A great big beautiful - Cocktails and Food Report Complete - July/August 2022

[smithlane]

I’m gutted your trip is coming to an end 😢, it’s been immense!
You still have plenty of cocktail and fantastic food time left though 🙌

I love the Zinger Mountain Melt but it has always defeated me! I’m also going to be copying Michelle with a Strawberry Mule, sounds divine.

I hope you have a more successful ride tally today! X

[NewtoOrlando]

Millers always defeated me! Even sharing with DH, we never finished it! Breadbox looks lovely, that's on our list, especially after 2 good reports on here!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

A sham about Velocicoaster but I’m sure you will easily get on it once you get to RPR with early entry.

Bread box patty melt looks awesome 😍 and tots just takes it over the top

A nice relaxing morning (we did the same here!) and IHOP is a great choice. Lots of choice on the breakfast sampler, only in America can you get a side of steak for your pancakes 😆 Kate’s blueberry crepes look nice, a shame they were too sweet. Have a greasy rest of your day! Fingers crossed the weather holds out. Xx

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We are lacking the stamina now at day 17. I knew if we stand any chance of an early start tomorrow for check in tomorrow at Royal Pacific we needed to enjoy a lie in today.

Originally Posted by saratogajan

My husband is drooling over the fish tacos from ale and compass. We went 3 times in December as he loved them so much! Your cocktails look so good.

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I remember your report and the fantastic tacos. I wish I'd had them, we will have to go back 😉

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Breadbox and Ihop look good. Hopefully more luck with rides for you after this.

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I ended up filling in a universal email survey about our visit while we were stuck in the Fast and furious line right at the ride entry as it went down. I told them exactly how I about their parks!

It's just a bad run of luck I guess. We are enjoying the rides we get on but we are seem to be a magnet for breakdowns as that was was 2nd ride of the day and it went down, same thing yesterday evening, 2nd ride curse!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

A nice chilled start to the day, I hope the ride gods are in your favour today, last night was a bit frustrating but at least your at Royal Pacific tomorrow so you should storm through them!

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Yep, I'm hoping the express passes are going to be fruitful too. We are having fun though, it's beginning to get laughable how unlucky we've been.

Originally Posted by smithlane

I’m gutted your trip is coming to an end 😢, it’s been immense!
You still have plenty of cocktail and fantastic food time left though 🙌

I love the Zinger Mountain Melt but it has always defeated me! I’m also going to be copying Michelle with a Strawberry Mule, sounds divine.

I hope you have a more successful ride tally today! X

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Hmm...well...we started later so we can hardly blame them for our laziness, but ride 2, Fast and the Furious, went down just as we were about to get on the bus. We're just unlucky I guess.

Originally Posted by NewtoOrlando

Millers always defeated me! Even sharing with DH, we never finished it! Breadbox looks lovely, that's on our list, especially after 2 good reports on here!

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Definitely, Breadbox is worth a try. Great, simple food and a pretty cool restaurant, they had swing seat tables!

[Goldia]

Day 17

Despite my moaning about rides going down at Universal we are enjoying ourselves.

Earlier when we walked past the mummy there were special banners up for a private event. Seems like they are doing team member previews. We heard one girl come off saying it was amazing.

I'm really hoping we get to go on it this trip. Fingers crossed.

We had to get some frozen butterbeer to celebrate that little spark of hope!

Will there be AP previews? I'm keeping everything crossed.

[lfc_sarah]

I am absolutely LOVING the food in this report!

We still hadn't tried many places that I now want to.

Rides going down is the worst 😩
Hope the express passes help!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Day 17

Despite my moaning about rides going down at Universal we are enjoying ourselves.

Earlier when we walked past the mummy there were special banners up for a private event. Seems like they are doing team member previews. We heard one girl come off saying it was amazing.

I'm really hoping we get to go on it this trip. Fingers crossed.

We had to get some frozen butterbeer to celebrate that little spark of hope!

Will there be AP previews? I'm keeping everything crossed.

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Oh it’s been so long since I’ve had a Butterbeer .

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by lfc_sarah

I am absolutely LOVING the food in this report!

We still hadn't tried many places that I now want to.

Rides going down is the worst 😩
Hope the express passes help!

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I'm glad you're enjoying seeing all the food, we sure have enjoyed eating it.

I'm looking forward to getting the express passes tomorrow.

Originally Posted by sha9

Oh it’s been so long since I’ve had a Butterbeer .

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The Frozen butterbeer is the best!

[Goldia]

Day 17

This evening we had a reservation for dinner at 7pm at Margaritaville, but Kate was hungry so we asked at 6pm if they could seat us early and we were seated straight away.

Dave and I both ordered the Perfect Margarita and were told it was strong, I’m guessing that’s why it’s perfect 😉

This is their Gold and Silver tequilas, triple sec, orange curaçao and lime juice served on the rocks...for margarita aficionados! And it really was perfect.

Kate went for Fanta.

No one would join me for the nachos. I wanted to try them, but without anyone else to eat them i knew it would be a futile attempt.

Kate went for the nacho burger, a beef patty stuffed with monterrey Jack cheese, lettuce, guacamole, tortilla chips, Chipotle aioli, poblano salsa, pickled jalapeño all in a brioche bun with a side of fries.

Dave went for the buttermilk fried chicken, served with mash and green beans with a chicken gravy.

I had fish Tacos, crispy fish fried in batter topped with avocado and cilantro lime coleslaw served with black beans, rice and pico de gallo.

We had some extra visitors offering to make balloon animals, but Kate was not interested.

We both had to have a second drink. Dave went for Who’s to Blame, gold tequila, triple sec and the house blend. I went for Uptown Margarita after checking that it wouldn’t be too sweet, this has gold tequila, cointreau and house blend.

Now I tend to think of triple sec and cointreau as the same thing. So, I’m not sure what is different about these and we couldn’t taste much of a difference. Mine is topped with a gran gala float, whatever that is.

This was another lovely meal and we all felt that we had made good choices. Kate enjoyed her burger a great deal, Dave like the chicken and mash a lot. I thought my fish Tacos, while difficult to eat, were very tasty.

We decided we would go back into IOA and go on Velocicoaster.

The weather was looking fine until about 9.30pm when the rain was due to start.

I know in these photos it looks a bit cloudy, but it had been overcast all day, no rain and the forecast was still clear.

At 7.07pm we entered the line. It seemed liked a dead cert we would be able to ride. The wait time was posted as 45 minutes and the park closed at 9pm we had nearly 2 hours.

We got past the dinosaurs, we put our stuff in the lockers.

We made it upstairs and we saw Claire and Owen on the big screen and then the ride went down for inclement weather. I was not about to move. We were within spitting distance and I didn’t want to give up again. We waited about 15 minutes, it was around 8.05pm. Then there were cheers from the far side of the room and the line started moving.

There was an announcement to say 3 raptors were in the paddock, I’m guessing that means 3 ride vehicles.

We got to the front, we were assigned to rows 6 and 7, then we looked across to the windows and saw the torrential rain. We couldn't believe it was still running. The people getting off the ride were soaked.

The riders in front of us got on and we were wondering if this was a good idea or not...and they ended up being the last riders to go out. They came back saying the rain had been like millions of needles to their faces.

The ride went down and once again I decided I wasn’t leaving. We were in the gates about to board. We could touch the ride, we were that close.

Dave silently fumed that I wouldn't get up and leave, but I was determined, surely if we couldn't ride today we would get a free pass, we were so close.

Kate and I entertained ourselves by making up stupid games. There was a silly one that involved seeing if we could guess which foot each of us were going to raise off the floor...yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, yes, we were practically delirious.

Finally 9pm rolled around and we were still making up our games and the team members showed us all back to the lockers and gave us our special 1 time use ride vouchers.

Thank goodness, because I think Dave may have divorced me if we had left empty handed.

So, we should finally get to ride tomorrow. I'm not counting my chickens though. I'm well aware there are no guarantees when it comes to this ride.

We waited yesterday for 50 minutes. We waited today for 1 hour 53 minutes.

We have used valuable park time two nights in a row waiting for this ride. As we left today Kate said maybe we should ride in the day time...uh huh...except each time I asked to go ride it she said the wait was too long...grrr...hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Please can you all wave a little pixie dust to the powers that be that we actually get to board the ride tomorrow, I’d be very grateful. I really feel like we've paid our dues. Surely tomorrow will be our lucky day!

[unixgirl]

Oh wow - you have had the worst luck with velocicoaster. Fingers crossed you get to ride it tomorrow. x