Universal Parks, Day 4

Today’s our last park day of this trip. It’s been fun but we’re all ready for some rest.

We ate our donuts this morning and got an early start to Epic Universe. We were near the beginning of the line but there were still hundreds of people ahead of us.

We lined up in the area to go to the Harry Potter area here which is fashioned to look like Paris.

Although the ride in this area, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, was not set to open until 10, we had a feeling it opens earlier than stated. Yesterday, while we waited for the Mario Kart ride, I noticed that other rides had 120 minute plus waits even though they were not supposed to be open for another 45 minutes. Well, that was a good hunch because it was open and operating early. We boarded the ride at 9:50 am (after the few hundred people who got there before us). The queue for this ride was really amazing! All of the following photos were taken while waiting in line for the ride.

The ride was great and worth the wait. We waited a total of 110 minutes total for this ride including lining up outside of the park early but it’s better than the 300 minutes that some people waited today.

We stopped at a How to Train Your Dragon store but the girls didn’t find anything they wanted to spend their money on.

Next Nova wanted to take Nole on Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, the ride she liked so much we did it three times earlier this week. It had been marked delayed all morning but as we walked up, I noticed they were running empty “test” coasters and suggested Nole and Nova get in line. The sign was still reading “delay” but they only waited about 25 minutes. When they got off the ride, it was up to 70 minutes.

Mine-Cart Madness was still marked “delayed” so I suggested we head that way and wait nearby in case it opens. We got distracted by a queue to meet Princess Peach so we did that first. There was a staff member nearby with a tablet that was controlling the sound bites and animatronic mouth on the character, which was a costumed person controlling the rest of the character.

The Mine-Cart Madness ride was still marked delayed but we walked to the ride entrance to see what was going on.

Test cars were running on the track! We joined some people lining up and only had to wait about 35 minutes (this ride averaged 170 minutes the rest of the day). I thought it was a pretty slow family coaster. It actually doesn’t run on a track but on arms and I compared it to Peter Pan for Esme. Turns out it was way more thrilling than that! There were two drops that had us screaming. We loved the ride photo so much, we bought it.

We decided to go back to the hotel for lunch (grilled cheese, pudgie pies, and leftover donuts). We rested a bit too and then went to do a last visit to the other two parks. We never usually get a pass that allows you to visit multiple parks each day but it was included with our vacation package. It has been really useful and allowed us to avoid crowds and stand in line less (but maybe walk more).

We went to Universal Studios where we saw the Animal Actors on Location show.

Then we took the Hogwarts Express train to Islands of Adventure. There’s a cool effect where it looks like you’re walking through the wall like they do in the movie.

We did a little shopping in the Seuss area. Nova and I also rode Spider-Man again. We bought 4 blue cotton candy bags because hey, we’re on vacation! Then we went to Raptor Encounter where we got to meet a baby velociraptor.

We were back at Hogwarts then and after checking out the wand shop, we took the train back to Universal Studios. When we got there we decided we were tired and ready for dinner so we left the park. We had Moe’s and Burger King again for dinner.