The Land Sea and Wedding Trip Oct 2015 - Day 14 Islands of Adventure, Universal & BJs Brewhouse

[Lisa29]

The Land Sea and Wedding Trip Oct 2015 - Day 14, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Outlets and BJ's Brewhouse

The previous day is HERE.

**I'm not sure if I already shared these pics but found them when writing up this day - some of the sweets purchased the day before and my 2015 bargains from the Character Warehouse**

Saturday 24th October 2015

I woke at 7.15am but managed to go back to sleep and woke again at 8.10am. We had decided the previous evening that we were going to have a later start and would leave at 9.15am and we ended up having a mad rush to get ready! We left just after 9.25am and were driving into the Universal Orlando valet parking area at 9.50am. We unloaded everything out of the car, handed over the keys and used the escalator to get up to the next level

There is a bag check at the top which we quickly went through, then went on the last travellator, before getting to City Walk.

We stopped to snap this picture

Then continued round to the left to go to Islands of Adventure

A happy Madison

We were through the turnstiles quite quickly and making our way past the shops

On our way through, we saw Dan, Dave and his family outside the Croissant Moon Bakery so stopped to get some food. We got Madison and Kaley a croissant each ($2.59 plus tax each) and sat outside to eat it. I also nipped to Starbucks to get a tall Americano for Phil ($2.99, I used my Starbucks gift card).

While we were sat here, we couldn't believe what Hulk looked like

There was one large section of the track completely missing. It was so strange to see it look like that and it was extremely weird to not hear the roar when the ride starts and goes around these loops. This is the favourite ride of Phil, Dan and Ryan and they had all been gutted to find out that this ride would be down.

Anyway, finished with coffee and croissants, we went around to the left as usual, into Marvel Super Hero Island

Though straight past the Hulk today and round to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman

Ryan and Bethany offered to watch Madison and Kaley so that Phil and I could go on. The wait time said 10 minutes but we walked all the way through and straight on to the ride. This was fun as usual, we both enjoy this ride.

We met back up with Ryan, Bethany and the kids and continued walking around

And into Toon Lagoon

It had gone a bit dull so Phil and Ryan changed their minds and decided not to ride Rip Saw Falls

We saw a sneak peek of the new Kong attraction being built as we walked over the bridge

A quick photo

Before we walked through to Jurassic Park

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[Lisa29]

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We didn't stop for anything in here, we just carried on walking through until we could see the Hogwarts castle

This whole area never fails to impress me, even after seeing it so many times now. The detail is amazing. I love it that as soon as the areas change, from Jurassic Park to the Wizarding World, the music changes too. Oh, to be back there now!

Phil took loads of photos but I will just share a few

We had a slow wander around while Phil was taking photos and then saw Dan, Dave and his family. Dave's Mum had just bought one of the interactive wands so the girls help her do that for a while.

It was a lot of fun and they all really enjoyed it.

When they had finished, we went over to Honeydukes

I bought some Peppermint Toads ($8.47 inc tax) and drooled over everything else they had! While we were in here, Phil and Ryan had gone over to have a go on Dragon Challenge as there wasn't much of a queue. We didn’t have to wait long and they were back.

We walked passed this for now

And found some tables and chairs with umbrellas to sit at to have some lunch

This was the Earl's Club

And my amazingly delicious Holiday Turkey

The girls were very happy

We sat for a while eating our Earl of Sandwich lunch and enjoying the shade. Though it had been cloudy earlier, the sun was now out and it was really hot. This is actually the longest time we have ever spent in this area of the park! I really don't get it and think it should be changed for something else

We carried on walking round

And were soon in SeussLand

We went on the High in the Sky Trolley Train ride. The line said 15 minutes but was much closer to 30 minutes by the time we got on. We did all really enjoy this, I like the views over the park that you get. Once we got off, the wait time did now say 30 minutes. I don't know if we would have waited this long if we had known in the first place.

We had to take these photos again

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[Lisa29]

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I went to see if Hop on Pop was open but it wasn't so we nipped in the book shop

If we didn't have the weight restrictions for flying home, I think I would go mad in here!

We walked over to the Carou-Seuss-el next, which was a 5 minute wait

This was fun, the girls really liked it as 4 and 7 year olds do!

We have never been on Cat in the Hat so decided to go on that next

This said a 5 minute wait but was a walk on really. Another fun ride, definitely one for kids but that is why we go on these rides.

There is a little stand just across from this ride that sells Dippin Dots. Phil loves these so had to get some

He had the banana split flavour, I don't have the receipt so I'm not sure how much they were. He and the girls shared these and liked them.

We walked back through SeussLand and Hop on Pop was now open, yay! I think I have had the same thing from here on my last 4 trips!

I had the Brownie Sundae in a waffle bowl, which was $5.69 plus tax

This was as delicious as it always is. I never eat it all, it just seems to be something of a tradition now and I have to have it, regardless of how hungry I am. The girls had some too so not much was wasted.

We were finished with Islands of Adventure now so we went back to Hogsmeade to go on our first ride on the Hogwarts Express.

Walking through the line for this seemed to take ages, though at least we walked through it. I can't imagine how awful it must be to actually queue through it! It was all very cleverly done as expected

I seem to remember that when we got to the part where you go upstairs, there was a bit of a wait here and when you actually got onto the platform, the way we were told to go, we ended up ahead of people in front of us, which seemed odd, not that we were complaining! Anyway, I admit I was very excited on the platform!

We didn't wait long before the Hogwarts Express was pulling in. No photos as Phil videoed this instead. The girls love trains so they were very excited too. We were shown where to put the pushchair then shown into a carriage

This journey was so clever and fun and excellently done. I didn't know whether to look out of the 'window' or into the corridor. We all loved this and wished it was a bit longer.

Today wasn't our Diagon Alley day so we didn't go in, we just got some photos of the outside area

We walked round to the Simpsons area. It was very busy so we were just wandering and having a look around. We met up with everyone else and chatted for a bit.

We then decided to make our way towards the exit and Ryan, Bethany and Piper came with us. We had to stop for photos of the DeLorean and the train from Back to the Future III

We called into the big Universal Store, to get some air con, before leaving through the main Universal entrance.

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[Lisa29]

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I think this had not long opened

As we were walking back, Phil took a few more pictures

We walked through City Walk and were quickly back down at the valet area. We went and paid ($35) and they very quickly came back with the car. We tipped the guy $6 and quickly loaded everything and everyone into the car. We were driving away at 3.35pm, heading to the Outlets on I-Drive.

It didn't take long to get there and it was very busy when we arrived. We drove around a bit looking for somewhere to park but couldn't find any available spaces. We decided to valet park again and Ryan and Bethany paid the $13 for this. We only had an hour before we needed to be leaving to get to dinner so we went one way and Ryan, Bethany and Piper went another, arranging to meet back at 4.50pm.

We got a map and quickly decided where we wanted to go. Our first stop was P.S Aeropostale. We got Madison some jogging bottoms and vest tops, all at least 50% off, spending $42.62 including tax.

Next, we had a look in Carters and Osh Kosh but we weren't impressed. They had lovely baby and toddler stuff but the clothes for our aged children wasn't as nice. I was so glad I had done the order online at Osh Kosh before we had come over as the stuff I got was so much better than anything we saw in the shops.

We saw the Lindt shop and had to go in. I really wanted to get 100 of the Lindor balls (it was a really good offer!) but settled on 50 for $21.50 plus tax ($22.79). There were so many different flavours to choose from, I wish we got them over here.

Bath and Body Works was our final shop. I managed to get myself another 10 pocket bacs for $12.78 including tax.

It was now almost 4.50pm so we went back to the valet area. We handed over the ticket and the car was just being driven back around to us when Ryan, Bethany and Piper came back. We quickly got everything into the car, tipped the guy $3 and drove the short drive to near the Mall at Millennia. We were there just after 5pm so decided to nip into Best Buy as we were early. The Disney Infinity figures were on offer for $9.99 each so Phil bought four ($42.56 including tax).

Finished in here, we drove over to the BJ's Brewhouse car park and met everyone else at 5.30pm. Dan and Dave had booked a table before we came away, and we had a big long table, in a separate area off to the far right side, which for most of the time had no one else in which was really good.

The menu here is really big and varied and it took us quite a while to decide what we all wanted. To start, Phil had the chicken wings with EXXXXtra hot buffalo sauce ($10.25)

He really liked these, he loves chicken wings with hot sauce and always orders these when he can.

I had the broccoli cheese soup

I have had this before and really like it. I sent it up the table (after I had eaten quite a bit) so that Mum could taste it and it never came back as Saxon and Piper both really liked it.

Madison had mini burgers and fries

She ate these really quickly as she loved them!

Kaley had chicken tenders and fries

She liked these and managed to eat quite a bit. Their food had come out at a similar time to our starters so they weren't waiting long.

For Phil's main, he had Balsamic Glazed Chicken - served over baby field greens, caramelized onions and white cheddar mashed potato. Topped with crispy onion strings and a drizzle of sweet balsamic glaze ($14.50)

He really enjoyed this, the food was all so tasty. He isn’t keen on the crispy onions so I got to have those and they were delicious.

I had the Parmesan Crusted Chicken - topped with lemon chardonnay butter sauce, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil and parmesan cheese. Served with white cheddar mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli ($14.50)

This was SO good! Everything was delicious and was a really big portion. I had far too much food so ended up eating half and boxing up the rest to take home.

For dessert, the kids shared two kids choc chunk pizookie's between them. Phil didn't want any dessert and as I had boxed up half of my dinner, I had just enough room to share a pizookie trio with Dan ($9.95)

Sorry, I only have the menu picture of this.

We had the chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia nut and salted caramel flavours. For those that don't know, pizookie's are baked cookies that are served warm and gooey still on the inside, with a scoop of ice cream on the top. These are so good and it was nice to be able to try the different flavours. (I make that sound like this was the first time, we always have more than one flavour to try! )

I don't have the receipt for this as we didn't pay. Dan and Dave had wanted to pay for us all as a thank you for coming to their wedding. When the bill came, it only had the desserts on. They had no idea what had happened until we realised that when my Dad had taken Saxon for a walk around the restaurant earlier, he had been and paid the bill! They sorted in between them and we thanked all of them for our dinner.

A couple of pictures from during dinner

It was getting late by now so we went straight back to Kidani, where Madison and Kaley went to bed. We needed some fruit so I went for a walk down to Johari Treasures. I bought 2 packs of 3 clementine's ($4.19 each) and a pack of grapes ($2.29), total of $11.37 including tax. I really should have thought of this yesterday and used some of the snack credits instead!

I went back up to our room and Phil went to have a look around and take some more pictures

Hidden Mickeys!

While he was gone, I sorted through our remaining spending money and watched a bit of TV. We all sat around talking and went to bed around 11.30pm, after taking pictures of sleeping little ones.

The next day, day 15 - Universal Studios, Cheesecake Factory, Mall at Millennia and Disney Springs is HERE

[Floridaagogo]

Lovely pics of the girls in universal.looks like a fab day

[Milner]

Fantastic read and photos.

[WileyCoyote]

Great day, all my faves, Universal and shopping !
Looks just lovely and rounded off with a lovely family meal.
I keep scrolling back to the pic of the chocolates ... Nom nom .

Well, I am all caught up now and waiting for the next instalment ... No pressure!

[Buffton]

No idea why I'm so late catching up with this, I must have missed it!
Lovely busy day. Resort is lovely.
I love the peppermint Harry Potter toads!
Lizzie xx

[Redrach1903]

Another lovely day Lisa!

I see The Hulk has finally reopened! Took ages!

Lovely photos around Hogsmeade It is so fab! I wish it was quieter though!

Your meal looked great, never been there!

xx

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Great day, all my faves, Universal and shopping !
Looks just lovely and rounded off with a lovely family meal.
I keep scrolling back to the pic of the chocolates ... Nom nom .

Well, I am all caught up now and waiting for the next instalment ... No pressure!

See more...

Thanks, shopping is one of my faves too!

Our dinner was really good, we all enjoyed being together.

The chocolates were sooo good! We went to Wembley the other week and they have a shopping place right next to it and they had a Lindt shop! I did't realise there were any in the UK! Unfortunately, it was a boiling hot day so I couldn't get any.

I am working on it, hoping to get the next day up this weekend.

Originally Posted by Buffton

No idea why I'm so late catching up with this, I must have missed it!
Lovely busy day. Resort is lovely.
I love the peppermint Harry Potter toads!
Lizzie xx

See more...

That's ok, I am very behind on lots of mine.

Thanks so much.

Thanks for reading xx

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Another lovely day Lisa!

I see The Hulk has finally reopened! Took ages!

Lovely photos around Hogsmeade It is so fab! I wish it was quieter though!

Your meal looked great, never been there!

xx

See more...

Thanks!

I know, I really thought they would re-theme it, I'm not sure why Universal still want to be linked with Marvel now it is so linked with Disney.

Yeah, it would be good if it was quieter. You could just stop then and take it all in.

We love BJs Brewhouse, the food is so good and is very reasonably priced.

xx