New Year's - Part I - Universal Studios

Hola blogsters (and my readee relatives) ... time for a swift NYE rewind. We had quite the adventure and probably did more in the last two days than I've done in the last three weeks.

Talk about being exhausted and somewhat "over stimulated" from all the lights, sounds and rides. Not to mention the PEOPLE. Good God. The people.

Let's start on Friday. We popped up at 4 a.m. (well I popped Josh stumbled around until 4:45 but made it). It's only three hours to Orlando from our driveway. So we figured WHY NOT? We made plans a while back - like mid-December but still impromptu for me - I usually do months of planning. But not this time.

An entrance photo from our way over

Anyway - we rolled out at about 5 a.m. and arrived at the hotel around 8:45 a.m. We stayed at the Double Tree RIGHT across the street from Universal. I mean we walked there. So convenient! We immediately went to Harry Potter World (through the park) to get a jump on the crowd. When we arrived, we were confronted by the multitudes of other forward thinking theme park goers. Yup. Get a number and come back. I mean they couldn't even let anyone else INSIDE the "world" and it had been opened for about an hour. Fine. We took the pass (to return around noon) and took in other attractions.

J was like a friggin kid in a candy store. So excited.

Of course, he is a "rider" while I prefer to stay grounded. I don't do upside down. I don't do extreme heights or drastic falls. And you might wonder why I would shell out hundreds of bucks for a trip to a place filled with all of these types of rides. Well, I just LIKE the experience. It's fun. And the rides I do go on - I enjoy.

It's not because I think that I'm going to die (though my body might feel like it). I KNOW it's safe and if it isn't ... my Dad will have a lovely time of suing the shiz out of the park. That's not the thing. I just DON'T LIKE the feeling of being out of control or SUSPENDED in air or plunging 13 stories straight down. It's not fun for me. It never has been.

So anyway, Josh thought that he'd be able to convince me to ride. Wrong. It can't be done, as many of my long time friends have discovered. I'm still a fun person to go to a park with. I'm more than willing to stay on the ground, hold your things and take photos while you go. That's fine. And J went. Finally. The Hulk (an hour wait) was his first.

Insane.

I found something more my pace. A stationary tiger and a beer.
Perfect for 10 a.m. NYE morning. Right? Right!

We also explored Dr. Seuss land.

The Seuss area is super cute and even has a production of the Grinch (which J has never watched all the way through - how you can survive for 30 years on the planet and get away with this is beyond me). We grabbed a bite and went to go back to Harry Potter when, to our horror, we discovered that we lost our passes. FML. (Of course, HE says I had them and I KNOW he had them because I remember thinking, "Self, you should get those from him because he will lose them because he's a guy.") Whatever.

So instead, we just bit the bullet and stood in the "stand by line" which is a regular line to get into the HP World location. Once we made it, we understood why they weren't letting people in - it was like River Street on St. Patty's Day in Savannah - only on steroids. There were more people, and, of course, children. AND tons of "disabled" people in those damn little scooters.

* Now I'm sure that many of these folks have legitimate ailments ... however being morbidly obese IS NOT one of them. Just because you're fat doesn't mean you should be allowed to clog the streets with your scooter. Get up and walk. If you tried it, you might lose the extra 600 lbs and you won't need a damn scooter/hover round things. Lazy bastards.

BUT I digress. This is the entrance to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. They really did a great job. We were impressed and we're HP devotees.

This is what my Dad calls "gettin out amongst um."

I will say that I loved all the extras/attention to details like the joke shop, the owl post, etc. All very well done. Josh also got in quickly to a serious roller coaster - the Dragon Challenge. I sat and people watched (which was probably JUST as exciting/frightening).

Zonkos!

I DID agree to do the HP Forbidden Journey ride (only after hours of reading reviews and watching bootlegged film to confirm that it WAS NOT a roller coaster). It's not. It's a mix of screens and different scenes plus a moving seat. Terrifying though - I found that out a bit late. I went through most of it with my eyes closed. It was SO realistic (and runs CIRCLES around anything Disney has to offer, seriously). It was all just done very well. Once you actually made it into the castle, there was all sorts of special fun - talking paintings, a video of Harry, Hermoine and Ron that interacts with you. Just really outstanding.

Here's the castle and this wait was unreal - 1.5 hours.

After that, we'd had enough HP World more pointedly, enough of all the people there. We dipped and went back to the hotel to nap and gear up for the evening. We had reservations for the Hard Rock that night.

The Hard Rock got us right in - awesome. The food was very good.

We walked around more, had drinks and took it all in. It was much less crowded than the day time was, which I appreciated. City Walk was busy with adults (many of whom were going to a VIP party to see Bret Michaels). We were not.  And, besides, we had our own celeb encounter there. We snuck back over to Harry Potter which was 100 times better/less crowded. Whilst standing in line for Olivander's Wand Shop (something we had thought twice about but it seemed to be moving) we noticed none other than Howie Mandell through the window. And the "cast members/staff" stopped letting people in to give him some space.

At first, the line was excited. Women were cooing and taking pictures. They were yelling "Howie." Me, being practical, didn't really give a tinker's about him (other than he is a fellow OCD person). I just wanted to go in. And I did. An hour later the crowd's excitement turned to frustration and then to anger. People started yelling (this time though the were NOT nice). Beating on the window. Pleading with staff. A foreign woman piped up and demanded to know WHO this man was and WHY he is more important than us. I was waiting for the rioting to begin. But Howie was ushered away. In we went. Well by WE I meant me and the line. Josh JUST left to go to the bathroom and was stuck outside. Ha!

The Olivander's "experience" pretty much sucked. It was a guy in costume who re-enacted a scene from the movie then shuttled us into a "wand shop" where you could buy you're own wand. I walked out immediately.

For me, this was a highlight. Hilarious. The way the crowd went from yelling "Howie" to (basically) "Kill him!"

Cracked me up. The rest of the night was spent taking pictures around the park and out looking for drinks. NYE is total ametuer night and someone who has NEVER drank is going to be in line for a (likely fruity) libation.


We also scooped up fun party hats and waited for the fireworks at midnight. 

And they never came. Seriously. The entertainment "powerhouse" Universal didn't do fireworks. So we made our own. : )


Then went back to the hotel and crashed. GREAT way to welcome the new year.
Coming up next ... part 2 - DISNEY!