(Updated 1/3) How Bougie Can We Be? - Nov 2024 TR

[Araminta18]

Yay!! Looking forward to reading all about it!

thank you for joining in!!!

 

[Araminta18]

Following! Looking forward to your report!

thank you for joining in!!!

 

[dizneedoll]

Following along too. We just came back from our stay at GF last week and well, I had mixed feelings about it. But I look forward to reading about your experience and how your trip went!

 

[bettertheangel]

Joining in as well! I read one of your past trip reports and enjoyed it. I'm sure this one will be fun also!

 

[Mary Pops In]

Hi Everyone! I'm back with another trip report - we got back from Disney about 3 weeks ago but it takes me a little bit to sort the photos and the videos and figure out which ones I want to share (and if this is not your first time joining me on a trip report you know that I go super extra with the photos...#sorrynotsorry). And has become a little bit of a pattern since we got our annual passes last year, we have another trip in a little over a month for Festival of the Arts, so we'll see how far I get before we head off.

The details:
who: me and my husband Trevor
when: Wednesday Nov 13th through Thursday Nov 21st (Nov 13th through Nov 17th was primarily Universal; Nov 17th through Nov 21st was Disney)
where: 4Points Sheraton, Portofino Bay, and Grand Floridian (Club Level!!!!!)

Introductions:
I'm Tiffany, I'll be your ghost host for this trip report. I'm 37 and while I'm a librarian by education, I currently do federal records management, since records management is where the pay is, and I gotta pay for Disney! Favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, but I also love Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. Favorite rides are Haunted Mansion, Jingle Cruise, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror...I feel like I should stop before I just list all of them.

My traveling companion is my husband Trevor. He turned 39 on this trip, and loves Star Wars and Marvel, but has grown to love Disney--his favorite characters are Boba Fett, Vader and Stormtroopers, and on the non-Star Wars side, Grumpy. I recently turned him into a roller coaster fan (after him not riding them for our first several trips), so now he likes Cosmic Rewind and Everest...I think Rise of the Resistance and Star Tours are his favorite rides though.
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Ok, let's get started! We watch a lot of Disney vlogs, and one of the vloggers we'd seen vlogged about going to the Orlando Informer event at Universal, where they buy out the park and the crowds are super light and food is all included. It seemed really interesting, and then they released dates, one of which was the day before Trevor's birthday, so...we decided to go! And if we're going to Universal, of course we're going to Disney. We'd originally booked Animal Kingdom Lodge, but staying at the main building of the Grand Floridian (aka club level) has been on my bucket list, and after looking at prices with discounts, we realized we could swing it, and therefore would be at the Grand Floridian with the Christmas tree and the gingerbread house! So had to go and do that.

Then about a month out I was looking at leave and flights and to EVERYONE's surprise (I can feel your surprise), we decided to fly in the night before, stay at a nearby hotel on points that Trevor had (aka free), and then we'd have a full park day on the 14th, vs only a half day cause we were originally flying in during the afternoon. Woot. We didn't do a TON of reservations or plans beforehand, it was a bit more of a loosey-goosey trip, except for the fastpasses at Disney - I did enjoy taking advantage of booking those ahead of time so we didn't have to wake up early!

We packed up a day or two in advance because we knew we'd need to do a half day on the day we flew out, so Wednesday morning we were basically all ready - just had to get through a couple hours of work and then pack the last couple of things!

I love your TRs and your enthusiasm! Happy Birthday Travis. My birthday is the same week and is one of the best times to enjoy the parks!

 

[Araminta18]

Following along too. We just came back from our stay at GF last week and well, I had mixed feelings about it. But I look forward to reading about your experience and how your trip went!

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry you had mixed feelings - what happened?

 

[Araminta18]

Joining in as well! I read one of your past trip reports and enjoyed it. I'm sure this one will be fun also!

Welcome! Thanks for reading!!!

 

[Araminta18]

I love your TRs and your enthusiasm! Happy Birthday Travis. My birthday is the same week and is one of the best times to enjoy the parks!

Aw, thank you!!! And a late happy birthday to you as well!!

 

[Araminta18]

Ok so let's be real, it was not my best idea to start a trip report right before Christmas! Between trying to wrap up work stuff, then family things, I've had basically no time!! I'm so sorry! I'm gonna look to post more frequently...we'll see how that goes! I appreciate everyone's patience. The year end is rough man.

Anyways, back to the trip report!

Portofino Bay Room Tour - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 1)​

Today we were heading over to Universal! We were up at about 7:30, after an uneventful night. The beds were fine, nothing exceptional. I still think the room had a weird smell, but it probably didn't help that I spilled Trevor's water bottle all over one of the beds. Oops!

Anyways, we were in the uber at 8:20.

Look at that gorgeous day!

Our uber driver was super nice and talkative, telling us about the holidays at the theme parks.

By 8:30 am, we were at Portofino Bay. Woohoo!

I was pretty excited - there's refurbishment happening at Portofino Bay and last time I'd seen anything online, there was scrim all over the west wing facing the bay, but as we pulled up, you couldn't really tell it was under refurbishment. No scrim anywhere! Woot!

We headed to check in, enjoying our first view of Christmas at Universal:

Check in went pretty smoothly - the team member was super helpful. I assumed our room wouldn't be ready so I put in a request for a room close to the water taxis, and the TM was like we have a room available now, right by the water taxis. So, brilliant!!

We walked over to room 3269 - second floor, west wing. RIGHT by the water taxis - there was even a little staircase to the outside right by the room which made it super easy to get to the water taxis. But first, room tour!

It was a king room with a bay view, so it felt pretty big with just the one bed.

We were pretty close to the end of the wing so our view was a bit more forest than bay, but still pretty.


The bathroom was HUGE, just like the huge bathroom the last time we stayed at Portofino Bay. No idea why the bathrooms are so big but they are maaaaaaaaaaaaassive.

and then a normal tub.


Entry way.

We were pretty pleased - the room was nice, the location was just what we wanted, and it was ready at 8:30 in the morning! Amazing. We dropped our stuff and then the plan was to head to the park - obviously to play but we had to stop at the front of the park to renew Trevor's Universal annual pass. He was on flexpay but we'd changed to pay all at once so we could get the renewal discount and it was a little bit messed up. But after that, then fun in the parks!

As we left the room, there was a water taxi there waiting, so that was a good sign!

 

[Araminta18]

Never Go to Guest Services First Thing in the Morning - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 2)​

We walked right on to the water taxi:

I love when the complimentary transportation is just right there waiting - feels like winning.

We got to the park at just a minute or two after 9 am and went to the ticket window. Trevor had Flex Pay on his annual pass, and in July I'd canceled the Flex Pay so we could pay in full at renewal and get the discount, cause when I'd emailed Universal they said that was what you had to do in order to get the discount. At the ticket desk at the hotel I'd tried to renew the pass but the lady said it was still showing as Flex Pay in the system, so we'd have to go to the ticket windows at the park. So at the park, we went to the ticket window and the TM said that the only thing she could do was sell us a new pass at full price. No thank you! Over we went to the Guest services window.

The line at Guest Services wasn't huge - maybe 5 parties in front of us? But it moved SUPER slowly. We ended up waiting 35 minutes - they only had two windows open and Trevor and I pontificated (quietly) about how at park open they really should have more than just two windows. BUT eventually it was our turn! Yay! Though that was a bit of a confusion - the TM looked up the pass and was like "oh you canceled in July - you only have 30 days to renew the pass" and I was like "The pass is still active - it expires in two days. July was when the pass was paid in full and I stopped the flex pay". And she was like "I don't know..." and then I pulled up my emails where Universal told me this was what to do to get the discount" and the TM just kind of stopped talking to me for a few minutes and then next thing was her giving us the discounted price. Yay! We were very thankful - I'm sure the whole Flex Pay thing is weird.

It was about 9:40, and we were heading into the park to get our photopass (we bought it online this morning ) and then start having fun! There was no line for the photos so that went pretty quick, thankfully. By 9:46 we were all set, and bonus, the photopass came with a lanyard for me to put our express passes and such in. As we left the photopass building, we ran into a photographer so of course we had to stop.


Yay!

Our goal now was food - specifically, crepes! Trevor loves crepes and we were hungry, so Central Park Crepes was our heading. We passed the Wicked store which was cool but still closed at this point, sadly.

As we headed to crepes, we saw the Mystery Machine.

No Scooby gang, but the van is still pretty nifty.

We also saw the Simpsons out meeting and greeting - with basically no line!

We're not really fans of the Simpsons so we didn't stop, but a bit further on we saw Patrick and Squidward, so we definitely stopped for them.

Squidward shook our hands, but Patrick headbumped me into a hug. Squidward was embarrassed on behalf of Patrick - definitely made me laugh.

Then, crepes! There was no line, which was awesome.

We got the Strawberry Hazelnut crepe, with strawberries, Nutella mascarpone, Nutella, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. It was really good - the only downside was that the crepe itself was cold. But the taste was yummy. We wandered over to the little patio area right there to sit and eat, as the further path into the park was blocked off:

We asked the TM and they said that was the path into the Dreamworks land and it wouldn't open til 10 - like 5 minutes. We were in no hurry, so we just sat and enjoyed our crepe. And realized we'd sat down right by where the lion from Madagascar meets and greets!

That was fun. We weren't rushing to meet him but kind of fun to just randomly be sitting there.

By the time we'd finished our crepe, they'd opened up the path, so we figured we'd wander in and explore the Dreamworks land!

 

[Araminta18]

Trollercoaster Before Time Travel - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 3)​

It was kind of fun wandering into a land that had just opened up for the day - there were not a lot of people at all! So we had fun exploring a bit - including playing with the frog drum thing:


If you jumped on lilypads, the frogs on the log made sounds.

Then we ran into the Trollercoaster! We used our express passes even though there was no line because why not.

Trevor and I squished into the last row. It was us at the back and then a family up at the front.

We went around once, and then the TMs asked if anyone wanted to ride again and we all said yes! So the whole train stayed on. Though Trevor did move up a row so we weren't super squished.

It's a fun little ride. I wouldn't wait for it, but it was fun to do. Though the on ride photo needs some help:

You can kind of see Trevor back there! I probably could have stopped at the photo people store and gotten help but meh.

After the Trollercoaster we kept exploring - we saw the whole Kung Fu Panda area, but the next show was like an hour so we didn't stay.

Noodles! I love noodles.

And of course we had to ring the gong.

On our way out, we played a bit with the Pinocchio animatronic by the playground.

That was fun - so much lying from Pinocchio!

We wandered out of the area and continued around the park - I was trying to get the lay of the land/get a feel for Universal Studios, so we were making our way around. As we continued, we ran into Doc Brown!

Trevor was wearing his "Marty McFly and the Pinheads" t-shirt that he got from when we saw the musical version of "Back to the Future", so it was only appropriate to run into Doc Brown.

And then we saw the DeLorean! Had to take a picture.

 

[Araminta18]

Fitting on Gringotts! - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 4)​

We did a selfie too:


Then realized that they had one of those automated photo stations - you scan your card and then it takes a picture:

Kind of fun!

We kept moving around the park, through the Simpsons land (we're not big Simpsons fans) and past Men in Black which was closed for refurbishment, and into London! Yay Harry Potter. The Knight Bus conductor was out meeting and greeting, so of course we stopped.

The shrunken head is always fun - Trevor is Hufflepuff and when he found that out he was like "ooh I didn't realize you were hufflepuff, I'll talk a little slower".

They pulled me in for a photo.

And then we realized you could look in the actual Knight bus itself! Maybe Trevor knew it but I didn't, so that was cool:

I wanna go in, but you can only look.


Fun photo op though.

We looked a bit at the merch stand that they had set up there - Trevor almost got some of the Knight bus merch but decided against it. We looked around a bit more at the Christmas decorations before heading in to Diagon Alley -

Hello #12 Grimmauld Place!

Then, into Diagon Alley! We weren't aiming to see shows (Trevor had seen them all last Christmas), so we were just wandering around and looking at decorations.

Wreath with the dragon!

And then we went to ride Gringotts! I was worried about fitting on rides, so this was the first test. I tried the test seat outside and I couldn't get the light to turn green, but then Trevor pushed on it and it did go green, so we decided to try it. Yay for Express pass - we just walked right on in!

Had to get a quick picture.

10 minutes later we were on the ride. They put me on row 6, which is where the modified seats are. Not sure if I was in a modified seat or not, but either way, I fit. Yay!!!! That made me really happy. And the ride was super fun too.

As we exited through the gift shop, we absolutely got sucked in by the merch. They were having a promotion where if you bought a $500 gift card, you got an interactive wand, a couple other things, and a 10% discount on anything you paid for with the gift card. So after some deliberation (Trevor was like "we're never going to spend that much!....HAHAHAHAHA famous last words), we ended up getting it. And immediately spent like $150 on some things and gifts. And this is where we discovered one of our favorite Universal things: they do package delivery to your ROOM! WHAT?! We were very excited, and so of course immediately had all our purchases sent back to the room. Brilliant.

Shopping done (for the moment), we kept wandering in Diagon Alley.

Selfie with the dragon while we waited for him to breathe fire.

 

[bettertheangel]

The shrunken head is always fun - Trevor is Hufflepuff and when he found that out he was like "ooh I didn't realize you were hufflepuff, I'll talk a little slower". ​

​

This made me chuckle. Those poor Hufflepuffs are always getting dunked on.

That in-room package delivery sounds dangerous! They really need to bring it back to WDW.

 

[Araminta18]

This made me chuckle. Those poor Hufflepuffs are always getting dunked on.

That in-room package delivery sounds dangerous! They really need to bring it back to WDW.

I was definitely laughing, even as I was saying that it was mean

It was SO NICE! I do wish they'd bring it back to WDW - so miss it.

 

[Araminta18]

Not All Who Wander are Lost - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 5)​

We ended up hanging around for like 20 minutes waiting for the dragon...oops!

Still a fun view, and not horribly crowded.

Some non-firebreathing dragon video for atmospherics.

We did take pics on Hagrid's motorbike:


Not as fun as the roller coaster.

Finally, he breathed fire!

yay!

I got startled and only caught a second of it on film, but if you rewatch it it looks like he breathes fire ALL the time.

We were actually having a lot of fun hanging out in Diagon Alley, just enjoying being there, so we canceled our 1:30 lunch at Toothsome's (yes that was like 2 hours away but we weren't super hungry and we didn't want to have to rush out to City Walk), with the plan to keep exploring and if we got hungry to grab something from inside the park.

I realize I just said I wasn't hungry but there's always room for non-melting ice cream!


We bought some things for our offices and had them sent back to our room, and then left Diagon Alley. We ran into the Jaws shark:


Oh no, Trevor got eaten!! He was having fun with this photo op and there were definitely some other passerbys laughing at him, in addition to me.

We kept going and ran into the Mummy ride, so of course we tried that one. Once again, yay for express - we waited a grand total of 3 minutes.

It was great fun but I ended up scaring myself expecting jump scares and such. It is a really fun coaster!

We came out and saw some of the characters so of course we got a picture.

And for completeness's sake, the video Trevor took.

At this point it was 12:10 and we started hearing movement over at the Blues Brothers stage, and while we weren't super interested in seeing the whole show, we figured we'd hang out for a little bit.

Them pulling up in the car!

We didn't realize that they did a song or two before the Blues Brothers showed up, but it was fun:

Lots of energy.

 

[Araminta18]

Yellowest Chefs Around - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 6)​

We left after one song from the Blues Brothers and kept wandering. We found the Christmas tree and of course took a selfie:

We didn't know to look for Earl the squirrel - oh well!

The tree was right by Jimmy Fallon Race Through New York and I'd never done that, so of course we had to try it. We used express but there was really no wait - it was a very low crowd day!! The ride itself was...zany. Such a weird ride. Fun just for the sheer craziness of it, but I wouldn't ever wait for it.

We got out and kept walking around -

I just like this shot with the Christmas tree and the regular trees and the coaster peeking over there in the corner.

We passed Mel's Diner and saw Marilyn Monroe out meeting - with only 2 minutes left! So we hopped in line (cause there was basically no line ) and got a fun little meet and greet with her - she's super sweet!

Then we saw the Transformers meet and greet area with no Transformer but a suspicious amount of TMs with a wind measuring thing-y, and then all of a sudden Megatron walked out! There were a bunch of us waiting around but not a ton - we all got right in.

Meeting the villains is always fun - they're super funny.

Meet and greet over, we moved to the next ride - Rip Ride Rocket! Trevor was like "absolutely not" but I wanted to try it. I fit on the modified test seat, so I went for it. I only waited about 10 minutes, which wasn't bad. This was the ride with the tightest fit: I told the TM loading the ride that I would need a modified seat, so they sent me to row 4. But then on row 4 I couldn't fit, so they pulled me off and put me in row 3 and I couldn't quite get the seat to close. But I told the TM checking seats that if she was willing to push I was good with it, and she like braced herself and pushed, and it closed! Yay! So props to that TM.

The ride was fun - I chose "Waterloo" for my song. I did end up with bruises on my leg but #worthit. Trevor was still not riding it after my endorsement of it being "fun". Oh well!

Next up we did VillainCon! I was really excited for this one 'cause it seemed interesting and the whole VillainCon theming was intruiging. The theming was super cool - I loved how the queue is themed to an actual convention, with booths and a con map and everything. We did ok, I think? I have no idea what a high score is, but we had fun.

Trevor got 464,080, while I got 313,400. Nice.

I do get the complaints though that you're standing the whole time and it goes sloooooooooooow. After standing/walking all day the last thing you want is to stand on an attraction!

We did some damage in the gift shop - they had souvenirs themed to the con (aka in universe souvenirs) and those are Trevor's and my favorite type of souvenirs. I have one of the con stickers on my laptop right now, actually. But again - had them sent back to the room. Woot!

I love this theming - too bad it's not real.

At this point we were a bit hungry, so we decided to get food at the Minion cafe! Might as well go for fun theming. It's mobile order only, so we placed our mobile order and headed inside. They had a freestyle soda machine which is one of Trevor's favorite things, so he went to town. Trevor likes to make a soda with a root beer base and then whatever random soda tickles his fancy - I always know it's gonna be interesting when Trevor comes back from the machine, hands me the soda and says only "Try it". This time it ended up being root beer, with peach cream soda and pineapple fanta. It wasn't good, but it wasn't baaaaaad. But I couldn't stop drinking it - again not like guzzling but sipping. Trevor liked it, describing it as "let chaos reign!"

After about 15/20 minutes, our food arrived. Yay! I got Agnes' Honeymoon Soup: green tomato soup, crispy pork belly, tomato gummy bear, basil oil served with a pimento cheddar grilled cheese sandwich.

This was piping hot, which was good. The flavor was all pretty good - the grilled cheese didn't have a ton of filling so it was slightly overcooked, but overall, it was good.

Trevor got the Freedonia Festival of Mac & Cheese: pasta shells tossed in white cheddar cheese sauce topped with crispy pork belly, chopped parsley, shaved parmesan cheese with Minion tots

Trevor is weird and he doesn't like mac and cheese with actual cheese - he prefers it with sauce. And this was exactly what he liked - saucy and not really actual cheese. Those shavings of parmesan on top he gave to me. He said it was creamy and good - a bit bland but good. And he liked the pork belly.

And finally, El Macho Nacho Hat: crispy tortilla chips served with house made guacamole inside of El Macho's signature sombrero.

This was pretty standard chips and guac - you get it for the presentation.

 

[Araminta18]

If the Minions Did a TED Talk, I'd Watch - Thursday Nov 14, 2014 (part 7)​

One last food photo - Minion tots!

The taste of these is nothing exceptional but LOOK at how cute they are! We gave this minion the Freedonia flag from Trevor's mac and cheese.

After eating, we looked around the restaurant at all the theming. It was amazing!

Best vending machine ever.

But really my favorite part was Minion De-Motivational posters. If they sold these, I'd buy them and put them up at work in a HEARTBEAT.




This rings a bit too true to a current situation at work right now...I may or may not have sent it to my boss.



Aren't those great? I seriously want them.

But there was more great theming:

DJ Carl!

Seriously - A+ to Universal for the theming in here. So good.

After having our fill, we headed into the Minion bakery/sweet shop: Bake My Day. Lots of cute stuff but we ended up only getting a chocolate banana cake pop:

In addition to being super cute, this was good. Very sweet, and much bigger than it seems, but it was good. And we could pay with the gift card and get 10% off, so that was cool.

 

[alohamom]

Trevor liked it, describing it as "let chaos reign!"

Hahaha, VERY apropos for the Minion theme feast!

 

[nascargirl]

Woo hoo, found your next trip report. I just got all caught up.

 

[Araminta18]

Hahaha, VERY apropos for the Minion theme feast!

lol right? I didn’t realize Trevor had minion tendencies!!