Our trip has begun!! It’s just me and DB. We got an early start today, took an Uber to Philadelphia airport at 3:20 am for a 5:00 flight.
Blew through security. 45 min delay sitting on the plane but we still landed in Orlando at 8:30am.
After an Uber to Sapphire Falls resort we settled right into our room. I did mobile check in the night before and our room was ready!
We had the buffet breakfast in the hotel and now we are relaxing in our room. Our trip is for 7 nights and we are visiting both Disney and Universal. Tonight is our RIP tour for HHN!
I’m going to try not to be on here too much because a goal for this trip is to be in the moment and unplug from tech but I will update sometimes.
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Sounds lovely to be settled in. Makes the early start worth it!
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Have fun!
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…well that’s far too early but can’t wait to read about HHN! Enjoy!
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Thank you! It is lovely to be settled already.
Yep that was way too early. 6:30 is the sweet spot but the next one wasn’t until 8 or 9 and that’s too late for me.
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I’m glad I waited to buy universal tickets. They just released a 2 day plus 2 free deal. We plan to do one park per day this time and possibly volcano bay. Does anyone know if we can use the last ticket on the same day as another one? To elaborate if we have 4 one park per day tickets can we use one for universal on Tuesday, one for VB Thursday morning and one at IOA that same evening and then IOA on Saturday?
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No. It’s 1 park per day without the park-to-park ticket.
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Oh man where do I start. HHN 31 was pretty disappointing to me. The houses were not up to par with what they have done in the past and this was the most expensive one I’ve done to date. The RIP tour plus admission for 2 was a whopping 905.22.
The most frustrating part of the tour was that our guide took us zigzagging all around the park doing extra steps for no apparent reason. Our tour finished at the same time that it had ended last year when we did scream early with express on a Wednesday. I made a map of the way she had us hit the houses.
We started at cafe la bomba with terrible food served on the smallest plate you ever saw. Think teacup saucer. At a buffet. My olives and hummus were touching my cold pizza fries. Tour went counter clockwise to the 4 houses near Simpsons area and then we cut across the lake to Lombards. Took a 20 min bar break at 8:00 in Lombards and then I guess we were slotted for the 9:30 nightmare fuel show so she proceeded to take us alllll the way to the front of the park to A&B and then allllll the way back to Lombards at 9:00 then the show 9:30-10 and then we did blumhouse and the last 3 in NY.
Holy hell. This made Zero sense. Why we couldn’t just go clockwise around the park will haunt me more than anything else I saw that night.
They should have had some of the specialty foods of HHN offered at the reception.
We were too tired to enjoy Diagon ally after the tour which was a bummer.
My fav houses were Halloween, Dead Mans wharf, Bugs and the weekend. The rest I would have been fine skipping. They really dropped the ball on some of these houses in my opinion.
Ok rant over. I’m ready to stop complaining and enjoy the rest of my trip. Sorry if I sound like a brat but NINE HUNDRED for 2.
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That’s crazy money for a crappy experience. I’m sorry.
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Thanks. Yea not worth it in the slightest. 
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We literally did the first 4 houses in the first half hour. I think they wanted to drag it out to make it seem like it’s longer. I would have loved to have seen all of the houses from 7-9 in location order and then have free reign of the booths and rides and shows. I’m so annoyed still.
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We had wonderful tapas and drinks at strong water tavern in Sapphire falls resort. We got the pork belly tacos and sliders. For drinks DB got the rum old fashioned and I got the rum mule with homemade ginger beer. Everything was really really good. Especially the tacos and the mule.
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Today we are sleeping in and lazing about our room. Enjoying the pool for the afternoon. Then, a much anticipated dinner at Bull & Bear in the Waldorf Astoria.
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Yes. Bull and Bear at the Waldorf Astoria is only 2nd to Victoria and Alberts. Make room in your schedule for this gem. Our bill was 281 after tax and we left a $60 tip because the service is impeccable.
We started with cocktails. Absinthe and the fire and ice. The fire and ice was ok but was overshadowed by the absinthe.
Then, we had the truffle deviled eggs but I would skip and do the pasta explosion instead.
The Heirloom tomato salad with buratta was sooo yummy and fresh.
Bread service was also delish.
I had a lemon drop martini. My go to.
Then we shared the fried chicken and the filet with the sauce flight. The mashed potatoes are incredible. My fave sauce tonight was the red wine sauce.
One of our servers brought me a side of the raspberry marshmallows that usually come with the cheesecake as an extra treat. They were amazing. The chocolate bar was ok but I would skip it and get the Lemon dessert.
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Today was our universal day. We took the boat at 7:40. Gringotts was a walk on. Had breakfast at the leaky cauldron. The mummy was closed for the day . Rode jimmy Fallon , transformers, ET, Simpsons and MIB all before the noon show of Bourne. After Bourne stuntacular we took the boat to our room. We took an Uber to Disney springs and ate at the boathouse. We had lobster. Now we are back in our room for the day.
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I love empty Diagon Alley!
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How was the boathouse?
I love the boathouse. It’s always a good meal.
I forgot to do photos though.
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