Family Reunion Trip Redoux - Day 5 (Universal)

[Paiges]

Me and DH
DD – 15 and 14
DS – 12
And 24 more grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins galore!

Nine in our group met a limo at 8 am outside POR to head to Universal Studios this morning. With 9, we would have had to get two cars from Mears (or take the shared shuttle), but we found a limo through Elite Transportation that was less expensive than the two cars, so we decided to live a little! One tip I read online was to call en route to US and order tickets, then pick them up at the will call kiosk, in order to avoid the ticket lines. Our three groups each ordered tickets on the phone, and when we arrived at the park, the kiosks did not recognized our confirmation numbers. After much discussion with a rather nasty ticket seller and his manager, the guest relations person confirmed that we had indeed purchased tickets and gave us paper copies. I was so relieved to get it worked out – for a few minutes, I was imagining someone in a third world country pocketing the money we thought we were spending on tickets! It was not a good start to our day, and it delayed us about 20 minutes – and there were no ticket lines when we arrived, so we weren’t circumventing anything, either!

We headed to ride the Gringotts ride – which was awesome! – then rode Hogwarts express to the Isle of Adventure side and rode the Forbidden Journey – which was also awesome! The Forbidden Journey stopped at the very end of our ride, so when we exited they gave us each an express pass. We did not have things planned out very well, so we wasted a lot of time just traveling around. We did take Hogwarts Express both directions before the wait got to be too long, and we walked between parks after the wait got too long. We used our express pass on the Minions ride – fun! RipRide RockIt was very rough on the neck; we would not ride it again. The Mummy ride was one of our favorites. Spiderman was good, and the Jurassic World ride was fun – but beware if you are in the front row! We got soaked.

We did a lot of shopping in both Harry Potter sections. All three kids bought wands, and we spent a lot at Honeydukes on candy. The fizzing whizbees were my favorite! We had ice cream at Fortescue’s (butterbeer and chocolate raspberry were two of our favorite flavors), and ate lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. I had the cottage pie, which was good, but the bite I had of the lamb, beef, and Guinness stew was excellent! My husband and I had frozen butterbeer, and the kids had regular. We all were sure that the type we got was the best, and stuck with the same later in the day – which leads me to believe that both versions are great.

We met the limo at 7:30 to head home. We all rated the Universal parks on the way home, and it was a unanimous 6 – 5 for the rest of the parks, but the Harry Potter portions are excellent so they brought it up to a 6. Here were our complaints: The Univeral parks were hot – there were few trees and lots of paved streets with the sun beating down. Almost every ride required you to put your personal items in a locker. Although they are free lockers, it is a real pain to deal with over and over. The locker areas are tight – especially the back part of the locker area for the Gringott’s ride; I am not normally claustrophobic, but I was close to freaking out when the ride had gone down and I was trying to leave the area while 500 people were simultaneously trying to enter. The fingerprint system to open lockers did not always work. And even if we hadn’t brought any bags, we still would have needed to stow sunglasses, at a minimum. The rides seemed a lot more abrupt than Disney rides, there weren’t many options for non-riders in the parks, and employees there didn’t have the same Disney magic about them. But we are glad we went once to experience it.

We headed home, got dinner at the POR food court, and ate around the pool while the kids swam. One DD went up to the lobby and had a caricature done; she was drawn as a princess and it turned out great!

[brian2000boston]

Thanks for sharing!

[hauntedmansiongirl]

I love the Harry Potter stuff at Universal! We are going in Nov and can't wait to see the new stuff at US! And I forgot about the Butterbeer! My vote is for frozen!! Best drink ever!!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your report!

[faline]

Somewhat of a rocky start to your Universal day! Still, you managed to cover a lot of ground in both parks. The Harry Potter areas of the parks are both well done and, after having wandered around the shops last year, I can understand how quickly the receipt totals add up when you start buying!!