The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Day 13 – Volcano Bay wash out and Giordano's

[Mad Hatters]

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report

So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum).

Link to Index: Index

Link to previous day: Previous Day

Wednesday 30th May: Day 13 – Volcano Bay and Giordano’s

Today we had planned to go to Volcano Bay for our first ever visit. This was being built the last time we were here and it was looking brilliant. We watched a lot of reviews of it once it opened and thought it looked amazing, so we couldn’t wait to go.

We all got up at our alarm that we had set for 7:25am. We looked out of the window and unfortunately, you guessed it, it was chucking it down POO!

Rain had not stopped us all that much so far, well except for our planned water park morning at Disney Anyway, we cracked on with getting ready and headed on down to breakfast at 8am.

Grace wasn’t hungry this morning, so didn’t bother with anything.

I had omelettes that contained ham, peppers and cheese, which I topped with some spinach and salsa. Yummy! Nicer than it looks.


Trayvon had some lucky charms cereal.


Joshua also went for an omelette and a sausage patty. He didn’t like the omelette as it had peppers in, so he ended up having some lucky charms as well.


Trayvon had an orange juice and we washed ours down with our usual citrus peach cocktail. I also had a couple of cups of decaf coffee.

With breakfast finished, we grabbed our things from our rooms and were ready to go out to the bus stop. As it was still raining, my mum decided she wasn’t going to come with us. My dad was still up for it, so we headed to the bus stop. My mum decided she would get on with laundry while we were out.

The bus came bang on time and we were on our way at 5 past 9. The bus arrived at the universal studios bus stop about 15 minutes later. We headed to the Volcano Bay bus stop and waited for a bus to arrive.

We got on the bus at 9:33am and we were literally the only people on it. Obviously the weather was keeping a lot of people away. The rain had eased off and it was pretty much just spitting at this point.

We arrived at Volcano Bay at 9:50am. The place is so well themed, even when you are just walking in from the bus stop.



We could tell straight away that Volcano bay was somewhere that we would really enjoy.


That view when you get fully in to the park….


The volcano just looks stunning, even with that miserable sky as the backdrop

We easily found ourselves some sun loungers as the park was almost empty. We picked ones with a shade, but unfortunately not to protect us from the sun today My dad got himself settled down. With the day being so overcast, there was no way he was going in the water today.

We left my dad behind and all went for a bit of a walk around to see what was what. We found that Trayvon was just slightly too short for a lot of the water slides which was a shame

We went passed the Taniwha Tubes which looked like good fun, so Joshua and I went on, while Grace waited for us with Trayvon. It was brilliant, both of us really enjoyed it. I suggested to grace to take Joshua on, when we got off, but we decided that we should do something that we could all enjoy together.

We headed round to the wave pool next which was something we could all have a good laugh in. We tried to get my dad into the pool but he was having none of it. Grump!

We then moved on to the kids play area, called Runamukka Reef. The kids had fun splashing around here for a little while.

We were all peckish at this point, so decided it was time to grab some lunch. Kohola Reef was our chosen eatery.

Grace fancied a burger, so went for the Island Bacon Cheeseburger. She had a coke zero with this.


Joshua and Trayvon shared chicken tenders and a coke zero.


I went for the Kohola Chicken Sandwich (Tandoori marinated chicken, cucumber mango basil slaw, lettuce, tomato and avocado mayo on a toasted Hawaiian style bun). I had this with a sweet iced tea.


We thought the food was tasty and mine was really nice and fresh tasting. We thought it was a bit expensive though.

Unfortunately, as we were eating, the sky had got darker again and it was starting to spit with rain. We headed back to my dad, who was looking far from impressed with the weather.

It was announced that some of the slides were now closed due to the impending weather. It then started raining that proper Florida rain. We ran to get some cover and unfortunately at this point had to admit defeat and call it a day at Volcano Bay

We were gutted to have to leave having hardly done anything here, but it looked pretty set in, did the weather.

We got ourselves changed and headed for the bus stop. A bus soon turned up, so we got on just after 12:20pm. It was seriously bouncing it down and there was thunder and lightning too. Definitely a good call to abandon Volcano Bay.



Once back at Universal, I ordered us an Uber to get us back to the hotel. It cost just over $11 and by 12:45pm, we were back.

My dad went back to his room and so we just lounged around in our room for a little bit while we waited for the weather to improve. After a short while we called over to my mum and dads and had a game of dominos and a glass of wine.

At quarter to 3, it had finally stopped raining, although it was still very overcast. We decided on a little walk up to Walgreens to get us out and also to stock up on a few essentials for the room.

We were back with our little haul at 3:30pm.


We got ourselves ready at a very slow and steady pace, for tonight’s evening meal. We would assess whether it was an Uber job or not when we were ready to go.

It was now 5:30pm and it wasn’t raining, so we decided that we would walk to the restaurant. Our evening meal tonight was at Giordano’s. This was a place I wanted to eat at in 2016 but never got chance to. We did actually eat at Giordano’s on my very first trip to Florida in 2000.

Anyway, we arrived at 6:05pm and were taken straight to a table.
We ordered some drinks. Me and dad both got an orange soda. Joshua had a Dr pepper and Mum, Grace and Trayvon had a diet Pepsi.

I had a VIP voucher from booking with ATD which entitled us to a 10% discount. As we were ordering a pizza pie that takes a while to cook, we decided upon getting starters.

We order 2 Giordano’s Samplers (Bruschetta, Boneless Wings choice of Buffalo or BBQ sauce, Cheesy Garlic Bread, Mozzarella Triangles Served with our house-made marinara sauce and signature ranch dipping sauce). We chose the Buffalo sauce rather than BBQ.



The appetiser was lovely and was a really good way to start the meal. 1 would have been enough really, knowing what we had to come next

And onto the main event.

My parents ordered a pizza to share. They went for a small half and half on a thin base. My mum’s side had garlic, chicken and fresh tomato. My dad’s side was the Chicago (Pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and green peppers).


And for us, we ordered a medium pie. We chose the meat and more meat version which consisted of peperoni, salami, sausage and bacon. Just look at that beast




Joshua enjoying his pizza



The pizza was awesome. Really, really awesome actually. Even grace enjoyed it and she wasn’t looking forward to it.

There was so much though. I managed 2 slices, Grace and Joshua did 1 and a bit and Trayvon nearly managed 1. Even my parents, whose was a small, didn’t get finished.

And the bill.


A very reasonable price if you ask me. It was a great meal that everybody enjoyed and one that I would definitely go back for.

The sky wasn’t looking quite so dark now, so we took a steady stroll back to the hotel. We once again called in a few gift shops on the way back.

I took a few pictures of the new Star Flyer and of the eye as always




And a rainbow too


Our purchases from the shops on the way back. As I previously mentioned about us always getting t shirts in Florida, well today was Joshua and Trayvon’s turn. There was just me left to get one now. Grace got herself a voodoo doll keyring and I think Joshua got the teddy, although I’m not 100% on that.


We arrived back at 8:20pm and decided to have another boys v girls at Dominos, first to 3 wins. The girls won, obviously they cheated though And we called it a night at that.

A bit of a mixed day really. I know I’ve gone on about the weather a lot on this day, but obviously when waterparks are involved, it’s kind of a big part of it.

We loved the look and feel of Volcano Bay, although we never got to fully experience it, which is something that we have got to look forward to in the future.

According to my Fitbit, I was asleep at 9:54pm.

Total steps for today: 11,107. I didn’t wear my watch to Volcano Bay, hence the lower amount of steps.

Not many pictures in today’s report either, but that’s because as you will have read, we didn’t really do much Anyway, thanks for reading

[caitlinsmummy]

I can't believe how unlucky you've been with the weather! I hope you get to Volcano Bay another time in the holiday.

Giordano's looks lovely! I want to show Chris the pictures but I know he'll then want to go and we can't fit it in the plans definitely one for the next time list though.

Even though the weather wasn't good you still had a good day xx

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

I can't believe how unlucky you've been with the weather! I hope you get to Volcano Bay another time in the holiday.

Giordano's looks lovely! I want to show Chris the pictures but I know he'll then want to go and we can't fit it in the plans definitely one for the next time list though.

Even though the weather wasn't good you still had a good day xx

See more...

Tell us about it. Not had the weather like this before. It was a shame, but we did everything we could to not let it affect us too bad.

Giordano’s was another great meal. We did brilliant with our meals and I can’t recall a bad meal when we were there.

Thanks for reading again 😁

[Palm trees]

What a shame about the rain. That pizza looks SO good though!

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a shame about the rain. That pizza looks SO good though!

See more...

Yeah, we struggled a bit with the weather unfortunately. The one thing you can’t plan in advance haha.

The pizza was simply awesome.

Thanks for reading 😀

[mouselover22]

Wow, I’ve never seen a pizza pie

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Wow, I’ve never seen a pizza pie

See more...

It’s such a thing of beauty isn’t it.

Thanks for reading 👍

[dixonsontour]

Love Giordanos. Your meal looks delicious.

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Love Giordanos. Your meal looks delicious.

See more...

It’s a brilliant restaurant and pretty good pricing for what you are getting.

Thanks for reading 😀

[Cinderella]

OMG Pizza Pie ! Where is this restaurant?