Breakfast: same.
Traffic: same.
Arrival: same.

They do a great job of getting people through security.  I do like the set up here.

Some requisite photos.

We headed directly to Transformers.  Which made zero sense to me.  But we checked it off.

Then Fast and Furious.

Which also made zero sense.

Then Gringott’s again.  Because it was fun.

We tried out the Hagrid’s motorcycle.

John found me a hot Butterbeer.  Stewart and Noelle went to do their own touring.

Met Jaws.

Girls found some Toothless merch.

Street performers.

Visited Simpson area.  Marie is a closet Simpsons fan.  Oy.

She, Hanny, and I went to Bumble Bee taco mans.  Our lunch was –meh-.

Everyone else ate inside Fast Food Boulevard and had good things to report.  We all had lunch together.

We watched Animal Actors as a group.  Then some of us went into Dream Works Destinations.  And it wasn’t as good as we would have liked it to be. 

Some rode Woody Woodpecker. 

Then we went to ET.  And then we had a split up again.  We were trying to get to a show on time, but ice cream took longer than we’d expected. 

Look at the size of it.  $5.  It was worth it.

We watched the Bourne Stunt Show.

Then some went to a Monster Movie Make-Up, while the girls and I went shopping and to the mini-parade.

Marie got some sweets, while Nigel and I walked over to Rip Rocket.  I chickened out.

Tab bought donuts – and gave one to Nan when we got back.

We ate some snacks and watched a Vlog to helps us understand the nuances to Tapu Tapu at Volcano Bay.

It was another early morning, yummy breakfast, and long commute.
But we were at the entrance of Universal Studios Orlando before it opened.

We headed directly to Gringott’s in the back of the park, which was easier said than done.  Our group picked the wrong way to walk, got somewhat separated, and had no idea what we were looking for…

We finally figured out way in through the wall and made our way to the first ride.

It was awesome, and my family didn’t even understand the storyline.

Our plan said to then ride the train to IOA for Forbidden Journey (we did yesterday), Hagrid’s (currently a 220 minute wait!), and Flight of the Hippogriff (which is more or less a kid coaster).

Instead we opted to ride a few things on the UOR side to knock stuff off tomorrow’s list.

First was the MIB ride (oh – man – lame)

Poor Noelle lost her shoe!  They were able to get it back within 15 minutes.

The Simpson Ride

was the worst ride of the vacation.  Good Grief.

We rode the train over.

11:43AM

And got lunch at Three Broomsticks.  It was delicious.

Nine of us got in line for Hagrid’s.  It said 120 minutes, and ended up being 81 minutes.  Very much worth it for such a good ride.

We had some Butterbeer.  Some tried cold and others tried frozen.

We opted not to ride the train back, and instead left the parks and stopped by our vehicles to grab our swim gear for Volcano Bay. 

3:24PM

It was hot.  Feet were hurting.  People were tired.  We pressed on, knowing there was water coming.

The park wasn’t too busy.  It was a good trial run for our VB day later in the week.

I asked my message board friends for dinner ideas.  Bubba Gumps was originally the plan, but we would have had to go back through the garage, and security, to get to CityWalk.

Instead we drove about 10 minutes to Giordano’s and had a nice sit down pizza meal.

Chicago style.  We did NOT need three pizzas.  Nan treated, and we took a bunch home.

And had ice cream before bed.