Day 2: I'm sure the wait won't be that long!
So after a good night's rest at Shades of Green, we woke up and got ourselves packed up. We had breakfast to get to at Kona Cafe and then we were going to hit the Universal parks next.
Kona Cafe was...okay. I have to say I expected more from breakfast and though DH and I shared the Tonga Toast I really feel the quality (and quantity) has declined. I think we would have done just as well, or better, at Capt Cooks for far less money. Lesson learned I guess. The service was good and our waitress very nice and a bit flirty we thought with my 77yo FIL.
After breakfast we made the drive to Universal. We chose to pay for the "Preferred" parking since it was a Saturday but honestly...I don't think it's worth it. My AP gave us a parking discount at least. We parked and started the walk into the park.
Once at the gates, we selected Universal Resort as our park of choice as my FIL had never seen Diagon Alley yet. First and foremost we had to have our military vouchers for turned in for tickets for 3 of our group. That line took FOREVER! I swear it was easily a 30 minute wait just to turn in vouchers for tickets. The should have opened more windows for sure. My DH was debating paying for front of the line Express Passes for us but at over $1000 for that I told him I didn't think it was worth it. We knew we'd be coming back at least one more day, and a WEDNESDAY at that, so I figured we'd get everything else done that day for sure.
Tickets in hand, our first stop was directly to Diagon Alley and riding Gringott's. This is truly one of my favorite rides, I love how it's done. My FIL was in awe of the inside of the the bank and we were happy there was really no wait...we mostly walked right through but tried to take time to take it all in there. After riding Gringott's, we then decided to explore Diagon Alley a bit...and of course...the family needed Butterbeer.
And exploring a bit...while I grabbed some ice cream for the place there that I'm not even going to try to spell. I will say I was a bit annoyed that they refused to sell me a cup. Your choices were sugar cone or upgrade to the SOUVENIR cup for an upcharge of course...and I'm not a big ice cream cone person. Oh unless you had a food issue where you couldn't have the cone. So I got the cone...and it was okay. Ice cream melts fast in Florida in August!
We decided that was the only ride we were interested in for sure at that park, so it was time to board the train (which FIL had never done either) over to IOA.
The family decided they wanted to do Harry Potter but I'm not a huge fan of that one and neither is DD. We sent them off on what SAID it would be about a 20 minute wait...and we went over to the restroom. As we had walked in, we noticed that Hagrid's was closed at the time. However as DD and I walked over there it had just opened back and though it posted 210 minutes I figured it had just opened...surely it would be shorter.
Ha.
We texted the family that we were getting in line and they said their line was probably going to be more like 40 minutes. Here we are in the queue:
How exciting...we are almost inside in a few minutes...surely it much be a shorter wait.
Right?
I think within about 30 minutes maybe we were at the preshow. Wow...not much longer right?
Wrong.
It moved slowly. And slowly. And at least one or two announcements of a delay.
Soon it was an hour.
But we passed through another room. And another. And then DD pulled up a YouTube video of the queue.
Yeah we had many rooms left.
Still we figured...what else would we be doing? There would be lines all over the park for other rides.
At about 1 hour 45 minutes we were texting the family and we heard that outside it was raining. Not that we could see that. You had no idea what was going on outside while in that castle for hours. Still at least we were waiting somewhere dry. However we were getting hungry.
Then a text miscommunication with the family as they mentioned lunch. They were talking about going on Kong since most things were shutdown due to the rain. Eventually at about 2 hours we decided to throw in the towel. Hagrids would just have to wait.
We met up with the family at Monsters Cafe for lunch and afterwards we decided to see the Hollywood Horror Makeup Show which we have seen a few times and enjoyed.
Oh on the walk over there were fish on rollerskates:
Kids were not thrilled with this plan. While waiting in the lobby THIS guy showed up:
I am a huge Beetlejuice fan and this guy was spot on in looks and personality. I was so happy to get a photo with him!
The kids really ended up enjoying the show (of course) and after that I think we decided to bail. Our treehouse was ready for us and we were ready for a break.
Up next: Treehouse of Dreams!