Sorcery, Simpsons & Soccer– A June '15 Trip Report

[larslovesyou]

Hello everyone


My name is Laura from Washington,D.C. & my DH is Matt:

We took a “mini” vacation from June 11- June 15 to Universal Studios.

This was DH's first trip to Universal and my first trip back since 2000, so it was like-new to me as well.

We stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort, which included Early Entry to IOA and Express Passes.


Our trip was centered and planned around the DC United vs. Orlando SC MLS match (hence the TR title). We're United Fans...in case you were wondering! Since we were flying down for the Soccer game on Sunday, we decided to make it into a long weekend trip. I figured 3 days would be the perfect amount for us to check out Universal...and it was!

Stay tuned for the report!

 

[larslovesyou]

Pre-trip Planning:


You could say our trip planning began at the beginning of the year when MLS released its schedule.

DC United was playing Orlando three times, once at home and twice away. The first away game fell on spring break, and DH was out of the country. The second was on Sunday, June 14th. So we decided we would fly down for the June game. Since the game was on a Sunday I asked if we could go down early to check out Universal Studios. We had gone to Disney last September and I realllllly wanted to go to UO ever since then.

Realizing that we would be heading to UO right at the beginning of peak season, and knowing that I cannot stand waiting in lines. I knew that it was worth (to me) the extra cost of Express Passes. After crunching numbers, I saw that staying at RPR would be cheaper than purchasing Express Passes and staying at a cheaper hotel. I also figured, since it was just 3 days, we could splurge a little!

We planned on flying out on Friday Morning and staying through Monday evening. As luck would have it, I found a 25% off code on Cheap Tickets and a Thursday night flight was almost half the cost of a Friday morning flight. By staying a night longer, we ended up saving almost $200! This also meant that our Friday would be a FULL day at Universal, instead of a half day! Woohoo!

In terms of day-of planning....well there wasn't any. I tried my darndest to plan, but just couldn't! Not even a dinner reservation. All I knew is that Saturday would be our EE day at IOA & that we must try all the Butterbeers, the Big Pink Donut, and drink a Deathly Hallows from Hogshead Pub over during our trip.

Spoiler Alert: Mission Accomplished!


Pre-trip Shopping (yes, that's a thing)


Before we left, I knew I wanted a few HP themed shirts, but I also wanted to find some that EVERY OTHER person wouldn’t be wearing. After searching the far reaches of the internet I found the perfect website. Lookhuman.com is the ultimate nerd clothing shop! They also have a lot of fun Disney themed shirts too!

I found a few shirts that were HP themed, but if I wore them out in public, most people wouldn’t even know.

Drum Roll Please.....

Up Next: Arrival & "Hacking" Uber







.

 

[disappearingme]

Nice. Following.

 

[larslovesyou]

Arrival & 'Hacking' Uber


Both DH and I worked Thursday morning and were ready to head to the airport by 4 pm. We live in DC so we took a city bus to the Metro trains and had to take a train to the airport. Poor timing on our part, we left right at rush hour, which meant the trains were packed. Poor DH was carrying our large luggage bag. I was able to squeeze onto a train, but DH was stuck behind people cutting in front of him because he had a big suitcase :/ I grabbed his arm and had to drag him into the train. I got lots of nasty looks from people, even though they were the ones who cut HIM off from me. Sorry people! Im not losing my Husband!

Packed like sardines with no AC (seriously, DC Metro is the worst). I, at least, was able to overhear an interesting conversation two ladies were having. A tourist from the South (thick accent and all) was asking, in all seriousness, if DC had grocery stores!?!? Once she was relieved to find out that, yes, in fact, we do eat food here in the Nation's Capital, she looked really puzzled, and then asked politely how on Earth did we get said groceries to our homes!
I almost died! I can only assume that she thought no one had cars in DC an that we only packed into trains to get from Point A to Point B.

After that eventful metro ride, we arrived at the airport, only to find out that our flight had been delayed an hour. Time flew by quickly (no pun intended) and it was time for us to board our plane to MCO. We landed in MCO around 9:45 pm.

I had read a lot of great things about using Uber in Orlando, we have it in DC as well. After seeing that Uber would cost me around $20 to get to Universal, as opposed to the $60 for a taxi, I was determined to use Uber this trip. Went to my Uber app, punched in a $20 off promo code, and was ready to go! Right?

Wrong! Uber is banned from picking up at MCO airport, due to strict ride sharing/taxi laws & fees. After some debating on wether to just give up and take a taxi, we decided to do an Uber “hack.”

We jumped on a free shuttle to an off-site location, just around the corner from the airport. Once there, our Uber driver picked us up in 4 minutes. Our driver was incredible. His car was cleaner and newer than any taxi I have EVER been in. He was a safe driver, and super friendly. We talked about WWOHP and gave us advise on things to not miss. We talked about Disney World and all the construction, and he even talked sports with DH. We were at RPR in no time!

The best part was, with my $20 promo code, the ride was free! Uber states that you are not supposed to tip the drivers, but instead you can give them a 5 star rating. The better the rating a driver gets, the more money they will receive from Uber. We used Uber 4 times this trip and every time was wonderful!

We arrived at RPR around 11 pm. We couldn’t see much of the resort since it was so dark, but I was already blown away with how beautiful it was! It took us a while to check-in. Apparently there were no rooms ready?!?! The young lady checking us in was very sweet, and was very apologetic about it taking a while. She noticed that we requested a refurbished room, and told us that none were available. She then asked if a King Room with a Garden View was ok.
UMM.....OF COURSE! FREE UPGRADE!


While I was a little bummed about the older room, that all went away when we entered our room.
We were in Tower 2, on the top floor, and had the BEST view of the front gardens and the parks!

We decided we weren’t sleepy yet and took a walk around the hotel and took the walking path over to City Walk. After our little walk, it was time for bed. Tomorrow was our first day at Universal!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I'm in .

A great start to your trip report so far . Love the pics....the view from your room was superb! And woohoo for a free upgrade! (what a nice way to kick off a vacation)

Looking forward to the next installment .

 

[larslovesyou]

Nice. Following.

Thanks for following!

I'm in .

A great start to your trip report so far . Love the pics....the view from your room was superb! And woohoo for a free upgrade! (what a nice way to kick off a vacation)

Looking forward to the next installment .

Thank you!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Looking forward to reading more I have just booked a 1 nights stay at RPR for July to get the express pass for our family so looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

 

[Robo56]

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[schumigirl]

Lovely pics......We love RPR!! The last pic above of the greenery and hotel is so beautiful...........

Not a great start with metro train.......doesn't sound like fun at all. But glad you are loving the hotel and upgrades are always nice

Looking forward to reading more of your trip..........

 

[larslovesyou]

Day One: Donuts, Dragons & Dramamine


Before going to bed the night before, DH looked at me and said, “This isn’t like Disney vacation is it? We don’t have to wake up at 6:30 AM everyday, right?”


I assured him that, no, we wouldn’t have to wake up early, and that we were going to sleep in the next day and head to the parks around 10 – 11 am. WELP....I ended up waking up around 7 am & by default woke DH up around 7:30. He was annoyed & I was excited!!! We ended up heading out to US right around 9 am (park opening) Everyone was heading towards DM or Diagon Alley. We decided to head the opposite direction towards Hollywood.

Hollywood was EMPTY. No one there except....

Yup, Homer Simpson! Just hanging out by himself in the middle of Hollywood. This was a whole new experience for us – characters without a line, just walking around hanging out with guest! 1 point Universal, 0 points Disney. Other great experiences with characters included the DM dance parties in the middle of the streets with guest and the Green Goblin chasing people around IOA.

After we hung out with Homer, DH remembered...he forgot to take his dramamine! I was so annoyed, because I reminded 5 times to take it before we left the hotel. Luckily, we were still near Guest Relations and ran in to ask where we could buy some. DH gets really sick on simulator rides (to the point where it almost stopped us from ever planning this trip to US). They told us that we could walk over to The First Aid office and they would give it to us for FREE! Sure enough, the First aid office gave him a dramamine pill, and we were good to go for the rest of the day!

Our first stop of the day was ET. There were one 3 other people waiting to ride with us when we entered the pre-show room. This was DH's first ride at Universal, and even though it was an older Children's ride –the very first thing he commented on was how the queue was much more “fun & cool” than a lot of the Disney queues. This would be a trend the whole rest of our trip as well.

After escaping with ET, we spotted (a completely empty!) Springfield, USA around the corner. DH was like a kid in the candy store! Much how I felt at Diagon Alley later on. Anywhere there was to take a photo, it was taken!

I pointed out the donut stand, and told him that's where the “Big Pink” donut was, and that I wanted to get one at some point during our trip. “Well, its a good thing we didn’t eat breakfast yet!” he said while already pulling the money out of his wallet.

With Big Pink in hand, we decided to take a few photo ops with the Lard Lad statue. We definitely got a few stares having a photo shoot with a giant donut!

For $5, we thought the donut was a STEAL! It feeds a family of 4 or 5, easily. Back home in DC, a regular sized donut, at a specialty shop or bakery with run us $3-$5, so we were ecstatic. When a family asked us how much it cost, I excitedly proclaimed that “It's only 5 bucks!!” The mom rolled her eyes and said “oh...onnllllyyyyy $5” and walked away. Meh...you win some, you lose some.

Maybe being from an expensive (over-priced) city has it's benefits. Not once, at Universal, were we sticker shocked by the prices. $7-$8 for a beer is the same we would pay at most bars in the city, and those bars aren’t in WWOHP. Donuts that cost $5 - not a problem. Entrees that cost $15-$30 – same ol', same ol'.​

Anyways, back to the donut! DH and I ate about ¾ of the donut before we threw in the towel. With sugar running through our bloodstreams, it was time to head to Krustyland. It appeared that DH's Dramamine was working like a charm, not a bit of sickness. When we were exiting we saw the whole Simpsons Clan posing for photos, with only one other family waiting in front of us.

After Simpsons we headed over to MIB. We were both were really bad at MIB and could never figure out when to press that big red button Still beat DH both times though!

More Springfield,USA photos...just because!













Coming Up Next : Diagon Alley, Decepticons & Despicable Waits



.

 

[Robo56]

Wow you all really got the Simpson's pictures they are awesome. Love the big donut. It's huge. Looks like you were having a good time.

 

[macraven]

kewl

i love your trippie!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Awesome report so far! We loved the big donut, our fav of 5 finished it no problem but honestly I think I could have ate a whole one myself!! And I agree $5 is a steal for it! I was expecting to pay much more!

 

[Tink2Day]

Yay, looks like a great report and Trip so far (well other than the metro and the delay)

$5 for a donut like that, cheap! A half dozen here costs $6-$7 for plain old donut store donuts and that one is at least
as big as that or bigger.
Cute shirts and can't wait for more (especially Diagon Alley).

 

[tink1957]

Love the Simpson's pics...now you've made me crave a big pink donut sundae

 

[canadiankim]

Loving the pictures and the report!

We are booked in to the RPR Aug 6 and can't wait to take advantage of the FOTL passes and early entry.

 

[HM]

More please.

 

[AthenaBolina]

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[larslovesyou]

Diagon Alley, Decepticons & Despicable Waits:


After our first sorry attempts at MIB, it was time to move on to the rest of the park. It was around 10:30 am, and the plan was to check out all of US, minus Diagon Alley, with our express passes. Then go back to Diagon Alley in the evening...

Well that plan changed quickly. After checking out the London Waterfront, my willpower was too weak. I had to go check out DA!

Pictures do not do Diagon Alley justice! It was beyond amazing. Both DH and myself were jaw-dropped. There were people crying & people stopping right in their tracks due to sensory overload.

We walked around ... and around ... and around looking at every window and every sign meticulously painted on every inch of this place. It was perfect. I loved that the shops, although small, appeared to go on & on, due to the design of the fake second floors.

After about an hour, yes an hour, of wandering around, we decided to check out the wait time of Gringott's. The wait time said 45 minutes, so we decided “Why not!?!” and jumped in line. We waited about 30 minutes, but most of that was in the Pre-show room/elevator. We were always moving and were entertained while in the queue.

I thought the ride was good, but somethings seemed off... A lot of the 3-D effects were blurry. DH noticed too, so it wasn’t just me. Then there was an awkward part where there was a big black hole in the screen that we “went through.” It just seemed so unnatural and weird.

We rode again the next day, in the single riders line, only to find out that the weird black hole was a ride malfunction. There is a screen that is supposed to disappear and the hole is covered with a lot of smoke. It worked perfectly that go around, and made it much more enjoyable! ​

After Escaping from Gringott's, we decided we deserved some Butterbeer! We headed over to the Fountain of Fair Fortune, which had no line. DH picked the Frozen Butterbeer & I chose the more adventurous Fishy Green Ale. Our goal was to try all of the WWOHP drinks except Pumpkin Juice (cant get down with Pumpkin in the summer....sorry!)

The Frozen Butterbeer was delicious and sweet. It was essentially cream soda, with a butterscotch flavored foam on top. The Fishy Green Ale was far more unique. The Cashier described it as “Christmas." I thought it was great, but DH hated it. It was a Mint & Lime drink with Cinnamon and Blueberry Pearls on the bottom. I thought the flavors mixed well together, especially when you got one of the Sour Blueberries mixed in with the rest!

With drinks in hand, we went into Knockturn Alley. I was completely disoriented in here! I had no clue that it had multiple entrances an exits!

It was time to say goodbye to Diagon Alley...for now! Right as we were heading out the dragon decided to breathe his fire – perfect timing!

Next we stopped to pay our respects to Jaws, RIP!

We went to Disaster and then went to ride The Mummy. I had no expectations for The Mummy, but WOW this was DH and I's favorite ride at Universal! It was so much fun, and had fewer nauseating effects than some of the other rides.

It was just about 1 PM and we were getting Hungry! We stopped by Transformers on the way back to Springfield, USA. While we knew the food wouldn’t be great, we HAD to eat at Krustyburger!

I am not lying when I tell you that the longest line we waited in the entire trip was here!

The line was very long, but kept moving. As someone who hates lines, I have to give Universal a huge round of applause – these people know how to control crowds! I loved the way they queued people into the food court and the way they sat you at tables. No table hogs, not line cutters, no chaos! This was the same at the WWOHP restaurants as well. After having to hunt for tables at every Disney restaurant, this was a very refreshing change of pace. 1 point Universal vs. 0 points Disney again!

We both ordered the Krustyburger with Curly Fries and Duff Beers.

The Krustyburgers were Middle School Cafeteria quality, with plastic cheese sauce and all! While most people would be repulsed, I loved that it reminded me of my Middle School lunches. Maybe I was feeling a little nostalgic...or maybe it was the beer talking! The Curly Fries were really great though, definitely the star of the meal!

When we were leaving Krustyburger, the sky was pitch black! We knew there was no way we were going to make it back to RPR before the rain, so we ducked into Terminator. It was a 15 minute wait before the next show, but we were ok with that – because we were dry. The 30 minute show was perfect timing. When we walked out of Terminator, the rain had JUST stopped!

We headed back to RPR to escape the heat and take a little nap, before we went back out in the evening.


Diagon Alley, Decepticons & Despicable Waits to be continued....

 

[AthenaBolina]

Loved the pictures!! I can't wait to go back in three weeks.

Fishy green ale sounds like something I won't enjoy. I'm guessing it's like a bubble tea? The flavors don't seem like they could mix. I love butter beer though, regular is my favorite though