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.