Universal Day 1
Our days at Universal were so full and exhausting, there was no way I could have attempted to blog while we were there!
Tuesday, the 22nd we packed up the car and made our way to Universal. We booked a room at the Dockside Inn which is an official Universal hotel, but not on the Universal grounds. Check in wasn't until 4pm, but we were able to get into our room around 2. We had a nice 2 room suite with a picnic table and enough space to keep all our snacks. Just enough space for the 4 of us. After we unloaded all our things, we hopped in the bus to head into the park.
We kind of planned that Tuesday would just be a day to check out the layout of the two parks and get a bearing on what we wanted to do for the next two days. I think we came to Universal at somewhat of a less busy time of year, but you could have fooled us! Before actually entering the park, you get dropped off at City Walk which has a bunch of restaurants and gift shops. It was so incredibly crowded! We thought we'd try to grab a bite to eat at Margaritaville, but the wait was too long. We found a hot dog stand that had vegan dogs, so we gave it a try. The regular dogs that Charlotte and Colleen had looked fine, but our two vegan dogs were pretty lacking. They had nice toppings, but the texture was wrong, even for vegan dogs. At least they were only $10 each....welcome to theme park pricing. Once we finished our late lunch/early dinner, we made our way towards Universal Studios.
One of the interesting ways Universal ensures the right people are using the right tickets is connecting your fingerprint to your park ticket. Each time we entered a park, you scanned the ticket then your finger. A little "Big Brother" but it probably prevents people from sharing park tickets.
There is so much to see and do immediately upon entering the park. I know Charlotte was anxious to get to Diagon Alley and all the Harry Potter stuff, but it is tucked in the back, so we had to work our way towards it. Mardi Gras celebrations were also happening, which meant a few extra little stands popped up everywhere. Finally, after working our way past Transformers, Simpsons, a Back to the Future DeLorean, and Men in Black, we found ourselves in "London." There were a bunch of folks walking behind this brick wall and decided to follow them. Good thing we did, because we found Diagon Alley!
It is quite the sight to see the first time you pop into it. We were transported into the world of Harry Potter and it was admittedly super cool. We saw the Weasley's shop, Gringots bank with a giant fire-breathing dragon, and Olivander's wand shop among many other places! The line for Olivander's experience was short, so we jumped in line. We knew that one person gets picked to have Olivander help you find a wand and we hoped Charlotte would get picked. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but watching the little show was fun. Just like when Harry Potter got his wand. After the selection was done we were ushered into the wand shop where there were walls and walls of wands to buy! There were about 12 stock Olivander wands to choose from or wands from many of the witches and wizards from all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies. Charlotte took her time browsing all the options and with a little help from one of the employees, she settled on Sirius Black's wand. It's very neat and she's very happy with it. The best part about the wands are that there are a several spots in Diagon Alley and Hogsmead (in the other park) that have spots where your wand will cast spells and make things happen! It was very fun to try! While we were still in Diagon Alley we were able to see the dragon breathe fire and taste a butter beer. With the day getting short, we started to move on from Diagon Alley.
We hadn't paid too much attention to what part hours were, but we quickly realized Universal Studios was closing soon. We (incorrectly) assumed Islands of Adventure would also be closing. Since we were wrong about that we decided to head to the other park, along with EVERYONE ELSE.
We made it into Islands of Adventure and started making our way through the park to get to Hogsmead just to see the other Harry Potter stuff before the day was done. The staff in Hogsmead directing traffic were a little less than kind. As the four of us paused to figure out which way to go, one of the staff asked what we were doing. We told him trying to decide who was going where. Very curtly, he told us to decide RIGHT.NOW. Well, ok then. The crowds were so crazy that Ross and his Mom decided they had had enough and went back towards the hotel. Charlotte and I braved the herd of people to go see the Hogwarts castle. It's quite magnificent in real life! We stopped at just the right spot to see the light show that is played on the castle several times each night, complete with some fireworks! Once that was done we popped into a gift shop to browse then tried to escape the crowds.
The crowds thinned a bit as we left Hogwarts and entered Jurrasic Park, but we were in the flow. It was nearing time that Islands of Adventure was closing, so everyone was making their way around the park towards the exit. We fought our way through the City Walk and found the bus to our hotel.
There was one last thing we needed before bed. Dinner. The Dockside Inn has a food court type area next to the lobby with several different stations with a variety of food. But just like everywhere else, it was terribly crowded. It made sense since, like us, many people just got back from a full day at the parks and now wanted to eat. We all stood in our lines for food and eventually scarfed up some decent sustenance before bed. And that was just a half day! Phew.
Stats for the day:
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