So, my blog has been quiet these past few days, partly because there wasn’t anything to blog and partly because I just stayed at the resort and relaxed and processing my amazing holiday. I did do my washing, though! I spent time around the pool and listened to my audio book, which kept me interested, I am currently listening to The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, I am suripsed it kept me hooked!

I am sitting in my hotel room now just before dinner for one last time, I have packed my things up and ready for tomorrow. As I sit here I find myself reflecting on my 2 week holiday and getting emotional. This has by far been the best thing I have done for myself, aside from my career. Words cannot describe how I feel. I have achieved my dream and have loved every minute of it. It’s been magical and emotional and I cannot wait to come back with Mum in September and witness Mum exploring for the first time!

Tomorrow I will be picked up at 1400 to be taken to the airport for my flight home at 1720. I am due back in the UK at 0650 Wednesday morning GMT. Here’s to a safe flight!

I plan on doing an overall review on my blog Thursday explaining what I loved and not so much.

So, as I sign off my blog, thank you for reading. I have enjoyed writing my blog and am pleased to see other people have enjoyed reading about my adventures too! I will return to my travel blog in September for my next trip to Florida. Thank you all for reading! See you at home!

See you soon Florida, you have been mesmerising! Thanks for the memories I will treasure them forever!

As I said yesterday, my blogs over the next few days may be few and far between, I have reached the end of what I’d like to do, but I will, of course, write a few things! I had heard good things about Disney Springs, and I was not disappointed. The first stop was the Christmas Store. Yes, Christmas… Disney still have their Christmas shop up! It was well stocked and had some cool things in it.

Next, I wandered into Co-Op (nope, not what you are thinking!), which is basically an everything shop in Disney. It stocks older stock and a mixture of different things. I spent 20-30 minutes in the candle bit; they had many different choices than us! I didn’t know which one to get!

After that, it was time to explore the huge Disney Store, and I am not joking. It was huge! So much choice! I had to be careful as I only have a 23kg limit on my baggage which I could easily use up on all the stuff here!! I bought a few more things to take home and moved on.

I continued to explore and went into Levi’s store, but I didn’t get anything; they didn’t have much choice there, which was a shame! Next up was the Lego store; not much there, really; it looked bigger than it is!

Next up, I headed to the Coca-Cola store; it had lots of coke merch which was cool; again, I could have bought lots here, but that 23kg limit was in the back of my head!!

Finally, for the morning was the M&M store; this was huge and had lots of different merch and M&Ms! I got a pick and mix of all sorts of M&Ms! It was an amazing store!

For the afternoon and lunch, I decided to spend my time in the Cinema in Disney Springs, AMC, as usual, they have a better cinema experience in the UK and cheaper!! I grabbed chicken tenders and a large coke which was nice! I went and saw Avatar: The Way of Water as I hadn’t seen it yet; this was an awesome film!

And that was it for the day! I enjoyed myself in Disney Springs and will definitely go there again! I think mum will love it too! I headed back to the hotel and will grab dinner on-site today! Tomorrow, again, nothing is planned. I will play it by ear, so there might not be a blog! I can’t believe my holiday is nearly finished! I had an awesome time!!

As always, I got dropped off by my Uber driver; it’s about a 15-minute drive from Adventura to Animal Kingdom, so not too bad. I was dropped off right by the entrance. As soon as I entered the park I was amazed, the polar opposite of yesterday! The cast members were friendly, it was busy as usual, but I am used to that by now! This park is more relaxed, and more events are going on around the park. I did go on a few rides, but I mostly explored the areas.

The first “ride”, I suppose, was the Safari ride which is a real Safari going around the park showing their animals in their natural habitat; the tour guide was fun and gave some excellent insights into animals. I didn’t take many photos as I just wanted to enjoy the moment, which was the right decision for me! The safari lasted about 20 minutes and was well worth it!

Next up, I explored the Gorilla Falls trail at the park, which is a walkway looking a Gorillas, their natural habit and the animals they share the lands with; it was an excellent little hike around the encounter, well impressed.

After the Gorilla Falls trail, it was time for my first show; it was the Feathered Friends show which was all about birds and their natural habit, how they train the birds and so on. It was a fun little show with great quirks!

It was time for lunch, and no, I didn’t have a burger again!! This time I had baked macaroni and cheese, with a slushy drink and a special 50th cupcake. This was tasty, and I enjoyed it. Everything I have had so far from America has been awesome!

The final ride/show I went to was “It’s tough to be a bug”, which is a 3D show with some great effects, from water effects being thrown up and jump scares; it was a good show. It showcases the importance of looking after bugs as well as other animals.

The rest of the day, I spent wandering around the different trails. The next one I went to was the Jungle Trek trail showcasing the jungle animals; I even got to see a tiger!

Finally, for the day, I explored the Pandora area, based on the Avatar movies; I couldn’t get on any of the rides, though, as they were swamped. Na’vi River Journey was an hour and a half, and Avatar Flight of Passage was an ungodly two and a half hours to wait! After what happened yesterday, there was no way I would wait that amount of time!!

Overall I had a really good day. I enjoyed the park, the animals, the shows and the attractions. I would definitely go again!

Now it’s time for the all-important rankings; in my humble opinion… 1st place goes to… EPCOT was by far my best park; exploring other countries and some good rides is what did it for me. 2nd place goes to… Magic Kingdom! I bet you were expecting that to be first, and to be fair, it was pretty close! Magic Kingdom gave me the magic I had dreamed of, but it needs a bit more to push it to first! 3rd place goes to… Animal Kingdom, as you saw above, I enjoyed this park and theming. And to nobody’s surprise… 4th place goes to Hollywood Studios; I was very disappointed with this park, and I expected more.

So that brings you to the end of my Disney adventures… this week has gone really fast, it was a marathon, but I enjoyed every minute of it; I have walked a total of 55,673 steps this week, which is crazy and would explain how tired I am!! I don’t have anything planned for the next four days; I am going to play it by ear; any suggestions, send them my way. As a result, my blogging might be minimal and might end up combining a few days! See you when I next see you!

My first ride was Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, a Star Wars ride taking you around the galaxy showing key points in the Star Wars series; it was pretty fun!

Next up was Muppet Vision 3D, a 3D movie including the Muppets; this was a fun and enjoyable show with good 3D and 4D effects, like water splashes and heat. It was fun!

After the show, I headed to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which is a cool ride where out of the 6 of you riding, you all had certain things to do during the flight, like press the button at the right time and so on. Reminds me of Mission: Space at EPCOT. It was an engaging ride and fun for everyone!

Following that, I went to see the Indiana Jones: Epic Stunt Spectacular. This show explains how they do the stunts and gives you a glimpse behind the scenes of movies; I thought it was exciting and fun at the same time!

The final ride of the day, which has got to be the most frustrating I have felt with Disney, was Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. This was a fantastic ride despite waiting nearly 2 hours to get on it!! This ride takes you on a whistle-stop tour of Mickey’s adventures; you get “detached” from the train and go around the world of Mickey Mouse; this was really fun, apart from someone on my row decided to ram down the bar for the ride squishing me…

To read my rant head here, I won’t force it on you!

After my frustrating experience, it was time for lunch, so I went to one of the eateries and ordered some food. Today was similar to yesterday, a burger with BBQ pulled pork, a drink and a whoopie cookie which was nice!

At this point, the other rides I wanted to go on still had very long waits, like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which was a 3-hour wait, slinky dog was a 2-hour wait and tower to terror was also a 2-hour wait. I did not have the patience to wait those long hours. I am not sure why it was so busy today! Anyway, I called it quits and headed back to the hotel early. Tonight will probably be a chilled night to recover from my last three trips; it’s been exhausting but fun! Tomorrow is my final Disney Park, which is Animal Kingdom; here’s hoping I will have a better experience tomorrow!! See you later!

It was a very hectic for me today, and I struggled to get around the park; it is a large park with lots to see and do. I will do my best to cover what I did, but it might be overlong sorry in advance. It was a really good park, but I was tired at the end of it! So like yesterday, I jumped on an Uber and got dropped off at the park.

I decided to do rides first before exploring the “Worlds” section. They don’t have many rides here, but it was still fun! So the first ride for me today was Spaceship: Earth. This fun, entertaining, informative ride showcases our successes as a human race over the years; it was fun to learn about how we became the humans we are today!

Next up was Mission: Space. Now, this was challenging! It’s a ride based on astronaut training and what they feel when they take off on their mission; the story behind this ride is you are training to become an astronaut for a mission to Mars. This ride makes you experience the G force they feel and what to do in an emergency. The pod has four people in each with their assigned task you have throughout the mission. You do get promoted when to do it. I felt….odd at the end of this ride; it took a good 20-30 minutes to recover!

After I had recovered, it was time for my new couple of rides; one was “The Seas” with Nemo and Friends, where you go around with Nemo and explore the sea. Shortly after, there is a clever live Q and A called Turtle Talk With Crush. It’s a clever show where a voice actor acting as Crush answers questions and involves the audience. It was quite fun! I then had an exploration around the aquariums in Sea land.

The most anticipated ride in the park was next. This was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. To queue up for this ride, you have to get into the queue from 07:00 in the morning to even get a chance to ride; it is so popular you literally have to sit there spamming the refresh button, hoping you can join! I was lucky I was boarding group 58. This was an awesome ride!! It’s basically a roller coaster ride featuring twists and turns and spins on your mission to help the Guardians save the world. The music was second to none, and the ride was awesome. The ride rotates between 6 tracks, and we got “Conga” by Gloria Estefan, which really added to the experience!! This ride did actually make me queasy; when you come off, there are several cast members holding sick bags at the ready. I imagine more people than not have vomited while coming off that ride!! Luckily for me, I did not need it!”

Once my body had recovered from that queasy feeling, it was time for lunch; today I had a burger and chips with an apple pie milkshake. This was really tasty!

Now that I have had my lunch, it was time to move onto the world land, now I am going to speed through this as there were a LOT of lands, and I don’t want to bore you too much, but if you have any questions, send them my way, and I will see if I can answer them for you.

The first land I came across on my tour around the world was Canada, this was a lovely zone, and it made you feel like you were in the country. They had a gift shop based on Canada stuff and a drinks bar.

Next up was the UK; I did go through this just to see how they make it look, and it does look quite good. It had all the hallmarks of the UK, such as red phone boxes and old-looking buildings. There is a gift shop showcasing some of the things the UK have. I spoke to one of the shop attendances and found out that Disney actually employs people from the UK on a yearly basis to be a cultural ambassadors. This was quite interesting. This is the same for all of the zones.

Following on from the UK, it was France; this was a good zone, and I even tried one of the foods on offer there!

After that, I headed to the Kingdom of Morocco; this was a nice scenic area showcasing everything Moroccan.

The fourth land was Japan; now I LOVED this area; as some of you may know, I have always loved the Japanese style of things like gaming and their culture, and I’d love to go there sometime! This area was larger than the others and had a huge store. I spent quite a while here!

By now, I was flagging a bit… I had been on my feet for over 5 hours walking around, and I had to stop more regularly to recover; I really don’t have the stamina any more!! Next up was American land. This land is focused around the early days of the United States; it was quite good and busy!

Italy was next, another great area, even had a street performer, perhaps I should have had lunch there as the food smelt so good!!

The next country was Germany, this really captured traditional Germany well, I have never been, but from the pictures I have seen, they did a good job!

I was really flagging now, it was about 16:30, and I was all peopled, coupled, familied out… I was running out of patience! So the next few areas were a while stop tour; here are the pictures for China, Norway and Mexico.

So that does it for EPCOT! I loved the park and would love to go back and see it, it had a good vibe going for it, and I enjoyed the tour of the other countries. I wish it wasn’t so busy, but hey, it’s Disney! They had some great shops, experiences and rides. Although I loved Magic Kingdom, EPCOT has become my favourite so far. Only a couple of parks left to go! Tomorrow I will be exploring Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so join me tomorrow for the next instalment of Ian’s Travels!

I started my day excitedly; I went through the Disney app to see what rides I wanted to do and what shows I wanted to see. I was nervous ordering an Uber again not sure why I can’t shift that feeling, but it’s getting better. The Uber driver dropped me off at the Ticket and Transport hub, where I could take the monorail or boat. I decided I wanted to ride the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom!

Magic Kingdom has some good rides, but it isn’t thrill ride heavy; most of them are storytelling and awesome effects, but this did not spoil my enjoyment at all!! I had a blast; it was everything I had dreamed of and more! I even got emotional at times!! I decided to start my day in Tomorrow Land; I headed to the People Mover, a nice ride above Tomorrow Land.

Following that ride, I jumped onto Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, a spin-and-shooter ride. This reminded me of the Men in Black ride at Universal. You go on a mission with Buzz and try to save the galaxy by shooting Zs; the more you hit, the better your score. It was a fun ride! I ended up with a score of 31500, which isn’t too shabby!

After I came off this ride, I saw many people running toward Space Mountain for some reason, I later discovered that it was offline initially when the park opened, and it had just started up. So I took this opportunity to ride Space Mountain, as it was only a 10-minute ride when usually it’s over 60 minutes to ride. This is one of the thrill rides in the park. It was enjoyable, and it’s a dark ride that chucks you all over the place to stimulate space travel, I guess. Nonetheless, it was still awesome!

Next up was one show I wanted to see, the 50th-anniversary show in front of the castle; this is a show explaining the importance of friendship and being one’s self. It was a fun show, and this was when I started to get emotional seeing Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and the others on stage. I did not expect to get emotional!

At the show’s end, I headed over to Fantasy Land, and my next ride/show was Mickey’s PhilharMagic show. It’s a 3D show going through the history of Disney music; it showcased Lion King, Little Mermaid, Fantasia and more. The 3D effect from the show added to the fun of this little show, and I love Disney Music!

The next stop was Adventure Land, and I went to see the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was really good. The animatronics on this ride was second to none, and I was very impressed! There was about a 20-minute wait which was quicker than advertised.

It was lunchtime already; I had such a fun morning that it just whizzed by. By this point, most of the eateries were full, so I just stopped by a place in adventure land and got loaded with chicken strips and chilli cheese chips. This was really nice, but again the portions were huge! I can’t get used to this!

Since I was already in Adventure Land, I decided to go on the Little Mermaid ride, Under the Sea. This was another animatronics show which great music and effects throughout the ride. I was very impressed.

Moving onto Fairytail Land, I went on the Winne the Pooh ride, which was a great little fun ride telling a story from Winnie the Pooh; it was engaging and fun! My mum will love this ride when we go in September; I have to make sure I take her!

While there, I went on the It’s a Small World Afterall ride, a fun little boat ride showcasing the world and different versions of the song “It’s a Small World Afterall”. However, the music dragged on as animatronics sang the same song repeatedly and in other languages. It was an ok ride, though!

Finally, I ended my day by watching the Parade going down Magic Kingdom; this one was based on Fantasy Land and was a good and emotional show. It put a smile on my face. What a fantastic day!

There were a few rides I didn’t get the chance to ride due to long queues all the time; these were Peter Pan’s Flight, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The queue time on all these rides was 70 minutes plus, no matter when I checked it!! I will have to try to get on these when Mum and I go in September!

So that’s it for my day! Sorry for the long blog. I had a blast today and a smile on my face the whole time. I made memories of this day that will stick with me for a long time. I can’t believe I have finally managed to go to Disney World! Tomorrow, I am off to EPCOT; this place isn’t typically ride heavy, so the blog will be shorter tomorrow but still join me tomorrow to see what I get up to! Thanks for reading!

So today, I headed to Walmart to replenish some of my stock at the hotel and buy some stuff to take home. I had a leisurely breakfast and jumped into an Uber. As I said on Wednesday, this particular one is HUGE!! What was weird for me was shopping in a supermarket at 08:30 in the morning… it’s so strange. It’s even open until 11 pm…. on a Sunday… just goes to show how different the two countries are!

After my little shopping trip, which took over an hour, by the way… I stopped at McDonalds to sample American’s version of McDonalds Breakfast. It tasted really nice but also a little weird! They also had this odd version of the McMuffin called the Biscuit Bacon, Egg & Cheese; it looked like a scone; I should have tried that, really!! If I get a chance, I will try it before the end of my holiday!

Now it was time to head back, I ordered an Uber, and when I returned to the hotel, I put my shopping away and chilled for rest the morning. For lunch today, I wandered over to the Lowes Sapphire Falls hotel, which is just across the way from my hotel; it was a brilliant hotel it looked tidy and neat. As a universal resort guest, I can dine in any of the Universal/Lowes hotels in the area. I had a cuban sandwich which was really nice! Of course, it was a large sandwich but am I surprised, considering I am in America?

For the afternoon’s entertainment, I went to CityWalk to go to the cinema as I fancied a change of pace. Geez, they do cinema right in America, with reasonable prices and not paying over the nose for snacks; it’s strange. Also, the chairs were electric, and you could put your feet up, which was a weird cinema experience for me. So I went and saw Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which was a brilliant film!

After that, I jumped back onto the shuttle bus to the hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing.

Sorry, it wasn’t an exciting blog today, but I needed a rest with the manic week I have planned ahead. I am starting my Disney week tomorrow!! So expect a longer blog tomorrow. I am really excited about Disney, as I have wanted to go ever since I was a child, and I can’t wait to get there!! The first park is Magic Kingdom, so see you tomorrow!

On the way there, the Uber driver explained that Floridians like this weather as they sometimes get fed up with the heat! I can only imagine what it would be like all the time, and I struggled with 29c!! Anyway, the Uber guy was friendly and put me at ease. We chatted all the way there!

So I planned to have a chilled day, look at the Aquariums and watch the shows; I didn’t fancy any of the rides today, so I guess I want to save my riding for Monday with Disney! So I started the day at the Shark Encounter; this was an incredible underwater aquarium where I got to see some of the sharks they have; the music effects were sound, and the atmosphere was great too!

After I hit the shark encounter, I went on the Tower ride (Ok, I lied, but this was a chilled ride), which takes you up to about 65ft, and you can see the entire park plus Orlando; it was a pleasant experience!

Next up for me was the Dolphine Adventure, one of the shows they had planned for today; this was a fun show showing how incredible dolphins are and what SeaWorld is doing to protect them. It was an enjoyable show!

Now, I headed to the “Beautiful Ocean” aquarium, which showed the species in the ocean. This was another enjoyable aquarium, it was getting busy at this point, so it was pretty challenging to move around, but I still enjoyed it!

Alongside this was the stingray lagoon allowing guests to touch and feed the stingray. As you can imagine, it was pretty busy, so I got a few pictures and left; it was still a fun little encounter.

It was time for my next show, the Sealion and Otter spotlight. It showcased what SeaWorld is doing to protect both of these animals. This was a fun and enjoyable little show; they added humour it looked like the animals were having fun too!

The next show, I was cutting it a bit fine; unfortunately, the Sealion and Otter spotlight ran quite late, so I rushed over to the Orca encounter. I am not going to lie, I was worried about this as I had heard rumours of how badly they were being treated, but the show alleviated any fears I had as they explained their role and what they were doing to ensure the survival of the Orca, this was a good show demonstrating the full power of the predator of the sea.

Now that all the shows I wanted to see had finished, I just wondered around to see what I could find; the next one I came across was Sesame Street Land, now obviously, this area isn’t tailored to me, but I did take a walk through the site. It brought back my childhood memories as I watched this when I was younger!

After I had passed through Sesame Street Land, it was now time for the Wild Arctic encounter, which was themed around a base camp in the Antarctic and the animals that can be found there; this encounter had seals, walruses and other animals that can be found in the Antarctic, although busy, it was still an enjoyable experience!

Lunchtime had arrived, and with my ticket, I also got a meal with it, so that was handy; I had chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks and a cheesecake, which was awesome!!

I let my food sink down and moved on to the next section, the SeaWorld rescue centre; this showcased SeaWorld rescue efforts which were very informative; I also got to see some of the turtles and other animals they had recused, so that was good!

Finally, my last stop was the birds encounter, showcasing all the birds around the sea and whatnot, including pelicans and flamingos.

Overall I had a fantastic time at SeaWorld; I think so far for me this was the best park I have been to; it was informative and enjoyable while adding a dash of fun to the mix. It also showcased all their hard work to protect sea animals and creatures. Although I did not go on the rides, it was still fun, and I would go again.

After a long day, I headed back with an Uber. Unfortunately, this guy was not chatty at all, so we just sat in silence in the car; hey, we can’t have it all, can we? For dinner, I headed to a neighbouring hotel for food (with universal hotels, you can eat at any universal hotel, which is pretty handy). This is what I had:

That was really nice; shame I am not used to American portion sizes yet as I struggled to eat the food and then had indigestion for a while!

Anyway, that’s it for today; I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. Tomorrow I plan on having a chill day and relaxing as I have a hectic week ahead of me for Disney, I will still blog, but it won’t be as big! So see you tomorrow for a short blog. Then on Monday, it’s Disney week which I am looking forward to! See you later!

I used the shuttle bus again today as this is the simplest way to get to the park. Today I made a conscious effort to drink more water after yesterday’s episode…This park seemed smaller than Universal Studios, and I only wanted to go on a few rides. I explored Harry Potter yesterday, so wasn’t much point in going again. Today appeared even busier!

The first ride of the day was Velocicoaster. There was a bit of a wait to get on, but as always, the queueing experience was second to none; they really immerse you in that ride’s theme, making waiting much better. They even had the two main characters from Jurassic World do a safety video which also was cool. This ride was AWESOME, easily my highlight of the holiday so far; it was fast, intense, and really fun!

After Velocicoaster, I felt the effects for a good 20 minutes, but I don’t regret it. It was an amazing ride! The next ride I hit was Skull Island – Reign of Kong, a special effect ride using 3D glasses; it was a fun ride, shame it was spoiled by screaming kids behind me. It makes me wonder why they went on it! It wasn’t even that scary!

Next up was The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, another special effect ride with 3D glasses, but it was fun and kept you on your feet! It is showing its age a little now, but it doesn’t stop it from being fun!

During the next few rides, I unleashed my inner child! There were several rides based on the stories from Dr Seuss; these rides were fun and chilled. The first ride I went on was Cat in the Hat, which is a ride explaining the story. In addition, it had a spinning section; this was quite fun!

The High in the Sky Seuss Trolly Train ride was next! This was a train ride around the part with a story added to it. It gave me some good views of the park! I know a bit childish of me, but it was fun nonetheless.

There were a few other rides I wanted to try, but it was too busy, and unfortunately, I couldn’t fit on some of the rides due to my height and weight due to the type of safety harness they use, which was a bit disappointing but there you go!

The final ride of the day was Poseidon’s Fury, a special effects tour of the mythical undersea temple where Poseidon is. This was a fun little show with impressive effects, worth going to if you ever get the chance!

After that, I was getting quite tired; it turns out I have walked about 14,550 steps just in the park; no wonder I am tired. So I decided to head back and grab lunch on the way. Today I had a Burger King from the Whopper bar, which was nice! I also grabbed some ice cream on the way back!

So that’s it for today, it wasn’t as busy as yesterday, but I still had fun, I enjoyed exploring Universal’s parks, and I am looking forward to seeing Disney next week to see how they compare. Disney has been the one thing I have been looking forward to the most for my trip! Tomorrow I will be heading to SeaWorld, so catch me tomorrow for another blog!

Hi all, today was my Universal Studios Day; it’s one of the parks within Universals 3 parks. It was an awesome day, and I took way too many pictures. It was also very hot! So equipped with several bottles of water and drink, I jumped onto the shuttle bus to be taken to City Walk.

The park is bigger than I thought it would be! I started on the right this time as I read advice from other people who have been before to go right instead of left, as that is where everyone goes! The theme was a 1930s town with quirky buildings and shops.

My first ride was the E.T. ride; it was pretty pleasant. I enjoyed it, and I thought it was well-designed and fun! The queue experience was great too! Also, it was darker than the camera showed, adding to the atmosphere.

The next ride I did was the Simpson’s ride which is basically a visual show with the cart moving all over the place; I would akin it to a 4D experience, so there was water chucked at us, and you could feel the heat at times! It was fun! The Simpson’s area was well-detailed and really showed off Springfield from the cartoons! Here are a few pictures of Springfield Land!

After I explored Springfield Land, I went to the MIB ride, which is basically a shooter game with rollercoaster experiences; it was fun! Although I did get a bit dizzy after the ride, though! I scored 109,560 points, the highest in the cab, so go me!!

Following the MIB ride, I headed to Harry Potter Diagon Alley. They have set it up to look like London, and to be fair, they did a good job, and it did look like London. Afterwards, I wandered around and took lots of photos ( head to the Gallery to see them all!); after I had taken the pictures, it was time for the Escape from Gringotts Ride; I had to make sure I fit in the chair; luckily, there is a test chair to make sure you fit; luckily, I did, and boy, it was a fantastic ride!! I enjoyed it; it immersed you well and was great fun!

After I did that, it was time for lunch, I took an early lunch so I could avoid the queues later, and since I was in Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley, I had to check out the food there! They had Fish and Chips, and as a British man, it’s my duty to ensure it is up to standard, and to be fair, it was lovely!

With lunch out of the way, I decided to jump on the Hogwarts Express ride, which isn’t a ride, I suppose, but it was cool to watch the video on the way. This ride takes you to the Islands of Adventure to Hogsmead.

After arriving, I went and explored Hogsmead; it was ok but hectic. I couldn’t get around and explore it properly as there were a lot of people there, it was ok, but it wasn’t as good as Diagon Alley, in my opinion. I didn’t stay around long as I intended to explore Islands of Adventure tomorrow, so I went back onto the Hogwarts Express and continued my Universal Studios tour.

I was starting to flag a bit here, I was tired, and my feet hurt; this brings me back to what I was saying earlier. I learned a lot today! It was very hot, with highs hitting 29c. I kept applying sun spray, but I did not drink enough. I thought I had, but I was exhausted when I got to the hotel and had a headache. So, lesson learned – DRINK MORE WATER! I think we Brits don’t appreciate the importance of this as we don’t get the hot weather often, but today proved I need to drink more going forward.

Now carrying on, I only went on three more rides as I was getting tired, but I was happy with the rides nonetheless. The next ride I went on was the Fast and Furious Supercharge, which was a really good ride! It immerses you into the story and makes you feel a part of it.

The next ride I went on was Revenge of the Mummy, which was awesome! I had heard really good things about it, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a rollercoaster with special effects; I really enjoyed it!

For me, the final ride of the day was Race Through New York, Starring Jimmy Fallon, which was a good ride; again, this was just a special effect and rocking cart, but it was fun nonetheless.

There were a few rides I’d have liked to go on, but by the time I had finished Jimmy Fallon’s ride, there were long queues. I wanted to go on the Transformers: The ride and Despicable Me Minon Mayhem, but the lines were approaching 60 minutes for both rides, and I was exhausted after spending 5 hours in the park. So will try and get those done in the coming days!

And that was it, really; I headed back to the hotel and slept for a bit which helped, and then I will go down and grab some food shortly and chill for the rest of the evening.

Overall I had a great day. I really enjoyed the park and the rides I went on. I have learned important lessons today, like drinking more water, especially with the heat!! The plan as it stands for tomorrow will be for me to hit Islands of Adventure, but that will depend on how I feel in the morning!! Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow!