Arrived in Friday night and checked into aventura around midnight. Just me and my 11 yo. I've been enjoying the hotel. The rooftop bar was real lively last night, and before that we had a good time at the pool, with a good number of kids around the same age but otherwise catering more to the adults. All around just a great place to socialize, and though it's definitely not providing 4 star service the people who work here are great. Very few little kids here which is nice. One of the perks of having a just ok pool.
Park hopped between IOA and US on Saturday, more or less having a strictly Harry Potter day. As I noted in another post, the morning was nearly flawless. Early entry to IOA. Hagrids was down (the one negative, but with a silver lining) so we just enjoyed Hogsmeade then walked on to express, gringotts, express again and then FJ (well not exactly walk on, but walked straight to the classroom). Had breakfast at Leaky Cauldron. Bangers were banging and the potatoes, mushrooms, and croissant were all delightful. After FJ hung out behind Hogs Head. I enjoyed a hogshead and a deathly hallows triple (called it that every time I ordered it and got no pushback fwiw). The kid had a frozen butter beer - spectacular!
I would highly recommend this itinerary if hagrids is down for EE. Had a really great time and fully experienced everything Harry Potter before noon - with one exception of course. We definitely had time to do olivanders and griffin if we had wanted to, but preferred to shop and enjoy some brew.
At this point we decided to bite the bullet and get in line for hagrids with the wait time down to a mere 105 minutes. Good lord that line is brutal. It's not just that the wait is long, it's that the queue moves so slowly that you spend way too much time in the same room. It was at least 20 minutes and in one case a good 45 minutes to move through a room. It just gets incredibly boring. On to of that that it wound up taking 2 hours 10 minutes. But it was our first time riding and damn was it worth it. Great great great ride. We're going to EE again tomorrow in hopes it'll be open.
Today (Sunday ) we did VB and I was just blown away! had never been before and without a doubt it's the best water park I've ever been to. we were up late the night before so we didn't arrive until after noon. The walk from aventura was amazingly short. it's almost like having VB is the other more spectacular swimming pool for the hotel, but of course it's not just a swimming pool. So relaxing, such beautiful sightlines, exquisite theming. I had coconut curry chicken when we got there and it was really good, and the platanos they came with were cooked to perfection.
Spent a long time time floating down the winding River losing track of time and and space. Then moved on to the fearless River, putting in a solid 5 laps and loving every minute. At this point there were short waits for everything but the water coaster, which was full. So we did Tonga and IkaMoana. Great slides both of them,especially the latter. From there we found a nice spot on the main beach and just soaked it up in and out of the wave pool with a periodic dip into dancing Dragons for some rum sugar and ice.
Going back on Tuesday. Got a good deal on preferred seating, and just love the idea of ordering from my seat. I'll be back to report on that and our first HHN. So far its been a great trip at UOR.
Park hopped between IOA and US on Saturday, more or less having a strictly Harry Potter day. As I noted in another post, the morning was nearly flawless. Early entry to IOA. Hagrids was down (the one negative, but with a silver lining) so we just enjoyed Hogsmeade then walked on to express, gringotts, express again and then FJ (well not exactly walk on, but walked straight to the classroom). Had breakfast at Leaky Cauldron. Bangers were banging and the potatoes, mushrooms, and croissant were all delightful. After FJ hung out behind Hogs Head. I enjoyed a hogshead and a deathly hallows triple (called it that every time I ordered it and got no pushback fwiw). The kid had a frozen butter beer - spectacular!
I would highly recommend this itinerary if hagrids is down for EE. Had a really great time and fully experienced everything Harry Potter before noon - with one exception of course. We definitely had time to do olivanders and griffin if we had wanted to, but preferred to shop and enjoy some brew.
At this point we decided to bite the bullet and get in line for hagrids with the wait time down to a mere 105 minutes. Good lord that line is brutal. It's not just that the wait is long, it's that the queue moves so slowly that you spend way too much time in the same room. It was at least 20 minutes and in one case a good 45 minutes to move through a room. It just gets incredibly boring. On to of that that it wound up taking 2 hours 10 minutes. But it was our first time riding and damn was it worth it. Great great great ride. We're going to EE again tomorrow in hopes it'll be open.
Today (Sunday ) we did VB and I was just blown away! had never been before and without a doubt it's the best water park I've ever been to. we were up late the night before so we didn't arrive until after noon. The walk from aventura was amazingly short. it's almost like having VB is the other more spectacular swimming pool for the hotel, but of course it's not just a swimming pool. So relaxing, such beautiful sightlines, exquisite theming. I had coconut curry chicken when we got there and it was really good, and the platanos they came with were cooked to perfection.
Spent a long time time floating down the winding River losing track of time and and space. Then moved on to the fearless River, putting in a solid 5 laps and loving every minute. At this point there were short waits for everything but the water coaster, which was full. So we did Tonga and IkaMoana. Great slides both of them,especially the latter. From there we found a nice spot on the main beach and just soaked it up in and out of the wave pool with a periodic dip into dancing Dragons for some rum sugar and ice.
Going back on Tuesday. Got a good deal on preferred seating, and just love the idea of ordering from my seat. I'll be back to report on that and our first HHN. So far its been a great trip at UOR.
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