A Little Bit Of What You Fancy Does You Good

Sounds like you had a great day at Universal! I'm not a fan of getting wet so I've never done those water rides. I tend to get motion sickness on most of them, Spiderman. Was a stretch for me.
I didn’t know they let you take pictures in the Harry Potter queue, when I went on it no cameras were allowed. I also wish I had know. About the queue for flight of the hippogriff, I went on that coaster before they rethemed it so I didn't feel the need to go on it, but if I'd known that Hagrid's hut was there, I would have been all overy it!

You really got a lot done that day. I need to visit again, but not on the day after flying. I'm convinced that's why we never spend more than half a day there. Perhaps if I could go back in the afternoon by myself, I might enjoy the park more.

Your visit to Sweet Tomatoes has made me want to go to Souplantation!
 
Day 22

We had another early morning following a late night for me. We got up at 8:00 and got ready. This time round, we did a little detour. Ages ago, I had purchased a second hand Disney Dooney and Bourke bag of somebody in the USA. This attracted a customs charge, but rather than letting me know so that I could pay, Royal Mail sent it back. It so happened that our trip slightly overlapped with the trip of the person I bought the back from. So she left it at the front desk for me. They had left me a message that I had a parcel waiting. So we stopped at the Coach House on the way out and I picked up my parcel.

We had a smooth run to Universal and it seemed even quieter than earlier in the week. We parked the car, went through security and then got some breakfast. This time we ended up at Cinnabon. Graham had an Americano, a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich and a classic cinnamon roll. I had cinnamon roll iced coffee and some sausage bites, which were pork link sausages wrapped in dough. We both enjoyed our breakfast and then we pushed on to the park.





This time, we were just doing Universal Studios. There was a photographer just outside the entrance so we stopped for photos. We were just wrapping up when somebody called my name. A couple I know from the south of England were also in Orlando at that time and they just so happened to be at Universal the same day we were. We chatted for a few minutes and then we went our separate ways. We headed inside the park.





Near the entrance was another photographer. This one was a real gem. He took some photos near the entrance and then pointed out a photo opportunity with a New York taxi. So we headed over there. I then spotted Woody Woodpecker and he offered to come with us to take photos. Unfortunately Woody Woodpecker was about to go in so I missed out on this. The photographer stayed with us until the next character came out. This was Curious George. He took some photos and then we said goodbye.











We pushed on to our first attraction of the day, which was Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. The show was in progress so we had a short wait. Simulators are normally not my friend, but I could tolerate this and I thought this was very well done. When we came out there was a character meet and greet with nobody waiting. So we decided to head over there. We had no idea who the character was, but I found out since that it was Vector, the main villain of the film. He seemed pretty harmless to me.



We then moved deeper into the park. We had a quick look at Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. The lift hill got me and Graham did not like the look of the loop. So we moved on. Graham decided to do Revenge of the Mummy, but I was not brave enough and sat this out. That had the advantage that I could keep hold of Graham’s stuff and he did not have to put it in a locker. I had a look around in the immediate area and then went for a bathroom break. When I got back, Graham had already finished the ride and was sitting on a nearby bench sunning himself. He had enjoyed the ride and felt that I would be OK with this. He offered to go back with me. I said that I would think about it and may do this ride on the way back in the afternoon. So we moved on. There was a photographer near the huge Christmas tree in the area and we stopped for some photos. I also took some photos of some of the huge balloons from the Macy’s Christmas Parade that were on display at various places. Then we carried on towards the realm of Harry Potter.









When we walked towards the Knight Bus, I spotted that Stan the driver was by the bus. So we walked over. As we got closer, I noticed that there was also a photographer. This ended up to be seriously funny and definitely one of the better character interactions. The fun part did not actually come from Stan. He was really nice and personable and we had a lovely chat. If this was all that there was to it, I would still have enjoyed it. However, there was the little matter of the shrunken head. I had not noticed this at first, but it suddenly made some throwaway remark and after this, we got running commentary. I am not sure how they are doing this. I assume they use the same technology as Turtle Talk with Crush. However it is done, it put a huge smile on my face.







Then it was time for a little visit to the Leaky Cauldron. A lot of people I know have been talking about frozen butter beer so this was on my must try list. We timed this right. When we got there, it was relatively empty, but by the time we left, it was getting pretty full. I am glad that I tried the frozen butter beer, but I prefer the unfrozen version. Graham preferred it frozen, but was still not a fan. I have since found out that there is also hot butter beer and I wish I had known this when we were there.









 
Duly fortified, we headed to Gringotts. The waiting time was 10 minutes. We had to put our stuff in a locker and then we could get in line. At some stage in the line, we were redirected to a photo opportunity. Then it was time to watch a brief film setting the scene before heading to the lifts down to the loading dock. I really enjoyed that ride. Graham was not convinced. On the way out, we had the photo added to our card. Graham asked if I wanted to go again, I was fine doing it just the once as it was a pretty dynamic ride. Instead we collected our stuff from the locker and then I asked if we could just do a walkthrough, as I wanted to take photos. They were obviously set up for this request as we were directed to another line. We took our time looking around and taking photos.













When we came out again, we had a closer look at Knockturn Alley. This was very cleverly done and was wonderfully creepy. It also felt much larger than what it really was. We then had another look around Diagon Alley and then left to explore the rest of the park.





















 
The next stop was Men in Black Alien Attack. We had to put our stuff in a locker and then we got in line. I loved the theming of the line. They are obviously geared up for huge waits, but we were lucky and we walked through until we got to the stairs leading down to the loading dock. I loved this ride. Essentially it is a more grown up and dynamic version of Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. We decided to go again when we got out as we had the locker for up to an hour. I did enjoy it again, but I did feel slightly queasy by the end of this. I should not have been surprised as I get the same effect when I do Toy Story Mania more than once in quick succession and the ride vehicles here were even more dynamic. We got our stuff from the locker and then headed over to Springfield.



I am far from a Simpson’s fan. I never got the attraction of the show. However, I loved the theming in this area. It is here I made a tactical mistake. I knew that The Simpsons Ride is essentially the same ride as the old Back to the Future ride that had been re-themed. I also know that when we were there in 1998, this ride did not agree with me. I still decided to ride it. That may not have been one of my better ideas, especially as I was still feeling a little delicate from our back-to-back rides on Men in Black Alien Attack. I am glad that I did do it as this is really a fun ride and very cleverly done. I did however need to sit down for a bit when we came out until the world stopped spinning.





There was one ride that was still on my to do list. Apart from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, this has really been the only draw for me before our visit. That is the E.T. Adventure. I have loved this ride on our previous visit to Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. So we headed there next. I remembered that this used to pull serious crowds, but this time we waited about 5 minutes. The ride was every bit as cute as I remembered. I knew that there were E.T. photo opportunities in the nearby gift shop and I wanted to check this out. There are two there. One involves a bike and green screen technology. Unfortunately I was wearing a green t-shirt that day so they had a bit of a job fixing those photos. The other was Elliot’s toy cupboard. This was a lot of fun.









When the photos were sorted, we found ourselves a quiet bench and had a bit of downtime. This was definitely needed at that stage. Once we had rested for a bit, we went to see SpongeBob Squarepants and then we started to make our way slowly pack towards the front of the park.





Our next stop was Transformer The Ride 3D. We had a about a 15 minute wait, but we did enjoy it and this was very well done. However, it was around this time that we came to the realisation that although we had definitely enjoyed our two days at Universal, a lot of the rides are really the same with just the theming changing from ride to ride. When we got out, we spotted a Transformers Meet and Greet. We got in line. Megatron was about to go in, but he was replaced by Optimus Prime shortly and this is who we got to meet.



There was one meet and greet that was left on my to do list and that was Donkey from Shrek. There was nobody in this spot so we decided to go and see Shrek 4D first. This was probably the longest wait of the day as a show had just started when we got there. Still, there is a little show in the holding pen and that was actually pretty funny so it did not feel like a long wait. We did enjoy the show. When we came back out, they were getting ready for the next set at the meet and greet spot for Donkey. Donkey is actually an animatronic, but we got to see Shrek and Fiona as well and again, this was very cleverly done.





When we had said goodbye to Shrek, Fiona and Donkey, Graham asked if I wanted to go back and do The Revenge of the Mummy. I was still not sure about this ride and I was kind of done for the day. So I declined. We made our way towards the exit. I still had one thing to take care of. I still had the temporary photo card from the first day. I also noticed that the magic was missing from the magic shots. So we headed for the photo store. It was there I learned that they only keep the photos on temporary photo cards until the end of the day and that they have to add magic manually. She also added some borders.

On the way out, I had a look at one of the gift shops, but I did not find anything that I fancied. We picked the right moment to leave. It suddenly turned very dark. As we walked through City Walk, I spotted Coldstone Creamery. We decided to have a snack. Graham had a scoop of mint ice cream and I had a scoop of cake batter ice cream. While we enjoyed our snack, we were discussing dinner. Graham suggested that we could go to Olivia's Cafe at Old Key West. I was up for this and managed to make a reservation on the My Disney Experience app.

When we left the parking structure, it had started to rain. We headed to Orlando Premium Outlets at the top of International Drive. I was still in search of another Disney Dooney and Bourke bag. I was out of luck again. There was nothing there that took my fancy either. We also had a look at a few other shops, but neither of us ended up buying anything.

I needed to get a few odds and ends from Walgreens. Graham suggested that we could drive back to Disney via Turkey Lake Road and that there was down to be a Walgreens there. We were out of luck. All we found was a lot of traffic. So this went on the to do list for the next day. When we got back on Disney property, we missed a turn somehow and rather than at Old Key West, we landed at some Disney warehouses. Fortunately with Google Maps, we were able to correct our mistake quickly.

We still arrived at Old Key West in plenty of time. It was still raining so we went to sit down inside Papa's Den. About 10 minutes before our reservation time, we went to check in. We were given a pager and had a look in the gift shop. I was hoping to get a holiday pin for Old Key West, but they had sold out.

Our pager went off very quickly. We went back to the podium and were seated. Our server brought us bread, the menus and took our drink order. Graham had some mango ice tea and I had a Coke. We both had the chicken tortilla soup. For his main course, Graham had the Plantation Key Pork Chop, which consisted of brined bone-in pork chop glazed with an apple-white balsamic gastrique served with purple sweet potatoes, apples, onions, Brussels sprouts, and tossed in a bacon vinaigrette. I had slow-cooked prime rib with Olivia's potatoes, green beans, carrots and cabernet demi-glaze. Everything was lovely.







While we were waiting for our dinner, I decided to make some magic of my own. I had a bunch of duplicate cards for The Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom in my bag including a spare party card. At the table next to ours was a family with two pre-teen girls. I was impressed how well behaved they were. So I decided to approach the mother to ask if they are playing The Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. She replied that they did not; but that this is something they would like to try. I gave them all my duplicate cards and they did really appreciate it. They even came over when they left to say thank you again. It was nice to be able to spread a little bit of pixie dust.

Once we finished our dinner, we headed back to Saratoga Springs. Graham watched some TV and I read for a bit and then we had an early night.
 


Another fabulous day! I'm impressed by the short waits you had at Universal.

E.T. was one of my favorite rides, I was enthralled with it! I had no idea they had cute pictures to be done. I'll definitely look for that next time.

I love the Ariel shoes, that color is so pretty!

Glad you were to get your D & B bag you had bought but was sent back by the mail. How very annoying.

The theming of the HP areas is just fantastic. So beautifully done.

Its become a tradition for me to get a Coldstone yummy before the leaving as well.

Lovely to end the evening at Olivia's.
 
I'm impressed by the short waits you had at Universal.

It was an absolute dream.

E.T. was one of my favorite rides, I was enthralled with it!

I so love that ride. i just hope that they don't decide to get rid of it.

I had no idea they had cute pictures to be done. I'll definitely look for that next time.

The gift shop is a little bit apart from the ride, but as soon as you get in there, you will see the photo opportunities.

Lovely to end the evening at Olivia's.

I was glad that we got to go. Old Key West is our home resort and I always like to visit.

Corinna
 
Nice day at Universal! I haven't been there in years, I think most of it has changed from the last time but I do remember the ET ride, that one was a really fun ride, riding on the bikes was so neat!
 


Neat getting your Dooney bag back.

Nice breakfast. I love cinnamon myself but I find they add too much in Cinnabon. The taste is over powering.

That is great seeing friends from England! Lovely photos.

I loved the Mummy ride. That Christmas tree is wonderful and the Macy items.

You can't beat the butter beer at Harry Potter studios in London! But The Leaky Cauldron looks great.

Great Harry Potter Photos.

I would love to try that Men in Black looks great!

Adore the E.T photos and Shrek photos.

Cake batter ice cream? Yes please! How nice to have dinner at Olivia's. We ate dinner there Christmas day. It was charming. Out of the busy parks. Your dinner looks great. How nice of you to give those young ladies your cards. It's nice to pixie dust isn't it.
 
Nice day at Universal! I haven't been there in years, I think most of it has changed from the last time but I do remember the ET ride, that one was a really fun ride, riding on the bikes was so neat!

We had the same experience. Islands of Adventures had not changed that much apart from the new additions, but Universal Studios felt like a completely different park.

Neat getting your Dooney bag back.

I was so glad to finally get this.

I love cinnamon myself but I find they add too much in Cinnabon. The taste is over powering.

I love cinnamon, too, but they gave us a sample and it was just way too sweet for me.

I loved the Mummy ride.

Maybe I do need to give this a go if we go back.

That Christmas tree is wonderful and the Macy items.

I was so pleased to see some Christmas stuff as their Christmas season not really start until 7th December.

I would love to try that Men in Black looks great!

It is a lot of fun.

It's nice to pixie dust isn't it.

It really is.

Corinna
 
Two days of updates!

I was amused to read that you don't feel the need to "go commando" on the rides anymore; that is exactly the way I have become as well!

We have not been to Universal for more than 10 years. You have me thinking it might be time!
 
Two days of updates!

Yes, I want to get this wrapped up before I leave for the next big adventure and also get the mini trip report for Season of the Force at Disneyland Paris done.

I was amused to read that you don't feel the need to "go commando" on the rides anymore; that is exactly the way I have become as well!

I think "going commando" has been out for a number of years now, but I reached the stage now where I am no longer going for the rides.

We have not been to Universal for more than 10 years. You have me thinking it might be time!

For us it was closer to 20, but even in 10 years, a lot would have changed. We definitely enjoyed our visit.

Corinna
 
Day 23

All over sudden, our last day had crept up on us. We got up around 9:00, started packing. Graham went to do the laundry so that we could take clean stuff back home. I figured that he would come back so once I was done packing. I had the last bottle of orange cream soda and read for a bit. When it got close to 11:00 and there was no sign of Graham, I checked that we packed everything, grabbed my stuff and headed over to the pool area. The last of the drying had just finished. I packed my clean laundry and then we went to load the car. We left Saratoga Springs for the last time this trip. I was never really sure about this resort, but I did enjoy staying there. Graham commented that he prefers Old Key West and that the corridors look like something that you would find on a council house estate. He did like the room though.

Our next stop was Walgreens near Pointe Orlando. I wanted to get some more EOS lip balms for me and my colleague Helen who was looking after my team. I also wanted to get some Q-tips. Graham stayed in the car while I did the shopping. I got a selection of lip balms, but unfortunately they did not have the ones I really wanted. I had found out during the trip that they now do tinted lip balms, too. When I got back, we drove up towards Sand Lake Road and followed this to our next destination.

We were off to the Florida Mall. In the past, we had always enjoyed this and usually ended up with a fair bit of shopping. This time it was a wash out. I cannot really put my finger on it. I don’t know if it was because the whole Florida Mall is essentially a building site at the moment or that some of the quirkier shops have gone, but this was a huge disappointment and we both came away feeling that this place essentially needs a bulldozer. I did have a look at a few shops, but nothing really caught my fancy.

By that time, we really needed to eat something. We headed over to the food court. This had changed location since we were last there. It is now a much more inviting and brighter space. We got a few free samples. Graham did not fancy anything there. I could have sworn that there were proper restaurants in the Florida Mall in the past, but they all seem to be gone. There were a couple in the food court area, but they were essentially just fast food, too.

So we gave up and headed to the car. As we were driving towards the exit, we finally found a restaurant, which only had access from the outside of the Florida Mall. We decided to stop and check it out. The restaurant is called Buca di Beppo and to say that it is quirky would be the understatement of the year. When we went into the restaurant, we were asked if we had been before. When we told them that this was our first time, we were then given a tour of the kitchen before being escorted to our table. On our way there, we passed the chefs' table that allows groups of people to eat in the kitchen and interact with the chefs. They also pointed out the pope table to us. This is a huge round table with a statue of the pope in the middle.

Once we were seated, our server came with some bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and explained the menu to us. Everything is served family style and there was a huge menu of meat, fish and pasta dishes. We ordered some ice tea for Graham and some Coke for me and then I perused the menu. We decided on Penne al Forno, which consisted of sautéed spicy Italian sausage, prosciutto and pepperoni tossed with ricotta and our homemade marinara sauce, topped with provolone, mozzarella and Parmesan and was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately the portion was huge and the food was very filling so we did not manage to finish this.



I still had not given up on the tinted EOS lip balms. When we headed back to the car, I checked for stockists online. To my delight, I saw that Target is one of them. I had seen Target across the road when we were driving to the restaurant. We took another lap around the Florida Mall and found this soon enough. As we drove there, we saw a ton of restaurants. Still, we were very happy with our choice. When we got to Target, Graham found a parking spot. He stayed in the car while I went inside. I was in luck there. I bought the last three of the tinted lip balms. They had two in one colour and one in another.

Then it was time to head for the airport. We filled up the car and then headed back to the airport. We had not hired a car from Orlando International since our honeymoon in 1998 and at that time the car rental depots were all off airport, which was a bit of a pain. This present set up is a lot better. All major rental car companies are in a big parking structure right at the airport. We just followed the signs for Alamo and dropping off the car took a matter of seconds. Then we headed for the lift, which led us to an underpass to the airport. This really could not have been any easier.

Soon afterwards, we hit a little road bump. We were flying back standby. Virgin Atlantic had recently overhauled their staff ticketing system, which meant that I was not able to purchase our tickets back until a few days before we were due to fly home. Previously you were not only able to check in online, but they actively encouraged you to do so. With the revamp, this was no longer an option. Unfortunately they seemed to have trouble checking us in at the airport, too. Actually, I don’t think it was the actual check in that was the problem, but for some reason they could not print the boarding passes. It took multiple members of staff and a supervisor to fix this, but eventually they had our suitcases and we had our boarding passes. We were told our seats would be assigned at the gate.

I had a quick look around the two Disney shops and the Seaward shop while Graham looked after the hand luggage. Then we headed through security. This was actually not too bad. We got on the train and headed to the gate. We found some quiet seats near some sockets and settled down. At one stage I headed to Starbucks to get some coffee. Graham had an Americano and I had my last Chestnut Praline Latte of the trip. I checked in online. Normally the Wi-Fi at Orlando airport is pretty good, but for some reason it was quite patchy that day. I still had the option of mobile data on the iPhone, but that was hit and miss as well. Still, most of the time I had a signal on at least one of them. At some stage I downloaded the Virgin Atlantic app so that I could check easily if we had seats assigned.

When I booked the tickets, the forecast for this flight was excellent. I was no longer quite so sure about this when I saw how busy the gate area was. At some stage I checked on when the decision would be made on whether or not we would get on and I was just told they would call us when we had seats assigned. When they started the pre-boarding calls, we moved closer. They had actually already started to board people when I noticed on the app that we had been assigned seats. Unfortunately they were not together, but we were behind each other. I waited to be called and nothing happened. I decided to go up to the gate to check what was going on only to be told that we had not been assigned seats yet. I told the gate agent that we had been assigned seats 20 minutes previously. It took another phone call and another intervention of the supervisor before we had our new boarding passes. By then, they were making the final boarding call. I was not bothered, but just happy that we had made it. The plane was absolutely packed. Little did I know at this stage that my days of flying standby would be numbered and that in a matter of weeks, my life would completely change.

I ended up sitting next to a very nice couple and had an aisle seat. Graham sat with another couple and ended up in the middle seat. They had obviously hoped that by reserving the aisle and window seats, they would get the three seats to themselves. In the end they swapped so that Graham had the window seat. It was a very pleasant flight. Pretty much as soon as we were at cruising altitude, dinner was served. Graham had garden salad, a bread roll, Thai red chicken curry with rice and oriental vegetables. I had pepper beef in a balsamic sauce, green beans and red bliss mashed potato. We both had vanilla cheesecake for dessert.

After dinner, I settled down and watched Me Before You. I absolutely loved that film. This is the closest I come to a regret about this trip. They were showing this film in the theatre on our cruise and I now wish that I had gone to watch it. Still, even on the small film, it was worth watching. After the film was finished, I went to sleep and I slept most of the flight home. When breakfast was served, I played a game for a while until the entertainment was switched off.

Passport control was pretty quick and we did not have to wait long for our luggage. Then we headed to the train station. The stars definitely aligned for us that day. We did not have to wait long for a train either. We were home relatively quickly and after putting our luggage in the living room, we went to bed to get some more sleep. Another wonderful trip had come to an end.
 
Last day already????? What a fabulous trip! Well done on finding your lip balms. Sorry the mall was a bust. But the restaurant sounds very good. Glad you made the flight and got home smoothly. Sounds like getting the boarding passes would have been a bit stressful.

Looking forward to hearing about the next one!
 
Last day already?????

Yes. I am glad that I got to this stage. This trip was 5 month ago and as much as I enjoyed writing this trip report, I was ready to be done.

Sounds like getting the boarding passes would have been a bit stressful.

It was, but all is well that ends well.

Looking forward to hearing about the next one!

That is getting very close now.

Thanks for reading along.

Corinna
 
I'd never heard of the Festival of Trees before, if we decide to return during Christmas season, I'll put this on the list.

I'm glad that Graham actually liked the Boathouse, it's one of my favorites but we always do the seafood there. I'm really building up my list of where I want to go back to list!

I love the shirt you're wearing for the Christmas Party. And all your character photos are great! I'm sad to hear that BTMRR is not as good as the CA version. The explosion feature is broken right now, so it's a little bit of a bummer.

All the treats sound delicious too. Perhaps one day I will try a Christmas party.
 
I'd never heard of the Festival of Trees before, if we decide to return during Christmas season, I'll put this on the list.

This was the first year of them doing it.

I'm glad that Graham actually liked the Boathouse,

So was I.

it's one of my favorites but we always do the seafood there.

Maybe when we get to go back, Graham should try some seafood. I do however have the feeling that the steak will win out. It was absolutely amazing.

I love the shirt you're wearing for the Christmas Party.

Thanks.

I'm sad to hear that BTMRR is not as good as the CA version.

So was I. However, they one at Disneyland Paris is amazing.

The explosion feature is broken right now, so it's a little bit of a bummer.

That is a shame.

Perhaps one day I will try a Christmas party.

I think you would have a great time.

Corinna
 
Your second day at Universal sounded jam packed. I can't do nearly so many rides there as almost all of them make me ill. Perhaps next time I go I will take Dramamine before riding! Never thought of that before!

Dinner sounded yummy. I'm making a prime rib and yorkshire pudding for a friend at the end of the month, but now I want a pork chop!
 

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