Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 6 - Third Time's a Charm

[Rescuer]

Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 6 - Third Time's a Charm 14.2.20

The Index is here

Apologies for the delay.

We awoke at 8am, looked out the window and for the first time in the holiday the sun was not shining. We debated what to do, should we rush to the parks and use the Express pass, or should we just take our time? We decided on the latter, this had not been and never became an early morning rush around holiday.

We all kept saying, we are back for a week at the end of June with Express Pass for the entire stay so let’s just take it easy… we all know that’s not happening now! Oh well, a slower paced holiday was what we all needed at the time. We also decided to walk back to Aventura and drop off our bags, so we didn’t have to worry about picking them up later.

I bet you are wondering if we walked through the conference centre again, we did not! We figured out how to walk back going under the bridge to Sapphire Falls and coming out at their boat deck. I wish I’d known this short cut as well. I always thought you had to go up on to the road, but you don’t.

You walk along the side of tower three and the pool as if you are walking to the walking path and boat

you carry on till just before you reach the bit for the buses to Volcano Bay. There is a path off to the right,

once on this path, this is your view.

Follow this path round and you can see the bridge the Sapphire Falls boat comes under

.
Keep walking round until you reach the boat deck

go in through Sapphire Falls back to Aventura.

It took 2 minutes between the first and last picture and probably less than 5 minutes more till we entered Sapphire Falls. We were walking at a slightly fast pace as the sky was growing darker and darker by the minute. As we reached our room and opened the curtains, we saw this lovely sight, the first rain of our holiday.

We decided to grab some breakfast in the hotel and wait for the rain to go off, it was predicted to ease off in a bit. Looking at the reports from home about storms left us feeling a little concerned about our flights as they were predicting it was going to be bad at the weekend and some flights were being cancelled. I assumed we’d be fine but had a wee look at accommodation available and it looked like most of Orlando was going to be full for President’s weekend. I was fairly hopeful that if we ran into problems Universal would find something for us. We headed to Starbucks for a cheap option. Ds had the chicken biscuit which he thought was nice but not as good as his bacon cheddar thing.

Dh had a Monterey Jack and chorizo thing which he said was nice.

I had a cheese and ham croissant, the choices with no egg are limited. This was nice.
I also had an almond latte.

Just over $20.

Ds and Dh had a couple of games of table tennis and beanbag toss as well, they had fun!

Once it brightened up, we walked back across to Sapphire Falls. You could see that the resorts were getting busier for the weekend as we didn’t get on the first boat even though it was nowhere near park opening times. It didn’t take too long for another boat to arrive.

We headed into Islands of Adventure and straight to Hulk. We were fairly glad we had the express pass as it was busier than we’d seen it any of our other days, it wasn’t crazy though. We asked if we could wait to go front row as there was no one else waiting for that it only took an extra minute or so. I love front row on Hulk, the only thing that is better is front row in the dark. We went to collect our photo afterwards and the TM behind the counter spotted my Stranger Things top and started telling us about the new trailer that had just been released and how we had to watch it, he then brought it up on his phone so we could all watch it together, he was so excited, to be fair so was I. Just good luck there were not too many people waiting for their photo.

Next up, Doom with the Express pass it was walk on. We walked up past Kong which had a 50-minute wait, this line is always a nightmare, even with Express pass it takes ages if the standby is busy, so we didn’t bother and carried on round to Jurassic Park. Ds and Dh were keen to do this, I decided to give it a miss as I didn’t really feel it was warm enough to get wet today. So, I got some juice in our cup and just milled about. The two of them didn’t get too wet.

We carried on round to Forbidden Journey. We paused for pictures on the bridge obviously.

Dh is not a fan of this, it makes him feel pretty dizzy, but he generally gives it a go at least once in the holiday. It didn’t take too long with the express pass after you got passed the usual chaos for lockers. I can’t see social distancing working well in any of the HP locker areas. Has anyone ever had a photo on this ride that is even a fraction flattering?

Hogsmeade was heaving again.

I had a wee check on Touring Plans, and it was showing Hagrid’s as a 90-minute wait, but the real expected time was 60. Now on the day we thought this was another rubbish use of our express pass day, but we went for it anyway. We hit the line quite quickly once getting through the arch, it looked busier than the last time but they seem to block different bits off at different times so it is hard to tell.

Now I am glad we did as we won’t be back for who knows how long now, certainly not this year. Plus, it was my turn again to ride the motorbike and much to Ds’s disgust he was due for the sidecar. We have all had 2 shots on the motorbike now and 1 shot in the sidecar. I really like the motorbike; both are good but if I had the choice, I’d go for the motorbike each time. Right enough we were off in 60 minutes.

We headed back into Hogsmeade and we went off on the hunt for hot butter beer. There is a bar area inside the Three Broomsticks which is where we eventually got some, I have to say I absolutely loved it, it was like drinking pudding. Even dh who doesn’t do hot drinks really loved it.

Think I might go back for another winter trip just for that. Another pro for my list for a week in October 2021, including our first HHN.

We were beginning to feel hungry again so we thought we’d try Mythos for a late lunch, it was about 2.30pm, I’d heard lots about the fork and spoon there and I thought DS would love it. They said there would be a wait, about 45 minutes and offered to text when the table was ready.

That would let us do some stuff round about, so it was not a big deal. On our way to Seuss Landings we met King Julien from Madagascar, again for some reason ds was not up for a photo, his loss.

As childlike as it is, we went for a ride on the Trolley in Seuss Landings, I’ve said it before but I adore this land.

Ds had been eyeing up a Grinch T-shirt so I offered to go and pick that up while the two of the headed off to ride one fish two fish, there was no way I was letting ds soak me before we headed into Mythos. Luckily, the Cat in the Hat was in the shop doing photos with no line so it would have been rude of me not to go and say hi.

I managed to catch some pictures of ds and dh on their ride as well.

It wasn’t too much longer till our 45 minute wait time was up so we had a wonder around the Lost Continent and took some photos, you’ve probably guessed but this was our first holiday that we had been on since we got a phone with a better camera so we took loads of photos again till we got our text.

Ds had a frozen pina colada again, I had a corona and Dh had a bud.

I’d been reading about the form and spoon on the menu here. Grilled cheese on a bed of tomato Tuscan soup topped with pork belly. Ds and Dh both decided to have this, they both really liked it.

I had the lamb burger which was really tasty.

It’s been a while since we have eaten there but it was really good. The price wasn’t too bad either.

[B]

Again, I did something not really wise for an express pass day, I thought I’d quickly check the virtual line for the floats while we were finishing lunch just to check and low and behold there was a spot so I just grabbed it. DH wasn’t impressed at first as he wanted to just concentrate on rides but after a short discussion where ds and I pointed out that we could do these rides anytime we came he bought into the idea of riding the floats and was just as excited as ds and I. (Just as well as we’d still have done it). Our time to return was 5.05 - 5.10 so we had very little time for anything else other than grabbing a drink and walking back across to Universal.

[Rescuer]

Part 2

When we checked in for the floats we bumped into Zack who had been our float captain the first night, he remembered us and asked what floats we had been on and offered to ask for us to switched if we got one of the same ones again, a lovely offer. We were allocated Riverboat which was one of the original floats and at the front of the parade so no switch necessary.

Again, in Animal Actors we were given our tabards, gold this time and had our pictures done.

We were feeling like experts by now. We had masses of beads to throw out and had another fantastic time.

The parade route was slightly busier with it being a Friday night, but we managed to make our beads last all the way around. I can’t express how much we loved riding on the floats and if you are ever there over Mardi Gras do try and get a spot, I guarantee you will have the best time. An absolute highlight of any of our trips to Universal and the perfect end to our last night of the trip.

It wasn’t the warmest tonight so once we were done we wandered round to MIB to have a bit of a competition. I won and then Dh won, ds obviously was less than amused so we promised another go at it tomorrow as we wanted to go and use up some more of the credits on our snack lanyard. The food area was fairly quiet but we grabbed a couple of twisted taters.

It was not long till park closure and Ds wanted to go on Rip Ride in the dark so Dh went with him while I went to get the photos from the float added on to card. The weather was turning pretty miserable and when I walked back up to meet Ds and Dh it turned out that they had closed Rip Ride, Ds wasn’t happy as he hadn’t managed to ride it in the dark this holiday and it was his last opportunity. Of course we said you can ride it as much as you want in the summer with your week long express pass, obviously that’s not happening now but it will again at some point.

As we left the park it was cold, a little windy and rainy. I say cold I had my jumper on and my shorts and I’d say I was a little chilly so not actually too bad. We still decided to walk back as the boat lines were busy, we walked via RPR and Sapphire Falls, it didn’t take too long.

We stopped off at reception at Aventura to ask about a late check out. The team member was lovely and gave us to 12pm the next day which we were happy with.

We still had packing to do so we (I) did some of that before heading out for a late dinner and drinks. The rooftop bar was closed again for a private function so we headed back across the road to Sapphire Falls and Saltwater Tavern. It was fairly busy but we luckily got a table pretty quickly. They did say straight away that the kitchen was fairly backed up and there would be a wait for food.

Dh ordered a beer, Ds had a Diet Coke and I had a mojito. All good.

It was 40 minutes between the drinks and the food. It wasn’t a big deal but because we’d gone out late it meant we were not eating till close to 11pm.

We had the buttermilk chicken tenders which were really nice.

The arroz con pollo which was okay.

The meatballs again which tasted slightly different but were still good.

The beef empanadas which were nice.

They had a guy playing guitar which was fairly loud at points, it was mainly full of convention people.

I think we enjoyed our first visit more but it was still nice.

It felt fairly freezing (here its no jacket weather )

walking back across to Aventura and we passed lots of merry people heading back to Sapphire Falls from the rooftop bar at Aventura.

At least we (I) had done most of the packing and headed straight to bed.

[flo-tinka]

Great full day and floats again, wow! Looks like you had a great time 😀

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by flo-tinka

Great full day and floats again, wow! Looks like you had a great time 😀

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Thanks for reading. I can’t even put into words how much I loved the float riding for Mardi Gras. Sad not to be there this week again as planned but probably for the best just now.

[Goldia]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I can feel the regret that you 'wasted' park time this morning. But the slower start meant you could keep going all afternoon. It sure did look busy in Hogsmeade but you had a great time and you looked like you loved Hagrids. I'm gutted we didn't just wait it out last summer now, but we didn't know back then did we? Islands of Adventure is such a great park and you had fun just doing the rides you fancied. The Hulk photo is fab too.

I'm really glad you got to do the Mardi Gras parade again. It does sound like a really fun experience. I also liked the look of all your meals today. Such a shame that it's the end of your trip now and you're packing your cases. It seems like you felt a week long trip was worth it though.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I can feel the regret that you 'wasted' park time this morning. But the slower start meant you could keep going all afternoon. It sure did look busy in Hogsmeade but you had a great time and you looked like you loved Hagrids. I'm gutted we didn't just wait it out last summer now, but we didn't know back then did we? Islands of Adventure is such a great park and you had fun just doing the rides you fancied. The Hulk photo is fab too.

I'm really glad you got to do the Mardi Gras parade again. It does sound like a really fun experience. I also liked the look of all your meals today. Such a shame that it's the end of your trip now and you're packing your cases. It seems like you felt a week long trip was worth it though.

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Thanks for reading. You are right about hindsight. At the time we all loved the slower pace and restful mornings, it’s probably only with summer being cancelled that it feels like a waste. The slower pace onsite at Universal is one of the main things I love about these holidays and we’d had a rubbish start to 2020 so it was definitely what we needed.

Hagrids is great. You’ve got that to look forward to next summer along with, hopefully, the new Jurassic coaster which looks amazing.

The week long trip was great. I think it worked well just being Universal, somewhere you are really familiar with and we’re supposed to be returning to in Summer. I’d be up for doing it again, Halloween Horror is looking more and more tempting and we only get a week off then too. I’d definitely recommend a week during Feb though for Mardi Gras, you were toying with the idea.