A Walk to the Park
At some point in the afternoon, I had to pick up bracelets for the parade at Universal Studios. The pick-ups didn’t start until 11:00 so we weren’t in any particular hurry. The day started, as all days did, at the Portofino Club for breakfast.
This was probably Josie’s favorite breakfast plate of the trip. No one in our family cared for the sausage links served at the club, but the bacon was crisp and tasty. The girls preferred the hash browns to the breakfast potatoes and double chocolate chip was Josie’s favorite muffin. So this was a home run for her.
It was a bit cool out with a good chance of showers. We were basically winging it. Our only objective was to secure our parade bracelets during the window they were available.
Mindy and Josie wanted to continue their daily habit of walking to the parks instead of taking the water taxi. Kara reluctantly agreed to try it out partially to make her mom happy but also to see the butterfly garden along the trail.
The walking path is beautifully landscaped. As much as I enjoy the laid back boat ride to and from Portofino Bay, it’s worth checking out the trail at least once.
You’re bound to do a lot of walking at Universal whether you take the water taxis or not, so I am not exactly clamoring to get in additional steps. But the walking path is a very relaxing, enjoyable way to start the day.
The Serious Business of Souvenirs
As far as the kids are concerned, nothing is more important on vacation than picking the right souvenirs. Both girls have spring birthdays and relatives made sure to send birthday money in time for them to buy themselves something nice on our trip. When Mom and Dad are paying, trinkets can be picked out on a whim. But when the kids are spending their own money, they put a lot more thought into their selections.
After a couple of days of window shopping, Josie had settled on a pair of Simpsons dolls in the Funko Pop! style. They had the entire family available in several gift shops. Josie had enough money to pick up one and a half dolls, so we kicked in a little extra so she could pick two. She decided on Homer and Marge. Her actual birthday was still a couple weeks away so I formed a plan to pick up Bart and Lisa (and maybe Maggie) later in the trip when she wasn’t around.
This put some pressure on Kara for reasons I don’t understand. Since Josie had already found something she liked, Kara felt like the clock was ticking for her to do the same.
Fun With Green Screens
Since our last trip, Universal added a fun new option to take pictures in front of green screens. Kara had really been looking forward to trying this out. Her enthusiasm comes through the pictures.
The set-up is pretty straight forward. There are two self-serve stations with four poses each. One of the poses is a passholder exclusive. The picture shows up on a screen and suggests a pose with outlines you can follow. Then it snaps a picture and moves on to the next one.
In a matter of minutes, we had cycled through all eight poses. Since we already had a photo package, we loaded them on to our account.
Staying Dry with Autobots
It started raining shortly after we arrived at the park. The rain picked up pretty quickly as we approached Transformers. This is no one’s favorite ride. Mindy and Kara typically sit it out. But since it was close, we decided to duck in and wait out the bad weather.
As I am writing this report, it’s been six weeks since our vacation ended. There is no way I would remember enough to write-up detailed reports without creating some kind of record. I accomplish this by constantly snapping pictures. I take pictures of every single attraction we experience. A lot of time, I know the picture won’t turn out at all. I am only taking it to remind myself later of what we did.
That was the purpose of these pictures in the Transformers queue. The color is off because there were sirens and alarms going off as part of the storyline. Something about bad robots. I don’t understand what is supposed to be happening in Transformers, but I don’t really care either.
I’m pretty sure Josie is telling me not to use these pictures in the trip report. Ha!
The rain had drawn a lot of people into Transformers since it is an indoor ride. With ExpressPass, our wait wasn’t very long. But the kids enjoyed checking out the dials, knobs and switches we usually walk past when we ride this one.
The ride itself was okay. It confirmed Mindy’s opinion that she should continue skipping it except as a very expensive umbrella. Given the similarities to Spider-Man, it’s amazing to me how much more we enjoy the older attraction to the newer addition.
Window Shopping in Diagon Alley
We considered running over to the Monster Make-Up Show to dodge the rain for another 20 minutes or so, but it was starting to let up. Kara’s souvenir money was burning a hole in her pocket and she wanted to check out the stuffed animal store in Diagon Alley. So we headed over that way.
Unfortunately, as was the case all week, the Harry Potter land was jam packed with guests. The girls brought their wands with them for a little spell casting, but it was just too crowded.
We stopped at one window and waited our turn to cast a spell only to have three little boys push their way to the front and monopolize the spell. They were too young to know what they were doing and their parent wasn’t interested in helping them or asking them to step aside. The girls decided it just wasn’t worth it, so we put the wands away.
We took a chance on the Olivander’s show to see if we would have better luck in Diagon Alley than we did at the one in Hogsmeade. We were towards the front of the line and there weren’t a lot of kids in our group, so I felt like Kara had a pretty decent shot of being chosen.
Before the show, a team member named Fallon chatted with us as we waited our turn. She noticed Kara’s birthday button and asked what her favorite ride was. Kara answered that it was the Jimmy Fallon ride which is how we found out the team member’s name. She pointed to her name tag and talked with Kara about the ride some more.
Fallon said one of her favorite things about Race Through New York was Hashtag the Panda. We said we keep missing Hashtag every time we ride and that last time he came out as soon as it was our turn to ride. Fallon told us a lot of times, after Hashtag makes his appearance in the lobby he will go downstairs so we should look for him there.
We had sort of hoped that Kara’s birthday button would catch the attention of the wand master before the show, but no such luck. Another kid got chosen which Kara was fine with. She understood it’s just random luck. After the show was over, the wand master stopped Kara as we exited for a little one-on-one chat. Mindy thinks he noticed the button too late.
Given the crowds in the alleys, the stores were surprisingly empty. We spent some time window shopping, but neither of the girls found anything they wanted to spend their souvenir money on. Eventually we ended up in the Sugarplum’s Sweet Shop. The kids picked out some snacks, but we left Diagon Alley to find a less crowded place to eat them.
The outdoor seating was all wet from the rain, so we ended up in Richter Burger which was busy but still had plenty of empty tables because it’s huge. Mindy wasn’t too happy with the idea of taking a table at a restaurant we weren’t eating at, but to my mind it was all owned by Universal and we were spending plenty of money. If we wanted to sit down at an empty table to enjoy our overpriced snacks, I figured we were justified in doing so.
At Olivander’s Fallon had listed all the different forms of Butterbeer available. When she mentioned Butterbeer fudge, she got Mindy’s attention. I had read some pretty lukewarm reviews of the stuff, but I knew better than to shut Mindy down when she was excited about something. Instead, I suggested getting more than one flavor. She ended up buying the Butterbeer fudge and some chocolate peanut butter.
The Butterbeer fudge wasn’t bad, but it has a strange waxy texture. I ended up finishing it because no one else especially liked it. The peanut butter fudge was a hit though.
Josie ordered a witch hat cupcake which was a standard chocolate cupcake with a chocolate-coated ice cream cone turned upside down for decoration. Cupcakes at Universal tend to be a bit on the dry side and this one was no different in my opinion, but Josie enjoyed it.
Kara got a caramel apple because she had recently had her braces removed and she was allowed to eat them again. For ease of eating, she had the girl at the counter slice the apple which ended up taking a really long time. But in the end, it was probably worth the wait. Those things can quickly turn into a sticky mess if you don’t cut them first.
Post-snack, we made our way to the front of the park. En route, Kara caught sight of Beetlejuice hanging around outside of Mel’s Diner of all places. The Ghost With the Most never seems to settle in one location for very long. Beetlejuice was the last of my must-do meet and greets so I queued up for a picture.
For a half a second, Kara was with me. But when she saw him up close, she decided Beetlejuice was too scary and she stepped out of line. There was only one other group in front of me, so I didn’t have to wait long.
Just before Mindy snapped our picture, Beetlejuice turned around to yell at some noisy kids behind us. Then he turned to me and deadpanned “Kids today, amIright?” I have to give Beetlejuice credit. He was every bit as animated as you would expect him to be. His antics were a lot of fun to watch.
On our way out, I ran over to the Studio Audience Center to pick up the bracelets that would allow us to participate in tonight’s Mardi Gras parade. They had me sign in and gave me some very general instructions about where and when to check in when we came back. Then we headed back to the hotel room to get ready.
An Afternoon Break
We had a little time to kill before we had to check in, so I took the girls down to the pool for a while. Our previous pool break was a bit on the chilly side, but it was a little warmer today. It was still cool enough that the beach pool was sparsely populated, but we didn’t have it all to ourselves either.
One of the reasons we chose to return to Portofino Bay over checking out the Hard Rock Hotel was that Josie liked the deep end of the Beach Pool. We spend a lot of our pool time going around the ruins. From that vantage point, I saw a family of little people having fun in the shallower part of the pool.
My immediate reaction was “That guy looks an awful lot like Warwick Davis.” Then I looked away because I didn’t want to be caught staring at a family of little people trying to enjoy their vacation. And what was wrong with me thinking all little people look like Warwick Davis anyway?
Next:
Laissez les bons temps rouler