You’re Not Allowed to Stupefy Your Mother! A UOR May 2019 TR *COMPLETE* 1/17 x2

I had missed that you had started you TR! It was so great to meet you and the family! As you said, it's been like 10 years of almost meets before we finally met. Sorry to disappoint Paxton that I was not THE Pete - just the other Pete. I admit to being the inferior Pete. :sad:

It was great to meet y'all too!! Long overdue, that's for sure!

Haha, he was super excited to meet ANYONE from a podcast we listen to, he thinks all podcasters are famous people!! :rotfl:


I don't know much of anything about Madagascar but that Alex is HUGE!!!

Fun times in Seuss Landing & Hogsmeade! And of course enjoying more icees!!

He is, I'm worried he might be too intimidating for DD, who LOVES Madagascar! I keep showing her the photos of us with him so maybe he won't seem so threatening because I'd love to get a picture of her with them in December.

Hopping aboard a little late. Just found your TR and all caught up . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

Welcome aboard!!

Well, it's either there or a random Chick fil a along the highway!

Right?! So many random DIS meets this trip!!

::yes:: I could see some intimidation factor there with the kids...

For sure. He's enormous! Same with Po. I hope he doesn't frighten DD too much because she loves Madagascar.

That's a nice system. At least as long as there's a table ready relatively quickly!

We eat pretty early, so that could have something to do with it too, but we never had an issue getting a table this way!

That's definitely a better system!

Yes, it seemed a lot quicker, and it's so nice not having to wander around with your tray looking for somewhere to eat! The back patio is usually easy to find a spot, but it was too hot to eat outside this trip.

I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember anything from Madagascar, but whoa...those are some giant paws on that lion! I feel like it's going to go one of two ways with your DD in December. She's either going to be intimidated or think they're the most amusing things ever.

The icee challenge is going strong! Although, the frozen butterbeer is what I'm most jealous of. I wish you could get a cup with free refills of that. I would probably drink my weight in Butterbeer if that were the case. :rotfl:

That voodoo donut burger sounds disgusting...

Hopefully the break from the sun didn't eat up as much time as you feared.

I am totally unfamiliar with it too, but the kids enjoy it, DD especially so! I have been trying to mentally prep her by showing her the pictures we have with him so maybe he won't be too intimidating for her in December. We shall see!! She did great with the characters on the Disney Cruise, but none were as big as Alex I don't think.

Oh my gosh, if we could fill our cups with frozen Butterbeer... :woohoo:That would be a dream come true!!!

It sure looked it too.
 
Day 3 Continued: Monday May 27th

We got back to the resort, and resting in the air conditioning and getting off our feet for a bit was just heavenly. DS didn’t even want to go swimming, although DH did offer to take him. We found The Good Dinosaur on TV and laid around the living room watching. I even napped on the couch for a bit. We were back up and ready to get going at around 4. All that a/c was ruined immediately upon walking back outside, since we were drenched in sweat by the time we made the short walk to our car!

It was about 4:30 when we were walking back under this into CityWalk.


We decided to head into Studios and the first thing we did was go to the shop because after that long walk through CityWalk we were HOTTTT.


I got on the app and picked up a virtual line pass for Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon from 4:40-5:40, and we got another Icee.


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By the time we did all that, we were able to go over to Jimmy Fallon.


Thankfully this time there was no long wait to get on, and our boarding color was called after DS and DH played a couple of matching games on the game screen tabletops. While they were playing, I went back on the app and got a virtual line pass for Fast & Furious for 5:20-6:20.


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As we came out of the Jimmy Fallon building, we caught the end of the parade coming through.


Then we headed over to Fast & Furious since we could use our virtual line pass by that time. We stopped for a lemonade Icee, so DS wanted to do the count photo for that one since he actually likes the lemonade ones.


We have never had a Jamie as funny as the very first one we saw, but this one was pretty good too.


After that, we picked Icee #7 before stopping for dinner.


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We decided to try a place we had never been, Louie’s, because DS was requesting pizza. We each got a slice, which was decent for theme park pizza. A lot better than Disney’s, anyway!


After dinner, we went to Transformers.


Then we headed through London on the way over to Men In Black.


The wait time was posted at 20 minutes, but it only took 10. It was the first time DS had ever gone through the standby line, and the first time in a very long time for DH and I, and we had a great TM who was very enthusiastic for the pre-show!


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UP NEXT: Cinematic Celebration
 
Sounds like such a fun evening! And I'm not one bit surprised you guys were crushing the Icee game!!

It was definitely a fun afternoon. It was interesting getting to see some of the standby queues that we have missed out on while using express, especially Men in Black.
 


Day 3 Continued: Monday May 27th

We got our last Icee after the ride, bringing our total up to 8 for the day!


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Then we took a walk through Springfield and stopped for a pressed penny.


Then we decided to head over to E.T. because the wait was posted at 15 minutes.


It wasn’t even a 15 minute wait, we walked right into the pre-show, and then straight onto the ride after that without stopping.


A peek at the app said Escape From Gringotts only had a 20 minute wait, and although we didn’t have a whole lot of time before the nighttime Cinematic Celebration was to begin, we thought this might be the lowest wait time we saw for Gringotts, so we went over to ride that.


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We had to book it back over to the Central Park area to find a spot for Cinematic Celebration just before it started. We were SO excited to finally see this show! We had missed out on it in 2018 because we went in September and they didn’t have it at all during HHN season.


DH got a couple videos on his phone too.


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DS LOVED it!!! He was all smiles during the show.


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In fact, we all loved it! It features some great IPs and the music is very fun too. But once the show ended, we were tired and ready to get to bed. We hoofed it out of the park and to the parking garage, and were back to the resort by 10 pm to shower & get to bed.


UP NEXT: Good Things Come In Pink Boxes
 
Eight icees! Nice! I don't remember what I guessed, but I don't think it was that. You really should start a poll for this. Make it a game. :rotfl:

I didn't know Universal had a Cinematic Celebration show. It looked fun! Nice that you were able to squeeze in a ride on Gringotts beforehand, too.
 


We decided to try a place we had never been, Louie’s, because DS was requesting pizza. We each got a slice, which was decent for theme park pizza. A lot better than Disney’s, anyway!
Well, Disney does set the bar high! :lmao:
The wait time was posted at 20 minutes, but it only took 10. It was the first time DS had ever gone through the standby line, and the first time in a very long time for DH and I, and we had a great TM who was very enthusiastic for the pre-show!
Not bad at all! I do enjoy the pre-show for MIB.
We got our last Icee after the ride, bringing our total up to 8 for the day!
8? Not bad! Great refreshment on a hot day.
A peek at the app said Escape From Gringotts only had a 20 minute wait, and although we didn’t have a whole lot of time before the nighttime Cinematic Celebration was to begin, we thought this might be the lowest wait time we saw for Gringotts, so we went over to ride that.
You guys really had some pretty good luck finding some reasonable lines!
In fact, we all loved it! It features some great IPs and the music is very fun too. But once the show ended, we were tired and ready to get to bed.
I'm glad that you were able to check it out this time! Sounds like a fun show.
 
I don't think I've ever seen this sign! It's one of my favorite Simpsons lines!

I think it's inside the Kwik-E-Mart store! So many great details around Springfield.

The nighttime show looks really cool! Kinda like World of Color at DL?

Yes, it's a bit like World of Color, but definitely not as big of a scale. But for what Universal has done with the show and the properties they use, it's really great. And it's nice that they have a nighttime show in each park now.

Sounds like a good end to your day!

It was!

Eight icees! Nice! I don't remember what I guessed, but I don't think it was that. You really should start a poll for this. Make it a game. :rotfl:

Haha, I did end up being a theme throughout the week. It's kind of become our Universal "thing" I guess!!

I didn't know Universal had a Cinematic Celebration show. It looked fun! Nice that you were able to squeeze in a ride on Gringotts beforehand, too.

It's a fun show, and a nice way to end a day in the parks. I was glad we got lucky with a short wait for Gringotts because I was worried we'd end up missing out on riding it entirely.

Well, Disney does set the bar high! :lmao:

Right?! Nothing beats that DISNEY PIZZA!!!

Not bad at all! I do enjoy the pre-show for MIB.

It's been a LONG time since I've seen it, so it was fun! I don't think DS really even knew there was a story behind what you're doing at MIB since we have only ridden by Express with him and skipped all of that.

8? Not bad! Great refreshment on a hot day.

It definitely made being out in that awful heat just a little more bearable.

You guys really had some pretty good luck finding some reasonable lines!

We used the heck out of the app, which thankfully is pretty reliable! It's also nice with the parks being so close together to change course quickly if needed if we noticed the wait times were lower in the other park.

I'm glad that you were able to check it out this time! Sounds like a fun show.

It's really great nighttime entertainment for Universal since they aren't able to do any big fireworks spectaculars like Disney does.
 
Day 4: Tuesday May 28th

Since we’d had an early night the day before, we were up around 7 on Tuesday morning and got dressed quickly. We had breakfast plans so that was one less thing we had to do before we could head out of the door. By 7:30 we were walking out the door and heading to Universal to start off our morning with some Voodoo Doughnuts!


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The guy helping us with our order actually misheard DH and put the wrong doughnut in the bag, and when he asked if that was right and DH told him what he had ordered, he let us have the incorrect one also so we ended up with an extra doughnut. It was crowded inside so we grabbed a table outside at NBC Sports Grill & Brew to enjoy our breakfast.


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DS’s choice: Sprinkle Cake Plain cake doughnut with vanilla frosting and sprinkles


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DH’s choices: Chocolate Old Fashioned Cake with chocolate frosting and Triple Chocolate Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and Cocoa Puffs


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My choice: Chocolate Coconut Cake Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and coconut flakes along with our bonus doughnut Chocolate Ring Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting

After eating waaaaaay too much doughnuts, we headed over to Islands of Adventure for rope drop.


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We got there right at 8, and park opening wasn’t until 9 so we figured we were in for a long wait. We were right up at the front of one of the turnstile lines though, so we had that going for us, and at least we were under one of the overhangs so we weren’t in direct sunlight.


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However, we were in for the surprise of a lifetime…TM Mike walked over to us and asked us if we had our tickets, scanned them for us, then looked at us with a grin and said, “Do you know what’s happening?” And I said, “I think so!” We knew they picked a family of the day to open IOA each morning, and it seemed that today, we were going to be that family!!

Sure enough, Mike led us inside the park and gave us our instructions. DS had a small speech to read to open the park. He also told us that as a part of being family of the day, we would also get the My Universal Photos 3 day package for free, which was perfect since we had 3 days left on our trip! He explained how it worked and how we would access our photos, gave us our lanyard to hold our photo card, and gave DS a copy of his speech to start reading it over.


To say we were excited was a bit of an understatement!!


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While waiting for our time to open the park, one of the photographers took a few photos of us.


Mike was really happy when we asked if he would take a photo with DS, then we got a family photo with him.


Since he knew we were Universal AP holders, he said he’d better see that photo on the UOAP Facebook group, so I made sure to oblige and he did end up seeing it! He also took a minute to explain that he had picked us because of DS’s Spider-Man hat, so we told him the story of that hat. If you read my last TR before this one about our Disney Cruise vacation, you might remember that DS actually left his Spider-Man hat in the kids club on Castaway Cay and never got it back even though we had filled out a lost & found form with DCL. He was so devastated to lose that hat, so DH ended up finding it on eBay and buying him another one that we surprised him with before this trip. Mike said it was now his lucky hat!

Then, it was time to open the park!


We thanked Mike again profusely for choosing us, then we had to get a head start on the crowds, so we took off for Hogsmeade!


It was so incredibly cool to walk through an entirely empty Hogsmeade!


Unfortunately since had stuff to store in a locker, we weren’t the first ones on to the ride that morning, but it was still really amazing to have had the opportunity to walk through Hogsmeade without anyone else around! We walked right on to Forbidden Journey!


After Forbidden Journey, we walked onto Flight of the Hippogriff twice in a row.


We couldn't believe how MAGICAL our morning had already been! And our day was only just beginning!

UP NEXT: You're My Girl, Blue!
 
Voodoo Doughnuts is a great way to start the day!

Omg how awesome to be picked as family of the day! And what a nice treat getting the photo package!

Those are some great photos of you and DS in an empty Hogsmeade!

Such a magical and fun start to your day!!
 
However, we were in for the surprise of a lifetime…TM Mike walked over to us and asked us if we had our tickets, scanned them for us, then looked at us with a grin and said, “Do you know what’s happening?” And I said, “I think so!” We knew they picked a family of the day to open IOA each morning, and it seemed that today, we were going to be that family!!
Oh wow! That's awesome! Even better than a bonus extra donut!
Since he knew we were Universal AP holders, he said he’d better see that photo on the UOAP Facebook group, so I made sure to oblige and he did end up seeing it! He also took a minute to explain that he had picked us because of DS’s Spider-Man hat, so we told him the story of that hat.
Sounds like a pretty awesome TM. I'm glad you got a chance to do this. And I'm glad you were able to find a replacement hat!
Unfortunately since had stuff to store in a locker, we weren’t the first ones on to the ride that morning, but it was still really amazing to have had the opportunity to walk through Hogsmeade without anyone else around! We walked right on to Forbidden Journey!
Definitely a great way to start the day. I was a little worried about Dustin's safety stopping to take pictures on the way into Hogsmeade. I could only imagine the stampede bearing down on him.
 
Wow what an awesome experience getting chosen to open the park! I love all the pictures they took of you guys doing it!

It's thanks to your TRs that I knew you could refill the cups with icees and DBF and his nephew thought I was a genius for it so thank you for that lol!
 
You guys were having an awesome morning! I mean, I thought scoring an extra donut was pretty great, but I guess getting to open the park was even cooler. :rotfl: All three of you look so happy in the photos! And that Spider-man hat has quite the story now.
 
What a fantastic experience! I didn't even know they picked a family to open the park. (I've never been to a Universal park for rope drop.) Great pictures of you guys walking through an empty park too. That definitely doesn't happen often.
 
I'm glad I happened to find your trip report. I've been to Universal quite a few times, but I'm planning an extra special week-long trip with my daughter.

Very cool that you opened the park.

I am inspired by the ICEE challenge. I don't think we could manage eight refills though! We've never bought cups but my DD is a huge ICEE fan, and ICEEs saved the day on our last trip when everyone was getting cranky from the heat. Were you able to get refills from any ICEE stand without an issue? Are the AP cups available anywhere that sells freestyle cups? They're the same price, I assume, but are a little bit cooler as a souvenir.
 
Voodoo Doughnuts is a great way to start the day!

Omg how awesome to be picked as family of the day! And what a nice treat getting the photo package!

Those are some great photos of you and DS in an empty Hogsmeade!

Such a magical and fun start to your day!!

It's our new favorite way to start a Universal Orlando day!!

It was pretty amazing! The photo package was a nice bonus, and we saw them on sale right away after that, so we bought it for our next visit, since it was worth sharing the price with my parents.

Oh wow! That's awesome! Even better than a bonus extra donut!

Yes! We thought the bonus donut was pretty awesome until that happened!

Sounds like a pretty awesome TM. I'm glad you got a chance to do this. And I'm glad you were able to find a replacement hat!

I wasn't sure it was possible, but it made DS love that hat even more. And it wasn't even the last great thing to happen with the hat on this trip! Mike was a really great TM, and we really appreciated him choosing us.


Definitely a great way to start the day. I was a little worried about Dustin's safety stopping to take pictures on the way into Hogsmeade. I could only imagine the stampede bearing down on him.

Haha, luckily we had a decent head start!! So thankfully no trampling occurred that morning, and we got great photos.

Wow what an awesome experience getting chosen to open the park! I love all the pictures they took of you guys doing it!

It's thanks to your TRs that I knew you could refill the cups with icees and DBF and his nephew thought I was a genius for it so thank you for that lol!

It was such an awesome way to start the day! We had seen other people chosen, but sure never expected it to be us.

That's SO GREAT!!! :rotfl: I'm so glad I can spread the magic of endless Icee refills!!! Honestly, it is what has made having the cup totally worth it for us since we are not big soda drinkers anymore.

What a nice score! Family of the day! Good for you all :yay:

Yes, it was so awesome!!

You guys were having an awesome morning! I mean, I thought scoring an extra donut was pretty great, but I guess getting to open the park was even cooler. :rotfl: All three of you look so happy in the photos! And that Spider-man hat has quite the story now.

Haha right?! We were excited about the extra donut, never expecting our day was about to get even more magical!

It really does, and it gets even more of a story later on! I don't think he will ever misplace it again.

What a fantastic experience! I didn't even know they picked a family to open the park. (I've never been to a Universal park for rope drop.) Great pictures of you guys walking through an empty park too. That definitely doesn't happen often.

We had seen it on previous mornings, but definitely didn't expect that we would ever be the family chosen. It was really cool!

I'm glad I happened to find your trip report. I've been to Universal quite a few times, but I'm planning an extra special week-long trip with my daughter.

Very cool that you opened the park.

I am inspired by the ICEE challenge. I don't think we could manage eight refills though! We've never bought cups but my DD is a huge ICEE fan, and ICEEs saved the day on our last trip when everyone was getting cranky from the heat. Were you able to get refills from any ICEE stand without an issue? Are the AP cups available anywhere that sells freestyle cups? They're the same price, I assume, but are a little bit cooler as a souvenir.

I'm so glad you found it, and that it has helped out in your planning!

We had no problems getting Icee refills at any stand in the parks. The Coke stand in Citywalk does not participate in the free refills. We got our AP cup a couple years ago, so I'm honestly not sure if they are still available, but at the time they were not available everywhere you could buy a regular cup. We got ours at the drink/snack stand outside of Classic Monsters Cafe in Studios.
 
I really didn't mean to disappear for so long. :duck: It's been a bit busy lately, and we are actually leaving to visit Universal Orlando again next week, our first time there for the holidays since 2009! I'm super excited, and DD will be joining us for the first time since she was a baby, so she will now be old enough to enjoy a few things. I'm going to make 2 posts now, and hopefully I can put up another update before we leave on Thursday evening.

Day 4 Continued: Tuesday May 28th

Once we were done in Hogsmeade for the time being, we walked through Jurassic Park to get over to Skull Island.


After that, we doubled back into Jurassic Park to try to catch Pteranodon Flyers before the line got crazy long. It was only 5 minutes at that point in the morning, so DS and I went to ride.


DH tried to go get our cup activated for the day while we rode, but the stand inside of Jurassic Park wasn’t open yet. By the time DS and I got off the ride and we passed the stand again, it was open so we were able to activate the cup and get our first Icee of the day. We got strawberry at DS’s request and decided to count again to see if we could beat our record. DS wanted to be the Icee counter for the day.


The Raptor Encounter was open by then, so we decided to go get in line for that. We finally got to meet Blue!


We let the MUP photographer take our photos instead of giving anyone our camera, and I was a little disappointed with the result since he only took 2 photos. But oh well.


We also stopped to do one of the automated photo spots in Jurassic Park.


Our next plan was to head over to Superhero Island to check out the wait for Spider-Man, but we stopped in Toon Lagoon for a couple photo ops first.


The wait for Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man was 60 minutes, and the wait for the photo op with Spider-Man was pretty long too, so we looked around the shop for a bit and caught the superheroes coming out on their bikes.


Then we saw Po was out meeting!


We had to stop for another Icee too.


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We also saw Puss In Boots was out with Kitty Softpaws (I absolutely had to Google her name lol) but the line was too long to get in.


DS wanted to walk around the shop in Port of Entry so we did that, and he got another pressed penny.


Continued in next post...
 
Day 4 Continued: Tuesday May 28th

We decided to have lunch at City Walk instead of inside the parks, so we headed out and stopped for some photos on the bridge since we saw a MUP photographer. I’m so annoyed that I didn’t think to remove my cooling towel before the photos!


Then we went over to Red Oven Pizza Bakery. It’s probably my favorite place to eat in City Walk, so it’s a must do for me every trip. DH could take it or leave it, so he had another lunch on his mind.


He purchased his sandwich, and then we walked over to Red Oven. DS always likes to watch them make the dough.


Then it was time to eat!


DH really enjoyed his doughnut burger, and I even took a taste and it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. DS and I shared the margherita pizza.

DS had fun being silly at the table, and we made sure to take a photo of our big glasses of water for one of my aunts who was teasing us about our Icee intake and wanted us to be sure we drank enough water!



We had plans to see a movie that afternoon, but by the time we finished eating we still had a little time to kill so we went over to the Universal Studios Store.


Then we headed over to the Cinemark theater in City Walk. We had debated going to the other theater we had visited last trip when we saw the Jurassic Park anniversary showing since they had the luxury loungers. But ultimately we decided we didn’t feel like investing all that time in walking to the car, driving to another theater, then having to get back when it was much more convenient to just see it at the theater that. We picked the showing at 12:50 pm because we figured we’d be more than ready to get out of the heat by that time of the day, so the movie would take the place of our break at the resort for the day.

What were we going to see? You might have gotten a hint from DS’s shirt choice for the day…we were seeing Pokemon: Detective Pikachu.



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DS of course was very excited to see it, and it was something we definitely wouldn’t want to find a babysitter for DD back home to go see it at the theater, so this seemed like a great opportunity to see it. I have 0 interest in Pokemon in general, but I was a little more willing to see this just because I love Ryan Reynolds so I figured it nothing else, he would keep me entertained! :rotfl:


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The theater was really nice, but the only bad thing was that we were on the second floor and there was no restroom up there, we had to take this huge escalator down to the first floor to go and then go back up. DS didn’t mind, he thought the extra large escalator was great fun.


The movie was pretty good (for being about Pokemon, that is), and as expected my favorite part about the whole thing was Ryan Reynolds’s wit and delivery. DS really enjoyed it, of course!

It ended around 3 pm, and when we exited the theater we decided to head over to Studios for the afternoon. While walking over, I hopped on the app and got us a virtual line pass for Jimmy Fallon. We stopped and had our photos taken at the entrance as well. I don’t know why these photos were rotated the wrong way, but you can tell by the way the logo is sideways.



UP NEXT: More Magic!
 

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