It's The Greatest Hits Tour August 2018 - Day 5: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

[moosha]

Day 5 - Wednesday 15th August 2018

The alarm was set for 6 am and despite having had about 3.5 hours sleep, I got straight in the shower before finishing off the packing. We left the girls asleep until about 6.30 but I couldn’t leave them any longer than that as I needed to get their pyjamas and toiletries packed. If I have to suffer, we all suffer (and anyway they had slept all the way home last night so I didn’t feel too bad.) Mat went and got me some breakfast potatoes from New Dutch Trading Company downstairs and a much needed coffee for each of us. The staff member didn't put Mat's double espresso through so when my Americano was ready and he queried the second drink, she made him one and gave it to him for free. He also got a bagel with peanut butter for his breakfast ($4). The potatoes were better today in terms of being properly cooked but unfortunately I managed to let them get a bit cold while I faffed around. The girls had cereal in the room.

We were all ready by about 8 and then called Bell Services to hand over our luggage. When the guy came up, we told him we were moving to the Hard Rock and he said ‘I’ll drive the luggage over there myself.’ Bless him. We’ve always found the staff (especially Bell Services staff) at the Universal hotels we’ve stayed at to be excellent. We thanked him profusely and gave him a nice tip.

We said goodbye to the lobby...



….and went out to the parking garage for the last time this trip feeling quite sad as we loved Sapphire Falls but we knew we would be back, we just didn’t know at that point how soon. We drove round to the Hard Rock...















...went a bit mad taking memorabilia photos in the lobby...





















...and checked in with Ed who was great.



So great that Mat decided he had to take a photo.



He said our room wasn’t ready yet (to be fair we weren’t expecting it to be as it was about 8.30). He asked if we had stayed at the hotel before to which I said ‘Yes, last year’ and he explained that we no longer needed separate Express Passes, it would now all be done through our room keys. I think I knew this from The Dibb anyway. He gave us temporary room keys to use as our Express Passes for now and said he would text us when the room was ready.



We were tempted to hire a guitar as Seren plays but we knew we wouldn't get much time to play it and it's probably really expensive.



We restroomed in the lovely restrooms behind reception...









...and then took the stroll to Universal Studios.



Although I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have strolled as I was well aware that the early entry hour was pretty much over and the park was about to open to everyone. It felt so good walking that path though, I honestly love staying onsite at Universal. We arrived at the entrance at 8.55 am after passing through the security screening between CityWalk and the walkway to the Hard Rock and Portofino Bay.

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[moosha]

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We got in the shortest line at the turnstiles and I think this may have been one of those rare occasions where that didn’t backfire and turn out to be the longest wait. We actually got through quickly and hotfooted it straight towards Diagon Alley.











It’s always lovely to walk into Diagon Alley for the first time each trip, it still looks amazing.













We stuffed our bags in the lockers and then strolled into the Gringotts line. This was our first time using Express on the ride as Universal had finally introduced Express Pass for the Harry Potter rides since our last visit. We pretty much walked straight through to the lifts but then got stuck on the stairs up to the loading area for about ten minutes as the ride had gone down.

When we eventually got on we were given row 5. The previous year Freya had only agreed to ride each time in the front row because the drop is shorter there. So every time we had ridden we had had to ask for the front row. This year she was feeling big and brave and although she was a little trepidatious about being in the back of the carriage, she just went with it. Seren and I were over the moon about the drop being a bit more exciting, but the screen parts are definitely not as good when you have someone’s head between you and the action. Same for SpiderMan and Transformers; I always throw a two-second mini strip when we’re not allocated front row for those rides. And then get over myself.

I still love this ride though, we all prefer it to Forbidden Journey and it was a great first ride of the holiday. It broke down just as we were coming back to the loading area, and a Team Member was trying to talk to us, I guess to tell us what was happening (the entire ride vehicle, not just us) but the soundtrack of the ride was still really loud back where we were sat so we couldn’t hear what she was saying over the loud banging and crashing noises. We sat there for about five or ten minutes before the ride was up and running again and we could get off.















We popped into Sugarplum's Sweet Shop for a little look around:















Mat, Freya and I each got a bag of salt and vinegar Kettle Chips each because, well, why wouldn't we? Seren doesn't really like crisps so she definitely didn't have any. $11.16 for the three.



This is the Slytherin bow Seren bought in Hot Topic the day before:





Next up was Men In Black...



...which also broke down just as we were approaching the loading area. We were a bit concerned that technical problems were going to be the theme of the day but it was fine once we got on. I still enjoy this ride but I got annoyed when Mat managed to hit the red button before me. I get so competitive on the shooty rides (yes I know that isn’t a word) even though I am generally rubbish at them.

Mat's score:



Mine:



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[moosha]

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As we walked past The Simpsons, Seren said she wanted to go on.



This used to be my favourite ride at Universal back in 2014 but more recently I’d kind of fallen out of love with it as a) it’s really showing its age and b) it’s kinda jerky and unforgiving on my back. I was even less keen when we approached the entrance and the Team Member told us they were running at reduced capacity so the posted wait was 45 minutes. With our Express Passes we were on in 15 minutes which is quite long with Express really.



And not worth it because we got the back row which as we all know is not as good as the front row on this ride. Seren in particular had a good moan about that which was great as she’d dragged us all on and then got stroppy. Teenagers.

We saw The Simpsons were meeting but I think they had already closed the line as we passed.



We don’t seem to be able to enter Simpsons Land without the girls (mainly Freya) requesting a donut.



We used to share a Big Pink and a big apple fritter before Mat and I became vegan. There was no way I was buying a massive one just for the girls (especially as it was pretty much lunchtime and I wanted them to eat something proper (or that at least was a little more healthy and substantial than a donut). The upside (for Seren and Freya) of us not eating the donuts anymore was that they could pick any small donut rather than having to share one of the aforementioned big ones. Seren wanted a small apple fritter but they were out of those so she got a Big Pink and Freya chose a chocolate ring donut. $3.39 each. We took them to the covered seating by Animal Actors as I’d read some blog post about how this was a good place to sit as it’s always quiet and it’s pretty cool (temperature wise.) It was pretty much empty but it didn’t feel very cool. At least we were in the shade.





By now it was approaching lunch time and Mat and I fancied the nachos made vegan from Bumblebee’s Taco Truck (a tip I had picked up from Universal Orlando Vegans) so he walked the 20 steps or so across to get those while the girls finished their donuts and we chilled at the table.



The nachos were nice but needed a bit more guacamole. As we don’t have cheese or sour cream, extra guacamole and salsa would be appreciated. I know some vegans ask for extra of what we can have to make up for what is taken out and we should probably start doing that too. Two nachos and Cokes were $30.42.



I think this was a game of bottle flipping:







The girls wanted some sort of lunch after that so we went into Fast Food Boulevard. Seren chose a snack pack of pitta, veggies and houmous from the chilled cabinet and I picked up a fruit plate from there too. Freya couldn’t find anything she fancied so we paid for what we had and hovered at a table in Moe’s Tavern to eat it. It was pretty busy in there. My fruit plate wasn’t great and it inexplicably came with a salad leaf in the bottom. Seren really liked the houmous but there wasn’t really enough ‘stuff’ to dip in it. She doesn't like celery so didn't eat that and looking at the picture that's probably for the best as it doesn't look too good:











A peek at the lettuce leaf:



Er...yum:



While we were finishing off our pretty disappointing and expensive snacks ($8.49 for the fruit, $5.99 for the houmous), Freya decided she fancied a pizza. Mat went off into the food court to get it for her and she didn’t manage to eat it all. Back in the day Mat and I would have hoovered the leftovers up for her but obviously we can’t do that anymore so we do tend to end up with more wasted food now that we have different diets. The pizza was $10.99.



(Ugh I know these photos are out of sequence in my flickr, they've all been dumped in one Florida folder from three phones so I'm doing my best to put them in some sort of order that makes sense)

















It was about 12.30 by this point. Next up was The Fast and the Furious which was new for us. I’d read pretty poor reviews so we went in with fairly low expectations but we were quite impressed with the displays in the queue so thought ‘Maybe it won’t be all that bad.’ After all, a lot of people don’t like the Jimmy Fallon ride but I think it’s great. And I quite liked Earthquake and Disaster and I knew the ride format hadn’t changed too much.











To be fair we’ve never seen any of TFATF films and have not desire to so we’re probably not the target audience. But the ride is really bad. The two ‘pre-shows’ are just a guy talking to riders and it’s all a bit random and bizarre. The ride itself is not much better. We thought the first half of the ride was terrible and the second half (the ‘fast’ bit) was not quite so bad but it’s not exactly exhilarating ‘riding’ in a bus and especially being sat towards the back. I think having the action either side of the vehicle works better on Kong. It feels like a missed opportunity. They could have done a proper car chase ride if they’d started from scratch and taken out the old ride track. I’ve seen a few people on here say it’s ok but the general consensus seems to be that it’s a bit of a ride fail. We probably won’t bother riding it again, we certainly didn’t when we went back in February.

When we came out Mat commented that it’s called The Fast and the Furious because it’s fast as it’s over quickly and furious because that’s how you feel when you come out, which made us laugh.

Mat had a bit of a thing for the Buena Vista Social Club, he was impressed with the little set-up inside:







Next up Freya wanted to do The Mummy. None of us had ridden it for a couple of years because it was right at the edge of our wimp threshold (Mat and I) when we took Seren on in 2015. Freya had never ridden before because she was too scared and Seren would have loved to have gone on again each trip but she’s surrounded by wimps. Freya was a bit scared despite it being her suggestion to go on, so we agreed we would all just man up and ride together.



All of us except Seren were a bit scared especially Freya and Mat. I was actually quite calm. We only had to wait 5-10 minutes with Express thank goodness. Once you’ve made the decision to do something that scares you, you just want to get on with it right?

We were sat towards the back of the vehicle which made us a bit more scared about it being faster, but we all really enjoyed it. It definitely blew the cobwebs away. Spoiler alert: The Mummy definitely became our favourite Universal Studios ride this trip and on our next trip in February this year, we rode it more than anything else (partly because of it being one of the few rides open during early entry, but also partly because we all love it now.)

Predictably, due to the park’s geography, next up was Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon or as I think we probably all call it, Jimmy Fallon. The waiting area was still nice and quiet at this point. We sat down and watched the clips on the screens while waiting for our colour group to be called.



Mat and I were especially happy to see the video of Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd recreating the ‘King of Wishful Thinking’ music video as we love that song plus it’s really funny because of the 80s cheesiness. It’s definitely one of my favourite Jimmy Fallon clips (because Paul Rudd obviously. Love him.) The girls hadn’t seen it before but they enjoyed it too.

We waited about 5-10 minutes before our colour group (purple for any fact fans) was called. We had a bit of a wait for the pre-show. I have a bit of a love / hate thing with the pre-show here; love the rap of the ride’s safety restrictions, hate the bit with Sara because well, annoying. We were happy to get the front row on the ride. It took ages to get everyone strapped in. How hard can it be people? I think that’s pretty common here as it’s happened every time we’ve ridden. In February we also had the joy of someone sitting in one of the ‘non-seats’ on the far left that’s basically a piece of wood half seat size. When the Team Member discovered the problem, they had to reset the seatbelts and get everyone on that row to move back one seat, then test everyone in the whole vehicle’s seatbelts all over again which meant it was about ten minutes from when we first sat down before the ride started.)

I know Jimmy Fallon is a bit of a Marmite ride but I really like it (not quite as much as I like Marmite) and so do the girls. Mat can take it or leave it.



Once we were off the ride, we all agreed we were thirsty so we went to the kiosk in front of Rip Ride Rockit and got a Fanta and a couple of bottles of water. We watched RRR for a bit while we had our drinks. Seren was really keen to ride but for the rest of us it was a massive ‘no’ and she wouldn’t ride on her own. I tried to bribe Freya with a soft toy or something but she was having none of it.

Continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

Shrek spot on the way to our next ride. Shrek is evidently a big thing with Seren and her friends; not sure if it's the case with other young teenagers but at Seren's school Shrek is a legend. The fact that the girl meeting Shrek is also wearing a Panic! At The Disco t-shirt meant this photo was very much appreciated by her friends when she posted it on her WhatsApp status. Hi if the girl in the photo is reading this btw:



Next was Transformers. The girls are pretty scared of Megatron so if he's out we always walk very quickly past him.



We waited 5-10 minutes with Express Pass and were seated in the back of the vehicle which wasn’t great. To be honest we don’t like this ride as much as SpiderMan anyway but we were ticking it off today at least, and without much of a wait.

After that we waited a couple of minutes for Despicable Me (gotta love the Express Passes).



I love this ride. I loved it the first couple of times we rode in 2014 and then I thought it was a bit meh for a while but it’s definitely grown on me again.



At this point we decided to leave the park but we popped to the Universal store first. Seren fell in love with this Draco pin but didn't buy it. I think she actually just bought the same pin a few weeks ago at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Watford:



Freya bought herself a mini Scabbers soft toy and Seren bought her boyfriend at the time a Hogwarts keyring with his name on.





These are so cute and again, I think we saw them at the HP Studios tour last time we were there too:



Aww:



Freya was tempted by this but didn't buy it in the end:



Thanks Seren:



It was about 3.45 pm by the time the girls had paid for their purchases and we started walking to the exit. We’d received a text from the Hard Rock Hotel letting us know our room was ready. The message said we could go straight to room 5112 and didn’t need to stop at reception for replacement keys. Our temporary ones from this morning would work fine and continue to be our Express Passes. We were on the sixties floor of the hotel this time:



Freya photobombed both photos I took of the room before it got messed up:





This was our view. We hadn't paid for an upgraded view, just a standard garden view. We were happy with the view...pretty:



Wonky photo of the drumsticks art:



Freya didn't match up exactly to any rock stars on the mirror:



Seren was just about Pat Benetar (I can't believe how much shorter both girls were a year ago) :



Once we were in the room we called down for the luggage. As the guy who brought it up was unloading, we realised our almond milk was missing. It had been in a separate carrier bag and stored in the fridge at Bell Services during the hotel move. He called down from the room and they checked that they definitely didn’t have it downstairs in the fridge which they didn’t. He said we needed to complain at reception but basically that it was Sapphire Falls’ responsibility. So I guess he was throwing them under the bus and saying they never sent it over.

We unpacked which took ages for some reason and then went downstairs. We were on the sixties floor of the hotel this time and I think

Seren took this random photo of a Beatles ice cream wrapper:



I'm pretty sure this one is in Emack and Bolio's but correct me if I'm wrong:



Ahh Queen Taylor:



Mat went to talk to reception about the missing milk and also had a moan as he wasn’t happy about the cleanliness of the room. We’d had a similar situation the year before at HRH where it had felt like the room hadn’t been properly cleaned after the last guests had checked out. I can’t remember specifics but Mat was annoyed that it had happened again. To be fair I am a massive hotel clean freak, like I have OCD about hotel rooms specifically and I’m pretty tuned in to dirt and scuzz in hotels (yes I am weird) and I didn’t think it was really any worse than the majority of hotel rooms we’ve stayed in. But also, it’s a very expensive hotel and he wanted to make the point that guests should be able to expect their room to be properly clean when they arrive.

The lady he spoke to at reception was very apologetic and arranged for the room to be cleaned again while we were out that evening. Regarding the missing milk, I think they took $5 off the room cost which was fine but it was a pain in the backside that it had gone missing because it’s not like we could grab another carton from the hotel so it would mean another drive to Super Target and we weren’t planning to use the car while we were at the Hard Rock doing Universal parks. I think in the end we just worked around it and the girls had regular milk on their cereal from Emack and Bolio’s while Mat went without as there was no dairy free milk available at the hotel.

Time to head back out towards CityWalk.





We took a stroll through the Butterfly Garden:



I think it was in the process of being re-planted or something because there weren't many flowers and I don't remember seeing any butterflies.











We walked to Islands of Adventure and entered through the turnstiles. Now we seem to have less fingerprint success at Universal than at Disney (although my rate of first time green light at all parks has been pretty poor the last two trips, I think because I always have hand cream or SPF or something on my fingers when I try using my finger print to get in.) In 2017 Seren had had fingerprint problems every time we’d entered any Universal Park so this trip she was expecting the same. I probably shouldn’t have laughed at her so much the year before because I was now experiencing the same thing. Karma I guess. Anyway this time Seren gingerly pressed her finger on the scanner and it worked straight away. The nice Team Member at the turnstile looked at her t-shirt and commented ‘Slytherins always work first time’ which made Seren even more chuffed.

We walked through Hogsmeade:



Our first stop this evening was Burger Digs as we knew they had Beyond Burgers there. I think we probably could have waited a bit longer to eat as we weren’t all that hungry but a lot of quick service places in the parks close pretty early and we knew this was one of them (we missed out on these burgers this February because Burger Digs closed pretty much before dinner time.) Being fairly limited on vegan meal options in the parks anyway, we have to be more aware of restaurant opening times because we can’t just go to the next restaurant we come across.



It was pretty empty in the restaurant and the staff were pretty grumpy but we got our burgers which we were happy about. I think there was also a toppings bar. Mat and I had Beyond Burgers with fries, the girls just had fries and Seren also had an apple pie. We also got three bottles of water which Mat has mysteriously entered into the receipts spreadsheet as 'refillable waters'. Unfortunately our burgers were pretty cold but with the restaurant about to close and the miserable staff, we didn’t bother to take them back. We both love Beyond Burgers so we still enjoyed them even if they weren’t quite hot enough. The total was $44.06

We were all done by about 6.30 pm. Next up was Kong: Skull Island which I really like. Not sure how long we waited as it’s not in my notes and as it was over a year ago I can’t remember. Apologies for the trip report fail.



From there we walked through Toon Lagoon into Marvel Super Hero Island.





Even though there's nothing in my notes about it, there's no way we would have taken this photo and not gone on SpiderMan because we love that ride. So let's assume we went on and enjoyed it as always.



We walked round to Hogsmeade for our first Express Pass ride on Forbidden Journey. As we approached the castle looking for the Express entrance, a Team Member appeared from nowhere and said ‘Can I help with anything?’ We asked him where we should go for the Express Pass entrance and he said the queue splits off inside after the lockers. We had also forgotten that you don’t reach the locker area inside until after the first bit of external queue. What a bunch of noobs. Honestly we’ve ridden FJ so many times I have no idea how we had forgotten the ropes so much.



Luckily the locker area was pretty quiet. We came out to join the proper queue inside as per usual and went to walk the way we always have before. A Team Member saw our passes and said snarkily ‘Express? This way. Or you wanna go the longer way?’ Obviously we didn’t and we pretty much walked on.

I may have said this before but we all like to try and avoid the ‘dragon seat’ on the broomstick but it is usually me that has to fall on my sword and sit there which is what happened today. Luckily the dragon didn’t actually breathe any fire (smoke) this time so I didn’t get blasted in the face. Spoiler alert, check out tomorrow’s upcoming report for a proper dragon smoke mishap at my expense.

When we exited the castle, there were people everywhere camping out for the evening’s second Hogwarts At Night (or whatever it’s called) lights show. I



t was a bit chaotic trying to get past everyone sat on the ground. The girls wanted to ride The Hippogriff but it was closed. Just as we were about to walk on by, it magically reopened and we were able to pretty much walk straight on. There’s lots I like about this little ride: that it goes higher and faster than you’d expect and the cute animatronic Buckbeak mainly, but I always forget how painful it is. It rattles you around quite a lot and hurts my back. Fun though. I always turn down a repeat ride due to fear of injury.

I wanted to take some photos of the Jurassic Park entrance and Hogwarts from the bridge as the lighting was great with the sun just setting, but the girls were really keen to take the Hogwarts Express to US so we could ride The Mummy again before the parks closed at 9. It was about 8.10 at this point. I decided to just go along with it for a quiet life.

We walked up to the Hogwarts Express entrance and as I approached the ticket scanner, I took my park ticket out of my lanyard. I seemed to remember in the past having to put the ticket into a machine but either they’ve changed it or I was mistaken because the Team Member looked at what I was doing and said ‘You don’t need to take it out of your lanyard’ in a really patronising voice that made me feel really small. Thanks for that.

We only had to wait for the train to arrive into the station which took a few minutes. We were in a carriage with four other people (we never seem to go on anymore when it’s quiet enough to have a carriage to ourselves). When we got off, we we quickly walked round to The Mummy knowing it wasn’t long until the park closed.

We arrived at the entrance about 8.35 pm and waited about 5-10 minutes with Express. This time we all knew what to expect a bit more so we weren’t so nervous. The bit with the big fast hill climb into a drop is right at my fear limit (along with the Everest drop) being a ride wimp. In fact it’s not even actually doing it, it’s the apprehension beforehand. I know it’s all in my head. So this trip I tried telling myself it’s fine and it’s not scary as we go into that bit of the ride, and by meeting it head-on with an excited ‘woooh!’ (I have to actually make the noise). It worked as I would actually enjoy it rather than getting all anxious and ending up letting out an involuntary scream like a strangled cat. I think that’s much less preferable to the ‘woooh’ in terms of my own embarrassment and for the ears of the riders around me. Mind over matter I guess.

We all came off the ride saying it was now one of our favourites. It was a good way to end our first park day. We took the short scenic stroll back to the Hard Rock. Oh how I love staying there.



We had to wait for the fourth elevator to arrive before we could get in which was a bit of a pain but I guess with the parks just closing it was peak time for guests returning to the hotel. The first two lifts to arrive were full and when the third one arrived, a family standing closest to that elevator got in and filled the available space, even though they had arrived at the bank of lifts after us. Rude.

We got back to the room and Mat was happy that it had been cleaned again as promised. He popped down to the bar to get us both a cocktail while the girls and I had showers, and then he had one too. The girls were really tired and crashed as soon as they were ready for bed.





My cocktail was a ‘Her Name Is Rio’ which is what I’d had (and loved) the year before. This year I didn’t enjoy it as much and I think they have either changed it or it wasn’t made properly this time. This year it was yellow and last year it was orange, and there was also less shredded coconut in it this time. It tasted a bit too lemony which I guess explains the different colour. The menu doesn't mention lemon in the ingredients so maybe they just made me the wrong drink. Mat had a John Hancock which was basically a Manhattan and he enjoyed it. The cocktails were $14 each and the total after tip was $36.42. Mat has also entered into the receipts spreadsheet (for my trip report, we wouldn't have a receipts spreadsheet otherwise) that the 'server was named Skinny but the receipt said Brian'. Well thanks Skinny for making me the wrong drink.



Apologies for the huge photos in the second half of today's report...Flickr was having issues and this is the outcome.

I got into bed about 10 / 10.30 and fell asleep writing my notes.

[dozy]

Love it

Was room bigger in hard rock than sapphire falls?

[TheHughesCrew]

I’ve absolutely loved reading this trip report, thank you

[moosha]

Originally Posted by dozy

Love it

Was room bigger in hard rock than sapphire falls?

See more...

Yes a little, there’s a bit more space between the end of the beds and the counter, I think it’s about 50 square feet bigger. It feels bigger because of the lighter decor too in my opinion. In 2019 and 2020 we had rooms at Sapphire Falls with walk-in showers rather than an over the bath shower. The bathroom felt bigger than at HRH in those for me.

Originally Posted by TheHughesCrew

I’ve absolutely loved reading this trip report, thank you

See more...

Thanks so much for reading and commenting. I’m going to get back to this report when I’ve finished the last two days of the 2020 report which should be soon .

[Jimsdadhalifax]

Thanks for posting this - love Universal

[Annie17]

absolutley loving reading this

[moosha]

Originally Posted by Jimsdadhalifax

Thanks for posting this - love Universal

See more...

Thank you...me too! We did an all Universal week long trip last February and it was a great holiday .

Originally Posted by Annie17

absolutley loving reading this

See more...

Thank you! I really need to get motivated to finish the rest of this report...hopefully before the trip’s two year anniversary .