Drinking with the Dinosaurs - A June 2022 TR

[ExpeditionEmily]

Hi and welcome to my second ever attempt at a trip report and my first Universal report! Some introductions to start us off


I'm Emily, the one behind ALL the plans. I'm a former Disney cast member and current middle school teacher.
My last trip to Universal was back in 2016, so it's been quite awhile for me.
I'm most looking forward to Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure and going to Volcano Bay for the first time.

On my left and joining me is my fiancé, Tyler. He's always down to carry the backpack, remind us to drink water, and finish off the snacks.
He's also a current middle school teacher and this is his first time EVER to Universal!
We also happen to be going for his 32nd birthday
He LOVES all things Jurassic Park and superheroes. He's SO excited for Velocicoaster and trying Cowfish.

The Trip:
So, I was unsure for a bit if I could actually pull this trip off. I booked this trip back in November, knowing that we would need a GOOD vacation after this school year. I figured we had plenty of time to plan and pay it off, so why not?!
Well, between now and November, all of this happened:
1. Tyler proposed! We got engaged in December.
2. We adopted our sweet dog.
3. We bought a house!


Shameless engagement photo plug because I just LOVE my little family


With all of the new changes, I wasn't sure how this would work. I ended up working on my school's play which gave us a little extra $ and fate decided we would go on our trip, so here we are. 8 days left in the school year and then we're just 2 weeks out from Universal!

Our flight will get us in EARLY on a Friday and we leave Wednesday afternoon. We'll be staying at Dockside and visiting both parks plus Volcano Bay.

The Plans:
Our plans are definitely still tentative. I'd like to book another dining reservation- any and all recommendations please!
Friday - we'll fly in early morning and use the Universal shuttle to get to our resort. We're planning to spend the day by the pool and at Citywalk. Dinner reservations are at Cowfish!
Saturday- Universal / IOA all day with express unlimited. Dinner reservations are at Toothsome
Sunday- Volcano Bay all day. Will either make a reservation, Uber to Disney Springs, or just see what looks good at Citywalk
Monday - Universal/ IOA all day with express unlimited. Dinner reservations are at Margaritaville- this day is Tyler's bithday!!
Tuesday- Universal / IOA all day with express unlimited. No dinner reservations, again might make one or just see what we find.
Wednesday - Shuttle will take us back to MCO in the early afternoon

I have to give a shoutout to the Universal guest services! I initially had us booked for 5 days with 3 park-to-park tickets and no express. Well, I started browsing expected crowd levels. Ty struggled a little with the heat and I worried he'd be struggling more in long, outdoor lines. I started looking at options for adding express unlimited so we can really relax and enjoy Tyler's birthday. When I called, I initially considered upgrading our resort to a top-tier to get the express included. This over doubled our price.....not possible for us. The guest service representative was SO helpful and found us multiple options to get exactly what we wanted. We ended up switching to the 3-day 2-park hopper tickets with express unlimited and a 1-day to Volcano Bay. We no longer have tickets on arrival day, but I figure it'll be a good chance to acclimate to the weather and the Universal transportation. We'll also be using Early Bird Check-In on Southwest for the first time, so will update on how that works too.

30 days out!!​

​

 

[AuroraluvsPhillip]

Congratulations on your new home, engagement & furbaby! You will have a great time at UO. If you like Italian, Vivo at City Walk is a nice choice to reserve. My adult DD and I always eat there on our visits. City Walk isn't that big, and can be seen pretty much in one go-round. City Walk also has a cinema and two mini golf courses as well as shops, bars and restaurants. You can also walk or take the boats from City Walk over to the other resorts for dinner and walk around afterwards, which is nice. Check out the UO website for dining options at the resorts. Just be aware the boats won't run if it's raining or if there's lightning nearby. From City Walk it's about a 7-10 minute walk to HRH, 15-20 minutes to PBH and 10-15 minutes to RPR. RPR and SF are connected indoors by hallways.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Congratulations on your new home, engagement & furbaby! You will have a great time at UO. If you like Italian, Vivo at City Walk is a nice choice to reserve. My adult DD and I always eat there on our visits. City Walk isn't that big, and can be seen pretty much in one go-round. City Walk also has a cinema and two mini golf courses as well as shops, bars and restaurants. You can also walk or take the boats from City Walk over to the other resorts for dinner and walk around afterwards, which is nice. Check out the UO website for dining options at the resorts. Just be aware the boats won't run if it's raining or if there's lightning nearby. From City Walk it's about a 7-10 minute walk to HRH, 15-20 minutes to PBH and 10-15 minutes to RPR. RPR and SF are connected indoors by hallways.

Thank you!! I've heard a lot of great things about Vivo, we're definitely considering that. My fiancé is a picky eater so pizza/pasta may be an easy win for him.

 

[glocon]

Definitely look at options to eat at RPR. We love Jake’s. And you can maybe try the lounges at surf side and dockside as well as RPR since that is close by.

Or if you like pasta, maybe take a cruise up the canal from RPR to PBH and eat at one of those restaurants.

(We’ve never been to surf/dock side but it looks relatively close to RPR on a map).

In the parks we like to eat at Mythos (such a unique experience- beautiful interior- and I love the risotto specials) and Finnegan’s.

Have so much fun!!

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Following along.
Congratulations on everything! Very exciting time!
Looking forward to reading more as it happens.
Have a great vacation!

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Before the trip: A Sidetracked Day Report!
While we are still 8 days away from our Universal trip, we took a little pre-trip trip to Hershey Park yesterday and thought I'd share. Hershey is one of a few theme parks that are in a realistic driving distance for us. I bought discounted tickets through work that expired June 30th, so we decided it was best to use them this week, hopefully before crowds picked up too much.

For those who haven't been, here's some background information:
Hersheypark is located in Hershey, PA. Hours vary but the day we went it was open 11am-7pm. In addition to the park, they have a waterpark section (The Boardwalk) and ZooAmerica which are both included with theme park admission. Separately is Hershey Chocolate World, which is a short walk from the park entrance. Admission to Chocolate World is free, though many of the activities inside cost money.

Tyler and I left for our day around 9am with an expected drive time of around an hour and a half. We stopped at Rutter's for a quick breakfast sandwich and drinks, and then headed to Hershey. We got fortunate and had 0 traffic! Parking for general cost $25 for the day. Preferred would have been $35, but it's just the two of us adults so we don't mind the walk. We did mention that we would pay for preferred if we came with Tyler's nieces and nephews. Preferred parking is probably the way to go if you have children or plan to use the waterpark so that you can make stops back to the car easily.

We scanned our tickets and made it in for park opening at 11am!
​

We came in with no real plans or goals, just wanted to have some fun and practice our long days of walking in the heat for Universal.

Lines seemed short so we were optimistic!
Our first ride was the Sooper Dooper Looper which was a walk-on. Now, don't be fooled by the name, because this thing has a grand total of ONE loop However, it's a classic and was the first looping coaster on the East Coast according to Hershey's website!
The next ride we did was the Comet, where we waited about 25 minutes. The line may look short, but the loading for this coaster is very slow and inefficient. It was pleasantly smooth for a wooden coaster and also an original from the park.
We were pretty impressed that in between these two coasters were complimentary lockers, similar to the setup at Universal. Typically (and at every other ride), Hershey has cubbies to toss things in directly beside the ride load area. I'm hoping this means they'll be doing more of the complimentary lockers in the future!
The third ride of the day was one I knew I wanted to hit early on, as the line can grow to be very long. The Great Bear is my favorite coaster in the park. I love the hanging style that can be found on this ride, the Hulk, and Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa. We ended up waiting about 25 minutes for this ride too. Tyler said it's also his favorite in the park.



Walking across the park, we found the first character meet of the day! Reese's is my favorite so I insisted on a picture. Tyler is allergic to peanuts and declined being in the photo. He says the Hershey characters are terrifying and in his opinion, this guy takes the cake for being the creepiest.
After this, we headed over to some of the smaller carnival-type rides. We had attempted to ride the swings earlier, but were disappointed when the entire top was off and it was clearly in no shape to be operating that day. The Claw was also closed which was a bit of a bummer, but we did hop on The Pirate boat where we waited about 5 minutes. We chatted with a mother/daughter in the line who happened to also be heading to Florida next week!

And this is where the day starts to go south, in my opinion. We were mulling about debating if we wanted lunch or another ride. Stormrunner had just reopened and was a short line. I hadn't been on in over 5 years, but I rode this one a lot as a kid with my family, so I thought we'd try it. We waited about 10 minutes and I was definitely feeling the nerves for this ride. Yeah. NEVER again will I ride that one lol.
Full disclosure: I don't consider myself someone to be scared of roller coasters at ALL. As a kid, my parents rule was that we ride EVERYTHING in the park. We had to at least try each ride once before we could say no. I did love most rides my parents took me on and I still LOVE coasters, but only 3 rides before this day had been put on my "NEVER again" list.

1. The pirate boat at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay- this is a boat that goes FULLY upside down. Dad went on first to scope it out, said it was fun and had his hands up the entire time. Mom and I rode next and just immediately were miserable. Being held upside down was not something either of us liked. We got off and Dad goes "Yeah, terrible isn't it?" ....Thanks Dad! My little sister got out of that one because mom didn't want anyone on it again.

2. Manta at Seaworld- this one I MIGHT consider trying again. It was a long time ago back when it first opened, but being short made the style of this ride very uncomfortable for me. My mom and sister said the same, only dad liked that one.

3. SkyRush at Hershey Park- after yesterday, I think I've determined I just do not like the newer style coasters with all the airtime. I rode this one with some friends on a college trip almost 10 years ago and haven't been on it since. When I went a few years ago with my mom and best friend, they wanted to ride and definitely made fun of me for opting to skip it. They got off the ride all dazed and confused with my mom covered in drool

Anyways, Stormrunner is now on my "NEVER again" list. The 0 to 70 launch and the hill are nice, but there's just TOO much airtime on the corkscrews for my comfort. I felt like the mesh straps holding me in were not cutting it and it was one of few coasters where I've felt unsafe. Tyler thinks it may have been a height thing since he didn't feel the airtime as much as I did.

So after that experience, we decided to pause for lunch. Hershey has a variety of outside food establishments that come in, as well as their own food. We ended up choosing Subway which was expensive but the best deal of the restaurants.


Tyler got a buffalo chicken sandwich and a few cookies, and I got a turkey sandwich with chips. It ended up costing about $25 for the two subs, chips, cookies, and 2 drinks.

After lunch, we decided to head to the back of the park (near The Boardwalk waterpark) and hit the few smaller coasters back there. I was done with the big coasters at this point. We went back to Wildcat, an older wooden coaster. This ride is a walk-on always and for good reason. It was the jerkiest and most painful roller coaster I've ever been on. At the end, Tyler said "Is this car accident the ride?" and the guy in front of us said "I think I need to be drunk for this ride." Either way, I don't think we'll be hurrying back to that one.

Up next we hit the Laff Trakk, one of the newer Hershey coasters. We waited about 45 minutes for this, another very slow loading ride like the Comet. This is advertised as an indoor spinning coaster. The BEST way I can possibly describe this is that it's a combination of Space Mountain, clowns, and the Heffalump scene from Winnie the Pooh. It was interesting but very weird. We'd ride again though despite the long line, because most of it is in air conditioning.

Our final coaster of the day was Lightning Racer, a duel racing wooden coaster. This is another ride I have amazing memories of riding as a kid. Not as bumpy as the Wildcat, but still pretty rough! We rode the green side, though both sides were a walk-on.

At this point, we had pretty much exhausted what we wanted to do and see. We agreed that we could have made more of a day of it if we had wanted to do the waterpark or the zoo, but the idea of riding home an hour and a half being wet from the water park just didn't appeal to us. We hopped on The Howler, a small tilt-a-whirl type ride on the way towards the exit, and then headed towards Chocolate World.

Chocolate World was a short walk and they offer their chocolate tour for free. The other experiences such as a 4D show, trolley ride, and make your own candy bar have a fee. We did the chocolate tour and it was great as always! They give out mini Hershey bars at the end and they always taste so much better than regular Hershey's for some reason. We looked around the shop for a bit and grabbed some candy for the road- Tyler got the rainbow Twizzlers and I picked new Reese's snack cakes that seem to have just come out. We headed back to the car, stopped at Wendy's for dinner on the way home, and hit no traffic! It was a great day, though I don't know if we'll rush to get back. Tyler says it might make for a good mini-moon after our wedding in November. They have some nice hotels in the area for those visiting for a few days. I'm still partial to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, which is not so much a day trip for us, but I love all of their coasters.


8 days out from Universal! We're just finalizing the last-minute prepping and then we'll be ready!


​

 

[froggibabey]

The looper was the first roller coaster I went on. I still remember standing dazed afterwards, holding the shirt my aunt bought me. I think I was only 4 or 5 (I was a pretty tall kid!).

I enjoyed the mini trip report! I keep wanting to go to Hershey, because my kids have never gone.. but we end up at Knoebels instead, every time.

 

[wdwrule]

Before the trip: A Sidetracked Day Report!
While we are still 8 days away from our Universal trip, we took a little pre-trip trip to Hershey Park yesterday and thought I'd share. Hershey is one of a few theme parks that are in a realistic driving distance for us. I bought discounted tickets through work that expired June 30th, so we decided it was best to use them this week, hopefully before crowds picked up too much.

For those who haven't been, here's some background information:
Hersheypark is located in Hershey, PA. Hours vary but the day we went it was open 11am-7pm. In addition to the park, they have a waterpark section (The Boardwalk) and ZooAmerica which are both included with theme park admission. Separately is Hershey Chocolate World, which is a short walk from the park entrance. Admission to Chocolate World is free, though many of the activities inside cost money.

Tyler and I left for our day around 9am with an expected drive time of around an hour and a half. We stopped at Rutter's for a quick breakfast sandwich and drinks, and then headed to Hershey. We got fortunate and had 0 traffic! Parking for general cost $25 for the day. Preferred would have been $35, but it's just the two of us adults so we don't mind the walk. We did mention that we would pay for preferred if we came with Tyler's nieces and nephews. Preferred parking is probably the way to go if you have children or plan to use the waterpark so that you can make stops back to the car easily.

We scanned our tickets and made it in for park opening at 11am!
View attachment 676857​

We came in with no real plans or goals, just wanted to have some fun and practice our long days of walking in the heat for Universal.

Lines seemed short so we were optimistic!
Our first ride was the Sooper Dooper Looper which was a walk-on. Now, don't be fooled by the name, because this thing has a grand total of ONE loop However, it's a classic and was the first looping coaster on the East Coast according to Hershey's website!
The next ride we did was the Comet, where we waited about 25 minutes. The line may look short, but the loading for this coaster is very slow and inefficient. It was pleasantly smooth for a wooden coaster and also an original from the park.
We were pretty impressed that in between these two coasters were complimentary lockers, similar to the setup at Universal. Typically (and at every other ride), Hershey has cubbies to toss things in directly beside the ride load area. I'm hoping this means they'll be doing more of the complimentary lockers in the future!
The third ride of the day was one I knew I wanted to hit early on, as the line can grow to be very long. The Great Bear is my favorite coaster in the park. I love the hanging style that can be found on this ride, the Hulk, and Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa. We ended up waiting about 25 minutes for this ride too. Tyler said it's also his favorite in the park.

View attachment 676860

Walking across the park, we found the first character meet of the day! Reese's is my favorite so I insisted on a picture. Tyler is allergic to peanuts and declined being in the photo. He says the Hershey characters are terrifying and in his opinion, this guy takes the cake for being the creepiest.
After this, we headed over to some of the smaller carnival-type rides. We had attempted to ride the swings earlier, but were disappointed when the entire top was off and it was clearly in no shape to be operating that day. The Claw was also closed which was a bit of a bummer, but we did hop on The Pirate boat where we waited about 5 minutes. We chatted with a mother/daughter in the line who happened to also be heading to Florida next week!

And this is where the day starts to go south, in my opinion. We were mulling about debating if we wanted lunch or another ride. Stormrunner had just reopened and was a short line. I hadn't been on in over 5 years, but I rode this one a lot as a kid with my family, so I thought we'd try it. We waited about 10 minutes and I was definitely feeling the nerves for this ride. Yeah. NEVER again will I ride that one lol.
Full disclosure: I don't consider myself someone to be scared of roller coasters at ALL. As a kid, my parents rule was that we ride EVERYTHING in the park. We had to at least try each ride once before we could say no. I did love most rides my parents took me on and I still LOVE coasters, but only 3 rides before this day had been put on my "NEVER again" list.

1. The pirate boat at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay- this is a boat that goes FULLY upside down. Dad went on first to scope it out, said it was fun and had his hands up the entire time. Mom and I rode next and just immediately were miserable. Being held upside down was not something either of us liked. We got off and Dad goes "Yeah, terrible isn't it?" ....Thanks Dad! My little sister got out of that one because mom didn't want anyone on it again.

2. Manta at Seaworld- this one I MIGHT consider trying again. It was a long time ago back when it first opened, but being short made the style of this ride very uncomfortable for me. My mom and sister said the same, only dad liked that one.

3. SkyRush at Hershey Park- after yesterday, I think I've determined I just do not like the newer style coasters with all the airtime. I rode this one with some friends on a college trip almost 10 years ago and haven't been on it since. When I went a few years ago with my mom and best friend, they wanted to ride and definitely made fun of me for opting to skip it. They got off the ride all dazed and confused with my mom covered in drool

Anyways, Stormrunner is now on my "NEVER again" list. The 0 to 70 launch and the hill are nice, but there's just TOO much airtime on the corkscrews for my comfort. I felt like the mesh straps holding me in were not cutting it and it was one of few coasters where I've felt unsafe. Tyler thinks it may have been a height thing since he didn't feel the airtime as much as I did.

So after that experience, we decided to pause for lunch. Hershey has a variety of outside food establishments that come in, as well as their own food. We ended up choosing Subway which was expensive but the best deal of the restaurants.
View attachment 676861

Tyler got a buffalo chicken sandwich and a few cookies, and I got a turkey sandwich with chips. It ended up costing about $25 for the two subs, chips, cookies, and 2 drinks.

After lunch, we decided to head to the back of the park (near The Boardwalk waterpark) and hit the few smaller coasters back there. I was done with the big coasters at this point. We went back to Wildcat, an older wooden coaster. This ride is a walk-on always and for good reason. It was the jerkiest and most painful roller coaster I've ever been on. At the end, Tyler said "Is this car accident the ride?" and the guy in front of us said "I think I need to be drunk for this ride." Either way, I don't think we'll be hurrying back to that one.

Up next we hit the Laff Trakk, one of the newer Hershey coasters. We waited about 45 minutes for this, another very slow loading ride like the Comet. This is advertised as an indoor spinning coaster. The BEST way I can possibly describe this is that it's a combination of Space Mountain, clowns, and the Heffalump scene from Winnie the Pooh. It was interesting but very weird. We'd ride again though despite the long line, because most of it is in air conditioning.

Our final coaster of the day was Lightning Racer, a duel racing wooden coaster. This is another ride I have amazing memories of riding as a kid. Not as bumpy as the Wildcat, but still pretty rough! We rode the green side, though both sides were a walk-on.

At this point, we had pretty much exhausted what we wanted to do and see. We agreed that we could have made more of a day of it if we had wanted to do the waterpark or the zoo, but the idea of riding home an hour and a half being wet from the water park just didn't appeal to us. We hopped on The Howler, a small tilt-a-whirl type ride on the way towards the exit, and then headed towards Chocolate World.

Chocolate World was a short walk and they offer their chocolate tour for free. The other experiences such as a 4D show, trolley ride, and make your own candy bar have a fee. We did the chocolate tour and it was great as always! They give out mini Hershey bars at the end and they always taste so much better than regular Hershey's for some reason. We looked around the shop for a bit and grabbed some candy for the road- Tyler got the rainbow Twizzlers and I picked new Reese's snack cakes that seem to have just come out. We headed back to the car, stopped at Wendy's for dinner on the way home, and hit no traffic! It was a great day, though I don't know if we'll rush to get back. Tyler says it might make for a good mini-moon after our wedding in November. They have some nice hotels in the area for those visiting for a few days. I'm still partial to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, which is not so much a day trip for us, but I love all of their coasters.

View attachment 676864
8 days out from Universal! We're just finalizing the last-minute prepping and then we'll be ready!


​

Love this! We used to have season passes when our kids were little and just love Hersheypark. Haha yes Wildcat is crazy jerky… like instant headache jerky. We used to call Skycrush… Thighcrush… because the restraint was so uncomfortable. Ugh!

DD was there the other day because her high school gave out a ticket for each graduating senior. I was floored it was only open from 11-7. So sad!

Congrats on your engagement and all your other great news!! Can’t wait for reaction from Velocicoaster! One of our favorites for sure!!

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Final Pre-Trip Updates
Almost there! I thought I'd have time to post the final pre-trip update tomorrow, but it's looking like things will be too hectic. Here's what has changed since last time:
We booked another dining reservation- we're going to Finnegan's for lunch on Monday (Ty's birthday)
And well, that's it. I've decided that Sunday will be our best night for Disney Springs. I am a desperate pin trading addict and I just need to go do some trades and make some more buys for the collection. Tyler will be happy to Uber over to Springs if it means beers and Mickey bars.

Side note- we booked flights for our December honeymoon! I highly recommend buying early if you plan on the holiday travel, because prices have skyrocketed since we bought. I'll be doing another TR for the honeymoon where we'll take our first ever Disney cruise on the Wish.

The plans for the next two days:
Today will be spent packing and straightening up the house a bit. We'll be automatically checked in on Southwest thanks to early bird check-in. I can get access to our boarding passes at the 24 hour mark, but won't need to hurry to check-in.

Tomorrow we'll finish up the packing and laundry and get everything situated for the dog. We've got a virtual meeting with our wedding planner and dinner with Tyler's parents to celebrate his birthday, then we'll make the drive over to my parent's house since my mom will be driving us to the airport.

We couldn't be more excited for this trip! ​

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Yay, your vacation is almost here!
Have a super fun time!

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Day 1: Travel Day
And we're back from our trip! We had an amazing time in Universal. I was shocked to find that Universal felt more efficient than Disney. The only downside- we brought back an unwanted souvenir.....COVID. I'm through the worst of it and almost cleared from isolation, while Tyler just had his positive test today. I'll slow roll out the trip report until I get to fully feeling better.

Travel day for us started Thursday the 23rd. We spent the day wrapping up errands around the house, doing laundry, and packing up the dog's things. We had a virtual meeting with our wedding planner that we did at home and then drove over to my parents house across town right afterwards. We stayed the night there as the alarms were set for 3am with us leaving for the airport at 4am. Our dog settled in well and slept through the night!

In the morning, we woke up and headed to the airport at 4am. After a quick stop at the gas station for drinks, we made it to the airport at 4:50am. The line to check a bag was quite long and took about 20 minutes. Security went fast and then we were ready to find our gate. We hiked all the way to the gate, realized there was 0 breakfast around, and time was close for boarding. So what do we do? We HUSTLED back to the main area so I could get Chic-fil-a and Tyler could get Auntie Anne's! We made it back in time to eat our breakfast of chicken minis and pretzel dog bites.





We boarded quickly and were very impressed with the early-bird check-in we had upgraded. It got us into the A group and alleviated any worries of being able to sit together. I ended up purchasing the early-bird upgrade for our honeymoon flights in December as well.

Our flight was nice and quiet and landed on time. After grabbing our bags, we set out to find the SuperStar Shuttle. As a first time user, it was very easy to find and there was 0 line unlike Magical Express used to be. They gave us a lanyard as a welcome gift and a card designating the return time for the end of our trip. We walked straight on the bus and were off immediately!

We made it to the hotel around 11:15am and picked up our park tickets. We went to check in, but the room wasn't quite ready. We decided to take the bus over to Citywalk for some lunch and Tyler's choice for the day was NBC Grill.

NBC Grill sat us immediately! For our first drinks, I chose the Schoferhofer Grapefruit beer (a favorite of mine) and Tyler chose the Orange Blossom Pilsner. Both drinks were great!

For food we chose to share some appetizers. We ordered the boneless wings (half sweet & spicy bourbon, half orange blossom sriracha), loaded chili nachos, and a side of tater tots.



Approximately 2 seconds after ordering, like before our drinks even came, another server came and plopped down the tots. Our server was clearly confused and told us she had wanted it to all come out together. Being hungry, we just rolled with it.



Before long, our nachos and boneless wings arrived. Our server came by and brought us another side of warm tots to go with it! She recommended dipping the tots in the queso on the nachos which was a good move. We enjoyed snacking on the appetizers while watching sports and just decompressing after the flight.



Speaking of flights.....it was time for another kind of flight! Tyler ordered the When in Rome flight- included their own Firkin Beer, Swamp Ape IPA, Key West Sunset Ale, 862 Seasonal
I was boring and ordered a Strongbow for my second drink. Tyler enjoyed the flight, though his favorite was the Swamp Ape.

The food here at NBC Grill was good but not spectacular. It was the perfect relaxing setting for us and our waitress was wonderful. We'd go here again for appetizers and drinks just for the atmosphere. It's really nice as long as you're receptive and accepting that it's almost Buffalo Wild Wings quality pub-food for higher prices, which was just fine with us.

After we wrapped up with lunch, our room was ready so we headed back and changed to check out the pool. I ended up taking a poolside nap and was awoken to hearing Tyler talking on the phone. He's been applying for new jobs and got a call the first day of our trip for an interview. I could tell he was excited when he paused to ask our plans and he ended up scheduling a virtual interview for later in the trip.

Around 4pm the inevitable summer storm hit us and the pool closed. We took showers and changed, then went to go grab and refillable cup from the food court. We also got a S'mores brownie that looked amazing- and it was!! We rested for a while before heading back to Citywalk for our dinner reservation.

Dinner for our first night was at Cowfish. To drink, we shared the Cowfish fishbowl.



The Fishbowl was nice and smooth! Tyler enjoyed it a bit more than I did, but it was a good choice and cheaper than each of us ordering our own cocktail.



For dinner, Tyler ordered the CBCLT burger. It was just a basic bacon cheeseburger with Cowfish sauce cooked medium. He said he liked it and I remember him eating it pretty quickly.

I ordered the Specialty Bento Box. The server helped me choose the roll as I'm usually wary of raw fish and she suggested the Mark's roll. The box also came with edamame, thai cucumbers, fries, and a slider. I really enjoyed almost everything in this box! I don't care for edamame but otherwise loved everything. If we went again, I may just end up choosing a full sushi meal.

When we finished dinner, we decided we'd mobile order Voodoo Doughnuts to have for the morning. We chose the Pride bar, Orange creamsicle, and the Voodoo doll. We picked up the doughnuts to save for breakfast and popped into Coldstone Creamery for the last stop of the night.

I used to manage a Coldstone when I was in college so for awhile, I was tired of their ice cream. It was nice to have it again! I chose the birthday cake remix and Tyler just wanted cookie dough ice cream with sprinkles. The ice cream took a little while due to their accommodation of our nut allergies, but I didn't mind waiting for them to prepare it in the back to avoid allergens.

Overall, it was a great and relaxing first day. We were glad to have had the pool time and rested a bit before heading straight into the parks. Up next, we head to our first day in the parks!



​

 

[schumigirl]

Day 1: Travel Day
And we're back from our trip! We had an amazing time in Universal. I was shocked to find that Universal felt more efficient than Disney. The only downside- we brought back an unwanted souvenir.....COVID. I'm through the worst of it and almost cleared from isolation, while Tyler just had his positive test today. I'll slow roll out the trip report until I get to fully feeling better.

Travel day for us started Thursday the 23rd. We spent the day wrapping up errands around the house, doing laundry, and packing up the dog's things. We had a virtual meeting with our wedding planner that we did at home and then drove over to my parents house across town right afterwards. We stayed the night there as the alarms were set for 3am with us leaving for the airport at 4am. Our dog settled in well and slept through the night!

In the morning, we woke up and headed to the airport at 4am. After a quick stop at the gas station for drinks, we made it to the airport at 4:50am. The line to check a bag was quite long and took about 20 minutes. Security went fast and then we were ready to find our gate. We hiked all the way to the gate, realized there was 0 breakfast around, and time was close for boarding. So what do we do? We HUSTLED back to the main area so I could get Chic-fil-a and Tyler could get Auntie Anne's! We made it back in time to eat our breakfast of chicken minis and pretzel dog bites.



View attachment 681694

We boarded quickly and were very impressed with the early-bird check-in we had upgraded. It got us into the A group and alleviated any worries of being able to sit together. I ended up purchasing the early-bird upgrade for our honeymoon flights in December as well.

Our flight was nice and quiet and landed on time. After grabbing our bags, we set out to find the SuperStar Shuttle. As a first time user, it was very easy to find and there was 0 line unlike Magical Express used to be. They gave us a lanyard as a welcome gift and a card designating the return time for the end of our trip. We walked straight on the bus and were off immediately!

We made it to the hotel around 11:15am and picked up our park tickets. We went to check in, but the room wasn't quite ready. We decided to take the bus over to Citywalk for some lunch and Tyler's choice for the day was NBC Grill.

NBC Grill sat us immediately! For our first drinks, I chose the Schoferhofer Grapefruit beer (a favorite of mine) and Tyler chose the Orange Blossom Pilsner. Both drinks were great!

For food we chose to share some appetizers. We ordered the boneless wings (half sweet & spicy bourbon, half orange blossom sriracha), loaded chili nachos, and a side of tater tots.

View attachment 681695

Approximately 2 seconds after ordering, like before our drinks even came, another server came and plopped down the tots. Our server was clearly confused and told us she had wanted it to all come out together. Being hungry, we just rolled with it.

View attachment 681696

Before long, our nachos and boneless wings arrived. Our server came by and brought us another side of warm tots to go with it! She recommended dipping the tots in the queso on the nachos which was a good move. We enjoyed snacking on the appetizers while watching sports and just decompressing after the flight.

View attachment 681697

Speaking of flights.....it was time for another kind of flight! Tyler ordered the When in Rome flight- included their own Firkin Beer, Swamp Ape IPA, Key West Sunset Ale, 862 Seasonal
I was boring and ordered a Strongbow for my second drink. Tyler enjoyed the flight, though his favorite was the Swamp Ape.

The food here at NBC Grill was good but not spectacular. It was the perfect relaxing setting for us and our waitress was wonderful. We'd go here again for appetizers and drinks just for the atmosphere. It's really nice as long as you're receptive and accepting that it's almost Buffalo Wild Wings quality pub-food for higher prices, which was just fine with us.

After we wrapped up with lunch, our room was ready so we headed back and changed to check out the pool. I ended up taking a poolside nap and was awoken to hearing Tyler talking on the phone. He's been applying for new jobs and got a call the first day of our trip for an interview. I could tell he was excited when he paused to ask our plans and he ended up scheduling a virtual interview for later in the trip.

Around 4pm the inevitable summer storm hit us and the pool closed. We took showers and changed, then went to go grab and refillable cup from the food court. We also got a S'mores brownie that looked amazing- and it was!! We rested for a while before heading back to Citywalk for our dinner reservation.

Dinner for our first night was at Cowfish. To drink, we shared the Cowfish fishbowl.

View attachment 681700

The Fishbowl was nice and smooth! Tyler enjoyed it a bit more than I did, but it was a good choice and cheaper than each of us ordering our own cocktail.

View attachment 681701

For dinner, Tyler ordered the CBCLT burger. It was just a basic bacon cheeseburger with Cowfish sauce cooked medium. He said he liked it and I remember him eating it pretty quickly.

I ordered the Specialty Bento Box. The server helped me choose the roll as I'm usually wary of raw fish and she suggested the Mark's roll. The box also came with edamame, thai cucumbers, fries, and a slider. I really enjoyed almost everything in this box! I don't care for edamame but otherwise loved everything. If we went again, I may just end up choosing a full sushi meal.

When we finished dinner, we decided we'd mobile order Voodoo Doughnuts to have for the morning. We chose the Pride bar, Orange creamsicle, and the Voodoo doll. We picked up the doughnuts to save for breakfast and popped into Coldstone Creamery for the last stop of the night.

I used to manage a Coldstone when I was in college so for awhile, I was tired of their ice cream. It was nice to have it again! I chose the birthday cake remix and Tyler just wanted cookie dough ice cream with sprinkles. The ice cream took a little while due to their accommodation of our nut allergies, but I didn't mind waiting for them to prepare it in the back to avoid allergens.

Overall, it was a great and relaxing first day. We were glad to have had the pool time and rested a bit before heading straight into the parks. Up next, we head to our first day in the parks!



​

Emily, finally catching up on your report!

Love your engagement picture, huge congratulations for that, both of you had a lot going on at one time!

Sounds like you had a lovely and relaxing first day, always ideal, and glad you enjoyed the food and the drinks in NBC sound fabulous, good choices!

I hope to read you enjoyed the hotel, we haven’t had a lot of reports from there and hope Ty (and you??) enjoyed the Velocicoaster too……

Enjoying your report already and looking for more……..

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Enjoying your trip report!
Sounds like a wonderful start to the trip!
Sorry you ended up with covid.
Looking forward to reading more….

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Day 2: Universal / IoA
Our second day started early, despite our initial plans. We weren't sold on waking up early for the early admission hours because we'd seen people saying that the wait for Hagrid's would still be 2-3 hours regardless. However, I ended up waking up early and so did Tyler, so we just got dressed and went to the parks.

Our morning started with the Voodoo Doughnuts we'd picked up the night before. We had the voodoo doll, the pride bar, and the orange creamsicle. This photo shows the ONLY bite Tyler took of the doughnuts. I took about 1 bite of the pride bar. We did NOT like these doughnuts, which I know is probably unpopular opinion. We accepted the loss and hopped on a bus to Citywalk! We left the hotel around 7:15am and got to the front gates by 7:30am, with park opening for early admission at 8am.

When the gates opened, we hustled to get to Hagrid's. We hopped in the line at 8:03am and the posted wait time was already 100 minutes! The line moved quickly and fortunately was all indoors once we'd started moving. We were off the ride by 8:50am so only ended up waiting about 40-45 minutes. I let Tyler take the bike and I took the sidecar- we both absolutely LOVED the ride and it was a great way to start the day.

Afterwards, we decided to grab a butterbeer before the lines got nuts. We got the frozen butterbeer which we enjoyed while waiting for Forbidden Journey.


I enjoy Forbidden Journey, though I felt a little claustrophobic in the seats this time. Tyler mostly enjoyed it. Up next, he wanted to ride Flight of the Hippogriff. I had told him that I wasn't much of a fan, but he wanted to try everything Harry Potter. We got on and he was immediately regretful. The lap bar ended up not even touching my body because he needed it loser to fit his legs, so I was just free floating. It came up even more during the ride and Tyler said he felt like he was just holding me in and hoping I didn't fall out.

At this point, Universal Studios was open so we decided to take the Hogwarts Express over. It's always an enjoyable and smooth ride. Once we got to Studios, we went immediately to Diagon Alley to ride Gringotts. I absolutely love Gringotts and the queue is just great. Tyler loved this one too! When we got off Gringotts, we chose to walk around for awhile and see whatever we came across next.

We came across Krusty the clown! We also stopped to purchase the refillable cups and activate them the entire trip- these cups were a TOTAL lifesaver and I highly recommend them. We felt so much more hydrated on this trip with the cups than we did in Disney last fall.


Tyler was enjoying the theming of all things Simpsons and at this point we were pretty hungry from mostly skipping breakfast, so we decided to stop in the food court area.



Both of us chose the Krusty burger with fries and we shared a side of the special sauce. Tyler had fun watching the Simpsons cartoons while we were eating. These weren't of amazing quality, but we enjoyed the experience and the food was good enough that we'd eat there again.

Tyler's next choice was the Simpsons ride. Even with Express pass, this one felt like a long wait. The ride was interesting and not the animation style I was expecting, but Tyler really liked this ride.

We then went over towards Transformers and caught a bit of the Minions float on the way. We both enjoyed Transformers but not a favorite of ours. Afterwards, we went on Minion Mayhem. I like this ride too, but I feel like it's a one and done ride.

At this point in the afternoon, we weren't sure what we felt like doing. We ended up deciding to walk back over to Islands and check out some more rides there. We rode Cat in the Hat which was very cute. And then it was snack time!



This was the BEST snack we had at Universal and I think of them often. These are the pizza tots from Green Eggs and Ham. They were truly perfect and we really enjoyed them.

Once we finished our snack, we felt a little burst of energy and headed over to ride Spiderman. Spiderman is one of Tyler's favorites so he really liked checking out the queue and looking at everything. It's one of my favorite rides in the park and I think Tyler agreed.

And then the wall hit us, so we went back to the hotel for a bit to hop in the pool. We got a mango margarita for Tyler and a pina colada for me to enjoy while we sat in the pool. However, this is also when I discovered a fun new allergy of mine. I've determined that I am now allergic to coconut, which is one of my favorite things. At the time, we didn't know what caused the reaction so we decided to go inside and rest for a bit with the hopes that a nap and a shower would make it better.

After our pool time and rest, it was time to go back to Citywalk for our reservation at Toothsome! We arrived right on time at 7:30 and were told that they were running about 30 minutes behind, but we immediately got the table ready text so we were seated on time.

Service at Toothsome was SLOW. It worked for us because it was our only plan for the night, but I don't think I'd recommend Toothsome for anyone who is in a hurry or has stacked plans.


For dinner, we chose the Filet and the New York Strip. Tyler opted for the Strip which came with a sliced potato and asparagus. I chose the Filet which came with a sherry cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. I did not realize until later that the sauce with my filet was an upcharge- it was advertised as part of the dish and the server didn't mention it, I think it was a few dollars extra. Worth it! We both loved our meals and Tyler even ate his vegetables. We were very happy with the steaks.


For dessert, we shared the Brookies sundae. Not going to lie, I wish we had room to each get our own because this was amazing! We were slightly embarrassed with how quickly this was gone.

We paid our bill for the meal, stopped to browse a few shops in Citywalk, and headed back to the room for some TV and rest. Our next day was slated for Volcano Bay, which was a first time experience for us both!


​

 

[OOMHS]

Such a bummer about getting Covid! Do you know where you picked it up (airport, restaurant, park?)

 

[glocon]

Sounds like a great trip so far…. Hope you’re still having fun!

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Such a bummer about getting Covid! Do you know where you picked it up (airport, restaurant, park?)

We can't be certain, but the timeline makes me think I got it on Monday/ Tuesday of the trip in one of the parks. We did wear our masks on the airplane as a precaution. Tyler thinks we may have gotten it at Volcano Bay, but we'll never know for sure. Fortunately we were both over it quickly and it wasn't too hard on us!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Loving your trip report! Sorry you guys caught COVID but glad you're both feeling better.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Day 3: Volcano Bay

Sunday allowed us to sleep in a little bit before heading to Volcano Bay! We woke up, put on our suits, and packed the bags for the day. We appreciated that we could use our refill cups at the water park - this is something Disney definitely needs to look into doing. We felt so much more hydrated having the refill cups. Once we were ready, Tyler declared he "felt like a rotisserie chicken" due to the amount of sunblock I put on him, and we headed down to Dockside's quick service for some breakfast.



I ended up choosing a kids meal and Tyler got a chocolate doughnut and an energy drink. The kids meal was a great value - this was plenty of food and the water was included with it. The quick service at Dockside was wonderful and we found ourselves eating many meals there.

After we ate, we hopped on the bus to Volcano Bay. We were arriving for early entry in hopes of riding Krakatau aqua coaster with a low wait time. We ended up getting to Volcano Bay at 8:15am for their 9am opening. After waiting awhile, they let us in. I wasn't expecting how long of a walk it was from where they hold you at security to where you actually enter the park. Regardless, we were one of the first groups in line!

At 9am, we quickly secured two chairs under an umbrella right in front of the wave pool. We put down our things and went straight to Krakatau! We got to ride this as a complete walk-on and it was such a GREAT ride. Definitely my favorite experience of the day and something I wish we had done multiple times! By about lunch time, the wait was up to 4 hours.



Our seats had a great view of the volcano! After we did Krakatau, we decided to just keep riding slides while they were all "Ride Now."
We went over to Honu, which was a family tube ride. The stairs at Volcano Bay are no joke! Definitely something to keep in mind if you or someone in your group has mobility issues - it looked as if the stairs were the only way up, so all attractions here may not be accessible for everyone.

After Honu, we went to Maku. I think this one was also a family tube ride. Following the two slides, we decided to take a break in the fearless river. We both LOVED this more than a typical lazy river, and we spent a lot of time in here.

It was almost lunch time, but we decided to ride one more slide before lunch. We ended up choosing Tonga, a 2-person tube ride. We should've just gone with early lunch. At the end of the ride, our tube ended up completely flipping upside down. I hit my head on either the bottom of the pool or Tyler, still not sure which. Tyler later told me that the slide operator got mad at him and told him not to flip the tube. He wasn't sure why they got upset when it was very clearly an accident as Tyler was moving the tube out of the water to try and help me get up.

After we got out of the pool, I realized my head hitting accident caused in a lost earring. Usually I wouldn't be too upset, but these were earrings I loved that Tyler had got me for Valentine's Day. I mentioned my lost earring to someone working and they were SO nice about it! They actually ended up closing the slide for a few minutes to have the guards dive around and look for it. It was incredibly nice of them and I was really happy with their guest services. Still no luck and the earring was lost forever. They did recommend I file a lost item ticket, but it sounded like they thought it went straight to the grate. I was a bit bummed out and Tyler said he'd replace the earrings eventually and we'd make the single earring left into a necklace. One of MANY moments during our trip that just make me say thank goodness for this guy!

Once we had that incident sorted out, we decided to take a break and have lunch. We went over to Whakawaiwai Eats.
​

For lunch we decided to split the island bbq chicken pizza and the jerk shrimp mac and cheese. Both of these were great choices! I didn't care much for the chicken on the pizza - I believe it was thigh meat / fattier than I like my chicken. The jerk shrimp mac and cheese was the clear cut winner. Tyler surprised me by eating and enjoying some shrimp. He usually is hesitant on seafood and won't always try it, but this was really good!

Up next, we planned to take it easy for a bit. My head was hurting from the fall and we just wanted something relaxing. We got in the wave pool for awhile to just float around. I should also mention that Tyler decided at this point that he wanted to do the 200 ft drop slide through the volcano! The wait was almost 2 hours, so he scanned in for that ride after lunch. I opted out of the drop slide and planned to watch from below.

At some point, we also got back in the fearless river for a few more laps. I needed an ice cream because I was sad about my earrings, so we got a twist soft serve cup as our afternoon snack. Then, we hopped into the small pool right beside the drop slide. It was getting near Tyler's time to ride, and you could actually sit directly beside the slide tube in this pool. We had planned to wait out his time while hanging out in the pool, but sadly a Florida afternoon storm hit and we had to get out.

I was glad we had gotten umbrella seats so our things stayed dry-ish! We hid out under the umbrella while it poured. We wanted to wait it out for Tyler to ride the drop slide since he had already waited so long for it. Luckily things weren't closed long, and Tyler's band said "Ride now" so it was time! It was still raining at this point so I opted to stay under the umbrella while Tyler went.

Tyler had a great time on the drop slide! He said when he got to the top and got in the tube, the guy behind him said " You're absolutely terrified, aren't you?" Tyler's response was "Yep!" He said the drum music while just waiting for the floor to drop out was intense and he kept his eyes closed the entire time, but he really enjoyed it.



Once he got off the slide, we realized we had done everything we hoped to do and the rain was still going strong. We packed up and headed back to the room to take showers and dry off. We did not have a dinner reservation this night, and I was intentionally keeping it open in case we decided to go to Disney Springs. The longer we sat in the room, the less I felt like I wanted to go to Springs. My head was still hurting after falling on the slide, and the rain was still coming down.

We ended up opting to have a quiet night at the resort. We LOVED Dockside and really enjoyed just hanging out there! We went down to the quick service for some dinner. Service was always great and everyone was so friendly.



For dinner, I chose the ziti pasta and Tyler got a pepperoni pizza. Their pizza was AMAZING and we ended up going back frequently! Tyler also got a Blue Point imperial sunshine beer that was really good. My pasta was pretty good, but it was a LOT. The server saw Tyler's birthday button and said "Oh I'm going to hook you up". He proceeded to absolutely load the bowl and give an extra garlic knot! We shared both of these entrees and still ended up with tons of leftovers. The person working the bakery also gave Tyler his choice of a free birthday dessert. He picked the s'mores brownie which we took back up to the room.

I popped by the gift shop to pick up a few little things while Tyler went back to the room. I am a HUGE Disney pin trader, so naturally I got sucked into the Universal pins. They had a blind box set and I ended up buying two boxes of those. I also got Tyler the minion bananas, which has since kickstarted an obsession with banana runts for him.

We spent the evening watching TV, opening blind bag pins, and just relaxing. We were glad we chose a quiet evening as the next morning was Tyler's birthday and we were headed straight for Velocicoaster!

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Day 4: Tyler's Birthday!
We woke up early the next day for Tyler's birthday! We had plans to ride anything we had missed the first day along with a lunch reservation at Finnegan's and a dinner reservation at Margaritaville.




We wore matching shirts I ordered for Tyler's birthday from Etsy! They were comfortable and shipped quickly. I also made Tyler wear his birthday button every day of the trip. We stopped by the quick service at our hotel for breakfast before making our way to IoA.
​

I chose the kids pancake meal and Tyler chose the adults french toast. We both really enjoyed these, and appreciated that the kids meals came with bottled water.

Once we arrived at IoA, we headed straight for Velocicoaster. I originally was not intending to ride after my disliking of the coaster at Hershey Park. I was worried the airtime would freak me out too much as it did in Hershey. The line was 45 minutes and single rider was not open during early hours. I planned to wait with Tyler through the line and then dip out at the end. HOWEVER, it was killing me to wait all that time only to NOT ride. We also ended up in line beside a guy who was a huge coaster enthusiast from Florida. We spent most of the line chatting and I was getting his opinion while comparing Velocicoaster to some other big coasters I've done. With some encouragement from our line friend and from not wanting Tyler to ride solo on his birthday, I ended up getting on Velocicoaster. We LOVED it! This was easily Tyler's favorite ride and was possibly mine too (Hagrid's is a close second).

We were feeling pumped after the ride and glad we did it! Early hours were ending and we had no interest in the long line at Hagrid's, so we hopped on the Hogwarts Express over to Studios. When we got to Studios, our plan was just to get on rides we hadn't done yet. We ended up at Fast and the Furious. We will not be returning to Fast and the Furious

The pre-show felt WAY too long and the ride itself was just fine. Up next ,we went to Jimmy Fallon. We had a similar feeling there. The pre-show was long and the ride itself was just okay. We're glad we tried them just for the sake of trying, but we won't return to either ride on our next trip.

After the rides, it was time for our lunch reservation at Finnegan's. Everyone there was incredibly nice and wishing Tyler a happy birthday from the moment we went in. It wasn't crowded at all for noon, which was nice.



The first thing we ordered is Tyler's favorite appetizer! We got the pretzels with beer cheese to go along with our drinks. Tyler had the Smithwick Ale and I had the Magners Cider. We really liked these and ended up getting 2 more pretzels added to the order.



Entrees were up next: I got the fish and chips, Tyler got the chicken sandwich. We LOVED our food but couldn't finish it all. Everything was very filling and definitely made us move slower after we left.

We left in search of a slower pace ride while we digested all that food, and found ourselves over at E.T. This was another long pre-show, but I didn't mind it once we got on the ride. I really enjoyed the nostalgia of it and riding on the bikes!

Afterwards, we noticed Animal Actors was about to start up and opted to grab a seat to enjoy it. We were missing our dog, so we wanted to see some pets. This was a very cute show and the stadium wasn't crowded at all. It was a nice break in the day to catch some shade for awhile.

Our next move took us somewhere we'd been wanting to go: to try some Duff Beers! I got the Duff Lite and Tyler got the Duff. We were surprised by how much we did not like them. Neither one of us liked them, and Tyler usually likes most beers. We go to breweries often at home and have tried a good variety, so we were a little disappointed that we did not like the Duff beers.

Moving on from that, we kept making our way around the loop and made it over to Men in Black. We loved this ride and had a lot of fun! We like Midway Mania at Disney, and this felt similar to that for us. We have fun being competitive with each other and making random bets on who will win.

My request for the day was butterbeer ice cream, so Tyler agreed to go into Diagon Alley for some butterbeer soft serve! We both chose the butterbeer and were glad that we did. I'm a big ice cream fan, and I LOVED this ice cream so much. I still think about it.

We finished our ice cream and Tyler had been considering getting a wand, so we went to Ollivander's to watch the show. It was a very cute show, though I imagine it would be difficult to choose who gets the wand. The girl in our group who was chosen had multiple siblings, and I was definitely thinking about how that may be difficult for some families. Tyler decided against getting a wand because the store was VERY crowded.

Instead, we hopped back on the Hogwarts Express to go ride some more things over in IoA. This is when the rain hit us! We really wanted to do River Adventure and Hulk, but all outdoor rides were closing due to the impending storm. A little bummed out, we high tailed it over to Backwater Bar to sit out the storm.

At Backwater Bar, I ordered the Islander and Tyler got the Raptor Claw. This is when the wave of "I am exhausted" began to hit us. The drinks tasted great, but I had a return of the terrible rash allergic reaction. We deduced that it was from the coconut in the drink, but I was very itchy and swollen.

I was doing my best to stick it out since we had a few hours still until Margaritaville dinner but not enough time to return to the hotel. We went over to Skull Island: Reign of Kong. I got hit with a migraine on top of being swollen and itchy, but we did get on the ride! This was another ride that we decided we'll skip next time we're there. It was just okay for us.

After we got off Kong, I was really struggling and in need of a rest. We browsed around to find a snack and sit down, but couldn't find anything that was open for some weird reason. I don't remember where we went, but we sat down for a few minutes and had some fries.



Tyler was thrilled to find the Jurassic Park jeep and get his picture taken with it! Our next move was to head back towards the front of the park and look in stores while we went to Citywalk for Margaritaville. I was still feeling pretty bad and wanted to get Tyler something for his birthday, so we were going to just take our time.

Despite the taking our time, we still arrived to Margaritaville about an hour early. I was REALLY hoping they'd be able to take us early, since Tyler was also hitting his wall and we didn't want to be out much longer. I went to check in and just kindly explained the situation - we weren't feeling great, it's Tyler's birthday, could we please check in early. The host didn't even make eye contact and essentially told me that we could not come in early at all, but maybe we could at the bar across the way. I cancelled the reservation and joined Tyler at a table in the bar area where he'd been sitting.

We attempted to get service at the bar and despite there being multiple servers, nobody ever came to serve us. We were definitely grumpy so we headed back to the hotel and decided to just get quick service.

We went back to our safe haven quick service at Dockside for dinner and we were SO glad we did. I felt bad that Tyler's birthday dinner wasn't a big event, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Tyler ordered chicken alfredo, I got an Italian wrap, and they gifted us a cupcake for Tyler's birthday! I got Tyler some souvenirs in the shop and we headed back to the room to rest. It was a quiet but nice birthday evening for Tyler. The next morning was a late start as Tyler had a job interview and it was also our last park day!