****OI Meetup**** -June 4-5, 2021

[RocketCityMama]

Side note, we binged watched all the Jurassic Park movies this week (I know, I've never seen past the first one) and wow they were stressful but now I get so many things about JP at the parks LOL and Go Blue and Trex! lol They are now my favs and Owen's not bad to look at hahahah!

 

[Sara W]

We did the same and when my daughter (11) saw Chris Pratt she said “he’s pretty to look at.”

Lines weren’t bad last night for rides, we were pleasantly surprised. Hulk was around 35min the 2 times we rode it (saw it drop to 10 and 20), Dr. Doom’s was a walk on, Forbidden Journey walk on, Spider-Man was 10 or 20min. Food lines were way worse. I made sure to watch the wait times on the app because they definitely went up and down. I tried to grab Hargrid’s at 6pm on the ride over, but I didn’t have the locator on the app on. By the time I got it on it kicked me out of that screen.

 

[klangl6]

I never thought I'd be so excited for a 6am flight, but I can't wait! T-minus 4 days!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Good morning!! It is arrival day for us! We stopped and stayed in Valdosta last night. We have about 3 hrs to drive this morning. Have a quick target stop to make this morning after breakfast before we head to Orlando. I checked wait times yesterday and they did not ever seem to terrible but that could change today. Will report back later this evening.

 

[christophfam]

We leave tomorrow afternoon! Cant wait!!

Had a dream last night I walked into SF lobby and I could hear the voice from ET ride saying “welcome home”. It’s kind of stuck in my head right now

 

[policycobb]

We leave tomorrow afternoon! Cant wait!!

Had a dream last night I walked into SF lobby and I could hear the voice from ET ride saying “welcome home”. It’s kind of stuck in my head right now

That would be awesome if it really happened. We check-in Sapphire tomorrow evening. Trying to get through work this morning. So excited to just get to the resort and have no worries. We are hoping to eat at Strong Water for dinner after we check-in but do have a backup reservation at NBC Grill in case it's too long of a wait at Strong Water.

Trying not to think of the crowds. I am okay with the no masks. The no social distancing does bother me. I'll throw in an extra spray hand sanitizer for the park backpack.

I am packed. My daughter hasn't even gotten her suitcase out.

Safe travels to everyone and good luck at the parks if you are already there!

 

[klangl6]

I feel so weird about this trip. I'm a planner, so I normally have an idea of what we're going to do. This time though, besides the OI event, we decided to just go with the flow. I know we'll have some pool time, but we don't have any dining reservations or anything else planned.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Hello! Whew ok, so we arrived at Dockside around 12:30 today, checked in and thankfully the room was ready! Grabbed our ap’s downstairs as well. Check in was fast and efficient. Unpacked car, went and got a snack and grabbed a bus, waited less than 3 mins for a new one.

Security was fast (2:30ish), they did not have anyone checking bags physically like they did last time I was here where you had to open every pocket. They have buckets and you send thru scanner. Easy peasy!

We did a little shopping while waiting on reservation for margaritaville. I highly recommend making reservations for any sit down meals. Walk ups were waiting 45 mins at that time. They were short staffed so keep that in mind. Food was okay, I had better there.

We headed into IOA and it was pretty busy. Not a ton of distancing going on. I’d say 5% maybe masked at any given point, inside or outside. Lines were moderate, some worse than others. We rode Cat in Hat, Seuss carousel, Spiderman, Dr Doom and did raptor encounter in about 2 hrs. We left about 8:30, bus line was long but they had them back to back so it moved quick.

Overall good short day, just be prepared for the lines and it is hot lol

 

[sugliac]

Oh no!! I will miss y'all by a couple weeks. Have fun all!

 

[RocketCityMama]

I seriously can’t wait til the meetup! Crowd levels are high, people are def in the pre-covid rule and will push thru and stand on top of you. We are having fun but man I can’t wait til Fri and Sat night!!!

 

[RocketCityMama]

The kids met Bruce lol his ropes are back!

 

[Sara W]

Anyone else concerned about the weather tomorrow evening?

 

[RocketCityMama]

Anyone else concerned about the weather tomorrow evening?

Not yet! We have had a chance so far all this week and it only rained yesterday for about 30 mins-1 hr. We just happened to have a reservation for dinner at 4:30, it started about 4:00 and was done by the time we got inside minus some sprinkle/mist. I guess it could have poured again after we went in but when we came out at about 5;30 it had stopped and was drying up.

My advice bring a raincoat or poncho, be prepared to wear it and have a great time!! High chances of rain does not mean it will for sure rain all day either. Or all over Orlando!
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So last night we decided to get voodoo donuts to bring to the room for breakfast today. We mobile ordered a mixed dozen of half classic and half specialty. Parks closed at 8, we ordered at 7:30, expecting to wait a little, it was 9:42 pm they were ready for pick up. So keep that in mind if you want their donuts. There was always a line.

Buses back to Dockside was lacking last night. Huge line, 2 buses left full but it was another 20 mins before the next one came and the line was crazy long again. Cabana bay had about 4 buses in the same amt of time. That has been our only miss so far for buses. I am looking forward to the short walk to hrh on sat and the rest of the trip!

Yesterday we did the fast and furious ride- one and done. Pre-show was the best part and we waited less than 5 mins We loved the Borne stunt show and the horror make up show was fantastic. Jimmy Fallon was fun too. We had not done any of these before, all new since last time we were here.

 

[christophfam]

So last night we decided to get voodoo donuts to bring to the room for breakfast today. We mobile ordered a mixed dozen of half classic and half specialty. Parks closed at 8, we ordered at 7:30, expecting to wait a little, it was 9:42 pm they were ready for pick up. So keep that in mind if you want their donuts. There was always a line.

Thanks for the warning! Never would have given myself that much time for a mobile order. Ordered last night at 7pm and was ready at 8:30pm.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Thanks for the warning! Never would have given myself that much time for a mobile order. Ordered last night at 7pm and was ready at 8:30pm.

Awesome, glad to have helped. This is one spot USO needs to stream line- mobile ordering. Disney did it better last time we went. Order and pick up asap rather than waiting for ever!

Went to Springfield for lunch today. Arrived about 11:30 and got seated fairly quickly. We had order already ready to go so as soon as had our table we placed it to be made. It’s not “quick” but we got out of the heat for an hour. We are back and Dockside resting for this evening and prepacking for hard rock tmrw.

Have a great time tonight and maybe we’ll see you there!!

 

[Bethany10]

Hope all of you had a great time tonight despite the rain! I thought of the meetup people as we trudged through citywalk for our last night dinner at Vivo.

 

[RocketCityMama]

‘Yawn’.... up to early after the meetup!! So we got up yesterday and hit parks at 10ish to get a couple of things done and lunch in Simpsons area. Then headed back to hotel for naps/rest before the big night. About 4? It started storming pretty badly and the rain did not let up til closer to 6. We got to the park and went to check in, fairly quick as no line at the moment. Got our paper pass for entry into either park, wrist bands, bonus bites zone cards and maps. Off we went! It was still raining at this point, but just steady and no lightening.

We ate at the comic strip cafe, had the sliders, pizza, chicken strips (wings) fruit, cookies and drinks. The sliders were okay, nothing to write home about. No lettuce, tomato, onion on them. Some had bacon, second time none. Kids like the pizza and hubby said chicken was ok. My complaint was there was’t really any side items. I would have liked to have fries or chips.

I have to go pack up..... so to be continued!!!

 

[jenushkask8s]

We had a great time at the meetup last night! I'm glad the rain "only" lasted a couple of hours!

After a busy week at Disney and Universal, our feet were pretty dead so we didn't do a lot of rides but it was just so nice to be in the parks at night with cooler temps.

 

[klangl6]

Finally up at 11am. We had so much fun last night! Got hthere early to check in. There was a line but it moved fast. Then the rain started, so we decided to head to Finnegan's for a drink (if you go, make sure to see Kat. She's the best!). When it finally let up, we tried to do some attractions that ended up being down, so we decided to hit up a bite zone (surprisingly everything was pretty good, even the pizza).

WE finally ended up on attraction at 8pm, but still ended up doing everything we wanted to do. Can't wait to do it again tonight.

On downside of the night was that we ended up paying to get an uber back to the resort b/c the bus line was so long and they weren't sending a lot of busses.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Alright checked into Hard Rock for the second half of our trip. Mobile check in- recommend, saves some time. Room was ready at 11 am, yay! So we are in and unpacked. Have a garden/water view.

Back to the meetup. After dinner we wanted to ride Kong- sadly they were having some tech issues so it was delayed. We decided to head to wwohp and check it out. Pretty busy at 7:15, lines long to get food/drinks. So we hopped on HE and headed over to Studios.

We grabbed food off/on through out the night, had some churros (hard to find fyi!), I had the OI-cean Attack, yummy! No fun show but still good. We had Finnegans, bread pudding, dh had some wings, we tried the beef pasties, ok, a little dry, better dipped in ranch! Lol The bread pudding and pasta was at the front table, the other the back. Plenty of seats. We saw Jackie from Super Enthused, Nate from Paging Mr Marrow and a few of their crew eating in there. We didn’t bother them though. Later we had Monsters Cafe- dh and I got the brisket sandwich and fries to share and a cookie. All of it was delish! Kids split a pretzel later in the evening.

We rode everything in USO minus shrek, mib (was delayed), simpsons and fnf (haha) we skipped simpsons as we had rode early in day. We hunted for treasures and found some hidden items, walked Diagon Alley and took time looking at everything etc.

Tonight we focus on IOA and all the fun!