Pre-Trip Welcome to my life, theres no turning back...

Even while I sleep...
They will find me...
Acting on my best behavior!!!



Now, let's get to the good part! We are going on a trip! But not WDW...*gasp!!!

We are going to the land that the hard core pixie dusters won't mention or speak of. Kinda like saying Valdermorts name in a Harry Potter movie.

Ok, was that enough of a hint? If not, we are going to Universal Studios (Orlando)!

Who is going?

First up we have your favorite trip reporters favorite trip reporter, the prognosticator of prognosticators, the peoples champ, the white tee v neck president, your boy, 9000!

Joining me will be my perfectly well mannered wife, C!

Where: Loews Portifino Bay

When: that's proprietary, but I've stored the info on a document and placed it next to a sports car in a garage which is more secure than Fort Knox (I couldn't help myself).

More details to come.

 

[luvinthemajik]

I wouldn't be stressing, but your ears would be red

 

[mpaulam]

I'm definitely a C-type packer. Husband is somewhere between you and C...and drives me nuts about it.
Have a fantastic time!

 

[wdisney9000]

We have arrived! We'll, we arrived at 1 pm. It's currently 6 pm. But we wanted to hit the parks while we waited for the room ready text.

Let's catch up real quick..

If you care to know us a little better, here's our Playlist from Gainesville to Orlando...

We were feeling some southern traditions to start

Then it was honky-tonk time!

Next up was more modern

Back to the 80s

Soon we were close!

This is about as good as gets in terms of passing under the arches..

We were at the resort shortly after!

 

[wdisney9000]

Room wasn't ready so we decided to head over to the parks! My phone memory was full so I couldn't take pics but we stopped and had a orange blossom pilsner and vodka sprtitzer thing at City Walk. @lostpro9het has proof of drinks. I was able to snap a pic to him on Instagram.

C wanted to to be brave and try Velocicoaster! I thought she would.chicken but she didn't!

We got the room ready text shortly after we ride and headed back. Just a quick 5 minute boat ride back to Portifino.

We stopped by the club level lounge on the way to the room

They were serving beef and lamb bolognese amd several grilled vegetables options with butternut squash, salad, soup, breads and charcuterie stuff.

We had a few rounds of drinks

The offerings were decent but we both decided that Wilderness Lodge Club level is better. Between that and the "arches" , it was Disney + 2 , Universal - 0.

Ya were keeping score.

 

[wdisney9000]

We also learned that club level here only serves alcohol from 5-7 pm. They will not give you any during the day. And don't get me wrong- we're not trying to drink our weight in booze to make up for the room cost, but it's nice to able to pop in and grab a drink on the way to and from the room...which you can do at Disney Club Level anytime of day if the lounge is open.

This was definitely a -25 for Universals scorecard vs Disney. Current score is:

Disney : 2

Universal: -25

 

[wdisney9000]

We did get a room in the main building amd after walking around the resort we definitely like the size and atmosphere. 5 points for Universal.

One thing we noticed is that we had yet to encounter an employee above the the age of 25. From the valet to the front desk to even the concierge lounge, it was all college aged kids.

Service was not bad, but it was far from the profesional level you'd expect from a resort claiming 5 star status. Shirts not tucked in, talking about personal stuff amongst themselves while we waited on them, and even joking and horsing around in front of guests checking in and also in the club level lounge.

The only adult person we've delt with was when housekeeping stopped by for turndown service (which we did not require but she was very polite amd professional).

And I'm not complaining. It's just odd. This resort seems to be ran by college kids.

I called concierge in regards to a room service question and the reposne was, "I haven't been trained for room service questions yet". It was a younger person who answered.

Again, not bad service, just not 5 star service.

 

[wdisney9000]

Our room is in an excellent location. And it's quite a spacious room as well. Here are the pics for all you weirdos that like room pics of every inch of the room. *hint: I'm one of the weirdos too

 

[amjt660]

Maybe they only serve alcohol between 5-7 in the club lounge because they do not have enough people on staff that are old enough to serve???


Max

 

[wdisney9000]

The room is nice, view is amazing, location is awesome, but at the same time, the lack of pictures on the wall gives it a somewhat institutional vibe

Our bags were on the way up, but first things first!

Time to scrub down the room.

 

[wdisney9000]

Here's more room pics...

The bathroom is huge! And walk in shower is nice! 2 points for Universal!

 

[wdisney9000]

Good morning from....whatever this part of the resort is called. I don't know the names yet, lol.

Here's a familiar sight

And listen, I'm ALL for day drinking, especially on vacation, but this dude was having a brewski at 7 am!!

Another familiar sight that apparently isn't just restricted to WDW

Both parties picutred above had ordered right before me, and even tho there were about 5 other people still waiting for their orders ahead of them, they decided to stand right in front of the pick up counter and jam up the area with their strollers. Not their husband's wait and they take the monstrous strollers outside and enjoy the fresh morning air. Nope, just jam that sh*t up

 

[lostpro9het]

And listen, I'm ALL for day drinking, especially on vacation, but this dude was having a brewski at 7 am!!

View attachment 712165

 

[Laurenciaa]

Good morning from....whatever this part of the resort is called. I don't know the names yet, lol.

View attachment 712162


View attachment 712163

Here's a familiar sight

View attachment 712164

And listen, I'm ALL for day drinking, especially on vacation, but this dude was having a brewski at 7 am!!

View attachment 712165

Another familiar sight that apparently isn't just restricted to WDW

View attachment 712166

Both parties picutred above had ordered right before me, and even tho there were about 5 other people still waiting for their orders ahead of them, they decided to stand right in front of the pick up counter and jam up the area with their strollers. Not their husband's wait and they take the monstrous strollers outside and enjoy the fresh morning air. Nope, just jam that sh*t up

Also not very much bothered to move. They could easily leave the stroller with the father and go inside on their own...

Another train of thought.. do these kids not look quite "grown up" to sit in a stroller? I am no parent but they look like they are outgrowing the stroller on its own.


Moving oonnn rant over

 

[Darstarr]

But, he did have a Red Bull first. The most respect @lostpro9het if there is vodka in that Red Bull

 

[fractal]

Good morning from....whatever this part of the resort is called. I don't know the names yet, lol.

View attachment 712162


View attachment 712163

Here's a familiar sight

View attachment 712164

And listen, I'm ALL for day drinking, especially on vacation, but this dude was having a brewski at 7 am!!

View attachment 712165

Another familiar sight that apparently isn't just restricted to WDW

View attachment 712166

Both parties picutred above had ordered right before me, and even tho there were about 5 other people still waiting for their orders ahead of them, they decided to stand right in front of the pick up counter and jam up the area with their strollers. Not their husband's wait and they take the monstrous strollers outside and enjoy the fresh morning air. Nope, just jam that sh*t up

Beavers building their dam.

 

[amjt660]

Just remember...

because 9000 found all of them at a Starbucks at Uni


Max

 

[wdisney9000]

We headed over to IOA for early entry. Park opened early entry at 8. We got to Hagrids Motor Bike Adventure at 7:55 (keep in mind the park technically isn't open for early hours yet) and the wait time was already150 minutes!

We opted for Forbidden Journey instead which was walk on.

We walked over to Kong but it was down. I wanted to ride Velocicoaster but C said she needed a few drinks to muster up the courage first. It was only 830 so we decided to stroll around for a bit to learn the lay of the land and then caught Howgwarts Express over to the Studios side.

We had an interesting ride because the parents with kids who were in our cabin felt it necessary to describe EVERY SINGLE thing going on. "Look, that's Hogwarts"! "Look there's Hagrid waving by" , "Look, now it's raining outside", "look, that's a ....well, I don't know what that's called, but it's from the movie".

It seriously didn't stop the entire ride. I would think that allowing your child to soak it in and enjoy it from their own perspective would be a better experience. The kids weren't even asking questions. The parents just wouldn't stop.

Shortly after we arrived at the platform

 

[wdisney9000]

After arriving, we made our way to Diagon Alley.

Gringots Bank is legit one of my new favorite attractions. What a fun ride. And the queue is awesome.

 

[wdisney9000]

After Gringots we strolled around the San Francisco and New York areas. It really has a great old school MGM Studios vibe

Then it was time to ride The Mummy.

I like the ride. It's a mix of roller coaster and slow moving ride. Kinda like Seven Dwarves mine train. Just more scenes that it slows down thru amd faster.

Then we rode Transformers. Screen based 3-D ride, but a decent story line amd overall fun.

The storyline did make us laugh because your mission is to protect the extremely important "all spark" which could easily destroy the planet if it falls in the hands of the bad guys, but in the beginning of the ride the all spark is being handled by a robotic arm even tho the room is FILLED with Transformer good guys but somehow a bad guy breaks in and easily snatches it only for the Transformers (good guys) to get it back from him and then they decide that it's best to give it to you, lol.

 

[wdisney9000]

It was approaching 11 am and a restaurant we wanted to try was about to open. Finnigans! An Irish pub style restaurant. We decided to sit at the bar.

We ordered drinks. C had an old fashion and I got a beer. Stella Artois.

We were really enjoying the atmosphere and the service was great.

We ordered the Ruben and also the chicken sandwich with fries. Both were very good. The fries were good too. Not too oily and heavy. We really enjoyed our meals. The Ruben was our favorite of the two.

We ordered another round of drinks. C we t with a sidecar this time

We will definitely come here again. The bartenders were very fun and the food and drinks were great! 2 points for Universal.