3 weeks is not enough! Disney & Universal Sept 2016 – Day 15, US & IoA

[sha9]

I haven’t done any days for a while and I’d like to get this report finished before Christmas so I’m going to try and squeeze in another couple!
Today was our first full Universal day while staying onsite and having the advantage of Express Passes. We’d decided not to bother with early entry as it was so late in the holiday plus we don’t find it that useful. We were also really tired from the day before. I woke about 7am and got a row from Marie for breathing. We both got up around 7.30am but didn’t rush. The great thing about express passes was knowing we didn’t have to get there for park opening. Breakfast was in the room and we had some coffee and cinnamon bun from Gaston’s. We didn’t eat much of them as they’re so huge and don’t do well if not hot and fresh.

The dining report for today is here.

We walked to the parks via the path. We were on the ground floor which meant pool level and although you can go that way we weren’t sure about that path so went up two floors to the lobby and main entrance. The path takes about 5 minutes and there’s a bag check at the end. There was no wait there so didn’t take long.

We decided on US first as we wanted a proper breakfast. We had decided beforehand we’d have breakfast one day at the Leaky Cauldron as we’d done the Three Broomsticks before. I’d prepurchased 2 Quick Service Meal Deals specifically for this as that’s the best value. We got the one that came with the Coke Freestyle mug too since we had so many days at Universal. The meal plan cost $27.99 at a rate of $1.40 when I bought it so I thought that was good value. Breakfast alone was $16 plus the Coke freestyle isn’t far away from that too.

After breakfast we had a look round Knockturn Alley as we hadn’t done that with Mum & Dad then noticed Gringotts only had a 10 minute wait posted. We headed straight there and walked all the way down to the bit just before the lifts. I think the 10 minute wait probably included the pre-show. That was nice to see as we’d done single rider last time and you miss all that. It was completely ruined by South American families talking all the way through though. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just be quiet for a minute and enjoy it like everyone else. It’s almost as though being at a theme park is incidental to them having a constant conversation with each other! Anyway, the ride itself was great as we were sat in the front row. I always feel that improves the experience of any of the 3D rides.

We had a wander round the rest of Diagon Alley and looked in some of the shops then left via Grimmauld Place to get a picture of Kreacher. We didn’t do the Knight Bus as I’m not entirely sure what there is to do other than talk to Stan and the talking head. I thought you could go on it but Marie says no.

We did Men In Black next with our passes as a walk on, standby was 15 minutes. This was one we hadn’t managed with Mum and Dad due to wait times and we always like to do it.
We got our Coke Freestyle mugs then so as to get good use of them. The only ones the kiosk had were Halloween Horror Nights ones which I wasn’t keen on but they had a carry handle rather than a side handle which did make them easier to carry when empty plus the lid is a screw lid rather than clicking into place so I was glad in the end. I wanted to try and avoid too much fizz with these mugs so I got a Minute Maid Light Grape lemonade which was nice.

We continued to wander through Springfield and decided not to do The Simpsons. It has a tendency to make us feel unwell which is a shame as I really like the theming. We sat at a table outside Moes and enjoyed the rest of our juice watching the world go by.

Once done we went on Transformers.

We were able to hang the cups from our bum bags so it was easy to carry them. Next was The Mummy, one of our favourite rides. There was only a 5 minute wait but we used our passes anyway. After we’d ridden we realised we hadn’t activated the Photo Connect we’d pre-purchased so went to the lockers to get the paperwork. We went up to the Amazing Pictures counter to ask if we could activate it there and get our ride photo. We were presented with the most disinterested staff members I’ve ever met in a theme park. The young girl serving us was the worst and was leaning on the counter and yawning while serving us. She had no idea whether she could do what we asked or not and didn’t seem particularly bothered about trying when the other girl remembered one of the supervisors was around. He was excellent and a complete contrast to the young girl. He was very pleasant and helpful, exchanging our print out for a plastic card and gave us a lanyard too. We then had to go to the little machine that you scan your card at to get our ride photo. We had to keep reminding ourselves it wasn’t automatic like Memory Maker though!
We then left the park via the big shop to head across to IoA. We had pre-purchased a meal deal for Hard Rock Café so decided to have lunch there on the way. We bought it from Floridatix at £17 each for the Bluegrass menu. I think it’s gone up now. There’s a limited choice but drink, dessert and a 15% tip are included so it suited us. I reckon we maybe broke even but then I remembered about the tip so maybe it saved us a little money. The only thing is we probably wouldn’t have bothered with dessert. It was good having something else prepaid, especially having just come from a free dining stay though so I’ve bought it again for next year.

We went to IoA after lunch and had a leisurely walk to Marvel Superhero Island via the shops. We rode Spider-man with no wait using our Express Passes. We had a longer wait to scan our card for the ride photo as we were behind (and in front!) of people taking ages and also skipping the queue. The people in front had no intention of buying and just wanted to see the photo but took ages to have a conversation about it then someone barged in front of us. Another family then tried to barge past but I started to lose patience at this point and tried to spread myself out enough that they’d get the hint that we were in the queue! Eventually we were served and took about 10 seconds to find our photo and scan the card.
This is what we waited for.

We had another look in the shops then passed through Toon Lagoon to go to Kong. We didn’t really want to do the water rides just now as you get so completely soaked it makes the rest of the day uncomfortable. The wait time for Kong was 90 minutes but they have an Express Queue here so we were about 20 minutes. It takes ages to load the Kong ride so it’s never quick. The Express queue area is awful though. Really narrow and dark. It seems like it’s never moving and you start to get a bit hot an claustrophobic. We must have stood for about 10 minutes with no one from the express queue being taken. When we eventually did get on the girls beside me screamed all the way round. I think the girl beside me was properly scared and was leaning away from the side so into me!

We got another drink from the Coke Freestyle machine in Jurassic Park after this. I got raspberry light lemonade this time which wasn’t as nice as the grape. My notes say we didn’t do any more rides which is odd as we’d normally do River Adventure but since we had our drinks maybe we didn’t. We walked through Hogsmeade (definitely no Forbidden Journey after last time!), The Lost Continent (nothing here) and Seuss Landing (hate this part!) and kept going back to Superhero Island as I’d seen a Captain America t-shirt I wanted. It turned out to be a pyjama top but I bought anyway. Who’s going to know! I also got an Avengers key ring with a clip to see if I could somehow clip my Coke Freestyle mug onto my bag instead of threading the handle through the strap every time.
We left via the big shop where I got some Secret Life of Pets toys for my nieces and this for me!

We used the snack credits from our meal deals for a Classic Cinnabon and some cinnamon sticks to have for breakfast the next day then headed back to the hotel for a chill. We just used the path as IoA is so close to it.
We watched some TV and I wrote up some trip notes. At 5.30pm we still weren’t that hungry so I suggested we use the golf part of our golf & dine deal that I’d also pre-purchased from home. We chose the sci-fi course. The course wasn’t busy but we got caught behind a family who were really bad! I mean, I’m not great but this lot were rubbish! They had been a quite a bit ahead when we started but since there were 4 of them and only two of us, plus they were hopeless, it didn’t take long to catch up. That meant the people behind us caught up to us really quickly too. It kind of puts me off mini golf when you can’t just do it at your leisure. It was good fun and passed the time but I doubt we’ll do it next year.
That took us around an hour and although we still weren’t that hungry we headed up to the food court in Citywalk to see what was on offer. We still had $25 credit on one of the Landry cards but didn’t feel hungry enough for Bubba Gumps. We ended up choosing Panda Express which had the longest queue but it moved fairly quickly. The meal was just ok. It wasn’t particularly hot and the quality wasn’t great. I’ve seen a lot of people on here rave about Panda Express but I didn’t see what all the fuss is about. I don’t think we’ll eat at the food court at all next year.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a cup of coffee and watched some TV before bed.

[Floridaagogo]

Great day.the folp are great when you stay onsite .wouldnt do it without it now

[corey1]

Great day. I am really enjoying reading your trip report

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Great day.the folp are great when you stay onsite .wouldnt do it without it now

See more...

Originally Posted by corey1

Great day. I am really enjoying reading your trip report

See more...

Thanks! I need to get it finished but looks like it'll be after Christmas now!

[alansmed]

Haha. Keep going, nearly there! 😆

[Excitedx4]

This uni/ioa day seems tons better! Glad you ended up having a good day here at last!

We love the Hard Rock Cafe, my favourite is the club sandwich get it every time.

[disneytrio]

Another great day, seems less busy than your previous visits!

[sha9]

Thanks for reading!