After a day’s rest we went to the Universal Studios.
As this park officially opens at 8 am we left at 7 in the morning and arrived at the gates at 7.30. To our amazement the gates were already open but at some point only special guests (people who paid for this treatment) were permitted further. Although we only had normal tickets Ricarda talked us in and thus we were already at Gringotts at 7.40 – already 45 minutes wait time.
Additionally, they had a technical problem and they sent us out without taking the ride but with a fastpass for later usage. We strolled around Diagon and Knockturn Alley and went to various shops there. There was also a complete black out of the whole park which made Knockturn Alley all the more eerie.
We also went to number 12 Grimmauld Place,
King’s Cross and to the Knightbus. There is also a phone box where you can call the Ministry of Magic.
For an early luncheon we went to The Leaky Cauldron and had toad in the hole, and bangers and mash.
Later we enjoyed a lavender and strawberry-peanutbutter ice-cream from Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour. We also watched live performances: The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Tale of Three Brothers
and Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees – the latter ones asked me kindly on stage to dance with them – unfortunately I had no time to hand Ricarda the camera thus no photos from that, sorry.
We did the Gringotts Ride twice, both times with the fastpass, how naughty of us, avoiding the 90 to 105 minutes waiting time. The ride is not bad but in our humble opinion the Hogwarts one is much better.
Outside the Harry Potter World we did the following attractions: The Simpsons Ride is cool but would be even cooler if we actually liked them.
The Revenge of the Mummy we liked very much and did it 3 times.
Twister…Ride it out did not impress us, but then it might have been built when the movie came out.
Both these attractions are in the New York area. The E.T. Adventure was cute, The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit wild – Ricarda saw someone losing his ring on this ride,
and Shrek 4D, which we managed to get into 10 minutes before closing time, was funny. Disaster located in San Francisco was closed most of the day but we did it eventually. There Ricarda was on stage playing an villain – this was really good fun.
For dinner we went to Olive Garden where we had a waiter who could not remember our order and the food was rather boring. We will probably not go there again.
The next day (a Saturday) we rested again – the AC really got to us. We had to prolong our stay for 2 nights but got a really good price for it.
Sunday we went to the Island of Adventures again and did the attractions which we enjoyed on our first visit. Once more we went to the Three Broomsticks for roast chicken and Cornish pasties and a Frozen Butterbeer.
We watched the Triwizard Spirit Rally and the Frog Choir.
We went to Seuss Landing and did the Caro-Seuss-El,
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,
The High in the Sky Trolley Train Ride,
and The Cat In The Hat.
This Dr. Seuss stuff is just weird for us.
At the Lost Continent we saw The Mystic Fountain,
Poseidon’s Fury,
and The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad.
All kind of funny.
The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman (Marvel Super Hero Island) we enjoyed too and therefore did it twice.
We also went to a Magic show and had a beer and a G&T at the Backwater Bar. Again we left the park at closing hour.
Although we went to the parks on Friday and Sunday, respectively, we never had to wait long at any attraction – the only one would have been Gringotts for which we luckily had a Fastpass.
Ricarda and Gerald's 2014-2015 World Trip 