saying goodbye to my beloved dinosaur (or so i thought...) - march 2025 spring break TR (UPDATED 4/7)

[madeline07]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my March 2025 trip report! I am so very excited to finally be writing this report. I've been so caught up with school that this is the first opportunity I’ve had. I took some notes during the trip that should help me jog my memory, as well as some photos that I’ll add! I also got some very exciting news regarding Disney during the trip, which I will get to later...

If anyone’s interested in reading about the planning process for this trip, I wrote a full PTR, which is linked here. Before I get into our arrival day, I will do a quick background and introductions! My name is Syd, and I am currently a third-year college student living in Boston. This vacation marked my 12th trip to Disney! The past few trips we’ve taken have been with my dad, cousin, and best friend from home. This works out well because my cousin is close with my dad and they can share a hotel room and hang out, while my friend and I share another room and hang out. The four of us spend most of the trip and park time together, but it’s nice to have pairs for when we do split up.

The dates of this trip were 3/1–3/7, and we hit Universal/Islands of Adventure and all four Disney parks. One of my big goals during this trip was to try as many new restaurants/food stands as possible, and I think I did a pretty good job! We also did a split stay between Port Orleans French Quarter and the Boardwalk Inn, but I will go into more detail about this later in the report.

Also, I have a quick note for those who also take notes during their trips. For the first day of the trip, I used Apple’s Journal app to keep notes and photos, so that I had something to refer back to when writing this TR. However, I realized that it’s pretty easy to accidentally delete journal entries (luckily, I realized this without it actually happening to me). Also, the interface just wasn’t my favorite. I found it easier and more secure to take notes in my Notes app, and then just take photos separately on my camera app. Without further ado, let’s get into this TR!

 

[madeline07]

table of contents

1. arrival day
3/1/25 - 4 am wake-up call?! (arrival day part 1)
3/1/25 - first meal at jock lindsey's (arrival day part 2)
3/1/25 - dinner and an irish dancing show (arrival day part 3)

2. universal orlando/islands of adventure
3/2/25 - i'm in love with brendan fraser and revenge of the mummy (universal day part 1)
3/2/25 - a half-successful oscars watch party (universal day part 2)
​

 

[madeline07]

Saturday, 3/1/25 - 4 am wake-up call?! (arrival day part 1)

Okay, SO. My travel day started with an early wake up at 4:30 AM. I usually am not a morning person, but Disney is a different story. I love to get one of the earliest flights possible from Boston to Orlando, and in this case, that flight was around 8 AM. I am always flying Southwest (though probably not for long with all these changes they’re making…), however they don’t offer a direct flight from BOS → MCO. So, I usually fly Delta for this route. Anyways, I woke up at 4:30 AM to wash my face, get ready, and finish packing my last minute items.

Since I don’t have a car here, I always take an Uber to the airport. I ordered this Uber the day before, mostly to hold myself to a certain time and make sure I didn’t leave for the airport too late. I was in my Uber at 5:15 and headed to the airport! This may seem kind of early for a 7:30 AM boarding time, but I do not play about the airport. For whatever reason, the baggage check and security lines are always busier than I’ve ever seen at Delta in the early morning, especially as spring breaks start to commence. Last year, I cut it pretty close with my airport arrival time, and I did not want to make that mistake again.

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I arrived at the airport within 15 minutes, at 5:30 AM, and quickly checked my bag. I was in line for security at 5:45, and through security by 6. Luckily, things were very efficient today, but it left me with an hour and a half before my flight boarded. This was fine though, I have no issues with sitting at my gate on my laptop and killing time before the flight. I popped into one of those little airport stores for a bottle of water and a bag of Cheez-its, and then headed to my gate.

I always travel with a reusable water bottle, but on this trip I decided against it because I can never find a good place to refill it in Disney. The water fountains aren’t very efficient at filling my big Owala Plus, I already planned to buy a refillable mug and place an Amazon Fresh order for a pack of water bottles. I am usually very good about using a refillable bottle rather than plastic ones, but in Disney I have to make an exception for convenience, especially since they have recycling bins everywhere you look.

The flight from BOS → MCO is around 3 hours, and since my flights are always at a sorta awkward time, I try to bring some snacks just in case I get hungry. This trip, my snacks of choice were beef Chomps (my recent obsession), salted macadamia nuts (one of my other recent obsessions), and Undercover Quinoa Crisps in the dark chocolate + sea salt flavor. These crisps were so good, writing this actually reminded me that I wanted to get more next time I’m at Target.

While at my gate, I got to watch a pretty sunrise and play my daily NYT games (wordle, the mini, connections, and strands). Before long, it was 7:30 AM and time to board! The whole process was pretty efficient this morning, we took off around 8 AM. With the Oscars the next night, I still had three Best Picture nominees that I hadn’t seen. I decided to watch Emilia Perez, which was available on Delta’s screens and basically took up the entire flight. I know this is a TR and not a movie review, but I will just say that this movie left a lot to be desired.

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Anyways, we landed in Orlando right around 11:10 AM, and the flight was pretty smooth (according to my notes). I had a nice window seat with nobody directly next to me, which is always great. As soon as we landed, I received the text that our rooms were ready! So early! I checked the location of our rooms, and was super pleased with the location. We had two garden view rooms in Building 4, which was right next to the lobby/main building with all of the food and retail. By 11:30, I was on that glorious fake monorail and heading to get my bag! My bag had already been taken off the carousel and set aside by the time I got to baggage claim, which was a pleasant surprise.

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My friend was flying in from Maryland and her flight was landing shortly after mine, so we decided that I’d just wait for her so we could Uber to the resort together. I headed back up to the main terminal to shop around for a new luggage tag, since my beloved Snoop Dogg tag had broken just as I arrived at the Boston airport. I went into the Disney store first and didn’t see anything, so I ventured into the Universal Studios store where I found this super cute tag! I filled out my info and put it on my suitcase right away.

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[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! I am a fellow Dinosaur fan! I have written a few reports singing the praises of the ride! The pre show is Epic!
Looks like a good travel day so far!

 

[summerlvr]

Looking forward to reading more! I don't normally ride Dinosaur, but you and @disneyAndi14 are making me think I should ride it one last time during my April trip.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[Sarahh1027]

Excited for more! We usually fly out of Boston too but this May we fly out of Providence (we live about an hour from either airport). We prefer Providence cause Logan is always crazy but it sounds like you had a smooth morning there!

 

[madeline07]

Saturday, 3/1/25 - first meal at jock lindsey's (arrival day part 2)

After waiting for a few minutes, basking in that beautiful Florida sunlight in the main terminal, I met up with my friend and we headed back down to baggage claim so she could get her suitcase. After she got hers, we headed straight outside where I called an Uber to Port Orleans French Quarter! By the time we got to the resort, it was around 12:50 PM. We went straight to our room, and I loved it! I had put in a request for refurbished rooms around a month before the trip, which was fulfilled. I think most of the rooms had been refurbished at this point anyways, but I was still glad to be in one.

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After spending a few minutes dropping our bags off and making myself look presentable again, we headed to the dock to catch a boat to Disney Springs. I love resorts with transportation options other than buses (not that I don’t love a Disney bus), so I was excited to take advantage of the boats. The boat dock was relatively close to our room, about a 3 minute walk. Luckily, there was a boat waiting when we got there so we hopped right on and arrived at Springs around 1:45 PM.

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We were pretty hungry at this point. I had been wanting to try Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar since my friend and I can both drink now, so we headed straight there to see if they had space. I hadn’t realized that it was seat yourself, but luckily a table inside opened up right as we got there. I really liked the decor (even as someone who hasn’t seen most of the Indiana Jones movies) and interior, there’s just so much to look at in there.

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To drink, I ordered the Fountain of Youth cocktail (St. Augustine Florida Cane Vodka, Bols Blue Curaçao, White Cranberry Juice, and Sweet-and-Sour). My friend and I split the Club Obi-Wan Wings (Crispy Honey-Pineapple Wings with Pineapple Salsa) and the Snakebite Bao (Smoked Brisket, Ají Amarillo Mustard, Peppadew Relish, Pickled Onion, and Tomato). I honestly enjoyed both, and I’d definitely go back to try more of their menu! While here, I placed an Amazon Fresh order for bottled water, blueberry Red Bulls, and liquid hand soap (I like it for the hotel bathroom because it makes me feel cleaner than bar soap, for whatever reason).

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We stayed there until around 3:20, and then we decided to shop around a little bit before heading back to POFQ. We browsed around World of Disney, duh, but I didn’t get anything. Then, we stopped into Basin so I could complete my yearly replenishing of Basin lip balms. I got two lip balms in the flavors berry lemonade and sweet peppermint. I also picked up two body butters in the scents Wishes and Pink Sugar. I’d never tried these before, but I like them so far! They do feel a bit greasy upon application, but if you give them some time to soak into your skin this isn’t an issue.

After leaving Basin, it was around 4 and we decided to head back to the resort. The boat dock used by POFQ (and Riverside) was located back towards the Rainforest Cafe/Goofy’s Candy Co side of Springs. By 4:15, we were on the boat back to the resort. I decided to shower before dinner, so I wouldn’t have to later that night. I spent about 45 minutes showering and getting ready, and then at 5:30 PM I decided to head down to the POFQ gift shop and quick service to get our mugs.

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In the gift shop I got a POFQ pin to uphold my tradition of getting a pin at every resort I stay at. This one was super cute, it opened up to a picture of Tiana, who is one of my favorite Disney characters! While I was in the store, my dad and cousin arrived at the resort, they had taken a later flight in from Maryland. I met up with them and then left them to check in and get their room number. I went to Sassagoula Floatworks to pick up our refillable mugs, teal for me and pink for my friend. After going back to the room to drop these things off, I headed down to bell services to pick up our Amazon Fresh order.

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[madeline07]

Saturday, 3/1/25 - dinner and an irish dancing show (arrival day part 3)

Around 6:15, all four of us started heading to the boat to Springs. Our reservation wasn’t until 7:15, but since it was a Saturday night I wanted to give us plenty of time to get there. It’s a good thing we left early, because there was a pretty long line for the boat. However, it’s definitely worth it (to me, at least) for the gorgeous boat ride. We eventually got to Springs around 7:10.

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As we were walking from the dock to Springs, this man who was on the boat with us was telling us all about the Disney Day Drinkers FB group. I had never heard of this before, but I went to check it out and it seems like a pretty big thing? There’s a good amount of activity in the group, but we did not partake during this trip. Once we entered Springs (after my dad set off the metal detector with his glasses), we headed to Raglan Road. We got there a bit later than 7:15, but we still made it within the grace period.

After checking in, we had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes for our table to be ready. Springs was (obviously) super busy at 7 PM on a Saturday, so I was happy to have dinner reservations. We were seated in the room off to the right of the main room, which was nice because it was open to the main stage and entertainment without being directly next to it. To drink, I got a Rosemary & Maple Whisky Sour (Dickel 12 Tennessee Whisky, crushed rosemary, dark maple syrup, Fees foam, lemon sour), as per the recommendation from the hostess to get a whisky-based drink. It was good!

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My dad was super determined to split the G on his Guinness. For those who don’t know, this means chugging just the right amount of a fresh Guinness so that the line between the beer and the head is right in the middle of the G on the glass. I think he tried four times, and he was never able to achieve it. Maybe next time…

We got an order of Comfort Bread to share (Homemade brown soda bread with Guinness glaze and olive oil dip). I hadn’t had soda bread in years, this was so good! For my entree, I got the Chicken Salad in the Garden (Grilled Bell and Evans chicken breast with mixed greens, shaved sprouts, confit cherry tomatoes, grilled broccolini, toasted pumpkin seeds, grilled corn and green goddess dressing). This was mainly in anticipation of the lack of vegetables I’d be eating for the next week. But it was really good! I am pretty picky with my salads, a restaurant salad has to sound really good for me to order it over other options, especially here where so many things on the menu looked good. But I don’t regret my order, I really enjoyed this!

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While we were eating, two of the Irish dancers came over to the back of the restaurant, right next to our table, and did a short performance from right there! This genuinely made my night, they are so ridiculously talented and it was so cool to have a front row seat to their performance. We finished our dinner around 9 PM, and I decided to get some beignets from Scat Cat’s Club back at the resort, rather than getting dessert at Springs. We opted to take the bus back to POFQ. We figured that the bus would be quicker, and the bus stop is much closer to Raglan Road than the boat dock is.

Once we were back at the resort, we headed straight to Scat Cat’s and got an order of 3 Mickey beignets with chocolate sauce to-go. My friend also placed a delivery order for some wine to keep in our room. Once we were back in the room, I ate 1 and a half beignets. I was so full from dinner, but these were so good! I don’t think I’ve actually had beignets before, or at least, I can’t remember if I have. After getting ready for bed, I ended up crashing around midnight.

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Overall, it was a really good first day and I’m excited to keep writing. Make sure to stay tuned for the rest of the report, and the special update that I have… Thank you for reading!

Step Count: 12,855

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[RSHale]

With the Oscars the next night, I still had three Best Picture nominees that I hadn’t seen.

I'm curious. What were the two other than Emilia Perez?

I enjoyed your last report, so it was a nice surprise today to see that you had started a new one.

 

[madeline07]

I'm curious. What were the two other than Emilia Perez?

I enjoyed your last report, so it was a nice surprise today to see that you had started a new one.

The last two ones I hadn't seen were Nickel Boys and The Substance. And thank you for reading along, so happy to have you here!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Looks like a great start to your trip!

 

[Sarahh1027]

I have an ADR for Raglan Road for my May trip! It’ll be my first time eating there, back in 2021 my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I sat at the bar inside the restaurant and drank a ton while watching the dancers. It was such a fun time I just knew we needed a full dinner experience this time around. It was fun reading your experience and honestly even the salad looked delicious!
What a great first day. Can’t wait to read more.

 

[suse66]

Joining in! You had several of my favourites at Raglan Road...the soda bread, the delicious salad and the whiskey cocktail!

 

[madeline07]

Sunday, 3/2/25 - i'm in love with brendan fraser and revenge of the mummy (universal part 1)

Hello all, welcome back to my TR! Our first full park day was actually spent at Universal, not Disney. We had two-park one-day tickets, which allowed us to enter both Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure. I wrestled with the idea of getting us Express Passes for the day, but ultimately decided not to because they’re just so expensive! The crowds didn’t end up being too bad, but without further ado, here’s our Universal park day!

I woke up around 8 this morning and got up to start getting ready. My friend and I were ready around 9, and my dad and cousin were not, so we decided to Uber separately since I wanted to get an earlier start to the day. We left the room around 9:10 and called an Uber to the park. By 9:40 we were out of the Uber and heading towards the security line to enter CityWalk.

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I’m not sure if it was spring break crowds or just normal park-opening crowds, but there was a bit of a line for both security and to enter the actual theme park. Either way, the line moved quickly and we entered the park around 10:05 AM. We normally start at Islands of Adventure and end with Universal, but today I decided to switch it up. We headed straight towards E.T. Adventure, one of my favorites! By 10:15 AM we were in line, and we were off at 10:30. It’s just such a nice, relaxing ride, and it’s always a nice break from the heat. I can never skip it!

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After strolling through Dreamworks Land for a few minutes, we took a stroll through Springfield (strategically skipping the Simpsons Ride) and decided to hop on Men in Black: Alien Attack. The line for this was also pretty short, we were on and off by 11 AM! Around this point, my dad was texting me that he and my cousin were entering the park, and my friend and I were about ready for a snack. We decided to head to Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley to sit and grab a bite while we waited for them to meet up with us.

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It was a great time to eat at Leaky Cauldron, the lunch rush hadn’t started yet so we had our pick of tables and our food arrived quickly. I was still planning on eating at the Minion Cafe, so I just got a side of fries and a fizzy orange drink to share with my friend. My friend always loves to get cottage pie here, so she got that for lunch. While we ate, my dad and cousin arrived and sat down with us.

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We decided to head to Escape from Gringotts, which was listed at a ~45 minute wait, I believe. This ended up being pretty accurate, we hopped in line around 11:45 AM and were on the ride at 12:30 PM. We didn’t feel like doing much shopping, and my dad and cousin were starting to get hungry, so at this point we just left Diagon Alley and started walking down the San Francisco area. I knew I wanted to go on Revenge of the Mummy during this trip, since I’ve never been.

My dad and cousin stopped at a Mardi Gras food booth (the Germany one, I believe) to get a snack, so we stopped while they ate for a few minutes. Around 1 PM, we hopped in line for Revenge of the Mummy, since we were right in front of it. The queue moved pretty quickly, and I really liked this ride! Since I don’t love huge coasters like Velocicoaster and Rip Ride Rockit, I usually don’t experience a ton of coasters at Universal. But Mummy was a good mix of thrills and theming, so I’m very excited to go on this again. Plus, as someone who loves film, the queue had so much to look at, 10/10.

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It was probably around 1:45 by the time we were off Mummy, so we just continued walking around the park until we reached Minion Land. I was very ready for my meal at Minion Cafe, so we went in and were seated by a host. It wasn’t very busy anyways, but I love when they have team members seating guests, rather than having to find a table yourself. I placed a mobile order for the Freedonia Festival of Mac & Cheese (pasta shells tossed in white cheddar cheese sauce topped with crispy pork belly, chopped parsley, shaved parmesan cheese with Minion tots).

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I really liked this! It’s obviously nothing gourmet, but the pork belly was good (although it could’ve used more) and the mac & cheese was similar to Panera, although cooked better and with a better sauce to noodle ratio. Plus, I loved the Minion tots so much. By the time the food arrived and I finished eating, it was around 2:30. I had heard some good things about the Bourne Stuntacular, and the next showing was at 3, so we decided to head in that direction. We hopped in line and waited, and the actual show probably didn’t start until closer to 3:15 or so. However, it was really entertaining and I found the integration of physical and digital sets to be pretty impressive. I’d definitely see this again.

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[madeline07]

Sunday, 3/2/25 - a half-successful oscars watch party (universal part 2)

*Apologies in advance for the absence of pictures in this post, I barely took any during the second half of this day

After the show, I checked the Hogwarts Express wait time and it was around 45 minutes. We love the Hogwarts Express, but we’ve all already been on it and weren’t crazy about waiting that long when we could just walk over to Islands of Adventure, especially since we were already near the park entrance/exit. So, we started walking over to IOA and entered the park right around 4 PM. We decided to walk right to Seuss Landing (one of my favorite lands).

We hopped right in line for the Cat in the Hat ride (if you’ve never been, think The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh), which had a 5 minute wait. Always love this one, no matter how frightening Thing 1 and Thing 2 are. We bypassed the High in the Sky Trolley (45 minute wait), but I was hoping to come back later if the wait went down. We kept on walking to Hogsmeade, where we rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

This one was definitely too intense for both my dad and my cousin, but after sitting for a few minutes they were all good. My friend and I love it, since we both used to be huge Harry Potter nerds, and love how the ride incorporates more of the Golden Trio than others. Anyways, after Forbidden Journey, my dad and cousin pretty much decided that they were done with thrill rides for the day. My friend and I took some pics in front of the Hogwarts castle, and then we all walked back to Seuss Landing.

We stopped in Seuss Landing to sit for a minute, and while there I decided to get a churro. The High in the Sky Trolley wait had gone down to 25 minutes, so we decided to hop in line. As soon as we got on and got buckled in, I heard my dad moaning and groaning from behind us so I turned around. I guess he had dropped his sunglasses down the track where they couldn’t be reached, but by the way he was acting you would’ve thought he dropped his newborn baby down there. Anyways, I really enjoyed this ride but I’m pretty sure my dad spent the whole journey mourning the loss of his sunglasses.

By the time we were off the trolley, it was around 6 PM and my dad and cousin were about ready to head out. They were planning on having dinner and hanging out at this British pub in Orlando that my dad loves, and my friend and I already had plans to eat at the resort and watch the Oscars. However, my friend and I wanted to hit one last ride before we left. We all walked towards the entrance, where my dad and cousin split off and my friend and I continued on to Marvel Super Hero Island.

We both love Spiderman, so The Amazing Adventures of Spider-man is a must-ride for us. The line was posted at 25 minutes, so we hopped in line and waited longer than we normally have to for this ride. But it was worth it anyway, so no complaints! After riding Spider-man, we were pretty much ready to head out, so we left the park and decided to stop in the big Universal store on City Walk, since I realized I hadn’t purchased anything all day. Nothing caught my eye though, so I left empty-handed and we headed towards the ride share pick-up spot.

We called an Uber back to POFQ and it came relatively quick, so before we knew it we were in the car placing our mobile order for Sassagoula Floatworks. When we got back to the resort, we ran to our room to grab our refillable mugs (luckily our room was in a convenient location for our constant quick service visits!) and headed to Sassagoula to pick our food up.

While we were heading to our room to get our mugs, my roommate texted me asking if I was watching the Oscars and I realized that they somehow started an hour and a half earlier than I thought they were? I genuinely do not know how I made this mistake but now I was in even more of a hurry to get back to our room. Our food did take quite a while to be prepared once we clicked the “I’m Here” button, which I’m not sure if that’s the normal here or if it was a one-off situation. It was very unfortunate tonight, but what can you do?

While waiting for our order, we filled our mugs and also picked up some canned cocktails for the room. Eventually, our order was ready so we grabbed that and booked it back to our room. I was quick to turn the Oscars on and get settled with my food. I ordered the Honey Barbecued Pork Sandwich (with a Zesty Vegetable Slaw on a Toasted Brioche Bun served with French Fries) and a side of Garlic Breadsticks with marinara sauce to split with my friend.

This sandwich was genuinely really good, the slaw was great and the pork was tasty and cooked well. I also chose apples as my side and they accidentally gave me apples and fries anyways, which was a win for me! We watched what was left of the Oscars and I was pleased to see a writing/directing/editing sweep for Sean Baker, along with a Best Picture win for him for Anora and a Mikey Madison win for best lead actress.

After watching, we were both pretty tired so we got ready for bed and ended our night there.

Thank you so much for reading! I know this day wasn’t a Disney day, but if you still read I appreciate it and just know that the next four days are Disney park days! With my classes coming to an end and assignments dwindling down, I hope to be able to write more soon. See you then!

Step Count: 15,072
Rides: 9

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[erinch]

Loving your report!

 

[madeline07]

Loving your report!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that