A LIVE Trip Report, 3/28-4/4, Spring Break Fun!! Completed :)

People exchange their wands at the potter shop when they no longer interact to do the spells

It’s called wand repair

Thanks @macraven

@ForMyBoys I am all caught up now. What a great trip you had. We were originally booked at HRH for our August trip but have decided to go back to our firm favourite, Royal Pacific. There is just something about that place that keeps on drawing us back.

Loved your take on Volcano Bay and picked up some useful tips on what rides to do first and to make sure and eat lunch early.

Thanks so much for your live report :)
 
Hi great report! Thanks for sharing. I love reading trip reports because I find that there is something new I can learn about the parks. I am glad you enjoyed HRH that is our usual hotel we really like it there, but trying something new this June. Last year I did one day of a live trip report then I couldn't continue I just had trouble finding the time. On this trip I am going to try and add more food pics. My trip reports usually lack that.
I know, I try to post food but I find half the time when I think of taking pics we've already started eating!! I tried to get better!!

OK I do have one last day to post and while I'm no longer live, I will do it now to close it off because we did have a FANTASTIC last day and a few more items to share. I hope this helps anyone else planning :)
 
Our last day was fairly long because our flight home wasn't until 10:15pm so Tony wasn't going to pick us up until 7:45.

We woke at a fairly normal time, around 8. We didn't do any pre-packing the night before so it was all hands on deck to pack up the entire room, which we fully lived in, so it took a bit.

At 10ish we called for guitar pick up and they were there within 10min. At 10:30 we called for luggage pick up and a guy showed up even faster, maybe 5 min later. Overall the service we received at this hotel was steller.

I went to the lobby to get a print out of our bill. I had already checked it on the TV and it looked fine, but the boys had purchased a few items with saved up allowance so I wanted record of thier purchases. While in the lobby DS2 bought a limited edition Hard Rock pin. DS2 is a pin collector and he bought a few of them through out the week. He was quick to point out that the universal pins were generally less expensive than the Disney pins. Which made him happy.

Ok so off to universal. By this time it was 11. We missed early opening and generally don't like the busy early afternoon in the park. Plus we'd seen almost everything. So we bought tickets for the 12:45 IMAX showing of Ready Player One. But first, why not a second trip to Voodoo Donuts!
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This time we were able to score on of the three tables in the store, so we ate our donuts right there in the ambiance, which was awesome!

We had some free meal tickets from our Blue Man Group deal so we went in search of the Sushi place it allowed. But first we need a wave picture.

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The sushi was typical fast food fare. FWIW I wouldn't do the meal deal again. There were a couple sit down restaurants included but the one night we tried to use it two of them were closed hosting a special event, and the other had over an hour wait. The little savings wasn't worth the hassle.

We had a bit of time to kill before the movie so we wrote out all our Harry Potter post cards which we sent to family and friends. I also sent one to each of the boys with messages they didn't get to read until they received the post card at home. I also asked the boys to write one sentence each on a post card for me saying what their favorite thing was. My postcard came a couple days ago!

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I think the Owl post is fun. They rob you a bit on the stamps, but they are cool looking.

It was then time to enjoy the movie. The IMAX screen was amazing and the theater was practically empty. They were fairly nice seats and we did get to pick the seats ahead of time. I just wished the seats were reclining. Our local theater has that so I think I'm just spoiled. But overall it was a good experience.

The movie ended a bit before 3:30 so we had about 4 hours to enjoy the parks one last time. We had a few destinations in mind. We entered at IOA and walked over to Hogsmede to mail our post cards, but on the way we had to stop in Suess landing to get a fresh spun cotton candy. You can pick from a variety of flavors. They also have mix-ins but I'm not sure how that works with cotton candy so we didn't order one.

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They also sell a "unicorn" version in which they put the cotton candy around one of those large twisted lolly pops. The price seemed reasonable, even if it was gone fairly quickly.

We then headed to Hogsmede and dropped off our mail and made a beeline for the train, we decided we needed one last ride on the Hogwarts Express. We got lucky this time and got our own cabin.

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We waved goodbye to Harry Potter as we left the train. We promised the boys they could each ride their favorite ride, which all happen to be in one park, so it made the last day park selection fairly easy. But honestly with a park to park pass it really feels like one park.

So first stop was the Simpsons ride. I didn't take a picture here but here is one with DS2 in Simpson's land from our first night, it seems fitting since this is his favorite ride.

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Then DH took the younger two on MIB so DS1 and I could ride RRR one more time. My last song choice was Insane in the Brain by Cypress Hill. It was a pretty good choice. Unfortunately DS1 didn't pick quickly enough and ended up with a song he'd never heard of. I told him we could ride it again, but he was ok. We met up with the rest of the fam at the Mummy ride of course. If you've been reading along you know this is DS3's favorite ride. He'd never seen the movie so we actually watched it tonight. Unfortunately it is not DS2's favorite ride and he'd had enough of it so DH and I took turns sitting out with DS2 and the rest of the gang rode the mummy twice. With EP it was a walk on ride.

After the mummy we did the Jimmy Fallon ride one more time. I think the clips you watch while waiting for the ride are almost more fun then the ride itself. I hope they change them up from time to time. Sadly this was our last ride!! We only had two more things we wanted to do, visit the brown derby hat store and get one last family picture.

The hat store was awesome. I wished we had visited it earlier in the week. The boys found some light up fedoras that would have been awesome to wear at night. They had all kinds of hats, if you are in the market for one I recommend stopping there.

We then had a nice woman snap one last photo:
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After this photo we took the boat back to HRH and had an uneventful trip home.

We had a really fun week and were sad to leave, but we were ready to sleep in our own beds. It was below freezing weather when we landed so we quickly missed the warm temperatures of Orlando!

Overall our trip was fantastic and I'd do it all over again. But the parks were super busy so I am glad we had EP. We also do enjoy the mid-day pool break so staying on-site worked really well for us.

The only thing we really missed was being able to explore Hogsmead. It was always so crowded we never stayed long so we didn't get to enjoy the shows there. But we knew what we were getting into by going during spring break.

Thank you all for reading! I look forward to living vicariously through your trip reports in the future!
 
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Great TR! It's nice having a late flight home so you can have one last time at the parks- and one last dose of warm weather and sunshine!

That cotton candy is massive! Looks great- so fresh!

Your boys are cute!!
 


Thoroughly enjoyed reading along with you.......

Your pictures were lovely and you can really see what a good time you all had!!

Thanks for writing it........:wave2:
 
The short walk from hrh or rph is what i like too!

Hopefully your next trip you will score a queen deluxe at hrh.
There are not many of them but sweet it is when you can get one.
I've had the 2Q deluxe before and loved it.
Aren’t all the beds at HRH deluxe rooms either queen or king? I have never seen full beds mentioned for the deluxe rooms.
 


Aren’t all the beds at HRH deluxe rooms either queen or king? I have never seen full beds mentioned for the deluxe rooms.

Hi, I guess I'm going on experience. We sleep on a king at home so maybe I'm skewed, but I do travel a lot for work and the beds felt smaller then a standard queen to me.
 
Hi There, enjoyed reading your trip report, great photos, just curious, where in Seuss Landing can you get the fresh spun cotton candy? Do they have unique flavors? What are some of the add ins? If you remember, I have spent a lot of time in Seuss Landing and don't ever remember seeing this so have to remember for my trip in November. Thank you.
 
Thanks for writing your trip report! I enjoyed reading it! Can you please tell me where the wave and surf board photo op is located?
 
Thanks for this report! We are down to 20 days and counting!!!! Did you stay club level? And where did you get the big donut and cotton candy from? Those are musts for us!!!
 
Hi There, enjoyed reading your trip report, great photos, just curious, where in Seuss Landing can you get the fresh spun cotton candy? Do they have unique flavors? What are some of the add ins? If you remember, I have spent a lot of time in Seuss Landing and don't ever remember seeing this so have to remember for my trip in November. Thank you.

Hi, it appears it is a new addition. Here is a link with more info:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/amusement-parks/universal-orlando-cotton-candy-factory
 
Thanks for writing your trip report! I enjoyed reading it! Can you please tell me where the wave and surf board photo op is located?

Hi! It is in city walk. It was at the entrance of a surf shop. The store was very close to the parking area. We passed it when walking to the movie theater so head that way.
 
Thanks for this report! We are down to 20 days and counting!!!! Did you stay club level? And where did you get the big donut and cotton candy from? Those are musts for us!!!

Hi, we did not stay club level. We wanted to guarantee a deluxe room so we opted out. We did a grocery stop on the way over and picked up sodas, snacks and breakfast food. Last time we stayed at Portifino and we had a club room and I liked it, but our kids were younger so we spent more time at the hotel. I can't say we missed the club much so I was fine with our decision.

See the link in the reply above for the cotton candy info. The big donut is found in the Simpson's area. You can't miss the huge pink donut!!
 
You can find the big pink donut in most of the shops

I usually pick one up at the end of the day at Port of Entry shops when I am headed back to my hotel
 

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