Day 2, Part 1
Hello, gorgeous!
I gotta say, this view was sooooo worth all the walking we did to stay in the Tower!
Today originally was going to be our Volcano Bay day but instead we changed it up and added a day at the parks, that way we could take it a little easier, which totally worked for me!
I knew the parks would be busy and we didn't have Express passes for that day so the plan was to just hit up early entry, do the Harry Potter areas and buy some wands and robes for Rob and Kira.
I also knew that I wouldn't last long with the heat so actually I am glad we ended up ditching VB for an extra park day.
I don't eat breakfast often. At home I usually fast until about 11am and on vacation, I just feel ill when I eat in the morning so Rob and Kira got ready for the day and headed down to Bayliner Diner for some breakfast as they will both crumble to pieces if they don't eat every couple of hours.
I showered while they did this...
I told Rob to get Kira some pancakes but he said he couldn't find them. This is the same guy who can't find the milk in the fridge
They came back to the room to drop off the mugs and then we headed out to the bus stop.
Lots of people but they had two buses and they filled up right away and then we were off! We had to stand so it made for an interesting bus ride trying not to fall on people.
Notice Rob's closed eyes? Yeah, he does that a lot
Once off the bus we made it up to security, found a short line and we got through pretty fast. At Universal, everyone goes through security, it's just like at the airport so I was actually shocked when Rob was not randomly selected for a secondary search
This was Kira's first time to Universal and Rob hasn't been to Universal since 2005, so this was pretty exciting! I was here last year with Jen for a few days before a work thing over at Disney but my health wasn't great that trip and although I had a 4-day park to park ticket, I spent a few hours in the park here one day and then maybe 6 hours on the second day with Jen and was too ill to go back.
While Rob and I are thrill ride junkies, Kira is the exact opposite. I'm not sure how that happened
So, we knew we had to wait awhile until even attempting Universal with her. She loves anything that spins but she hates getting butterflies, which is the exact opposite of me
First time pic!
Rob and I spent a lot of time at Universal during our first few trips there, starting in 1999, the year IOA opened because like I said, we are thrill junkies and there's so many awesome coasters there! Once we had Kira, we focused all of our time in WDW so it was nice to be back finally! Rob wore one of his Dueling Dragons shirts from 1999 today and almost every Team Member we saw raved about his shirt! He said he's never had so many people comment on his clothes before
First time with my kid
By the way, wearing that hat really saved me! I put it on with wet hair and every time I went to the bathroom, I wet my hair again and it helped keep me cool. Makes for horrible pics but at least I am there for the pics
Rob and Kira's first time at Hogsmeade!
We rode Forbidden Journey together in the regular line. It wasn't too bad, maybe 15 minutes?
It was nice too because we all had fanny packs, we could completely skip the whole locker situation, which is just crazy and stressful!
She was a little nervous to do it but she ended up loving it. I asked her if we could do it again using the single rider line this time. She was a little nervous but she agreed and we ended up next to each other in the same vehicle anyway
I wanted to hop on over to the Studios before the non-EE people got in so we headed for Hogwarts Express.
We ended up in the front row/front car all alone!
Which made it nice and easy to take pics and video
First time for them in Diagon Alley!
We went straight to Gringott's and there was hardly any line. I didn't take pics because I was taking video but I took a few the next day that I will post. This is my favourite HP ride. I love that it has a fantastic story line and even a specific timeline for when it takes place. LOVE!!!
I really wanted to ride it again and so did Rob but we didn't want to wait in the huge line that had now amassed due to the park being open to the public now and Kira refused to ride it with single rider for some reason. She said she loved the ride but I think she was a little scared of that initial drop at the beginning and didn't want to do it again unless we were all together.
We took a little break and I got us a frozen butter beer and Gilly Water from The Hopping Pot to share.
This was going to be Rob and Kira's first experience with Butterbeer. I had tasted Jen's last year so I knew it was too sweet for me. I knew one to share would be plenty.
We never even finished it, none of us cared for the frozen version.
We watched the Tales of Beedle the Bard while we drank.
I tried to convince Kira to do Gringott's again but she just wasn't having it and I didn't want to venture out to the rest of the park without Express passes since the lines were already super long.
The only thing left to do was to get robes and wands for Kira and Rob.
Not really my thing but I was happy to tag along for pics and video.
Got in line for Ollivander's Wand shop. I knew they did a special show where they pick a kid from the group and like in the movie, the wand chooses the wizard type of thing plays out. I've never seen it so I thought it would be neat to experience before they chose their wands.
The line around the corner for Ollivander's.
I took this opportunity to hit the loo and cool off my head again
I LOVE Diagon Alley! It's so neat and detailed. I like Hogsmeade but I LOVE Diagon Alley!
Let's end this chapter here