Rollercoasters and Wrestling – Day 8 – Universally RAW!

[Jammy31]

Trip report index can be found - HERE

A bit of a short report for today! (Not many notes were taken, and trying to do this from memory is a bit of a task! Sorry!)

Monday’s are always painful...even more so when your hero retired the day before.

Today was our last full day in Orlando, and as much as we all wanted the lie in we had things to do! Still reeling after the retirement on the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, we spent the first hour of the morning in silence as we went for breakfast at 8am (I think it was the severe lack of sleep that was the cause of silence, but a little bit of me always hopes we were mourning for the Undertaker’s career!). As part of our Gold Package, we were given a one day, 1 park ticket to Universal Studios Resort. Having been to Islands of Adventure earlier in the week, we opted to head to Universal Studios because Josh and I were so keen on seeing Diagon Alley for the first time. We began to finish up breakfast and that was when Nick announced to us that he was going to head back to the room as the lack of sleep had completely taken it out of him. He would meet us at the Amway Centre for Raw later that night instead.

Hopping into the Kia, we took a now familiar route towards the Studios and arrived just after opening. It was stupidly warm and I was now so glad that I had planned ahead with bringing sun cream! We were quick through the security checks and before we knew it we were taking the obligatory “Universal Globe Photo”. It just HAD to be done, otherwise are you doing Universal Studios properly? As Josh was a new comer to the Orlando theme park scene, I decided that we would guide him through the park at an easy pace. Needless to say, our first port of call was not Rip, Ride, Rockit (That and there was a 1.5 hour queue!).



Instead, I decided to show Paul and Josh the ride that I brand as one of “The most under-rated rollercoasters in Orlando” – The Revenge of the Mummy. It is honestly one of the best themed and designed rides I have ever been on. With only a 20 minute queue, not getting on would have been a stupid idea. We weaved our way around the start of the queue and soon found the tomb area where the 20 minute queue had manifested itself. I watched as Josh’s mouth opened in complete awe at the extreme detail and themeing of the queue area. His exact words were “Well, this puts British parks to shame. This is incredible”. Having played around with the interactive sections of the queue and laughing at the unsuspecting victims of the ‘Hand in the Hole’ trick, we were eventually loaded into the ride car. We weaved our way through the tomb, into the gold room where the fire made it feel like our skin was melting, then into the Scarab Beetle room. We reversed onto a turntable, and suddenly we were face to face with Imhotep. This is where my favourite part of the ride happens – “Not even the Medjai can save you now. There is no escape. Your end shall be my beginning. Behold your fate. Will this be your destiny? Your souls are mine!”, and we were launched up the hill and into the swirling, diving chaos of the Revenge of the Mummy!



Surviving the Mummy was a bit of a hectic start to our Universal adventure, so we decided to head to the one place that none of us had visited…Diagon Alley. With my last trip being back in 2013, Diagon Alley was a completely new area in Universal that I was desperate to see. I was incredibly impressed with the frontage of Kings Cross and Leicester Square tube station, but even more so with Diagon Alley itself!



I don’t know how Universal do it, but they made it just as good if not better than Hogsmeade. I was completely in awe of what they had done. With the temperature still rising, we thought that it would be the best time to go to Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour and try out the much loved Butterbeer ice cream. Myself and Josh had both had the frozen Butterbeer over in Hogsmeade and loved it, so this was really the only logical step. I wasn’t entirely sure on how it would taste, but I instantly fell in love with it when I tasted it. It wasn’t too much, and there was just enough flavouring to keep me wanting more. We continued touring round Diagon Alley whilst eating our ice cream, and decided that we weren’t going to wait 65 minutes for Escape from Gringotts as we had minimal time to be doing things before heading back to the Amway.







Instead, we headed out of Diagon Alley, and over to Men in Black: Alien Attack. I absolutely love this attraction as it was the first interactive dark ride that I had been on. The whole concept is great and whilst Buzz Lightyear will always be a firm favourite at Disney, I think MIB takes the top spot as it has a bit more of a thrill to it. I can’t remember who won out of the three of us, but I’m pretty sure I lost as I was too busy trying to shoot the other car to make them spin at every opportunity. Needless to say, we all had great fun and MIB remains a favourite to this day! By now, it was about 3.30pm, and Paul and I were looking at heading out the park. Josh wanted to stay a bit longer and so he told us he would meet us at the arena whenever he had finished up. This meant Paul and I could take our time to get to the arena, grab some dinner and get ready for our last show of the holiday. However, on our way out, I noticed that Hashtag the Panda from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, was walking around taking photos with guests. As I love the Jimmy Fallon show, I couldn’t pass over this opportunity and managed to grab a few snaps before we left the park. Hashtag is a very mischievous panda!





Before and After covering my face up during a photo!

Paul and I headed out of Universal Studios and headed towards the Amway Centre for the last time. We parked in our usual spot, and opted to head somewhere other than Harry Buffalos! Instead we walked a bit further down Church Street and went for some rice and meat.





We chatted away about our hopes for Raw, and about what our plans were for the next day. Time passed by quite quickly and before we knew it, Josh and Nick had both joined us, ready and raring for Monday Night RAW. The Raw after Wrestlemania has now become an event in itself due to the fact that the crowds generally treat it as a big party. Most of the time, Raw after Mania also includes some debuts, and also some returns of superstars who were either injured or left the company. With a mixture of nationalities and levels of fans, this was surely going to be another memorable one! We made our way into the Amway and found our seats. Again they were in an incredible spot and as per usual, I commented on how well our money had been spent. We settled in for the next few hours and this is how it went (in summary!):



- Raw started with a 15-minute-long fan chant tribute to the Undertaker. After his retirement at Wrestlemania 33, it only seemed fitting that we gave him some sort of send-off.

- Roman Reigns came out to thunderous boos. For another 15 minutes, he wasn’t allowed to get a word in edge ways. But soon after he dropped a one liner (“This is my yard now”) that got him verbally abused and booed out the building. No-one was happy that he retired the Undertaker!

- Matt and Jeff Hardy returned to RAW for the first time in years to face off against Gallows and Anderson. Having competed three nights in a row (Ring of Honour on Saturday night, Wrestlemania on Sunday Night, Raw on Monday night), it was great to see the Hardys prove that they still have what it takes to hang in WWE.

- BEACHBALL MANIA! We were then treated to a Cruiserweight match, which in truth was actually a really great match. Unfortunately, someone decided that it needed beach balls, because shortly after the bout started, and rain of them came from the top tier and were happily batted about by everyone. This continued the entire way through the match with event security being booed every time they seized one, and cheers going up every time a new ball was launched into the arena.



- The 6 woman tag team match was a great match with Charlotte eventually being turned on by her two team mates. Great way to keep her fresh as a heel!





- Vince McMahon then arrived at the arena to thunderous applause and chanting. His entrance was met with a very hearty sing along. After briefly summing up Wrestlemania, he then introduced Raw to their new General Manager…Non other…than KURT ANGLE! The place went wild and the “You Suck” chants began. It was another amazing moment to witness.



- The New Day issued and open challenge to any Tag Team in the back, and NXT’s The Revival made their official main roster debut. The Revival are old school wrestlers as per their slogan “No flips, just fists”. Gaining immense popularity in NXT, their arrival on Raw was very welcome as it freshened up the division immensely.

- Then came a Number One contenders match for the Raw Tag Team Titles. Sheamus and Cesaro vs. Enzo and Big Cass. This match was a great match, helped along by the continuous chanting of “Sheamus and Cesaro” to the Conga tune. I love both tag teams, but Sheamus and Cesaro deserved the win after a solid performance!



- Finn Balor made his long awaited return to face Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens in a tag team match alongside the man who injured him – Seth Rollins. This is a match that many people wanted to see, with all 4 men coming from the Independent circuit where they used to put on incredible matches.





Overall, Raw was a solid show. 3 hours of singing, dancing and beach balls made the perfect end to an amazing holiday. Wrestlemania weekend had been the best part of the holiday by far, and turned this trip into my favourite holiday of all time (Sorry family!). For any wrestling fan out there, debating on whether or not to go to a Wrestlemania…do it. It might take time to save up the money, but it is worth every single penny. The fans are amazing (and you’ll be one of them), the atmosphere and hype are incredible, and the wrestling is always top draw.

To WWE – Thank you for an amazing time.



To all of you who have read this trip report...THANK YOU!
This was my first full trip report since joining the Dibb (Many moons ago!). Thank you for your kind comments and support, and I'm sure I will be writing another one soon.

[LadyDebs86]

Great write up I was there too.

My husband is the wrestling fan really and I went just because its Florida, but I have come home fully converted! I loved the booing of Roman as well as Finn Balor's entrance (hes my fave).

So glad you enjoyed it as much as we did.

[Floridaagogo]

Sheamus ❤️

[Guest]

Great report ! Really enjoyed reliving it with you

[collybird]

Pretty cool that a park ticket was part of your bundle. Great that it gave you something to fill your days with.