[caitlinsmummy]

Continued

Next we headed to the little cart selling Butterbeer, we opted for the drink not the slushy. Now Chris and I have had Butterbeer in the Studios in Watford and we really didn't like it so we weren't expecting much, however, we were pleasantly surprised it was quite nice. This cost $7.50 plus tax.

The queue for Ollivanders wasn't too big so we decided to wait for that. We got stopped just before going in Noah had a silent meltdown as he wanted carrying but both Chris and I were hurting from carrying him, after all he is nearly 6! I'm not sure if it was the heat or tiredness but he just lay on the floor. As he wasn't hurting himself or others we just left him. We think maybe he had become reliant on the pushchair as he always wanted a carry when he wasn't in it!

We were let in after about 15 minutes. We hoped none of the kid's would be choosen as we knew they'd want a wand, Caitlin was down to $70 already! Typically she got choosen This was a great little show and the kid's loved it.

Everyone was taken through to the wand shop and obviously they wanted to buy a wand, especially Caitlin. I made sure she knew if she bought it she would only have $20 left and that we still had the outlets to go to at the weekend and another full week left but she was adamant she wanted one, as was Thomas. I think they ended up costing $56 including tax.

We don't seem to have a picture of Thomas's but he got one too, a different one to Caitlin. After this they wanted to go and practice some spells so we did a few spells around Hogsmede. Noah was starting to get restless so we decided to head to a ride. On the way we seen Triwizard Spirit Rally which we caught the end of.

Thomas and I headed onto Forbidden Journey. I really didn't like this I'd took a Dramamine tablet this morning as I suffer with motion sickness and I know most the rides in Universal are motion simulator type rides. I come off the ride and I was green, I still don't know how I didn't throw up! Thomas loved it and wanted to go straight back on, luckily I could send him on with Chris

When they got off we all headed onto Flight of The Hipogriff. All the kid's loved this. I was still feeling ropey so I really didn't enjoy it. The kid's wanted to go on again so Chris went on again with them whilst I had a seat and tried to pull myself together

Burger Digs

It was almost 2pm now and everyone was so hungry we popped into the nearest food outlet which was Burger Digs in Jurassic Park. We knew we were having a big meal tonight so didn't want too much to eat, plus I was still feeling iffy from 'The Forbidden Journey'.

We opted for:

Bacon Cheeseburger Combo (UD) - $16.49

Chicken Tenders Combo (UD) - $14.49

I expected these to be huge portions like all meals we'd eaten in Disney. Sadly there was hardly any chicken tenders or fries, luckily it was enough for the kid's as they'd previously had sweets from Zonko's in Hogsmede anyway. Chris and I shared the burger and refilled our refillable mugs we'd bought earlier. The kid's also filled up with the milkshakes. The food was ok, nothing special really.

Total cost for this was $33.

I felt a little better after food. We were headed to do the Raptor experience but the queue was huge and no express pass line. I knew there was no chance we'd get Noah to queue for it so we decided to give it a miss.

I noticed a small help desk area where I could enquire about upgrading the passes. The CM at this desk was very blunt. He point blank refused to look at upgrading to a 2 park annual pass from a 3 park pass. He said they could only upgrade to a 3 park annual pass, I couldn't be chewed to argue with him so I just said no thanks and walked away. I figured I still had the rest of today and tomorrow to try and upgrade.

We went on Jurassic Park River Ride where Chris got wrong for using his camera let's just say I had a smug face as I was sick of telling him to stop recording the rides and just enjoy them!

Next we headed to King Kong - Skull Island. I was a bit apprehensive about this one as I thought it would be too scary for Noah but he was adamant he wanted to go on.

I didn't mind this one although I didn't find it a bit too jerky ... no good with all my health problems, I'm too old for it all now!

We now headed round to Toon Lagoon, we intended to ride Bilge Barge Rats and Ripsaw Falls however we didn't realise Noah wasn't tall enough for Ripsaw we decided to skip it in the end. He was tall enough for Bilge Barge Rats so we headed on there. I knew we would get wet but I didn't know exactly how wet we looked like drowned rats much to Caitlin's disgust. Caitlin spent the whole ride crying out and moaning because she was getting wet which made everyone else laugh even more. She was not impressed at all.

As we headed out of Toon Lagoon there was a little area with mini fountains. We spent about 15 minutes here with the boys playing in them, they loved it, meanwhile Caitlin's stood there whinging and moaning that she's wet

Walking into Marvel Super Hero Island I noticed another little guest services booth. I asked about upgrading the passes and this CM said that Seasonal passes would be free and preferred would be $65. I was over the moon so told him to go for it. The Wyndham CM's were entertaining Thomas, chatting away about England and asking him loads of questions he loved it. Chris, Noah and Thomas went on Spiderman whilst me and Caitlin finished the upgrade off. I had my card ready to pay for the $65 upgrade, however, the CM passed me all the passes and a receipt and told me to have a good day. When I looked at the receipt it was -$15.98

So we're now annual pass holders!

We refilled our refillable mugs and headed to the Hulk. Chris went on first with the Express pass then I went on. We both really enjoyed this ride, I remember it from my last trip and it was still just as good. It was now coming up to 5pm so we decided to head back to RPR for showers before our evening meal.

Noah asked us to take a picture of him on the way back

Between the IOA and the room we somehow lost one of the refillable mugs We all got showers and chilled out for a bit. Our trainers were all still soaked from Bilge Barge Rats so Chris stood drying them with a hairdryer

We decided to drive to CityWalk as we were going to head to the outlets after our meal at Bubba Gumps. In hindsight this was bad planning, it was a HHN at US so the queues to get parked were absolutely heaving! It took us about half an hour to get from RPR to CityWalk. We were all losing the will to live by this point. We were all starving too. It was 7.40pm by the time we got parked! We parkedi n Spiderman 455.

We headed straight to Bubba Gumps and used our Landry Card to be seated.

Bubba Gumps

I was really looking forward to this. I've been to the one in London twice, the last time being for my 30th in March and the cocktails were some of the best cocktails we've ever had!

It was here I encountered my first run in with someone ... my friend's were so impressed I managed to get to day 5 before something kicking off

We were told by CM to follow the yellow smiley faces to the server who would seat us. To my right was the shop to my left an open area with a few people standing there. I headed down the ramp following the yellow smiley faces. I then heard;

'EXCUSE ME MA'AM!' I turned around to see a lady looking at me. 'YOUR JUMPING THE QUEUE WE WERE INFRONT OF YOU!'

'This is the queue, not over there!'

'I WAS TALKING TO STAFF TO FIND OUT WHERE TO GO! WHAT A RUDE LADY YOU ARE.'

This was like a red rag to a bull for me. I was the rude one yet she was shouting at me in a restaurant because SHE wasn't in the queue and expected everyone to clearly stand to the side and wait for her to finish. Had she been in front of us this wouldn't have been a problem but she was stood off to the left in a little group chatting.

As it turned out her husband and son were actually in front of us in the queue! I said to Chris all she needed to say was excuse me the rest of my party are there can I join please. I was absolutely fuming. As she stood in front I made sure to speak loudly about how manners cost nothing and how disgustingly rude she was and how she needed to look up the definition of a queue I said it not so many nice words though

When the server came to seat us she asked if everything was ok and I went on a bit of a rant

I told her not really I had just encountered my first rude American and she needed to learn some manners. The poor server didn't know where to look! I apologised to her and told her I was quite shook up over it. She said not to worry and that she was sorry we had encountered that in the restaurant.

She took us to our table and introduced us to our server Mike, who was lovely.

I was so impressed that I actually managed to take photos of the menu here ... it's took till day 5 to manage

About 10 minutes later the rude lady approached our table and apologised. She said she was sorry for snapping earlier and she would like to apologise and gave us a voucher. I told her it was fine and she left. As it happened we couldn't use the voucher as we were using our Landry's $25 welcome discount! Never mind, it's still in my purse for next time.

We both opted for (mine was minus the BBQ sauce):

½ lb. All-American Burgers & Fries - $12.69
Make it a Cheeseburger for $1.00 more
Make it a BBQ Burger with Onion Rings for $2.00 more

Caitlin and Noah:

Choice of entree, with 1 side, 1 drink and jello - $8.49

They both opted for pizza with fruit, not sure what drinks they got.

Thomas opted for:

Kid's grilled cheese, fries and a drink

Looking at the cocktail menu I didn't really fancy anything I think I was just too tired for anything and in pain (the joys of chub rub ) so we all just opted for soft drinks.

The food in here was lovely. The kid's portion sizes were just right but ours were huge, we probably could have shared one! Mine came with the onion rings, however, the server was hot on his heels to sort it. He was a fabulous server, he done a quiz with a couple of tables too, however, it was wasted on us as Chris hasn't see Forrest Gump since he was about 7 and me and the kid's have never seen it at all

Just before we ordered dessert another server came to our table and gave us a Bubba Gump souvenir glass and said her table had requested they give it to us, I can only assume it was from the Americans table, which again was a lovely gesture. I guess she was just having a bad day.

Chris wanted a dessert so he ordered:

Strawberry Shortcake

I have no idea what it's called exactly as I think it was a seasonal special as it's not on the online menu ... trippie fail! I think it was around $9.

This was absolutely huge ... even with the 5 of us we couldn't make a dent in it it was very nice though. It was shortcake biscuits with ice cream, strawberries and strawberry sauce. Chris would order this if we went back again he said.

This was a lovely meal and we'd definitely pay to go back. We had a Landry card each with a $25 welcome bonus on so we opted to split the bill. As we used Landry we were seated straight away and the manager also came to check everything was ok with the meal and to sort our bills out which was a nice touch.

My bill with tip was $9.86, Chris' was $17.53 - so a total of $27.39. Without the Landry card it would have been $77.39 which I don't think was too bad. It was certainly less than our awful meal at TGI's and much better service too.

With tip I paid $17.86 and Chris paid $25.53 leaving a $16 tip, just over 20%. Well worth the money in our opinion, if you get chance to try it, go

I realise that we went to Bubba Gumps and both had burgers I thought Mr Grump would go for shrimp or something as he quite likes that, I'm not too keen on much fish unless it's fish and chips so nothing else really appealed to me sadly.

By now it was 9.25pm, everyone was tired so Chris said about giving the Outlets a miss. I had myself a little strop as I was really suffering with chub rub and didn't have any longer shorts so I wanted to go and try to find some. In the end Chris drove us to the outlets and I ran round quickly trying to find some shorts, it was totally fruitless as I didn't know my way around at all and I couldn't look properly as I kept getting texts from Chris telling me to hurry up everyone was falling asleep

In the end I stomped back to the car short-less. We arrived back at Royal Pacific Resort at 10.15pm and went straight to bed.

Steps: 19,171
Snacks: 0 USED - 119 LEFT
QS Credits:5 USED- 42 LEFT
TS Credits: 0 USED - 50 LEFT