It's The Greatest Hits Tour August 2018: Day 7 - US, IoA, Cowfish and Antojitos

[moosha]

Day 7 - Friday 17th August 2018

For some reason this is today's first photo . I think I took it because the lamp gave off a pretty pink light:



After yesterday’s epic fail at leaving the hotel at 7.30 am, we made another attempt this morning. Mat and I were up at 6 and tried to rally the girls a bit earlier than usual. Once they were up, they had cereal and Mat went down to get coffee from Emack’s. He also got himself a peanut butter bagel for breakfast.

We ended up leaving at 7.35 so a much better effort than yesterday. We took a speedy walk round to CityWalk, passing through bag check and then the Universal Studios turnstiles with no hold-ups. The plan this morning was to ride The Mummy first but when we got to the ride it wasn’t yet operating.

We carried on to Diagon Alley which was nice and empty when we arrived.











Next up Gringotts. We quickly dumped our stuff in lockers and joined the line behind a family pushing someone in a wheelchair which I’ve not seen before. They pushed it all the way through to the vault elevators. I’m not sure what happened to the wheelchair when they came out of the lifts. We often have bad luck with Gringotts going down while we’re in the queue but today we were on quickly with no delays. We got row three and I wrote in my notes that when you’re not in the front you notice how much it tips you before the initial drop. Fun. I do love Gringotts.















We discovered the restrooms here for the first time. We liked these restrooms:









A photo of our bags for some reason:





















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Back round to The Mummy which was now thankfully up and running.







We arrived about 8.30 so we’re doing pretty well time-wise. We waited about five minutes. I think by this point The Mummy had overtaken Gringotts as our favourite US ride (certainly for the girls and I, maybe not for Mat.) The girls wanted to go back on so they did that while we reclaimed our stuff from the lockers and then took some photos of the lovely buildings around the New York streets. We were trying to find the Fantastic Beasts door we’d seen in some blog post and wandered round for a few minutes before googling and discovering it had been removed I think a few months before.



Once the girls returned from their second ride on The Mummy, Jimmy Fallon was next (we seem to have developed a bit of a US routine during the last few trips.) We arrived about 9.05 and it was very quiet as to be expected right after regular park open.



We walked straight through with our colour tickets as our group was already being called, and the lady collecting them asked if it was our first time riding. When we said no she replied ‘thanks for coming to see us again’ which I thought was sweet and maybe indicates they don’t expect repeat riders. It’s one of our favourites though, Seren and I love Jimmy Fallon and I much prefer it to something like The Simpsons which badly needs updating (as discussed about five times in this trip report.)

I had a very slow lady in front of me as we boarded the ride and she sat in wrong seat. I’m an impatient person so walking into the ride slowly and then having to wait for her to stop faffing and find the actual next seat was irritating but we all enjoyed our race through New York (and space, l love the bit in space.)

On to Despicable Me which is another favourite.



As we left the ride we ended up walking behind a very slow family who walked through the shop to the exit pretty much at a snail’s pace. My impatience reared its head again as when it’s busy in that shop I get frustrated with not being able to get out quickly. Freya had to briefly pause to touch some unicorn stuff:























Halloween decorations had gone up:







I planned to get some fruit for breakfast at this point as I hadn’t eaten anything so far this morning and was flagging. However we took the scenic route through the gardens past the pin stand consequently missing the fruit stand. We ended up in Springfield and the girls requested donuts.



Freya got a small pink and Seren got an apple fritter which is just too big for one person so she couldn’t finish it. It was 10 am by this point and really hot. We sat in the shade at one of the outdoor tables while the girls ate.





The Simpsons ride was next which was pretty much a walk-on.



We got the front row which barely ever happens for us and my theory that the problems with this ride are from experiencing it in the back was disproved as it was still pretty meh in the front.

We did Men In Black next which was another walk-on. I got the red button for the first time ever and I was very chuffed about it.



We walked to Kings Cross next and I got some salt and vinegar Kettle Chips from the kiosk outside Grimmauld Place as we passed. I inhaled them in about three seconds as I was so hungry by that point (it was now 11 am.)



The ticket point at the Hogwarts Express entrance was such a faff. It seems to me that the machines here and at the other end are more temperamental than the ones at the park entrances (which still aren’t great in my experience). The finger print scanners seem to fail really often but maybe it’s just everyone’s sweaty fingerprints affecting the sensitivity of the readers. Eww.

Unlike yesterday our walking-through-the-wall experience today was bad. The family in front of us waited politely for the family in front of them to get their photos, then we waited for them to do the same and then when it was our turn, I hung back to get the photos while Mat and the girls went ahead and a stream of people behind us just kept walking so I couldn’t get a decent photo. Annoying since we had waited patiently for two families to get theirs. It would be nice if Universal could station a Team Member here to create some order so people can get a good photo. Maybe that would help draw attention to the effect which I expect quite a lot of people just walk straight past not realising it’s there. Also, some sort of bypass for the impatient people that don’t want to walk through the wall would be great. Obviously none of this will ever happen but I would be a lot less frustrated walking through the queue if it did.

The photo isn't actually as bad as the annoyance in my notes would suggest:



We got into our carriage and were sat two and two across from each other. Next to Freya and I were two older teenage girls who didn’t speak English. There was an older couple opposite them so the carriage was full. When the ride started these girls filmed the whole thing on the screen with their iPhone 6Ss using snapchat and faffing about with the features which was extremely annoying. Even more than someone to manage the wall photo opp, I would love Universal to allow everyone to have private carriages on the Hogwarts Express to avoid irritation from inconsiderate guests and also it’s just a bit too intimate in there in my opinion, sat across from strangers. I know they’d never do it because it would push up the wait times but with that and the wall thing I wasn’t very much in love with HE today.

We walked up to Hogwarts once we were off the train (and after a group eye-roll and tut at the annoying girls, we’re British after all.)



I had never noticed this little alleyway just before you enter the castle:







The locker area was crazy crowded and Team Members were actively making one person per family enter the locker area while everyone else stood to the left of the queue just inside the castle. They were really quite insistent and assertive about it which I thought was great because it’s such a nightmare in there with people just standing around. We needed two lockers so Mat and I went in and told the girls to wait to the side. The girls were a bit freaked out as there were people everywhere and I think they were worried about not being able to find us.

Trying to enforce the ‘one person per locker’ rule didn’t really seem to be making it any less crowded in the locker area and one particularly annoyed Team Member was really shouting and saying things like ‘it doesn’t take six people to store one bag.’ Good for him.

Bags stored, we managed to reclaim the girls and it was a really quick walk through the queue after that. I closed my eyes as we passed the dragon after yesterday’s contact lens drama but the smoke effect wasn’t actually working today anyway.

As we exited the ride I briefly considered just leaving our stuff in the lockers forever rather than face the nightmare of trying to get our stuff back. The people in front of us at the screen couldn’t speak English or remember their locker number. I managed to retrieve my stuff without too much stress but Mat’s locker wouldn’t open so he had to speak to the assertive Team Member from before. The girls and I waited outside and I overheard a lady telling some people that Flight of Passage is ‘like Forbidden Journey on steroids.’ She was really singing the ride’s praises which made me even more excited about riding it in a few days.

Mat eventually returned from locker hell and the girls went off to ride the Hippogriff which didn’t take long.



I was having Universal Grapes withdrawal so got a couple of bags from The Magic Neep cart. If I’d have only got one I would have ended up with about three grapes after the vultures (my children) had finished. We took a walk towards Jurassic Park and onto Skull Island.

We waited about 10-15 minutes for Kong with Express Pass. During this trip we didn’t ever manage to get on any quicker than that which I assume is at least in part due to the ride being pretty new at the time. As we got towards the front of the line, the Team Member boarding the ride was calling out for a party of three to fill a row. But she spent so long trying to find a small enough party (she was calling out to at least half way down the long dark corridor before Express boarding with no luck) I’m sure she actually slowed down the boarding and would have just been better to leave three seats empty and move on. A woman at the front of the line actually said to her after about 15 seconds of her calling out for a party of three, ‘Do you want to go all the way back?’ Maybe she was a new Team Member and hadn’t quite mastered efficient filling of the ride vehicles.

Once we were done at Kong we walked through Toon Lagoon, pausing to get a Coke for Mat and I to share and some tap water as we were really thirsty. After our drinks we rode SpiderMan and even though we didn’t get the front row, we had all small people in front of us which was a bonus.

When we came out of SpiderMan the superheroes were about to leave the area on their bikes so we stopped and watched that for a second (even though none of us has any interest in Marvel whatsoever.)









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Seren had been trying to get Mat to ride Doctor Doom with her for like two years knowing that Freya and I would never ever set foot on such an evil ride. Now we were about to walk past it she tried another round of pleading. We stopped and watched for a few seconds and he eventually agreed to ride.





Seren dragged him into the queue and Freya and I found some shade to sit and watch. Doctor Doom was out in the area and Freya is scared of him so it was a bit tense until he disappeared.



The wait was posted at five minutes but it took longer than that. There weren’t many (crazy) people waiting but I think the loading and unloading process is quite slow.

Mat and Seren were a bit wobbly when they returned. They had quite enjoyed the ride but said the initial lift made them feel a bit funny. Seren said her head hurt. Luckily we had a lunch reservation for pretty much the time they exited so they could recover.

We walked round to The Cowfish which was a new one for us but we knew it was recommended for vegans. We were seated straight away and we had a great server, Jorge. Mat ordered a Goose Island, I got a glass of Prosecco and Seren had an apple juice. It didn’t take long for them to get over Doctor Doom and they said they were glad they had done it but weren’t in an immediate rush to do it again.









We had a great lunch at The Cowfish. I had the Tree Hugger Roll with sweet potato fries and grilled vegetables.





It was all delicious. Mat had the vegan burger without the bun as the bun isn’t vegan, with fries and sweet and spicy Thai cucumber. I’ll never understand why some places go to get trouble of offering a vegan burger but can’t put it in a dairy/egg free bun.



Seren had the vegan burger with the bun and with sweet potato fries.



Freya had the kids’ bento box with a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly), fries and carrots. She was very happy to have something a bit different for a change.



$95 including 20% tip for our excellent server and such a good meal we’ve vowed to go there every Universal trip in future. We enjoyed it just as much on the next trip in February 2019.









Seren in need of a rest after sitting down for lunch for an hour:





After a lovely break for lunch we were all done by 2pm and headed back into Islands of Adventure.







We went on Stormforce Accelatron which was fun and then decided to do Poseidon’s Fury because it was so hot and we fancied spending some time inside. We hadn’t done this walk-through for about four years and remembered enjoying it. Even the indoor queue was very slow moving and hot but when we actually got into the attraction we felt the uncomfortable wait had been worth it. It’s definitely not an ‘every trip’ experience but once every few years is good.



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We took the Hogwarts Express back over to Universal Studios for a little wander around Diagon Alley as it’s slightly more pleasant temperature wise there when it’s hot than out in the direct sun.



The girls fancied ice-cream from Florean Fortescue’s so we got in line. Pretty scary:







While we were waiting a woman at the counter abandoned her already made ice-creams for whatever reason without paying and left the shop. How rude. Seren chose strawberries and cream soft serve and Freya toffee soft serve. Both went down very well.

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We bought a Gilly Water from somewhere as we were thirsty:



The sky was looking a bit dramatic by this point:









Mat and I fancied a coffee so we walked up to Starbucks and got the usual. It was about 4.30 pm by this point. We had a little look in the movie merchandise shop between Starbucks and Transformers as we always like to pop in there. They had a toy Gismo which was so cute.









We decided to hit the Universal Studios Store and head out. Seren got a Spongebob pin for a friend and I treated Freya to a Hermione vest top because I had bought Seren her Malfoy shirt the day before. I also got myself a new Universal Studios cap after my previous one (which I’d worn as my Florida parks hat every trip since I bought it in 2014 or 2015) had been stolen by Freya who was refusing to wear the Frozen one from H&M she’d agreed to wear before the holiday.

We left the park via the ‘secret’ side entrance / exit and went back to HRH to pack and get showered.



Judging by this photo today must have been the day we popped into the Hard Rock store at the hotel and for some reason bought a load of stuff. Mat and I both got t-shirts, Mat got socks, we got a soy candle that smelled really good, and Seren got some picks. For some reason Seren took a photo of this doll in the store:



The hotel had these little cards in the room which guests could complete so Seren did:



And she also took a photo of the new Ron pin she had bought the day before at Portofino Bay:



Dinner tonight was at Antojitos, another new one for us, but again recommended as a vegan option. We took the walk round to Antojitos which is sort of hidden at the back of CityWalk.









We had a reservation and were seated straight away towards the back of the restaurant. There was a live mariachi band which was fun but they were really loud.



Luckily they played intermittently so there was time to be able to talk as well. We really liked the restaurant and our server Nicole was excellent. I had done my research on the vegan options but she was very helpful in making sure we were accommodated.



I ordered a ginger mojito which was really good and Mat got a glass of wine as he didn’t fancy any of the cocktails.







We were brought a huge bowl of chips and salsa. They were so good and we all scoffed loads. Mat and I ordered the guacamole made tableside and a guy called Charleovens arrived with a big trolley to make it for us.





He talked us through the ingredients he was going to put in and asked us how spicy we wanted it. Mat asked him how many he makes a night and he said between 50 and 65. He said he doesn’t like guacamole anymore .

The guacamole was so good. The lighting in here meant that all the food photos look pretty dodgy so it was definitely better than it looks in the photo:

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Our server brought us some more chips to eat with the guacamole and Mat and I just couldn’t stop eating it. I had to force myself to stop so I would have some space for my entree. To be honest the guacamole and chips was the high point of the meal. For entrees Mat and I had the vegan enchiladas which were tasty but they were made with corn tortillas rather than the regular ones. The corn tortillas were a bit soggy.



Seren had vegetable fajitas with a side of sweet plantains, and Freya had kids’ enchiladas which she didn’t like.







During the meal I ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon which was really good rather than a second cocktail so either I didn’t enjoy the first one as much as my notes initially suggest or I drank it so quick I didn’t want to repeat that with a second one.



As we were walking out we noticed these frankly terrifying dolls on the wall by the restrooms:





We had really enjoyed our evening at Antojitos. The check was just over $120 plus tip. We put the restaurant on the list for our February 2019 trip but we didn’t have such a good experience the second time. The entrees (same as before) fell a bit flat and the service was bad. My mojito had to be sent back as it just tasted of lime. We decided it would be a great place for drinks and chips (with the guacamole) but for a full meal we didn’t find any value in it on the second visit.





Once we were all done we decided to sit and watch the dance party at CityWalk.









There was a kids’ hula hoop competition and then an adult’s one which was fun to watch. I love how Americans seem to generally have no inhibitions about these things and it got really competitive. We headed back to the hotel at 9.30 / 9.45 and I put a few more things in the cases before we all went to sleep.