Day 3: The Wet Day

Day 3 started out a little different than the rest.  Instead of going over for the 8:00 opening at Universal Studios we waited in line at the gate for Islands of Adventure for an hour until it opened at 9:00.  Reason being, the Hagrid ride opened the day before and we had learned that the wait was topping out at 10 hours long.  Our Express Passes didn't work on the Hagrid ride, so we decided to get to the park an hour early and try to beat the major crowds.  I was willing and excited to wait a max of two (2) hours - which I thought was feasible given our arrive time.  Boy was I naïve. Even though we got their early, our place in line was still six (6) hours back. And if that wasn't bad enough, they shut the ride down at 9:00 for technical difficulties.  At 10:00 the ride was still not operational, so I gave up the ghost and left the line.  I can't say I was that disappointed though - six hour is an unreasonably long time to wait. I would missed most of the day with the boys. 

Finn patiently waiting in the Hagrid line.  He made it 20 minutes. So, I guess you could say that he patiently waited fifteen (15) minutes and whined the last five (5).







While I was holding down the line, Grandad, Gigi, Finn and Sam went back to the Jurassic Park play area.  I met them there a few minutes later (after officially giving up on Hagrid).

We decided that our goal for the remainder of the morning was to ride and experience things that we hadn't done thus far.  Our first stop was to Rip Saw Falls.  We all got pretty wet on that ride.  Luckily I was able to keep my shoes dry. We weren't quite as lucky on Popeye's water ride.  We were all completely soaked.  I had to go to the bathroom and wring every stitch of clothing out into the toilet.  Once wet, the logical thing to do is go on freezing cold indoor rides - which we did.  We rode Kong and Poseidon's Fury.  We never fully dried out before returning back to the hotel for lunch.  I'll tell you, our room smelled awful with all those wet shoes and clothes lying about. 

Next we spent a few minutes in Toon Town and rode one of the Dr. Seuss rides.





Michael provides an accurate depiction of the thrill level of this ride.

Then came Finn's hands down favorite - The Hulk. He loved this ride! Check out how excited he looks!  After The Hulk we went back to the room for our midday meal and nap.

Once back at the park we went straight for The Hulk.  Finn couldn't wait to ride it again. Poor Sam was way too short to ride though.  He was so disappointed. Michael was nervous that the ride would aggravate his back and so he Sam browsed the superhero parts of the park.

Since he couldn't ride The Hulk, we let Sam pick the next ride.  He picked Spiderman.  And as luck would have it, Spiderman happened to be hanging around in the Newsroom as we walked through the ride queue.



Finn really wanted this picture of the Begley boys in the Fantastic Four - mobile, or whatever they call it.

Before heading back to Hogsmead, the boys really wanted to ride Storm Force Accelatron - which is just a fancy name of the teacups ride. I was the only adult willing to take on this nausea-fest.



Okay, so back to Hogsmeade.  We can't go by Hogsmeade without riding the Castle ride - so we did - twice. The first time the ride malfunctioned and we stopped for about five minutes.  We were tipped forward ever so slightly looking at the Hogwarts grounds.  I was so glad we weren't looking straight at a dragon, spider or dementor.

Our purpose for going to Hogsmeade was to board the Hogwarts Express to ride over to Universal Studios for the Fireworks show.  Right before heading to the train station we stopped for frozen Butterbeer.  It was the boy's first taste and they love it!




Sweet little Sam drank about 2/3's of his butterbeer and offered the rest to me.









Hogsmeade Station.



















We arrived back at Universal Studios in just enough time to catch the Fireworks show.  We should have posted up much earlier in the evening. We couldn't see very much.  I put Sam on my shoulders which helped him see better - but not great.  We decided that we would go back the next night and get a better position.