Mexican Riviera Cruise

Last week, while I worked and looked after the dogs, Susan and Jenn drove down to Los Angeles and boarded a four night Princess cruise down to Mexico. They went with some of the women my wife had met through scrapbooking.

Their first stop was in Solvang in California where they took a tour of the Swedish buildings downtown.

The second port of call was Ensenada Mexico. After a day at sea they returned to Los Angeles. 

More Disney World

Thursday we visited the Magic Kindom. Amongst other things, we rode the Peoplemover and were able to see inside Space Mountain with the lights on, as it was undergoing refurbishment.

Friday we spent some time in Hollywood Studios, including checking out the entrance to the future Star Wars Land.

We also enjoyed seeing the models for the new Toy Story Land currently under construction.

As well as the upcoming Star Wars land. We had lunch at Hollywood and Dine, a character buffet. Jenn enjoyed meeting Mickey and friends in their spring outfits. 

That afternoon we checked into a one bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs, and finished giving away the last of Bryan’s furniture. Saturday we returned to Epcot to enjoy some more attractions and the Flower and Garden festival. Yesterday we flew home. 

Diagon Alley

We spent most of our time in the new Harry Potter area at the Studios, Diagon Alley. The shops were well themed, and the restaurant, the Leaky Cauldron, was pretty good. The menu is English pub food, like the Three Broomsticks in Islands of Adventure, but the setting is a little different. 

We really enjoyed the train between the Harry Potter areas in the two parks. The queue on the Studios side is themed to London's Kings Cross Station, and screens inside the train make look like you're traveling from London to Hogsmead in Scotland, and then back when going from IOA to the Studios.

 

The Escape from Gringott's attraction was pretty good. It's a cross between an indoor roller coaster and an omnimover, shifting you between large 3D screens that tell the story of a tour of Gringott's that goes wrong. The queue is really well done. 

Wednesday night we checked into a DVC villa at the Grand Floridian.

Universal Orlando

Yesterday we visited the Universal Orlando Resort. Although Susan and Jenn were here last year, it was my first visit since 2013. Since then Universal has added two new hotels, Cabana Bay and Sapphire Falls, and are working on another. They also opened a water park, Volcano Bay, last year.

At the Studios, they added a Transformer ride in Production Central several years ago. It's similar to the Spider-Man ride at IOA, although Jenn said it did not make her nauseous like Spider-Man does. They also closed the Disaster ride in San Francisco. In the New York area, they replaced the Twister attraction with Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. We did not take the time to experience that. Jennifer did it last year and said it wasn't that good.

Over in Islands of Adventure, they had added a Skull Island: Reign of Kong attraction in Jurassic Park. We didn't take the time for it either as we had mostly experience it on the Universal Hollywood Tram Tour. Last year they closed the Dragon Challenge coaster (the former Dueling Dragons) in the Harry Potter area and started work on a new attraction.

Disney World and Tampa

Sunday night Susan, Jenn, and I flew out to Florida again. The main purpose of our visit was to empty the storage locker of stuff Bryan left behind when he moved back to Oregon, but we also planned to spend a few days in the parks. We arrived Monday morning and took the Magic Express to Disney World.

The first two nights we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, where there was lots of construction going on. The lobby area is being expanded, a new DVC resort is being built north of the resort, and work on a gondola system to connect several resorts and parks had just begun. 

After a nice breakfast buffet in a temporary tent near the pool, we headed into Epcot to check out the Flower and Garden Festival. A friend of Jenn’s from the college program joined us. We did a few rides, the girls met characters, and we had some snacks at the festival booths. 

Tuesday we picked up a rental SUV and drove into Tampa to empty Bryan’s storage locker. Jennifer posted the items on Facebook and we gave most of them away. Wednesday morning we checked out of our room.

CityWalk

Like Orlando, there is a CityWalk area just outside of Universal Hollywood, with a cinema, some shops, and several restaurants. It's a bit smaller than the one in Orlando though. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe there. This was the 24th HRC I have visited.

We visited the CityWalk again on the way out to try the Voodoo Doughnuts there. They were not as good as they are in Portland.

We then drove up to Central California to pick up the dogs and spent the night. On Saturday we drove through Monterey to visit family, and take the dogs to the beach in Pacific Grove. Sunday we drove back to Bend.

Universal Studios Hollywood

On our way back north from Disneyland, we spent some of Friday at Universal Studios in Hollywood. This was Jenn’s first visit, and my first since I was in college. This park started as a working studio which began offering tours, then added shows, then rides. It's composed of three parts - the upper lot, the lower lot, and the back lot. The entrance is in the upper lot, which has a great view of the valley below.

The Harry Potter area is a recent addition to the upper lot. It's pretty similar to the one in Orlando, just a bit smaller. It only has two attractions, Forbidden Journey and the small Hippogriff roller coaster. The back lot is only accessible via the tram tour, since it's still a working studio. The tram tour goes through several sets and sound stages, during which several physical or film effects are shown.

After lunch we enjoyed the WaterWorld stunt show, but didn't have enough time for other shows. We bought season passes, as they were fairly cheap and we figured we’d make at least one more visit before the end of the year and see the other shows.