Surprise Birthday Trip to Orlando, Part Two

Sunday was our first of two full days in the parks. We woke up pretty early and arrived at the entrance to Universal Studios just before 9am.

We did the Minions ride first and then made our way back to the new Harry Potter world, Diagon Alley. (I should also mention that Universal’s month-long Mardi Gras celebration kicked off the weekend we were there, so there were lots of NOLA-inspired stands and displays around the park. Fun! But $4 for each pair of beads??? Come on.)

Entering Diagon Alley was so cool. Like Hogsmeade in the other park, the attention to detail is incredible. And the dragon on top of Gringotts Bank is so impressive, especially when it breathes fire. I loved the ride inside of Gringotts, although I think I prefer the one in the castle.

 

 

After exploring for a while, we left Diagon Alley to check out the Men in Black and the Simpsons rides before revisiting our childhoods with E.T. Classic.

 

After that, we jumped on my favorite roller coaster, Rip Ride Rock It, took a break for lunch at the Classic Monsters Cafe, and then were right back at it. We did the Mummy coaster (twice in a row) and the Transformers ride (including meeting Bumblebee afterwards) and then hopped on the Hogwarts Express to switch over to the other park. We rode the Dragon Challenge coaster and then Kenny finally agreed to give the Harry Potter castle ride a try. He gets motion sickness fairly easily but he closed his eyes during the parts that bothered him and was fine.

 

We then left Harry Potter world, told Morgan and Adam goodbye (she had to fly home for work the next morning and he took her to the airport), and stupidly decided to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride, where most of us got soaking wet. It took poor Kenny a long time to dry out; he got the worst of it. However, a ride on the Hulk coaster afterward helped a bit.

We walked over to City Walk after Hulk to sit by the water and have a round of beers. Then Pat and I decided we wanted to ride the Rock It at sunset, so we hightailed it over there and hopped on right before the park closed. So nice not having the super bright sun in our eyes during the ride. LOVE that coaster!

We went back to City Walk for a great dinner at Cowfish and then met Adam at one of the resort’s bars for more drinks and the end of the Superbowl. What a crazy game. You blew it, Dirty Birds!

Last recap coming up tomorrow!