Part 6 - Where Is Everyone?
Our middle Sunday was a lovely day, spent mostly by the pool with Papa John’s pizza for lunch and I spent a fair bit of time writing my Trip Report, and editing photos.
Predictably Mrs Dad’s Taxi can’t resist the temptation to visit a shop, so late on in the afternoon we make our way up to the 192, and go to Walmart. The huge Walmart close to Medieval Times never fails to amaze me with the breadth of their wares. As we are entering, there’s a guy walking out with a car battery. As I’m walking around the sports section, another guy is asking for a look at a rifle out of the display cabinet, and whilst in the toy section I hear a British girl declare “Look Mum, there’s a whole aisle just full of bubble liquid”. I cannot resist the temptation to have a look, and she is exaggerating, there is only half an aisle of bubble liquid, but a gallon container would keep the kids entertained for several summers I expect.
After a good peruse and several purchases (none by me that I can recall) we go in search of our evening meal, and settle on Perkins. We don’t think we’ve ever eaten in a Perkins before, and decide that we’ve been missing out, after enjoying a very nice meal indeed, with great service from our waiter who could have easily got a job at Tourist Information. He kept popping back to the table with more suggestions of things to do during our vacation! We didn’t have the heart to tell him that our 10 days were charted out on a spreadsheet already!
And after a relaxing day and a lovely meal we finally get an early night. I even decided not to type any report tonight.
Monday morning we are back in Park Mode: Today we are heading to Universal’s Islands of Adventure. We start off though at the Golden Corral to fill up with a big breakfast, but no sooner have we sat at our table when I suddenly feel worryingly nauseous, The last thing I can face is sausage, bacon and the other similarly greasy components of an American breakfast, so I spend the next half hour pacing up and down the car park taking deep breaths whilst everyone else enjoys extra pancakes. Doh!
Eventually they emerge from the compulsory gift shop, I tell them I’m feeling much better, and we head up the I4.
On arriving at the Universal Studios car park, it becomes apparent that there’s not many people here. No queue to pay the exorbitant $20, and lots of places to park. Our plan is to scoot straight over to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in the hope that the queues won’t be too long early in the day, however stopping for breakfast means it’s around 11am by the time we enter the park. We needn’t have worried, the place is lovely and quiet.
And soon we’re strolling around the pre-ride entertainment of The Forbidden Journey ride, which is very well done indeed. I think the queue was about 20 minutes, which was just enough to appreciate the detail that had gone into keeping the queue happy. And then we went on the ride - what on Earth was I thinking? If I had felt sick at breakfast, I really should have avoided this ride. I’m feeling a bit nauseous just typing this, as the memories come back. It’s a brilliant ride, don’t get me wrong, but motion sickness is an understatement. Thankfully I don’t embarrass us all by re-decorating the place, but I can’t get out into the fresh air fast enough, believe me.
So whilst Mrs Dad’s Taxi and I find a place to sit in the shade, the kids do another ride within Hogsmeade, The Flight of the Hippogriff. Kayleigh isn’t tall enough yet for the Dragon Challenge, so when the kids find us we head for the station, we’re going to London.
The Hogwarts Express is a new ride for us, and was instrumental when choosing our Universal Studios tickets, we had to make sure we could enter both parks on the same day. So another great marketing ploy by Universal pays off (for them). We had read in our latest Brit Guide to Orlando (a book I can highly recommend to anyone holidaying in Orlando) that the queues for the train can be daunting, but not to worry as so many people board on each trip that the queue moves quickly. Well, it wasn’t an issue today - we walked straight to the station and after scanning our tickets we were straight onto the platform.
This ride is brilliant. Once you are in your compartment in the train carriage the doors to the corridor close, and away you go. The windows to the outside world are actually screens, and the scenery you pass depicts various Harry Potter scenarios, Hagrid on a flying motorcycle, Centaurs running through The Forbidden Forest, and scenes of a similar ilk. What really took me by surprise was that the compartment doors also act as projection screens, and activity in the corridor is displayed as silhouettes as if seen through frosted glass. Harry, Ron and Hermione all make an ‘appearance’ during the journey. Having read the Harry Potter books, I really enjoyed it.
As all wizards know, the train pulls in to platform nine and three quarters at Kings Cross Station, London (I will resist the temptation to type London, England), and this is where we find ourselves, leaving the station and heading straight to the secret area of London known as Diagon Alley.
I’m not in a position to face another rapid ride yet, so the kids go to find the Escape From Gringotts ride, and Mrs Dad’s Taxi and I watch the entertainment in the market square. There are a troupe of players who perform Tales of Beedle The Bard, and the legendary (in the Wizarding World) singer Celestina Warbeck, who J K Rowling apparently described as resembling Shirley Bassey in our world. There are more people in this park than over at IOA, and the kids seem to be ages. We watch one Tale of the Bard, then all of Celestina’s set, then another Tale, and when Celestina comes out again we go in search of a drink. Rather naively we go to what looks like a bar, and try to order diet cokes. “We don’t sell that Muggle soda” we are told. Ah, no way we’re wasting money on that butterbeer stuff. We find the exit from Diagon Alley and re-enter the Muggle World, and get two huge diet cokes, much better.
We don’t want to stick around in the Universal park, as today is our Islands of Adventure day, so we find the kids, who loved the Gringotts ride, and we make our way back to the station.
This time there is quite a queue, but it does move quite quickly. There is a ridiculously placed refreshment stand which causes rather a bottleneck as people stop, to buy mainly cans of beer by the look of it. I’m now realising I’ve not eaten much today, and give in to the temptation of a snickers bar, to the tune of about $4 ! Once back on Platform 9.75 I take the opportunity to grab another photo with The Hogwarts Express:
The journey back to Hogsmeade has different scenes out of the ‘window’ , and a different scenario is played out in the corridor, and I wish it could last longer.
That’s my photo limit, so read on, if you wish………….
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks