To say it's been a busy week and a half is an understatement. We closed on the house on Monday the 6th. And then by Tuesday the 7th, we were off to a planned two night stay at Universal Studios. My awesome cousin, Joanne, her husband, Ray and their boys Max and Henry were coming down from PA for the week, and we have been really wanting to stay at Universal, so we thought we could get connecting rooms and join them for part of their stay. Unfortunately, we decided on this trip, and booked it months ago- when we had no way of knowing when exactly we would close on the house. I would have backed out if it was just us- but the boys had so been looking forward to seeing Max and Henry, and I couldn't pass up election night partying with Joanne and Ray. So, Monday we closed, and Tuesday we were off. Because who doesn't have two houses, and leave them both for a vacation (something I did again Saturday thru Thursday- but we'll get to that later)?
We stayed at the Cabana Bay Resort, which was nice. The price was also super reasonable, especially with our passes, and the rooms are nice and big and spacious. So, I highly recommend. After we voted on Tuesday, we headed over to Orlando.
Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we went over to City Walk. In case you aren't familiar, City Walk is Universal's answer to Disney Springs. It's full of shops and restaurants.
The new Chocolate Emporium opened awhile ago, but we hadn't made it over there yet. I guess it's supposed to be Willy Wonka inspired, but there was some lawsuit over it or something. There's a whole restaurant, a store, and a ice cream counter, all inside that cute little factory building.
We decided a little ice cream before dinner couldn't hurt, so we ordered two desserts to share. We got the banana cream sundae, and the red velvet milkshake. I was surprised the boys were in for the banana cream sundae. It came with a piece of banana cream pie, obviously, some pieces of chocolate and then all the banana split type ice creams and toppings- including the banana covered in chocolate. It was good. But, it wasn't amazing.
The red velvet milkshake came in a cute little glass, and was topped with a red velvet cupcake. This one was better than the sundae. It had little tiny bits of the cupcake in the ice cream, which was awesome. But, honestly, it's still not the best milkshake at City Walk that belongs to the pb&b jelly milkshake at Cowfish. We all want to go again to try something different, but we weren't blown away.
After our ice cream, we headed into the park for a bit. Really, I wanted to get some of the special Election Day merchandise. Because, election day is the best! They had all kinds of limited edition stuff at the Cat in the Hat store, and because it was Election Day, it was all super marked down. AND they let us use our passholder discount on it all.
After that, we were ready for a mini dinner, so we headed over to Margaritaville for appetizers.
By early evening, our hotel room was ready, so we headed back to the hotel to check in.
The family rooms are great for us, because they sleep six. The bathroom is even divided up, to make it a little easier to have the five of us in a hotel room together.
The room also has a little kitchenette, complete with a microwave and a mini fridge.
The living room and bedroom separate with a sliding door, so we didn't even have to listen to Calib snore, which was a plus (Asa HATES staying in hotel rooms when we have to sleep in the same room with Calib, thanks to his incessant snoring.)
The hotel has two pools, and one even has a water slide. Unfortunately, that's the side of the hotel we were on, and that pool was closed for maintenance. Fall/Winter outside of the holidays is a pretty inexpensive time to stay at the resorts in Orlando, but a lot of time, things are closed, since the crowds are so low.
But, our side of the resort was still nice. We had some ping pong tables, and a couple of those giant board games that are all the rage these days. And our weather lately has been lovely.
Like I said, it was election night, so we were sure to be back in our room by the time the polls started closing.
Plus, we were ready for our adjoining room buddies to show up.
Once they did, we were well stocked for the craziness of election night. I'm sure if you're a regular blog reader, you saw my last post on my election thoughts. But, in case you didn't, there's the link for you.
Aw, what could have been. (See, we're an equal opportunity household, we've got one Republican for President shirt, and one Democrat for President shirt). Apparently, when candidates start dropping out of the race, you can get their shirts on Amazon for like $5. And the boys were all about it. They make for great, inexpensive pajama shirts at the very least. (Peyton loves his Jeb Bush one, it's SUPER comfy).
The next day, we were ready to shake off the night before and enjoy our time at Universal.
Pos-I-tivity!
Since we were staying in the resort, we even got into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter early! There was hardly a crowd in Diagon Alley, it was great.
This was the first time Joanne and her family had been to Universal, so they were seeing the Harry Potter awesomeness for the very first time. I still remember how awesome it was the first time we saw it, so it was super fun to share in their excitement. We made a trip to Ollivanders, rode Escape from Gringotts (which might be my favorite ride ever), visited Knockturn Alley, and had some Butterbeers- all the Harry Potter must dos.
After our trip to Diagon Alley, we took the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade for lunch at the Three Broomsticks, more shopping, and more rides. The Forbidden Journey is rough for those with Motion Sickness, so I sat out. But, I did walk through the line with everyone this time, so I could see the awesomeness that is the que line. (It's everything I dreamed it would be!)
After Hogsmeade, we visited Suess Landing. Moose Juice! Yay!
Dr. Suess always know just what to say, everyone needed a little election pick me up, and there's nobody better to provide that than a little Cat in the Hat.
My family headed back to the hotel midday. It's always fun to go to Orlando with family/friends, but we rarely do a whole day in the park- and when we're staying in a hotel, the boys would rather spend their time there, since they can go to the parks 'anytime'. We wandered over to the open pool, which may not have had the slide- but they did have a lazy river. It was a little chilly for us Floridians to be swimming, but we stuck it out. After a little ping-pong and games, we were ready for dinner.
The boys unanimously voted on Cowfish for dinner. They love the place, and I'm never one to complain. We opted to eat outside, since it's finally not so hot out anymore. Yay Florida! We ordered our Cowfish must-haves of loaded truffle fries, and milkshakes. (I told you they had the best!)
Peyton, Hayden and I all opted for the bento boxes. I always look at the menu, like I'm going to get something different, but I always come back to the boxes. You get a ton of different options, and it's all delicious. Calib went with the Hillbilly Sushi again (It's pulled pork, with onion straws and coleslaw), and Asa got a burger. They were pretty happy with their choices.
It was just the five of us at dinner because we had to eat early, and Joanne and her family were still enjoying the park.
Calib had asked me months ago if we could go see the Timberwolves (his favorite basketball team), when they played the Orlando Magic, since Minnesota is a little far to go for a basketball game. Tickets are pretty cheap on Stubhub, so I said he could go if he didn't mind if the ticket counted as one of his Christmas presents. He was pretty happy with that, so we checked to see when they were on the schedule. It just so happened, it was the second night we were in Orlando. That was cool because we were right there, a short drive away from the Magic's stadium, but not so cool because we'd miss time with Joanne and her family. The plan was for me and Calib to go to the game, but there was a problem with the gps, then a traffic disaster, and it took us an hour of going in circles, before I gave up, and let Asa take him. It all worked out though. They had fun at the game, only missed a few minutes of the first quarter, and the Timberwolves won.
Meanwhile, I headed down to the pool to watch everyone else swim. (It was a little too cold at that point for this Floridian to be convinced to go in that water.)
Apparently, I didn't take a ton of pictures that night, but after they got back, Calib played the Presidential game with Max, and we all hung out coming to terms with out new president. I wish we had more time to hang out with everyone, but they were off early the next morning for the Disney leg of their trip.
We checked out around 11 the next morning. The rooms were so fun with their vintage inspired touches. Even the phones looked like they were from my childhood. And there was Vo5 shampoo in the bathrooms! I'm not sure we'd stay there again, because as passholders, we get a pretty big discount on some of the other hotels that come with the Express Pass to skip the lines, but maybe if we got another great deal.
We had hoped to go to the Food and Wine Festival Thursday for lunch. But, with the house closing, and us having another trip planned in two days, we decided it wise to head home instead. So, sadly, I didn't get to go to the Food and Wine Festival at all this year. We did decide to stop for Blaze Pizza at Disney Springs before heading home though. We've discovered three pizzas feed the 5 of us for lunch, and with our discount it's somewhere around $25. It's hard for us to eat out for that much normally, let alone at Disney, so this place has kind of become our go-to for Disney meals.
Ok, so the election. We've covered that. But, in all of the madness, I forgot to get a paper the day after the election. That wouldn't be a huge deal, except that in every election in Hayden's lifetime , I've taken his picture the day after the election, holding a newspaper. We settled for a People at Publix two days later. Hey, you do what you can.
That's it for our Universal trip. Sorry if this blog seems a little disjointed, I'm a bit overwhelmed with things at the moment, and I've started and stopped writing like six times.
Next Up: I'll fill you in on our awesome trip to Denver!
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