Team Bricki's Super Secret Magical Wedding and Honeymoon Adventure- Day 13 Thurs 16th May- IOA

[princessnicki]

Today we were heading off to Islands of Adventure and a Marvel Character Dining experience for Brett at Cafe 4. I had booked this for him for his birthday in 2018 so he had been waiting a while. I headed off to the Mara while Brett was at the gym to pick up some food to take with us as we had more QS credits than we needed. I picked up a croissant egg sandwich and Mimosa for me and breakfast sandwich and Kahlua Iced Coffee for Brett. I got a couple of pastries too. It was so awkward to carry and i ended up dropping my Mimosa trying to open the door. The sandwiches got a bit squished in our rucksacks too but they hit the spot later in the day.

We didnt get off to the best start today with Uber as the driver dropped us in the wrong area. She told us to get the lift up and we would be on City Walk but we were actually in the employees block so had to get another Uber over to the correct place. Traffic was building up now but we still managed to be at Forbidden Journey by 9.10am and it was only 10 minute wait so we rode it three times.

Next up was Kong Skull Island, another new one for me. It was a 15 minute wait. The queue was hilarious, i had no idea there was cast members hidden in the walls scaring people and they really terrified the girl in front of us. The ride was really good but same scenario as Fast and the Furious- it just isn't long enough and i was glad the wait time was so short.

Our luck ran out here as suddenly as the wait times were all 45-60 minutes, longer than we wanted to queue for so we just had a walk round the areas. Brett had been looking forward to Marvel Island so we headed over there for a good look round. We looked in the gift shops and Brett found a Hulk statue that he really wanted for $60 so we bought that and sent it to the gate to pick up at the end of the day.

We didnt bother with any of the main characters as they were all at the dinner but we did see Green Goblin and Dr Doom emerging for a meet and greet so Brett had some pictures with them. Green Goblin kept trying to scare him and Dr Doom was giving him the evil eyes.

We took some pictures in Marvel Island before deciding the rides were far busier than we were used to this trip so we should go to Universal Studios instead. As luck would have it, the Hogwarts Express was only showing 15 minute wait, the lowest queue in the park, so we headed over there. We thought this was really clever and a great way to transfer between the parks

Universal was a little quieter so we rode Jimmy Fallon, The Mummy and Transformers. Megatron was doing a meet and greet too which was the only one we hadnt got pictures with so we joined the short queue.

We headed back to Diagon Alley for another Frozen Butterbeer and to try the Sticky Toffee Pudding icecream with Hot Fudge. This was really good and came with a souvenir cup.

We walked past The Blues Brothers show and Brett had another little boogie- the guy playing the saxophone remembered him from our previous visit which was really cool and he gave Brett the fist pump at the end when he was back in the car.

It was 3.00pm now and we were done with the park so we decided to tick another thing off the list and sample a chocolate cocktail at Toothsome. It was really quiet and there was only one other person sat at the bar. Our bartender was amazing, we definitely prefer the bar service at Universal to Disney. We ordered a Chocolate Cherry Mule for me and Chocolate Banana Coffee for Brett. I love how they grate white chocolate onto the cocktails here. We also had to try the warm Chocolate Almond Bread with salted caramel butter. Oh my goodness this was all heavenly. My drink wasnt a creamy one like Bretts but you could really taste the chocolate. The bread was just divine, i wish we had ordered more.

For our next round, i fancied a creamy one after trying Brett's so the bartender said he would come up with something off menu. He asked what my favourite flavour was and i said mint so he made me a Mint Chocolate Chip Martini. It was delicious and didnt last long. Brett had an Espresso Martini but with a chocolatey twist. This also didnt last long. There was a guy with his sons and sisters sat at the bar and they decided to get our cocktails in shot form. We got chatting to them and they were from El Paso in Texas but travelled a lot as they worked for Customs.

We decided to have one more before heading over to see Jorge again at NBC Bar and Grill. The bartender encouraged Brett to try something different and go for the Chocolate Old Fashioned. This is usually too strong for Brett but he actually enjoyed this and the sugared orange peel made it a bit sweeter. I had another off menu creation that was an Almond and Caramel Martini. This was also delicious but they arent shy with the spirits here, even with the creamy ones! Therefore we ordered a portion of Truffle Fries to share to make sure we didnt get tipsy and these were out of this world too. We will definitely be back here on our next trip as Brett is desperate to sample the milkshakes too.

We thanked the Bartender and headed over to NBC. Jorge asked us what we wanted to drink and we just said anything you want to create. I have no idea what we had but i think i recognise a couple from his Instagram page. We got talking to a couple from Boston and i was telling them about my love for the city and the sports teams. We also got talking to the family from Texas again and they wanted to buy us shots of tequila! The measures were huge so Jorge kindly added pineapple juice to ours as we arent fans of shots. We also got some Parmesan Fries even though dinner was approaching to try and soak some of the cocktails up.

It was soon time to leave for dinner and i think we may have been running late as we still had to go pick Brett's Hulk up from the gate. Brett added the Texas family on Facebook and we said goodbye to Jorge and said we would keep in touch on Instagram as we would definitely be back. We walked over to Islands of Adventure and checked in at Cafe 4. Brett was really excited for this meal and was wearing his Hulk Birthday Smash badge.

We got a plate of food each from the buffet- there was lots of choices of pizza, pasta, meatballs, chicken tenders etc. The characters started coming over straight away starting with Rogue ("hey sugar"). She was really chatty and i loved her accent.

Spiderman came over next and decided to sit at our table and pretended to steal our food. He was really good at being in character, he didn’t sit still, he was all over the place.

Wolverine was next and he was a really nice guy. He was chatting to Brett for ages while he was waiting to move onto the next table. I asked Brett if he stayed in character the whole time and he said he dipped in and out. I laughed and said that would never happen at Disney.

Storm was amazing too, she is going to be Brett’s next tattoo on his Marvel Couples leg with Black Panther so he was telling her about that and she thought it was cool.

Captain America was on another level, he actually made me tear up a little bit. My cousin’s little boy Alfie is six and he has Autism. He is a huge Superhero fan especially Captain America so I asked him if he could say hello to a super fan back in the UK. He recorded him the sweetest message saying he is sorry he missed him this time but hoped to see him in person soon and he had to work hard at school and eat all his vegetables. I sent it to my cousin and she said he loved it, but then in his typical matter-of-fact way asked when he saw the real Captain America because he definitely hadn’t met him and my cousin explained that it was a special message for him that had been recorded.

We asked to speak to the Manager at the end of the meal to say how pleased we were with the experience and that the characters had gone above and beyond. They were pleased to get good feedback as they usually only get negative. Brett was really happy with his birthday meal and was just as excited as all the kids that were there! For his birthday this year I have booked for us to go see Marvel Live at Manchester Arena and we are quite near the front so he is really looking forward to that too.

We decided to head back to Voodoo Donuts as this may be the last chance we would get to pick some up. I have been a fan of these since they were one tiny store appearing on Man Vs Food, it is really nice to see a small shop do so well. We went for the Voodoo Doll, Orange Universal Creamsicle, Chuckles (chocolate and caramel) and Portland Cream. If I am being completely honest, I didn’t get the hype and I suspect it is purely because they have been victims of their own success and become a chain. I ate the Voodoo Doll back in the room that night and we shared the others for breakfast the next day and I don’t think they tasted the freshest on either day, they were a bit dry. They were good, they weren’t bad, just not super amazing like I was expecting. The best one was the Portland Cream. I think I would get them again though and try something different.

We got an Uber back from City Walk and fell victim to surge pricing for the first time, adding an extra $10 to our bill. We didn’t do as many rides as we wanted at Islands of Adventure but it was still another amazing jam-packed day.

[DollyDimples]

Great to see a positive review of the marvel character dinner. We have this booked for our trip.

[tory79]

I totally agree about voodoo donuts. We were so excited to try them and maybe we just made bad choices but I thought they were really ordinary and a bit dry. Not a patch on a good old Krispy Kreme!

[princessnicki]

Originally Posted by DollyDimples

Great to see a positive review of the marvel character dinner. We have this booked for our trip.

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honestly it was really good, I'm not a buffet fan but they had a really good selection, the characters are brilliant, we found they took more time with you than at the Disney character dinners

Originally Posted by tory79

I totally agree about voodoo donuts. We were so excited to try them and maybe we just made bad choices but I thought they were really ordinary and a bit dry. Not a patch on a good old Krispy Kreme!

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we wondered if we made bad choices too but i didn't think we could go wrong with two of their signatures Portland Cream and the Doll. Brett said the same Krispy Kreme is better!

[mick]

A busy but good day Glad Brett enjoyed his birthday present

Joan

[Floridafour]

I’m loving you report, you’re so positive it’s nice to read it, too much negativity in the world. Your cocktails all look amazing 🙂

[princessnicki]

Originally Posted by mick

A busy but good day Glad Brett enjoyed his birthday present

Joan

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He did very much thank you

Originally Posted by Floridafour

I’m loving you report, you’re so positive it’s nice to read it, too much negativity in the world. Your cocktails all look amazing 🙂

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Aww thank you so much, i agree there is too much negativity

[JenD1]

What a brilliant day. So many characters and so many cocktails 🍹! The Marvel dinner sounded fab.

[princessnicki]

Originally Posted by JenD1

What a brilliant day. So many characters and so many cocktails 🍹! The Marvel dinner sounded fab.

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thank you, the cocktails were good

[margyloveswdw]

Sounds like another fab day! The Marvel buffet sounds perfect for a superhero fan

I'm not mentioning cocktails again though