Rolling in the Upside Downs - 4th July 2022 - Day 1- Universal, Shopping and Dockside

[Rescuer]

Rolling in the Upside Downs - July 2022 - An unexpected first - 4/7

Index is here

The plan:
Breakfast at Dockside✅
Early entry for Velocicoaster ✅and Hulk❌
Shopping at the Premium Oulets✅
Longhorns✅
Night time - flexible

Weather - no shock but due to be hot today!

17k steps and the start of our upside downs - 4 🎢

I woke up at 3.30am this morning and was not able to get back to sleep so I just played on my phone and tried not to disturb anyone else. Ds was awake about 4.30am and Dh snoozed and snored till about 5.45am, I’ll let him off after his Manchester drive yesterday.

I was up, had a shower, got ready and at Starbucks for 6.10, if only This could be me at home on a school day. 😂

In usual Starbucks style it was a bit busy but not that bad, yet it still took 30 minutes to get my coffee🙄. They had a crazy system where you used Apple Pay or contactless but they still made you sign then they printed another receipt that that one then had to be stapled too…it hurt my brain to watch.

Cappuccino with almond milk and sugar free vanilla syrup for me. Chocolate pastry for Dh and cinnamon coffee cake for Ds. All good, took ages though.

$12 with annual pass discount.

I had some of a protein bar, not been to Walmart yet for slightly healthier breakfast options.

Dh was really shattered and I was unsure if he’d end up coming with us for early entry, notice, I wasn’t volunteering not to go! However, by the time we came back up from Starbucks he was up and looking less like an extra from the Walking Dead.

In all our Universal trips I had never ever been on a Universal bus. I’d go do far to say I’d avoided them and the main security hub as much as humanly possible. 2001 might have been the last time I’d actually used that security. So it was our first time ever time using the buses at Universal, I wasn’t sure what to expect but credit where credits due, I was very impressed. There was a bus filling up as we got to the stop and when that went another bus miraculously appeared right behind it, none of this the next ones due in 20 minutes Disney approach.

Thought we were all looking remarkably fresh and excited!

For anyone interested here’s the timings.

We got on the bus at 7.10.
At the bottom of the escalators 7.19am

Security was walk through

Moving walkways quiet

At citywalk waiting for Ds to go to the loo at 7.24am

When we got to Islands there was a big central line and it looked a bit fuller on the right but the lines way over to the left were empty so we walked over there. The furthest away lines are always the quietest.

In February I had loads of issues with my finger scanning especially at Islands do I had a picture of my passport up and ready on my phone. My finger scanner actually worked which was an unexpected bonus and we headed in towards Velocicoaster. We were quite chilled as everyone else was heading for Hagrids, the joke was on us however, when we reached the gate to turn off over the bridge they were closing it as Velocicoaster was delayed. We hummed and hawed for a few minutes about what to do and decided we were still well enough ahead to cut back and go into the line for Hagrids.

I didn’t notice what they said the wait time was but I was fairly confident it wouldn’t be crazy as we were well ahead of most. The line kept moving and It snaked through the Sinbad theatre, it’s a shame they don’t use that for something else. It was now 8.09am

Passing the Hogwarts train at 8.14am

Luckily. The line moved fairly constantly and we didn’t have bags so we didn’t have to detour through the lockers, the line stopped moving just as we entered the building at 8.20am.

Once it started moving again we got all the way with just 2 families in front of us and they announced technical difficulties. It was 8.56am and the app was showing a 210 minute wait.

A small wait for us though and we were finally on. Ds and Dh had the bikes and I had the sidecar, I was still being punished for getting in an extra motorbike ride in February when as a single rider the guy I was riding with insisted I take the bike. Ds was fuming at that 😂.

I think with Velocicoaster down this was a really good use of our early entry as forbidden journey can be done anytime and we’ve got express later in the holidays. Never expected Hagrids as our first ride of the holiday.

I think we were off the ride about 9.20 or so, we must have waited just over an hour in total which I’m more than happy with.

It was heating up and we hadn’t brought the mug with us. Ds and Dh were like I’m not paying for juice or water so we’ll have a butter beer, aye right, very good pal, ok for you two but I can’t drink that so I bought a bottle of gilly water as well. I could hear the silent tongue biting on the part of DH at me paying for water.

We had thought we’d do the hulk on the way out but we wandered past Velocicoaster (deliberately) and it was up and running. It showed a 50 minute wait and touring plans said 40.

Spot on as usual! Oh how I love this ride! Everything about it is fantastic. The line, the theming, the staff, the lockers, the ride itself…I could go on and on. Universal have done an amazing job with this.

And just like that, 2 rides in, we’d had enough for the morning as it was my aim to still grab some breakfast at the resort before they stopped serving and before heading to the outlets. Not bad for the 4th of July!

We walked back to the main hub, it was busy with people coming in but not too bad considering it was the 4th of July.

As we walked down the stairs we could see that there was a bus sitting at our stop. Again it took hardly any time to get back, the Endless Summer buses do stop at Surfside first but they are pretty quick. Starving, we went straight for breakfast with Dh nipping upstairs to grab the resort mug.

Breakfast flatbreads for Ds and Dh. They liked them.

I had sides of bacon and sausage. Perfect for me!

Annual pass discount again. Good value.

It was a lovely day and the pool looked lovely but it also looked there was plenty seats still available

Before we left home I’d bought 3 Itrolley passes which were £10 each and good for 14 days, I’d read mixed reports about their frequency since covid but I thought it was worth having them, I think it’s $2 a journey so didn’t really think we’d lose anything. We debated if we would prefer to catch the Itrolley or just use Uber to the outlets. We decided for quickness and ease to just go for Uber. It was $9.

When we’d booked our Seaworld tickets we got a voucher to exchange for a coupon booklet thing, we did this at the desk in the food court but I’m pretty convinced it’s just exactly the same as the deals you get if you sign up to the vip bit on the Simon app.

Here’s where we went and what I thought.

Bath & body works, they had people waiting at the door and were getting you to sign up so you could get 20% off over $25 spends if you hadn’t already been sent an email. I’d had some stuff sent to Debbie when they had some good deals on so I didn’t go overboard. I bought some things to use here, a foaming soap, a shower gel, a hand cream, some room spray and a little perfume.

At the same time the other 2 went to Under armour which was doing 40% off then additional 20% off again. Dh bought a tshirt for less than $20. It was orange and black so his perfect colours for the football.

Adidas were doing $20 off $100 spends again. We’d used this offer at both outlets in Feb as they were so good for all of us. I didn’t think too much of the Ladies stuff, although I did get a long sleeved top which was 50% off. In fact everything we bought was 50% off. Ds and Dh got shorts with zip pockets and that were the climacool stuff. Ds treated himself to a new backpack and a baseball cap. We spent just over $100 before the extra $20 discount.

Fossil had 80% off but I managed to resist any bags, Ds bought some sunglasses as he’d forgotten to pack his fossil ones and only had a wee Primark pair which he’d bought for style not fir use and we got the cutest wee dog keyring for my mil as I thought it looked a bit like our dog. Right enough she loved it. Not quite sure who would pay $35 for that though.

Kate spade had 70% off and then an extra 20% off. They had some really nice things but nothing that completely wowed me. My willpower was working overtime today.

Disney shop was ok. I got pumpkin ears for the Halloween party and a really cute sweatshirt dress that had been $70 for $20. Ds bought a plain sporty top for $5 and we got some Halloween tea towels for Mil, thinking ahead to the next trip.

Kipling had 60% off some of their bags and we picked out a really nice one to take home for mil. Again she really loved it.

Nike was heaving but I thought everything was pretty expensive with no additional deals and for once none of us were looking for trainers. The mens stuff was cheaper than the woman’s. I was looking at long sleeved running tops and the male ones were discounted, ladies were not. I couldn’t believe the length of the lines to pay though, mad!

Ds was looking for a shirt for a wedding we were going to but didn’t see anything and I wanted to look in Ralph Lauren at dresses as I’d tried a nice one on in John Lewis, they didn’t have any that were as nice and wow I wasn’t paying those prices for anything they did have!

We finished up in North Face, I really wanted a new big coat, the one I have, that I loved so much would now fit at least 2 of me inside it. They had exactly what I was looking for but noting small sizes. Why is it always the same, used to be a struggle to find anything in xl but had loads of small but now I’ve reversed it’s the other way around 😂

After the shopping we walked over to Longhorns. It’s not far and there is a Bahama Breeze there as well, it’s great to have sit down food options at these outlets too.

I had a voucher for a free appetiser. They ordered the Wild West Shrimp. It was huge. Ds and Dh loved it. I tasted one and they were very nice.

Ds and Dh also had some of the bread.

Ds proclaimed he was starving and ordered the Baby Back ribs, the full rack again, at least it came with Caesar salad and broccoli. Are the lot and loved it.

Dh tried to restrain himself from over ordering so went for the Parmesan chicken just the smaller one and then paired it with a sweet potato with cinnamon sugar 🤮. He really enjoyed his meal.

I have to admit I was starving so went for the steak and shrimp combo and upgraded my side to asparagus. My meal was really good. I hadn’t realised it came with rice so I just took that off the plate so I wouldn’t be tempted, my plate did look prettier with it on.

Service was good and I didn’t think it was too pricey considering what we had as there was loads of good quality food.

We requested Uber and it was the same price, $9 and it took less than 5 minutes to arrive.

Back at the hotel we were all pretty knackered, I may have had a wee power nap. We continued my quest to get the fire stick to work so we could finish stranger things but no joy, I tried downloading the fire stick remote app on to my phone but still no joy. Ds was threatening to watch it on his phone but I wouldn’t give him the password.

Ds was a bit sulky after that but he was eventually persuaded to go down to the pool for bit before we went for something to eat. The pool was great, it was still pretty warm but no need for sun cream as it was starting to get dark.

They had loads of wee beach balls floating around to play with and I assume because the towel thing had been in the sun all day all the towels felt like they were heated when you came out the water.

I’d say we had settled in well and were in full holiday mode now.

Ds and Dh were stuffed after Longhorns do shared a single pepperoni pizza, they said it was really nice.

I didn’t know what to have, I was between a chicken Caesar salad. Grilled salmon and green beans and the burger with lettuce again. Sorry I reordered the burger as I’d really enjoyed it.

Dh had a beer and I had a hard seltzer, it was really nice and tasted exactly like strawberry lemonade but with only 2g of carbs.

Again not to bad in price with annual pass discount.

I tried the hotel shop for batteries thinking that there might be an issue with the fire stick remote but they didn’t have any the right size for the fire stick remote so no Stranger Things for another day.

[Bellasmummy]

I’m not sure I can wait for another day to find out if the fire stick worked 😂

Love taking ours, watched all of the first half of Stranger Things in May in Naples with ours.

[mick]

A good day a nice shopping trip and some good food

Joan

[jothp]

A great first day. You did well to get the two newest rides in the park ticked off first thing. It looks like you got some real bargains at the outlets and enjoyed some good food too.
I hope you manage to get the firestick working soon.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Bellasmummy

I’m not sure I can wait for another day to find out if the fire stick worked 😂

Love taking ours, watched all of the first half of Stranger Things in May in Naples with ours.

See more...

😂😂all that way and Stranger Things and the fire stick causing the teen trauma so far 😂

Originally Posted by mick

A good day a nice shopping trip and some good food

Joan

See more...

Thanks Joan. Love a wee shopping day.

Originally Posted by jothp

A great first day. You did well to get the two newest rides in the park ticked off first thing. It looks like you got some real bargains at the outlets and enjoyed some good food too.
I hope you manage to get the firestick working soon.

See more...

The first day worked out well. Almost forgot it was the 4th July. Early entry was great and I was pretty happy with our shopping.

[twogoto]

We have this same fire stick drama every trip. Curious to see if you got it to work as we've never managed lol. Bringing a HDMI adaptor to connect the TV to the iPad or our phone next trip so we don't have to endure any more Dan Newlin American TV adverts lol

Sounds like a great first day! You look absolutely amazing too – very inspiring and encouraging me to really give low carb a proper go!

[ginwithaslice]

Great trip report, I'm enjoying following along! Hoping to stay at Endless Summer next July, all great info here!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by ginwithaslice

Great trip report, I'm enjoying following along! Hoping to stay at Endless Summer next July, all great info here!

See more...

Thanks for reading. I’d totally recommend it. It was great for that bit of extra teenage space as well without the crazy price or sofa bed.

Might see you there as I think Dockside and one other universal resort will be our plan next July. Prices are a bit eye watering compared to this year though.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by twogoto

We have this same fire stick drama every trip. Curious to see if you got it to work as we've never managed lol. Bringing a HDMI adaptor to connect the TV to the iPad or our phone next trip so we don't have to endure any more Dan Newlin American TV adverts lol

Sounds like a great first day! You look absolutely amazing too – very inspiring and encouraging me to really give low carb a proper go!

See more...

It did work eventually. Aventura is definitely the easiest resort for streaming as everything is controlled by the iPad.

Thank you. Low carb has been amazing for me, I can’t believe the difference in weight, blood sugars and general health. If you want any tips just ask. The diabetic nurse got me to write a beginners guide ( I’m not an expert just sharing my experience, tips and recipes) for some of her patients who want to try it so happy to forward that.

What’s your thoughts on the HHN lineup?

[ginwithaslice]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Thanks for reading. I’d totally recommend it. It was great for that bit of extra teenage space as well without the crazy price or sofa bed.

Might see you there as I think Dockside and one other universal resort will be our plan next July. Prices are a bit eye watering compared to this year though.

See more...

Thank you! I'm thinking one week Dockside and one week IDrive to keep costs down. Definitely very high prices around!