Merry Christmas

We are having a great and relaxing Christmas in SW Florida at Mom's house. Now, we are here waiting for our People-to-People Friendly Planet tour to Cuba. It has been hot here, but we are expecting more heat and humidity in Cuba without the benefit of air conditioning we've been enjoying. We went out to eat one night at a new place for all of us Stephan's German Bistro. We all really liked it. We found the prices reasonable and the food good. We all saw other dishes we'd like to return to try. Mom and I made fun of Clay for his baby boot of beer. Evidently although they weren't all on the menu, Stephan's also serves a lady-sized and a man-sized boot. Now you know. Clay said his baby boot was the perfect amount of very good German beer and a better buy.

Universal Orlando Birthday trip Day 2

Thursday, December 3, 2015

My Cinnabun breakfast

We were up earlier this morning after a full, good night's sleep. The parks opened at 9am this morning. We were up at 7am and took our time. I had coffee again made in the room with what was provided. It was pretty good both mornings. We stopped for breakfast at Cinnabun in CityWalk. Then we walked over to the Studios side again to start and straight in as soon as they opened and we arrived. No problems today.

Clay's Cinnabun breakfast

Park Entrance

I had gone through the week's map/schedule brochure last night before bed and made a list of live scheduled activities so we could get the most out of our last day without running around missing things or just counting on luck. It was a pretty loose schedule and it worked out fine. We also made a dinner reservation from the room before bedtime because we had enough of the Harry Potter area's meals. The day's schedule went more or less like this: 10:45am meet Shrek & Donkey, 12:30pm Horror Make Up Show, 1:30pm Animal Actors, 3:45pm Raptor meeting, 4:30pm Terminator 2 3-D, 5pm Universal's Superstar parade, 5:30pm Finnegan's dinner reservation, 7pm parks close and Universal's Cinematic Spectacular nighttime show. There was more of course, but these were the times and places that were set.

We were in early with time to kill before 10:45am and the first live scheduled event I had laid out. I looked at the map and chose to visit Curious George Goes to Town, an interactive playground. It was at the opposite side of the back of the park to Diagon Alley. We had not gone back there at all yesterday. We walked around the lagoon and scoped out most of the other places we would visit today. The little kid's section in the back was mostly empty this morning. Oh! I am not sure when we did it but sometime near the end of the day yesterday before Studios closed at 6pm and we went to Hogsmeade for dinner, we rode E.T. Adventure close by here! I don't know how I could have forgotten that since I rode so few rides! You kind of sat on a kid's bicycle with a group of other bicyclists hanging from the ceiling. It was pretty tame and mostly reminded me of Peter Pan at WDW.  So, we walked by there again this morning on our way to see Curious George. It turned out that it was not just a playground, but mostly a water playground! Clay did not want to enter because there were warning signs that if you entered, you'd get wet. It was overcast and cooler this morning and neither of us wanted to get wet. I was hooked by the big books though and told Clay I was going to try it by looking for dry paths. We managed to stay dry but it wasn't easy. But, the reward for our perseverance was the Ball Factory at the very back of the playground! This was unexpected and one of my favorite things in the Universal parks. It was a big 2 story building about the size of a small house. It was full of Nerf balls and machines to either suck the balls up or shoot the balls out. I had a blast! We mostly had the place to ourselves. I think 2 other families with kids came in. We spent about a half hour in the Ball Factory. Clay mostly sat on a bench. He said it was because I hurt him when I shot Nerf balls at him the one time he was vacuuming balls. I didn't mean to hurt him or think it would hurt, I was just supplying him with balls to vacuum. Oh well. It was great fun and we narrowly avoided get soaked from a big tsunami of water as we headed back to the front of the playground. We never did see the Man in the Yellow Hat. But we did find George.

We meandered back towards the front of Studios for the Shrek & Donkey meet at 10:45am. We arrived to find Fiona, Shrek and Donkey out early! We went to the back of the short line and waited. They have professional photographers but we never even looked at any of the photos they took because they will also take photos with your own camera. Donkey was fascinated by Bob. I asked him not to bite Bob before putting him on the stall window ledge. Donkey was offended by the idea since Bob did not smell like waffles, did not look like waffles and did not taste like waffles! Also, he couldn't reach Bob! He was worried about how small Bob was and how I could keep up with him. He asked if Bob was born that small and wouldn't grow. I told him that Bob had a leash that he hangs on. Donkey wanted to know, Bob hangs on to what, HOPE? He was hilarious and the voice sounded a lot like Eddie Murphy. I don't know how they do it. It was interactive and very life like. A remote control animatronic puppet? After the photo, Shrek put out his hand for Bob. I am sorry to say that I allowed an ogre to pinch Bob by the head and put him in his mouth and nibble at his paws! Sorry Bob!

That's Bob in the lower right corner and far too close to an ogre's teeth.

We had about an hour free now. We went around the corner and rode/watched the Shrek 4D in stationary seating together, though they didn't have seat restraints here so it seemed pretty tame. We used our Express Passes. They put us directly at the back of the line that was already there unlike Minions where they put us at the front. I don't know whether it just works that way or if the girl we gave the passes to didn't understand. Oh well. We had time to kill anyway.

After that we walked over to the Simpson's Springfield and went to Lard Lad Doughnuts where we shared a Brain Freeze Pink Donut Sundae with Reese's Pieces. It was good. It was basically lunch!

Fortified again, we walked over to the Horror Make Up Show at 12:30pm. It was funny and informative. More comedy than horror.

Next on the schedule was Animal Actors at 1:30pm.

Debbie walking through the brick wall to Platform 9 3/4

After that we walked through Diagon Alley again and had a Butterbeer each. I had a hot one this time since it was cool today. It was exceptionally and unexpectedly good! Clay had a frozen Butterbeer. We went back out to King's Cross Station and to Platform 9 3/4 and took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade in the Islands of Adventure park. We walked through Hogsmeade to get to Jurassic Park to meet a raptor.

I'm first in our queue for the Hogwarts Express Train

Hogwarts School

We're waiting to meet the wild giant reptile with all the teeth! 

We got in line for the raptor meeting in Jurassic Park around 3:45pm. We had a bit of a wait and as we watched, it seemed like it might be a bad idea! But, we were all the way over in this park for this alone and I insisted that we stick it out for variety if nothing else. Whoever Clay handed his camera to took an astonishing series of photos of our seconds long raptor close encounter!

It started out nice enough....

and quickly went south...

Good thing I had decided to leave Bob hanging on to hope...

Clay thought the whole thing was hilarious...

he wasn't being nuzzled by a giant reptile...

 

Is Clay trying to distract Zulu? Yes, that is her name!

Not helping...

Trainer to the rescue...

It's a 2-man rescue.

Whew! That's done.

We walked back through Hogsmeade to the Hogwarts Express Train station and rode back one final time to Studios park.


We walked to the front of the Studios park and sat in stationary seating near the back of the theater for Terminator 2:3-D at 4:30pm.

We walked to the center of Studios towards Finnegan's for dinner. The Superstar Parade was at 5pm so we stopped nearby to stand and watch it. It lasted less than 10 minutes.

We just had a fish lips close encounter with that pink-skated blue fish

Bob and Clay's Guinness

We arrived at Finnegan's after 5pm, but well before our 5:30pm reservation time. They were not busy and seated us anyway. It was an Irish pub. The food was surprisingly good and more reasonably priced than the Harry Potter places. In addition there was live music and it was table service with wait staff and not counter service. Go figure.

My grilled chicken breast on garlic mashed potatoes with cabbage and veggies

Clay's corned beef and cabbage

We had some time to kill between dinner and the show tonight. We didn't like any of the little pudding glasses of dessert at Finnegan's, so we walked back to Diagon Alley for a last Butterbeer ice cream. We hung around and waited to see the Dragon blow fire in the dark, but after blowing about every 12 minutes for the last 2 days she was done. I don't know if she was broken or if she was out of gas but after more than 30 minutes with only a couple of mild roars and one little blue flame, we gave up. We walked back out and stood by the lagoon across from Starbucks where our waitress had advised was a good place to watch. It was okay.

Last night the Studios side closed early at 6pm. Tonight Islands of Adventure closes early at 6pm. We are stayed Universal Cinematic Spectacular show at 7pm before heading out for the end of our visit.

We got a last good night's sleep and got up early to start the drive home on Friday morning. We should have left either earlier or later than 7am as we sat for an hour or so in the car creeping across Orlando for 16 miles. Avoid I-4 if ever you can! We had breakfast at the first Bob Evans we found. They did not have a senior menu! The drive back was uneventful. We were happy to have a pizza and go to bed in our own bed early. Saturday we have another early start as we go to Grifton for our Burch siblings Christmas get-together.

The next trip we have planned is to Mom's in Florida for Christmas. After that it is Cuba with Mom & Judy. Stay tuned.

Universal Orlando Birthday trip Day 1

Wednesday, December 2, 2015


We woke up around 9am. That seems like sleeping late, but it was a short night. We didn't want to miss time in the Universal parks though. We had 2 day park-to-park tickets that we had purchased online in advance and printed at home. We paid $415.34 for them and wanted to get the most use out of them possible!

We showered and walked over to the Universal Studios side of the parks. We got to the turnstiles at the entrance gate about 10am. The parks opened to the public at 9am and this side closes at 6pm today. The other side, Islands of Adventure closes tonight at 7pm. So, we'll start on this side at the new part since our last visit. London, Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Express train are all newly built since my last birthday visit to Universal Orlando when we came for Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.

Express Pass to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem

Bad news at the turnstiles. Our print at home tickets scanned as "unknown tickets". John, the gate attendant, walked us over to the ticket office/guest services and took us to the first available window to straighten it out. I had also printed out my receipt from the day we purchased online. It was good that I had it, but I think it would have worked out anyway. The girl that helped us immediately recognized 8/27/2014 as a day that they had an internal computer problem and none of the online tickets from that day were valid at the scanner. She typed everything into her computer again and printed us little card sized tickets. Then to compensate us for lost time and trouble, she gave us 3 Express Passes each. These were single use bar-coded slips of paper that are supposed to allow you to skip the line and merge right in at the front of the entry line at various attractions. Universal sells these passes at a premium over the ticket prices and we would never pay for them so that was a nice bonus. One pass per person was good at Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. This is a very popular attraction and had a 30 minute wait and was one of the first things we came to so that is where we started. The Express Pass saved us 30 minutes and that was about our time lost, so we were happy. The lines the rest of the trip for things we entered were so short that we never saved time again with the other Express Passes. Oh well.

Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue

Despicable Me Minion Mayhem is not really a ride. It is more like a 3-D film. It was for me anyway because I sat in stationary seating. I still felt a little queasy. The front row of the theater is just solid benches. The rest of the theater is made up of little cars that hold maybe a dozen or so people and holds them in place with a big seat bar that pins them down and then it pitches them around during the film to feel like a ride. Clay got his camera strap broken when the bar came down. Then he got his brain rattled. He did stationary seating any other time it was offered! But nothing else that offered it was that rough that it required a seat bar.

Next was the 11:15am showing of Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue. This live action show has been playing here for years but is discontinued after today according to our park guide that we picked up today. Lucky! We enjoyed it enough, but it was dated and I can understand why they are closing it to build something more current in its place. You still have to feel bad for the cast and crew losing their jobs though.

Piccadilly Circus

Grimmauld Place

After the show, we headed straight to the back of the park and the new stuff related to Harry Potter that we had come for. Mostly though after unintentionally skipping breakfast, we wanted lunch! Leaky Cauldron here we come. First though we had to check out the London front of Diagon Alley. We passed King's Cross Station and walked by the Knight Bus in Piccadilly Circus. We waited in front of 12 Grimmauld Place to see Creature pull back the curtains and look out! Creature! Eek! I don't know why Universal can't find a place for Dobby, a loveable and good house elf. Oh well.



Creature!

Debbie on the Knight Bus

Fred & George Weasley's London shop

Dragon freed from Gringott's Bank vault!

Oh right, Fire-breathing Dragon!

Bob with beer and Butterbeer

Finally, we entered through the fractured brick wall and came upon Leaky Cauldron. It has no magical effects sadly, unlike 3 Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. We had a good lunch though it was expensive. I had Toad in the Hole with a Butterbeer and a cranachan for dessert. Clay had a 20 oz. Dragon Scale draft beer with fish and chips. It was $44.68. While it was all good, it seemed expensive. I didn't keep our dinner receipt but we skipped drinks and desserts and while the food wasn't as good, the price seemed more reasonable. I think it was just the drinks and dessert. But, I had to have my birthday Butterbeer! Clay thought his beer was very good too.

My Toad in the Hole, Butterbeer and cranachan

Clay's fish & chips

Birthday Butterbeer! Now it's a Happy Birthday...

Leaky Cauldron

Gringott's Money Exchange

We wandered a bit after lunch in Diagon Alley. When I found the Gringott's Money Exchange, that was our next stop. It was awesome! It is separate from Gringott's Bank (which is actually the entrance to the Escape from Gringott's ride).  There were so few people here today that I got to have a nice long private interaction with the stern and scary goblin teller. I loved it! I wish Clay had shot a video but neither of us really knew what to expect. It was very life-like though and I was happy to change a $20 dollar bill for a $10 Gringott's bank note and 2 $5 bills afterwards as other people entered. Not to worry. You can either keep the bank note as a souvenir or spend it anywhere in Universal Orlando. We didn't keep it long.

Animatronic Gringott's goblin teller

My money exchange transaction completed

My Gringott's $10 Goblin banknote

Diagon Alley

We spent the bank note at Fortescue's for ice creams! We used the restrooms by Gringott's and then went to Florean Fortescue's for ice cream. I had the butterbeer soft-serve and Clay chose a scoop flavor. I believe it was Sticky Toffee Pudding. Mine was just as good or better than his though. We walked over and ate ice cream while we waited for one of the 2 live shows that happen in Diagon Alley. I should mention at this point that it was very cool to watch the people casting spells with their interactive wands from Ollivander's all over both Harry Potter parks. They sell for about $50! They don't do anything outside the parks! They were cool but not worth that to me for a couple of days of added fun on top of the $100 entry fee. Of course, I guess they would be an easier sell than the nearly $40 for a resin wand that is not interactive and really does nothing! There were plenty of Universal-employed witches and wizards standing around wherever there was a brass emblem in the ground to show where and how the wands would work. So, I didn't feel like I missed anything by not getting one!

Bob & Butterbeer softserve ice cream

Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees

The next show to take place was the musical one with Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees. They did about 3 to 4 songs and it was fun. They pulled a man out of the audience and put him in the act. It was nicely done and he was a gas.

Debbie & Bob on Hagrid's motorcycle

Inside Escape From Gringott's

We asked outside Gringott's about walking through and only Clay riding to let me know if he thought I could handle it. They told us how we'd do that and advised us to use the 45-minute free lockers now rather than returning later if we both decided to ride. We followed their instructions. The Gringott's Bank lobby was astounding! It looked and felt just like the movie when Hermione and Harry and Ron enter after using a transformation potion to disguise themselves to rob Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. That is the part of the movies that the ride is based on. Clay rode and I waited for him at the goggle return bins. When he got off the ride he was shaking his head at me. He told me that if I felt bad at the 3-D stationary Minions that this ride would destroy me. So, we exited. Clay was clearly not too impressed with the ride as he assured me I wasn't missing anything.

Tales of Beetle the Bard

When we came out, we went and waited to see the next live show. It was a puppet show of one of the Tales of Beetle the Bard. It was good. I love puppets.

Fire-breathing dragon atop Gringott's

By this time, we had seen the dragon breathe fire several times and we had walked through the very dark and creepy Knockturn Alley. We had to ask if we were at Ollivander's as there was no line there and hadn't been all day. It was it so they asked if we'd like to see the interactive wand selection process or just go to the wand shop. The wand selection, of course. They told us to go on back and wait. We thought we'd join a line and wait to see a short crowded show like we had last visit to the Ollivander's at Hogsmeade. Nope! We were shown right into Ollivander's show room alone! Just the 2 of us. Ollivander very sternly asked us our names and if we had come to be selected by our wands. We replied and he frowned disapprovingly at us a lot! He picked 2 wands and had me try Wingardium Leviosa. It went badly and I caused a shelf of wands to collapse! I think I mispronounced it. Clay tried to ring a bell and set off a whole bunch of bells. Both the wands Ollivander offered us had a dragon heart string core from the same dragon so they were a matched pair of wands even though made of different woods in different styles and sizes. Ollivander figured out that he had switched the wands and switched which wand went to who. By that time we could hear people waiting outside and the lights came on us and the wind blew and the music was inspiring and these were the wands that had chosen us without us casting successful spells. It was very cool and unexpected. Clay didn't take any photos! We were both so surprised and it seemed disrespectful to a stern old wizard to take photos during our interaction. Then it was over and we were out of the showroom and into the shop entrance being told that we were holding interactive wands and it was our lucky day if we'd like to be rung up. We declined. We exited Diagon Alley and walked to the ticket scanners in King's Cross Station to take the Hogwarts Express Train to Hogsmeade.

Clay on Hagrid's motorcycle

I have to say that this ticket scanning is problematic and not very nicely done. I am not sure how else they could have done it, but it seems to me that it would have been nicer if less profitable to let people ride it over and back without going between parks if they didn't want to and that way they'd only have to scan tickets when you changed parks but not to enter the ride. Anyway, we were ready to change parks for the day.

A second issue is the one of walking through the brick wall at King's Cross Station between platforms 9 and 10 to reach platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express. There is a place where this "effect" happens but you can only see it if someone goes through in the line ahead of you while you are looking through a glass around the corner. Now, I had heard it was a mirror or something, so I was looking around and didn't figure it out. There was basically no one in the queue at that point but Clay and I. The effect is only on this end of the train and it was our 3rd or 4th trip before there were enough people in line for us to see it work and then only after another passenger had pointed it out and we had already missed it. The last time we went through the 9 3/4 platform queue I finally insisted on holding the line up enough to see it work. At that point, I wasn't really delaying anyone. We had to wait for another train to fill and leave before we even got to the loading area. Unlike when it was so empty that it was basically walk on. It just seems like this could have been done better as well.

Hogwarts Express Train

The train ride is very tame and very cool. I drew a backward riding bench seat though and it didn't make me feel too good. The good news is that is the only time it happened. The ride has a different show through the windows depending on which way you are riding. The ride to Hogwarts is darker with dementors arriving onboard. The ride back to London is happier and lighter. Go figure.

Bob & cauldron cake

We went first from Hogsmeade station to Seuss Landing and rode the other ride I can handle, the High in the Sky Trolley. We walked back to Hogsmeade and got a cauldron cake to share for my birthday. We wandered around a little. Checked out Moaning Myrtle in the restrooms. Watched people casting spells with their interactive wands. Went to 3 Broomsticks for dinner.



My roast chicken

Clay's ribs

I had roast chicken and Clay had ribs. The sample platter showed a serving of 8 ribs and Clay was given 5. He was not happy. Neither of us liked this meal as well as lunch. It was cheaper though since we'd been noshing all day and skipped drinks and desserts.


By this time it was about 5 of 7pm and closing time. I wanted to walk through the castle though. We walked straight over and asked if we were too late. No, not too late. We got the abbreviated walkthrough, up the stairs past the moving portraits, defense against the dark arts classroom (where it used to snow!) and Griffindor common room. We asked to go see the sorting hat before exiting without riding and since there were no other people around got to do just that. I picked up a Marauder's Map jigsaw puzzle and big coffee mug saying "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" in the shop as we exited. I could get big souvenirs for my birthday since we aren't flying home! Bonus.

Hogwarts' sorting hat

We followed the crowd and the traffic directions and walked back through Lost Continent and Seuss Landing to the exit.

It was a good full day. The weather was comfortable until it started spitting misty rain on and off through the afternoon and then it was uncomfortable humid but we never got too wet from the rain. Just sweaty. It was a quiet walk back to the Holiday Inn. You have to wait at 3 street crossings. That seemed to take longer than this morning, but probably we were just tired.

We both showered and fell into bed by 9pm. We need to get up earlier tomorrow to get the most out of our last park day.