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Old 17 Feb 19, 01:53 PM  
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Stewboy
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A Magical New Year: Day 3 - Harry Potter and the New Year’s Eve

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Monday 31st December 2018

The last day of 2018 began early, 6am to be precise. We had coffee and woke Isabella at 6:30am. This morning’s plan was to visit Islands of Adventure for some Harry Potter related fun, and then maybe spend some time at Volcano Bay in the afternoon.

Breakfast this morning was fruit, Greek yoghurt, and granola, and then we headed out of the room at about 7:40am, grabbing some coffee from the Bayliner Diner on the way. Even though early entry to the parks was still 7am (it changed to 8am tomorrow), we decided as long as we go there for about 8am we’d hopefully miss most of the crowds, like we’d managed on previous days.

At the bus stop we were in luck again as there were literally a line of buses waiting for us. As we boarded we were handed a note explaining how they were expecting big crowds today. It wasn’t long until we were strolling through CityWalk. It was just before 8am so we were happy that we had made good time.


Bus and coffee


It's New Years Eve


CityWalkin'

Once inside Islands of Adventure our first stop was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the Forbidden Journey ride. There was no line and the only delay was the ten minutes it took to walk through Hogwarts to get onto the ride. It’s such a well-themed attraction queue, as it takes you through Hogwarts Castle.






Islands of Adventure

It was a walk on and we were excited - especially Isabella who has never ridden this before. Last time I rode this I wasn’t overly enamoured with it, and unfortunately felt the same this time; it feels a little disjointed, which is a massive shame as so much of the Wizarding World has been brilliantly thought through and created. However, Isabella and Jo enjoyed it and it was nice to be able to ride it with no wait.






Wizarding World of Harry Potter














Hogwarts
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Old 17 Feb 19, 01:53 PM  
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Stewboy
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Today’s ride of the day was done - hopefully tomorrow we’d be able to ride Escape from Gringotts over at Diagon Alley - and now we could go and explore Hogsmeade in more detail.

Isabella obviously had her wand with her and spent about half an hour doing some of the spells around Hogsmeade. It was getting busy and we felt it was time to explore the rest of the park as there were other things that we wanted to do, starting with Jurassic Park River Adventure.










Hogsmeade


Hogwarts selfie

Fortunately this was also a walk on. We got into our boat and headed through the Jurassic Park gates and into the main part of the ride. I was taking some photos on the ride, and wanted to get a photo of the Tyrannosaurus Rex as we went down the drop, I’m ashamed to say I got told off over the intercom for that!

It has been such a long time since Jo and I and experienced some of these rides, it almost felt like we were doing them for the first time, the same as Isabella - although she didn’t see the Tyrannosaurus Rex as she had her eyes shut!
















Jurassic Park


I told her I was going to swap her...

Looking at the app to see what else was worth riding, we noticed that the Pteranodon Flyers was only a five minute wait. Adults can only ride this if they’re accompanying children and last time we were here it had been Jo who’d gone on with her. This time around it was my turn, but instead of being a five minute wait it turned out to be 20 minutes, so we decided to leave it to another time and go and find something else to ride.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong was a short wait so we headed there. None of us knew what to expect on this ride, we’d literally not read anything about it. I’d watched the film fairly recently and enjoyed it, so we joined the line. The queue was fun, and ‘interactive’, I won’t spoil any surprises for anyone! It’s an enjoyable ride, with quite a few ‘thrills’.


A new dating app from Google?!

We carried on round, and walking through Toon Lagoon we stopped by the water blaster that we’d met Brett and Jo Harding (Happyhaunt1000 and Tarnabanana83) at during our last visit to Islands of Adventure back in 2015. We tried to use it but the machine for tokens wasn’t working, so we had to settle for sending them a photo of us posing next to it.


Isabella & Me - 2018; Brett & Jo - 2015

It was time for a snack, so we sat down outside the Comic Strip Cafe and Isabella had some popcorn, while Jo and I had some rather cardboard tasting almond bites! It had turned into quite a hot day so it was nice to sit and relax in some shade for a while.


Snack time

After about ten minutes we moved onto the next island, Seuss Landings. By now the rest of the park had got busy. We managed to get on Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and were going to finish up with a ride on the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. As we joined the line the ride went down, and we ended up having to wait for 25 minutes before we could get on - a wait that was most definitely not worth it! Jo’s convinced this ride used to be faster, but I can’t remember. All I know is that it was pretty tame and by the time it had finished we were more than ready to head out of the park and go and get some proper breakfast; it was 10:45am after all and our light breakfast at 7am this morning wasn’t going to sustain us any longer (cardboard almond snacks don’t count either!).






Seuss Landing


“Tell that Cat in the Hat you do NOT want to play”


“He should not be here. He should not be about. He should not be here. When your mother is out!”


“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW!”


Jo: Teacher of all things!


"Off again! On again!"


"In again! Out again!"




One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Heading out of the park and through CityWalk we were met by a huge mass of people entering, I think we were leaving at just the right time. We got to our bus stop and as usual there was a bus waiting, unusually however it was a Mears coach, but it was going to Cabana Bay so we didn’t care what it was.


Busy!
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Old 17 Feb 19, 01:54 PM  
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They had arranged for loads of extra buses today - obviously anticipating massive crowds as per this morning’s note. After the short bus ride back, we went into the Bayliner Diner to get a cold drink, and then picked up the car from the parking garage and made the short drive to First Watch on Sandlake Road. It was busy inside and there was about a 20 minute wait, but we were ok with that so we took a seat and waited. Eventually we were called, seated and ordered the following:

Me - Breakfast Tacos
Jo - Bacado Omelet
Isabella - Kids Half Waffle

The food in here is really nice, and can eat really healthily if you want to. It’s also not too much food portion wise, but enough for us.




Welcome to First Watch


Ready to eat





Breakfast Tacos


Bacado Omelet


Kids Half Waffle

First Watch is on the Plaza Venezia on West Sand Lake Road, and there’s a Publix just a few shops along, so before heading back to the resort we popped in there for some milk… and obviously ended up buying much more!

Once we’d finished we drove back and arrived at about 1:40pm. We got more drinks from the diner and chilled out in the room for a bit, eating doughnuts - Isabella finished her 8 Mile, and Jo and I shared the Voodoo Doll - it was nice.




Classic cars outside Cabana Bay


Voodoo!


View from the room


Isabella's selfies

This afternoon we had planned on a trip to Volcano Bay Water Park which was literally a five minute walk from our room. We got changed, grabbed some towels (you have to take your own) and made our way to the park. There is an entrance to the water park from Cabana Bay, which is so convenient. Once inside, we picked up our tapu tapus and went for a walk around the park.


Squirrel






On our way to Volcano Bay

You use the tapu tapu every time you go onto ride, and it allows you to do the virtual queuing, and also buy drinks and food from the bars - assuming you’ve loaded your credit card onto it via the app.

After a bit of a wander we found the kids area, so we let Isabella go off and play on the various slides. She had a great time. Jo and I found some seats to relax in and I went off to buy drinks. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to buy two drinks from the bar without the other adult being present (!). I got Jo a Tiki Punch cocktail and took it to her, then went off to a closer bar to get myself a Big Wave Golden Ale - it wasn’t really a bar it was just a quick service location that did beer.




Tapu Tapu


Volcano Bay map

All of this took far longer than it should’ve done, but once I got back to Jo I sat down and joined her in relaxing with a drink. It was very chilled - a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

After letting Isabella play for about an hour and a half it was finally time to leave. We decided to leave the bigger slides for another time; being so close we would definitely find time to come back, even if only for a couple of hours.


The volcano


Having fun!


View from our seats


We can see our resort from inside the water park


Water park selfie

On the way out, we tried to find the walkway through the Volcano but got a bit lost and confused, and ended up just going back the way we came, and then back to our room where we had a drink and a snack. Isabella then had a bath and got ready and relaxed with a book for a while, then it was time for Jo and I to get showered and ready for this evening.


Drinks and snacks


Reading


Ready for the evening

The plan was to go for a drink in the Swizzle Lounge, and then grab some dinner from the Bayliner Diner. We weren’t planning on staying up late, as we wanted to be up early to take advantage of a (hopefully) quiet Universal Studios and get on some rides early.




Cabana Bay ready for NYE

We managed to find a table in the Swizzle Lounge and I went up to order drinks - a wine for Jo and a pint of Jai Alai IPA for me. The barman was a complete contrast to the sullen and moody barman in the Contemporary yesterday - he looked like a Bee Gee, and was what you expect a barman to be, friendly, personable, and I must admit, a little bit charming!


Swizzle lounge




Bee Gee barman!






Cheers


Snacks

While we relaxed with our drinks and free bar snacks, taking in the New Years Eve atmosphere, Isabella had one of her Christmas presents with her to keep her occupied: Secret Science by Dara Ó Briain. I tweeted him to thank him for keeping her occupied, and surprisingly he replied.




Isabella reading Secret Science by Dara Ó Briain

Jo had another wine, and after about an hour, we decided to go and get some dinner from the Bayliner Diner. We’d previously made a reservation at Mythos in Islands of Adventure for this evening, but had decided earlier to move this to another day, and just eat in the hotel so that we could have a relaxing evening and avoid the crowds.

After looking at the various counters and what was on offer, Jo and I opted for a Cabana Bay Burger and chips, and Isabella had the kids hot dog, all ‘Hot off the Grill’. The food was really good and what with that and having spent an hour or so chilling out in the Swizzle Lounge we felt like it had been a really good idea to stay at the hotel.


Cabana Bay Burgers

Once our dinner was finished, we went back up to the room and put Isabella to bed. Jo and I watched the final episode of the new Poirot that we’d started a few days ago - we enjoyed it - and then were asleep by about 10pm, we had no desire to stay up and see the New Year in, we wanted to be up early for the parks!

Tomorrow it’s 2019 and we start the year off in style at Universal Studios and also at Wilderness Lodge where we try out the new Storybook Dining and meet the Evil Queen!

Thanks for reading.
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Old 17 Feb 19, 02:29 PM  
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i love jack
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Great day...love the look of the breakfast tacos 🌮
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Old 17 Feb 19, 10:26 PM  
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What a lovely day. A perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve in my opinion!
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Old 17 Feb 19, 10:29 PM  
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So nice to be able to walk to volcano bay, weather looks lovely. Nice to see a mention for First Watch, we always enjoy the food there.
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Old 17 Feb 19, 11:09 PM  
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First Watch looks great! Can't get over how fabulous Cabana Bay is, I really think they should offer an Express pass upgrade, although if they did I suppose no-one would stay anywhere else!
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Old 17 Feb 19, 11:34 PM  
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The perfect way to spend New Years Eve
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Old 17 Feb 19, 11:36 PM  
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Another great day! So tempted to book Cabana Bay. It looks great.
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Old 18 Feb 19, 10:47 AM  
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A great day and a nice relaxing evening

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