Trip Report Lebeau Family Trip Report 2019: Portofino Bay, Mardis Gras and Birthday Fun - Completed

This report covers my family's recent Spring Break trip to Universal Orlando. I typically write my trip reports on my blog and then export them here. If you would like to read ahead of what is posted here, a link to the continuing trip report is at the end of this installment.

Thanks for reading!

Lebeau Family Trip Report 2019: Universal Orlando Resort


For the last few years, the Lebeau family has vacationed in sunny central Florida. We have recently returned from our third consecutive trip to the Universal Orlando Resort. Even as I was planning last year’s vacation, I viewed this Spring Break getaway as the completion of a Universal trilogy. As with any other vacation, the goal was to enjoy a little family fun. But it was also important to tie up any unfinished business from previous trips just in case we don’t make it back to Universal for a while.

(Re-)Introductions
Before we board our flight for Florida, let me introduce all of the players for any new readers out there. I am lebeau; husband, father, blogger and narrator for this trip report. My love of theme parks is well-documented here at Le Blog. When I am on vacation, I like to do things I can’t do at home. I get restless sitting around a hotel room watching TV or reading a book. I don’t mind relaxing, but I get bored if there isn’t more for me to do.

My wife, Mindy, has very different vacation preferences. For years, she has mostly tolerated my ambitious vacation planning and commando approach to theme park tourism. When the kids were younger, we made several trips to Walt Disney World. After our last visit in 2014, Mindy had reached her breaking point with the place.

We found that Universal was a good compromise. I still had access to theme parks I could explore to my hearts’ content and Mindy didn’t have to deal with the hassles of a Disney World vacation. After our initial week-long stay in 2017, it was Mindy’s idea to plan back-to-back return trips. We bought annual passes last summer in order to squeeze two vacations out of one ticket purchase.

Our oldest daughter, Josie, is a newly minted teenager. She had just turned thirteen prior to last year’s trip and she will be celebrating her fourteenth birthday very soon. Josie is a Harry Potter fan, but not obsessive. She’s at an age where she likes thrill rides when she is brave enough to ride them, but sometimes her courage fails her. As teenagers go, Josie is usually all smiles. But she’s as susceptible as any teen to sudden mood swings.

Kara is our youngest. She’s all about relaxation. Kara has fun in the parks, but she’d be equally happy hanging out in the hotel ordering room service and binge-watching her favorite shows on Netflix. Kara’s tenth birthday was the day after our trip ended, but we celebrated it all week long. Josie wouldn’t want all that attention, but Kara eats it up. As you will see from the pictures in this report, Kara is a bit of a ham.

Travel Day
Travel days are the worst part of any vacation. One of the reasons we keep going back to Orlando is that Mindy and the kids don’t travel especially well. The two hour flight into MCO is about as much as they can handle. Sometimes we look into more adventurous vacation destinations, but so far we keep coming back to the familiar flight.

I used to like to arrive in Orlando as early as possible in order to squeeze in some park time. But I have figured out that usually isn’t worth the effort. A later departure makes it easier to handle last-minute pre-vacation tasks.

To my utter astonishment, we currently have three dogs living with us (which is mostly Josie’s fault). That meant finding someone to dogsit while we were gone. Mindy has a young cousin who was willing to stay in our house and take care of the dogs in our absence, but that meant a lot of last-minute cleaning to make everything presentable.

My dad drove us to the airport. He has it in his head that he’s supposed to take a certain exit. The only thing is, he’s fixated on the exit before the airport. More than once, he has ended up taking a detour in the opposite direction. Sure enough, he got over in the wrong lane this year. I tried to gently point this out, but he was insistent that his exit was the right one. Finally, Mindy said something from the backseat and got us back on track.

The flight was pretty uneventful. The kids were excited because the seats had built-in TV screens. Kara took my headphones so she could watch a movie. Josie watched episodes of The Simpsons. We hit a little turbulence but arrived at MCO safe and sound.

From there, I had arranged transportation to our hotel through Tony Hinds. I had read rave reviews of Tony’s company from fellow tourists. The price was definitely right. A round trip from MCO to Portofino Bay was $100. That’s about half what I usually paid for similar services. That price includes a brief stop for groceries if you want it, but since we were in a hurry to get to the hotel and didn’t think we’d need any extra provisions.

Portofino Bay

Last year, we stayed at Portofino Bay because I was able to find a fantastic rate. This year we were paying Spring Break prices. There was no way I was going to match last year’s deal, but we were able to take advantage of the Annual Passholder Rate which presented a substantial discount. We also made the decision to upgrade to a Club Level room because the dining options at Portofino Bay outside of Sal’s Market Deli tend to be pricey even by Orlando standards.

One of the things we loved about our stay last year was our Bay View Room. We lucked out and got a ground-floor room with a quaint little patio right next to the harbor. Mindy enjoyed having breakfast outside most mornings. We were right next to a Starbucks and the little gelato shop. Everyone agreed that Portofino Bay was our favorite hotel in Orlando.

When it came time to decide where to stay this year, the choice was between returning to Portofino Bay or trying out the Hard Rock, the only deluxe hotel at Universal we haven’t visited yet. We ended up sticking with Portofino largely because we liked the pool there. The pool is important to the kids and I read that Hard Rock’s pool is unusually shallow. That was a deal-breaker.

As we pulled up to the hotel and the images of the little Italian fishing village came into view, I felt like we had made the right choice. I was looking forward to another relaxing stay in “fake Italy”. Staying at Portofino Bay is like spending a week inside Epcot’s Italy Pavilion if the pavilion had all the amenities of a deluxe resort.

My one reservation was our room assignment. I knew that at least part of the reason we enjoyed last year’s trip so much was that we had lucked into a centrally located room with a fantastic view. I had stressed to everyone before the trip that we probably wouldn’t be that lucky again.

I researched the location of the Club Level rooms before we left. Researching fine points of a Universal vacation can be a bit frustrating at times. There are entire websites and fan communities dedicated to even the most minute details of Walt Disney World. But I found out of date information on Universal at every website I visited. And a lot of things just aren’t covered.

Information about the Club Level rooms was hard to come by. Partially, that is because Portofino is the only deluxe hotel that doesn’t have dedicated club rooms. Instead, any room can be upgraded with access to the club for a price. When you reserve a Club Room, you will typically be assigned to one of the hotel’s larger “deluxe” rooms which are scattered throughout the hotel.

This is what I wrote about the Club Level rooms in my pre-trip report:

Another factor is proximity to the lounge. Last year our room was in the East Wing of the resort. We had a Bay View on the ground floor which came with a nice enclosed patio. It was very nice. Unfortunately, we have no idea where we will be located this time around despite paying for a room upgrade.


The Club Level rooms at the other two deluxe hotels are all located on a dedicated floor near the lounge, but that’s not how Portofino Bay is set up. Instead, the lounge is in the main building and Club Level rooms are scattered throughout the resort. This allows greater flexibility to offer the Club Level upcharge to any room, but there’s no guarantee your room will be located close to the lounge.


From what I have read, most of the Club Level rooms are located in the West Wing in the general vicinity of the Villa or Beach pools. The resort is relatively compact, so I’m not terribly concerned with long walks to and from the lounge or any of the other amenities. But our room assignment enhanced our stay last year so I am hoping for a similar experience this time around.

I want to stress that Mindy read this report when I posted it one month before our trip. She even pointed out some of my typos, so I know she read it somewhat closely.

The view from our room
I am also fairly certain that leading up to the trip I made sure to bring up the issue of room location and that I had no way of knowing where we would be located or what kind of view we would have until after we checked in. If anything, I may have brought it up so often that my warnings fell on deaf ears. Because no matter how many times I attempted to deliver the message, Mindy was surprised and disappointed by the location of our room this year.

We were assigned to a room in the Villa section of the hotel as I had expected. Our room was on the fifth floor which is a bit deceiving. The lobby is located on the third floor, so we were only two floors up from the Club and most of the hotel’s amenities.

In adhering to the theme of an Italian fishing village, Portofino Bay includes a lot of staircases, pathways and public areas. This means that while the distance from Point A to Point B may be negligible, you may end up walking quite a bit. There is often no choice but to take the scenic route. Our room was located in the heart of the Villa overlooking the Beach Pool. But getting there from the hotel lobby was about a ten minute walk through several twisting hallways.

View of the Villa from our room
Early in our stay, we figured out that there was an elevator right around the corner from our room that made it very easy to get to the pools, the spa and the arcade. The boat dock was a little further out, but not much farther away than it was last year. We could get to and from the Club in about five minutes. But that first night as we were walking down the well-decorated corridors to our room, none of that mattered.

It became very obvious to everyone that Mindy was losing patience with the walk to our room. On a previous trip we stayed at Cabana Bay and Mindy’s biggest complaint was the walk from the main building to our room. She was having flashbacks to that experience and it was making her angry. Even the kids picked up on it.

When we got to the room, Mindy was fuming. She kept muttering about how stupid it was that the Club wasn’t on the same floor as the Club Level rooms. I didn’t disagree, but that was the arrangement and I thought everyone was aware of it in advance. I opened the window hoping for something other than a parking lot and I was reasonably pleased to see a view of the Beach Pool and some of the surrounding Villa. It wasn’t as nice as our Bay View, but it would do.

Pool view from our room
Josie stared out the window with me and we exchanged a look. It was best just to ride this one out. No one say anything.

The room was very similar to the one we stayed in last year. It was a little larger. The extra space was mostly dedicated to the bathroom area. The room we stayed in last year had a much larger bathroom than most Orlando-area hotels, but it did not have a separate bathtub.

This room had a shower and a tub. Next to the tub was a window that could be opened into the bedroom. The kids absolutely loved this feature. They may or may not have climbed through the window to jump on the beds. Okay, they totally did that.

The bathroom also had an unusual feature allowing you to pipe audio from the TV into the bathroom. The kids liked to open the window so they could see the TV while taking a bath. It took some craning of your neck to actually see the TV from the bathroom, but you could definitely follow along with the audio.

While we were checking out the room, Mindy did some unpacking. She can never really relax in a hotel room until the bags have been at least partially unpacked. This helped to relieve some of the frustration she was feeling over the location of the room, but she was still pretty obviously disappointed.

By this time it was after 8:00. The parks were getting ready to close for the night, but we never planned to visit them on our arrival day. Instead, we were going to check out the Portofino Club. They served “sweet treats” from 8:00-9:00 every night and the kids were looking forward to trying out the deserts.

The Portofino Club

The Club is located near the hotel lobby. There are signs marking the location but they are easily overlooked if you aren’t specifically looking for them. I had been to the Vacation Planning Center that is next to the club but never really noticed the signs before. When we checked in, we were given two extra key cards which opened the door to the club.

Basically the club was like a nice living room with a small buffet area attached. There was a TV which was tuned to basketball that night but was usually playing kids’ shows or family-friendly movies. There were enough tables and chairs that we never had to look for alternate seating.

At night the bar was open. Beer and wine were included and liquor was available at what I believe are reasonable prices. I’m not a drinker, so I’m not the best judge of that. Other beverage options included milk, coffee, soda and bottles of water.

The central buffet area offered up three different sweets. There was always a cookie. Most nights it was chocolate chip, but sometimes it was a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips. The girls raved about the cookies and I have to admit they were really tasty. I have a high bar for cookies and these were surprisingly soft and loaded with chocolate bits. I’m kind of wishing I had one right now to be honest.

The other two treats rotated from night to night but usually there was some kind of tart and a pastry. There were exceptions. On our first night, they served up a berry tart (with a powerful punch of raspberry flavor) and a chocolate pot de crème.

Josie is a big fan of raspberries and chocolate mousse, so all of the desserts were big hits with her. Mindy and Kara don’t care for raspberries so they didn’t like the tart. But no matter what desserts were offered, you could reliably satisfy your sweet tooth with cookies and milk.

The desserts put everyone in a good mood. I think the walk back to the room reminded Mindy of her displeasure, but she was mostly over it. There was a Glow Party going on at the pool below including glow-in-the-dark toys and a foam pit in the kiddie pool. It looked like a good time, but we weren’t up for it. The pool-view rooms could be pretty noisy, but the party ended at 10:00 and things quieted down. Still, if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing you may want to avoid rooms overlooking the Beach Pool.

I always bring an Amazon Firestick with us on vacation because TV offerings tend to be limited in the hotels. I didn’t especially feel like hooking it up before bed. Connecting to the hotel wi-fi is a bit of a chore using the Firestick remote. Fortunately, the kids were able to find Zootopia and we watched that before bed.

I think everyone slept pretty soundly that night. That’s one of the advantages of travel days. We were all pretty worn out. After a good night’s sleep we woke ready to start the vacation in earnest.

Next: First Day at the Parks

 

[Rista1313]

Love molded butter even at age 48 it makes me happy!

 

[lebeau]

After a pleasant lunch at Mythos, we were headed to Toon Lagoon which was on the opposite side of the park. Either way we went, we were in for a bit of a trek. We decided to avoid the crowds in Hogsemeade and go through Seuss Landing instead. I took a picture of this restroom sign because we seemed to stop here every time we passed through this land.

Getting Soaked

I had a bit of trouble with the lockers by Popeye. I kept swiping my annual pass, but it didn’t seem to be working. A locker was supposed to swing open, but it just wasn’t happening. Eventually, Mindy pointed out an open locker off to the side. I guessed I had missed it. I went ahead and put our bags in and closed the locker without a thought.

There wasn’t much of a line for Popeye despite the warm weather. With Express Pass, we walked right on to the raft with no line whatsoever.

Bilgerat Barges us a very lively raft ride with some exciting dips but no big drops. Part of the fun is wondering who is going to get soaked next. Everyone will get wet eventually. Most likely drenched. The anticipation of the next big splash is part of the appeal of the ride.

We were all soaking wet, so we decided to go ahead and ride it again. Our second raft wasn’t full. It was just us and a young couple that looked very “put together’. The poor girl had clearly spent a lot of time on her hair and make-up. She was carrying a teddy bear. I suggested she put it in the center compartment to keep it dry.

They noticed how wet we were and asked if that was all from one ride. We confirmed that it was and told them there was no way to avoid getting wet. I wasn’t sure how they would react to the drenching they were about to receive, but they loved it. We all laughed and had a great time. When it was over, they asked if we wanted to ride with them again but we decided twice was enough. We were ready to dry off.

Unfortunately, we had to wait for our locker. It turns out that locker I put our bags in didn’t open for us. I think someone else must have left a locker open after retrieving their belongings. As a result, we hadn’t properly completed the locker transaction. On the upside, our locker was free. (Edit: Mindy tells me we were charged for the locker so I don’t know what happened!) The downside was we had to wait for someone to come along and open our locker for us.
It wasn’t a big deal but we ended up waiting around for five minutes or more for someone to come help us. He was very nice and asked to see me unlock my phone to verify that the contents of the locker were actually ours.

It had taken some effort and a fair amount of preplanning, but Popeye turned out to be one of our favorite attractions. We’ll definitely be back on another warm day.

Interlude

After Popeye, Kara wanted to get some Dippin’ Dots. There are Dippin’ Dots vendors all over the park, so that seemed easy. But she had her heart set on a specific flavor; Rainbow Ice. As it turns out, there had been a run on Rainbow Ice Dippin’ Dots and all of the kiosks were out. We stopped by four stands in Islands of Adventure with no luck. But the guy by the park entrance said he was pretty sure the CityWalk location would be fully stocked.

We were relieved to find out that the CityWalk Dippin’ Dots had not run out of Rainbow Ice ice cream. We explained to the guy behind the counter how we had searched high and low, so he gave Kara an extra-large portion. She was very satisfied.

It was getting hot and we were running out of steam, so we headed back to the hotel for a break. I took the kids to the pool for a quick swim. Afterwards, we went back to the room to get ready for the parade. While the girls were doing their hair, I did a quick check-in on my phone. A Facebook post from one of the groups I belong to jumped out at me. It turns out Warwick Davis was staying at Portofino Bay which explained why I kept seeing a guy who looked an awful lot like Warwick Davis.

We weren’t especially hungry following a late lunch and some snacks. But I decided to run down to the club to see what they were serving for dinner. From what I had read, the club would have an Asian night and Kara was interested in sweet and sour chicken. Well, it was Asian night all right. But the entree was beef and broccoli which I didn’t think she would like.

I made up a plate and brought it back to the room. Kara ate some noodles, but didn’t care for the beef. I ate the meat which I thought was quite tasty. We weren’t going to get a full dinner out of the club tonight, but that was okay.

Mardi Gras Finale

We reported to the Barney gates for our second tour on the Mardi Gras parade floats. I pointed out the long standby line full of people waiting to take our place should we not show up. This was the last parade of the year and guests were excited. Some of the team members, honestly, seemed a little drained and just relieved that it was coming to an end.

Since this was the final parade, things were a little different this time around. Before taking us all back to the floats, the team members had an awards ceremony in the courtyard. Bead captains who had received a certain number of compliments at Guest Services were allowed to smash a pie in the face of the manager of their choice.

It seemed like the team members had a lot of fun participating in this ceremony, but it was a little odd to be an observer. The only bead captain we knew was Yuri from earlier in the week. She did win an award which as far as I can tell was well-deserved. Yuri was terrific. Our bead captain for tonight’s parade was not nominated.

We had a blast the first time we participated in the parade. The second time around was still fun, but less so. We were placed on the Gator float which was one of the largest floats in the parade. It is the big finale which was cool. It also meant we waited around quite a while to join the parade.

While we waited, they were trying to connect an extension that would allow a woman in a wheelchair to ride with us. This went on for quite some time. Eventually, it became clear there were technical difficulties. For a little while, it looked like they weren’t going to be able to get the extension working. Our bead captain re-positioned everyone assuming that we were going to leave without the woman in the wheelchair.

Obviously, this woman was disappointed. She just started sobbing. It was a pretty serious bummer. Fortunately, they were able to get things working at what had to be the very last minute. We were getting a late start, but everyone was able to participate.

The second time around was fun, but it didn’t have the same energy as our first experience. We were all glad we had gotten to participate in the parade and I think we would do it again. But I think twice in one trip was plenty.

Since we had gotten a late start, we didn’t have a lot of time to make it back to the club for our nightly desserts. I suggested getting beneigts from the Mardi Gras booths. The girls were enthused. The line was long which was expected on the last night of Mardi Gras. I jumped in like while they looked for a restroom nearby.

The line was long, but it was moving pretty fast. I expected to have a couple of orders of beneigts ready by the time the girls got back. But then, just as I was swiping my credit card, the fryer went down. They told me they weren’t sure how long it would take to get it up and running again, but I decided not to wait. It seemed like it would be a while.

When the girls returned, I gave them the bad news about the beneigts. I suggested trying out Cowfish for dessert. We had been there many times and never ordered off the dessert menu. They liked the idea. But as you can probably imagine Cowfish had a long wait to get a table. CityWalk was packed.

We were running out of options, but I had kept one in my back pocket for just such an emergency. I threw out the idea of frozen yogurt at Menchie’s. The kids liked it, but Mindy wanted something a little more substantial. Plus she was convinced Menchie’s would be as bad as everywhere else on CityWalk.

Thankfully, it wasn’t bad at all. The kids got their frozen yogurt and were happy. Mindy got a buttery pretzel at an Aunie Ann’s stand. It wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but CityWalk came through in the end.

It was a gorgeous night, so we decided to walk back to Portofino Bay. When we got back to the hotel, we were surprised by a couple of kittens. They seemed too friendly to be strays. The kids sat down and played with them for a while and then they ran off. It turns out they belonged to someone staying at the pet-friendly hotel. Once they heard the door open, they ran right back into their room.

Next: Volcano Bay

 

[lebeau]

Love molded butter even at age 48 it makes me happy!

Little touches make the experience memorable.

 

[lebeau]

Mindy and the kids love Volcano Bay. We’re not typically water park people. We don’t do a lot of slides when we go. Instead, we use the water park as a place to unwind. But there are issues we have to plan for. The biggest problem is that Kara burns like toast. Last year, no matter often we applied sunscreen, she got badly sunburned. So we wanted to prevent that from happening again this year.

Originally, we had planned to visit Volcano Bay in the evening. But the park closed between 6:00 and 7:00 every day we were there and the sun didn’t go down till around 8:00. We decided to go as late in the day as possible to try to minimize Kara’s exposure to the sun, but the weather forecast wasn’t cooperating. Storms were expected in the afternoon through the evening.

So we made up our minds to load up on sunscreen and take our chances. In the past, we took advantage of Early Park Admission which can be a huge perk at Volcano Bay. But this morning, we took our time with breakfast at the Portofino Club. We weren’t in any kind of hurry.

When we were done with breakfast, we walked to the shuttle station in front of the hotel. This is typically the longest wait we ever have for Universal transportation. Our bus arrived within ten to fifteen minutes. It wasn’t bad at all. After a short ride on a bus that was less than half full, we had arrived at our destination.

Our usual strategy for Volcano Bay is that I go rent a locker while Mindy and the girls claim chairs. I had a little bit of a problem because I had lost my pass earlier in the trip and needed to replace it. My old pass was linked to Volcano Bay’s systems through the Universal app. But my new pass wasn’t recognized and I hadn’t brought my phone with me so I couldn’t update it.

That left me with a decision to make. Last year, I carried my credit card around with me. The chlorine caused the card to peel and eventually I had to get it replaced. I had just gotten a sparkly new Darth Vader design on my Visa and I didn’t want to ruin in. So I decided to stash my credit card in the locker. That would mean coming back to the locker any time we wanted to buy some food. Not a big deal, but not as convenient as paying with our Tapu Tapu devices either.

When I got back from the lockers, Mindy and the girls were hanging out at the wave pool. Honestly, they could spend the whole day splashing in the waves in front of the giant volcano. That is totally their speed. I suggested, as gently as I could, that we should head over to the Krakatau Aqua Coaster before lines started to build up, but the girls weren’t interested.

Mindy bristled. She hates when I try to impose any kind of a plan. I told her we could spend as much time as the girls wanted in the wave pool, but the best strategy would be to visit the most popular ride in the park as early as possible. That phrasing would come back to haunt me.

When the girls were darn good and ready, we left the wave pool to find the entrance for Krakatau. Volcano Bay is a relatively small park, but it can be hard to find things because all of the rides, shops and restaurants have Polynesian-inspired names and entrances and exits can be off the beaten path. After three trips to the park, we’re still learning where things are.

My plan was to scan our Tapu Tapu devices to hold our spot in the line for Krakatau and then experience some of the other attractions without a wait. However, that wasn’t necessary. To my surprise, the water coaster was listed as “Ride Now”. We were able to board without a wait.

That was great. I’m certainly not about to complain about a lack of lines. But believe me, I heard about it from the girls. “This is such bad strategy, Dad.” That sort of thing. I wasn’t going to live that down. The girls made fun of me all day long.

I suppose a lot of potential visitors were scared off by the predictions of storms later in the day. Or maybe people were tired from the last night of Madri Gras the night before. Tonight was the first night of Grad Bash at the dry parks, so maybe all the kids were headed over there. For whatever reason, the crowds never materialized at Volcano Bay and neither did the storms. The weather was perfect and there were no waits for anything. You couldn’t possibly pick a better day to visit.

Josie sat up front and screamed her head off through the whole two minute ride. We were all laughing at her the entire time. Everyone had so much fun we decided to do it again.

After a couple of rides on Krakatau, Kara was feeling pretty brave. She had watched some YouTube videos that convinced her she could handle Maku and Puihi. I forget which is which, but these are both multi-passenger raft slides that everyone can ride together.

Last year, we tried to get Kara to give these slides a shot, but she was intimidated by the height. So we gave them a pass. This year, she was leading the charge to ride the slides. We rode them each once and she had a blast, but Mindy and I were worn out from climbing all those steps. There’s a downside to not having to wait in line at a water park!

After riding a few slides, we decided to take a few trips around the Fearless River. Like the Wave Pool, the girls could spend all day here. I have a theory that the strength of the river diminishes when there are more bodies in the pool breaking up the waves. Since this was a light day, the current in the Fearless River was really strong.

Last year, we ran into a bit of trouble when one of the waves knocked Kara’s Tapu Tapu off her wrist. Josie and I were able to retrieve it after a lap or two around the river, but we saw a small stack of lost devices indicating that this was a pretty common issue. I’m happy to report that Volcano Bay has added an extra strap to the wristband making it much more secure. We didn’t have any issues with lost Tapu Tapus this time around.

One of the final must-do’s on the kids’ list for the trip was to try out the multi-flavored soft serve ice cream called the Waturi Fusion. The ice cream is a vanilla base which is infused with different flavors as it is dispensed. The machine seemed to be somewhat complicated to operate. There were several team members working at Koka Poroka but only a couple of them had the proper training to make the Waturi Fusuion.

You can order individual flavors if you don’t want them all. The standard Fusion comes with banana, blue raspberry, orange, and strawberry. Individual flavors also include chocolate, vanilla, pineapple, coconut and mango. The girls each ordered a Fusion and Mindy got a chocolate.

The Waturi Fusion was a huge hit with the girls. I got to taste some of the flavors and they were very strong in a good way. I definitely picked up on banana and strawberry. A lot of times, I end up finishing off ice cream when the girls get full, but that wasn’t necessary today. Mindy, on the other hand, was a bit disappointed in her chocolate ice cream.

Mindy hates vanilla soft serve. I mean, she really hates it. Once when we were dating I took her to Dairy Queen and she just about flipped her lid when she found out they were out of chocolate. They offered to dip her vanilla cone in actual chocolate for her, but it just wasn’t the same. This has happened to her more than once. The kids got to see it first hand when Mindy took them to a different location that was also out of chocolate.

Koka Poroka had chocolate ice cream in stock, but the flavor wasn’t very strong. The girls’ ice cream was bright and colorful, but Mindy’s looked slightly beige. She had us all taste it to see if we detected the chocolate. It was there. Kara compared it to a chocolate shake. It was chocolaty, but the flavor wasn’t very strong.
From what I have seen online it seems like the amount of flavor infused in the ice cream can vary. We have had similar experiences with weak flavors at Florean Fortescue in Diagon Alley. So, that’s something to be aware of. All the same, the girls will definitely want Waturi Fusions the next time we visit Volcano Bay.

For the rest of the afternoon, we bounced around between the lazy river, the fearless river and the wave pool. The slides were all “Ride Now” all day long, so the girls continued to mock me for my reliance on “strategy” which wasn’t actually needed on this particular day.

Every hour or so, we would stop to reapply sunscreen and I am happy to report that Kara did not get burned this year. We all got some sun, but no one was in pain.

Before we left, the girls wanted some real food. Every time we have visited Volcano Bay, Kara has ordered a hot dog. She won’t eat them anywhere else, but she has to have a hot dog at the water park. Mindy wanted one too. Josie typically orders the mac and cheese without the grilled shrimp. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want grilled shrimp when that’s an option, but she likes the mac and cheese by itself.

I don’t usually order food at Volcano Bay but I decided to give the BBQ chicken flatbread a try. It was very tasty. Exactly what I would expect a BBQ chicken flatbread pizza to be. The food won’t blow your socks off, but it’s better than one would reasonably expect coming from a water park.

After a late lunch, we were ready to head back to the hotel. We stayed in that evening and I believe it rained. The dry parks were closed for Grad Bash anyway, so we took it easy. We stopped by the club for dinner, but I don’t remember what they served. I think I ended up getting Kara some fries from Sal’s because she didn’t like the main dish. We also hit up desserts for the last time.

The trip was just about over and we were ready to go home. We were already missing the place even though we hadn’t left yet. But we had done just about everything we set out to do. Our flight was leaving in the middle of the afternoon, so we were still going to be able to pack in a little more park time before we left.

Next: The End

 

[lebeau]

sorry , i got very sick this week and wasnt able tolerate any solid food..

as usual a really cool lebeau family trip

Hope you're feeling better!

 

[lebeau]

This was it. Departure day. We were headed back home. Our vacation was coming to an end, but we still had a little time left to squeeze in some last minute fun before our flight. We had done just about everything we had set out to do this week. But there was one small objective left. It was a very minor thing, but since we had time we were going back to Islands of Adventure to do it.

As always, we started our day with breakfast at the Portofino Club. We had eaten breakfast here every morning, had dessert more often than not, loaded up on snacks and drinks – so many drinks – and even enjoyed a few dinners here. All in all, it was well worth the upcharge for our family.

We weren’t in any kind of hurry, so we lingered in the club during this final morning. That’s when the bookshelf caught my eye. I wondered what kind of books would be on the shelves. I assumed they would be Italian, but no. They were just a random assortment of books. I want to give a shout out to whoever put Captain Stubing’s autobiography on the shelf!

After breakfast, we went back to our room and made sure we hadn’t left anything behind. The girls do not pack light. There’s an entire suitcase filled with nothing but stuffed animals and it’s always heavier on the way home than it was when we left. Once we were satisfied that we had all our stuff, we rolled everything down to baggage claim to store it while we went to the park.

Before we boarded the water taxi, the girls wanted to stop at Starbucks. They pretty much always want Starbucks.
We didn’t have a big plan for the day, but we had a few hours to kill. There were two things the girls were interested in. Kara wanted to spend some more time in Seuss Landing. She had become really fond of this land and we kept going back for little visits. And both girls wanted to check out Camp Jurassic if we had time.

I had a secret objective of my own. Josie’s birthday was right around the corner and I wanted to pick up the Bart and Lisa dolls that went with the Homer and Marge she had bought as souvenirs. But I wanted to do it when Josie wouldn’t see me.

It was a hot one! Easily the hottest day of our trip and the most crowded we had seen the parks all week. I was glad it hadn’t been like this for the entire vacation! We weren’t going to spend a lot of time riding rides today. The lines were just too dang long.

The one attraction in Seuss Landing that we hadn’t been on yet this trip was the Caro-Seuss-El. Josie decided to sit this one out. As a teen, she was too grown up for a merry-go-round I guess. But Kara still enjoyed it so I rode with her.

We also took one more ride on the Cat in the Hat dark ride. It has really become a family favorite after this trip. I lost track of how many times we rode it.

Before we left Seuss Landing, Josie needed a potty break. As it turned out, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were doing meet and greets nearby. Josie couldn’t have been less interested in posing for a picture with them. She has a thing about the mute characters which is why I can’t get her to meet the Simpsons. But Kara feels a connection with these characters based on a Halloween costume, so the rest of us posed while Josie did her business.

Once we were satisfied that we had spent sufficient time in Seuss Landing, we headed over to the Lost Continent. Kara hadn’t eaten much breakfast this morning and she was getting hungry for lunch. I suggested checking out Mythos since it had been such a hit last time. The girls eagerly agreed.

Last time, we were able to get seated at Mythos without a reservation. But we weren’t going to be so lucky this time. They quoted an hour and a half wait for lunch. I went ahead and placed the reservation. They took my phone number and promised to text when our table was ready so we could go explore the parks.

Kara wasn’t happy with this development. She was hungry and she had set her mind to Mythos. Like her mom, once Kara has her mind set on something, nothing else will do. We gathered by the talking fountain to formulate a plan.

We had to leave the park by 2:00 in order to make our flight. It was just shy of noon. I told the girls that people would cancel their reservations and the wait would probably be more like an hour. If they really wanted Mythos, we could probably end our day there with lunch around 1:00. Or, if they didn’t feel they could wait that long, we could find something else to eat along the way.

While we were making up our minds about what to do, the fountain was up to its usual tricks. There was a group from New York, so it started playing New York, New York while trying to spray the kids. One kid was wearing bright yellow sneakers, so the fountain kept asking him why he was wearing bananas on his feet. We enjoyed the show from a safe distance.

Eventually, we decided to make our way to Camp Jurassic. But Kara’s mind was still on lunch. We stopped at Three Broomsticks to see if anything on the menu appealed to her. She didn’t see anything she liked which was just as well. There was a very long line just to get into the place.

I could see where this was going. Kara had burgers on her mind and nothing but a burger was going to do the trick. She wasn’t going to be able to have fun until she had eaten a hamburger. Fortunately, Burger Digs was close by. I had read mostly negative reviews of the place, but it didn’t matter. We need a burger for Kara as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the line at Burger Digs was insane. It looked like at least a twenty minute wait for burgers that would mostly like be standard amusement park food. I wasn’t thrilled with this plan. If only Kara had eaten more at breakfast, we would have been able to hold out for Mythos, but there was nothing to do now but make the best of the situation.

I did the only sensible thing one could do given the long line we were faced with. I placed a mobile order on the app. The girls each got burgers and Mindy wanted a grilled chicken sandwich. We had our food within minutes. Seriously, the food was up two-to-three minutes after I hit the “prepare food” button on my phone. People need to start using the app. It’s a major time saver.

The food was okay. As expected, it was a standard theme park burger. Nothing to get excited about but it will fill up your hungry kid. There was ample indoor seating and a pretty impressive toppings bar to doctor up your sandwich. You put enough stuff on your burger and it can salvage a mediocre patty.

Once the kids were full, they wanted to go downstairs to the Jurassic Park Discovery Center. The last time we were here, we were drying off after riding in the front row of the River Adventure. We had spent most of our time in the nursery, but there were still some exhibits the kids wanted to check out.

There are a couple of areas where kids can climb up next to a dinosaur statue and look through a kind of Jurassic periscope to see through their eyes.

The girls are not overly fond of dinosaurs, but they do like interactive exhibits. So they had some fund playing around with these displays.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the Discovery Center, I got a text that our table at Mythos would be ready soon. It was about ten to one, so my prediction was pretty spot on. I asked the girls if they wanted to head back to Mythos for dessert or visit Camp Jurassic instead. They opted for Camp Jurassic, so I replied to the text with a “1” which cancelled our reservation.

We had been to Camp Jurassic once before when the kids were younger. That was our first visit to Universal as a family and we had tried to cram both parks into a single day. It was hot and we were exhausted, so we didn’t make it very far.

This was another hot day, but we were fresh on our feet and full from lunch. So climbing rope ladders and exploring caves seemed like just the thing. Or at least it appealed to the kids. Mindy and I could have done with fewer rope bridges and climby things.

 

[lebeau]

As playgrounds go, Camp Jurassic is impressive. There are a variety of activities to keep kids occupied. This kid was getting soaked in a water gun fight. The spraying dino heads are cooler than the guns perched up high, but that comes at the cost of the high ground. You’re at a strategic disadvantage, kid. Might be why you were soaked.

If your kids like adventure movies like Jurassic Park, Camp Jurassic is sure to be a hit. You feel like you are walking through scenes from the movie. My kids don’t like those movies and they were having a ball. Mindy and I were having fun too even if it was kind of exhausting.

There are lots of levels to climb. Every time you turn a corner, there is somewhere else to go and you never know exactly where the next climb will take you. Since it was a hot day, we spent some time running through the splash zone.

The water cannons were nearby just in case you wanted to fight off the squirting dinos down below.

Most of the playground consists of bridges and things to climb. You just keep going round and round from one level to another. It’s a great place to let your kids burn off some of that pent up energy.

There were some slides, but the biggest one was closed for repair. The ones that were open were too small for my kids to be impressed. But I’m sure younger children would love them.

The top levels are pretty high up offering some cool vantage points to view the rest of the park. We could see Skull Island in the distance and hear the natives chanting for Kong.

Before we left, we explored the amber caves. Josie wasn’t too thrilled about this part of the Camp which she found creepy. Eventually, we triggered a dinosaur roar noise and the girls ran out of the caves like Scooby Doo from a haunted house. It was hilarious.

All in all, Camp Jurassic was a lot of fun and I was glad we got to check it out before we left. It’s not a must-see, but if you are spending a significant amount of time at the parks I would definitely make a point of dropping in for a bit. Especially if you have kids. They will love it.

We contemplated riding Pteranodon Flyers before we left. Kara was just under the height limit for this ride, so it was pretty much our last chance for the kids to ride it. Next time we come, whenever that is, everyone will be too tall. But ultimately the kids decided they were okay not riding the slow-moving, high-flying tour of Jurassic Park.

On our way out of Islands of Adventure, the girls wanted to stop for Icees because it was melt-your-face-off hot now. All week long I had been weighing the pros and cons of Spring Break vs. our usual early summer vacation. Spring Break was more expensive and crowded, but the temperatures we had experienced were more moderate. Today reminded me just how oppressive the summer heat could be. Spring Break wins hands down.

I ended up waiting in line for a good ten or fifteen minutes to get the frozen drinks while the girls waited in the shade. We had thought about swinging through Cartoon Lagoon and exploring Popeye’s boat, but we were running out of time to make it back to the hotel and meet our driver and we didn’t want to take any chances. So instead, we made our way to Port of Entry.

When we passed Croissant Moon, I asked the girls to sit down a bit and drink their Icees. I had something I needed to do. They assumed I was taking a potty break, but really I ran into the gift shop to pick up Josie’s Simpsons dolls. They didn’t have Maggie in stock, but that wasn’t a big deal. Once I had paid for Bart and Lisa, I met the girls and we left the park.

We made it back to Portofino Bay with time to spare. So we spent a little time just enjoying the atmosphere. I snapped a few more pictures before I got our bags.

The day before, when we returned from Volcano Bay by shuttle, we cut through some of the ballrooms where conventions are held. They were pretty impressive, so I wanted to run back there and take a few pictures for the report.

I am willing to bet most tourists don’t venture back here unless they are part of a business trip, but it’s worth checking out if you have the time.

Our time, unfortunately was up. The guy at luggage services brought out our bags as well as some cold bottles of water since we were clearly overheated from our time in the park. A short while later, our driver Ron texted to say he was pulling into the driveway. It was time to go home.

Everyone agreed that this was among our best family vacations. Maybe THE best. I had worried that we might get tired of Universal after having spent so much time here, but that did not turn out to be the case. A few months later and Mindy and the girls are already eager to go back.

I have very little doubt that we will return. It may not be next year. I am thinking it may be best to give Universal a bit of a break after three week-long trips in the span of two years. And of course, Fantastic Worlds looms on the horizon. We’ll definitely want to check that out when it opens. So I can’t say when we will be back, but I fully expect to write another Universal trip report some time in the future.

Thanks to everyone for reading along. I hope you enjoyed traveling with us vicariously and maybe got a few ideas for your next Universal vacation.

 

[DRD]

Great TR! Always enjoy the lebeau reports!!!

 

[KellBelle]

Awesome report! Thanks for letting me join you!

 

[lebeau]

Great TR! Always enjoy the lebeau reports!!!

Awesome report! Thanks for letting me join you!

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for coming along!

 

[Nemo14]

I really enjoyed your report. I joined this forum when Josie was just an infant and you would talk about how you were looking forward to taking her for her first trip. Now she's a beautiful teenager - boy am I old!!! Thanks for sharing her and her sister's adventures with us all these years!

 

[lebeau]

I really enjoyed your report. I joined this forum when Josie was just an infant and you would talk about how you were looking forward to taking her for her first trip. Now she's a beautiful teenager - boy am I old!!! Thanks for sharing her and her sister's adventures with us all these years!

Thanks for the kind words and for joining us on our trip reports.

I know what you mean. Time sure flies, doesn't it? I remember those days. Gosh so long ago. We had gone to WDW on our honeymoon in 2003 and Josie was born two years later. I didn't expect to take any big trips for a while, but looking back I was actually quite fortunate. My brother was judging a cheerleading competition and had a spare bed and free park tickets. All we had to do was fly ourselves down there. That was Josie's first trip which obviously she doesn't remember. The next time in 2008, Mindy was pregnant with Kara! On average we got to go about every other year through 2014. That's when we decided to mix things up a bit. In 2015 we tried out a Disney cruise with a single day at Universal and we haven't been back to WDW since!

Now Josie is curious to go back to WDW. She was 9 the last time we were there and she doesn't have clear memories of our trips. So we're thinking about going back and trying it again now that the kids were older. They have added a lot in the last five years so there are several things that would be new to us. I don't know. It's something we're talking about. We'll see. Whatever we end up doing next, you can count on a trip report!