Two Crazy Days at the Parks and Cabana Bay

[texaslover]

Hey everyone! My best friend and I took a trip to Disney and Universal last week. It was her first time at the Florida Universal parks and my 5th time but I hadn't been back in 10 years. We stayed at Cabana Bay. The plan was to do Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at the parks but the winter storm which was bearing down on Texas made us leave a day early. So we had to shove everything into 2 days! I didn't take great notes but I'm going to use my photos to try and piece together the events of each day. Get ready for over 20,000 steps and a day filled with more rides than I could have ever imagined!

ETA: I guess I should introduce us - I am a 59 year old Language Coach (ESL) in an elementary school and my friend is a 58 year old former librarian who now owns and runs multiple businesses with her husband. I work part time for their company as HR and payroll. This trip was my friend and I's end of year bonus from her husband which was incredibly thoughtful and generous. We spent 4 days at Disney (I'll be doing that trip report next) and 2 days at Universal. Both of us are Disney lovers and took our families there many times over the years. I am also a huge Universal fan. She had only visited the Universal Hollywood park once before this trip.

 

[texaslover]

We stayed at the Swan for our Disney portion of the trip so we ended up leaving there around 8:00 and taking an Uber to Cabana Bay. When we arrived we really liked the look of the hotel. It is cute with a definite retro vibe. There is a bar near the entrance, a diner type quick service restaurant, and a bowling alley upstairs that also serves food.

We checked in and checked our bags which was an easy process. There were only a few people at the check in desk at that time. We had bought an Express Pass for Friday so today was our wander around Islands of Adventure and Studios and get our bearings day. We took the bus to Citiwalk and walked through there to the entrance of Islands. We had been walking between 18,000 and 20,000 steps every day for the last 4 days so this seemed like a pretty long walk, mostly the part through the Citiwalk/restaurant area. I always stayed at the Royal Pacific in years past and realized that boat ride to the front of the parks is an amazing feature. But lots more money so we had to work with what we have.

Because we purchased the Express Pass we decided we would look around the parks today, stopping if lines were reasonable, but not waiting for long times. We walked into the park and immediately detoured to Croissant Moon Bakery for a coffee and quick breakfast. It's such a cute little place and the food is always good. We got a breakfast empanada and breakfast croissant and split them. Perfect amount and very good.

We started walking through the Marvel area and decided no high drop and no spinning today so skipped over FearFall or Storm Force. Hulk had a 60 min wait so we got in line for Spiderman with only a 25 min wait. We did spend that long in line but thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I'm sure it's been refurbished since the last time a rode and the 3D and blend of animatronics and screens was amazing. We both loved this one.

We continued to walk and came to Toon Lagoon. Now you have to realize that the temperatures were in the 40's that week so we couldn't bring ourselves to do the water rides that morning. We did go in and out of some shops and really wanted to use the sprayers to spray riders from both the rafts and Dudley coming by but were afraid of the sketchy credit card machines. We didn't want our info stolen lol. So we just watched the brave ones come down the big drop and the people go into those big people dryers.

We kept walking into Skull Island. Kong had a 45 min wait so we skipped it. One thing we were starting to notice is that Universal has so many more food and drinks stops than Disney. When it was really crowded at Disney we had such a hard time mobile ordering or finding a walk up without a long line. Here we felt like we walked around a corner and there was always something to choose from. Since it was now around noon we decided to have a drink. We stopped at a walk up booth and got a High Noon. We sat on the rock ledge near there and did some people watching.

After a few minutes we moved into the Jurassic area. The River Adventure was closed for refurbishment which was a bummer. We walked through the Camp Jurassic which is super cute. Velociraptor had a 90 min wait so we skipped that too. We were putting a lot of stock in using that Express Pass on a different day!

We kept walking into Harry Potter. It's so beautiful when you cross the bridge and see the huge buildings. We stopped to watch the acapella show. The kids are so talented, it was fun to see! At this point the Harry Potter ride had a 60 min wait and Hagrid was way longer so we decided to get another drink instead . We got a beer at Hogshead, I can't remember which one. We walked through all the stores then we sat and watched people cast spells and enjoyed the atmosphere. This is something we loved to do in all the Potter areas, wander around and find a good spot and take it all in. We decided we would go do some rides in Seussland since they weren't long and then take the train across to the other park.

Stay tuned for the second half of our day....!!

 

[erinch]

I’m in!

 

[texaslover]

After we left Potter land we took some time to wander through all the little areas around Mythos. There are some great views when you walk the trails behind and beside the restaurant. We also stopped and watched the talking fountain, he interacted with a couple of guests and was very funny. I was waiting for him to spray someone but I guess he doesn't do that when the temps are low. I've seen him shoot water straight out at unsuspecting kids before!

We made it into Seussland and there was a walk on for the High in the Sky Trolley. My friend thought it was super cute, I enjoyed it just like I have every time. Such a nice relaxing ride over the water. We decided to get another drink so grabbed a High Noon at a stand and walked through the bookstore. So cute. Then a show started outside with the Lorax, Cat in the Hat, and someone else I can't recall now. There was a narrator that read the Lorax and they had little dances and acting scenes to go along with it. Again, very cute and worth stopping to watch. We strolled on to Cat in the Hat which was a walk on as well. Just like I remembered and my friend, who loves dark rides, said it was a good one even though it was "a little trippy" lol. We thought about doing the Red Fish Blue Fish go around In a circle ride but we saw people getting sprayed with water and decided to give it a pass.

We then backtracked to the Hogswarts Express so we could take it over to Universal Studios. This has to be the longest queue I've ever walked. It was up and down stairs and back and forth switchbacks. When we got to the line we only waited 5 minutes or so for the next train. We were put in a car with a family of 6 so it was pretty cozy with people we did not know. The little show/screen out the window is a nice touch. It spit us out into Potter Daigon Alley and we had seen a place on the map that sold fire whiskey (The Hopping Pot). We went there and got a fire whiskey shot dropped into a cider. It was quite strong and fun! We sat down at a bench to sip and rest and realized we were at a perfect spot. There was a spell area where people had to wave their wand above a well and water would shoot out. There was a wet spot on the ground but people are clueless and would stand in line to do the spell or just walk through and get hit by that water gush. We were dying laughing. We were helping the people casting the spells put their wand in the right place so we could see people get hit. We must have spent 45 minutes watching, it was incredibly amusing.

We figured we better move on so we checked the line for Gringott's and it was 65 minutes so we passed and walked over to San Francisco and New York. We watched the construction worker street drummers which were incredible and then were able to follow the Blue's Brothers car down the street to their stage area and watch them too. Both shows were so entertaining and unexpected! We saw that the Mummy only had a 20 minutes wait so we got in line. It turned out to be about 15 and we loved the ride! So much fun! We saw a short line for Transformers so we did that next. I liked it because I'm a big Transformers fan but my friend thought it was weak compared to the other things we had ridden. Worth the 10 minute wait for sure!

By this time it was around 6:00 and we started to look at the weather in TX more closely. It was really looking like we wouldn't be able to fly in on Saturday because of the ice storm. We grabbed a beer from a stand by Jimmy Fallon and sat on the amphitheater lawn and changed our flight home to Friday, cutting our trip short by a day. We were really bummed because we had purchased an Express Pass for Friday and were planning to make that the big ride day with Thursday being our Epic Universe day.

Well, we couldn't do anything about it (or so we thought) so we decided we were tired and wanted to eat a decent dinner (we had been eating quick service all through Disney to save money) and see a little of Citiwalk. We left the park and strolled Citiwalk for a bit before deciding on CowFish because they would allow us to go up and sit at the bar without a reservation. Everyone there was so nice and we ordered Old Fashioneds which were delicious. We also ordered the bento box with a smash burger slider, firecracker sushi roll, sweet potato fries, and edamame. It was perfect for us; my friend ate the burger, I ate the roll and we split the sides. And had another Old Fashioned. By this time it was 8:00 so we drug our tired bodies (this was day 5 at the parks for us) to the bus stop. It didn't take too long to come and we were back at Cabana Bay by 8:45. We got our checked bags and saw the room for the first time which was very cute and comfy. I don't think it took us more than 10 minutes to be in PJs, teeth brushed, and watching a movie. And probably only a few more minutes before we were out like a light after over 20,000 steps!

Tomorrow's plan was to do Epic Universe for our last day. Luckily we made some decisions that changed those quite a bit and led to lots of fun and lots of rides! Stay tuned....

 

[texaslover]

Day 2

We woke up at 7:00 to try to get to early entry at Epic by 8:00. We talked about the fact that we are holding an Express pass for tomorrow and wondered if there is a chance that the date could be switched, even though we were sure it said non-refundable and changable. We decided we really wanted to see Epic so we would go there first and then see if we could talk to someone at Guest Services about, at the very least, keeping the pass until the next visit.

We decided to Uber to the parks because the bus was far from the park and we were beat from 5 days of walking. Little did we know...lol.

The Uber dropped us pretty far from Epic so it was a long walk to the front gate. We were able to walk right in with everyone else then realized they were checking hotel keys at each portal rather than at the front gate. So you had to walk to the land you wanted to visit and they had a line for people who didn't stay at a Universal property and then you show your key to get into the portal.

We decided to go to the Dark Universe area because, at 8:10, all the other rides were showing 60 minute or longer waits. The portal was absolutely beautiful! So cool! When we walked in it was breathtaking, so themed. We were rushing to do Monsters Unchained so didn't stop to see everything. The wait was only 15 minutes. The queue was so cool, very themed. The ride itself was set up like the first Harry Potter ride on the arm that twists and turns you all around. Everything about it was incredible! In our top 5 of the week for sure! Scary and flips you around and great animatronics. We loved, loved, loved!

We ran (well walked fast for old people) and got in line for Curse of the Werewolf. It showed a 20 min wait. About 5 minutes into the line the ride went down. This is where the day took a turn. We couldn't decide whether to leave the queue since, at this point, we were 2 rows away from boarding. We waited about 15 minutes and then left the line. We had been monitoring the wait times at other rides and were getting discouraged. Harry Potter ride was down, Stardust Racers was down, and everything else had over a 60 minute wait. Everything in Nintendo land was over a 120 minute wait.

We walked around Dark Universe a bit and then left and headed for Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry because it was still down and we thought maybe we could get lucky. As we were walking it showed as open and went to a 160 min line, all in about 1 minute. We went ahead into the portal and took a look at the area for a minute. We decided to see if our Express Pass could be transferred to today, changed dates, or at least saved until the next trip so we went to guest services right outside Potter.

We had an amazing cast member assist us. He told us we could transfer our Express Pass to Epic for today but it would cost $150 more (on top of the $140ish we paid for the other parks) or he could move our pass from the next day to today. We were thrilled to move the pass from Friday to Thursday.

Now, our problem is, we are in Epic, when do we go over the other parks and start using the Express Pass? We looked at the wait times and every single ride was over 100 minutes with Stardust Racer, Mario Cart, and Dragon Racers all down. We continued to walk around the park taking pics of the absolutely beautiful features but not walking into any of the other portals. We made it back to the entrance and took a bus from there to Citiwalk. The walk to the bus from the park was brutal. We were already at 10,000 steps. But we were on a mission!

 

[texaslover]

We were so disappointed not to be able to really experience Epic but told ourselves we will be back and we still had the rest of the day. It was only 10:00 when we headed off the bus and toward Islands of Adventure. On the way we saw the outside small bar by Margaritaville. We knew this was our last day of vacay. We looked at each other and said, "It's 5 o clock somewhere". We stopped and took a seat at the bar and ordered margaritas. I got a blackberry something concoction and my friend got a classic margarita. We also ordered pretzel sticks with cheese to get some food in our bellies. We chilled and drank our drink and our pretzels never came. We decided to cut our losses and just pay the check and get into the parks. As we were about to leave the bartender (who had been incredible, so nice!) realized we didn't get our food. He was so apologetic and said, at least let me give you a drink to go since you paid for something you didn't get. And with that, he poured at least 2 shots worth of tequila into a cup and then put the margarita mixes into it. And since the entrance to the park was steps away friend and I took turns slamming half of the cup. We were extremely hyped to get into the park lol.

We walked into Islands and went straight to Spiderman, through the Express lane and right on the ride. Second ride was just as good as the first, loved.

We were a little scared to do the Hulk after all the alcohol so we saved it for later (or did we? lol). We continued walking into Toon Lagoon. We really wanted to go on the water rides but people were coming off soaked and we had at least 10 hours left in the parks. We watched both the Popeye raft ride and Dudley's get drenched and toured Me Ship Olive. We walked in and out of the stores which were so cute.

On to Skull Island where we used Express to ride Kong. This was pretty cute. Relied a lot of screens but the last animatronic made up for it, that was incredible! We liked it a lot.

Walked into Jurassic Park area and were so sad the River Adventure was under refurbishment. We used Express to go on Velocicoaster which was scary! Very fun but that first hill is intense!

We went into Potter land and got a hard cider. We walked around and people watched and then used Express for Hagrid. I rode on the bike and friend rode in the sidecar. This was soooo much fun! Much faster than I thought it would be with some surprises. Just perfect!

We went further into the land and used Express for Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Same technology as Monsters and just as cool! It didn't feel as intense as Monsters but loved the Harry Potter references and the queue was cute.

We walked through the Lost Continent and watched the fountain again. We also stopped at Fire Eaters Grill and split a Gyro and got 2 beers. The food was good!

We did the rides in Seussland yesterday so decided to walk through the out the exit to head toward Universal Studios. We stopped at the Port of Entry at the Backwater Bar. What a gem! Nice place to take a load off and have a drink. The bartenders were so nice and were dying laughing because we were so excited to get a double Jack and Diet Coke for less than $20. I mean, every cocktail of the trip was between $15 and $20 so a double for that price was amazing ! We took it to go and were able to carry it out of the park and sip it as we walked toward Studios.

Everything we rode in the park was Express Pass so I won't say that again lol.

We entered Studios around 2:00 or so. We headed to Minion Land and rode Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. It was cute, had a 3D screen and moving vehicles. Very retro lol. We liked it.

We walked onto Villian Con Minion Blast which was hilarious. You step on a moving floor and grab a huge laser gun and shoot at targets. It's kinda exhausting and I was distracted at all the good people watching. If you aren't competitive it would probably be boring. I am so I was wanting to do my best. Interesting concept, I'm sure kids love it.

We moved on to Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon. It was funny and cute. The technology was old school but I still enjoyed it.

We rode Mummy again with our pass and loved it again. Such a great ride. We stopped at Louie's to get a beer and as we sat down at a table outside to sip and rest a show started that was so incredible! It was like a Spanish street party where they were dancing to music in Spanish and grabbing spectators to join. There was a little boy around 5 that danced his heart out and made my day. I could tell the cast were incredibly fond of each other and it was just amazing to watch. We enjoyed it so much. This was the third "pop up" entertainment we saw and they were all amazing.

We kept walking and went on Fast and the Furious. This was dumb. Like I think we moved into a tunnel with videos on both sides and then drove back out. It really was terrible, but we were laughing about it with the guys in front of us so we had fun.

We moved on to Diagon Alley and went on Escape from Gringott's. That was super fun. So themed and a great little roller coaster. We went back to the Hopping Pot and got a fire whiskey with cider. And set up at a table and watched that spell again. It was starting to get dark so more people were being hit with the water lol. We went around and saw the dragon blow fire then headed out of our favorite land.

Next ride - Men in Black. Love the shooting rides so I was enjoying it a lot. Friend does not care and isn't into shooting so she just looked around and took everything in. We both loved it.

We moved into Springfield and rode The Simpsons Ride. We liked it, very funny and nostalgic. We walked around and took in the area. We got one Duff beer just to try it but were not a fan so threw it away.

We headed to our last ride, E.T. It was the perfect last ride. Dark ride for friend, very nostalgic for me. And they brought back the name card! They gave us a card and when we went in they asked our name and scanned the card. At the end of the ride E.T. said goodbye to us by name! So cool!

We walked out at around 8:00 and got an Uber back to Cabana Bay. We sat at the bar by the entrance and enjoyed a few Old Fashioneds with an incredible bartender. One thing that was hard at Cabana was getting food. You had to order UberEATS or go to the quick service or order from the bowling alley. We went to the quick service and got pasta to take back to the room but it wasn't very good. It would be nice to have a sit down or order at the bar option.

All in all we loved Universal and wish we had another day there. We will be back!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Following along!

We are going to Universal for the first time and I am getting nervous about being there without express pass! We are a family of 4 so they get pricey quickly!!! EEk

 

[disneyseniors]

We stayed at the Swan for our Disney portion of the trip so we ended up leaving there around 8:00 and taking an Uber to Cabana Bay. When we arrived we really liked the look of the hotel. It is cute with a definite retro vibe. There is a bar near the entrance, a diner type quick service restaurant, and a bowling alley upstairs that also serves food.

We checked in and checked our bags which was an easy process. There were only a few people at the check in desk at that time. We had bought an Express Pass for Friday so today was our wander around Islands of Adventure and Studios and get our bearings day. We took the bus to Citiwalk and walked through there to the entrance of Islands. We had been walking between 18,000 and 20,000 steps every day for the last 4 days so this seemed like a pretty long walk, mostly the part through the Citiwalk/restaurant area. I always stayed at the Royal Pacific in years past and realized that boat ride to the front of the parks is an amazing feature. But lots more money so we had to work with what we have.

Because we purchased the Express Pass we decided we would look around the parks today, stopping if lines were reasonable, but not waiting for long times. We walked into the park and immediately detoured to Croissant Moon Bakery for a coffee and quick breakfast. It's such a cute little place and the food is always good. We got a breakfast empanada and breakfast croissant and split them. Perfect amount and very good.

We started walking through the Marvel area and decided no high drop and no spinning today so skipped over FearFall or Storm Force. Hulk had a 60 min wait so we got in line for Spiderman with only a 25 min wait. We did spend that long in line but thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I'm sure it's been refurbished since the last time a rode and the 3D and blend of animatronics and screens was amazing. We both loved this one.

We continued to walk and came to Toon Lagoon. Now you have to realize that the temperatures were in the 40's that week so we couldn't bring ourselves to do the water rides that morning. We did go in and out of some shops and really wanted to use the sprayers to spray riders from both the rafts and Dudley coming by but were afraid of the sketchy credit card machines. We didn't want our info stolen lol. So we just watched the brave ones come down the big drop and the people go into those big people dryers.

We kept walking into Skull Island. Kong had a 45 min wait so we skipped it. One thing we were starting to notice is that Universal has so many more food and drinks stops than Disney. When it was really crowded at Disney we had such a hard time mobile ordering or finding a walk up without a long line. Here we felt like we walked around a corner and there was always something to choose from. Since it was now around noon we decided to have a drink. We stopped at a walk up booth and got a High Noon. We sat on the rock ledge near there and did some people watching.

After a few minutes we moved into the Jurassic area. The River Adventure was closed for refurbishment which was a bummer. We walked through the Camp Jurassic which is super cute. Velociraptor had a 90 min wait so we skipped that too. We were putting a lot of stock in using that Express Pass on a different day!

We kept walking into Harry Potter. It's so beautiful when you cross the bridge and see the huge buildings. We stopped to watch the acapella show. The kids are so talented, it was fun to see! At this point the Harry Potter ride had a 60 min wait and Hagrid was way longer so we decided to get another drink instead . We got a beer at Hogshead, I can't remember which one. We walked through all the stores then we sat and watched people cast spells and enjoyed the atmosphere. This is something we loved to do in all the Potter areas, wander around and find a good spot and take it all in. We decided we would go do some rides in Seussland since they weren't long and then take the train across to the other park.

Stay tuned for the second half of our day....!!

Sounds like a good way to spend the day at Universal without using your passes. I love wandering around both parks and taking it all in. The shops are a lot of fun to do too. I am enjoying your wandering first day and awaiting the next installment. Just noticed the rest of the TR, lol.
Enjoyed it all. You are very brave to try Velocicoaster! Not for me. Thanks for such a great TR