Universal Orlando - Day 2

in which we sleep in!

I always wake up before my family and this day was no exception. I snuck out of the room quietly and went down to the front desk to ask where I could buy a toothbrush because I realized the night before that I had forgotten mine. I’m not usually a forgetful packer, but I guess in the rush of gathering and packing everything in just a couple of hours I forgot it. The front desk gave me a free one! Then I asked her to repeat all the info from the night before because I wasn’t in a position to absorb everything at 1:00 AM. Then I set off to get the lay of the land and figure out how to walk or take the water taxi to the parks.

After that I went back to the room and everyone was waking up so we had some cereal in our room while we watched a tree full of baby raccoons outside our window and got changed to head over to Universal Studios. We immediately made for Diagon Alley. Entering Diagon Alley was so exciting as I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Emmaline is, too, as I’ve been reading them to her and we’ve been watching the movies (up through book 5 and corresponding movie). The place is jaw-dropping. It’s all so well-done. It really feels real. Such an incredible immersive world. It exceeded all expectations.



First we went for the wand show at Ollivanders. There were only a couple of kids present Emmaline was decked out her robe, Harry Potter shirt, time turner necklace, lightning bolt earrings - the works. I was hopeful she would get picked. Alas, another girl was selected. I guess it doesn’t have anything to do with looking like a fangirl because that other girl was dressed normally. The show was a little awkward because the girl didn’t seem to speak English as her native language so someone else in her family was helping translate a bit. But it was still fun and afterwards we left and went to choose a wand. After looking at all the choices, she selected Tonks’ wand. We set off to explore Diagon Alley, have a butterbeer and watch the shows (Celestina Warbeck and Tales of Beetle the Bard). I thought the shows were really cute. The spells could be frustrating at times. They seemed really fickle and we often needed help to make them actually work, which was sort of annoying.





After exploring, it was just about time for lunch so we checked in for our reservation at Finnegan’s. We were seated right away and our meal was pretty tasty so lunch was done pretty fast. After lunch, Roger and I took turns riding the Mummy, which was a pretty good ride. While he was riding, Emmaline and I went and got a locker to store her robe and wand and our ponchos in case of rain. After the Mummy we went and rode Jimmy Fallon, which Emmaline and I liked quite a lot, but Roger had a hard time with the 3D motion simulation concept, which is interesting, because he usually has an iron stomach and I’m the one with issues with motion. Next we did Minions, again, Emmaline and I love it and Roger came off feeling pretty awful. I had some Bonine in my purse so I gave him one. Unfortunately, he felt pretty off the rest of the day.

Next up, we rode Woody Woodpecker, which Emmaline loved and rode again on her own. Then we went the Simpsons area and Emmaline and I rode Kang and Kodos and The Simpsons Ride while Roger went to get the ponchos from the locker because it was looking like rain was going to happen. The Simpsons ride was cute visually but AWFUL from a motion perspective. Emmaline and I both came off queasy. After that we all rode Men in Black (Emmaline got the most points) and then we went back to Diagon Alley.

Gringotts was listed at a 20 minute wait so we decided to give that a try. The wait was definitely more than 20 minutes. After about 40 minutes we arrived into the ride chute, but they didn’t open the gates after the last person got off. So we waited and a person working at the ride said that they were having technical issues with the ride and it would be a few minutes. 10 minutes…20 minutes… Emmaline had to go to the bathroom! I alerted someone and they took us to a backstage bathroom. We got back and waited…another 10 minutes. Finally they said that they were shutting down the ride and would give us a golden ticket we could use as an express pass for any ride (even those that don’t offer express pass). We got our tickets and got off having lost an hour and a half for nothing. These things happen, but it was a little frustrating.

While we were in Gringotts it had started raining and rained for a good long while, so at least we missed that, but we worried that everyone would flock to dinner due to rain, however the Leaky Cauldron wasn’t too busy so we enjoyed dinner. After dinner, it was still raining so we decided to take our first ride on the Hogwarts Express. When we arrived at Hogsmeade, the weather was clearing and Emmaline wanted to head straight for Hogwarts Castle. We originally set our for the “tour only” option (and not actually ride Forbidden Journey). When we got up to the ride, there was no wait, so we decided to give it a try. We hadn’t gotten a locker so Emmaline and I rode while Roger waited (he was unsure about riding anyway since he was still feeling off). She thought the dementors and spiders were pretty scary. I thought the ride was brilliant. I told Roger I thought it was a lot of motion, but smoother and less jerky/shakey than the other motion simulated rides so he tried it. He came off and didn’t agree, he felt sort of green.




It wasn’t raining anymore and we made for Hogsmeade and all rode Flight of the Hippogriff together and Emmaline thought it was scary, but loved it anyway (there was a lot of screaming). She really wanted some ice cream, but the weather was getting really iffy and it was starting to get late. We jumped on the Hogwarts Express right around 8 PM on one of the last trains out and got some really expensive ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s. It was fine, but for the price it was sort of crazy. We could have used half the portion (and been happier to pay half the price for it). I don’t understand why they only offer one size.

After finishing our ice cream it was getting late and the rain was starting to pick up again. As we made our way through the park it started really pouring. We saw the huge lines for the water taxi and decided to walk back. We made it back to our room drenched, even with our ponchos. We put on our dry pajamas and fell into bed so that we could get up early to try the new water park, Volcano Bay, the next morning.

Click here for Day 3.