Wingardium Leviosa

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Geo: 28.4743, -81.4659

Found it hard to wake is morning. Too much sleep perhaps? Nothing that a nice cup of coffee could not sort out. Bright sunshine this morning although like yesterday some stormy weather forecast for later in the day.

We are soon out the door for breakfast and then on our way to Universal Studios for the day. We decide to take the preferred parking which means you don't have to walk so far from the car to the theme park. Not sure it was worth the upgrade as it was a fair old walk from King Kong 310 to the park entrance.

Once inside we head to Islands of Adventure first and the Amazing Spider-Man ride which has now been upgraded into HD. You can really tell e difference and it's a fun ride. We then head over to Popeyes Bilge Rats Ride and got absolutely soaked along with the fellow passengers on our large floating ring. Lots of fun though. Plenty of other park guests seem to take pleasure in putting a quarter in the water guns to soak us further without getting on the ride themselves...cowards. Sadly the sun decided to hide its face which prolonged the drying process somewhat. We walked through Jurassic Park in which the main ride River Adventure is closed for refurbishments.

We then enter Hogsmeade, part of the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter zone. It looks excellent and is like stepping into a scene from the movie. We are entertained by a few students from Hogwarts singing 'something wicked this way comes' together with their pet toads. We then join the 45 min line for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The experience includes a flight around Hogwarts castle, an encounter with the Whomping Willow, a horde of Dementors, Giant Spiders and a Quidditch match. The ride drops, spins around, twists and turns using robocoaster technology which allows the seats to pivot while being held above the track by a robotic arm. Very exhilarating. We then walk around Hogsmeade visiting places such as Honeydukes, Zonko's and The Three Broomsticks as well as seeing The Hogwarts Express.

Having seen all we want in Islands of Adventure we head over to Universal Studios (which is right next door). We stop at Mel's 50's Diner for some lunch and then do the Simpsons and Despicable Me rides which are great fun.

We then return to the villa for a few hours before heading out to dinner. We meet up with Fred, someone we met on our Freedom of the Seas sailing in 2009 and kept in touch with ever since. We eat the the Outback Steakhouse and although the food was very good the service was a little haphazard to say the least. Still it was nice to meet up with a previous sailing buddy who we hope we will have the chance to sail with again sometime in the future.

We say goodbye to Fred and head back to the villas where it's cocktail and TV time.

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