But Where Are All The People??? -A September 2016 Trip Report - Update 4/4/17

[caitlinnf]

Following! We are also a family of five and heading to Universal next Jun. We booked the Deluxe Double Queen Room at HRH. It has the pull out soda and some extra space. Is that the kind of room you had?

I love that pizza place…we ate there a couple years ago and thought it was awesome!

Please tell me you headed to Toothsome and that you have LOTS of pictures!

We actually just had a standard garden view with 2 queens. We won't be able to do it for much longer, but right now my kids all like sharing a bed. The girls sleep the normal way and youngest sleeps at the foot of the bed...curled up like a dog. Lol

As for dinner...you just might be right

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Hello! Following along! We were in WDW roughly the same time as you!

I'm jealous that your DH got to do Kong. We were there that week without Express Passes and the line was just too long. There's always next time!

 

[ariane37]

Joining in! I'm another non-morning person Unless it's a Disney morning! Our flight last month left pretty early and our flight in Nov. leaves REALLY early, but once I hit the alarm and realize why it went off I'll be wide awake!

We did Disney/Universal last summer, first time for our boys and first time back since 2000 for DH and l. We stayed off-site but visited the Hard Rock; if we ever went back and stayed on Universal property that's where we'd stay! We only saw the lobby and pool area and outside, but I've seen pictures of the rooms and I love the theming.

 

[caitlinnf]

Hello! Following along! We were in WDW roughly the same time as you!

I'm jealous that your DH got to do Kong. We were there that week without Express Passes and the line was just too long. There's always next time!

Yes Kong was fun, but definitely not worth a really long wait. We always stay onsite at Universal because of the Express Pass. It doesn't work for us to not have it, because he does the big coasters and I don't. If he has the express, he can be on and off in almost no time and I don't mind waiting on him!

Joining in! I'm another non-morning person Unless it's a Disney morning! Our flight last month left pretty early and our flight in Nov. leaves REALLY early, but once I hit the alarm and realize why it went off I'll be wide awake!

We did Disney/Universal last summer, first time for our boys and first time back since 2000 for DH and l. We stayed off-site but visited the Hard Rock; if we ever went back and stayed on Universal property that's where we'd stay! We only saw the lobby and pool area and outside, but I've seen pictures of the rooms and I love the theming.

Yes, even the earliest wake up time is acceptable for a Disney morning! We really enjoyed the Hard Rock this time. I would definitely stay there again.

 

[caitlinnf]

Day 1: Chapter 4- Sweet Eats

Our friends texted to say they were getting close to the resort, so we went down to the lobby and waited for them. We were in a bit of a hurry because the restaurant we wanted to go to was still in preview and not accepting reservations. And since Universal Studios closed at 6pm that night, once it closed it would likely become VERY busy.

As you have probably guessed by this point, tonight we would be dining at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium!

When I heard that this place was going to be open during our trip, I just knew we had to try it. So the plan was to try to get in for dinner on the first night, and if we couldn’t, to try again for lunch the next day. Well, we got there and the hostess said it would be a 45-minute wait, but that they would text us when our table was ready. We decided that would work, and went across the bridge to the big Universal store to kill some time. I didn’t take any pictures, but there was some cute Secret Life of Pets merchandise that the kids liked. They were also drawn to the Harry Potter items, but we told them that it was only acceptable to purchase Harry Potter souvenirs inside the Wizarding World.


After awhile we walked back to the restaurant and explored the attached gift shop. They had a huge candy counter with lots of interesting chocolates for sale ($$$) and a ton of interesting merchandise that fit the restaurant’s theme. For example, tiny bowler hats:

It was fun to explore, but very crowded and I was getting a bit claustrophobic because I couldn't move. Eventually, we received our text that the table was ready and we were led upstairs. The whole restaurant is decorated very interestingly. But to be honest, we were really hungry and the kids were kind of squirrely, so I wasn’t in much of a décor-picture-taking mood. We were much more interested in the menu!

Which by the way, was huge. The stack of six or so that the waiter was holding must have weighed at least twenty pounds. In it was the story of the theme behind the restaurant (which is pretty bizarre), and the roughly 8 million food items available. Seriously, for someone who is used to dining at Disney where you are lucky if you get six different entrée options, this was crazy. Plus, we were famished and everything sounded good. So we put in our orders and waited. And waited.

I’m just going to say here that this was a very long evening. It took us about 45 minutes to get seated and then another two hours to get through the meal. Normally this would give us a less than favorable view of the experience, but we went into it knowing they were still in preview and therefore still figuring things out. Plus it was the first night of vacation and we were still full of patience and excitement! So just know that it was a long meal, but other than the slowness, our waiter was very eager to make it a good experience and it was overall a good night.


Enough of that…you want to see the food. I thought I had way more pictures, but I don’t see them. Boo. So some of the pictures will be not mine.
Anyway, we started with the chocolate almond bread with salted caramel butter. (not my picture)

Everyone loved this and we actually considered going back the next day and asking if we could just get the bread to go!
Next up, the entrees. At home, the kids are pretty adventurous eaters and eat whatever I make, but at restaurants they embrace their inner-children and always go for the basic kid menu items. Bethany and Greg both got chicken strips, I believe. Apparently I didn’t think they were interesting enough to photograph.

Becca LOVES burgers, so she went for the mini-burger on a pretzel bun. She really enjoyed it.

Ben had the Grilled Teriyaki Salmon and absolutely raved about it. “Asian inspired, vegetables, jasmine rice, miso broth.” I had a few bites and it was very good.


I was way more intrigued by the appetizers than the entrees, so I just ordered three of those! Somehow I didn’t get pictures though. I must have been too hungry! I ordered the roasted Brussel sprouts “Grilled, charred brussel sprouts, jalapeno mayo, cojita cheese, ancho chili.”
They were amazing! Crispy and flavorful.


I also got the spinach artichoke rolls, which were like spring rolls stuffed with spinach artichoke dip. Very good, but super and creamy and rich, and definitely shareable. I could only eat one.


My third appetizer was the totchos, or tator tot nachos. “Fried tator tots, spicy green chili, crispy pork belly, andouille sausage, cheddar cheese sauce” Oh. My. Goodness. This was amazing. So much flavor. I ate these last and was worried that they would be soggy, but they weren’t at all. Warning though…this was a HUGE plate. I ate a bunch and everyone else had some too, and probably more than half were left. You can see them in the picture of Becca's burger.

I don’t remember everything our friends had, but one of them was the crab and artichoke dip. This was really good too.


While we were waiting for our food, we saw the robot Jacques come upstairs and start walking around, greeting people. Our kids got really excited to see him, but he never came near our room. We did, however, get to meet Penelope!

She stayed at our table chatting with the kids for quite a long time. She asked the girls if they had flown in on a dirigible, and all sorts of other quirky things.

It was a cute touch. I don’t know if they will continue having characters after preview, but it was fun.

After all of that, we were stuffed. But, we were at a restaurant named after chocolate. There was NO way we were leaving without dessert!! Let’s just say this now…don’t skip dessert!

Our friends ordered the sundae called “May Contain Nuts: peanut butter ice cream, peanut brittle, reese’s peanut butter cups, chocolate peanut butter pie, fresh whipped cream, peanut butter sauce, topped with reese’s pieces.” Oh boy, was this good. If you like peanut butter, this is the way to go. However, it is extremely rich, and gigantic.

Our family decided to order two things and share amongst the five of us. We went with the sundae “Cream Puff and Éclair” Eclairs, cream puffs, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, strawberry sauce, fresh whipped cream.” Yes, you read that right.

It was delicious. And huge.

Since the milkshakes at Toothsome are their big specialty, we had to try one of those too. We had the Chocolat x 5 shake: “chocolate ice cream, chocolate chunks, strawberries, chocolate sauce, fresh whipped cream, chocolate spirals, cherry.” I. Loved. This. I had read some reviews saying that the milkshakes were disappointing because they weren’t thick enough. Honestly, this was a little thin, but I loved it that way. I was so completely stuffed with food that a super thick shake would have been hard to get through. But this was sippable and delicious, like the most chocolatey-fied chocolate milk ever.


Now we were officially stuffed, and had to roll ourselves out of there. By this time it was getting pretty late, but we had to stop to take a few pictures in front of the globe!

Whoops, no globe there.

Much better! If you will notice, Ben and I have Harry Potter shirts on. Our poor, neglected children had to wear Disney shirts, though. They don't have extensive enough Universal wardrobes to fill a three day trip.

Yay, vacation!

After that, we headed back to our room and went straight to bed. It had been a very long day, and we had a full day planned for the next day!


One last thing. This is the first trip I have taken where I wore a step tracker. So just for fun I kept track of each day's steps to see what we did!
Day 1 step count: 15,541 ​

 

[gluestickgirl]

following along! we're heading to the dark side for the first time in a couple years in january so i'm looking forward to seeing what all you guys do!

 

[vleeth]

Joining in. Love it so far.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Love that you ate that the Chocolate Emporium. We saw it from the US bridge and didn't know it was also a restaurant. My mom is dairy-free though so it was probably best.

 

[lorimay]

Wow! That restaurant looks amazing. Now I need to go to Universal just to give it a try.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

 

[Pesky]

Ah, wonderful! I am planning on trying to get into Toothsome as well when we go so good to set expectations for the wait.

 

[caitlinnf]

following along! we're heading to the dark side for the first time in a couple years in january so i'm looking forward to seeing what all you guys do!

We had a really great time and I think we packed a lot into the short time we were there.

Joining in. Love it so far.

And thank you! It's fun reliving a great trip.

Love that you ate that the Chocolate Emporium. We saw it from the US bridge and didn't know it was also a restaurant. My mom is dairy-free though so it was probably best.

Yes, it may have chocolate in the title but there is SO much other food there!!!

Wow! That restaurant looks amazing. Now I need to go to Universal just to give it a try.Thanks for sharing the pics!

It was a really fun experience. I'm glad we decided to wait it out and not go somewhere else.

Ah, wonderful! I am planning on trying to get into Toothsome as well when we go so good to set expectations for the wait.

I hope you like it! I know that they are officially open now, so maybe they will accept reservations when you go?


I'm almost finished organizing my day 2 pictures, so an update will be coming soon!

 

[gracer9977]

Toothsome Looks Amazing!!! I absolutely love chocolate and that shake and those desserts....I need them. Glad there are other things to eat there, lots of other things to eat from the sounds of it because I may love chocolate but my son won't eat any. I'm not sure he is really my child.

Looking forward to your next update.

 

[caitlinnf]

Toothsome Looks Amazing!!! I absolutely love chocolate and that shake and those desserts....I need them. Glad there are other things to eat there, lots of other things to eat from the sounds of it because I may love chocolate but my son won't eat any. I'm not sure he is really my child.

Looking forward to your next update.

Oh my, I can't imagine NOT eating chocolate. Of course, I would probably be 10 lbs lighter


It has been a crazy week here. My kids are involved in way too many extracurricular activities. Gymnastics, dance, piano, girl scouts, church activities, and now a community musical that rehearses three times a week! I thought for sure they would make it out of elementary school before getting this busy. I was wrong.

Anyway, working on updating now.

 

[HBaney84]

Following along! Not that I'm not enjoying Universal, I'm excited to hear about Disney - this is around the same time we will be going next year!

 

[caitlinnf]

Day 2: Chapter 1- Potter Indoctrination
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Saturday morning started bright and early for Ben, as he is training to run the Disneyland half marathon. So no rest on vacation for him, he had get up and run at least a few times this week!

Unfortunately, the morning started bright and early for me too. Because as soon as he left, the stupid alarm clock started going off (at 5:30am) and I could NOT figure out how to stop it. I could only snooze it, so it kept going off every 10 or so minutes. I even tried unplugging it, but it must have had a battery back-up. Of course when my husband returned from his run to find me groggy and annoyed, he was able to turn it off right away. Oh well, no harm done, because we weren’t planning on sleeping too late anyway…we had early entry to get to! We threw the kids some granola bars and make the walk over to Islands of Adventure. We were almost 30 minutes early, so we just hung out and took some pictures…and realized that it’s 7:30am and we are already sweating. Uh oh.

Selfie fail.

You can see that my camera lens is adjusting to the humidity.

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When Islands of Adventure is open for early entry, there is pretty much one thing that you do. So we headed straight for Forbidden Journey! Bethany was the only kid tall enough to ride, but thanks to the way that Universal does child swap, Becca and Greg were able to walk through the castle and see all of the amazing things in there. I just love the castle. Talking portraits, Dumbledore’s office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom…it’s all so incredible. While we were walking through the line, Bethany was excited but also getting very nervous. She does this before rides. She has yet to meet a thrill ride that she is tall enough for that she does not like, but she works herself up a little beforehand. We decided that I would ride with her first while Ben took the littles to the child swap room. Since it was first thing in the morning there was really no wait, so we were quickly strapped in for our magical adventure! Bethany wanted to hold my hand through the whole ride (a difficult thing to do in those seats) and I couldn’t see her face at all because you sit in your own little compartment. I could tell whenever she got nervous or startled because she would suddenly squeeze my hand tight. That happened a lot throughout the ride, so I didn’t know how she would be when it was over. To be perfectly honest, I close my eyes through a lot of the ride. It makes me nauseous and I hate being startled. BUT it’s Harry Potter and I have to do it So we finally land and get out and Bethany says “That was AWESOME!!! Can I go with Dad now?” Yep. My little thrill junkie for sure.
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So I went and hung out with the littles in the child swap, where they were watching the first Harry Potter movie.

(Which they love, by the way. I guess I should say as a matter of background that we have read the first four Harry Potter books with the kids and they have seen the first three movies, so their Potter love is pretty strong!)
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After that we went on Flight of the Hippogriff because the whole family could ride. Becca was acting nervous and weird about this one, which was annoying. On all of our previous Disney trips she loved anything she was big enough for, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash, etc. But we took the girls to Six Flags this summer and one small coaster was a bit more intense than she was expecting, and she decided to be scared of every ride. This lasted a good while through our trip. We pretty much made her ride everything she could. I promise this wasn’t mean. She actually does enjoy them, she was just deciding to be in a mood. It's what she does. So anyway, she said she didn’t like the Hippogriff ride. Remember that for later.
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Greg, however, had a blast. He cracked me up because on the lift hill he told me “I’m gonna scream” and then proceeded to spend the entire rest of the ride doing this fake little yell. It’s hard to describe but it was darn cute.
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The only other ride in Hogsmeade is Dueling Dragons. Ben is the only one who will ride that one, and it makes him kind of sick. So instead we set out to explore the shops!

Oh look, they are wearing appropriate dark side attire today.

First up had to be Honeydukes, of course. We had fun showing it to the kids, but we didn’t buy anything here. Well not today, anyway.

I just love the details in here!

Greg REALLY wanted to go up those stairs. I just really want a set of those jars for my house.

We had a family reunion activity once where we all watched Harry Potter and ate every flavor beans. It was fun, until the power went out five minutes into the movie and we had nothing to do but sit around eating soap and earwax flavored sugar.

She was impressed.

We left the store empty-handed and stopped to take a picture in front of the Hogwarts Express because no one else was there.

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We did, however, have a different treat in mind!

We had told the kids about all of the different types of butterbeer at Universal and they had declared that they wanted to try them all! We had to start with the original. (Just one…we are a family that gets one or two snacks to share so we can try lots of different things throughout the day.)

It’s safe to say they loved it!

This girl. She's a ham.
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While Ben was in line for our drink, the girls became fascinated with a group of people using their interactive wands.

Getting wands was #1 on their to-do list and they were super excited once they saw them in action. But not yet! Because it was now getting close to 9am when the rest of the park opened, and we had something important to do! Well, the adults did at least.
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[caitlinnf]

Following along! Not that I'm not enjoying Universal, I'm excited to hear about Disney - this is around the same time we will be going next year!

Haha, I was excited to get to Disney when we were on the trip! It was a great time to go, I'm sure you will love it.

 

[caitlinnf]

Day 2: Chapter 2 – A Great Big Monkey and Other Adventures
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It was now 9am and we were conveniently located quite closely to our next big goal: Reign of Kong! We had express pass, but we wanted to see the details of the regular queue, so it was important to do this early. You may remember that Ben rode this the day before and stated unequivocally that the children would NOT be riding. I think it’s hilarious that this ride has such a low height requirement (our whole family could do it) while things in Seuss-land were stricter. I know it has to do with the type of vehicle, but it’s still funny.
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Anyway, because Ben already rode it with express pass, he was going to walk through the main queue with all of us to see it, and then wait with the kids in child swap while the rest of the adults rode.

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Becca looks super happy here, which is funny because she was VERY nervous in line. She thought we would somehow trick her into getting on the ride. Probably didn't help that there are some definitely creepy elements in line.
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I was pretty nervous about this one too. Like I have said, I do not like to be startled, so I hate when scary things jump out at me. So I sat in the middle of the vehicle and stared straight ahead, because all of the action happens on either side of you. That way I could miss the initial startle moments, and then quickly look to see what was happening. It worked pretty well, and I liked it enough that I would definitely ride again. Not my favorite, but pretty impressive! I was less impressed, however, when we went to find the child swap area and discovered that it plays the movie King Kong. Yeah, my kids weren’t super happy about that. I know it fits with the theme and all, but that movie has to be at least PG-13, right?
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The kids were raring to do a ride at this point, and I knew exactly what we should do. There is one ride at Universal that adults are not allowed to ride unless they are with a kid. Having four adults and three children meant that all three kids could ride in one go instead of having to swap out three times with the two parents. Complicated, I know. But nonetheless, we were headed to Pteranadon Flyers!

This ride was a hit with all of the kids, and surprisingly fun for the adults too. If I’m being perfectly honest, it scared me quite a bit (fear of heights), but I was able to grin and bear it for two rides with Greg. He LOVED flying like a dinosaur!
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After our flights it was about 10am and we were getting a little hungry, but didn’t want to ruin our lunch appetites. So we stopped in Superhero Island for a soft pretzel and bag of grapes, and some ice water. Ben and our friends ran off to do Hulk while the kids and I finished snacking. The we took some pictures.

Always with the web hands.

And cooled off in the misters.

They enjoyed their ride on Hulk!
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When we were all back together again, it was time for Spiderman!

I was super excited for my little Spidey-fan to do this ride.

Here we are all sporting our 3d glasses.
The verdict? Greg LOVED it. Bethany loved it. Becca said she hated it. She was fine the whole time though. But being thrown from the top of a skyscraper can make you really hungry, so we were ready for some lunch! ​

 

[ariane37]

OMG Toothsome looks awesome! I'm drooling......I want to go over there in Nov. just to eat! Not sure what DH will think of that since we won't have a car lol, so I may have to plan another Universal trip just to eat at Toothsome.
One ride we didn't do was Pteranadon Flyers and I really wanted to, but nobody would go with me I know it isn't the most exciting but I wanted to see the views from up there.....

 

[caitlinnf]

OMG Toothsome looks awesome! I'm drooling......I want to go over there in Nov. just to eat! Not sure what DH will think of that since we won't have a car lol, so I may have to plan another Universal trip just to eat at Toothsome.
One ride we didn't do was Pteranadon Flyers and I really wanted to, but nobody would go with me I know it isn't the most exciting but I wanted to see the views from up there.....

Yeah, it's pretty hard to justify going all the way to Universal for one meal. But it was pretty delicious!

What a bummer that no one would do Pteranadon Flyers with you. It was more fun than I thought it would be. Like sitting in a giant, gliding swing.

 

[caitlinnf]

Day 2: Chapter 3- Burgooshi
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At this point we were really feeling the September heat and humidity, and were ready for some lunch. We briefly contemplated grabbing something at a quick service in the park before reaching a consensus that we should stick to our original plan; so we headed out of IOA and into City Walk. I do love that at Universal you can switch locations so easily without the hassle of busses. Very quickly, we reached our destination: Cowfish!
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Believe it or not, this was something that my girls had been really looking forward to prior to the trip. Bethany loves sushi and Becca has an odd obsession with cheeseburgers, so this was definitely the right place for them. While we looked over the menu and placed our orders the kids went out to the patio area to play corn hole. There was no one else out there and we were right where we could see them, so they got to go out alone.

Not gonna lie, it was awesome to have a few quiet moments in the a/c sipping our waters while the kids were occupied!
When they came back in we took a few silly pictures.

(Rare behind the scenes footage: The Making of a Selfie)

Pretty soon the food came out. I think I actually got pictures of everything this time! The kids meals are awesome and come with the entrée, two sides, and a rice krispie sushi treat. Bethany chose the tempura shrimp roll with apples and French fries.

Becca had the cowfish mini burgers with fries and apples.

Greg had the Ninja Nuggets with…fries and apples.

They all loved their food. I stole a few French fries and thought they were very good.
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Now for the (more interesting) adult food!

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This is Ben’s “What’s Shakin’ Tuna Bacon Sandwich”: “Seared rare blackened yellowfin tuna, Applewood bacon, iceberg, jalapenos, tomato salsa, slaw and spicy mayo. Served between grilled spring roll wrapper “buns” filled with kani and sushi rice.” He subbed a seaweed salad for the fries. I didn’t try this but he said it was really good. The only issue was that the “buns” pretty much fell apart after the first bite, so it was not really a sandwich and more of a knife and fork thing afterwards.

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I was intrigued by the idea of burgooshi, so I tried the “Taste Explosion Roll”: “Certified angus beef, Applewood bacon, jalapenos, spicy mayo inside, coated with tempura flakes. Topped with roma tomato and pepper jack cheese, then baked. Drizzled with cashew cilantro pesto. This was so yummy! It was odd though, because I tend to eat cold sushi and this was warm like a burger. And where you expect to taste a bun, you get rice. It was confusing to my taste buds. But I definitely enjoyed it and it filled me up so fast that Ben had to help me finish it.
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Our friends have very different food tastes than each other. One went the sushi route, but even with reading the menu I can’t remember which roll this was.

Anyway, she really liked it.

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The other friend is more of a burger guy, so he went with “The Big Squeal”: Beef burger, pulled pork, smoked gouda cheese, onion strings, bacon coleslaw, bbq sauce, lettuce, pickles, brioche bun.”

This got high marks from him as well.
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As you might have noticed in pictures above, the kids bento boxes also came with sushi tattoos. The kids (and one big kid) decided to all put them on at the table and then take a picture of their “sushi club.”

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With full, happy bellies and feeling much cooler and more hydrated, we headed out, snapped a few pictures and walked over to Universal Studios to finally fulfill the kids’ biggest “must-do” of this part of the trip.

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