The best advice I can give anyone going to a park is to go early. We take this seriously in our family and everyone knows and understands that this is how to get on the most rides. That being said, LittleCJC was super excited for this very early start.
During this trip, the parks opened at 8:00, but hotel guest and certain passholder levels were able to enter the parks an hour early, meaning 7:00. Now, this does not apply to the entire park, and it changes from time to time what is included, but during this trip it applied to both Harry Potter areas. The biggest draw of this perk is you could get in line for Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure, which quickly switched to virtual line only once the park officially opened at 8:00. We wanted to be sure to get LittleCJC on this first thing, so we were at the park an hour before opening.
Even the hub was empty this early. In fact, I had done my homework and learned that at this time, if you took a bus from the hotel you could get in earlier than those driving because the parking lot didn't open before 7:00. We weren't actually the first to the gate, but we were first in line at one of the admission points. Pro tip, everyone always lines up at the permanent gates on either side of the entry, but every time we've been here for park opening, they have always opened the center gate and wheeled out to portable entry card readers. You can see there is even an umbrella here for the workers.
Since it was early, the girls decided to go back to sleep in the stroller while we waited for the gates to open.
It may seem crazy to get up so early only to stand in line, but I would much rather stand here for an hour while nothing else in the park is open and it's still cool (or in this case cold) instead of in the heat of the day when I could be riding something else. On this trip, they actually opened the gates about 15 minutes early and let everyone enter. You scanned your park admission here and then at the entrance to Seuss Landing, they checked for hotel keys or annual pass. Of course, almost everyone headed straight to Hagrid's and we were no different. LittleCJC loved her first ride on Hagrid's. It's safe to say it became her new favorite ride. Since we were so early getting to the park, we were at the beginning of the line and then we were also able to ride Forbidden Journey before the line got too long. LittleCJC was a little afraid of this ride, but said she liked it.
We also jumped over for LittleCGC's first ride on Flight of the Hippogriff.
Now that the entire park was open, we left Hogwarts and made our way over to Kong, where we were surprised to find that LittleCGC was tall enough to join us this time.
We then continued around the park, of course skipping the water rides since it was so cold. This meant, we basically walked around the entire park just for Spiderman.
With nothing for her to do, LittleCGC decided to go back to bed. In the meantime, LittleCJC found a new character. Posiedon's Fury was closed during this trip, but they had some fun interactions around the entrance.
We also found King Julien. I have to admit that I was surprised to find so many characters at Universal, especially during this time of Covid. Yes, we were distanced from them, but it was still great seeing them all around the park.
Eventually, we made it back to Hogsmeade and we decided to take the Hogwarts Express over to the London station. LittleCGC was just barely awake by now and LittleCJC was so sweet loving on her while we waited for the train.
Of course, as soon as we arrived at London, LittleCJC wanted to ride Escape from Gringotts. Unfortunately, the line was already pretty long, This was when our eyes were truly opened to how much the parks had changed since our last trip last July when the parks were still empty.
LittleCJC enjoyed seeing the extended queue since she had never seen it before. Honestly, I think the ride broke down for a while, because we didn't move for a long time and once we started moving again, it really wasn't that bad. You have to remember that parties were still standing 6ft apart, so the lines all seemed longer than they actually were.
Once we got off the ride, we stopped for some Butterbeer. Since it was so cold, Patrick and I were excited to get to try hot Butterbeer for the first time. We've only ever been to Universal during summer, and up until now this wonderful drink was only served seasonally.
After leaving the wizarding world, we found some more Mardi Gras floats. LittleCJC loved this lady, because she realized that she was using these same golden wings in dance this year.
If you haven't figured out yet, we take a lot more pictures at Disney than Universal. The main reason for this, is Universal has a stricter policy about cameras on attractions. Since I obviously don't write these as soon as I get home like I should, I don't remember all the details. Instead I piece these days together just as best I can from one picture to another. For example, I'm sure we rode something here at Universal Studios besides just Gringotts, but the next picture I have was taken back at Islands of Adventure. I do remember that I was able to introduce Patrick to the walkway that sometimes opens from one park to another when it's really crowded. At this time, it was open from Universal Studios, by Minions, and crossed backstage to Islands of Adventure, by One Fish Two Fish at Seuss Landing. This was very convenient not needing to walk out to City Walk and around and getting our passes back out to re-enter the park. This was also fun to see a new part of this backstage area.
When we entered Seuss Landing, we listened to the story of The Lorax. LittleCGC loved it.
After the story, we were able to take pictures.
We then decided to ride the Carou-seuss-al, while Patrick ironically talked to a friend from work who happened to be here at the same time.
At some point this morning, we were able to get a virtual pass for Hagrid's to ride again, so we were making our way back to Hogsmeade. On our way, LittleCGC found King Julien. He actually moved his location from this morning.
When we reached Hogsmeade, we joined the virtual line.
LittleCJC was so excited to get back on the ride.
Now that it was daylight, she wanted pictures with everything.
Yep, still in line.
LittleCJC rode on the motorcycle, meaning I was in the sidecar.
After our ride on Hagrid's, we decided to go back to Seuss Landing to ride the High in the Sky train that we skipped earlier so that we wouldn't miss our time at Hagrid's. This was also LittleCGC's first time on this ride, since it actually has a decent height requirement for all that it is.
Since we were back here, we also rode One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
That was the end of our day. See, obviously, I feel like I missed a lot today. However, I do know that we had a great day. It's also nice to slow down a little and not rush from one attraction to another.
No comments:
Post a Comment