The Grand Bro Trip (Orlando, Florida) - Day 12

This summer holidays, my Bro and I went on the trip of a lifetime! 2 weeks of amazing times on the Grand Bro Trip in Orlando, Florida.

Day 12, 6/8 (Saturday)

Day 1 of Universal!

We were very excited to start the next (but sadly final) part of our trip - Universal Studios! We had 3 day, 2 park passes and express passes for both weekend days. As we learned at Disney we are not really rollercoaster people and Universal has many more rollercoasters and a lot with motion simulation, which really triggers me, so a lot of coasters were out. Luckily we didn't mind as we were intending on spending almost all our time at Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.

We got up and ready, both put on our LeakyCon shirts, and headed over to Diagon Alley! We went in there first as we wanted to go on the Gringotts ride. We started with a very thorough inspection of every shop and store. There were so many awesome details in each and every shop, with immaculate theming, especially in one like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and Eeylops Owl Emporium. The things in the shop were also themed, with treats and tricks at WWW, and magical creatures in the owl emporium. Once we had very thoroughly checked every shop we joined the line for the gringotts ride.

For Escape from Gringotts, you line up through the bank itself, walking through the main hall and looking at vaults until the ride begins. I was really worried about my ability to, well, not be sick on the ride, so Bro and I stood together in the line (so I could have the experience) and then I bailed before he got onto the ride vehicle proper. I went and checked out the gift shop at the end of the ride while I waited for him. When he came out he said that I would have enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to go on it tomorrow. Sadly our express passes only allowed us to skip the line once but we could go again tomorrow! Then we stopped for lunch at the best place to eat in Diagon Alley - The Leaky Cauldron! It was basically a British pub and I got a chicken salad and a Butterbeer. I LOVED the Butterbeer, it was the same as at the studio tour and I had forgotten how delicious it is!

After lunch we wandered through the shops once more and picked up a few bits, then jumped on the Hogwarts Express. The train connects the 2 Universal parks, going from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade, and is a ride of a sort on it's own. There is a screen behind each window which chronicles the journey up to Scotland and the castle, seeing different familiar sights along the way.

Then you have arrived in Hogsmeade! We headed straight to the Hogwarts castle for the Forbidden Journey ride. This was another which I wanted to go on the line but not the ride. The line takes you through the castle and is an amazing experience in itself, and then again I bailed before Bro boarded the ride vehicle. This time though, he came out saying it was an excellent ride - but that it would probably make me feel sick! So I didn't go on it. After the ride we wandered some more shops (can you tell that we were enjoying the vibe of the place and making sure we saw absolutely everything?!) before heading back on the train (a slightly different ride going in the other direction) and heading back to CityWalk for dinner. We stopped back in at the main shops and I finally picked a Loungefly HP bag - I went with the Hogwarts castle one and it is absolutely gorgeous! I love it so much. I also a pin and a shirt and some other stuff, so had a big bag to carry back later!

We stopped for dinner at a bao place which was really good - I had some shrimp bao and pork bao which were really good. Then we went to the Cold Stone Ice Creamery, which is the same as cold rock back in Australia and got ice creams with mix ins. It was super delicious! Then it was definitely bedtime and so we headed back to bed.