AHHH!!! Not ANOTHER EMH morning. A July/August 2013 TR told by a teen! Updated 10/28

I’ve fallen pretty far behind, but hey, I’m here to catch up now!!

Glad you guys got on so many rides at AK, and to see the new meet and greet! We ended up skipping it, I totally forgot about it being something new lol!! It’s cute! That king louie!! Always looking for food!! Poca is looking particularly pretty there!

The crowds look like they are amazing that day!! What luck!! Obviously FOTLK is the best lol, I absolutely love it! And yay for getting on EE so many times! Awe, too bad about the rain canceling the parade!! Every time we saw MiSi or Jamin Jungle this past trip none of the stilts were out because of rain, it was interesting, but I miss my stilts lol!

Looks like a pretty great start to Universal! Having only done the HP stuff over there it looks pretty interesting, plus with all the new Simpsons stuff in there I think I might actually have to check it out sometime lol!




Aww, yay! It's okay, your trip looked so exciting! I saw the pics on instagram!
Thats a shame, it was very nice! Oh yes, you gotta love King Louie! Pocahontas was absolutly beautiful, she looked just like her!
Aw, i know ya love FotLK! It is absolutly amazing! It brings a tear to my eye! The performers are PHENOMENAL!!! I'd love to be able to do what they do!
The Harry Potter stuff is cool, but to be honest, i think i prefered the Universal Studios park over IOA, more to do i think! The Simpsons area is so cool! I love it!
Thank you for reading and taking the time to catch up! I cant wait to hear more about your trip! ;)
 
I agree with you about Shrek! It just isn't one of my favorite movies! I may have started to fall asleep when we did the attraction too. :rotfl:

The Mummy is one of my favorites in Universal! DBF and I were watching some show on the travel channel where they were ranking the top 10 coasters in the world and were so surprised to see the Mummy on the list!

Aha! I'm glad someone agrees! I'm not the only one! Ahaha! The Mummy is SO FREAKIN AWESOME!!!! I loved it! I had no idea what it was gonna be like but it was amazing! Wow! That's surprising! It's good, but I wouldn't have thought it was THAT good! :lmao:
 
I'm loving your trip report!!!:thumbsup2
Great Pictures.
I love pizza to.;)
Looking forward to more.
 
I also wanted to say that I really like the rompers/jumpsuits you wore to the park. Those are so cute! They look very comfortable to wear the whole day.
I'm thinking about making me some for my next trip.
 
So it seems that i have managed to forget the highlights of the day again, so i am now just going to post them separately. (bit safer) So before i begin i want to say thank you for all the lovely comments and to everyone who has viewed. It really motivates me to write more!

Food of the day- gotta be the pizza!
Ride of the day- Revenge of the Mummy.
Best part- Experiencing something new, lots of thrill rides.
Worst part- not being there for opening and not being at Disney!
 
At least there wasn’t slugs in it!
This morning, we had to get up SO EARLY!!! We had to be at Islands of Adventure by 6:45 am! Now I am usually a morning person, but this was NOT OKAY. Anyway, somehow, I managed to rise at such a ridiculous hour in the morning and get myself ready. Our plan was to hit Harry Potter and then Mum would go back and check us out of the resort and have a relax by the pool while the rest of us stayed to experience IoA’s other attractions.

I went with the healthy option for breakfast!



The hotel food court opens in time so all the crazy people who want to head out early can eat first.

We then headed out of the resort and down the footpath to the theme park.
Once we’d got through the turnstiles, I went at an extremely fast pace to be first into the Wizarding World. I WAS ALMOST FIRST!!! I bet the people who beat me cheated using their wands. I was so excited, I’ve been wanting to see this for years. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so this was the main reason we’d come to Universal.





We were one of the first people in line for the Forbidden Journey. We basically walked through all the preshow stuff so we couldn’t stop to take many pictures.





At the loading area, Mum went through the chicken exit (she only queued to see the inside of the castle) We later concluded that Dad probably should have done the same. You see, while the ride (to me) was exciting, thrilling and enjoyable. To Dad, however, it was a rough, terrifying ordeal.
Unbeknown to us, whilst my sisters and I were screaming in delight, my poor Dad was struggling to hang on to his breakfast. It wasn’t until we came off (and someone actually told me) that we found out that he’d lost the battle!
Poor Dad had thrown up whilst on the ride and had managed to catch it in his shirt- thankfully for the rest of us! Dad was in such a mess he had to go back to the hotel. Luckily for him, a nice member of staff at the ride gave him a clean shirt for him to wear so he could go and clean himself up.
Those shenanigans left us all feeling a little queasy, so instead of going straight onto the Dragon Challenge, I went in the queuing area and did a little Hogwarts photography. My mum took my sisters to lay on a bench feeling a lot worse than I was, having actually seen Dad. Clearly 7.15 am is a little early to ride the Forbidden Journey!







I was starting to feel a bit better by now and I didn’t want the line for the Dragon Challenge to build up too much so I gave my phone back to my mum and got in the queue.
I went the Chinese Fireball side, mainly because I was just following the family in front of me and I didn’t actually see the other side. It was so fun! Quite rough though, but I loved it. I loved it so much that I went right back on, but the Hungarian Horntail this time. I felt it was about the same, the ride was a little different but not so much that you’re missing out on anything if you don’t do both sides. They are both great fun.

At some point while i was riding this happened!



#LOL

Up next- The wand chooses the wizard

 
Gah that is super early! :crazy2: But it's worth it to be one of the first ones into Harry Potter!

Aw that's sad that you dad got sick :sad1: but it was nice of them to give him a shirt so he didn't have to walk around like that!
 
Gah that is super early! :crazy2: But it's worth it to be one of the first ones into Harry Potter!

Aw that's sad that you dad got sick :sad1: but it was nice of them to give him a shirt so he didn't have to walk around like that!

I know, i mean when we came off forbidden journey it was about 7:15 and the wait was already about half an hour so it was definitly worth getting up so early!
Definitly. It would have been awkward walking back to the resort like that! Unfortunatly it was just a plain tshirt, not a cool Harry Potter one, lol. I wonder how many they keep of those! ;)
 
The wand chooses the wizard
After I’d finished up on the Dragon Challenge, we decided to get in line for Olivanders wand shop. The queue was quite long already but luckily it moved quickly and we were in the shop in 20 minutes.
Now for those of you who are not familiar with Harry Potter, Olivanders is the shop where all the witches and wizards buy their wands before they go off to Hogwarts. In the Wizarding World, there’s a wand demonstration showing how the wand chooses the wizard. They usually pick one person out of the group to demonstrate on. But this time… they picked TWO! I bet you can’t guess who they were…
EMMA AND KATIE!!!

I was so excited for them! They went up to the front and Mr Ollivander gave them a wand each. They waved it and it didn’t work. Then Mr Ollivander started muttering “very curious, very curious indeed”. He then swapped the wands over and THEY WORKED. A WAND HAD CHOSEN THEM!!!! He also said that Emma’s wand meant she had a healing touch which was so awesome because she’s wanted to be a doctor since forever!



Mum bought them the wands and just so it was fair, I GOT A WAND TOO!!! I chose the Elder wand- the most powerful wand in the world. We then looked around the store some more. I got some Hufflepuff Keyrings for two of my friends who are Harry Potter CRAZY and then we headed outside into the blazing hot sunshine.



Emma and Katie and I went on the Flight of the Hippogriff, which is the kiddie’s coaster. Compared with the dragon challenge, it was REALLY SCARY!!! Im just kidding, it was very tame, but it was still great fun!
We then took a lot of castle pictures. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. Can you feel a Hogwarts photospam coming on? I know I can!!









Random person photobombing.









We also saw this cute little snowman.



Up next- More Harry Potter fun!
 
More Harry Potter fun!
After that, we decided it was high time we got some Butterbeer! I got the cold one and it was delicious! I have had it before at the Harry Potter studio tour in London, but this Butterbeer was EVEN better! I loved it!





LOL!



Then we decided to explore the shops, first stop, Honeydukes! It smelt quite delicious, I could have bought the whole store, but in the end I settled for a chocolate frog as did my sisters. We then moved on to Zonkos which was such an awesome shop. None of us bought anything but it was fun to look around!









It was time to say goodbye to the Wizarding World and go and explore the rest of the park!
Goodbye Hogsmeade!









Up next- THE HULK!!!
 
LOVE all the Harry Potter pictures!!! :love:

So cool that they picture both of your sisters for the wand ceremony!

Yikes the wait time for Forbidden Journey is already 90 minutes in your picture! :eek:
 
Joining in! I just got caught up...looks like a great trip so far.
I wandered over from Jess's College Program TR. You and your sisters are so cute!
 
UUUggggghhhh all the HP stuff is KILLING ME!! It's been SO LONG since I've been there, and it was only once, I definitely want to go back next year, I was thinking about it, but then wanted to wait til the expansion was done, it's all so great!! Glad you guys had fun and so cute that your sisters were chosen for the wand show!!

Nice pick on the elder wand! I chose Snape's! Although I really wanted Bellatrix's, but they didn't have it at the time! Next time I'm there I'll get it lol!
 
LOVE all the Harry Potter pictures!!! :love:

So cool that they picture both of your sisters for the wand ceremony!

Yikes the wait time for Forbidden Journey is already 90 minutes in your picture! :eek:

Aha thanks! I know right! I was super excited for them!

I know, that ride gets so busy it's unbelievable! This was only around 9 am :confused3
 
Joining in! I just got caught up...looks like a great trip so far.
I wandered over from Jess's College Program TR. You and your sisters are so cute!

Yay!!! Im so glad you're reading :) Thank you!
Oh wow! That's definitly one of my favourite trip report! Thank you aww! :goodvibes
 
UUUggggghhhh all the HP stuff is KILLING ME!! It's been SO LONG since I've been there, and it was only once, I definitely want to go back next year, I was thinking about it, but then wanted to wait til the expansion was done, it's all so great!! Glad you guys had fun and so cute that your sisters were chosen for the wand show!!

Nice pick on the elder wand! I chose Snape's! Although I really wanted Bellatrix's, but they didn't have it at the time! Next time I'm there I'll get it lol!

Ahaha! aww, you should definitly go back soon, it's so much fun! I think it's a good idea to go after the expansions done, it looks like it's going to be so cool! Thanks, my sisters were so happy to be picked!
ahaha! Yeah, Snape is a good choice too. I love him! Aww, thats such a shame, you need to get it next time! You can never have too many wands! :goodvibes
 
THE HULK!!!
I apologise everyone, for my lack of updates over the past few weeks. Things got pretty hectic over the half term holidays. I went to Spain, I had a ton of dance rehearsals, went trick or treating for Halloween (I dressed up as Kermit) and I had a dance show. But now i've been back at school things are starting to settle down a bit so hopefully i can update more often! :cool1::cool1:
............................................................

We then walked over to the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster; I was so excited to ride this one. It looked amazing. Nobody else was up for it, so once again, I went in the express line alone. Mum took Emma and Katie to Seuss Landing and they had a blast on all the little rides. Does anyone else think it’s bad parenting to leave one of their kids to take on a MASSIVE rollercoaster and go to the other side of the park? Lol, I’m just kidding mum!

Anyway, I waited about ten minutes and then I got on the ride. Okay, I’ll admit, I was a little scared! I mean, it is the hulk! It doesn’t help that in the loading area, the members of staff clap the people when get off. Anyway. It starts by going quite slowly up a hill and then suddenly it shoots forwards really fast and goes into this really cool drop and then it goes upside down a few times and AHHHHH it was so cool!!!!!! (my English teacher would be impressed by that description, not!) Anyway, I loved it. I came off with a rush of adrenaline, I really loved that coaster. However I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. You see, my mum had got my phone, since I obviously couldn’t take it on the Hulk with me, so I just sat on a bench for a bit. Just as I decided to go on the Hulk again, my dad came over. He was feeling a lot better and mum had told him to come and meet me! He told me that he’d checked us out of the hotel which was good so mum didn’t have to. Anyway, he let me go on again anyway. I could see the express line building up, so I tried out the single rider’s line. Seriously, I could not recommend this more. I literally walked on in seconds. It was so cool.



After that, I went over to ride Doctor Dooms Fearfall. Or fake Tower of Terror. Anyway, it was nowhere near as good as The Tower of Terror. It only drops once and it doesn’t really have the same thrilling effect. What I did like was the nice view. I think I could see Disney World in the distance so that got me excited, ahaha!
After that we sat in this place near the Spiderman ride that had a nice view of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter across the lake. Dad called Mum who said that they’d meet us there. While we were waiting we did some excellent photography.







When we met up I found out that Emma and Katie had had a blast in Seuss Landing. They absolutely loved One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat in the Hat Ride. They had also got to meet the characters. Here are a few pictures to show you how much they enjoyed it!















We decided to go on Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges ride. Just to warn y’all, IT’S NOTHING LIKE KALI RIVER RAPIDS!!!!!!! YOU WILL GET ABSOLUTLY SOAKED TO THE SKIN. Seriously, I don’t even know how they have the technology to get every inch of your skin soaked. HOW DOES IT EVEN HAPPEN??? Wherever you sit you will get drenched with water. I’m fine with getting a bit wet, BUT THIS WAS NOT OKAY!!!!!! Trust me, if you’re planning on riding this, DO NOT WEAR DENIM SHORTS! I had a sense of humour failure at this point!



Yeah, so anyway, rant over! We then went on the Jurassic Park river adventure. Now I LOVED this ride. It was so much fun. Obviously not a patch on Splash Mountain, but there’s something about drops in the dark that really thrill me!
When we got off, Dad had gone to experience a little bit of The Wizarding World as he’d missed it all earlier. We went to meet him there. But first we grabbed a fruit cup from one of the stands near the Jurassic park River Adventure. It was just what we needed on a hot day, so refreshing.
When we got to WWOHP we had to take some pictures, just in case we hadn’t taken enough earlier. It was nice to enter from the other entrance this time too.







We met up with Dad who had just got some Butterbeer in a souvenir cup! We decided to go and see what it looked like inside the Three Broomsticks. We couldn’t believe how busy it was! I mean it was only about 11 and it was already packed!



#



Up next- Just keep swimming
 
I love all your Hogwarts photos, my DD would be in heaven spending time there as she loved the Studio Tour so much :goodvibes
 
Just keep swimming!
Then it started to rain. And when I say rain, I don’t mean like those little drizzles, I mean PROPER rain. We quickly got out our ponchos and I took great pleasure in putting my Disney poncho on at Universal. Haha! Everybody ran for cover and we ended up squashed in Zonko’s with a great crowd of people. We were already soaked from the water rides, and now feeling decidedly chilly and uncomfortable! We decided we’d had enough and as we were already soaked we started to make our way towards the park exit. But not without stopping for some pictures!





PONCHO KIDS



Well Emma looks happy- Katie had accidently almost knocked her off the rock...







We went back to the resort and as the rain was clearing we decided to go in the pool since we were already wet and we hadn’t had time to try it out yet. The pool was great. I actually really liked it! It was a decent size and there were a lot of poolside activities such as diving competitions and bingo. Not that we participated, but it was entertaining to watch. We even got something to eat for our lunch.
I’m pretty sure I ordered chicken strips which are shown in the picture below. It came with a lovely fruit salad which was a nice break from fries. Emma and Katie got the same.



Mum got this fish salad thing which she really enjoyed. I can’t remember what it’s called but she said it was really nice!



Then we did some swimming.



We also got a snow cone. I LOVE snow cones. We don’t really have them in the UK so it was so nice to have one again. I chose the cotton candy flavour and it was so nice!



After a few relaxing hours at the pool we changed in the hotel restrooms and headed out of the hotel back to Universal to have a little browse in the gift shops. Here’s a few pictures of the resort





We took the hotel complimentary water taxi to City Walk and went in the gift shop at the City Walk. Unfortunately it wasn’t terribly big, so we went over to Universal Studios to check out their gift shop. But first, Emma and Katie were desperate for some popcorn so we had to get some. Now, I’m not a popcorn fan so I had a Churro. MY FIRST EVER CHURRO!!!! This is a big milestone guys! So, the question is. Did I like it? Hmmmm…. Well….
I LOVED IT!!! It was so nice. I wish they did them in the UK! NOMS!!!!

Once we’d finished eating, we went into the Universal Studios shop. IT WAS MASSIVE!!!!!! Way, way, way bigger than the store in City Walk. There was a big Despicable Me section which I enjoyed looking in. There was also a large Harry Potter part which was good as I was looking for a Gryffindor keyring like the Hufflepuff ones I bought earlier. I also bought some postcards to send to my Harry Potter loving friends!





We then headed up the street to the Minion store by the Despicable Me ride. I had a quick look but it was very crowded and I didn’t particularly want anything so I sat outside on a bench and did some people watching while I waited for the others to finish shopping. It wasn’t too hot, quite a nice temperature really so it was quite relaxing just to sit there soaking up the atmosphere. I must have sat there for about 40 minutes! By the time they came out it was getting dark. Emma had (after much deliberation) settled on a t shirt and Katie had got a Minion toy.

We exited the park and took the water taxi back to the resort. We walked past the resort’s character restaurant and Woody Woodpecker was standing outside. He came over and tried to steal my sister’s Minion toy. He grabbed it and ran around with it a bit. It was hilarious. He was walking backwards so that Katie couldn’t get it and I was standing behind him, so I grabbed it out of his hands and he started chasing me around. It was so precious. Definitely one of my favourite Universal memories!





Then we collected our luggage and got in the car on the way back to DISNEY!!!!! WE WERE HEADING HOME!
Pretty soon we were seeing the sign! When we arrived, I showered and went straight to sleep. We had to be up early AGAIN the next day!!!

Highlights of the day:
Best part- Seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Woody Woodpecker and The Hulk
Worst part- Getting soaked on the water ride.
Food of the day- Butterbeer- that’s food, right? Oh and the Churro!
Ride of the day- The Hulk

Up next- A Stressful Morning in the Magic
 

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