Trip Report the "I can't eat anymore steak!!!, Wishes vs HEA, snake incident" Trip report. May 2017

*Flynnderella* · Jul 26, 2017

Le Cellier & Illuminations (kind of)

So we went to check in at Le Cellier (after sprinting around the world. I am so unfit) we were 10 minutes early for our reservation at 8:30pm. We were told upon check in, there would be a 5-10 minute wait for our tables. No problem- we will wait outside........ 20 minutes later.... :bored:

"Very sorry, we will be about another 10 minutes. Would you like to take part in some Canada trivia while you wait...?" "um...no you're okay we will just wait outside." ...... we decided that when Illuminations started and we were plunged into darkness that it was actually a bit of a joke. 45 minutes later at 9:15pm

they called our tables in. If I hadn't been looking forward to this restaurant I would have 100% left after 25 minutes. Anyway. We caught a little bit of Illuminations through the trees while we waited. We hadn't planned on watching it tonight (and we didn't actually get back to watch it properly) but I guess who doesn't love fireworks anyway! :joyfull:

O'Canada

Our server was really lovely-I didn't catch her name but she was great. Very attentive and helpful. My sister likes her food very simple so some of the herbs & sauces weren't really her thing so she really helped with suggestions for her and brought a few samples to try.

With it being quite late, there wasn't much ambience in the restaurant and a lot of empty tables...(which leaves me to ponder why we were left waiting so long, but I digress

).There were actually a few children asleep across chairs :bored:

In general though (Stop whinging Flynnderella :joyfull:

) the decor was lovely and we had a nice, relaxed experience.

As we were on the dining plan, we got the main and dessert. I'm not really a dessert person at all so we thought we would ask if we could sub dessert for starter...no. So we were FORCED

(kind of) to eat pudding everywhere we went. I was desperate to try the Cheddar Cheese soup but our server assured me it was on the Canada F & G stand. For the record, it wasn't :cry:

.

I'll stop waffling on and start talking food & add some pics. I ordered the Filet Mignon, Mushroom Risotto, Asparagus-Tomato Relish, Truffle-Butter Sauce. It was absolutely stunning. I cannot stress enough how nice it was-melt in your mouth steak and rich risotto:

NOM

Double Nom

Mum and Sis had the same as me but sis didn't have the risotto. They subbed it for mashed potato as she thought the risotto would be too rich for her (which after tasting mine, she said it was a good choice) and she asked if they could do her a garlic butter for her steak as she prefers to have quite plain, simple foods. It was no problem for them at all and she really enjoyed it. All of our steaks were cooked to perfection. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the group. 4 of them got the Porterhouse Steak for two and all 4 were very disappointed with it. I think personally it was just a bad menu choice..but really I was being very selfish and devouring my Filet to notice what was going on around me!! :hungry:

At the end of the meal, we did wait around quite a while for our bill and by this point it was very late. Our original plan had been to dine at 8:30 and then hopefully be out for Extra Magic Hours and hit the main rides but since we were so late, we decided to take a leisurely stroll to the front of the park...but as we checked MDE, Soarin' only had a 10 minute wait so we couldn't pass up that opportunity and made it in with 2 minutes to spare of EMH

(yes we were those people). Totally worth it.

And with that, we made our way out to the bus stop and back to the hotel. We had an early start to "break out of the world" and head to Universal << pretend you didn't read that.

12in12 · Jul 27, 2017

I had the cheese soup and I know loads of people love it but I disliked it A LOT. It tasted like mustardy cheese sauce. :hungover:

So in my opinion you didn't miss anything. And being forced to eat pudding after ever meal is my kind of torture.

Songbird76 · Jul 27, 2017

Oh, I can't wait to hear how you broke out of the world. Planning to do that on my next trip, too....I can use some tips!

*Flynnderella* · Jul 27, 2017

RedNoseMickey said:
I had the cheese soup and I know loads of people love it but I disliked it A LOT. It tasted like mustardy cheese sauce. So in my opinion you didn't miss anything. And being forced to eat pudding after ever meal is my kind of torture.

Oh that makes me feel better actually because I don't really like mustard!! :hungover:

I think if I hadn't done so much walking in the two weeks, I would have come back 10 stone heavier!!

Songbird76 said:
Oh, I can't wait to hear how you broke out of the world. Planning to do that on my next trip, too....I can use some tips!

Yes, it's definitely worth it!! We actually did it back in 2014 too but it went so badly wrong :facepalm:

. I will be back with an update

*Flynnderella* · Jul 27, 2017

Day 6..Breaking out of the World. Universal & Islands of Adventure

A quick (word heavy) story- When we were kids and visited Disney, we didn't venture out of the world other than to the Florida Mall for one day each time. So when we came back again for the first time as adults in 2014, we decided a trip to Universal was well overdue, especially with Harry Potter world! We only put aside 1 day of the two weeks to do this and chose Islands of Adventure as our park of choice as it seemed bigger and had Hogsmeade/Harry Potter ride to visit. We arrived as early as we could and bought our tickets at the gate. It was relatively quiet so there were no big queues. We made our way straight to "The Hulk" since it was a 10 min wait and we were walking past. Then we carried on through and over to HP. AMAZZING RIDE. Ride of the Hippogriffs, wandered through the shops,early lunch at "The Three Broomsticks" then over to watch the Sinbad show. This is where it went downhill. Genuinely the worst show I've ever seen and a waste of 30 mins. A wander over to Dr Seuss land...and the heavens opened. And I mean opened. Pretty surreal being stood outside Circus McGurcus in what can only be described as a biblical downpour. Long story short, we had to leave the park just after lunch, having ridden 3 rides. It gets worse....10 miles down the road and back at the world, glorious sunshine. GUTTED. It is now known as Universal-gate.

Back to this trip. We booked a taxi for 9 of us (mum had a pool day) the night before to collect us at 8:30am to be there for park opening at 9am. We didn't realise the taxi waited across the road in the car park at POR so we were stood waiting for about 20 minutes :facepalm:

They sent two so we just split the cost between us all. It was $35 each car one way.
We had bought our tickets before we set off from the UK so we just needed to print them out. I didn't realise that you needed ID to collect them :facepalm:

so I hadn't brought anything with me but luckily we had a lovely (cast member?

) and she said it was fine if I had my confirmation number.
Since the rest of the group had been the Universal before, they weren't fussed about which park to go into first. We chose Universal Studios as we hadn't done it before. The weather reports looked great so we weren't too worried about having to leave early today :joyfull:

Had to wait for the Universal sign

I think i'll do this as bullet points as it could become pretty word heavy:

First up Shrek 3D. Entertaining but not bothered about doing it again.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket- Loved it. I chose "Born to be Wild" as my song for this. It seemed appropriate
Next up- The Mummy. Spent about 5 minutes in front of the fans spraying water before went on this. SUCH A HOT DAY! I love the building that The Mummy ride is in. It's brilliantly themed and the queue is very creepy. Kay had been telling us how scary this ride was so we were really looking forward to it. She was right- I definitely screamed a couple of times and that fire room is HOT!

(not a great picture) :banghead:

After we got our things from the lockers, we had a wander down to Starbucks for a drink. I hate to say this but, walking down the "New York Streets" made me feel quite sad that Disney had gotten rid of this at HS. Universal have done a brilliant job on the themeing here and it makes HS look really terrible IMO *runs and hides*. That said, I don't think Universal has that much ability to immerse you in a bubble that Disney does so its all good (apart from perhaps HP but that is just on another level :inlove:

).

I got a Strawberry Banana Smoothie and I think sis got a chocolatey something! We stood and watched the street entertainment (similar to Stomp but they were builders or something?) they were good anyway!

The rest of the group got the refillable cup. Me and sis opted for water as we don't really drink that much fizzy stuff usually.

And then we arrived at London Kings Cross.

Certainly cleaner than I remember London being

By this point I had a blister :arghh:

even though I was wearing sensible trainers I think they were just rubbing as my feet had expanded in the heat (yes I keep mentioning the heat. We don't get even close to this over here so I'm allowed to say I was MAFFTING) :joyfull:

For the next 10 Minutes we wandered up and down saying "Is this it..?" "What the heck?" "I don't get it" "Is that Grimmauld Place? Maybe we go in there?"

"Well I need the loo so I'm going through here..there must be some in here?"

OH.

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!! :joyfull:

And as if by magic, through a magic wall,we were in Diagon Alley. :happy:

And my inner Harry Potter nerd was released!! WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!

There are no words for how excited I was so I'm just going to leave you with the pictures. Lets just say, I was in my #HappyPlace :inlove:

We headed for Escape from Gringotts and there was only a 15 minute wait. I think most of that is actually getting through to the ride since the walk is pretty long. I don't think I have any photos from inside but when we walked into Gringotts and into the main hall we were the only ones in there and my gosh its incredible. Felt like I was really in the film!! If only :cry:

Ride review- Really good and very clever use of the screens and coaster simultaneously. I will say I think I prefer "The Forbidden Journey" over at IOA as it is so different to any other ride but this is a close second. We decided to ride again as single riders and it was still as good the second time round.
We had a good wander around Diagon Alley and went in and out of the shops. Some of the group got ice creams and I think Matt got a Butter beer.
We decided that we would head back out of HP and finish off the rides in this park and head over to IOA for the afternoon.

Simpsons was next- not sure on this one. I felt quite ill during and closed my eyes for a minute or so. It was fun but I don't think i'd be rushing back
Men in Black- fun but I wasn't sure where I was shooting/aiming for?! I'm too used to Buzz Lightyear and his targets!

Hannah and Dave had bought 2 x 1 park day tickets so they were remaining in this park for the rest of the day while we headed over to IOA. What better way to get there but by The Hogwarts Express :inlove:

. I must add that I was fortunate enough to go on the REAL Hogwarts express when the first film came out.

It was filmed somewhere that we visit fairly often so that was a very exciting.

Love it. Just like home

I've exceeded my photo limit for this post so I will continue in my next one

Songbird76 · Jul 27, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
Day 6..Breaking out of the World. Universal & Islands of Adventure

A quick (word heavy) story- When we were kids and visited Disney, we didn't venture out of the world other than to the Florida Mall for one day each time. So when we came back again for the first time as adults in 2014, we decided a trip to Universal was well overdue, especially with Harry Potter world! We only put aside 1 day of the two weeks to do this and chose Islands of Adventure as our park of choice as it seemed bigger and had Hogsmeade/Harry Potter ride to visit. We arrived as early as we could and bought our tickets at the gate. It was relatively quiet so there were no big queues. We made our way straight to "The Hulk" since it was a 10 min wait and we were walking past. Then we carried on through and over to HP. AMAZZING RIDE. Ride of the Hippogriffs, wandered through the shops,early lunch at "The Three Broomsticks" then over to watch the Sinbad show. This is where it went downhill. Genuinely the worst show I've ever seen and a waste of 30 mins. A wander over to Dr Seuss land...and the heavens opened. And I mean opened. Pretty surreal being stood outside Circus McGurcus in what can only be described as a biblical downpour. Long story short, we had to leave the park just after lunch, having ridden 3 rides. It gets worse....10 miles down the road and back at the world, glorious sunshine. GUTTED. It is now known as Universal-gate.

Back to this trip. We booked a taxi for 9 of us (mum had a pool day) the night before to collect us at 8:30am to be there for park opening at 9am. We didn't realise the taxi waited across the road in the car park at POR so we were stood waiting for about 20 minutes They sent two so we just split the cost between us all. It was $35 each car one way.
We had bought our tickets before we set off from the UK so we just needed to print them out. I didn't realise that you needed ID to collect them so I hadn't brought anything with me but luckily we had a lovely (cast member?) and she said it was fine if I had my confirmation number.
Since the rest of the group had been the Universal before, they weren't fussed about which park to go into first. We chose Universal Studios as we hadn't done it before. The weather reports looked great so we weren't too worried about having to leave early today
View attachment 218945 Had to wait for the Universal sign

View attachment 218947
I think i'll do this as bullet points as it could become pretty word heavy:

First up Shrek 3D. Entertaining but not bothered about doing it again.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket- Loved it. I chose "Born to be Wild" as my song for this. It seemed appropriate

Next up- The Mummy. Spent about 5 minutes in front of the fans spraying water before went on this. SUCH A HOT DAY! I love the building that The Mummy ride is in. It's brilliantly themed and the queue is very creepy. Kay had been telling us how scary this ride was so we were really looking forward to it. She was right- I definitely screamed a couple of times and that fire room is HOT!

View attachment 218948 (not a great picture)
After we got our things from the lockers, we had a wander down to Starbucks for a drink. I hate to say this but, walking down the "New York Streets" made me feel quite sad that Disney had gotten rid of this at HS. Universal have done a brilliant job on the themeing here and it makes HS look really terrible IMO *runs and hides*. That said, I don't think Universal has that much ability to immerse you in a bubble that Disney does so its all good (apart from perhaps HP but that is just on another level ).
View attachment 218949 I got a Strawberry Banana Smoothie and I think sis got a chocolatey something! We stood and watched the street entertainment (similar to Stomp but they were builders or something?) they were good anyway! The rest of the group got the refillable cup. Me and sis opted for water as we don't really drink that much fizzy stuff usually.

And then we arrived at London Kings Cross. Certainly cleaner than I remember London being
View attachment 218950

By this point I had a blister even though I was wearing sensible trainers I think they were just rubbing as my feet had expanded in the heat (yes I keep mentioning the heat. We don't get even close to this over here so I'm allowed to say I was MAFFTING)
For the next 10 Minutes we wandered up and down saying "Is this it..?" "What the heck?" "I don't get it" "Is that Grimmauld Place? Maybe we go in there?" "Well I need the loo so I'm going through here..there must be some in here?"

OH.

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!! And as if by magic, through a magic wall,we were in Diagon Alley.

View attachment 218951
View attachment 218952

And my inner Harry Potter nerd was released!! WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!

There are no words for how excited I was so I'm just going to leave you with the pictures. Lets just say, I was in my #HappyPlace

View attachment 218953

View attachment 218954
We headed for Escape from Gringotts and there was only a 15 minute wait. I think most of that is actually getting through to the ride since the walk is pretty long. I don't think I have any photos from inside but when we walked into Gringotts and into the main hall we were the only ones in there and my gosh its incredible. Felt like I was really in the film!! If only
Ride review- Really good and very clever use of the screens and coaster simultaneously. I will say I think I prefer "The Forbidden Journey" over at IOA as it is so different to any other ride but this is a close second. We decided to ride again as single riders and it was still as good the second time round.
We had a good wander around Diagon Alley and went in and out of the shops. Some of the group got ice creams and I think Matt got a Butter beer.
We decided that we would head back out of HP and finish off the rides in this park and head over to IOA for the afternoon.

Simpsons was next- not sure on this one. I felt quite ill during and closed my eyes for a minute or so. It was fun but I don't think i'd be rushing back

Men in Black- fun but I wasn't sure where I was shooting/aiming for?! I'm too used to Buzz Lightyear and his targets!

Hannah and Dave had bought 2 x 1 park day tickets so they were remaining in this park for the rest of the day while we headed over to IOA. What better way to get there but by The Hogwarts Express . I must add that I was fortunate enough to go on the REAL Hogwarts express when the first film came out. It was filmed somewhere that we visit fairly often so that was a very exciting.

View attachment 218961 Love it. Just like home

I've exceeded my photo limit for this post so I will continue in my next one

I'm glad this sounded better than your 2014 experience! We went in 2010 when it had only been open for a month and it was SO swamped. The park opened at 9 and we got there before 10, but they HP part had already reached capacity and the waiting list was already 3 hours long, or we could come back in the afternoon when it got less busy. We came back at 3 and got right in, but the SHORTEST wait time was 15-20 minutes....to get into Honeydukes. 45 mins to an hour to get into the other store...90 to get into Olivanders and over 3 hours to do Forbidden Journey. I had a 2 year old and 4 year old with me...we gave up having done nothing but go to 2 shops and drink a butterbeer. I got CLOBBERED trying to pick out a wand in the one shop and we ended up just giving up. There wasn't room to swing a Kneazle! I'd LOVE to go back now that it's not as busy and they also have Diagon Alley, but we skipped Universal last year because the kids haven't read all the books or seen all the movies yet. We'll hopefully hit it next trip. Sounds like it will be worth the wait!! I went to the Studio tour in London and it was SO amazing.

*Flynnderella* · Jul 28, 2017

Songbird76 said:
I'm glad this sounded better than your 2014 experience! We went in 2010 when it had only been open for a month and it was SO swamped. The park opened at 9 and we got there before 10, but they HP part had already reached capacity and the waiting list was already 3 hours long, or we could come back in the afternoon when it got less busy. We came back at 3 and got right in, but the SHORTEST wait time was 15-20 minutes....to get into Honeydukes. 45 mins to an hour to get into the other store...90 to get into Olivanders and over 3 hours to do Forbidden Journey. I had a 2 year old and 4 year old with me...we gave up having done nothing but go to 2 shops and drink a butterbeer. I got CLOBBERED trying to pick out a wand in the one shop and we ended up just giving up. There wasn't room to swing a Kneazle! I'd LOVE to go back now that it's not as busy and they also have Diagon Alley, but we skipped Universal last year because the kids haven't read all the books or seen all the movies yet. We'll hopefully hit it next trip. Sounds like it will be worth the wait!! I went to the Studio tour in London and it was SO amazing.

It was definitely a better experience & we managed to do both parks in one day! Oh my gosh that sounds awful

it was just a right amount of busy when we went this time. I guess the opening of Diagon Alley helps disperse the crowds!
Aww well, get them reading/watching & hopefully they will be as excited about it as you are next time you go back!!

Yes we did the studio tour a couple of years ago and it was brilliant! I'd love to go back at Christmas to see how they decorate the Great Hall etc. There was so much to see I think another 2 studio trips are in order

Songbird76 · Jul 28, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
It was definitely a better experience & we managed to do both parks in one day! Oh my gosh that sounds awful it was just a right amount of busy when we went this time. I guess the opening of Diagon Alley helps disperse the crowds!
Aww well, get them reading/watching & hopefully they will be as excited about it as you are next time you go back!!
Yes we did the studio tour a couple of years ago and it was brilliant! I'd love to go back at Christmas to see how they decorate the Great Hall etc. There was so much to see I think another 2 studio trips are in order

Oh the kids love HP, but DS is a bit young for the later books/movies. We started to watch OotP when we were in Florida last Summer and he kind of freaked out and decided not to watch because it was too scary. So we'll come back to it. He still loves the first ones. DD is 11 and has seen all but the last 2 films. She's read the first 2, but they are slow going since my books are English and that's not their native language. They can both understand and speak English, but reading takes longer...that's why we started with the movies instead of the books. I want to take them to the studio tour eventually. I went with friends from a HP fan forum, so DH and the kids haven't been there yet. The Great Hall would be spectacular at Christmas. *sigh* Some day.

amjt660 · Jul 28, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
Day 6..Breaking out of the World. Universal & Islands of Adventure

A quick (word heavy) story- When we were kids and visited Disney, we didn't venture out of the world other than to the Florida Mall for one day each time. So when we came back again for the first time as adults in 2014, we decided a trip to Universal was well overdue, especially with Harry Potter world! We only put aside 1 day of the two weeks to do this and chose Islands of Adventure as our park of choice as it seemed bigger and had Hogsmeade/Harry Potter ride to visit. We arrived as early as we could and bought our tickets at the gate. It was relatively quiet so there were no big queues. We made our way straight to "The Hulk" since it was a 10 min wait and we were walking past. Then we carried on through and over to HP. AMAZZING RIDE. Ride of the Hippogriffs, wandered through the shops,early lunch at "The Three Broomsticks" then over to watch the Sinbad show. This is where it went downhill. Genuinely the worst show I've ever seen and a waste of 30 mins. A wander over to Dr Seuss land...and the heavens opened. And I mean opened. Pretty surreal being stood outside Circus McGurcus in what can only be described as a biblical downpour. Long story short, we had to leave the park just after lunch, having ridden 3 rides. It gets worse....10 miles down the road and back at the world, glorious sunshine. GUTTED. It is now known as Universal-gate.

Back to this trip. We booked a taxi for 9 of us (mum had a pool day) the night before to collect us at 8:30am to be there for park opening at 9am. We didn't realise the taxi waited across the road in the car park at POR so we were stood waiting for about 20 minutes They sent two so we just split the cost between us all. It was $35 each car one way.
We had bought our tickets before we set off from the UK so we just needed to print them out. I didn't realise that you needed ID to collect them so I hadn't brought anything with me but luckily we had a lovely (cast member?) and she said it was fine if I had my confirmation number.
Since the rest of the group had been the Universal before, they weren't fussed about which park to go into first. We chose Universal Studios as we hadn't done it before. The weather reports looked great so we weren't too worried about having to leave early today
View attachment 218945 Had to wait for the Universal sign

View attachment 218947
I think i'll do this as bullet points as it could become pretty word heavy:

First up Shrek 3D. Entertaining but not bothered about doing it again.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket- Loved it. I chose "Born to be Wild" as my song for this. It seemed appropriate

Next up- The Mummy. Spent about 5 minutes in front of the fans spraying water before went on this. SUCH A HOT DAY! I love the building that The Mummy ride is in. It's brilliantly themed and the queue is very creepy. Kay had been telling us how scary this ride was so we were really looking forward to it. She was right- I definitely screamed a couple of times and that fire room is HOT!

View attachment 218948 (not a great picture)
After we got our things from the lockers, we had a wander down to Starbucks for a drink. I hate to say this but, walking down the "New York Streets" made me feel quite sad that Disney had gotten rid of this at HS. Universal have done a brilliant job on the themeing here and it makes HS look really terrible IMO *runs and hides*. That said, I don't think Universal has that much ability to immerse you in a bubble that Disney does so its all good (apart from perhaps HP but that is just on another level ).
View attachment 218949 I got a Strawberry Banana Smoothie and I think sis got a chocolatey something! We stood and watched the street entertainment (similar to Stomp but they were builders or something?) they were good anyway! The rest of the group got the refillable cup. Me and sis opted for water as we don't really drink that much fizzy stuff usually.

And then we arrived at London Kings Cross. Certainly cleaner than I remember London being
View attachment 218950

By this point I had a blister even though I was wearing sensible trainers I think they were just rubbing as my feet had expanded in the heat (yes I keep mentioning the heat. We don't get even close to this over here so I'm allowed to say I was MAFFTING)
For the next 10 Minutes we wandered up and down saying "Is this it..?" "What the heck?" "I don't get it" "Is that Grimmauld Place? Maybe we go in there?" "Well I need the loo so I'm going through here..there must be some in here?"

OH.

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!! And as if by magic, through a magic wall,we were in Diagon Alley.

View attachment 218951
View attachment 218952

And my inner Harry Potter nerd was released!! WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!

There are no words for how excited I was so I'm just going to leave you with the pictures. Lets just say, I was in my #HappyPlace

View attachment 218953

View attachment 218954
We headed for Escape from Gringotts and there was only a 15 minute wait. I think most of that is actually getting through to the ride since the walk is pretty long. I don't think I have any photos from inside but when we walked into Gringotts and into the main hall we were the only ones in there and my gosh its incredible. Felt like I was really in the film!! If only
Ride review- Really good and very clever use of the screens and coaster simultaneously. I will say I think I prefer "The Forbidden Journey" over at IOA as it is so different to any other ride but this is a close second. We decided to ride again as single riders and it was still as good the second time round.
We had a good wander around Diagon Alley and went in and out of the shops. Some of the group got ice creams and I think Matt got a Butter beer.
We decided that we would head back out of HP and finish off the rides in this park and head over to IOA for the afternoon.

Simpsons was next- not sure on this one. I felt quite ill during and closed my eyes for a minute or so. It was fun but I don't think i'd be rushing back

Men in Black- fun but I wasn't sure where I was shooting/aiming for?! I'm too used to Buzz Lightyear and his targets!

Hannah and Dave had bought 2 x 1 park day tickets so they were remaining in this park for the rest of the day while we headed over to IOA. What better way to get there but by The Hogwarts Express . I must add that I was fortunate enough to go on the REAL Hogwarts express when the first film came out. It was filmed somewhere that we visit fairly often so that was a very exciting.

View attachment 218961 Love it. Just like home

I've exceeded my photo limit for this post so I will continue in my next one

Looks like a beautiful day to visit USF and IOA
Glad the weather cooperated this time.
Love your pics and commentary

Max

*Flynnderella* · Aug 8, 2017

Heyyyy everyone!!

Sorry I haven't been updating at all

we've been doing a lot of home renovations & we've packed up the office, including my laptop to decorate

I promise this weekend I will be updating since I'm not even half way through the holiday, I think I should speeeeeeed it up a little

don't want you all to get bored

X

amjt660 · Aug 8, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
Heyyyy everyone!!

Sorry I haven't been updating at all we've been doing a lot of home renovations & we've packed up the office, including my laptop to decorate I promise this weekend I will be updating since I'm not even half way through the holiday, I think I should speeeeeeed it up a little don't want you all to get bored
X

Someone wake me up when Flynderella comes back

Max

Songbird76 · Aug 9, 2017

I was just wondering....it looks like you were traveling with 10 people, is that correct? I would LOVE to do a trip with my brother's family, but his husband's family does everything together, so it would be his in-laws as well, and when I tried to look up accommodations, it told me the 2 bedroom flats would only sleep 9, (we'd have 10) and we'd need 2 bookings. I was just wondering how you did it with 10 people.

*Flynnderella* · Aug 10, 2017

Songbird76 said:
I was just wondering....it looks like you were traveling with 10 people, is that correct? I would LOVE to do a trip with my brother's family, but his husband's family does everything together, so it would be his in-laws as well, and when I tried to look up accommodations, it told me the 2 bedroom flats would only sleep 9, (we'd have 10) and we'd need 2 bookings. I was just wondering how you did it with 10 people.

Hi @Songbird76,
Yes there was 10 of us however there was only me, sis and mum from my family. We had three rooms between 10 at Port Orleans Riverside so 1) me mum & sis 2) (mums friends) Matt, Kay, Matts daughter Jess & Matt and Kays daughter (7) Niambh, 3) Hannah, Dave and Shannon (both girls Kays daughters & David is Hannahs boyfriend)

Does that make sense?! We had a look at AoA suites too but POR just looked more our cup of tea! :inlove:

It all depends on which works out most cost effective for you though I guess as if we stayed in a moderate there was a UK deal with Free Disney Quick Service Dining and then we upgraded to the next plan up from there. :happy:

Have you looked into Villas or anything? That might be a good option?
Hope this helps

Songbird76 · Aug 10, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
Hi @Songbird76,
Yes there was 10 of us however there was only me, sis and mum from my family. We had three rooms between 10 at Port Orleans Riverside so 1) me mum & sis 2) (mums friends) Matt, Kay, Matts daughter Jess & Matt and Kays daughter (7) Niambh, 3) Hannah, Dave and Shannon (both girls Kays daughters & David is Hannahs boyfriend) Does that make sense?! We had a look at AoA suites too but POR just looked more our cup of tea! It all depends on which works out most cost effective for you though I guess as if we stayed in a moderate there was a UK deal with Free Disney Quick Service Dining and then we upgraded to the next plan up from there.
Have you looked into Villas or anything? That might be a good option?
Hope this helps

Yeah, I priced out EVERYTHING. (I'm a list maker) We use the UK site and get the same deal you did. That's what we did last year. But my BIL thinks Disney is too expensive, so I was trying to make it as cheap as possible. The villas at SS and OKW would be great, IF my BIL's brother didn't go. Then we could fit everyone in one place and if everyone paid for their own family, it would be REALLY cheap as long as I am the one who does the booking on the UK site. I guess we'll see. I thought you were in one of the villas all together for some reason. I thought maybe you could tell me how to get the 10th person in the villa without having to make 2 bookings.

*Flynnderella* · Aug 19, 2017

Lets get some more done shall we!! I'm coming to you live from my newly decorated office & new computer!! So no more excuses! It also has an SD card slot so I can finally get the pictures from my camera!! (don't get too excited!)

So we left off with us on the Hogwarts express over to Universals Islands of Adventure; this being the park we did in "Universal gate 2014". :cautious:

If you've been on it...HOW CLEVER IS IT!!!!!!!

What a great way to move between the two parks. If you haven't been on it...do it! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from inside because I was too excited! I do however have some from Hogsmeade. (I will also upload a couple more from Diagon Alley in a separate post because when I've looked back at the ones I did post, they're rather pathetic!

)

Hello beautiful
I can't exactly remember the way round we did the next few things. I THINK we decided we would queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey first and then eat...that would have been the most logical way around things! We managed to ride this twice..once in the regular queue which cant have been much longer than 20 minutes and then again in the single rider line. This is when the lockers decided to play up and tell us that we exceeded out 2 hours free time and we would need to pay for it to be opened...seems logical when we'd been gone no longer than 40 minutes and our purses were in the lockers... :cautious:

Anyway, we got our things back free of charge (is it me or are those locker areas utter carnage!!! I would not want to be there in the height of summer season

)
After following Harry on the broomsticks, we we absolutely STARVING! Nothing that the Three Broomsticks platter couldn't sort :joyfull:

We shared a platter between 5 of us and then I think Niambh had a kids Fish and Chips and Matt had Pork pie or something?! I can't quite remember. I know there was a lot of food though :hungry:

Platter :hungry:

We had this in 2014 and it was still as good and worth the money.

Now I don't seem to have ANY photos from here on out for the rest of the day so I'm cobbling together pictures from everyone else to remember We had a wander around Hogsmeade and I Facetimed my boyf so he could see where we were. :grumpy:

<<his face.. green with envy

I'm so mean! And then I think we headed round the Jurassic world. We decided against queuing for the Ride/Flight of the Hippogriffs as we had done them before and we wanted to try out all the other things in this park. Including Jurassic park ride..which by the way I didn't realise was a water ride until it was MUCH too late :bored:

I wondered why there was only me, sis, Niambh and Shannon. Everyone else bowed out. Please see below what was a slow-mo video Matt took of us. (we are front row

) I have screen-shotted a couple of bits so the quality isn't very good but our hands are covering our faces haha. I really liked the Jurassic Park area but I feel like it could do with a bit of an update next to Hogsmeade.

Now that is SOME wave!!

I am furthest right in this one at the front

So after our trip to see the dinosaur it was getting to mid afternoon and we were all getting quite tired. There were only a couple of rides left that we really wanted to do and we didn't mind missing a few that we had done previously.
I had forgotten there was the new Kong ride which we "stumbled across". That is some MAMMOTH ride!!
DISCLAIMER: you WILL get scared in the queue by cast members :arghh:

there was some screams I can definitely tell you that! I basically ran the entire queue crouched over against the walls :joyfull:

Funny though.
Great ride in all. It seems VR is the future of theme park rides. I kind of hope not though!

The rest of the gang had told us about Popeye since we had all decided we were doing Universal and said that it had to be done last thing and you weren't allowed to do it just once....right.... now I know why!! OH MYYYYY GOSHHHH!! I was expecting a "Kali River Rapids" experience.

What.a.laugh. I say this but I was the one who managed to stay the most dry both times round. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Han only went the once as she had a headache..didn't stop her finding the deck to spray us with more water though :bored:

Very good ride and by the time we got to the front of the park I was almost dry (that's how hot it was). I should have gotten some photos before and after but nevermind. (next time)
At this point I was also getting quite headachy and irritable walking to the front of the park. It had been a long day and we were all tired but we had to be making our way back since we had reservations at BOG for dinner tonight.

We rang Hannah and Dave as we were meant to be meeting them at 6:30pm on the main street with the bars etc (can't remember its name, something-walk?) and then head back but we were out a little earlier than that. We finally found them and headed to the taxis. We didn't wait long and soon we were on our way back to the World. Phew.

Next up..BOG for dinner...who made it?

*Flynnderella* · Aug 19, 2017

Just a few more from Diagon Alley pictures on the way to the Hogwarts Express

12in12 · Aug 19, 2017

Happy you are back again.

*Flynnderella* · Aug 19, 2017

Thanks @RedNoseMickey

another update shortly!

*Flynnderella* · Aug 19, 2017

Be...our...guest!!

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all shattered and I mean SHATTERED! But there was no time to waste as we had BOG reservations at 9:15pm. Mum was already showered and ready to go when we got back so it was just enough time for me and sis to do the same...however..after I got out of the shower I sat on the bed in my towel and could not think of anything worse than pushing through Main Street to get to Fantasyland for dinner. My legs would just not work anymore after today and I felt like I could fall asleep instantly. Now for everyone who knows me, Beauty and the Beast is my film (I watched the new one AGAIN last night. Still as good :inlove:

) so the decision not to go to this meal was not taken lightly but there was nothing left in the tank tonight :cry:

However, it wasn't just me, Jess decided she wasn't going to make it either so I didn't feel quite as bad. So I settled in for a quiet night watching Netflix and food from the food court whilst the others trekked on like troopers.
This was my view for the evening. Just need to say I had one mouthful of pasta and fell asleep sitting up in bed!! :joyfull:

Everyone meeting the Beast!

The general consensus from this meal was that it was nice but they wouldn't go for dinner again. The lunches were more than adequate & was pretty much the same food (Steak again

) however, the atmosphere on the evening was a lot more pleasant than lunch but an overall thumbs up. Plus Niambh was pretty excited to meet the Beast and show him her dress :inlove:

Sorry for the short post but since I was asleep when they were all eating their dinner I don't have much to contribute to this post :joyfull:

The leisurely walk up to the food court was nice though!

What day are we on now?! 6 or 7?! who knows! But...this is where the excel spreadsheets got thrown clean out of the window..How many credits do we have and where can we go?

Dave B · Aug 22, 2017

*Flynnderella* said:
Heyyyyyyy!! I found some (albeit pathetic) photos at Whispering Canyon. Are you ready to be amazed?
View attachment 214274

View attachment 214275
This dessert was SO worth taking a picture of. It wasn't actually on the menu when we got there but I had seen it online so when I asked she was like of course, we can definitely do that for you! so this was the "no sugar added, coconut rice pudding with a mango puree" and I ate every last bit.
View attachment 214276
Here is Niambh taking part in the Cowboy parade or something?! It was hilarious anyway. Kind of gutted they didn't ask us to join in..
View attachment 214277
And here is the one we've all been waiting for. "The Whispering Canyon, All you can eat Skillet" well all we could eat was about half of one..I know..amateurs. It was lovely.. although we didn't care much for the spiced sausage .. but those beans...YUM.
And that's your lot folks. Now you can all calm down and wait for the next instalment.

I think you said you split the skillet? Did they only charge you one TS credit, or did you both have to use a credit for dinner?

Trip Report the "I can't eat anymore steak!!!, Wishes vs HEA, snake incident" Trip report. May 2017

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