Day 19 - Back once again like a Floriday Master - RP/UNiversal/Bubba Gumps

[Man v Disney]

After a good sleep we all woke up ready for our first Universal days. Following a quick breakfast we sun creamed up and drove over to Loews Royal Pacific Resort.

We absolutely love this hotel – its décor is beautiful and it’s a very peaceful place. After we parked up, we headed in to check in so that we could get hold of our express passes. There was quite a big line for check in, however they were handing out water to those in the queue and they were also handing out Leis. I know it might be controversial but, based on our experiences, in our opinion it is nicer than the theming in Disney hotels.

It didn’t take too long and our room number would be text to Han once it was available, which could be up to 4pm. So we headed over to the water taxi and were fortunate that we could go straight on as they come every 20 minutes.

We decided to head into Universal Studios first as we are coming here a couple more times before we go home. Getting into the park was very quick and we started by going to Ollivander’s to buy a wand as both kids had saved up to get an interactive wand to do the ‘spells’ around the parks. There was no queue and we went straight in (after taking a video of the Gringott’s dragon blowing fire). The wizard in Ollivanders was very serious and Eliana was a bit scared of him coming down the stairs in silence, looking at us all! Josiah got picked again (just like in 2016) and after a couple of failed attempts he was given a wand with a Dragon String core and made of Oak! Leading up to this, Eliana had hoped that she would be chosen but she was pleased Josiah did as she never got over her nervousness of him.

Once we were through that experience we went into the wand shop, Josiah decided to keep the wand that had chosen him. Eliana took quite a while to choose her wand and eventually decided on Fleur Delacour’s. These cost $55 each and they were the kids last main purchases as they had now spent up.

Escape from Gringott’s was our first stop and so we headed in after popping our bags in the smallest lockers ever (literally only one bag in, and not a big one at that) and loved it – even more than last time. The wait time for the ride was only 15 minutes in the Standby Line, although it was quicker for us in the Express Line. The theming of this ride is so good and the whole thing is a lot of fun. Even Han can cope with it as there are gaps of 4d sequences between the ‘coaster’ bits.

We then spent about an hour around Diagon Alley with both kids using the wands in the many different sections there. Some of them were trickier than others. You have markers on the floor which tell you where the spells can be done and also the spell that needs to be done.

Once we had done all of the spell points here, we went onto the Hogwarts Express to get over to Islands of Adventure. We really like this and seeing the shadows of the students and the dementors! Again, both the standby queue here and express queues were short.
This was to be a theme for today. Other than Hagrid (180 minutes – we weren’t even going to try it today) there were no queues really above 30 minutes max.

Flight of the Hippogriff was our first stop and we enjoyed this, although Han sat it out. Last time, the kids went on this loads while I went on Duelling Dragons, I miss that ride! After this one we went onto The Forbidden Journey. Again, a short queue and even shorter for us – pretty much a walk on – for express passes.

Forbidden Journey was amazing, again, better than I remember it being. The kids found it quite intense, but both said they would ride it again. Even Josiah who wasn’t sure before if he would do more than once said he would go again.

We were getting thirsty by this point so Josiah and Han went to get a Frozen Butterbeer. This was delicious! It cost $8.50 and the topping for it was easily the best bit – wish I knew how they made it!

As our Harry Potter morning had taken some time we decided to leave Hogwarts behind and head out towards Jurassic Park with the plan of the doing the water rides and then going back to the hotel before a late lunch. On our way towards Jurassic Park we stopped and got one of the unlimited refill drinks, which cost $16.99 plus tax. We really got our money’s worth out of this cup as it would have cost $3.99 for each drink. We must have filled it up 7 or 8 times over the day, usually with Sprite or Minute Maid Lemonade.

Once we had had our drinks we headed onto the Jurassic Park ride, this was great fun and we didn’t get too wet on the back row. The dinosaurs in this are great and the drop at the end was fab.

Eliana and Josiah headed over to the Pteranadon Flyers as they loved it last time. This was a watershed moment as Eliana was too tall to ride it! Probably the first thing she has ever been too tall for.
As we were working our way round that side of the park we went to Kong Skull Island next – just like the HP rides this was better than we remembered. Not sure why we hadn’t realised how good these were from last time, we were really enjoying them more.

Han doesn’t like high drops and she had used up her single ‘high drop ride quota’ with Splash Mountain so she decided to not go on Dudley Do Rights. Josiah, Eliana and I got soaked on this. We were wet from the first little drop and it just kept soaking us! Brilliant ride!

We all decided to go on Bilge Rat Barges next and then back to the hotel as Han had got a text to say that our room was ready. This was another crazy wet ride, everyone in the raft got soaked, although the guy opposite us really got the brunt of the water. Our shoes were soaked through and we were all drenched to the skin.

After coming off the ride we started our soggy walk back (past Hulk which Eliana swore she would go on later) to our hotel along the Garden Path, it is quoted as a 7 minute walk but was certainly less.

I went to the car to get our bags while the others went up to the room to get out of their wet clothes and have a quick shower.
We all washed and changed although I was the only one to have brought spare shoes so as we headed back out to Bubba Gumps the others were struggling with still drying shoes!

The walk back was quick again and we went straight to the restaurant. There really are a number of good restaurants there and we saw The Cowfish which we are due to eat at next time we come to Universal. We also spotted Voodoo doughnuts and agreed to pop back to get one as we left the park later.

After showing our Landry’s card we were quickly seated and decided on our meals. I went for the Forrest Seafood Feast, Josiah went for the Fish and Shrimp combo, Han had the Shrimp four way with Coconut, Tempura, Fried and Bacon wrapped. Eliana went for the kids pasta meal.

After completing the online Forrest Gump quiz, in which we did really well, the server came and tested Eliana, who was able to answer pretty much all of the questions and was rewarded with a sticker.
The food came out and we realised that we hadn’t really eaten much at all today. As we had usually been eating lunch out our bodies struggled to cope with a later meal. I made a pretty poor attempt on mine. Han and Josiah did better. Eliana didn’t like the pasta (it did taste weird!) and they happily swapped it for a hamburger which she devoured. It came in a really cool box in the shape of a boat named Jenny.

The meal came to $82.33 (tip of $14.82) with Han’s ‘birthday reward’ of $25 taken off. Again they didn’t charge for the second kids meal which was good of them.

On our way out we popped into the Bubba Gump shop next door and amazingly found some street name plaques with both kids names on. We never really find anything with their names on – maybe Josiah a couple of times but never Eliana, so we had to get them. Even at $6 each.

We headed back into Universal Studios and went into Diagon Alley as Eliana wasn’t keen on the wand she had and wanted to get another. However, we talked her out of it, after all she will only use it while here. This meant we got to take the Hogwarts Express over to IOA again.

As we were a little tired we decided to head over to the Marvel world and then go back and sleep. As we were walking out of Hogwarts towards Jurassic Park we saw a vacation rep who wanted to see if we would like to have a look round their new hotel and they would give us $100 to spend on Citywalk or in Universal. Although the money would be good we didn’t really have the time or strength to do that. They said we had to fill a few criteria, one of which is that you had to be at least 30, well Han said she was 29 and therefore we were not old enough. The rep said OK and let us go, we managed to walk about 10-20 steps before we all started laughing. Han felt pleased she had taken 9 years off so easily.

We all went on the Spiderman ride and thought this was great fun, remembering the last time we were on this and Han’s mum asked if it was jerky and the operator said no! It is fair to say she was thrown around quite a bit. Well we all loved being thrown around and thought the whole thing was great fun.

After this Eliana and I decided to give Hulk a go. Both I and Han thought she would pull out, but with all of the queues being very short we were on too quickly for her to worry about it. She absolutely loved it and thought it was one of the best things ever.

In fact as we came off she wanted to go on again, however they just announced that there was inclement weather so would need to close the ride so we had to head out instead. We left the park at this point and headed to Voodoo doughnuts where we bought a doughnut to have back at the hotel room.

I went for a Chuckles, Eliana had a Glazed, Josiah had a Maple Bacon and Han had an Apple Fritter. These cost $12.09 and we thought we would have them for breakfast if we didn’t finish them tonight. As the weather was closing in we decided to get the bus back and we were the very last ones on which was amazing as we were really flagging.
Once back at the hotel we went back up to the room and some tucked into their doughnuts. They really were fantastic and super tasty and definitely worth the hype. They were as good in the morning too!

Unfortunately, over the course of the day both Josiah and Eliana had misplaced their hats. Even though we were on our knees we had to all head out and drive to the closest Walmart as it was meant to be HOT tomorrow. We picked up a new hat for each of them and then got some breakfast bits to have in the morning. After a quick drive back we were in our beds with lights out soon after, ready for an early morning start to ride Hagrid. We had done 22763 steps and Han’s feet were a little swollen (and funnily tanned due to the shape of her shoe straps!).

Tomorrow, more Universal then Leaky Cauldron and back to the villa to sleep.