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Old 30 Mar 19, 05:42 PM  
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Stewboy
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A Magical New Year: Day 6 - Harry Potter and the Volcano Bay

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Thursday 3rd January

My day began when Jo woke me at about 6am in need of coffee. Being a loving husband, I obliged and after enjoying our coffee, it was time to wake Isabella at about 6:30am. We gave her a morning cuddle, followed by some milk, and a breakfast of Cheerios, and then it was time to get and ready and get an early start at the park.

After a quick change, we made our way to the bus stop to find a bus waiting for us - our luck with the buses was holding out - and by 7:45am we were on our way to the parks along with a bus full of other eager early morning guests.


Bus(y)

The bus arrived, we alighted, and made our way through CityWalk to Universal Studios. It was a really busy morning, and for the first time on this trip we had to queue to get in. Inside the park we hoped to ride Gringotts but the wait was already at 30 minutes, so instead we joined the line for Despicable Me Minion Mayhem as it was only a 5 minute wait.




Queue at the park entrance






Minion Mayhem

We came off the ride and the time was now a few minutes to 9am - almost time for the rest of the park to open - so we headed through The Wizarding World of Harry Potter toward Springfield. There was a five minute wait until we could enter Springfield, so we hung around the statue of Eros and the Knight Bus for a few minutes, and saw Kreacher peering through the window of 12 Grimmauld Place.


Can you see him?

Once Springfield was open, we made a beeline to the Simpsons Ride, and despite the lack of queue we were crammed into the ride with five other guests, meaning I had to sit on my own, and Jo and Isabella’s view was obscured by a tall man in front - not the most enjoyable ride experience!

We left Springfield and headed to Shrek 4-D, where there was about a 15 minute wait, including the pre-show. It’s been a while since we’d ridden this and I’d forgotten how fun it is - Jo and Isabella enjoyed it too.

Next up was ET. As you can probably tell, today we were trying to take advantage of the short waits at all the non-Harry Potter ride - so far so good. ET didn’t actually open till 10am so we waited in line for about five minutes; Isabella had some popcorn to keep her going and Jo and I had some pea snacks - we came prepared.


ET line


Line snacks

Last ride of the morning was to Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster - which unbelievably is a shorter ride than Goofy’s Barnstormer at Magic Kingdom! Literally a minute after getting it on it, we were done and heading for the park exit.




On our way to (probably) the shortest coaster in the world!

As we walking through the New York area of the park we got ourselves a Starbucks Venti Latte to share, and noticed that the Blues Brothers show was due to start - we’re big fans of the Blues Brothers and couldn’t miss this special Christmas version of their show. Disappointingly, they didn’t arrive in the police car today but the show was fun and we enjoyed the Christmas-themed songs.


Starbucks


Jake & Elwood sans police car






Blues Brothers show

We continued towards the the exit, stopping in the Universal Studios Store for a quick browse. Isabella got herself an ET pressed penny for her extensive collection.


Swimming against the tide!




Another one for the collection

By now the time was 11:30am. As we exited the park we took the opportunity to get ourselves a Universal globe selfie, then headed to Cowfish for our lunchtime reservation which we were super excited about.


Universal globe selfie

As we were a little early, and Voodoo Doughnuts had no queue, we popped in to get ourselves some more doughnut deliciousness for later, ending up with a Maple Bar, Portland Cream, and Apple Fritter.


Voodoo Doughnuts

Cowfish now. Although we were still early for our reservation, they let us check in and showed us to our table. After perusing the menu, Jo decided not to get her usual bento box and instead opted for the All-American Bacon Double Cheeseburgooshi (Seasoned premium black angus beef, yellow cheddar cheese, white cheddar cheese, and applewood bacon wrapped in soy paper and potato strings, then flash fried. Topped with dill pickle, red onion, Roma tomato, and Cowfish sauce).

I decided to get The Rise & Swine Burger (Beef burger, cheddar cheese, grilled black forest ham, sunny-side-up egg, applewood bacon, grilled onions, Cowfish sauce, onion roll) and Isabella went for the Ninja Nuggets (Tender, all natural chicken chunks flash fried, served with BBQ sauce).

Finally, for drinks Jo and I ordered iced tea, and Isabella had water.


Time for lunch


The Rise & Swine Burger


Cheeseburgooshi


Ninja Nuggets

When the food arrived, they’d accidently given Isabella oranges with her bento box, rather than apple. We told the waitress who bought her out some apple, and I had the oranges, which were really delicious - as you’d expect being in Florida!

The food itself was delicious, although Jo regretted her choice; the Cheeseburgooshi was not as she expected and she didn’t really enjoy it. Isabella and I chose well though, and thoroughly enjoyed our food.

We left Cowfish and headed back to our resort, it goes without saying that there was a bus waiting when we arrived; the frequency and speed of the buses to and from our resort were definitely a massive bonus on this trip.

Back to our room it was doughnut time! We shared the Apple Fritter and it was delicious.


Doughnut time!

We now needed to decide on what to do this afternoon; yesterday’s visit to the outlet had resulted in us being overcharged in the Disney Character Warehouse, and having tags left on a pair of Nike trainers, so that still needed to be resolved. This afternoon seemed the best opportunity to get it sorted but after her early start, and busy morning, Isabella was in need of some chill out time, especially if we wanted to do anything fun this afternoon and this evening.

We decided Jo would stay with Isabella and I’d go to the outlet on my own. Jo usually does the navigating while I drive, so I’d need to rely on my phone instead. I made sure I had the journey planned in Google Maps before I left and took a screenshot just in case there were issues with the data. It was fairly straightforward even though it wasn’t a route I was familiar with.

The drive to the outlet went without a hitch, and took about 20 minutes. The car park was even busier than yesterday, I think I got the last parking space. Once parked up, I headed to Nike first, and got the tags removed no problem. Then I went to the Disney Character Warehouse, which was going to be a little more complicated to sort out.

As well as the overcharged key ring, I was also returning a t-shirt that was too big, and checking the price on another item. My server was a newbie, but fortunately he was being helped by a manager who got it all sorted quickly - they were very helpful.

About half an hour later I was making my way back to the car. Unfortunately for the drive back, I had to do without Google Maps asit wasn’t working on my phone, despite me having the data turned on, and there was no wifi access. I memorised the screenshot of the journey as best I could then headed for home.

The reason I let Jo navigate is mostly down to the fact that I never really know where I am - my excuse is that I have to concentrate on what I’m doing when driving on America; Jo would argue that I’m the same at home…!

Despite a slight detour which involved a short drive on the I-4, I made it back safely. All in all, it ended up taking the same amount of time as the drive there, so I think I did ok.


I made it there and back in one piece!

I got back to the room by about 2:40pm. Jo and Isabella were nice and rested, and ready for some family water park fun at Volcano Bay.

We got ourselves ready, then made the short walk to Volcano Bay, arriving at about 3:30pm. As we were determined to do some water slides today, we were going to need to get ourselves a locker for our stuff. As we only had two hours left till closing time we didn’t want to pay $15 for a family locker, and instead managed to find and cram all out stuff into a mini locker for $8. The only item we couldn’t fit in where my flip flops, which I just put on top of the lockers - I doubt anyone would want to take them!






Off to Volcano Bay


Height guide

Now that we’d stowed our stuff it was time to hit the water slides. We navigated our way round the park (eventually) to the our first stop, which wasn’t actually a slide but the Kopiko Wai Winding River lazy river. After acclimating to the surprisingly cold water, we got some rings. Unlike the lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon they don’t have double rings for parents and children, and the ring was a bit big and uncomfortable for Isabella. Jo decided not to get a ring and held onto Isabella’s instead. None of us enjoyed the river - we found it far from lazy and didn’t even manage a full loop.

Disappointed, we decided to head for the slides. Jo had made a note of the kid friendly slides - there were quite a few - and we ended up at Puihi of Maku Puihi Round Raft Rides first. It’s actually two slides - Puihi and Maku. We tried Maku first, which actually had a longer line than Puihi. After 5-10 minute wait it was our turn to load into the raft. It was a fun ride, quite fast, I really enjoyed it.

We headed back up to get in the much shorter line for Puihi. This ride was tamer than Maku, and I ended up going backwards the whole time so didn’t enjoy it as much, Jo enjoyed this one the most though.

After those slides, we only had enough time for one more ride, so we headed to Honu ika Moana (Turtle & Whale). Ika Moana is more child friendly than Honu, so we rode that one. The raft for these rides are bigger, the others were for six people so three can ride; this one was for eight so we shared with another group.

Ika Moana turned out to be Isabella’s favourite, and as soon as we were out the end of the slide she wanted to ride again but we were out of time as the park was closing.


Real ride photo. Honest. Definitely NOT photoshopped...

We headed back to the lockers, grabbed our stuff, and made the short walk back to the hotel. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, no one stole my well-worn flip flops!

As it was almost 6pm now we needed to decide what to do for dinner. Longhorn Steakhouse was on our list, and we decided we’d try the one on International Drive. I tried calling ahead to book, but they said there was no need for us to, so we got ready and by 6:20pm we were on our way. Despite it only being a couple of miles away, the drive took about 25 minutes due to the usual International Drive traffic.


A book before dinner

The restaurant was busy when we arrived, and we were worried we might not get seated as there were groups waiting outside and in the reception. But as it turned out, we needn’t have worried, as we were seated straight away - the lady on the phone had been right.

First things first: drinks. I ordered a Sam Adams, Jo ordered a Margarita - surprisingly her margarita consumption was severely lacking this trip - and Isabella got her usual tap water.




Reunited




Cheers

We had a voucher for a free appetiser and ordered the White Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms to share. For our mains we ordered the following:

Me: Flat Iron Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Caesar Salad
Jo: Renegade Sirloin (8oz) with Loaded Idaho Baked Potato and Caesar Salad
Isabella: Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli and Oranges

All of food was delicious, and the service was very good. We’d not been to this particular Longhorns before, so it was good to know it’s as nice as the one at Rolling Oaks.


Some bread to begin


Mushrooms


Flat Iron Steak


Renegade Sirloin


Mac & Cheese

After an enjoyable meal we made the drive back to the resort, stopping on the way to get some milk from the 7-Eleven on the corner of West Sand Lake and Turkey Lake Road.

We arrived back at about 8:20pm, got ourselves a coffee and then put Isabella straight to bed. Jo and I watched the rest of Ready Player One on the iPad, eventually going to sleep at about 10pm.

So that’s day six over with, hope you’ve enjoyed reading along! Next up is another full morning at Islands of Adventure, followed by an afternoon at Disney Springs, and an evening at the Swizzle Lounge.

Thanks for reading.
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Old 30 Mar 19, 06:26 PM  
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kevbrydon
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Thanks for Sharing... and Iv'e rated your report 5 Stars as usual
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Old 30 Mar 19, 08:04 PM  
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Another great day glad you got your shopping sorted


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Old 30 Mar 19, 10:31 PM  
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DISNEYLIZ
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Another busy day, love your reports
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Old 30 Mar 19, 10:41 PM  
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Sounds like a very productive day all round despite the parks being a bit busier than they had been. You’d think they’d be calming down, not the opposite after new year.

Isabella looks so grown up in some of these photos

Your longhorn meal and doughnuts looks yummy! Especially the cocktail
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Old 30 Mar 19, 10:42 PM  
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princess allie
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Another lovely read x
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1998 Villa in Kissimmee 2009 Animal Kingdom Lodge 2011 Animal Kingdom Lodge 2014 Villa Lake Berkeley 2016 Villa Bass Lakes 2017 Villa on Solana and Vero Beach 2018 Villa on Highlands Reserve and St Pete Beach 2019 SLC, Cabana Bay, Highlands Reserve & Coronado Springs, 2020 Feb half term villa chilling. 2022 villa on Calabay Park and a trip Clearwater beach. 2023 Orlando and Clearwater
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Old 31 Mar 19, 06:56 AM  
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Another great report.
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Old 31 Mar 19, 07:48 PM  
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Great read.
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Hampton Lakes - October 2007, The Hamlets, Westhaven - July/August 2009, The Sanctuary, Westhaven - July/August 2012, Dibb Villa Highgate Park & 1 night at HRH - July 2015 2017 6 nights NY, 11 nights in Florida Dibb villa, Westhaven, Xmas 2018 Villa 1 night RPR 2019 7 nights in New York, 2020 Dibb Villa booked in Highlands, 3 nights in Cape Coral
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Old 31 Mar 19, 09:26 PM  
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Great day. We’ve always found cabana bay buses to be great.
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Old 31 Mar 19, 10:03 PM  
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Great day👍
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