Spur of the moment Universal trip day 2

Sunday (May 4) Yes I know we missed Star Wars day at DHS, but we had a plan.  We got up early and took the boat back over from Portofino to IOA.  We were early enough to be about 6 people from the gate (7am).  However, I forgot about the entrance to the left so as the gates opened, I watched a mass of people surge in from the left.  No matter, we got in and headed to Hagrid's.  At that point the line was maybe 15 minutes and most of that was walking through the queue.  I have to say I love this queue because of all the detail.  I love this ride because of the ride itself and the story along with it.  This is my second favorite after...VelociCoaster which we rode next.  After that, back to Forbidden Journey.  The audio was oddly out of synch with the visuals which was somewhat distracting, but it's still an enjoyable ride.  As we were walking over to Spider-Man, it started to rain and unfortunately Spider-Man was shut down.  The rain was getting heavier so we headed out of the park to change hotels.  We took the boat back to Portofino and checked out.

Our next destination was to the Helios Grand.  We splurged a little and got a park view.  Really worth it.  After drying off, our plan was to go to Universal Studios.  We waited some time for a bus that turned out to be a Mears bus.  Seems like they're still working out the kinks on bus transport.  Nevertheless we made it to the parking area and walked over to the US entry.  We headed straight to Finnegans for a late lunch.  Next, we headed into Diagon Alley for the Escape from Gringotts.  We still had the express pass from Portofino so lines were not an issue.  After Gringotts we toured around Diagon Alley a bit before heading over to Men In Black.  In the summer this is the best place to go as it always seems like the coldest attraction in the parks.  Left there and headed around the lake to the Revenge of the Mummy.  By now we were getting pretty tired.  I know it doesn't seem like we did much, but after working the day before, a relatively late night and an early morning, we were due for a coffee.  We wanted to do the Bourne Experience (we've never done it) but we would have had to wait 35 minutes for the next show, so we opted to leave.  We ducked into a couple of shops on the way out again to a Mears bus back to Helios.  All the restaurants at Helios were full and even the bar was reservation only so we got room service and watched the Epic park from our room view.

I will say I think Universal should build a monorail from Epic to City Walk, so that's a free suggestion.  And I'm sure it would be a cheap build.

Next day was our Epic day.  To be continued.