Midnight Departures and Hoping for Sunshine - a January 2016 TR - Completed 2/1

You're trip was somewhat similar to what we have planned. We're spending 2 full days at USO/IOA and a day at MK for good measure. Looking through all of your awesome pics is making the wait unbearable now :hourglass

Counting down the days.....(minutes..... seconds......)
 
Loving this trip report. Seeing Disney sprinkled in there was such a pleasant surprise!!

Thanks so much! It's nice to have you guys here reading along :flower3: I really did try my best not to bring up Disney... And then R casually mentioned he'd brought his magic band "just in case" and from there I knew we'd be visiting Disney!

You're trip was somewhat similar to what we have planned. We're spending 2 full days at USO/IOA and a day at MK for good measure. Looking through all of your awesome pics is making the wait unbearable now :hourglass

Counting down the days.....(minutes..... seconds......)

Not long now at all! (Or an eternity depending on your viewpoint) :rolleyes1

I've pretty much started packing earlier and earlier for our trips!
 
Sorry for the lack of report updates, gang! My boss and the majority of my colleagues left Wednesday for a conference and one coworker and I were invited to stay behind and hold down the fort... The two of us are swamped but managing!

I also did a much better job with pictures the last couple days of the trip so I am in the midst of uploading those.

Back soon with an update, I promise!
 
Day4:

January 17th dawned blue and beautiful and we were up early, eager to squeeze every minute of fun out of our last full day (what? How did that happen already?!)

We elected to walk to the park this morning after spotting a growing crowd at the boat dock. It was another gorgeous few minutes on the way to the parks. Incidentally, I just wanted to share that I found this walk to be completely reasonable. Perhaps it was because we were staying in a room that was already nearest the walking path, but I expected a longer walk. This was great.

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[Walking to the parks]

We arrived at practically 8:00 on the dot, in perfect time for early entry at the Studios.

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We joined the herd headed toward Diagon Alley, and I lingered a little longer in the vacant areas of the park to soak up some "alone time" with the beautiful day and the gorgeous buildings at this hour.

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We made it into DA and found out the Escape from Gringotts was down, and the massive line snaked all the way back to the London waterfront. No thank you! We took this opportunity to do some shopping in the uncrowded stores.

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It was nice to browse in Ollivander's with only a small crowd rather than an oppressive one. I didn't pick out a wand but I wanted to scope out the options for my sister. Did I already mention here that I got her a Universal gift card for Christmas, earmarked for a wand (with a little left to upgrade to a power pass :rolleyes1)? It was a bit of a selfish gift as I want to see her do the spells!

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We took in the ambiance, watched some little wizards cast spells, and I took a lot of photos. Finally I got the dragon's fire blast against a blue sky!

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Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was a lot more enjoyable with fewer folks inside. We browsed (still spent some more time eyeballing those pygmy puffs, but none came home with us) and R selected a chocolate frog.

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By this time it was about the hour to start thinking of Hogsmeade, so we exited Diagon Alley and went over to King's Cross. We queued up (well, okay, there wasn't too much of a line) for the Hogwarts Express and R opened his chocolate frog. He got Dumbledore!

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Hogsmeade was lovely and not too crowded.

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We jumped in line for Forbidden Journey about 9:15. There must have been a small queue as we were done around 9:50.

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The tummies were rumbling and we were ready for a snack. We stopped in Honeydukes and then got a frozen butterbeer from the Hog's Head so that we could say we'd sampled all three butter brews. We located an empty table in the mostly vacant patio area behind Three Broomsticks/Hog's Head and enjoyed our selections from Honeydukes.

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R chose a pumpkin cake and I chose a cauldron cake ($3.95 each). We also got a chocolate pretzel wand to share ($2.95 - highway robbery, and not pictured unfortunately). With the 10% AP discount we paid $10.40 for the baked goods from Honeydukes and $6.22 for the frozen butterbeer. After trying all three, I like the classic butterbeer best. R likes the frozen. I've seen mixed reviews on the cauldron cakes - chief complaint seems to be that they are too rich or too dark chocolate. Nope, these were perfect by me! I'd like one right now, actually. :thumbsup2

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[foreshadowing, sky starting to look ominous]

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took a look around inside three broomsticks...

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[there they are! All three of them! :)]

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We went to ride Dragon Challenge but after putting our things in lockers, I felt a rain drop and flatly refused to even risk the experience we'd had a few days prior when Dragon Challenge turned into a water ride. Nope, not happening! :sad2: We got our things right back out of the locker and made our way to the Hogwarts Express again.

More pictures and lots more food ahead in the next post! (to be continued)...
 


Question for you. Of the days you were there, how often did Universal have early entry (as opposed to just IOA)?
 
Question for you. Of the days you were there, how often did Universal have early entry (as opposed to just IOA)?

Only Studios had early entry while we were there and opened every day at 8 and there was no early entry while we were there for IOA. IOA opened at 9 and Studios opened to non-resort guests at 9. We didn't feel like we needed early entry at IOA as long as we got there at opening. I guess because it's been open longer? We actually found shorter waits for Gringotts an hour before closing than even during early entry!
 
Thanks. I am hoping more for early entry to Studios rather than IOA. Moreso for Minions (as I know they usually open it early when Studios has early entry) because the line for that grows fast and stays big all day.
 


Thanks. I am hoping more for early entry to Studios rather than IOA. Moreso for Minions (as I know they usually open it early when Studios has early entry) because the line for that grows fast and stays big all day.

Oh yes, we saw long lines for that in the afternoons! It was cute but at 60 minutes wait?! No way!! :crazy2:

Are you staying at Cabana Bay? Let me know how you like it! Thinking of booking my mom and sister in there for our April trip.

I got the feeling that they may be on semi-permanent Studios early entry right now as they gave us Diagon Alley brochures at check in with the early entry explained. From the check in desk's tone and demeanor it seemed like "oh yes of course it's for studios right now". I don't know if that makes sense.
 
Oh yes, we saw long lines for that in the afternoons! It was cute but at 60 minutes wait?! No way!! :crazy2:

Are you staying at Cabana Bay? Let me know how you like it! Thinking of booking my mom and sister in there for our April trip.

I got the feeling that they may be on semi-permanent Studios early entry right now as they gave us Diagon Alley brochures at check in with the early entry explained. From the check in desk's tone and demeanor it seemed like "oh yes of course it's for studios right now". I don't know if that makes sense.

Ya. Staying at CB for a couple of days for when we go to USO/IOA. Will send you my thoughts after we're back.

And in terms of Minions, it's mostly for the kids so we want to try it at least once and if we can do it first thing with a short line that would be ideal. Checking wait times on it any time after 9:30 and it seems to be 40-60+ min....
 
Your last full day!!!! Aww.......

Nice pics again, lovely to see how much fun you had........I like your pics of the 3 broomsticks on the wall.......I think I deleted my pics of them somehow........it's cute though.......

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.........
 
Tell R that he has to come with us in May...all we need is Dumbledore and he seems to be the most rare...we always seem to come home with another Salaazar Slytherin; hehe.

Glad you got in a little Disney time, and I can't wait to read the rest!

Good luck at work!
 
Have been reading along and thoroughly have enjoyed your style of writing

Hope we get an encore after your next trip

I found it a great read with an excellent style by the way you shared your trip with us
 
Your last full day!!!! Aww.......

Nice pics again, lovely to see how much fun you had........I like your pics of the 3 broomsticks on the wall.......I think I deleted my pics of them somehow........it's cute though.......

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.........

I know! Too short. Actually in reality I felt like four nights was perfect for our first visit. I admire the folks who can knock it all out in a couple of days but we like a medium pace and a mid afternoon break from the crowds, even if we don't nap. I can aspire to 18 nights one day!

I was honestly shocked to find the three broomsticks on that wall - I would have expected them to be somewhere more conspicuous but it's such a nice touch to have them sort of hidden away.

Tell R that he has to come with us in May...all we need is Dumbledore and he seems to be the most rare...we always seem to come home with another Salaazar Slytherin; hehe.

Glad you got in a little Disney time, and I can't wait to read the rest!

Good luck at work!

Thank you! And thank goodness everyone will be back Monday! This week nearly killed me. Big boss took those of us left behind in Atlanta for happy hour drinks this afternoon. So that was some expression of gratitude and maybe an acknowledgment we all needed a drink!! :rolleyes1

I am glad to hear Dumbledore isn't the most common wizard in the frogs! R was so tickled that he got Dumbledore that we liked to think he was rare. Though R is totally a slytherin, whether he admits it or not! Your comment made me laugh - you can borrow my R any time you like! But I may stow away if he's headed to Orlando...

Have been reading along and thoroughly have enjoyed your style of writing

Hope we get an encore after your next trip

I found it a great read with an excellent style by the way you shared your trip with us

:blush: Thank you, macraven! I have to say it has been a wonderful experience so far sharing my trip. The Universal board is definitely the place to be -- everyone in this forum has been fun, kind, and upbeat. I am sure I will end up sharing all the little details of our April trip once it passes as well!!
 
Loved your trip report and pictures! I also loved the Cauldron Cakes and thought they were perfect! I wouldn't mind having one right now, as well! :) The pumpkin cakes looked really cute, too! Did you try the Pumpkin Juice? I loved it! I liked the Butterbeer okay, but the Pumpkin Juice was my favorite!
 
As I mentioned signing off on the previous post, we'd done what we needed and wanted to do in Hogsmeade so we made our way over to the Hogwarts Express and took the reverse of our morning ride, headed back to King's Cross.

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One thing from my "list" that I hadn't accomplished yet was to enjoy a meal in one of the Harry Potter restaurants, and the Leaky Cauldron ended up having more appealing choices to me, so I thought now was as good a time as ever.

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We wanted to head off the lunch rush, so we were a bit on the early side but it paid off as we did not wait to order. We chose the fish and chips and bangers and mash to share. These are "safe" options anyway but we found them to be decent fare and they certainly lent that touristy sort of feeling. Not quite like the real pub food I had in Oxford, but it's a theme park. Certainly passable. We also shared a lemon squash and each had a beer. $47.18 with AP discount. The lemon squash was like a nice, fresh lemonade. I quite enjoyed the chips and the minty peas.

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[lemon squash]

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[bangers and mash]

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We were suffering the effects of our Disney romp the night before, a short night's sleep, and an early wake up this morning - we sort of decided to work our way back of the park since we were struggling already. We were in no hurry and were enjoying the day, the ambiance, and the relaxed feeling of having nothing to do on a gorgeous Sunday in Orlando. We stopped in the sweet shop near the water front in San Francisco and I loved these cute apples:

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We stopped in to ride the mummy and found a very long express line so we just did it once - but we did spot the Blues Brothers on the move.

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With the mummy conquered (we would have enjoyed it more if we had GOTTEN A CUP OF COFFEE!!! :rotfl:) we made our way out. The afternoon turned out to be maybe the most gorgeous weather of the trip.

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We took a long rest and snoozed away some of the exhaustion from our short night's sleep. The beds at Portofino truly were delightfully comfortable. Loew's really does a great job with this resort and it makes me want to stay at other Loew's hotel locations. Rested from our naps, we headed back into the parks around 5:30 that evening.

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[this one made it to wallpaper status on my iPad!]

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These pictures don't even do the sunset justice.

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I don't know how we managed it, but by 6:00 we were ready for a snack again (I guess lunch had been early, after all...) so we stopped in at Croissant Moon for - you guessed it - another one of those pistachio muffins! ($2.89) We also selected a Black Forest cake ($2.99). The pistachio muffin was as scrumptious as our first one and the Black Forest cake was just okay. I wouldn't get that again.

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[this picture doesn't really show how lovely the cake looked - unfortunately it looked better than it tasted!]

IOA really is lovely at night. The lights are gorgeous in the lost continent and port of entry. We made our way over to Dr. Doom and rode that twice before heading to Hogsmeade and enjoying dragon challenge again now that the weather was nice.

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We waited for the front row of the Hungarian Horntail and it was a pretty good size line. We were behind several groups of young teens so maybe it just seemed longer than usual :scratchin. From there we grabbed the train to London and got in line for Gringotts just before 8 when the park was closing at 9 - this was posted at a 30 minute wait but it was less than 30 minutes from joining the queue until we were out enjoying the ambiance of Diagon Alley in the dark - not a bad wait at all and I would recommend hitting DA in the last hour the park is open due to how nice it looks at night and relatively few people around compared to earlier in the day.

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Universal really did a great job with the theming in here. It was hard to pull ourselves away from the bustle and glow of DA at night but we had a couple more thrills in mind before dinner!

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We made our way over to the mummy and beheld our fate - well, actually it was a good thing we had already been instructed in our previous rides that the medjai couldn't save us now, as the sound wasn't working in the room with the beetles and the 180 degree turn. It was, nevertheless, a great ride as usual even though we missed our favorite quotable lines. We hit RRR on our way out - I think I chose "Midnight Rider" but I can't recall. This ride is so fun at night!

Dinner at citywalk was up next. Another location I'd been waiting to try... :woohoo:
 
Good morning! Almost didn't get my update posted as there's a Fievel marathon on Encore Family channel today... :happytv: I can't resist that little mouse. I loved these movies as a child and loved to see that he still has a place in Universal Studios, but I have to wonder for how long.

Loved your trip report and pictures! I also loved the Cauldron Cakes and thought they were perfect! I wouldn't mind having one right now, as well! :) The pumpkin cakes looked really cute, too! Did you try the Pumpkin Juice? I loved it! I liked the Butterbeer okay, but the Pumpkin Juice was my favorite!

Thank you @mrsabbott! I love hearing from everyone, it makes writing my report that much sweeter to have you guys here reading along! :flower3: The pumpkin cake was delicious. In my delirium remembering that tasty cauldron cake I forgot to mention that the pumpkin cake was sort of like a spice cake dipped in an orange icing. We both really liked it and it was good to enjoy alongside that rich and chocolatey cauldron cake! I did think it was a bit small for the price - not that I'm complaining about the reasonable portion size compared to massive candy apples and giant cupcakes, but the price should be more like $2.50 for such a small snack. And don't get me started on the crazy price for those pretzel wands - $2.95 for a pretzel dipped in chocolate is just unconscionable! :sad2:

I never did try the pumpkin juice - as you might have noticed, we had quite a lot of sweets including all three kinds of butterbeer and I'm not really much of a sweets eater on a day-to-day basis, so I didn't make it to tasting the pumpkin juice this time. Definitely on my must-do list for April though! Especially hearing that you liked it so well!

Thanks for saying hi!

Will work on writing up the rest of day 4 now...

pixiedust:
 
I love your report. Portofino Bay looks beautiful. You have definitely piqued my interest in a pumpkin cake. I almost got one last time but changed my mind. I like pumpkin juice as well but the frozen Butterbeer is my favorite.
 

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