To start, Hubs had a seizure the week before Christmas and has been unable to drive since then. It made last minute shopping slightly more difficult... but it all got done. The past 6 months I have been his driver, and since he works 40 minutes in one direction from our place, and I work 40 minutes in the other direction, we had to get creative. Basically I have been dropping him at a bus stop every morning to get to work, and then once his bus comes, driving myself to work.
We (and his boss) are very happy to say that he now has his license back and is getting used to driving again, not being the passenger. Then we had some hectic stuff going on at my work, with new employees, yearly inspections, new clients, it was nuts.
SO! HERE I AM! Back again! to finish what I started with Disney, because we went to Universal and I never did the Universal post NOR did I give all my crazy tips for Disney. Here we go!
Universal:
I am going to jump around with this, not like Disney because we just walked back and forth around the parks for this one.
So I have never been there and my husband had been there once with his mother. We purchased Park Hopper tickets and I am SO HAPPY WE DID. Let me tell you why!
If you purchase the park hopper ticket option for your Universal Studios Orlando vacation, you get to ride..... THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS. That's right people! Rather than walking all the way around Islands of Adventure to get back to Universal Studios, you can get on the Hogwarts Express and it drops you at Kings Cross Station in Universal Studios.
For those of you who have never been there, (like myself before I went in November) there are two portions of Harry Potter-ness to Universal. There are 3 roller coasters in "Hogsmede" and some shops. Hogsmede is part of Islands of Adventure, right by Jurassic Park (I'll get back to that awesomeness later!) but Diagon Alley is part of Universal Studios, and you have to have a park hopper to go back and forth between them.
You will never believe from the OUTSIDE how big it is once your there. Diagon Alley is huge compared to what you think when you first walk up.
Now apparently you can go through the Leaky Cauldron to get in too, but I couldn't find it... until we were IN Diagon Alley. I would have liked to have eaten there, but there was always this HUGE wait to get a table, and hubs and me were like "Meh... the food choices are okay..." So we would snack on stuff instead.
I DID have Butterbeer while there. I'm not a cream soda person, so it was okay... hubs loved it. My brother wanted me to bring him some back but they don't bottle it... I tried to bring him Pumpkin Juice, but couldn't find the store at the airport that sells it to get it (yes, they apparently have a store at the Orlando Airport that sells the same Merchandise as in Universal)
I got a chocolate frog too... Rowena Ravenclaw was my card on the inside. The Frog is freaking HUGE!!!
We went on every ride that was Harry Potter themed... the two indoor rides have screens and special effects. I get motion sick easily... so they weren't amazing for me... made me want to vomit a few times, and you had to wait awhile to get on.
TIP!!! If you are like my husband and above the normal average person height (he's 6'4") TELL THEM AHEAD OF TIME for the Gringotts Ride. We waited in line, then had to get OUT of line because my husband needed a special seat for the ride, and so we had to wait in the Handicap line because he needed to be in a specific spot. There are like 3 rows that are meant for tall and large people. Hubs just needed a little more room for his feet. The rides are very much designed for the average height individual...
Onto more!!! Now that I've ranted about Harry Potter for awhile...
I LOVE the Jurassic Park ride. I had seen the commercial for Universal Studios on television SO MUCH as a kid, and I went to Disney when I was 18 so I was very curious about this giant T-Rex jumping out at people at Universal. IT WAS AWESOME. Universal better never get rid of that ride or I will lose it. I will never return. I will also never return if they get rid of the Popeye Ride.
Due to us going on a Thursday... and in the rain, hubs and me got to ride the Popeye water ride like 6 times in a row. There was no one in line and we just went, "can we just stay on?" and we did... until we were soaking wet and it was time to go home. Ponchos helped with keeping our heads wet slightly. Did not help with keeping the rest of me dry... it was great.
I must say I loved many a ride at Universal. Next post I will compare the two parks, because thats a post in and of itself. As well as more tips.
While at Universal, we had scheduled our Disney Dining plan accordingly so we had enough to last the week, and got to eat regularly, lol. HOWEVER on Friday we went to Wet n Wild. Hubs loves water parks...
We decided in the end, we both would have rather had the water park option for Disney instead of going to Wet n Wild. We loved Typhoon Lagoon at disney and we were like, "meh..." about Wet n Wild. If we go back we plan to not get this option from Universal. It had some nice rides, but I wouldn't go back. Sorry WetnWild....
On our way TO Universal, we spotted a WAWA!!!! I'm from the part of PA where we have Wawa's EVERYWHERE. Hubs and me are trying to buy a house, and distance to a Wawa is crucial... we can't really function without it...
SO we ended up A. making friends with an employee there because we were amazed by the Beer Cooler (we don't have that in PA, you have to go to Wine and Spirits or a Beer Distributor for that stuff...) and B. We ended up getting Hoagies and taking them back to our hotel at Disney for dinner because we had scheduled lunch in Epcot for the next day.
But seriously if you're from PA CHECK OUT THIS WAWA. Beer Cooler, SEATS OUTSIDE. We were like kids in a candy shop...
Friday Night after Wawa, we did some laundry because the Laundromat at Disney was next to the pool (thanks for that Disney!) and swam in their "Hippy Dippy Pool" at Pop Century. It was nice to not have to do Laundry when we came home (we pay for laundry at our apartment so it was the same as doing it at home...)
Packed up everything, and was ready for check out the next day. While packing up I was not happy about the fact that I found a pack of potato chips under our bed... seeing as I didn't eat any chips while there in the hotel room... nor did I bring them back... and they MAYBE changed the sheets once in the week... See next post for more on that!
Saturday we went to Epcot for rides and lunch. We had loved the Biergarten SO MUCH that we ended up finishing our trip with Lunch there. Disney held our bags while we went to the parks, and we just gave them to the bus driver when it was time to go home. We hit up some more rides in the parks, and spent maybe half the day there before going home.
All in all it was a good trip. I'm glad hubs and me got to be there together without children, so we could experience it together and then later take any future children with us. Now we have a better idea of what to splurge on and what to say "forget that one..." like, we might not do Universal Studios next time, just do Islands of Adventure, though I really enjoyed that Hogwarts express... :)
Happy Living!
taxikab
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