Orlando 2019 - Here comes the sun...and the rain!

Woo Hoo!
Our first full day!

We had a plan to get up in time for the park opening.... but we are west coasters in Florida, we overslept. We still made it and started our fun at Universal Studios Park.

Universal Studios here we come!!!!

Our young man has been looking forward to riding Minion Mayhem for well over a year, so we did that first... And it was fun.
Next up Race through NY with Jimmy Fallon. Also fun.

Jimmy Fallon ride! 

So here is a note on the majority of the rides we rode at the park today - Lots of motion simulators. We rode 11 rides today and  5 of them were not heavily focused on large scene motion simulator type technology.
I will say they use the tech very well and most screens are amazing. The transition between screens and other elements is impressive.
But its a lot of screens. and a couple of them are downright jerky to ride. So I have mixed feelings on this.

Now that I have said my piece... we rode everything in the Studios we wanted and then caught the train to Islands of Adventure.

Train to the other park - Soo fun. 

Once in the other park, we decided to check out the new Hagrid roller coaster. It has had insanely long lines since opening and sadly our front-of-the-line passes (came with the room too) didn't work on this one ride. One of the workers implied to us that we should get in line for the ride. That it wouldn't be a shorter wait than it was now. So despite the 120 minute wait time listed, we got in line. And one hour later we got off the ride! It was great.
This coaster was one of the smoothest coasters. We all really enjoyed the ride and are so happy we didn't have to wait longer for it. Several of us would have easily ridden a second or third time, but that wait kind of takes that idea off the table, so much to do.

After our great ride, we decided it was time to head back to the room. Our timing was perfect. Just as we got to the boat dock the rain started to fall. We got a little bit wet getting from the boat to our room, but really it wasn't bad.

Just a little rain shower

Our evening plans - Disney Springs.
We needed to activate some annual passes and planned to eat dinner at a personal favorite, Earl of Sandwich.
But mother nature had other plans.
Once we parked and started walking to Guest Services, it once again began to rain. We ran for it and took shelter while we got the passes all set. Then we had some decisions to make... Earl of Sandwich is at the other end of Disney Springs... and without any raincoats or umbrellas, getting from here to there without getting soaked through, wasn't going to happen. So we started looking to see what was closer to guest services.... we settled on the new Wolfgang Puck restaurant. And with a few mad dashes from covered awning to store overhang, we made it to the restaurant. We were not dry, but we were not soaked through either, and it didn't seem to phase the hostess, so we were seated.
The menu had lots of options for our picky party and we were happy to not be outside - the heavy rain continued.
Leaning into the full table service meal we ordered appetizers and entrees and settled in. The appetizers were delicious and then before our meals came out the lights started to flicker... and the power went out.

The wait staff were relaxed and asked that we give them a little time to see what the kitchen can still do and to see if the power comes back.
After a few more minutes two of our four entrees turned up, we were told they wouldn't be able to prepare the other two - they were very apologetic and brought us some focaccia bread to help.
By candlelight, we shared the entrees - which were very tasty.

dining by candlelight

After eating we settled up - they still had one of those old school credit card imprint things.
Not all of Disney Springs was dark and the rain had let up, so we ventured over to a family favorite - Goofy's Candy Company for a sweet treat to take back to the room.