Day 2 - Universal Studios

The alarm at 5:15 am was rather startling considering that felt like 3:15 am our time. Hmm , two days in a row with a 3 am alarm!!  But we were on a mission. We knew that our hotel room key at Cabana Bay allowed us early admission into Universal’s two parks at 7 am this morning.  And that meant getting up, eating hot oatmeal in our room (because the restaurant didn’t open till 6 am - maybe 7 am, I am not sure), checking out of our room, leaving luggage with luggage services and catching a 6:15 am shuttle to the parks. 

We were rewarded with a spot fourth in line at Universal Studios Florida by 6:35 am. They actually opened the gates shortly after 6:45 am. And so we were first in line to ride Despicable Me at 6:55 am!  We immediately headed to the World of Harry Potter and walked right up to ride the amazing Escape from Gringotts ride. That ride is a combination of technology with green screens and an old fashioned roller coaster so it doesn’t make me motion sick. After that we caught a train ride at King’s Cross Station to go to the other park “Islands of Adventure”. We caught the train ride by  by 7:45 - three major rides under our belt in the first hour when the park was just opening to the general public. By the time we left the parks about 1 pm we could see Escape from Gringotts had a 120 minute wait and Despicable Me was a 70 minute wait! 

One downside was waiting in line at Forbidden Journey at Hogsmeade - we waited in line for about 15 minutes when they announced they expected the delay to be significant so we left the lineup. That was shortly after 8 am in the morning so if you had just lined up for that ride first thing in the morning you would have felt you wasted your precious early morning riding time!  

We left the parks, feeling fulfilled but exhausted and headed over to Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter to join J about 2:30 pm. J isn’t that big a Universal fan so he didn’t want to spend the money on a day pass. Once at the French Quarter we relaxed in the room for an hour. P stayed in the room but JG , J and I walked along the path along the river to the Riverside resort. JG was hoping to see an alligator but the most we could hope for was a few lizards!  It was a lovely walk!

We returned to the room and collected P for supper. You could take the boat transit to Disney Spings and that says “vacation” to take a boat rather than a bus for transit!  With a boat ride on both ends, supper ended up taking 4 hours. Dinner at Planet Hollywood was very well received. Dessert at Ghiradelli ( a banana split for the other three and a Starbucks Chai tea latte with soy for me!

Another early start tomorrow so I need to get to bed!  One minute re busy day before calmness and serenity will reign supreme!