We were leaving Planet Hollywood at around 1:15pm ish and we headed over to the other side to use up our snack credits. We went over to Goofy's Candy Company for that! We first made our own Marshmallow and two rice krispy treats. Then we filled in with...
1 sour gummy charageters bag 1 sour worms bag 1 pink cotton candy 2 goofy sour candies 1 marshmallow something or other 2 large chocolate chip cookies 2 large sugar cookies 1 bad character gummies 1 chocolate fudge
We must have used other snack credits along the way of out trip though because I know we used them all. We figured this woudl get us through the rest of the parts of our trip. Our total here was $84.18!
Following along and all caught up so far.. cant wait to read more! Your seating at Planet Hollywood was bad but it looks like the food made up for it..yum!
THen about 2:55pm we were in line for a bus back to All Star Movies.
Now this next part of our trip really had been making me nervous since I found out what we were doing. I knew nothing about Universal and we generally do not take cabs ANYWHERE, EVER! So all of this was probably my biggest headache of the trip planning.
We were on the bus at 3:12pm. At 3:47pm we were at Bell Services having our luggage brought up. At 3:51pm bell services called for a cab. They told us to have a seat and they'd tell us when our cab was here, should only be a couple of minutes. After about ten minutes Cary went to ask about it and they didn't know what happened so they called again. Now, mind you, we were sitting right next to the desk but they apparently were told that our cab was there and they gave it to someone else. HHHmmmm???? So at 4:11pm our van pulls up, loads us in and we're off!
We arrived at Portofino Bay at 4:52pm. He lead us right to the desk and brought out luggage to us. We were the only ones checking in at the time. The desk lady was very nice and very helpful. The bell services people put all our bags on a cart and waited for us to be ready to go to our room. The lady at the desk was very helpful and explained how to get our front of the line passes. Then bell services took us up to room 1460.
Now we had no idea what to expect of the room. All I knew is that the rooms at Universal, particularly this one and Hard Rock, were akin to deluxe cost at Disney. Last time we were at Universal it was just me and Tyler (the kid's dad and grandmother were with us but there was no Skyler or Cary) and we were not impressed at the time. We were thrilled about seeing the Harry Potter stuff but otherwise, not sure how we felt about it. Well we were walked through the first floor to the outdoors and into another corridor to an elevator. He took us up to the third floor and to our room...and WOW! We were super impressed! We have stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and Yacht Club before...and this room blew them away! As you walk in the door tot he right is the fridge, counters with glass glasses. To the left is a HUGE bathroom with a large tub. There was plenty of room on the counter tops, a make up mirror, a phone and a TV. There was an extra shelve in the corner for toiletries. I don;t think we got a picture though.
And this was our view...
WOW! We were in love! We brought everything inside and unpacked. While doing that we discovered we were missing our bag that had all our mugs and laundry in it. It was a Magical Journeys laundry bag that was one of the last pieces we checked before heading to lunch. We had not noticed and when we handed bell services our claim tickets at All Star Movies they obviously did not count how many bags compered to how many tickets they had. Yes, we should have counted but, duh, that's their job right?!?!?! So I called Wendy at Magical Journey's to see how to handle it and she provided me the desk number for All Star Movies to call AMD verify it was there. I was transferred to Bell Services and yep, it was there still. They asked if we wanted to come get it. I told them we were at Universal and I expected them to bring it there for me. They said they'd be there some time that evening and we would have to be there to claim it. I told them we absolutely would not be there waiting on them, we were heading out, and they would drop it at bell services. They did not like that but I told them I was not waiting around for something they needed to correct. I then called downstairs to our bell services and made sure that was ok and they said it was fine and all they needed was our name and they'd take it and bring to our room. They said it happens a lot with transfers from Disney. Then Wendy called me back to make sure all was taken care of and we talked about our Disney experience and she told us to be sure not to miss the Jimmy Fallon ride.
After figuring it all out, we headed downstairs to get our front of the line passes printed out and explore.
This was the center court of our building. The front desk is in the center corner inside and up a level. Our room was to the right. The boat dock is behind where we were standing.
That was just past the front desk. Then there's a hallway to the right.
Just outside were motor bikes.
And the water!
Our room is the third window up...
And just above us and over a couple we found Skye's coach (Ms. Liz, Papa D and her other relatives that came with her)...
Apparently a lot of the other girls (there were not actually many that came really) were at the beach pool but we're not really part of their clique because we do not live where they do so we are not at the same schools or involved in many of the other extracurricular activities they are so we are generally not included, which works just fine for us. We were heading to City Walk to check everything out and grab dinner.
We had a bit of trouble finding where we were going. We wanted to walk over to get a lay of the land but it was very confusing to find the path. We ended up going in a huge circle back to the boat dock.
A water taxi came shortly after we arrived. We were on board at 6:56pm.
The water taxis are not very large but we never had too long of a wait to board.
They let you off at the one dock that is opposite the park gates. There is a lone for each destinations. We walked around and checked everything out. I really wanted to have dinner at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.
Unfortunately, reservations are not the same at Universal as they are at Disney and being that we'd never been here before, we didn't really know what time we would be reserving anyway. So we got to the Chocolate Emporium and it was crazy in there! We decided to check in and wait. At 7:18pm we checked in and were told it was an hour and twenty minute wait. We looked around the store. They had some really fun stuff there. It was super hot out and the place was super crowded inside so we eventually found a spot on a bench outside and sat for a while. A little later it started drizzling.
We decided we did not want to wait any longer and then sit through a meal so we decided on a couple of shakes.
We decided on the Red Velvet ( V ) -
Vanilla ice cream, Red Velvet cupcake, raspberry sauce, rainbow sprinkles, fresh whipped cream, cherry.
And the
Strawberry Cheesecake ( V ) - sour cream ice cream, cheesecake, graham crackers, fresh whipped cream, chocolate dipped strawberry.
These were really good, thick, flavorful milkshakes. They would have been too much for one person but were perfect for two. They have a lot more choices that Planet Hollywood and you get to keep the plastic jars they are served in.
SO while I was disappointed that we didn't get to eat there, the shakes were well worth it! We paid $26.63 for them.
We headed back to the Water Taxi while enjoying our dessert before dinner.
We were on the taxi at 8:13pm and back at Portofino Bay at 8:19pm still hungry. Not being familiar with what was around and needing just normal fast hot food we decided on dinner of take out at Sal's Market Deli. We gave Cary our order and Skye and I went to the room while Cary and Tyler waited for food. One thing we missed here were the refillable mugs at a time like this.
We ordered two items that at least three of us would eat.
We ordered the Meatball Parmagiana - meatballs, house marinara, mozzarella
It was huge and cheesey. Tyler had half and Cary had half. They both really enjoyed it. It normally comes with a side salad tha tSkyler enjoyed and I don't have a picture. It was not a small salad! She loved it.
We also got a large half pepperoni/half sausage pizza.
We all really liked this...I especially liked the sausage. It was plenty for all four of us.
Cary also got a Angry Orchard...and he already knows he likes that!
All in all we had a great meal in our great room. Everything was still hot when they got it to the room. It was made while they waited so it did take about 15 minutes. By the time they got back Skye and I were ready for bed.
June 27, 2017 - Day #7 started at 6:30am. Skyler had plans for the day that I was not super thrilled about. I get that dance is why she was there but today was their class with Universal dancers and afterwards Ms. Liz wanted all the girls to hang with her as a group for a while. They travel every other year. We have never gone before and part of it is for this reason. I spend all this money for a trip and I want to enjoy it. Especially a place like this because it was Skyler's first time here and I was not even going to get to see her enjoy it. So I had a slight problem with the way our morning was going to go but what was I gonna do? So we got up and she dressed in her outfit she was told to wear.
The view of the morning...see how hot it was already with the window...the air conditioning versus the heat outside creating the condensation on the windows. We thought the pattern on the window was cool!
We were out the door at 7:57am. We dropped her off at Ms. Liz's room and headed down to the Water Taxi dock.
We were on a full water taxi at 8:16am heading towards fun! We arrived at the dock at 8:22am. Our plan was to start in Islands of Adventure.
We headed in and followed the line back to the open Hogsmeade. They had it roped off and had park employees line up along the way to keep people going in the correct direction.
We walked through the Port of Entry...and Seuss Landing...
...to the Lost Continent...
and finally arrived at Hogsmeade...
You can see all the pictures and read all about it but you need to see it in person! It is truly amazing!!!
Tyler was not with us yet. He was still showering when we left the room and was going to meet us in Hogsmeade. We weren't sure how the early entry worked so I was texting Tyler along the way. When we arrived at Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey he still wasn't there so Cary and I headed in line knowing we'd ride again. We went in and we waited about 10 minutes walking through the queue...there is so much to look at in there. They did not start using front of the line access at the Harry Potter rides until July 1st and we were gone by then but it would so help!
So as per usual, we did not know what to expect...but it was really cool. At first I was getting a little dizzy with all the flying. They have you sit on your flip flops if you're wearing them and the ride load zone moves quickly. I had a little trouble getting my harness locked...it was a tight squeeze for me on this one. We got off and Tyler was waiting for us. The line was too long to head right back so we moved on.
The three of us walked right on Flight of the Hippogriff...ya, no...three adults should not ride this...very tight fit. Kind of like the Goofy Coaster. It was fun but I could do without it in the future. Then we headed towards the Hogworts Express.
We peeked into the Three Broomsticks...
We thought this was really neat! We had the car to ourselves so it was nice.
We met the Knight Bus Driver and Shrunken Ned.
We headed to Springfield...again, with no expectations we entered the Simpson's Ride. And thought it was really fun!
We stopped at the Lard Lad Cart to grab a Big Pink Donut and a bottle of sprite. This was on Skyler's bucket list for this trip and she never got one...but we did...and sent her a picture...and it was yummy!
It was a very light cake and the sweet strawberry was in a good amount because there is so much donut that the frosting was not overpowering. We fully intended to come back the next day to get Skye one but it never happened.
None of the other food places were open yet. So we sat outside at a table in front of Cletus' Chicken Shack and ate out donut. We had some friends too!
One of the little birds had a visibly hurt wing and the other birds were stealing food from him so Cary made sure he got some donut...I know, I know but other people were feeding them and every time this bird would get some, one of the other birds would take it right from his beak so Cary made sure he got some and kept the other birds away. These guys were definitely not afraid of people at all!
Then we saw the Delorean from Back to the Future...
We stopped at the Central Park Kiosk to buy three lanyards...a Minion one (me and Skye sharing since we had the waterproof camera neck pouch), a Slytherin one (Cary), and a Jurassic Park one (Tyler)...for $30.73.
And we visited a pineapple under the sea...
...and it's occupant...Gary!
We met a Woodpecker...
And saw some old cars outside Mel's Drive - In...
And Marge Simpson outside their camper...
We went to Terminator thingy...
Which is more a show than a ride...with live actors...it was fun but not really a ride.
We saw the Mystery Machine...
Then we went to Shrek 4D...
This is where we really started noticing the difference between having front of the line access and not. I do not think I would EVER go without it...even if I had a full week...the lines without it were LONG!!! We were passing people standing still for a very long time. I don't know if it is run differently than fast passes at Disney but it seemed like it. And I suppose if I am paying so much more for the pass, it better be worth it! But it seemed like we moved faster and smoother through the lines that we do using fast passes at Disney. And it works for most things too! And no pre-planning. As much as I like planning, this was nice!
Anyway, we liked Shrek...it was fun too!
Then we headed to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem...
Which we really loved...but we do love Minions so...
At the end we met some Minions...
Stuart and Kevin we believe. They were fun to meet.
We checked out banana hats...
We found out what happens when you say Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice Beetle...
We did a lot of walking around checking things out but we also rode things too. I don't have great notes for these days...totally not prepared...just didn't know what to expect! I had not brought my camera because I had heard that you couldn't bring stuff onto a lot of rides. That is not true. The only things you can't are the bigger more moving things. And getting the lockers was not a problem. THey are free for the first hour (or something like that) and since we had front of the the line access, we never needed them that long. But there were plenty available and we never had a problem dropping off or picking up. So the first day, we just brought phones and Tyler had his backpack for the ponchos.
Next time we will be more prepared.
At this point we were feeling so much better about Universal than our Disney portion of our trip. And that is saying a lot coming from me because I am very pro-Disney...but we were already having a better trip at Universal than we did at Disney.
We were starting to get hungry. It was about noon and we were hungry and were near Monsters Cafe so in we went.
We decided to get three freestyle cups.
I decided on a side Chef Salad and side mac & cheese...
Both were both what I wanted at the time. Nothing exceptionally gourmet but good and hit the spot. It was so hot out, I didn't have a feeling for much more. Plus, the cost of things seemed outrageous!
Cary had the Smokehouse Specialty Cheeseburger -
1/3 lb Burger topped with Pulled Pork, Cole Slaw, Lettuce, Tomato, and Cheddar Cheese. Served with fries.
He enjoyed it but it was huge...so I guess the price wasn't so bad after all. The fried were crinkles and just ok...kind of like frozen fries cooked in an oven.
Tyler got the extra large pizza slice with pepperoni.
He liked it but would have liked another slice...but at $8.99 per slice, that wasn't happening!
This place was very cool inside and while there were a lot of people, it did not feel crowded. We all were able to get what we wanted and were full. We looked around after we ate before leaving. I though I had more pictures of the inside but I am not finding them right now. There was a lot of monster things...models, posters, mad scientist type things...it was a very cool place for lunch.
Enjoying your report so far. I am taking my son to Universal for the first time in April, after our trip to Disney. We are booked at Cabana Bay but thinking of upgrading for the express pass alone. Cant wait to read more!
We are generally value hotel people because all we usually do there is sleep and get ready to leave there...but I do not think, after seeing the stand by lines, that I'd do Universal without the Express Pass and as long as I'm paying for it one way or another, I may as well book the higher end hotel...the cost for it alone might give me a heart attack! But if I can pretend it's for a "better" room AND the pass, maybe it doesn't feel so bad!
And we decided to ride The Mummy. We had no idea what this was. I had heard nothing about this at all! So we dropped our stuff in a locker and headed in. Tyler kept saying "This better not be a roller coaster!". I kept telling him I had no idea what it was. Well, turns out, it's pretty much a roller coaster. Which scared the crud out of me because I actually had no idea what to expect in there! But it was really cool! And kind scary...although the fear could have been of the unknown too! We all really loved it. There are not big hills but there are times it moves fast but then will slow a bit...there's fire that it feels like you ride right through and sprinklings of water (or maybe it just feels like ti because it is SO hot where the fire is! It was a very fun ride and I am surprised I hadn't heard anything about it before.
Next we headed to Transformers.
And we had a great time on that too! Afterwards we met one...
We headed over to Jimmy Fallon's Race through New York. We have been told not to miss it and that it was new. We don't watch his show but we're game. You head in they the hand you a color coded ticket for your load group.
Then you head in (upstairs if i remember correctly). WHen the lights change to your group's color you head in.
#panda was up there hanging out.
This was also a fun ride...and somewhat funny too!
After this ride, we had to go meet to pick up our dancers. We were meeting at the train station. It had started raining while we were waiting. Finally they arrived and off we went. She had to change because, as you know, she dresses for the occasion and she has a Harry Potter outfit she wanted to wear. It ended up that they had lunch at Louie's Italian Restaurant (which she said was good), and the rode Jimmy Fallon before we did and then rode Transformers after we did. So they were basically doing the reverse of what we were. Of course, she's not a seasoned disser yet so she did not take pictures.
We hit Men In Black (which was very fun!) and Skye bought a Pixel Cell Phone case and extra pixels that she loved. It's like legos for your phone! It was $24.98.
We then headed back where Skyler hadn't been yet...
We rode Simpsons again and t was still fun! It was raining lightly on and off.
We decided we needed some food so we headed to Fast Food Boulevard in Springfield. We walked through and decided on CLetus' Chicken Shack. The venue and a lot of cool Simpson items around.
We decided on an order of Chicken Thumbs ... Fried chicken tenders with tater tots & choice of BBQ sauce or honey mustard...Skye and I shared these.
And two orders of Chicken & Waffle Sandwich ... Double Battered, extra crispy fried chicken breast between two waffles with maple syrup mayo & tater tots...
Tyler got his with no syrup mayo...
And Cary got his as it is listed...
The tater tots were a good alternative to the typical fries. The thumbs were tender and juicy and the breading was light. They were not greasy at all.
Tyler liked his plain sandwich but Cary's was much better with the maple mayo.
It was 6:00pm and it was busy but it wasn't crowded...if that makes any sense. There were a lot of staff cleaning down used tables and making sure garbage was not overflowing and condiments were full. We were very pleased with out choice!
After munching we headed on and stopped in to Sponge Bob's store so Skye could meet Gary.
And Tyler bought them a Plankton ($20.19).
Then we did something none of us ad done yet...
This is one of the only things I actually remembered from when we were here when Tyler was two. It's aged but it is still family fun riding a bike with ET!
After ET we walked out to the Parade already in process. It was no where as crowded as a Disney parade and it was somewhat disorderly as far as people lining up.
We were standing where we could see this...
It was a cute little, short parade... we enjoyed what we were able to see.
After the parade we stopped in front of the Monster Cafe to punish the bad ones of us...
She doesn't look like she's being punished, does she???
We explored Weasley's and Skye adopted a Pigmy Puff. The do an adoption ceremony at the counter and you name it. She names hers Penelope. Apparently Pigmy Puffs eat ear wax.
And Tyler bought a Chocolate Frog. In total they spent $31.85.
Then we headed back outside to this...
I found the dragon to be sort of like the castle at Magic Kingdom...I just couldn't stop taking pictures of it.
We headed into Olivander's and that place is awesome! The kids could have spent hours in there looking at everyone's wands. They sell just plain, model wands, collector's wands, and interactive wands. The kids each wanted on so Skye chose Hermione's wand and Tyler chose Mad-Eye Moody's wand ($106.40). So of course we had to walk around and play with them. This area is really awesome and the spells make it more fun. Wands are expensive but they sure are a good investment!
Skyler has ridden Escape from Gringotts earlier with her team. so we did not do it now. We did grab a Butterbeer from cart.
We all loved it and we got more many times for the next 24 hours or so! It cost $7.45.
We checked out the shoppe with the animals/creatures (I forget the name).
And headed back outside...
One of the spells they learned to do would turn on the lights in here...
We finally tore the kids out of there after we explored just about every nook and cranny and almost got eaten by Jaws!
We headed up towards the exit.
We jumped on a water taxi and headed back to Portofino Bay. We were hungry again. So not knowing if anything else was around or open we headed back to Sal's Market again.
We gave our orders to Cary and Tyler and Skye and I headed up to out room. I took a quick, relaxing bath in the beautiful bathroom.
It was a bit more crowded tonight so it took them a little longer to get back.
We decided on a few things. First we ordered the Sal's Classic Italian ...
Ham, Salami, Capiccola, Aged Provolone, Tomato, Lettuce, Pepperoncini, Red Wine Vinaigrette, Kalamata Olives.
This was primarily mine and I loved it! It had a lot of meats and just enough veggies. The chips were the hard kind and I am not a fan of those but Skye loved them.
Tyler ordered the
Chicken Parmagiana -
Crispy Chicken Breast, House Marinara, Mozzarella Cheese
He really liked it but liked the meatball sandwich better.
Skye ordered the
Toscano -
Turkey, Fontina, Mustard Mayo without the mustard mayo.
She said it was ok but she didn't eat more than a bite. We were all kind of sharing (like Cary and Tyler shared the chicken Parm and Cary and I shared the classic) so I ate half of the Toscano and it was really good...I also ate half the next morning for breakfast cold and it was still good.
We also ordered a large Pepperoni Pizza...which, we already know, was a hit!
In general Sal's was great. I wish we had better timing or more knowledge about what was where and when things closed because while the menu is a decent size, pizza and sandwiches over and over gets a little old.
But every time we were there the food was hot and fresh and good!
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