Universal Orlando - Day 4

I solemnly swear, we usually rope drop theme parks!

We slept in! Having already ridden Forbidden Journey, I didn’t see a lot of point to early entry at Islands of Adventure. After another leisurely morning of sleeping in and cereal in our hotel room, we made our way to Islands of Adventure around 10 AM. First we spent a little over an hour in the Dr. Suess area of the park. It was cute, but obviously the rides were geared to a smaller, younger, crowd. Emmaline still enjoyed it and had fun meeting some of the characters. Characters sure are low key at Universal. It’s more like I remember the characters being when I was a kid at Disneyland.






We had some snacks and went next to the Lost Continent and checked out the Mystic Fountain which was fun and silly, then watched the Posiden’s Fury show, which was pretty good. Some aspects were a little hokey, but Emmaline thought parts of it were really scary and so it wasn’t a huge hit.

We were right next to Mythos, but it was only 12:10 and our reservation wasn’t until 12:30. We asked if we could come early and they said we might have to wait, but then seated us in five minutes anyway. Lunch was good, but again, not as great as I had heard this place was. I think we all liked our lunch at Finnegan’s a little better.

After lunch, we passed through Hogsmeade and watched the shows there (The Frog Choir and Triwizard Spirit Rally). Both were really good, but boy does Hogsmeade need some shade. Yikes! It was hot! Our weather was that of extremes, apparently, hot and blistering or pouring rain. Yay, Florida! ;) We did some more spells and explored all the fun little nooks and crannies therein. Again, the details were all so amazing and fun. Emmaline wanted some butterbeer so Roger got her one while she and I rode Flight of the Hippogriff again.

Next up, the plan was to ride Pteranadon Flyers but I didn’t realize that we needed a return ticket (like an old-school Disney Fast Pass). We got a return ticket for 5:10 and Emmaline played for awhile at Camp Jurassic. After that, we left and made our way back to the hotel for an afternoon rest. After an hour, we made our way back to the parks, and headed directly for Pteranadon Flyers while Roger had some coffee at Starbucks. We had a bit of a wait upon returning. After about 20 minutes we were almost to the front of the line when a storm rolled in, complete with lightning which shut down the ride (and ultimately every other outdoor ride for the rest of the evening). They didn’t give a golden ticket or anything, but I explained that we were leaving the next day and had limited time in the parks and wouldn’t be able to wait a long long time or get a return ticket. They said to come back and they would help us out. We sloshed back to Hogmeade and made our way to the Three Broomsticks where, this time, everyone did have the same idea to eat dinner out of the rain. We all agreed that, while tasty, the Three Broomsticks wasn’t as good as the Leaky Cauldron.

After dinner, Emmaline really wanted a chocolate frog so we popped into Honeydukes and picked one up before getting back on the Hogwarts Express and going back to Universal Studios to Diagon Alley. Originally we had hoped to see the parade since it had been rained out the last few nights, but alas, it was raining again. The wait for Gringotts was only 15 minutes and Emmaline and I wanted to ride again (Roger not so much) so he waited for us while we rode. After riding, the rain was really picking up and again, it was getting late so we started to make our way out of the park as the rain really started picking up. By the time we were halfway to the gate it was dumping buckets on us and even with our ponchos, we were soaked to the bone. The water taxis weren’t running due to the lightning but we weren’t really sure where to go so I suggested that we follow the masses of people heading towards City Walk. Surely some of these people would be going to the resorts. Ultimately, it was the right call. We found the hotel busses and arrived to find a bus already waiting. What luck! It pulled away shortly thereafter stopping first at Sapphire Falls and then taking those of us left to Royal Pacific. We hung up our wet stuff and got warm (which seemed odd after being so crazy hot earlier in the day). I organized some things to pack up for our journey home the next day while Roger showered, then we all went to bed.

Click here for Day 5.