As you can read in the title of this trip report - DH and I escaped from parenthood for 9 days. We went to Walt Disney World/Universal Studios from September 21st - September 29th, 2024.
If you would like to read my many thoughts + changing plans - here is my pre-trip report https://www.disboards.com/threads/y...er-2024-pre-trip-report-updated-7-18.3949470/
This will be my very first Universal Studios trip report on the DIS boards so I would love advice, tips, and if you would like a different format
So, lets begin to discuss our stay at Cabana Bay Beach Resort, my first time riding everything at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure (I was 28 weeks pregnant last time), and our 2nd time at Halloween Horror Nights.
I will start with introductions first..
My name is Peyton, and my DH is joining me on this trip. We have two boys who stayed with the grandparents. I work from home in digital marketing and I specialize in B2B marketing. We went to HHN & the Universal Studios parks last October for the first time. We fell in love with HHN and it will be a yearly must-do for us (hint hint reason for this trip report).
Now that my quick intro is over - lets discuss our recent trip to Universal Studios!
So, we were hoping for a better experience this day. We got a lift from ASM at 2:55 pm and we arrived at Cabana Bay at 3:21 pm. Check-in was at 3:00 pm so our room should technically be ready. There was a line to check-in, but it was moving very quickly. We were at the check-in desk at 3:30. The team member we interacted with was so nice and she explained to the best of her abilities where our room was in the Beachside tower. I should of researched before hand how to get to the towers to make it easier on us.
We had booked the tower room with a Volcano Bay view. After checking in and getting our keys, we tried our best to find our rooms but we did ask another cast member once we got to the food court. We were in our room at 3:47. Our room number is 8514. I will add some photos of the hotel + our room below!
The elevators were right outside our rooms!
Our tower when we finally found it!
Next - we will go to the Swizzle Lounge that is in the lobby + head over to City walk for dinner & drinks!
We left the room right after we got there basically because we wanted to explore the hotel + get some drinks before getting ready for dinner.
At 4:44 pm, we went to the Sizzle Lounge which is in the lobby of the Cabana Bay resort. It was decorated for Halloween + they had a specialty menu. There was a line but the bartenders were very fast at making drinks. We ordered the Lil' Boozy and the Witches Brew. I did not take a picture of the menu + prices, but these were good. The Lil Boozy was the winner.
We sat here for quite a bit before going back to the room. We love sitting in a hotel lobby especially when it's very well themed + nice drinks. After drinks, we went back to our room to get ready for our date night + City walk. We left our room around 6:20 pm, and we were at the bus station (near the food court) at 6:29 pm. At the end of my trip report, I want to compare both going to WDW vs. going to Universal Studios, but I will say right now after experiencing it for 3-4 days - Universal Studios buses are so much nicer.
We made it to City Walk at 6:39 pm - the bus was busy since it was an HHN night (Wednesday, September 25, 2024). Once we were in City Walk, we wanted to go look at Epic Universe park overview "store" and go to "Dead Coconut Club". We are very excited for Epic Universe - we are Harry Potter fans (recently read all the books for the first time), and I am SO excited for Dark Universe land. I love that they set this up for everyone so people can view exactly what the park will look like. I believe this park is going to be massive + hoping we can get even one night stay at the new hotel - Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel.
After walking around City Walk, we headed over to the "Dead" Coconut club. We went here on a whim last year and absolutely loved the vibes. We had no idea that it changed themes every year - last year it was Alien theme but they had Universe monsters characters our for photo ops. This year, downstairs is a 80s vampire theme club and upstairs has Blumhouse movie sets for photo ops. Also, there is a different drink menu upstairs from downstairs. We tried many drinks over the next few days. I will say - their drinks are very strong, and some are better than others. My favorite was the Pineapple cider which I think you can get anywhere.
Here are our photos below!
After spending a lot of time here, it was time for our8:30 reservation at Cowfish. Cowfish is right across the "street" but to check-in, you have to go back downstairs to the front entrance. Our dinner is always so good here. I did not take notes or pictures because we were just enjoying our date night. We tried Cowfish last year on our trip, and it is definitely a must eat place for future trips.
After dinner, we headed back to the bus station. Since it was an HHN night, I will say the buses were dead but there was two buses waiting for Cabana Bay resort. We were on the bus at 9:42 pm and back at the hotel at 9:48 pm. We went straight to our room and we were back at 9:54 pm.
Next - our first full day at Universal Studios park + a major change in plans!
Thursday, September 26, 2024 - Hurricane Helene Day
As of Thursday morning, Universal Studios was operating normal hours + having the HHN event that night (we had tickets). So, we were so excited for this day since we had been waiting for HHN since we did it last year.
We knew as hotel guests we could get in one hour early (take notes Disney) into the parks, so we got up and ready at 7:00 am. We left the room at 7:40 am. We are never breakfast people when we are on vacation so we headed straight to the buses and on the bus at 7:48 am. Once we got on the bus, we did have to wait a little bit for other people to get on - it was a full bus. We got to the City walk bus station at 7:58 am.
We were on a mission (like everyone else) to get to Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure. We were at the Hagrid's lockers at 8:19 am - there was a 75 minute posted wait. There was barely any line - we finally caught up with people in the pre-show area of the queue (will they ever show this to us? they did not show it either last year). We were on the ride at 8:46 am. Since it was really only a 20 minute wait - we rode it again at 8:55 am. It was a posted 35 minute wait now & we were on the ride for the second time at 9:21 am. This was the first time I had rode this ride (I was pregnant last year) and I love it!! Big Thunder Mountain is my fav Disney movie so it was a much more intense with great twists (won't spoil it). I was able to ride in the side car + on the bike.
Since ride times were low this morning (we guessed because of the hurricane coming), we wanted to knock out Hogsmeade rides. We went over to Forbidden Journey at 9:25 am - we were on the ride at 9:38 am. I don't think I have to ride this ride every again honestly - I love the queue but the ride is not that great. Now, it was time for a butter beer! We headed over to Hogs Head since there usually is not a line there in the mornings in my experience. I personally like the frozen butter beer but I got the cold one this time. It was 10:00 am now, so we were ready to head over to Universal Studios park. We walked up to the Hogsmeade station to ride the Hogwarts Express at 10:05 am - we were on the train at 10:13 am.
The lines were still pretty short around this time, but it was storming now in Diagon Alley. We wanted to ride Harry Potter & the Escape from Gringotts anyway so we ran over to the Gringotts lockers. We put all of our stuff in the lockers at 10:29 am - it was a 30 minute wait. We were on the ride at 10:47 am. I do like Harry Potter & the Escape from Gringotts, but I wish it did not stop as much when you finally get going with the coaster. Now it was time for lunch since we did not eat breakfast. We opted for Leaky Cauldron (duh) and we ordered the fish and chips ($17.99) to share - also, I ordered the pumpkin juice ($5.49) because it is my favorite (better than butter beer in my opinion).
After lunch, we walked about Diagon Alley and through the shops (before all the closures were announced, we were going to hit Diagon alley during HHN). Now we were done with all the important Harry Potter things, we can move to the rest of the park. I loved my new perspective this year because I just read all the books for the very first time (nothing will beat the third book - POA).
After leaving Diagon alley, we headed over to Men in Black: Alien Attack. It was a 10 minute wait so my DH was excited (he remembered loving it when he was young). We were at the MIB lockers at 11:35 am, and it was a complete walk on. We did not even have anyone in the car with us or in the car in front of or behind us. He said he loved this part in the queue (picture below). I will say this ride is so much better than Space Range Spin in Magic Kingdom. I loved going through the sets and the spinning!
After this, we really did not know what to do since I had never been to Universal (not pregnant) and my DH hasn't rode anything in prolly a decade. We headed over to Transformers 3D since we had no idea what to ride is or we have not seen any of the movies since 2007. It was 11:58 am and it was a complete walk on. This ride is not for me, and I don't think we would ride it again. I am sure Transformers fans would know what is going on unlike us!
It was time for a Starbucks coffee break since we have been go go go all day + this is the second half of our week. Also, the next Horror Makeup Show was in 20 minutes so we did not walk to be too far away. The team member told us to be 10 minutes early for a surprise (whatever that means) and he said we could bring in our drinks! While we were walking back, the Scooby Doo gang was walking around + driving The Mystery Machine. I grew up with Scooby Doo cartoons so I loved this.
We went inside at 12:35 pm to look around the lobby. I had no idea this show was in Universal and I am a horror makeup fan! The surprise was shortly after we went inside, Beetlejuice came inside the lobby and interacted + took pictures with everyone! This team member looked so much like Michael Keaton and he was the perfect Beetlejuice. It was a magical moment (what is it called at Universal?) Also, we saw this show twice and this interaction did not happen again.
This show is amazing - it was so funny but I loved the interaction they had with the audience + it was some really cool effects. I would recommend everyone to see this show - its for all ages!
After the show, we wanted to start window shopping (remember as of right now HHN was still on). We saw the Movie tribute store was still up and this was like a must do on our list! We love the old movie rental store because this is what we grew up with. It's like reliving our childhood + our granny's house with the different tvs .
This is all the pictures I can post so on to the next!
Next - we finished out Universal Studios park, get the most upsetting news + on Hurricane watch!
After leaving the Movies tribute store (I am not sure of the name, please educate me), we were in the Minions area so we tried the new Minions shooting game ride. At 1:21, we went on Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, and it was a complete walk on for us which I did like the queue but I wasn't going to complain. This ride was very cute but I think my toddler (almost 3) couldn't hold that gun on his own. After this ride, we wanted to look at the Halloween Horror Nights tribute store. This was my MUST DO before HHN just incase I bought something to wear (clothing or accessories) - again we still were going this night (Hurricane day). This is one of the things that Universal does so well - I think the theme stores is such a flex against Disney. I will say I wish there was exclusive merch in here - there might have been & I missed it. We saw the same things we saw everywhere else in the park + City walk.
After the tribute store (we didn't buy anything), we went on Jimmy Fallon for 1. to get out of the heat & 2. to experience this atrocious attraction everyone hates It was a 10 minute wait at 1:44 pm & we were on the ride at 1:50 pm. I would never do this ride again, I am not sure how Jimmy Fallon receive his own ride when Shrek lost his ride. At this time, we were ready to do Revenge of the Mummy ride. It was a 10 minute wait at 2:10, and it was a complete walk on. I think this ride shocked me the most with the effects + real fire effects. I liked this a lot but my DH did not. I would do this every time we go now. When we walked out of the Revenge of the Mummy, the Mega Movie parade was happening and this was actually a great viewing spot. I will say I liked this parade + we knew all of the movies so that made it fun. The team members that are apart of this parade were acting their hearts out which made it even better.
After the parade, we wanted to ride E.T. Adventure and it was a 15 minute wait (since the parade was still happening). We walked into the queue at 2:41 pm. This ride was a complete walk-on too but can anyone tell me why they ask for your name? Our names were never mentioned again or shown. Is this something that should be said or shown like It's A Small World ride at WDW. My DH remembered this ride so well as a kid because he loved it like he loves Peter Pan (don't judge him). It was a fun ride, but I am not sure how many kids these days know what the movie E.T is - before we take the kids, once they're older, we would show them some of these movies to prepare them (if it's still there).
After riding E.T. Adventure, we wanted a snack because we knew we will not get to eat much at HHN later, so we walked over to the Today's Cafe area. After getting there, we saw a cart across the street from Today's Cafe with a sign featured a Belgium waffle with chocolate sauce. This was absolutely delicious and I remember it being like $6-$7 which for two person snack - that's great. After eating our snack, we had about 1 more hour before we were going to leave the park to rest at the hotel before HHN. We knew that The Bourne Stuntacular had a show time at 3:30 pm, so we headed that way and entered the waiting room at 3:20 pm. The pre-show started at exactly 3:30 pm, and I think this was a very long pre-show (possibly 7-8 minutes of video). We were in our seats at 3:39 pm. We loved the show!! I would recommend it to anyone - at WDW, we liked the Indiana Jones stunt show but that is nothing to compared to this. I won't spoil it but I am sure there are many videos of it online (maybe).
Okay, lets talk about getting the saddest news as a HHN fan. For context, we are go go go in the parks - we don't check our phones (we will text people), checking email or looking at social media at all really. During the show, someone who was going to go to HHN with us texted us saying "HHN is canceled tonight". We were shocked. We had not heard anything from Universal in the app, or from any of the team members inside the park. Our night was completely ruined to us. Once we got out of The Bourne Stuntacular, we immediately read the news article about HHN being cancelled on Thursday, Sept. 26th & you could use your ticket for either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. This news article was published at 12:43 pm. After we got home from our vacation, I did find an email from Universal but I am not checking my emails on vacation.
My tip to Universal is to send out an in-app notification to every one in the park to notify them of any cancellations or updated hours when they announce it everywhere else.
After learning this news, we really did not know what to do. We decided to still go back to the hotel and rest, then we would decide if we wanted to come back to City walk (closing at 8 pm) or visit another Universal hotel. We went through the Universal store at the front of the park because they had a cool display for HHN I wanted to take a picture of - I love the design of everything this year.
After this, we headed back to the bus station in City walk, which was very depressing since we did not have the excitement of coming back for HHN. We were back at the hotel at 4:48 pm. We headed up to our room to refresh & relax really for the first time of the trip - I was thinking maybe this was the Universe's way of making us rest. We decided to go get dinner in Citywalk since everything around us was either a food court or needed reservations. We left the room at 6:00 pm, and we were on a very dead bus at 6:08 pm. Since the bus was dead, it sat for quite awhile for other passengers. We did not get to City walk until 6:25 pm. Like I mentioned, City walk was closing at 8:00 pm so we needed to eat dinner somewhere we knew would have availability + be fast service. We are the type of people that will try to get team members or anyone working to get off as soon as the place closes.
We went to NBC Sports Grill & Brew - we were immediately sat at our table which was nice. It was a busy restaurant but not packed like I am sure it is on the weekends. We did order some drinks - I ordered the Black Window cider which was so good that I took a picture so I could see if anywhere locally had it to buy. DH bought a draft beer that I assume was something very generic. I ordered the Mushroom burger with sautéed shiitake & button mushrooms, Swiss cheese, lettuce, garlic aioli, oven roasted tomatoes, toasted brioche bun ($18.95). This came with fries or tator tots - I ordered the fries. However, when it did come out, it had tator tots so I had to request the fries again. I do not remembered what DH ordered which will be noted once I review this restaurant. Overall, the food was okay - I compare this to a Applebee's or any other sports restaurant chain restaurant. We would not come back unless DH wanted to watch a game here.
We left the restaurant at 7:33 pm and headed back to the bus station. We were on the bus at 7:41 pm & back to the hotel lobby at 7:51 pm. Note: we love this hotel at night with all the lights!
Since we had a lot of time to kill before we wanted to go back to the room, we went back to the Swizzle lounge I believe we spent most of our fun money here (hehe). This time we ordered from their regular drink menu. I ordered the Espresso Martini - Ketel One Vodka, SelvaRey Chocolate Rum, Owens Espresso Martini Mix. ($13.50) DH ordered the PB & Rye Old Fashioned - Templeton Rye Whiskey, Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey, black walnut bitters. ($14.00). We loved our drinks honestly - I love a good espresso martini and Dh loves Skrewball anything (try the cookie dough whiskey). However, I wish I would of gotten an actual martini glass to drink my drink in - in this plastic cup, my martini looks liked such a tiny pour but I knew it was not. This night, the line for Swizzle lounge was crazy long but there was nothing else to do for us.
After hanging out in the lobby for about an hour, we headed back to our rooms. We were able to shower, plan out our next very long day + have a great sleep. I will say it was very very windy that night. Since we were in the tower with floor to ceiling windows, our window was shaking. I ended up turning the tv up a lot to drown our the sound because it was giving me anxiety. Also, I moved everything to the back of the room (near the door) just in case (worst case scenario person). However, we never noticed anything else crazy during our sleep (we slept so good).
We actually had a great night's sleep during Hurricane Helene so we were up early and ready for a very long day. We left the room at 7:38 am. There was not much "damage" around the resort, but you could definitely tell there was high winds since there was a lot of foliage all around the pool area. We were on the bus at 7:45 am and at City walk at 7:58 am. We could tell this morning was busier than yesterday - I think the hurricane announcements helped with the crowds the day before. We headed to Hagrid's first again since we did not know if we were going to ride it again this day. We were at the Hagrid's lockers (hot tip: go to the right side of the ride lockers because no one does) at 8:16 am and it was a 90 minute posted wait. The line was moving very fast until we got to the final room where single riders merge with stand-by queue. There was a very long delay (probably around 30 minutes) but we had time because we love this ride. We finally started moving and we were back to our lockers + phones at 9:29 am.
We did not opt to ride this again since we wanted to make sure we could finish our IOA before our afternoon break before HHN. We needed a potty break now since we had waited so long for Hagrid's. We headed over to the bathrooms over in Jurassic park area located near Burger Digs quick service restaurant. After our potty break, it was time for my most anticipated ride at Universal - Jurassic World VelociCoaster. We entered the ride at 9:39 am and it was a 45 minute wait which honestly did not seem that bad for a newer attraction. The line was moving very quickly so it was definitely not a 45 minute wait. We were at the lockers at 10:00 am. DH did not like this ride vehicle since its not a over the shoulder style but I loved being able to feel "free" and when you come out of your seat. This is definitely a must-do for us for the future.
Now it was time for a snack + we needed to purchase our HHN re-fill souvenir cup! I knew exactly where to go for this cup since i learned where all the snack + refill stations were last year we came (since I was very pregnant). We headed over to Jurassic Park River Adventure (which was down most of the day) to the refill station right across the path from the amazing view of the "boats" coming down the drop. We ordered our HHN re-fill souvenir cup + a pretzel with cheese. The pretzel was very hard but it was still a theme park pretzel in taste (good). We took more pictures in Jurassic park before heading over to King Kong.
After our snack, we headed over to Skull Island: Reign of Kong - it was a 10 minute wait but a complete walk-on at 10:39 am. We had never rode this ride or heard anything about it so we had no idea what it was. Based on the queue, we were legit scared.. makes me laugh now that we had rode it. We wouldn't ever do this again until we bring the boys when they are older. The animatronic at the end is actually super impressive.
After riding Skull Island: Reign of Kong, we went to the front of the park because it was getting very hot at this point + very crowded. DH had to take a call so we thought this would be a quieter sport. We were able to rest + we took some cool pictures of all the lands - it gives me Epcot vibes looking over World Showcase.
After resting, we wanted to do The Cat and the Hat - it was a 5 minute wait at 11:19 am. This was the one ride last year I thought I could ride and you cannot ride this pregnant since there is a lap bar. We wanted to ride it to get out of the heat + to show our friends back home I finally got to ride it. After riding and going through the gift shop, we went for another drink re-fill in Seuss Landing and headed back over to Marvel Superhero Island.
Our last ride in IOA was going to be The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride. I was able to go through the queue last year, but now I was actually able to ride. It was a 30 minute wait at 11:32 am, and we were grabbing our 3D glasses at 11:56 am. I cannot believe this ride was an opening day attraction and no one talks about (that I see) the technology of this attraction. I cannot believe Universal has not created a similar attraction that has the same technology (unless I am wrong).
It was time for us to leave IOA for the day because we wanted some lunch + do other things in Universal Studios before our afternoon break. There is not anything we care for to eat for lunch in IOA, but we were craving a certain US fast food chain that we had not had in a long time. we recently moved to a new area in our city + moved about 45 minutes from our fav fast food chain, Panda Express. So, we headed here for lunch at City walk! This is upstairs near the BK Whopper bar. It was delicious + cheap and just what we wanted! We wanted to go back into the Epic Universe Preview center since it was less crowded than Wednesday night. Like I mentioned before, we are so excited for this park and we cannot wait to see it next year!
We walked back into Universal Studios to complete more of our to-do list! The park was so much more crowded than yesterday. It was currently 1:10 pm. We went for a potty break at the front of the park & we wanted to make sure we watch the Horror Makeup show again. We showed up to the lobby at 1:20 pm, and the show started at 1:30 pm. It was a very packed show which I was happy about since it is such a good show! When we walked out of the show, the parade had just started.
We wanted an afternoon sweet treat to eat while we watched the Mega Movie parade. We headed to Schwab's Pharmacy to get some Häagen-Dazs® ice cream! The ice cream was so good! We got just a cone with two scoops and it was plenty! We could of shared it, but we sat right by the window and watched the parade. It was a very nice way to get out of the heat + watch the parade.
After our ice cream, we wanted to go Diagon Alley to buy myself a wand (a gift for finishing all the HP books). On our way, we noticed Men in Black: Alien Attack was only a 20 minute wait so we were like why not. So, we dropped our bags off at the lockers at 2:27 pm. I believe it was only like a 15 minute wait, but we did get a pre-show this day.
Now, we were headed to Diagon Alley to buy a wand. Also, I finally was able to get a good video of the dragon from Gringotts bank breathing fire. Hot tip: it will growl/breathe once, then it will do it again - this is when you get your camera out! Below is a screenshot!
Based on Harry Potter fan club, my wand should be Beech wood with Unicorn core. I wanted to at least get my core but I knew it would not be exact. When we went to Ollivanders in Diagon alley, I wanted to ask the team members which word I should get that would be similar to Beech wood. When I asked the team member, they basically told me to get whatever wand I wanted which was kind of disappointing as a new fan of this franchise. I wish I was given more enthusiasm as a new fan, but also, I would loved to talk to someone who knew more than what the descriptions say.
I ended up with the wand with Aspen wood with Unicorn core. Here is the description "Unicorn hair does not always make the most powerful wand. But a wand's wood may compensate for any weakness in a unicorn hair core. That is the case here, as Aspen is a particularly resilient wood and difficult to bend. It is also known for its stellar charm work, making it the perfect wood for the wand of a gifted duelist. Wands crafted of aspen wood are an especially good match for strong-minded masters; adding a core of unicorn hair should result in consistent magic.". I choose this wand because as a Gryffindor - I feel like I resonated with the wand being consistent, gifted, and I know the unicorn core is known to not turn to the Dark Arts. Even though I did not have a great experience, we bought my new wand and we went and used it a few times before we started to head to the bus station in City walk.
We got to the bus station at 3:42 pm, and we headed back to our hotel room to relax and rest before HHN. We got back to our room at 3:53 pm.
Time for Halloween Horror Nights! After relaxing in our room and taking showers, we were ready for HHN! We left room for HHN at 5:10 pm, and we were at City walk at 5:26 pm. It was a lot of people going to City walk from Cabana Bay, but there was two buses picking people up. We wanted to start our night the best way with a stop at the Dead Coconut Club. We got some drinks (this is where I got the pineapple cider that was so good) and just hung out on the balcony to overlook people going to HHN.
We were walking for the other people we were going to HHN with and they were stuck in traffic heading to the event even after HHN began. It was about 7:00 pm when we left DCC, so we just walked around City walk and did some shopping. We wanted a snack before entering HHN so we stopped at Auntie Anne's pretzel cart across from Voodoo Donuts, and it was honestly a great pretzel.
At 8:00 pm, we were finally walking into HHN with our group. It took them about an hour to get from the I4 off-ramp to City walk parking lot so keep that in mind when driving to HHN.
We kind of had a plan going into this years HHN, but we really did not know which houses to go to first. I had the idea to go to the back of the park to those three houses first then work our way back to the front of the park. As we are walking in, the chainsaw people (what are these called?) and they were fun I guess. I wouldn't call this a scare zone like the website is but it was a good team member interaction. We were not spooked per se.
We decided to head to the The Museum Deadly Exhibit house - this house is located in the Simpsons area. We walked through the scare zone - Swamp of the Undead. This was a good scare zone and we did get some jump scares because it is very dark in this area. Didn't last year HHN have almost the exact same scare zone theme? This scare zone seemed like deja vu to me. We entered the line for The Museum Deadly Exhibit house at 8:21 pm and it was a 45 minute wait. We were walking into the house at 8:55 pm. Right after getting out of The Museum Deadly Exhibit house, most of us must do house was Slaughter Sinema 2 based on everyone's reviews of how campy it is. This house is located right beside the Museum Deadly Exhibit house. We entered the line at 9:04 pm and it was a 80 minute wait. I did not think it was going to be 80 minutes because of how long the line was. While we were in line, a lot of express pass holders went through the line which slowed us down a little bit. We were walking into the house at 10:06 pm. All of us loved this house because there were so many scenes of different crazy horror films. I loved the Shark animatronics and the Christmas movie scenes.
Next, our group wanted to go into Diagon Alley to see the death eaters "show". I love Diagon Alley at night, but it was packed back here. We were able to catch the "show" but I wouldn't say it is a must-do for future HHNs. We were able to take a video of it, so I took a screenshot of this.
After Diagon Alley + potty break, we headed over to the Tribute Store so other members of our party could see it. As we were walking there, we walked through the "Enter the Blumhouse" scare zone. I would not call this a scare zone since they are on platforms but all the characters were cool to see. Also, we went through the scare zone - Torture Faire. This scare zone seemed the one that received most of the budget. We were looking for the Lil Boo keychain and we could not find it anywhere! After the Tribute Store, we headed over to the Triplets of Terror house - this house is located near the Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. We walked into the line at 10:59 pm and it had a 60 minute wait posted. We were walking into the house at 11:34 pm - I liked this house. I did not get too many scares but I loved all the sets plus the theming.
We were starving at this point so we headed over to get us a Twisted Tater. This was one of my regrets last year and I craved one ever since. The Twisted Tater cart is located at Gramercy park right across the street from the Minion Cafe. We go the garlic parmesan one and it was delicious!
After sitting for a couple minutes to enjoy our Twisted tater, we wanted to do Major Sweets Candy Factory house because this one was in my top must-do. This house is located in the Fast & the Furious - Supercharged ride. We walked into the line at 11:57 pm, and it had a 55 minute wait. We were walking into the house at 12:30 am. This house had the best queue in my opinion because it was inside + had a bunch of fans in it. I liked this house - the smells were amazing, but again not that many scares.
After this house, I knew we wanted to do Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines because we loved the Universal Monsters house last year. The house only had a 30 minute wait posted so we headed to the back of the park. This house is located near Men in Black: Alien Attack. We walked into the line at 12:45 am and it had a 25 minute wait. There was barely anyone in the lines so it was barely a wait. We walked into this house at 12:59 am. This house did not have any scares for us either. I will say all of the team members in this house looked amazing. The sets were crazy to me and I would love to be able to do the Unmasking the Horror tour next year. The Goblin's Feast house is right beside the Universal Monsters house so we headed their next. We walked into the line (no one was in it) at 1:07 am and it had a 25 minute wait. We walked into the house at 1:14 am - we loved this house more than we thought. We actually got a good bit of scares in this house but overall, I think it was my second favorite.
We knew we prolly had time for one more house so we slowly started walking to the front of the park. I wanted to take more pictures and go through the Demon Queens scare zone since this was the one I was looking forward to. This scare zone is located between Horror Makeup Show and Bourne Stuntacular. I was so unimpressed by this scare zone - when we were walking through about 1:30 am, there was absolutely no scare actors here. It was like they had already sent the team members home for the night.
We decided to do Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America since all the other houses were 90-120 minute long waits. This house is located by the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride. We walked into the queue at 1:37 am and it had a 35 minute wait posted. We were walking into this house at 1:53 am. This house was actually good - I had no expectations but we had some good scares. We were so tired at this point we were basically zombies going through the houses.
We started walking back to the bus and we were on the bus at 2:22 am. The bus waited a little bit for other people before another Cabana Bay bus pulled up. We arrived at Cabana Bay Beach resort at 2:32 am. Once we arrived, we headed Bay liner diner because it was advertised that they were serving food until 3 am. When we walked up, there was no more hot food left so there was only snacks (candy & chips) and drinks. This was a big disappointment because we thought the different bays were going to be opened up. Unfortunately, we went back to the room after this and I could tell other guests were upset about this.
Here are my house rankings + scare zone rankings:
1. Slaughter Sinema 2
2. Goblin's Feast
3. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
4. Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America
5. Triplets of Terror
6. Major Sweets Candy Factory
7. The Museum Deadly Exhibit
1. Torture Faire
2. Swamp of the Undead
3. Enter the Blumhouse
4. Demon Queens - literally no scare actors
5. Duality of Fear - was this the chainsaw people?
I wanted to finish up this trip resort with my final thoughts + comparing our stay at Walt Disney World to our stay at Universal Studios Orlando. After HHN, our next day we were checking out which was seamless since we did not have to do anything! I did let the front desk know we were leaving before 10 am to head to the parks. I always do this at hotels so they can get housekeeping in there for the next guests. We really only went to the parks to ride Hagrid's one more time and to pick up some final souvenirs. So lets compare Walt Disney World's All Star Movies Resort (ASMR) to the Universal Studios' Cabana Bay Beach Resort (CBBR)!
Location – ASMR is not located close to any park, and it took us about 20 minutes to take the bus to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. CBBR is close to Citywalk (about a 20 minute walk) and it took us about 5 minutes to take the bus to Citywalk.
Amenities – ASMR has an arcade, playground, two pools + complimentary bus transportation to the parks and Disney Springs. CBBR has two pools + a lazy river, bowling alley, an arcade, fitness studio, and complimentary bus transportation to Citywalk.
Room Quality – Comparing both rooms, I think the CBBR room was better quality than our room at ASMR. CBBR's room was better decorated and it felt overall more spacious.
Dining Options – ASMR has the World Premier Food Court and Silver Screen Spirits Pool Bar. CBBR has Bayliner Diner, Shakes Malt Shoppe, Hideaway Bar & Grill, Atomic Bar, Swizzle Lounge, and a Starbucks location.
Transportation Options – Both hotels offer complimentary bus transportation but I do believe that CBBR has a better bus system. There was almost always two buses waiting for people so we never had to wait for a bus to sit down at CBBR or Citywalk. At ASMR, I feel like we always waited around 10 minutes for a bus - I feel like they need to add more buses to the rotation.
Price and Value – Both hotels are comparable with the price per night, but for the amenties + hotel decor, CBBR is a better value.
I took a look at both hotels during the week of January 27th to January 31st, 2025 (hotel only).
ASMR (Preferred Room)- $692
CBBR (Poolside Standard Room) - $735
You can check out my Walt Disney World portion of this trip here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/n...ber-2024-trip-report-updated-10-9-24.3954727/
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