The next day we were planning to go to Universal Studios. Gary and Sarah graciously accepted when we asked them if they could watch Hazel while we went to the park. So we got up really early to go drop her off at Gary's house. I was a little nervous about leaving her because she is a mama's girl, but they turned on some "Daniel Tiger" and she seemed just fine. We also learned that they needed to lock the door immediately, because on Sunday Hazel escaped from their house just like she did from the condo.
We got the the park and decided to start on the "Island's of Adventure" side because we wanted to go on the new Hagrid Motorbike ride. So we rushed over there first thing (thankfully Gary told us where to go because the line started a really long ways away). And even though the line looked huge, it moved quickly and we got on fairly soon.
The roller coaster was a lot of fun. It had some parts where you go backwards and then drop (I don't want to spoil it with too many details). It was pretty awesome. The kids all gave it their stamp of approval.
We then went on the other Harry Potter rides on the Islands of Adventure side. We did the Hogwarts castle ride and the Hippogriff roller coaster. The castle is always fun to walk through and see all the decorations and talking tapestries. But that ride seemed to take a long time. The Hippogriff roller coaster was a lot of fun and the line was short, so we did it multiple times.
I love the picture of Isaac and Brad on this ride, crammed into a tiny car but trying as hard as possible not to touch each other.
Then we tried to go on Jurassic Park. We waiting in line there FOREVER. Because of covid, they were only filling every other row and wouldn't sit people next to groups they didn't know. So if a party of 2 were going, they would take the entire 5-6 person row, then they would skip a row, and continue on. So it took an insanely long time to get on the ride.
Unfortunately that was the case for lots of the rides at Universal Studios. The 2 seater roller coasters moved at normal speeds because they could fill those to capacity. But any of the big car/bus type rides (like Hulk, the Hogwarts Express, the rafting rides, etc.) were soooo slow.
We tried to go on a few other rides, but the lines were too long, so Kjirstin and I waited in line for a table at the "Three Brooksticks" (because it had better kid options for food) while the dads and kids played at the Jurassic Park park. The wait to get a table wasn't too long, but it took FOREVER for our food to come. I called Isaac to come over once we were seated and they were sooo thirsty and finished all the drinks I got in a couple minutes. So we had to re-order a whole round of butterbeer. (And don't buy the "Gillywater" it is just bottle water in a different label. After we got home, Kevin told me I thought I was ordering "fishy green ale".) We got the "Great Feast" which was chicken and ribs, salad, potatoes, corn, and vegetables. It was a ton of food, but not very good. The potatoes were still crunchy and the corn wasn't great. But it was nice to sit and relax for a while.
I like these series of pictures with Luke's face. He was hot and grumpy when he came in, but perked right up after having a drink of butterbeer.
After lunchtime we tried to take the Hogwarts Express to the "Universal" side of the park, the line was over an hour long. Brad talked to the workers letting people on and I think they felt bad for us with 6 kids, so they gave us one-time front of the line passes so we could get on the train faster (which really was necessary because Theron had to go to the bathroom once we were almost on the train).
We first explored the Harry Potter stuff in Diagon Alley and went on the Gringott's Bank ride. We were hoping to go to Ollivander's to see a wand selection, but the line was too long because they only let in 1 group at a time. That was too bad because it meant that one of our kids would have been guaranteed to be chosen for the selection demonstration. We brought Sophie and Aspen's wands, but they weren't working well on the window displays. I tried to get them fixed, but it took too much time.
But we were able to walk through Platform 9 3/4, see Kreacher look through the window, talk to the Goblins at the money exchange, see the dragon breathe fire, and see the Night Bus.
Then we did the Men in Black ride (which I rocked at). The kids all had fun trying to shoot the aliens. It made me think I should let the kids watch that movie sometime. Unfortunately a lot of the rides at Universal are designed for older people, so my kids haven't seen many of the movies that are associated with the rides like: Jurassic Park, Men in Black, the super hero shows, the Borne movies, etc.
Then we hurried over to the new Bourne Stuntacular Show. Isaac and Brad were trying to get our stuff out of the lockers and were a few minutes behind us. Kjirstin, the kids, and I all got in, but Isaac and Brad were a little too slow and they shut the doors and locked them out. They texted saying they weren't letting them in, so I went and sweet-talked the entry people saying we would hold our "babies" (Luke and Theron) in our laps so we wouldn't take up any more seats. So they let them in, which was good because Isaac was telling me that Brad was contemplating ways that they could sneak in somehow.
The show was really good, but almost too good. It had a perfectly timed stage on a track system so the projected background and props would move in time and a stunt crew would do live fights as the stage moved (it's hard to explain). But the video scenes were so big it was often hard to tell what was real and fake (the best way to tell was that the live people all had on facemasks). So I feel like it detracted a little from the stunts because it was a little too movie-like.
Then some people did the Mummy ride and it was time to go because the park closed at 6pm. Overall Isaac and I were really disappointed. I have been to Universal multiple times on a park-hopper pass and always felt that we had plenty of time. But due to covid restrictions, we weren't able to go on very many rides at all. In addition, the park closed a good 3-4 hours earlier than it previous would have. Brad and Kjirstin didn't know what they were missing out on, so they didn't seem to mind, but we knew all the things we should have been able to do. Plus it was a very long, hot day standing in lots of lines. But it was amazing to not have to chase Hazel around the whole time.
We left the park, picked up pizza to take to Gary and Sarah's house for dinner, and got Hazel back. I worried that she didn't nap very well for them (I was hoping she would be so exhausted that she would sleep for 3+ hours). But Sarah and Daniel took her on a long adventure to a park. They said she walked about a mile and enjoyed chasing birds and other wildlife along the way. Sarah sent me a whole bunch of cute pictures and videos of her day out. It was so nice of them to take her for a whole day like that. It definitely made our day at Universal so much more enjoyable, and I think it was really good for her to have more of a relaxing day as well.
Universal (specifically Harry Potter world) has always been one of my favorite things to do in Florida, but it was disappointing during covid. Hopefully next time it will be more normal, or we need to pay the ridiculous fees to get the front of the line passes. But we still had fun. And even though we missed a lot of time at the park due to early closing, it was nice to be able to eat dinner outside the park and get the kids bathed and to bed at a decent time. I think it really helped them to get a good night sleep each night so they weren't too exhausted the following day.
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