A No Snooze Bar Christmas, Harry & Mickey are Waiting..it is done

[BrerMama]

Oh, Mythos! We have reservations there during our trip, so I'm excited to hear your experiences.

Seuss Landing just looks so fun! My classroom is going to be Seuss next year.... just so I can shop at the Landing.

 

[vleeth]

Do you happen to remember how much the blue thing 1 wig cost?

I have a feeling my dd7 will want one when we go in June.

Thanks!

BTW...LOVE your trip report!

 

[momabaarjo]

Oh, Mythos! We have reservations there during our trip, so I'm excited to hear your experiences.

Seuss Landing just looks so fun! My classroom is going to be Seuss next year.... just so I can shop at the Landing.

What a great classroom theme...what a great excuse to shop!

Do you happen to remember how much the blue thing 1 wig cost?

I asked Boo, and the thinks it was around $30 That sounds about the way things were priced. There were so many cool things with Thing 1 & 2!!!! That wig has become my nightmare...he likes to wear it everywhere, including the ski slopes!

I have a feeling my dd7 will want one when we go in June.

Thanks!

BTW...LOVE your trip report!

Thanks...

 

[petals]

We definately didn't see the lamp posts with the santa hats so you saw something I didn't

luvin your discovery cove day and you were naughty and took pics on cat in the hat when you're not meant to but I love them

 

[annmarieda]

another great update! you have been doing a lot of them lately. dis has been super slow for me... and the fact I cant effectively use both hands to type... and my dis time has been suffering

Love the blue wig...

cant wait to hear about dinner.. so far it seems like not many of your dinning experiences have been exceptional,,,hope this one turns out to be

 

[momabaarjo]

Twenty Questions & Where’s the Bread​

Having eaten before at Mythos, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food and was excited for my family to try it out or at least experience the restaurant which is amazing.

The reservation was made with a little bit of hesitation, looking at the menu I am a little worried that it might be too “foodie” for my meat and potatoes crew, although they are not picky eaters (for which I am blessed) I thought the food might be a little too upscale than what they were used to. Upon exiting Poseidon, I decided to see if we could get seated about 30 minutes prior to our reservation, which according to the hostess would not be a problem when she handed over our pager.

We probably waited 15 minutes before the pager signaled that our table was ready (yeah) and off we went…hungry from an afternoon of snorkeling and floating! The hostess sat us at a table under a window in the front, I was pretty happy with the table but apparently Jeff was not.

He asked for us to be moved and I looked at time like he was crazy…he wanted to be more in the open to soak up the atmosphere. The hostess was ready to move us, but we would have to wait…hearing groans from the kids I stepped in and said this table was fine. Never, has Jeff ever asked for us to be moved…I guess after what happened at Jimmy Buffet he has decided to exert himself. Who knows, but we are seated and begin to look over our menu when the waiter arrives…his name escapes me, but let’s call him Juan for this TR. Juan apparently needs a few lessons on how to be a waiter at Mythos or at least more training and time learning the menu so that he can answer questions that patrons might have. Oh, no it is apparent that this meal is going to go downhill fast! Juan takes our drink order and promises to bring bread along with answers to some questions Jeff had about the menu …something I learn real fast, don’t take my husband to a “foodie” type place or we will ask questions about every item on the menu. Juan returns with answers but no drinks and no bread. Another 10 minutes pass and still no drinks, but he returns with answers and another apology about the bread. He is sent off again seeking more answers (this time about adult drinks) and to hopefully bring us our drinks and the famous Mythos bread that he keeps mentioning. So once again we are sitting waiting…finally Juan returns a short while later with our basic drinks but no bread. He apologizes and says he will be right back to get our orders and bring bread. By this time we are all starving, and Goo decides he does not want dinner but just a banana split for dinner. Huh? This little guy is really testing whether or not mom will continue to say “YES” 3 days into the vacation. Just as I am about to say no (remember this child has had only ½ yogurt and chocolate cake to eat today), Jeff steps in and says that sounds good to him for which dad gets a good teacher stare down from mom! Then Goo pipes up and wants a pina colada smoothie…okay, then mom is getting a margarita but knowing that I am too tired, gets dad to split one with her because she does not want to fall asleep at the table, but not until he asks 20 questions to Juan about the margarita as he returns to take our orders (mind you without bread). With our orders being taken, Ab and I decide to go and check out the back patio of the restaurant

as well as take a few pictures of the interior.

Our food arrives (but no bread), but apparently Juan has a little trouble with understanding what we ordered and brings us things we did not order. Boo did get his fish and Jeff his BBQ panni, while Ab has no idea what he brought her…Juan apologizes and retakes her order, while I ordered the Baby Spinach Salad for which he brought be a side size instead of the dinner size. I reassure him that it is okay and actually works better since Ab decides she wants to split her meal with me. Juan goes back to the kitchen to get Ab’s order straight, and hopefully get us some bread. Juan returns with that much needed margarita

and Ab’s Pad Thai, but no bread…but he assures us he is getting some. Funny, we have never mentioned the bread to him, and he is the one that keeps reminding us about not having any! The next think I know Juan returns with the dinner size portion of my salad…with another apology for getting it wrong after I told him that the size he gave me was perfect. I am wondering if we are having a huge language issue between us! He checks our drinks, and tells Boo he will return with a refill on that pina colada smoothie…which I don’t think he needs but I am not quick enough to say that is alright he does not need another one.

So how was dinner, did my meat and potatoes family enjoy the “foodie” menu? I was stunned, Boo ordered grilled Mahi Mahi and when he looked at the plate he was a little worried that he had ordered wrong…but the boy cleaned up the plate in no time flat.

Ab really liked her Pad Thai, although the portion was huge.

Jeff thought his BBQ panni was okay (notice no picture of his dinner, he has still not gotten used to me taking picture of food!). My Baby Spinach Salad was very nice

and of course Goo was stopped short of licking his plate clean with his banana split.

Juan returns with another smoothie for Boo and guess what, our bread! Really? Family verdict on Mythos…3 stars (great atmosphere, okay food (good if you are foodie) and bumbling wait staff). Right now I am 1 for 3 restaurants, sure hoping my picks at Disney are better! With dinner done and IOA of adventure still open for another 3 hours Jeff thinks that maybe he can handle Forbidden Journey. But will the crowds let us enjoy an evening in Hogsmeade?

 

[momabaarjo]

We definately didn't see the lamp posts with the santa hats so you saw something I didn't

luvin your discovery cove day and you were naughty and took pics on cat in the hat when you're not meant to but I love them

Some of them are mine and some of them I stole...

another great update! you have been doing a lot of them lately. dis has been super slow for me... and the fact I cant effectively use both hands to type... and my dis time has been suffering

DIS has been crazy...hope your hand is on the mend and you did not bump into anything today!

Love the blue wig...

Ugh the blue wig...that he wears everywhere...including the ski slopes, but my sister had to be embarassed! Glad he likes it!!!

cant wait to hear about dinner.. so far it seems like not many of your dinning experiences have been exceptional,,,hope this one turns out to be

Didn't have to wait to long...I am trying to get to WDW by the time I head off to St. Louis a week from Monday! I feel like we are dragging...and I am losing readers because I am so long winded!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

Okay... Tammie I hope this makes sense but I'm catching up on like 3 weeks of updates!



Goodness about the service! Busy or not that is completely ridiculous!

Oh poor Goo!

And then you lose Boo! You just couldnt win during that 24 hours could you?

That cinnamon roll looks amazing! So does the butter beer! A friend of mine who is 8 weeks pregnant made her husband drive almost 2 hours to get her a cinnamonster cinnamon roll this week!

LOL about the big girl panties needing to be pulled up! Glad it finally worked!

Love the swimming with dolphin pics. Looks like your hubby even enjoyed that!

Tony sound awesome!!!! and so does Discovery Cove!

Poor you with restaurants... I really do hope Disney's service was better!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Loving your report!

Thinking of planning a Christmas trip this year...you're making Universal sound awfully appealing!!!

 

[momabaarjo]

Ride Em', Err Leopard Boy​

I am really looking forward to an evening in Hogsmeade sipping on a butter beer. But as we approach the entrance from Lost Continent I see in front of me park attendants and a barrier across the entrance. Usually but now the crowds are thinning at WWofHP and you can actually enjoy yourself, but from what I am seeing this is not the case tonight. We make our way to the park attendant who tells us that WWofHP is at capacity and that the stand by line is in Jurassic park. He directs us towards the bridge that leads to Jurassic Park from Lost Continent. I ask how long the standby line is, and his reply is at least 1 hour to get into WWofHP and they are not sure that the standby line will get in before park closing. He tells us this is a first, never have they had a stand by this late for WWofHP, not even on opening day…which I know for a fact did not happen because I was there that night and it was an amazing evening! We all agree that we will not be visiting Harry tonight and decide just to go back to the hotel and make it an early night so that we can spend one last early morning with Harry tomorrow! But first we have to make it through Seuss Landing, and of course I am reminded that I said we would ride High in the Sky Trolley after dinner. And then you have to pass One Fish, Two Fish…and then finally the Port of Entry

where the Goo has to try out his rodeo skills on the back of a leopard!

Then it is back down the familiar path to the RPR before walking across the bridge into the lobby

and allowing a few minutes to take in the tree and gingerbread house

before up the elevator we go.

A little past 9 and we are back in our room, ready to call it a day with me being the ever so planner falling asleep trying readjust our touring plan for tomorrow (planned morning being IOA, and then the afternoon at DTD) since we lost a day back on Day 2 with Goo being sick. What will the touring plan be like on Day 4?

 

[momabaarjo]

Okay... Tammie I hope this makes sense but I'm catching up on like 3 weeks of updates!

OMG...you are pulling a Heather... Love ya, Heather!!!

Goodness about the service! Busy or not that is completely ridiculous!

Oh poor Goo! Yep it really put things in a bind...

And then you lose Boo! You just couldnt win during that 24 hours could you?

Never thought of it that way...thanks for bringing that up!

That cinnamon roll looks amazing! So does the butter beer! A friend of mine who is 8 weeks pregnant made her husband drive almost 2 hours to get her a cinnamonster cinnamon roll this week!

LOL about the big girl panties needing to be pulled up! Glad it finally worked!

I am not sure they got pulled up wait til day 4!

Love the swimming with dolphin pics. Looks like your hubby even enjoyed that!

Tony sound awesome!!!! and so does Discovery Cove!

Poor you with restaurants... I really do hope Disney's service was better!

Loving your report!

Thinking of planning a Christmas trip this year...you're making Universal sound awfully appealing!!!

While we prefer Disney...I love Universal, too! Harry is pretty amazing. A Christmas trip was so much fun...but the weather is so unpredictable! Next time we go back, the kids request summer...they have no idea what they are in for!

 

[petals]

I loled that the bread popping up or not so often at your dinner. Pity you couldn't get into Hogsmeade at night

 

[Mom&RN]

You're not having very good restaurant luck this trip so far! Isn't it funny how it goes like that sometimes? Two trips ago to Disney we just never got a bad meal or a bad waiter(ess). Last trip the food was pretty much a bust, including some of the same exact restaurants we ate at the time before . We just had bad restaurant karma last time, sounds like you're having it this time!

 

[reelmom]

It's hard to believe you are only on day 3. You have gotten a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

 

[BrerMama]

You guys have really packed in the activities so far. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[stepdisney]

We have a US/IOA Seaworld Disney trip in August this year. We did this last year and really enjoyed it. We stayed at a Seaworld hotel which gave us FOTL access last year, then on to RPR for FOTL access at US/IOA and then Disney. Your report is great! It brought back memories and now I'm excited for our trip this year. We've never done Discovery Cove and I think my DS17 and DS 11 will love it.

Can't wait to read about the Disney portion of your trip.

 

[momabaarjo]

I loled that the bread popping up or not so often at your dinner. Pity you couldn't get into Hogsmeade at night

I was a little disappointed too..but going to bed early was a good choice.

You're not having very good restaurant luck this trip so far! Isn't it funny how it goes like that sometimes? Two trips ago to Disney we just never got a bad meal or a bad waiter(ess). Last trip the food was pretty much a bust, including some of the same exact restaurants we ate at the time before . We just had bad restaurant karma last time, sounds like you're having it this time!

I don't know what it was with my restaurant karma this trip!

It's hard to believe you are only on day 3. You have gotten a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

Thats what happens when you plan a trip 12 months in advance...try to pack it all in!

You guys have really packed in the activities so far. Can't wait to hear more!

We have a US/IOA Seaworld Disney trip in August this year. We did this last year and really enjoyed it. We stayed at a Seaworld hotel which gave us FOTL access last year, then on to RPR for FOTL access at US/IOA and then Disney. Your report is great! It brought back memories and now I'm excited for our trip this year. We've never done Discovery Cove and I think my DS17 and DS 11 will love it.

Can't wait to read about the Disney portion of your trip.

Your family will love Discovery Cove...FOTL is awesome isn't it. Glad to have you along

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Okay so I'm desperately behind on your TR.

After my 4 month internet hiatus and the reemergence with high speed internet, I'd lost track of everyone.

I'll be catching up soon, but I wanted to say !

 

[flafan]

Hi
I discovered your report early this morning I am almost done and had to comment. LOVE IT!!!!
We all want to go the Harry Potter World maybe by next summer we can go but all your tips are great. Thank you for sharing and putting so much effort into a wonderful report.

 

[momabaarjo]

How Many Times Can You Ride FJ with a Moaning Boo?​

The alarm rings to signal our last early morning with Harry. Ab and Boo, dress fairly quickly (although not as fast as they did the first morning) while Jeff and Goo continue to sleep. They had decided that there was not a lot for Goo to do, so they would meet us later for our breakfast reservation. We are out the door and in line once again 1st, but this time things are a little different there are tons of people arriving close on our heels and there seems to be a little more happening on the other side of the entry gate too!

At 6:15 am a ticket attendant arrives at the computer to begin set up. She is one of the more friendly ones we have encountered and strikes up a conversation with us. So I ask what is going on today, our last couple days experience was that the computers got logged on around 6:45 am. She smiles and does a little chuckle, today we are opening at 6:30 am for early entry? What? Apparently yesterday while we were at Discovery Cove attendance records were being set at Universal not only during the day at night. Today, they were expecting things to be even more crazier. I assumed it was just Christmas crowds, but she said this has never happened before…in addition to Christmas there are 2 Bowl Games in the area which are drawing the crowds to Universal over Disney (guess college kids like more thrill then the mouse has to offer), as well as that Wednesday’s and Thursday’s are usually the busier days for Universal. She also told us last night that WWofHP was stand by until the park closed, and the park even closed at midnight (an hour past what was the scheduled time). People were so upset that they offered “paper type express passes” to those waiting in standby last night when the park closed to allow them to enter this morning…so hence 6:30 am opening to do something for on site people who expected to be the only ones from 7:00-8:00 am. At promptly 6:30 am, the computers are ready and the gates open. This time we have no trouble getting through the stall and we are quickly making our way towards Seuss Landing with people running past us and park attendants shouting. I refuse to run, because we know the short cut to get back ahead of the crowd in Seuss Landing, but I am walking rather quickly. We make it across the bridge into Lost Continent and make our way around the corner in front of Mythos where there are several attendants stopping us…again we are in the front.

They hold us there shouting at people to make sure they walk, when Boo starts acting strange. I am not sure why we were stopped here, but all it seems to do is get everyone coming through the gates again into one uncontrollable mass. Finally, after about 5 minutes we are let go to make our way through the rest of Lost Continent into Hogsmeade. People are racing past us, and park attendants are yelling…I still refuse to run (the rule follower in me). We have our plan, and we know what we are going to do so 20-30 people in front of us is not going to make a huge difference. As we enter into Hogsmeade Boo decides he needs to visit with Moaning Myrtle.

WHAT YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! I yell at him to hurry (thinking he just needs to go the bathroom) while his sister shoots daggers as she watches the massive wave of people entering behind us and now passing us.

Time is passing and with each second, I am ready to go in after him. Finally after what seemed like eternity he emerges, not looking so good. His stomach is hurting, but he thinks he can make it. Ab is fuming mad by this time and she is ready to kill him and sets off giving him a royal tongue lashing, now we will not get to ride Forbidden Journey as much as we want.

I step in and tell her that yes we will, mom has a plan to fix the situation. We enter Hogwart’s and Ab is still as mad as can be and is letting her brother know it with her deadly teenage girl glares while I store our backpack into one of those lockers. We step back out of the locker room, where I ask the attendant to point us to the single rider line. She points to a door directly across from where we are standing and up the stairs we go

and walk straight on to Forbidden Journey! We had planned to ride once together, so we could get a picture but knowing how much Ab and Boo love this ride I knew we could not waste time in the regular line. As Ab gets on in front of us, I smile at her my best mommie “I told you so” smile and send her off on her journey.

Boo meanwhile is moaning next to me. Do you want to ride? He assures me he does and I send him off, and then it is my turn to fly with Harry.

When I get off Ab and Boo are standing waiting for me and want to know if they can ride again. Of course, that was the plan to ride it until the line got to bad or they did not want to go. Boo is continuing to moan (I think Myrtle gave him some lessons while he was visiting) but assures me he wants to ride again. So we quickly head down the stairs, through Filtch’s, through the locker room, and up the stairs in the single rider line.

This time we wait about 5 minutes, but still not an issue I point out to Ab a few of the people in the other line that were this us in the entrance line and they have not even ridden yet! Off we go on our separate journeys to meet up in the loading area…again? Again, they shout but Boo is starting to look really bad! Are you sure? My mind is imagining what his stomach is thinking about doing…but he wants to go again! Back down the stairs, through Filch’s, through the locker room, up the stairs into the single rider line with the wait being still about 5 minutes and meeting again at the unloading area. Again? Ab says Boo, but this time the moan is unmistakably a NO from Boo. I tell him that he can sit this one out in the child swap area while we ride. So it is once again down the stairs, through Filtch’s, through the locker room, up the stairs into the single rider line…this time I think people have figured out our trick because the single rider line takes almost 15 minutes. Ab goes off and I leave my moaning son in child swap before I head on my way. Ab meets me in the unloading area and decides her stomach could use a break now, so we go and pick up Boo in the child swap room…where he is laying down moaning (thank goodness no one else is in there). I am thinking this boy needs some fresh air so we head out of Hogwarts where we do not get more than 10 feet from the castle when Boo is running for a trash can with his head going in it….thank goodness he made it to a trash can.

Now there comes a time in a child’s life when mom is really not needed anymore when a child is…so I stand with him digging for something to wipe his mouth…although it is the dry kind since he has not eaten anything since last night while Ab stands away from us dying in embarrassment. I did snap a few pictures though...

Boo finishes and moans to sit down, we find an empty bench near by and I tell Ab that she can go ride again while we wait, but she decides that she just wants to shop around Filch’s for awhile. So I let her head into the store, Boo reassures me that his is fine and I go back inside to get our backpack out of the locker. When I get back to him, I notice that it is now only a little past 7:00 am and we have ridden FJ 4 times, how cool is that! Ab emerges from Filch’s and we decide to take it easy for awhile and check out the castle only tour of Hogwarts.