Another Great Trip To Report YAY!!!! June-July 2018

Toothsome is really cool and has good food. We never miss it when we are there. :teeth:

Thanks for reading and liking our shirts. The family puts up with me with stuff like that!
Thank you bobbie68. I really appreciate. THings are really tough with her and trying to keep her away from a certain friend group. I have a friend with an 18 yr old who went through such a bad time at 13 that my friend almost had to quit work. My friend told me what I am going through is worse.

She likes thrill/fast rides. Trying to avoid girly things. (though is obsessed with LOL surprise dolls! ). She generally likes fancy food but also likes burgers and ice cream shakes. I am taking her to her fave fancy restaurant at Disney and then we can watch elecrical water pageant which she loves and the fireworks which she loves. I cant really figure out what to do at the hotel.

I want to check out the Mummy ride! And of course all things Harry Potter...[/QUOTE]

Hi you're welcome and I am glad you reached out! We love thrill rides so .... Hulk, Dr.Doom and Rip Ride Rocket will be fun for your daughter. There are single rider lines if you don't share her thrill rides:thumbsup2 The mummy is amazing for an indoor coaster. It has a little bit of everything. Now as you can see from my report HP is our fave. Gringotts for us is our favorite. I could just keep going back there an spend all day! Even though you are staying at PBH try and get into the park at least one day EE and go over to the HP worlds. It is so nice to tour them at a less crowded time. It's funny we use to put more time over at IOA but since I started liking the simulator rides we find ourselves at the Studios more. She will like all the simulator rides in the studios.

Restaurants besides Toothsome is the HP restaurants are nice to try one of them. Cowfish in City walk gets good reviews for burgers. We like Bubba Gump even though it is a chain. I think you will find more fancy at the resorts so check out their restaurants. We stay away from them on family trips just to much for 4 of us.


Oh my do I know about the girly thing. The one thing about Universal is you don't have much girly stuff there. We couldn't figure out why my daughter has hated so much girly stuff till this past year. She said that she doesn't like how some of the popular girls treat her and others. She sees them dressed up very feminine (girly) and thinks that if she dresses or acts like that she would be like them. :sad2:... I try to tell her that means nothing but it hasn't gotten there yet. I think she is slowly and I mean slowly making some progress. LOL!! on the dolls didn't see that coming. Liv loves stuffed animals still, hard to pry them from her room:teeth:.

Honestly, it is really laid back at Universal so you will enjoy it. I do recommend to keep looking at everything and at least know what you want to see and do. The express pass will get you on the rides pretty quick so that saves time. I usually do a vague plan of where we will be and what we want to do.

I am glad you like my shirts.:sad1: I will miss them this year, as we are doing Sea World parks this summer. Unless I can find a new theme:teeth:.

Please feel free to reach out any time:goodvibes
 
Hi you're welcome and I am glad you reached out! We love thrill rides so .... Hulk, Dr.Doom and Rip Ride Rocket will be fun for your daughter. There are single rider lines if you don't share her thrill rides:thumbsup2 The mummy is amazing for an indoor coaster. It has a little bit of everything. Now as you can see from my report HP is our fave. Gringotts for us is our favorite. I could just keep going back there an spend all day! Even though you are staying at PBH try and get into the park at least one day EE and go over to the HP worlds. It is so nice to tour them at a less crowded time. It's funny we use to put more time over at IOA but since I started liking the simulator rides we find ourselves at the Studios more. She will like all the simulator rides in the studios.

Restaurants besides Toothsome is the HP restaurants are nice to try one of them. Cowfish in City walk gets good reviews for burgers. We like Bubba Gump even though it is a chain. I think you will find more fancy at the resorts so check out their restaurants. We stay away from them on family trips just to much for 4 of us.


Oh my do I know about the girly thing. The one thing about Universal is you don't have much girly stuff there. We couldn't figure out why my daughter has hated so much girly stuff till this past year. She said that she doesn't like how some of the popular girls treat her and others. She sees them dressed up very feminine (girly) and thinks that if she dresses or acts like that she would be like them. :sad2:... I try to tell her that means nothing but it hasn't gotten there yet. I think she is slowly and I mean slowly making some progress. LOL!! on the dolls didn't see that coming. Liv loves stuffed animals still, hard to pry them from her room:teeth:.

Honestly, it is really laid back at Universal so you will enjoy it. I do recommend to keep looking at everything and at least know what you want to see and do. The express pass will get you on the rides pretty quick so that saves time. I usually do a vague plan of where we will be and what we want to do.

I am glad you like my shirts.:sad1: I will miss them this year, as we are doing Sea World parks this summer. Unless I can find a new theme:teeth:.

Please feel free to reach out any time:goodvibes

You can definitely find a theme for seaworld!!!! Maybe something similar to the shirt you had that was PBH theme but in blue colors!

Ok thanks for the tips!! Will look into those.

Isnt it interesting what these kids are thinking these days...Its so hard for them. Liv is lucky to have you guys as parents...
 
Hi I am back wit a bit of time. I know if I don't continue now it will take me forever. Thanks for coming back and reading our adventures.:goodvibes

Day 2- Volcano Bay, PBH, Studios and Islands of Adventure

I managed to get everyone up on time to get ready. We had decided to have everything packed but leave the stuff in the room and come back about 10:00. Olivia and I like to shower in the room but the boys don't mind the locker area by the bowling alley. Also due to some unfortunate circumstances I had to do a load of laundry before we left. I wasn't planning on it so it was a small wrench in my schedule. So we went over and were in line by 7:40 and got right in. We picked the same area today as the day before. It was under the new shelter by the shops and the left of the wave pool. We went over to the water coaster did that, then moved onto Puihi and Honu and Moana. The family was a bit sluggish and climbing those stairs can be tiring so we took a quick trip around the fearless river. They have changed it from last year. Now you must wear a life jacket verses having a tube. We all liked it better and enjoyed it so much. After a few laps we just went back and forth between the couple of rides and the wave pool and fearless river. Before I knew it I saw the crowds coming and the wait times increasing. We did our final swim and headed back to CBBR at 10:00. I didn't get to use the selfie stations as much here this time. I managed to get one but the sun was washing us a bit

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My overall report from Volcano Bay is they have improved things a bit. They have made some slight changes. We noticed they pulled the carpets up over the bridges. Thank goodness, I have never smelled something so bad. The fearless river life vests. The new shelters are nice. It seems they put up fencing behind the cabanas on I-4. We love this water park. It really is pretty and has some great water rides. I don't think we will be back there next year but will the following. If you like water parks I recommend it following tips on these boards.:thumbsup2

We got back to the room a little after 10:00 and started getting ready. In the meantime I had Olivia start showering and I went to the laundry room. I knew we wouldn't have laundry available over at PBH so I had to do this load. There are laundry rooms on the 3rd and 6th floors in the towers. I went to the 3rd, no luck way to much time on the machines. I was able to get one on the 6th floor relatively quick. I never thought that the laundry would be so busy in the morning. Anyway, I was able to do the laundry while getting ready and check out. We decided to do lunch again at the diner here. We really find the food good and reasonably priced with a good selection. Everyone had the same thing accept Charlie got a vegetable stir fry. Once again great meal and we were ready to move on to PBH.:banana:


We headed over to PBH about 2:00. When we got there our room wasn't ready. Someone had given my room away so we had to wait a bit. The associate told us where the club lounge was and we decided to take advantage of it. This hotel lobby is so pretty. I loved the greeters and the smell is so nice. We found the lounge and went in. What a beautiful lounge. We have stayed in others but this is the prettiest one to us. Brian had a headache so they gave him an ice pack and he closed his eyes. The teens and I got some drinks and snacks. We watched TV and played games. About 4:00 I got a text our room was ready. I really like this feature. The bell man got our luggage and off we went. My room was right around the corner from the lounge. I faced the villa pool grounds. We were on the same ground level. We had a patio that went outside. We went in and the room was so big. Everyone was smiling with this room. It was very clean, once again I could smell the chemicals. We put our stuff in and checked it out. We had about an hour till the club level evening reception started. We were going to eat there then head over to IOA. I wanted to see the castle light show and there was no rain in the forecast. Here are some pics of the room.

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We went to the club lounge at 5:00 for the evening reception. I didn't take pictures of the meal that night I did another. I will post those on the next that day. We were so impressed with the food and service in the lounge. The staff was great as was the food. After we ate about 6:00 we headed to the Studios first. We usually wear our house shirts on the last day because I buy them there. This year however, I had bought them ahead of time and decided to start it off. I love that we do the house shirts:hug:
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We rode Minion Mayhem first then went to Transformers. When we got out my favorite was there so we took a family photo with him. I love character meet and greets:goodvibes:goodvibes

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We decided it was getting late and wanted to get over to Hogsmeade. We took the Hogwarts Express over to IOA. When we got off we got a butter beer and pumpkln fizz on tap. We always get ours at the Hogs Head Pub. There is never a line. The pumpkin fizz from the tap blows away the bottle pumpkin juice. We sat in the back of Three Broomsticks had our drinks then went shopping. It was about 8:30 and we decided to get our spot for the show. We ended up on the bridge in the second row with good standing view. A little after 9:00 the show came on and it was amazing. I am so glad we went that night. It turned out to be our only night without rain at that time. It was crowded and leaving through Jurassic was tight. We decided to go back to the resort and call it a night. We would be getting up for early entry. We also knew that the club lounge offered deserts from 8:00 to 9:30. We got back a few minutes after. Olivia and I went in the staff was nice enough to give us a plate of stuff left over. We were appreciative and enjoyed it. i believe it was a banana type cake, chocolate chip cookies and a cannoli. We then showered and off to bed. It was a really nice day to start off there.
I know this is an older post but I was wondering if you could answer a quick question for me. You say that your room was right around the corner from the club lounge and you had a ground floor with a patio. I was wondering does that mean you were on the same floor as the club lounge and the club lounge is actually on the ground floor not the 3rd floor? Or was your room on a different floor then the club lounge? I’m asking because I also wanted to be close to the club lounge and ask for a patio like you had. Thanks so much for your help :)
 




Yes, ground floor would be first floor
Thank you. Was not trying to sound stupid with my question. I was just told by others Portofino’s lobby and ground floor was numbered as floor 3 in the main building and villa wing. Their layout is very confusing with steps everywhere so I was just trying to clarify. Thanks for your time.
 
PBH is a beautiful hotel and large
First time I went there I wandered looking for the check in lobby
Lol

And first time I went to the pool, got turned around
It is an impressive hotel and I’m sure you will enjoy it there
 
I know this is an older post but I was wondering if you could answer a quick question for me. You say that your room was right around the corner from the club lounge and you had a ground floor with a patio. I was wondering does that mean you were on the same floor as the club lounge and the club lounge is actually on the ground floor not the 3rd floor? Or was your room on a different floor then the club lounge? I’m asking because I also wanted to be close to the club lounge and ask for a patio like you had. Thanks so much for your help :)


Hi sorry I was off the boards for a bit! Thanks Mac for responding for me:D

I will say I really like walking in to the lobby from the parking area on the ground floor. It was so easy to get to the club lounge down the hall and then our room was right around the corner. When you are leaving that floor out the back to the boat launch there is one stair case down about 12 steps. I liked the set up of everything. It is a great location I would reserve it again.

Enjoy! Thanks for reading if anything else comes up please ask:goodvibes
 
Hi sorry I was off the boards for a bit! Thanks Mac for responding for me:D

I will say I really like walking in to the lobby from the parking area on the ground floor. It was so easy to get to the club lounge down the hall and then our room was right around the corner. When you are leaving that floor out the back to the boat launch there is one stair case down about 12 steps. I liked the set up of everything. It is a great location I would reserve it again.

Enjoy! Thanks for reading if anything else comes up please ask:goodvibes
Ohhh okay! So your room was on the 3rd floor but on the other side that is also ground floor like the lobby? That’s how you also had a patio? Lol. It’s very confusing but thanks so much for responding :)
 
Yes it is called the third floor but also the main floor with the lobby. If you go out the back past the lobby the parking garage will be on the left and then you drive out to the right onto the main street.

Once I stayed there I understood why they call it the third floor but also is the ground. I kind of liked going upstairs from the boat launch inside and being on the "ground level".

You're welcome
 

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