“Our Trip Behind the Bricks---- A Darkside Redux… “

[choppee]

hey, fellow tarheel!

glad to join up with another wonderful trip report. i so enjoyed your last one! i must say that your last trip report was the catalyst for giving my husband and i the reason to try universal this year! we will be going soon, and i must say i am excited. your candid reports coupled with vivid and detailed accounts about your experiences mean a lot for someone like me who puts a lot of thought on how to best spend our vacation dollars! i do love disney, i REALLY do, but it's kinda pricing us out (family of 5). and like y'all, we're a family of riders--also, son and hubby LOVE superheros. so it's a no brainer for me....gonna give universal a try. thanks so much for sharing. it means alot to all who read!

 

[clsteve]

hey, fellow tarheel!

glad to join up with another wonderful trip report. i so enjoyed your last one! i must say that your last trip report was the catalyst for giving my husband and i the reason to try universal this year? we will be going soon, and i must say i am excited. your candid reports coupled with vivid and detailed accounts about your experiences mean a lot for someone like me who puts a lot of thought on how to best spend our vacation dollars! i do love disney, i REALLY do, but it's kinda pricing us out (family of 5). and like y'all, we're a family of riders--also, son and hubby LOVE superheros. so it's a no brainer for me....gonna give universal a try. thanks so much for sharing. it means alot to all who read!

That's awesome and I'm glad I could help. There's no better place for a few superheroes and a re-ride or two.

But, you have to promise to report back- in the TR, or least a PM. And make sure the kids protect the Allspark. We'd like it still there when we go back.....

 

[schumigirl]

Fabulous pictures again........we love Mummy and Dr Doom too........even though I'm not a fan of Italian food your meals did look lovely........glad you enjoyed it all so much that day. Diagon Alley is a sight to behold

 

[clsteve]

Fabulous pictures again........we love Mummy and Dr Doom too........even though I'm not a fan of Italian food your meals did look lovely........glad you enjoyed it all so much that day. Diagon Alley is a sight to behold

Don't know if that extends to pizza, but the ones we saw coming out of the kitchen at Vivo looked top notch. I think we'll try them instead of Red Oven next time...

 

[LuvEeyore]

Glad that two of you liked fear fall. That was a ride that I didn't ride. I love tower of terror but the idea of the quick acceleration? Not so sure about it.
The food at Vivo looked really good. Might need to try them next time.

 

[choppee]

That's awesome and I'm glad I could help. There's no better place for a few superheroes and a re-ride or two.

But, you have to promise to report back- in the TR, or least a PM. And make sure the kids protect the Allspark. We'd like it still there when we go back.....

no worries! i love the transformers! grew up on them. we will be sure to protect the integrity of the allspark! will do a trip report--our trip is in december.

 

[TallandGoofy]

I wanted to chime in on your trip reports. I'm really enjoying this one so went and read the one from last year and got so into it that I ended up choosing it over watching the new Walking Dead I had recorded. (Don't worry, I got back to "Dead" the next night but was rather surprised at myself when I looked at the time and had to choose one or the other and went with "read trip report!" )

So, I just have one small suggestion.

Was wondering if you and your family could move to Orlando and visit the parks on a regular basis and then create a website where you post reviews and experiences all around UOR and CityWalk. Maybe you call it "Easy Universal Orlando" or something like that ... I don't know... you can work out the details.

Seriously, though, I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

Thank you!

 

[clsteve]

I wanted to chime in on your trip reports. I'm really enjoying this one so went and read the one from last year and got so into it that I ended up choosing it over watching the new Walking Dead I had recorded. (Don't worry, I got back to "Dead" the next night but was rather surprised at myself when I looked at the time and had to choose one or the other and went with "read trip report!" )

So, I just have one small suggestion.

Was wondering if you and your family could move to Orlando and visit the parks on a regular basis and then create a website where you post reviews and experiences all around UOR and CityWalk. Maybe you call it "Easy Universal Orlando" or something like that ... I don't know... you can work out the details.

Seriously, though, I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

Thank you!

Hah!

That would be too much fun, but don't tempt DW. She loves her some Fla! Besides, I don't think I could handle all of the extra pounds from eating there that much . You bring up a good point, though. I'm surprised Josh over at EasyWDW hasn't jumped on that. The one Uni update he did last year was really good.

Thanks for the kind words, btw....

 

[snoopboop]

Loving your trip report so far. Your pictures are fabulous, by the way.

Looking forward to the next update!

 

[clsteve]

Loving your trip report so far. Your pictures are fabulous, by the way.

Looking forward to the next update!

Hopefully in the next couple of days...

And thanks

 

[Queen of Oakville]

great review! I'm new to these boards. what is the "darkside" reference? thanx!

 

[clsteve]

great review! I'm new to these boards. what is the "darkside" reference? thanx!

Back in the day, with this being a predominately Disney board, taking a trip to Universal was called "going over to the "Darkside". Darkside comes from Darth Vader's famous line in the original Star Wars when he's enticing Luke. It stuck. Over the years, with Universal making big strides, and so many doing both, it's become sort of an inside joke...

 

[Queen of Oakville]

ah! thanks for the explanation!

 

[captaindavidhook]

Hey there how are you doing? Enjoying this trip report as much as the last one. I just back a week ago and wanted to say thank you with all those great pointers and recommendations you gave me on the days I spent at Universal. Sitting back and waiting to read about all your new adventures. By the way, your spot on about the Mummy. That was my favorite ride in US, hands down.

 

[clsteve]

Hey there how are you doing? Enjoying this trip report as much as the last one. I just back a week ago and wanted to say thank you with all those great pointers and recommendations you gave me on the days I spent at Universal. Sitting back and waiting to read about all your new adventures. By the way, your spot on about the Mummy. That was my favorite ride in US, hands down.

Welcome back! Happy I could help and that your trip was successful

The Mummy is one of the best rides anywhere, no doubt about that. Very glad they incorporated a few of those elements in Gringotts.

 

[Welcome Home]

Hah!

That would be too much fun, but don't tempt DW. She loves her some Fla! Besides, I don't think I could handle all of the extra pounds from eating there that much . You bring up a good point, though. I'm surprised Josh over at EasyWDW hasn't jumped on that. The one Uni update he did last year was really good.

Thanks for the kind words, btw....

A few months back Josh said he was going to start more extensive Universal coverage soon but had to wrap up some fastpass+ stuff first.

 

[Lisa0620]

Another great update! The "this is your child"/"this is your child on butter beer" photos are hysterical. Love the food reviews and pictures too.

 

[clsteve]

A few months back Josh said he was going to start more extensive Universal coverage soon but had to wrap up some fastpass+ stuff first.

That's great to hear. Josh is good at what he does. EasyWDW really helped us when we've done WDW so I imagine his Uni insights will be just as good. Besides, he has to be ready for a Break from all the FP stuff (like a lot of us...)

 

[clsteve]

Another great update! The "this is your child"/"this is your child on butter beer" photos are hysterical. Love the food reviews and pictures too.

Thanks! Funny thing is - that's exactly how those two pictures happened! I think he'd just said something like "I'm the King of hot Butterbeer...!!"

 

[clsteve]

Day Two “Where's Early Entry…?”


Our first morning was about one thing – getting to DA as soon as is physically possible. Gringott’s was calling, as was the chance to do some “real magic”. Real magic in the form of interactive wands. Here’s where I need to post a warning to rest of you who have children – the call of those wands is next to irresistible to kids. The previous night, once our boys got the chance to see all of the other kids at all of those beyond cool interactive wand spots, that was all they talked about for the rest of the evening. Universal Creative nailed it. I think they may have developed the ultimate “Kiddy Crack” masquerading as a souvenir.

I have to say, we were excited, as well. The boys were now old enough and getting mature enough that we thought it was the perfect way to let them test out a little “autonomy” in a Theme Park. I remember how special it was when my parents did the same thing for me and a friend when I was their age on a trip to MK back in the ‘70s. We had planned before the trip to let the boys choose their wands, use the neat map of all the locations that come with them, choose a good meet up spot, give them one hour to go off by themselves - hunting out all of the interactive wand spots, then meet us back at the spot we’d chosen. Which, ironically, turned out to be the tables in front of The Hopping Pot. What an amazing coincidence that’s the exact place they serve those 2 new microbrews you can only get in Daigon Alley….?! Hey, Dad also had a few priority “experiences” for the trip….

So, we get up well rested (thanks Loew’s beds!) and in plenty of time for Early Entry. Off we go to US. As we walk by IOA, I comment on all of the people lined up there at 7:40am instead of at US. Seemed strange. Well, we get to US and there’s a TM manager type with a clipboard standing there who proceeds to tell us that EE is now at IOA. “Is that just for today…?” “I’m not really sure” was the answer. “So, we can just catch the HE over right away, so we can get to DA ahead of the non-EE crowd…?” “Not really sure…” was the answer. Hmm… it seems those who should know were just as confused about this change as we were. This would be a recurring theme for the rest of the trip.

So, back to IOA we go for EE. It seems those folks already waiting there were a lot smarter than I was. Or, the TM’s decided I could use the additional exercise of a walk over to US, then back to IOA. Not that they were wrong about that. I very much appreciate them looking out for my well being…

Back at IOA...

Yes, we did purchase PhotoConnect again for this trip. It worked out well, which I’ll try to highlight. But, you’ll probably notice that the dates under the pictures got messed up, somehow. It’s been driving me crazy trying to match pics to days, so I’m just going to give up and through them in where I think they should go.

Also, funny story, when we redeemed them at the Photo Shop that morning, DW just pulled up the email receipt on her IPhone to show the young lady. A hilarious (to me) back and forth started when she said “Sorry, this has already been used for the maximum number of days…” Kind of hard for that to happen, since this was our first morning. Come to find out that DW had pulled up last year’s email by mistake. I think the young lady thought DW was trying to pull a fast one. I should have stopped with the “forgot to take your Geritol…” jokes much sooner than I did.

It was a beautiful morning – about 68 degrees and sunny, with an expected high of 79 degrees. Off to Hogsmeade we go.

No matter how many times we enter Hogsmeade, we still think the site lines are breathtaking...

Wet head straight to the HE. However, the TM standing there tells us that they won’t let any guests into the queue until 8:30am and the train won’t run until 9am. I give another hmm…. So, plenty of time to hit FJ before heading back. Great as always, but we notice the mist screen that shows your faces project on it isn't working. It didn't for our whole stay, actually. Other than that, it was still as great as always. The other thing we noted was how much more strict they were this trip about what can be carried on the ride. I don’t think DW had to use the lockers once last trip with the same cross body bagalini she brought this time. Not the case this trip. Btw, we, as a family, failed miserably at the “remember your locker number” game. We were miserable at it….

By 8:24am, we were back at Hogsmeade Station to get in line. But, they were already letting people in. Go figure. I’m starting to wonder if we should have just waited at the Studios gates for the 9am opening. We were still lucky enough to catch the first train which left about 8:45am.

I’ll never get tired of seeing that train come into the station...

We exit into Kings Cross, go down the stairs, and run into a crowd of people already entering DA since they opened the Studios gates around 8:40am, according to some guests I talked to in front of us in the Gringott's queue. OK… Now I know exactly what we’re going to do for Park Entry tomorrow.


I’ll also never get tired of passing through the bricks and entering DA...

Gringott’s

OK. Turns out it actually is possible to create a queue as good or better than Forbidden Journey. The Lobby is stunning and the Goblins, no doubt, set the bar for 21st Century animatronics.

Pictures do not do justice to just how massive those chandeliers are – or how decadent. They're Vienna Opera House, or Windsor Castle stunning. I had a TM tell me the big one cost over 2 million dollars And, yes. Take that with a grain of “TM/CM urban mythology”. But, once you see them, I would not be surprised it that was actually true.

The ride itself? Every one of us absolutely loved it. We’re equally split as a family, with 2 of us thrill seekers and 2 of us not. I think they hit it out of the ballpark in accomplishing their goal of designing a major attraction that’s good for the whole family. It had just enough thrill factor for us thrill seekers, while topping out on the max level of thrill (in a good way) for the non-thrill seekers. Could I have taken more? Definitely. But then, the rest of our family would have been left out. I think they also did a bang up job of incorporating those amazing physical sets that put you right in the vaults, then seamlessly integrating the screens (which are so huge it’s hard to tell where they start) which project a “window-like” story. Add the ride vehicle and the special effects like the mist waterfall , the fog, the heat and the water, I think it adds up to an experience of actually being in the movie. When you do ride, take a second to look at the effort they put into the detail designed show the immensity of the vaults that shows on the screens. Impressive.

This is tough to say, but I rank it ahead of FJ and it might now be my favorite ride at Universal (just don’t tell MiB or the Mummy….). I do suggest riding it in the morning, if you can. We must have ridden it 12 times in six days. Every time we rode in the morning, all of the effects worked seamlessly and was perfectly sync’d. The couple of times in the evening, however, one or 2 things weren’t. It’s an incredibly complex attraction that get’s more quirky as the day goes on….

We rode it again, right away. The wait had climbed to only 25 minutes, which I think is the perfect amount of time since it’s just enough time to really take in all of the queue elements, without the wait being too long.

Time for Wand picking. We chose to choose them at the kiosk in Carkitt Market rather than the wand shop. The shop itself is a definite improvement on Ollivander's – much bigger. But, wow, it can still be overwhelming and a bit confusing. It can save you, literally, hours (it seemed to me, anyway) selecting wands at the cart - all nicely laid out, without the mass of humanity. It's called Wands by Gregorovitch.

Can you tell how quickly they want to get started? Couldn't even slow down for the picture….

Full disclaimer. DW was a little apprehensive about letting the boys run off on their own in such a big public area. It probably didn’t help when I started to make “helicopter sounds” while hovering over her . But, I couldn’t think of a better place to let them go flex some autonomy. Besides, DA is really self-contained, with one entrance/exit. Even as directionally challenged as some of our family can be, I was more interested to see if they could actually find us at the meeting spot and make their hour curfew than I was worried they’d end up wandering down International Drive with Mom screaming at the Cops it was all my fault.

It worked out great.

Plus, we could wander, take in the sites, and check out a few shops at our own leisurely, don't have the kids right now, pace. Besides, an hour goes by very quickly while you're in DA.

But, there’s always time for the Dragon…..

She’s amazing…..

Not to mention, I could finally try one of the new adult offerings –Wizard’s Brew and Dragon Scale while we waited on the boys. In the last TR I pointed out how impressed I was by the breadth and quality of their Beer selection in Hogsmeade. Both of these are really nice additions. I’m more of a “malty” rather than a “hoppy” guy, so both were right in my wheelhouse. Wizard's Brew is an American sweet stout with a rich, almost caramel flavor, with some chocolate, that’s a very smooth drink with some hop at the end. It might not be for everyone, but this is a well-crafted beer. I came away from the trip ranking the Witches Brew slightly over the Dragon Scale. Although, Dragon Scale is probably more suited to the Fla. climate and is a nicely malted amber in the Vienna tradition (think: nice toasted hints and color) with just the right hop for me. Sorry, I’m just tired of this extra, extra, extra, extra hop craze American craft brewers seem to be going through. Both beers were just another example of how committed to quality Uni seems to be with their offerings, lately. They could just as easily slapped those names on lower quality, cheaper beers and reaped a higher profit margin. But, they didn't - thank goodness. Kudos to them.

And yes, I had a beer at 10:45am. But only because I’m so dedicated to bringing you as much detail about Universal as possible. So, I took one for the team. I hope you appreciate the sacrifice….

Time for lunch, so we head right over to The Leaky Cauldron.

This was high on my bucket list for this trip. Full Disclaimer: I love English Pub Food. Living over there as a single guy, it was pretty much the Pub for dinner one night, find a good curry the next night. Then repeat. Then repeat, again. So, my review may be a bit skewed. I know that’s not the case for many folks, and some of the reviews I read beforehand were a bit mixed over the restaurant since that’s all they offer. But, one thing’s for sure, this is a beautiful restaurant. They put a lot of effort into its theme.

And it works….

Unfortunately, it works a little too well. While I was off taking pictures of the detail, the food arrived. It’s one of those new-style quick service restaurants where you order at the counter, then pick a table where you set down your number. A TM then brings out your food to the table. The food arrived before I returned. Meaning, the boys’ plates were in no shape for pictures. I will say, the display of the plates in the picture above are very realistic and true to what we were delivered.

They both ordered the Fish and Chips. Really good – both perfectly fried in hot enough oil so the fish and the chips were crisp on the outside while moist on the inside. 4 stars and that’s as amazing to me as it probably is to you that I just gave quick service fish and chips that high of a rating. I will warn you – it’s A Lot of food - 4 big pieces of fish to each plate. Our boys are big eaters. Neither could come close to finishing. We easily could have split one order between the 2 of them and will next time.

Mom had the Guinness Stew, served in a bread bowl with a nice side salad of mixed greens. She gives it 3 stars. It was good, but, seemed to lack just a little something to make it really special. The meat was nice and not fatty and the vegetables weren't overcooked. Maybe that was the problem as far as authenticity. It didn't have that deep, rich, been cooking on the pot for a couple of days, flavor to the broth. Very serviceable, though.

I had the Bangers and Mash - my go-to dish back in the Pub days when I could eat anything and not gain a pound. Very good – 4 stars. The bangers had a wonderful flavor, and were close to authentic, though not with as soft of a consistency as I remember. The onion gravy was rich and the mash very nice though not near as creamy as I remember. That’s a compliment, btw. I lean to a firmer, lumpier mashed potato - always. Now, the peas were very good – definitely not in the traditional mushy category at all and they tasted very fresh. But, the big surprise was the mixed veggie. There were Parsnips! Parsnips, I tell you! What in-Park, quasi-counter service restaurant puts that much effort into their mixed veggie..? I should give them 5 stars just for that, really nice…

We’ll give the Leaky Cauldron a solid 3.5 stars for the food and, as our best counter service visit ever in a Theme Park, 4.5 stars for the atmosphere and how well it fits the overall DA experience.

Time to leave DA, hit some favorites on the way out for pool time, and relaxation. We’ll then let how we feel after that dictate the rest of the day and evening. Don’t judge our gluttony too harshly if that ends with a big Mexican meal at Antojitos….

The rest of Day Two is On Deck....