Quick Mid November Trip

[nighttowll]

Quick November Trip

Orlando November 8th to November 14th (Wednesday to Tuesday)

This was primarily a business trip with a couple of leisure days tacked on the end. There were 6 of us in my group in town for a conference. The conference was Wed through Saturday. Then, we all moved to Aventura for our free days, but only me and one other co-worker (S) did the parks on Sunday and Monday. We didn’t have EP, and we didn’t follow a crazy touring plan or get up particularly early either. It was just a go with the flow, see what happens trip, which was new for me, as I am usually a planner, but we actually managed way more than I thought we would.


Overall Universal impression after being away since the pandemic:

Food quality and service has gone downhill, but I think that is more a post pandemic thing, than a Universal specific thing as half our meals were off property, and what I was seeing in Orlando was similar to what I’m seeing at home.

The parks seemed relatively the same as always. I had read a few reports that said they weren’t as clean and in need of some repair, but I didn’t notice anything like that. Bathrooms were all clean, streets relatively free of litter, tables not dirty. I didn’t notice any major wear or tear on any of the rides or queues either.

Same with staff, most of the TMs we encountered were great. Only ran into two who didn’t impress me. One who was yelling instructions at people during the Bourne show. I’m sure she was frustrated with people not listening, but she just came across mean, and one in Hogsmeade who seemed extremely indifferent and like she could barely be bothered to do the minimal for her job. Everyone else was up to the normal amazingly friendly and helpful Universal standard.

Ride times seemed way down from what I am used to on past trips. I’m not sure if I just got lucky or what. The crowd calendars all had my days as moderate to above moderate, and the parks were in no way empty, so I was expecting crowds, but most rides if they had lines seemed to be averaging around 30 minutes. I noticed a few at 50 minutes at times, but many were much lower than 30 as well. They seemed to yo-yo a bit. I will say for Florida temperatures it was cold both my days and rainy on one, so I’m sure that contributed.

Staying at Aventura was a new experience for me, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was way closer to Saphire than I realized, and I loved how compact it was. Getting back to the room at night was so quick. It also seemed a little quieter than the other hotels with less children running around which I appreciated, especially now that mine are grown. My only complaint was that the water never got hot. It was warm, but it never got hot.

 

[nighttowll]

Arrival Day in Orlando - Wednesday

Started off the trip great with no issues getting through security, didn’t even have to do the horrid naked body scanner thing, only the metal detector, and then our flight arrived almost 30 minutes early. Except for a little confusion finding the rental car garage, picking up the car from Alamo was super smooth since I did the online check-in ahead of time.

For reference, you need to go down to the rental floor at the airport, then turn and walk left towards the end of the building, then go out the front doors, cross the street, and you’ll see a small opening in the wall with an escalator. Different companies are on different floors. Our pickup with Alamo was to the left of the escalator on the bottom floor. Showed the man at the counter as I walked in the garage my printed rental type. He offered us two choices of brands, and then handed us the keys and pointed us in the right direction. Stopped by the security booth on the way out, and they scanned our barcode and driver’s license. Probably the fastest, smoothest, rental I have ever experienced once we located where to go.

Getting out of the airport was a little trickier. We were having some trouble with the GPS, so we circled around the airport a little before finally escaping. Then, it was off to find lunch. We ended up eating at Bahama Breeze because it was right beside the hotel. It was really good. Probably one of our better meals the whole trip. They gave us some kind of mashed sweet potatoes that were amazing, and I’m not even a big sweet potato fan.

After lunch, we got checked into the hotel. We hit a little snag with that, and it ended up taking us a while to get it all straightened out. It was late afternoon by the time we finally got into our rooms, and the guys decided they wanted to go check out Ford’s Garage as one of the guys is a huge Ford fan. I’m not sure what they were expecting, a museum? I thought the place was nice, but the guys were disappointed there weren’t more cars. They also weren’t a big fan of the drink selection, but they did enjoy hanging out at the outdoor bar. The bartender was great. We didn’t get any food, though, as we had plans to eat dinner later. The patio area was very nice, overlooking a little pond.

Overall, I thought it was a nice place, great for the families on vacation looking for a fun themed restaurant. There were lots of little touches that I thought helped carry the theme like tire sinks with gas pumps for the water to come out of in the bathroom, and there were two vintage cars out front and another hanging from the ceiling inside. We had a nice time just hanging out killing some time before we needed to pick S up from the airport.

After picking up S, we tried to eat at Nagoya Sushi based on recommendations from here, but a private party had booked almost the entire restaurant, so we ended up going to Akasaka Sushi instead. It ended up being a good decision. The server was amazing, and the kitchen so accommodating. I can’t have gluten, and there wasn’t really anything on the menu I could have, so they worked with me to modify a meal. I got the Chilean seabass, and it was some of the best fish I have ever eaten, not fishy in the slightest, and they were able to give me a non-gluten soy sauce as well. This was probably our best meal the whole trip. It was also our quietest meal.

 

[nighttowll]

Work – Thursday and Friday

Conference all day the next day until dinner which was at Eddie Vs. The guys had seen it the night before when we were driving around. Apparently, it is a favorite of theirs back home, so I checked and was able to grab us a reservation for Thursday night. It was nice, but I’m not sure it was really worth the price. S got the Chilean seabass, so I tried it to compare. Mine the night before was much better. Those who ordered steak said it was overcooked. It wasn’t a bad meal, but no one thought it was on the same level as our local Eddie Vs back home.

Same with Cooper Hawks Friday night. That meal was just ok. My chicken was way overcooked, and my vegetables burnt. I’m not sure anyone loved their meal, and no one liked the wine. Our waitress was great, but it took forever for our food to come. Luckily, they had amazing gluten free bread and a chocolate dessert that made me forgive them all their sins. Neither tasted like they were gluten free. They were that good. One of the girls on the trip has a Cooper Hawk’s near her house, and she said this was not anywhere near their normal standard. She was disappointed. It was also extremely loud inside. Thankfully, we ate very early at 5:15, and it wasn’t too bad, but by the time we left, we had to shout at each other to be heard. Also, the parking lot was a disaster zone. I think there was only one valet working. The poor kid was literally running around like crazy. I felt bad for him. There were so many people waiting for him to bring and take cars, and it looked like he didn’t have any help. At least, I never saw a second person. The parking lot was also extremely congested. It was a nightmare trying to get out of there. I don’t recommend.

 

[nighttowll]

Universal Resort Check-In - Saturday

Saturday evening, we finished up work and headed over to Aventura to check in. Super quick smooth process. No line or anything. Got checked in and picked up my AP tickets at the next counter over. The whole thing probably took 5 minutes total.

I had requested high floors for all 3 of our rooms, but only received it for my room. I had booked the Queen Deluxe for myself as that was the only room type available with an AP discount. I guess it ended up being the only room with a high floor available when we checked in. The view was great, 16th floor looking out over Cabana Bay and Island of Adventure.

I really loved the layout of the deluxe room with the beds separated and also the bathroom sink tucked around the corner, so you could still change, but not be in full view of the entire room. I did think it was a little weird, though, that the room offers wall to wall floor to ceiling views but doesn’t allow you to move the curtains completely out of the way to take advantage of that. Still, great views, and they were doing some kind of Hogwarts Castle projection show testing each night at 11:00, so we were able to watch fireworks from bed each night which was nice.

Dinner that night was at Vivo in Citywalk. It was extremely loud, and the service was incredibly slow, but everyone loved the food. They all thought it was the best meal as far as the actual food. Like Cooper Hawks, Vivo also offered gluten free bread and a chocolate dessert, but the bread came out frozen in the center. The second attempt wasn’t frozen but still cold in the center. The dessert was ok with the ice cream on top, but not great without it. It was a stereotypical gluten free chocolate cake like you’d get from Walmart. Very disappointing after the one at Cooper Hawks.

After dinner, I took everyone over to Hardrock see the Berlin wall. I thought the guys who are big history buffs would enjoy it. I didn’t tell them where I was taking them, just that it was a surprise. I got a few comments about leading them off into the dark to get mugged, but they all thought it was cool once we got there. Did a little window shopping in the different gift shops after that and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our big Universal day.

 

[wdwrule]

Quick November Trip

Orlando November 8th to November 14th (Wednesday to Tuesday)

This was primarily a business trip with a couple of leisure days tacked on the end. There were 6 of us in my group in town for a conference. The conference was Wed through Saturday. Then, we all moved to Aventura for our free days, but only me and one other co-worker (S) did the parks on Sunday and Monday. We didn’t have EP, and we didn’t follow a crazy touring plan or get up particularly early either. It was just a go with the flow, see what happens trip, which was new for me, as I am usually a planner, but we actually managed way more than I thought we would.


Overall Universal impression after being away since the pandemic:

Food quality and service has gone downhill, but I think that is more a post pandemic thing, than a Universal specific thing as half our meals were off property, and what I was seeing in Orlando was similar to what I’m seeing at home.

The parks seemed relatively the same as always. I had read a few reports that said they weren’t as clean and in need of some repair, but I didn’t notice anything like that. Bathrooms were all clean, streets relatively free of litter, tables not dirty. I didn’t notice any major wear or tear on any of the rides or queues either.

Same with staff, most of the TMs we encountered were great. Only ran into two who didn’t impress me. One who was yelling instructions at people during the Bourne show. I’m sure she was frustrated with people not listening, but she just came across mean, and one in Hogsmeade who seemed extremely indifferent and like she could barely be bothered to do the minimal for her job. Everyone else was up to the normal amazingly friendly and helpful Universal standard.

Ride times seemed way down from what I am used to on past trips. I’m not sure if I just got lucky or what. The crowd calendars all had my days as moderate to above moderate, and the parks were in no way empty, so I was expecting crowds, but most rides if they had lines seemed to be averaging around 30 minutes. I noticed a few at 50 minutes at times, but many were much lower than 30 as well. They seemed to yo-yo a bit. I will say for Florida temperatures it was cold both my days and rainy on one, so I’m sure that contributed.

Staying at Aventura was a new experience for me, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was way closer to Saphire than I realized, and I loved how compact it was. Getting back to the room at night was so quick. It also seemed a little quieter than the other hotels with less children running around which I appreciated, especially now that mine are grown. My only complaint was that the water never got hot. It was warm, but it never got hot.

Glad to hear Aventura worked out after all. It truly is a diamond in the rough for price, convenience and small footprint.

We’re huge fans of the deluxe room.

 

[nighttowll]

Yes, it was great. I actually decided to book it again for February. We had originally planned to stay at Hardrock, but after this trip went so well without EP, we decided to save the money and stay somewhere less expensive. I ruled out CB because we most likely won't be doing the pool in February, and the walk is just that much farther. That left Aventura or Sapphire. I really love Sapphire, but for $50 less a night, we can make the quick walk across the street and still enjoy it. I'm going to keep an eye out for any great AP deals between now and when we go, so I may end up changing the reservation, but right now, I'm happy with staying there again in a deluxe room.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Morning – Aventura and Off to the Park

Sunday, my plan had been to be up early for early entry at IOA, but S isn’t a morning person, and we were both absolutely exhausted by this point in the trip. We had been up late most nights working until well after midnight and then up early each morning as well. We managed to get out the door about 7:15 which was earlier than I anticipated, but way too late to gain any early morning advantage.

First stop was the hotel lobby for Starbucks. It sounds silly, but one of my favorite things to do at Universal is to get a drink from Starbucks and walk along the path to the park in the morning while I enjoy it. It’s such a peaceful and beautiful walk, and it always sets such a great tone for the day. S is from up north, and she was fascinated by all our southern plants, flowers, and insects along the walk. We stopped for quite a few pictures. She kept trying to get me to get in the bushes to pose for pictures, and I kept having to remind her this is how you get bit my things. She was like I don’t see anything in there, and I was like, you won’t see it, until it bites you! Thankfully, we made it out without encountering anything with fangs.

Security was quick, no line, but the turnstiles to enter IOA were already backed up to the ticketing booths, so it took a little while to get through. I think it was about 8:30 when we finally arrived at the gate to enter. Could have been a little later, but I know it was still early entry as we had to show our room keys to get through Seuss Landing.

I did notice Seuss Landing was already decorated for Christmas when we passed, and later in the day, I noticed a ton of walls up throughout the Comic and Toon areas of IOA, so I think they were working on the Christmas decorations in those areas as well. I was a little sad to see all the walls everywhere in Toon Lagoon as S loves taking fun photos, and some of the best photo opps are in that part of the park, but they were all covered by walls, so I couldn’t show her.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Morning – Jurassic Park

By the time we got back to Hagrid’s, it was already at 105 minutes, so we headed for Velocicoaster instead which had a posted time of around 30 minutes, but it was more like 20. The line was moving quite fast. It’s been so long I completely forgot about the separate line for sitting in the front until we were lined up at the back of the coaster. It ended up being quite jerky, and I didn’t enjoy it at all. I had a pretty bad headache by the time we got off. Luckily, it got better after a little while, but a faint trace of it lingered for most of the day. I usually try to go for the front of coasters to minimize the shaking and jerkiness. I don’t know, maybe the whole coaster is like that? Anyone have any thoughts? I’m willing to try it again in the front row if that’s smoother, but no way I’m doing the back half again. I felt like my brain was getting thrown around inside my skull, not fun. For reference, I can handle the steel coasters at Busch Gardens, Manta at SW, Hulk if up front, Hagrid’s, and the Mummy, but Rip Ride Rocket made me cry it hurt my head so bad. This wasn’t as bad as RRR, but it had its moments.

Part of this trip was to show S around Universal to see if she would want to bring her kids back this year for a family trip. Her kids are huge JP fans, so after the ride, we spent some time looking around the Discovery Center. Sadly, no eggs were hatching at the time. I thought we’d have time to come back, but we never did. We also stopped and got a great picture of her at the T-rex / car picture spot. Wish we would have had time to stop and see Blue and also to show her the caves, but again, I mistakenly thought we’d have time to come back later, and we never did.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Morning – Hogsmeade

We headed to Hogsmeade next. I was surprised to see that the wait time for FJ was still quite low as it was past 9:30 by this time. I think it was posted as 20 or 30 minutes, but we walked almost straight on, and didn’t stop until after the hat. Also, surprised to see the herbology area open. I can’t remember the last time I saw that part of the line open, especially since the line was non-existent.

They ended up stopping the ride while we were on it, and it threw the timing off when they restarted. I don’t think S noticed as it wasn’t off enough that if you hadn’t rode before you would notice, but some of the special effects weren’t working quite right. I was a little disappointed. I would have liked to have rode it again, but it made S a little motion sick, so we didn’t.

Flight of the Hippogriff was posted at an approximately 30-minute wait when we went by, so we decided to ride. S was ready to spend a few minutes just standing around in line not moving after FJ. I think this was probably the only real line we actually stood still and waited in the entire trip. It was a nice break to just talk and catch up a little.

This was probably my first trip ever where I actually waited in lines. We typically have EP or make sure to be first to enter the parks and knock out most of the rides before most people ever arrive. This trip had me a little out of my comfort zone, just going with flow, no plan at all, but it really wasn’t that bad. I was surprised how low the wait times were as most of the rides had posted times of 35 minutes or less, outside of Velocicoaster and Hagrid’s. After you factor in pre-shows and the actual time it takes to walk through the queues, there was hardly any wait at all. I also think the posted 30-minute wait for most of the rides was inflated. For most of the rides where we actually did standby, most were walk on or not more than 5 minutes total spent actually standing around. I was really surprised how much we managed to fit in as we did a lot of window shopping and just looking around the park in general. We weren’t in any rush at all and really took our time everywhere we went. This was probably my most relaxed trip ever.

After Flight of the Hippogriff, we watched the wand show which mesmerized S, and we sent a howler home to her kids by owl post which she thought was the coolest thing. Although, the girl working the owl post booth was probably one of the most unfriendly TM’s I’ve ever met at Universal. She was really not good or helpful at her job. It was a little disappointing. I’m used to such amazing TMs, and she just wasn’t, but we got the owl post sent. It hasn’t arrived yet. Those lazy owls! I’m excited to hear what her kids think of it when it does.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Afternoon - Lunch

It was getting late by this point, and we were both starving. My go to is usually the Three Broomsticks, but S didn’t seem interested, and I knew I couldn’t order any favorites because of the gluten thing, so we passed.

We both had a craving for nachos. We narrowed it down to Confisco Grille, Margarittaville, or the pool bar at Royal Pacific. I had never tried the nachos at Confisco before, and I was worried they might not even serve nachos anymore at Royal Pacific since it’s been so long, so we headed to Margarittaville.

That was a mistake. Our waiter was super nice, but never around. The service was ridiculously slow, and the nachos were horrible. I had heard that the nachos were supposed to be really good, but they put fake bright orange nacho cheese like you see at movie theaters on them, just not good, and almost no tomatoes or jalapenos at all. It was all chips and little toppings.

I have never had such a bad meal at Margaritaville before. We just went in Destin this summer, and it was great, and I’ve had many great meals in other locations, and even at Citywalk in the past, but this trip, it was just not good. I spoke to my sister about it when I got back, and she said it was the same with them when they went last year. Sad to see the quality has gone down so much. It was also extremely loud inside despite being almost empty. I really wish we had gone over to Royal Pacific instead. I love the pool bar nachos there. They are amazing or at least they used to be.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Afternoon – SpongeBob, ET, & MIB

After lunch, we headed over to Universal to ride MIB, but we got a little distracted on the way. S is a huge SpongeBob fan, so we had to stop for meet-n-greets with him and his friends. We ended up going through the line 3 times because they kept changing the character he was with, and she needed a picture with them all. We also had to get pictures inside his pineapple house, and she had to buy a big yellow sweatshirt, so overall, a very productive detour. Not being a Spongebob fan myself, I don’t think I’ve ever stepped inside that shop before, so another first for me.

In between all the pictures, we rode ET which I was glad to see S enjoyed. It’s one of my favorites. I wish there were more rides with real 3-d props and not just screens. The wait was fairly short. We did the whole move to the very front of each holding area to sneak ahead thing. Don’t understand why people don’t follow the directions to move all the way forward and fill in all available space, fastest way to skip ahead in line. Basically, only had to wait a few minutes in the outside holding area for the preshow to begin.

After we finished up with ET and Spongebob, we finally made it over to MIB which had a ridiculously short wait of 10 minutes, so basically a walk-on. I’m guessing everyone was doing Villain-Con instead. We rode MIB twice standby. The first time through the TM working the preshow wasn’t very good, and it was hard to tell what was going on, but the second time through, there was a new TM who was great. Completely in character and very dramatic, over the top. I’m glad we did standby twice, so S could get the whole premise of the ride.

S immediately fell in love with MIB after the first ride. She saw I scored close to 200,000 and wanted to know how she could do the same. I had to really reach back in my memory to remember which targets to aim for, but as we rode, it started coming back to me. When I told S about the different ending you could get if your whole car scores high enough, she wanted to keep riding to see if we could become agents. We actually got lucky with two other riders who were pros at it, and we scored our suits the 3rd time through. We continued riding single rider for awhile trying to improve our scores. I’m not sure how many times we rode, probably 5 or 6 more times. Then, on a ride where we were in separate vehicles, S’s vehicle got repeatedly shot at the imposter alien part, and she decided she couldn’t take anymore spinning for the day, so we headed over to Diagon Alley.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday Afternoon – Diagon Alley, Mummy, & Minions

S wanted to do the wand show again, so we visited Olivander’s. She really wanted to get picked, so after the first time through, we went again. I honestly thought we’d be there all day before they picked her, but they picked her the second time through. She was so excited. She bought the wand that chose her and spent the rest of the trip saying how special it was because it chose her. We attempted a few spells, but it was so late in the day that all the spots were pretty swamped with people, so we decided to come back in the morning when it would be less crowded.

The wait time for Gringotts wasn’t bad, so we went ahead and rode that. I think the posted time was around 30 minutes, but like most of our trip, it wasn’t that long, so we were on and off pretty quickly.

Next up, we headed over to the Mummy which had a posted wait of around 40 minutes. I didn’t want to chance that it might actually be 40 minutes, so we did single rider. S ended up not riding, though, because she ended up watching someone’s kid while they rode. She didn’t understand how child swap worked, so when they got off, she just left.

On another note, I remember this ride coming to an abrupt stop, like from 90 to nothing, but this trip it slowed slightly before jerking you to a stop. Maybe I’m just remembering it wrong, but I don’t remember the slow down happening before. Anyone else? Did I imagine that it use to not slow down first before stopping? I swear it used to be more jarring.

On the way out of the park, we had just enough time to watch the Minion show before our dinner reservation. I was relieved to see you can still skip the line if you do the stationary seating. I wasn’t sure if they were still doing that or not, but no issues getting right on. I always sit on the stationary benches, as even those sometimes make me feel woozy. I’m also not a fan of the vibrating of the regular chairs which hurts my head. S said she was glad we did the stationary seating as the screen alone got to her.

 

[nighttowll]

1st Universal Day (IOA & US) – Sunday – Dinner

Dinner that night was at Cowfish, and I was a little disappointed with it. I thought it was one of our worst meals next to Margarittaville, but everyone else seemed to love it. However, the rest of the group had never been before, and I’ve been many times. The quality of the food and service has gone down. They got 2 people’s meals wrong. The server was never around. Drinks sat empty. Food was just not as good as it used to be. I ordered the same sandwich I’ve gotten in the past, and it just wasn’t good, and of course, like everywhere, it was incredibly loud. Maybe it’s always been this loud, but I don’t remember the Citywalk restaurants being so loud in the past. I guess they are just so much more crowded now-a-days.

 

[nighttowll]

2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Morning – Aventura & Off to the Park

By Sunday night, I realized that any hope of making early entry was completely unrealistic, but I naively thought we could make regular opening at US. My plan was to get to the gates about 8:30, and we could go back and play with S’s new wand she was so excited about while everyone else was rushing off to the rides. Pretty sure we hadn’t even gotten on the boat at 8:30. We got a later start than the day before. We also got sidetracked by a stop at the gift shop for some essential items.

I wish I could remember the name of the man who runs this shop. He was so lovely; very friendly and helpful. He took such pride in his shop, and we had a nice little chat with him. He told us some interesting facts about JK Rowling’s requirements for merchandise in the parks, like that HP clothing can only be hung on wooden hangers and other little interesting details. I’m such a nerd and love learning about all kinds of little Easter Eggs like that, so I found it all quite fascinating.

This is the morning that I also finally got to see the Relay. When I went to get on the elevator to go down to the lobby, the doors opened, and there was Relay, just looking up at me all coy. He rode down a few floors with me and then exited, I presume to go deliver something to a guest. I hate that S wasn’t there. She really wanted to meet him. She kept ordering stuff the night before hoping he would come, but he never did. One of the staff told her he had already gone to bed for the night. It was a little surreal riding alone with him. I imagine this is what the future holds.

After my morning Starbucks and our gift shop delay, we finally headed out. I made the mistake, though, of thinking we should cut through Sapphire Falls to shorten the walk along the path. The Sapphire Falls path ended up being closed. We should have just back tracked, but by this point, we were already at the boat, so I thought that would be quicker. Nope, 3 boats later we finally made it on a boat and headed off toward Citywalk. Again, already long lines to enter the park. I think it was about 9:30 by this time, possibly later. I knew there was no point heading back to Diagon Alley as it would already be full of people.

 

[nighttowll]

2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Morning – Breakfast & Character Pics

Despite us leaving so late, I had gotten up early, and all the rushing around had me starving, so we stopped by the Today Café for some breakfast. I was excited to try it out as I had heard they had a lot of gluten free options because they make everything from scratch. I got gluten free avocado toast which was great except for the arugula. I really hate arugula, so I pulled that off, and S ate it as a salad.

After our late breakfast, we went next door to the Hello Kitty store, so S could pick out something for her daughter. Hello Kitty came in for pictures while we were there, so S got one. Scooby and the gang were across the street, so we also got pictures with them as well.

The whole trip, I got a big kick out of how excited S was to meet and take pictures with all the characters around the park. It reminded me very much of taking young kids to past Disney character meet-n-greets. I’ve never really done any character meets at Universal before as the characters aren’t ones anyone in my family has any nostalgia for, but apparently this was S’s childhood come to life. She was in heaven. It was a little magical watching her. I’m glad her first trip to Universal could be so special.

 

[nighttowll]

2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Morning – Shows

By this point in the trip, we were both exhausted and just wanted to sit down. Walking on the hard concrete at the conference the week before followed by a whole day walking around the parks had finally caught up to us, so we decided to watch the Horror Show as it was starting in about 5 minutes.

Horror isn’t really my thing, so it was one of the few shows I had never watched before. S, however, is a big horror fan, so she was excited to see it. I liked it more than I thought I would. The woman they selected from the audience to participate was great. I’m sure how the person chosen responds really makes or breaks the show, but we got lucky with a good pick. I love dry humor, and the woman in our show gave great dry hilarious responses. Overall, the show is a bit silly, but it was entertaining, and a nice break from standing.

The show is mostly actors on a stage, but there are a couple of large screens that play movie clips during part of the act. A couple of the scenes on the big screens were a bit gory for my taste. They warn you, but I underestimated them. It’s a lot of old school B movie horror and very campy, so I didn’t take the warning seriously when they said some of the scenes might be gruesome. Most were tame, but one toward the end grossed me out. If I go again, I’ll probably not watch the clips on the screen because the extremely fake stuff is mixed in with the more realistic stuff, and the clips flash by so fast, there’s no time to look away before you’ve already seen something gross.

After the show ended, we went down the street and caught the Bourne Show. We made it in right before it started. It was new to me since my last trip. I liked it ok, but it didn’t wow me or anything. It was a lot of fake choreographed fighting, but the rotating stage and props were really cool. I’d watch either show again if someone else wanted to, but I’m not sure either would ever be something I’d really seek out. I much prefer the animal show which I really enjoy.

 

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2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Afternoon – Lunch

When we got out of the Bourne show, we started toward the animal show to see what time it was playing next, but before we got there, it started raining on us. We decided to go get some lunch and wait out the rain. Lombard's Seafood Grill was the closest sit-down restaurant, so I pulled up the app and made us a reservation for 1:15. It was a little after 1:00. We walked up and were seated almost immediately, but a group came up right behind us to the podium and was turned away for not having a reservation. The restaurant was half or more empty, and there were multiple time slots available to reserve, so not sure why they weren’t taking walk ups. I thought it was a little weird, but I noticed this pattern a lot around the parks and Citywalk. Lots of people being turned away for not having reservations, when reservations were available on the app. Maybe they are trying to force people to use the app? We never use to make reservations in the past, but it seemed unavoidable this trip.

We had a nice peaceful quite meal at Lombard’s. I’m not sure if I’ve eaten here in the past or not. I don’t think so. The fish was very good, but the potatoes that came with it not so much, basically plain boiled potatoes with no seasoning. The service was great, though. Our server was very attentive and friendly. Also, extremely patient with all our questions, and there was a nice pace to the meal. It wasn’t a fast meal by any means, but nowhere near as slow as everywhere else. This was probably our next best meal after the sushi place.

 

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2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Afternoon – Rides & More Photos

Just as we were finishing up our meal, the rain finally let up, so we headed over to Transformers and rode while the wait was still low. On the way back, S mentioned that she didn’t actually ride Mummy the day before, so we headed over as the posted wait had been at 10 minutes when we passed earlier. Sadly, by the time we got back over to the ride, it was already back up to 40 or 50 minutes, I can’t remember exactly, so we did single rider instead. I had hoped to do the regular queue, so I could show S all the fun interactive parts of it, but no luck. Still, S loved the ride. She thought it was so cool how they integrated the story and the coaster together. She’d never seen anything like that before.

It was late in the afternoon by this point, and S still hadn’t cast any spells, so we headed towards Diagon Alley, and we almost made it, but we got distracted by the photo store where they Photoshop you into a picture. S wanted to do it, so we made a detour there and took a few inside joke pictures which we had made into key-chains and gave as presents to our bosses at dinner. It was quite hilarious. My boss said it was his favorite gift that he had ever received. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.

 

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2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Afternoon – Diagon Alley

After that, we finally managed to make it to Diagon Alley. I showed S two of the unmarked spell locations which she did no problem, and she managed a few other locations without too much waiting around as well. We spent a little while watching the fountain splash people. That’s always fun when it catches someone off guard. We checked out a couple of stores, and the mirror told us it liked our shoes. I had hoped to find the Hogwarts Christmas sweatshirt I had seen in both Citywalk and in Hogsmeade. Maybe I just missed it, but I didn’t see it anywhere which was a little disappointing as I really wanted to get it to wear this season. We debated buying some chocolate candy for S’s kids before visiting the money exchange. Overall, despite the cold and rain clearing people out, DA was still pretty crowded, so we didn’t stay all that long in the area. I’m only now realizing that we never got butter-beer! It was so cold. That was the farthest thing from my mind. I know they have hot, but I don’t care for it. Now, I feel like a terrible tour guide, letting S miss out!

 

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2nd Universal Day (US) – Monday Evening – Villian-Con & MIB

We decided to go see how Villian-Con compared to MIB. The queue was probably my favorite part. Just coming from a convention, we got a kick out of all the convention signage and posters. There was even a detailed convention map we found fascinating, and we both enjoyed the moving fashion show billboards advertising all the latest in villain-wear. We got a couple of pictures in front of Villain Con Convention signs. This was one of our longer waits where we were actually standing around for awhile, so we had time to really take in all the little details which was great.

Now onto the actual ride, neither of us really cared for it. It was just ok. It felt too much like playing a video game. A video game with too many participants on the same screen aiming at the same thing. I didn’t mind the standing like I thought I would, and though we were all very close, there were no issues with people getting in my space like others have reported, but my arm did get tired.

Overall, it just didn’t excite us the way MIB does. I’m not even sure I knew what my score was at the end. The whole thing was kind of a frantic blur, and felt a little cheap, a little Dave and Busters local arcade to me. I mean I can play video games at home for free. I don’t need to go to Universal for that.

With homes having huge flat screen tvs and movie projectors being so affordable, I feel like theme parks need to step up their game. Huge Imax like screens were super impressive back 20 years ago when the average tv was 20 inches, but now, a large screen alone is just not that big of a deal, but I’m happy for everyone else to rush to Villain-Con and leave MIB for me to enjoy with no line if arcades are your thing.

We still had a couple of hours before dinner when we got out of Villain Con, so we went to ride MIB some more. It was getting late, though, so we only rode it a few times. I finally scored 295,000 and was happy with that. Nowhere near my all time high, but since I couldn’t remember half of what you are supposed to be aiming at, I was happy with my score.