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24 Jan 22, 08:01 PM |
#1
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Trying for More Ears
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Cookies and Scream- November 2021- Day 8 Universal Studios, Blizzard Beach and Disney Springs
Day 8: Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Blizzard Beach and Disney Springs
My Pre Trip report is here Day 7 is here This morning we woke up at 7.30 and had our breakfast at the hotel again. Waffles were on offer today but unfortunately they were a little cold. Today’s plan was to finish off Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure but we had actually managed to get on most things we wanted while we were staying there. So we decided we might try and get to Blizzard Beach as well as we had missed it the other day and the weather looked OK. We left the hotel at 8.25am and made it to the parking lot at 8.45 (the location of Hawthorne Suites hotel is great!). We parked up and make it in to Universal Studios at 9.10am (after a few photos with the globe). We went straight to one of our favourite rides- Mummy. There was no queue so we walked straight on. There was a guest with limited mobility getting on at the same time as us, he struggled slightly and the staff mentioned that the back 2 rows have more space and leg room than the front. Might be worth bearing in mind. I love this ride; so much that we went straight back on (still no queue). After this we headed over to the Fast and Furious ride as it had been closed the previous week. I know this ride has a terrible reputation but I’ve never been on it before. I had quite high hopes as we went through the pre-show; there are real actors who were very funny making lots of jokes about us going to a party at half 9 in the morning. They felt a bit wasted on the 10 people that were going on the ride. The ride itself was pretty terrible, a bus to nowhere but it did make me jump a few times. We remembered that we hadn’t had our photo with Jaws on our previous visit so headed over. They were now playing Christmas music all through the park which was very jolly. Jaws the shark has had a bit of a spruce up. He’s looking very smart and there is a rope up inside his mouth which you can old yourself off the ground with for some very funny photos. We went over to Men in Black which we walked straight on to and we had a car to ourselves (it was honestly so quiet at the park this day!). We thought we stood no chance of beating the other team with just the 2 of us but we both did very well (somehow we both got the red button)! Our average score was 280 000 and I won! We had a slow wander through the Simpsons area, taking some photos and headed over to Rip Ride Rockit. I actually managed to get the secret song menu up (unofficialuniversal/holl...den-song-list/) but then I accidentally clicked “back”- I was so annoyed! So in the end I just had a random dance song. This time the ride felt a lot more rattley than when we went on it the week before so I think it is very dependent on the car you are in. We needed a bit of a drink and sit down so we went over to Starbucks. J got a nitro cold brew coffee and I got a little reindeer cake pop (total $8). We had to wait a little while for the coffee as they were changing the gas apparently. The cake pop was tasty though! We hadn’t managed to catch the Blues Brothers show last time we were here because of the rain and I was very keen to see this! We waited for it to start at 10.55. As it was now Christmas (early November) it was the Christmas version of the show which was a bit annoying but very entertaining. There was a man with a big white beard in the audience (aka Santa) who they kept joking with, it was very funny. After this we decided we were done at Universal Studios and we got the Hogwarts Express over to Islands of Adventure. The posted wait was 15mins and we waited about this. When we got to the other park the queue for Hagrids was 35 mins and I couldn’t resist another go! We waited about 40 and this time I was on the bike. Such a fun ride, I could go on it all day long! I really thought we would be lucky to get to go on it once this holiday so to get to ride 4 times was amazing. As we came off Hagrids, we noticed that the queue for Velocicoaster was only 20 mins. So we thought it would be rude not to, we waited 20mins. I was feeling a bit under the weather on our last visit but this time I was fighting fit and I enjoyed this ride a whole lot more. It is fast and scary though! We walked through the Discovery Centre to The Jurassic Park ride. The posted wait was 5mins and we waited about 2. We were in the middle of the boat again so didn’t get wet. Also, lots of the dinos that I had noticed weren’t working last time were up and running so that was nice. On the way out we bought this cute poster from the shop for $17; I really like the style of these. We were running out of time at this point if we wanted to go to Blizzard Beach so we decided to skip the water rides (the main thing we hadn’t been on our last visit!). The weather was nice but a bit chilly; a slight shame but there’s always next time! We had one last ride on Hulk (there was no queue) and luckily I managed to fit my Jurassic Park picture in the locker (just!). On the way out of IOA I bought two of these Jaws glasses (one as a gift) for $10 each. They have them for lots of the old rides and I thought they were quite cute. For lunch we went to Breadbox (upstairs on city walk). I got the beef brisket and J got pulled pork I think. These came to $25 incl tax. I’m very sorry I didn’t get any pics as we were in a bit of a hurry at this point and we had to wait a little while to get them. But they were so delicious! I would really recommend. We legged it to the car and we got to Blizzard beach at about 2.30pm. It closed at 5pm so we had a couple of hours at least. There seemed to be plenty of cars in the parking lot but really not many people at all in the water park. We got changed and put our sun cream on and headed to the slides! We went on all the slides at least once. My favourite was the Downhill Double Dipper which was very fun and fast. It was nice how there were conveyor belts to save you carrying the tube up the stairs. We didn’t have to wait for any of the slides except for the Team Boat Springs where we had to wait to be paired with a group of 3 (you can’t go down as a 2). We were paired with a family from Washington who were lovely. They were telling us how their home had been flooded while they were on holiday; it sounded terrible. One thing we noticed here was that the water (in the pools and lazy river) was much colder than at Volcano Bay, it meant that we got quite chilly. The lazy river seemed a bit sad, lots of the fountains etc weren’t working and there were lots of leaves in the water. But they had these funny half rubber rings which I think would be much easier to get in if you struggle with this! The water park was very quiet, this was basically the only time on our whole trip that we heard other British accents! Unfortunately there were no photopass photographers around which I have always enjoyed at the waterparks in the past. At about 4.30pm we were rather chilly so got showered and changed and headed off. We decided to go to Disney Springs for our tea. We parked up in the Orange garage but unfortunately a bit far from the entrance! We had found the crowds eventually! We had a couple of visits to Springs during our holiday and found it to be very busy both times. In general, anywhere Disney was so so much busier than any of the crowds we encountered anywhere else. I guess all their advertising for the 50th was working! We looked around Anthropologie which was nice and then decided on D-Lux burger for our tea. I find Disney Springs very disorientating and we got quite lost but found it eventually. On the way we stopped in the shop called Basin which sells lots of soap (Disney themed and otherwise), I got a block of this Mickey Christmas soap for $8. At D-Lux burger J got the BBQ burger and I got the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, we shared a large chips and got 2 drinks. In total $43. This is a quick service restaurant but was so delicious. We enjoyed trying all the dips too (you can just help yourself). We sat outside on the deck by the water which was a lovely way to spend the evening. After tea we looked around some of the shops. World of Disney was very busy and unfortunately they didn’t have much 50th merch left. I was very much on the lookout for the Mickey foaming soap dispensers. J and I bought a T-shirt each for $25 (front and back of mine in pic), I really like the vintagey look ones. I also bought some ears for my sister that she had requested ($30). We looked in the Christmas shop, it was extremely bare! They seemed to have a lot of decorations from the Cruise Line; I have a suspicion this was to fill up space! I really loved looking around the Art of Disney Shop. They had some lovely pictures. And also a huge tapestry and a signed letter from Walt (about a very boring topic) for $14 000! At about 7.15pm we headed back to the car, it had been another full on day! It was very busy now it was the evening and most of the restaurants had very long queues. We were back in the hotel by about 7.45pm and we had a nice rest in front of the TV and packed up our bags ready to check out of Hawthorne Suites the next day. This had been another great day. We felt quite rushed at Universal but maybe we shouldn’t have tried to get so much done! We really enjoyed our time at Blizzard Beach too and to be honest 2 hours was plenty for us as it’s not the warmest weather in November! Thanks for reading! I’ll try and get the next day done soon, we check out of Hawthorne Suites into the Dolphin. We enjoyed a great day at Animal Kingdom (my favourite Disney Park) and then went to Deluxe hotel extra magic hours at Magic Kingdom in the evening (spoiler, it was one of the best days of my life). |
24 Jan 22, 08:38 PM |
#2
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VIP Dibber
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A lovely day with lots done
Joan
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25 Jan 22, 08:53 AM |
#3
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Thread Starter
Trying for More Ears
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25 Jan 22, 05:29 PM |
#4
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VIP Dibber
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Great day you fitted a lot in, I love the t shirt you got!
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25 Jan 22, 07:57 PM |
#5
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VIP Dibber
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A great day. 😁 love the basin soap and your chicken sandwich looks amazing!
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27 Jan 22, 02:05 PM |
#6
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VIP Dibber
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Arggghh done it again, the D Lux Burger looks great! Chile Bean Soup for me today.
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If I added it all up I probably could have bought a 4 Bed Detached House |
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29 Jan 22, 08:32 PM |
#7
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VIP Dibber
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Totally agree the mummy is a brilliant ride, such a fun morning at universal, where were all the people? That's a great poster, I really love it, and the glasses too. Phew. The water sounds a bit chilly, still you managed a decent swim and then off to Springs for dinner at D-Lux. The burgers look yummy!
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Abby New pre trip report - Summer 2024 Link to all my completed trip reports 2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston. 2018: Orlando. Berlin. 2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC. 2020: DLP. 2021: Jamaica. Rome. 2022: Orlando. 2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto. |
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1 Feb 22, 05:31 PM |
#8
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Thread Starter
Trying for More Ears
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