If you book it you will go. Sept 2019. Day 11 - Universal & Shopping

**sha9** · 30 Oct 19, 05:07 PM

The dining report for today is here.

Today was another Universal day. I had planned them back to back in case we decided to stay overnight in a Universal hotel but we didn’t in the end since we’d booked the Dolphin.

Now that we knew US opened at 8am we planned to get up early at 6.30am but we changed our minds and set it for 7am instead. This was a mistake as we got caught in rush hour traffic getting to the parks around 9ish.

We decided to start at US anyway as there were rides we hadn’t done the day before. We headed straight for The Mummy which said 15 minutes wait but in reality was only about 5. Love this ride!

After we’d ridden we continued round and as we passed the lake I noticed there was a fountain “show” with some movie themes. I’ve never noticed this before so not sure if it’s new or not. We stood and watched for a wee minute.

As we passed Fast & Furious we decided to ride it. I know it gets poor reviews but it was new for us so we wanted to give it a go. I wish we hadn’t bothered. The queue area is like the inside of a car garage with tyres and exhausts etc so that was boring. We then discovered that it zig zags and they really didn’t need people to go through the whole area if they had just opened up the entrance. From there you go into a pre show where some guy talks to you and we see a video of some of the characters from the movie setting up the ride story. Then from there you go into another pre show area which does more setting up with another real guy and some video. Both of these were boring and didn’t even provide any safety information so could have easily been skipped on a quiet day like today. After this into the ride loading area which like Kong is a slow loading “bus”. This ride was so boring. I don’t think I’ve ever experience a ride so dull. It was also really difficult to see as the screen is at the side. If it wasn’t for The Rock appearing (and winking) I think I would have actually complained to Universal.
Now my feeling about theme park rides is that if the ride is good enough it doesn’t matter if you like the theme. I’ve only seen the first couple of F&F films so didn’t get a lot of it but if the ride had even been halfway decent it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Anyway, from here we continued round to Diagon Alley. The Hogwarts Express was down for maintenance today even if we had considered heading across to IoA for Hagrids.

We had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron first.

After we rode Gringotts as it said a 15 minute wait but it felt like longer. I never know where they time this from since you have to go through the elevators and the pre show but when we got to the steps there was no wait so I presume it’s to the elevators.

We had a look around the shops and I bought this t shirt for one of my nieces who loves George Weasley. She's 11 and this is an adult t shirt so I got the smallest size. As it turns out it fits perfectly.

We had a look in the shops.

We headed round to Men in Black which said 10 minute wait. I think this was accurate.

As usual we passed by The Simpsons. It’s such a shame as I love the theming but the ride is just too jerky.

We left US after a look in the big shop and headed to IoA. Spider-man was a 25 minute wait to we skipped that. We bypassed Kong as it was also too much of a wait. Jurassic Park said 10 minutes but it was only 5. We didn’t get too wet as we were in the back row.

We then went to Hogsmeade for a Butterbeer from the cart. Again Forbidden Journey makes us want to vomit so unfortunately another one to skip. We Facetimed our nieces again from here but this was when we realised Hogsmeade has hardly any shops. How have I never noticed that before?

We had a look in the big shop after this as we knew this was our last chance to get anything for the girls. This involved texting my Mum to ask if she wanted to buy them $38 scarves and then Facetiming the girls again. There are 3 kinds - here are 2.

Marie lost the will to live and decided she wasn’t buying them anything. Everything is so expensive and it was impossible to get something small. In the end all I got was the scarves from my mum.
I loved these for my youngest niece but I could easily have spent all my wages on them in here so I decided against it.

We left after this and had lunch at Bubba Gumps on our way out. I had Jenny’s Catch – tilapia with lobster sauce served on mashed potato and Marie had fried chicken.

Marie had wanted to go to the Florida Mall at some point to look in Woofgang Bakery so we headed there while we were out in that general direction. This took ages due to roadworks.
We had a look in the Disney Store as my non-Harry Potter fan niece had fancied the Pizza Planet hoody but they didn’t have it. It was mostly Halloween stuff so we didn’t buy anything.
We had a wander to try and find Woofgang Bakery and as was the pattern this trip we walked round the entire mall before checking to see whether there even was one. This is another store that has closed down since our last visit to the Florida Mall 2 years ago! To avoid a wasted trip we went to Bath & Body Works as Marie had a voucher for shower gel for $4.95.
We found a tat shop and I was tempted to buy this for Mum

.

I’ve told Marie we’re not going back ever again.

The journey back took longer as it was now rush hour. The I4 was heaving and we were getting really crabby

. We decided to come off at the first Disney exit and agreed that we would try POFQ for dinner as we wanted to have a look around.

We ate at Sassagoula Floatworks. I got fried chicken and Marie lasagne. We also subbed a drink for some beignets which were awesome!

We had a look around and agreed it was a lovely compact resort and we’d like to stay here next year if we can get a swap. We were hoping someone would have left their curtains open so we could have a peek in the rooms but no joy!

We had an early night after watching some of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with a hot chocolate and beignet.

**Goldia** · 30 Oct 19, 08:18 PM

I love that Santa, a shame you didn't buy him. It sounds a bit of a frustrating day really. I totally agree about Fast and Furious. I've only seen one movie, but I know the cars go really fast and that coach was not going fast at all. This could have been an awesome ride with lots of high speed chases and it just isn't, lots of missed opportunities.

As for POFQ we were there this summer and really enjoyed it. I'm sure you've seen the rooms on the wdw website they are identical to both CBR and POR which we've stayed at before, same moderate layout, two sinks separated from the bedroom by a curtain and then the bathroom is small with the toilet and shower over the bath. Anyway, we liked the layout of the resort, everything is so compact, it's easy to walk to the pool and the QS. Plus the boat to DS is a winner. Good luck getting your transfer.

**sha9** · 30 Oct 19, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Goldia

I love that Santa, a shame you didn't buy him. It sounds a bit of a frustrating day really. I totally agree about Fast and Furious. I've only seen one movie, but I know the cars go really fast and that coach was not going fast at all. This could have been an awesome ride with lots of high speed chases and it just isn't, lots of missed opportunities.

As for POFQ we were there this summer and really enjoyed it. I'm sure you've seen the rooms on the wdw website they are identical to both CBR and POR which we've stayed at before, same moderate layout, two sinks separated from the bedroom by a curtain and then the bathroom is small with the toilet and shower over the bath. Anyway, we liked the layout of the resort, everything is so compact, it's easy to walk to the pool and the QS. Plus the boat to DS is a winner. Good luck getting your transfer.

Unfortunately I’ve now got my heart set in switching to POFQ and I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t get to

.

caitlinsmummy · 1 Nov 19, 09:03 PM

Such a shame you hit rush hour traffic.

I haven't done F&F and to be honest I have no desire too, everyone else has done it, I don't think I'll give it a go.

I've heard about Simpsons being jerky too so I haven't tried that either as I suffer motion sickness ... Universal Studios probably isn't the best park for me really

The food at Sassagoula Floatworks looks so nice, especially for QS xx

**sha9** · 1 Nov 19, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Such a shame you hit rush hour traffic.

I haven't done F&F and to be honest I have no desire too, everyone else has done it, I don't think I'll give it a go.

I've heard about Simpsons being jerky too so I haven't tried that either as I suffer motion sickness ... Universal Studios probably isn't the best park for me really

The food at Sassagoula Floatworks looks so nice, especially for QS xx

I wouldn’t do F&F if you haven’t done it.

Universal isn’t the best park if you have motion sickness. Some of the rides I find ok if I’m well hydrated but there’s a few I struggle with.