Another Mini Trip, Including HHN ~ Mid-Sept Offsite Split Stay & HRH ~ Completed

[wdwrule]

Haha we’re still on our once per month marathon since August 2021! We just LOVE Universal!!

We were there this past August for a whole week instead of a weekend since we were off from school etc. We scored good rates and booked two of the deluxe queen rooms at Aventura which are wonderful. I know this report is supposed to be about our trip from mid-September but wanted to add a few things from the previous trip first.

Since we were staying for a whole week, we decided to try out Instacart for the first time to have some snacks and drinks in the room for some quick breakfasts etc. This was a great experience. After placing my order, the person shopping for us texted me about any questions or about replacements if the item was unavailable. Within an hour, she was right outside of the lobby with our order. Very convenient as we were getting ready for the day.

We had a blast that trip and just took it all in. We spent a half day at Disney Springs getting yummy Gideons cookies, cake slices and cold brew and also looking through shops and had a great lunch at the Polite Pig. We also pool hopped from Aventura to Sapphire Falls for their amazing pool with pool slide! This was very convenient as well… walked right across the parking lot and we’re there! Just showed our room key to get a pool key at concierge.

The August trip was hot but bearable. Getting on rides in the morning, evening and using Single Rider lines throughout the day was key for low waits and multiple re-rides.









We had such great food during this trip, great laughs and wonderful fun! Oh and we rode the water rides at IoA for the first time. We had ridden the Jurassic Park river ride awhile back but never did the other two that get you soaked… and oh my do they get you soaked! We waited towards the end of the afternoon and used our after 4:00 express. We had so much fun on the Popeyes ride that we went right back on it!! Then back to the hotel to get changed because we hate traipsing around soaking wet.

Anyways that trip was so much fun but onto this one…

We visited September 16-18. We got in late Friday night and we stayed at Springhill Suites near Seaworld for the night. This was pretty nice and the room was very large for the cost. I liked how it had a separate closed off toilet and sink room and then it had another separate shower/sink closed off room. The room also had a little living area space with a sofa. Everything was clean and I couldn’t believe it was only $100 for the night (3 adults). It even included a very nice hot breakfast in the lobby.

After our filling breakfast, we ubered over to Hard Rock Hotel. We did originally have a reservation for Royal Pacific but a HRH standard room opened up so I snagged that. I thought this would be a nice bonus especially since we’d be at HHN Saturday night.

To be continued…

 

[Robo56]

Wdwrule thank you for sharing some information on your trip. Great photos. Yes, Universal is my happy place too. I’am always so thrilled to hear how much everyone else loves it too.

My grandchildren always got me on the Jurassic River ride. We always got drenched on that ride. There was always a puddle of water on the seats getting in.

Thank you for sharing the information on the Springhill Suites.

Sounds like you all had a great time.

Look forward to your other Trip Reports.

 

[wdwrule]

Wdwrule thank you for sharing some information on your trip. Great photos. Yes, Universal is my happy place too. I’am always so thrilled to hear how much everyone else loves it too.

My grandchildren always got me on the Jurassic River ride. We always got drenched on that ride. There was always a puddle of water on the seats getting in.

Thank you for sharing the information on the Springhill Suites.

Sounds like you all had a great time.

Look forward to your other Trip Reports.

Thanks for the kind words! Yes we had a blast!

You’re right about the Jurassic River ride… sometimes we get soaked and other times we just get misted. Don’t you just love those seat puddles while boarding?

Thanks for reading along.

 

[wdwrule]

So one more thing to mention about that August trip then I swear I’ll get onto the September trip report

Flashback to when our kids were little and we went to WDW once per year. We loved dining at Liberty Tree Tavern and by chance, sometimes got the same server, Bonnie. She was anyways super nice and laid back. At one point we took pics of her with our kids.

Move forward to this past August trip… we were sitting at Mythos about to eat a late lunch. A server approached us and the voice sounded familiar. Then I saw her and she looked familiar. I looked at her name tag and sure enough it was Bonnie!! We couldn’t believe it! The kids (now 18 and 20) were so excited! Haha they took their picture with her just like a character meet and greet. She was so pleased to be recognized after all of these years. We talked and talked and couldn’t believe the odds.

Ok now I’ll move on to this trip report.

 

[wdwrule]

So Springhill Suites was very nice for a quick sleep and a nice morning breakfast included. I believe there are Springhill Suites closer to UO but we just picked a cheap one in between MCO and UO. We would stay there again. So much room for the amount of money. It was clean and staff was nice. The included hot breakfast was a bonus.

Then we took an Uber to HRH. It was early so we checked in and dropped off our luggage. I like the lobby although it’s not my favorite but still very nice. I have to say though, the women’s bathroom near the lobby is superb! It’s huge with memorabilia hanging everywhere and even has a sitting area with couches etc. Haha very fancy restroom!

Then off to the walkway to the parks. Saw this on the way out.

Gotta love a nice dessert top!

I do love checking out the memorabilia around this resort. But we were on a mission. Off to our favorite, Velocicoaster! This ride is just so thrilling and never gets old. Then to Forbidden Journey to say hello to all of our Hogwarts’ friends and more. At one point we ended up at the Dr Seuss area and rode all of the rides there. So whimsical!


After a bit, we had lunch at Toothsome and ended it with the only sundae we haven’t yet tried, the banana cream pie sundae. It was delicious!

We love their sundaes and split them as it’s so much food. The toppings are fun and yummy. The ice cream itself is not high quality, at least in our opinion. We have a local dairy farm nearby that serves excellent creamy ice cream. Toothsome’s ice cream has a consistency with small ice chips/crystals and the flavor is just okay. For us though, the slice of pie or brownie, cookie or whatever that comes with it makes up for it though. The combination together is great and satisfying.

Shortly after this, our room was ready so we decided to head back to get organized in our room and to rest for just about 30 minutes to get that second wind that we needed since we knew we’d be out late for HHN that night.

Back to Hard Rock and in our room. The view was lovely. Pool view even though we paid for standard view. But then it hit us. A slight smell of smoke was in the air. Ugh. We are not ones to complain and we really went back and forth trying to decide whether to settle for this room or ask for another. It was just for one night but was it worth getting a scratchy throat the next day? And after the steep rate we were paying? After debating, hubby went downstairs to the lobby and politely explained what had happened. They had another room ready for us immediately. Standard view which is what we paid for but clean smelling air.

Haha we just haven’t had luck at HRH. I wrote a trip report awhile back where we checked in and they told us they didn’t have a room for us because they were overbooked. They more than made it up to us though. I’d still stay here again.

We rested for a little bit which was perfect because it rained a little while we rested but then cleared up for the most part. Then it was off to HHN and stayed in a holding area for the first time.

To be continued…

 

[wdwrule]

Ok on to HHN! If you’ve read my HHN trip report from last year HHN Guide for Wimps you’ll know we are wimps when it comes to horror. Now don’t get me wrong, I love classics and all of the aesthetics but I’m no good with jump scares and gore. It just doesn’t do it for me. Lol running full marathons does it for me, but not gore and crazy scary stuff. So we’re all different for sure. Our premiere passes include a free HHN ticket on select nights so we utilize these for various reasons.

This year we did a few new things at HHN that we’ve never done before. First off, we stayed at Studios and entered a holding area. The holding area we chose was the New York area. This worked out really well because there were a lot of food booths open in this area and it wasn’t crazy packed (besides the line up for the Halloween house which we didn’t do anyways). We headed over and purchase the Petrified Rat Tails. These were so good!

They reminded me of crab rangoons… or the crab filled beignets. Hubby wasn’t too fond of them because they were a little on the sweet side. I believe they were funnel cake fries instead of regular French fries. I loved them! We had the perfect spot to eat and wait out the holding time… sat on the steps behind the booths, across the street from the Mummy ride.

I washed them down with a Lacto Cooler beer (which also doubled as my Liquid Courage). This was good as well… a sour ale with a little sweetness.

I needed the Liquid Courage because our other “HHN first” this year was… to go through a house.

We chose Dead Man’s Pier because we heard great reviews and I saw some videos of its beauty. So shortly before they dropped ‘the ropes’ we crossed the street and hung out near the Tribute Store (which was excellent as usual by the way). There was no dedicated line for DMP so we just waited and watched. We then moved over towards DMP once we saw others head that way. We got in the actual queue and then waited about 10 minutes until they opened. Haha I had to do some deep breathing. Once they opened and the line moved, I think we entered the house within 10 minutes.

Wow! This was so cool! Yes I was scared and I squealed and laughed with each jump scare but it was beautiful! The scenery, sounds, and feeling the mist was so amazing!

We were proud we finally went through a house but it wasn’t our style of entertainment. Incredible aesthetics though! Would just love it more without the jump scares which defeats the whole purpose

After this we went over to Diagon Alley which is always the highlight during HHN for us because of the low crowds.

Love this!! This was at 6:25pm. Then of course had to get a frozen Butterbeer with no line at all.



But I do know how to share…


Well done, Dragon!






We then grabbed some dinner at Leaky Cauldron and were the only ones there!




We had so much fun just wandering around without crowds throughout Diagon Alley. Absolutely priceless.


We hit up rides as well this night… Transformers, Mummy, MiB and Gringott’s. All minimal waits but we sometimes used single rider line to hop off and literally get right back on. So much fun!!

Another first was watching the Ghoulish show. This was super fun and entertaining!



Continued…

 

[wdwrule]

This was so entertaining and one of the highlights, for me, was The Weeknd music part. Wohooo!!

Backing up a moment, before the Ghoulish show, we hung out at Nettlewoods Cemetery. This scare zone was just wow, wow, wow! I could’ve hung out here all evening. Haha we watched for awhile from the sidewalk. The music and scenery was top-notch. We were in awe of this whole atmosphere. The twins were remarkable!

Said goodnight to the Pumpkin Lord.




We then mobile ordered some Voodoo doughnuts for the next morning’s breakfast and headed out. I love trying their new/seasonal doughnuts. Hubby was tired and headed back to HRH while DD and I checked out the Dead Coconut Club. Wow! This was another highlight.





I have some better pics for a later post when we visited again the next day. This was such a fun place! Lots of dancing and good people watching with an incredible vibe to this whole place! Definitely one of our highlights.

Then it was off to bed.

To be continued…

 

[wdwrule]

The next morning we ate our soft pillowy doughnuts from Voodoo. I was excited about the limited edition Cauldron one but it was a little disappointing… both aesthetically and taste. I think it was supposed to be caramel apple flavor if I’m not mistaken but the apple flavor was basically nonexistent.



The next one tasted much better. I think it was named something like Trail Mix a Lot. This one was really good but I do love peanut butter and M&M’s.

It had a great peanut butter drizzle on top and the pretzel sticks were surprisingly crunchy… not stale at all. We also split the standby blueberry cake doughnut.

Then we dropped off our bags at luggage services and hit the parks.

I didn’t take notes but I remembered we went on Velocicoaster and later Hagrid’s and many rides in between.


We later had lunch at Red Oven Bakery. This is the second time we ate here since last year and it was really good. I think we just keep forgetting about it since there’s so many other great places to eat but they have delicious pizza. While we waited, I hopped over to the Margaritaville bar to grab The Perfect Margarita. Ooohhhh yeeaahhh.

Then we rode more rides and just had an absolute blast! On our way out (boo hoo), we stopped in at Dead Coconut Club again. It was maybe 6pm or so, so the place wasn’t hoppin yet but it was great to see everything in better light. Such an amazing place!





We had such a wonderful time and are gearing up for another quick trip. Can’t wait to visit Dead Coconut Club again… and the Halloween themed Tribute Store. But best of all, I truly am excited to visit after that for all of the festive Christmas decorations although I read that a lot of them are up already. Wohoo!

Take care and again, hope this helps someone.