Bonus Chapter 2: Harry Potter and the Park-to-Park Pass
At long last, I finally discovered what it was like to have the pkondz Honorary Bus Pass. We walked right up to the bus stop at Cabana Bay to find not one, not two, but three separate buses lined up waiting to take us to the parks.
Of course, not all of them had drivers, but the buses were there.
We only needed one driver, and we had that in short order, so it didn’t take more than a couple of minutes before we were off. It was a short trip to the central visitor hub of Universal Studios, and we disembarked and then climbed the stairs to get to the security gate just before the walkway to the theme parks.
In our entire weekend at Universal, I don’t think we ever waited for a bus. There was always one at the stop ready to take on passengers whenever we arrived. So that was definitely a point in Universal’s favor. Granted, they have a lot less ground to cover between properties than Disney World.
Another point in Universal’s favor is the fact that there is only one security checkpoint, and it’s far from the entrances to the theme parks. It got crowded if several buses arrived at the same time, but we usually moved through quickly and efficiently. And after that, we could move between Universal, Islands of Adventure, and Citywalk freely without having to pass through endless bag search kabuki theater over and over again.
For our first day in the parks, we lined up at the gates of Universal Studios so we could take advantage of the early opening for resort guests. We arrived somewhere around 7:20 a.m. for an 8:00 opening and were only a few spots back from the turnstiles. It’s always boring to stand around and wait, but at least the background music consisted of some great movie themes like Back to the Future, Apollo 13, and E.T.
Unlike our Disney World trips, I did not have a detailed plan of attack for Universal. I had been to Universal Studios exactly once in my life, way back in the Dark Ages when I was still in college. At that time, Islands of Adventure didn’t exist. The major rides were Jaws, King Kong (the original), Back to the Future, and another ride that simulated a tornado (I think). None of those rides exist in their original form anymore. For the record, I loved the Jaws and Back to the Future rides. At least, I think I did. My memory is getting hazier every day.
The plan for this weekend, however, was to focus solely on Harry Potter. I literally did not care about anything else. If we went on other rides and enjoyed them, that would be great. But I wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that we did everything we could in the Wizarding World.
During our early entry hour, there were exactly two (2) attractions that would be open: Minions and Escape from Gringotts. When the gates opened, we followed 90% of the crowd and headed straight for Gringotts.
Of course, the Diagon Alley area is way in the back of the park. Most people that got in ahead of us seemed to know exactly where they were going, so we were content to follow along.
We reached the back of the park, where we found a façade of Kings Cross Station in London next to a row of ordinary-looking townhomes from an average English city street. The only item slightly out of place was a double-decker purple bus across the street. The line of people were heading towards a small opening in the wall under one of the townhomes.
That, of course, is the entrance to Diagon Alley. It’s so unassuming and inconspicuous, and I love it. It fits perfectly with the stories—the idea that the world of magic is hidden away, just out of sight in a mundane world. We stepped through the opening and into Diagon Alley.
The first thing you notice is the dragon. How could you not? It’s kind of big and scary-looking and centrally located.
Oh, and it breathes fire every once in a while, which will never not be awesome.
The dragon makes for an impressive icon marking the location of the Escape from Gringotts ride. Kind of hard to miss the entrance.
Of course, first we had to stow everything we owned, carried, or thought we might have to carry at some undetermined point in the future in the lockers. For some inexplicable reason, Universal does not build any capacity into their ride vehicles for you to put common items like purses, sunglasses, and hats away while you ride. Instead, they force everyone to temporarily place all of these loose items into lockers that are unlocked through various methods (your ticket, fingerprint scans, etc.) and remain free of charge during your ride (based on the current wait time plus a grace period).
The problem is that these rides are very popular and the locker rooms are about the size of the parent waiting area next to the “play gym” of your average fast food restaurant. The poor team members are trying to tell everyone to only have one person per family go in to get a locker. But that leaves a choice for people like me: either my whole family goes in and we take up the entire room, or I have to attempt to juggle the various belongings of 6 people while also juggling the tickets in order to scan it and open a locker which will inevitably be on the floor several rows away from the scanner.
We tried the compromise position of having one or two others go in with me, but it still felt like a zoo every single time. In short, I’m not a fan of the locker system. Just put bins in your ride vehicles, Universal. One point for Disney. Hopefully you guys are keeping track of these points, because I’m not.
Once the locker fiasco was over, we entered the Gringotts building and got in line. The wait time was only posted at 20 minutes, so we felt justified in coming here for rope drop. We sped through the impressive bank room, with the lifelike goblins manning their desks and giving us the stinkeye every once in a while.
From there, we were led to an elevator that took us down to the vaults in the depths below. As you can see, these things really go a long way.
The queue and pre-show were all terrific. Detailed and extremely well done. Drew was getting nervous during the build-up, so we did our usual tender and soothing encouragement to help calm him down on the way. Or we told him he’d be fine and to keep moving so we didn’t hold up the line. One of those.
The ride itself was a lot of fun. The tilt track at the start is a neat surprise, and the movement of the car works well with the 3D displays. In every ride-through, I had absolutely no idea what Bellatrix was shouting at me, although I may have caught a stray line about not squeezing the Charmin. But the story isn’t much of a concern. You want to go fast, see cool effects, feel like you’re in danger, and escape. It’s actually fairly tame, making it a great family ride. We all loved it, even Drew (just like we knew he would).
Continued Next Post
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