Fall-ing in love with a Universal/Disney COVID adjusted trip (sept 24-oct 4)

FeetOffTheTable

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 28, 2018
Good morning everyone! We are a week away from out trip, so I figure this is as good a time as any to start our (pre) trip report. This was originally scheduled way before COVID and we had to make some adjustments. There was concern that my work wouldn't allow me to go either, but after a meeting with my boss late last month where we came up with a plan for after my return, she gave me the OK to go and I was officially allowed to get excited.

Some background: Our family consists of me (37 yo female, actually might as well make that 38) and my husband (who we will refer to as "G", 43) and our son ("B", 4). We are passholders at Universal, but given our sons age we have included short Disney trips with that as well. This trip was supposed to be our "Big" one, spending multiple days at disney because I feel hes at a great age for it. But alas plans got changed, so we not going quite as all out as we originally planned but still planning to have a good trip! My parents are also joining us for the Disney part (and second universal leg) and they are both in their mid 60s

Heres the schedule we have:
Thursday Sept 24th- Flying AA to MCO from VA. Uber to Cabana bay where we will stay in a family suite until the 28th. We will get in too late to enjoy the parks thursday, but will have the next three days. We might end up hitting up City Walk or the pool this evening, just depends on what time we get in. We are planning to use instacart and get food (and wine!) delivered so that we can have lunches and such in the room

Friday sept 25th- Sunday sept 27th - Universal/ Islands of adventure. This weekend is the test for the halloween festivities, and presumably they will be happening next weekend based on the extended park hours. We are NOT HHN fans so wont be checking out the houses at all and were a bit disappointed when they announced them, knowing it woult lead to more crowds. But they extended the hours and added a couple things for kids (trick or treating if thats not just this weekend, and the scarecrow hunt), so now im excited again. Plus being passholders there, we have seen it all before. However we still intend to head over first thing in the mornings and try to get some of our favorites out of the way. We actually really enjoyed in March going to Islands first thing; everyone rushed to Hagrids so we were able to wander hogsmeade virtually empty! My son is big into super heros currently, especially spiderman. However I showed him a video of the ride and he said it was scary, so I dont know if he will do it. It will be nice to have him tall enough to do a few things though now, since he was 39" last time we went and now hes closer to 41". We are big Harry Potter fans, so tend to spend most of our time in those areas. It never gets old! I read that for Ollivanders now you have to sign up, so we might try to do that one day and have a wand choose B, if its allowed to have someone so young do it. He always steals our wands, so might be time to get his own, even though he isn't 11. Just no one let the ministry know that he is doing underage magic! My parents will arrive Sunday night

Monday Sept 28th - oct 1 - check out of Cabana bay and Uber to Caribbean Beach resort. we will spend the next 4 days at the various disney parks before heading back to universal again on thursday the 1st

Thursday Oct 1- check out of CBR and head back to Cabana bay after we finish at Disney. Unless we get out of disney very early, we wont hit up universal thiis day

Friday Oct 2- Sunday Oct 4: This leg of our trip was actually supposed to be a cruise until monday, but obviously that isn't happening. So once I got the OK from my boss we met with my parents and decided to go back to universal for a few more days. They bought season passes because with the room discount it was actually $250 cheaper than buying a multi day park ticket and hotel. Plus this way they can go back if they want. We switched our flights from monday to sunday, just to save a little money on hotels and it only cost $10 total to do, which is great! My parents likely wont spend as much time at universal as we do (they like to sleep in), but I do want them to try Hagrids and none of us have seen Bourne yet, so those will be good to do with them. Plus i think they will enjoy doing some rides like Jimmy Fallon with B, now that hes bigger. Hopefully he likes them! I'm glad we're going back to Universal for a second leg, especially since the park hours were shortened on thursday/friday from when we orignally booked and the weekend are more crowded. This will give us more time to enjoy and see everything we want, plus maybe have some time to go back to the hotel and enjoy the pool mid day.


So stay tuned! This report is going on the Universal trip reports, so I will only be sharing my experience with Universal (as well as flying) here, but will link to the Disney report for those interested! Disney trip report can be found by clicking this link. This post is similar there, but focuses on Disney instead of Universal and all subsequent posts will be Universal specific here and Disney there
 
My wife felt sorry for me due to the Pandemic we weren't planning on our normal fall/winter Universal trip. So she's giving me a short trip out there next week as a birthday present. We will be there for much of the same time as you (during your first stay at Cabana Bay.) We arrive late Wednesday night (Sept. 23rd) and will stay at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal. Early Thursday morning we'll head over to RPR to check-in and get our room keys (EPs). We have a Sunday evening flight back home. I haven't stayed less than 7 nights in probably a decade, but even a short trip is better than none. :)

And I'll definitely be watching your updates on the Halloween side of things as my daughter (now in her mid-20s) loves to be scared. So if they have any of the houses open, I'm sure she will want to hit them (maybe even a couple of times.)
 
FeetOffTheTable.....good to see you start a pre trip.....

Looking forward to this one. I know you weren`t keen on HHN stuff but glad you`re happy with the Scarecrow Hunt....you`re little boy will enjoy what`s on offer for younger guests.

Nice plans you have there......:thumbsup2
 


I am headed down on the 24th as well, a surprise trip for my younger son's 18th birthday! We are staying at RPR and doing the parks Thursday (we get in early) and Friday and then headed to SeaWorld (where he's never been) for Saturday and Sunday. Planned this the day before they announced the houses so we had no idea but my son will love it (if we are able to see them.)!
 
FeetOffTheTable.....good to see you start a pre trip.....

Looking forward to this one. I know you weren`t keen on HHN stuff but glad you`re happy with the Scarecrow Hunt....you`re little boy will enjoy what`s on offer for younger guests.

Nice plans you have there......:thumbsup2
Schumigirl I actually thought of you and your cancelled trip as soon as the rumors came about the “mini” HHN. I know you guys always come this time of year and love it. If I wasn’t such a scaredy cat I would do a house for you hahah.

my apprehension about the halloween festivities mainly comes from the shortened hours. Parks were closing at 5, only open for 8 hours, and I was worried that with the addition of the houses more people would want to come increasing the crowds and wait times for everything. But now that they have extended the park hours I’m less worried about it.

wish you could come!
 
I am headed down on the 24th as well, a surprise trip for my younger son's 18th birthday! We are staying at RPR and doing the parks Thursday (we get in early) and Friday and then headed to SeaWorld (where he's never been) for Saturday and Sunday. Planned this the day before they announced the houses so we had no idea but my son will love it (if we are able to see them.)!
Maybe we will see you Friday at the parks! It looks like they are going to have some fun Halloween themed stuff, but not sure what days they are going to be. We shall see! I hope you all have a great trip :)
 


Schumigirl I actually thought of you and your cancelled trip as soon as the rumors came about the “mini” HHN. I know you guys always come this time of year and love it. If I wasn’t such a scaredy cat I would do a house for you hahah.

my apprehension about the halloween festivities mainly comes from the shortened hours. Parks were closing at 5, only open for 8 hours, and I was worried that with the addition of the houses more people would want to come increasing the crowds and wait times for everything. But now that they have extended the park hours I’m less worried about it.

wish you could come!

Yes, you`ll be fine with the hours I`m sure. Looking forward to reading about your trip though......
 
Popping over from your WDW TR . Following along over here , too. Looking forward to reading more
 
We’re here!

Today went about as smooth as it could, but still traveling is tiring. We left about 9:30 this am for our 12:15 flight. We live a little over an hour from 3 airports, so it’s nice to have those options. Today’s flight was at the furthest away, Norfolk Va. The check in process was the easiest I’ve ever had. We checked in online of course, and only had carryons so that made things easier. When we got to the TSA checkpoint I was very pleasantly surprised when they said to keep everything in our bags - food, electronics, liquids, it all stayed. Made things go a lot faster! The airport was practically empty and mask compliance 100% from what I saw


Both legs of our flight had slight (20 minute) delays for takeoff, but weren’t delayed very much for arrival. We had a short layover in Charlotte, NC which was very busy, but didn’t feel unsafe. People there (and MCO) probably did get closer than 6 feet, but you are moving quickly so it doesn’t last long. Mask compliance was very good here too. The woman across the aisle from me on the second leg kept pulling her nose out of her mask and was corrected twice by flight attendants. She also made a beeline to be the first off the plane, despite requests by the flight crew to deplane by row. Oh well.

It probably varies by airline (we were American) but we were told no food/beverage service on the flights due to COVID. We brought on some snack and drinks and were fine with that, but it’s something to be aware of if you don’t normally bring such things.

I elected to bring a booster seat for my son for this trip instead of getting Uber with car seats. Our pickup from MCO at 5:15 pm was immediate and a comfortable, clean ride. Don’t know if all drivers do this, but ours had a partition of plastic separating him from us. Does make things a little less personable, but it’s the time of COVID and all.

A quick 30 minute drive and we were at Cabana Bay. We almost always stay here when we come, and usually get the family suite just to have the extra space. As soon as you walk in the lobby, your temperature is checked and you get a wristband. At check in we were informed of some changes to pool hours and restaurant availability, but it still feels pretty normal to us. Just with masks! One thing I made sure to ask was about adding people to our room. My parents may arrive Sunday afternoon, before our Disney leg of the trip. Our room can hold 6 people, but I wanted to see about officially adding them. I was told just to come back with them on Sunday and they would issue them keys, no problem. I was glad to hear this because it’s not something you can do when reserving ( have 3 people part of the trip and 5 others), and with the additional of the halloween houses this weekend it’s possible the park might reach capacity on Sunday. With them being guests of the hotel now, they will still be allowed in.

Our room was clean and while we unpacked, I placed an instacart order for Publix. Another benefit of the family suite is a microwave (not available in regular rooms), so we wanted to get some items we could eat for several meals in the room. Since we got in so late, I added some bagel bite pizzas to the order and we just had a relaxing dinner in the room with those and a few other snacks. I may also have gotten two things of boxed wine. Hey, it’s $13 and we’re here for 10 days! Priorities. One thing I didn’t realize is that the fridge is literally just a fridge. I thought there was a small freezer section, but I was mistaken. So just keep that in mind if you intend to buy frozen stuff!

Overall it was a good start to the trip. Wish we could have hit the parks today, but certainly will first thing tomorrow. I’m glad the flights all went smooth and even with a few people not following directions there is still felt safe. Now that we are in the Universal bubble, so far so good, but we will see how it is in the parks and city walk tomorrow
 
Good morning everyone! I haven’t had much time the past couple days to update, but I woke up early today and G & B are still asleep, so let’s try to update on the past two days

Friday: I woke up early Friday as well (notice a trend?) and sat on my phone in the living room area of the room while B and G slept a bit more. B woke around 7 so I threw on some clothes and took home to wander the hotel a bit. Our first stop was to get new wristbands in the lobby; a new color each day shows you have had your temperature checked so that you don’t have to do it at city walk. Then we went to the ticket counter in the lobby to try to pick up his season pass. The woman helping us could not find it at all, looking at both my confirmation # and trying to search by name. She said we would have to try guest services over at the park. Not the best start, but I wasn’t too worried. Back up in the room we woke up G, and had some cereal before heading over to the park a bit earlier than intended to try to take care of the ticket issue.

The bus ride over was quick and uneventful. There is someone outside as well to take temps and so wristbands, so you don’t have to go to the lobby. Certain seats on the bus are blocked out and your group is assigned a number for where to sit. It seems like they OI a max of 7 groups on each bus. There were three lined up when we got there and we got on the third one. I overheard there are 9 busses running continuously right now .

Security in city walk can get a little backed up, but it moves fast. I can see this being an area where social distancing goes out the window later in the day as it gets crowded. But for our experiences it went fine. There is a security officer directing you to a line for bag/ metal detectors and everything moved fast.

As we were walking through city walk, I spotted a guest services window and figure that would be quicker than trying to wait at the ticket window at the park. Well... I don’t know if it was quicker, since it still took an hour, but it was the right choice. Again the woman helping could not find B’s pass reservation, no matter how she looked it up. She finally told us she needed to make a call, and whoever she was speaking to could see it on their end, so there was a disconnect somewhere. I still don’t know what they had to do to get it, but the woman helping us was very nice and friendly the whole hour she was with us. She was so impresssed with B’s patience and was telling us about snacks for him to try at food and wine next week. Anyhow, she finally managed to get things set after about an hour and as a thank you for our patience and having to wait so long, she gave us express passes for the day!!!

At this point it’s about 9:40 and early park our was from 9-10 at islands. We wandered in - no line to enter and decided we’d try to hit up the toon lagoon store to get our passholder buttons. I forgot that it was early park admission though so they weren’t open, ooos! So we leisurely made our way back to Harry Potter world. I was surprised to see so many people in the parkjust waiting for the early park hours to be over. Trying to be the first to Hagrids I guess!

The park was fairly empty so we walked through the castle and (I) did forbidden journey. Certain things on the ride are not happening, such as the dragon fire in your face and spiders spitting at you. I assume this is a Covid protocol and not that they just weren’t working, but I’ll have to ride again to be sure. We hit up honeydukes and then went back to let B do his dr suess rides. At this point it was 10 and there was a mad rush of people to get to Hagrids as the park “officially” opened. The wait time was listed as 60 minutes and back near the mystic fountain. Rumor has it that it’s really only a 30 minute wait from there, but we skipped it for now. Want to try ones my parents get here!

In suess landing we did the carousel and 1 fish two fish, then went back to do the trolley train which is Blaise’s favorite. We got to the front of the line and the ride broke down! At least we weren’t on that when it happened; I never saw it running the rest of the day. We went and got out passholder buttons and then Around 11 we decided to get pizza tots from green eggs and ham. Yum! Then it was off to the hogwarts express. We did start using our express pass around lunch time, but it really wasn’t bad most of the day. G and I did men in black, and the childswap was different than normal; no waiting in a room, they told us to wait in the gift shop instead. So B and I decided to go get a passholder popcorn bucket and a pretzel instead while we waited. I will say it’s a little odd,yet nice for the social distancing in rides. Since we have to child swap, G and I each had are own cars for men in black. Meant I got to push the red button! I used two guns as well haha.

we tried to do the scarecrow hunt which is listed as happening from sept 18 until November 1, but according to the MIB shop it’s only on weekends. They did say that it’s supposed to match the haunted house days, so maybe next week once those are daily the scarescrow stalk will be as well?

with shortened park hours on Friday we elected not to go back to the room for a nap and instead stayed in the park. We took B on jimmy fallon for the first time and I was surprised no one checked his height! He seemed to like iit, except the shark briefly at one point. He unfortunately was getting overly tired at that point and started crying about not wanting to do minions; and we were only going to do stationary seating! Turns out he doesn’t like when Grus present gets smushed so it took a lot of convincing him that the present was fine.

Used express passes once more to take hogwarts express from universal to islands since that park was open until 6 instead of 5. Wait was listed as 70 minutes but was more like 20 with express. We were the last people in the express line.

Got a drink from the hogsheads (normal entrance is closed, have to enter from the back) and wandered hogsmeade. It was still light crowd and people did well with social distancing. All in all a nice start to our trip! Headed out at 6 pm, did the walking path back to cabana bay and just did dinner in our room

ok everyone is up now, so time to get ready for the parks . I will try to update on yesterday later today!
 
Following!! I’m curious to see how crowded the parks were last weekend for you. My family is visiting this weekend and would love to hear your input. We’ll probably cross path at UO!! Haha!
 
Following!! I’m curious to see how crowded the parks were last weekend for you. My family is visiting this weekend and would love to hear your input. We’ll probably cross path at UO!! Haha!

I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to update further before your trip! We’re at the airport now waiting to get home so I’m going to try to write up some now, but I guess you saw how busy it was yesterday! Hopefully you got to enjoy some today with the lower crowds
 
Ok so here we go for sat sept 26 at universal/islands of adventure.

we normally tend to take the walkway for early park hours, but our room this time was so convenient to the busses that we primarily used that. Saturday we knew would be the busiest day, as it was the first “official” day of the halloween festivities. But as usual, the bus ride from cabana bay was great. They had three busses lined up waiting when we got out there and we were out in the second one. The line at security was much longer than the previous day, but don’t be alarmed as it moves fast. Once through and into city walk we decided to head to islands, figuring that there would be a crowd going to the universal side for the haunted houses.

it did seem fairly light in the park (we arrived around 830/840 during EPA) until you actually get back into lost continent. There the line stretched back to the fountain already for Hagrids. We decided to head to the castle and walked through while it was a 15 minute wait (actually walk on) and G and I each did it this time with child swap. The child swap was NOT open here and instead you waited in the gift shop. All well and good until I came out and found B wanting to buy gryffindors sword ($20). So keep that in mind if you have young kids doing child swap- for quite a few rides the room is closed and the child swappers wait for the party in the shop.

after hogwarts we did a little wandering through hogsmeade , casting spells, and hiding/searching for prizes. I’m a member of a group on a certain social media site where members make crafts and hide them in the parks for others to find. Some post hints where they are, others do blind hides. It’s really fun to participate in, so keep an eye out while you are there! We had made some crafts ahead of time and spent some time hiding, but didn’t find any that morning.

Around 930/10 we left to go and do some trick or treating and Hagrids had switched at that point to virtual line so I logged on and reserved a time late in the afternoon for us. If I remember correctly Hagrids and the haunted houses were at virtual lines at this point and they “sold out” fairly quickly.

trick or treating was fun ; kids grab a bag at any store with a pumpkin on it and can hit up I think 10 spots around islands. They get 4 pieces of candy at each place. Once we made the lap through the whole park, we decided to take the train to universal and check out things there.

the line for the train was outside and probably a 30-35 minute wait, which was about what was posted. Overall wait times were either accurate or less than posted. The exception being suess trolley train which always seems to be taking much longer than posted! The hogwarts express queue is very spread out so that you don’t have parties standing next to each other in rows. At least that’s the idea. Some people ignore the markers because they are spaced more than 6ft apart. But if you actually lookyou’ll see that it’s done for a reason ; to avoid parties standing next to each other as the queue winds back and forth. Each party has their own compartment on the train.

The universal side was MUCH more crowded than islands, so as a result we didn’t do many things. We mainly walked around diagon alley, hiding prizes and drinking strongbow with fire whiskey. The line to get into the leaky cauldron for lunch was back into knockturn alley so we decided to skip that for lunch and try something else.

I read about a passholder exclusive burger at mels drive in, so we elected to try that. I saw a vlog or two where people got it and enjoyed it, so we placed a mobile order for the brisket burger. Once I got to Mels though there was a huge line to get in! I went up to the front to ask here where to pick up a mobile order and she told me that’s what the line was!!! I couldn’t believe it, it seems to defeat the purpose of a mobile order if you still have to wait in line for an hour to get in the building. The hostess was nice enough to let me come in and wait for my burger to go, since that was my intention to begin with. I suppose I just didn’t understand the mobile order deal, and the fact that the blogs I watched took their order to go didn’t help. But a lot of people seemed to think the same as me and were quite annoyed in line. The burger was very good though!

After lunch we spent about 20 minutes on the scarecrow hunt which B really enjoyed. But around 2 we decided to head back to the room to get him an nap and planned to come back and finish in the evening, when it was hopefully cooler and less crowded
 
OK I'm back again to finish up Saturday/Sunday at universal.

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As I mentioned in the last post we had a bit of some trouble with our mobile order for lunch, which left me a bit hangry, but once I got that in I was ready to go do the scarecrow stalk. I was a bit off on my last post; as I went back through my photos I realized that we finished up this little scavenger hunt before we went back to the hotel. It still only took us about 20 minutes to do, and after the first 3-4 stops B really got into it and was running into stores looking for them/asking for his stamp. At the Silver Screen (Betty boop) shop the women actually asked him about the scarecrow and he definitely was paying attention because he pointed to it and said it looked like a snake. There are two places to redeem your prize, but we elected to do the one in the main shop on your way out. Its a little inconvenient as you have to get a scarecrow stamp in the main line (which is often long), and then go redeem it at the attached candy shop. Full disclosure, we repeated this the second weekend of our trip and the second time around a woman saw us in the long checkout line to get our stamp and told us to just go directly to the candy shop. So technically the second time around we redeemed with only 12/13 stamps

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I'm sorry the photo is sideways, I can't figure out how to change that! There were about 6 or so types of candy to redeem for, and B picked peach rings.

Ok so here's the deal about the scarecrow stalk. I've seen some people on social media making fun of it, or complaining about the cheap prize. Ya'll, its free! As i mentioned it only took us around 20-30 minutes to hit every spot and it was really fun for B. This activity is completely different than those offered at MNSSHP, and I know they give away great candy during their trick or trick. But you are paying around $80 a ticket for that and again this is all free. I enjoyed having both of these activities available, especially since they were of no additional cost. Don't like it? Then don't do it.

Ok so back to our Saturday afternoon. We headed back to Cabana Bay around 2 to try to get B to take a nap, but apparently I was the one who was really tired! I actually fell asleep for a bit and I never nap. The excitement of the trip and my lack of sleep related to it caught up to me. While it was nice to get a rest, unfortunately it meant that we missed our Hagrids virtual line! I released it at the last minute, but don't know if anyone else managed to grab it.

I felt a little more confident in my mobile order skills after the lunch fiasco, so we hit up the three broomsticks for dinner. We were seated right away which was a shock to me since it was round 6 pm on a Saturday. However she tried to seat us right next to another party which I thought was odd (#socialdistancing), so we asked for a different table. I this time waited until I was seated to place the order, but unfortunately when I tried to, the app said I wasn't in the park to place the order! I mentioned this to a server and she helpfully took me to a cashier to order, so this is still an option for those that need it. Interestingly, I was able to order items at the cashier that were listed as unavailable in the app (kids mac and cheese), so keep that in mind that if there's something you really want you can always ask. I also noticed other items (mainly sides) in the mobile order app that aren't listed on the general menu. There also is no way to order water in the mobile app, so you have to tell your server. The restaurant was not very crowded and it took about 10-15 minutes for two additional parties to be seated in our area. They received their drinks shortly after placing their order, and we got a bit suspicious. Especially when the food for them arrived shortly after that. By that point we had been waiting about 40 minutes and team members were scarce. I tracked one down who told me they were backed up, but took our receipt and came out almost immediately with everything. So I can only guess that the counter order somehow messed things up and they lost our order. Food was good as always, but I'm calling that Strike Two for mobile ordering considering the issue with the app and the lost order.

After dinner we took the train (15 minute wait) over to diagon alley where we spent the rest of our evening. It was sooooo nice to be in the park after dark. I really miss the light show on the castle, but in general its just really nice to be in either section when its cooler, less crowded, and (dare I say) more magical. We wandered Diagon and Knockturn alleys, casting spells and having a few drinks. B got a miniature hedwig at the menagerie and also wanted a scabbers, but we told him he had to wait on that. We have a tradition of one magical animal per trip!

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Oh and as you can see from this photo, I purchased a new Bertie Botts facemask! They are $6 each or 4/$20 which i think is quite reasonable. We did the deal for 4 and I purchased the one seen here, as well as a slytherin one (sz medium), G got a gryffindor (sz Lg) and I picked out a Minion one for B (sz XS - but still too big; I was able to knot it and make it work though). Another quick note about masks - You can see G in the background wearing his gaiter which is allowed at universal (but not Disney). He finds them more comfortable than most masks. I will say these universal masks purchases here are VERY comfortable and I had no issues wearing them all day.

We stayed at Universal in Diagon Alley until close at 9pm and it was very pleasant. I hit up both the Hopping Pot and the Fountain of Fair Fortune for drinks, and a gentleman at the Hopping Pot was only one of a handful of people that carded me. It stuck out to me because he 1)had me pull down my mask and 2) remarked that aside from the hair it looked just like me. I literally just renewed my license and picture a week before the trip so that was just amusing to me.

We walked back to the hotel because B fell asleep in his stroller (#NoNapClub), but it was a nice night. It was probably not allowed, but we did remove our masks while on the walking path as long as no one was nearby.

Off to bed as soon as we got in to get ready for our last day of this leg........

_____SUNDAY_____

I awoke at the crack of dawn again, this time courtesy of my apple watch telling me that my parents plane down was leaving 20 minutes later. They were supposed to be arriving around lunchtime, so we did manage to get over to the park during EPA since we wouldn't be there the whole day.

The park was noticeably less crowded on Sunday morning, even during EPA. We started on the Universal side this time, and saw only 3 groups in line for breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron so opted to try mobile ordering one more time there. This was another odd experience, part of which I'll claim as my fault but the other part is not. So the part that's my fault is that after a few minutes in line, I glanced behind me to see a woman directly behind G beckoning for another friend to join her. This woman then climbed under the chains to join her friend. I am 90% sure this woman cut in line because there was a woman with two kids behind us previously and she was still in the same spot as before. The issue is that they space things out sometimes 12-20 feet instead of 6 so that in winding queues you aren't right next to another party. So i'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she didn't see the other party to far behind us and thought we were the only ones. But unfortunately she stood so close to us and paid no attention to social distance markers. I realize I should have said something, but I'm terribly non-confrontational, so i just bit the bullet and dealt with it since we were only going to be in line a few minutes longer. This experience here as far as social distancing was rare though, most people did follow the guidelines.

Back to breakfast. We were seated at a nice clean table, and the app worked, so it looked like things were finally looking up for us! Unfortunately receiving your order still depends on a server coming to get your mobile order number and they all kept overlooking us. Once again, after we saw people seated well after us (the woman with children two parties back) receive their food before we even had someone come check on us to get our number I went to find a server. Strike 3. I think we just had really bad luck with it! Hopefully others have better experiences, we just found it to increase our wait time and still had to interact with people just as much as usual, so not worth it IMO, but of course YMMY. I was checking my phone during this time and say Hagrids was once again at a virtual line, so reserved it for the 5 of us late afternoon

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I use flight aware and life360 on my phone, so was able to tell that despite my parents plane being delayed 40 minutes, they still managed to make their connecting flight and landed around 11 am, so we decided to hit up voodoo donuts and head back to the hotel while they took an uber to meet us. I got the limited edition pass holder donut (with a raspberry filling) and G got this cute pumpkin which had a pumpkin pie filling. B got the Grape Ape, as purple is his favorite color but he said it was "sour". We made it back to the hotel just in time to dry the stroller/donuts in the room and make it back downstairs to meet my parents in the lobby and bring them up. Note: I asked when checking in if I could add them to my room for just Sunday night and was told it would not be a problem. Again YMMY, but the hotel was not sold out and our room could hold 6 people so it was ok.

One thing i forgot to mention earlier is that in order to cut down on people in line at the check in desk at the hotel, they provide you with a number to text with any questions or issues. Its awesome! I texted while we were at the park to ask for linens for the sofa bed for my parents and it was waiting at the door when we got back.

We did actually manage to get B down for a nap, despite the sugar from the donut. Afterwards my parents and I took him to the pool for about 30 minutes and then everyone went to the park again. My only criticism of the pool is that the lazy river side is the only one open during the week, whereas the side with the slide is only open on weekends. There were quite a few people at the pool, but for the most part people stayed distanced.

That evening we got over to the park about an hour before our Hagrids time, so walked through toon lagoon and let him trick or treat and also stopped for my parents to get their annual pass holder buttons. Then when it came time to check in for Hagrids, we all got inline together intending to child swap. the line actually outside the ride entrance (by the train/lockers) was standstill, but once you actually got inside the queue it was quick moving. For reference, we got in line back by the fountain and were off the ride in 30 minutes. My mom decided after seeing the ride go by a few times that she was going to skip it, so my dad, G and I rode while she and B waited outside since their child swap room was closed. I have done the ride twice before and it was more intense than i remembered, perhaps because I was trying to determine if my mom would like it/ holding onto my mask.

We did Three Broomsticks again for dinner and this time had no issues. G and I walked over to the hogshead for some drinks while waiting for food and though the line was out the back door it moved fast. This time our dinner experience went smoothly. More trick or treating for B and some Suess rides before we called it a night. Had to get back and mainly pack up so we could head to Disney bright and early the next morning.

Stay tuned... I'm going to head over to my disney report and review our 4 days there but then I'll be back for the second leg of our universal trip , plus a general summary of certain things. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions !
 
after hogwarts we did a little wandering through hogsmeade , casting spells, and hiding/searching for prizes. I’m a member of a group on a certain social media site where members make crafts and hide them in the parks for others to find. Some post hints where they are, others do blind hides. It’s really fun to participate in, so keep an eye out while you are there! We had made some crafts ahead of time and spent some time hiding, but didn’t find any that morning.
That is so cool about the hiding crafts! :love: I had no idea that was a thing. I'm so psyched to bring and hide little gifts now on our trip (and the boys are excited to look to find some)! It reminds me a bit of when we did the Fish Extenders on our Disney cruise.
 

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