Did Someone Say Adventure?! An Oct '13 TR! (Updated 5/27/14)

[Nakkira]

The Orange side is now permanently nixed from my future trips. I have experienced it, it was cool, but honestly not worth the risk of the "ick" later.

Love your interaction with Mary Poppins!

 

[missangelalexis]

Ahh your poor Mom on MS. We don't do the Orange side anymore, I can handle it but rarely can anyone else. My Mom freaked out over the green side, she'll never be going near that ride again.

Duffy is so cute in his pumpkin costume! I can't wait to see him in his Christmas gear.

I have never tried that cheadder cheese soup either but I'm dying too. Hopefully someday I'll make it to F&W and try it then!

Haha funny story about the waffles, but I agree two is better than one! They both sound delicious but I think I'd like the fruit better too!

I love all the pictures you guys stopped for on your way out!

I really had no idea what to expect on the Orange side. I'm glad I at least tried it but doubt I would do it again!

Duffy is the cutest, the pics of him in his Christmas gear are so adorable!

And thank you, we definitely made use of our PP+!

With my motion sickness issues, Mission Space Orange is a definite no do for me. I have ridden the green side but it's kind of boring. The only reason I ever ride it now is because I love Gary Sinise!

I so wanted to try that Lamb Chop in Australia but since we started on the Canada side, I ended up not getting one. The Beef Empanada though was my husbands favorite dish.

I totally understand skipping some of the stuff in the last couple of countries. I always end up neglecting Mexico and Canada depending on which side I start. It just takes a long time to get around all those countries!

I wish Alice was meeting in that store the one night we were there because it rained for a bit. We did end up meeting Pooh and Rabbit in Christopher Robbins room though.

Haha I do love Gary Sinise too!

It does take a long time to get through the countries! Even if you take your time and go slow, it's still tiring.

Ah at least you got to meet Pooh and RABBIT! Would've loved to meet him!

Great update!

Thanks!

darn rain....but it sounds like a good end of the day still. I might have to check out mission space after all. last time we rode it was several years ago, before the green and orange sides. it never bothered me. is it a lot different now?

i'd like to come to F&W when our kids our bigger. I think my DH would really love it. sounds like you found lots of yummy snacks!

The only two times I've gone on it and have been this year, so I can't really tell you if it's different, I'm sorry

F&W is so awesome, I definitely recommend doing it one year!

Bahaha, great TT photo for buddy in front of you.

Awww, Duffy is adorable in his Halloween outfit. I haven't met up with him for a few years, so maybe I will in his Xmas outfit.

Oy, stupid Epcot and rain.

Mmmmmmmm GM Slushie. Goooooood.

Awwwwwwwwwww, how cute is that photo of you all in China. You're the centre of attention for sure.

LOL he certainly was ready for the photo!

I definitely think you should meet Duffy in his Christmas outfit!

I like Grand Marnier, I like slushies, therefore I looooove the GM slushie

HAHA yes that photo definitely captures us as a family pretty well

I'm glad the rain let up some time so you could walk around WS and sample from F&W. And that you got to meet Duffy! I think he is just so cute in his pumpkin outfit.

The pic with your parents in China is just adorable.

Yes thank goodness the day wasn't a completely washout! Duffy is the cutest! And thank you, It was the photographer's idea and I'm glad he suggested it!

The Orange side is now permanently nixed from my future trips. I have experienced it, it was cool, but honestly not worth the risk of the "ick" later.

Love your interaction with Mary Poppins!

I totally agree! And thank you!

 

[missangelalexis]

Hope all my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!


Day 4 - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure

As with the mornings prior, we woke up early and caught a cab by around 8am. We arrived at the park by 8:30. We would be heading into Universal Studios first and hitting up Islands of Adventure in the afternoon.


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I'm pretty sure they opened the park around 8:45 and we headed straight to Despicable Me! Despite being there early and getting in line right away, it was still about a 15 minutes wait. This ride is SUCH a slow loader (but totally worth the wait in my opinion!).


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I love Despicable Me and I love this ride Mom (also a huge DM fan) and Dad both enjoyed as well! From there we headed to the Transformers ride. This was a new ride even for myself, so I was pretty excited! We got there to find no wait at all! We hopped right on and WOW was I impressed with this ride! I didn't take any pictures in this area I meant to go back later on but it never end, oh well there's always next time right?

From there it time to head to SPRINGIELD! This was the part of the Dad was most excited about, and how cruel of me to drag him to 2 other rides before he could actually get there I was excited too to see all the new things that were added since my January trip. I have to say, it looks AWESOME!


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We looked around a little and then went on the ride, which only had about a 5 minute wait.

Once we got off, it was time to leave Springfield (but only for a little while, we would be back soon!) and head over to where the Despicable Me characters would be coming out. This changed SO much since my last trip! In January it was like a mini-parade with floats and music. This time, the characters basically just walked out to greet and take pictures. I wanted to make sure Mom got pictures with everyone and she did with the exception of Edith who was not out for some reason.


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We also ran into these two!


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After this we rode The Mummy and Men In Black before heading back to Springfield for some lunch! We all got Krusty Burgers and ate in Moe's Tavern I gotta say, it felt pretty cool!


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After eating we rode the new Kang & Kodos Twirl ride with no wait.


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We then saw the whole Simpsons family out meeting! The line was already cut, but they gave us the time of their next set and also let us know that Krusty & Sideshow Bob would be out meeting soon, so we waited around and met them!


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We then headed over to ET, which had about a 10-15 minute wait. I enjoy that ride for nostalgia purposes Once we got off we headed back over to the Despicable Me ride area to check out the gift shop where I wish I could have brought home ALL of these....


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...And to meet a minion, since they aren't out during the first hour that the park is open.


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Then it was back to Springfield to wait for the Simpson family's next set.


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They were super fun and this made for a great picture!
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[JessM]

Fun update from Universal!

I think our plan for Friday is the same as yours! I was thinking Universal first, IOA second, it looks like I have the right idea.

I'm so excited for Despicable Me and Transformers!

I love all the character photos, they are all super fun!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your Universal day!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Ahh I loved the DM ride!! So much better than the Jimmy Neutron ride that came before it. So much fun and how does anyone not adore the minions.

Now Transformers I am really looking forward to. Not that I'm a big Transformers fan, but this ride sounds so good.

And Springfield!! My God this is insane all the new stuff in only a year.

I can't get over all the characters out greeting now. Once upon a time there was only a handful, now it seems loaded. So much to look forward to.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

That looks like a fun morning! We haven't been to universal in years--it's changed so much. I can't wait until we can go again!

 

[missangelalexis]

Fun update from Universal!

I think our plan for Friday is the same as yours! I was thinking Universal first, IOA second, it looks like I have the right idea.

I'm so excited for Despicable Me and Transformers!

I love all the character photos, they are all super fun!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your Universal day!

Awesome! I think you will love both DM and Transformers! I headed to Universal knowing that I wanted to beat the long lines at Despicable Me, so that was my reasoning behind it

Ahh I loved the DM ride!! So much better than the Jimmy Neutron ride that came before it. So much fun and how does anyone not adore the minions.

Now Transformers I am really looking forward to. Not that I'm a big Transformers fan, but this ride sounds so good.

And Springfield!! My God this is insane all the new stuff in only a year.

I can't get over all the characters out greeting now. Once upon a time there was only a handful, now it seems loaded. So much to look forward to.

I love everything about DM so the ride is just perfect to me! I think you will really enjoy Transformers, it is VERY cool even if you're not a big fan of the franchise! Springfield is awesome, especially if you're familiar with the Simpsons. It is insane how much they've built in such little time!

That looks like a fun morning! We haven't been to universal in years--it's changed so much. I can't wait until we can go again!

It was! I hope you do get to visit on a future trip!

 

[missangelalexis]

At this point We were pretty much done with everything we wanted to do in Universal so we decided to head over to Islands of Adventure.


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We started by heading to the left when we walked in and hit up Spiderman as our first ride. It was only about a 15 minute wait. At this point my feet were KILLING me as they still hadn't recovered from the day before But I soldiered on! We then went on Jurassic Park River Adventure, which had about a 20 minute wait. Then finally it was time to enter WWoHP!


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Now I'm not a Harry Potter fan at all, I've never read the books or seen the movies. But I think this area is SO well done and I absolutely love the Forbidden Journey ride! The wait time was I think 30 or 45 minutes, which I fully expected anyway. The ride was, of course, awesome! Mom loved it and agreed that it is unlike any other ride! Dad did not fair so well :-/ It seems on this trip we discovered that Dad gets a little motion sickness on spinning type rides and this was one of them. We found a shady spot for him to sit in to rest for a few minutes while Mom & I went to get some BUTTERBEER! I offered to share with Mom but she insisted she wanted her own..and that turned out to be a good choice because she loved it We took a few pictures before venturing through the rest of the park.


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We made it to Seuss Landing where I convinced them to ride the Trolley Ride


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Turns out we all actually enjoyed it it was pretty cute and relaxing! We also went on the Cat in the Hat ride since there was no wait. It's very similar to the Winnie the Pooh ride in my opinion.

At this point we were done with Islands of Adventure and had to decide what we wanted to do now. As much as I wanted to go back to Universal to ride Transformers and The Mummy again, my feet just weren't having it. I just couldn't imagine walking all the way back over there. So we decided to just get some dinner at City Walk and then call it a day. We ended up eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp. We've eaten here many times at home, but it's a family favorite and we knew we would enjoy it...and that we did! I could eat their hush puppies all day


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After dinner we caught a cab and made it back to the hotel pretty quickly. We stopped at the Food Court where I did something that was long overdue...I purchased my first Mickey Premium Bar! YUM!!


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I also saw this little guy hanging outside our room:


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We were back in the room by 8pm and basically just relaxed/showered/fell asleep. We had another full day at MK ahead of us!

List of firsts for the day:
-Riding Transformers, Kang & Kodos, Trolley Ride, and Cat in the Hat
-Seeing the new Simpsons area and eating lunch there

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[STLMickeyMom]

The Harry potter area looks so totally cool! We love all the books and movies. Can't wait to go there some day and try butterbeer! I'm sorry your dad wasnt feeling well and your feet were hurting. That's no fun at all! Glad you got to rest up and relax that night and, of course, have a Mickey bar. I'm pretty sure those will always cure what ails ya!

 

[jelloarms]

Now I'm not a Harry Potter fan at all, I've never read the books or seen the movies.

[/I]
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I thought I was the only one! I remember attempting to start reading the series back when it first came out but I couldn't get past the first page of he first book. Too boring! Never had any desire to watch any of the movies either.

 

[Nakkira]

So jealous of your Despicable Me meets.

 

[Nakkira]

At this point my feet were KILLING me as they still hadn't recovered from the day before But I soldiered on!


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At this point we were done with Islands of Adventure and had to decide what we wanted to do now. As much as I wanted to go back to Universal to ride Transformers and The Mummy again, my feet just weren't having it. I just couldn't imagine walking all the way back over there.

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Have you tried gel shoe inserts?

I used these for the first time for my trip and was actually really happy with the difference it made.
I was still sore, but none of the usual foot agony

 

[scrpbookr]

Looks like fun! I'm craving a Mickey Bar!

 

[KristinV02]

I am loving reading your trip report!! Thank you for sharing!!

Your photos are beautiful. What brand/style of camera did you use??

 

[kayemgi]

There are so many new things at Universal since I was last there in 2010! I think we'll be visiting there before we do another trip to Disney...

 

[Pluto0809]

Your Univeral day looked like lots of fun! I went there for the first time in 2012 because I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Jim and I really enjoyed both parks although I got quite sick on the HP ride. Jim had to go out of the HP section to get me a coke since they don't sell it there. I've since started taking motion sickness pills so I hope next time I'll be ok. That ride is too awesome to pass up! I'm waiting till the new section opens before going again, probably going to be Jan 2015.

I'm also excited to ride the DM ride and Transformers as we missed both of those last time. DM opened a few months after we were there. I just saw that movie for the first time over the Thanksgiving weekend. I also want to see the Springfield expansion although I think I'm going to skip the new ride. It looks too spinny for me!

Jim and I loved Bubba Gumps as he is a big fan of the movie. Our waiter keep asking him trivia from the movie and he got them all right. Our favorite meal though was at Hard Rock.

 

[missangelalexis]

The Harry potter area looks so totally cool! We love all the books and movies. Can't wait to go there some day and try butterbeer! I'm sorry your dad wasnt feeling well and your feet were hurting. That's no fun at all! Glad you got to rest up and relax that night and, of course, have a Mickey bar. I'm pretty sure those will always cure what ails ya!

I think you would love it, especially if you're already a fan! And you're right, the Mickey Bar certainly helped

I thought I was the only one! I remember attempting to start reading the series back when it first came out but I couldn't get past the first page of he first book. Too boring! Never had any desire to watch any of the movies either.

Haha glad I'm not the only one then!

So jealous of your Despicable Me meets.

Have you tried gel shoe inserts?

I used these for the first time for my trip and was actually really happy with the difference it made.
I was still sore, but none of the usual foot agony

Those characters are just adorable!

My mom actually brought some for her and she let me borrow them for 1 or 2 days and they really did make a difference. I am definitely going to be using them for future trips!!

Looks like fun! I'm craving a Mickey Bar!

I agree!!

I am loving reading your trip report!! Thank you for sharing!!

Your photos are beautiful. What brand/style of camera did you use??

Thank you so much and welcome!!

And thank you for the compliment! I use a Nikon S9400.

There are so many new things at Universal since I was last there in 2010! I think we'll be visiting there before we do another trip to Disney...

You could always do a combination Disney-Universal trip

Your Univeral day looked like lots of fun! I went there for the first time in 2012 because I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Jim and I really enjoyed both parks although I got quite sick on the HP ride. Jim had to go out of the HP section to get me a coke since they don't sell it there. I've since started taking motion sickness pills so I hope next time I'll be ok. That ride is too awesome to pass up! I'm waiting till the new section opens before going again, probably going to be Jan 2015.

I'm also excited to ride the DM ride and Transformers as we missed both of those last time. DM opened a few months after we were there. I just saw that movie for the first time over the Thanksgiving weekend. I also want to see the Springfield expansion although I think I'm going to skip the new ride. It looks too spinny for me!

Jim and I loved Bubba Gumps as he is a big fan of the movie. Our waiter keep asking him trivia from the movie and he got them all right. Our favorite meal though was at Hard Rock.

It was! I'm sorry you got sick on the ride I think the pills would definitely help, and you're right- the ride is too awesome to pass up! The new section sounds like it will be awesome, and January 2015 isn't too far off!

I hope you enjoyed Despicable Me! The new Simpsons ride wasn't too bad actually, it's very much like Dumbo, maybe a tad faster.

If you're a Forest Gump fan, then the restaurant is definitely cool! I love when they ask the trivia!

 

[missangelalexis]

Day 5 - Back at MK!

We were up at our usual time this morning at out the door to catch the bus to MK! We got there around 8:30-8:35, in time to see the Welcome Show again!


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I was happy because the Mayor was there today! He wasn't there on our first day. While watching the show, my dad said "I Want to meet the Mayor!" (Remember this for later ) We got in the park and decided to wait in line for Marie to come out at 9. We made sure we asked and got in the correct line. Well at 9 Pluto came out, but no Marie We still waited and I was getting a little sad, but after about 5 minutes Marie came out! I guess she needed some extra time to get ready!



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She was adorable! I asked how her brothers were and she gave me the thumbs up. I love the Aristocats and I hope one day they bring Berlioz and Toulouse into MK!

From there we headed to Tinkerbell's Nook to meet Tink & whoever her fairy friend would be! There was already a line, but I knew this would be the shortest it would be all day. We waited about 20 minutes before being shrunk down to fairy size and greeted by Terrence! I had a feeling it would be him, but I had autograph cards ready for the other fairy friends too just in case. When I got up to Terrence he began looking through the cards and wondering why I had them. I told him it was because I wasn't sure who I would get to meet! He kindly mentioned that maybe if I came back later, Vidia would be flying in We never did get to go back, but it was nice of him to mention that to me!


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Then it was time to meet Tink! This Tink was super fun and squeaky. She admired my bracelets and asked me if I made them, which sadly I had to tell her no. She also asked what kind of fairy I was and I told her I think I'm a Tinker too, which made her happy.


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After meeting our Fairy friends we headed over to Tomorrowland, which we didn't spend much time in on our first day. We did stop and take some PP photos first though! My mom was very excited that this photographer did the balloon magic shots He was a very fun photographer and took lots of photos with various poses and angles.


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[scrpbookr]

I love the Magic Shots! I should go add the photo pass plus to our vacation right now! I agree with your mom about the balloon picture. It's great! I'll have to remember to ask for that!

I met that same mayor 7 years ago! I guess they tend to stick around! Very nice!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Looks like a good start! We rarely see the welcome show--if we are there to see it, we're always surprised!

Glad to hear the line for tink wasn't horrible first thing in the morning. That's when we're stopping by to see her.

Loved all the magic shots. I hope we get some too.