We Go To Florida--Day 4 Universal Studies AND Islands of Adventure

Three days at Universal Studies really felt like a lot, but I wanted to make sure we could see it all so we never had to take the kids back (tee hee).  The goal for today was to repeat all the things we had liked best over the past two days, and fill in with the one or two things we didn't do over the past two days.  We began at Universal Studios and went right to Diagon Alley for a repeat of Escape From Gringotts.  We all agreed that was our favorite ride.  We got ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, which had all sorts of fun flavors in soft serve and hard pack.  Flavors like orange marmalade, toffee apple, and butterbeer, or chocolate chili, Earl Gray and lavender, or strawberry and peanut butter.  Brandt got soft serve butterbeer, Blythe and I got salted caramel blondie and sticky toffee pudding, and Kent got chocolate and sticky toffee pudding.  So yummy!!  The kids did a bit more spell casting, we wandered through Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and we tried to escape Death Eaters on a motorcycle.  I poked around the pet store, the Magical Menagerie where you can buy stuffed animals from the Harry Potter books, like Fluffy, the three-headed dog, or Aragog the spider, or Hagrid's dog Fang.  They made me laugh, and I was glad Blythe didn't come in after me or she would have wanted something soft and furry and kind of creepy.

We continued our traipsing with a return to Men In Black and shot at aliens again.  We went back to Springfield and did the Simpsons ride again.  We sat on the back row this time, not the front, and it wasn't the same experience.  We couldn't see most of what was happening, so it wasn't nearly as fun or scary.  We were all a bit disappointed.  We headed back towards the entrance to get some lunch outside the actual park in the hopes of not spending quite so much money, and on the way encountered Gru, his girls, and lots of minions dancing around on the street.  Characters make appearances periodically throughout the day, and we just chanced upon them.  

This was on a very silly alien ride in Springfield called Kang & Kodos' Twirl 'n' Hurl.

I'm happy to report that in spite of the twirling, no one hurled.

Once again, Blythe got the camera and took a series of really bad pictures.  There were four of the back of my head, one of my "What are you doing?!" face, and two of the back of Brandt's head.  This is why she doesn't get to hold the camera.

This is the entrance to the Simpsons ride, through Krusty the Clown's mouth.

There is a balloon uvula at the back of his throat.

You can just see it between the two illuminated signs.

I wanted a picture of all of us in front of this spinning world, but this was all I got.

We had lunch at Panda, and we didn't even spend $20.  Phew!  These three days have not been cheap.  After lunch, we went back to Islands of Adventure.  We wanted to do the Jurassic River Park Adventure again, and see how the line was for Ripsaw Falls and Spider-Man.  The lines for Ripsaw Falls and Spider-Man were both an hour plus, so we headed for Jurassic Park.  The line was reasonable, and we were standing in front of a couple and their son who are from just outside Paris.  We chatted with them, me in French, Kent in English, right up to the point where we were to get on a boat.  We all stepped onto the boat and pulled the safety lever down when there was an announcement that bad weather was over the area and all outside rides were closing.  They took us off the boat but told us we could wait if we wanted.  They had no idea how long the wait would be, and suggested we ride other things, but most of the rides in Islands of Adventure are outside ones, meaning we would have to go to the other park where there would likely be longer lines because lots of rides were shutting down.  

We waited.  For quite a long time.  I would say it was nearly 40 minutes, and after about 20, I asked if Kent and the kids could go across the way to the kid area they had played on the day before and then come back when the ride was open, if I waited in line.  The kind worker said yes, so the kids played, Kent waited with them, and I sat down next to the gate and scrolled through Instagram.  When they began making motions to open again, I called Kent and they came right back to the line.  We were able to ride again, and get splashed without being soaked.  The children were soaked again from the dino water shooters, but Kent and I were comfortably splashed without overdoing it.

There we were.

So close!

Bored waiting until they went to play at the park.

Because of the wait, we didn't really do much else.  We walked back to Hogsmeade, bought out last butterbeer, and caught the train to Diagon Alley because it was the last thing we wanted to do that we hadn't done yet.  The train ride was short and had a goofy show that flashed across the "window."  I had hoped to actually see outside, but instead we made a trip from Hogwarts back to London.  We stopped at Cinnabon on the way out and walked back to our hotel, satisfied in our three days at Universal Studios.  We all had a good time, Kent was very patient, and we managed to get along.

This was in Toon Lagoon and much too funny to pass up.

Brandt is always making goofy cheese puns, so again, couldn't pass it up.

Blythe was trying to get wet.

This is at Grimmauld Place, near the entrance to Diagon Alley.  That's Kreature up in the window, who peers out creepily every few minutes.

Once again, after we got back to the hotel, we headed to the pool.  Brandt and Blythe wanted me and Kent to play Marco Polo with them, but there were lots of other kids in the pool and we encouraged them to round up a group and play with them.  Most of the other kids were girls, and at one point, Brandt was holding his own in the middle of a whole gaggle of seven or eight girls.  The kids swam and swam and swam.  We rented a car today for use the rest of the trip, so I went and picked up tacos for dinner which we ate poolside.  Kent had been chaperoning while I got dinner, so I let him go back to the room and I watched while the kids swam.  I called Mikayla and then Mom, did a bit of reading, and eventually, at 10:30, insisted the swimming had to be over because I was exhausted.  Blythe wanted to stay until 11:00 when the pool closed, but I told her I wanted to be asleep by 11:00.  She very reluctantly got out.  I wanted a picture of Brandt and Blythe with the two girls they played with until the very end, but none of them turned out very well.  It was dark and they were all swimming around.  Hoorah for a great Orlando portion of our trip!

The sunset on our last night in Orlando.

Beautiful, even with the wires.