Yes, you read that title right. Patrick and I went to Universal without the kids. With the opening of the new Velocicoaster we decided to take a little weekend to ourselves to enjoy the coaster our kids are too small for anyway and also celebrate our anniversary. We've been married 11 years and we almost always take our kids with us on all our trips, so it was an amazing treat to ourselves to have this little alone time together. We actually ended up stopping in Gainesville for our first night so that we could visit some friends. We took our time the next morning and ended up arriving at Universal around check-in time.
Since this was a special trip for us, we splurged a little and stayed at the Royal Pacifica Hotel. If you've read any of my other trip reports, you know that we usually stay at the value resorts. We were definitely spoiled this time, as the Universal deluxe resorts also come with their unlimited express passes. I feel like we were able to accomplish so much with these passes, that we will definitely contemplate staying at a deluxe resort again just for these passes. I guess time will tell, but they definitely were awesome during this trip.
Upon entering this hotel, you cross this bridge and are greeted by a fun scent.
Here's a detail from the bridge.
Our room was great, with a king bed and a pull out couch, that honestly we didn't ever pull out since we didn't have the girls with us.
Patrick even took a little video for you all.
This is a little overview of the pool area.
We decided to be that old couple, and we actually chose to eat at the hotel when the lounge first opened for dinner before heading to the park the evening.
We shared some sushi and enjoyed some drinks.
Another advantage of this hotel (and all the deluxe resorts) was the wonderful walking path and back entrance into City Walk. This was taken on the extended pathway near our resort pool.
We continued along the pathway and entered City Walk by the Margaritaville restaurant. This entrance was extremely convenient, because we never had to wait to go through security. We of course chose to enter into Islands of Adventure. We were of course extremely excited to ride Velocicoaster, but we didn't want to spend the entire evening there, so we didn't actually go there first. Instead, we chose to go to the left and rode Hulk, Doctor Doom and the Amazing Spiderman. We continued the circle skipping the Popeye's, but we did choose to ride Dudley's Do-Right Ripsaw Falls.
This picture doesn't do justice to how wet we actually were. We continued to Kong, and then decided to ride the Jurassic River Adventure boat ride as well.
We were loving how quickly we were able to get on so many rides. We still weren't ready to wait for Velociraptor, so we continued on to the Wizarding World.
Hagrid's was using a virtual queue, and wasn't offering an Express Pass option, so we couldn't get on that one, but we quickly rode Forbidden Journey. By this time, Velocicoaster was still an hour wait, but we had completed all we were able and willing to ride so we decided to get in ine.
Unfortunately, the ride was having technical issues. We debated leaving, but let's be honest, this was why we were here. There was also a lot of opening excitement in the queue line. The ride had been open for a month already, but most people in line had not ridden before and most people had been waiting all day.
The ride would stop for a while and then start again and everyone would cheer. Then unfortunately, it would stop again. Every time it stopped, a few people would chose to leave getting us that little bit closer. Like I said, it was kind of fun waiting with everyone.
The queue line itself is great, but the ride is amazing. By the time we got on, the park was closed. The ride was so exhilarating, I was pretty much speechless after this first ride. It was a fun way to end the night, and we couldn't wait to ride it again the next day.
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