Universal – Parks (part 1 of something)

It’s about half and hour later and we’re in the air. I’m comfortable ensconced is my 8F business class seat. I do love the space in business – I can actually use my laptop and my mouse.

So, universal! I’m probably not going to give you a detailed account of what I did when – after all, look up a universal day plan and you’ll have a pretty good idea. My plan for the first arvo/evening was to get my bearings in the park and maybe see jump on a ride or two if the lines were short. So I entered Universal Studios and set off to the left, through Suess Land, just checking out the sights. I got to the MIB ride, which I had seen on my plan, and the single rider queue was <5 mins, so I took advantage of that. It was fun, one of my reflection from Universal, at least early on was that I like the ‘in the dark’ motion rides.

After this I kept walking and found myself approaching Diagon Alley. Here’s a few photos to start, there will be more later.

I only had a quick look around Diagon Alley at this stage, but I knew it would be something I would explore much later, probably tomorrow! It occurred to me that this might be a good time to catch the Hogwarts Express. I had been ummimg and ahhing over when the best time would be and how it wouldn’t interfere with time in the parks. This seemed like the perfect time, so I headed to King’s Cross station. Unfortunately no single rider line for this so it was a long wait.

The excitement of getting on the train was exciting, so the actual ride wasn’t that amazing – it was a pretty short train ride. However, the windows were screen so that did provide some exciting scenery and some things such as flying cars and Hagrid on his motorbike. There was also audio – you could hear Harry, Ron & Hermione walking past our compartment. We disembarked at Hogsmeade (point of trivia – in the books do they actually arrive at Hogsmeade station? I think they do in the movies.) I decided not to take any time to look at Hogsmeade at this point (now in Islands of Adventure) and I pretty much headed straight out of the park, back to City Walk and the bus back to Adventure hotel. It was getting late and I wanted to have some dinner and get a good sleep anticipating big days in the parks ahead.

I had dinner at Bar 17 Bistro, the rooftop bar at Adventure hotel. Briefly, the Chicken Katsu I had was excellent and the cocktail I tried (I can’t remember which one) was very ordinary, I didn’t like it at all. Bed time. I’ll also finish this post, it’s not that long, but the pictures take up lots of room!