Clare and Matthew ran to get on the Escape From Gringotts Ride whilst I wandered round different areas taking various photos. It was pretty quiet so I was able to take some good photos of the shops and statues and other ornaments. I was so impressed at how well it had all been done and the attention to detail. Near the entrance there is a metal bridge where a tube train runs over. It has all the screeching sounds and juddering wheels of a real London Tube train. The dragon on top of the Gringotts Bank is cool too. Every so often it breathes fire, and my goodness you can feel the heat from its fiery breathe...
Matthew and Clare emerged from the ride about 50 minutes later clutching two Express passes as the ride had broken down twice. They decided to ride it again a bit later and see if the gremlins could be ironed out. Matthew had his wand and so we want round the various areas; Diagon Alley, Carkitt Market and Knockturn Alley to find the spell areas. There was a particularly good one in Knockturn Alley were you can make a skeleton dance. You say the spell then move your arms and legs and the skeleton copies your movements. After a while he gets tired, gives you a wave and goes back to being still. Very clever and a lot of fun.
Clare watched some street performers do a couple of tales from The Tales Of Beedle The Bard whilst Matthew and I went into the shops. Matthew tried a Butterbeer ice cream, which we all had a try of and thought was tasty. Clare bought an Elixir and some Gillywater (basically a green pineapple flavouring for spring water) which she enjoyed.
We were pretty much done at this point - we had been in this section of the park for nearly three hours and I was amazed at how big it was and how much to do there had been. Admittedly some of it was queuing for the Escape From Gringotts ride, but nevertheless, hats off to Universal for making such a great area.
The NASCAR Sports Grille was somewhere I had wanted to eat, but had never quite got to. It is just outside the entrance to Universal Studios in the CityWalk area. What focused the mind was that it was closing down at the end of October 2014 - so we only had a few days before I wouldn't be able to eat there ever again! Inside it has huge screens showing all sorts of sports, as well as lots of NASCAR memorabilia. I'm a bit of a NASCAR fan. I know it's driving in circles - a LOT of driving in circles - but it's quite fun and the American commentary is usually entertaining. Anyway, we ordered three starters to share: beef sliders (like mini burgers essentially), Calamari Fingers and the Chicken & Waffler Basket (chicken nuggets in a maple syrup batter). When it arrived it was enough to feed an army! The slides and chicken had come with fries and there was mountains of them! We finished off most of it and were absolutely stuffed! And these were Starters! Anyway, the server seemed to be all to aware of their portion sizes so wasn't surprised when we said we were done. We wouldn't normally have been able to splash out in a restaurant outside of Disney (where we are basically getting our food for free as we are on a Dining Plan), but my Mum & Dad paid - so a big thank you to them...
We cam back to the hotel after that for a quick rest, then decided to head out to Animal Kingdom so Matthew and Clare could finish their Wilderness Explorers badges. We got into the park quickly and headed over to the Asia section where all the remaining badges could be earnt. Then it was a case of going to the 'club hut' to get the 'completion' badge. This bit was quite fun - the Castmember on the hut asked Matthew's name, said he'd done very well, then walked out into the middle of the walkway and asked for everyone's attention - he had a special announcement. He then declared that Matthew had finished his badge collecting and could he have a round of applause. Everyone clapped and Matthew looked slightly embarrassed by the whole thing - but it was good fun!
Clare also rode Everest - a pretty scary looking coaster which Matthew and I would have nothing to do with!
Then it was back to the hotel for some swimming and lazing by the pool (this time the Paddock Pool), before Jeopardy, Wheel Of Fortune and bedtime!
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