Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 4 - Let the Good Times Roll again

[Rescuer]

Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 4 - Let the Good Times Roll again 12.2.20.

Index is here

There is a theme developing here, another restful morning. It was forecast to be 30 degrees today so Ds was keen to get into the pool for a bit.

It was 9.30am before we made it downstairs to Starbucks. It’s great that this is an option here. Pretty reasonable.
An everything bagel for me, I love these things! I also had an almond latte.

Ds had a bacon and cheddar and Dh had a sausage and cheddar.

We headed out to the pool, blue skies and sunshine. There isn’t really much special about the pool at Aventura but it does the job.

There couldn’t have been more than a handful of people around on the pool deck. The temperature outside and in the pool was great. We spent a fair bit of time floating around in the ring things loving life.

Followed by a bit of hot tub time.

Hard to believe what the weather was like at home with snow flurries and the fact it was February.

The last few trips I’ve ordered stuff online and had it sent to Beth, Fairytale Personal Shopper but she has stopped the business after being very unwell, lovely woman. I followed the recommendations on here and got my stuff sent to Debbie, Angelbabe on here. We got ourselves organised and ready to leave to go to the parks once we’d met Debbie. She was so nice and so flexible with dropping off my boxes, I hadn’t ordered much but its great to have that option.

I got a box of bath and body works stuff which I’d ordered in the sale, 18 items for less than $70 including some favourites of my Mil for presents. Ds and Dh were slagging me off for being so excited to open it.

Dh had ordered me one of the monthly exclusive Harry Potter Alex and Ani bracelets.

I’d bought myself a Harry Potter bum bag, I know not exactly cutting edge fashion but brilliant for the Universal parks as you can keep it on for everything other than Hulk and Rip Ride. This was quickly unpacked and put on.

Dh had also ordered a couple of little ebay football related things.

So not too much really.

Once I was ready with my new stylish bum bag we walked across to Sapphire Falls to catch the boat.

We headed to IOA, activated and filled the mug and headed straight for Hagrids. The line said 60 but Touring Plans were predicting 45 minutes. It was even quieter than a couple of days before and we got straight into the room with the dragon eggs before encountering any line. We didn’t make it that much further before it slowed right down and once we were in the tunnels they announced it had gone down. It kept moving but it was just people leaving and once we made it into the room with all the creatures we left, probably just as well as it was down for ages.

This meant the whole HP area was pretty busy, touring plans was showing 10 minutes for single rider on Forbidden Journey so Ds and I went on, it makes Dh feel a little queasy so he’d rather not ride it too often.

We met Dh at the stage and watched a little of the Frog choir.

We continued round the park and stopped outside Kong to take the traditional photo of Ds looking pretend scared here, to be fair this is what I looked like the other day trying not to pee my pants in case there was scare actors in the line.

I wasn’t planning to ride it though as the wait was too long and we had a date with Dr Doom.

Doom was walk on and we carried on round to Hulk which had a 10-minute wait, we asked for front row and waited an extra few minutes for that, I love this ride!

We were starving so headed round to Confisco Grill. It was 3pm so we got a table without any issue.

We ordered a beer for DH, Diet Coke for ds and an alcoholic watermelon lemonade for me, this was really nice.

Our server was ok but not the best. The first one that’s been less than great really.

Bread with honey butter.

I ordered the chipotle chicken wrap, I thought it would be hot, it wasn’t. My friend had had this at Easter and loved it but it was definitely hot. It was fine but not what I was expecting and I’d not order it again as there are way better options.

Dh had the steak. He said it was nice and a good size for lunch.

Ds had the pad Thai. This was amazing. Very peanuty and packed with prawns and chicken. I ate a fair bit of this and he didn’t finish. I had massive food envy. I had this last time and it was great and it’s better since they changed the menu.

A disappointing meal for me but that was pretty much my own fault for ordering something that wasn’t the best.

Throughout lunch I was checking the virtual line for the floats on and off with no success but as soon as we got outside it popped up but I was too slow in selecting them so we missed them.

We decided to switch parks anyway and walked past Hard Rock and in the entrance at the side of Blue Man where there was no line whatsoever. Happy Days.

As I was sitting waiting on ds to return from the loo, I kept checking the virtual line and some more passes popped up so I grabbed them.

Yay I was super excited to ride the floats again. We had about 15 minutes before we needed to check in.

This time we set to ride the Atlantis float.

Again, it was fantastic and we met some lovely people on the floats one of whom taught me how to make loads of things from the broken strings. I have to say it was just as fun as the first time. Again, if you are there over Mardi Gras this is an absolute must do thing!

After we were done we headed to the French Quarter Courtyard. Beignets. These were good but maybe not quite as good as the ones at French Quarter in Disney. You get 4 in a portion. Used our lanyard.

I do love the courtyard they have set up.

Ds fancied riding Rip Ride but he didn’t wasn’t to wait 35 minutes. We’ve found that Universal really seem to slow down the loading on lines on this and Hulk close to closing time.

We stopped in at the photo bit at the front of the park to get our Mardi Gras photos added on. Although the really good float photos of Ds are from the passholder facebook page. We even found a video of us throwing beads on youtube.

We were hungry again so we left and headed to Citywalk for food.

Cowfish was busy but they texted in 20 minutes to say our table was ready.

Dh had a McKenzies black cherry cider, his absolute favourite, I had a rising sun margarita which was very nice, ds had a Diet Coke.

We always enjoy the food here and tonight was no exception. Our server was good even though she was really busy.

Ds and I shared 2 mains. Our favourites. The firecracker roll which remains the best sushi we’ve had ever and the what’s shakin tuna bacon sandwich which is like sushi as the bun is rice, bit crazy on the salad tonight but it was brilliant as ever.

Dh who doesn’t really bother with sushi had the black and Brie burger and said it was as good as ever.

A good meal to end a fabulous night as we’d been riding on the floats again.

[Goldia]

Nice to have some pool time and I'm so pleased you got a spot on the Mardi Gras Floats again.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Nice to have some pool time and I'm so pleased you got a spot on the Mardi Gras Floats again.

See more...

Thanks Abby. Hope you are all ok.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Thanks Abby. Hope you are all ok.

See more...

You too. Gosh yesterday was hard saying goodbye to all the kids. I think I've cried more over the last 48 hours than all the rest of my life put together. It's not something they prepare you for in training is it?

Stay safe x

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

You too. Gosh yesterday was hard saying goodbye to all the kids. I think I've cried more over the last 48 hours than all the rest of my life put together. It's not something they prepare you for in training is it?

Stay safe x

See more...

I know, I was blubbering like a baby on the way home. 😭
Everything just feels so weird and surreal!

[Goldia]

You did better than me then as I couldn't keep the tears in during the day I'm afraid. I don't normally get emotional at the end of the year, I suppose as I know they're ready to move on to better and exciting things and we've finished. But oh my word that was a hard goodbye.

I'm hoping you're going to be able to keep posting your trip report I'd love to read the rest when I get the chance. Or maybe you have, I've not looked at the boards since last weekend.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

You did better than me then as I couldn't keep the tears in during the day I'm afraid. I don't normally get emotional at the end of the year, I suppose as I know they're ready to move on to better and exciting things and we've finished. But oh my word that was a hard goodbye.

I'm hoping you're going to be able to keep posting your trip report I'd love to read the rest when I get the chance. Or maybe you have, I've not looked at the boards since last weekend.

See more...

I knew Friday would be difficult but I think I underestimated how much so. Last few days have made me so so proud of my children and how adaptable and brave they’ve been.

Are you in next week? We are working at home for a few days at least until the authority get everything up and running for key worker kids.

I was unsure about finishing the trip report but I think I will.

[Goldia]

I'm not in next week, lots of people have volunteered at my school. So we have 6 members of staff in each day on a rotation. We've only got a small number of children coming in as I think most parents have realised they will be safest at home and being secondary kids they are old enough to be left at home unsupervised. My first 'shift' is the week after.