The One Where We Got Engaged - Updated 6/14 (Be Our Guest)

Part 7: Finnegan's - Sunday Dec. 9th

After Shrek, we realized we were getting pretty hungry. It was a little after noon, but our lunch reservation at Finnegan's was not until 1. We decided to try to walk-in a little early.

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They were able to seat us early, no problem. We didn't even need the reservation, the park was so empty that day. We ate at Finnegan's during our last trip, and both loved it. I wasn't thrilled about spending money to eat at a restaurant we'd already been to, but they do have good food and the quick-service options at Universal are pretty pathetic.

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The potato leek soup is a must-have, so we both ordered it. The soda bread that they bring you is also delicious. I could have (and should have) just had this for lunch!

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We also both ordered the same entree, the corned beef sandwich. It's made on a baked pretzel roll instead of a more typical bun or roll, which was really delicious. I didn't have much of an appetite after the soup and bread, though, so I hardly ate any of it.

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The inside of the restaurant is pretty cute.

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Loved the Christmas decorations :)

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Overall, we enjoyed our lunch here. I just wish I felt like eating more of my actual entree. Our total was only $41.51 including the tip, which I don't think was bad for a theme park restaurant.



Next Up: Universal Studios

 
I haven't eaten at Finnegan's in years! From what I remember it was good-but we ate there in June and it was really hot out so the soup and food made us uncomfortable afterwards.
 
I haven't eaten at Finnegan's in years! From what I remember it was good-but we ate there in June and it was really hot out so the soup and food made us uncomfortable afterwards.

Yeah the food is good but not always great when it's hot outside. I sort of felt that way too and it was December!

Too bad you were too full for your lunch. I hate when that happens! Looks yummy though!

I hate that too. It was definitely good though. :)
 


Awww Im following along with your TR! You got engaged on a great day... thats the day we got married at Disney :)
 
Joined in & enjoying this TR! Your e-ring looks a lot like mine. :goodvibes Simple & gorgeous. What a sweet proposal too, on the beach! How romantic... :lovestruc

We stayed at the Royal Pacific on our honeymoon and LOVED it! Beautiful resort, and you just can't beat being so close to the theme parks!
 
Joining in. I too, am a sucker for all things engagement. I'm just a romantic at heart. To bad my DBF has made it very clear that he will not propose at Disney World. Something about me expecting it :rolleyes1

I went to Kennedy Space Center a looooooong time ago (1999), back when you could actually pretty much see everything. However, being that I was 8, I remember very little, except the room where they simulate a launch and seeing a bald eagle. The bus driver made a quip that since we weren't at Disney, it was real. ;)
 


Awww Im following along with your TR! You got engaged on a great day... thats the day we got married at Disney :)

It was a great day in my book :lovestruc Congratulations to you!

Joined in & enjoying this TR! Your e-ring looks a lot like mine. :goodvibes Simple & gorgeous. What a sweet proposal too, on the beach! How romantic... :lovestruc

We stayed at the Royal Pacific on our honeymoon and LOVED it! Beautiful resort, and you just can't beat being so close to the theme parks!

Thank you! I like simple rings. We had looked at other settings online and I was drawn to the solitaires, so I'm glad that's what he ended up picking. I agree about Royal Pacific, it was pretty awesome. We would love to stay there again.

Joining in. I too, am a sucker for all things engagement. I'm just a romantic at heart. To bad my DBF has made it very clear that he will not propose at Disney World. Something about me expecting it :rolleyes1

I went to Kennedy Space Center a looooooong time ago (1999), back when you could actually pretty much see everything. However, being that I was 8, I remember very little, except the room where they simulate a launch and seeing a bald eagle. The bus driver made a quip that since we weren't at Disney, it was real. ;)

He tried making it clear to me that he wasn't proposing at Disney World, too. He kept making comments about how he couldn't tell people he proposed at Disney World (lol), and so it wasn't going to happen that way. He really threw me off with all of the 'don't-expect-it' comments.

We saw a bald eagle at Kennedy too! We didn't go on the launch simulator this trip, because we did it last time. I like Kennedy, I was just not in the mood for it that day. :)
 
Part 8: Universal Studios - Sunday Dec. 9th

After our lunch at Finnegan's, we headed straight to the new Despicable Me ride. I loooove that movie!

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The ride is really well done. It's a 3D motion simulator ride, which normally don't bother me at all. It may be that we just had a huge lunch, but this ride got to me a little bit. I may be 29 years old but I sort of wanted to buy a unicorn in the gift shop, lol. I settled for taking a picture of this cute shirt instead.

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I'm not sure but I think we rode the Mummy again after Minion Mayhem. Since we were staying at Royal Pacific, we didn't have to wait in any lines! That came in very handy, because it felt like we stopped a million times in the smoking areas (my fiancé smokes) and that time adds up. So what do I do to kill time while he smokes? Take pictures of pretty Christmas decorations and construction! We saw a lot of construction while we were there (not just at Universal, but Disney too). I think this is going to be the Transformers ride.

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We'd never been Disaster, so that was our next stop. I remember the Earthquake ride from Universal Hollywood, and I think they did a nice job updating it.

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I think I took this picture because I liked the palm trees, but it shows you how light the crowds were even later in the day.

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Even though the park was empty, we had been waiting all day for the line to go down for Rip Ride Rockit. You can't use the Express Pass on that ride, unfortunately.

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The line was finally decent (around 20 min.), so on we went. Even though we went on this during our last trip, this lift gets me every time! I chose the same song as I did last trip (Evanescence's Bring Me to Life).

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I know it's only been a year and a half since our last trip, but I swear Rip Ride Rockit felt jerkier this time around. Ouch! I needed something tame after that, so we went to Twister. Seeing Bill Paxton in the pre-show video is hilarious and totally worth it. :rotfl2: We left Universal Studios for the day after Twister.

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Our original plan was to stick around Universal Studios until 6 p.m. so that we could see Mannheim Steamroller. I love their Christmas music and had been looking forward to it. The problem was that neither one of us felt like sticking around at Universal to wait for the show, because we were dying to go over to Wizarding World of Harry Potter! We decided to skip Mannheim and head over to IOA instead, since we'd already paid for the park-to-park access tickets. I think I took this picture around 5:30 p.m. on our way to IOA. So pretty!

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Next Up: Islands of Adventure

 
Part 9: Islands of Adventure - Sunday Dec. 9th

The walk from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure can feel long when you've been on your feet all day, but it was such a nice afternoon!

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The City Walk area was pretty empty, too.

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I think it actually only took us about 5-10 minutes to make it to the entrance to Islands of Adventure. The sun was starting to go down even though it was only a little after 5:30 p.m.

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The ride my fiancé was most excited about for this trip was the updated Spiderman attraction...so that was our first stop at IOA. He couldn't wait to see the updated HD graphics. I don't think I would have noticed if I hadn't listened to him talk about it for months, lol.

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After riding Spiderman, we stopped for another smoking break (ugh), near the water by Hulk. I love Hulk but we had other plans for that evening.

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I love this picture of IOA. My fiancé grabbed a beer and we just sat and people watched for a few minutes.

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I pretty quickly decided that I'd had enough people-watching, and needed to get some frozen Butterbeer in my hands ASAP. I love it so much. :lovestruc We quickly made our way to WWoHP, and before long I was enjoying its wonderful delicious-ness.

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We went on what would be the first of many rides on Forbidden Journey during this trip. The sign said 10 min. wait, but I think it was closer to 20. The ride was great, but unfortunately the Dementors got my fiancé's sunglasses! He forgot to take them off of the top of his head and they fell off. :rolleyes2

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I love this area of the park in the evening.

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Our last ride for the day was Dragon Challenge (Chinese Fireball side). So much fun! We left IOA a little bit before 7 p.m. when the park closed. Overall, we had a great (but long) day at Universal and IOA, and were more than ready for dinner! :thumbsup2



Next Up: Dinner at Bubba Gump's


 
Part 10: Bubba Gump's - Sunday Dec. 9th

We didn't have any dinner reservations that night, but thought about having dinner at Bubba Gump's. I know it's super tourist-y and cheesy but we were in Florida, so why not? My fiancé had never been and I love shrimp. We walked straight to City Walk from IOA, and thankfully didn't have to wait for a table.

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I ordered the shrimp scampi, and ate every single bite. It was delicious, and I was so hungry that I didn't care how overpriced it was.

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My fiancé's dinner had coconut shrimp, tempura shrimp, fried shrimp, and I think just regular shrimp. He thought his food was really good, too. Even though it probably wasn't the best drink option for what we were eating, he also had some red wine.

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Our grand total for dinner was $61.31...ouch :faint:

Don't get me wrong, we had pricier dinners during the trip...but it's Bubba Gump's! After dinner, my fiancé looked for some replacement sunglasses. He ended up buying a cheap pair that he wasn't in love with, but that would work for the rest of the trip.

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I loved being able to take the water taxi back to our hotel after dinner. This picture isn't the best but I like the way the Universal globe sign is all lit up.

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We made it back to our hotel by around 9 p.m. and fell asleep pretty early. It's a good thing we did because we needed it!


Next Up: Islands of Adventure and Mythos


 
I don't know much about Universal (okay... much = nothing) so I can't wait for yall to get to Disney! :laughing:
 
I don't know much about Universal (okay... much = nothing) so I can't wait for yall to get to Disney! :laughing:

I'm sorry! :rotfl: I have to admit I'm super anxious to get to the Disney part as well. There's only one more day of the Universal part of our vacation, and I'm going to try to get through that in the next day or two. That way, I can get to the really good stuff this weekend :thumbsup2

PS - Universal is pretty awesome though, you should check it out!
 
I'm sorry! :rotfl: I have to admit I'm super anxious to get to the Disney part as well. There's only one more day of the Universal part of our vacation, and I'm going to try to get through that in the next day or two. That way, I can get to the really good stuff this weekend :thumbsup2

PS - Universal is pretty awesome though, you should check it out!

Hahha aww, don't apologize! It's still interesting to hear about, I just never have anything to say about it! And I'm one of those weird people that can't read someone's update without commenting so I'm always like "That looks like fun!" Riveting comments. :rotfl:
 
Part 11: IOA & Mythos - Monday Dec. 10th

We left our room a little after 10:30 a.m. and headed to Islands of Adventure. Not a bad start time in my book! Our first stop was guest services to see if they had my fiancé's sunglasses (the ones he dropped the day before on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey), but they didn't. :(

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First ride of the day was The Hulk! I don't know if I'm getting old or if it was just too early in the morning for me, but this felt jerkier too.

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After Hulk, we went on Spiderman again and then turned around and walked through Seuss Landing to get to our lunch destination. Look at how cloudy it was!

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We had 1 p.m. lunch reservations at Mythos. It's supposed to be really good, and neither one of us had been there before. The outside of the building is pretty neat.

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Best theme park restaurant in the world? We shall see!

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We didn't have to wait long before they brought us to our table. This was the table across from us. I took this picture from our table, because I thought the lights were cool.

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The view from our table.

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I ordered the Asian Cashew Chicken Salad, and I think my fiancé had the Bistro Filet? They were both pretty good, and all total our meal was $42.60 (less than what I was expecting).

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I didn't want to go back outside after lunch, because of the weather. But we braved it and moved on!​
 
Part 12: IOA & Margaritaville - Monday Dec. 10th

Ok enough lunch pictures, time for some Harry Potter! Sorry about the little hiatus. I have been very busy with work and with wedding planning :lovestruc I think we've decided on October 2013, we have a venue (almost), and I think I found my dress too. All very exciting!

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Construction on the new Harry Potter area was in full swing. I know you can't really hide a crane, but seeing it was still kind of a bummer.

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I love this snowman. I know it's out year-round but it added to the Christmas feel.

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Who can resist Honeyduke's?

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The Christmas decorations in Honeyduke's were really pretty.

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After going on Forbidden Journey a few times (there was no line!), I think we went to the Jurassic Park area to go on River Adventure real quick. I hate the Jurassic Park ride so much, I'm pretty sure I was swearing during the entire drop! I needed something a little more low-key next, so we wandered back through Harry Potter and made our way toward Seuss Landing.

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After going on the Cat in the Hat ride, it began pouring. We tried to wait it out in the gift shop, where I ended up buying two of these coffee mugs.

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Loved these Christmas decorations!

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We're kind of obsessed with Harry Potter, so as soon as the rain let up, we were back in one of our favorite places. We *had* to go on Forbidden Journey again, lol. When I was taking a picture of the castle, I almost missed the Beauxbatons girls go by.

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I don't really remember a lot of the specifics of our day, but I know that we stayed in WWoHP for a while.

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While we grabbed snacks in Three Broomsticks, we got alerts on our phones that there was a tornado warning in the area, yikes!

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I figured if I was going to go endure a tornado, we might as well endure it in Hogwarts, so I know we went back to Forbidden Journey at some point. We also went on Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a lot more fun than I was expecting given that it's a kids' coaster. A bonus is getting to see Hagrid's Hut.

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My fiancé wanted to go on Jurassic Park again, so I reluctantly went with him.

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That's my fiancé rocking a poncho, lol.

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We decided to hit all the water rides at Islands of Adventure next. It really sucks that you have to pay for the lockers for the water rides! Definitely worth it though. I'm a complete cheapskate on stuff like that, but I would not hesitate to buy the locker again. Dudley's was first, then Popeye's. I laughed SO ridiculously hard on Popeye's. It's a river ride like Kali River Rapids, but they are much more focused on getting you drenched. Here's a picture of Dudley's, which was fun too.

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We called it a day after that, because we were drenched and I needed a margarita! Luckily, Margaritaville has margaritas, lol. We decided to have dinner there at the last minute.

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Yes, my dear readers...this was my dinner. Super healthy. :thumbsup2

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Definitely did not finish eating this :laughing: Never having been to Margaritaville, I wasn't prepared for the atmosphere. I just wanted my drink and nachos, and wanted the performers to just do their thing away from our table. Thankfully, they did.

After Margaritaville, we went back to our hotel room, changed, and then took the water taxi back to City Walk to go see Skyfall.

All in all, a really fun day...and we were going to Disney the next day so that made me even happier.
 
Part 13: Loews Royal Pacific - Tuesday Dec. 11th


I woke up a little sad that it was our last day at Universal, but it was going to be our first night at Disney so that more than made up for my sadness. Feeling nostalgic for the last two days (lol), I went a little crazy taking pictures of our hotel.

The pretty courtyard near the lobby.

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If anyone's curious what a standard room view looks like at the hotel, here is a picture of ours.

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Their tree was really pretty.

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This was taken from the front walkway to the hotel.

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Walkway at the hotel entrance from the parking area.

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Aaah, love this hotel so much!

 
I got a bit behind, but I just got caught up! :goodvibes I really love your Universal updates because we used to go to Universal as part of every Disney vacation, but we had stopped going recently because of having DS along. We didn't think it was worth paying for us to go and for him to spend most of the day sitting in the stroller! Now that he's older, we are spending a day there on our October trip, and I'm SO excited! I absolutely ADORE Harry Potter, so it's really been killing me that I've not been able to experience WWoHP yet. I think DS will love Seuss Landing, and might be tall enough for Spiderman!

Love the photos of the Royal Pacific too. I've stayed both there and the Hard Rock Hotel, and RP is my favorite of the two. :thumbsup2 Such a pretty resort! The landscaping is great and the courtyard is beautiful! Plus, it's so great being within walking distance of both parks.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask, they charge for the lockers now? Or is it just for the water parks? I thought they used to be free, at least for a certain amount of time. Is that not the case anymore?
 
Universal was nice but YOU ARE On Your Way to Disney!!

Congrat's on getting all that wedding stuff done!
 
Can't wait for you to get to WDW! I love WWHOP too, so I understand the obsession!! :goodvibes
 

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