Day 57 & 58: Universal & EPCOT

March 23rd and 24th

Day 57: Universal with Aunt Steph

On Day 57, Aunt Stephanie and I got up bright and early to make it to Universal Studios right at opening. Luckily for us, it was a bit of a drizzly, overcast day, so not only did we get there before the crowds, but the crowds never really showed up. We started over at Islands of Adventure, and after looking through Seuss Landing, which Aunt Steph loved dearly, we made our way back to Hogsmeade! It was her first time there, so it was wonderful to see her reaction. We managed to get on every single major ride there, and I got hot butterbeer. 

Then we took the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley and went on the new ride there, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. It's a fantastic ride and I'm so very excited for everyone else to go on it! While we were in Diagon Alley, we wandered through a few shops, including Florean Forescue's Ice-Cream Parlour! This was my second time in the shop, but I don't believe I got anything this time around, as I was waiting for my second butterbeer. Stephanie got the pistachio though, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Other than the two parts of the Wizarding World, we managed to go on every single major ride in both parks because the lines were so short! We went on Disaster, Rockit, the Dueling Dragons (three times, once in the front!), Escape from Gringotts, Forbidden Journey, the Incredible Hulk (twice), Men in Black, and E.T.
We were very productive.
We also went to Cowfish for lunch, and their housemade veggie burger was absolutely amazing. They serve a mix of sushi and burgers, so the whole place is a mashup of the two cuisines and their standard restaurant styles. The best part was in the bathroom, where they were playing a learn-a-language type CD. First you would hear a sample sentence in proper English, like "I am currently in an unfortunate financial situation." Then you would hear it in Japanese, which according to Google Translate is "Watashi wa fukōna zaisei jōkyō de, genzai gozen." Then you would hear it in a third dialect, which would sound something like "I'm poorer than a churchmouse rattlesnake on a hot summer's day," or something similar that made no sense to me. It was a great addition to the theme of the restaurant, and the food really was spectacular. Somewhere in the day we also sat and watched the parade that goes through Universal, and we had a front row view of the Despicable Me dancers.

We had walked approximately 25,000 steps when we decided to head out so we could go pick up my grandparents at the airport. Of course, as soon as we got to the parking garage, we could not find our car. We deduced that we had parked in approximately the 10th to 15th spot of the third row of the orange section, in the spot directly to the left of a pillar, but we were positive it was on the fourth floor. When we had wandered every aisle of the fourth floor, we went down to the third, then the second, then the first. We had finally decided to go up in the elevator to find a parking person who might be able to help us when Aunt Steph suggested that we check the fifth floor, just to be sure, even though we knew we didn't park on the fifth floor. So naturally we found our car there. Directly next to Pillar 555.

And that's how we took almost 29,000 steps in one day.

Then we picked Grammy & Pa up and went to Panera at 9:45 and everything was delicious.

Day 58: EPCOT

Because Aunt Steph and I had done so much the day before and Grammy & Pa had been traveling, we had a slower morning on Day 58. They picked me up from my apartment at 11 and we went to EPCOT to spend the day listening to the drums in Japan and wandering the World Showcase.

We started off at Starbucks, naturally, before going to Turtle Talk. Then we made our way over to the Showcase, Canada first. We watched O, Canada! and searched for hidden Mickeys, watched this guy climb a stack of chairs and ate sandwiches and parfaits in Paris,

watched the drum performance in Japan and the choir Voices of Liberty in America, got our favorite caramel desserts in Germany, pressed a penny in Norway, and watched the fireworks in Mexico.

After a successful and eventful day in EPCOT, we dropped Grammy & Pa at their hotel before Aunt Steph and I took off for the airport to pick up Caitlin, and then go to sleep, because the next day we were heading tooooooo.... Magic Kingdom!

.....................

Follow along on my journey!

• Subscribe to this blog via email through the widget on the right.
• Find me on Instagram!
• Follow the hashtag #suiteheartsix on Instagram to see what my roommates are up to as well