Star Wars, Bar Bores and No Chores...25 August 2017 - Day 8 - Scooby Doo we found you!

[ladyofleisure]

So today was our main Universal studios day. We were up about 7am, had an excellent breakfast in the lounge, then made our way into the park. It was a very humid day today with rain threatening, but that didn’t stop us riding virtually everything.

We never tire of a walk round everything Harry Potter related - always impressive! Sometimes its those little details isn't it.

And sometimes its those big ones!

We all felt a bit sick after Jimmy Fallon, Antony didn’t ride the Simpsons as he finds that a bit sickly too, but apart from that we had a fabulous trip round the park.

The free style mugs are a massive saving when you go for next day refills / reactivation (which we did) we stopped at Bone Chillin-194 and purchased three extra day freestyle days refill at $23.97 tax 1.56 total $25.53 at about 10.03am, and the children set about the day’s task of drinking their own bodyweight in slush drinks….

We stopped at 12.15pm for a chicken thumbs platter with tater tots $9.99 tax 0.65 total $10.64 and also used 1 child’s quick service meal on another portion of both which was excellent value, this was in the Simpsons area.

We also found time to grab a big pink, which is the best use of a child’s ‘snack’ credit ever – the cost was $12.04. Overall, there isn’t much saving with the meal credits, but we did find it helped us to budget.

Delicious!

Other drinks of the day were that must do, a couple of frozen Butterbeers and I don’t have a note of the price, but you can use two of your drinks credits (included in the quick service meal plan) for those (which we did).

After lunch had settled, we had actually ridden virtually everything in Universal Studios and the children wanted to go back into Islands of Adventure (which they did) with arrangements made to make their way back to the hotel, Antony and I enjoyed a stroll back on our own to Hard Rock. I did feel slightly worried about that, but I think the children less so, and they enjoyed an hour of relative freedom. Antony and Joe like to call me “smother” and I would never let any of them out of my sight until the age of at least 40 if I could get away with it…

Antony also had a play around with his new camera lens - I'm unconvinced...

We had a lovely stroll back to HRH - am I the only person who hasn't seen Blue Man Group?

We had a little look round Toothsome on the way back too - i think we did a little bit more walking than we thought we did today. It felt like such a treat to be so close to the park though and a much more relaxed day.

We didn't purchase though, it was just so humid today.

I’m sad to report that Antony’s feet were still as sore as the previous day, so we decided on a quick shopping trip. As I said the weather was a bit ‘iffy’ we had thought of using the afternoon as pool time, but it was just one of those days where it seems the afternoon storms will hit at any moment.

So children having returned, we made our way to Walmart on Turkey Lake Road at about 4pm. This is a nice easy drive from Hard Rock. Antony purchased yet another pair of mens sandals at $14.97 and we bought a selection of caps and t shirts for all of us – price $106.77 tax $6.75 total $113.52.

On return to the hotel, we decided that we all felt a bit tired but as the weather had cleared slightly, we knew we really wanted to enjoy the pool. So we showered and changed, and enjoyed the evening’s delights in the club lounge. The bar is ‘made up’ just before opening and in the two hours it was open we all enjoyed a few drinks and snacks. Antony tipped the staff and they really appreciated it and were giving him very big drinks!

We then made our way back to our room, got changed again into our swimming gear and made our way down to the pool to watch the evening’s entertainment and live music (sadly the band were not on too long after we got there). I cannot for the life of me remember what the film was, (I blame the alcohol) but the sound system in the pool was absolutely awesome and we all spent a very pleasant couple of hours down there swimming etc.

No one was particularly hungry having consumed their own bodyweight in hors d’oeuvres, so after taking a vote we decided to stay put in the pool area and chicken tender meals and snacks were purchased from Emack and Bolio at the Hard Rock. The food was cooked fresh and was very plentiful and we ordered plenty for everyone, and spent £41.80 on food and $25.56 on some drinks and snacks and there was more than enough! Antony also had a couple of 16 oz Yuenglings which were $6.76 ($8.49 with tax).

We ate everything between 8-9pm, and had another half hour or so round the pool and Jacuzzi chatting where we met a very interesting family from Louisiana, who were in fact the proud owners of the Mystery Machine. The boys were similar ages to Joe so they had fun chatting about the differences between the UK and America (Cole, Tia and Antony had returned to the room for showers at this point).

What a vehicle - truly a dream machine!

I became slightly disconcerted when the boys were saying how surprised they were that we didn’t own guns or knives and they didn’t stock them in our supermarkets etc., the conversation then started to turn to politics, so we said our swift goodbyes and beat a hasty return to our room.

We then chilled out for an hour or so watching TV, before tiredness got the better of us. This was our favourite day of the holiday we had a brilliant time.

Day 9

[yellowrose78]

Great day, that mystery machine is so cool, but don't blame you for making a swift exit, not a great conversation to get in to