Scream if you want to go Fatter! Deluxe DDP to Drive Thru Live!

[Mariaherself]

Fajitas look great, shame about the mole sauce. Don’t know if you’ve been but Coldstone creamery does pretty decent ice cream on Citywalk

[YLL]

How many days left at Universal? I'm going to suffer from severe withdrawal when this report ends! 😨

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

The fajitas look lovely x

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they were and decent price I thought too for plenty of food

Originally Posted by Mariaherself

Fajitas look great, shame about the mole sauce. Don’t know if you’ve been but Coldstone creamery does pretty decent ice cream on Citywalk

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You're dead right on Coldstone, it's a great little place. We went there soon after this, keep reading

Originally Posted by YLL

How many days left at Universal? I'm going to suffer from severe withdrawal when this report ends! 😨

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Just a couple of days left to post, one of them at least to be written up today And check the Dining Reports listings for August there's a load of new ones starting to keep you going

All of which reminds me I need to add Mariaherself's report!

[theCMG]

- Harry Potter related nonsense
- Breakfast
- Day 2 Ride Frenzy and Animal Antics

Day 2 at Universal and a good result as I managed to get DD up and into the park by 08:06 which is the best for at least a week. We used the extra time to ride Gringotts (liked this a lot) and have a better look through Diagon Alley. Preferred Knockturn Alley myself, but having done the pottermore/ official test before we left, I am a confirmed Slytherin

Can’t argue with those traits

We’d also done this for DW before we left and were disappointed that she’d come out as a Gryffindor albeit it was improved when the site suggested Neville Longbottom as an example:

She is bold and daring I'll admit

DD is something of a mixed bag, as a child she claimed to be Gryffindor but more recently changed it to Ravenclaw. Then when we ran the Pottermore test she came out as a Slytherin, refusing to accept it we created another account and she changed some answers to come out as a Hufflepuff. I suggested she was a Slytherpuff and googled it only to find out it is an actual JK Rowling endorsed thing. So DD is forever a Slytherpuff and I think the mix of traits is about right:

I did find Diagon Alley to be overly merched in the shops at the expense of the depth of the theming. Would be nice if there was more of a mix of authentic looking items with the inevitable racks of t-shirts, the much mentioned immersion of this land was lessened by this for me

Anyway we also rode the Mummy then took a breakfast break on the way out of the Studios park. From the outside this place was called the Beverly Hills Boulangerie although it’s named differently on the receipt.

DD unwisely didn’t change her mind from the pre-set idea of a pain au chocolat/CHOCOLATE CROISSANT even after she saw them (I did hint that they didn’t look great)

This was covered in a nasty sticky substance that was hopefully sugar. She didn’t like it much but ate it anyway. I chose better with the warmed up breakfast croissant.

It came with rather more fruit than I care to enjoy. The strawberry was unripe, the melon okay but most importantly the croissant-wich thing with ham, cheese and egg inside was nice. Not much flavour but hot, fresh and good textures without being greasy.

These cost us $9

Meantime back at the hotel her maj had risen and ordered a very similar snack from Emack and Bolio.

This was also good apparently and she had at least one more of these over the hotel stay.

DD and I carried on into Islands of Adventure and went on something of a ride rampage between 9am and lunch, fitting in a re-ride of the Hulk (front row this time = even better) then Spiderman (brilliant, thank you Dramamine!) the Bilge Rat Barges twice (best water ride ever! Some of us just want to get soaked ). We also rode Ripsaw falls, Forbidden Journey (overrated IMHO) and the Hogwarts Express back to Studios before meeting DW for lunch at Margaritaville (see next post).

After this DW joined us to ride The Mummy then do ET, The Simpsons and the Animal Actors Show (which we all loved, think it will go away soon ). Finally a quick bonus photo op with cross-eyed Scooby on the way out rounded off a great and very productive park day.

Back at the hotel, after 12 nights at the dog welcoming Yacht Club and Hard Rock Hotel (and perhaps thinking about it after Animal Actors and Scooby), I finally noticed my first pooch.

It was a terrifying beast which gave me a filthy look from between the straps of an original 1963 Chanel handbag. I’m no expert...on dogs I mean (on vintage handbags I’m one of Europe’s leading authorities). I think it was a ≈≈≈≈su


Dinner would be at Bice before a night of fearful sleep imagining what that canine terror might do if it escaped its snakeskin lair.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Great start to Universal, I love those egg n bacon croissants fro E&B's -looking forward to getting one soon.

[aqualiv]

Great read as always👍🏻

Her Maj 😂😂

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

Great start to Universal, I love those egg n bacon croissants fro E&B's -looking forward to getting one soon.

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I didn't try one, DW had at least 3 so they must have been good Next time! Enjoy your trip and looking forward to your food photos which I'm sure will put mine to shame once again

Originally Posted by aqualiv

Great read as always👍🏻

Her Maj 😂😂

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I'm trying to goad her into registering and posting. She said she was going to yesterday but then changed her mind but she is still reading Just noticed your countdown is at 2 weeks, very jealous - enjoy!

[theCMG]

Lunch - Margaritaville and Voodoo Doughnut (Universal CityWalk)

Margaritaville was a repeat visit from our last trip when DD and I had a great meal here including a brilliant dessert flight that we wanted to repeat. It wasn’t the best of starts, the hostess was having some sort of meltdown at the frontdesk and shouting around orders to get seaters over to her. In fact the hostess, the seater and the guy who poured the water all seemed to be having a collective bad day, something was not right there We also noticed the trademark volcano wasn’t erupting, maybe the management here isn’t the best at the moment?

Anyway, our server took a drinks order, water for DD, the usual for DW and a ‘Perfect Margarita’ for me.

Perfectly Adequate Margarita

We were going straight to main courses again. DW wanted to keep it light so ordered a kids cheeseburger. This was still a fairly decent size, served with fries and a pickle. She really enjoyed it at first but found it a little plain after a while which I guess is the risk with ordering the kids meal.

Looking at the photo it must have been travelling at about 20 mph

DD chose an adult portion of the Crispy Coconut Shrimp, shrimp/prawns being one of the many new foods she had only started eating on this holiday

The shrimp were enormous and the coconut coating was really great, flavoursome with coconut and crispy in exactly the way that the one Bonefish Grill wasn’t. I also really enjoyed the orange horseradish marmalade (tasted mainly of orange) served as a dip but everyone else thought it a bit weird. DD ate about half of this dish then helped me with mine as I pinched a couple of shrimp. Fries and coleslaw were also fine although DD still won't touch coleslaw.

I was in the mood for something light so went for the appetiser of volcano nachos and the blender cup of margarita The nachos here are famously good and huge but I figured I’d get some help and we could all share.

Before

After

Given that you could see this portion from space I think we did alright here. We probably managed just under half between DD and I, you could maybe finish it with it 3 hungry people. It was delicious by the way with load of chilli, beans, sour cream, guac, jalapenos and cheese running throughout the whole stack unlike many nacho dishes.

‘Who’s to Blame’ in (plastic) Souvenir blender cup

The large margarita disappeared with terrifying ease, it’s a nice one that I had in a flight last time (mind you I find all margaritas nice). Not sure how much tequila is in these, I didn’t feel remotely tipsy. After this the unfriendly service kicked in again. DD had just convinced me that we were going to do the dessert flight again when the server appeared, slapped the check down with a ‘no rush’ and walked off

She’d been fine apart from this so probably the stressy hostess had decided it was time to turn the table over, who knows! So we decided to get dessert from Voodoo Doughnut instead The bill was $98 and they cleaned up the souvenir cup to take away in my park bag..

Who likes to rock the party? Seat Number One. Seat Number One likes to rock the party.

Over to Voodoo Doughnut then for a dessert on the move. The queue at lunchtime was only a couple of people I like the way that the actual doughnuts were on display alongside the queue and at the counter.

DW went for the Glazed Old Fashioned in the top picture. She didn’t eat it until about half an hour later by which time it was squashed and not very photogenic so we’ll stick with the picture above. She declared it superb, much better than Krispy Kreme and other similar places she’s tried. She only ever gets this type of glazed doughnut by the way.

I went for the Chuckles (raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, dipped in mocha powder, and topped with peanuts and caramel and chocolate drizzle).

This was good but didn’t knock my socks off in the way that I hoped it would. If you look, mine doesn’t look a lot like the display model so perhaps I got a duff one. I would have liked to have binned it and tried another - probably the ODB or Bacon Maple Bar but I hate wasting food (even in Orlando) so saw it through.

DD went for the Dirt (Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting and Oreo cookies). She enjoyed this a lot (have you noticed yet that every dessert needs to feature Oreos in some form). This doughnut was huge but I've temporarily mislaid the photo of her holding it - to be added if/when I find it. She finished it obviously, it's a doughnut.

These came to a very reasonable $7.41. There is some good value food to be had on CityWalk.

Dinner at Bice to follow

[SquishTheWhale]

I can't wait to try voodoo donut, I have a massive thing for donuts. Might be tempted to go with original glaze as sometimes simple is best! And based on your review it sounds like a win.

Re the Pottermore website, I have been sulking with it ever since it put me in Hufflepuff.

Edit: also forgot to say we had very grumpy bordering on rude service at Margaritaville last year. I think it was the only place we under tipped- left about 8% and got scowls on the way out (so no different to the scowls we got during dinner then, except we tipped for extra ones)

[YLL]

Those Voodoo Donuts seem dangerous... I would gorge on them and regret it later... 😂