The TMs are Starting to Recognize Us! September 2018 TR *NEW TR LINK 4/8

Day 5 Continued: Wednesday September 19th

Once we were done with the Raptor Encounter, we brought DS over to the Jurassic Park River Adventure shop to browse.

He decided he wanted to spend a little more of his birthday money on a Jurassic World notebook and pen set, and a T-rex claw “fossil” so we had those sent back to the room as well. Such a nice perk!

Purchases made, he asked to go play in Camp Jurassic, so I soaked up some shade while he played.

While he was playing, DH and I talked about our lunch options. It was really hot out, so we thought maybe a longer table service meal would be a nice break instead of a quick service meal. We decided to head over to Toothsome for lunch since it is so close to Islands of Adventure.

There was no wait, so we were brought right to a table. Since our appetites were still not their norm, DH and I decided to get DS a kids meal and split some appetizers. But of course we wanted some shakes too! DS got the kids sliders, and DH and I ordered the totchos and margherita flatbread to share. Then we got the brownie milkshake we had gotten last time, but we also ordered the cookie jar milkshake too. We ordered everything together, and the milkshakes actually were the first thing to come.

Someone was really excited about getting to try milkshakes before eating.


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Penelope and Jacques were making the rounds in the restaurant, and they came over to talk to us at our table after DH snuck this photo of them at another table.

They spent a long time pondering why we had 4 straws but only 3 people, and wondered whether we maybe had a ghost at the table with us. Lol It was a fun, if not maybe a little awkward, interaction while we waited for our food to arrive.


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Totchos – Fried tater tots, spicy green chili, crispy pork belly, andouille sausage, cheddar cheese sauce


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Kids Mini Burger – American cheese, French fries, applesauce


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Classic Margherita flatbread – San Marzano tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil

Both of the things DH and I got to share were really delicious, but I think he gravitated more to the totchos, and I ended up eating more of the flatbread. Once again, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. With both food items and two milkshakes, we were hurting by the time we finally gave up and stopped eating!

We couldn’t help taking a peek at their goodies, although we were too stuffed to even think of buying anything, even if we would have been eating it later.

Our intention had been to head back to the room, so that was the plan in mind as we waddled out of the restaurant. But we had special plans that night that would be keeping us away from the parks, and as we walked we started talking about how if we went back to the room right now, we really wouldn’t have time to go back to the parks before heading offsite later that evening. So we made a detour into Studios and decided to do a few more attractions before calling it a day.

The first stop we made after that long walk across City Walk was to duck into Shrek 4D for some a/c. We were standing at the front of the room when the TM came on to do her safety spiel, and she gave DS a shout out for his birthday when she noticed his button!


I wanted to head to the restrooms down the alleyway before going on anything else when I spotted him again…Bumblebee! This time the boys gave me a little hustle and we made it over there while his line was still open! FINALLY I got my long awaited photo with Bumblebee!!


We weren’t intending to stay long, so we decided not to venture too far from the exit and went over to do Minion Mayhem.

It was around 1:45 when we exited the park.


We walked back to the hotel, and met our housekeeper who was still making our beds. So that was a bit awkward! Lol But she was nearly done, so once she left, we took a nap from 2:15 to about 4. When we got up, we still had some time before we’d have to leave, so DH asked DS if he wanted to go down to the pool for a little while, but he said he just wanted to play in the room for a little while, so we just relaxed until we left at about 5:30. We went to Chick Fil A for dinner, and DS enjoyed making a couple of friends in the play area after our meal.

After dinner, we headed over to the Cinemark theater for the reason for our offsite evening…a 25th anniversary showing of Jurassic Park!


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Y’all, this theater was AWESOME! Not only was it really large, the seats in the theaters are luxury leather recliners! Since this was a Fathom event, we bought specific seats, so we didn’t really have to be there in a hurry, but we were still a little early so we got to ooh and ahh over the seats for a bit.


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I was so comfortable, all I was missing was a pillow and blanket to really enjoy myself!! Haha Instead of previews, they showed a 15 minute or so “fan film” which was a really funny take on famous scenes from the movie submitted by fans. They spliced together a lot of different submissions to create a very brief synopsis of the movie, and it was pretty funny what people had come up with. Then we were treated to the movie back on the big screen! It was a really fun event, so I’m happy it overlapped with our trip. It couldn’t have been more perfect, and DS enjoyed seeing the full uncut movie on the big screen since he has only ever seen it at home.

After the movie, we got back to the hotel and went to shower but realized we only had 1 clean washcloth. I guess busting in on the housekeeper had thrown her off! A quick text to guest services later and they brought us up plenty of towels, so we could take our showers and get to bed.

UP NEXT: Seuss Morning
 
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These milkshakes are ridiculous!! But they look amazing.

But we had special plans that night that would be keeping us away from the parks, and as we walked we started talking about how if we went back to the room right now, we really wouldn’t have time to go back to the parks before heading offsite later that evening. So we made a detour into Studios and decided to do a few more attractions before calling it a day.

I love that everything is so close here that you can change your plans on the fly and walk wherever you want to go.

After dinner, we headed over to the Cinemark theater for the reason for our offsite evening…a 25th anniversary showing of Jurassic Park!

What a cool evening! Glad you all had fun.
 


The fan-submitted bit sounds really neat, it's so cool that they did that!

I was skeptical at first when DH told me about it, but it turned out to be very funny & entertaining!

These milkshakes are ridiculous!! But they look amazing.

I love that everything is so close here that you can change your plans on the fly and walk wherever you want to go.

What a cool evening! Glad you all had fun.

So ridiculous & so overindulgent, but they are DELICIOUS!!! I want to try all of them!

It is really nice to have everything within walking distance. It has spoiled us, for sure!! We are staying offsite next year, and I will miss the closeness of being able to walk to our room.
 
Thanks for doing this trip report! Our eldest son is the same age as yours so reading this has been helpful in thinking about whether this is the right time for his first trip to Universal.

And those milkshakes are, as my 2 year old would say, “ ‘diculous”
 
Toothsome looks fantastic. Although we chose to skip universal in August, I was tempted to go over to Citywalk for a night to eat there. I kind of regret now that we didn't. If my family likes one thing, it's ridiculous over the top sweets. My girls would have been quite happy with one of those milkshakes :laughing:
 


Toothsome was a great lunch choice; those milkshakes are delicious! Glad the appetizers filled you up and gave you a break from the heat for a bit.

Agh, it's always super awkward when you bump into housekeepers in your room. Do you leave? Do you stick around and just watch them work? :rotfl:


What awesome timing! I bet taking DS to the showing of Jurassic Park was the perfect addition to your Universal trip. Not to mention, it had to be pretty fun to see the movie on the big screen! (I was too young to do that when it originally came out, so I missed that opportunity.)
 
Sounds like a good choice heading to Toothsomes for lunch! And a nice time squeezing in some rides at Universal!

FINALLY you got your pic with Bumblebee! Yay!

Very cool getting to see a showing of Jurassic Park! Perfectly timed!
 
Ugh - thought I'd share this with you. We have been talking with DD what she wants to do for her 16th Birthday - and she's asked to go back to Universal - even though she admits she doesn't want to go on all that many rides. DW and I discussed whether we can swing it - but we felt that the fact she still wants to take a trip with her parents at 16 we should probably do our best to do it. We were considering a fall trip for DW and I to F&W, and we decided to cancel that in favor of this. DW said she'd put up some money to make it happen.

Because of school schedule, and her birthday is in May and we are trying not to take her out of school - we are looking at Memorial Day weekend. The killer is because we couldn't book when the fares came out on SWA, we are looking at $1000 for the flights alone - so really looking to save money whenever we can.

Figure I'd pose a couple questions:
- How is weather in end of May down there - you've been down around then right? Is it as brutal hot as August/September? (I'm sure it'll be too hot for us, but it was in February.)

-Waffling between staying nearby on-site cheap or staying off-site cheaper. Price difference for 3 nights is $375 less at Doubletree nearby vs Cabana Bay. I know you guys stay on site mostly, but have you tried Cabana Bay? We can't swing one of the FOTL resorts at nearly $450 a night. Cabana Bay still $225 a night - which is pushing affordability, but it's only 3 nights so maybe not a deal-killer. Just not sure if it is worth it when you can't use the boats and can't get FOTL. Hoping for your opinion.

-Already convinced her it is OK if we can save money doing one park per day and they have a 4 days for the price of 2 deal as well. I just can't justify $250 extra to ride Hogwarts express - which after the first time on it I found to be a smelly bore. But do we upgrade to do the water park? DD doesn't do any of the rides, so what's the point. You guys haven't done it, right? Just curious if you've heard much about it. Again, $175 extra to add the water park doesn't seem worth it to me.
 
Thanks for doing this trip report! Our eldest son is the same age as yours so reading this has been helpful in thinking about whether this is the right time for his first trip to Universal.

And those milkshakes are, as my 2 year old would say, “ ‘diculous”

I’m glad you have found it helpful!! DS is really at a great age for enjoying so much of what universal has to offer. He’s not too old for Minions but not quite tall (or brave) enough for The Hulk so he can and will do everything in between.

They are totally ‘diculous haha!

Toothsome looks fantastic. Although we chose to skip universal in August, I was tempted to go over to Citywalk for a night to eat there. I kind of regret now that we didn't. If my family likes one thing, it's ridiculous over the top sweets. My girls would have been quite happy with one of those milkshakes :laughing:

The milkshakes are a great reason to venture over there! But we were happy to find out the food was really good too. It’s just so hard to fit it all in. I think last trip when we went just for milkshakes we were better able to enjoy them and not feel so full. I think next time we’d have to split up dining there for a meal and getting milkshakes.

Toothsome was a great lunch choice; those milkshakes are delicious! Glad the appetizers filled you up and gave you a break from the heat for a bit.

Agh, it's always super awkward when you bump into housekeepers in your room. Do you leave? Do you stick around and just watch them work? :rotfl:


What awesome timing! I bet taking DS to the showing of Jurassic Park was the perfect addition to your Universal trip. Not to mention, it had to be pretty fun to see the movie on the big screen! (I was too young to do that when it originally came out, so I missed that opportunity.)

It was so nice to get out of that heat for sure! And it was a pretty cool atmosphere overall. We didn’t really experience the actual restaurant last time since we just sat in the milkshake counter area.

Awkward is an understatement!! She didn’t speak great English and of course Paxton decided to be chatty with her and let her know he had left her a note thanking her for cleaning our room. I’m not sure she even really understood but she was nice about it. Lol

Now that I think about it I don’t remember if I saw Jurassic Park in theaters or if I first saw it after it was out on VHS. It was very cool to see it on the big screen though! And it was something interesting and non park related to do since we had so much time there this trip.

Sounds like a good choice heading to Toothsomes for lunch! And a nice time squeezing in some rides at Universal!

FINALLY you got your pic with Bumblebee! Yay!

Very cool getting to see a showing of Jurassic Park! Perfectly timed!

Toothsome was great for lunch! I think next time we’d have to split doing a meal and doing milkshakes. It was just too much all at once. But still delicious!

FINALLY!!!! I was so excited to finally see Bumblebee!! He’s my fav.

Because of school schedule, and her birthday is in May and we are trying not to take her out of school - we are looking at Memorial Day weekend. The killer is because we couldn't book when the fares came out on SWA, we are looking at $1000 for the flights alone - so really looking to save money whenever we can.

Soooooo... we will be in universal that weekend too!!! Actually we arrive that weekend and will be there the full week! Could it be we finally overlap in an Orlando themepark?! Bummer about the flights though. We are having to do cheap too so no flying and no onsite stay for us this time.

Figure I'd pose a couple questions:
- How is weather in end of May down there - you've been down around then right? Is it as brutal hot as August/September? (I'm sure it'll be too hot for us, but it was in February.)

We did flower & garden a couple years ago in May and it was HOT!! Unfortunately it’s probably pretty comparable to summer/September weather. I’m dreading that part, especially with the new cost for the bigger lockers at attractions meaning we can’t bring as much to battle the heat as we normally would.

-Waffling between staying nearby on-site cheap or staying off-site cheaper. Price difference for 3 nights is $375 less at Doubletree nearby vs Cabana Bay. I know you guys stay on site mostly, but have you tried Cabana Bay? We can't swing one of the FOTL resorts at nearly $450 a night. Cabana Bay still $225 a night - which is pushing affordability, but it's only 3 nights so maybe not a deal-killer. Just not sure if it is worth it when you can't use the boats and can't get FOTL. Hoping for your opinion.

We have never tried cabana bay and truthfully I don’t know it would be worth it like you said with no express pass. Early entry would be nice but that’s not that amazing of a perk to me. $225 for CB also seems like a lot. We are staying at one of the Wyndham resorts nearby and planning to Uber.

Already convinced her it is OK if we can save money doing one park per day and they have a 4 days for the price of 2 deal as well. I just can't justify $250 extra to ride Hogwarts express - which after the first time on it I found to be a smelly bore. But do we upgrade to do the water park? DD doesn't do any of the rides, so what's the point. You guys haven't done it, right? Just curious if you've heard much about it. Again, $175 extra to add the water park doesn't seem worth it to me.

We have never done Volcano Bay either and find it’s kind of steep for one day since our passes don’t include it. It looks beautiful but just like you I’m not sure DS would do many of the slides.
 
Day 6: Thursday September 20th

The next morning, since we’d been out a bit late at the movie, we decided to sleep in a bit. It was 7:30 am when we got up, and we took our time getting ready since we weren’t in a rush to be anywhere by a certain time. We took the boat over to City Walk and had breakfast at Voodoo Doughnuts.

This time I knew better than to get myself 2 donuts, so I picked the Diablos Rex (Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting, red sprinkles, a vanilla frosting pentagram, and chocolate chips). DS picked the Eight Mile, which is the one covered in M&Ms that I had picked the last time. DH got himself the ODB (Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, Oreo cookies, and peanut butter), and a chocolate old fashioned.


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All of them were really delicious, once again! Getting just one was a much better choice. Lol I didn’t feel sick to my stomach from feeling like I had to eat it all.

After breakfast, we went into Islands of Adventure, and immediately hopped into a very short line for Puss in Boots, who was meeting at the entrance.


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Our first stop for the morning was over to Seuss Landing to visit The Cat in the Hat first.


Then we went on the Seuss Trolley Train Ride and got to do the opposite track for the first time in awhile, the one that takes you through the Circus McGurkus restaurant.


After our couple of Seuss rides, we made our way towards Lost Continent.

But Lost Continent is basically just a means to an end, as all we really do is walk through it to get somewhere else. This time we did make a quick stop when we found a cart that was open so we could activate our cup and get our first Icee of the day. Then we headed over to Hogsmeade.


We did Forbidden Journey first, of course, at DS’s request.


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Then headed over to ride Flight of the Hippogriff.


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Continued in next post...
 
Day 6 Continued: Thursday September 20th

We walked around for DS to do some spells.


We decided we wanted to ride Kong, so we headed back towards the bridge to Jurassic Park and came across the Frog Choir performing.


We made a pit stop in Jurassic Park for a popcorn refill and we got our cup filled with some Powerade. The Watering Hole wasn’t open, so there were plenty of tables open for us to have a seat and enjoy our snack.


We also spotted a JP handler walking around with a baby triceratops.

DS asked to play again in Camp Jurassic, but it was just too hot, so I went to sit in the Discovery Center and enjoy the air conditioning while he played.


When he was finished playing, we continued on our original path over to Skull Island to ride Kong, stopping for a Coke Icee along the way.


After the ride we grabbed a strawberry Icee for DS since that is the one he likes the most and it’s harder to come by than the other flavors. Then we headed through Toon Lagoon to Superhero Island to get some lunch.


We went over to Captain America Diner for lunch and all got kids meals because we were still a little full from those donuts, but we don’t like to wait too late for lunch because then the restaurants get more crowded.

Family selfie with Belle:

UP NEXT: Rain Rain Go Away
 
All your donut selections looked delicious! I can definitely see where one would be enough to fill you for the morning.

It's amazing how kids are impervious to the heat. All they see is a playground and want to enjoy it, no matter if it's a million degrees outside!
 
Then we went on the Seuss Trolley Train Ride and got to do the opposite track for the first time in awhile, the one that takes you through the Circus McGurkus restaurant.
My DD was obsessed with this ride on our 2014 trip (last one I did to Universal). She loved going through the restaurant and we had to as the TMs if we could do that track ever time. I think we rode 5 or 6 times in the 2 days.

We decided we wanted to ride Kong, so we headed back towards the bridge to Jurassic Park and came across the Frog Choir performing.

Have they cut down on the choir? I seem to remember it being bigger, maybe 12 people and 4 frogs.
I suppose cost cutting isn't just a Disney thing.

We also spotted a JP handler walking around with a baby triceratops.

I like these new things they added to the Jurassic Park area, like the Raptor encounter and this baby triceratops which looks really cool.
It's actually enticing me to want to go back to Universal.
 
All your donut selections looked delicious! I can definitely see where one would be enough to fill you for the morning.

It's amazing how kids are impervious to the heat. All they see is a playground and want to enjoy it, no matter if it's a million degrees outside!

YES! DH still insisted on getting 2 for some reason :rotfl: but DS and I were much better off with just eating one each.

They really are. I don't understand how they just don't feel that heat when they find somewhere to play. This was the second time he wanted to play in there this trip! And it was SO HOT and SO HUMID. He didn't seem to notice. lol

My DD was obsessed with this ride on our 2014 trip (last one I did to Universal). She loved going through the restaurant and we had to as the TMs if we could do that track ever time. I think we rode 5 or 6 times in the 2 days.

It still surprises me almost every time DS asks to ride. It might be leftover love of trains, but I was starting to wonder if he is starting to find it too "babyish" now that he's getting a bit older. But he still seems to love it!

Have they cut down on the choir? I seem to remember it being bigger, maybe 12 people and 4 frogs.
I suppose cost cutting isn't just a Disney thing.

I'm not sure? 2013 was the first time we were able to visit Hogsmeade after it opened, and I just looked back in my TR from that trip and it was still only one student from each house and 2 toads. At that point it had already been open something like 3 years though, so it could have been that way at the very beginning.

I like these new things they added to the Jurassic Park area, like the Raptor encounter and this baby triceratops which looks really cool.
It's actually enticing me to want to go back to Universal.

We don't even really ride anything in Jurassic Park since we don't like getting wet every time in the parks, so we skip the River Adventure. Yet we still manage to spend so much time there every trip! As long as DS still loves dinosaurs, I don't see that changing anytime soon. It will be cool if they end up expanding it a bit and adding a ride from Jurassic World too.
 
Since we are now planning a "last minute" trip to Universal (does 4.5 months advance notice qualify for "last minute"?) I'm reading your thread with slightly more attention to detail. There's a few things that we managed to not do in our last two trips that we will hopefully get to in one of these - the Raptor encounter in particular. We're (fortunately) too old for Camp Jurassic.

We really love Toothsome's - especially when so much of the food in US/IOA is pretty mediocre it's definitely really good. We even ate there in October when we went to a show at the Hard Rock. And DD said she wants to go there for sure in May. I do think that food quality/selection sets Disney above Universal - I can think of dozens of places at Disney we love to eat, and at Universal so far I can only pick this one.

I'll give Universal a few things over Disney, though - and one is the parks are more compact. I sort of wish there was a way to cut across IOA, but really to loop around the whole park is not overly exhausting.

I really want to get on Dudley Do-Right in May...not sure we can get DD to do it since she is really adverse to walking around the park all wet. She has burned into her memory in 2012 when we went on Splash mountain in DL and we got absolutely soaked on one of the short inside drops - and she was just crying the entire way back to the hotel afterwards. I think that's her memory of being wet in a theme park and now she really doesn't want to. In 2016 we did Bluto's (which I like a lot) and got drenched, but we planned the day around just doing the water rides and then back to the hotel. I am not sure how we will handle the water rides in May with us having to go all the way back to an off-site hotel via Uber. Still might plan a day where we wear our swimsuits and hit those water rides right before heading back.

I'd like to spend a little more time in Superhero Island. We'll be a month after Avenger's Endgame drops - so I'm sure we'll be in a Marvel Mood. (DD is a big Marvel fan.) I'm the only one in the family that will ride Hulk though - so I guess that one I'm by myself!
 
Since we are now planning a "last minute" trip to Universal (does 4.5 months advance notice qualify for "last minute"?) I'm reading your thread with slightly more attention to detail. There's a few things that we managed to not do in our last two trips that we will hopefully get to in one of these - the Raptor encounter in particular. We're (fortunately) too old for Camp Jurassic.

Hopefully you're able to get to do Raptor Encounter! I'm definitely planning on it while we are there. It's one of our new favorites!

We will be visiting Camp Jurassic for the forseeable future. lol

We really love Toothsome's - especially when so much of the food in US/IOA is pretty mediocre it's definitely really good. We even ate there in October when we went to a show at the Hard Rock. And DD said she wants to go there for sure in May. I do think that food quality/selection sets Disney above Universal - I can think of dozens of places at Disney we love to eat, and at Universal so far I can only pick this one.

This was our first time getting food, and I was impressed! I did tell DH we might have to go once for food and once just for milkshakes though. Both at the same time was just too much!

I really want to get on Dudley Do-Right in May...not sure we can get DD to do it since she is really adverse to walking around the park all wet. She has burned into her memory in 2012 when we went on Splash mountain in DL and we got absolutely soaked on one of the short inside drops - and she was just crying the entire way back to the hotel afterwards. I think that's her memory of being wet in a theme park and now she really doesn't want to. In 2016 we did Bluto's (which I like a lot) and got drenched, but we planned the day around just doing the water rides and then back to the hotel. I am not sure how we will handle the water rides in May with us having to go all the way back to an off-site hotel via Uber. Still might plan a day where we wear our swimsuits and hit those water rides right before heading back.

Poor DD! I hate walking around wet too, which is why I think we will probably skip the water rides entirely since we can't just walk back to our room quickly to change.
 
Day 6 Continued: Thursday September 20th

After lunch, we did one more ride and visited Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.

After saving New York with Spider-Man, we were ready to exit Islands of Adventure.

We made the trek across City Walk to the Studios. I had been wanting and wanting some caramel corn in our popcorn bucket, so we stopped at the cart in the entrance to get some. It cost more than the regular popcorn, but I had been wanting some and always forgot about it, so we stopped this time. The TM working at the cart spent a lot of time looking for her caramel corn scooper, couldn’t find it, so she then washed and dried her regular scooper…then went to the BAG of caramel corn. I was so disappointed when I realized it wasn’t fresh, but now she had done all of this to clean the scooper so I felt bad telling her I changed my mind, so I just got the caramel corn. It was NOT good, and definitely not worth the extra charge. We ended up throwing most of it away.

But for now, we were eating it, so snack in hand, we went over to ride E.T.


After E.T., we went over to ride Minion Mayhem.

We decided to head back to the room then, and I ended up taking a nap while DS played with Legos for a little while. I got up around 3 and we decided to change and head down to the pool for a bit. We were able to swim for about 45 minutes or so when it started raining pretty hard so DH and I took cover under the umbrellas. DS decided to join in with the poolside games, which were still happening despite the rain. Props to those girls running the games!

Despite the rain, the kids seemed to be having a great time and DS even came back with a couple of prizes.


After more rain, they ended up closing the pool deck, so we went over to the pool bar to use the coupons we had gotten for free drinks and see if they would end up opening the pool back up. I had a strawberry daiquiri and DH got a Woodford Mule.


After enjoying our drinks, we overheard that it would be at least an hour before the pool deck was reopened, so we decided to give up on that. Since we had all of our coupons with us, we decided to stop at Emack & Bolio’s for DS’s free birthday sundae.

We took his sundae up to the room to dry off and change so we could head back out for the evening. We decided to stop in City Walk for dinner at NBC Sports Grill & Brew since we had enjoyed that a lot last trip.


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DS got the kids sliders with tater tots and carrot sticks.


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DH and I were not hungry enough for a full meal, so we decided to split a burger and fries, but I didn’t get a picture. We waffled over getting the chicken mac & cheese I had gotten last time instead, but I remembered how much I had wished I had gotten a burger because they looked and smelled so good on the grill, so we decided on that.

While we were eating, it started pouring down rain again, so we took our time inside hoping it would stop soon. Once it seemed like it had passed, we decided to leave and head to Islands of Adventure since Studios was closed for HHN that night. I realized right away I had made a terrible shoe choice in wearing my sandals for the night. I don’t know what I was thinking since I should have known the ground was going to be wet from the rain that came while we were at the pool, never mind that it poured again during dinner. So my feet were getting wet and dirty from all of the puddles and I was totally annoyed with myself.

First we went over to Spider-Man.


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After that we went over to the Hulk hoping to do a rider swap.


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But once we got over there to take a look at the wait time, it was way too long, so we knew even Express would be backed up. So we went over to Seuss Landing instead and did Cat in the Hat again.


We basically took the same path from that morning and went over to Hogsmeade next to ride Forbidden Journey…

…then cut through Jurassic Park over to Skull Island to ride Reign of Kong.

By the time we finished that, then got back up to Superhero Island, the wait at Hulk was much more manageable, so we did a child swap there. It was so fun riding it in the dark!


After the Hulk, we walked back to the hotel for the evening. We had a decision to make! It was the last day we could use our APs, so we had to decide if we wanted to renew our passes so we could head into the parks the next day, and of course plan a return trip! After talking it over, we decided to go ahead and renew. It was very tempting that they were offering 20% off and 3 extra months free! We did the renewal online, then got to bed so we could hit one more early entry morning.

UP NEXT: One Final Early Morning
 
What a disappointment with the caramel corn. Fresh is the best and I feel like it's one of those treats you only get when you're on a trip, so you want it to be really good!

The NBC Sports Grill's burgers are actually pretty good. Probably a great dinner choice for you guys.

I bet Hulk in the dark was pretty awesome.

An extra 3 months for renewing your APs seems like a decent deal. And how were you guys gonna resist not returning next year for interactive magic fun and refillable icees? :laughing: (But in all honesty, it does seem like Paxton loves his trips to Universal, and they always sound fun!)
 

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