[Rescuer]

We stopped off to get ds and dh proper room keys printed out, requested our luggage and went up to the room. The rooms here are very nice with very comfortable beds. We were overlooking the walking path.

Again, the pool was mentioned and again the weather hampered our plans. We chilled out for a bit and headed back to Universal about 7pm. Despicable Me was down to 50 minutes. The little parade was on and there were loads of people hanging around the stage area as they were having a character dance party as part of their 4th of July stuff.

Ds only had one thing on his mind though and that was the Horror Make Up show. He loves this, especially after being picked on a the ‘kid throwing rocks’ at Easter.

Next we headed around to Men in Black, another of our favourites. We did the backstage tour of this at Easter and the team member gave us lots of tips which has made ds even more competitive. He won but only because he pressed the red button. We had planned to ride again but just before we got off it stalled and all the lights came on so we thought better of it and decided to just come back tomorrow.

Gringotts was next on our list, as always, the locker area was chaos with team members shouting at people for just one member of the party to enter which was fine for us as we only had the mug to go in. Even the express pass line was busy and it was right to the back of the bank.

It was weird because it took a while to get into the lift but once you came out there was pretty much no line at all other than on the stairs.

Universal were attempting a 4th July dance party. Ds hates these sorts of things with an absolute passion. It looked fun if you like these sorts of things, there were stilt walkers, a DJ, lights and characters out dancing with the kids. Ds agreed to pause for a photo but only had one thing on his mind and that was riding Rip Ride in the dark.

The line for Rip Ride wasn’t the best, I do think that late on they try to get more of the standard line through so they can close on time so the express pass line gets stalled. They also seemed to be running some empty at points, I think when they had fireworks on. Anyway, we got to see the fireworks from the top platform. When we were to be seated they asked if we wanted 1 in row 1 and 2 in the back. Ds jumped at this opportunity, as it was he ended up in row 2 as someone from the other party obviously decided they would try front row. This left me in the back, which I’d rather have not been but ‘I survived’ again. Ds loved it though and posed for the photo!

By the time we came off the ride, the park was closing. I wanted to refill the mug but all the freestyle machines seemed to have been switched off, a team member advised us to head to Monsters Café and right enough there were 2 machines in there we could use. I will need to remember that in future.

It was heaving trying to get out the park . Ds tried to persuade us to head back to the Hard Rock and I was tempted as the path was just there but I was starving so we navigated the crowds and headed to Breadbox instead. Luckily it wasn’t too busy in there.

We had the hot turkey melt with tater tots and the New York pastrami with tater tots. Both were fantastic but I think the hot turkey just edged it!

Dh also had a beer and was all excited to get a wristband to obviously show he was old enough!

Afterwards we had a relaxed walk back to Hard Rock and were in bed by 11.30pm.

Day 4 here