Universal Studios, Orlando. The home of Harry Potter world!

The plan for our 6th day, a day at the exciting Universal Studios, was simple enough. We had found the perfect way to do theme parks like Universal, Orlando, but knowledge cannot overcome fate, and this day fate made our last day like our first.

See, the best way to do a theme park is in 2 parts, unless you’re young or on meth. Arrive early morning, at the rope drop. That gives you about 2 hours where the crowds aren’t bad. Then hit up a few of the least crowded rides until about 1, then head back to the hotel. Rest. Rehydrate. Put your feet up. Head back about 4. That’ll give you a good 8 hours with lesser crowds.

This is especially important on weekends where a lot of locals visit the theme parks.

We, however, did not do that, despite it being a Saturday. Worse, the day began with a panic.

You know that feeling that you forgot something? I went to bed with that feeling. At 6am, I realized what that was. I’d forgotten to buy tickets for the Universal Park!

So I lept out of bed in a cold sweat and quickly downloaded tickets. Luckily, it was an easy process. By 6:15, I had the tickets and a cup of coffee.

However, due to exhaustion, we didn’t leave the Disney World Resort until 9:05. We were already 5 min past the rope drop. Traffic wasn’t light, either, cuz it never is when we have to get someplace fast. We arrived at 9:45. Not bad, but the crowds were gathering.

Getting parked in the VAST parking lot took a bit more time, as did walking towards the gate. At Universal Orlando, the gate is past what they call the City Walk, a seemingly never-ending collection of restaurants, snack stands, and souvenir shops.

Oh, and then we had to stop for a bathroom break because no one went before we left.

It was like we were traveling rookies!

Then, as we reached the gate, The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World realized that she’d forgotten her phone in the washroom!

I didn’t see her run off, but The Boyz did. One minute she was there, and when I looked behind me, she was gone. Like Tinkerbell.

When I heard why I felt bad for her. I mean, I totally get that sense of sudden panic. Losing her phone would be a pretty big thing. Lots of pictures gone. Loss of her ability to text me things like, ‘where the hell are you?’ or “stop picking your nose in public.”. And worse, at least for The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World, loss of her connection to her friends and family on Facebook.

Her epic quest to recover the phone went like this. “I wouldn’t call it running. I didn’t run back to get my phone. It was more like a very fast shuffle. I wasn’t wearing my sports bra.

When I got back to the bathroom, my heart was pounding, and I had a full-on body sweat.  I asked the nearest attendant if anyone had turned in a phone. No one had.

But she stopped doing what she was doing, put her mop and cleaning supplies away, and got out her phone to call my phone.

However, because it was a long-distance call, she couldn’t do it but she stayed with me as I waited in line to check all the stalls, (I couldn’t remember which one I’d left it in.)

Nothing! Arrrrg!!!

Still the attendant didn’t leave me but took me to customer services.  

My phone was there! OMG!

Relief washed over me. I had my phone, again!

I turned around and asked the washroom lady if I could give her a hug. I’m not sure if she said it was ok, but I hugged her anyway. I was kind of emotional and needed to hug her. Then I ran back to join my boys.”

When we saw The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World returning with a smile on her face, walking with a pixie bounce in her step, we knew she’d found her phone.

Universal Studios Orlando. Better late than never.

Seems lady’s washrooms have some sort of lady-things garbage disposer-thing, and this one was all square and stuff, so it made a perfect place to put a phone, so she put it there, then because she thought she was taking too long, rushed too much and raced out of the stall without her phone.

I was just happy she’d found it because a loss like that would kill a day, no matter how much fun you TRY to have.

We entered the park at 10:40, with, as far as I can tell, most of Florida.

We were going to have to do things the hard way, but we were determined to have fun.