Welcome...to Diagon Alley! 4th Annual Universal Trip

[KRScar]

9 DAYS TO GO!

Welcome to my trip report! This is my very first one! I've been reading a lot to get ready for my trip and have decided to do the same and share my experience with others!

I grew up being all about Disney. I must have went about every year for 14 years. My mom has a DVC membership and we always loved WDW. We've even stayed in DL, CA as well as Hilton Head and Vero Beach Resort. But this is the important thing: I am a Harry Potter fan over all things. So when Universal opened WWoHP, I couldn't resist. My family visited in 2011, and this trip will be the 4th straight year that I go. So while I'll always love Disney and go back soon, it's Universal's time right now, which is even more true thanks to Diagon Alley!!

It's hard to put my excitement into writing! Walking through DA will be like a dream come true! My mom booked this trip for my 18th birthday woohoo and so my first trip as an adult will be a childhood fantasy...go figure! She also made me an APH, so I should have another trip coming in the next year!

We are staying at Cabana Bay and going mid-November. We wanted to stay onsite for early and easy access, but didn't have a ton of money to spend. Hopefully lines will be short enough that we will be okay without EP. Regardless, I am just happy to be going again!

So let's meet our guests:

Me: As noted, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I also love Doctor Who, GoT, Arrow, Hunger Games, and Marvel movies. Also a lot of other movies, too many to mention! I also like sports like basketball, football and baseball and feed my some sort of spicy buffalo meal and I'm happy

J: My sister. She is 14 and we usually get along very well. She is a moderate fan of Harry Potter (she thinks she likes it more than she really does) and also likes Hunger Games. She is a fan of FJ, and I'm grateful for that, as she is the only one who will go on with me!!

Mom: She is awesome for taking us on these trips! She would rather sit by the pool than go on most rides, but as we only have 3 full days because of travel, we are mostly doing parks this year. She probably wouldn't appreciate her age, so we'll restrict that to the kids lol.

M: Mom's boyfriend. My parents got divorced about 7 years ago or so, but we really like M and don't have many problems. He is awesome mainly because he likes the things I do: occasional video games, lots of movies, and delicious food. Yup, he is a good cook!

So that is us! We look forward to arriving in UO in a little over a week and exploring Diagon Alley, in addition to some rides we've missed due to crowds last year (DM, TF). I hope you all join along and have a good time reading!

See you soon!

 

[mrsabbott]

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

 

[rnorwo1]

I'm in, hope y'all have a great trip!

 

[KRScar]

Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Thanks, I'm excited to write it! Should be fun!!

I'm in, hope y'all have a great trip!

Thank you very much, from all of us!

 

[macraven]

you and the family are going to be thrilled with potter!

 

[schumigirl]

You'll have so much fun

 

[ArwenMarie]

Fun!

Hope you have a great trip

 

[Shock13]

We might just be crossing paths! I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip with your family!

 

[KRScar]

you and the family are going to be thrilled with potter!

Oh I can't wait!!!

You'll have so much fun

Great! I've been reading your TR constantly the past week, before I decided to join in! Looks fun, so you helped inspire this TR!

Fun!

Hope you have a great trip

Thanks!! Come back and check it out

We might just be crossing paths! I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip with your family!

I just read your PTR! It's very possible! Enjoy your trip too!

 

[thelittlemermaid2]

My mind is slightly blown. I'm 18, have loved Disney my whole life, have been to Universal because of Harry Potter the last 3 years in a row, and will be going to DA for the first time next month! I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan and absolutely cannot wait.

Do you think we are long-lost twins or something??!!

 

[KRScar]

My mind is slightly blown. I'm 18, have loved Disney my whole life, have been to Universal because of Harry Potter the last 3 years in a row, and will be going to DA for the first time next month! I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan and absolutely cannot wait.

Do you think we are long-lost twins or something??!!

"Slightly" mind-blown?? No way, that is crazy! I had to make sure I wasn't reading something that I wrote

 

[KRScar]

Needless to say, I'm just as mind-blown!

 

[thelittlemermaid2]

Needless to say, I'm just as mind-blown!

I know! Its Crazy!

 

[KRScar]

Night 1

Off to a somewhat bad start.
We had a flight to Orlando scheduled for a 6:30 pm departure. The crew was stuck in traffic, so the flight was delayed until 8:00 pm. We were annoyed at first but we got the most out of the bad situation. Mom and M sat at the airport bar for an hour while J and me sat at the terminal and played a game. We were drawing bad pictures of celebrities and guessing who they were supposed to be! We were flying JetBlue, and they were kind enough to offer complimentary snacks and drinks at the terminal, and rightfully so. That helped a bit, as we grabbed a few pretzels and popcorn chips. The crew arrived around 7:50 and we boarded pretty soon afterwards. An addition to the snacks, we were offered complimentary movies on the plane!!So guess who got to watch Guardians of the Galaxy again....Me! Good movie, flight went pretty quickly because of that.

Once we landed in Orlando around 11 pm and got our bags, we went to get our rental car. We crossed over to the garage only to realize we had to go inside first. So we trekked back, sorted it out, and finally got out of the airport in a Nissan Altima. But not without more problems...

On the road, we could see the Orlando Wheel, which was a pretty cool sight, though nobody seemed to care except for me. We shamefully opted for a quick fix of McDonald's (something I like and hate at the same time). Bad choice. It's a McDonald's, an establishment that provides the exact same food everywhere, but still they messed it up. And they didn't give me my sauce!!

When we left McDonald's, we got in the wrong lane and started heading back towards the airport...can we catch a break?? We had to get off the next exit and turn back. It was now past midnight and everyone was just extremely tired. Thankfully, we got to Cabana Bay in about 5 minutes.

I thought it was incredible and very nicely aesthetic. It is certainly different from other hotels but I completely appreciate it's retro approach. It is physically a lot bigger than I had thought. The colors give off a fun vibe and we all really liked it.

We had had enough with misfortune for the night, so Mom decided to upgrade to a family suite, to give everyone a bit more space. One of the best decisions that we could have made. It would have been uncomfortable and inconvenient for us to have all stayed in the regular room.

Shortly after, I realized that I didn't have a case for my contacts. At this point we are thinking...are you serious? What did we do wrong? But it was all okay. I used a bowl, filled it with solution and kept them there for the night. It worked just fine.

Finally, at 1:30 am, we all crashed - myself on the uncomfortable pullout couch. But I can't complain too much. We were there and that's what mattered!

UP NEXT: Early Park Admission and Diagon Alley on 5 hours of sleep!

 

[KRScar]

Day 1 - November 15th

Early Park Admission was the main reason that we decided to stay at Cabana Bay. So as brutal as the wake up call was, it was necessary for the trip. On the first day, I woke up at 7 am, and was surprised to see that I was the first one up. Being me, I can roll out of bed, thrown on some clothes, brush my teeth, and get out the door in about 20 minutes - relatively short compared to the amount of time that the rest of my company needed. I put on my Hogwarts shirt (Mom bought one to match with J...Normally, I wouldn't do this, but it was Diagon Alley and I was wearing my Hogwarts shirt!!). Much to my chagrin, everybody took their time this morning.

Eventually we made it out of the room some point after the park had opened early, around 8:20. The park's regular hours today were 9am-7pm for both US and IoA. We were staying in the Thunderbird building of CB, the closest one to Islands. From there, we walked down to the beautiful and open lobby and straight through to the CB Bus Stop. Doing this, we walked right into the first queue of the morning...the dreaded bus line!

Sorry about the lack of pictures! I'm working on it. My being such a fan of film, I took a lot more videos than photos. With the exception of Diagon Alley...I hit that place pretty hard with both.

So we didn't get on the first bus over to the parks. We waited for the second and inched closer and closer until we were next! And then, they reached capacity! We got stuck right at the front, waiting for the next bus.
But the buses ran very fast and regularly, and it was there in no time!

The bus dropped us of over near the parking garages. We walked up the escalator and across the moving walkways (yes we walked on these...anything to get to DA faster!). We reached Studios at 8:40am and walked straight back towards Gringotts. I was hoping to take a shortcut by the water, but the TMs directed everybody that way anyway. I was walking way too fast for Mom and M, but I was so excited to see the new addition. As I turned the corner by Beetlejuice, I saw hints of London and I was mesmerized.

King's Cross station looked so amazing, along with the rest of the London facade.

If I hadn't been so eager to get to Escape from Gringotts, I would have hung around it more that morning. Before the ride of course, I snapped a few pictures of the famous bank and dragon.

We got to Gringotts around 8:50 and got in line for the 30 minute wait!! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited!

The goblins were so cool! I started talking about one of them to J and when I turned around he was staring right at me. Then two more of them followed me with their gaze as I moved down the line.

Everything went well until after the elevator ride, which was nice and fun. But as soon as we stepped out, the system got completely messed up. It was not orderly and people were just moving along in a large crowd, pushing past others and creeping up in line. When we first got there, we were at a stand still and were told that the ride was having issues. Thankfully, this was the only time the whole trip that we were met with the break-down problem. When we started moving again, the crowd remained crazy and unorganized. We must have heard the goblin say, "Trust me, you don't want our security trolls to mistake youuuu for a thiefff" about 20 times. J and I started miming the safety warning after a while. Also, all of the 3D glasses are on one side of the room, meaning that if you are all the way on the right, like we were, you have to make your way over to the left to get them, all the while moving through the people on the left who have already picked up the glasses and are trying to move forward. Again, thankfully, this problem only occurred twice on the trip.

After that fiasco, we made it up the stairs and to the loading platform, which was positioned underneath some pretty impressive stalagmite structures. We thought that Gringotts was running smoothly again, but nope! They sent about 7 cars through the ride on each side before we were able to finally get on. But it was definitely worth the wait.

J and I LOVED Gringotts. We think it may be our new favorite ride, topping Forbidden Journey. What I love about FJ more is the physical aspects...that is the parts with the spiders, dragon, dementors, Whomping Willow, etc. I don't like when you are simulating flying in front of the screens. It just makes me a little woozy, although it was the coolest thing that I had ever experienced when I first rode it. Gringotts satisfies my Harry Potter craving while not affecting me at all, meaning that I could ride it 5 times in a row if I wanted. I think 2 would be my max for FJ.

After the ride, I wanted to hang around Diagon Alley for a bit. I decided that I wanted to stick around for the Tale of the Three Brothers puppet show, which would start in 10 minutes. So we wandered around Carkitt Market, staying close to the stage for the show. Soon, the four dramatic arts wizards and witches came out and put on the show. Let me tell you, it was a lot better than I expected. The focus of the puppeteers impressed me a lot, as they concentrated solely on their character and made facial expressions while moving the puppets, as if they were becoming them. I got a couple good pictures.

Next, we walked over to Transformers, something that we hadn't gotten a chance to do the year before. It seems like M is always watching Transformers when it is on TV channels like TNT, so he was excited for this one. The thing is, both M and Mom don't do very good with simulator rides. So M enjoyed the queue and even thought that the ride visuals were cool, except he didn't feel so good afterwards. Mom was the same way. I could handle it for the most part, but it's not something that I would put on my must-do list. After TF, we walked over to Mel's for lunch.

We don't eat at Universal very much. I think we probably did this the most on this trip. So we didn't know if we would enjoy Mel's, but it was right there and we were starved from skipping breakfast.

J and Mom split a chicken salad, I got the chicken fingers and M got himself a cheeseburger.

Our opinion...not very great. It filled our stomachs, but that's about it. The fries were standard and nothing more. Enjoyable but not great. The chicken was pretty boring. The salad seemed alright but M said that his burger looked better than it was. So while Mel's did the job, I don't think we will be back there anytime soon.

J and I finished eating a bit early so that we could head over to the Mummy, as I saw that it was a 20 minute wait, which ended up being about 15. I've found that many of the wait times posted are exaggerated. We love the Mummy and always make sure to hit it. Dark, indoor coasters will always have a place in our hearts. That is why we like the first part of Gringotts so much, but more on that in the next post.

After Mummy, the four of us decided to experience the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross. It was such a cool place and it seemed as if we were really at a train station. Going through the wall between platforms 9 and 10 is really fun, but I think that Universal should install a camera and a monitor on the opposite wall, so that guests can see themselves going through instead of having to stop so somebody can take a video. That being said...we totally took videos every time.

Coming out onto the platform was really cool, and seeing that scarlet engine pull into the station was extremely surreal. I loved it all from the bricks to the signs.

The Hogsmeade Station was also amazing and provides a great photo-op for the train.

After we got to Hogsmeade, J and I went onto Dragon Challenge, a 10 minute wait. We basically run through the whole queue until boarding, where we waited about 50 seconds to be assigned our row. So definitely not 10 minutes, closer to 4. We prefer the Hungarian Horntail (Ice). Once we got off the coaster, we decided not go back on. It was 1:30 and we all decided to go back to Cabana Bay for an afternoon break.

Next: We finish Day 1 at the parks!!

 

[KRScar]

I had some pictures, but it seems like I need to have more posts in order to show you all

 

[KRScar]

Hopefully I will put some up soon!

 

[coastgirl]

Part 1 was great, come back and tell us more!

 

[lynnirene]

Thanks for sharing everything so far! We are heading t o Universal next week for one day, and going to see as much HP as possible!

 

[KRScar]

I'm back, hopefully to stay! I'm looking forward to writing some more after a very busy holiday season and first semester in college