Universal's Islands of Adventure, Day 2

The morning started at 6am. Michanne and I hit the hotel gym and then everyone got cleaned up and ready for the day. Breakfast was waiting for us downstairs and we could choose between hot waffles, cereals, fresh fruit, eggs and sausage and any other kind of breakfast carb you can think of. There were three boys with their book bags eating with no visible parent in sight. The youngest got all eight of the powered donuts off the platter and sat with them and then grabbed about five oatmeal packets. Once the hotel attendant was busy he and his brothers ran off with the food. It's funny because those were huge donuts and he was a little boy. It's sad because their parent probably drops them off at different hotels during the week.

Anyway, we got the vehicles loaded and headed to the Islands park before they opened at 9am. Once we were allowed to pass through the gate everyone seemed to be making a mad dash for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'm not kidding, no one was headed anywhere else. As soon as we stepped into the HP park I started taking pictures left and right.

Zonkos shop
Honeydukes shop
The Three Broomsticks
It really is a neat place. It wasn't as big as I expected but it was so much fun being there. We tried to look at everything at once as we headed to the Forbidden Journey ride which takes you through Hogwarts as you wait in line to take the journey ride.


We had to stow our stuff in lockers but hardly had any wait. We rushed through all the cool stuff to look at. The ride was awesome! Dragons, dementors, quidditch, oh, my! After the ride we walked through a gift shop and found a wand kiosk. Mom was hooked and bought the Harry Potter edition wand.
Michanne and I rode the Flight of the Hippogriff. My parents aren't big on roller coasters. It was kind of a kiddie roller coaster but we did see Buckbeak!
This is a picture of Hagrid's Hut.
Then Michanne and I rode the Dragon Challenge roller coaster.
It's two roller coasters that twist and loop and the brochure says they almost collide but I didn't see most of it. I got a little sick after that. Unfortunately, we bought our butterbeer after that ride.

It did taste yummy but my stomach was a little uneasy. I'm now using my butterbeer mug as a pen/pencil cup at work. Ralph tried the pumpkin juice.
After that we walked around a little and I took more pictures and went in some of the many shops.

Chocolate frog pictures
We also listened to some Hogwarts singers perform with those gross frogs from the movie. It was pretty funny actually and they sang very well.
We walked through the Jurassic Park River Adventure.

The main ride there was a water ride and people were getting soaked so we skipped that and walked on through to Marvel Superhero Island.
We were looking for the Spiderman ride when several 4-wheelers came barrelling through with Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine, Rogue, and Storm! It was awesome. They stopped and hopped off to take pictures. Rogue is my hero, and I told her so.


After my shameful groupie behavior we rode the Spiderman ride. We also rode the Storm force acceletron which is similar to the teacup ride at Disney. Needless to say that ride did not help my stomach. I did want some food and we passed a place in Jurassic Park that smelled fantastic.
We dined on roasted chicken and potatoes, fresh corn on the cob and soda. It really was good. Mom stated that she needed another ride on the Forbidden Journey. We didn't stow our things this time because Michanne and Ralph weren't going to ride again and kept our stuff. So, this time I had my camera and I went a bit crazy taking pictures of everything.

The Mirror of Erised
Mandrakes
The House Points
Entrance to Dumbledore's office
Unicorn tapestry
Hogwarts tapestry
Portraits that moved and spoke. This room had very high ceilings . There was so much to look at and listen to.

Warning for people like me. I loved the little picture on the left.
The Pensive
Funny sign
I think this was meant to be the Gryffindor common room
The ride was even more fun the second time. We went back through the gift shop and I desperately searched for a t-shirt to buy. I didn't find anything. I even looked at the gift shops around the Islands Park, nothing appealed to me. We left around mid-afternoon and headed to the Shades of Green Resort at Disney.
Main entry way of the resort
The room Michanne and I shared.
Our view from the balcony

We had dinner at the hotel and all went to bed to rest for the full day to follow at Disney's Animal Kingdom. This was a really long post! The others won't be so bad. It seems I took fewer and fewer pictures as the week went on.