Mega-Con? Mega People! Mom and Daughter travel again! 1/30-2/5, PTR info 4/26*

[Stacybaeasm]

I love me some rum but with beer??? I had no idea that was a thing. Of course, I'm also not a beer drinker but of all the things to pair rum with, beer would never have crossed my mind.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Looks like I made it here just in time before you close the TR off soon!

We had a wonderful trip with a few minor hiccups along the way.

Uh oh. Now that I've caught up, I know what some of these were now. I was surprised how many rides you wanted to do were down!

Favorite Festival: Flower and Garden

Same!

Favorite nostalgic ride at Universal: ET

Same!!

Our flight was not leaving Duluth

I was trying to remember the other day what area of Minnesota you were from. With my current health issues, we've been looking into maybe a visit to Mayo since they seem to get a lot of Canadian/International patients. And I thought of you since you're the one person I know in Minnesota lol

Minneapolis has a really nice airport. It is easy to navigate and has really nice shops and restaurants.

Good to know! (Because of previous comment. We'd probably fly into here since it seems like we could do it from home with fewer connections than flying into Rochester)

I am always happy to see the ugly MCO airport carpeting and to jump on the fake o rail

You spend $225 for a $250 dollar card. I bought $1000 dollars and saved $100 dollars. I pay for everything with gift cards on our trip!

That's a great deal! We also like to pay for everything on gift cards!

Our plan for this morning was to make AK early entry. We talked about our priorities and Dinosaur was #1, FoP if the line wasn’t crazy, and the two trails. Early lunch at one of our favorite places! Satuli or Nomad.

Great line-up! Except Dinosaur. I know how much you love it, but I can't handle the roughness without getting queasy.

I had bought a Dino Institute t shirt for this trip. It was perfect for our morning!

This is so cute! You've got the best Disney outfits!

Our time at Nomad would not be complete without the best churros in Disney World. These did not disappoint and my two favorite dipping sauces were back. Vanilla crema and the spicy strawberry yay!

Yum!! Love these!! I love the strawberry sauce! Though it seemed like they'd toned down the spice when we were there last compared to what it used to be. And I think it have guava or something in it. But still better than when they were serving it without a strawberry sauce at all, for sure! I love to mix the sauces.

We enjoyed the show. I mean who doesn’t love the Muppets? If you don’t like it, please don’t let me know, it would make me sad

Nathan loves it, too!

I had received the room ready text for POFQ. We were in building 2 on the second floor. This was no where near my requests, oh well not a big deal since it was just 2 nights.

Shame they didn't meet any of your requests, but at least it's a small enough resort that location doesn't make a big difference. This is making me want to go back to POFQ again someday.

Andi’s hair was driving me crazy this trip, it was long and in her eyes all the time. She got a haircut and I like it shorter! Here she is with Kait

Sweet couple! Andi can pull off whatever, but I like her short hair.

I want to get a Savor the Savannah tour for us and I can’t book this yet! I’m excited for my third time on this! I love it that much. Donna is excited to do it again as well. I think Helen will like this more than a dessert party at MK, in which she wouldn’t eat much of anything there.

Awesome! Glad you were able to get this! We've only done it once, but we loved it.

Let me tell you, I do not like the fact that I have to make Park Reservations still as an AP holder. It makes me really angry Donna and Helen don’t have to make any reservations! I don’t get it! I stay onsite and live out of state, ugh!

I agree! It's one of the things that influenced us not to upgrade to APs when we were there last! (That, and the uncertainty of my current health stuff.) I think that's so stupid and puts loyal AP holders s at a disadvantage.

My daughter did something that made my heart sing She took hold of my hand and said I love you This made me very happy! It just shows how much our trips and Walt Disney means to us! We have always been very close but Andi is a little stingy at times showing affection so this was awesome! If we had it my way, we would be hugging and holding hands the whole trip!

Aww this is sweet! Must have made your mama heart so happy.

There was a couple CMs having dinner and it was fun eavesdropping and listening to them talk about people, haha. I learned they are in the college program and work at Soarin. Basically they were talking about how people just don’t listen to directions! I totally understand after witnessing this a million times in the parks!

Haha! This doesn't surprise me at all! So often you see people who are just are all over the place at Disney and completely ignoring CMs. It must be super frustrating for them sometimes.

Come along for a whirlwind 3 hours of riding almost every attraction at MK!

It's amazing how much you accomplished in this event! And just generally on this trip. You packed so much into each day!

and a guest driving an ECV took a long time to get off because she, like I would be, was a horrible driver of ECV

Oh I'm sure this would be me, too! I try not to judge too much when I see bad ECV drivers because I know I'd definitely struggle.

We checked out the new Basin spot, it moved and no sinks in there, boo we love to wash our hands. I’m not sure if they will add the sinks. I hope so. It is over by Goofy’s sweet shop now.

Oh no way! I don't think I realized this was moving!

Our reservation was for Royal Pacific Resort.

Yay! I love the theming here. So pretty.

Once it was my turn, our room was ready. It wasn’t anything I had requested and it was on the 3rd floor not far from the Orchids lounge and it was the first room after the elevator. This made me really nervous, I thought it would be very noisy.

I asked if there was an upper floor room in a quiet area available and yes there was! Yay! We got the same tower 5th floor way at the end of the hall.

Smart of you to ask! Sounds like your new room was much better!

We did ride Escape from Gringotts and celebrated with a hot butter beer afterwards! I love the hot one, it is my favorite of the three types. Hot, Cold, Frozen. Frozen is my second favorite.

Same! I like hot best, then frozen.

Looking forward to hearing about the end of this trip! Some great stuff so far, and some Universal recommendations I'm making note of for our next trip.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Is this really our last ride?

Well, it is time to wrap up this TR! Our plan initially was to hang out at the resort with a late check out time of 1200 instead of 1100.

Universal has really been good about giving us the extra hour each time I have requested.

I had a good nights sleep and was ready to go by 9am.

Andi was up and ready to go, so lounging around and needing the 1200 check out time was not happening!

We decided to check out around 9:30am and head back into Universal Studios.

We dropped off our luggage with Bell Service and it was busy! There was luggage everywhere in this area. It made me a little nervous the staff were great and took our luggage without any issues. I think just seeing luggage all over the place made me nervous but no worries.

We took the lovely walking path and arrived at Studios around 10am.

Andi and I both bought another food card at the discount price and we put the cards away for our September trip.

Now we have $300 between the two of us to use during HHN. I recently made our hotel reservation with an AP discount for our September trip at Portofino Bay. The price was the lowest out of the 3 premier resorts. The rooms are a little bigger at PB, which will be nice with 3 of us.

Our dates at USO are 9/11-9/14. We will attend HHN on 9/11 & 9/12 and have 9/13 to relax and spend some time in the parks. It is Friday the 13th, scary .

Okay back to February! We decided on ET as our first ride. It is such a fun ride. We rode twice since the wait was minimal.

Our next ride was Transformers. Andi and I both like this ride. It isn’t as good as Spider Man but still enjoyable.

Andi wanted to ride The Mummy one more time so I looked around the shops while she rode.

We rode MIB next and Andi got the extra 100,000 points (roll eyes ) I don’t even remember my score, it was below average and Will Smith was not impressed and erased my memory at the end!

We were walking through the Simpsons area and decided to ride the Twirl and Hurl. We had never done this before. It is similar to Dumbo except more crass It was fine, never need to do it again.

This ended up being our last ride of the trip. If you are new to Universal don’t end your trip with this lame ride!

We joked about telling first timers to Universal to make sure they end their trip with this memorable ride. Make it your tradition, haha

We made our way out of the park to City Walk. We wanted to try NBC Grille for lunch.

It was still a little early for lunch so it wasn’t crowded. We asked for a table on the patio.

Andi had a beer and the spicy chicken sliders with fries.

I had the brisket sandwich with tater tots. No pictures of mine.

The food was fine, nothing great but tasty. The tater tots were really good! Perfectly fried!

Our flight was at 4pm today so after lunch we headed back to the resort. We walked on the lovely path one more time.

We got our luggage and hung out in the lounge area of the resort with the elephant pool.

A nice place to chill for an hour. We ordered our Lyft and headed to the airport around 2pm

We did curbside check in! Love this and will always do this if it is available!

We cruised through security with our TSA precheck. Best money I have ever spent!

We chilled for a little while in the International terminal, way less crowded than the Delta area.

I get notifications from the Delta app when it is time to board. Once I get that, we head over to our gate.

Our flight was on time and we landed in Minneapolis a little early. During the flight, I read a book on my IPad and tried to nap a little.

Once in Minneapolis, we had a couple hours before our flight to Duluth. I wanted Chick Fil A and the line was really long. Andi said she didn’t want anything. I waited in the line since we had nothing else to do. Andi went to find a place to sit.

I got a fried chicken sandwich, waffle fries, and a drink.

It did take about 30 minutes with the line and the wait for the food.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was. The sandwich and waffle fries were delicious! Guess who ate 1/2 of everything after saying she didn’t want anything! Andi is lucky she has such a nice mom! She should have ordered something! Oh well it worked out fine. I would have liked a few more of those yummy waffle fries. I understand why that line was huge and the other places around had very few people. The food was really good and hit the spot.

Soon it was time to head to our gate which was “miles” from where we were!

Flight to Duluth was on time and quick!

We were actually home by 11pm! Nice compared to the 1am time we usually get home.

I had to work the next morning and Andi headed back to Eau Claire when I left for work.

It was a wonderful whirlwind of a trip!

Here is my Universal sweatshirt! It is very comfortable and soft.

I was truly shocked how busy this trip was. The crowds at times were massive! This is usually a quiet time to go to Florida! Little did I know Mega-Con, the Pro Bowl, and Olympic try outs were all going on at this time, ugh!

These events definitely added to the increased crowds!

I heard the next week was way less crowded! Live and learn!

Next year I will be checking all events in the Orlando area before planning our trip! Our plan is sometime in early February 2025, a mother/daughter trip, spending time at both WDW and Universal! I really want to do a Disney Cruise but having a hard time selling this to Andi! I think Joe might come on a cruise with me! Fingers crossed

We loved POFQ! AS Sports was my least favorite of the AS resorts, mainly because the movie and music themes are more to my liking.

Royal Pacific is a great resort, however, Portofino Bay is my favorite of the two. Rooms are larger and the atmosphere is much quieter and calm. I enjoy this, especially after spending time in the parks. I also like the Italian Riviera theme better.

Best Universal restaurant this trip would be Strong Wate Tavern with Vivo and Antojitos both a close second!

Best Disney restaurant/lounge is a tie with Wine Bar George and Nomads!

I have to say the Mardi Gras food was slightly better than Festival of the Arts, mainly because we couldn’t find hardly any chicken or vegetarian dishes in Epcot.

I bought macarons at Toothsome’s Chocolate Factory, love these. I would say out of the donuts, cookies, and macarons, the macarons were my favorite. The cookies from Summer House were Andi’s favorite.

Here is my new Epcot mug from the where are we series at Starbucks. It is a matte finish.

Thank you very much for reading and commenting. I really enjoy writing TR. It is a way to remember the trip long after it is over! The memories last forever!

Stay tuned for a mini update on my travel plans for our upcoming trip. We head down to my sister’s on 4/27 and fly out early on 4/28 to Orlando.

 

[jrmint427]

Our dates at USO are 9/11-9/14. We will attend HHN on 9/11 & 9/12 and have 9/13 to relax and spend some time in the parks. It is Friday the 13th, scary

Oooh, I wonder if they do anything extra for Friday the 13ths that fall over HHN! That should be a fun trip!

I have to say the Mardi Gras food was slightly better than Festival of the Arts, mainly because we couldn’t find hardly any chicken or vegetarian dishes in Epcot.

That's interesting! F&G Festival had a lot of vegetarian dishes, good to know on Festival of the Arts - I hope they improve that in future years.

That's a great picture of you two!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I showed up pretty late, but really enjoyed this TR! I like your Universal sweater and Starbucks mug! I remember being surprised to see your TR title reference MegaCon and that your trip was in February, but I checked online and saw that it’s in February now! It used to be in May years ago. Nathan did it one year as a vendor when I was in grad school and I was sure it wasn’t when I was still in classes. Crazy how much of a difference all those events can make on park crowds. Hopefully you’ll be able to avoid them next February!

 

[Keladry84]

This was a great trip report, and it was neat reading about your experiences at Universal Mardi Gras as well! I'm glad you were able to pick up an extra food gift card for later - I was planning on doing the same but missed out completely on Mardi Gras due to cancelled flights. Your trip looked really fun!

 

[pkondz]

Well, it is time to wrap up this TR!

Noooooo

Universal has really been good about giving us the extra hour each time I have requested.

Good to know. I don’t think Disney is quite as accommodating.

I think just seeing luggage all over the place made me nervous but no worries.

I would be too.

Andi and I both bought another food card at the discount price and we put the cards away for our September trip.

Smart move.

It is Friday the 13th, scary .

But you’re not doing HHN that night!

We decided on ET as our first ride. It is such a fun ride. We rode twice since the wait was minimal.

It’s a great ride… but that last bit is weird!

don’t even remember my score, it was below average and Will Smith was not impressed and erased my memory at the end!

We were walking through the Simpsons area and decided to ride the Twirl and Hurl.

Is that new? I don’t remember. Was it something else before?

This ended up being our last ride of the trip. If you are new to Universal don’t end your trip with this lame ride!

Nice shot of the two of you.

We joked about telling first timers to Universal to make sure they end their trip with this memorable ride. Make it your tradition, haha

Thanks for the tip!!

Wait…

The food was fine, nothing great but tasty.

Better than bad.

We did curbside check in! Love this and will always do this if it is available!

Wish I could. Sounds so convenient.

We cruised through security with our TSA precheck. Best money I have ever spent!

Another thing I’d love to have.

Our flight was on time and we landed in Minneapolis a little early.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was. The sandwich and waffle fries were delicious!

I’ve only had Chick-fil-A once. Thought it was pretty tasty.

Guess who ate 1/2 of everything after saying she didn’t want anything! Andi is lucky she has such a nice mom!

Yeah… my kid tries that she’s drawing back a stump!

Flight to Duluth was on time and quick!

Great!

I really want to do a Disney Cruise but having a hard time selling this to Andi!

Because…$$$? Or not liking being on a ship? Or?

AS Sports was my least favorite of the AS resorts, mainly because the movie and music themes are more to my liking.

I agree with this.

Royal Pacific is a great resort, however, Portofino Bay is my favorite of the two. Rooms are larger and the atmosphere is much quieter and calm. I enjoy this, especially after spending time in the parks. I also like the Italian Riviera theme better.

Tough call… I like them both for different reasons.

Thank you very much for reading and commenting

Thanks so much for writing!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Thanks for taking us along on your travels with Andi. You’ve got some gorgeous photos of the two of you in that last update.
Love the sweatshirt and the mug and also the fact that you are heading off again next week so hopefully another trip report for us to read

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love that you went back to IOA for more attractions. I really enjoy both The Cat in the Hat and the High in Sky Trolley Train Ride a lot even though they’re in the “kids” section of Seuss Landing.

We love Seuss Landing! The trolley is favorite of ours! I love being able to see almost all of IOA up there!

Your dinner looks delicious!

It was fantastic

I laughed at your Shining references. Unlike you and Andi, I am not a scary/horror film person so I’ve seen that movie exactly once. That was enough!

Haha I read a lot of scary books, I always say because my life is boring, lol but the Shining in book form utterly terrifying I could not sleep at night!

What a great meal at Strong Water. I love Carol’s trip reports and I am shocked, shocked I say, that you did not have a Carol’s Punch in her honour ( or that Andi didn’t since your footing the Bill )

We tried Carole’s punch in September and it is very good, a tad sweet for me but yes I definitely had to try it! I have learned so much from Carole’s wonderful reports!

Here it is!

So glad you got a sweatshirt you liked. Always nice to bring something home to remind you of your holidays. We need a picture of you wearing it now so we can all see how lovely it is

It is really soft and I just wanted something simple. I wore it yesterday around the house love it!

 

[disneyAndi14]

A far cry from the Hulk!!

I will take the rides in Seuss Landing any day over the Hulk! Even young Andi says Hulk is rough and jostles your brain!

Inside???? I walked outside… in the heat!

I know we have always walked outside and this evening it was raining so I was very happy to stay inside!

I’ll pass on the rum drinks though.

They have many other drinks and you should give it a try the food is amazing and some of the “rum” doesn’t even taste like typical rum you may surprise yourself!

You had me at buttermilk fried chicken.

All the food was amazing. A must try even if just for the food and NO RUM

 

[disneyAndi14]

Oh Caroline, thank you for such lovely comments, and I am so happy you had such a wonderful evening there!!! It is our favourite place in all of Florida and yes, food, drinks and service are the best!!!

Strong Water Tavern is truly a gem and I can see why you love it! Awesome place for food and drinks

We first started walking the ballroom/convention area when Sapphire first opened and there weren`t really any other guests around in that back area especially late at night, so it was a little creepy, although I scared myself doing the "REDRUM" comment....then a door opened.....lol.......it is much nicer than walking outside in the heat at times. We were jokingly accused of wearing out a path on the old carpet as we wandered back and forward so often!

Haha I don’t think we saw a soul down in those long hallways! It did look like it was set up for a few work conventions along the way. It was a nice walk and it was raining outside so it was nice to stay inside. The Shining book is sooo scary! It took me awhile to figure out redrum was murder spelled backwards!

I haven`t tried The Reverend yet, but will next visit, it sounds so good. Haven`t had a bad cocktail or meal there yet, all your drinks looked lovely.

I think you would love it! Andi really enjoyed it!

Looking forward to your last day, although it`s always a sad feeling too knowing your TR is coming to a close

The last day always comes so fast! Even on your long trips I’m sure it shows up before you know it!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love me some rum but with beer??? I had no idea that was a thing. Of course, I'm also not a beer drinker but of all the things to pair rum with, beer would never have crossed my mind.

This was surprisingly delicious and smooth. I am not much of a beer fan either, give me a cold Stella once in awhile and that is it. So I ventured onto something very unique and really liked it!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We cruised through security with our TSA precheck. Best money I have ever spent!

It was a super long line at Orlando's TSA that motivated us to purchase TSA precheck. It is truly worth it, especially since we fly at least 5 times a year.

I would have liked a few more of those yummy waffle fries.

I love waffle fries. I wish they would bring them back to Geyser Point.

Olympic try outs were all going on at this time, ugh!

We ran into super long wait times when we arrived at Mears Connect in the airport due to all the activities in Orlando. It tied up the traffic and Ubers. I never saw a situation where the buses just didn't arrive at the Mears Connect location. They ended up putting us on a taxi to the Wilderness Lodge.

I enjoyed your trip report. You really packed a lot of fun into a short trip.

 

[Joy70]

Thanks for another great trip report! I am not good at commenting but I love reading them and appreciate you taking the time to do them! Your mother- daughter trips inspired me to take my two girls on my own, when my non Disney loving husband was finished going along. We have went every year for the last five years. This year only one of my daughters is going because it's her Graduation present and she wanted it to be just the two of us. Her sister was fine with it because in three years it will be her turn and she's already planning a cruise for just us two! Lol Looking forward to your next report!

 

[pkondz]

They have many other drinks and you should give it a try the food is amazing and some of the “rum” doesn’t even taste like typical rum you may surprise yourself!

Maybe so!

 

[schumigirl]

We tried Carole’s punch in September and it is very good, a tad sweet for me but yes I definitely had to try it! I have learned so much from Carole’s wonderful reports!
View attachment 853755
Here it is!

I`m so glad you enjoyed it, yes it is sweet, it looks good though in your picture!!!

They have many other drinks and you should give it a try the food is amazing and some of the “rum” doesn’t even taste like typical rum you may surprise yourself!

That`s so true. Tom and I weren`t rum drinkers at all until we started visiting Strong Water, Fernando and his team really educated us on rum and now it`s one of our favourite cocktail based drinks.

Strong Water Tavern is truly a gem and I can see why you love it! Awesome place for food and drinks

Haha I don’t think we saw a soul down in those long hallways! It did look like it was set up for a few work conventions along the way. It was a nice walk and it was raining outside so it was nice to stay inside. The Shining book is sooo scary! It took me awhile to figure out redrum was murder spelled backwards!

I think you would love it! Andi really enjoyed it!

The last day always comes so fast! Even on your long trips I’m sure it shows up before you know it!

lol....love the Redrum part of the movie.

I really am over the moon you love Strong Water so much and I will try The Reverend on our next trip!!

Yes, last days come around far too fast, but thank you for taking the time again to do such a lovely report. You and Andi have so much fun and she was so lovely being quite emotional with you, she seems such a lovely girl!!

Next one soon?????......

 

[disneyAndi14]

Looks like I made it here just in time before you close the TR off soon!

Hi Meghan! Thank you so much for joining in! I’m so happy to see you back on the boards!

Uh oh. Now that I've caught up, I know what some of these were now. I was surprised how many rides you wanted to do were down!

The ride situation was bad especially when you only have a couple days. I was very thankful the CMs gave us our money back without any issues!

I was trying to remember the other day what area of Minnesota you were from. With my current health issues, we've been looking into maybe a visit to Mayo since they seem to get a lot of Canadian/International patients. And I thought of you since you're the one person I know in Minnesota lol

I’m sorry you are having more health issues. I hope you get the answers you need to make you feel better! The Mayo is a good place for sure!

Good to know! (Because of previous comment. We'd probably fly into here since it seems like we could do it from home with fewer connections than flying into Rochester)

Yes it is about 2.5 hours south of the MSP airport and an easy drive on freeway the whole way!

Great line-up! Except Dinosaur. I know how much you love it, but I can't handle the roughness without getting queasy.

Dinosaur is such a favorite but it sure is bumpy! I use to be able to ride it many times in a row and I think 2-3x in a row is pushing it for me now!

This is so cute! You've got the best Disney outfits!

I bought some new shirts for the trip coming up!

Yum!! Love these!! I love the strawberry sauce! Though it seemed like they'd toned down the spice when we were there last compared to what it used to be. And I think it have guava or something in it. But still better than when they were serving it without a strawberry sauce at all, for sure! I love to mix the sauces.

I think your report was the first time I heard about Nomads and the Churros! They are a favorite of ours now and the OG sauces are the best and I love to mix them

Shame they didn't meet any of your requests, but at least it's a small enough resort that location doesn't make a big difference. This is making me want to go back to POFQ again someday.

The last few trips my rooms couldn’t be further from what I requested I am a little nervous about our BC room coming up. I asked for a full balcony and higher floor , we shall see!

agree! It's one of the things that influenced us not to upgrade to APs when we were there last! (That, and the uncertainty of my current health stuff.) I think that's so stupid and puts loyal AP holders s at a disadvantage.

It makes me so angry thinking about it! Ugh

Aww this is sweet! Must have made your mama heart so happy.

She can surprise me at times, haha! Most of the time a short little hug is all I get!

Haha! This doesn't surprise me at all! So often you see people who are just are all over the place at Disney and completely ignoring CMs. It must be super frustrating for them sometimes.

How many times do you hear buckle the seatbelt, over and over

It's amazing how much you accomplished in this event! And just generally on this trip. You packed so much into each day!

I knew we wouldn’t have much time at MK this trip and I think we did a good job riding everything we wanted to!

Oh I'm sure this would be me, too! I try not to judge too much when I see bad ECV drivers because I know I'd definitely struggle.

I would be terrified driving one! I would be really bad. The year I had an injured ankle, Andi had to push me in a w/c because I wouldn’t do an ECV!

Oh no way! I don't think I realized this was moving!

We didn’t either, I liked the other Basin location, this seems smaller and no sinks!

Same! I like hot best, then frozen.

Yum!

Looking forward to hearing about the end of this trip! Some great stuff so far, and some Universal recommendations I'm making note of for our next trip.

Thanks again for reading it all and commenting

 

[suse66]

Now we have $300 between the two of us to use during HHN. I recently made our hotel reservation with an AP discount for our September trip at Portofino Bay. The price was the lowest out of the 3 premier resorts. The rooms are a little bigger at PB, which will be nice with 3 of us.

Nice to have those cards!

Our flight was at 4pm today so after lunch we headed back to the resort. We walked on the lovely path one more time.

We got our luggage and hung out in the lounge area of the resort with the elephant pool.

You are lucky you don't have to rush to the airport. MCO recommends 4 hours for international flights which feels excessive to me.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was. The sandwich and waffle fries were delicious! Guess who ate 1/2 of everything after saying she didn’t want anything! Andi is lucky she has such a nice mom! She should have ordered something! Oh well it worked out fine. I would have liked a few more of those yummy waffle fries. I understand why that line was huge and the other places around had very few people. The food was really good and hit the spot.

It's what moms do!

Next year I will be checking all events in the Orlando area before planning our trip! Our plan is sometime in early February 2025, a mother/daughter trip, spending time at both WDW and Universal! I really want to do a Disney Cruise but having a hard time selling this to Andi! I think Joe might come on a cruise with me! Fingers crossed

Joe and you would have fun! Hope it works out.

Thank you very much for reading and commenting. I really enjoy writing TR. It is a way to remember the trip long after it is over! The memories last forever!

Thanks for another great report! I always enjoy reading along and appreciate the care and detail you put in to writing them.

 

[KaSe]

Is this really our last ride?

We were walking through the Simpsons area and decided to ride the Twirl and Hurl. We had never done this before. It is similar to Dumbo except more crass It was fine, never need to do it again.
View attachment 853463
This ended up being our last ride of the trip. If you are new to Universal don’t end your trip with this lame ride!
View attachment 853465
We joked about telling first timers to Universal to make sure they end their trip with this memorable ride. Make it your tradition, haha

It's a cute ride & we do typically ride it when we're at Universal, but yeah, kinda a let down for the last hoorah of the trip.

Despite the crowds, I'm so glad you & Andi had such a great time together! Loved your trip report! Enjoy your trip coming up in just a few days!!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Oooh, I wonder if they do anything extra for Friday the 13ths that fall over HHN! That should be a fun trip!

Probably make it extra scary

That's interesting! F&G Festival had a lot of vegetarian dishes, good to know on Festival of the Arts - I hope they improve that in future years.

I know we were shocked because the F&G and F&W always have chicken/veggie dishes.

That's a great picture of you two!