Day 2 of Universal - 4/9 - Part Three
This afternoon's nap was a bit restless due to the noise of the pool music, blaring just outside our hotel room window. We needed to rest more than we did sleep, so this was okay for us, but I wanted to be sure to include this information in case anyone reading this has little ones that need afternoon naps. In that case, I would make sure to request a room on the opposite side of the hallway from the pool.
After resting we'd planned to meet up with our compadres in the park, so we made our way back over to Islands of Adventure. With no sign that L and D were on the way from Cabana Bay, we thought this would be a good opportunity to visit Dr. Doom's Fear Fall, as neither my mom nor sister are fans of drop rides. We did Dr. Doom twice - once we got a view towards Royal Pacific, which was fun to see the resort from high above. The second time we got a view toward the Hulk coaster rebuild, so that was a fun sneak peek. After the second trip up and bounce down, I was ready to move on. Fresh from a nap was not the best time to try for a third vertical launching.
Not wanting to get too far away from the entrance and hoping to ride Spiderman once our party was reunited, R and I looked for something to do in Marvel Superhero Island. We had not ridden Stormforce Accelatron in January so we went on that. I get really intense motion sickness, so this wouldn't ordinarily be my idea of fun, but I was wearing a scopolamine patch during our Universal visit so that I could enjoy Universal's 3D and 4D rides (especially Forbidden Journey). We still did not spin the ride vehicle much, but for some reason this ride gave me the giggles, and I was laughing the whole ride while R laughed at me laughing. After we finished riding, my mom and sister finally showed up and we rode Spiderman, which everyone liked. Even with the patch, I still have to close my eyes during the "falling" scene down the skyscraper.
We grabbed some popcorn and an Icee for a snack, and headed toward Seuss Landing again.
We rode the caroseussel as D was really into the unique characters that take the place of the horses on this ride.
We ducked into "All the Books You Can Read" to scope out souvenirs for R's forthcoming nephew (expected in August)...
... where D "tried her hand" at being a grinch
and we spotted Thing #3
R had noticed I was a little bummed earlier on our Seuss Trolley Train Ride that we wound up on the alphabet side. That was the same side we'd ridden back in January and I really wanted to try the Sneeches side. So he was adamant that we do the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride again so that I could experience the Sneeches version. He is pretty sweet sometimes
I loved going through (a very empty) Circus McGurkus! And of course I once again very much enjoyed the views from the train.
And the Sneeches side did not disappoint! I far and away prefer the story here to the abc's narration. I love this adorable little ride. Leave it to grandma Melinda to love the slowest-moving, tamest ride in the park.
We did some ambling around, enjoying the gorgeous views of the Lost Continent at sunset.
It felt very "Florida" that evening, and it was nice just to experience the rush of being in the theme park at sundown. We are definitely night time parkgoers. It was nice to have a later closing time at the parks that night.
We headed toward Hogsmeade with the idea of using Hogwarts Express to change parks. There was about a 25 minute wait for the train, which was okay but we wished we'd gotten refreshments (Hog's Tea, anyone?) for the line. We got a fair number of comments about our plush backpacks while navigating the switchbacks in the queue below the platform.
As the sun went down, we rode the train across to Diagon Alley.
It was nighttime in Diagon Alley when we arrived, which is an incredibly beautiful thing to experience. The only thing more beautiful was getting an ice cream cone with next to no line!
R and I shared a cone with salted caramel blondie (our favorite) and sticky toffee pudding.
The sticky toffee pudding was not something I'd get again -- I didn't taste anything too wildly different from vanilla. I compared it to the sweet cream flavor from Marble Slab. And that's not meant to be a compliment. I'm not a vanilla gal, thankyouverymuch.
My mom and sister also got a cone - I believe they had salted caramel blondie and the chocolate and raspberry. We enjoyed our cones from just outside the ice cream shop, with this view:
The above photo is included in this TR just to show you the contrast between how incredible the fire-breathing dragon really is compared to the sad little cough of flame I'd captured before.
We got in line for Gringott's - I believe the wait was posted at 45 or 60 minutes, not sure which, but this was the last attraction we REALLY wanted to ride, so we were fine waiting. The massive outdoor switchback queue was in use, as was something we'd not experienced before -- locker tickets. We joined the queue (and enjoyed some beers from the cart in the outdoor area) and once we reached the point where the line goes back indoors into the bank lobby, D and I were each given a ticket to get out of line, show the ticket to the locker attendant in order to stow our things, and using the ticket, we were permitted to go back in to the bank lobby entrance and duck under the queue partitions to rejoin R and my mom. It was a strange experience, and I think it could probably be organized a bit better, but I am glad they are making it more orderly at the locker stations. We all enjoyed this attraction of course - it really is impressive. Of course on the way out, the ticket system was no longer in effect and we had an encounter with another guest who was standing in front of the computer at the locker station our bags were stored in... repeatedly pressing the screen which was repeatedly displaying the "retrieve items only" message each time, meaning all the lockers were in use. After letting her do this for a few moments, D and I kindly informed her that the lockers were in use but that we'd like to vacate some. She tartly told us that someone had just retrieved their things, but still refused to move to another locker station. D kind of just edged in and pressed the retrieval button to get her things out of the locker, and this woman was just still standing there, muttering nasty things about us while still refusing to move to another locker station. Some people...
We had just a few minutes before the park would be closing, so we booked it over to the Mummy and were able to squeeze in that as our last ride before the park closed at 10:00. We slowly, precariously, took the route to exit the crowded park as Jessie J (that night's Mardi Gras concert performer) finished up the last half "Domino" and introduced a guest to the stage to help her with "Bang Bang". That was actually extremely cool if it wasn't a planted musician - she picked a fan to come up on stage and rap the Nicki Minaj verse and he did a fantastic job. Plus I thought it was cool that we got to hear most of her performance of her two most popular hits, just by exiting at the time she was performing them. I wouldn't have waited to see her or hear them, but it was a nice bonus having this experience. #UniversalMoments
Just like the rest of the crush of guests, we slowly exited out into City Walk. It was a little after 10:00, but the restaurants were still hopping, so we put in our name with the hostess at Vivo. Before we could even order libations at the bar, I received the text that our table was ready (10 minutes on the dot from when I got the initial "wait time" text, which approximated a 30 minute wait). We were seated on the patio after requesting "first available".
R and I were each going to order a glass of wine so we ordered a bottle of the Carletto Ricco Rosso red blend.
We also had this last time we dined at Vivo, and it was neither the best nor the worst wine I've ever had. It was drinkable and smooth and went well with the dishes we ordered.
My mom ordered a vodka martini and she didn't complain, so I will assume it was as it should have been.
Meals at Vivo start with a complimentary loaf of this crusty ciabatta type bread - great for dipping in the olive oil provided. We were ravenous as it was after 10:30 when we were seated, so I ate more of this than I wanted to. The food is so good who wants to waste valuable tummy space on bread!?
I ordered a Margherita Pizza ($12) and the misti salad ($5). The pizza was tomato sauce, basil, extra virgin olive oil, and buffalo mozzarella. The salad was baby greens, fennel, radicchio, cucumber, tomato, radish, and herb vinaigrette. The salad portion was huge! I forced myself to finish all of it even though I wanted to eat more pizza and leave salad behind. The pizza leftovers would make a good breakfast, and I was in dire need of veggies after over a week in Orlando mainly eating in restaurants. The pizza was exactly what I wanted - light, chewy crust and delicious sauce and cheese. Everyone tasted this and enjoyed it and I took about 3 pieces to go which we ate the next morning. I would highly recommend this as an entree if you are in the mood for pizza.
R chose the Pork Romano - breaded pork, prosciutto, fontina, roasted tomato, pesto, linguine ($21) and also ordered a misti salad. He liked this and so did I. Think of it as chicken parmigiana with an additional ham layer. This was a large portion, and I don't think it got finished, but R finished his salad too. They were good!
My mom went adventurous and ordered the Squid Ink Seafood Pasta - shrimp, clams, mussels, calamari, white wine, basil, black spaghetti ($19). She really liked this. I had a clam, I think, and thought the sauce was good. She also had a misti salad, and it was hilarious when it came to the table because her salad was sad and flat while all the others were huge, fluffy, and fresh looking. Needless to say, they replaced the sad flat salad with no questions asked. A manager even followed up to make sure we were happy. The fluffy salad was happily devoured.
D, our resident chicken parmigiana expert, chose... you guessed it, Chicken Parmigiano - marinara, mozzarella, linguine ($16). She liked this.
We had no room for dessert after this indulgent meal, but we had great service and a wonderful dinner. With tax and tip, after preferred pass discount, the total came to $147.16. I am not sure how many martinis that included but I thought it was a very fair price for a nice dinner for four with alcohol.
We rolled back to our rooms, exhausted and satisfied. The next day was our last day in Orlando
, so we needed to get some rest.