Wot, no Disney?! August 2019 Day 2

[tory79]

We had a much better nights sleep thankfully. Ds2 woke up about 2:30 to go to the loo but was back to sleep quite quickly and we then had to stir him at 7am! DS1 slept until 5:30 which is when he usually wakes up at home anyway. Dh had a restless night and got up at some point to go and sleep on the sofa bed in the lounge. The boys had cereal in our room for breakfast. We had hoped to reach the park for around 8am for early access but mainly due to ds2’s lie in (and the fact that we are awful at getting ready quickly in the morning) it was more like 8:30 when we arrived at universal studios.
We headed straight for escape from gringotts. DS1 has started reading the Harry Potter books recently and is part way through book 4. I have been very excited for him to see WWOHP in this trip as previously it has meant nothing to him and he’s not been interested. He loved it. I mentioned before he is nervous of rides and we were not sure what he would make of this. He didn’t want to wear the glasses which I expected, and was a bit unsure at first but actually he enjoyed it - hooray! Ds2 was happy to wear the glasses. They’re worlds apart in character, my boys.

After Gringotts we had a little wonder round, had a snack from Starbucks then headed over to do Minions which is ds2’s favourite ride. It is no longer 3D which DS1 was happy about. Ds2 didn’t notice or care and cackled his way through it like usual. I actually prefer it without the glasses I think.

The boys were then keen to go and play in the arcade by The Mummy, and dh and I took the opportunity to take it in turns to go on the ride via single rider queue. Such a good coaster. I do hate the blast of fire though - as if it’s not hot enough outside!

Ds1 wanted to return to diagon alley next so we headed back over. He was keen to choose a wand and also wanted to go on gringotts again. When we got there we were told they were having some trouble with the power and a lot of the shops were without electricity. What was also strange was that the background sounds were off so all you could here was people! No music or anything. Really weird! We decided to get an ice cream first to cool ourselves down so headed to Fortescues. Their tills were down from the power outage so you could only pay by cash and they were having to do it all on calculators! DS1 and I both had the sticky toffee pudding ice cream - this was WONDERFUL! I could have eaten it all day.

Dh had banana soft serve and ds2 had strawberries and cream. Yum. Then we did Gringotts again. The queue time was only about 45m so not too bad. DS1 definitely preferred it more this time - he’s usually ok once he knows what’s going to happen - it’s getting him to try it that’s the problem! He still wouldn’t wear the glasses though.
Then we went to Ollivanders so he could choose a wand - Harry Potters of course! And then went to do a few spells.

We were in Knockturn Alley when I said to dh that all the outside rides were off due to weather and we should probably make a move - it was about 1:15 by this point. Too late! We came out to discover torrential rain. It’s the age old conundrum of do you wait to see if it dies down a little or go for it. We stuck our ponchos on and went for it... and of course 10 minutes later as we reached the park exit it had virtually stopped! Ah well, you win some you lose some.

We got the bus back to the hotel and chilled for a couple of hours. Then headed back out to the Sapphire Falls boat to go for our second dinner at the Hard Rock! Unfortunately I have very little record of this as all of a sudden I had started to feel a bit iffy. I ordered food but didn’t really touch it. I had a spicy prawn starter (why on earth did I order that when my stomach was feeling dodgy!) I managed about half of it and only ate a few chips from my main of tupelo chicken tenders. We took the chicken back in a box.
Dh had the tupelo chicken tenders to start even though it was a main! And followed it with a pulled pork sandwich. He was the only one having a cocktail tonight - a strawberry mai-tai. It’s a sure sign I’m not feeling right if I can’t manage a cocktail at the Hard Rock! I love their cocktails! The boys had chicken tenders and a cheeseburger - DS1 proclaimed his burger the best one he’d ever had. They had chocolate milkshakes for pudding. We then paid and had a quick look round the shop before getting the boat back.

A couple of hours later and I feel ok again so goodness knows what that was about! I hate feeling ill on holiday especially when it spoils a meal!