Universal Studios Orlando, Fl 2024 | Part 3: Days 3 & 4

Day 3

Hey everybody! Today I am excited to bring you the third and final installment of my Universal Studios series. If you haven’t read parts one and two yet, make sure you go back and do that too!

For this day in our trip, the my husband and brother-in-law had fast passes to ride roller coasters to their heart’s content. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and myself took this opportunity to do endless amount of shopping.

We picked up coffee at the hotel, then made our first stop for breakfast at Croissant Moon Bakery in Islands of Adventure. I got the bacon, egg, and cheese croissant (which is my typical style of breakfast) and I was a huge fan of it! The croissants were super flaky and made a mess on the table, but good nonetheless. Personally, I would venture to say that Croissant Moon Bakery would be the best quick service breakfast in IOA (but the Harry Potter Traditional English Breakfast is my favorite sit-down). They also had a selection of pastries that look delicious. We tried the french toast muffin, which was less french-toast and more cinnamon muffin, but also good.

My outfit for the day was inspired by the Despicable Me minions, complete with banana earrings from Shein. My shirt (such a great basic staple, but be aware that they do shrink) and tulip shorts (only $15!) were both from Amazon.

We spent a chunk of time in Seuss Landing for my niece (carousel riding and face painting were her favorite things). With matching grandma and thing 1 & 2 shirts, my mother-in-law wanted to get a photo with cat in the hat and my nieces. A Universal team member told us we would be able to go that after the show, but after waiting through the show the characters hurried back stage and we weren’t able to do so.

We were confused and a little frustrated and explained the situation to another US team member who was in charge of the Dr. Seuss character meet and greets. He informed us that a Make a Wish family had arrived and he had been asked to pull the characters back for a private meet and greet which had not been planned ahead of time, but they obviously wanted to accommodate the family nonetheless. We totally understand, but he offered to make it up to us by giving us a private meet and greet an hour later. This experience alone was so remarkably impressive and is a good example of the customer service that we got with all Universal employees during our visit.

We let the hour pass by riding the carousel (again, 😂) and then after our meet and greet, we went off to shop.

My goal for the day was to take a photo next to the minion, so we did that and then sat down for lunch at the Minion Cafe. The food was so-so and once again, it was kind of unique and maybe not the best choice for picky eaters. However, the minion tots were fantastic especially with the cheese syringe that came with my Sting & Cheese Ray Sandwich.

My husband also went on villain-con minion blast with me. I am not a roller coaster girl, but I do like these game-type rides and thought this one was fun! I also made sure to visit the stores for minion-merch, despicable me pressed pennies (side note: I have been collecting pressed pennies since I was a kid and Universal had tons of them!), and my very own villain-con ID badge. This is probably the area of the park that I was most excited to visit.

I also went on the Fast and Furious ride with my husband. I had heard a lot of hate about this ride, but I like F&F and I thought I could handle it. I am here to tell you that even though I know it was all optical illusions and seats that tilt or vibrate, I felt like I was in the middle of a car accident, and it was so loud! 😂 Not a fan of this ride! However, the theming of the ride was spot on. The garage even smells like grease from a mechanic shop!

We accomplished a couple other things on day 3 of our trip. We caught a couple street performances such as ¡Vamos! – Báilalo and Beat Builders. Both were impressive and entertaining and something different to sprinkle throughout the day. And of course, my mother-in-law and I ventured back to Diagon Alley for another frozen Butter Beer! 😋

We had a little time to kill before dinner, so Brian and I hopped on the Universal Studios shuttle boats at City Walk and rode down the river and back. Universal allows anyone to do this in an effort to get you to explore the more high end hotel options so that you want to come back and stay there. We didn’t explore any of the hotel properties, but it was a nice little sunset boat ride! We just waited in line, hopped on a boat, road down the the hotel and got right back in line to go back to City Walk. They do restrict these visitor rides later in the day though so that that hotel guests are not disturbed.

For our third night at Universal, I made reservations for our family at the highly recommended Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen. Brian was a huge fan of the steampunk aesthetic, and I have to admit it was very eye catching when walking through City Walk (especially at night).

Thanks to our reservation we were able to be seated with no wait time. Unfortunately, the food was not really spectacular in my book. It was good, but nothing out of this world that I am dreaming of after coming back home. I would give the food an 8/10. However, the milkshakes were definitely worth it; definitely a 10/10.

Toothsome does have a walk-in chocolate treats counter and a walk up milkshake counter so you can enjoy the best part without sitting down to eat here. In this future, I will probably consider going this route.

After dinner, my mother-in-law, Brian, and myself played a friendly game of mini golf against some aliens at Hollywood Drive In Golf in City Walk. We chose the Invaders From Planet Putt Putt course, and I honestly think it was one of the cutest mini golf courses I’ve ever played. There was also a mini game with your score card which earned you a scratch off prize if you got all of the questions right. I would definitely go back again to play the second course.

Day 4

Volcano Bay! We were blessed to have great weather throughout our entire trip, but a rainy day finally caught up to us on our water park day. That was both a blessing and a curse, because on one hand you’re going to be wet anyway, but on the other hand it was cold and the rides were opening and closing on and off for while.

I’m not big on roller coasters or water coasters, but I did enjoy the lazy river 2.5 times before the weather sirens came on and all rides closed. I stayed at the water park with Brian and my brother in law, and everyone else took the kids back to the hotel to get out of the rain. When the storm warning was announced, everyone was required to get out of the water and off of all rides, but you do not have to leave the park. We took this opportunity to grab some lunch while we waited for things to pass.

Fun Fact, eating at this particular park was a little tricky for me because I have a pretty scary mango allergy. Because the park is Hawaiian themed, there are quite a few restaurants that serve food and/or sauces containing mango. Kohola Reef Restaurant was our first try for lunch, but after looking at the menu and seeing all the mango items I felt safer trying a different restaurant and we ended up at Whakawaiwai Eats instead. I had the jerk shrimp mac and cheese, and while mac and cheese wouldn’t be my typical choice for a pool day lunch, this was warm and filling and exactly what you want when you’re cold from sitting in the rain in a bathing suit in April.

We loved Volcano Bay! So much so, my husbands one requirement for our Disney trip next year is that we take a day to go back over to Universal and go to the water park. 😂

After lunch, I decided I was ready to be warm and wanted to have time to shower and get ready before dinner, so I went back to the hotel and enjoyed a hot shower and a little quiet time before heading back to the park for the last time.

Once I was ready to go and the sun was back out, I decided to take on the parks solo to catch a show or two that I hadn’t had a chance to see yet. I made it just in time (literally I walked up just as it started) for Bourne Stuntacular. While I was glad I got to experience something else in Universal, I will admit that it was kind of a bummer to do it by myself and wished I would have had Brian with me.

After the show, a week of fun and early mornings was catching up to me so I grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and soaked in the last little bit of time in the park. It was bittersweet but peaceful; I was already starting to think about another visit in the future. Side note: Starbucks baristas inside the parks are not allowed to accept tips. I thought this was odd, but maybe someone can explain why this is the norm here? Leave me a comment if you know why.

My family started to trickle into the park just in time for our reservations at Finnegan’s Irish Pub. I couldn’t help but laugh as our family from Augusta, GA stepped into an Irish pub in Orlando, FL and looked up at the TVs to see the eyes of the world on The Augusta National Golf Course since we were visiting Universal during Masters Week. It felt like a unique cultural mash up.

We enjoyed our last dinner in the parks. The food was just as you expect it to be; hearty, reliable, and just the right amount of greasy. Most of our table got fish and chips, and Brian got the shephard’s pie. All around I give this place a 10 out of 10 for yummy reliable food, friendly staff, and fun atmosphere. The restaurant is also designed to look like a TV show set, which was so unique!

That concluded our Universal Studios - Orlando experience. Our family had the absolute best time! What we thought would be a once and done experience has turned into something that we are looking forward to doing again (especially when Epic Universe opens in 2025).

If you love Universal Studios or are planning to visit some time soon, I hope you enjoyed this series and I would love to hear about your favorite Universal things in the comments!

As always, if you have any questions feel free to leave them below and I will be happy to answer them soon.

Thanks so much for reading!
xo
Sami Laughlin