Labor Day 2021

[djmeredith]

Many people can only travel on school holidays, so I thought I would do a brief trip report for our trip over Labor Day weekend. We arrived at Hard Rock at 8:30 Sat morning. Quickly checked in, changed clothes, and headed to the parks. We were in the parks by 9:30. I was shocked at how much we were able to get done with Express Pass our first day.

We did Minions walk on. Rip Ride Rock It twice in a row pretty much walk on. Got a Hagrid's VQ reservation (which I ended up having to push back several times.) Then did Shrek walk on, Fallon walk on, Mummy would’ve been about a 5-10 min wait but it was down when we got in line so we ended up waiting about 30 minutes. Kids played arcade games for 44 mins (with their own money, what a waste. Although some nice lady have them a bunch of tokens). Fast and Furious walk on.

We waited 15-20 mins for Hogwarts Express and arrived 15 mins early for Hagrid VQ. We LOVED Hagrid’s! Stopped at Burger Digs for lunch and that was literally the longest wait of the day (besides when Mummy was down). Spiderman was about 15-20 mins wait. Then got in line for Hulk which would’ve been about 10 mins, but it went down right after we got in line so we left the line. Did Storm since there was no wait. Left IOA right at 5:00 as the crowds were streaming in from US because it closed at 5:00 for HHN.

 

[djmeredith]

Sunday we arrived in US about 8:30. Did Gringott's walk on and planned to take Hogwarts Express over to IOA for Velocicoaster right after opening since it doesn't have EP yet. We were in line For HE about 15 minutes before it opened and on one of the first trains. Unfortunately, Velocicoaster was down so we did Forbidden Journey and enjoyed some Butter Beer (we all preferred the frozen). We noticed VC was running so we quickly headed that way. It was up to a 40 min wait when we entered the queue. It probably took 30-35 minutes. Worth. Every. Minute. It was the best coaster I have ever ridden (caveat: I haven't been to Cedar Point yet). So smooth with surprising twists/turns.

Stopped at Pizza Praetoria as it opened which was a good idea since the line built quickly. Next we headed to Kong. Waited about 20 mins and were next in line to load when they unloaded the people they had just loaded. We waited about 10 more minutes and they said it was going to be longer so we left. The kids rode Dr. Doom's Free Fall twice in a row as walk on. We rode Hulk with only about 5-10 min wait. By this point we were tired so we went back to the room for a rest.

 

[djmeredith]

After we rested we decided to put on our swim clothes and do the water rides at IOA. Frist, we stopped for dinner at the Kitchen Sink at HRH. It was freezing cold in the restaurant so we ate outside. Our servicer, Jon, was great. None of us were very hungry so the boys ordered chicken tender kids meals and I got the caesar salad. The salad was really good, but had too much dressing. I would ask for it on the side next time. Clouds moved in while we were eating and I was exhausted so I talked to kids into waiting on the water rides. It was good to have an early night since we were headed to Volcano Bay on Monday.

Monday was Labor Day and we caught the first bus to Volcano Bay right at 8:00 a.m. for early opening. We arrived about 8:10 and were the third family in line. Around 8:30 they took us through security screening and walked us up to the entrance. Things got a little chaotic here because we weren't sure which turnstiles would open. It got crowded very quickly. We were one of the first few families through the gates. My nephew found a tip online about grabbing a spot under one of the fied canopies that provided all day shade. So we headed to the left to find the spot he had scoped out the night before. We chose the small area where Kala and Tai Nui slides end. It turned out to be the perfect spot for us, shaded and quiet.

We dropped our stuff, put on sunscreen and quickly made our way to Krakatau. It was a walk on when we got there. It was a lot of fun so we decided to do it again since there wasn't much of a line yet. We waited about 10 minutes the second time. We asked one of the workers where we should head next and she suggested Honu, one of the multi-passenger raft rides, because she said it is usually the second longest wait times later in the day. There was about a 10 minute wait and we all thought it was fun. The boys wanted to do the main big drop slide, Ko'okiri.

I thought I was going to die climbing all those stairs! I was not thrilled to do the slide because I do not love the straight down slides, but I couldn't say no when they said they wanted me to do it with them. Note to self: do NOT scream as you drop or you will get the full waterboarding experience. I felt like I was drowning all the way down. That was the end of the big slides for me. The boys immediately went back up to try the serpentine drop slides.

After they rode those with very little wait we took a break and got a snack. We headed to the Maku round raft slide after out break. This might have been the longest line of the day. It was about 15-20 minutes. Then the boys wanted to try the Fearless River which is a fast moving version of a lazy river. They LOVED it! It was their favorite attraction. I couldn't get them out. I got out after a couple of trips around and waited for them to go around a couple more times.

After I finally dragged them out, we decided to get some lunch. The park wasn't very crowded and there was no wait to order at Bambu. The food was pretty good, or maybe I was just starving. I took another break while the boys went to do the serpentine body slides again. We heard the wave alert so we went in the wave pool. We hit the lazy river next which was a lot of fun. Definitely the best lazy river I have ever done. I took another break while the kids did the slides and the rivers. We finally called it a day around 4:00.

We headed back to the room for a short rest before we went to the IOA water rides.

 

[djmeredith]

We rested for a little while and started discussing our strategy for returning to the parks. Around 5:00, I happened to look at the app and realized that the parks early closing hours started that day (Labor Day). US was closing at 5:00 and IOA at 7:00. I jumped up and told the kids to hurry up we had to get going if we wanted to get everything done at IOA that we planned. I did remember seeing the early closing before the trip, but had completely forgotten during the hustle and bustle of our trip. I still can't believe they didn't keep the longer hours for the holiday Monday since there were still lots of people there that night. I saw at least 4 other families after we got to IOA who also did not realize it closed early.

We got to the park and headed for Popeye's. I figured we might as well get the worst one out of the way, lol. We rented a big locker because I brought a dry towel and all of our stuff was in one big bag. It was a walk on and promptly got drenched as expected. The 15 year old and I could have done without the water rides, but it was fun seeing the 13 year old have fun on them. We left our stuff in the locker and went straight to Dudley Do Right. There was a very short wait in the EP line and we were quickly plunging down getting doused with more water. The boys went to get our stuff out of the locker while I waited in line to claim our photo. Note to self: next time bring at least 2 dry towels. The boys used it first and it was soaking wet and useless by the time I got to use it.

Our plan was to finish up everything we still wanted to do at IOA and spend the next morning at US before our flight. I really wanted to do Kong since it wasn't open last time we were there. As we got in the EP line, one of the boys said "I think the standby line is shorter." That honestly may have been true. We waited about 15 minutes, which wasn't bad. However, we were wet and the a/c was blasting so it was a pretty chilly wait.

I thought the ride was ok. Kong himself was really awesome though! One of the boys said "Universal's animatronics blows Disney away." After finishing that, we checked the wait time for Velocicoaster and it was only a 30 min wait so we headed there as it got dark. Our bad luck with delays struck again about half way through the line. We waited for about 15 mins without moving. Still being wet, it was an uncomfortable wait. Luckily, it did start up again and we got the chance to ride at night. A whole new awesome experience at night. The park was closed when we got off but we did hit a couple shops on the way out. We had placed a mobile order at Voodoo Donuts earlier from the room so we decided to have dinner at Citywalk before picking them up.

The boys wanted to hit the big store in CW first. After that we walked over to Red Oven Pizza. It was starting to rain so I thought their covered patio would be a good place to eat. There were several empty tables that had not been cleared and there appeared to be almost no one ordering inside. A worker stopped me at the patio entrance and said it would be 20 mins for a table because they didn't have anybody to bus the tables. I asked about mobile ordering and he said sure I can do that. I placed an order and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Literally about 35 minutes later our one cheese pizza was ready. I had grabbed a table by Cold Stone while I was waiting. So at least we were out of the rain. One of the boys went upstairs and got Moe's and brought it down. It also took him about 30 mins to get his food. The crowds weren't big so I guess it was just lack of staffing.

It did not rain very long and had stopped by the time we finished eating. We grabbed our donuts and headed back to the room to crash.