We got up, ate some breakfast in our room, and headed on the shuttle bus to the other Animal Kingdom resort - Jambo House - to wait for our shuttle to Universal Studios.
We headed in and went straight to the most important (only important?) part of Universal - Harry Potter World. We did get a bit sidetracked on the way though.
We stopped at a ride called ??? (Disaster?) and jumped in the queue. It turned out to be a ride which had an interactive part at the start - and Charlotte was the first volunteer. We were all moved into a room where they were filming a new disaster movie - the director was Christopher Walken, well a hologram of him anyway. The director told us about the movie and then we moved onto filming.
As everyone say and watched Charlotte and the other actors had to film their pieces. Charlotte went first. She had to stand on a ledge and stare up at a large rock hanging from the ceiling - they called that staring at the rock. Then she had to jump from the ledge and land on a large mat. The jump was about 3 inches - not high at all.
After the others finished their filming we headed onto the ride itself - a train inside a subway station. Inside the train were tv screens and as the ride went and fire and water invaded the subway station, we saw the movie.
Charlotte was jumping from a burning building - into the arms of The Rock - Dwayne Johnson! He then made sure she was ok - as she stared at him. Ha ha - staring at The Rock!
We then headed off to England - London to be precise. Or even more precisely, 12 Grimwauld Place and Diagon Alley.
Diagon Alley was awesome. We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, where Michelle had a Butterbeer - yum!
We purchased an interactive Hermoine wand which allowed you to spells at various portals around both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Some were quite clever, but many were hard to make work :(.
We went and jumped in line next for the Gringott's Bank roller coaster ride. Michelle and Charlotte got all the way to the front when Charlotte realised it was 3D and didn't want to ride. Michelle convinced her she could close her eyes at the scary bit, and she eventually went on. She enjoyed the ride itself, but not the graphics. Once Michelle and Charlotte were off Wayne jumped in the single rider line and rode it too.
Then it was time for the much anticipated Hogwarts Express ride. You sit in tiny train carriages and travel between the 2 Universal parks. Along the way you get to look out the window at the English countryside - and hear and see others having conversations in the train corridors. It was pretty awesome!
We headed off to the main Harry Pottwr ride, walking through Hogwarts in the queue. Charlotte was too small to ride, but she and James loved the rider switch area where they got to watch Harry Potter movies. We then went on the dragon roller coasters - another one Charlotte loved. James could have ridden it, but after his experience on the Seven Dwarfs Mountain Ride where he cried almost the whole way through, we thought we wouldn't subject him to it. :)
We headed off to the lolly shop, as Charlotte had Wizard money to spend (you could exchange money at the bank in Diagon Alley), and bought some chocolate frogs and a massive lollipop. Then it was time to say goodbye to Harry Potter World (unfortunately, without the return train journey, which has different views) and we just had enough time to do a few rides on The Cat in the Hat.
We then caught our bus back to the hotel and headed to the restaurant to eat. Charlotte was excited by the build your own cookie desserts - plain cookies with frosting, M&Ms, sprinkles, etc which you decorated yourself. James was just excited by the M&Ms.
It was then time for bed for the kids, with another big day ahead tomorrow...and a special visitor!
Michelle's Mum, Joy, arrived about 10:00 that night. It was good to see her, but as everyone was tired it was pretty much lights out immediately.
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