Saratoga Springs and Universal Studios

Now, to sum things up.

This was a trip with complications. The weather was not cooperative; not only did it rain frequently, but the forecast changed at a moment's notice, so we went to bed Wednesday night expecting a clear day Thursday and woke up to thunderstorms. Work killed one whole day for me and part of a second day. And of course, hubby's sprain really messed things up.

We'd originally planned three days at Universal and four days of DTD, DisneyQuest, and waterparks. We did get DisneyQuest in, but sunny days had to be reserved for Universal so we never visited a waterpark. Thanks to hubby's sprain, we spent less time at DTD than we would've liked, and he also missed the third park day.

We made two ADRs ahead of time, Kona Cafe for arrival night and Whispering Canyon for breakfast Saturday, with plans to make moreADRs after we arrived and figured out how our weather-dependent schedule would go. Since the weather forecast kept changing, Whispering Canyon got rescheduled a couple of times and then cancelled. We loved Kona and also found time for Sanaa, one of our favorites, and Boatwrights, since it was accessible via the Disney boats. Good food all around. We also managed one visit to Earl of Sandwich and the DTD food trucks and got an awesome lobster sandwich at SSR's counter-service restaurant. As for Universal, we ended up eating at the Leaky Cauldron a lot and enjoyed every meal there. I also recommend Citywalk's Hot Dog Hall of Fame; if you like sausages on buns you can't go wrong there. We also invested in Universal's refillable soda mug. There's more than one; we got the one that costs more but gives you unlimited access to refills at the Coke Freestyle stations. Extra days cost an additional $6 but are worth it. We shared at first, but even when I was there alone, I got my money's worth.

I'm not a huge fan of the Universal parks. They're heavy on thrill rides with not much else for adults to do, and they clearly don't care about that. And of course, it's not Disney on so many levels. If it weren't for Potterville I might never go back. But Potterville is amazing! And Diagon Alley is even better than the original section! Seriously, Universal ought to retheme whatever they can, rip out and replace everything else, and make the whole thing Harry Potter. Even without such a major overhaul, I'll go back for a day from time to time to ride the Hogwarts Express and eat some toad in the hole.

Final note: Alicemouse, Fromtier Airlines no longer flies out of Harrisburg; they pulled out right after we got home. Learned this from the bus driver who took us back to long-term parking. You can still take Allegiant to Sanford, but no Magical Express from that airport.

Thanks, folks. We've got Southwest flying out of Baltimore closer than either of those airports, can usually get a good fare there. Harrisburg's main attraction is being less than an hour away.