***OI Meetup***June 2-3, 2023

[RocketCityMama]

Ok, now that I've had some time to rest and relax since the trip lol I am going to do a report here. This will include our entire trip and not just the meetup, but at least the meetup is at the beginning so you'll be able to stop reading at that point if you wish I will do this in multiple posts, got a busy week!

Here is our loose plans:
June 1 - evening arrival and check in at Cabana Bay
June 2- Early check into Hard Rock Hotel- 4 pm Reservation Antijiotos - Meetup Night 1
June 3 -1 pm Reservation Hard Rock Cafe - Meetup Night 2
June 4-Early check into Royal Pacific - Three Broomsticks Dinner
June 5- 4 pm Reservation Finnegan's
June 6- 4pm Reservation Cowfish
June 7- Lunch Bubba Gumps
June 8/June 9- Head home - stopped overnight in Dothan.

Part 1

On Thurs June 1, my goal was to leave around 5 am, I knew it was a stretch, but I figured if we left by 6 I would be thrilled LOL. We planned to drive straight down, it's a 10 hour drive for us, but typically takes 12 with a lunch, dinner, and restroom stops. We are okay with this, don't stress about it. We normally stop around Valdosta or Dothan for the night and drive the last few hours in the morning. However, since we booked Cabana at a decent price, less than a reg hotel would cost us, we decided to drive straight down. Hindsight, I should have given us (Me the driver) an extra day of rest before the meetup. The drive down was fine, we arrived around 6:30 local time, did not have much traffic at all and the weather was good.

So let me say I am spoiled at premiers lol because I am used to pulling up and having someone direct us etc and unload car, etc. We pulled up to Cabana Bay with no direction, finally found the short term parking and made our way to the lobby. The front area was packed full of cars, so we could not park in the loop. Check in was quick and painless and they gave us 4 drink vouchers to celebrate our anniversary. They could be used pretty much anywhere at CB within the two days we were there. We headed to our room to unload our night bags and then down to the food court for dinner. They were fairly busy, but lines moved pretty quick and they had plenty of seating area to choose from. We did note one section each time was closed, but there was plenty of open seats to choose from. We had some turkey sandwiches, chips, kids had chicken fingers and fries. It was on par for a food court area. Nothing super great, but it was good. The theming at Cabana Bay is so cute. I loved it. They have some old cars parked out front of the food area, be sure to check them out. The pool area looked busy and cute, but we did not check it out as we only stayed the night. The room was decent size, 2 doubles/queens?, a living space and kitchen space, and bathroom. The beds were "okay" and I wish I had brought my own pillow, but we slept fine. They do have outside doorways, which was a concern I had, but we faced the parking lot, so there really was not any noise. Maybe a poolside room does? I am not a fan of outside entries anymore lol but for the price, it was a decent room.

On Friday morning, hubby got up super early and walked over to Hard Rock -it took him about 20 minutes if I recall. He was at the city walk gates before they opened lol. We wanted to check in as early as possible, so we would get one of the first rooms available to switch over before the meetup started. When he got back, we went down for some breakfast, and use our drink vouchers, starbucks for 3 of us, and older dd got a drink from the cafe. We walked around a bit, checked out the cars, the gift shop, and then went to the arcade for a bit. Spent $20 on a card that gave them 120 credits to use. They spent about an hour or so playing various games, and pass some time lol. Our room was ready by 11:45 am yay! So we headed to the car and drove over to Hard Rock.

Arrived over at Hard Rock about lunch time, unloaded and settled in quickly to the hotel. We opted to take a nap for a bit, hubby did some work, kids went out and played frisbee beneath our window lol there was a nice patch of grass between the butterfly garden and our building. We headed over to Antijitos for our reservation at 4. Dinner was good as always, service was good, and we had no issues getting in on time. I didn't realize until that day they don't open until 4! lol So after dinner, we headed to the meetup line to get checked in. There was a line but not super long, we were all the way under Rip Ride. It moves quickly by that point in the day, as it was a little after 5. We got our wrist bands, food cards, and headed into the Studios by 5:30 if I recall.

To Be Continued.....

Meetup Night 1 and 2

 

[RocketCityMama]

Part 2: Meetup Night 1

We entered the line for the meetup tickets a little after 5 and was in the parks by 5:30. I do not think you really need to be there before 3 to get in, because once you have your tickets, all you can do is wait until entry at 5 pm, unless you have an AP, and then you can enter thru the main gates, just be sure to put your wrist band on so you don't get kicked out at closing. We have always gone around 5-6, mostly because we don't want to deal with the crowds and we are typically there for several days, so we don't need to get in right at 5.

Since we had already ate, we hit rides in Studios and did Fallon, The Mummy, Rip Ride, MIB, Transformers, ET, Twirl n Hurl, The Simpsons Ride, and Hogwarts Express. We also ate some snacks, walked around, found some hidden treasures and just enjoyed the night. The kids rode mummy twice I am pretty sure. We switched parks around 10 and headed to IOA. The kids went and rode FJ, hubby and I got some butterbeer and wandered the area. Big kid went to ride Velocicoaster, we rode Kong, then headed over to Seuss and did a couple of rides before hitting Marvel. We ate some more food lol, rode Spiderman, the kids did Hulk, Doom, and Storm Force. Also did some more walking, headed back to HP for more butterbeer and enjoying the night. We had a variety of snacks throughout the night, popcorn, churros, pretzels, fries, chicken tenders, and pizza lol. I am sure we had more but I can't recall.

One other thing we did was visit the Creepy Tiki Luau, and while it was hidden, it was still easy to find. For kids, there wasn't really a lot to do, we walked through, the zombies were out in full force when we were in there. They were on-point, their acting, their demeanor and interactions. 10/10 for them. We didn't stay super long, since we weren't getting any drinks. It was a cool place to visit though! Later I found out they did a dance, wish we had got to see it in person. We stopped by later with my older dd, but the zombies were not out at that time, sadly.

Overall the first night was a success, we did have some lightning delays on the big coasters during the first part of the meetup and FnF was down a lot during the entire time we were there. We watched a few shows, talked to the Knight Bus driver, and caught the blues brothers performing as well. They were fantastic, it's nice to see things getting back to "normal" where they go out in the crowd, dance etc. We met some characters, though it didn't seem as many were out that night.

We left around 1:30 am, headed to our hotel, Hard Rock, thankfully just a short walk away! Everyone had a good time, and we enjoyed the night, mostly because we were worried it was going to be a washout!

To be continued....

 

[LaDonna]

I just want to say anybody going to meet up. You have to get the fish and the apple pie at three broomsticks!!!!

And a few pics added because why not

 

[RocketCityMama]

So behind, here is part 3 -Saturday, Meetup Night 2 -

So we started out the morning "sort of" sleeping in lol my father in law drove up from Venice to spend some time with us and have lunch. We had reservations for 1pm, he got there around 11:30ish... So hubby went down to meetup him and wait for us in the lobby because we were no where near ready. Anyway, so we visited and then headed over to Hard Rock. We got in right on time, no issues, had a decent server and it was not busy at all. We could have probably went without a reservation, but I was worried with a group of 5. I wish I had taken pics of food, but I neglected to do so, but my pork sandwich was fabulous. I would 100% order it again. The rest of the crew, said theirs was okay, but would eat there again. So I didn't know they take photos when you get there, for a photo package deal lol but we had ours taken, and then they come around during the meal and show you the pics and if you want to buy it you can. So my fil wanted to purchase, I want to say they were around $30, but I can't recall for sure. You get 2 decent size pics with a cardboard frame, a smaller pic, and then a qr code so you can download the digital copies. Truly not a terrible price, but you can ask to skip the photo in the beginning, they asked if we wanted to do it. So you know how Hard Rock Cafe has a ton of memorabilia all over the place, and you can't really see it all because people are sitting there by it lol but they were not using the upstairs at all and have multiple rooms up there you can go check out. So we ate and then we up and cruised around checking out all the neat stuff on display. My fav room is the Elvis room, I could have spent a ton of time looking around, but alas I did not lol. So after lunch, my FIL left and my older dd headed to the parks. The rest of us headed to the room to nap hahah.

It was another day of "storm predictions" and it did look pretty grey and blah outside. To my knowledge it did not rain that day however, so yay for that! We decided to head to the meetup check in line around 5:30, basically it was walk up. Check in was quick and easy, we had our family photo taken at the photo op spot. We met Churro the night before during our crossing between the parks. We hit IOA to start since we started at Studios on Friday night. The kids went to ride some coasters right away (Hulk) they did Doom, we all did Spiderman, then headed towards Jurassic. Before the parks closed we just walked around and rode things that had no wait times, but we also had Ep's, so wait times were minimal anyway. We met several characters - we saw Puss in Boot and a couple others but did not stop as the kids were riding. When the parks closed we headed to HP so the kids could ride Hagrids. We knew there would be a wait, but not as bad as the parks being open. Sadly the entire HP area was crazy busy still at 8, they were not actively letting people in without bands, but they weren't really clearing people out. The entire area where the Owl Post is, was packed with people. I am sure many were waiting on their people to get off of Hagrids, but the ride should have been clear of daytime guests. The kids got in line right at 8, it took them an hour, so they got done at 9. We walked the area, came back around 8:45 and there were still a ton of non wrist band folks in there. I feel like this was the worst area for it, I did not notice it other areas. Security should have done better clearing out people and the line should have been cut off earlier to day time guests.

So we moved on from HP, went to Kong, then the older one went to ride VC and met up with us after in Seuss. Between us all we rode all the rides except the carousel lol not sure why we never made it over to it. We ate snacks as we progressed through the night, made trips back over to HP to get butterbeer. lol kids rode the other HP rides, hubby and I caught the castle show, it's my favorite. We watched the Frog Choir and I appreciated that during the meetup it was not super crowded and they had tall bistro tables out so gather around and put drinks on etc. We got some pizza and brookies at Circus McGurkus, the brookies were on point! They were so good. Later the family stopped at Wimpy's and had some burger and fries, I was not hungry because too many churros, popcorn, and pretzel lol oh and so many icees lol

The rest of the time we meandered, caught some character meets while the kids rode, we rode Kong again, big one went to VC, and ended the night at HP before taking the train over to Studios. Since we had pretty much rode all we "had" to ride at Studios the day before, we just went back to favs, caught shows, characters and ate LOL We tried to go back to the Creepy Cay Tiki place a couple times so my older dd could see the zombies, but missed them both times. The first time we went though Frankenstein and his bride were there. Sadly we tried again later in the night/morning and still no go. My younger dd was exhausted so hubby took her back to the hotel and me and the older dd stayed. She rode the mummy, while I listened to the DJ they had stationed in front of the arcade. Then we just kind made our way around the parks riding, eating, drinking, and chatting. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle. We stayed until the parks closed and then headed out to the hotel, yay for short walks lol and hit the bed quickly when we got in.

So all in all, is the meetup worth the cost - for us yes. Between both nights we rode all of the rides we wanted. Which essentially was every ride in the parks minus Flyers and the water rides. We ate tons of snacks, had plenty of butterbeers (but could have easily had more) we forgot to get ice cream this time from anywhere, met characters without the extreme heat, saw some shows and had a good time. We lucked up with zero rain during the meetups, it was breezy, cloudy, but no rain. My only complaint was Sat night in IOA/HP where they didn't clear the park early enough.

To be continued - the rest of our trip.

 

[LaDonna]

goodness gracious I was trying to figure out the cheapest one day ticket for universal for my cousins in September and now I realize that these meet ups are a lot better value than I thought the cheapest one day 2 park ticket I could find was $165! I think if you only can do one or two days The meet ups are the best way to go!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Sunday June 4, ahhh meetup was over sadly and time to join the rest of the crowds during the day. First though, we had to change hotels, one more, and the last time!

Hubby again got up early and headed over to Royal to get us checked in as early as possible with hopes the room would be ready before 3. We were tired, and just wanted to sleep lol so we stayed until about check out time at HRH and luckily for us, our room at Royal was ready when he checked in! So we got everything loaded up, made the long (hahah) drive over and went to the room and crashed for a bit. We had booked Royal through June 8, and because of EP's and the meetup, we had plenty of time to do/see what we wanted during our trip. The plan for this day was to eat at either Bubba Gumps or Three Broomsticks- dd's choices. Well the little was still exhausted when it was time to head to the parks around 3:30 or so, so dh had me and the older dd head in. Since we were getting there around 4, we headed straight for the 3B's so we could maybe grab an early dinner. We expected it to be busy, but much to our surprise it was walk in. So we got seated right away, and there were plenty of seats avail - we were in and out in less than an hour. I ordered fish n chips, she had the roasted chicken platter. Mine was delish, hers was okay, it could have been hotter. The corn was room temp under a heat lamp hot, chicken was fine she said, and potatoes were eh. Unfortunately the worst part about 3B's IMHO is that you get no real service, once they bring your food, you are on your own. I feel it needs to be more of a borderline table service, because if you need extra napkins, some water or something, you're out of luck. So after we ate, we just headed into walking around the park a bit letting our food settle. We walked into some stores, and eventually she made it to VC and rode while I walked around and shopped. Hubby and youngest dd eventually joined us, we rode Kong, did some shopping, and then over to Suess land, we rode Cat n Hat, they did the trolley, did one fish - and somehow did not get wet lol they are still laughing over that one. Then we headed over to Marvel, and rode Spiderman, and they did Doom and Hulk if I recall. My memory is fuzzy lol we rode all the rides so many times hah. We did a mobile order for VooDoo doughnuts so we would have some for breakfast/snacks for the rest of the trip. We did a little shopping in citywalk, then picked them up and headed to the hotel.

Sunday was a light day since we changed hotels, and were tired after the 2 meetup nights. More coming soon!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Good Morning friends, I've come back for the final few days of our trip and I am going to condense them down to one post, I hope LOL as I could not tell you specifically what we did each day, because I was tired and can't recall. I can say though that over the course of the week, we rode every ride, multiple times, the kids did water rides one day, we did nothing but shows pretty much one day, and then our last day was riding favorites and shopping. I want to say on Monday the girls did the water rides, Tues was our show day, and Wed fav re-rides and shopping.

Monday June 5- Finnegan's dinner - this is one of our favorite places to go and eat while at USO. I almost always get fish n chips, but I have gotten a salad there as well. Always good, never had a bad experience. Again, pretty sure the girls did water rides in the morning/early afternoon, and then we just rode whatever later that day.

Tues June 6- CowFish dinner -so this meal started out...well irritating. We arrived 10 mins or so before our reservation and got checked in. There was no line, etc. I thought okay, we'll be at our table in no time. So we stood outside in the HOT steaming sun, and waited, and waited, and waited. Another large group came up much later than us, and waited and got seated. I was a bit irate at this point, hangry, and hot. So hubby goes to check and she's like oh we thought you were seated.... ugh. Lady, we were right outside the window, you could see us, you took our name, etc I was pissed, I am not going to lie. She calls upstairs, and they are like well we gave your table away...so it will be another 10 mins. It was nearly 5 before we got seated, our reservation was at 4. So obviously I was not happy, the server could sense it and asked if she could help, hubby gave quick run down. The manager eventually came by and apologized, said it was a mistake etc, and I think took like 10 or 15% off the check. Outside of that our particular server was fine, the atmosphere -so -so. My dh wanted to go here, so I appeased him. I got the cheeseburgerushi, it was actually really good. Hubby and older dd got some other type of fake sushi stuff lol they didn't love it, but was okay. Younger kid got a kids meal, her's was okay. I will post pics in another post. Would I go back? Probably not based on the issues at the beginning, and since the others didn't love their meal, why bother.

I believe this was the day we chose to go see as many shows as we could throughout the day. I can say for sure we saw the following shows: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Horror Makeup Show, Vamos!, Beat Builders, Celestina Warbeck, Frog Choir, Oh! The Stories You'll Hear, Sing It, Blues Brothers. My older dd saw Borne while we saw the Horror Show. I also caught the "sock hop" group outside of Mel's one day while the family was riding or watching something else lol

Wed June 7- Bubba Gumps lunch - So BG does not take reservations, you just show up and hope for the best lol we arrived around 11, got seated right away. They were not busy at all. Our hostess was great, the decor, etc was super fun. I love Forrest Gump, so I was taking it all in. They have the movie playing on tv's throughout the restaurant. I ordered some type of salad I think, and the two kids shared some kind of shrimp combo plate thing lol and hubby had a burger I think. Mine was good, the kids said theirs was okay, hubby said fine too. During our meal, the server came and played FG trivia with her group of 4 tables or so. That was fun, I knew all the answers, so if you go there, brush up on your FG knowledge Hubby and I always celebrate our anniversary while we are at USO in late May to early June, our anniv is May 27, and we wear our buttons. The server noticed (I actually forgot we had them on lol) and brought us ice cream sandwiches, sliced and sprinkled as a free dessert, just for hubby and I lol poor girls got none Overall, a good experience, I would go back.

As far as the parks go, we just went and rode whatever we wanted this day, made sure to ride favs, see any shows again, eat, and shop. The new DM villian store opened the last day were were there, but it was packed when we went by, so didn't stop in sadly. We hope to return in Feb and maybe May, so I am sure we will see it soon, and the new ride. We left the park a little early, went to CW did last minute shopping and then headed to the hotel to pack up sadly.

Thurs June 8 - check out day and we leave, wahhhh! Though we did stop in Dothan and stay the night. I was so exhausted that I could not make the 10-12 hour drive after the week in the parks lol

I think that pretty much sums up our week long trip. We all had fun, I didn't take as many pics as normal, but we've been a lot over the last few years, so I get slack on that lol Fingers crossed for a Feb meetup. Until next time.....

 

[goofballs]

So glad you finished your report!
We arrived at the Saturday meetup right around 5:30, just as a rain delay was lifting on most of the outdoor attractions. I think that is why they were slow to clear attractions at park close. We tried to go to Velocicoaster and Hagrids when the meetup started but the quoted times were insane because day guests were still working through the system. I really think it was just unfortunate storm timing. Luckily we had knocked out all of the rides on Friday night and were just looking to take it easier on Saturday. We didn’t end up on Hagrids that night (but 3x on Friday), but did 3 rides on velocicoaster and 2 Gringotts on Saturday.

 

[RocketCityMama]

So glad you finished your report!
We arrived at the Saturday meetup right around 5:30, just as a rain delay was lifting on most of the outdoor attractions. I think that is why they were slow to clear attractions at park close. We tried to go to Velocicoaster and Hagrids when the meetup started but the quoted times were insane because day guests were still working through the system. I really think it was just unfortunate storm timing. Luckily we had knocked out all of the rides on Friday night and were just looking to take it easier on Saturday. We didn’t end up on Hagrids that night (but 3x on Friday), but did 3 rides on velocicoaster and 2 Gringotts on Saturday.

Maybe that was it, but it was just SO.MANY.PEOPLE! We still had a great time, and came back to the area later, I was just shocked at how crowded it was. Glad you had a great time too! I am anxiously awaiting announcements for next years meetups lol so I can start planning

 

[goofballs]

Maybe that was it, but it was just SO.MANY.PEOPLE! We still had a great time, and came back to the area later, I was just shocked at how crowded it was. Glad you had a great time too! I am anxiously awaiting announcements for next years meetups lol so I can start planning

We had a good time, but not a “we definitely have to go back feeling” like we did after our first in December 2021.

I’m thankful for what it was, and hopeful that when we are ready to return the OI Meetups are still an option.