Girls' Trip to Universal

 Lara and I needed some moms-only time so we escaped to Universal Studios for a few days!  We flew out Thursday and finally arrived after a 3 hour delay and a near-disastrous detour to Tampa due to tornadoes in the Orlando area!  I'm not sure what we would have done if that had happened!  Butttt... it didn't and we arrived with a little time left to get some rides in at the parks!

Because we knew that we would have our "Fast Pass" to bypass lines on all rides except two in the park on Saturday, we decided that those two would be ones to ride our first night in the park so we went to Islands of Adventures.  First up was Velocicoaster!  We did not research or look into this ride at all and I'm so glad that we didn't because we would probably not have done it if we'd known!  Luckily, I'd taken some Bonine beforehand so I didn't get motion-sick on the ride.  However, as crazy and loopy and FAST as it was, once was plenty enough for the both of us! We then rode Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey, Hippogriff and lastly Hagrid's Motorbike which was the other one that you can't use a fast pass to ride.  Hagrid's was hands down my favorite of the whole trip(we ended up riding it twice while there), followed by Forbidden Journey(which we rode 4 times during our time there), Gringotts(which we also rode 4 times) and Jimmy Fallon(which we rode 3 times).  By the time we got off of Hagrid's, the park was well past closed and we had not had dinner yet!  We went to City Walk and found a quick sandwich place.  So, we ate dinner at 11pm and made it to our beds at 12:30am - did not sleep a wink because Lara is a very loud snorer!!

Hogsmeade

Friday we got up at 5-something because we were staying on property and were allowed early access to the parks.  We ate breakfast at Starbucks in City Walk at 7am and then went to Universal Studios to start our day in the parks.  We immediately went to Diagon Alley which was neat to take in before the crowds showed up!  We had planned to ride Gringotts first, but it was closed for the morning, so instead we didn't ride any rides at Universal, but instead took Hogwarts Express back to Island of Adventure.  We had the train pretty much to ourselves!  We then rode Forbidden Journey, King Kong ride, Spider-Man, Cat in the Hat, ,One Fish Two Fish, Poseidons Fury and then broke for an early lunch at Three Broomsticks.  We took Hogwarts Express back to Universal and rode Men in Black, ET, Woody Woodpecker, drank a butter bear from the Leaky Cauldron, Fast & Furious, Jimmy Fallon, Bourne Spectacular and ended with Gringotts which closed the park down again(the park closed at 6pm on this day for some sort of private park day for Florida high school seniors.  We had dinner reservations in City Walk at a Mexican restaurant and then went to Toothsome Chocolate Factory before making it back to the hotel about 9:30pm.  I was so tired, but again didn't get any sleep!  Ugh!

Diagon Alley before the crowds show up!

Hedwig at Hogwarts Express station - platform
9 3/4

Hogwarts

Butterbeer

Gringotts with the goblin bankers

Chocolate Emporium dessert!

Yesterday we got a slightly later start and woke up about 6:30am, ate breakfast at the hotel canteen and made it to the parks about 8am.  We were excited to have our "fast pass" for this day so that we could bypass crazy Saturday weekend lines!  We started in Universal Studios and rode Minions, Jimmy Fallon, Transformers, ET, Simpsons, exchanged money at Gringotts to give to S when she goes to Universal with school next month, drank another coffee(LOL!) and rode train to Island of Adventures. When we got there, we rode Forbidden Journey and then ate lunch at Thunder Falls Terrace.  We decided we'd ride all the water rides and then go back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes so we were not wet the rest of the day.  We rode the barge(got DRENCHED!!), the Falls, River Adventures and back to the Falls ride one more time before going back to change at the hotel.  We got back to the park about 3:30pm and rode Jimmy Fallon, Fast and Furious ate dinner at Lombard's, Gringotts, rode Hogwarts Express back to Island of Adventures.  I ate a trifle from Three Broomsticks, we rode Hagrids and then ended our trip with Forbidden Journey one last time.  We got back to the hotel about 11pm and I actually got a little sleep!

Money exchange

Walking out of the park for the last time

Today we flew home!  Not a restful excursion, but oh so much fun!!!