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thedaveandkimmershow · 1 year

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Yesterday was and will be our most vacation-y day of our trip. Our one day in the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.

Now, I'd been watching the wait times on the Universal app over the last few days and, while the prevailing wisdom was to save the Harry Potter rides 'til the afternoon 'cause everyone was gonna ride them first thing... I could see those wait times at ten and twenty minutes between eight and ten in the morning after which they shot up to an hour and more.

So.

Between eight and ten.

My unspoken plan, then, was to get up super early, leave around six to beat all the Monday morning commute traffic, and hit the turnstiles promptly at eight after which we'd be able to knock off those and maybe a coupla other highly popular ride before ten.

Yeah.

That didn't happen.

We got up around six, left around 730, got into the park somewhat after ten after a Starbucks breakfast in City Walk. Then, first thing inside the park we had an official photograph taken because one of the Universal photographers asked us. Then we walked over to Hogsmeade, through Hogsmeade, to Hogwarts castle to wait in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

The wait?

Eighty minutes.

We spent a bunch of that time moving through a shaded forestry area, eventually realizing the kids behind us were from Spokane on a band trip to a Disney music festival. Once inside, we discovered the kids in front of us were similarly from Washington state on a trip as a choir. They were super Harry Potter fans, though. One of them was wearing a Slytherin robe and wielding a wand, both of which set them back three hundred bucks. No problem, though, since they brought a thousand for Harry Potter merch plus—and this was very sweet—thoughtful gifts for their family back home.

We actually spent a bit of the waiting inside Hogwarts engaged with these kids who, for whatever reason, spent a big chunk of that time trying to figure out where in the context of eight Harry Potter Films this ride takes place.

Between films three and four, they decide. Harry's hair basically gives it away.

So yeah. That happened.

The ride itself is very clever. It's constantly in random motion the whole time whether actually in motion or virtually in motion. Either way, in some people it induces motion sickness. And I, as it turns out, was one of them. Only a little bit, though. It didn't hang on for long. But that was that and I'd done Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

After that, we thought beers in town... only the "town" was still inside Universal Studios Hollywood and the beers were sixteen bucks.

Each.

So we went back to Flight of the Hippogriff that's right across from Forbidden Journey.

Also an eighty minute wait.

Interesting, these long wait times didn't bother us 'cause there's lots to photograph and then lots of photographs to filter through my Snapseed app that's my tool of choice for tweaking, well, everything.

Eventually, the ride was shirt, fun, and didn't tweak my head like Forbidden Journey. Plus, just before we got on, we got a firm recommendation from the family behind us that Revenge of the Mummy ride was totally legit. So that was a definite To Do for our afternoon.

After finishing both Harry Potter rides, we indulged a bit of photography in Hogsmeade before heading over and down to the line for the Universal Studios back lot tour.

Forty minute wait. About an hour's worth of ride, though. During which we got to discover that, of our childhood experiences from this tour, only three remain: the flash flood, Jaws, and the Psycho house. The flash flood was pretty much what is always was. Jaws was somehow different. And we drove right in front of the Psycho house whereas my memory has me seeing the house before from below, up the hill.

Other than those experiences, everything else was new and pretty cool. Especially the two big 3D experiences: King Kong and Fast & Furious. Plus, adding that dude carrying a body and wielding a knife at the Bates Motel parking lot scene was an inspired addition. 🙂

One of the tips we got before coming down was never eat in the park. The prices gouge you. Which is true. Exhibit A: those sixteen dollar beers.

So we left the park for City Walk and The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen where we wanted to sit at the bar. Only they don't have a bar at this location but we got a good tip from the host and so headed straight for the bar at Margaritaville where we had a lovely business lunch.

A business lunch?

Yeah. That's how it worked out plus, due to an fortuitous error in billing, our food was basically paid for by other customers so we only had to pick up the beers.

And a very healthy tip.

By the time we were in the move again, making our way back into the park, it was not only somewhere between 330 and 4, but the temperature had also dropped a touch and the wind had picked up... making it seem like the temperature had dropped a lot.

Our first stop, believe it or not, was figuring out how to take a photograph of slogan attached onto the glass of a door in Springfield, home of The Simpsons.

The slogan?

DR. NICK RIVIERA

Unlicensed for over two decades!

Which, as it turns out, is tough to photograph when the glass in which it's attached is reflecting a lot of bright things.

The solution?

Take the picture from a huh angle pointing down so that the glass is reflecting the ground which is in shade. BAM.

After that, it's down the four separate escalators down to the lower lot. The Revenge of the Mummy ride is, conveniently, right there as soon as you hit bottom. And the wait?

Fifty five minutes.

No sweat.

Which it really wasn't although the line wasn't as engaging as wandering through all those Harry Potter movie sets on your way to Forbidden Journey.

By the time we hit the front of the line, it was quickly obvious we had different expectations of what this ride was... than what it really is. Me, I thought it was gonna be a cross between the walking part of The Haunted Mansion... and the riding part of that Indian Jones ride in Adventure Land. Instead, it's straight up a high speed roller coaster.

In the dark.

That goes forward a lot.

And backward a lot.

In the dark.

Did I mention that?

At first the ride seems sort of leisurely, trying to immerse you in a creepy vibe. Then, at some point, the creepy Egyptian god proclaims in a slow, creepy voice

Your soul. Is. Mine.

Only, the creepy Egyptian god puts more emphasis on the word MINE at which point we are launched into the darkness on what is now clearly a high speed roller coaster that, in that moment, literally takes your breath away. It's why, as Kimmer observed, everyone's so silent in their coaster cars as those cars return to the load/unload area.

It's a kind of stunned silence.

After that, I was thinking the Jurassic World ride, the only one I had in mind left to experience. We strolled a bit down to the Transformers 3D entrance after checking out some of the food places but nothing clicked. Then I showed Kimmer the end of the Jurassic World ride that's basically the end of Disney's Splash Mountain so now Kimmer's thinking we need to get plastic parkas.

So now we're on the hunt for plastic parkas, first at the Jurassic World store and then randomly walking about, asking certain people where they got theirs... which brought us back to the Jurassic World store where you can get them at the cash register.

Eleven bucks.

So we just got the one for Kimmer and got into the Jurassic World line.

Forty minutes.

During which time it gets colder. And it gets windier. And then the ride breaks down. And the wait time becomes Re-opening Soon.

Now waiting in line under such conditions isn't the worst thing because they've got large monitors everywhere that basically a TV channel for the faux Dinosaur facility that's educational and entertaining.

However.

It's getting colder. And, yes. There's a certain investment that settles in because the longer you wait... the more it feels like you have to wait because what if you leave and then the ride opens again???

An hour in, though, the announcement comes that they have no idea when the ride's gonna open again. So we abandon the wait with nothing to show for our experience except the one plastic parks we bought for Kimmer.

Back up at the upper lot again, it's colder, it's windier, sunset's definitely fallen on most of the park, and we head back to Hogsmeade for golden hour photography and one more turn of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Thirty-five minutes.

This time, we're in line with a dad and his two kids, locals with annual passes, who just spent the day in Super Nintendo World that included waiting three hours in line for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge.

The kids had the most magnificent day and we're eager to share their stories augmented by their dad's take on the logistics of the day and how all the virtual tech works. He even had a bit of video on his phone to fill out the experience.

Now, we're in line for the Forbidden Journey but he's not gonna ride it.

Why?

Because the last time he got such motion sickness he had to close his eyes. So he's dropping his kids at the front of the line and will meet them when they depart the ride.

We end up sharing the ride with his kids and, this time around, I get motion sick. Nothing vomit-y. Just a bit of dizziness that hangs on after the ride and doesn't let go.

Fortunately, we are done for the day. It's a little after 730. It's dark. It's cold. There really isn't anything else we want to do. So we make our way back to our campervan, Big Foot, grabbing me a mint tea from Starbucks along the way just in case I do have anything stomach related going on.

By the time we're back at Kimmer's cousin's place, it's around nine thirty and we settle in for an evening of boisterous family time that includes a pair of highschool freshmen as well as pizza and cookies homemade made by Kimmer. A quite fun and lovely way to enter the next phase of our trip: a round of camping for all of us starting later today.

I will say, before I have to get going as well, I had an epic night of sleep last night.

Thank God.

😁😁😁

#universal studios hollywood #vacation #harry potter #Hogsmeade #the forbidden journey #flight of the Hippogriff #back lot tour #studio tour #Margaritaville #City Walk #revenge of the mummy #Jurassic World #family #fun #Starbucks

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