Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 7 - Homeward Bound

[Rescuer]

Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 7 - Homeward Bound 15.2.20

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So I imagine at this point if I was to say we were up early and at the park gates for opening you might be a bit shocked or sceptical. Strangely enough that did not happen and I was another slow start. We decided to finish getting our stuff organised and go for a relaxing breakfast at Sapphire Falls.

We headed across the street just after 10am assuming this would give us more than enough time, it was busy but not crazy, we waited a few minutes on a table and decided to order from the a la carte menu again.

Within 10 minutes of ordering we were informed that the kitchen was backed up. If we’d known this we’d probably just have gone for the buffet.
After another 20 minutes our server told us to go and get some pastries and fruit from the buffet, we got a small plate as I didn’t want to spoil my appetite for what we’d ordered.

It took well over 40 minutes for our food to arrive.

Ds and Dh had the jerk chicken with waffles. They loved it again.

I had the Caribbean French toast which was lovely.

Our server was nice and you could see he wasn’t happy and it wasn’t really his fault although if we’d known we could have just enjoyed what looked like a lovely buffet. The wait also meant we ended up clock watching and eating faster than we’d have liked. Not really the last day relaxing breakfast we had hoped for.

We also forgot the annual pass for the discount. We’d done so well this trip remembering to use it.

I really enjoyed our visits to Sapphire Falls for food but twice in a row encountered the kitchen struggling, it’s definitely busier at the weekend so if you are going make it a mid-week visit. That’s what we will be doing next time. Alternating eating at Sapphire Falls and Aventura makes both of them great resort choices if you don’t want or need the express pass.

We headed back across to Aventura to collect our stuff and store our bags. Ds and Dh decided on some table football and table tennis before we headed to the parks.

So back over to Sapphire Falls, we had a quick wander round to go and look at the pool and take some photos. It looks amazing, I’d definitely pool hop to here if we were to stay at Aventura again.

Ideally, I’d like to stay at Sapphire Falls but I just don’t think I’d be prepared to pay that much more than Aventura to do so. It is very beautiful though.

We headed to catch the boat but just missed one, it was busy again today but didn’t take too long to get on our way.

We decided on Universal, Citywalk was busy and there were loads of people streaming through the arch so we walked up towards Blue Man Group and in the secret entrance where there was not a soul waiting.

After grabbing a drink we walked around to the Darkroom and got the Mardi Gras picture this time.

The little Minions parade with the character meet was going on. I think these are great and little kids must love getting so close to the parade and meeting the characters.

It was busy today and we didn’t have our Express Pass, we’d known that today would be like this so we didn’t really have big expectations for our time in the park. We wandered on towards the Simpson’s shop as Ds wanted to pick up a comic for the plane home. It’s his wee tradition to buy himself a Simpsons comic on each trip.

MIB was calling and Touring Plans was predicting a 6-minute wait for single rider. Ideal, I don’t even think we waited that long.

Ds and I had gone to see Fear Factor when we were there without Dh and of course he feared he had missed out so wanted to do this.

I could have quite happily have lived the rest of my life without watching this again. It’s not that bad but I really don’t like the whole bug crawling, eating bugs thing. I didn’t really feel we were missing out on anything else by doing this so I let dh have his own way.

We stopped off in Diagon Alley, it was certainly noticeably busier today than earlier in the week. Hot butter beer was the only thing I wanted, we got it at the long stand in Diagon Alley. Not everywhere sold it.

. We got 2 to share, again so, so good!

A wee check of Touring Plans and the single rider line for the Mummy was showing a really short wait so we thought we could give that a go, however, when we went round they’d closed the single rider line. Ds was keen to ride Rip Ride but the wait looked a little bit too long as we needed to still eat somewhere. We got a final king cake before heading off.

Ds had a wee sulk, we of course said don’t be silly you can ride it loads on the Summer (who knew that wouldn’t happen at that point).

Ds was placated by the time we left with the thought of Sushi at Aventura.

We walked all the way back and it didn’t take particularly long. We thought it might be a good idea to have food before the journey home so we had a late lunch/early dinner at Aventura.

After a good look round we all settled on the wok and sushi station, although Ds already knew what he was after.

Ds had the spicy tuna roll which he thought was really good.

Dh and I had wok bowls with veg, teriyaki sauce, sushi rice, I had shrimp and he had chicken. Both were great, really fresh and really tasty.

It worked out about $45 with passholder discount. I do think this food court is fantastic and I’d rate it above most of the Disney ones we have been to in terms of quality.

I also had a mango dragon fruit refresher from Starbucks

We got a message from the guy picking us up to say he was in the area and could pick us up whenever we wanted so we just got ourselves organised, collected our bags and asked him to come get us.

The airport was fairly busy but it didn’t take too long to get through security. I got stopped both to have an extra check as there seemed to be something showing on the scanner, no idea what and they didn’t discover any metal so I had to get the swab thing to check around my waistband. It was quick and painless but always a worry even though you know there’s nothing dodgy there. Then my bag got picked to be opened. It turned out I had one of these little magnetic bookmarks marking the page in my book and it was this that had looked dodgy. The TSA guy was lovely though and thought this was really funny so who knows what it had looked like on the machine, I’ll be taking a paper one next time. Is it sad that we like the wee monorail at the airport?

We were well fed so we had some mini pretzel dogs from Auntie Anne’s, such a shame that the one on Citywalk doesn’t sell these anymore.

I thought it would be a great idea to get my last Mango and Dragon fruit Refresher and some pastries from Starbucks for the plane, big mistake. The line was out the door which isn’t too unusual but it was slower than paint drying and took well over 45 minutes to get my order and drinks made, in fact it took so long that we were now at the time to board the flight just as I got these.

There was a bit of a seat mix up on the flight, all groups around us seemed to have had one of their seat numbers altered. We all managed to sort it out for ourselves and everyone ended up with their groups. The flight was fairly uneventful, I didn’t watch anything. The leg room was a bit cramped, I was the aisle seat in the middle section of 3.

For the first time I had bought Melatonin Gummies in Walmart and had taken 2 as I wanted to get as much sleep as possible as I was worried about us arriving home Sunday teatime and teaching the following day. I slept on and off most of the way so I didn’t have any food. The audio on Dh’s Tv wasn’t working but after a couple of resets they managed to fix it. Dh might have had food but no photo and no recollection of what it was. Ds was asleep for once as he too was straight back to school on the Monday.

It was a fairly bumpy landing in Dublin and seemed to take ages to get everyone off the plane. I’ve added something in my notes about buses which obviously annoyed me but who knows now what it was…

The wait in Dublin was long and it was busy with not enough seating anywhere and we were shattered. We ended up having a burger king.

I had toyed with booking a lounge on the way back as well, I’d have killed for a shower and a comfy seat while we were waiting. In the meantime the weather just kept getting worse. It was wild just waiting to get on the plane and was an extremely bumpy take off. We were glad to land in Edinburgh and to be home after an amazing trip.

[flo-tinka]

Thanks for your report. Caught my eye as we (are supposed to be) going for a week this October...time will tell!
Sad to see your cancelled countdown marker 😳 what are they doing with annual pass holders at Universal? Thanks for the detail and tips

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by flo-tinka

Thanks for your report. Caught my eye as we (are supposed to be) going for a week this October...time will tell!
Sad to see your cancelled countdown marker 😳 what are they doing with annual pass holders at Universal? Thanks for the detail and tips

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Thanks for reading. They extended all annual passes for 3 months. I emailed to say our holiday was cancelled and they offered to freeze it and let us use the time we have left when we return. I was really impressed with that.

Fingers crossed for you for October, you will need to tell me all about HHN as I really fancy that next year.

[4fromsuffolk]

Loved your report too, thank you. We have paid a deposit for October 2021 too intending to do HHN. Who knows?! I think if park booking and masks persist we will postpone.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by 4fromsuffolk

Loved your report too, thank you. We have paid a deposit for October 2021 too intending to do HHN. Who knows?! I think if park booking and masks persist we will postpone.

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Aww thank you for reading and commenting. Fingers crossed for a good outcome for your October trip. Are you planning on Disney as well as universal, I’d tend to agree I get why they are booking park slots but park hopping would be a real miss? Have you done HHN before?

[4fromsuffolk]

We have a DIBB villa reserved. I think we were going to give Universal a miss but do HHN. Yes like you we don’t fancy Disney without being able to park hop a bit. Haven’t done HHN before, Sons will be 17 and 13 then so I think about the right age. I think we are going to try and make a decision early next year as to whether we are going to postpone or not. We would like to do MNSHP too as last time we did that DS2 was 100% so we had to leave after the parade. I’ve looked at Tim Tracker in a mask in the heat and don’t think it will be for us. Although we totally agree with the precautions they are enforcing.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by 4fromsuffolk

We have a DIBB villa reserved. I think we were going to give Universal a miss but do HHN. Yes like you we don’t fancy Disney without being able to park hop a bit. Haven’t done HHN before, Sons will be 17 and 13 then so I think about the right age. I think we are going to try and make a decision early next year as to whether we are going to postpone or not. We would like to do MNSHP too as last time we did that DS2 was 100% so we had to leave after the parade. I’ve looked at Tim Tracker in a mask in the heat and don’t think it will be for us. Although we totally agree with the precautions they are enforcing.

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I think a mask in that heat wouldn’t really be enjoyable. Ds will be 13 next year so I’m very tempted with HHN. I think we’d just do universal but I’d like to add in MNSHP. Hopefully in 15 months things will be way better 🤞

[4fromsuffolk]

Fingers crossed! I think I’m going to be the most scared for HHN!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by 4fromsuffolk

Fingers crossed! I think I’m going to be the most scared for HHN!

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Me too. My ds keeps telling me he will be fine and I’ll be crying like a baby 😂 He is probably right.

We watched the Tim tracker video where Jen has the scream camera pointing at her, that will be me!

[Goldia]

A shame about the delay at breakfast, it's such a pain that sort of thing on your last day when you are watching the clock and itching to get out. It seemed like a couple of false starts really with not being able to get on the mummy and then the wait for rip ride being too long. Ah well, there will be a next time, even if you don't exactly know when next time will be

Thanks for finishing the report off. As usual I've loved reading it. I hope you get to go back bigger and better than ever in 2021

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