Orlando 2019 - Moving offsite

Two resorts, three parks, and more rain

We have arrived! 

Breakfast today: Disney's Hollywood Studios Early Morning Magic event.
We heard about this several months ago and decided to get tickets - it's a sperate ticketed event that lets you have access to Toy Story land before that park opens, plus you get breakfast.

We arrived before our 7:50 am ticket time, and were let right in. We followed the crowd but realized people were going to breakfast first. We ended up going in and getting some small items to eat on the way to Toy Story Land.

First time in Toy Story Land

We got in line for Slinky Dog Dash and had less than a 15 min wait - not typical for this ride. After, we did the Alien Saucers and Midway Mania. Then we couldn't help ourselves and hit Slinky Dog twice more before committing to breakfast.

Slinky Dog Dash... a new favorite! 

Plus, the park was about to open to the general public so our short lines were almost gone.
A comment about the breakfast options for this event.... the menu seemed to be catered to Millennials or hipster foodies. We like a variety of food, but when it comes to breakfast we tend to be more traditional. Chicken and Mickey waffles with Sweet potato tater tots, or Avocado toast with oven-baked egg- were not really what we had been expecting. We don't eat pork so the other options were not going to work for us. However, they had a nice assortment of bread and fruit.
And overall we are very glad we got tickets for the event.

At this point, we left Hollywood Studios to get back to our hotel at Universal. Today we check out and we have about 90 mins before check out time.
When we got back to the car our young man asked where his bag was... uh oh.  With the crowds of people trying to get into the park and the timeline we were on, the decision was made that hubby would go back by himself to try and find the missing bag. It was left at breakfast and turned in. Lucky for us Hubby talked to the cast member who had handled the bag and she was able to get it for him.  Despite the missing bag, we got back to the hotel with plenty of time to get packed up and check out.
And the rest of the day we planned to spend at Universal parks.  Last chance to ride things at Universal so go now!

Great view of Portofino Bay plaza

Hubby finally got to go on Hulk and we all got a little snack. The kids and I hit the Seuss Island rides again and we met hubby after.
We grabbed a second ride on the Hippogriff and then the adventurous half of us went for the last ride on Jurassic Park while the young man and I found some food. Lunch today is snack as you go... and he found something that looked good, so it worked well.

Again we popped on the train to the Studios park and re-road the Men In Black ride and ET.  Hubby and I shared a Beyond Burger at Mel's before we rode Minions on last time.
On the way out of the park, we hit the Today Cafe and shared a few goodies.

This wraps up our time at Universal. We headed off to check into the Orange Lake Resort an IHG property.

Bye Universal, It's been fun! 

This is a timeshare, but we paid cash for our stay. The unit is great - two bedrooms with a king and two queen beds. A full kitchen, full washer and dryer, two baths, and a living room. The price was good. We booked a unit at the building by the pool/lazy river.
Upon check-in, hubby got mild pressure to schedule a 90-minute timeshare presentation to join. He politely declined and we got settled into our unit.

The living room at Orange Lake 

dining area

bedroom

second bedroom 

We had our Owner's Locker delivered here, which Owner's Locker handled great. The resort was not nearly as sure about it. But despite that, Hubby found the locker and we were able to get into that too.

After a rest in the new room, we decided to try Disney Springs again and specifically try to get to Earl of Sandwich. Wanna guess how it went?  Not bad through dinner, but about halfway back to the car park area it started to pour again. Now we are used to the whole afternoon rain thing at this point, but this was another downpour. And despite carrying raincoats around with us all day in the parks, we didn't bring any to the Disney Springs.  We once again found ourselves sprinting from cover to cover and getting a wee bit wet along the way.

This was the sky, just before the rain......

this was my weather app when I took the picture of the sky (posted above) 

this is the young man and me after we found shelter from the downpour. 

Once back in the car we decided to head to Publix for some grocery items since we now have a kitchen... this is where things went bad.
Our brave young lady got her fingers caught in the car door. It wasn't good.
We freed her ring and middle finger and found our way to an urgent care clinic. (a few years back she broke her pinky finger and the state of her fingers looked a lot like that. Plus she was reacting very similarly, although that happened in a very different way).
The boys dropped us off at CentraCare and we got x-rays ... nothing broken!! Yay!!!
The boys spent the time doing that grocery shopping that we had to abandon earlier, and came back to pick us up.

Didn't think a pic of the fingers would be helpful to anyone.. but Thanks to CentraCare for taking good care of us. 

We got back to the room around 11 pm. We decided not to do rope drop the next day and pushed back all our FastPasses.

Our sweet young lady is ok, but a good night's sleep is needed by all.

Orlando 2019 - volcano bay and universal

We are up earlier today
It is really in prep for tomorrow, but we will get to that....tomorrow.

We ran down to the lounge for another quick breakfast. The options aren't bad, and this is working out pretty well. 

Our first order of business today is water slides! We are off to Universal Studios Volcano Bay park, which is huge and fairly new.

Volcano Bay entrance

Since we are staying on-site, we have early admission and get in an hour before the general public.

Two of the four of us really enjoy water slides. One of us is a huge lazy river fan and the holdout will tolerate it for a limited period of time. So we went forth! 

The park is beautifully themed. Crazy lush and very tropical.

soo much greenery

We found the lockers pretty easy to use and were in the "Fearless River" almost as soon as they opened it up. This one is far from lazy, you have to wear a life vest, then just let the current pull you through. Fun!! 

Our young man sat this out to play in the sand. After a lap, we decided to split up into our typical groups... the adventurous two and the young man and me. 

The brave among us hit a bunch of slides, while he and I did the typical lazy river and explored all the nooks and crannies of the park.

The volcano! 

After a few hours, we met up and decided to work our way back to the room. The brave took one more lap at the river and we met back in the room. 

After showers, we knew it was time for lunch and more park time.

Toothsome's for lunch

For lunch, we tried Toothsome's Chocolate Emporium. I know it doesn't sound like lunch, but the menu looked quite good and the steampunk-inspired decor was fun.

this bread was not sweet but it was delicious... if you come across the recipe, I want it! 

Almost ate it all!!!

We ate real food and split dessert. Then before we got too full, went into the Islands of Adventure to see more of the park. 

We made it through Seuss Island and the Lost continent  - when the rain decided to show up. Even with the waterworks, we made it to Hogsmeade. After exploring we took the train back to the Studios park to re-ride some favorites from yesterday.

At Citywalk, we got some random food to take back to the room for dinner. 

These days have been really fun, I expect we will return to Universal in trips in the future

back at the resort for the evening.... just a little wind. 

Every evening on the plaza, something like this happens. It was delightful

Orlando 2019 - Here comes the sun...and the rain!

Woo Hoo!
Our first full day!

We had a plan to get up in time for the park opening.... but we are west coasters in Florida, we overslept. We still made it and started our fun at Universal Studios Park.

Universal Studios here we come!!!!

Our young man has been looking forward to riding Minion Mayhem for well over a year, so we did that first... And it was fun.
Next up Race through NY with Jimmy Fallon. Also fun.

Jimmy Fallon ride! 

So here is a note on the majority of the rides we rode at the park today - Lots of motion simulators. We rode 11 rides today and  5 of them were not heavily focused on large scene motion simulator type technology.
I will say they use the tech very well and most screens are amazing. The transition between screens and other elements is impressive.
But its a lot of screens. and a couple of them are downright jerky to ride. So I have mixed feelings on this.

Now that I have said my piece... we rode everything in the Studios we wanted and then caught the train to Islands of Adventure.

Train to the other park - Soo fun. 

Once in the other park, we decided to check out the new Hagrid roller coaster. It has had insanely long lines since opening and sadly our front-of-the-line passes (came with the room too) didn't work on this one ride. One of the workers implied to us that we should get in line for the ride. That it wouldn't be a shorter wait than it was now. So despite the 120 minute wait time listed, we got in line. And one hour later we got off the ride! It was great.
This coaster was one of the smoothest coasters. We all really enjoyed the ride and are so happy we didn't have to wait longer for it. Several of us would have easily ridden a second or third time, but that wait kind of takes that idea off the table, so much to do.

After our great ride, we decided it was time to head back to the room. Our timing was perfect. Just as we got to the boat dock the rain started to fall. We got a little bit wet getting from the boat to our room, but really it wasn't bad.

Just a little rain shower

Our evening plans - Disney Springs.
We needed to activate some annual passes and planned to eat dinner at a personal favorite, Earl of Sandwich.
But mother nature had other plans.
Once we parked and started walking to Guest Services, it once again began to rain. We ran for it and took shelter while we got the passes all set. Then we had some decisions to make... Earl of Sandwich is at the other end of Disney Springs... and without any raincoats or umbrellas, getting from here to there without getting soaked through, wasn't going to happen. So we started looking to see what was closer to guest services.... we settled on the new Wolfgang Puck restaurant. And with a few mad dashes from covered awning to store overhang, we made it to the restaurant. We were not dry, but we were not soaked through either, and it didn't seem to phase the hostess, so we were seated.
The menu had lots of options for our picky party and we were happy to not be outside - the heavy rain continued.
Leaning into the full table service meal we ordered appetizers and entrees and settled in. The appetizers were delicious and then before our meals came out the lights started to flicker... and the power went out.

The wait staff were relaxed and asked that we give them a little time to see what the kitchen can still do and to see if the power comes back.
After a few more minutes two of our four entrees turned up, we were told they wouldn't be able to prepare the other two - they were very apologetic and brought us some focaccia bread to help.
By candlelight, we shared the entrees - which were very tasty.

dining by candlelight

After eating we settled up - they still had one of those old school credit card imprint things.
Not all of Disney Springs was dark and the rain had let up, so we ventured over to a family favorite - Goofy's Candy Company for a sweet treat to take back to the room.

Orlando - Theme parks trip 2019

It's that time again. Time to jet across the country to the land of sunshine and mid-afternoon rainstorms.... oh and lots of theme parks.

Our flight was early. Left the house at 5:30 am.
But despite there being more people than I would expect at the airport that time of day, we got on our flight and made it all the way to Orlando.

The kids think the Orlando airport has expanded since our last visit... I am not convinced, nor am I curious enough to look it up ;)

First ride in Florida... the airport tram ;)

This trip we are adding Universal! I know we are Disney people, but with the kids being teenagers we decided to add to our repertoire.
We are starting our trip at the Universal Portofino Bay resort. We decided to lean into the Universal experience and got the 4-day tickets, the dining plan, and have access to the hotel club lounge.

Almost to Universal! 

The resort is lovely. Really beautifully themed.
Our room is fairly standard, but very nicely sized - has a small table and a nice lounging chair. Also a tub and shower.

Walking to the room at Portofino Bay

After we got settled into the room, we hit the lounge, which puts out an evening "reception" during the dinner hour. We snacked a bit and then decided to hop on the water taxi to the park area.
The boat takes you to the CityWalk area, and the entrance to both parks is a short walk.

View of Portofino Bay Resort from Boat Launch 

Tonight we headed into Islands of Adventure. We had no plans beyond maybe some more snacks. But thought a look around might help us plan the next day.

Will we dare a ride on "The Hulk" coaster today? 

The Spiderman ride was the one that got us.
The ride itself is an interesting mix of the car moving through space, movie projections, motion simulator, and additional effects.  The closest the kids had been on something like this was the Ratatouille ride at the Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Paris. But this ride is quite a bit more intense.

After the ride, the young man and I grabbed a snack and started back to the boat. But the adventure crew (Hubby and our brave young lady) decided to go find some dinos and rode Jurassic Park.

We all met up in the room when it was over.

Fun trip to Cali with a little unexpected shaking

We took an early summer trip to California to see some sights and catch a show. Didn't blog it day-to-day, but decided to do a recap...mainly so we don't forget ;) 

The trip started with a few days with family in northern California. After some family time, we drove to Santa Cruz for a few days.  

Loved the train to the Boardwalk and back. 

And enjoyed the ride through the Big Trees! 

Had to go back to the Boardwalk for a few rides

Next up - Los Angeles. 
We made it to the Anaheim area on the 4th of July. Our plan for this trip includes some extended family who met us in LA. As luck would have it, we could see fireworks from our hotel! 

The next day we headed to Knott's Berry Farm with some of the family. The park was fun and we enjoyed many of the rides. 

After a hot day of having fun, we met up with the rest of our growing party and some local friends at the local Claim Jumper restaurant. 
With a group of ten, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner. And parts of the group left early to return to the hotel. Our little family of four lingered the longest, even chatting for another 20 minutes in the parking lot after we ate. So that is where we were when the earthquake hit. Yup... that is when the 7.1 quake shook us. The kids hadn't experienced an Earthquake yet... so that was new. And our family that was back at the hotel had quite the ride in the pool. But we were all fine. (So if you are keeping track.. this year: 1 Tornado Watch and 1 Earthquake). 

Over the weekend we got to run to Train Town and the Zoo. 

For several days of this trip, hubby worked out of a local office. So the kids and I found fun things to do in the area. Part of the larger group we were with took a day and hit Universal Studios. Our young man and I enjoyed some classic California fare with hubby at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank. 

Last full day in So. Cal, we had a busy day. A group of us (all girls except for our young man, who was very patient) got to go to Orly Color Lab and make our own personalized nail polishes. Such a fun thing to do. If you are in the area, make an appointment and stop by! 

We made a total of 9 polishes! So fun! 

We finished our trip with a show. Truth be told this was the catalyst of the trip. We had tickets for our whole group to see "The Play That Goes Wrong" at the Ahmanson Theater. [Editor's note: I had seen this play on Broadway in March 2018 while I was in New York on a work trip. When given the opportunity, I don't ask people if they want to see it, I buy tickets and tell them that they are coming with me. :-)]
We were a group of 11 for the show and it was a great performance. This show is wonderful, lots of fun. 

Thanks for the fun, California. See ya again soon!