Eat, Park, Shop, Repeat - October 2014 Day 3 Harry Potter, Hard Rock & Walmart!

[debidee]

So today I was awake at 2.30am! I really struggled to get back to sleep so in the end just got up and had a bath then found MTV and watched 'catfish' until Jez got up!
We actually went to Walmart this morning on route to breakfast - I was on the look out for Elf and Milani make-up and it did not disappoint!

I had the whole cosmetic section to myself...well in fairness it was only 7am!
They had a good selection and I picked up 10 items for only $3 each! I had read-up on both brands and watched some YouTube videos so knew both were good (I.e cheaper) versions for Mac. Now you can get the 'standard' Elf range for only $1 and $2 but I knew I wanted the studio line and all items in this range are $3. Personally I think it looks a lot like the Mac packaging whereas the standard is white and does look quite cheap looking Lol!
So here is what I purchased (feel free to skip this part I know some of you aren't into the shopping parts as much! )

1) Tone correcting powder
2) Baked blush - rich rose
3) Baked eyeshadow - bark
4) Make-up mist and set
5) Matte lip color - natural
6) Lip define and shape - nude / natural
7) Lip lock pencil
8) Lip exfoliator
9) Milani lipstick - 25 naturally chic
10) Milani lipstick - 08 ruby valentine
I really wanted the kabuki brush but this was sold out along with pretty much all of the real techniques which I also wanted... fingers crossed I get these tomorrow at Target!

It was now approaching 8am so we just headed towards Universal looking for somewhere nice for breakfast...why is it on holiday when you wake up you are always hungry!
We spotted Perkins again and as usual it was yummy. Jez had his usual of eggs Benedict with breakfast potatoes and fruit and I went for the all American with poached eggs, breakfast potatoes and sour-dough toast. Both were washed down with OJ and coffee / tea and it came in at $25

Now it was off to universal and it was already busy. We had pre-purchased annual passes for this trip as we knew we wanted to get one more trip out of our Disney passes early next year so anything more than 2 visits it's cheaper to do it this way. You also get the benefits of free parking and food discounts.
We had to queue and it did take ages to get to the front of the line. It was all a bit underwhelming once we got there - our annual pass is literally a card ticket! Nothing extra like at Disney... so anyway, once sorted we headed inside.

We had just one mission for today as we knew we would be coming back a few times and it was all about Harry Potter. We were yet to experience the train over to IOA and we both agreed it was fantastic! I won't spoil it but it's really good and you literally sit in a train carriage section seating 8 people.

Once we arrived at Hogwarts we knew we were not going to queue for the advertised 60 mins for Forbidden Journey - we opted straight for single rider! I guess it only took about 5 mins to get on the ride. For us it's a no brainer. Jez wanted to ride again but I can't do 2 in a row as it makes me feel a little sicky! Instead I wandered around taking photos.

We didn't do anything else, it was getting really busy and hot now do we decided to head back to Kings Cross Station!
The return train journey was different but equally as good!

Escape from Gringotts was another 1st for us. It was now advertising a queue time of 120 mins! There was no way! So we again opted for single rider, it still took about 30 mins but the ride was fab! We are going to get here for opening one day and do the whole experience as it looks really great!

So by now it was snack time! We had read about the ice cream parlour in Diagon Alley and it had lots of different flavours (hopefully you can zoom in on the photo!) I went for soft swirl toffee apple and Jez had apple crumble and chocolate raspberry. They were huge and I couldn't finish mine...it was actually just vanilla soft swirl with a sauce running through and pretty sweet!

After our Ice Cream our feet were aching, it was soooo hot and most queues were over an hour :-(
We had done our key mission of the new HP rides so decided to leave the park for the day.
Now when on holiday we love to go to the cinema we agreed this trip we would do 4 visits (including a fork and dine). It was Jez turn today and he picked 'Gone Girl'. Here is the 'official overview' :
This film unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne reports that his beautiful wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

It was a good film and left it open for a follow-on!
Why is there no such thing as 'small' in USA - this small coke is the equivalent of our xxl!

The film was done by around 5pm so we decided to have an early dinner. We went to Hard Rock and let me first apologise for the picture - this time we were both half way through our main before remembering the photo... better late than never!
We share bruschetta to start and it was absolutely delicious!
For mains we both had burgers, I had the small version with onion rings instead of fries and Jez had bacon and cheese. We had 2 cokes and Jez had a strawberry shake. We got 15% annual Passholder discount and it came in at $48.
A slow walk back to the car and now we are home after a 12 hour day!

Tomorrow is shopping day! Yippppeeee so I need a good nights sleep to prepare for this :-)
Until then... Debs xxx

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New Photo Added by debidee - 11 Oct 14 1:46 AM.

[macdonald88]

What a fab day shopping and universal perfect combination. I'm the same as you always up at stupid o'clock whilst dh is dead to the world I have to cave in and wake him up lol

[mrsdjh]

Really enjoying the updates. Looking forward to shopping. My daughter is desperate to go to Dollar Tree for craft things. Happy shopping.

Diane

[debidee]

I'm going to start at JoAnn this morning which is supposed to be a great craft store - I've got a new Kikki-K journal and I want to get some embellishment pieces - the website looks great! Hopefully some photos of what I find later!

[Megandllsmum]

Another great report. . . Loving the feedback on the makeup from Walmart my eldest daughter has just discovered mac makeup, which is a bit pricey she's got a couple of pieces like their foundation. Might get her to have a look at this. Looking forward to reading Saturdays shopping trip report

[Jake71]

I'll be keeping those makeup ranges in mind next year when we go.

[debidee]

Originally Posted by Megandllsmum

Another great report. . . Loving the feedback on the makeup from Walmart my eldest daughter has just discovered mac makeup, which is a bit pricey she's got a couple of pieces like their foundation. Might get her to have a look at this. Looking forward to reading Saturdays shopping trip report

See more...

I know what you mean about it being quite expensive - I probably got the whole lot for the equivalent of 1 lipstick lol! But I think I will be sticking to Mac for my foundation :-)

[debidee]

Originally Posted by Jake71

I'll be keeping those makeup ranges in mind next year when we go.

See more...

So far I think it's great - for $3 you can't really go wrong. Thanks for all your lovely comments each day x

[KittyBlackDog]

Another great day Deb. We are planning on doing universal a few days next year and I've been wondering about whether an annual pass would be worth the money either for all 3 of us or just one. Can I be rude and ask how much the annual passes were?

That make up looks like great value. Have mad e a note of the name and will be looking out for it next time.

Loving your reports, as always, keep them coming