Guess who's Back? Another trip report

[kbelle8995]

Hi everyone I'm back from my trip to Cabana Bay as well as Universal. I will be writing my trip report in the next couple days or so.

Let me just note that the parks are crowded as are the resorts. I think that this will be the pattern for the rest of the year.

 

[kbelle8995]

We went on Veterans day and stayed through Tuesday. We arrived and went to Icon park and ate at the Gordon Ramsey Fish and Chips. We thought it was quite good. After that we went to Prime Outlet to shop. Then we went to Cabana Bay to check in. We had paid for a Volcano bay view. We got the last room in the before you get to the tower. Unfortunately one of the lights would not shut off. We sent a text to the Front desk. We also called them just in case. They sent a maintenance engineer and he discovered that the light switch was bad and it would take some time to fix it.

He contacted the front desk and within an hour they moved us to another room. We ended up in the tower with a great Volcano bay view. We took a quick nap. We had reservations for NBC Sports bar. It was really crowded at Citywalk and rain had set in. The restaurant was really crowded. We did go to Disney after this and ended up at the Polynesian for cupcakes and dole whips. Then back to the hotel.

I will write more about Universal in the next post. We spent more time at Disney especially since I'm leaning strongly toward dropping my Disney AP. And I want to go back to Volcano Bay Badly.

 

[kbelle8995]

2nd Day. - Got up and went to Starbucks or tried to in the Lobby. Bad news Starbucks had a long, long line. Nope. Went and refilled my cup and got some eggs and bacon from Bayliner instead. The early entry was at Islands that day. The park opened at 9. Big mistake Hogsmeade was packed. I'm glad I didn't take my wand too crowded. You could barely move. We gave up after awhile and hopped on the Train to Diagon Alley. So much better crowd wise. I think when it's is the early entry at 7 guests don't want to get up so much better. If you have a later early entry it might not be an advantage. Both parks were really busy.

We went to the Leaky Cauldron for Breakfast. Yes they are taking reservations and walk-ups. We both got the Scotch eggs. Then we walked around and went in the various shops. At that point it was getting late my traveling companion decided to go back to the hotel. I wanted to ride something. ET was a ten minute wait so I went to ride that

ET was not running the movie and they were not doing the names. But I did see some team members at the computers so I don't know how long that will last. I got on a bike pretty quickly with a family. Question: These were fairly young kids do they even know what ET is? Then again I am not a huge ET fan. Saw it when it first came out. And I like riding the bike ride vehicles. I slowly meandered out after that

Went to the Christmas Tribute store and loved it so much. Walked down NY Street and looked at the decorations took lots of picture. The Marilyn Monroe show was around 11 and I always wanted to se it so that's what I did. I enjoyed it. The MC was really good and interacted with the crowd and I love the costumes on the dancers. I really love old Hollywood so it's geared towards me. I would see it again and I filmed some of it. Went to the Prop shop after that which is a store I really love. You can always find little items like hats and old style jewelry. Really a cool store. I decided to jump on the boat and head to Sapphire Falls and then walk back to Cabana bay.

 

[kbelle8995]

I went back to the hotel and took a long nap. I don't sleep well during my first night at a new place so some recovery is required. I have some advice for you if you want to stay at CBBR. Standard room have more space in the tower. Our standard was much bigger than the room that we had that was not in the tower. We did see contruction and them working on rooms. Hopefully they are refreshing the rooms and replacing some things. The older areas are starting to look worn. While the towers are farther away from the lobby, The rooms are newer and lot more fresh looking and feeling. You can also hear the noises from the Sound system at Volcano bay. Distant but you can hear it. They shut it off at night so it shouldn't be a problem when you're sleeping

Also for those of you considering Volcano Bay, November might be the time to go. Now the weather is a bit of a roulette but the park is less crowded. I had a good deal of fun looking at the park from an elevated view. It's is really a beautiful park. I just love all the water features they have. And enjoyed gauging the wave pool every day. We went over to Disney Springs for Dinner and had an okay dinner. And did some shopping

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

2nd Day. - Got up and went to Starbucks or tried to in the Lobby. Bad news Starbucks had a long, long line. Nope. Went and refilled my cup and got some eggs and bacon from Bayliner instead. The early entry was at Islands that day. The park opened at 9. Big mistake Hogsmeade was packed. I'm glad I didn't take my wand too crowded. You could barely move. We gave up after awhile and hopped on the Train to Diagon Alley. So much better crowd wise. I think when it's is the early entry at 7 guests don't want to get up so much better. If you have a later early entry it might not be an advantage. Both parks were really busy.

We went to the Leaky Cauldron for Breakfast. Yes they are taking reservations and walk-ups. We both got the Scotch eggs. Then we walked around and went in the various shops. At that point it was getting late my traveling companion decided to go back to the hotel. I wanted to ride something. ET was a ten minute wait so I went to ride that

ET was not running the movie and they were not doing the names. But I did see some team members at the computers so I don't know how long that will last. I got on a bike pretty quickly with a family. Question: These were fairly young kids do they even know what ET is? Then again I am not a huge ET fan. Saw it when it first came out. And I like riding the bike ride vehicles. I slowly meandered out after that

Went to the Christmas Tribute store and loved it so much. Walked down NY Street and looked at the decorations took lots of picture. The Marilyn Monroe show was around 11 and I always wanted to se it so that's what I did. I enjoyed it. The MC was really good and interacted with the crowd and I love the costumes on the dancers. I really love old Hollywood so it's geared towards me. I would see it again and I filmed some of it. Went to the Prop shop after that which is a store I really love. You can always find little items like hats and old style jewelry. Really a cool store. I decided to jump on the boat and head to Sapphire Falls and then walk back to Cabana bay.

Happy to hear Leaky is accepting walk ups for breakfast again-that was crazy town back in September with the reservations!

 

[kbelle8995]

Happy to hear Leaky is accepting walk ups for breakfast again-that was crazy town back in September with the reservations!

Yes we didn't have reservation but were able to get it

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Yes we didn't have reservation but were able to get it

Excellent news! I understand why they did it, and apparently it was starting pre pandemic, but it just…..it made no sense. The mix works better for sure.

 

[kbelle8995]

On the Third day: we started off at Animal Kingdom and then went to Disney Springs. We returned to Universal and decided to go back the Hogwarts Castle show. It was very crowded and the team member were quite organized. We were able to see the show and we were filtered out through Jurassic Park area. The new lockers for Forbidden Journey are built and they much more room. So glad to be able to go where you aren't crowded by other guest trying to get a locker. We went to the Studios and walked through the Tribute store again.

Warning the Castle show area can get quite crowded. They have signs out indicating if you want to move past and go ride the rides in that area. We went to the Bread Box afterwards. It was very busy and the service was a bit slow but the food was delicious and we were hungry.

 

[kbelle8995]

The next two days we spent going to Disney parks. We continued to stay at CBBR and drive over to Disney. It was incredibly crowded and there were lines everywhere. At Universal you could escape crowds but Hogsmeade was really full. We really enjoy CBBR and I wish we had more time there.

We will be back in December to spend one night at Portofino unless something happens. So that's all I have to say on that. The team member were great. Especially those at the Starbucks, they were handling a large morning crowd well and were quick to notice my ap when I didn't mention it. They reacted quickly when I had a problem

 

[mich7088]

Going to universal next month for the first time! So excited