The Zombie Guide to Disney: 9 Days, 8 Nights, 6 Parks, 2 People... 1st Trip! Updated 5/11/17

[Shayana]

Daily life has to take a front seat sometimes so we can pay the bills. I understand. I am not going anywhere, I will be here to read and talk when you do update.

Thanks. I'm on day 4 of a migraine, and my work site was affected by the Amazon Web Services outage today... oh, and it was a 12-hour day. Plus I came about two seconds from walking out after a meeting with my boss.

Got off work an hour ago. Just finished eating a raspberry paczki, so I'm going to curl up and go into a sugar coma. Good night!

 

[mdsouth]

I am hoping your migraine finally went away. It sounds like Tuesday was indeed a monster of a day.

 

[Shayana]

Day 4, Part 1: Rodents of Unusual Size!

Saturday morning came too quickly, and I soon shambled in and out of the shower, getting ready for our day at Magic Kingdom. We knew that the park was opening early because of the new show at the castle, so we wanted to get there early enough to hopefully look around before it got too crowded.

Once we got to Magic Kingdom and made it through bag check and into the park itself, we started on the most important quest of all... coffee. Specially, non-Starbucks coffee, because I hate Starbucks. Their coffee always tastes burnt to me, because they over-roast their beans. Unfortunately, I learned that inside MK, Starbucks appears to be a monopoly. NOOOOO!!!! Maybe they had non-Starbucks at actual sit-down restaurants, but... *sigh*

As we're wandering down Main Street, we run into the couple from Epcot that was looking for Mulan with me! They finally found her too, and that was good.

As we were waiting for the castle show to start, we got a few pictures with some photopass photographers, and we got one with the new Mickey & Minnie magic shot in front of the partners statue.

Just a few minutes before rope drop, the show started. It was really neat to get a chance to see some many of the characters in one place.

After rope drop, we headed into Adventureland to ride Jungle Cruise (where we laughed at all the bad puns) and then Pirates of the Caribbean. Next we headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My husband decided not to ride and watch people on Splash Mountain instead, laughing at some of the poses people were holding. We meandered around a little until our FastPass for Haunted Mansion (which hubby & I both rode, though it stopped a couple of times when we were on the ride. Nothing more than a few minutes delay, though.) We headed back to the Swiss Family Treehouse, which I wanted to go up into since I loved Swiss Family Robinson growing up, and then found ourselves in front of Sunshine Tree Terrace. Citrus Swirl! Om nom nom nom nom....

Next we wandered into Liberty Square and then into Fantasyland, where we met Gaston. Gaston was awesome, and he & my husband had to compare "Stallion Tails" because obvious you can't call them ponytails. Gaston actually spent more time talking with my husband. DH was going to mention how much I love to read, but didn't want to spark Gaston's interest. LOL

After that we watched Mickey's PhilharMagic (it was fun, but the 3D gave my DH a headache) and then headed into Be Our Guest for our lunch ADR. Since we had already pre-ordered, we were able to walk right in after we checked in, where they confirmed our order and how we wanted the bill paid, and then we found seats in the West Wing and waited for our food. I had the braised pork and a chocolate cream puff for dessert. DH had the turkey sandwich (which comes with pommes frites) and the triple chocolate cupcake. Everything was really good, especially the braised pork.

The West Wing was great, though obviously dark. I loved the flashes of thunder and lightning, and the way the portrait switched to the Beast. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to snag a photo at that exact moment.

I especially loved the rose in the bell jar in the window.

We walked through the other sections after lunch, and while they were pretty, I think I like the West Wing the best.

After lunch, we sat and people watched for a few minutes before I joined the (long) FP+ line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Hubby didn't want to go on it, so we cancelled his fastpass so we could use it for something else later if we wanted to. The standby line for 7DMT was two hours at that point, but since I had a fastpass, plus I was a single rider, I was done in 20 minutes total. It was fun, but since the ride is so short I have to admit that I probably wouldn't want to wait if I didn't have a fastpass.

The plan after 7DMT was to head back to the hotel and rest before coming back later, but...


Zombie Food Possibilities: Me, at least until after Thunder Mountain, since I was NOT awake. Also, everyone in the 7DMT standby line, since the stubborn looks on their faces made it obvious that they weren't budging for anything, not even if a hoard of the undead shambled through the park. After all, maybe if a few people get eaten it will just shorten the wait!

NEXT: Day 4, Part 2: Princesses Galore & FastPass Finagling

 

[Shayana]

I am hoping your migraine finally went away. It sounds like Tuesday was indeed a monster of a day.

Thanks! I actually had a migraine that lasted through Wednesday, and then I caught a cold. Boo!

 

[Shayana]

Day 4, Part 2: Princesses Galore & FastPass Finagling

While the original plan was to head back to the resort after my fastpass for 7DMT, we noticed that a line was forming by the castle gates, and that the Tremaine sisters (the evil stepsisters) were meeting people. Well, I couldn't resist, so I jumped in line. DH was not thrilled about meeting them, but then the character attendant told us that the Fairy Godmother was going to be replacing them, and we would be meeting her instead. Yay! The line kept growing over the next few minutes, and we soon heard the character attendant go to the back of the line to tell people that they would be meeting the Tremaine sisters instead. By that point, we were at the front of the line!

It was great meeting the Fairy Godmother! She was so sweet and signed my autograph book to us as well, and left us a kiss.

After we hugged goodbye, I jumped back at the end of the line! Hubby knows how the Tremaine sisters act around guys, though, so he decided to sit that one out. They weren't so happy with my shirt, and expressed such displeasure at the thought of "Rodents of Unusual Size" that I told them that we breed them in Michigan to eat for dinner. It was worth it to see the look on their faces as they proclaimed that they will never visit the Kingdom of Michigan! *giggle*

While I had been waiting in line, I decided to cancel my fastpass for Space Mountain and instead try to grab one for either Cinderella or Rapunzel. I really wanted to meet Rapunzel the most, but the only fastpass I could get was for later in the day, at 6:50. After I grabbed that fastpass, of course, one for Cinderella opened that started at that exact moment while I was in line, but there weren't any more for Rapunzel so I was afraid to cancel the one I had for later, so I assigned the fastpass for Cindy to my husband's magicband. *looks around innocently* Well, I figured that if he's not going to use it... I mean, he had only used ONE of his fastpasses for the day so he still had two open, right?

But then I refreshed again, and there was a fastpass for Ariel for an hour later. Well...

So I assigned that one to my husband's magicband, too.

After meeting the stepsisters and then finding my husband and telling him that he was going to meet Cinderella... or that I could borrow his magicband and meet her instead... we wandered off to Princess Fairytall Hall, which was just a few meters away but we had to play frogger with tired children and strollers. I borrowed my husband's magicband and got in line. I wasn't too familiar with Elena, other than knowing that a Project Runway designer designed her dress, but it was great meeting Cinderella! We chatting about being friends with animals and how I scared her stepsisters way from Michigan.

After that we headed to Ariel's Grotto, so I could once again swap my wristband for my husband's long enough to use his fastpass before putting mine back on. There were seven people ahead of me in the fastpass line, and when the cast member calling back numbers said there were seven people in FP+, the other cast member started teasing her that she couldn't count. I told them it was okay because I didn't really exist anyway. They let the first seven go and told me that I didn't exist so I had to stay there! *giggle* They were just teasing, though, and let me through.

Ariel and I chatted about dinglehoppers and how it's so nice to be able to do our hair during dinner, and then I wandered outside to find my husband. We sat for a while against the wall, and then wandered into Tomorrowland to grab a snack to eat, since we obviously weren't heading back to the hotel anytime soon. Oops! *giggle* Cosmic Ray's was too busy, so we grabbed food from the Lunching Pad: Mickey pretzel for my hubby, though the cast member forgot to give him the cheese (I would have gone back when I found out by DH said that he didn't want it) and I had some sort of stuffed pretzel. It wasn't great, but it was something. We grabbed raspberry lemonade slushies from a cart as we headed back toward Fantasyland, and then saw a sign for Merida. Hubby looked at me, I looked at Hubby, and I got in line. There were only a couple of people ahead of me, and I'm glad I got in line when I did, because by the time they opened the signing for Merida, the line went down to the end of the path and then wrapped itself back up to the starting point!

Merida was awesome, and we discussed how redheads are taking over the world, and she moved the orange sharpie I had for her to sign, too.

After Merida, I noticed a fastpass was open for Space Mountain, so I assigned it... to my husband's magicband again. We had used all of the original three fastpasses for him, but I could keep adding them one-by-one, and I still had the pesky fastpass for Rapunzel & Tiana later on mine so I couldn't add any more!

Before we went to space mountain, though, we stopped an bought Minnie ears for me. I had been wanting them all week, but they were marked as "Youth" and that was the first day a friendly cast member had actually told us that they were really one-size, I might just have to stretch out the band a little bit! So I bought the ears, and asked the cast member at the register if she could cut off the big tag from the headband part. She cut it like a blind person using scissors for the first time, leaving a huge ragged mess, which made my OCD go crazy, so while I was going through Space Mountain he actually pulled out the threads of the tag bit by bit so it didn't destroy the seam. (Yeah, I know I'm lucky... he puts up with me!)

Space Mountain will never happen again. I started out the ride with a little bit of a headache because there is a hallway that echoes before you load, and there was a group of people (I'll give you one guess on what county the tour group was from) screaming and chanting. Finally made it onto the actual ride to discover that there are random strobe effects. I can handle strobe lights when I'm expecting them, or when there is some other outside light. But when they're random and happen in the complete dark... migraine. Skull-splitting migraine. By the time the ride ended, I couldn't see.

I somehow found my husband, where he proudly showed me that he had completely removed the tag, and then he realized what had happened. At that point, I needed migraine meds, and I needed caffeine, and with how bad it was, I knew that one thing would help more than anything. A hot chai latte. Dammit. That meant Starbucks. We found our way to the Main Street Bakery and walked inside... to have my husband send me back outside to sit on the curb. It was starting to get dark. He made it outside a few minutes later with a chai and then we opened the adult-proof packaging on my migraine pills (it needs a sharp object to manage to open it, which is just what you need when you have one of the seven dwarfs trying to use a pick to escape from your skull) and then wandered slowly toward Fantasyland.

Why? Remember that fastpass?

We made it to Fantasyland and were able to rest a little before I headed in to meet Rapunzel and Tiana. Rapunzel and I decided that my ROUS shirt could mean rodents of an unusually SMALL size, since we know what happened when she was surprised by a bunny.

Tiana had a slight malfunction when the children meeting her before me managed to somehow push her earring up into her hair. So they had to free her earring and fix her hair. We laughed about it and then talked about gumbo and other cajun food. NOTE: Tiana's dress is too big to stand next to her easily. It's gotta be the best defense against creepy fanboys.

I got out of the Princess Fairytale Hall just as they were starting to rope off the area for the fireworks. We escaped around the side (and I showed DH where Ichabod Crane was hiding behind the construction walls) and then we wandered up to the front. I snagged a fastpass to meet Tinkerball (DH calls her an Itch with a B) and she was sweet. And the fastpass was on MY magicband... finally!

Outside again, we realized that it was getting closer to Wishes, so I sent hubby up to the train station balcony to snag a spot for us while I went to meet Mickey. Yes, I had met Mickey at Animal Kingdom, but this was Town Hall Mickey.

*squee!*

Mickey either didn't notice or ignored my shirt, but I turned into a six-year-old when I met him. I was so excited!

I was all giggly and happy when I headed up the stairs to the train station balcony to meet up with my husband for Wishes. It was awesome.

Zombie Food Possibilities: Sooo many people. Most of them with strollers that they were using as battering rams. I am not the door to a castle! Hitting me with your stroller when I'm in front of you stopped in line is not going to make the line go any faster, I promise you!! Also, the dad who literally yelled at his kid to "smile!" when she was meeting Cinderella. Yeah... that's going to help.

Next: Day 5: Cheating on Disney

 

[thumper*]

WOW Shayana what a magical day all those character meets, rides, BOG, Minnie ears and Wishes way to go girl, what a productive day.

 

[Shayana]

WOW Shayana what a magical day all those character meets, rides, BOG, Minnie ears and Wishes way to go girl, what a productive day.

Thanks! It was a very good but exhausting day at MK! We got there about an hour before rope drop and didn't leave until after Wishes, so it was a very, very full day!

 

[Shayana]

Day 5: Cheating on Disney, Part 1

While DH & I had never been to Disney World, we also hadn't been to Universal Studios Orlando. So, while we were going to be down in Florida, I decided to grab us some tickets for that. We didn't want to transfer resorts, though, so we planned for a break in the middle of our trip to spend some time at Universal and planned to catch and uber there. We ended up arranging a ride to Universal from someone I met through a Disney facebook group, which saved us some hassle since we didn't have to wait for an uber or lyft driver to show up in the morning.

(Shhhh... Don't tell Mickey we cheated on him!)

Sunday, February 5 started way too early, as became the habit during our vacation, but we wanted to make sure we got to Universal early since I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through City Walk, security, etc. We arrived and snagged a picture or two from City Walk, then grabbed our tickets from the Will Call kiosks and walked in to Islands of Adventure. The park wasn't open yet, since we got there shortly after 8am and the park opened at 9, but the "Port of Entry" was open so you could shop, grab something to eat, etc. It had rained overnight so the benches were a little wet, but we found a dry one to sit on while I went through the ride guide on my phone to try to find out which rides I wanted to go on and which my husband might be able to ride! After the park opened, pretty much everyone hightailed it to the right to head toward Hogsmeade, while we went to the left to head toward Kong.

First I had to look at the Incredible Hulk Coaster and just repeat "Nope Nope Nope" multiple times. That was my mantra before rope drop while I was drinking coffee, too, since I could see them running the coaster with one guy in it... either he had a death wish or was testing it, because he rode it multiple times, even before the park opened. We walked past that and through the ghost towns that were Marvel Super Hero Island and Toon Lagoon. Even though the park was officially open and it was after 9am, most of the shops and all of the restaurants were closed, and we were the only people walking through those sections. The Hulk ride was open and so was Doctor Doom, but nothing else.

It was like we were already in an abandoned theme park during a zombie apocalypse. I will admit that it's kinda creepy knowing that there were a bunch of people there before opening, but now everyone is missing and you're walking through the park seemingly alone...

Kong was fun... I went on it once by myself and then dragged my husband on it the second time. The first time I went on it, they hadn't even turned on the lights/effects for the queue and the person in front of me had to pull out his cell phone and use it as a light so the four of us in line at the time (three of them and then me behind them) would even get through the line without running into walls or tripping! The second time I went through, just a few minutes later, they actually had the lights/effects on, plus one guy who was apparently supposed to scare us but it was obvious he hadn't had his coffee yet and he made people giggle rather than yelp.

Next we wandered to the Jurassic Park area, where again we found that almost everything was closed. Camp Jurassic was open, so we wandered through there, and Pteranodon Flyers was open but we were both too tall for it. I was bummed that the Jurassic Park Discovery Center was closed (didn't open until 10:30) and so was the Raptor Encounter.

So far, the morning was a bust other than Kong, since I didn't want to ride either Hulk or Doctor Doom and nothing else was open, so we wandered into Hogsmeade next. Finally... people!

We went into the Hogwarts Castle and did the tour of the castle. After we did the tour, I spoke with someone in the gift shop to ask how bad the Forbidden Journey ride was, since I can do simulation rides or spinny rides, but not rides that do both. She told me that the ride didn't spin, and that it was just flying with a simulation, so that it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be, so I went back in line to get on the ride while my husband waited outside with my mini backpack.

Now... for anyone who has been on this ride, you know she lied. It spins. OMG IT SPINS. I had my eyes closed for most of it because the simulation mixed together with the spinning through my equilibrium completely off and I thought I was going to puke. At one point, I opened my eyes to see giant spiders and that didn't help either. I got off the ride and found my husband... one look at my (green) face and he knew I needed some time to sit. I had planned to go on Flight of the Hippogriff but decided that my stomach couldn't handle another ride, even though it was a ride I normally would have loved. *sigh*

We wandered around the shops in Hogsmeade, and stopped in at Honeydukes to look at everything. I almost bought a chocolate frog but wasn't sure if they actually came with witch & wizard cards or not, and didn't want to spent that much to find out for sure.

Then had lunch at Three Broomsticks, where I had my first Butterbeer. The foam was the best part of it, but the rest just tasted like cream soda, which is I guess what it is. Still, it was tasty even though not as good as I would have hoped, and I decided to try the other variations of it that trip.

After Three Broomsticks, it was starting to get busy in Hogsmeade so we took the Hogwarts Express over to King's Cross, and saw the Knight Bus and spoke with the shrunked head in the bus. Then we wandered into Diagon Alley, but it was already really crowded to the point where you couldn't even fit in any of the shops at all!

While we wandered around Diagon Alley, we stopped at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor and I had a cup of ice cream - one scoop Earl Grey & Lavender and one scoop Clotted Cream. It was delicious!

While we ate our ice cream, we watched the Gringott's Dragon belch fire every ten minutes. Yay for Ukrainian Ironbellies!

By this point it was around 1 pm, so we decided to head back to Islands of Adventure to see what else was there, planning to come back to Diagon Alley the next morning when it hopefully wouldn't be as busy. Of course, first we had to wait for 15 minutes where they were checking tickets since the people ahead of us didn't seem to understand that they needed a Park to Park ticket to ride Hogwarts Express.

The Hogwarts Express is really neat, by the way. It's a different experience each way, so you want to ride it in both directions. You need a Park to Park ticket to do this, however, so you have to plan on it. And plan to wait behind people who don't know that they need a Park to Park ticket and stand there arguing with the conductors. The only really negative we had was that a guy in front of us in line was completely marinated in some rank cologne that was making it difficult for me to breathe, so I asked the ride attendant to put me in a different car, which they thankfully did.

Once we were back in Islands of Adventure, we started heading back toward the front, checking out some of the rides/shows on the way. We somehow bypassed Poseidon's Fury but figured that we'd catch it the next day, and there wasn't enough Sinbad show for a few hours. Unfortunately, my left knee decided that it didn't want to function by that point. Universal has a lot more stairs than I had planned on, especially for the Hogwarts Express, and I was limptastic at this point. If the zombie apocalypse had happened, I would have forced my husband to leave me behind to save himself. Wait, why am I kidding myself? My husband would just leave me behind, because we're both logical when it comes to zombies.

Getting back was an adventure in itself. We had an uber pick us up, but the driver didn't really know where he was going and took a wrong exit which meant that he couldn't get to our resort easily because of the construction. While he was lost and confused, I saw a sign for Disney Springs and told him to just drop us off there and changed the destination in the uber app. We walked through Disney Springs (which made my knee hurt even more at this point) until we finally got to the boat to French Quarter, since the dock was all the way over on the other side of Disney Springs from where we were dropped off. We did stop at Ghirardelli on the way, though, so at least we had chocolate!

The boat from Disney Springs to Port Orleans French Quarter is really nice and relaxing. Once we got back to the resort, we snagged food and headed up to our room to eat and relax for the rest of the day, hoping my knee would recover.

Zombie Food Possibilities: Me, since I was just limping around for the most of the day. The guy who had bathed in cologne should be eaten to spare others, but the zombies probably wouldn't want to be around him either, since I'm sure they would be able to smell him even though their desiccated sinuses.

NEXT: Day 6, Part 1: Cheating Continued - Robes, Wands, and a Broken Train

 

[thumper*]

So have you had any Beignets yet? I loved the boat ride from POR the last time we were there. Such a relaxing ride, beats the crowds on the busses.

 

[mdsouth]

Great update! Once again very entertaining! I am glad you managed to escape any zombies that might have been present. Love the drawing and tip that you only have to be faster than your friends. I am sorry that you knee was giving you problems that day.

I hear you about the heavy cologne. I get migraines from certain fragrances (cheap and expensive) so I totally understand your need to get away from the guy. There is some type of scents that is used in a lot of perfumes and colognes that really sets me off.

Having never been to Universal either, I was interested in reading about your experiences. My DD is a huge Harry Potter fan so we will be venturing over there for a few days too on our next visit. I will have to remember your experience on sit out Forbidden Journey. It sounds like it is something that will definitely mess me up.

 

[Shayana]

So have you had any Beignets yet? I loved the boat ride from POR the last time we were there. Such a relaxing ride, beats the crowds on the busses.

I actually had the beignets our first night at POFQ, so that would have been at the end of Day 2. I wasn't too impressed... but maybe I had a bad batch?! They were too doughy in the middle and actually tasted raw. And yes, the bus from POFQ to DS was ridiculous... I'll get to that later. I think I'm going to do an overall summary at the end where I'll mention food. I'm honestly really bad about remembering to include food in the day by day updates because I'm also really bad about actually eating. *hides*

 

[Shayana]

Great update! Once again very entertaining! I am glad you managed to escape any zombies that might have been present. Love the drawing and tip that you only have to be faster than your friends. I am sorry that you knee was giving you problems that day.

I hear you about the heavy cologne. I get migraines from certain fragrances (cheap and expensive) so I totally understand your need to get away from the guy. There is some type of scents that is used in a lot of perfumes and colognes that really sets me off.

Having never been to Universal either, I was interested in reading about your experiences. My DD is a huge Harry Potter fan so we will be venturing over there for a few days too on our next visit. I will have to remember your experience on sit out Forbidden Journey. It sounds like it is something that will definitely mess me up.

Universal has a lot of rides. The Hulk is just not gonna happen for me. Look for a video online and you'll probably agree! Kong was fun... minor simulation/screens on the side but nothing that bothered me, and the ride shakes and slides a little but doesn't spin. Forbidden Journey was a nightmare. Flight of the Hippogriff looks pretty tame so I'll go on that. Dragon Challenge has lots of curves and loops so I'm not 100% sure about that one -- it would depend on my stomach that day! Gringotts actually looks pretty tame compared to Forbidden Journey - I watched a POV after the fact that while there are some turns/simulations, they're not at the same time. You're mostly stopped when they're a scene you're supposed to watch. My next part will go into Gringotts and also Mummy.

 

[mdsouth]

Universal has a lot of rides. The Hulk is just not gonna happen for me. Look for a video online and you'll probably agree! Kong was fun... minor simulation/screens on the side but nothing that bothered me, and the ride shakes and slides a little but doesn't spin. Forbidden Journey was a nightmare. Flight of the Hippogriff looks pretty tame so I'll go on that. Dragon Challenge has lots of curves and loops so I'm not 100% sure about that one -- it would depend on my stomach that day! Gringotts actually looks pretty tame compared to Forbidden Journey - I watched a POV after the fact that while there are some turns/simulations, they're not at the same time. You're mostly stopped when they're a scene you're supposed to watch. My next part will go into Gringotts and also Mummy.

Thanks for the detailed review of rides. I haven't looked into Universal too much yet, I am still just thinking about going. But I just have an idea that there are probably more rides there than at Disney that I will not be able to do with my motion sickness due to big use of simulators.

 

[Shayana]

Thanks for the detailed review of rides. I haven't looked into Universal too much yet, I am still just thinking about going. But I just have an idea that there are probably more rides there than at Disney that I will not be able to do with my motion sickness due to big use of simulators.

Universal is fun if you like the Harry Potter stuff. And also if you have time to backtrack and see the shows. It's just inconvenient how the opening time for some attractions is later than the park opening so you pretty much HAVE to backtrack.

 

[gracer9977]

Joining. Love your TR so far.

 

[Shayana]

Day 6, Part 1: Cheating Continued - Robes, Wands, and a Broken Train

Monday morning started out sunny with a nice comfortable temperature, with no hint of the rain that had left the benches wet the morning before. We arrived at Universal early again and breezed through their security. Security at Universal is done before you get to City Walk, and it was a very quick process with my bag going through an x-ray machine while I walked through a metal detector. Even when we walked by later in the day, lines weren't long at all because they have so many checkpoints open and it's very quick to get through.

But back to Universal. Unlike the morning before, where we were able to get through the turnstiles and into the Port of Entry at Islands of Adventure to wait for the actual opening, Universal Studios didn't let us past the turnstiles until the actual time for the park to open, leading to long lines of people waiting. We sat off to the side until the lines actually started forming, since we got there so early, and by the time the actual turnstiles opened, the line was stretching out far behind us. Once we were in, we headed back toward Diagon Alley since I wanted to get there before it got so busy like it had the day before, but first we went to the Revenge of the Mummy ride.

Hubby waited outside, while the Egyptian guy loomed over him, while I went through the queue by myself into the ride. I'm not sure if I was the first person there that morning, but I was the ONLY person on the ride, so they sat me in the front row. Of course, I had forgotten the croakies I specifically picked up so I wouldn't have to worry about losing my glasses on the ride, so I actually spent part of the ride just holding my glasses! It was fun through. Fire and a backwards part and speed and it didn't set off my motion sickness at all. Yay!

After that, we had been planning to go to the ET Ride, but it wasn't open yet. The Men in Black ride was also closed for some reason. So we headed toward Diagon Alley, passing by the King's Cross station, which had all of the ticket collectors waiting outside for some reason. Before heading in to the alley, we chatted with the driver of the Knight Bus for again, saw Kreacher in the window of 12 Grimmauld Place, and then called the Ministry of Magic from the phone booth.

While we were waiting for the booth, two teenage girls in front of us had to be taught how to use a rotary phone by their parents. I was dying!

Onward to Diagon Alley!

By the way, Diagon Alley is awesome!

It wasn't crowded yet when we got there so we actually got to walk through all of the shops, which was great. We also did the "tour" of Gringotts Bank, which meant that we did everything EXCEPT go on the actual ride. There were a couple of Japanese women (probably in their early 20s) with us that weren't planning on riding either, and it was hilarious because there's a spot where you get in an elevator to head down toward the vaults — it's not the ride yet, but it's a mini ride where the elevator shakes a little — and one of the girls runs off of the elevator before the doors closed saying that she needed to get out because she thought the elevator was going to fall. I finally convinced her that it was okay — they couldn't make the elevator fall much since we didn't have restraints or anything — so she followed me like a duckling after it's momma for the rest of the time in Gringotts until we were back outside.

I didn't go on the Escape from Gringotts ride, because after my experience with Forbidden Journey the day before I was skittish. I wish I had, though. After coming back, I'm heard from a lot of people that it's nowhere near as bad as Forbidden Journey, and watching the ride video online makes me think that I would have enjoyed it.

I made the mistake of sticking my bag in the bag lockers before going into Gringotts... I found out after I put it in that since I wasn't planning on going on the ride, they would have let me carry my bag. The problem was that the fingerprint reader didn't want to recognize my print. Finally, on the third try, it let me rescue my bag. The person in front of me wasn't so lucky, since the machine kept telling her that she didn't exist at all and she wandered off looking for someone to help her.

(I exist! I promise I do... even when I don't want to! Please let me have my bag back!)


After Gringotts I decided that I needed to try hot butterbeer. OMG. Heaven. I would drink that forever. So rich and creamy and good. Hot butterbeer is the best of the drink options. Well, at this point I hadn't had the frozen yet, but I had preemptively decided that it would be impossible for anything to be better than the hot butterbeer! I also snapped some more pictures of Gringott's dragon while I was waiting, watching the faces of all of the people who didn't expect the burst of flame. *giggle*

We wandered into Madam Malkin's and I found the Ravenclaw robes. I wasn't going to buy one. I really wasn't. But they only had a few left because the big Harry Potter event had been the weekend before, and they were all in my size. So my husband made me buy one. His excuse was that we hadn't really bought any souvenirs that week except for my Minnie Mouse ears.

Next we went to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. Food was random British food. I did have a frozen butterbeer, though. And I was right... it wasn't as good as the hot butterbeer. I did like the frozen butterbeer better than the regular though, since the frozen mixes all of the flavors together in a nice way.

After lunch, we went to another few shops and then decided to head out of Diagon Alley with the plan to take Hogwarts Express back over to Hogsmeade and then watch some of the shows that we didn't get to the day before (like Sinbad) and to check out the Jurassic Park area again since that was pretty much all closed at the time. We also wanted to see Poseidon's Fury.

Unfortunately, we discovered that all of the conductors/ticket collectors had been standing outside King's Cross (and were still standing outside!) because the Hogwarts Express had been down all morning! We got into a nice conversation with one of the workers about our options (to get from the back of Universal Studios to the back of Islands of Adventure) since my knee was still bothering me, with me reassuring her that I didn't blame her for the train being down. Apparently being nice pays off, though, since a VIP Tour guide was standing nearby and asked if there was anything else that we wanted to see in Diagon Alley. He mentioned Ollivander's, and I commented that we hadn't been able to get in since the lines had been too long both days (Ollivander's in Diagon Alley is much larger than the one in Hogsmeade so we wanted to see it even though we had seen the one in Hogsmeade the day before) and the next thing we knew the VIP Tour Guide had walked us to the front of the line and told us that we would be the next ones in! He also gave me his card and told me that if we needed anything else to give a call and ask for him. We didn't, because we didn't want to abuse the situation, but it was so nice of him to offer!

Of course I bought a wand. Again, I wasn't going to, but then my husband decided that I needed Hermione's wand since I kept looking at it. I got a replica instead of an interactive wand because I liked the look of it better and we weren't planning on sticking around much longer so I didn't see a reason to pay extra for the interactive stuff I wasn't going to use.

After that, we just decided to leave. Hogwarts Express was still down, so we meandered up through City Walk and caught an uber back to our resort. It was early afternoon, so we decided to relax and take a nap for the evening...

*Mini Universal Rant*

Our impression at the end of the our second "day" at Universal was that Universal just wasn't worth it for us. If we had an annual pass, we'd go back to do everything we didn't get to, but the tickets are expensive for just a couple of days, plus there is WAY too much backtracking at Universal and it's frustrating, since there are a lot of shows & rides that just aren't open when the park opens, which makes no sense to me. If the park opens at 9, why do you have attractions here & there throughout the park that aren't open until 10:30 or later? I understand shows like Sinbad might not have their first show until 9:30 or 10 to give people time to get there, but the Jurassic Park Discovery Center? The Raptor Encounter? ET? There are so many things that we didn't see that I wanted to because they were closed when we walked past, and not because of refurbishment or because they were broken. They just weren't open yet! The worst part was that it was scattered throughout the park so you couldn't even really plan a path to get everything without backtracking.

Epcot is a place that does the time delay well. The beginning of the park opens at one time, and the back part opens two hours later. Since the entire front is open at once, you can spend a couple of hours there before heading to the back, and by that time World Showcase is open. Many of the attractions at the front close early, but since World Showcase is open later it works. Universal needs to learn from this example instead of making me want to go all stabbity on them every time I walked past a closed attraction and see that it doesn't open until like 10:30 or after.

/Universal Rant

Zombie Food Possibilities: I found it hilarious how many people would jump when the Ironbelly breathed fire, and then ten minutes later jump again. Not very observant! The majority of them were so oblivious to their surroundings that they could have easily become zombie chow. And also, although I didn't witness it myself, I'm sure there were people being mean to the King's Cross workers, because they were overly apologetic and it was clearly done as a defensive measure. I have a feeling that the fact that I had a legitimate worry (my knee) and that I was actually nice about it is what prompted the VIP Tour Guide to offer us help, which makes me want to feed all of the people who provided that contrast to the zombies. Seriously... when a ride goes down, don't blame the workers! They don't need people yelling at them! I wasn't any nicer than I would have been normally, and that fact that it was apparently enough to get the attention of a tour guide tells me that he witnessed a lot of angry people.

STOP SUCKING, PEOPLE, OR YOU'LL BECOME ZOMBIE CHOW!!

NEXT: Day 6, Part 2: Reconciliation with Mickey

 

[gracer9977]

Really enjoying your TR. We are planning to do Universal/Disney combo trip hopefully in a year or two. We have been to Disney multiple times but never been to Universal. We are huge Harry Potter fans and all of us are thrill seekers - Bring on your fastest/highest coaster and we'll all love it, so we are really wanting to try it out. I liked reading your experience with Universal. That is weird that they have so many rides and areas that for whatever reason don't open with the rest of the park.

That was so nice that you were able to have VIP service directly to the front of Ollivander's just for being polite. It always amazes me how angry people get and now much abuse they heap on the poor staff when there is nothing they can do about it. It seems to happen so much more now with everyone immediately getting angry.

I love the ending when you close with the Zombie Food Possibilities.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Shayana]

Really enjoying your TR. We are planning to do Universal/Disney combo trip hopefully in a year or two. We have been to Disney multiple times but never been to Universal. We are huge Harry Potter fans and all of us are thrill seekers - Bring on your fastest/highest coaster and we'll all love it, so we are really wanting to try it out. I liked reading your experience with Universal. That is weird that they have so many rides and areas that for whatever reason don't open with the rest of the park.

That was so nice that you were able to have VIP service directly to the front of Ollivander's just for being polite. It always amazes me how angry people get and now much abuse they heap on the poor staff when there is nothing they can do about it. It seems to happen so much more now with everyone immediately getting angry.

I love the ending when you close with the Zombie Food Possibilities.

Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you... and welcome to my insanity!!

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan too. My husband isn't so much, but he knows how much it meant for me. This was our first trip so really, we did too much in one trip, but it was still fun. If you're not a big ride person (like my husband) Universal isn't the best park, though they're supposed to be putting in a Nintendo-land so who knows what will happen at that point? I like rides a lot more than he does, but not the simulations... or at least not the simulations where you're spinning while the simulation is going on.

I work in tech support on the phones so I know what you mean about people who are angry... I never understand it. If you're nice, I will do everything in my power to help them. The woman who called on Sunday screaming at me and saying that she was going to get me fired because she didn't want to follow the same rules as everyone else? "You're going to need to speak with my manager. She'll be in tomorrow." <TRANSFER THE CALL>

 

[Shayana]

Sorry for the delay everyone! I'll be back to write more soon... life has just become very VERY busy lately!

 

[chicagoshannon]

You are so lucky to get that Ravenclaw robe. We were there the same week as you and could not find one. My daughter had saved her money for over 6 months to buy one. She wouldn't let me order one because she wanted to be fitted at the store. The first thing we did was go to that store in Diagon Alley and all they had were xxxxs and then the bigger sizes. My daughter needed xxs. We checked every day that week and even went to the hotels and no luck. I felt so bad because we had been there in September and I told her she couldn't have one cause they were too expensive. It was super frustrating especially since they never offered to order one for us with free shipping to our house like most stores do if they're out of something. We ended up ordering one about a month after we got home... they were out of stock online that whole time too!

Anyway, I'm enjoying your report. Looking forward to more.