Day 02 - Universal

Todays summary:

Went to Universal Studios today with the other half of the Coatbridge-Orlando contingent. Took more photos than yesterday but still probably not enough. Weather and wait times were out the window, so did some park hopping to try to make the most of it. Didnt work, but we still had immense fun. Went on some rides we did yesterday and they were all still amazing. Finished off with a pizza buffet containing all manor of flavours, but meant we could have a slightly earlier night to be up nice and early for Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

Family day of fun!

(First of all, Im sitting here editing this whilst National Treasure: Book of Secrets is on TV. It was Con Air last night. If Im doing this with a marathon of Nick Cage movies on this week at the same time, Ill be a happy man).

So we picked up P&K en route to Universal today and they had some coffee and pastries all ready and waiting for us which was amazing and got me thinking we really need coffee for the car trip when we head out for the day.

Arrived at Universal, parked in Jurassic Park Car Park (again), and headed through Citywalk to activate our cups for unlimited drinks throughout the day. Prior to going through the gate, we stopped off at the Universal globe to get a family photo or two. Standard.

Through the gates we did a quick check of wait times. We decided to get a return time for Rip Ride Rockit Roller Coaster and then head for a new ride called Villian Con Minion Blast both of which are at the beginning of the park. It was a shooty one too, so we obviously know who was going to win on that one right? I can remember one of the first times we were here, Grace used to call the Minions, the Onions! Hehe. After some Kelly is going to beat my score apparently. Strong words from a six year old.

Now I mentioned yesterday how lovely people were here, but today we seen an example of some not so nice behavior which I definitely think is the exception. Ann was running a little late getting to the ride, so the rest of the group had been in the queue for a few minutes already. I was with her and we spoke to the cast member to see if it was ok to catch up with the rest of the party in the line, which it was. So we excused our way through the line, but this one girl started tutting and telling us, ‘thats not what you do here’. It didnt stop there, she kept shouting out at us, making a bit of a scene to everyone else in line. What can you do? Youre not the boss, lady!… and besides, who has an attitude like that, when they just entered a theme parkwhich has just opened and you are queueing for a ride based on an animated comedy? Crazy right?

So anyway I started blasting.

The only reason I mention this is that it kinda bothered me, not very much as I try my hardest not to let things like that influence me, esp on this holiday, but it was enough that I didnt pay attention the instructions on how to play the game. I know if SOUNDS like an excuse but its not really. So I get the laser gun and theres these huge screens with Minions and villians of all sorts carrying things and getting up to nefarious deeds which was obvious that you had to shoot. I just try to shoot everything, even switching to my other hand when my trigger finger was worn out. However it turns out Robert mustve cheated because he bet my score by 10,000 points or so, me getting 430k to his 440k…

Extended scores are as follows:

GG 7

AG 6

PG 5.5

RG 5

GG2 6

Kev 6

Pauline 6

Kelly 2 (harsh critic)

Emily 6

I think the general confusion got to everyone, which was reflected in the scores, as it really shouldve been higher, but I loved it and definitely one to try out again… to win. Next time, Gadget, next time!

So now on to Rip Ride, a very tall roller coaster where you get to choose a song to zone out to while falling throughout the air. Last time there was loads of songs available but this time there was only one for each genre which was purty pants. I hastily pressed buttons as you only get a limited time and ABBA popped up on screen. Arrgggghhhh!!! I even hastilier(?) backed out of it (sorry Kath) and managed to switch it in time to Darude - Sandstorm, which, fun fact, was one of my first MP3’s I ever downloaded way back when music was umm free. Before the dark times, before paid streaming services.

It was great, the song really worked for the ride and Grace and Emily, their first time being on this one (now being tall enough to ride), really loved it.

GG 8

RG 8

GG2 8.5

Kevin 8.5

Emily 10

Diagonally

Next stop Diagon Alley. We stopped off to fill our refillable popcorn bucket for 3 bucks and because we were still around the land of the Minions, it was Banana flavour! Very subtle and not overpowering but really not going to be finding better flavoured popcorn for the rest of the day I dont think.

In Diagon Alley we joined the queue for Gringotts and although the wait time only displayed 25 minutes in reality it was much longer. A sign of things to come. It gave us some time to chat and quiz Grace, our resident expert, on some Harry Potter knowledge. Nice AR ride, but felt it was a little janky with some visuals not quite aligning and other little signs. We’ll be doing this again, so be interesting to see if it was just an off day or the ride has more general wear and tear impact. Still great, especially all of the characters on screen, which really brought it to life.

Scores on the vault doors:

GG 8

AG 7

PG 8

RG 6

GG2 8.5

Kelly 5

Kev 7

Emily 8

Pauline 9

MiB

Another shooting ride and I was determined to level the score with this one. A few things in my favour, I done this before and I’m not at all confused about what I need to do. The fate of the planet (well my pride) rests on me triumphing here. The score may tell a different story however…

GG 35k

RG 14k

AG 19k

PG 42k

GG2 17k

Kev 198k

Pauline 37k

Emily 121k

Kelly 7.5k

Ummm my gun wasn’t working? Not quite the galaxy defender I thought I was I suppose.

The Simpsons next and only me PG, RG, Grace and Kelly went on this one. I’ll refrain from mentioning Back To The Future being on the site of this ride and it being the best ride ever made :P The Simpsons ride is great though still chuckle at all the jokes during the build up and on the ride and besides Homer is my spirit animal. Kelly was chortling all the way through it and burst out laughing when the supersized maggie used us as a pacifier, sorry dummy, towards the end of the ride. Great wee ride even if it pales in comparison to the Back To The Future ride that I’m not going to mention again.

GG 7

RG 5

PG 7.5

GG2 7.5

Kelly 5

Kings cross

Whilst waiting for the train to Hogsmeade. There has been some chatter on the Family Whatapp about Pauline not having went on Hagrids. So the new plan was to get Pauline on to Hagrids in the other park to show her what she’s missing. It really is a must do. We were going to hop on the train to Islands, do one of two rides including Hagrids, then train it back to finish off Universal. However, just like the trains in the UK, this one seemed delayed for a good long while. Managed to get a beer while waiting and we played some Heads Up in the line too so waiting wasnt really noticable. the Hogwarts Express is great, if short experience and we were just over being able to fit in a carriage altogether so we had to share with some randoms (who mustve thought it was a regular train and not a ride/experience as she started making telephone calls!

Side note: as we had waited probably the longest we’ve had to today, I had to make a bathroom break and forgot all about Moaning Myrtle in the toilets, sacred the bejeezus out of me, but it was hilarious! Haha.

Anyway turns out Hagrids was delayed so we decided to do Forbidden Journey while it came back up. Happy with that. And we get to go through Hogwarts and see all the animated paintings and other magical artifacts like the mirror of Erised, the Pensieve and the wee baby Mandrakes - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Oh and zip pockets for the win as I could take more photos of the queue experience like these ones!

EAT. SLEEP. RIDE. REPEAT.

The weather was a bit iffy today, it didnt really rain all that much and was still quite warm, but meant wait times have been skewed since early afternoon (and also possibly the reason Hagrids was down and still down once we wrapped up Forbidden Journey). So headed over the bridge towards Jurassic World and planned to go through to do The Hulk. Yes again, luck didnt appear on our side - the closer we got, the longer the wait times shot up so ended up on Kong while we waited for a return to Velocicoaster.THE RETURN! Reason being, we resigned ourselves to not get back to Universal Studios, so we would do a few rides at Islands before heading home.

Kong was a rerun of yesterday though sitting at the front this time so it was good to get a different perspective. And I think that’s why we to do rides multiple times, which is exactly what happened next.

It was Kev and Emily’s first time on Velocicoaster, and Grace who previous said she was done with it, convinced herself to try again. And she was right - she absolutely loved the second time around and even bumped her score up to a 9. I felt it was better too, maybe because I knew what to expect so could relax more. Everyone thought it was excellent, and we all said it was the best ride we’d been on that day (save for music lover Emily).

On to the final ride of the day, The Hulk. Just like Grace yesterday, Emily had been too small to ride last time, so this was out first opportunity. Kelly even wanted too, but she was just too small to ride, which was a shame. She seems fearless and definitely would have ran on to the ride had she been a few inches taller.

No scores for the last two although still all rated highly by everyone (It was getting late and the day and I hadnt had coffee recently, ok?).

So although the plans didnt quite work out as expected, we all still had another amazing day, and it was really good to spend some quality time with Pauline, Kevin, Emily & Kelly.

On the road home, it was getting late on and we were all rather hungry, so we stopped off at a quick Pizza buffet at Cicis, surprisingly cheap and no frills, but did exactly what was intended.

In the car on the way back Kelly said she would give the day 100 out of 10 and I’m good with that.

Step count: 16k+

Starred Rides: RIP Ride Rockit, Velocicoaster