March 23rd, Part 2
The only reservation I made for the entire trip was for Toothsome and that is where we were headed. We ate here for the first time in 2019 and we loved it. Rob especially loved the salmon and vowed to never visit Universal again without eating here.
While we were waiting to be seated, we spotted Penelope and Jacques chatting with some kids. We didn't get to see them the last time, so this was a nice surprise. While I was taking some video of them, Jacques looked over at me and yelled out "Don't look now but you have a dinosaur on your shirt!"
Then he looked over at Kira and said "I don't want to alarm you but you have a DINOSAUR on your shirt, please move very slowly!" Love this guy!
We were seated upstairs and had a great server, it was a great meal and a great experience!
I had the cheesesteak rolls, delish!
Rob enjoyed his salmon, like
really enjoyed it.
And Kira got the same thing as the last time we were here, the pasta from the kids menu, which she also loved! We were way too full for dessert. Oddly enough, most people come here
for the desserts but we've been three times now and still haven't had dessert. LOL!
We headed over to IOA once we were done.
Lines had died down a bit thankfully, so we headed to Hagrid's.
While in line, the Beauxbatons and the Quiddich team came out down a dark hallway opposite us and a team member asked us to step to the side. It was so dark that Rob ended up bashing his knee on this cauldron when he moved over. He hit it so hard that he almost went down and he cried out in pain. At first he couldn't even put any weight on it.
I had a flash-forward in my mind, with visions of emergency rooms and missing our cruise while I was waiting for him to tell us what happened and how bad it was. It was so dark, we couldn't see what happened, just that he was in a lot of pain and that he couldn't walk. The team member saw him and asked if he needed help. He said he would be fine but he still couldn't put his full weight on it and she ended up calling a supervisor. Rob said he was fine, he just needed a few minutes to recover from the initial jolt of pain. At this point, I grabbed my phone, put the flash on and took a photo so I could see what he had hit. It's pitch black here so none of us knew what he had hit. Turns out he smashed into the edge of this cauldron. After about 5 minutes, he was able to put his weight onto his foot and we carried on. It was nice that they made sure he was okay. This queue is rather dark in many places, so be very careful!
He was slow and Kira and I helped guide him the rest of the way but he was fine for the rest of the trip. His knee was sore for the rest of the evening and we iced it when we got back to the room. Thank Heavens for small miracles!
I noticed they had a new video on this screen. It used to have an animated cartoon of how to get into the ride but now they just show video of actual people getting on the ride.
Kira rode the motorcycle while I rode the side-car next to her and Rob went on his own this time.
We decided it was a good time to chill for a bit, have some water and just give Rob a little rest.
Once we rested, it was time for another round on Velocicoaster!
I forgot to mention that every time we rode this coaster, we rode it in the front row. Usually there's a massive line for the front row for most coasters but there was never a long wait for the front, maybe an extra train or two but that's it! I will tell you now, the front row is the ONLY way to go on this baby!
Next up was Forbidden Journey since the line wasn't bad.
By the time we got out, the sun had set and we hightailed it over to Diagon Alley via Hogwart's Express. We were in desperate need of Butter Beer ice cream! IOA closed every night at 10pm but the Studios closed at 9pm and sadly, it's the only park that has proper Butter Beer ice cream. You can get the gross hard-packed BB ice cream from Three Broomsticks but it doesn't taste anything like our beloved soft-serve! They really need to sell it in both parks. I get why they don't, as Hogsmeade is a village based in the Winter and thematically, it makes no sense to have ice cream widely available there but hey, if they can have the hard-packed crap, they can have the good stuff.
I reminded Kira that I would like to take a photo and video of the cones before she devoured it because I knew once it was in her hand, she would lose all self-control and she did give me about 0.7 seconds to get some video but I had zero chance of getting photos.
This is a screenshot from the video footage of her realizing that I had not taken photos yet.
She's not a fan of sharing her food, especially when that food is Butter Beer ice cream so she always gets her own cone while Rob and I share one.
Once we devoured our ice cream, it was time to take a spin on Gringott's, front row is also the only way to go here.
The park was now closed and we were too tired to head back to IOA so we just grabbed a water taxi back to Sapphire Falls and walked back to Aventura.
The pool would be closing at 10pm and my back and feet were desperate for some pool and hot tub time! I made it with only 15 minutes to spare but I figured 15 minutes was better than nothing!
This is one of the other things I love about Aventura...prime Spring Break, hotel is at capacity and the pool is almost empty!
I do miss the lazy river, the soft beds and Bayliner Diner at Cabana Bay but I do not miss the crowds, noise and screaming kids.
I love this pool. I love how it wraps around the hotel so even when there's other people in the pool playing ball, you can still find a nice quiet place to swim or float! I love the palm trees that line it, I love the beautiful blue colour. I'm not sure I could ever go back to Cabana Bay. I just love Aventura too much. I remember when it first opened and I saw it on video, I thought, why would anyone stay here when Cabana Bay, which is directly across the street, is the same price-point and has more amenities?? Well, I tell you, there are SO many reasons to stay here and if you don't have the budget for the Premier Hotels and you don't have little kids, this place is a great option!
The hot tub is great too although it wasn't filled as much as it normally is so I had to kind of slink down a little for the jets to massage my back.
Kira stayed in the room so she could shower and chill but Rob came down with me and got caught up with emails and news and he alerted me when it was almost 10 because he knows I like to cool off in the pool right before getting out, so I headed into the pool and swam in the now-empty pool. I was waiting for the whistle, but I kept swimming and no whistle blew. It was now 10:10pm so I asked one of the lifeguards when they closed and he replied 10:30pm. SCORE!!
The hours are posted on the gate as 9-10pm but it closed every night at 10:30pm while we were there. This made for a very happy Cass! <3
Everyone had left so I took a couple more turns in the hot tub and back in the pool again. It was glorious! I have back and foot issues and the water, both hot and cold, is like therapy for me and so not only does my pool time lift my spirits and heal my soul, it also helps heal my body and gets me through days like this when I put on 26K steps!