Blog2019 ≫ Holiday 2019 part two

We spent our first full day at Universal Studios. Our plan for each day was a full breakfast, then race round the parks until we drop with only snack bars for further sustenance, until dinner. This went immediately out the window. We got "grab and go" breakfast from the starbucks-style place in our hotel, instead of a full breakfast. This became our daily routine of a pot of fruit and a doughnut. First day I got coffee and smoothies too but that becomes as pricey as a full breakfast then. I had my snack bars and I knew where to get free drinking water damn it! Only I was frugal here. We looked in the gift shop at the hotel, it was huge and covered the full Universal experience, including Harry Potter wizarding robes. We would see a lot of these...

Another daily routine would be the water taxi to the parks. The entrance to Universal Studios is at the same spot where we had dinner last night. We found it would be easy enough to walk this route too but the boat adds a little extra. The boat had security and metal detectors etc before you could get on. It takes you past the other hotels, one of which (the one with the actual seaplane moored outside it) we would return to for a couple of lovely dinners.

We had one hour of early access to the park because of our hotel, and this one we'd bought "fast passes" too, that let you enter the better tier of queueing. You don't skip the queues as so many people have these passes, but you queue for a little less time. We went straight to what we assumed would be the most popular area, Diagon Alley from the world of Harry Potter, racing past other rides to get there including Minions (that we would return to) and Jimmy Kimmell's New York (that we would not). The sets all around are very impressive looking, you pass through places you recognise in New York and San Francisco and are suddenly in London. Leicester Square tube suspiciously close to Kings Cross station, and nestled between the two, by a red phone box, a little alleyway. Through here and we're in Diagon Alley (there's a video of this in with my shared photos). It looked really good, though it is mostly shops. Harry Potter is very popular with actual full grown adults, all queueing up to buy robes and a wand and a butter beer and all sorts. There's at least one ride here, at Gringott's Bank, so we headed into this. Some kind of indoor simulator rollercoaster, with fire and water and things, and a good first experience for everyone. I think Jim sat this one out, for fears of his blood pressure but Clare and the boys really enjoyed it and I did too. I thought I would just bravely cope, and go on anything the boys asked me to, but this one was alright.

We admired Diagon Alley, there were some nice features like the crooked buildings and the huge fire breathing dragon atop one of the buildings. Drinks and sweets and things were hella expensive. Nearly everything there was a request for more money. There were big queues at the wand shop - this is a way of making the park more interactive, if you buy a wand then you can do spells at all the shops and things, via the magic of RFID. You wave your wand in a certain pattern at a window or fountain or something and magic things happen. We saw it not working for so many people that we didn't think it worthwhile queueing up for one.

I know we went on the Minion's ride too, this is a good simulator, a more up to date version of the Simpsons / Back To The Future one, but huge queues for this, even with our fast passes. Clare and Jim dropped out of the queue to look at something else but I persevered with the boys, and they really enjoyed it. We met up again for lunch at some cafe themed on a popular TV show that we don't know about, The Today Cafe as they did salads and things, a healthy option.

There's a big Simpsons area in Universal Studios I think this is where we headed after lunch, and we went on the Simpsons simulator a couple of times. We think it is the old Back To The Future simulator but reprogrammed. Harry Potter aside lots of Universal feels quite dated, but then it must take a long time to turn a brand into a ride. They'd surely have been better leaving Back To The Future alone though? I'm still surprised this has not been "rebooted" yet, it is prime for it.

Clare and thing one headed to some mental roller coaster "Hollywood Rip Ride" that even they said was a bit much. We did not even consider it and went to a "Trained Animals from TV and the movies" live show, with trained birds and dogs and a pig and an otter and things, very nice. We met up again after in the Harry Potter area and got an actual beer in the Harry Potter area. Jim got a pumpkin juice, then I think we headed back.

We must have gone to the pool at our hotel this day, as I'm sure we did every day, so we can't have stayed too late at Universal Studios. It's a huge shallow pool, going from a beach style sloping entry to maximum of about 1.2 metres (four feet) with a good water slide. The boys went on this many times throughout the trip, and I did on the first visit too. There were games to play around the pool, though we didn't join in today. Also free sun cream, water, newspapers and magazines, and towels. Was this the day I ordered my expensive beer? They offered a small $9 beer (about a pint), a medium for $12 or a large for $15. Then you could turn it into an "iceberg" by adding a floater of frozen margarita to the top. I wonder why the holiday money seemed to go so fast?

We got the boat back to the city walk area and looked around, settling on Hard Rock cafe as good for everyone. Disappointing though, my worst meal of the week. Would you like to see?

So as not to end on a negative here is a picture of Diagon Alley:

Coming tomorrow: Volcano Bay water park!

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Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed + father to 2, I am a full stack web developr, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.