Fish, fish and more fish! Our First Family Adventure December 2016 **UPDATED: 12/16 Day 1 UO**

I love risotto, but it definitely needs to be nice and salty with lots of cheese, lol. That salmon looks really good too! I think our next trip will include USO because kiddo is finally getting into harry potter. This place will be on the list I think!
 
Hi Candice!!!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip and of course the food ; )
 
I keep seeing reviews of Toothsome and it makes me want to go back to Universal, even though I much prefer Disney! I don't think I Could walk by all those dessert/pastry cases and not buy anything lol. Sorry the rain "dampened" your evening plans but I'm sure it was nice to have a relaxing evening instead :)
 


I love risotto, but it definitely needs to be nice and salty with lots of cheese, lol. That salmon looks really good too! I think our next trip will include USO because kiddo is finally getting into harry potter. This place will be on the list I think!
Yup, this was not salty enough for me and was a little too mushy. Everything else was great though! Harry Potter could be a quick trip for you ;) only problem is going all the way there and not going to Disney! :rotfl:

Hi Candice!!!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip and of course the food ; )

Welcome! I love reading your reviews and hope mine is even half as good as yours! Unfortunately, we did not have as many drinks as I had hoped! :laughing:

I keep seeing reviews of Toothsome and it makes me want to go back to Universal, even though I much prefer Disney! I don't think I Could walk by all those dessert/pastry cases and not buy anything lol. Sorry the rain "dampened" your evening plans but I'm sure it was nice to have a relaxing evening instead :)

Yes, it was the last day before Forbidden Journey went to being refurbished so we were disappointed. Nonetheless, it was the right move since we did not want a screaming toddler on our first day. :blush:
 
Just to add another picture of sunset from the previous day…



Day 2- (UO) Zach’s very first character meal!


Universal Orlando was open by 8am for resort guests today and we were running behind already. :scared1: One thing I learned about this trip is that we are not early morning people, even my son!



We got to the gates at 8:30am and went straight to Despicable Me. I will say that I should never ride this ride again on stationary seats. For some reason, that gave me a headache for the rest of the day!



We then went around the park taking pictures instead of doing rides since I had breakfast at 9:50am. We went in at 9:30 and were seated after I found my receipt. How this character breakfast worked was that you purchased the meal when you scheduled it approximately one month ahead (for me). I didn’t even think that I needed to produce the receipt since I expected that it would be in their system.

I’m such a bad Dis’er that I forgot to take pictures of the breakfast itself.(I promise to be better next time!) It was a regular buffet breakfast with some usual choices of bacon, sausage, egg, cold cereal, fruit, bread, pancakes, roast potatoes (which was good!), yogurt, muffins…. The most unique item I found was the apple flan, which was… unique. It tasted like fried apple flavoured oatmeal to me. I’m not a big oatmeal fan. I had low expectations for this and was surprised there were a good number of choices. We really came here for characters which was great! My son loves Minions so it was a great choice. He was not familiar with the other characters but went with it anyway and was a happy camper. First character meal was a success!!! (no need to cancel all the ones I have planned for Disney!! Woohooo!)





We went around the park and I remembered a tidbit I got from the boards about a great big pink donut…. So we went to Simpson’s for this beauty even if we were still full from breakfast. My husband loved this area of the park... He wanted to eat here but I did hear some less than stellar reviews so we did not.







And here it is, the Big Pink! Bigger than my face!



We ended up eating it when we got back to the resort. By then I developed a sore throat and was not really feeling eating sweet stuff but I still had a good 3 mouthfuls of it! The rest was eaten by my husband and son!

So at around 1pm, we were all getting hungry and cranky so we took the Hogwart’s Express to Islands of Adventure and went to Three Broomsticks for lunch! We decided to share the ribs and chicken platter with a couple of drinks.

Chicken and Ribs Platter- $14.99


Gilly Water- 4.25


Pear Cider- 3.75


Chicken was moist and delicious while the ribs were a little on the dry side but flavourful enough. Corn was good. I wish we got another meal since we were hungrier than expected. It was a good meal all in all except the ‘Gilly’ water was more expensive than my pear cider… The pear cider was very refreshing! My sweet loving son drank a lot of it! LOL

We went back to UO and explored Daigon Alley. I loved the area! It was so immersive and the attention to detail is simply amazing. If only I could move to Orlando to go by everyday! And I cannot help including these pictures :D





Of course what is the Wizarding World without butterbeer! We tried the frozen and the hot!




Of course we had to buy a wand! Will probably put it to better use next time!

I do not have pictures of the hot but it was basically like any other coffee cup. I actually like the frozen better than the hot. The hot one was a little too sweet for me (maybe because of my sore throat)

After some more rides, we left the park at around 6pm for dinner and rest. We might have overdone it for our first day!

For dinner we went to Vivo Italia where I had a reservation for. Again, I do not have pictures but I can tell you we did not like our meal here! It may have been because we were all tired or because we ordered the ‘wrong’ things… The service was ok but we were too tried to really complain about our meal. I ordered some fish, which I could not fund in the menu online. It was a grilled fish (yes, more fish) with some sort of olive sauce. I did not like the sauce and neither did Zach. He would not eat much of the fish and just ate the bread. Eric ordered the Parmesan Alfredo. He said it was ok. Tried sharing some with Zach too but he would not have any of it. Halfway through our mains, we gave up and just asked for the bill. In hindsight, I should have just ordered pasta or pizza!
 
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Just to add another picture of sunset from the previous day…



Day 2- (UO) Zach’s very first character meal!


Universal Orlando was open by 8am for resort guests today and we were running behind already. :scared1: One thing I learned about this trip is that we are not early morning people, even my son!



We got to the gates at 8:30am and went straight to Despicable Me. I will say that I should never ride this ride again on stationary seats. For some reason, that gave me a headache for the rest of the day!



We then went around the park taking pictures instead of doing rides since I had breakfast at 9:50am. We went in at 9:30 and were seated after I found my receipt. How this character breakfast worked was that you purchased the meal when you scheduled it approximately one month ahead (for me). I didn’t even think that I needed to produce the receipt since I expected that it would be in their system.

I’m such a bad Dis’er that I forgot to take pictures of the breakfast itself.(I promise to be better next time!) It was a regular buffet breakfast with some usual choices of bacon, sausage, egg, cold cereal, fruit, bread, pancakes, roast potatoes (which was good!), yogurt, muffins…. The most unique item I found was the apple flan, which was… unique. It tasted like fried apple flavoured oatmeal to me. I’m not a big oatmeal fan. I had low expectations for this and was surprised there were a good number of choices. We really came here for characters which was great! My son loves Minions so it was a great choice. He was not familiar with the other characters but went with it anyway and was a happy camper. First character meal was a success!!! (no need to cancel all the ones I have planned for Disney!! Woohooo!)





We went around the park and I remembered a tidbit I got from the boards about a great big pink donut…. So we went to Simpson’s for this beauty even if we were still full from breakfast. My husband loved this area of the park... He wanted to eat here but I did hear some less than stellar reviews so we did not.







And here it is, the Big Pink! Bigger than my face!



We ended up eating it when we got back to the resort. By then I developed a sore throat and was not really feeling eating sweet stuff but I still had a good 3 mouthfuls of it! The rest was eaten by my husband and son!

So at around 1pm, we were all getting hungry and cranky so we took the Hogwart’s Express to Islands of Adventure and went to Three Broomsticks for lunch! We decided to share the ribs and chicken platter with a couple of drinks.

Chicken and Ribs Platter- $14.99


Gilly Water- 4.25


Pear Cider- 3.75


Chicken was moist and delicious while the ribs were a little on the dry side but flavourful enough. Corn was good. I wish we got another meal since we were hungrier than expected. It was a good meal all in all except the ‘Gilly’ water was more expensive than my pear cider… The pear cider was very refreshing! My sweet loving son drank a lot of it! LOL

We went back to UO and explored Daigon Alley. I loved the area! It was so immersive and the attention to detail is simply amazing. If only I could move to Orlando to go by everyday! And I cannot help including these pictures :D





Of course what is the Wizarding World without butterbeer! We tried the frozen and the hot!




Of course we had to buy a wand! Will probably put it to better use next time!

I do not have pictures of the hot but it was basically like any other coffee cup. I actually like the frozen better than the hot. The hot one was a little too sweet for me (maybe because of my sore throat)

After some more rides, we left the park at around 6pm for dinner and rest. We might have overdone it for our first day!

For dinner we went to Vivo Italia where I had a reservation for. Again, I do not have pictures but I can tell you we did not like our meal here! It may have been because we were all tired or because we ordered the ‘wrong’ things… The service was ok but we were too tried to really complain about our meal. I ordered some fish, which I could not fund in the menu online. It was a grilled fish (yes, more fish) with some sort of olive sauce. I did not like the sauce and neither did Zach. He would not eat much of the fish and just ate the bread. Eric ordered the Parmesan Alfredo. He said it was ok. Tried sharing some with Zach too but he would not have any of it. Halfway through our mains, we gave up and just asked for the bill. In hindsight, I should have just ordered pasta or pizza!

You know that is spongebob square pants and not a minion, right? :rotfl:
 


Hi Candice. It is nice to read your reviews of Universal. The chicken and ribs look good. I've heard that it is a fun place to eat.
 

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