Hurricane? What hurricane? Universal & Disney Sept. 2017 - Day 1, US & IoA

[sha9]

Day 1 - US and IoA

The dining report for today is here.

I must have fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and pretty much slept until 3am. I managed to fall back asleep but woke at 4 and then 5 and that was me awake. I lay there until I could hear Marie showing signs of life then put the TV on. We were hungry but all we had was cereal and there wasn’t enough milk in the tiny carton for both of us to have a bowl so we just had coffee. I’d bought 50 Azera latte sachets on Amazon for £12.50 (never seen that deal again!) so we brought some for morning coffee as well as some Kenco decaf ones. We had learned a lessons from RPR last year where we randomly got left pods of coffee or not and rarely got decaf so we bought a travel kettle so we could make our own. And tea if we fancied it.
We weren’t bothered about early entry as we don’t think there’s much of a benefit so once we were showered and ready we decided to head out for breakfast. We left around 7.30am and decided on IHOP which is just round the corner from Universal on I-drive. With staying onsite at Disney with free dining for years it had been a long time since we’d had an offsite breakfast and we really enjoyed IHOP. There’s more detail in the dining report but Marie had pancakes and I had French toast.
Once we’d finished we walked across the road to Walgreens rather than moving the car. I always feel crossing roads in the US is a really stressful experience! Especially when that countdown starts! However we made it safely and bought a few toiletries and some crisps. We also got a bigger carton of milk!

We were back at RPR and out to the parks around 9ish decided to go to Universal Studios first. We walked as being in Tower 2 you're just at the exit of the hotel.

Before we did anything we went to one of the dining booths at the start of the park to re-activate our Coke Freestyle mugs. This was around $8 each. We also decided to buy two of the QS meal deals as they were buy one get one 50% off with the annual pass. This turned out to be a waste of money with the Coke Freestyle as we didn’t really need any of the drinks we got. We didn’t get it again.

It was Labour Day weekend and this was Saturday so we could see the park was starting to get busy. We hadn’t done the Jimmy Fallon ride yet but I was aware of the virtual queuing system. I opened the Universal app and tried to sort out a ride time but couldn’t really figure it out. By this time we were at the ride and they were inviting people in without ride times. There also seemed to be a standby line so we never needed the virtual queue in the end. We had a little bit of a wait, maybe 5-10 mins and then we were on. I enjoyed this ride and didn’t find it too nausea-inducing for a simulator. It was good fun even not knowing any of Jimmy Fallons characters.

There were some of the Halloween Horror Nights props out.

We continued on clockwise to the Mummy, a big favourite of ours and used our express passes despite a 5 minute wait being posted (why carry them around otherwise!). We enjoyed this but I came off with a bit of a headache. Assuming dehydration we stopped at the nearest Coke Freestyle place which is in Louie’s Italian Restaurant. It’s just as you enter the restaurants so easy to find. We filled up and sat at a table nearby people watching for a wee while.

This is where we saw the Simpsons family! Although I always wonder how kids so young can like The Simpsons when it’s not really for kids.

Once finished we headed to Diagon Alley and noticed for the first time in living memory there was no queue out the door at Florian Fortescues so took the opportunity for an ice cream. Unfortunately, despite a huge selection I went for good old Butterbeer. Marie wanted mint chocolate as the menu made it look like that was an option but actually it was just mint so she chose that. I loved my Butterbeer but Marie was disappointed in the mint. We sat on the steps below the dragon and watched people get photos taken on Hagrids motorbike & sidecar.

DA was busy as usual.

We rode Gringotts next. The locker area here is just ridiculous. There’s no room to get in or out because it’s such a cramped area and most people go with the whole party. They really need to do something about this. We used the new express line which allows you to see the area with all the goblins and cuts out only a small part of the queuing area. I felt we didn’t gain that much of an advantage and preferred to use single rider. The ride of course was amazing as usual though!
We had a wander round DA then continued on to Men In Black. Again we used the express line although I can’t remember the wait time posted. I do find this is one express line you’re more or less guaranteed a walk on because you skip the “lift” in the standby queue.

Actual Men in Black.

After this we got another Coke freestyle refill and sat on a nearby bench discussing what we would do for lunch. We agreed we were done for now in US and would have lunch in IoA. I’ve always defended the simulators in US as I think they’re an excellent use of limited space but we realised after MiB that the rides we hadn’t done were mainly simulators and I just couldn’t face another one.
When we got to IoA we went straight for lunch to Comic Strip Café which we’d chosen because of it’s wide variety. It was not great despite it’s varied selection and since we could have used our freestyle mugs the drink was a waste.

After lunch we did Kong using the express queue.

I really hate the Kong express line. It’s dark, narrow and always seems to take ages because of that. Today it was even worse as the standby queue was so long. It’s such a slow loading ride which I don’t get as it takes so many people. This was also where I encountered most of the poor queue etiquette you get in theme parks:
1. The guy who stands slightly behind but kind of at the side of you like somehow he’s going to either join your party or sneak past you even though he’s in a group and they couldn’t all possibly get past.
2. This guy also does number 2 which is breathing on the back of your neck through the nose at high speed.
3. The woman who is constantly on her mobile phone in front of you but doesn’t move when the queue moves. You give her one shot then the next time you over take her but she does a huffy shuffle past to get to her party then continues on her phone again for the entire length of the queue holding it up every time it moves. This can also be achieved by kids faffing about.
4. Farting.
All of these things happened in the ridiculously long “express” queue for Kong. It’s also a frustration of express and fast pass queues that you never get a wait time for them. I like Kong but wouldn’t have waited this long for it as it’s a very short ride.

We did Jurassic Park River Adventure next and got really soaked on it. Normally we get a bit wet but this was a total drenching. I got so wet I had to take my contacts out! We haven’t done any of the other water rides in IoA for years as we don’t like walking about soaking wet. I know you dry quickly but there are parts that don’t dry at the same rate and it can get uncomfortable! We were so wet I suggested to Marie we just do the other two as we do enjoy them. We decided on Dudley Do Rights Rip Saw Falls first and went looking for lockers. The only ones we could find were ones you pay for which was a bit disappointing. Surely Universal don’t expect you to take bags on water rides? Anyway, we paid for the shortest duration we could which was just a few dollars and headed to the express line. Again, most likely due to it being Labour Day weekend, the queue had a pretty long wait. We were starting get pretty fed up when we turned the corner into the ride loading area. Now I haven’t been on this ride since a few stone ago and was a bit worried about it. I was the last person in the ride vehicle and just couldn’t get it. The staff member said “it’s fine, you’ll get in, you just need to straighten your legs and slide in”. I tried a couple of times then gave up but she insisted I would fit if I just straightened my legs. Anyway, one last attempt and I got in. I didn’t feel squeezed in but I was slightly worried how I was going to get back out! We got another soaking on this ride which made me even more worried about getting out but actually I managed it easier than getting in!
We went straight to Popeye & Blutos Bilge Rat Barges. The express queue wasn’t well sign posted so we had to ask but this ride was walk on for us. I find these river rapid rides tend to be fast loading. Now if we’d gone on this dry we’d have come off the same I think. We were totally drenched after this. I think I enjoyed it more though knowing I couldn’t get much wetter!
When we got back to the locker a couple asked which ride we'd been on. We told them all 3 water rides. They asked which was the 3rd to which we replied it was JP and that today it was a proper water ride!

After this we really had no choice but to go back to the hotel! It was around 3.20pm and although we hadn’t managed Spider-man before the soaking we were happy to leave the parks.

Random IoA pictures.

Kung Fu Panda

Cinnabon!

We showered and changed then chilled in the room for a wee while watching Golden Girls of all things. We had already decided dinner would be Bubba Gumps as we had a Landry card and with it being Saturday night we didn’t know how long the wait for a table would be. We got seated straight away with the card and actually it didn’t look too busy. We enjoyed our meal here but were starting to get tired. We went straight back to the room afterwards and had some Lard Lad donut we’d bought before leaving US for dessert with a cup of decaf coffee.
I decided to make a note of our step counts (using our phones) just out of interest this holiday. Today was 16993 but Marie pointed out it would have been more as we’d left our bags in lockers for a lot of rides.
I was a bit disappointed in Universal today. I think it was most likely because it was so busy with it being Labour Day weekend but also just being a little bit fed up with simulators. Maybe it was because we normally start at Disney so have done a lot of non-simulators by the time we get to Universal, I don’t know, but it just wasn’t the same.
I do feel the need to comment on the Coke Freestyle mugs though as I think these are really worth it, especially if you plan a whole day in the parks. We drank so much more than we would have without them and having had a headache earlier that went as I drank more it meant I felt I could do more. Definitely a plus point.

[jamcat]

Enjoying your report. Just wondering how long you had to wait for Gringotts and Kong with the express pass?

[sha9]

Originally Posted by jamcat

Enjoying your report. Just wondering how long you had to wait for Gringotts and Kong with the express pass?

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I don't remember exactly but Gringotts was only about 10 mins to the elevator part then another 5-10 after that. Kong was a hundred years! Or at least felt that way! At least 20 minutes if not longer. But remember that was Labour Day weekend. When we went later it was much shorter.

[Floridaagogo]

I have come out of the shower drier than I have when riding Popeye and Blutos bilge rat barges.😆 ( p.s the Golden Girls ❤️❤️❤️❤️)

[Leia77]

Nothing wrong with the golden girls . I think they've changed something on Jurassic Park, we got a soaking every time we rode it this year. Not normally like that. Love that you decided to go for it with the other water rides!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

I have come out of the shower drier than I have when riding Popeye and Blutos bilge rat barges.😆 ( p.s the Golden Girls ❤️❤️❤️❤️)

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That's why we normally avoid them!
And yes, The Golden Girls is classic comedy!

Originally Posted by Leia77

Nothing wrong with the golden girls . I think they've changed something on Jurassic Park, we got a soaking every time we rode it this year. Not normally like that. Love that you decided to go for it with the other water rides!

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I agree, we noticed it both times we rode. We decided (well I decided) since we were staying at RPR it was a great opportunity!

[OB1LukeLucas]

We've never done Jurassic Park yet or Dudley Do Rights. Instead we just continued to go on Popeye about 4 times, it's more fun when you can't get any wetter! I agree it's so annoying about the lockers.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

We've never done Jurassic Park yet or Dudley Do Rights. Instead we just continued to go on Popeye about 4 times, it's more fun when you can't get any wetter! I agree it's so annoying about the lockers.

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I agree, the Bilge Rat Barges get you the wettest of any water ride I've ever been on! The other two we go on for the drops .

[Goldia]

It's a shame day 1 and universal and IOA didn't live up to expectations I hope it gets better. The mummy is my favourite universal ride apart from the Harry Potter rides...

[WileyCoyote]

You did loads, shame you felt a bit disappointed with the Studios, did sound busy though and the rides are getting a bit samey there now. Sounds like a proper drenching On those water rides too. I did laugh about your queue observations. They are all so true. The FOLP is such a godsend in these parks. I don't know how people can stand queuing for hours !