Gringotts or bust!!!

July 23, 2014

Ok, it’s official.  We have now spent 1/52^nd of our year at amusement parks, and I, for one, may never go to another one again.  We did however, have a good day.  Because the line for the new Escape from Gringotts ride was over 3 ½ hours at one point yesterday, we decided to go in early and catch that one first.  The park officially opens at 8, but because we are staying at one of three on-site hotels, we can go to the two Harry Potters areas starting at 7.  This morning we were in line to get into the park at 6:40, and by the time we made it through the entry line, walked with the rest of the world to Diagon Alley, and made it to where we started out in the official line for the ride, it was a little after 7.  We heard from a worker a few minutes later that the line was already 2 hours long.  We must have started about half-way through that because it took us right around an hour to get on the ride from that point. 

The ride was a very cool ride, but the audio track in our cart was off for the first 30 seconds or so of the ride.  I told one of the workers when we got off, and they let us have a re-ride a few minutes later.  So we actually got to go on it twice.  We really enjoyed the ride, but we all agreed that Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was the better of the two rides. 

After Gringotts, we had time for a few more rides before our breakfast reservation.  I had taken a motion sickness pill that morning so Katie talked me into trying my luck at the crazy coaster they had done the day before.  It wasn’t as bad as I had thought.  As part of our package, we had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron, and that was a cool experience just like the Three Broomsticks had been yesterday.  At breakfast I took one more motion sickness pill, and so after one more ride – the Simpsons – I couldn't keep my eyes open between the early morning and two motion sickness pills.  I went back to the hotel to get some sleep, and Becky and the kids rode a couple more rides and then joined me.  We took a pretty long break and most of us caught a nap.

Then we went back to park in the early evening.  We had noticed a family dinner deal at the 3 Broomsticks so we had a feast in Hogsmeade.   Afterward, it was still pretty warm and muggy with no rain today so we decided to hit some of the water rides.  Water rides at other parks are designed to get you a little wet, but these rides are meant to get you soaked.  We all came off them pretty much drenched.  It was okay though, and we were actually fairly comfortable the rest of the evening.  We hit a few more rides – Becky took the kids on the crazy Hulk coaster, and I took them to the Spiderman simulator-type ride.  We all went on the older (and better) Harry Potter ride one more time and then we grabbed some Cinnabons for dessert and headed back to the hotel.  The kids even went swimming for a little while. 

Happy Birthday, Angie!  We know that we are already a day late, and we meant to call last night, but I crashed.  We’ll call you soon.