You can take the girl out of Disney, BUT……… - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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The line was only listed to be about 20 minutes for Forbidden Journey. That wasn’t bad at all. I think it was about 8:50 when we got in line and it truly was close to 20 minutes when we rode.
We put the bags in a locker. This was my first locker experience at Universal and it was pretty easy and harmless. I did keep put my point and shoot camera so I could take some pictures of the queue area. They aren’t the best pictures, but better than nothing. We had no line what so ever till we came into the Greenhouse area.
It is VERY dark in the halls. You have to use a flash for any hope of a halfway decent picture.
Oh, there’s the line….
Even though there is a line, you pretty much keep moving the whole time. The ride is continuously loading, like Haunted Mansion, so the wait isn’t so bad when you are constantly moving.
A quick one with Mommy and Claire….looked how thrilled she is about it.
I have to add……what a dumb idea to make the line go through a greenhouse. Greenhouses are HOT! And even though they had fans blowing in there, it was already warm at 9 AM. I can’t imagine what it’s like in Aug with 105 degree weather.
Skip noticed the guy in front of us was taking pictures of everything and wanted to know why I wasn’t getting as many. LOL! Well my point and shoot takes a few seconds to regenerate after each flash picture…..I would’ve taken more if I could.
This queue is really cool and if you get a chance do go through it, even if you don’t want to ride the ride. There is a separate queue that they will allow you to go through if you ask (and it’s not too busy) that is just a walk through queue. I had thought about going back through there and taking more pictures, but I never did. It also does not go through every room.
This balcony has the “Fab 3” come out and say something, but they were just leaving as we walked in the room and never came back out before we left it.
We kept moving and I kept snapping as much as I could.
You can’t see this well, but this is the portrait of the Fat Lady.
At one point in the line you are stopped and they wait a few minutes then let you through. They switch you over to a different queue, which I thought was weird. And the single rider line switches too and a 3rd queue is there for child swap people.
Soon enough we were boarding our vehicle and taking off immediately.
I have heard all sorts of things about this ride, but the number one thing was it’s a must do…and it is. It is super cool. I had heard it was a bit scary and intense, so we had Claire watch youtube videos of it so she knew what it would be like…and she almost backed out that day, but we wouldn’t let her. There is a part where the dragon blows smoke right in your face, and it was directly into Claire’s face…and I thought …..”Oh Lord, don’t make her scared”. But Skip reached his hand out and said “hey dude” to the Dragon and she thought that was really funny.
The vehicle is designed so that you really can’t see much of the person next to you, but you can reach over and hold hands….which is what I did for Claire…and she held a firm grip the whole time, but I could hear her laughing as well. You do go up and down and tilt back pretty far, but never upside down. It’s really hard to explain, but it was really cool. It goes from prop type scenes to movie screens as well. I heard many people are afraid of the Spiders area, and that was nothing to be fearful of. The spiders look extremely fake, even Claire said that. The scariest part is when the Dementors keep popping up at you. Claire said afterwards that she didn’t like that part and closed her eyes through it.
All in all we really liked the ride, but I would not wait over an hour for it. But my limit is usually 50 minutes tops anyways. I do wish/hope Disney gets some sort of ride like this in the future.
We exited and made our way to the lockers, which is a total madhouse of a project. And to get your stuff out of the locker you have to go the computer kiosk again and scan your finger. You are dumped into Filches and that place is just too small for the amount of people coming through.
We hopped over to the line for Flight of the Hippogriff. This line was about 10- 20 minutes or so as well.
You can see a peak of Buckbeak through the trees.
That was another fun little ride. Similar to Barnstormer, but has more kick to it. Actually it was pretty darn fast.
We made our way back to Hogsmeade and used the bathrooms once again. Again, Claire was just curious about Myrtle and why she kept talking the whole time we were in there.
We decided it was time to try some butterbeer. I was told to go into the HogsHead to get it. The lines are shorter and you can use your AAA card and get 10% off. We went in via the Three Broomsticks and asked a TM where it was exactly and she directed us to our right.
I asked Claire if she wanted to share and she said no way. I asked again…in case she didn’t like it, but she was convinced she wanted her own. Looking back, I should’ve just went with my gut and got 1 to share, we could always come back for more. Skip decided he wanted one too, even though he had no clue what we were ordering. We ordered 3 frozen
The verdict………not so great. Skip immediately said yuck. I don’t think it was yuck, but it wasn’t fantastic. Claire said it was the best thing ever….then about 5 minutes later she said she really didn’t like it anymore and didn’t want it. It was just ok to me. Having one was good enough for me and nothing I would rush back to get again.
fantastic pictures - I am so glad to find your trip report!
We were in Universal not long before you (March 8-10) for the first time. I have a so-so camera so on a couple of days I just went in with my cell phone camera and thought I would enjoy the parks without compulsively taking pictures. I did enjoy it, but I miss having lots of shots and I am unhappy with the quality of the ones I have I am taking a photography class right now and plan to buy a new camera when I am done but the experience is really making me look at other's pictures through new eyes. You have so many incredible photos I am thrilled! You really are a wonderful photographer.
We found there was a lot of walking too compared to WDW- our feet were tired at the end of each day and we stayed at LRP and caught the boat most trips.
I can't wait for more updates, I like getting your thoughts on everything, especially since my heart still belongs to Disney, as well . I do have to disagree with you on the butterbeer though - all three of us gave the frozen 2 thumbs up!
fantastic pictures - I am so glad to find your trip report!
We were in Universal not long before you (March 8-10) for the first time. I have a so-so camera so on a couple of days I just went in with my cell phone camera and thought I would enjoy the parks without compulsively taking pictures. I did enjoy it, but I miss having lots of shots and I am unhappy with the quality of the ones I have I am taking a photography class right now and plan to buy a new camera when I am done but the experience is really making me look at other's pictures through new eyes. You have so many incredible photos I am thrilled! You really are a wonderful photographer.
We found there was a lot of walking too compared to WDW- our feet were tired at the end of each day and we stayed at LRP and caught the boat most trips.
I can't wait for more updates, I like getting your thoughts on everything, especially since my heart still belongs to Disney, as well . I do have to disagree with you on the butterbeer though - all three of us gave the frozen 2 thumbs up!
Are you doing a TR? If so let me know. I would love to follow it.
It was a lot of walking. I don't think the parks are bigger, but just the way it's laid out...you can't cut across those ponds to get to the other side.
So happy you are taking a class. I have taken a few several years ago, and I would love to take some more in the future. Our art museum used to offer them, but they haven't for a few years now. It was a nice time to get away once a week and have fun too.
I know, so many people loved butterbeer, I thought for sure I would too. But I'll let you in on a secret...I tried the cold verson the next day and I liked that much better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
The queue for the Forbidden Journey looks amazing. I'm still not sure that ride is for me though.
it is really neat. The ride isn't really super thrilling, like a roller coster....but a lot of movements. It's so hard to explain.
We headed out in search of a smoking area. Just a heads up for those who do smoke, there is not any smoking areas in WWoHP. There is one right outside the gates in the Lost Continent though. I tried to take a few more pictures as we headed that way, which was tricky to do with a cup of butterbeer in my hand.
Into the Lost Continent and directly to your right is a little cove for the smokers.
Claire sat and drank her Butterbeer, this is when she told us she didn’t care for it anymore.
We found out then that Skip has spilled the foam from his butterbeer all over the backsack. How he did this, I have no clue, but it was really foamy and gross. I had a few napkins and tried to clean it up the best I could and it appeared it hadn’t gotten on anything IN the backsack.
We just sat and relaxed a bit…well they sat, I kept taking pictures and sipping on my butterbeer.
Skip and I split Claire’s butterbeer into our glasses and went off towards Seuss Landing before Claire exploded. This was all she could talk about.
As you can see, I still kept taking pictures in route to Seussland.
You can see Claire off to the side of the picture. Yep, she was on a mission and wasn’t going to wait around for my picture taking.
A look across the lake.
And now we enter the world of Dr. Seuss.
This place is so colorful! I loved looking everywhere here.
We stopped for a ride on the The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride! This has 2 tracks, and one of the tips I had been given was to ride both tracks because each were a little different. Only one track was running at this time, so we got in line. I took a picture of the wait time, but it didn’t come out. Perhaps they were changing the time when I did it. I think the wait was about 10 minutes. This area was much calmer and quieter than the WWoHP was.
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sounds like a great morning so far.
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I am taking a photography class right now and plan to buy a new camera when I am done but the experience is really making me look at other's pictures through new eyes. You have so many incredible photos I am thrilled! You really are a wonderful photographer. 
Guess where we were headed??
I'm still not sure that ride is for me though. 
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