Finally UPDATED! 4/11 - Keeping to a budget - offsite & Universal food pre-trip report - Oct ‘18

[Floridaagogo]

Great photos of Hhn.whats your favourite house so far ? X

[JenD1]

Oops bit late to the party ☺️. Catching up now though!

[offtoseemickey]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Great photos of Hhn.whats your favourite house so far ? X

See more...

I think mine is Scary Tales (the opening scene is incredible!) and DPs is Stranger Things. There aren’t really any really weak houses IMO. Blumhouse is getting a bad rap but I think it’s ok. I really liked the film Happy Death Day so that might play a part in it? Poltergeist is really good too. There are some huuuge puppets in there that really shocked me!

Originally Posted by JenD1

Oops bit late to the party ☺️. Catching up now though!

See more...

Welcome! 👋🏼 happy to have you!

[offtoseemickey]

Day Five - another lazy morning, Volcano Bay & HHN

After our late night we slept in late and had a really lazy morning to recover. We headed out to Volcano Bay around midday and found the parking and bus to the park very easy and convenient. The walk from the bus to actually get into the park is quite long, but the view when you finally get there is lovely.

We got our tapu-tapus and rented a locker - $16 🙄 and went off to do some slides. We got in the lazy river to head towards some slides. While we were at the top of one of the big slides the sky opened and it poured down! Seems like there was no lightning as everything carried on as usual.

We still hadn’t eaten anything yet today so we decided to get a return time for the water coaster and eat some lunch while we wait. I got the poke poke tuna bowl and DP got the beef tacos, (and some water for both of us) from the Feasting Frog. I have my annual pass and a credit card loaded to my Universal account so I could pay with my tapu-tapu but it didn’t register my AP for the discount ☹️ it came to about $25. I don’t have photos because my phone was in the locker over the other side of the park. The tacos were very nice and had one blue and one pink tortilla which was different. The poke bowl was really tasty, quite sweet with a lot of pineapple, but so small. Both came with a side of plantain chips, thankfully! We we still pretty hungry but it’ll tide us over.

We then went and got in line for the water coaster. Wow this was so much fun! And so impressive- I can’t work out how the raft is transported up the hills. I’m thinking magnets?! It’s definitely not pushed up by water or on a conveyor belt. We loved the ride so much we got another return time for 30 minutes and then did a few laps in the fast river - this is what I was looking forward to the most! It didn’t disappoint. It’s fast, it’s rough, there’s even waves at one point! I loved everything about it!

We got out and joined the line again for the water coaster. We were the very next people to be seated when we we told the ride needed to close because of lightning in the area 😪😪

We decided to call it a day, got showered the dressed and headed to US for stay and scream. We definitely made the right decision because all of the attractions were still closed when we we leaving about half an hour later.

We got on the bus back to our car to leave our bits and planned on leaving the parking lot and re-entering when we noticed we were actually really close to the hub / security area. We moved the car as close as we could and made our way in.

We were pretty early for Stay & Scream but decided we would get a spot early and sit down for the wait so that we could got Stranger Things down with a minimal wait. We got a big pink donut on the way in ($6.70 with tax and discount) and filled up our refillable cup and found a space at the top of the steps in the shade.

The donut was incredible! So light and soft with a decent amount of icing. We will definitely get this again - it’s such a good price!

Wow it was HOT this afternoon. We were melting even in the shade! We had a long wait but enjoyed chatting with some people sitting around us which was nice and passed the time.

When 5:35 finally rolled around we hustled to Stranger Things and got in with about a 20 minute wait. We then got through Blumhouse, Slaughter Sinema, Dead Exposure and Seeds of Extinction by 7pm. We were seriously flagging already and decided to sit down in the AC for a while and see how we went. We shared a burger and fries, we got the HHN special firey burger with hot sauce and onion rings.

The burger was really tasty and we both enjoyed it a lot!

We decided to ride Transformers (a walk on) and then make our way out. We stopped in the main store for DP to buy another of the HHN shirts (we now both have the main house / slogan shirt and he has the Killer Klowns shirt).

We were both still hungry so decided to use our Steak & Shake voucher to get a drive through to take back. I had real issues with the lady hearing / understanding me through the speaker but we got there in the end! I got two items from the 2 for $3 menu - medium fries and a Swiss and mushroom burger.

DP got a bacon cheeseburger meal with a Dr Pepper.

Everything tasted so good! It didn’t look all that great, but tasted really nice. The burgers were really juicy.

We went to bed soon after feeling very tired! I was really pleased with how much we got done at HHN & can’t wait to go back to Volcano Bay again!

[offtoseemickey]

I’ve just realised I haven’t been doing totals for each day

Here they are:

Running total:

Day 1 $49.62
Day 2 $78.38
Day 3 $149.71
Day 4 $51.15
Day 5 $58.79
Day 6 $49.68

Total after day 6 = $437.33

Average = $73.88

I’m really happy with this! It’s well under $100 per day and we have had more than enough food. It hasn’t been the fanciest food at times but it’s been what we wanted and definitely fitted with our budget!

[Rescuer]

Just catching up. Your trip report is great with loads of fab detail.

Hhn looks great. I’ll get there one day!
I totally agree about the fast and the furious, it’s a pile of complete rubbish. Like you though I think Jimmy Fallon is fun.

That was a good deal for your refillable mug.
Bit cheeky of Texas de Brazil with the desserts.

Louie’s looks like a good choice for quick and reasonable food, I’ll add that to my Easter list. Shame the pizza fries didn’t live up to the hype.

Great totals so far. Food doesn’t have to be fancy it just has to fit with your trip. We have some fancy food planned for Christmas but our Easter trip will just be fitting food in around our park time.

[Floridaagogo]

Volcano bay sounds great.I loved happy death day and am a massive Purge fan so looking forward to this house.Nice to hear you got through stranger things quickly.Ds looking forward to this one the most !

[offtoseemickey]

Day Six - Islands of Adventure, Altamonte Mall & Taco Bell

Today was a bit all over the place. We both feel a bit like we’re coming down with a cold and still feeling really tired.

We got up when we woke up naturally - no alarms today! Got dressed and made our way to Islands of Adventure. The queue at the parking garage was really big and there were people everywhere in Citywalk. We usually try to get to the parks for opening, so this could be usual for a later start and we just wouldn’t know. But it made me feel a bit doubtful of the day.

We got into the park just after 10:30.

We started the day with a healthy and nutritious blue raspberry icee in our cup (I can’t believe they are included too! ) from Seuss Landing.

We had to wait a few minutes for the slush to be ready so we rode Cat in the Hat with no line at all and then got our slush. Where’s the spinning gone on the ride?! I loved the wild spinning!

We loved having the wait times on the app - we checked what was what and saw Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was only 20 minutes so we made our way back to the Wizarding World.

I love it back here! Definitely my favourite part of the park.

It felt like we spent 20 minutes trying to get a locker while everyone faffed about...!

We end through the single rider line and got straight on. You can’t see each other on this ride so it doesn’t take anything away in my opinion. We rode again straight after; we were the only ones in line again. We got our stuff from the locker and decided we would get an early lunch since we hadn’t eaten anything yet today.

We love Mythos and I think it’s incredible value for money. We we seated at about 11:30 on a lovely table overlooking the Hulk coaster.

We ordered some water and were given some bread and butter - I love that they go to the effort for shaping the butter to the logo! I wish more places would make the effort to do these little touches.

DP had the lamb burger - hand-packed ground lamb with grilled onion, shredded lettuce and fresh tomato, topped with feta-olive aioli, served with Parmesan French fries. $16.99

He said this was lovely, it had a Greek kind of flavour to it, was piping hot a a very decent portion size.

I went for the Fork, Knife and Spoon Grilled Cheese - a unique presentation of a classic three-cheese sandwich set IN a Tuscan tomato soup with crispy pork belly and garnished with house chips. $14.99

I usually get the pad Thai here but saw this on someone else’s report a while ago and my mind had been set ever since!

It absolutely lived up to my expectations and was in incredibly delicious. It was quite rich but not so much that it was too much to take. The cheese was so melty and the bread was so soft and airy. The soup was brilliant too, really flavoursome and quite thick. I will definitely re-order this in the future!

We declined dessert and got the cheque with our AP discount. This came to $36.13 including tip. For the level of service (which was excellent by the way), quality of food and beautiful surroundings I think that price is unbeatable.

We were both full so decided to go on a gentle ride; we were right by The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride so on we went. It had a short 10-15 minute wait and we ended up getting on a bit quicker because they needed a party of 2.

I love taking photos from up here. Especially when the sun is out like it was today.

I’ve never realised but there must be two tracks for this ride because for the first time ever we didn’t go through the Circus McGurkus restaurant...!

We rode the Caro-Seuss-El with no wait at all then got a cherry icee to share. We went down to the waterfront for some more photos when disaster struck! A huge drip of bright red drink somehow made it’s way out of the cup and onto my white and grey stripy dress...! 😵 I went to the ladies and washed it a few times with some soap and it did come out luckily.

We then went over and rode Spider-Man with a 30 min posted wait but it was more like 20. We love this ride. It’s just so much fun isn’t it!

We were both very, very hot at this point and felt like we’d done quite a lot in under 4 hours. We decided to go and take a break then come back to IOA for last last few hours. The park is open till 8 and neither of us have seen the park in the dark and apparently it’s very pretty.

We ummed and ahhed for a while on what to do and we decided that while we were halfway there to drive up to Altamonte Mall. If you have the time this is a really lovely place to shop. It’s so nice and clean and very chilled out.

We got some good bits; makeup in Sephora, a Harry Potter UNO game in Barnes and Noble (we collect different UNO editions), some blu-rays in FYE (Hocus Pocus and The Addams Family).

We were both a bit peckish at this stage so we shared some food from the food court; Mandarin Express was the one that started our love for crappy American Chinese food so we had to indulge! We got rice, Mongolian chicken (the darker of the two) and sesame chicken and a large Fanta for just $10.14! It was a huge portion and really too big for us to share (we managed it all but probably shouldn’t have done! &#128514.

We then went downstairs and bought some 3 wick candles in Bath & Body Works ($12.95 each) and five handwashes for $23. TIP for the candles - you can ask for the trays / crates they are delivered in and it makes packing them much easier. Also they are allowed to go in your hand luggage.

We also got a brilliant deal in Yankee Candle; we wanted to specifically get some Witches Brew scented candles and as we walked in they were all on a halloween stand with a sign saying ‘50% off this display’. I asked the lady how much various things were and she told me plus 50% off. We got a medium jar, two decorative ceramic jars, 6 votives and two skeleton hand candle holders. When we went to pay it turns out only the medium jar should have actually been 50% off! The lady honoured the price for us and we got all of those items for $59.89. We were so pleased with the price seeing as the full price of the medium jar alone was already $26.

We decided we had enough heavy items and it was time to leave. We were both too tired to go back to IOA and decided to have another earlyish night. The traffic back wasn’t good and it took well over an hour.

We ordered Taco Bell online and collected it through the drive through. We got quite a lot for our money! 1 chicken mini quesadilla, 1 beef mini quesadilla, 1 beefy crunch burrito, 2 crunchy tacos, 1 triple double crunch wrap, 1 medium pink lemonade, 1 large coke. Grand total... $8.41...! 😂😂😂😂

The food was all really fresh and tasty. I liked the triple double crunch wrap the most and DP liked the burrito the most. Honourable mention to the chicken quesadilla. I got 20% off for ordering online.

We eat the food in our room while watching Forensic Files (favourite program ever! ) and then went to sleep 💤

Today was a bit all over the place. We’ve got Blue Man Group tomorrow night so want to be fresh and not sleepy for it!

Hope you’re all still enjoying the report - let me know if you have any questions 🙂

[offtoseemickey]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Just catching up. Your trip report is great with loads of fab detail.

Hhn looks great. I’ll get there one day!
I totally agree about the fast and the furious, it’s a pile of complete rubbish. Like you though I think Jimmy Fallon is fun.

That was a good deal for your refillable mug.
Bit cheeky of Texas de Brazil with the desserts.

Louie’s looks like a good choice for quick and reasonable food, I’ll add that to my Easter list. Shame the pizza fries didn’t live up to the hype.

Great totals so far. Food doesn’t have to be fancy it just has to fit with your trip. We have some fancy food planned for Christmas but our Easter trip will just be fitting food in around our park time.

See more...

Wow thank you so much! How lovely - Christmas and Easter! 🎄 🐣
HHN is so much fun! I definitely recommend!

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Volcano bay sounds great.I loved happy death day and am a massive Purge fan so looking forward to this house.Nice to hear you got through stranger things quickly.Ds looking forward to this one the most !

See more...

Volcano Bay is really good. We went again yesterday and loved it there!

You’ll enjoy Blumhouse I’m sure - I haven’t seen this new Purge film yet but I really like all the others.

RE Stranger Things; you really want to be towards the front of the holding area or else there could be a long wait in store for you. We did it again with about a 25 minute wait and we were really close to the front of the holding area. There’s a lot of rushing and jostling when everyone is released...!

[offtoseemickey]

Sorry I’ve fallen behind in my live report; I’ve got lots of photos and notes so definitely won’t be giving up! Just bare with me please 🙃