so the light from cell phones is also a bit distracting. I understand the urge to film the ride though.

Now I know they say the better way to ride Hogwarts Express is to start in Hogsmeade and make your way over to Diagon Alley but the way it worked out we would always start on Diagon Alley side. If you have the opportunity I would however suggest if it’s your first time to ride the Hogwarts Express starting in Hogsmeade and make your way over to Diagon Alley.

So once the train arrived in Hogsmeade station we exited the train. Here’s a photo of the station:
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I may have more photos of the station and if I do I’ll post them later.

So as we were exiting the train we noticed..it was pouring rain. I think I forgot to mention it but Aaron bought a nicer poncho just in case. Normally we’re not ones to shy away from rain but I think he just figured if I was bringing a rain jacket he might as well bring something himself. So we pulled out the poncho and the rain jacket and started walking. I had on my Sperry water shoes so the rain didn’t bother me as far as walking in it.

Our destination was Three Broomsticks as we had decided with the rain it was a good time to get some food. I don’t have it listed exactly but it was after 5pm when we got to Three Broomsticks I neglected to get photos of our meals sorry about that. Right now that seems to be the only receipt I cannot find. I got Rotisserie Smoked Chicken Platter which is served with corn on the cob and roasted potatoes and costs $12.99. Aaron got the Beef Pasties with Garden Salad which is flakey pastry pies filled with ground beef, vegetables & potatoes served with a side salad & choice of dressing and costs $9.99. As I don’t have the receipt I don’t know if the pricing changed or not since September but I’ll assume those were the pricing back then. The total cost including tax would be $24.47. We got courtesy cups of water for our drinks.

Here’s a google photo of the chicken platter (credit on google images shows it’s from an unknown to me Heather Windfield):
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Here’s a google photo of the beef pasties (credit on google images shows it’s from Theme Park Tourist):
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After I had gotten done eating I decided to try and give Disney a call regarding my room being assigned so we sat down just outside the ride; this gave us the ability to rest for a few moments. I had opted to do Online Check in. I wasn’t too worried but I thought a quick call may not hurt to see if a room had been assigned but had not yet been e-mailed/texted or listed in MDE as far as the room number.

I called via MDE the hotel but I know I was directed to a call center rather than the hotel itself. The representative saw that they were working on getting me the room information. We disconnected and sure enough about 5 minutes later I noticed in MDE that my room number had been assigned.

I took a screenshot of that:
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We finished eating and stuck around a bit longer for the rain to let up a bit. We left Three Broomsticks around 5:45pm. I enjoyed the chicken (and I remember getting that back in September 2011) but Aaron didn’t like the beef pasties very much.
 
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 11


Next we decided to look at wait times and saw that Skull Island: Reign of Kong had a 10 minute wait. The rain wasn’t coming down as hard now so we decided to go ahead on go on the ride.

On our way we took a few photos:
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(I believe we turned up the brightness setting on the phone camera when taking the two photos)

The Kong ride ended up being a walk on. Because of the rain they did not do the outside portion of the ride.

Here’s the one photo I took of the queue lol:
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We got off the ride about 6:10pm. Aaron liked the ride and I thought the ride was ok. I’d go on it again but I probably wouldn’t wait a long time for it. It would be nice though to go on it again when the outdoor portion was available.

At this point we decided it was time to head out. I think we were tired and just decided it was time to get our room and relax. But on our way out we went to Starbucks to get the Universal You Are Here mug and with tax this cost $18.10. It was about 6:30pm when we bought the mug.

We collect the mugs now from our trips we take but it started out when Aaron went on a work trip and got me one from that city’s airport and then he just sorta started doing that whenever he could. We use the mugs quite often too.

I’m running out of space now lol and I don’t even have my mugs on the shelf from this trip as I’m working on a solution to my space shortage lol. I've also added mugs to the collection since this Orlando trip. One is from the Las Vegas trip we took in October 2017 and the most recent addition to the collection is the New York City one from December 2017.

Here’s a picture of the Universal mug (they did one mug for both parks):
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Before we left I decided to get a picture from the vantage point of the garage. I may have more pictures of this and if so I’ll post them later:
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If you look to the far left you’ll see part of the Hulk ride.
 
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 12

So off we went towards Disney's property.

Right when we got to the border of Disney’s property I got one of my favorite photos of the trip:
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I just love how the sun was setting at just the right moment to illuminate the sign. It was still raining outside as you can see and the photo is just a tad blurry because well as you can see with the photo you’re not supposed to stop.

Here’s another photo:
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Here are a few more photos:
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It was really easy when you get to the All-Star Resort area. The guard scanned Aaron’s magic band after we advised we were checking in and on our way we went. All-Star Sports is the first of the All-Star Resorts.

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Here’s the only picture I took of the room:
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Here’s a map from the DISboards showing the All-Stars (map found via this thread https://www.disboards.com/threads/disneys-all-star-sports-resort-information-questions.1565088/):
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The arrow reflects the approximate location of the room. We parked the rental car in the parking lot shown here that is right by Homerun section.

Once we dropped off our luggage into the room we headed down to the front desk. We were hoping we could extend our trip by 1 day in order to make up time due to Irma. There was a line and it was taking a while. The poor CMs! Everyone was either trying to extend their trip or make a reservation for that weekend to ride out Irma. All CMs were on the phone every time a guest came to their counter. Our CM was just great. He was very friendly and made great small talk while waiting on the phone. He had great news for us too--we could extend our trip and stay in the same room! He also applied the room only discount we were getting and we greatly appreciated that. We were very nice and polite but every guest was like that I think most were just so happy they could stay at the resort. I do know for that weekend they were doing Hurricane rates for the rooms. I requested a new print out so I would have paperwork reflecting our updated checkout date and that it said we were staying in the same room.

We got some things unpacked like toiletries and whatnot and watched some tv.

(ETA 5/7/18: I'm not sure how I forgot this but I found a receipt for McDonald's which is right by the All-Stars for food. We must have gotten hungry before bed and went out around 9:30pm). Our total reflects $12.63 ($11.85 before tax).

I don’t remember exactly when we went to sleep. According to Samsung Health app I walked a total of 18,447 steps or the rough equivalent of 8.97 miles. Aaron’s Samsung Health app messed up on tracking for several days so I’m leaving his numbers out of the trip report. On average though he walked more steps than me even though he takes wider strides than I do most of that is because he went on rides that I didn’t go on.

And that concludes a busy first day of our trip! The next day of our trip would be our first day at the Disney parks :D:D.

Stay tuned for the next update! :-):-):-)
 
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Chapter 5: Arrival Day Part 13


I forgot to add here is the notice from Disney waiting on the table in the room regarding impacts due to Irma. I don't exactly remember when I found out that the parks would be closed for the 10th and the 11th but I had already figured that would be the case based on the expected arrival of the hurricane to Orlando.

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As someone who has never been to Universal, it was cool to see your photos.

Glad the Disney experience was still a good one despite the inconvenience of Irma heading your way. Looking forward to the rest of your report!
Thank you! I've got a lot more too lol. This is a photo heavy trip report that's for sure.

When I was thinking about what photos I would take I thought about people who don't explore Universal or don't explore Disney who would get at least somewhat of a feel for each of the parks :)
 
We'll be an Universal in a couple of weeks and the Fallon ride wasn't open the last time we were there. How does it work? You have to make a reservation on the app first?

Love all your photos!
Thank you :love:

On the Fallon ride they do operate it on Standby at certain times (from what I've been told) but majority it would be virtual queue only. It works basically how you would do it when you're at WDW and making a same-day FP. You need to be in the park in order to make a reservation for Fallon and it's for that day only. I don't have the app anymore on my phone but I remember it being pretty easy to do it. There should also be actual kiosks available too but we had the app already downloaded for wait times aspect.

In the app you would go to the page for the Jimmy Fallon ride. It should tell you on that page if it's operating on virtual queue/line or just standby.

I googled and found this screen shot here from Universal's blog:
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If I remember correctly the reservation is on a QR code. At the entrance to the attraction the Universal TM will scan the QR code on your phone before you enter the attraction (similar to scanning your magicband when you're going through the FP line only it's on your phone instead). After that your experience may be different than ours since it was such a low crowd day they operated differently in the handing out of the color coded cards you get which tell you it's your turn to ride. There is lighting within the attraction that lights up with colors. Once the lighting changes to the color of the card you were given it's your turn to go on the actual ride. On the color coded cards I would probably speak to a Jimmy Fallon TM at the entrance that day on how they are doing it since I know the time we went in it was way different than normal.
 
Thank you :love:

On the Fallon ride they do operate it on Standby at certain times (from what I've been told) but majority it would be virtual queue only. It works basically how you would do it when you're at WDW and making a same-day FP. You need to be in the park in order to make a reservation for Fallon and it's for that day only. I don't have the app anymore on my phone but I remember it being pretty easy to do it. There should also be actual kiosks available too but we had the app already downloaded for wait times aspect.

In the app you would go to the page for the Jimmy Fallon ride. It should tell you on that page if it's operating on virtual queue/line or just standby.

I googled and found this screen shot here from Universal's blog:
View attachment 295180

If I remember correctly the reservation is on a QR code. At the entrance to the attraction the Universal TM will scan the QR code on your phone before you enter the attraction (similar to scanning your magicband when you're going through the FP line only it's on your phone instead). After that your experience may be different than ours since it was such a low crowd day they operated differently in the handing out of the color coded cards you get which tell you it's your turn to ride. There is lighting within the attraction that lights up with colors. Once the lighting changes to the color of the card you were given it's your turn to go on the actual ride. On the color coded cards I would probably speak to a Jimmy Fallon TM at the entrance that day on how they are doing it since I know the time we went in it was way different than normal.
Thank you! That's so helpful.
 
The structure on the left on the above picture I believe is the tracks used for Hogwarts Express (please correct me if I am wrong).
I think its actually just part of the building. The train from Kings Cross goes direct towards Hogsmeade, so doesn't actually cross over Diagon Alley (I checked a google maps because I was curious myself)! I think I remember they had sound and whooshing noises like it was actually being used as a train track!

The ride was not bad. Aaron really liked it but with my motion sickness issues I had my eyes shut at times throughout the ride. I would say it is less intense than Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Yeah, agreed. Gringotts wasn't too bad but Forbidden journey can be pretty intense!

We collect the mugs now from our trips we take but it started out when Aaron went on a work trip and got me one from that city’s airport and then he just sorta started doing that whenever he could. We use the mugs quite often too.

I’m running out of space now lol and I don’t even have my mugs on the shelf from this trip as I’m working on a solution to my space shortage lol. I've also added mugs to the collection since this Orlando trip. One is from the Las Vegas trip we took in October 2017 and the most recent addition to the collection is the New York City one from December 2017.
I wanted to collect these too but I knew I wouldn't have enough room! But then I saw this year (and maybe previous years), they had mini cups that were Christmas ornaments! I got one for all 4 WDW parks, the 2 DLR parks, and then California and Los Angeles. Didn't realize Universal had one too, so I may need to ebay that!

Once we dropped off our luggage into the room we headed down to the front desk. We were hoping we could extend our trip by 1 day in order to make up time due to Irma. There was a line and it was taking a while. The poor CMs! Everyone was either trying to extend their trip or make a reservation for that weekend to ride out Irma. All CMs were on the phone every time a guest came to their counter. Our CM was just great. He was very friendly and made great small talk while waiting on the phone. He had great news for us too--we could extend our trip and stay in the same room! He also applied the room only discount we were getting and we greatly appreciated that. We were very nice and polite but every guest was like that I think most were just so happy they could stay at the resort. I do know for that weekend they were doing Hurricane rates for the rooms. I requested a new print out so I would have paperwork reflecting our updated checkout date and that it said we were staying in the same room.
Yeah, the CMs had a lot to deal with but they were so nice and tried to work with everyone.
 

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