On our last full day (our only "day off") we thought we'd just go to Volcano Bay again for the first hour (where we could get in before people who were not at Universal hotels) and then go somewhere else but then we decided to stay on longer. Jim had a lie in this day, but Clare came and stayed for a couple of hours, and the boys and I stayed until after lunch time. We used the first hour to get on the Krakatau Aqua Coaster which was great. No idea how it works, it looks like a roller coaster but the cars are all just boats. Fast downhills, lots of hairy turns and then somehow it powers up hill again too (linear induction motors apparently). I enjoyed this more than any roller coaster I have been on (and I've been on about four) and it was great that we could go right back to the entrance and have another go at this early hour. The waiting time was two hours by the time we left.
We found the small lockers for $9 that were big enough for our stuff on this visit, and spent not quite so much on drinks and snacks this time as we left by early afternoon. I was going to let the boys choose a lunch here but it did not look as good as back at the hotel. Also last time at this park we had a relaxing drink at the end of the day (basically Clare and Jim were out of the water a lot earlier than we were so had time to wait for us) but not this time, so we headed off.
We spent the afternoon by the pool, back at the hotel, and ate at the pool bar. The boys joined in the poolside games and I read my book and relaxed. At some point though the pool area was evacuated because of lightning in the area. And before the poolside bingo too! This is a big deal at a big open are like this (lightning, not bingo), I guess they must have closed the high rides at the theme park too. We took our drinks to the undercover area and thing one played table tennis. The storm alert did not clear for the rest of the afternoon, so no idea what effect it must have had at the real parks. They take lightning very seriously here.
Quick change and then another lovely evening drinking out on the terrace, and we ate here this time too. Lovely not-quite-tapas, small dishes, but too big to be tapas. Something for everyone anyway. We sat up late and played cards too, all together round our table on the terrace.
That was the end of our final day in Orlando, so next stop a road trip to Miami, ready to fly to Mexico!
Do you notice these updates are getting shorter as I run out of enthusiasm / memory for the task?
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.