Day 11: The Big Move
The plan: Get packed and drop off our luggage with the concierge for later pickup, then head to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy some highlights. Midafternoon sometime, go back to the resort, gather our things and catch a cab to Universal Studios to checkin at Portofino Bay around 4ish.
Phew! What a Disney whirlwind! We packed our bags this morning and did about seventeen double checks to make sure we didn’t leave something in the drawer or under a shelf. We checked out in MDE and hiked everything to the concierge to hold until the afternoon, when we were heading to Universal, and then took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom.
This was a really nice morning, except for the fact that everything we wanted to do was down. Pirates, Big Thunder. We had a LL for BT, which turned into an anytime, but we never got to properly use it. We hit Haunted Mansion again, did the Swiss Family Treehouse (something I think is underrated, especially the views at the top!), grabbed the excellent corn dog from Sleepy Hollow, then Big Thunder reopened! Then a leisurely walk out of the park, picked up some souvenirs for a niece, and a final boat ride back to the Polynesian.
We picked up our bags, hailed a cab, and began a strangely long ride to The Other Guys. Some kinda traffic nonsense had us moving. very. very. slowly. I. wanted. to. die. After about 45 minutes or so, we pulled into Portofino Bay. We checked in, settled into our room, then I went to pick up the tickets for the parks and HHN.
I want to take a moment to share how much of a shockingly awkward process this all was compared to Disney. Everything was already hooked up for us at Disney: the park tickets, the reservations, the special event tickets, everything. I didn’t even need to see a human to check in. Sure, they were friendly at Universal, but I had to go one place, and then to another place to deal with the tickets, lining up each time and going through a bit of a rigamaroll to get everything sorted. THEN, I have paper tickets that I need to keep on me. I mean, I know there’s a culture of lanyards at Universal, and we got them, but compared to the magic bands, it’s just not even close.
In fact, I noticed that the main difference between Disney and Universal: anytime Disney could make a customer-hostile interaction pleasant and even joyful, they would. For example: fingerprints when you enter the parks. For both Disney and Universal, there are two steps: scan your ticket, then use a finger to validate you’re you. At Disney, tapping the Magic Band then lights up a fun ring on the fingerprint sensor, you put your finger in and it spins a green light when it’s done, with a nice little tone letting you know, and my magic band would vibrate and flash. SUCH WHIMSY WHAT I LOVE!! At Universal, some dude with an Office Depot branded barcode scanner scans your ticket, then points you to the goddamned Radio Shack fingerprint scanner. No lights, no sounds, no whimsy, just a shitty thing you need to do before getting into the park.
This extends to just about everything being more awkward and less organized. Lines for Butterbeer, mobile ordering, making restaurant reservations, everything is just a pain in the ass, and for the most part disconnected from the whole experience. Disney makes it easy and fun to give them my money, Universal deigns to accept it.
Rant mostly over. Probably.
All this is to say, we went into Islands of Adventure just to walk through it, not really go on any rides or anything, just take it in. L’s fandom is Harry Potter, so she was excited to see that and get a preview of what’s to come. We did end up going through Poseidon’s Fury, an experience that I really enjoy, for all it’s cheese. L’s comment: “well, that was just delightfully campy.”
Butterbeer is quite excellent, a highlight of the parks, hands-down. It’s basically butterscotch root beer, with a butterscotch marshmallow topping, and we both loved it. We got at least one every time we were in the parks.
We finished off with a mediocre gyros and falafel from Fire Eater’s Grill, then made our way back to the hotel for the night.
I want to note that we both felt the Disney Drop when we arrived, and we both surprised at how much because we were at Universal Studios! I expected it to be mild, at best, but I think the quality of the experience at Disney is just so high that everything just seemed… worse at Universal. That feeling passed, but it took a day or two.