An Impromptu Adventure, August 2016, Day 1: All things Universal

[Niki T]

We were up before the alarm and ready to leave the room at 6:25, isn’t everyone on the first day? What did we think of GF? Amazing and I can’t wait to stay there again one day. It was a beautiful resort and ‘practically perfect in every way.’

A TV in the mirror!

We had decided not to get a car this year and to use Uber. So we requested an Uber from the front of the Villas. William was soon there and it was great to see him on the app. His car was incredible! It did everything for him from his seat, without moving he had opened his doors and boot for us. We gave him a $5 tip.

Check in at the RPR at 7:05, John was majorly disorientated…it’s a good job I was there, he’d have been so lost. Unsurprisingly our room was not ready, so we checked our luggage in and walked the long way to the park so we could take in the view and early morning warmth. Both US and IOA opened at 8 and we were in the queue by 7:30. There was a bit of a faff at the entrance as everyone kept stopping to take pictures – come on people, you’ve got all day or that! We did HP and then got in the queue for Kong, we were at the entrance by 9 and in the warning witch room by 9:15. Then, disaster…delay! Luckily, it was only 10 mins and we were moving again at 9:25. I won’t give too much away, but I was terrified in the queue system – for those in the know, yes, ‘it’ got me!

At 9:45 we were on the ride. Some poor, terrified woman sat next John and kept grabbing him then telling us her husband wouldn’t come on with her; you’re not having mine, love!

By 10am, we felt we had done the key rides, we had quick queue for the others, so we took some pictures on the bridge as we walked over to the Three Broomsticks for some breakfast. We bought the meal plan for $59.62. John had pancakes and pear cider and I had an American breakfast with apple juice. It was nice, but we’re not in a rush to go back.

We Hogwarts Expressed it over to Universal and the wait for Gringotts was 45 mins, so we decided we’d leave it until the next day, instead we watched Tales of the Beadle Bard, The Fountain of Fortune, wandered round talking pictures and just generally enjoying the atmosphere. I love how we don’t feel the need to rush round and how we just relax, know we will be back gives us that feeling I think.

From there we did one of our faves including MIB, twice. I got 149,000 then 250,000; John 220,000 and 360,000. Neither of us particularly happy with that score, but it had been 2 years since our last go. There was a massive faff at the lockers; why can’t people just remember their number, or even what station they were at? (She says before forgetting our number on JP )

We picked up our drinks cups which were included in our breakfast. John got something which tasted like medicine and I had a delicious concoction of minute maid lemonade fruit punch and cherry flavour.
We drank our drinks as we headed over to Transformers and I’ve written ‘chat up Ice’ in my notes. Not sure why? I think because there was a guy who looked like Ice (from Gladitors – remember him?) trying to chat up a girl who couldn’t have been less interested. We waited ages for this, 45 mins, but the regular queue was nearly 2 hours, so not too bad.

After that, it was time to get another drink. I had some Mello Yello concoction and John had Fuze raspberry and peach. We stopped and watched the end of Beat Builders while we drank.

John then bought a handy string for his glasses for $16 and we looked in the shops. It doesn’t feel like we did too much that morning, but Kong was our priority and we were still quite tired. We got in line RRR, but the weather put paid to that and we walked to Bubba Gumps 14:15. We had: watermelon lemonade, strawberry mango chiller to drink. To start we ate onion strings and John had the Forrest Seafood Feast and I opted for Shrimpers Heaven, which, considering my mantra “If it’s from the sea it’s not for me,” is a strange choice you may think – I think I was just trying to be more adventurous. We both enjoyed our meals and laughed about 2014 when John tried to exact his revenge on me from his DLP 30th birthday at PH where they made him stand on a chair with a sparkler while the restaurant sang to him, fortunately there was no chair or sparkler involved for me, but they did make me stand up while people sang! The meal was $75, we took $25 off with our Landry’s card so it ended up at $65 with tip.

We wandered back to our hotel room 1542, they had texted us earlier in the day with our room number. It was a lovely room as we had a great view of Hogwarts castle; I’m not struck on the new décor though, I don’t find it offensive, just prefer the old one as I think it was more in keeping with the hotel’s theme. Each to their own, I’m sure there are those who love it.

After a little unpacking and resting we decided we’d walk back to the Studios for a few more rides. Once there we rode: Mummy, RRR and Minions. The queue for Minions was 70 mins, but with our FOTLP we went straight into the room. When we were on RRR we happened to be at the front, which I wasn’t too thrilled about. I was even less thrilled as the bar opened TWICE in the lead up to the big climb. We managed to pull them down just at the climb point as a staff member shouted, “you’ll be alright!” Hence my terrified face.

Time for a little refreshment, so we sat and enjoyed the aircon in Louie’s watching an annoying girl and her father, although they can’t have been doing anything too offensive as I just wrote they were annoying and I can’t for the life of me think of what they were doing. I have a vague memory of her pressing loads of buttons and keeping the line waiting, but perhaps I’ve just made that up thinking about what she could have been doing that was so annoying.
Next up was the Horror Make Up show. If you’ve not seen this, you must! The girl who was chosen to partake in the show was called Ling and spoke very little broken English. We’ve seen this show enough to know the selections are genuine, but this was one of funniest we’ve seen, she had no idea what they were talking about.

We walked to Simpsons, John likes this ride, but it does nothing for me; it’s one of the only rides I feel sick on. I think it is the fact it is a cartoon, Back to the Future didn’t make me feel that way. I miss Back to the Future. A couple pushed us out of the way to get on the ride, I mean physically pushed us, it was ridiculous. Oh well, if it’s that important to them to be on the ride first, good luck to them.

After a little rest to allow my sickness to ebb, we headed over to MIB, I haven’t written who got what score, but one of us achieved 459,000 (if I’m honest that’ll be John’s score) and the other 292,000 - we got our suits and headed out for another drink and a wander round Diagon Alley. Gringotts had gone tech, we had a glance at the queue which was posted as 20mins, but we know this ride and seeing where the queue was it was likely to be double that so we decided to leave it and went for a snack at Hot Dog Hall of Fame where we had a Boston to share $9.58 and 2 waters for the room $6.

On our way out of the park we picked up brownie and brookie using our last snack credit for breakfast.

My fitbit tells me we walked 29,305 steps today! Phew, and in that heat too!
 

[Disney Bear]

Great report...reading along...

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Disney Bear

Great report...reading along...

See more...

Thank you, my DH and I are nearly murdering each other doing it due to Internet speeds

[Mortimer Mouse]

You managed a lot on your first day.
Where did you purchasre the dining plan from? Is it something you can do in the restaurant or can you pre-purchase it?

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Mortimer Mouse

You managed a lot on your first day.
Where did you purchasre the dining plan from? Is it something you can do in the restaurant or can you pre-purchase it?

See more...

We purchased it online before we arrived using:
universalorlando/web...=dining%20plan

To be honest, it is probably only really worth it for a day with the cup as the cost for some of the meals is cheaper than the deal itself, but with the cup you only pay recharge fee not full initial purchase price. We found it good for an expensive meal like Three Broomsticks, but wouldn't have bought it if we were just eating at Louies, for example.

Hope that makes sense? x

[Excitedx4]

Great first day. I've been looking at the dining plan and not sure it's worth it either. I think I may just buy two for the refill cups and share 2 meals between the 4 of us 1 day as we have 4 days there with folp.

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Great first day. I've been looking at the dining plan and not sure it's worth it either. I think I may just buy two for the refill cups and share 2 meals between the 4 of us 1 day as we have 4 days there with folp.

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It's only worth if you do expensive meals, but with there being 4 of you I'd definitely share. I think we're doing it this year again for the first day just to get the cups cheaper x

[Leia77]

The FOLP is great, isn't it. You get so many rides done how scary was that on RRR? I'd have freaked 😳 Great first day in universal

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Leia77

The FOLP is great, isn't it. You get so many rides done how scary was that on RRR? I'd have freaked 😳 Great first day in universal

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FOTL is great, don't think we'd want you go without now 🤔. I was freaking out big style, John thinks it is the funniest ride photo of me ever and I pull some cracking faces on rides 😂 x

[collybird]

Very cool to have had a view of Hogwarts from your room.