Solo & Unleashed, A Disney & Universal Photo report

Welcome to my newest Trip Report.

This was just a quickie trip down to Florida…Aug. 22-25, 2014….and by the title you can probably guess…..I went solo!

So who am I? Well I am Jennifer…many people call me Jen.

I am a self-proclaimed Disney-aholic! And I have been very fortunate to take many Disney related trips over the years.

I am also a wife to a resister…Skip! And a mother of 3 children, Michael who is 25 (yeah I know, the math doesn’t add up, I must’ve had him long before I was even born), Paige, 22 (again the math doesn’t add up right?), who is also having a baby girl of her own in Oct. and Claire, who is 9. Many of you probably know Claire from many of my other Trip reports.

I was a stay at home mom for many years after I had Claire and I loved it. A few years back I was presented with a work from home option and I jumped at the chance. It really has worked well for me and I love my job. Of course there are days I scream and rant about it, but for the most part, it is the best job I have ever had.

This job is really what led me to this trip, as it was a business trip.

I am working towards a particular certification in my field of employment. There are several things I have to do and meet to get all the credits required for this certification. I actually did what I thought would be the hard part with flying colors and fairly early on. BUT I still had to do a few other things to fulfill everything on my list. In May I took a trip up to Detroit Michigan for the day (about 1 ½ hours away) to attend a seminar. This seminar gave me many of the credits I needed for this certification, but I still had 3 things I needed to check off that list after it was done.

I knew there was another seminar in Orlando in Aug. and I threw it around in my mind a bit, but didn’t pull the trigger. I still had to do one other thing that would require travel as well even after attending this seminar. I really tried to get both things to magically coincide with each other…so much so that it made my brain hurt, but I just couldn’t do it.

I finally decided two trips were going to be needed to finish this up and approached Skip with my plans. Surprisingly he didn’t seem to mind. I hope that means he is finally becoming less of a resister….but I am not holding my breath on that just yet.

So I booked this trip, to arrive on Aug. 22, a Friday and to leave on Aug. 24, a Sunday. My seminar was most of the day on the 23rd. I planned to make it a cheap trip, I had air points with Southwest and I could get a reduced rate at a Disney hotel while staying for the Seminar. I decided All Star Sports would be it. I have absolutely no desire to ever stay there really, but I am trying to stay at each resort at least once and this would be the perfect time to stay…right?

Well, you know how when you quote a Disney resort it lists on the side other resorts and their prices….I fell for it! It listed Caribbean Beach and the price wasn’t too much more…I haven’t stayed there yet…so I took the plunge and booked my 2 night stay there.

And surprise, surprise!!!! The Villains Unleashed party was announced and also going to take place on the 23rd. Well that works out just nicely! So a ticket was bought for that.

OK, everything is set for this quickie trip.

BUT WAIT!!!!!

I am a Harry Potter fan and I have been watching and reading up on the info about the new Diagon Alley opening some time in 2014 at Universal Studios. It was finally announced to open in July. Now I had just been to Universal Studios in April on a spur of the moment decision my husband had made on our last day of our Spring trip and I had longed to see Diagon Alley while we were there. This is the best I could see at that time.

It was such a tease!

So I looked at my air and I could change my day of departure to Monday instead of Sunday and it was actually slightly cheaper.

I then decided I should stay onsite that extra night and went to look for a hotel there. Cabana Bay is the newest resort there and I really wanted to stay there….but it does not offer Express pass, and being this was only going to be a 1 day whirlwind I thought it probably would be wise to stay at one of the resorts that offered it. In the end I chose the Royal Pacific. The price wasn’t too much higher and since I haven’t stayed at any onsite resorts there yet, this would be a new experience as well for me.

Another perk to my job is that I can sometimes obtain discounted or free 1 day tickets to different places. Sure enough Universal was on the list and I put in the request for that ticket and it arrived a few weeks after.

One last detail was how to get to Universal from Caribbean Beach. I looked at getting a car from the Swolphin Alamo, but the price was still kind of high for just 1 day…and picking it up would be later than I wanted it to be. I looked at getting one from MCO and just keeping it the whole weekend….and BINGO! That ended up being cheaper than the 1 day rental….and a few weeks before my trip I double checked it and it went down a few more dollars as well. YAY!

Everything was all set and I was excited.

Day 1, drive to Columbus, fly down, arrive at 5:50PM, get rental car perhaps go to Downtown Disney.

Day 2, drive over to the Dolphin for the Seminar, after seminar walk over to Hollywood Studios and go to Villains party. Come back to Dolphin and get car to take back to CBR.

Day 3, Get up extremely early and head over to Royal Pacific and get checked in and do early entry for Universal Studios and get in line for the new Escape from Gringotts ride.

Day 4, drive back to MCO for a 11:05 AM flight. Land in Columbus at 1:15 and drive the 2 ½ hours back home.

Sounds fairly easy and simple right? Well, there were a few wrenches in the plan….some were good wrenches and some not so great, but I just went with the flow and made the best of it. And the good wrench was REALLY worth it!

I hope you will all join me as I relive this quick weekend getaway.

Aug. 22, 2014, Friday, Day 1

I was up around 6 AM to get showered and ready for the day. Around 7 I got Claire up and ready for school….this had been her first week of school and she wasn’t too excited by the fact that I was leaving for Florida and leaving her home, but she got over it. I had her clothes laid out for school on Monday as well as her lunch packed for Monday so things would go as smoothly as possible while I was gone.

I took her to school and gave her embarrassing kisses goodbye and told her I would see her Monday evening.

Back at home I loaded my suitcases in the car and made sure I had everything I needed. I wanted to be on the road by 10 AM at the latest.

Oh no! I never checked in for my flight yesterday, so I went and did that and I was surprised to be a B24. Not too bad for doing it so late.

I took one last potty break before heading out and the button on my shorts went flying off. UGH! I hope that is not a sign of things to come. I quickly sewed it back on and it was good as new.

Around 9:30 Skip came over (he is a dairy farmer and our barns are on the property) and said good bye and handed me some money with a 20 on the outside of the fold. He always does this and acts goofy about it. He said “here’s $20 for you to spend”. Of course the 20 was folded over a $100 bill. He thinks he is so funny when he does stuff like this.

I said good bye to him and left a little before 10. I went into our local town and washed my car with the self-serve sprayer. Now you might think this is an odd thing to do….and it is….but I was going to be parking my car in my Aunts garage in Columbus and she has a cat…..and we have about 100 barn cats. Our cats all seem to be in competition at who can spray my car tires the most and the last time I had parked in her garage her cat went crazy because he could smell all of our cats on my car….so I thought it would be nice to try and spray off their scent if possible for that poor thing.

I also made a quick stop at McDonalds and got a breakfast combo and then set off for the 2 ½ hour drive to Columbus.

Now you may also ask why I was flying out of Columbus instead of Detroit, which is only just over an hour from my house.

Well a couple of reasons really. My Aunt and sister both live there, so they can take me to the airport. Price is a big factor and it was MUCH cheaper to fly out of there and then direct flights. Detroit rarely has a direct flight on SW to MCO and if I can manage it, I rather fly direct.

2 ½ hours in a car can be rather boring, especially by yourself…but I come prepared. I love to listen to books on CD. I was just finishing up the latest book by John Sandford, Field of Prey. If you haven’t ever read his books before, I really suggest this series.

So I drove along listening to the exciting ending to this story and made a potty stop about half way down at another McDonalds and when this book was done I was prepared…and pulled out Zoo by James Patterson to listen to. I didn’t get too far into it when I was arriving at my Aunts house.

I parked in the garage and we loaded my bags into her car and made another potty break and then we headed out.

We were going to grab some lunch first and she gave me a few choices, but I really didn’t care.

We ended up at a place call the Bag of Nails, which she said was really good …and it was.

I didn’t take any pictures, but I know I got the lobster bisque and I think I got the fish sandwich as well. It was all really good and I was stuffed when we left.

Once again we piled in the car and headed to the airport. She told me about some upcoming River cruises they have planned (she travels a lot) and then a story about some friends of theirs that is going on the River Cruise with them and before we knew it we were at the airport. I unloaded at the curb and said my thank you’s and goodbyes and did the curbside check in. I really prefer curbside check in so much more than going inside. It always seems so much faster.

Once that was taken care of I moseyed in towards the security. Columbus is a small airport and usually security is really fast and today was no different. I think there were only 2 other people in front of me and when I gave my boarding pass to be let in the line I was notified that I had TSA priority…which meant I got to go in a different line and not take off my shoes, or pull out my laptop and just went through the old school scanners. SCORE for me…..but I wish I would get this at a busier airport.

So within seconds I was through and on my way to the gate. I stopped off and bought a diet coke and found a seat with a plug and it was near the podium that the SW agents work at.

The guy there would chat with me a bit off and on and then I noticed an email from SW and it said we would be delayed about an hour, so I asked him if that was true and he checked and said yes. UGH! I hate getting those emails AFTER I have gone through the security check.

I then pulled out my laptop and went online a bit but after a bit it seemed like the connection kept failing and I gave up on that and just edited pictures from my March trip.

The guy did tell me that our flight was not full and that there were around 50 seats that would be open so he said there was a good chance that many people would only sit 2 to a row. Yay!!!!!

We ended up being about 1hour and 20 minutes late if I remember right, but we finally did load onto the plane. The reason was that the plan was coming from Baltimore and they were only using 1 runway right now as the other one was under construction and the guy told me you can almost count on every flight coming from Baltimore right now to be delayed.

As we lined up there were only a couple of people behind me to board. This flight really was empty. The last person said they never even did online check in and was so happy to get a B boarding number.

I sat on an aisle seat with an older gentleman at the window.

Soon we were in the air and I had my laptop out and working on pictures. This flight was pretty bumpy and sadly we really didn’t make up much time in the air. It was now right around 7 when we landed. That was 1 hour and 10 minutes later than planned…but I really didn’t have any set plans for the evening. I had thought about going to Downtown Disney, but at this point it already seemed too late to do that.

The bad thing was a storm had just passed through. The gates had all been shut down due to lightening and now they were backed up, so we had about another 20-25 minute wait before we could even pull up to a gate. I knew that button flying off my shorts earlier was NOT a good omen.

Finally we pulled up to our gate and you could tell by this time everyone was antsy to get off and get going. I actually was pretty patient…for me that is. I got off, made a potty stop and worked my way to the fake monorail and rode over to the main building and then went towards luggage claim. Nothing was coming out yet so I stepped outside and got blasted by a wall of hot air. UGH. This wasn’t a good sign when it’s this hot at 8PMish. But I had expected it as my friend had been in Florida over the past week and she had warned me it was extremely hot this week.

I walked back in and saw that the bags were starting to come out but it still took quite a while till mine came out. Had I known it was going to take this long I would’ve gone to the car rental counter first.

With the bag in hand…..oh and I used new luggage this trip. I had bought some luggage with the 4 spinner wheels on them and used the carryon and the big suitcase. I LOVE these. Now mine were kind of cheap, so at times they didn’t roll on all 4’s as well as I am sure nicer ones do on carpet, but still, these are so much better.

So as I was saying….with bags in hand I rolled down to the Dollar counter, which had moved since March. Of course the line was long. They did have 7 agents working the counter, but it still seemed to take a long time. I got to talking to the lady behind me and we had similar types of occupations. She was entering some contest and she needed a picture of herself in front of the Dollar sign and when she found out my occupation she asked if she could get a picture of her handing me her business card and I said sure and we exchanged cards and soon we were both called up.

Check in was quick and painless and I was soon on my way to pick up my wheels for the next few days.

I went out to the garage and checked with the guys out there and they directed me to the economy aisle. At that point there were only 2 cars in the aisle and another family was getting in the other car, so I basically had no choice…and I ended up with a Toyota Yaris, which is a hatchback. I opened the trunk and laughed out loud. I don’t even think my carryon would fit in there. It was the smallest thing I had ever seen. Luckily both bags fit in the back seat. As I familiarized myself with the car I saw that the employees brought out several more cars to the economy aisle that were bigger, but since it was only me there was no need for me to switch over to one of them.

Finally I am off. I have Siri programmed and she is taking me a way that doesn’t sound right….and then she gives me a turn left…then a turn right and I just know it’s wrong as I am doing it and sure enough she tells me to make a U-turn. And of course I had to pay 1 50 cent toll and then another right after the U-turn.

I finally got going the right way and it’s dark and I just hate driving in the dark in unfamiliar places and people are whipping by me on both sides…..and I wasn’t going slow either. I was actually surprised how much traffic there was at this time of night.

As I got closer to Disney I did recognize a few more things and felt more comfortable and finally I was pulling into Caribbean Beach resort. And Disney was welcoming me as I pulled in with Epcot’s fireworks going off…what perfect timing.

I pulled up to the Custom House and the lot was basically empty with 1 or 2 cars in the lot, so I parked so that I had a couple of spaces on either side of me and then I opened the car door so I could see and get into my bag to get my Magic Band and my paperwork…..and then this car pulls in and tries to park right next to me….yeah there is basically a completely empty parking lot and this car chooses to park in the space next to me…and they just sit there and wait till I close my car door so they can get in. I look at them as they pull in they are all staring at me and I literally rolled my eyes at them. They seemed to be in a big hurry to get inside, so I just took my time and once I was ready walked up to the Custom House.

I had done online check in so I went to that queue…..that other family had not.

I took a few pictures as my guy got me all settled.

Even though I had done the online check in, it still seemed to take a while to get everything done. I was given my room number, 4532, which I was informed was one of the refurbished rooms. I wasn’t sure if I was excited or not. I had seen pictures of the new rooms online and so far I was not impressed with them at all. The rooms I had seen looked like they took wood and painted it chocolate brown. It was definitely not a Caribbean style of décor either, more Polynesian in my opinion. My CM pulled out the resort map and showed me some highpoints on the map, where my building was, how to get to Old Port Royale from my room, etc. He then told me how to drive back there. It all sounded good and I set back off to my car.

About the same time I walked out, my happy parking buddies were leaving too and they went out a totally different way than my CM told me to go. I went the way he told me but then I basically got confused…..he had given me a lot of turn left, turn rights….and it did not coincide with where I was. I ended up going the wrong way and having to circle back into the Custom House lot and giving it a second try….but finally I found the right way and was on my way to building 45.

I parked up and just grabbed my carryon and went in search of my room. I actually went down the wrong side of the building first before realizing on was on the other side…and score! I was in a corner room.

I took a few pictures and then went back to get my big suitcase.

A corner room means 2 windows…though for the short time I was there that really wasn’t a big deal for me.

My thoughts on the room? Pleasantly surprised. Pictures do not do this justice at all. It looks much better in person….and the wood did not have the painted look like I thought it did in previous pictures I had seen.

It was now after 10 PM….so much for doing anything this evening…I had been traveling for basically 12 hours at this point and I just was ready to chill out, but I was now starving.

I grabbed my camera and backpack and headed out to find the bridge to get to the food court.

Again, I was pleasantly surprised to find how close the bridge actually was. The walk across the island was really quick too, which surprised me….though it was really dark.

It was much more lively and happening over on this side of the resort. Lots of people at the bar and pool.

I made my way to the food court quickly.

I looked at the different selections and decided on something with pasta.

I asked what the person in front of me was getting as it looked tasty…it was chicken parmesan, which I love so I decided on that as well.

I debated on a dessert….after all that is the best part of the meal, but I decided to wait and see how full I was after this and went and found a table.

I also had decided on milk to drink after have several diet cokes throughout the day I figured this would be better for me.

I then started to eat and called home. Claire was in bed, but I talked to Skip for a bit and let him know that it had been a long travel day (I had talked to him once while I was at the Columbus airport and he knew I was delayed). I can almost hear him smile whenever something doesn’t go smoothly or the way it was planned.

After I ate, I decided to check out the gift shop.

My friend Brook had asked if I would look and see if they had a headband that she liked and had recently lost, they did so I grabbed that. I also bought a 2014 zip up sweatshirt. I usually get one every year (though I never did manage to get one in 2013) and had planned to get one while I was down here in March, but I waited till our last day so I wouldn’t have the extra bulk in my suitcase. That was a dumb plan. Our last full day we had dinner at DTD and I went to World of Disney to get the sweatshirt and they were out completely. Of course the parks still had them but I was not going to any parks at that point, so I figured eventually I would order one online, which I had not done yet either. So I was happy to find one and quickly made my purchases.

I went back outside then after my shopping.

I then realized I didn’t see any magnets inside and went back in to see if they had any resort specific ones but I did not find any and I just wasn’t in love with any of the other magnets they had on display.

Back out I went and decided to take a look at the pool.

CBR does have a really nice looking pool.

I debated going back to the room to get my swimsuit on and sitting in the hot tub, but I wasn’t sure how much longer the pool would be open.

A look past the pool.

And another hot tub.

The locker rooms/ bathrooms.

I then took a few pictures of the pirate splash area.

The pool started to empty out now.

It was now around 11. Such a shame that the pool closed then as it was still really hot and there were still a lot of people out and about. The bar area was still hopping though.

I started to walk back to the room…..this is a look towards the lighthouse, though it is a very dark picture.

This little courtyard was just around the sidewalk from my room…very cute area….but it is a smoking area, so if you are sensitive to smoke, keep that in mind.

Looking back at my building from the courtyard.

I then headed back to my room and took a few more pictures.

I then got ready for bed and turned on Stacy. It has been a while since I have watched her and there was some new stuff in there….and of course a lot of the old stuff.

I was happy to see the TV’s had timers so I set it to go off in 30 minutes and I set the alarm on my phone to go off at 6 AM and I settled in and soon drifted off to sleep.

Aug. 23, 2014, Saturday, Day 2

Today was going to be a busy and long day, but I was ready!

I set my alarm on my phone for 6 AM and it took me a minute to realize what was going on when it went off. I got up and jumped in the shower. The nice thing about being alone is you don’t have to shut the door when you go to the bathroom….yeah, little things in life entertain me!

One thing that irritated me is that I looked for washcloths and there were none to be found. I had plenty of hand towels and bath towels but no washcloths. I always get annoyed when there isn’t enough towels in a room…..a real big pet peeve of mine. But then I thought about it and remembered the Mickey head that was on my bed when I arrived and went to look at it and sure enough, that had 2 washcloths so I unrolled one of those to use.

It was still dark out in the morning when I first went out. I sat in the courtyard and answered a few emails and messages.

There was this HUGE toad who was planted right in his spot and he was NOT moving for anyone.

(I know that is a bad picture…..but I took it with my phone….I actually took a lot of pictures with my phone this trip)

I went back to my room and finished blow drying my hair and getting ready and then I had to go in search of breakfast. Now I wasn’t sure if the seminar would offer anything or not. Most do, but it didn’t say anything in the paper work and I knew if I didn’t eat and arrived with nothing there I would not be a pleasant person, so to save everyone else from my wrath, I headed over to the food court.

I zoomed in on the hammock from the bridge.

The playground is on the island….and I think it might’ve still been closed at that time…or I just didn’t have enough time to go in and look.

I thought this little seating area was so pretty.

I headed inside to Old Port Royale to look for some breakfast options.

I ended up getting the kids Mickey waffle meal….and what a deal! This was only $5 and some change for the waffles, sausage, applesauce and milk!

It filled me up nicely and then I headed back to my room.

I packed a bag with the clothes to change into later for the party and a sweater for the seminar…as often those rooms can be so chilly…and headed off and made the drive over to the Dolphin. The nice thing about having a car was that I could drive straight over to the Dolphin and not worry about taking buses and transferring to get there…the bad thing was that the Dolphin charges $16 to self-park. But I felt it was worth it to get there faster and not leave at the crack of dawn to try and make it there on time.

It was a very easy and quick drive, but it took me a few minutes to find the self-park area, which was actually the next driveway after the main entrance. I took my parking ticket and parked up.

I wasn’t exactly sure where the conference center was, but it looked like the end where the parking lot is was the best option and I went in a side door.

This place is HUGE!

I didn’t see any signs of the seminar I was attending down this long hall, but once I turned the corner near the lobby I found people, so I knew that had to be it.

I got signed in and SCORE! they handed me a parking validation ticket…..and then I went into the conference room. I debated on sitting closer to the front, but I usually get up to go to the bathroom once or twice and I didn’t want to disturb people so I found a spot in the back row. I also like space so I allowed a seat open between me and the girl on the end. I was hoping it wasn’t a full conference.

I then went back out to take pictures of the offerings for breakfast, which wasn’t much…blueberry muffins, which I don’t like and coffee and several kinds of tea…neither of which I drink. I was so glad I had eaten before I came.

I did a search for some water or milk, but there wasn’t any. Back inside the room I found some water and poured myself a cup full.

Another lady sat next to me and we started talking. The room was really filling up. Close to 8:30 when the conference was to begin, another lady sat next to her and asked if we would move down so her friend who was running a little late could sit next to her when she got there. OK, fine….but the lady next to me wasn’t too happy and said something like “maybe you should get here earlier if you want to choose your seats and sit by each other.” I thought that was kind of funny as I had thought the same thing.

The conference started promptly but for the next hour people kept rolling in. I was shocked at how many people were arriving so late. In the end every seat was taken and they had to put more chairs along the back wall for people to sit in. Someone said later in the day that they were told we would have 80-100 people and we ended up having around 120. What surprised me is this was something you had to sign up for and pay for in advance so you would think they would’ve known the number of attendants ahead of time and would’ve had enough chairs and tables set up.

After our first segment we had a break and I went outside. Believe it or not, the conference room was actually kind of hot. I had heard from others sitting in the middle under the AC vents that they were freezing, but where I was sitting was warm and I, whom am normally cold at things like this, never once put on my sweater.

On the way out, I saw Paul, a guy from one of the facebook groups I belong too and he had seen me posting on facebook the day before and told me he would be at the same seminar. We said a quick hello as we exited out of the room.

Outside I checked my emails and I called home to see if Paige had picked up Claire for the day. There was a mix up where Mil was supposed to get her later in the day and Paige said she called to tell her what time she would bring her home and MIL said she already had plans. I am not sure how that happened as she had the dates on her calendar for a month, but she moved things around and arranged to be home later.

I went back inside and found a bathroom nearby. This one was not as close to the conference room and I don’t think many knew about it, so I used that one and was in and out.

Thanks for posting about this in your other TR. Two trip reports at once, yes!!!

Thanks for posting about this in your other TR. Two trip reports at once, yes!!!

You can just call me crazy now!

I then wanted to try and get a few pictures of the lobby before we had to go back for the next session….and search for a diet coke as that water was just not cutting it for me.

It’s a very pretty resort. The ceiling was kind of odd though….it had like a draping cloth.

I found a coffee type shop, but it didn’t appear to sell bottles of coke, so I kept moving and taking pictures.

I found the gift shop and headed there hoping they would have something.

It was actually pretty small in there and I asked the ladies working where I could find something and they acted put out and told me downstairs, but I have to say they were not friendly and almost acted like they didn’t understand me.

So downstairs I went.

This place was closed.

I think this was a table service? But whatever it was, it wasn’t going to help me.

Aha! I bet that will be my best chance.

Yay! They had some and I got in line to make my purchase!

I then headed back to the conference with just minutes to spare….of course that didn’t matter as so many people were late and had no concept of time.

The 2nd session started and I took my notes, etc. A few times we had to break off in groups to do an activity…how I hate that, but the one lady was really nice and I later got to talking with the other girl on my other side and she was really nice too.

At one point several people came in and started handing out flyers to everyone. I just assumed it was part of the conference, but then the lady who checked us in came running and yelled at them and scurried them out. One guy dropped his paper and one of these people picked it up and threw it at him. I looked at it and it was about mold in hotels…..OK? At first I thought why are we getting this as it has nothing to do with our conference AT ALL! Then when the lady scurried them out, we found out they are some kind of environmental terrorist group and they were “spreading the word” I guess. They were escorted out by security after they were reported to the Dolphin staff and from then on, our door was locked on the outside. If we had to leave, the lady outside would use her key to let us in.

Who says conferences are boring? LOL

At 11 we broke for lunch and Skip called me and I talked to him for a few minutes. I then headed downstairs to the Buffereria…only to find out they would not be serving lunch till 11:30. I had about 15 minutes at that point to wait and I decided I did not want to. I decided to head towards the Yacht and Beach Club and perhaps go to Beach & Cream for an ice-cream lunch.

OH! And it was HOT! Like over 100 degrees hot! My friend Jeanne was also in the area with her daughter and she had been messaging me off and on throughout the day and she said she thought we were setting record highs for this particular summer on this day. Oh goodie!

I think I take this picture every time I walk by here, but my room a few years ago was on the first floor on the left corner.

As I got closer to Beaches and Cream I had a thought. I should check out the Captains Grille. I have never eaten there before and I have read it’s often easy to get a lunch as a walk in.

I checked at the podium and sure enough I could be seated, they were cleaning up from breakfast and it would be just a few minutes.

So I took a few pictures while I waited.

And then I was being led to my seat.

It didn’t take me long to decide what I wanted…the soup and sandwich…with the sandwich today being a shrimp salad. (I think tuna was the other choice). Clam chowder was my soup choice.

It came our really fast too.

And I inhaled it! It was really good! Both the sandwich and the soup were delicious!

I was done quickly and I paid my bill and set off. I was glad I made the choice of trying this out and I would love to come back again.

I still had a little time yet, so I sat by the pool and messaged some friends.

It was now time to head back to the seminar.

Did I mention it was hot? Boy!... that walk isn’t that far, but I was already getting super sweaty.

I went a different way back to the dolphin….I think it was slightly shorter.

I got settled back in and we had 3 more segments of the conference.

After each segment of the conference we got a 30 minute break, but segment 2 was running long. I kept looking at my watch and knew this presenter wasn’t even close to being done. It was interesting stuff, but I didn’t want to be there longer than 5 PM. Finally one of the guys putting on the seminar came up and I knew he told them to wrap it up as it was rushed through the rest of the material after that. We got a shorter break then and came back about 10 minutes late for the next presenter.

The nice thing was, after segment 1 we got a snack.

That was tasty. I also messaged my friends and I think the heat index was around 110 at that point….it was hot!

And here is an oddly parked car out front.

I did take a random picture at some point that afternoon to show how full the conference room was.

After segment 2 we got another snack!

Those were tasty too.

And the heat index was 106!

Honestly segment 3 was not that interesting for me, but her product was something I needed for this certification and the purpose for being here, so I sat and listened.

5 Pm came and went and I stood up around 5:15. So did many others. Sorry, but this was to be an hour long and it was running late as well and I had a party to get to. I had been messaging Jeanne at this point and she told me it was storming out…really badly! She said the winds were really high and the rain was sideways. UGH. The guy in charge of the seminar then made an announcement that there were 50 mile an hour winds so no rush to get out….well I still was feeling like I needed to rush. LOL It was actually closer to 5:30 before we were completely done.

I hightailed it out of there and made the fast walk back to my car. The ground was wet, (and slippery ) but for the most part the rain had stopped. I grabbed my bag went back inside to change but I am a clutz! As I took a step up the curb and I totally slid in my go walks, which I have found are really slippery on wet pavement, and I fell to my knees. I didn’t get hurt, but I felt so dumb! Of course a few people witnessed it….and you just want them to go away. LOL.

So embarrassed I went back inside and changed quickly….including my shoes and walked back out to the car to return my bag. The new pair of shoes were much more friendly for wet pavement.

I went out to the ferry dock to see if there would be a boat leaving soon….yes there was a boat….but NO they would not be leaving as there had been lightening in the area and they were not allowed to move at this point, so I decided to walk. At least with the rain that came through it was now closer to 89 than 110!

You could tell the storm had been a doozie. Lots of fallen leaves and branches all over the place.

Of course about halfway there the ferry goes by.

I was messaging back and forth with my friend Jeanne and her and her daughter Holly were already inside and in line for merchandise. I wasn’t that interested in getting something. I wouldn’t mind it, but I was not about to wait in a long line in hopes of buying something. And I had some FP’s to use. I was able to pick 3 with my party ticket, but only 2 were good for after 5, which is when we were allowed to get in with the ticket. Sadly, the first one, Star Tours, was already expired because of the late release of the meeting.

Well isn’t this cute?

I found the party entrance and scanned my band and got my lanyard for the party.

I made my way towards Tower of Terror, which is where my last FP+ of the day was good for.

Party sign!

I am not sure if going on this as your first ride of the day is wise…but oh well.

I tried to capture the ghosts!

And then that moment….you know the one…where you are pushed out to the shaft and you know at any moment you are going to drop, but it teases you and waits. I think that is the most nerve wracking part of the whole ride…and being the first ride of the trip I swear I had more anxiety than usual.

But it was fun and I laughed and screamed and had a great time!

I decided that Rockin’ Rollercoaster would be my next ride. Can you believe I have only rode this once before and it was many years ago.

I went for the single rider line, but it was actually long. I started talking to the couple in front of me and also a few others. There were 3 CM’s in line as well and they were there for the party too. The wait didn’t seem so bad as we all chatted away. But in reality, if I had gone in the regular line it would’ve been faster. There just didn’t seem to be much of a need for single riders tonight.

Finally they just let us all go and I sat with the one CM. She has only rode it once before too and she warned me she would scream, which was fine with me as I would too, especially during takeoff. I also heard a CM who was working the ride say that he had cut off the line now for non-party goers and only those who had a lanyard were now in line. I thought that was strange as it was now only about 7 PM but the party didn’t start till 8.

The ride was great…and that take off really gets me, but it was so much fun!

We screamed and squealed and had a great time.

You can barely see me, but I am in the back…we were actually in the very last car.

I went back out and tried to message Jeanne, but my phone froze up…..and it has been doing this off and on now which really annoys me. I hope it’s not going to die as I have a few months yet before I am eligible for the upgrade.

After I let it just sit a bit I was able to turn it off and restart it and it was working fine again, but this happened a few times during the trip.

I decided it was time to find a map for the party.

My favorite show!

There were no maps to be found anywhere, so I headed back to the front.

There were a couple of CM’s handing them out and they were really strict. Only 1 map per family. I got in line to get one and a guy steps in front of me and takes his and asks for more and she says again Only 1 per family….we don’t have enough….. Really? They know how many tickets they had available for sale and they didn’t print enough maps up? Come on…Who the heck is planning this out?

I got to get my map and she tells me “only 1 per family” and I say I know and again she tells me that…and I tell her that’s fine, but I am here by myself, I have no family. She acted leery as she handed me one. Yes, people do come by themselves! I was just in line with 3 CM’s who were all there by themselves. LOL.

I read later that they did run out of maps and people were not happy.

The lines for the characters were already super long too. At 6 PM the Malificent line was already 2 hours long. I pretty much knew at that point that I wasn’t going to go meet characters as I am not a patient person when it comes to lines like that. Many ended up getting closed off early in the evening too.

I then headed towards Star Tours. I figured I would get in one more ride before the party officially started….and then I would need to find food as I was getting hungry.

Jeanne messaged me that she was in line for the Brown Derby for Club Evil now. I told her I was getting in line for Star Tours and then finding food.

The ride was walk on and basically empty. Not even 2 full rows. I was in the 2nd row and there were only 3 of us and they told us to sit where ever we wanted to.

After the ride was over the party was started. I had missed the opening show, which I really never thought about till I was on the ride. Oh well.

Jeanne messaged me and she was in Club Evil and told me to come and she had a table and she gave me the password to get in. I walked up and the line wasn’t too bad, but I told the CM that I had a friend in there with a table and gave the password and they let me cut in front of everyone and go right in. I found Jeanne in a few minutes and sat down.

Her daughter Holly was with her and they had ordered some red light up drinks. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the waiter told us it was called One Bad Apple, but I think we kept calling it a Poison Apple and I ordered one too.

Look at the cute glow cube.

It’s a skull!

The menu….there was more on the other side.

The drink was a little too strong for me and a little too sweet. It was good, but I was only going to drink one. Soon we all ordered waters as well. It was still hot and even though it was cooler in here, it still was pretty warm.

We just sat and relaxed and chatted. This was the first time I had ever been in the Brown Derby. It was smaller than I thought it would be. They had it all decorated for the party though and it was cute.

There is a bar lit up in blue lights in the middle and I swore I took a picture, but I guess I didn’t.

After a bit this lady came out and sang and talked. For the life of me I can’t remember her name now.

It took a while before our waiter took our orders….it was very busy in there, but Jeanne and I decided on the Captain Hook and Mr. Smee Sliders (2 sliders one with Wagyu Beef and on with Adouille Chicken) and Holly got the Malificent Loaded Staffs ( It has some sort of spring roll and stead fries I believe). We called them the sticks as that is what it looked like.

This lady came on over and posed for us.

We then got excited……Look who is roaming the room!

We didn’t know that there would be characters in here! What a treat!

Hi Cruella!

Our food came out then and I took so really crappy pictures of mine.

The little chips were really good, the beef slider was better than the chicken. Neither were what I would call fabulous, but they weren’t bad either. It was just different than normal food I would normally eat…and I did eat them all.

Cruella kept making the rounds.

And then look who appeared!

How exciting. I don’t think I have ever seen the Queen of Hearts before.

I took a picture of Jeanne with her and then I had Jeanne take one of me, but it didn’t take. She didn’t know how to work my camera and she just let the flash go off and didn’t hold it long enough for the picture to take…so I grabbed Holly and we went and stalked the Queen so I could get a picture too.

Of course I look like a total dork in this picture.

While sitting at the table, just relaxing and enjoying ourselves, I noticed the people in the booth next to use got some dessert and it looked cute and yummy…at least in the dark it did, so we quickly looked at the menu and found it. There was a Club Evil Dessert Trio which consisted of Hade’ Blue hair, a Raspberry Sphere filled with and Orange Truffel on Pop Rocks, Malificent Fury, Dark Cherry Gelato in a Vanilla Cornet, and Cruella’s Evil 7 Layer Chocolate Cake, White Chocolate Oreo Mousse, Raspberry Jam and Dark Chocolate Ganache.

Yep, we wanted that! Holly said she was too full, but when the waiter came by, she ordered one too. LOL.

I started on the Hades’ first and it was not bad, but it was weird. It had the texture of an eyeball, so that was a little strange and the pop rocks exploding in my mouth was really a weird feeling. It also had cotton candy on top. Without even realizing it, the Malificent was gelato and that started to melt fast. In fairness I think it was already melting when the waiter brought it out. So we quickly switched over to eating that next and it was pretty much liquid at that point. It was good, but had it actually been in the frozen form, I think it would’ve been better. The Cruella Mousse was really good too.

The service was very slow, but it was also really busy. All the tables were full and they had some stand up tables as well and those were full and still there were a few people just roaming around. At one point across the way Jeanne noticed a lot of people hovering around a table. We wondered if someone famous was over there, so I walked over to take a look…pretending like I was looking at the decorations. I saw no one I recognized and was about to walk away when a family asked if I needed a seat. LOL. Oops caught in the act. I told them no, I was just looking at the decorations and went back and sat down.

We also knew another co-worker was in Club Evil as well…Nikki. We had been messaging back and forth and she kept saying she was near Pain and Panic. I took a walk around, but I could not find her at all. Nor did I see Pain and Panic walking around anywhere. I didn’t think the place was that big, but maybe there was another room?

We kept saying that we were by the blue bar. Finally I went back far enough and found her. I had been looking behind a pillar, but never stuck my head into that room far enough. Sure enough she was there with her husband and there were statues of Pain and Panic back by her table. I grabbed her and took her back to our table and we chatted a few minutes and had Holly take our picture.

Nikki went back to her table and then we sat and chatted some more and we noticed the step sisters were roaming around. I only got a glimpse of Anastasia, and the picture is really bad.

Drizzella however, did come over.

A bit of a stalking picture.

Or two….

Cruella also came back over.

And another visit from Drizzella.

Cruella then overtook the podium and sang…I don’t think she was really supposed to do that, but she was feeling the spirit.

Our bill had come out and we paid. This was not a cheap meal/experience as I believe mine was close to $50 when I added a tip, but to me it was well worth it. I was not out in the extreme heat (though it still was pretty warm in here) and I got to see characters that I hadn’t planned on, and it was nice chatting with Jeanne and Holly and meeting up with Nikki as well. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

We decided it was time to head out, though we wouldn’t have mind staying there all night. We went back to say good bye to Nikki and her husband and then I took a few pictures of the Pain and Panic statues too. As we got up a guy asked us if we were leaving and we said yes and he quickly grabbed our table.

Look at this cute little “Brown Derby”.

After saying our final goodbyes to Nikki we headed out.

Jeanne said we had to stop in front of the cauldron with the Evil Queen and get a picture for our friend Deb. We have a running joke of being the “evil girls” so this was for her. First we had to brew up the smoke.

And then our evil poses.

Ok, we might have been doing a bit more laughing than looking evil…..

We all hit the restroom there and then had plans to meet up the next day………..

And said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

I headed off by Toy Story and the wait said 20 minutes…which we all know is pretty much unheard of, so I got in line.

The wait was slightly longer, maybe 25 minutes, but it was still fast moving and I didn’t mind.

My score.

I had gotten into line at the right time as it was not a bit longer when I exited, still not bad, but closer to a 40 minute wait now.

I moseyed along and found the Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. I went inside and took a look around. It was so cold in there and it felt like paradise!

There were a lot of cute things in there but all overpriced and I didn’t feel like spending that much on items I am not sure would get enough use by Claire. I did linger in there for a bit to cool off though. This was truly the only place I went to the whole night were I was not sweating.

I then moved on.

I found a whole slew of characters, but the lines were so long and I was not about to wait for them, so I stood to the side and took their pictures that way. Many that I am going to post are from my phone and are bad, but I am posting them anyways.

This is a guy dressed up as Ursala…what a great costume. People were stopping him to get pictures with him.

Many characters were down here.

Next to no one was going in the Muppets.

And I found a Stormtrooper who would pose for me. I was shocked to find him walking around with basically no one around him.

Others soon caught on.

And then I came across ANOTHER one!

The Sand dude had a long line but I quickly snapped a picture of him.

There was no chance of even getting close to Vader.

I then found a queued line for Stormtroopers and thought it was funny because it was so long and if they just walked down a ways they would find 2 or 3 just roaming and taking pictures.

I also saw another Star Wars character…who it is, I have no clue, but I wasn’t sure if she was a real character or someone dressed up. I later saw Jeanne post a picture of Holly with her, so I guess she was real.

I strolled back down by the Evil Queen who had a massive line and it was already cut off for the night…..by the way …MANY lines were cut off early this evening and I heard a lot of people complained about this.

I then strolled by where they were selling the merchandise. The line was cut off for that as well and I overheard that those still in line only had the option of buying party pins. Everything else was sold out. I just don’t get this. I know they limit how much you could buy in the first place, but why don’t they still stock enough? Disney does some really crazy things and this is one of them.

As I walked around some more I saw a lady stop a CM and really laid into him that she had been in line for one character for hours and then went to buy merchandise only to be told she couldn’t get in line. I am not sure what happened, but he took her off somewhere to help her. I am not sure if she was able to get anything, or they did something to compensate her.

Oh….and that’s another thing. I had heard afterwards that many people were mad about how the party was handled with both merchandise and characters and were asking for refunds. I am not really OK with that. Unless they had a really bad time, it’s just how these things are. Disney just never has enough merchandise and the character lines, especially rare ones, are always crazy long.

I circled around the front and saw the band playing a little bit.

I went to find a spot to sit as I was just so hot still and look who I ran into.

It was close to 11:30 now and I was super tired and mostly just super-hot. I think it was still a heat index of the mid 80’s at this point. I had wanted to stay for the fireworks but I think they were still over an hour away. I messaged Jeanne and told her I think I was going to call it a night as I was so tired and couldn’t handle the heat anymore. She had already left. LOL!

I felt kind of bad not doing a lot of party things, but I still had a good time and really enjoyed myself, but I just couldn’t go on anymore. I thought maybe I would be able to see the fireworks from CBR once I got back.

So with that thought I headed towards the front.

They were handing out goodie bags as we left…. I heard later that again they didn’t have enough for everyone and many people didn’t get them…… They had some autograph cards from some of the different villains and some Malificent pins and a few other things I think….I gave them all to Claire.

As I walked out, I took one last picture of Olaf, because he was so darn cute.

And I walked over to the boat launch as I was too tired to walk back to the Dolphin.

On the boat, I took this picture of one of the cards they had handed us. On the back there are autographs.

On the boat, a little boy was sitting by himself on the window ledge and fell asleep in the funniest position. I was sitting at the back, but inside and I think his parents were sitting just outside the window. It was just the cutest thing.

I exited back at the Dolphin and made my way back to the car.

I made it to the car and it was still all wet from the rain earlier so I ran the wipers and had to turn on the defrost because it was so steamy and hot outside that everything was fogging up.

I headed out to the gate where I waited behind a guy who was having issues getting the gate to open for him and he had to get out of his truck and do a few things before it open. It was finally my turn and put my validation ticket in for parking and it kept giving me an error. UGH. I had noticed earlier when everyone else was leaving that they had CM out there helping them exit, so I wondered if there was a problem with the tickets. So I hit the help button and explain my problem. They ask if I had the original white ticket….yes I do….put that in first and then the validation ticket for payment. OMG! I am sure they all had a good laugh about that one. It worked like a charm once I did the right procedure!

The drive back was quick and I parked and went back to my room. I was so hot and as soon as I walked in my door I stripped down......another nice thing about staying by yourself. I was just soooo hot and I thought about a shower, but I just didn’t have the energy, so I decided to just wash up. And I was in luck! I had left a note to ask for extra washcloths that morning since I didn’t have any before and I had a pile of about 6, plus some on the racks. I felt much better after wiping down with a cool cloth and got ready for bed.

This guy was greeting me tonight.

I plopped in bed and I have to tell you these new mattresses are super comfy. I made a note to myself to strip the bed in the morning to find out what kind they were as we may be getting a new mattress at home in the next year or so.

As I drifted off to sleep I heard the fireworks start up. Oh well, I guess I will miss them, but that was fine with me. What can be more magical than hearing fireworks in the distance as you drift off to sleep?

Day 3, August 24, 2014, Sunday

I had set my alarm once again for 6 AM. I did not really have too many issues getting up because I really had slept so well. The new mattresses at CBR are like heaven. Before I left I even took the sheet back so I could see what kind they were…..just so you know they are BeautyRest.

I got showered and gathered everything together in my suitcase. I wasn’t moving fast, but I wasn’t moving slow either.

My plans had changed though. Originally I planned to get up early, even earlier than 6 and get right ready and going and head over to Universal. I was moving hotels today and I was heading off to Royal Pacific. My plan had been to get over there and get checked in and then go to early entry at Universal Studios and head directly back to Diagon Alley. It was a good plan too! I knew all would have to work well for me to get up and get going that early, but I knew it would be worth it.

Well that plan went right out the window a few days before my trip.

A “mystery” friend had contacted me via facebook and started out by saying “I know you have plans to head to Universal early on Sunday……BUT…….I can get you in the Magic Kingdom for free that morning if you would like to ride the Mine Train”.

I have to admit, I was shocked and not quite sure what to do. I hadn’t done a lot of planning for this trip, but I did have a few things set in my mind already. Did I really want to give up going to early entry at Universal? It could mean I might have to wait 3 plus hours to ride Gringotts. And after all the whole reason I added this extra day was so I could go there especially for Diagon Alley.

Of course I would be a complete idiot if I gave up a chance to go on the Mine Train….who knows when I’ll be back to WDW and I told her after thinking it over for about 5.8 seconds….. YES!

She had told me a time and place to meet. Mystery friend has asked to remain anonymous so I won’t be talking about her too much from here on out.

Once packed I took everything out to the car, and then I headed to the food court to get something to eat.

My camera was really fogging up this morning, so some of my shots have a glow to them.

And yes, it was already steaming hot outside.

As I crossed over the island I saw that the playground gates were open and I walked through there quickly and took a few shots on the way.

Today I decided on a chocolate muffin and large milk. Would you believe that this was actually a few cents higher than the whole kids meal I had gotten yesterday…and not nearly as filling either, but it was still good.

I then made a pitstop in the bathrooms.

And then I walked out front to catch the bus.

I took a seat and waited. Of course every bus BUT the MK bus came. I texted Jeanne. She was going to meet me as well this morning and we were going to head to the Mine Train together. Her daughter Holly had not yet rode it either. She was at the bus stop as well at her resort.

Both of us got on the bus about the same time, but she said she had a scooter that was being loaded so she would probably be a little later than me.

This was my only experience of catching a bus from CBR and it was perfect as this was the last stop and we headed directly to the parks as soon as I boarded.

It wasn’t long and I was walking up to the MK…and they were already advertising MNSSHP.

I sure wish this had started already as I would’ve loved to have gone.

My friend Nikki said a few days later the park started putting up the Halloween décor as well.

I headed to bag check. I think it was around 8:10 at this point.

I waited off to the side and found Mystery friend and shortly after that Jeanne and Holly arrived.

We got in line…most were already pretty long, but they hadn’t opened many either. After a few minutes they opened a few more off to the right and we made the mad dash over there. We were now very close to the front.

The train arrived and the opening show started….I have never seen this and I can still say I still have never SEEN this. I did hear it though at least this time. We were under the train station basically waiting to get in and the call of the Mine Train was stronger than my desire to see this show.

Soon we were let in and Mystery friend had to leave. They walked us back behind ropes. Jeanne said we had to stay to the right. So we did. As we walked slowly along Main Street, we took the right sidewalk, but was always mindful of staying behind the CM’s walking everyone in.

As we got to the hub we went to the right and came to a stop. We were on the extreme right side and waited till they started to walk us back towards the Mine Train. Then we started off slowly, but then it was more of a brisk walk. Everyone had one destination in mind and we all tried to behave, but keep our spot as well.

As we approached the queue the CM told us Mine Train to the right and we got right in. Not too many people ahead of us either. Jeanne pointed out the crowd coming in from the left side. Word of advice…don’t go left! Those people had to fight to get in line with the whole group that came in from the right and they were at least 30 seconds behind us. That’s a lot of time when people are flowing into a queue.

Needless to say we continuously walked through the whole queue without stopping…I did try and take a few shots as I went though.

Jeanne started counting the people in front of us and she hollered back “I think we’re going to make the first train!”

The theming is GREAT!

As we arrived an EMPTY train was pulling out….but we made it….we were going to be on the first passenger vehicle of the day!

We loaded up and were ready to go!

Wooohooooo!!!

Jeanne hollered up to me to turn around and took this picture!

My view at the top.

And here we gooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

I took a lot of blurry pictures on this ride.

After twisting and turning a bit we slow down and went through the Dwarves mine.

We sped along again and then came to a stop outside the cute Dwarves Cottage.

Then we pulled into the station and I quick got a picture of the old Hag.

When we got off Jeanne went to check out the wait time now and it was already at an hour.

So what did I think of it? AWESOME! It was really fun and cute.

It also was funny as many people on facebook asked me how long I waited in line….Um zero minutes technically! It really paid off going at opening and using the strategy that Jeanne had.

Before parting ways I had Holly take a picture of Jeanne and I.

Actually she took like 10. LOL. My phone just kept clicking them over and over.

We said goodbye and I think they were heading to Peter Pan or something in that area. I decided since I was in the park I would hit a few things before leaving.

The first thing I hit was the bathroom!

And you can never get enough pictures of Rapunzel’s tower.

As I walked by the Haunted Mansion I noticed it was walk on so I stopped there first.

I waited for the guy hanging but it never happened…..and I crazy? There usually is a guy in the ceiling hanging right? Well not today.

I always try to get pictures on this ride and most never turn out.

That was a nice ride and a good way to cool off for a bit.

I'd have picked the Mine Train over Potterville too, most likely. What settings do you have your camera on for the dark ride shots? I'm always surprised that you can get decent shots without a flash indoors. Too bad we're 500 miles apart or I'd love to have some photography adventures together since I have a nice DSLR that I can only seem to use for outdoor fast-moving shots LOL.

I'd have picked the Mine Train over Potterville too, most likely. What settings do you have your camera on for the dark ride shots? I'm always surprised that you can get decent shots without a flash indoors. Too bad we're 500 miles apart or I'd love to have some photography adventures together since I have a nice DSLR that I can only seem to use for outdoor fast-moving shots LOL.

I was so happy I had the chance to go!

I usually shoot with my highest ISO, which is 3200 on my camera and I use the widest aperture on whatever lens I have on and I shoot in manual so I can adjust the shutter speed. And then I try to hold still while taking it. LOL.

I then headed over towards Big Thunder Mountain railroad.

I checked the wait, which was basically walk on and got in line. I walked right to my little gate and had the choice of several and I took the 2nd row…thought better of it and went to the first row. It was not crowded at all and many were only going to have 1 person in a row. Then I noticed a guy a ways down look at me and he came and joined me. That kind of annoyed me as there we so many empty rows and now I had a partner. He could’ve easily came right back later and did it again in the front row. And of course the whole ride then I was sliding into him. I know he did it to take pictures, but it actually was harder getting pictures for me because he was right next to me the whole time with his camera and sliding into me as well. Oh well. I did take a few, but they are not so great.

See! There is his camera.

It was still fun! I should’ve road a 2nd time but I had 2 more things I wanted to do before I left and I knew the time was ticking away.

Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite Disney ride, so it would be sacrilegious for me NOT to ride it. I got in line and it was again no wait….till we got right close to the loading area and everyone was stopped. No announcements were made and I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but they weren’t running boats. I stood there for a while and debated what to do. There was a family right behind me and the dad cracked me up. I am pretty sure this was either a first trip or they have not been here in quite some time. The dad was mad about the ride not running and he just kept saying….”We could be getting so much done right now and we’re wasting time in line”. I totally understood as the park was still really empty and everything was practically walk on. Then the wife would name things they could do next and he would ask “What is that”…”Is that a ride too?” So I could tell he wasn’t familiar with the park, but I did know he was smart enough to know that the early hour was the best time to conquer many rides.

Finally the boats started going and I was loaded and off.

If course we got stopped up at the end and sat by the treasure room for a while.

So glad I had the chance to ride it, but time was still ticking and I had one more thing I wanted to accomplish.

Looks like a Keys to the Kingdom tour was walking by.

I needed a snack and not just any ole snack….a Dole whip float!

They only had one side open and there were already several people in line, but at least they had 2 windows serving on the side that was open. Still…..I think they hire some of the slowest people to work there. When it was my turn I ordered my float with the orange ice-cream and I think my guy was new….which I think I get a new guy almost every time… as he didn’t understand what I wanted. But he did get me the right stuff and I was pretty happy with it.

I sat on a bench there and ate my treat and enjoyed it, but it was time to move on now. I had a date with Harry Potter to keep.

The walls are still up all over, just like during our March trip. It makes it a little less magical….it better be worth it!

I went in a few gift shops on the way out for 2 reasons…..1 to keep cooler and 2 to see if anything popped out at me to buy Claire. Nothing did though. It’s getting harder to buy for her as I don’t want to buy junk just for the sake of buying something for her and we need another plushie like I need a hole in my head.

I headed back to the bus stop then.

A lot more people were arriving now.

I saw one of the slinky buses.

I don’t think I had ever seen one in person before.

I arrived at the bus stop and waited. It did take a few minutes before a CBR bus came, but not too long. I think there were maybe 2 other people that got on with me as well. Probably not the prime time to be heading back to a resort.

I decided I would get off at whichever bus stop came first, Old Port Royale or my Jamaica stop.

We pulled in and it stopped right at Old Port Royale so I hopped off. I had to go the bathroom anyways, so that worked out best.

I then headed back across the bridge towards my car and I noticed several people looking in the water, so I looked too. There was a big turtle taking a swim.

Time to get over to the car!

I got in and cranked the air. I sat there a few minutes and programmed my phone to give me directions and I had to plug in my phone to my mobile charger as it was already almost dead. It seemed to drain the battery fast today.

Soon I was on my way and once again I have to say….I hate driving in this area. I am just not familiar with it at all and there are cars racing around me and it makes me nervous. I was driving about 65-70 on the highway and people were passing me like I was sitting still.

I finally sighed in relief when I pulled into Royal Pacific.

I parked along the front and the valet said he had to hold my keys while I checked in so I gave them to him and went inside.

I took only phone pictures here and they are all pretty blurry.

I got in line and there were a few people ahead of me.

Soon it was my turn and I got checked in. At RP you have to pay to park there, so he put that parking fee (1 night) on my credit card, gave me my info, told me where to park and told me how to get my express pass.

I decided to go get my express pass before heading back out.

There are machines over to the side and you go and stick your room key in them and it takes your picture.

It takes your picture almost instantly and I did it like 4 times to try and get a normal looking one as the first one I wasn’t even looking at it and the next 2 I just kept laughing because it went so fast. By the 4th I gave up and kept the stupid laughing picture.

I headed back out to the car and went to park. They had asked me if I wanted them to take the bags in first but I said no, I would be fine…..I should have. Not that it was hard bringing my bags in, but it was up hill from the parking lot and it was already around 100 degrees.

I got parked up and dragged my bags back in and then I went up the elevator…only to realize that my room was down a floor not up. LOL.

My room was right around the corner from the elevators, so it was very easy to find.

I put my bags down, plugged in my phone to get a little bit of charging going and then proceeded to take pictures of the room.

This couch could become a bed….I checked.

Now this resort is called Royal Pacific and it has the South Pacific type theming…..think Poly.

I was just at the Caribbean Beach Resort, where the theming is SUPPOSED to be Caribbean. From the first time I saw pictures of the newly refurbished rooms, I thought to myself that is not a Caribbean theme. Once I arrived, I felt the same way. I liked the look of the rooms, but I do not think the theming is correct for the resort. Arriving here only confirmed it for me. The rooms have very similar looks, colors and theming. Even the soap dish was the exact same for both resorts.

I did like this room though and it was very spacious.

I also liked the shampoo and conditioner here….and I am a snob with that kind of stuff.

See this soap dish…the exact same as at CBR!

After a few pictures and getting squared away I headed out. Time to hit the parks! Except I had no clue how to get there. I knew there was a walking path and a water taxi, but the map wasn’t helping me much.

As I got to the elevators, there was a family getting ready to go and the lady told me how to get there. It’s really a strange set up as you have to walk through the pool area to get out to the walking path.

I didn’t have my camera set right and I took a lot of over exposed pictures, most I couldn’t even begin to try and fix.

The signage was kind of confusing, but it looked like I had to walk away from the parks to get to the water taxi and I just decided to walk instead.

And it was HOT!

If the weather was cooler, like 85 instead of 105, this would be a nice and beautiful walk.

I was also getting hungry now. As I got closer to City Walk I decided that I would see if I could get in anywhere and get a bite to eat before heading over to the Studios. I know time was ticking, but I would be a grump and have a headache if I didn’t get something soon.

The path exited right next to Margaritaville. Well that sounds like the perfect spot for lunch. We had eaten here in 2012 and really enjoyed it. Yes I should’ve tried some place new, but this was right in front of me and I knew I could easily get a seat and be eating soon.

I was asked if I wanted to eat inside or out and of course I said inside. Anything to cool off for a bit!

I also decided to order what I got the last time…the super nachos. I did debate on that or the club, which is also very good, but I decided the nachos were calling my name.

I also knew there would be no way I could finish them myself. They are very delicious but they are HUGE!!!

They were tasty and while I sat there and ate I remembered that I had to do airline check in again for the flight home tomorrow. I got another B boarding this time around as well, but I was alone so it really didn’t matter too much. It was neat because I was able to save the boarding pass to my phone and use that when I checked in at the airport. Yeah…little things amuse me.

I felt like I ate a lot of the nachos, but looking at it, I barely made a dent in the plate. There is just way too much.

I paid my bill (forgetting once again that many Universal restaurants give a AAA discount) and headed back out into the scorching heat.

I would like to say I walked quickly over to Universal Studios, but it was just too hot, so I walked at a nice pace without passing out.

The nice thing about entering at this time of day is that the lines were not long, though there was a group holding up one line and several of us switched to another line. Also, another thing to note is that Universal can NEVER pick up my fingerprint. When you scan your ticket you have to do the finger scan there and every time it will not take and every time I have to retry over and over and they usually have me do my thumb in the end. I guess it is back from my bank robbing days when I had my fingerprints removed.

I had one mission and one mission only…..get back to Diagon Alley…which is WAY in the back. I did take a couple of pictures along the way though.

I came across a little street party.

They had the characters from the movie “Hop”, which we have never seen.

As I was walking a guy was talking to his friends and said he thinks this building is where Back to the Future used to be. (It was not the right building). His friend asked if it was still here and he said he was pretty sure it was gone. I told them yes it is gone, but it’s not this building, it’s where the Simpson’s is now. They asked what it was like and I told him basically the same ride with a Simpson’s theme. He was sad that Back to the Future was gone and I told him me too as that was my favorite ride of all time….it was his too……we had a bonding moment. LOL.

And then I came across the remains of Back to the Future.

I love the Simpsons ride, but nothing could ever replace how great the Back to the Future ride was.

Speaking of Simpsons, that’s the area I went through next.

This sign totally cracked me up.

And then the bridge over to “London”.

When you come over the bridge you are now in the London area. For those who have seen the movies and or read the books, you know that you have to click on some bricks to open up the secret Wizard area of Diagon Alley. Now of course they cannot to it completely like the books, but I thought they did a good job.

Also this building on the end is 12 Grimmauld Place….Sirius Blacks home that only those who know the secret password can see.

And the Knight bus sits out front.

This is the public transportation for wizards…and it can be one crazy ride.

You can see Kings Cross over to the side…that is where you would catch the Hogwarts Express….at Platform 9 & 3 Quarters.

I, however, was going to Diagon Alley. No need for a train at this point, so I followed the people and found my way in. From this angle you really can’t tell how neat this is, but I have a picture looking back later that really looks like the bricks moved out of the way for you to enter.

When you walk in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes is right there.

And if you look straight down to the end of the street…Gringotts Banks….with the dragon on top.

Which is where I was heading.

So my plan had been all along that I would just do the single rider line. From reports from friends who had gone, that typically had half the wait time of the standby time….so I was figuring 1-2 hours for single rider. The down side to this is that you did miss part of the queue, but I was willing to do that to cut it down from the 3 plus hours of waiting in the stand by line.

I approached the entrance and the single rider line was closed! What?????

I asked and the TM told me that the wait for single rider was at capacity right now and you would be better off to go in standby at this point. Ok, so I looked up and my heart skipped a beat. It said 90 minutes. I could handle 90 minutes! I asked if that was correct and the CM said yes. Oh Boy!!!

So in I went! I looked at my watch and it was 1:50 PM.

Unfortunately you only go in there and then out the back side and you wait outside for quite a while

The good thing is that there is a ton of queue lines out here but not even a third was being used. I only had about 10 rows maybe to wind in and out of. That made me happy! Not long after I got in the line did fill in a bit further behind me, so I think I came in at the perfect time.

There was a little theming out here too.

And yes, it was still stinking hot. They do have fans at the end of some of the rows and every time I passed one it was pure heaven.

The area I was in was covered at least….this was unused today and that would’ve been right out in the beating sun.

As I weaved in and out I finally got to the last row before heading back inside. I saw some people coming in and I asked them what the posted time was and they told me 70 minutes. Well that’s great! It went down by 20 minutes and the line was actually longer now than when I came in, so perhaps I would get on before the 90 minute posted time.

One nice thing is that the line does move a lot. We did have moments where we stopped, but never for too long.

Finally I was back inside and the air was so nice and cool in there.

This is the entrance area, but the queue winds right back through here.

Once here they will hand you a ticket and tell you to take your bags to the locker just outside and to the left and you then present the ticket and can get back in line.

I made my way to the lockers and kept my phone and grabbed my point and shoot camera and came back and they told me to join my party in line. Well I didn’t have a party, but I just went back in line behind the people I had been following the whole time.

I go to turn on my point and shoot and nothing….and look at the batteries….um there are no batteries. Dang it!!!! I had forgotten that I had recharged the batteries and threw them in my bag, but never actually put them in the camera. Well that’s disappointing. I did have my phone, so I took pictures with that, but I will warn you, they are all pretty blurry.

When you return to the line you are now in the main bank area with the tellers.

If you had watched any of the opening day things or previews, they often showed this area without the queue rails set up yet.

Not sure where the stairs led to, but there was a door down there.

And because my pictures are so bad, I am going to share with you some of Universal’s press release photos of the same area from Universal.

They did a fantastic job in here.

We then went down a hallway.

A small vault.

Once we got to this room they would take each party and take a picture…..I never even looked at mine as I am sure I looked awful.

You could see people behind the windows talking…it was a really neat effect.

What is the difference between the single rider line and the standby queue? They sound about the same to me!

What is the difference between the single rider line and the standby queue? They sound about the same to me!

Single rider queue doe skip some of the main queueing areas. It's for those who will be willing to ride with another stranger and they just add you in when a car needs 1 more person to fill it. Sometimes it is really fast and sometimes it is not. Often on Forbidden Journey it's practically walk on to use the single rider line. Typically on Gringotts its about half the wait time...but not always...like this day where the single ride line was filled to capacity. Also I used it for Rockin roller coaster at DHS and it really wasn't faster that day either.

This was a holding room and one of the Goblins talked to us and Bill Weasley also made an appearance.

More blurry pictures.

We then enter into a big elevator. I am not sure if we actually go down, but they make it feel like you do and it is kind of bumpy at times. It really was neat. Supposedly you are going miles down to the vaults.

Then we exit the elevator and move on.

There are then 2 sets of stairs that wind up. It was really neat. I think one set was for another elevator and then one set for ours if I remember right.

I thought it was kind of funny that we just traveled “miles” down into the earth only to get out and have to go up some stairs.

About halfway up the stairs there was an announcement that the ride was broke down. UGH! Everyone moaned. We were so close! But within 2 minutes it was running again. This ride is still new and breaks down ALL the time from what I have heard. For all I know, the ride might have broken down several times while I was in line and maybe the announcement is just made in that general loading area.

It wasn’t long and I finally reached the top of the stairs.

And our car came.

As you can see, it’s really dark in there and nearly impossible to get a picture.

Once again I will share one of Universals Press Release photos as it shows the area much better.

And then we were off. I don’t have any pictures from the actual ride, but I do have 2 more I can post from the press release for Universal.

This one is from the first area you go into I believe and it was really neat as you are sitting there the back of the cart is tilting up and then a gate opens and down you go…not too far like a big rollercoaster, but it was a lot of fun.

And this one is later in the ride.

This ride was so great. I think it’s about a 5 minute ride or so and so much theming and you move all around…the cart technology is just amazing. I think I like this ride better than the Forbidden Journey over at Islands of Adventure. I can’t wait to come back and ride it again so I can take in more of the details. The ride was totally worth the wait.

Oh, and you are probably wondering how long I did end up waiting. Well like I said, I got in the line at 1:50. I was back at my locker to get my bag at 3:05. So I would say my wait time was probably just over an hour give or take. Not bad at all!

I exited to the ride and went to the locker and retrieved my bag.

I then went and took a look around Diagon Alley.

There are so many neat window displays here.

Sirius Black’s motorcycle.

There are so many great details here.

This is the bathroom…and not quite as cool as the one at IoA with moaning Myrtle.

I believe I next went down the Knockturn alley, which is where the dark magic stores are in the book series.

It was very dark in that alley.

Back out in Diagon Alley I took a picture of the entrance….see how it looks like the bricks separated and moved to let you enter.

I decided I needed a drink and when in a Wizarding World you should have a Wizarding drink…and for me that is Butterbeer. I went into the Leaky Cauldron to see if they had some. There was no line what so ever, but when I had arrived earlier the line was in a winding queue out the door. I am guessing that was the late lunch crowd then.

They will direct you to which register to go to.

Once again I forgot about using the AAA card. UGH! I chose the regular Butterbeer as I like it better than the frozen, though most people like the frozen version better. I also noticed the frozen version is about $1 more. I don’t think it was like that when we were here in 2012, but I just might not have paid attention then either.

I found a spot to sit and sip my butter beer.

After that I headed out…I wanted to do a few things in the Studios before I caught a train to Hogsmeade.

I found my phone was dying again so I tried to charge it with both of my mobile charges and neither would work. I came to the conclusion that my cord was going bad. It would work every so often and then stop. Usually if I was moving the phone around.

My next stop was the Mummy, so I put the phone on the charger and in my bag which went in a locker and then headed to the ride. I had the express pass since I was staying on property. I LOVE express pass. The lines are pretty much nonexistent!

It was a fun ride. It’s a little wild, so if you aren’t a coaster fan at all this one might get to you. My parents went on it a few years back not know what it was and they about had a heart attack…especially my Dad who rides NOTHING that makes his tummy tickle. I laughed so hard when they explained it.

After that ride I grabbed my bag and left my phone inside to keep charging. I made my way towards Transformers. This is fairly new. When we were here in the spring the ride was down when we checked on it and we had to leave when it finally was up and running, so this was going to be my first time on it.

This was another great ride! It is very similar to the Spiderman ride over at IoA. It uses a lot of simulator type stuff with screens, but you are also moving. Honestly I have no clue how they do these as the movement of the car, which is on a track I believe, and the screens playing out in front of you are just perfectly in sync. It’s really amazing. Now if you are prone to motion sickness, this can get to you too. I could feel it and was so happy I had taken bonine in the morning before I left the hotel.

I came out to find a different street party going on. I just took a couple of pictures from a far and most didn’t come out too well.

And my car on display for all to see!

I worked my way towards Men in Black and I saw this sign which cracked me up. Potty area for dogs!

I rode Men in Black and it was fun like always. But when it came time to push the red button, me and the other 2 in the car all pushed it and none of us got the credit. Bummer. We all wondered what happened…and I think I pretty much lost anyways.

Oh and I used the Express pass again for both Transformers and MIB and I just can’t say enough good things about it. It really makes me realize how much better it is to stay onsite.

After I retrieved my bag from the locker here I headed back to London….time to catch a train!

I had heard the weekend before that the wait for the train was 90 minutes to 2 hours. Today seemed to be a less busy day so I was hoping it wasn’t nearly that long.

I just kept walking through all the queues but I can imagine this would be a long line if all of them were filled.

Evidently people in London haven’t heard about rolling suitcases. LOL!

And now we need to find Platform 9 & 3 Quarters. There’s 9 and 10!

And a picture is just so hard to describe and show how cool this, so I suggest you look it up on youtube…but here we can see people disappearing into the wall to reach the Platform.

Once I rounded the corner this is what I see looking back.

And this is actually what we go through to get to the platform.

A train pulled in….backing in.

I didn’t make it on the train though I was close. The train pulled out and they started to fill up the queues again. I wondered how long it would take for the next train and if they had 2 running or not. I did find out from my friend later that they do have 2 and somewhere along the track they have a loop to bypass each other. They always go forward to Hogsmeade and backwards to Kings Cross.

It was only around 5 minutes I believe and the next train came backing in.

I wasn't thinking that the regular queue was called Standby, I've always just called it the Regular Queue. For some reason when I read through about the Gringott's ride it sounded to me that standby was the new single rider, or something. LOL I have no idea what I was thinking. The ride sounds really cool though!

Does Platform 9 3/4 use some sort of projection to make the brick wall look like you're passing through it? It's cool to see it looking backwards there, it's almost like a metal detector.

LOL. I guess that is just the business talk in me and sometimes I refer to things how I would talking business.

You look through that screen they have placed there and it just make people disappear as they walk in....I am not sure what the technology is for it but it is so neat.

We were told which compartment to go to and headed in. It’s really a neat little compartment and they shut the door to each one after we are all inside.

We have a window, which is really a video screen.

We only see a brick wall at first as we are still in the station.

I did not get a window seat, but was in the 2nd spot next to it. 3 guys got on before me and they were all near the window and they kept talking and moving towards the middle which blocked my view at times. I think they got the picture a few times when I would move right into their huddle to get my pictures. LOL.

The ride is such a cool experience and it feels like you are really traveling a long distance.

In the hallway you can see shadows and hear students talking.

The scenery changes constantly as you go along.

And then we arrived at Hogsmeade and we were let out of our compartments to the exit.

I had wondered if they would still keep this stationary Hogwarts Express since they now had a real moving one….and yes they did.

I had a mission….I wanted to ride the Forbidden Journey. I had heard since the new part opened that this ride was now experiencing longer waits too because more people were coming for the whole Harry Potter experience.

Well the line was only posted at about 20 minutes so I got right in line for it.

I debated at doing the single rider line, but since it was only 20 minutes I skipped it so I could see more of the queue area. Once you get inside they direct you to the lockers and then you get back in line. This is where you would get in the single rider line as well if you chose that option.

The greenhouse area was empty….that is a GOOD sign. I think typically the wait is about 20 minutes from this room, so if you are walking right through there, you have less than that to wait.

Red shirt guy there is in a lot of my pictures.

You can’t really tell in this picture, but Harry, Ron and Hermione are in the balcony there.

I came to a spot where the line then divides. They make you stop and let you go one way if you have a family switch pass or another way for single riders and then the main line. When I told them I had just 1, they sent me over to the single rider queue. At this point that was fine because I had gone through all the main areas already. Now had I done just the single rider line from the start, I would have whizzed on all the way through, but miss a lot of the queue.

I was immediately taken on and had a fabulous ride. I swear this time the dementors looked a little different than the last time I was here, but I could just be remembering wrong.

I went to go get my bag out of the locker and of course it wouldn’t read my finger print. I wondered if I put the wrong number in so I tried again and it still wouldn’t work. The girl behind me was getting impatient and said I needed to go find someone. I tried a 3rd time and still it wouldn’t work. The girl asked me if I knew my locker number and I said I thought I did but it didn’t work, and she told me a TM was around helping people. Ok…so I go and grab the guy and of course smart-aleck behind me couldn’t get her locker to open either. So she quickly tells the guy…..but he is helping me first.

I must say he was pretty thorough as he asked what was inside and then asked to see my drivers license once I pulled the bag out.

The whole set of lockers for that section was having issues and no one could open their lockers….but I took off and didn’t wait around to see what others did.

After I got off I walked around a bit and tried to decide if I wanted to tackle the dueling dragons this time or not. I have yet to ride them.

I decided that first I needed to eat something so I headed towards the Three Broomsticks.

There was next to no one in there.

I got a combo of ribs and chicken.

The food was good, but it was just warm. It would’ve been better if it was a bit hotter.

The corn wasn’t too good though. I have yet to have corn somewhere other than at home and freshly cooked that is worth eating.

I also had another regular butter beer…and this time I did remember to use my AAA discount for my meal.

After my meal I strolled back outside.

I watch the girls perform a bit from afar and then headed on. I decided that with a full stomach I wasn’t going to ride the dueling dragons.

And of course on the bridge to Jurassic Park I had to get a picture of Hogwarts.

On to Jurassic Park.

Since time was limited, I just walked through the area.

And that was my quick walk through Jurassic Park.

I next entered Toon Lagoon. Somewhere between these 2 areas the new King area is going to be made. I am pretty excited to see what they do with this. I believe as you exit Jurassic Park area it will be to the right and back a little bit.

Toon Lagoon doesn’t have much in the way of rides and what they do have gets you VERY wet.

There are quite a few shops and things that are visually fun in this area too.

Next is Marvel Super Hero Island.