So much to do (and eat) we need to go twice! A food-focused trip report. COMPLETE 7/28/22

[jrmint427]

We had an early dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, mostly because we wanted to try the Oooey Gooey Toffee cake.

The ooey gooey toffee cake is the main reason we’re going back this year! Last had it in 2017 and still thinking about it

The mac n cheese was very good but not the best we had all week (that's coming up).

I’m curious what the best was! I have a feeling we will have lots of Mac n cheese on our next trip thanks to picky eaters.

This was soooo good. We devoured it. Our server, David, who was excellent, asked us if we'd like another. Um...yeah, why not...Then he brought us this beauty!

I didn’t know you could have seconds!! Looks like you got even more toppings the second time.

We actually tried for Skipper’s Canteen but LTT had a better (earlier) time that will allow us to see the fireworks and now I’m even more excited to be going back.

 

[mickey916]

I’m curious what the best was! I have a feeling we will have lots of Mac n cheese on our next trip thanks to picky eaters.

We had quite a few mac n cheese. Our order from least to best:
Flame Tree BBQ pulled pork mac n cheese
Liberty Tree Tavern mac n cheese
Regal Eagle mac n cheese
TBA (post coming soon)

I didn’t know you could have seconds!! Looks like you got even more toppings the second time.

We didn't know you could have seconds either and the second one had wayyyy more toppings!

 

[mickey916]

Day 9 - 4/8 Visiting the Skyliner Resorts​

Our park days were over so now it was time to focus on our quest to visit all the resorts. Today's plan was to do a Skyliner Food Crawl. We parked at Hollywood Studios and took the Skyliner to the Riviera Resort for breakfast at Primo Piatto. We knew we had a lot of eating to do, so we decided to share the Cinnamon Crumble French Toast Bread Pudding with a side of fresh fruit (no bacon for us, since it was a Friday in Lent). This was absolutely delicious! The fresh fruit was good too.

We walked around this beautiful resort and found a great spot to view the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket. The skies were perfectly clear and it was so cool to see the launch. Hard to believe there were four humans in there!


We took the skyliner over to the Caribbean Beach resort and went to the Banana Cabana for lunch. We started with a couple non-alcoholic drinks. My DH got the Peachcomber. He thought it was a good alternative to soda but nothing special.


I got the Tropical Paradise. It too was just okay. Refreshing but nothing too exciting.



We decided to share an order of the Caribbean pull apart rolls with guava butter and onion jam. These were soft and fresh. We really enjoyed the sweet guava butter and the savory onion jam. It was great to alternate between the two.



We also shared Sebastian's Salad with Grilled Shrimp. This salad was excellent! The dressing was very flavorful and the vegetables were fresh and crisp. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and there was an abundance of them. My DH has never tried shrimp (he is not a fan of seafood in general) but I convinced him that these were too good not to try. He agreed to try one and ended up eating several. Maybe I shouldn't have had him try them, then there would've been more for me!


Since it had been several hours since our last bread pudding, we ordered the Pineapple-Coconut Bread pudding for dessert. This was phenomenal! So sweet and delicious! For a lounge restaurant, Banana Cabana was excellent!



We walked off our lunch by walking around this sprawling resort and actually found ourselves back at the Riviera. We got back on the skyliner, transferred at Caribbean Beach and then headed to Art of Animation. We were too full to try any treats but took a bunch of pictures as we walked around each section.



We then headed to Pop Century and took pictures in each section. It was at this point that I hit a wall. I just had no energy. I told my DH I was "out of steam", which he still teases me about. I think all the days of walking 20K steps a day just finally caught up with me. We decided to "pause" our skyliner crawl. We rode the skyliner back to Hollywood Studios and returned to the hotel for a brief afternoon nap.

Up next...heading back out to continue our resort hopping for dinner.

 

[mickey916]

Day 9 continued - Dinner at Beaches & Cream​

After my power nap, I was ready to continue our resort tour and head to Beaches & Cream. When I first booked this I didn't realize it was going to be a Friday in Lent and almost considered switching to someplace that had seafood options. However, let's be honest, the real reason we booked Beaches & Cream was for the ice cream. So, we kept the ADR and decided it was a great time to try the grilled cheese with tomato soup.


This was just okay. It wasn't very warm and was more like a toasted cheese sandwich as opposed to grilled. The bread was toasted but not buttery at all. The tomato soup was nothing special either. It was a fine meal but nothing we'd get again especially when we might be able to get burgers, chicken sandwich, French dip, or reubens. We also got a side of onion rings. These were crispy and delicious.


Then, the sundae we've been dreaming about since our last trip in 2010....the No Way Jose with all chocolate ice cream!



Yum! This is sooooo good! We forgot to ask for extra peanut butter and wished we did have a little more peanut butter sauce but this sundae was as good as we remembered it. Beaches & Cream is on the list for our next trip (in fact our ADR is this Sunday). We're planning on doing the Chocolate Lover's Kitchen sink (with extra peanut butter sauce) it's tough to pass on the No Way Jose!

We explored the Beach Club resort and were so impressed by the Easter Eggs. This one was my favorite:

We also explored the Yacht Club resort and walked the Boardwalk. We got to see a young woman have her dream wedding too which was so cool to see! Many blessings for her and her husband that they have a long, happy marriage.

Since we're staying at the Swan next week, we also took a peek inside the lobby of the Swan and the Dolphin resorts. We can't wait to stay here! It looks beautiful and we made sure to find the walking routes to Hollywood Studios and Epcot so we're all prepared for next week.

As of this point our resort visit list includes: POFQ, POR, CSR, OKW, Riviera, CBR, AoA, Pop, BC, YC, S/D, and Boardwalk, more to come!

 

[mickey916]

Day 10 - 4/9 Monorail Resort Crawl​

This day was our chance to see the monorail resorts (and one added bonus resort). We started by parking at the TTC and walking to the Poly for breakfast at Kona Café. We decided to share two entrees. First, I've been dying to try Tonga Toast and never have been able to fit it into the schedule.

Cross-section:


This was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, sweet, cinnamon and delicious! The bacon was crispy and tasty. My DH liked the Tonga Toast the best of our two entrees.

Our second item was the macadamia nut pancakes with spiced ham (spam).


These were soft, fluffy pancakes with a nice sweet pineapple topping and crunchy macadamia nuts. The spiced ham provided a nice contrast to the sweet pancakes. This was my favorite of the two.

We also got Liliko'i juice (POG juice). It was a bit too sweet for our tastes.



Overall we really enjoyed our breakfast. We then walked around the resort for a bit then took the monorail to the Grand Floridian. We strolled around inside looking at the Easter Eggs. These were very well done like the ones at the Beach Club resort. There were so many amazing ones, but this one was my favorite.



Next up...lunch at Gasparilla Grill.

 

[mickey916]

Day 10 continued - Lunch at Gasparilla Island Grill​

After taking some really embarrassing (and funny) photos with a Photopass photographer and Cinderella's slipper, we decided to share the Chicken and Brie sandwich at the Gasparilla Island Grill.



The sandwich was very good, especially the chicken, brie and ham. The brioche bun was pretty basic. The fries were very crisp and tasty. It was a nice quick lunch.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to forego the monorail and walked along the path to the Magic Kingdom. Once at the Magic Kingdom, we hopped on the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. We spent a lot of time exploring this gorgeous resort.

Interesting, when I was only seven years old my mother took my brother and I to visit her cousin who lived in Wyoming. We stayed for a night or two at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone park. When I walked into the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge I had a major flashback of going to that hotel. The Imagineers did a fabulous job recreating the look and feel of that hotel in Wyoming.



I don't know if it's because it triggered good memories from childhood, but someday I would really love to stay here. My DH also mentioned he would like to stay here sometime...guess we'll have to hunt for a discount eventually.

We waited for a while and finally were able to see "Old Faithful".



We had hoped to get something to eat at Geyser Point but we really weren't that hungry, so we opted instead for a magic cookie bar from Roaring Fork.

This was okay. It was a nice sweet treat but I like the 7 layer bars I make at home better.

After taking a lot of pictures and walking around this beautiful resort, we took the boat back to the Magic Kingdom and then took the monorail to the Contemporary for an early dinner...

 

[tigerlilly]

Interesting, when I was only seven years old my mother took my brother and I to visit her cousin who lived in Wyoming. We stayed for a night or two at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone park.

Funny! I had the same thought when we went to WL the first time wayyyy back in 2005! My parents took me around the age of 6 and I know we visited the Old Faithful Inn but I can't for the life of me remember if we stayed. I vividly remember the antler arch in Jackson Hole though and the geysers

We were lucky enough to stay in the WL with our then 4 and 9 year old in 2005 and loved it. It reminds us a lot of the Grand Californian (that is our go to hotel in DL).

Thank you so so much for the food reviews. I am enjoying them so much I told my husband I need a quest like you had on your trip! So we may do food quests too

Have a wonderful trip next week.

 

[mickey916]

Funny! I had the same thought when we went to WL the first time wayyyy back in 2005! My parents took me around the age of 6 and I know we visited the Old Faithful Inn but I can't for the life of me remember if we stayed. I vividly remember the antler arch in Jackson Hole though and the geysers

We were lucky enough to stay in the WL with our then 4 and 9 year old in 2005 and loved it. It reminds us a lot of the Grand Californian (that is our go to hotel in DL).

Thank you so so much for the food reviews. I am enjoying them so much I told my husband I need a quest like you had on your trip! So we may do food quests too

Have a wonderful trip next week.

Thank you!

Oh I had forgotten about the antler arch but I remember it now that you mentioned it. I definitely remember the geysers. My brother who was 4 at the time (and was one of those kids who ran off) had his hat blow off and it went into the geyser and melted. I remember my mom being so afraid he was going to run after it into the geyser. Luckily she grabbed his hand in time.

Glad you are enjoying the reviews. I have two more days to finish the report before we go!

 

[mickey916]

Day 10 continued - dinner at the Contemporary
​

We arrived at the Contemporary and explored the resort. The Easter eggs here didn't seem as elaborate as the ones at Grand Floridian and the Beach Club Resort. I thought the hummingbird/tink one was the best one here.


I hadn't booked an ADR for dinner as we didn't want to be on a tight schedule. Also, I was very interested in the offerings at the Steakhouse 71 lounge. It was early (around 4) but we decided to go ahead and take a seat at the bar. Again, we shared a bunch of items.

First up, the PB&J chicken wings.


These were excellent! The peanut butter flavor was the strongest. I didn't really notice much jelly flavor but they were very sticky. They reminded me of a Thai dish. We really enjoyed these!

We also got the Loaded mac n cheese.



This was fabulous! Creamy and cheesy. The jalapenos added a little flavor but not really spicy at all. Hands down the BEST mac n cheese we had all week. We're staying at the Contemporary for a couple nights next week and I'm trying to figure out how to fit in a trip to the Lounge just to get it again! So, so good!

We also shared the Stack burger.


This was a very tasty burger! The waffle fries were good as well. Overall we really enjoyed our meal and are looking forward to trying breakfast at the restaurant next week. (Do you think I can get mac n cheese for breakfast?)

After our meal we decided to take the walk to the Magic Kingdom just to see how long it took so we're prepared for our next trip. We're pretty happy we have this resort booked for our Magic Kingdom days. What an easy walk!

We then headed to the TTC via the monorail and ended our monorail crawl.

Updated resort list: POFQ, POR, CSR, OKW, Riviera, CBR, AoA, Pop, BC, YC, S/D, Boardwalk, Polynesian, GF, WL, CR...one more day to add to the list!

Edited to add: I forgot to include that we FINALLY got Mickey Premium bars for dessert...can't believe it took us the whole week!

 

[mickey916]

Last Day - 4/10​

After going to Palm Sunday Mass in Celebration we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our breakfast ADR at Boma. We were super early and I was able to modify our reservation up by 45 minutes. We were seated promptly, placed our order for coffee and orange juice and headed to the buffet. It was strange because there were all these individual sections to the buffet but everyone was lined up at the first one which was the carving station. It was as if people thought you had to start there even if you weren't getting any ham so it was a huge, long line. We decided to skip that station and headed to get a few pastries and eggs and bacon to start.

In the background are the French toast bread pudding and pecan sticky buns. These were two of our favorite things. My DH preferred the bread pudding and I preferred the sticky buns, but both were REALLY good! The scrambled eggs and bacon were very good as well.

Next we braved the massive line at the carving station and got a little of everything. Here's the front view of my plate:

Mickey waffle - nice & crispy and had a flavor that reminded me of sugar cone, turkey bobotie - didn't really care for whatever spices they used, more bacon, ham that was tender and flavorful with a chipotle mustard that was very tasty. Underneath is a roasted tomato (very good).

Here's the backview:

Roasted asparagus, very good. Sausages that were very flavorful and a blueberry pancake that was just okay. My DH got similar plates but he also got tater tots. He says they were the best tater tots he's ever had!

So, this was our first buffet since "you know what" and I have to say, it was a little uncomfortable. There were lots of kids helping themselves and I noticed a lot of times they would place the utensils that they just had in their hands across the food instead of on the spoonrest. When I chose my Mickey waffle, I grabbed one from the back instead of the front which was just underneath the handle. The workers were doing their best and placing the serving utensils back on the spoonrests but they weren't wiping them down or anything. Not sure if it's a coincidence or not but I got sick 3 days after we returned home with a low grade fever and lots of nasal congestion. I tested negative three times so it was probably something else but take that for what it's worth...

Overall we very much enjoyed the food but probably won't return to a buffet for a bit. We don't have any scheduled for our next trip.

After our meal, we walked around the resort and also headed down to check out Kidani Village. We saw a few animals on the savannah and were very impressed with the beauty of this resort.

Earlier in the month Southwest changed our non-stop flight from an afternoon flight to 10:00 pm so we had the full day to do some more resort exploring and get at least one more meal.

Up next...a trip back to Celebration and almost completing our resort bucket list...

 

[mickey916]

Part 1 Conclusion
​

Since we had the whole day ahead of us, we decided to check a few more resorts off our quest. We headed to the All Star resorts and walked around All Star Sports which had recently reopened.



We also did a quick drive-by of the All Star Movies and All Star Music Resorts. We then headed back to the town of Celebration with the intention of having a late lunch/early dinner at the Celebration Town Tavern. We ended up walking through the town where there was a festival taking place but we were just still too full to have a meal. It is a beautiful town though and we hope to check out a few restaurants there on another trip someday.



We then headed to Disney Springs with the intention of getting a light snack but it was soo crowded on a Sunday afternoon. So, we went with Plan C and hopped a boat to visit one of the last resorts on our "to-do" list...Saratoga Springs.



We walked around the resort and then ordered a sandwich and dessert at Artist's Palette. We shared a turkey club wrap with house-made Saratoga Chips.


This was a delicious sandwich and we really enjoyed the chips as well. Then, for dessert we shared the Bullseye Cupcake.


It is a chocolate cake filled with peanut butter mousse (which it could have used more of) and topped with a peanut butter and chocolate frosting. This was very good (but not nearly as good as the cake from Gideon's).

This completed our food/resort tour. For those keeping track, we visited every resort with the exception of Fort Wilderness and Shades of Green. It was really fun to take a different approach to our Disney vacation and just do a lot of exploring.

As you can see if you've read through this thread, we ate A LOT of food which we accomplished through sharing everything and pacing ourselves. The interesting thing, all this food (with the exception of our iHop breakfast and a coffee from the hotel) cost us a total of $0. You see, way back in 2019 when I started planning our May 2020 trip I signed up for a Disney Premium Visa card (and got $250 back, which in my mind pays the $50 annual fee for 5 years). Little did I know that I would have plenty of time to earn rewards. So, since 2019 every bill has gone on my Visa and I ended up accruing enough rewards to pay for all this food and still have a balance left for our May trip! Pretty awesome, if you ask me! And, after all this food and walking, I lost a 1/2 pound! Sounds like a win-win doesn't it?

So friends, this concludes Part 1 and I'm very excited to start Part 2 as we finally depart tomorrow evening for our long-awaited (and many times rescheduled) trip with our two adult sons, my brother, his wife, and their two adult daughters. I'll start working on Part 2 upon our return!

Thanks for following along!

 

[tigerlilly]

Thank you again for the wonderful reviews and pictures. Have a great trip!! Can't wait to read part 2

 

[footballmouse]

Sounds like you had a great getaway with your dh and a lot of awesome FREE food! Will be checking back for Part 2.

 

[mickey916]

Sounds like you had a great getaway with your dh and a lot of awesome FREE food! Will be checking back for Part 2.

Having a great time so far. I’m sooo much worse at remembering to take photos this trip with more family along!

 

[mickey916]

Part 2 Begins...Intro & Arrival Night​

Background: As mentioned in the first post of this thread, our "official" trip was re-scheduled multiple times, ultimately falling on May 13-22, 2022. This trip was initially supposed to be my DH, our two sons (DS25 and DS23) and me way back in May of 2020. Finally we settled on going in 2022 and got an added bonus surprise. Turns out my brother's family had been planning to go May 13-18. This was unexpected but great news, as, due to COVID and them living in a different state, we hadn't seen my brother, his wife, and their two girls, DD-22 and DD-20 in over two years. So, this trip is very different from our April "just the two of us" trip and, while definitely different, it was amazing! So here we go....9 days of food, rides, tours, four different hotels, and very little sleep...

5/13 Arrival evening.

Our flight was originally scheduled to depart at 3:30 pm but a couple months ago Southwest changed our flight to 6:30 pm. Our flight ended up being further delayed and we didn't land in MCO until close to 11:00 pm. Getting our luggage and rental car went smoothly and we discovered that there are no Walmarts or grocery stores open past 11:00. I was really surprised that I couldn't find a 24 hour store by Googling. So, our plans to buy a case of water, some snacks, and sunglasses (for some reason no stores in our area at home had men's sunglasses) were postponed until the morning. We drove to our one night stay on points at the Residence Inn near Universal. The room was spacious, quiet, and clean. Day 1 in the books....Next up, Day 2, our first day at Universal with my brother's family.

 

[tigerlilly]

Oh Yay~ you are back!! Can't wait to read about your adventures!

 

[mickey916]

5/14 - First Park Day - Universal
​

We got up early and had a not-so-memorable "free" breakfast at the Residence Inn. I didn't take any pictures but it consisted of "sunny side up eggs" which was a tray of lukewarm fried eggs with solid yolks, "breakfast potatoes" which was soggy tater tots, chicken sausage, pork sausage and the usual cereal, pastries, and yogurt.

My DH and DS23 dropped me and my DS25 off at the Hard Rock Hotel to get our express passes while they went to Walmart for water and sunglasses. I had originally bought one day-two park tickets for 5/15/2020. When the parks shut down I called customer service who offered me a special code to use those tickets at a future date. We had more time on this trip so I had also emailed customer service inquiring about the possibility of upgrading our tickets to 2 day/2 park passes and was told we would only need to pay the difference. After getting our Express Passes we went to Guest Services to turn in the code and get our one day tickets. I asked Guest Services about the possibility of upgrading and was told I could do it at any point before the end of the day. We opted to hold off and see if we wanted to upgrade later (more on that in a bit).

Just as we straightened out our tickets, my brother's family arrived, my DH and DS23 showed up, and the park opened. Perfect timing!

Spoiler alert: I learned that while I appreciate Universal for its theming and thrill rides, I'm just a Disney girl at heart. There were a few minor frustrations we encountered that just don't seem to happen at Disney .

We decided to start at the Studios. We attempted to get a locker and followed all the directions but could not get a locker to open. After three tries I went to Lost and Found and asked if someone could help me. They called a Team Member who told me "Oh yeah. You can't get a locker at those machines, you have to do it over here at these other machines. They should put up a sign letting people know." (Frustration #1).

After finally securing our locker, we then headed straight for Rip Ride Rocket. We loved this coaster! My brother and I had the front row and interestingly enough both selected ZZTop. We're definitely 80s kids! We went on a bunch more rides. Then decided to get some butterbeer. Half of us got the frozen butterbeer and half of our group got the hot butterbeer. We all thought they were delicious!


Eventually we decided to head over to Islands of Adventure for lunch. We took the Hogwarts Express which took a very long time despite having Express Passes.

We placed a mobile order for the FireEaters Grill, with half of us getting traditional gyros and half getting the falafel gyros. After placing the order we received a message telling us we would be notified when our order was ready. We waited about 40 minutes and finally my brother gave up and went to the mobile order window to be told, "Yeah, we don't actually do it that way. We don't send out any notifications we just wait for people to come up and then we get their food." (Frustration #2). The food was just okay. (I was out of practice and forgot to take pictures). The falafel was really dry and the traditional gyros were fine but nothing great.

We explored Harry Potter and rode Hagrid's which was incredible! We then went to ride Forbidden Journey and discovered that my brother's family apparently had only bought express passes for the Studios side, which is odd because he had bought park-to-park tickets and thought he had upgraded to express passes for both parks. (Frustration #3). His family had ridden Forbidden Journey in previous years so we went ahead with our express passes and rode without them. Over the years, my two sons and I have ridden all the rides at Cedar Point, Hershey, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, Kings Dominion, Dorney Park and others. We NEVER experience motion sickness and Forbidden Journey did us all in! I had to close my eyes for most of the ride. I'm not really sure why all that motion was even necessary. We all agreed it was the worst ride we have ever ridden, which is too bad because the theming is amazing.

It was hot, we were woozy, and my brother's family had no express passes for Islands so we were done for the day. My family decided we would like to add a day to our tickets so I headed to upgrade to two day passes. Everyone else decided to go to City Walk for a cold drink while we awaited our dinner reservations. Turns out there were no slushy or smoothie type drinks that weren't pre-mixed with alcohol at CityWalk. There was a stand that had ICEEs but the machine was broken (Frustration #4).

I went to ticketing and was told my tickets were "comped tickets" so they had no value and therefore there was no way to upgrade to two day passes. This was odd to me since they should at least have had the value that I originally paid for them in 2020. (Frustration #5). The ticket agent offered to sell us four passes for the next day for over $800. Since I had saved my email from Customer Service in 2021 saying I could upgrade I decided to try my luck at Guest Services. I explained the situation and showed my email. The very helpful man at Guest Services was able to figure it out and we only had to pay the difference between one-day and two-day passes. Lessons learned: save your emails and don't give up when at first someone tells you no (but always be polite when asking for help).

Up next...a tasty but slightly disappointing dinner at CowFish, a yummy dessert, and a great night staying at the Hard Rock hotel.

 

[debjk4]

Loving following along~ looking forward to hearing more!

 

[mickey916]

5/14 continued...dinner & dessert​

A couple months ago I called and made reservations for the 8 of us at Cowfish. One of my nieces is a pescatarian and we have a few sushi lovers in the group, so I figured this was a good place with offerings for everyone.

When we checked in we were informed they were running behind and I think we waited about a half hour before they took us up to the top floor. We had a great table that was very private and conducive to conversation. It was way noisier downstairs so I was grateful to be in a somewhat quieter section.

The good news is that I was having a fabulous time with my extended family. The bad news is that I kept forgetting to take pictures! Don't worry though I did eventually get better. We decided to share a couple appetizers and started with fried pickles and the crab rangoon dip. The fried pickles were good but the coating was a bit heavy. We felt they were decent but not the best fried pickles. The crab rangoon dip with fried wontons was also good but we agreed not as good as actual crab rangoons. Sorry no pictures of the apps.

For our main entrees, my brother, his youngest daughter, and my DS25 all got a sushi roll. They all thought it was very good sushi (and I actually took a picture of my son's plate!)

*The King's Roll - $19
"Fresh tuna, kani, jalapeño, cream cheese, and scallions inside, coated with panko and flash fried. Topped with kani salad, masago, sriracha and Japanese mayo. Served with a ponzu dipping sauce"


My older niece got a burger with sweet potato fries and my SIL asked if she could substitute a veggie burger and they accommodated her request. Both burgers looked delicious.

My DH, DS23, and I were feeling adventurous (but we don't eat sushi) and we each ordered:
The All-American Bacon Double Cheeseburgooshi - $20
"Seasoned premium black angus beef, yellow cheddar cheese, white cheddar cheese, and applewood bacon wrapped in soy paper and potato strings then flash fried. Topped with dill pickle, red onion, Roma tomato, served over our housemade Cowfish sauce, topped with ketchup and mustard"


This was very tasty. However, you may have noticed it's not a particularly large portion and didn't come with fries. We were shocked that we paid $20 each for 9 bites of burger and no fries. We were gazing longingly over at my SIL and niece's huge burgers with a large portion of fries that cost $19. So, while it's a neat concept and very flavorful, the cheeseburgooshi is not a good value in my opinion. We finished the meal still hungry.

So, immediately after paying the bill, we went on a quest for dessert. My brother's family went the healthy route and went to a fro-yo place but we went for the good stuff and headed directly for Cold Stone Creamery. We each got a cup of Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. (I remembered a pic after a few bites).


So creamy and delicious! Cold Stone tends to be our "go-to" ice cream shop whenever we are on vacation. (We went so many times when we visited Durango, CO that the workers recognized us and pre-made our orders...lol)

After a satisfying dessert we took the boat back to the Hard Rock hotel which was a great option after a lot of walking all day (21,213 steps on my Apple Watch). My DS25 is a guitarist and thought it was so cool that he could borrow a Fender Telecaster and amp to play in the room so he picked one up at the front desk. Totally made his night!

Our room was spacious, clean, comfortable, and quiet. The only negative was that there were construction spotlights shining directly in our window all night. The privacy curtains luckily blocked most of it but I thought it was odd they left them on all night shining directly in our room. I only booked the one night at the Hard Rock for the Express Passes (and to surprise my son with the guitar loaner) so it wasn't a huge deal since it was only one night.

Next up, a second day at Universal and then we start our Disney time...

 

[mickey916]

5/15 Day 2 at Universal​

My brother's family was off to Magic Kingdom so we were on our own. We originally intended to take advantage of early entry at 8:00 am at Islands of Adventure but we went to 7:00 am Church and it lasted a bit longer than we expected. Since we essentially missed the early entry hours, we decided to start at Universal Studios for the 9:00 opening. We hadn't had anything to eat and noticed a Team Member in the window of the LardLad Donuts so figured we'd get a couple Big donuts. The TM told us they weren't opened yet and my DH asked what time they opened. The TM said "soon". So we hung around and took some pictures.

Then we actually saw the donuts arriving on a cart. We went back thinking they would sell one but they ignored us and painfully slowly opened the boxes and stored them. So, we headed off and rode Men in Black figuring they'd be stocked once we were done. We went back and the TM was still in the booth with all the donuts stocked. We asked if he was open and he said, "not yet". My son finally looked it up in the app and it's listed as opening at 10:30...Why would the TM tell my husband "soon" at 9:05 if they don't open until 10:30? I just don't get it (frustration #6). By the way there's also nowhere to get coffee in Simpsons Land (frustration #7). It was now after 10 so we gave up and headed to explore Diagon Alley.

We decided to try the regular butter beer and beef pasties. We actually decided the regular butter beer was our favorite version. It was sweet, butterscotchy deliciousness.

We all agreed that the beef pasties were just okay. For those New Englanders out there, they reminded us for some reason of stuffed quahogs (but not as good).

We really enjoyed exploring Diagon Alley. The theming is simply incredible. We then headed over to Islands of Adventure. We were not really in the mood for motion simulators so we rode the Seuss Trolley and Cat in the Hat. It was then time for lunch at Mythos.

My DH ordered the Fork, Knife, and Spoon Grilled Cheese. This wasn't as good as he hoped it would be. It was a pretty basic grilled cheese sandwich sitting in pretty basic soup.

My DS25 and I each got the Mythos Signature Lamb Burger. This was good. It definitely had a strong lamb taste and for some reason I kept tasting it later in the day but it was well cooked and flavorful.

My DS23 ordered the Pad Thai. He said it was okay. Not the best Pad Thai he's had but not bad.

We opted to share the Chocolate Banana Gooey cake for dessert. This also was good, not great. The peanut butter ice cream had a nice flavor and the chocolate cake was dense and moist.

Our server was excellent and the atmosphere is really cool. The food was good, certainly much better than quick service. Overall we enjoyed our lunch at Mythos.

After our meal we went through Poseidon's Adventure, which is interesting but odd. At this point, it was pretty hot so it was time for us to get wet. We decided to ride in order of increasing wetness. We started with Jurassic Park River Adventure, which all of us enjoyed. We then rode Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. I was assigned the very front seat in the log and felt like a contortionist trying to get in and out but it is a fun ride. We really like this attraction even though my sons have no idea who Dudley Do-Right is! We ended with Bluto's Bilge Rat barges and luckily got on one of the last barges before the ride was shut down for lightning in the area. As expected we got soaked! My boys both said those three water rides were some of their favorite rides the whole trip.

We hadn't been able to ride the Velocicoaster yet and it shut down as well for weather in the area. We decided to hang around a bit and as soon as they reopened we hopped on the line and rode it with only a 15 minute wait. It is such a fun coaster! I was so focused on the track though that I forgot to look at the dinosaurs!

After riding the coaster, we decided to head out so we could check into the Swan and go to dinner at Beaches & Cream....