PTR/TR--An Unexpected Trip to the Dark Side

[benji2012]

Greetings all!

I am starting this PTR, which hopefully become TR later! We decided to book a sort of last minute trip to Disney...only to find out there were no DVC 1-Bedroom units left for the weekend we wanted to travel! As we were looking to take DBFs daughter and boyfriend on a trip, and were going to pay for hotel rooms anyway...why not try Universal?!?


Here are the W's an H's!

Who: Me (Benji) and my DBF of a nearly 10 years, Thad. We are DVC owners and Disney nerds. In the beginning he was the planner, but now I am.

Dawn and Mike...DBF's 20 year old daughter and boyfriend of about 2 years.

What: A trip to the Dark Side of Course! And we will definitely see Blue Man Group!

Where: Hard Rock Hotel...DBF originally wanted Portofino, but it didn't show up in my initial search for some reason, and based on some quick research..HRH might be cool for Dawn and Mike.

When: December 5-8

Why: Because we couldn't get a DVC reservation...but who cares?!?!?!

How: 2 day park to park passes, Early Entry, Unlimited express, and all the benefits of staying on-site!

I know Universal doesn't take as much planning as WDW...but I, like many PTR reporters, love...love...love to plan and research...so I'm hoping to so so here!.

 

[benji2012]

So I did no planning...and not Pre Trip report, but I figured I'd type up a mini report so hear goes!

Lodging—Hard Rock Hotel Rating: B

Check in was smooth and we were given two connecting rooms on the 5th floor near the elevator and the ice machine.

We booked the most basic room, without a view and received just that. The room was clean, a nice size. The bathroom itself was tiny but having a sick outside and inside balanced that.

The music from the lobby (3rd floor) Saturday night was extremely loud. I would guess if I would have done some research I would have found this out, but I had no idea how loud it would be…or that it would go until 11 pm. (I’m an early riser, so 11 pis late for me!)

We had originally wanted to stay at Portofino, but decided on the Hard Rock because of the pool and the vibe for DBFs daughter and her boyfriend. We ended up not using the pool, but the kids enjoyed the quick walk to the parks instead of waiting for the boat.

 

[benji2012]

Food—Onsite Hotels

Bice—Portofino
Rating: A

Wow!!! We loved our meal at Bice. Great service, great room, great food…but expensive. We often stop for dinner off-site on our way to Disney and we both said that this might be a new place to stop.

For our appetizer we split of Fresh Ahi Tuna with Vegetable Salad, Capers, Avocado in a Lemon Dressing. It was heavenly.

Two of us had pasta. I had the short rib ravioli, so rich and full of flavor. DBF had the pasta Bolognese…wonderfully seasoned.

The kids had duck and chicken and both were devoured!

We also split three desserts… chocolate crème brulee, profiteroles, and zabaglione and puff pastry. Most of these were finished as well.

The Kitchen—Hard Rock
Rating: B+

Saturday night we were tired, and didn’t want to venture out so we headed downstairs to “The Kitchen, “ which was having a character dinner.

DBF had the filet and I had the kitchen burger. Both were good, though not great. Neither of us were horribly hungry…so no dessert or apps. Both Bart and Home stopped by to say hello. We enjoyed our dinner and would definitely go back.
Loved the bread service at the beginning of the meal too.

The Beach Club
Rating: A
The kids ate at the Beach Club the same evening we ate at the Kitchen, and they raved about it.

Emack and Bolios Marketplace
Rating: B
Suited our breakfast needs with bagels, donuts, etc.

Room Service Pizza
Rating: D
$60 for two pizzas and two cokes for 4 people. Worth about $5. Not good, wouldn’t get it again. Ever. (Service was great though.)

Food—Islands of Adventure

Three Broomsticks
Rating: B+
I love Three Broomsticks and this was my third time eating there, it was good, but not as wonderful as I remember it. It might be time to try something new! I had the beef paties and side of the roasted potatoes …and a butter beer for dessert.

DBF had the baked potato and corn on the cob. He raved about both.

Food—Universal Studios

Krusty Burger
Rating: B-

I am not a big Simpsons fan, but even I had to try out the Krusty Burger…I wasn’t expecting much so there was no disappointment! Actually the curly fries were GREAT…but I’m a sucker for curly fries.

 

[benji2012]

Tickets
We had 2 day/2 park tickets and since we were staying on site we had express passes. Thad and I didn’t really need the hopper option, but the kids used it.

Universal Studios

I headed over on my own and rode Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Shrek 4-D and watched the Blues Brothers before meeting up with the kids to ride Transformers. I loved Despicable Me, but thought Shrek was a little weak. Transformers was good, though intense. I was feeling a little motion sick this morning, but it wasn’t bad so I decided to try the Simpsons. It wasn’t as bad as the first time I rode it, but I was done with that sort of attraction for the day. We met up with Thad and went to Krusty Burger before heading to ET. This was actually my very first time on ET and my only thought was, what kind of drugs was Spielberg on to authorize such a ride? It was fun, but odd.

Next, we headed to T2, which while outdated was fun…and another first for me.

We then decided that we still wanted to ride the Mummy, so we crossed back to that side of the park. I had forgotten how much of a roller coaster it actually was… I still loved it though. Finally, Thad and I rode the Minion Mayhem…this time in the stationary seats.

At this point the kids headed over to IOA and Thad and I headed to the hotel..

Islands of Adventure

On our second morning, I got up early and headed over to WWoHP. I had never wanted to wait in line for Ollivander’s so I was not going to leave without doing it this trip. I’m glad I finally got a chance to see it, but I will never wait in line for it again.

Next I headed over Forbidden Journey, and got right on to my own ride vehicle. I made the mistake of not eating anything more than grapes before hopping and I was overcome with the worst motion sickness of my life. I have ridden FJ before and gotten slightly nauseous but nothing serious. I started heading towards the front of the park looking for something for a bagel, because I though that might help, but I could not find anything that basic. I ended up heading back to the Hard Rock and grabbing a bagel there before heading back to the parks with Thad.

We rode the Cat in the Hat and then headed over to Grinchmas (DBF is a huge Grinch fan.) It was a great show, and we were so glad we went to the show we did. We got in line about 10:30 for the 10:45 am show and got seats pretty far up in one of the side sections, and they were perfect. On our way out, the line for the I think the seats for the 11:45 am show were already filled, and the line stretched all the way back to One Fish, Two Fish. We rode the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley, another first.

We made our way through Hogsmeade again, and then to Jurassic Park where we rode the Jurassic Park River Adventure which I hadn’t ridden in quite some time. Thad, for some reason, was inspired to ride it, and he doesn’t ride anything scarier than Maelstrom normally so I was pretty shocked. He got soaked and I got pretty wet.

We did a little shopping in Super Hero Island area, and then toward the entrance before heading out as my back was hurting.

 

[macraven]

sounds like you all had a good time at the darkside.

thanks for sharing with us!

 

[pas130]

We missed Grinchmas by one day, but we had wonderful weather I must say. Great job breaking down your TR, very helpful

 

[schumigirl]

Nice start.........look forward to more