We had a Disney December, Bahamian Xmas, NYC NYE and then some!! COMPLETED!

[lffam]

Day 9 - Islands of Adventure & Suess Land

We started the day with breakfast at the Hard Rock Hotel club. I was really liking the Oatmeal and they had bagels, croissants and half decent filtered coffee. We took a few bottles of water for the day and off we went. We walked over today as we had just missed a boat. It was a short but nice walk.

We started the day at Islands of Adventure and over to Suess land, where on of DS fave One Fish Two Fish (Dumbo + some shooting water!). It was another cracking day, with blue skies all around. It was also quite warm which was good as we expected we would get very wet today. We ran into Capt America and had a couple of photos taken. The over to Toon Lagoon and our favourite ride, Popeye and Bluto’s Barges. DS & I rode it 4 times with Express pass. We got soaked but that’s half the fun. While I was wet I thought I would go and ride the Jurassic Park Ride for another big splash.

We were going to see the Grinchmas but we had a bit more time before the show so we rode One Fish Two fish again. When DS was getting off the ride one of his thongs got caught and fell off into the water below. He was wearing thongs because our shoes had got soaked on the Barge ride that I mentioned we rode 4 times earlier. Anyway we told the ride attendant and after they realising we meant a “flip-flop’, they looked and couldn’t see it anywhere. They had to call a ride technician. After a little while he came and looked also but they still couldn’t find it. We were about to leave and then they checked one of the filter inlets and there it was

 

[lffam]

Day 9 - Islands of Adventure part 2 The Grinchmas

Then off to line up for the Grinchmas. The line was long and it was out in the open, not much could really be done about it we all just had to wait. Eventually we got in and took our seats. I have never been that much aof a fan of the movie adaptations of the Dr Suess books, but DS & DW like them and this show was quite entertaining. I haven’t actually seen the movie the Grinchmas, but DS tells me this show was a condensed version of that, so I will take his word for it.

A new attraction being built. King Kong

 

[lffam]

Day 9 cont.. 100 Years of Movies & USO After dark

After this we went back to the hotel for a little downtime . We headed back to the Parks that evening for one of the evening shows which was 100 year Celebration of the Movies. This was projected onto a screen of water and done quite well , definitely worth a look. We wandered around with the streets facades lit up

This was in the Emack & Bolio’s marketplace at the hotel, which was like a convenience store and also had a ice cream/milkshake counter

Rusty

Had some great pizza here

Biggest Scooby I’ve ever seen

For The Godfather fans (like myself)

Big Grover

 

[tortilla24]

Love this mega trip report!

 

[thistledoo]

Thank you for sharing! I'm loving the report and stunning images

 

[lffam]

Love this mega trip report!

Thank you for sharing! I'm loving the report and stunning images

Thank you both for saying. I am glad you are both enjoying the report & the pictures. I'm doing my best to get through. I don't want to make it sound like a chore as it isn't, because I love reliving it and looking at the photos again and typing it up, but it taking me longer than I would like. Poor @Travel Mum has been waiting so patiently for me to get to BWV, not far now!!

 

[AussieMumma]

I'm enjoying your report, your photos are great.
We were over there similar time to you, we left on Nov 22nd and returned Dec 15th. We went to Universal Orlando first and they didn't have any of the Macy's floats up or the parade etc, must just be in December maybe? Shame, I would have loved that.
I really need to do a trip report one of these days!

 

[Travel Mum]

I saw this thread rise up to the top again and thought oh yippee you are at the BWV part!!!

 

[ColinA]

I saw this thread rise up to the top again and thought oh yippee you are at the BWV part!!!

I might do the BWV part of the trip report for him!

 

[Travel Mum]

Maybe you will have to Colin

 

[Travel Mum]

Any chance you are coming back to this soon Lffam?

 

[ColinA]

Will this help Travel Mum!

 

[Travel Mum]

Thanks Colin - I'm already counting down the days

 

[lffam]

Day 10 – Last day at USO - HP, An Offer I couldn't refuse, Jaws & a Flux Capacitor

Our last day at USO saw us start again with breakfast and some good conversation at the Hard Rock Club. I have heard they are making this club bigger, which would be an advantage, but we still really enjoyed it. I am not sure if I have said too much about it , considering it has probably been a little while since I’ve posted I will restate my thoughts on the Hard Rock Club. For us, we loved it. We like a little bit of extra attention or service and convenience, that’s just something we enjoy. The offerings at breakfast were ample for a breakfast. It was not a hot cooked breakfast, more continental style. We enjoyed the Oatmeal, bagels, cereals croissants. And the coffee was drinkable and you could easily get milk for it and not just the creamers they normally have. During the day the club was open for soft drinks, waters and coffee I think. The afternoon they had hot food selections and beers & wine on offer. The hot food was finger food type things, chicken wings, “pot stickers”, arancini balls, salamis, dips vege sticks. These were easily a very filling appetiser or for some, which we saw , people had this as there meal. They also had an late night “sweet”, I don’t think we actually had any of these mainly because we were still out to dinner when these were on. I can’t recall the difference in price between the Club/non club room. If you consider it the extra cost for the food/drink we received, then the cost would out way that simple benefit. But for us it was well worth the whole experience and we would do it again.


Ok our final day we decided to walk to the parks. We passed some local wildlife on the way, which DS named Bert and then every squirrel we saw for the rest of the trip was Bert!

We really didn’t have too many plans for today we wanted to go back to Kings Cross station look around Diagon Alley one more time and then ride the Hogwarts Express back to IOA. Before we did that we did some of the rides and attractions at that end of the park.

We found a Flux Capacitor, but it was up high so was hard to get a good photo of it. I bought some Godfather memorabilia. Saw “Jaws”. DS & I rode Men in Black a couple of times which we enjoyed.

Then it was time to board the Hogwarts Express for one last time. We did get a quick view of the House Elf peeking through the window, so keep an eye out for that!

 

[lffam]

Day 10 cont.. Back to IoA and Hogwarts.

I’ll just do a photo dump for those who enjoy this place as much as me.

Video of the climb and decent on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit steel roller coaster – nope didn’t go on it!

I’m not a particularly a Simpsons fan but know there are many so here are some photos for you! We also caught the end of the Macy’s parade.

Dinner was at Hard Rock Cafe. It was really busy, but we got a seat straight away. The waiter actually did something, very simple but was really helpful. He said told us to take our time looking at the menu if we had any questions just ask but once we were ready just close up our menu and he will know we are ready to order and he will be right back. Only waiter to have ever said that to us. Thought it was neat tip especially in a place like that.

We caught the water taxi back, but we should have walked we were so stuffed. We packed our bags and got to bed for our next day we would be heading over to WDW!!!

 

[lffam]

Hard Rock Hotel - Universal Studios Addendum.

Here are a couple of short videos from The Macy Christmas Parade

I had posted some photos of the room at Hard rock Hotel here .

Well here are some more photos from the Lobby and the entrance and also a short video of the room itself.

As you would expect there is lots of music memorabilia all throughout the hotel. Lots of Elvis memorabilia in particular. There is also a lot of in ‘The Kitchen” which is one of the restaurants onsite.

Lead singer from one of my favourite bands Live - Ed Kowalczyk

That’s a gold “record’ for you young kids, if you haven’t see one before !

And of course wouldn’t be complete without DS doing a photobomb!

Well that was USO & HRH. We were so glad we chose to stay here and we would come back for sure.

We arranged a car transfer with the Hotel, they had plenty of cars waiting. We came down just before 10am and were loaded into our car quickly and then were off for the 20 or so 15mil trip.

 

[lffam]

Day 11 – Boardwalk Villas (Finally!))

@Travel Mum – I hope you find all your patience waiting for me to get to this, worth it!

We arrived at the Boardwalk Villas around 10:30. The familiar “Welcome Home” was really nice to hear. Walking in it really is quite grand. I have read that the area and long authentic boardwalk, is reminiscent of Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. I am not that familiar with that area so can only take their word for it, but nonetheless it really has a unique feel, like other Disney Resorts and the experiences is every immersive from first coming up to the entrance.

We were promptly attended to by a reception cast member. It was still well before check-in time, we thought we would leave our luggage, get our magic bands and head over to Hollywood Studios for our Toy Story Fastpass. Well we were soon told that our Villa was ready and we could check-in. We got our new Magic Bands and told our villa number and then off we went. Up to the third floor. We had booked a One Bed Villa, standard view this is what we were given, no pixie dust upgrade this time! The villa was nice, probably similar vintage to the Wilderness Lodge we stayed at last time. The extra space of the one bedroom was good to have, the kitchens also good and while we didn’t cook (ha ha ha) we did regularly buy breakfast the night before from the bakery on the Boardwalk and have croissants, bagels or cinnamon buns and coffee in the room before starting the day which is really a nice way to start the day we think.

They were renovating the Villas, but we got an un-renovated one. There was one downside to the villa we got, there was a distinct musty smell to it. We called up and they said that they could put an ozone air purifier in the room which would clear any smell. So we let them do that. They started it, told us to run it for 30mins and then again if needed. We started it, and the unpacked some and got accustomed to the room.

This time I took photos of the room when we arrived, not like at Hard Rock Hotel. So here they are as well as some photos from the lobby and the Boardwalk itself. There is also a short video/room tour (sorry about the focusing, I should have stuck with my video camera but was trying to video on my new dSLR and hadn’t really worked out the focusing on the video (still haven’t lol)

 

[lffam]

I'm enjoying your report, your photos are great.
We were over there similar time to you, we left on Nov 22nd and returned Dec 15th. We went to Universal Orlando first and they didn't have any of the Macy's floats up or the parade etc, must just be in December maybe? Shame, I would have loved that.
I really need to do a trip report one of these days!

I am glad you are enjoying the report. I am a little (well maybe a lot ) slack at keeping up progress on it, but I'm doing the best I can!

We didn't know the Macy parade would be on , so it was pure luck for us. It does seem to start early Dec and run through to early Jan from what i read after the fact.

 

[Travel Mum]

OMG I'm so thrilled to see you are back lffam! I've been checking each day so it was awesome to see your TR at the top when I checked today. I've not read it yet because I just wanted to thank you so much first but now I'm going to have great pleasure in finally getting to read about your experience at BWV

 

[ColinA]

You have some good photos of the Boardwalk.