Excuse me? What was that? Super Bowl? Trip Report 2/11 to 2/15.

[xipotec]

Ok upcoming Trip report for 2-11 to 2-15.

Stay : Aventura Hotel
Parks : MK, IOA Universal

Key words: BRRR!!!! This place is bigger than my apartment!! Excuse me? Are you Kidding? , 90 minutes turns to 160 minutes!!! where is everyone? Super bowl? Who do VOODOO? Who's alligator is this?

Look for thr next post/pictures to start explaining all the above!

 

[xipotec]

Day 1

Travel day: Yep its a 9-10 hour drive from home to the world. But with a halfway stop and breakfast at Cracker Barrel, it broke the trip up nicely.

Arrived at the Aventura Hotel in Universal at about 2pm , which is early for checkin. We called ahead to inquire about early checkin, but they said they can only do that in person at the hotel. Thankfully, they were able to get us checked in right away, and Corey at the front desk, accommodated our request for a quieter room FAR from thr elevators.

Boy were we surprised to see he also upgraded us to a level 14 super deluxe king suite…..”This place is bigger than my first apartment.”




The Aventura is much more upscale than most WDW hotels at the price point. Its also not themed, but more adult geared. Nice rooftop bar, several really good cafe offerings that are open very late, Starbucks as well. Its a short walk to the Sapphire Falls boats for water transport, or the bus right at the doors.

It has a delivery robot for certain items, and it was very very clean and friendly.

We freshened up and made our way to the park, in this case IOA.

We had dinner reservations at Confiscos. They seated us early and the food was decent. The overall feel of the place is comfortable and clean. The Pad Tai was really good.

Took a leisurely walk in the park before deciding to get in line for Hagirds. Since we knew the wait would be long no matter when we went. The posted wait was 90 minutes.

The line started after the “bridge” at the first turn. We made it to Hagrid hut in about 15 minutes, once on the other side the rain started , and the shut the ride down for a while. Overall the loading was super slow, and we waited closer to 2 hours. But man, you forget all about the wait after getting off that coaster. Yeah its that good.

We did a bit of shopping and snacking before heading back to the hotel via the shuttle boats.
Fire works from Hogwarts clearly viable from our room!

Retiring early after the first travel day was a strategic call , knowing we had 7:45am reservations at Grand Floridian Cafe the next day.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Hi KC Chiefs Fan stayed at Sapphire Falls 2/11-2/13 for Super Bowl .
I walked over to Aventura just before game started . I love their food court with excellent fresh selection . And Sushi Bar seating is so classy for a food court.At Xmas I stayed at Aventura with a great view but now I’m jealous Lucky people you ! Not sure I can survive with all high tech in that room but I could still flush the toilet Haha .
I had CB Family Suite poolside but just stayed there early December too.
Now I missed it so much I plan to go back before March Madness begins .
I love all the Lowes Resorts at Universal Studios .

Guess I have to wait for the rest of your trip report …

 

[xipotec]

Day 2: Magic Kingdom Magic

Grand Floridian Grill 7:45am
Citricos: 5:30pm

Early wake up day, 6am, out the door to get to the GF for our breakfast….little did we know what awaited us…

Chilly morning travel (45degrees) to the GF and Valet Parking at $33.00. Its a really good trick. Make a morning breakfast reservation at any of the deluxe resorts, valet park (only a few dollars more than standard) and you can park all day at any of the deluxe resorts. The 3 hour ADR time limit is not applied to Valet parking. Also you have the resort monorail or boats for the fastest trip to MK!

While sitting at breakfast we struck up a conversation with the young lady next to us. She turned out to be a cast member whos friend was sick and could not come to the park that day….

So she asked us if we wanted to join her for her cast member preview and ride Tron…

We were over the moon as we probably wouldn't be back for a few years….plus we met a super nice person!

So, we burned the morning riding Tron, and what a blast it was!


So much magic so early! We invited our new family member to tour the rest of the day with us, but she had responsibilities to attend to, and with free admission she goes several times a week.

After such an amazing start to the day, we really didnt have any other wants. Being it was SuperBowl Sunday, we were happy to just ride a few of our favorites.

We did buy Genie and after waiting a short 20 minutes for BTMRR, we opted to hang back and just use the Genie plus now, figuring after dinner crowds would lighten up….

Man was that a great call….

We saw the Dapper Dans, shopped a bunch and snacked around the world.


By 3pm the park started to empty out…

by 5:00, it was a ghost town…..





So off to Citricos for a great dinner, and dessert! Filet was incredible and the Strawberry Salad was sooooo good.

We were offered a nice glass of champagne since they knew it was our anniversary. They also gave us chocolates after dinner to celebrate as well.



Totally empty monorail ride…some thing I had not experienced since 2012.


So back to a dead MK. Some waits on the usual suspects, but its seems that everyone who remained in the park was waiting in a que.

Walk in HM, People Mover, BTMRR, Small world, Poo….

Only waits were 20 min for JC and 45 for Space….and of course PP had a wait.

 

[xipotec]

Some more shots from the day…





Rode 7DMT during fireworks, as our initial iLL it was down and we got an MDE pass.







What an amazing day. Its one of the top MK days we have ever had….and we have been dozens and dozens of times.

A few interesting observations:

Super Bowl had a noticeable effect on the crowds. Once game time approached it was a noticeable exit from the parks. I am sure the cold weather made up some minds to leave early as well. It was windy also, and the long sleeve shirts and jackets were all gone well before 5pm (pro tip, shop at the resorts if you ever are in this situation, they had plenty of cold gear still….

We opted to leave at about 9:30, even though the park was open till 11:00. I can only imagine how empty it must have been from 10-11….

The only hitch was the monorail having operational trouble at that time. As it was cold and windy, they didnt have any resort launches open all day….

So I was really glad to be able to use the resort monorail over the normal one, which had a huge line…

 

[DL1WDW2]

I am amazed and happy for your trip and love the photos.
I have been making a plea for guests to consider ways to alert Disney of concerns for a fair pay for those castmembers that make the Magic ; even on their day off !
Hope everybody reads about that castperson cause that was some kind of Magic sharing her TRON. Castmember Preview with you , a total stranger
( guest ) !

Happy Anniversary

 

[xipotec]

I am amazed and happy for your trip and love the photos.
I have been making a plea for guests to consider ways to alert Disney of concerns for a fair pay for those castmembers that make the Magic ; even on their day off !
Hope everybody reads about that castperson cause that was some kind of Magic sharing her TRON. Castmember Preview with you , a total stranger
( guest ) !

Happy Anniversary

I actually asked how we can help the cast members, who are way underpaid……on another thread. Next week on my off day, I have to write a bunch of letters for several CM’s whos names I memorized.
I didnt share the name of my Tron benefactor as I am not sure about her public profile concerns.

She worked in merchandising/licensing and we got a ton of really interesting information about that side of the business… some seriously cool and weird rules…

 

[Counting Stars]

What an amazing day. Its one of the top MK days we have ever had….and we have been dozens and dozens of times.

Your day sounds amazing indeed! It began with an incredible stroke of luck that just did not end... What a great day! So nice to hear that this can still happen

 

[xipotec]

Day 3: IOA
Mythos 4pm

We rope dropped IOA, and were able to knock out Spiderman Forbidden Journey and Kong with waits under 20 minutes….


We decided to try Hagrids again being it was ONLY 100 minute wait. Being we waited almost 2 hours the first time, the 100 minutes were a bargin. It ended up being closer to a 80 minute wait.

Hogsmeade was packed that day, so after that we noped out to the other areas. Which also started to get pretty crowded , mostly due to the cheerleader packs roaming the parks.

We did Posideans Fury show, which was an uncomfortable wait , but its a neat show. Not sure I would wait more than 20 minutes for it. Our actor was channeling Ryan Reynolds, and was half the reason it was good.


Seuss land was even posting 40 minute waits at this point.
So we waited 40 minutes for The Seuss Train, ended up being 60….big mistake.

So we gave up on the ques and killed time taking pictures and snacking until out Mythos reservation.


Mythos to us has always been “hit or miss” . It was a hit this time. Our waiter was superb , the service was quick and the food was very very good.

As it was approaching 6PM with a park closure at 7pm , we decided to give up on the 60 minute Velocicoaster wait and just head back early. We were still tired from the Magical MK day, and the patience and stamina were just not there to deal with crowds.

On the way back to the boats, we decided to see what all the fuss was about VooDoo doughnuts….

Oh man , now we know. We ordered walking out of the park, and picked them up at the mobile order kiosk….took all of 1 minute….

Back to the nice hotel room, with doughnuts, a good book and my wife of 24 years…..


Got back in time to see the fireworks over Hogwarts ….

 

[xipotec]

Some random pics from the day














Some notes: Butter beer tastes funny to me now….it has a weird aftertaste that I do not remember.

The popcorn at the stand near Mythos was awesome.

Not a fan of the quick service places at IOA.

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more .

 

[footballmouse]

 

[xipotec]

Day 3: Universal Studios
3:00pm CowFish Grill.
6:15 PM Dine and Float parade.

Up at 7pm for rope drop at 9pm. We walked to the boats again at Sapphire Falls, finally realizing we could cut across the roundabout and be at the boats 5 minutes quicker….yay for us.

Pretty quiet rope drop, maybe 200 people, and most arrived 5 minutes to open. They opened about 5 minutes early so good for them!

We decided to to what most do and head straight to Diagon Alley. We hit Gringotts right away and basically walked on. Perhaps 5 minute wait to get into the elevator, and another 5 climbing the stairs.

Super empty morning, it was great to be in the area with very few people. Made for some great shots.

It was so empty we went to breakfast at the Leaky Cauldren , and were seating and eating within 10 minutes. Its a pretty expensive option, but the food was good, and it was a nice sit down and chill morning. The place was maybe 20-30% full.

Walked out of the Cauldren to a similar crowd level, but we could see the people coming in was increasing. Its pretty funny to watch people at the entrance and see their reactions . Its even better to see the people jump when the dragon does his thing.







We pretty much explored all the area had to offer in about 2 hours, spending the required time in Knockturn Alley….


We then wanted to do Transformers, but it was down for most of the day. We hung out in NYC and tried some Mardi Gras offerings. The drinks were as expected, too sweet and not very strong. The Beignets were tiny and not very good. The only hit was the spiral potato, we got sour cream and chive, and that was really good. All the other offerings were very forgettable and way too expensive. We enjoyed the popcorn more, the Churros just do not compare to DL, but they were passable.

 

[xipotec]

We rode The Mummy 3 times in a row, as the wait was about 10 minutes. Everything on the ride and in the Que is working great. It was like a new ride. This is really a super underrated coaster. We only stopped riding because we were trying to be more chill. We then walked over (and on) to Race Through NY. We got seates in the front row last seats on the left. This was not good. My wife got really motion sick from it. Its a really fun ride , but you really need to sit in the center or back, too close and you might have issues. She n.e.v.e.r gets motion sick, but something about this location really screwed her up for a few hours. Fair warning.

With Transformers still closed, the other attractions started to see spiked wait time. 60 for Minions and RRR. Even MIB was up to 35.

Since Wifey was feeling sick we decided to do the shows. Horror show first (they were so on, and hysterical) Then The Bourne Stunt show. I am not a huge fan of that show. Its a great demonstration of HD backdrops and how they are now used in shows like Mandalorian, but its a bit too long and silly to me.







After both shows wife was back in action, so we hit up E.T. and walked around Krustyland a bit (not quite wanting to temp fate with The Simpsons ride).

But by this time, we had to leave to make our 3pm Cowfish. We got the early time to get away from the crowds and just relax and enjoy the early dinner.

RIDE and DINE Parade
Cowfish was very good. We eat sushi all over the world, and while this was far from being the best, it certainly was not the worst. I got Avacado and Tuna “tini” , and the Sashimi sushi combo, dessert was Milkshakes, and man THOSE were great. Its alot of food they offer for the Ride and Dine, App, Entree and dessert.

We had enough time to casually stroll back to US and ride The Simpsons. Then over the Animal Actors to check in for the Parade.

 

[BLTFrank]

Nice report....following.

 

[xipotec]

A Bit more about

Mardi Gras Float and Dine:

So heres the breakdown. You reserve online and get a time to goto the restaurant if your choosing.

At the resturant, they check you in and confirm your Float and Dine package. Then then give you a lanyard and the instructioks on where to go and what time (printed on the lanyard).

We showed up at the Animal Actors stage. Again, they verify your place and check you in. You must sign a release and liability form. Then you move into the arena area and are given your float assignment.

We told our cast member it was our anniversary and they gave us an upper level private area, at the end of the Alligator! They suit you up in a smock like outfit to match the float your on…then you wait for about an hour. They have restrooms available, but once you leave that arena you have to “hold it” till the end of the parade, which is about and hour and a half total time.

They lead you backstage, and your assigned groups get to the floats. Each float has a team of people to help you. They get you in place and feed you endless beads to throw….

The parade itself is great fun, throwing beads to people becomes a bit of an art form, but you really connect with the folks your trying to throw beads to.

Its a really great experience and even though you loose a good amount of park time, we felt it was very very worth it.

Shout out to Todd our Float wrangler , who was super nice and helpful. He took pictures if us having a ball!

 

[xipotec]

Random Shots from Valentines Day:

 

[xipotec]

Last Day

Universal Studios
Finnigans Lunch

Well, it had to end. We still had vacation time left and were heading over to Melbourne to visit my Mom. BUT we decided to use our last park pass for the day.

We had 11:00am check out, but decided to pack and drop off the luggage at the desk and rope drop Universal Studios again.

Super helpful staff at the front desk, and we learned the parking was 24 hours beginning at midnight. So we had till midnight that day to park at the resort.

Rope drop was actually crowded for a Wednesday. We got there a little late so we were about 20th in line at 8:30am. By the time 9 rolled around the line was stretching past the on call area.

Since we missed Transformers, Velicicoaster and MIB the last day we made those a priority.

We hit Transformers first, and it was walk on.






My wife LOVES Diagon Alley , so after we walked over and expected a larger wait due to the crowds at the gate that morning….but….their was none…

So 15 minute posted wait at Gringotts which was actually about 5 minutes.



Walked around the shops a bit more, just taking in the details. It was more crowded than the previous day but stipp very manageable to walk around. We enjoyed the shops and theming for about another hour, then headed out.


We departed and decided to hit ip MIB, which we missed the earlier day. I am literally a Galactic Hero every time I ride Buzz in MK….But MIB makes a fool of me every-time. I love the ride, but man do I suck at it.








After my terrible shooting, we strolled over to Springfield, for a mandatory stop at Lard Lad. Got the doughnut Sundae , which is pretty good, especially after a day of missing Aliens on MIB. (I must look like the guy on the left on that ride)




Continued:

 

[xipotec]

Well, Wifey never mustered up the courage to goto Velicicoaster, so since the wait was 70 minutes, I skipped it as well. It was a bit of a disappointment , but I didnt want to leave her alone in the park for over an hour. Maybe next time.

We really didnt want to wait online at Minions either, which was 75 minutes or more for most of our touring days, so we were kinda done with that one.

Headed back to the Mummy for 2 consecutive rides in a row….

They decided to walk across the street and see if we could walk up to Finnigans for lunch. They were pretty empty, and seated us right away. I am not really sure of the attraction to this place. Its decent and the wait staff is top notch, but the food it pretty bland to me? We go the Pretzel app, Corned Beef. and the Mushroom pie, and while they gave you plenty to eat, it was just kind of forgettable.

We left at about 3pm, having not much more we wanted to do. Hit VooDoo doughnuts on the way out again…….cause you just have too….

Which is well worth it.

Some Overall Notes:

February is a great time to go, at least the first 2 weeks are.

The more laid back approach to MK really is now more my style. but Genie is a requirement…. We will probably become more late afternoon visitors, maybe alternating with a rope drop one day then home early then next day got later in the evening if open late.

US and IOA really impressed is this trip. We may always do split stays from now on. The hotels were far better and cheaper than WDW. Its just hard to adjust to being outside the bubble….but seemed way worth it.

Food at US and IOA (and even City Walk) cannot hold a candle to some of the offerings at MK or the resorts…..however, we found some of the snacks at MK really lacking this trip, especially the ones at the carts and stalls….

IOA and US are just way easier to get around. Much better transport than WDW, more comfortable and more frequent. We did not wait on any transport for more than 15 minutes (most of the time transport was just waiting for us when we walked up!!! WDW transport has alot of room to improve still…

MK will always have the better rides. At least until Epic Universe is up and running….then we will have to see.

The overall fun and excitement of the parks is hands down MK. There may never be another park like it. I hope it can last, but as far as we are concerned , its still wonderful and we will go back soon.

Thanks for reading. If I can be of help, just PM me and I will answer what I can.

I have a notification set up on this thread and can answer questions here as well.

Until next time, Remember to keep dreaming.