Tuesday (08/23)
I was planning on going to Island of Adventure on EE but when the alarm went off I decided to sleep a little longer and got up at 8:15am. I got an egg and bacon croissant at New Dutch Trading Co. that was hot and delicious. I ended up getting to the park 5 minutes before 9am.
The view from my room is stunning
I went straight to the Hulk roller coaster and it was awesome, the launch tunnel is amazing. From there I went to Spider-man and the guy let me go in the express line even tough I don't have an express pass because I'm a Hufflepuff (I've been wearing my Hufflepuff lanyard) and it was just me, so I was in and out of the ride in 5 minutes. Next was Skull Island that according to Universal's app had a 45 minutes wait. I usually have a 30 minutes limit for wait time but when it's a new ride or one that is always crowded (like Minion Mayhem) I get my limit up to 45 minutes. When I got to the entrance of the ride the sign had the wait time listed as 90 minutes!
I asked for single riders line but the CM said they didn't have it at that time and I almost gave up but decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. The line took about 40 minutes but it's so awesome that I didn't even realized it had been that long. The ride is great and totally worth it, it has so much going on in both sides of the car that you get out wanting to ride again to be able to see watch was going on the other side.
Jurassic Park was the next ride and it didn't have any wait. Then I made my way to Hogsmead.
My first stop was Forbidden Journey. I went through the regular line because I wanted to see the castle since it had been awhile I've been there. Almost at the end a CM asked me to try the seat (I'm fat - I'll talk about it at the end of this post) and I told her I had tried it outside so she asked if it turned green and then directed me to the rest of the single riders line, which was great cause I got to see the castle and still use the single riders line. I love this ride, it's by far my favorite! After I got out of FJ, I left my bag in the locker and went to the Dragon Challenge (the locker was giving 85 minutes for free and it took me less than 20 minutes on the ride). When I got out I started feeling a little lightheaded so I retrieved my bag from FJ's locker and headed to Three Broomsticks.
It was a little before noon and the restaurant wasn't crowded at all. I got a turkey leg platter and a cold butterbeer. The food was great and huge, I couldn't finish the turkey leg but it tasted amazing.
After lunch I took the Hogwarts Express to King's Cross station and was planning to ride Escape from Gringotts through the regular line to see the bank, I think everybody should do it at least once. My plan changed when I got there and the wait time was 65 minutes. I got a butterbeer ice cream instead, walked around a little bit and decided to go back to the hotel to get some rest.
I got a small afternoon nap and then went to Universal Studios. I started with RRR that I had never ridden before, I remember the line was always over 60 minutes last time I came and we didn't have a lot of time. Anyway, the wait time was 20 or 25 minutes and when I went through the metal detector the CM sent me through the express line and when I got to the CM the scan the pass I was like "I have no idea what's going on here, she must've sent me through the wrong line" and she asked if I was alone and let me go there. The line moved really fast and I LOVED the ride! I never cared much about it and was pleasantly surprised with how awesome it is. From there I went to the Mummy and basically walked in and got to ride front row. Then I went to Transformers and again just walked in. I was going to MIB next but decided to stop at ET first, it only had a 5 minute wait - which means no wait at all. I love this ride and it was so empty that I had a whole 'car' for myself, and I mean the whole 4 rows of bikes. It was fun but also made me a little sad to think the ride might not last much longer there.
On my way to MIB I ended up stopping at the Simpsons ride and had to wait for about 20 minutes. I used to love this one but after Spider-man, FJ, Transformers and Escape from Gringotts, it wasn't all that fun anymore. Then I finally made it to MIB and it's always a lot of fun.
When I got out was already 8:20pm and the park was closing at 8:30pm and all the restaurants were already closed so I went to CityWalk to get food. The line to the water taxi was a bit long and I knew it would only get worse once the Cinematic Spectacular was over so I just got a burger at Burger King and had the chocolate cauldron I bought on Monday as a dinner dessert.
And then it was time for bed!
P.S.: like I said, I'm fat. I don't really know how much I weight, it's mostly in my tummy and thighs but I don't have very large hips. I wear 22W shorts/pants and 2XL shirts/dresses and I was able to ride absolutely everything on the modified seats and very comfortably. The only one that was a little tight was Escape from Gringotts but not uncomfortably tight, I could still move a bit in the seat and breathe fine. I'm not even a little bit ashamed of it, I like to eat!
So I tried every single test seat available, I asked for help, I asked questions and I requested a modified seat on every ride except the Mummy, this one I rode on the regular seat extremely comfortable. Everybody was extremely nice about it.
The seats for the Hulk and Dragon Challenge are exactly the same, no need to try both. The Escape from Gringotts and the Mummy seats look the same but I think the EFG are smaller, or maybe it's because of the leg part, I don't know but the regular seats of the Mummy were less tight than the modified seats of the EFG for me. The FJ I asked for the CM's help when I tested it outside because I wasn't able to get the third click on my own, he gave it a last push for me but when I went on the ride I got it easily. The RRR is the hardest one to test if you get embarrassed by it cause a lot of people gather outside the ride (I don't really know why) and use the test seats as chairs so I actually had to ask a woman to let me try the seat. And the thing BEEPS. When it started beeping I thought it was because it wouldn't fit but then I looked and the light was green so I opened it and closed again and saw that it beeps when it turns green. I never tried the regular seat for this ride because it was too much trouble to ask another person to get up when I could just ask for a modified seat - and I don't think I would fit anyway.
My advice is to try the seats. There's no reason to be embarrassed, nobody even realizes what you're doing or don't even care and you'll never see these people again, don't waste your time worrying about what other people will think!