Florida Trip (Day 3, Part 1)

DAY 3

Universal Studios Day arrived quicker than we could've hoped for and it began by me waking up at 6am to go running. Ah, the insanity! But a plus of that was getting to see a beautiful Florida sunrise.

When we were ready, we headed downstairs to join the group with which we were going to Universal and by 9am we had boarded a bus and left the hotel. An hour later, we made it into CityWalk, which is the first section of the park that is open to the public during both day and night. We tromped along our way until we reached the entrance of Universal Studios, stopping only briefly before that to take pictures in front of the Universal globe,

The park was quite a lot to take in and I enjoyed how much it did in fact seem like we were in a film studio lot. All the buildings could've been fronts for filming by the way it all looked and I was feeling quite enthralled in the moment.

The first ride we decided to go on, after looking around in a souvenir store, was the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, a hilarious and entertaining 3D ride that reminded me of my once favorite Corkscrew Hill ride at Busch Gardens. (Seriously, they need to bring that one back!)

Next, Tai wanted to go on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster, so I opted for keeping my feet on the ground and explored "Production Central" where I saw a meet and greet for Puss in Boots from Shrek and for the Transformer Bumblebee. (He did sing/dance which was thoroughly entertaining.)

In the "New York" area of the park, I was able to enjoy part of The Blues Brothers show and catch an acrobatic stunt show called the Flying Fish Market. I also spotted a Pharaoh in front of The Mummy museum taking selfies with people from up high on his stilts which was an amusing sight.

At this point, Tai was finished with her ride so we met up again and journeyed to "San Fransisco" for another show starring the Beat Builders, which was four guys using construction equipment to make music and beats. Very Stomp! reminiscent and highly entertaining. We then trekked across more of the park to the Men in Black Alien Attack ride at the "World Expo."

Then came a time where I got to explore some of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Just outside of Diagon Alley was the Kings Cross Station, Grimmauld Place, and my personal favorite, the Knight Bus!

I was beyond excited to meet Dre Head, the witty shrunken head with a thick Jamaican accent, and the banter between him and the conductor, Stan Shunpike, was quite comical.

On our way to finding a restaurant, we saw an a cappella singing competition performance and when we discovered there was a wait time of about thirty minutes, Tai and I decided to go on The Mummy roller coaster across the street. (Check out the video for my thoughts on that!) After Tai ate at Finnegan's Bar and Grill, we went back towards Harry Potter World, where I finally stepped through the brick wall and entered Diagon Alley.

I have to say, it was pretty surreal standing in a place that was recreated from a popular film series and I took the opportunity to eat some fish and chips in The Leaky Cauldron, another location from the Harry Potter films. We then went on the Gringott's Escape indoor roller coaster, checked out some wands at Ollivanders, and caught the dragon spewing out fire before we went on our way to King's Cross Station.

Click HERE for Part 2!

~Olivia