My apologies, friends…..I have been lax on updates this past weekend. It was gloriously hot and sunny up here in the north
, and as all my Canadian friends are aware, you sometimes have to seize the day where weather is concerned. Our summer season is a short one so there’s no time to waste a second of it….and yesterday, especially, was spent just enjoying the outdoors and one-on-one time with the people I love.
I will try and get some progress made this week, though. Onward we go!
Tuesday, April 26th: Universal, continued
Thunder Falls Terrace generally gets a lot of love on the Universal boards as far as value and quantity go, yet for some reason we’d never had the chance to give it a try on any of our previous visits. We had pre-purchased the Quick Service dining plan for this day prior to our trip (which was smart, as the cost had risen from the $19.99 per person we paid to $21.99 by the time our travel date rolled around), and wanted to maximize the value of our entitlements under the plan: one entrée with a beverage, plus an additional beverage and snack. Since we were conveniently in IOA on an otherwise Universal Studios day, it seemed like a good time to scratch this location off our dining wish-list.
It was busy inside, and there was a decent line at the counter (though both sides of the food line were open and serving guests). We were all impressed with the décor of the interior: it was quite pretty indeed, and many of the tables had a lovely view of the Jurassic Park River Adventure boats splashing down from the big drop.
Unfortunately, what was a quick stop for lunch turned out to be much longer than we had hoped or expected
. The cashier at the till (who was awesome…..no issues there) was having a frustratingly long delay with her computer system each time she rang through an order where the method of payment was the quick service dining cards: and of course, literally EVERYONE (and that’s no exaggeration…..every single person in front of us, at least 20 people if not more!) was paying with dining plan entitlements. Then there was a loud, obnoxious family who spoke little English and was dissatisfied with EVERYTHING they were given: their milkshakes didn’t pass inspection, make another one. They weren’t given enough potatoes, add another scoop. Their corn wasn’t hot enough, I want another piece. I didn’t want cheese on my burger, give me another one. Whoops, changed my mind….I do want cheese. And on and on it went
. While we stood there....and stood there....and stood there....a woman pushing another lady in a wheelchair was directly behind Steve in line, and continued to push that wheelchair into the bag of his heels until I thought he was going to turn around and beat her senseless with his minion. The poor guy had marks on his ankles from the half hour or more of needless ramming (did she think that was going to make US go faster??
). At any rate, we finally got through and situated at a table, but were definitely questioning our choice of restaurant by the time we sat down.
For entrees, I had picked the half chicken platter with potatoes and grilled corn on the cob:
Jake, our resident burger lover, had a bacon cheeseburger and fries:
Steve opted for the ribs and chicken platter with a double portion of potatoes (he wasn’t feeling corn on the cob, and his meal came with two sides….so they happily doubled his potatoes instead). My apologies for the blurry picture but it’s the only one we got
:
It is hard to fairly grade this meal, to be honest. Everything had a good taste and portions were generous. The staff were very friendly and apologetic (and had taken an incredible amount of unnecessary abuse from that offensive family in front of us) but we had been about 40 minutes in line…..much too long for quick service. Unfortunately, with the delays that we encountered in paying for our meal, our food definitely wasn’t the hottest by the time we actually sat to eat, which was a bit of a bummer too. It wasn’t a total bust by any stretch….we all had lots to eat and definitely left full…. bu I think that a different day could potentially leave us with a much better overall impression. We will have to give this one a second go on a future visit
.
After lunch, we decided it was time to head back to the Studios for the balance of our day. We headed back through Jurassic Park and Hogsmeade to catch the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley, with our two minion friends firmly in tow.
There were many people heading into the queue at Hogsmeade Station….we feared our crowd-free ride there might not be repeated on the way back.
Unfortunately, we were right. Why on earth were there so many people in IOA???
At any rate, we didn’t even get under cover and out of the sun before we were stopped in the line. This was going to take a while.
The queue was full and it took us probably at least 25 minutes before we were boarding the train. This time we had a completely full car of 8, and the minions had to be stowed on the rack above the seats just to accommodate the riders
.
It felt good to exit Kings Cross station and be back in the crowd-free Studios!
The guys were up for a ride on the Mummy, so that’s the direction we headed first. Our timing was once again excellent, and The Mummy himself was outside the ride with absolutely no one around him
. As we approached, he took a very silent but intent interest in the guys’ minions.
This was a super cool encounter all the way around, because we had never had the chance to meet this particular Universal character before. Even after all these visits, it was awesome to be able to still be doing new things and having new in-park experiences
.
I took over babysitting duties of the minions while the guys rode the Mummy, which was only a 10 minute wait even at that mid-day point. There may have even been a selfie taken while the minions and I lounged in the sun on a park bench in New York
:
The boys were back before I knew it, and I captured a tough guy coaster pose for the photo book. They had forgotten to get their ride picture with our Photoconnect card, and were feeling too lazy to go back and see if they could still add it to our account
.
The Blues Brothers show has just started a few moments before they emerged from the Mummy, so we stopped to watch them for a little bit. They were surprisingly good!! But holy moly, they must have been roasting in those black suits
.
Steve wanted a picture with the Blues Brothers car, and with hardly anyone else around, this was the perfect opportunity.
After we had our fill of entertainment from the Blues Brothers, we started walking in the general direction of the park entrance and happened upon another character we have never had the opportunity to meet before: Beetlejuice!
Again, the interaction here was SUPERB. Beetlejuice was a real hoot and Steve, in particular, was completely impressed with this chance meeting. We love it when a character meet is so much more than just a “
hi, take a picture, and move on” type interaction. It’s awesome when you can walk right up to them without waiting in a huge line or needing a Fastpass and have this kind of a personal and memorable encounter. Universal rocks in this regard!!
After leaving Beetlejuice, we opted to hit up a ride on ET (my favourite ride!) and then probably call it a day. Our feet were starting to get sore, we were all feeling the effects of the sun, and our early-ish morning was starting to catch up with us.
What a good idea that plan turned out to be
.
Just as we rounded the corner into Hollywood, we happened upon Popeye and Olive Oyl….and oh, what fun that meeting was!
Olive Oyl was immediately all over Steve, proclaiming with a squeel that she thought he looked just like Bluto. She grabbed onto his arm and never let go: she showered him with kisses on his cheek
and Popeye, of course, was quick to show his displeasure
.
Popeye decided he would have to take the matter into his own hands, and even challenged Steve to a good, old-fashioned fist fight:
In the end, we all decided to part as friends: Popeye with Olive Oyl on his arm, and Steve with me on his. All of a sudden, our weary feet and the searing heat didn’t seem so bad: we had met yet ANOTHER character for the first time (Olive Oyl….Popeye we had happened upon once before on a previous visit) and the experience could not have been more memorable. We were so glad we had chosen to take this route to ET
.
That sentiment was about to be echoed several more times very, very soon: even before we had the chance to put away the camera.
The balance of our Universal day is next.
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. I figured one of you good people would know!
But I sure wished it worked that way!
. We converted our fireplace from wood burning to a (much cleaner and easier to use) insert when we purchased the house (how nice is it to "start a fire" with a remote? 
. Each one of them a special memory!
)
: just down from where we chatted with Popeye and Olive Oyl, on the opposite side of the street, were Shaggy and Velma!
. His loss!! LOL 
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