Trip Report Hakunamatata's Ultra .000001%er 2017 "Whats All This Pandoramonium About?" Trip Report

(This trip takes place May 25, 2017 through June 11, 2017).

This year the 'matata family is celebrating a few milestones (I really hope to get one of those special "milestone celebration" magical fastpasses). One of which is the daughter turned 18 this last fall. We were initially going to do a Disney cruise but a couple people in the family have iffy constitutions and likely would have been life flighted off the ship half way through due to severe motion sickness and claustrophobia. So we elected instead to do an extended land vacation at Universal (3 days) and Walt Disney World (11 days).

We will be driving to our destination via our Honda Pilot SUV. During our Universal portion of the trip we will be staying at the gorgeous TownPlace Suites - Flamingo Crossings. During the WDW portion of our trip we will be staying at Disneys Polynesian Village Resort and Fruity Adult Beverage Oasis. Way back in the day when vacationing as a young chap I remember the monorail trip from the TTC to the MK, passing over the Poly thinking to myself, "self, hopefully you will stay there one day before they take out the big lobby water fountain and create DVC rooms and pier top huts over the aligator infested waters of Seven Seas Lagoon". Well, didnt make it before some of those things happened, but I am going to get to stay there none the less.

I hope to be able to "live" report during our trip. We were not expecting to be there during the grand reveal of The World of Pandora, but I am looking forward to the sparkly bling of a jewelry themed land. For the benefit of all that follow, know that I will have received countless eye roles and stink-eye looks bringing you this live report as well as a number of "your taking a picture of that?" and "another churro?" questioning.

So in the words of Walt Disney....."For all those who come to this happy place, we accept cash and credit cards only, no checks please".

Enjoy!
 
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Bob

Bob

B00b
Premium Member
hakunamatata said:
So the fact that I turned the wrong way after gassing up just over the Florida state line and drove fifteen miles back toward Atlanta just makes this movie more apropos.
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Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
Original Poster
senor_jorge said:
Churro consumption count?
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Zero. My churro consumption will not start until next Wednesday and my be limited. I am going to do my best to leave Disney at the same weight I entered it. Ive dropped about sixty pounds since September and would like to keep the streak alive. I actually sent my Ceasar Chicken salad back tonight at Raglan Road because I asked for dressing on the side and they didnt.

Im just glad the dole whips are fruit juice and ultra healthy. :cautious: (@Bob please keep your google to yourself).
 
Bob

Bob

B00b
Premium Member
hakunamatata said:
Zero. My churro consumption will not start until next Wednesday and my be limited. I am going to do my best to leave Disney at the same weight I entered it. Ive dropped about sixty pounds since September and would like to keep the streak alive. I actually sent my Ceasar Chicken salad back tonight at Raglan Road because I asked for dressing on the side and they didnt.

Im just glad the dole whips are fruit juice and ultra healthy. :cautious: (@Bob please keep your google to yourself).
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Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
Original Poster
So got checked in to TownPlace Suites Flamingo Crossing. Must be a bunch of soccer tournaments this weekend. Lots of soccer kids. Breakfast should be a fiasco interesting in the morning. May have to find one of those evil Chic Fil A's on the way to Universal in the morning.

Did a quick tour through the Springs after meeting @Voxel, stopped in WoD and had a vision of hundreds of dollars leaving my possession and found our way back to a 3/4 full parking garage orange ( although it was quite crowded tonight). Lime was showing full.

Universal tomorrow. In hoping everyone decided not to fight the crowd and went to the beach
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
hakunamatata said:
So people talk about food prices at Disney. Good grief. Three cheesebugers a side salad and three medium drinks over $50 at Universal. #thanksIger.
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I went on my yearly (4 days) vacation to WDW, 2 weeks ago, and I mostly ate at QS locations in the parks.

Sounds like Universal is not too different, price wise, with WDW. For example, Cosmic Ray's sells a cheeseburger (with bacon) for 12.99 (with either fries or green beans), and a soft drink is $3.29. (They don't have side salads there, so I can't include that price here.) So, for 3 people at C. Ray's with the above menu (no side salad), it still comes to around $50 with taxes.
 
Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day one has been updated (link below) as well as a photo wish list of crap important stuff to need.
hakunamatata said:
Day 1 - Universal Studios -

First Attraction - Reign of Kong
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Made it to the first large room and they announced technical difficulties. It was a short wait.
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The queue is actually more frightening than the attraction. Beware of dark areas as CMs would jump out from them. Basically this attraction is a tram ride through three or four emersive screen rooms and one big Kong AA. It was good and Im glad we did it first.

We then hopped over to the Boy Wizard area and rode the attraction in Hogwarts (apologizing now as I dont know the names of the Uni attractions to the extent I do the Disney ones). Basically a walk on. We didnt stop our brisk walk through the queue line until right before the loading area. We then looked in a few shops, bought a couple of wands and decided we were hungry.
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We headed back to
View attachment 207084 Where we had lunch. Three burgers, sodas, side salad and fifty less dollars later ( and no @Bob they didnt even have hot cheese) we decided to meander through some gift shops on the way back to the font of the park.

I was surprised at the quality of the Marvel merchandise at Uni. I guess Disney/Marvel has decided to let Uni be the go to for Marvel Universe related stuff. We may end up seeing the same stuff at Disney but Uni had some really cool stuff. The comic book selection is outstanding.

We stopped at Toothsome on the way out and agreed that tomorrow there will be at least a couple of chocolate dipped cheesecake and strawberry skewers purchased.

We headed to Planet Hollywood at the Springs for dinner tonight. I had the double chicken breast with green beans and garlic smashed taters. Very delish.
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They did an outstanding job with this place. Half of the place is a huge screen, the ither half is four levels of seating. They show various forms of entertainment while you eat.
Tribute to James Bond, varios music vids, and yes friends......wait for it.....yes. A frozen sing along.
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So after the moving rendition of Let it Go, we got up and went (after paying the tab of course). We headed to check out the Harley store, Star Wars and Marvel stores, picked up a hat at WoD, checked out LMM, Pin Trader Hit, Christmas and Art of Disney stores, pocked up some plain rice crispy treats (which were unavailable in October for some crazy reason), and walked through the CoOp again. Then it was off to Amorettes for a bit of desert. Yum.
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By this time we were pooped so back to the resort. As we were heading to the Orange Garage I noticed people were walking over from the third parking area. Tonight is going to be packed at the Springs.

Day two of Uni tomorrow.
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hakunamatata said:
Wish List

So here are things I have seen in the parks or Springs that I believe I must have before heading home. I will have to decide which one(s) to get before our last day.

At the CoOp
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MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I don't often read the dining forum here, so your review of Planet Hollywood is the first one I've read in quite some time. Sounds like it's a fun restaurant with good food (your dinner looked delicious, by the way). I was intrigued by the 007 (screen) tribute; I would have loved that! (Frozen sounds o.k. as well I guess, but since I had gone to the Frozen singalong in DHS a few weeks ago, I've had my "fill" of Frozen for some time. LOL . . . ;))
 
Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day two is in the books.

hakunamatata said:
Day 2 - Universal Studios

Arrived right at park opening and entered through IoA and took Hogwarts Express to Universal. View attachment 207196 Single ridered Escape from Gringots while the other three had Butter Bear. Amazing how many families with small children are in the single rider line. :rolleyes:

Rode The Mummy and we had lunch at Monsters Cafe which was much better than yesterdays lunch. View attachment 207281 What a great themed quick service. Some of my favorite monsters were represented. View attachment 207282
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A couple in our group had all Universal they wanted so we headed back to the hotel, dropped them off and the boy and I headed back. First attraction to ride was Spiderman. Im wondering when they will update the queue from the animated newspaper heavy theme. We headed over to Hogwarts for a trip through the castle where either some one cast a stinking lightning spell or the lady in front of me needed a reapplication of deoderant and someone to tell her that you dont have to use the flash inside. Either way my eyes and nose were both highly offended.

Then we grabbed the 5:00 Hogwarts Express over to catch Transormers, which was a pretty good attraction. The pre show story set up was really good until they got to the point where the National Security Advisor becomes involved. After that it was lame.View attachment 207285
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For dinner tonight we headed off resort to Mannys Chop House. Pretty good food at a reasonable price.View attachment 207287
8oz Prime Rib. Loaded Potatoe, endless salad for less than $20.

So thats a wrap for the Uni portion of our trip. I got to ride a bunch of stuff this time that I did not before having lost a bunch of weight. I was surprised at how screen heavy the attractions are. The ride vehicles are great and the attractions are fun, but if AAs are your thing, Uni isnt the place. Crowds were surprisingly light for a holiday weekend. Never waited more than 50 minutes for an attraction. Overall fun time.

The next two days are off days between Uni and Disney. Lunch tomorrow at Art Smiths. Will do laundry, check out the discount gift shops off property and grt ready to move to the Poly Tuesday.
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