(Updated 2/2) How Bougie Can We Be? - Nov 2024 TR

[Araminta18]

So exciting that you were able to see the store. I'm a sucker for costumes, so it's now on my to do list. Thanks for sharing all your pictures!

If you like costumes you HAVE to do this - it's so cool! I hope you love it!

 

[Araminta18]

Rides and Snacks! - Friday Nov 15, 2024 (part 9)​

We got off the Seuss Trolley at about 6:35 (also LONGEST EXIT PATHWAY EVER - it just winds around and around and around), and decided to head over and ride the Hulk! We could still use our express passes since the park was still open for day guests so off we went! Trevor was super nervous in the line, but then we got on (I don't remember if we waited for row 1 or just went for whichever modified seat was available...oops!). At the end, Trevor said it wasn't "too bad" - he was terrified at a couple points but the rest of the time was fine. I enjoyed it!

This is Trevor trying to keep his eyes open for the picture.

Once off the ride, it was a little bit before 7, and time for food! The SuperHero Cafe was one of the places that started serving the included food at 7 pm, and it was right there. So we did a quick bathroom break and then I got in the line for food. It was kind of long but it moved super quickly, and pretty soon I had a full tray. I really just wanted garlic knots, but despite what the menu said they actually had garlic breadsticks instead, and the breadsticks came with fettucine. The worker also told me to get the little strawberry cheesecake bite - I don't like cheesecake but Trevor does, so I grabbed it for him.

I felt a little bad wasting the fettucine, cause I only had a bite or two and then focused on the breadsticks. The breadsticks had good flavor, but were a little hard/burnt on the bottom. Trevor liked the cheesecake bite - he said it was like a thick mousse.

It was about 7:15, and we started heading into the park, but first a photo!

Had to take a picture with Hulk in the background and Orlando Informer logo up there.

It was kind of surreal to be heading deeper into the park as people were streaming out. Pretty neat though, and cool to see the park at night. We finally got up to Kong and headed in. We were still carrying the soda from the SuperHero cafe and we went to throw it out as we got in line but he TM was like "NO!" - apparently we could take it into the line since there were trashcans further in. It was nice of him, even though we didn't care nearly as much - we were close to done anyways, and also it was included. Also, that is a super long queue! Crazy.


We finally made it on to a half empty truck and off we went. This was my first time riding it - I liked it, but didn't love it. There were some fun effects but that queue was super long and the ride was a little bit boring.

We kept going and decided to pass on River Adventure (didn't wanna get wet again ) and were planning to ride Velocicoaster, but it said it was closed. I was hoping it was closed to clear our the queue of day guests, but then I got distracted because Hagrid's had been down but it was now saying "Ride Now" so we were like GO GO GO

We got there and made it all the way to the classroom area (right before the room with the motorcycles on the ceiling) before finding the line, so that was awesome!

We both rode separately this time - we each wanted the bike.


Definitely having a good time. Actually the picture booth was closed when we exited (and was closed at all the rides all night), but I was able to get the picture by emailing the photo people a few days later. Woot!

We got off just before 8 pm, and Hagrid's was now posting 35, so we figured we'd ride it again. We'd get off at 8:35ish, grab butterbeers, and watch the show on the castle. Not a bad plan! Off we headed to get back on - but first, pretty picture of Hogsmeade at night!

So pretty, and with the Christmas lights!

Back in line at Hagrids, we met up with the line right before we entered the building - not quite as good as meeting up with the line in the classroom but I'll take it. The line was posting pretty accurate - we were on the ride at 8:28!

We each got the bike and it shook out that I got row 1 and Trevor got row 2 - woot!

 

[Araminta18]

Coasters and Shows! - Friday Nov 15, 2024 (part 10)​

We had way too much fun -


We ended up waiting a bit to unload so I took some pictures:


Unicorns!

It was about 8:40, so I headed over to get the butterbeers while Trevor went to watch the Frog Choir, since they were out performing.

Very nice!

There was again a bit of a line at the Three Broomsticks, but not horrible - they had everything set out at different stations so you just went and grabbed what you wanted at each station. We didn't want any food but I got ALL the drinks:

I got the pumpkin juice, apple cider, hot utterbeer, frozen butterbeer, regular butterbeer, and then gilly water just for the fun of it. I grabbed a seat on the bench by the castle, and it was time to do a taste test!

So - our decisions!

• Pumpkin juice: tastes a bit like pumpkin pie filling - nutmeg, etc. Not bad, but not our favorite
• Apple cider: tastes like apple cider
• Hot butterbeer: our favorite of the three butterbeers, but we still don't like butterbeer. The cream on top was nice. If it were cold and we wanted a hot drink, this would do.
• Frozen butterbeer: there was tooooo much of the sweet foam/cream thing on top - like we went and got a straw to try and taste the drink itself without getting all the cream.
• Butterbeer: blech we just didn't like this flavor. It and the frozen are equally gross.

So mostly a bust, but at least we had a nice seat!

Look at that lack of crowd!

And then the show started:

So fun - we really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed being able to watch it from this bench without there being huge crowds. The castle does look pretty all lit up:


Two pics 'cause we were playing with the settings on Trevor's phone.

It was just before 9:10 when the show was over, and Velocicoaster was up, so we hustled over! There was no wait and we basically walked right into the locker room. We got all our stuff stashed (which was the longest part of the line - Trevor putting his stuff in the locker ;D), and then headed up to ride on row 12 again.

So fun! We had a great time. What to do next? Obviously Velocicoaster again! We couldn't just stay on, but there was still no wait.

 

[Araminta18]

The Tradition Continues: Rides and Snacks! - Friday Nov 15, 2024 (part 11)​

So they wouldn't let us stay on, but I asked if we could just leave our stuff in the locker and just go around and ride again, and the TM said not normally but because the line was so light we could this time. So we left our stuff and headed around! Took us about 3 minutes to walk around and be ready to board - we didn't end up stopping anywhere! Woot!

Shortest time ever - 3 minutes from walking in to walking on the ride. I don't think you can do that shorter without them letting you stay on.

At this point we decided to head on over to Diagon Alley, so over to the Hogwarts express!

There was a train pulling out right as we got there which was a bit of a bummer, but they come pretty quick so not too bad.


We did get our own cabin though, which was awesome!

Once we got to Universal Studios, we were hungry! So we headed to the Italian place for garlic knots.

Very pretty at night!

I do appreciate how they have the food just out to grab - you don't have to order at the cashier and wait.

The garlic knots were soft and garlicky - I got seconds.

Sorry for the blurry pic - Trevor got the cannoli, which he said was good. I'm not a big fan of cannoli so you'll have to take his word for it.


They also had a freestyle machine for soda so Trevor had lots of fun with that. I don't remember what the flavor was he inflicted on me this time, but as long as he had fun.

After eating though, we decided that we probably needed some real food, so we stopped by Richter's burgers to get a burger. This was a little bit of a bust -

The burger was lukewarm - would have been better warm - and no toppings (no lettuce, etc). It was fine, just not great. But at least some protein! We also tried their chocolate milkshake:

I don't know what this was but it was not a milkshake - it was more like a float? Chocolate ice cream in rootbeer? Not bad, just not what I was expecting lol.

Next up, Diagon Alley and ice cream!

 

[Araminta18]

When One Ice Cream Flavor Just Isn't Enough - Friday Nov 15, 2024 (part 12)​

About 10:20 we were on our way back to Diagon Alley.

So pretty.

First stop? Fortescue's ice cream! Though we got slightly distracted - we saw the pilot light on in the dragon's mouth so we stopped for just a second and caught the dragon breathing fire!

Then into Fortescue's! As was becoming standard, all the flavors were out on the counter and you just grabbed the ones you were interested in:

I wanted all of them! We grabbed as many as we could hold this first time around and then sat down on the steps of the bank (right underneath the dragon) to taste test them.

One of these was clotted cream, and one was Earl Grey & Lavender - can't remember which one. I really like clotted cream as cream so I was excited to try the ice cream but it tasted sour, which I didn't expect, and didn't love. Trevor didn't like this one either-- he doesn't like adventurous flavors in ice cream. Earl Grey & Lavender was pretty mild, and tasted mostly of lavender to me. I liked it, but Trevor didn't.

Chocolate Chili! When I ate this it tasted just of chocolate at first, but then the spice builds - it's really spicy! Well, I think it's really spicy. I didn't love it. Trevor said it sounded gross but didn't taste as bad as he thought it would, and he didn't mind the spice.

Then Butterbeer soft serve, and Strawberry Peanut Butter. The Strawberry Peanut Butter tasted really like peanut butter! Weird flavor for an ice cream, but not bad. You could taste the strawberry too, though it wasn't as strong as the peanut butter. This was Trevor's favorite so far. The Butterbeer soft serve was basically butterscotch on vanilla ice cream, so I didn't think it was bad - we both decided of the butterbeer things, it was one of the best. We considered it about even with the hot butterbeer.

After that, I went back in to get the flavors we didn't get yet - Chocolate Raspberry and Huckleberry!

I went back to Trevor out on the steps to try them. The chocolate raspberry was just what it says on the tin - very artificial raspberry taste, and not super exciting, but not bad. The huckleberry I liked! I think it was my favorite of all the ice creams, but Trevor thought it was just "generic fruit flavor".

So yea, all the ice creams were a little bit of a bust but it was SO MUCH FUN doing the taste test and trying them all and sitting on the steps under the dragon. You can hear all the sound effects in a way that you can't during the day, and at one point while we were eating the dragon went off over our heads! It was super neat. We just really had a good time enjoying the atmosphere and how not-crowded it was. We also went into the Gringotts Money Changing shop thing and bought some souvenirs there.

Ok, so it was 10:30, and we had two hours left in the event (though some of the coasters were going to stop running at midnight). We figured we'd walk around Universal Studios to the cut through to Islands of Adventure to try the food at Seuss Island, so off we went. We passed some food stands and realized that even food there was included! I got a blue raspberry icee, and Trevor got a pretzel.

He doesn't look excited but I promise he was.


Such a pretty view! We also got a small version of the Simpsons Donut - I was hoping it would be the big size so we could take it with us to eat for breakfast in the morning but no such luck.

Still fun to try though.

We also passed by the DeLorean again -

With it being dark you could see the Flux Capacitor all lit up inside!

One more photo just for funsies.

 

[Araminta18]

We're Wizards! - Friday Nov 15, 2024 (part 13)​

As we made our way over, we passed the Wicked Store again so we took a few more photos.

The name above the store lights up! Anyways

We made it over to Circus McGurkus for the food. Trevor wanted the Popcorn Shrimp Box and I wanted the Mini Roast Beast Sandwich slider. First, the popcorn shrimp:

It came with actual popcorn, which was super cute. Trevor said it was good - it reminded him of the shrimp tacklebox at Popeyes, with the seasoning and the shrimp, though Popeyes didn't have curly fries and the curly fries were delicious. I liked those.

The slider though was SO SALTY. SO salty I couldn't really eat it - both the pretzel bun and the beef itself. Bummer. So overall a bit disappointing but at least we got to try it.

It was 11:10 pm, and when we checked the app, Hagrid's was posting a 20 minute wait, and so we were like let's do it! We'll ride Hagrid's and then we can do spells with Trevor's wand. But by the time we got over there, the wait had gone up to 40 minutes. We weren't sure if it was actually 40 or if they were just trying to scare people off (since the ride had to be clear of guests by midnight), so we hopped in line. We joined the line in the pre-show room, and then we didn't move for 10 minutes, so we ended up bailing. We decided to ride the Hogwarts Express back to Diagon Alley and do spells there, so over we went.

It's not a trip report of mine if there's not a picture of Trevor standing which I took from sitting on the ground. We got over there pretty quickly and by 11:50 we were in Diagon Alley doing spells!

Trevor's a wizard!
This was really fun - there weren't really any people to wait to be done with the spell spots, and we just had a great time. I think we did them all, including the ones in Knockturn Alley. Highly recommend!

We finished with about 15 minutes left in the event, so we figured we'd wander slowly out of the park. As we walked out, we passed a stand with potstickers!

These were surprisingly good! Not dry or cold, which was even more impressive considering it was from a stand and only 10 minutes before the event ended. We also got more powerade, so you know, that was good.

As we walked closer to the front, we passed the Minions stand and got some water bottles (fancy water!) and some banana popcorn.

The popcorn was good but a bit weird - the banana flavor was like a sticky coating. Trevor had had it before but he liked it better than I did. I did think the popcorn box was super cute:

So fun

We did pick up the Hogsmeade at Christmas pillow that we'd seen all over the park - Trevor had been on the fence and since we were literally heading back to the hotel we grabbed it. The time stamp on that receipt is 12:26, so we made pretty good use of our time!

From here it was back to the water taxi dock - we waited about 5 minutes or so? By 12:37 we were on the boat back to the hotel, and probably in bed by 1 am. My pictures end right there at the water taxi dock. LOL

Overall, we had a great time! It was so fun trying all the food even if a lot of it was a bust, and really just having Diagon Alley super empty and being able to ride the coasters was worth it. So much fun in a very uncrowded park. We got way more done than we expected! and we did good with wearing our spirit jerseys - it was just chilly enough that the spirit jerseys kept us warm. If it were windy we would have been too cold, but it wasn't windy, so it worked out. We were excited for round two tomorrow!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 27092 steps (10.2 miles)
Ride count: 16 for Tiffany, 15 for Trevor (Hulk (x2 for Tiffany), Spiderman Bilge Rat Barges, Hagrids x3, Velocicoaster x4, Forbidden Journey, Seuss Trolley, Kong, Hogwarts Express x2)
Savings at Universal (fancy gift card): $30.55

 

[bettertheangel]

Wow, you got a lot done during the event! I am thinking about booking my next Universal trip when there's an Orlando Informer meetup now.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hi Tiffany - I’m excited to join in for another of your great reports.

Yes, the bathrooms in the Portofino Bay rooms are RIDICULOUS. I was so surprised when we stayed there - what were they thinking when they designed those rooms?! Considering how sprawling that resort is you got an excellent room location!

I loved seeing all the Wicked pictures - super fun after having seen the movie! I’m glad you posted them all.

The Orlando Informer events always look like so much fun. And, unsurprisingly, you killed it! So many attractions and a bunch of snacks.

 

[alohamom]

Actually the picture booth was closed when we exited (and was closed at all the rides all night), but I was able to get the picture by emailing the photo people a few days later. Woot!

Oh that is great to know!

 

[Araminta18]

Wow, you got a lot done during the event! I am thinking about booking my next Universal trip when there's an Orlando Informer meetup now.

You should! It was super fun - not crowded at all. You could definitely do more than we did, but we never felt like we were rushing or anything. Highly recommend.

 

[Araminta18]

Hi Tiffany - I’m excited to join in for another of your great reports.

Yes, the bathrooms in the Portofino Bay rooms are RIDICULOUS. I was so surprised when we stayed there - what were they thinking when they designed those rooms?! Considering how sprawling that resort is you got an excellent room location!

I loved seeing all the Wicked pictures - super fun after having seen the movie! I’m glad you posted them all.

The Orlando Informer events always look like so much fun. And, unsurprisingly, you killed it! So many attractions and a bunch of snacks.

Hi! Thanks for joining in!!!

Aren't those bathrooms crazy!? Definitely excessive. And yes - we got so lucky with the room location! Especially with having the room ready that early!

Glad you liked the Wicked pics!

 

[Araminta18]

Oh that is great to know!

Yea! The Informer people said that pictures just weren't available, but since the flashes were going off I figured it couldn't hurt to email and ask, and they were able to find them all!!

 

[Araminta18]

Swimming? In November?! - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 1)​

We meant to sleep in a little bit today, but I ended up waking up around 7 am. Just too much excitement! But we lounged around a bit until finally getting up around 8:30. The plan was that we would take it slow: eat breakfast at the hotel, check out the pool, and then today was the first day of the Universal Orlando garage sale (merch at 70% off!) opening up at 12 noon to non-passholders, so I wanted to check that out.

As we got ready, we realized that we forgot our ibuprofen and we're old now, so ibuprofen is a must for park days. But when we stopped by the gift shop at Portofino, they wanted $16 for a 24 count bottle of ibuprofen. Ridiculous!! We opted for a same-day delivery order from Target - way cheaper.

For breakfast, we opted to go the Trattoria del Porto restaurant there. It was a pretty standard breakfast offering, but good. I got an omelet:

I wished the cheese would have been a little bit more well distributed throughout, but it was yummy.

Toast was yummy but the butter was SUPER cold so it made it hard to spread.

Trevor got eggs and bacon:

Overall a good breakfast - a bit expensive, but good.

We finished at about 10:15, and by 10:30 had made our way to the pool!

It looked gorgeous, and was only *slightly* on the cold side. I was surprised at how cold the water felt when I first walked in - still not sure if the water was heated or not. It probably was? It just felt a bit cold as we slowly got in an acclimated. But then Trevor was like "I'm going down the slide!" cause he's crazy.


Hi Trevor!

I went down the slide too, but I went down sitting up (cause cold!) and then the water is shallower than I expected at the end, so I ended up kind of standing hard on my left leg as I came off the slide, which hurt like the devil. Not something I'd recommend!

We ended up staying at the pool for about an hour - there were only like 2 or 3 other groups there, which was really nice. I felt bad for the workers - the lifeguards outnumbered the guests! But we left at about 11:30/11:40, picked up our Target order as the driver dropped it off, and then headed back to the room to get changed. By 12:45, we were on our way to the garage sale!

So this next couple of hours was just full of miscalculations LOL.

I'd read online that the uber situation at the garage sale was crazy, so I was like "oh we could just walk!". On google maps it looked like there was a walking path out the back of the resort, but with all the construction, it took us like 20 minutes to find our way out. But we eventually did, walking out the service parking lot, and onto the sidewalk. We did pass a Universal sign:

That was fun!

At 1:15 (about 15 min after actually finding the path ) we made it to the garage sale, and found the line:

So it may not look that bad, but it had tons of switchbacks, and there was a first half and a second half, divided by a space where they let the folks exiting the garage sale get through. I'd seen lots of comments online about how busy it was and how long the line was but I was hoping it would be shorter after it was open to non-passholders (don't ask me why I was hoping or thought that). We hopped in line:

And after an hour, we'd only just made it through the first half, and were about to head over to the second half. And that had a bunch more switchbacks - probably at least another 3 hours. So we bailed. I love merch, and I love discounted merch, but man. That's crazy. So we grabbed an uber and headed back to the hotel (no more walking ).

We were at the hotel by 2:30, and before heading to the room we stopped at the Market Deli to get food. We were going to order hot food but apparently the wait was like 45 minutes! So we just did grab and go - I got a caprese salad and Trevor got some jerky and a banana, and back to the room we went.

The caprese salad was surprisingly good and fresh for a $6 grab and go:

Good fresh tomatoes and a really good flavor.


Trevor enjoyed his "everything seasoning" beef jerky and banana.

While we ate, we watched the latest episode of Abbot Elementary.

 

[Araminta18]

Wait, Back to the Garage Sale?! - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 2)​

We also broke out some of our Gideon's cake:

Delicious, as always.

After eating we took naps (yay naps!). I woke up at around 4, and got snookered again by people on the internet saying that the line for the garage sale had gone waaaaaaay down and was super short. And 'cause Trevor is such a good sport, we grabbed an uber and headed back to the garage sale. The line was shorter:

Only 3 switchbacks, but still longer than I was hoping. But it moved pretty fast! After 10 minutes we only had one switchback left. But they just stopped letting people in - we waited for like 15 minutes in that last switchback and finally made it in to the garage sale at 5:30 exactly - 30 minute wait.

It was definitely overwhelming inside! Just stuff everywhere and tables of boxes - crazy. We ended up spending about an hour there - we bought lots of Harry Potter stuff and some Jurassic park stuff. Trevor occasionally got a bit overwhelmed by the noise and the people, but mostly was fine. Checking out was interesting - $283.40 subtotal, then a discount of $198.38 for a total of $85.02. Not bad! BUT the interesting part - one of the things we bought was the display maps of both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and all the coins, and when some of the coins rung up, instead of ringing up at whatever price ($8, I think), they rung up as NEGATIVE $3. Which means Universal was giving us $3 to take those coins! I did the math, that's what they did - awesome! If I'd realized quicker after we checked out, or if we had more time, I would have had us go back and just buy a bunch of those coins and see what would have happened (would they give us money and the coins? LOL). But I didn't end up noticing til later that night or the next day, so we'll just take the fun for what it was.

Anyways, we grabbed an uber and were back at the hotel by 6:50. As we walked to our room, we passed a live band out on the balcony of one of the restaurants, which was neat.

People were just sitting at their outdoor tables enjoying the music. Nice!

We quickly got changed in the room and got ready for the event - I was rushing us a little bit 'cause I wasn't sure if we could still check in after 8 pm and while it was only about 7 I was still a bit nervous. Cause me.

Anyways! By 7:15 we were leaving the room and there was a boat at the dock - they saw us running and held the boat a little bit which was super nice.

Trevor got this long-sleeved shirt at the garage sale and decided to wear it to the event. Jurassic Park!

By 7:35 we'd gotten all checked in and were back at the soundstage looking for food! They'd made some changes since the night before - they had signs above each table saying what food was there, which was nice. We got more spring rolls:

And chips and queso:

But the exciting bit was the brand-new bakery stand!

What did the bakery have? Cookies!!

Hard to tell in this light, but these cookies were actually blue!

They were nice and soft; I think the blue was just for fun.

By 7:45 we were ready to head out into the park! Trevor had run back into the first soundstage for something (maps? bathroom? who remembers) and I was waiting for him underneath the snoap, cause why not.

Me with a cookie and snoap, living my best life.

 

[Araminta18]

Shirley Temples and Burgers! - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 3)​

We headed into the park with much less of a plan than the night before. Which was actually kind of nice - the world was our oyster! Though first I needed to do a quick return of 2 things we'd bought at full price on Thursday but then I got them at the garage sale for 70% off so I was returning the full price ones. I was hoping it was like Disney where you could return anything purchased on property anywhere, but when I stopped in at the gift shop there in Seuss Landing they told me I had to return it to the shop where I purchased it. Bummer! One of them was purchased from the big store at the front of Islands, so I headed that way and sent Trevor down by the waterfront where there were fewer people so he could get a little break from people and calm down (his anxiety was still a bit high after the garage sale).

I got the thing returned super quickly - I actually was able to return both even though the other thing had been purchased back in Hogsmeade, so that was super nice. Meanwhile, Trevor was enjoying the waterfront:

Pretty view!

It was just about 8 pm, and we decided to head back to Jurassic Park River Adventure! Time to ride it. But on our way we passed one of the bar table things they had set up, and while alcohol was an extra charge, soft drinks were included, and they even were able to do Shirley Temples! I like Shirley Temples so of course we got some:

Cheers!

We then headed in to River Adventure - there was (unsurprisingly) no one there, so we got our own car!

We went for the back row, as theoretically that would keep us the driest. It's definitely a little disconcerting to see no one else there!


It was really fun - we did stay mostly dry, just a pleasant misting.

The T-Rex animatronic was pretty scary - the only thing was when it opened its mouth you could see that it was just fabric and there was a bit more of a view of the metal rod going up it than you'd like for the illusion. Some of the other animatronics looked a bit like they had broken necks! But overall we enjoyed it.

Burger Digs was right there and we were a bit hungry so we went and grabbed some burgers! These were the same ones as at Richters (or rather, they seemed like the same ones) but these were hot and the cheese was cheddar vs American (I don't like American cheese) so it was a lot better.

The fries were also surprisingly good and crispy.

There was also a brookie, so of course had to get that. It was yummy.

We sat outside on the balcony, and so we could see the entrance to Velocicoaster. It was posted as closed (it was saying 90 minutes before the park closed) but they were letting people in through the express line, so we figured after we ate we'd head over there and ride Velocicoaster.

We finished eating at about 8:40, and so headed down to Velocicoaster. There was a bit of a line:

This is after 4 minutes. But we ended up getting on row 8 after about 12/15 minutes, so not bad at all. We were thinking they must have been holding us a bit til they cleared the queue and then just let us all through.

We had cool timing - we could see the show going on the castle as we rode!

We got off and headed right back around:

Definitely a much smaller line this time.

 

[Araminta18]

Which is Longer - Hagrid's or Hogwarts Express? - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 4)​

We got up to the boarding area at 9:15 (so only about 10 min) but we decided to wait for row 1 - after I fit on row 8 last time I was like "hey let's try it!" It was only about a 5 minute wait, so highly recommend it! We had lots of fun talking with the people in line and building up the anticipation.

Row one is definitely less intense, but the view more than makes up for it.

We got off just before 9:30, and were walking over to Hogsmeade cause we wanted to see the 9:45 show on the castle. I was gonna try and get an icee but the stand we passed only sold alcoholic beverages, so bummer.

Pretty! Even if a bit blurry.

We decided this time to watch the show from the bridge, to get a little bit of a different angle. It was uncrowded enough that we could sit down on the bridge to wait for the show:

It stayed uncrowded enough that we could stay seated and see the entire show!

This was the crowd right as the show kicked off. Awesome!!

So nice to be able to have a great view while sitting down. Near the end of the show a couple walked by that we'd been seeing on and off all night last night and tonight - they were also staying at Portofino Bay so we chatted with them a little bit on the way over yesterday night. Don't ask me how but they and I all have iPhones and Trevor is the odd one out with an Android and somehow that became a fun little inside joke - Trevor was filming the show on his android and so they hung out next to him for a bit til the show ended and then razzed him a bit more. That's another fun part of theme park trips (and events like this) for me - you sometimes run into the same strangers and get to have that little bit of camaraderie.

After the show, it was just about 10 pm, and Hagrids was posting 40 minutes, so of course we had to hop in line. I was hoping it wouldn't be quite that long, but even if it was, oh well. We met up with the line in the room with the dragon eggs (right before the cave area), and were getting on at 10:21! Not bad at all. We both wanted the bike, so we rode separately:




At this point, we wanted to head over to Diagon Alley and get a ride in on Gringotts before it closed at midnight, so we headed over to the Hogwarts Express. It was about 10:30 and when we got over there they routed us through the regular line - not letting us go through the Express line. It was SUCH a long walk that we ended up missing the train and having to wait for the next one. Overall, it took about 25 minutes to get over to Studios - boo.

We got to Gringotts just before 11, but right as we got down to the preshow room, it went down. Womp womp. They did let us take some pictures with the goblins, so that was cool.



After 5 min, the ride hadn't come back up and the TMs weren't making optimistic noises, so we bailed. We also wanted to do VillainCon and that one also closed at midnight (the event didn't end til 1:30 am), and didn't want to miss it 'cause we were waiting for Gringotts. So off we went, with one last stop at Fortescue's ice cream shop - they had a new flavor, sticky toffee pudding!

We grabbed that to eat as we went - this was really good! There were actual cake pieces in it. I liked it. Trevor made a face when he ate it but he said it was good - not sure if he liked it better than the huckleberry or the strawberry peanut butter, but it was good.

 

[Araminta18]

Snackage! - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 5)​

As we exited Diagon Alley, we passed the same stand from the night before with potstickers, so of course we grabbed some.

They were a bit crunchy on the outside, but they tasted good!

Honestly, this turned into our snack era. As we walked to VillainCon, we passed Mel's Diner, so we stopped in and got some chicken tenders to go. These were delicious - they were PIPING hot and while nothing special, they were an excellent example of what they were.

Delish.

Over at VillainCon, we synced up our phones and starting playing. I still don't have a great idea on how to get a high score here, but it's fun!

Trevor beat me again: 648030 to my 566115. Still fun!

We got off at 11:30, and what did we see but a minion coming out to meet and greet!

The minion was very intrigued by the camera:


So fun! Good timing.

Next up we decided to duck into Cafe La Bamba and get some tacos, but on the way -

Pretty!

There was no wait for the tacos, which was nice. But rather than eat there, we decided to take them to go and go back over to the Italian place with the garlic knots! We were not the only ones doing a bit of a food tour and taking things around - we saw another family doing the same thing!



I got chicken tacos, and Trevor got one pork and one chicken taco. The chicken was a bit dry but the pork was less dry and had a bit more flavor than the chicken.

We also got some more garlic knots and also grabbed some fettucine just to try.

The fettucine had been sitting for a while so it was a bit crusty, but it had a good garlicky smell and the taste was good if you got some non-crusty bits from the bottom. The garlic knots were delicious:

So overall I think the garlic knots and the chicken tenders from Mel's were more favorite. We were also enjoying sitting down and being off our feet and just kind of talking and recapping the night so far. Saturday night was definitely more crowded than Friday night - not a ton, but it was noticeable. They weren't running us through the express lanes like they were the night before (like on the Hogwarts express), and the lines were just slightly longer. Still super enjoyable though.

We also gamed out the rest of our night: I wanted to ride the dark ride in Seussland, then back to the Jurassic Park area to get a couple shirts from the gift shop Trevor had liked when we rode River Adventure earlier, and then do Raptor Encounter. And somewhere in there get an icee.

 

[Araminta18]

The ICEE Extravaganza Begins! - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 6)​

We left the restaurant and were heading towards the crossover to Islands of Adventure, passing the Mummy. They had a DJ out in front which was fun - there weren't many people there but the DJ was still giving it his all. We decided to hop in line, and they made us go through the regular line (boooooo).


Inside the ride they even had a projection of the Orlando Informer logo, which was fun.

As we kept walking we passed a stand that actually did have icees, so we got some. I was only gonna get one but they had interesting flavors so we got all three: banana, blue raspberry, and cherry limeade!

Cherry limeade was surprisingly good. The others were good but nothing super interesting.

As we made our way between parks we saw the Orlando Informer mascot - I think his name is churro?

Hello!

I was trying all sorts of fun combinations of the icees - banana with cherry limeade, etc.

Doublefisting the icees!

Trevor thought it was funny so he made me take a picture.

Over at Seuss Land we walked right on to the Cat in the Hat ride.


The ride was surprisingly long, and pretty clever with some funny gags. It was definitely showing it's age a bit, and the spinning part got me with a little bit of the motion sickness, but overall it was fun.

Then since we were right there, we rode the Carousel.

Hi Trevor! He's back there in the middle.

For whatever reason we all got on and then it took them like 5 minutes to start the ride up, which felt way longer, for some reason. But it was a cute little ride.

Then, time to go back to the Raptor Encounter! As we walked back, we found a stand and got some more icees. Bwahahahaha. They had sprite cranberry, and cherry. I really appreciate that they have interesting icee flavors that I could try, and that they were included, so I didn't have to buy them separately. Sprite Cranberry was weird but it was growing on me.

The interesting thing was that the stands rung up everything that people got and seemingly kept a running tally on the registers:

Hard to see but the total is $7991.26 - isn't that crazy? Makes me wonder how much business they do in a day.

 

[Araminta18]

Raptors and ICEEs - Saturday Nov 16, 2024 (part 7)​

We made it back to the Raptor Encounter at about 12:45, and only had to wait for one party ahead of us. It was super fun! The TM they have running it was fantastic - I watched him distract the other group as the raptor lunged for them, and yet still got surprised myself!

Like, I know it's not a real raptor, but I also don't know that it's not real LOL. I knew she was gonna lunge and I still jumped! Trevor was laughing at me too.

At this point, we had 45 minutes left in the event, and nothing really that we wanted to do besides stop at the gift shop and get Trevor his shirts. So we did that, and then were just slowly meandering out of the park. We stopped at the stand by Kong and Trevor got the fancy bavarian pretzel, but all the other ones we'd seen had been sweet and this one was salty, so yay!

Yum. We also kept stopping at every stand that had icees. We got another cherry limeade, as well as an orange. The orange was super citrusy- almost too citrusy! We also got a green apple icee for Trevor - he's a big fan of green apple. It was definitely interesting! it was almost like a candy apple with cinnamon or marshmallow or something.

We also got some green popcorn:

The flavor was just normal butter and salt, but it was green for the Hulk!

We made it to the front of the park at about 1:20, and I realized there was a cinnabon shop there that was included in the food offerings! So of course we got in line - I figured we could save it and eat it for breakfast the next morning. When I ordered they said it would be about 5 minutes, which I was ok with - it meant it would be fresh! Too bad this would be the one thing we were saving for the next day lol.

Yum!

We had to take some pictures as we left the event:

That's Trevor with the green apple icee.

Selfie!

We really had a great time, trying all the food and doing all the rides, even though we didn't do as many rides tonight. Its really just so fun to have lower crowds and not have to fight people and lines and all that, and be able to hear all the theming and audio loops. It was even a little bit warmer tonight so we were just fine in long sleeves and shorts.

We made it to the dock at 1:28 pm, and promptly sat down to wait for our boat. This sign made us laugh:

It definitely does kind of look like a trash can!

Hi Trevor!

Saving our cinnamon roll and the popcorn:

You can also tell we weren't the only ones sitting down!

We were on the boat about 5 minutes later and by 1:45 am, we were back at the hotel, ready to crash into bed. Tomorrow, we transfer to Disney!!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 25568 steps (9.6 miles)
Ride count: 9 (Jurassic Park River Adventure, Velocicoaster x2, Hagrids, Hogwarts Express, VillainCon, Revenge of the Mummy, Cat in the Hat, Caro-Seuss-el)
Savings at Universal (fancy gift card): $5.40

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Snack goals! You guys really made the most of that event. Looks super fun