Day 22 – The adventure continues

We were up pretty early this morning with everyone showered and dressed, bags packed and farewells said to our room attendent, A.C (who was so attentive to the girls – she even referred to them as “my girls”).

With our few remaining bags in tow we headed to Windjammers for our last breakfast on board. And shortly afterwards we were able to disembark at 7.15am.

It was very easy to find our bags and get a porter to take the bags to our car. It had started sprinkling but we were hopeful it would clear up when we reached Orlando. A quick 60min drive and we were arriving at Universals’ Portofino Bay Hotel.

We got checked in and were able to get into our room straight away, which was great as we needed to do a bit of sorting before heading out for the day. I had booked a bayview room but to get a room right away we had been upgraded to a pool view (which is a bigger room). The room was lovely but due to the short nature of our stay (only 2 nights) we never got to use our little patio.

After getting bags (and sides of the beds…. by the girls) sorted we used a kiosk to get our express passes and headed down to the water to catch the boat to Universal. 10min ride and a short walk and we were entering the park just after 9.30am.

The kids were dying for a thrill ride so first up was the Hulk. We didn’t think Christy would be tall enough but she just made it. And was so excited.

I’d forgotten how great this ride is but Kevin and I are getting old and usually one ride was enough for us. The girls always wanted another ride.

Next we did something Storm. Then Spiderman – which is really cool. And Fear Fall. I have done a ride like this once but once was enough.

After some thrills we had a change of pace and visited Suess Landing. I love how this whole area is themed for Grinchmas.

First stop was Green Eggs and Ham as Kevin was hungry.

We then rode The Cat in the Hat (can’t say we really enjoyed this but it was okay),

then one fish, two fish (which is just like Dumbo), and the Carosuessel (which was VERY uncomfortable).

We then got to meet the Grinch himself.

And we had to try and replicate this photo from 1999.

Let’s play spot the difference 🙂

From here we entered The Lost Continent and headed to our lunch reservation at Mythos. Amy was very excited to here and saw lots of (accurate) representations of Mythological Gods and creatures.

Our meals were all delicious and the bread they served was so fresh and yummy. My stirfry was amazing. So sad I could only get through half of it.

After lunch we saw/did Psosiden’s Fury which we felt was waste of time. The water tunnel was pretty cool though.

We then walked though the Wizzarding World of Harry Potter, which has to be seen to be believed. It was very crowded (being the middle of the day) so our plan was just to walk through (as we were coming back for early entry in two days). But we did stop to get a frozen Butterbeer – and it was amazing. We all loved it. But don’t ask me to describe it – just get one if you ever visit.

We walked on to Jurassic Park where the girls and Kevin rode the River Adventure. I was feeling a bit sore and didn’t want to get wet so sat this out. Kevin & Christy opted to go the poncho route. They all seemed to enjoy it.

Kevin’s thought of the day….

The girls then went on the other two wet rides, before we got some Dippin’ Dots – which I love and are very hard to come by in Australia.

Then it was back through the Comic area and out of the park.  We had a wander around City Walk trying to find somewhere for dinner but didn’t have any luck. We made a few purchases then caught the boat back to the hotel. We got to enjoy a stunning sunset.

We ended having dinner at Sal’s diner – which is so very cute. The girls and I shared some pizzas. We over-ordered though and could easily have had one. We were all pretty tired and really just wanted to be in our beds. It was about 8.30pm and had been a VERY long day.

We went back to our room. Amy had a bath. She had been feeling poorly all day with body aches and pains but had been a real trooper. The girls were quickly off to sleep and I must admit I fell asleep with my glasses and headphones on (while I was watching some YouTube) :-).