Rolling in the Upside Downs - 6th Jul 22 - Day 3 IOA, Universal and Citywalk

[Rescuer]

Rolling in the Upside Downs - Jul 22 - Day 3 - 6/7/22 - Off Plan Already!

Index is here

The Plan - 8.45am Icon Park pick up - Busch Gardens❌

Dinner - saltgrass steakhouse - landrys card❌

Weather - scorching with a bit of rain.

Steps 14.5k

Upside downs 11

29 in total

After Ds was feeling a bit off last night we altered the plans as a full day at Busch Gardens would have been a real struggle for him and perhaps a real struggle for all 3 of us. It was absolutely the right call.

Dh and I were up at 5.30 but Ds slept right through till 7.30am, we started fairly chilled, I think the heat had sapped all our energy.


Ate in the room this morning. Made my own coffee with almond milk, saved myself the Starbucks line. Had some cheese, meat, almonds and strawberries. All good.

Heading out this morning I took my hat, a wee cheapy Tesco one, first time in years I’ve taken one to Florida but really felt I needed it this trip to keep cool when out and about.

Caught the bus quickly and we were at security for 8.50am and in the park before 9am. The process of the buses and main security hub continued to impress me, busy but quick and efficient.

And to top it off again I had no issues with the finger scanning!

We decided on a different start this morning since the park was already open and went straight to Hulk and the regular line took less than 15 minutes. Still love this so much.

We reactivated the worn and tattered mug for under $10. These are so good on hot days and there are always plenty places to fill it up. You can also choose icees as well as soda.

Ds was raring to go and keen to head to Velocicoaster which was showing 29 minutes on touring plans. Once we got up there he suggested trying single rider and this took less than 10 minutes. Off Dh went. Then Ds who was cheesing as he got back row. Then a South American tour group of 56 entered the line. They couldn’t organise themselves into pairs so I was up, a whole train in the same colour and me. 😂 we should have got the photo from that ride 😂

They were all fairly sedate as I think this might have been their first time riding. The boy beside me was calling for his mummy all the way round, bless. At the end it stopped for a few minutes and we could see them taking the other vehicle off the tracks before they could move us forward.

Ds still had a bit of a headache even though he was happy to have ridden velocicoaster. We bought him some tylenol and fairly quickly he was feeling better although he did say he didn’t really want to do anymore big rides for a bit.

We refilled the cup as there are no freestyle machines in Hogsmede.

We thought Hogwarts express would be a good plan and it was showing as 5 minutes in touring plans, it was essentially a walk on and for the first time ever we ended up with a whole Coach to ourselves.

We planned to do one of the shows but had a bit of time to kill. We grabbed another juice and headed round to ET. This was a 10 minute wait but by the time you watched the wee pre show film it wasn’t really a wait at all. It’s a classic and we love it. We were commenting though that they could easily change it to or do a Halloween overlay for Stranger Things. Now that would be really cool.

We came out and headed into the shop. I bought an ET baby, I thought it was so cute and I thought I’d use it in my classroom this year. I also bought a really cute ET top.

Filled up the cup again at the Crepe stand but they were out of ice so not quite as refreshing as it could have been.

Settled on the Horror Make Up Show which we absolutely love. A few years ago Ds was that kid and has adored it ever since, I think it’s fuelled his interest in HHN as well. The actors were hilarious and although the shows essentially always the same the jokes do vary as they are very good at reacting to the audience. There was a wee kid dressed up as Beetlejuice and he was that kid throwing rocks this time. They were brilliant with him.

Nipped in to the annual pass lounge to see if there was any new merchandise, there’s an ET Christmas decoration that we might pick up, I do miss the monthly pins and magnets they used to do.

Another thing I really like that Universal does is the tribute store, we’d only seen Mardi Gras ones before but for the summer they have a legacy theme. I know it’s a shop but all the little details are so cool. I bought a new phone case and for some reason Ds bought crazy heart shaped glasses, something to do with Snapchat?

They also have a really cool photo opportunity with King Kong. some of us are too cool for dolly photos these days.

I also picked up a really nice Fantastic beasts top in the big shop on the way out.

I have to say we’d not done much but I was really lovely the laid back pace of the holiday. We sat whenever we wanted, chatted, people watched, milled around and it was lovely and relaxing not rushing around trying to do everything of being over planned which I can be guilty of. Not sure if makes for as entertaining trip reports right enough😂

We thought about Today Cafe for lunch but it was busy inside and too hot to sit outside. What we really fancied was a bit of a chilled lunch so we decided on NBC and got a table there without a wait. I like the menu here and we normally always get good food. Our server was lovely. Dh wanted a McKenzies cherry cider but they’d run out, she was very apologetic, tbh everywhere seemed to have run out of this.

I had a corona light, Dh had a beer.

Cheese curds to start, I had a couple, they are lovely.

Ds had boneless wings with orange blossom sriracha and ranch dressing - he loved them.

Dh had the pulled pork sandwich with fries, he said it was good and the sauce was amazing.

I had the chicken lettuce wraps. They were so good. I just didn’t eat the crispy noodle things.

We meant to use a Mardi Gras card to pay but Dh had mixed them up 😂 so the one we had didn’t cover it, no worries, plenty time to use them up. Even remembered the pass holder discount.

I really fancied something sweet so we stopped off at Menchies for a wee treat.

We all had a wee bowl of frozen yogurt. I had the no added sugar flavours. Still carbs but better than nothing. The other 2 had the dole whip with coconut.

$15.

We were pretty done in again, the heat combined with being up far to early was really sapping our energy and stamina of being able to cope in the parks for any great length of time. We got back on the bus just after 2pm.

A nice bit of chill out time back at the hotel, the heavens opened and we happily watched the rain out the window. I carried on experimenting with my ices and tried the black raspberry one with the almond milk and raspberries this time -no not as good as pineapple and coconut with cream, not a patch on it.

We’d found ourselves with nothing on the plan after switching the Busch Gardens day and we are pretty rubbish at actual decision making on holiday. We eventually settled on the cinema at Citywalk followed by some quick service dinner. Ds and I were keen to go and see The Black Phone. It’s going to be part of the Blumhouse HHN house with Freaky. Dh at this point was less than enthusiastic at all but we did eventually convince him he might actually like it.

We headed out for the bus and there was quite a line at the stop so we were not convinced we’d get on the bus and as usual we hadn’t really left ourselves a great deal of time to get where we needed to be, I wonder if we’d ever learn 😂.

Right enough that bus filled up and then if by magic a Mears bud turned up less than a minute later and took everyone else at the stop on the 6 minute journey to Citywalk.

Security was busier than we’d seen it before but it was still really quick. The walkways were chocca though and I’m in the camp of stand on one side walk on the other, nope… I do realise that sometimes my patience levels are not the best. Ds and Dh say I have a whole other pace of walking that I reserve especially for theme park holidays where they struggle to keep up with me yet it’s the opposite at home!

The cinema offers annual pass holder discount but you need to go to the ticket windows to get those tickets. Our tickets were $8 each which I thought was really reasonable considering you are in the middle of a theme park essentially. The saving with annual passes is $3 each I think. The cinema itself is great, really spacious with big comfy recliner chairs.

We enjoyed the film. Dh thought it was ok which was nearly praise. Ds enjoyed it and we had a fair chat as to how it might translate into an HHN house.

All starving by the time it finished we headed upstairs in Citywalk in search of food. Maybe not the best timing as universal had not long closed but Islands was still open. The line at Panda Express was insane, all the way out the door. No chance.

The other 2 quickly decided on Breadbox and I thought Burger King in a bowl would do me. They had closed their line, I was really surprised considering it was probably the busiest time of night for these places.

I went to Moes instead. Having never been before I had no clue what to order or how to do it. First off you pick the type of thing you want then as you go forward in the line you pick all your hot things then it gets passed to the next person where you choose all your cold toppings then to the cashier to pay. Fairly slick operation. I had the steak salad without the beans with onions, salsa, cheese, chipotle ranch and jalapeños. It was massive and really good. It came with chips and salsa dip which Ds ate back at the hotel.

Ds and Dh shared the hot turkey and the pastrami sandwiches. They were both great. For some very strange reason they just had the sandwiches and didn’t order tots as their side…crazy!

It was pretty busy heading out through Citywalk.

The line for the buses was huge as you would expect at the back of 10. The had staff organising the line and it moved constantly as they filled one bus and another turned up straight away. Again really impressive organisation.

We had a great day at the pace that was right for us and were feeling more set for a full day at Busch Gardens the next day.

[mick]

A bit of a slower day today but glad you all felt better for it


Joan

[Bellasmummy]

Moes looks so good! Definitely on my list.

[boltyboy]

Really enjoying your trippy, could you tell me what app you are using for the ride times?

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by mick

A bit of a slower day today but glad you all felt better for it


Joan

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Totally needed. I’d say I was getting old but Ds needed the slower pace as much as us 😂

Originally Posted by Bellasmummy

Moes looks so good! Definitely on my list.

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You should totally try it. Can’t believe I’d never eaten there before now.

Originally Posted by boltyboy

Really enjoying your trippy, could you tell me what app you are using for the ride times?

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It’s the lines app which is part of the touring plans subscription. Separate subscriptions for Disney and universal. I’ve found it really reliable on quite a few trips. First time we ever had it was a Christmas Disney trip and I was sold after that.

[Lily8]

Moe's looks good - I'm counting on it for cheap and cheerful meat-free options too.

Another great day, and I love your hat!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Lily8

Moe's looks good - I'm counting on it for cheap and cheerful meat-free options too.

Another great day, and I love your hat!

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Thanks. It did the job!

Moes was great and will hopefully be good for you. All the toppings on the salad were fab. It would be great as a veggie option too.

[emmabanana]

I love the fantastic beasts top you got, hopefully they’ll still have it when I’m there later this year.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by emmabanana

I love the fantastic beasts top you got, hopefully they’ll still have it when I’m there later this year.

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It was new since February so hopefully they will have it for a while. It’s super soft and comfy as well.

[emmabanana]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

It was new since February so hopefully they will have it for a while. It’s super soft and comfy as well.

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Oh thats great, thank you.