Saratoga Springs and Universal Studios

The only thrill rides I got close to were the two Harry Potter attractions, which had no noticeable metal detectors, and Men in Black, also no metal detectors. Can't speak to anything with inversions.

Well! According to last night's weather forecast, today and tomorrow were supposed to be dry but Saturday looked like a washout. Today we woke up to thunder and a downpour, and the forecast now says today has a 50-60% chance of rain through evening. So, now today is DisneyQuest and whatever else suits our fancy and Friday and Saturday we'll return to Universal and hope the forecast doesn't change yet again.

We had planned to get lunch at the food trucks, but they don't open till 3:00, so we're getting sandwiches at Bongo's instead. Cuban for hubby, pork for me. And the rain has started pouring down, and these umbrellas are not entirely leakproof.

Photos...

The roasted pork sandwich with fries and, in the background, flan! Good flan, good sandwich, average fries. Also in the background of the first photo is hubby's mango smoothie, which barely tasted of mango. Hubby got his Cuban with fried sweet plantains, wish I'd done the same.

This morning, when we cancelled Universal due to the weather, I made an ADR at Paradiso 37. Then when we discovered the food trucks don't open till three we decided to cancel the ADR. Wasn't sure how that would work since it was less than 24 hours before the ADR - but I couldn't have cancelled earlier since I'd only just made the thing. Fortunately the CM who took my call didn't charge us, so all is well and we get to try the food trucks after all. Now we're doing DisneyQuest!

1. Animation Academy, learn to draw Disney characters just like at DHS. 2. A few of the numerous video games. 3. A huge pinball game where your motion on your ride "vehicle" controls your ball on the screen.

This used to be a VR attraction called Ride the Comics, but all that's left are the ride platforms, the VR controllers are gone and the ride is no more. I never did it since I can't handle most VR.

Edited to add that those ride platforms are quite large. Two are on the fourth floor and the other two are on the fifth, and each vehicle held something like six to eight people.

Does anyone know anything about scooter rentals at the Universal parks? Hubby doesn't think he'll be able to handle walking that much tomorrow.

Cyberspace Mountain, WDW's original VR design-your-own-coaster attraction. I watched while hubby rode.

Edited to add that the top photo shows the console where you design your coaster, the second shows the monitors outside the room holding the ride vehicle, and the third shows the ride vehicle banking a steep turn. In addition to turning sideways, it also spins forward to simulate inversions. I mean, as in you can actually go head over heels over and over. Not for the faint of heart or those prone to queasiness

The first photo is the VR Jungle Cruise, the second and third are the Pirates of the Caribbean VR ride. Both are 3D. The first two photos are of other people riding. The Pirates ride is one of my favorites in all of WDW. Definitely in my top 10. Probably my top 5. The goal is to wreck other ships, get their treasure, and then keep the ghost pirate from stealing it away from you. Tons of fun. And it's the only VR attraction I can handle.

More photos of the VR Jungle Cruise, which is not 3D as I previously said. Sorry, but I can't do it and didn't notice when I took the photo. The raft rests on a huge inflatable pillow that creates motion to go with the on-screen action, and you paddle to move the raft around the water.

1. Aladdin's Magic Carpets VR ride, in which you pilot a magic carpet to gather treasure. 2. PoTc.

DisneyQuest's two CS restaurants, on the fourth and fifth floors, overlook this central area of the building, which encompasses the third through fifth floors. And a shot of the comfortable chairs in the fourth-floor restaurant. We sat here for a good long while with soft drinks while hubby rested his ankle.

We weren't very hungry after our rather filling lunch, so we shared a corn dog and waffle fries from the Fantasy Fare food truck. These were the best waffle fries I've ever had, perfectly crispy and subtly seasoned. The corn dog was also nice and crispy and tasted very good. Below that are photos of the trucks I took earlier in the day before they opened.

Hubby with his new wheels. Starting at Islands of Adventure today.

Stopped in Jurassic Park.

Walked through Hogwarts, then caught the Hogwarts express to Diagon Alley.

Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron again. Fisherman's pie for hubby, banger sandwich for me, and butterbeer, of course.

So many people have never visited DisneyQuest, so I wanted to include a lot of photos to show everyone what it's like. This isn't everything, either. I have video of another ride that I'll post from home, and there are a few more attractions I have no photos of at all.

Dan's ankle isn't getting any better, so he's going to hit one of those walk-in clinics later today. The ECV is really helping. Also helping him understand what a PITA getting around in a scooter is.

Scenes from the stuffed animal shop. The orange cat is Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, and the white owl is Harry's Hedwig.

Knockturn Alley is kind of scary. Keep the little ones far away.

Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, from book #5.

LOL, hubby had to transfer to a standard wheelchair to get through the Cat in the Hat queue, and it said "CAT" on the back. We got a kick out of that.

Here comes the Hogwarts Express! This is by far my favorite attraction at Universal. We've ridden each way at least four times so far. Also a corridor scene, which mostly appear in silhouette. (I already posted a couple of window photos above.) There's a dementor on the train! But Harry chases it off with his patronus and then comes along himself to make sure it's gone.

We interrupt this real-time trip report to post an update on hubby's ankle.

It's officially a sprain. He's leaving the walk-in clinic with an Ace bandage wrapped around his ankle, crutches, and mild pain medication. If the weather holds out and we visit Universal tomorrow, he will once again be using a scooter.

While he was at the clinic, I waited in our rooms to see what JMed and her friends wanted to do this evening. After some consideration and in spite of their fatigue (they were up and out at something like 3:00 am), they decided to go to the Poly for Lapu Lapus. I headed to the bus stop and waited.......Finally a MK bus came by, but I was still on it when JMed and crew were done with their drinks and desperate to crash back in their room. So no meet-up after all. But I completely understand, especially since they want to get up early for their park-hopping marathon Saturday. So once I reached MK I headed right back to SSR, with a stop at the counter service place for a bottle of hard cider. By damn, I was having a drink one way or the other!

Today I'm Universaling alone. Hubby decided to rest his ankle. So I'm following Harry Potter's path through the wizarding world as best I can, trying to do things in the order in which he did them with a few minor glitches; for example, Harry entered Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron, but I had to do it in reverse order.