17 Nights at Universal Vacation

[Mad Dog]

This will be a fairly brief report, even though it was a long vacation trip. We absolutely love Universal vacations, primarily
because they are always a nice leisurely, little planning required, vacation, due to the closeness of the hotels, parks,
and CityWalk. And we love IOA and USF since there is so much to do and the attractions have an excellent repeatability factor.
So, our vacation was primarily based on the North Campus and Epic was just a side dish. I'll talk about the Epic attractions , but,
in their respective threads. I have little to add here since @Clive did such an excellent and thorough job, in his trip report, on
Epic attractions. And I, for the most part, have the same viewpoint/observations he expressed, with just a few differences.

 

[Mad Dog]

Day One:
We arrived at Portofino about 10:00 AM on Nov. 15th. We absolutely love Portofino and have spent well over 100 nights
there since 2011. Loews really knows how to run a deluxe resort. Guests come first.
I booked 6 nights back in Feb. and got a really good AP rate. With the in demand pricing, it's important to constantly check
rates. If I would have booked in Oct./Nov. the daily rate almost doubled. Anyway, I booked a garden view for the great discount.
I told the receptionist that we were going to be at Universal for 17 nights and had been to Portofino a lot. He checked my past
booking history and....surprise of surprises....gave us a complimentary updated deluxe Villa room with a patio adjacent to the beautiful
formal Italian pool. We would spend every morning breakfast/coffee on the patio and every evening with my own Chateau Pastor' wine
drinking it on the patio...with breaks on the main Piazza for the Italian singers and the Thirsty Fish bar.
We went to the room, had our usual celebratory glass of wine, unpacked....and went to the parks with our Hotel Express Pass, which is
the best value/comp in all of themeparkdom.
We rode Hagrids twice. A walk on with Express. Experienced the new debut of Botannicus at ET, and did a good number of rides at both
IOA and USF.
We came back to Portofino at dusk to catch the Italian singers show from the balcony, while we dined on the always excellent Sal's pizza.
And then drinks and live entertainment outdoors at the Thirsty Fish. The weather was a dream on our trip. 14 of the 17 days were low 80's
temps and sunny skies. Best weather, by far, we ever experienced at Orlando. The Italian singers were 'Excellent'. During our six nights at
Portofino, the service was always 'fabulous'. The resort looks great after the long refurb (that's the third since 2011) and Portofino has
returned to the glory days.

 

[Mad Dog]

Day Two:
Epic today. I scheduled a non Holiday week Sunday to encounter lower crowds. We arrived around 10:15 AM, earlier than I
originally expected. I didn't want to go too early so we could last until closing at 10:00 PM. Perfect weather again, 82 degrees
and sunny. And, yes, the park thinned out considerably after 5:30 PM, which happens most non Holiday Sundays. I wanted to
be able to judge Epic on how it performs without super long lines or uncomfortable heat. Those are the two factors that are
generally quoted by guests that didn't like their Epic day.
Days Three and Four:
IOA and USF parks, Portofino pools, and Tuesday night on the Piazza watching the Italian singers. On Monday the large (probably 40
feet or more) tree arrived on the Piazza and it was decorated. Monday night we dined at Marleys on CityWalk. We love the ambiance
and food there. Great music also. Looks like they've done some renovation since our last Marley dinner three years ago. Also, I noted
the bill has Universal Orlando Resort on it. That indicates Universal is managing this restaurant, like Pat O'Briens. Sounds like its
probably safe from the non Universal stores/restaurants/bars recent erasures from the resort. Also, on Monday we made our first stop
at the USF AP discount store. This is a great gift to passholders with it's 80% off lowest price on the merchandise. We got lucky since
they cleaned out a lot of the first Wicked movie shirts since Wicked Two was arriving that week. Our nieces and grandkids love Wicked
so we bought three bags of Wicked shirts for them plus a ton of Harry Potter stuff. Most of the Wicked stuff disappeared after that day.
Everyone was buying it.
Day Five:
IOA, USF and the Portofino pool during the day. On Weds. evening our friends Liza and Dave @Disneyhead joined us for wine
on our patio and wine and two Sal's pizzas on the Piazza with a nice show by the balcony Italian singers. Liza and Dave and me and Alene
danced on the Piazza to a few of their songs. The tree was test lit for the last time before the official lighting later in November. A 'Great'
evening with good friends, and some deep theme park, behind the scenes, discussion.

 

[Mad Dog]

Thursday was our last evening at Portofino. Fourth time watching the very talented Italian singers. They had different
mixes of the singers the nights we watched. Three duos were excellent. Tuesday night was the only duo we've ever
watched over the years that were weak. Their voices lacked projection.
During the six nights (7 days of Hotel Express) we rode major rides a lot. Hagrids 4 or 5 times alone. I speculated that
Thanksgiving week would be busy, and we wouldn't ride much. Friday morning we checked out of Portofino and took the
boat to the parks. We caught the very first Grinchmas show of the Holiday season. We love Grinchmas, and along with
Universal's Macy's Parade are the main reasons we sometimes do holidays at Universal. Grinchmas is just fabulous. I can't
say enough good things about this show. And it's very comfortable since they moved it to the 1100 seat former Blue Group
theater. We saw this six times during our vacation and four of the shows had completely filled theaters, therefore turning
away people in line that had to wait for the next show.
We rode rides until 3:30 and then took the boat back to Portofino, got in our car, and drove over to Cabana Bay for the
remaining 11 nights of Universal vacation. We really love CBBR and book there often, usually combining it with some days
at Portofino, Royal Pacific or Sapphire. We walk into the lobby of CBBR and the admission line snaked through the long queue
all the way to the entrance doors. We got in line and talked to some people. They said reservation process was taking one to
two hours. I spotted a desk, removed from the others, in the corner. It said 'online reservations' only. Two people were in
that line. Well, I always do online registration, so I walked over there and checked in. It took a couple of minutes. I commented
on that long long line. The lady said it had been that long since 7:00 AM. Then I remembered that it was a Orlando Informer
weekend. Those people always clog up the hotels and sometimes make it tough to get a room at a good price for non OI
participants. Universal usually cuts hours the days they're there also. It wasn't bad when OI had one or two meetups a year,
but now they have them constantly. I guess its a real moneymaker for them. Anyway, this is a lesson in why one should
always register on line with your credit card before leaving for vacation.
Since we had such a long stay CBBR gave us a complimentary update to a pool view room, and a discount on parking to only
$15 a night. Love Loews.
After settling in we went to our fav restaurant/bar at Universal. A short walk across the street to Sapphires Strong Water Tavern.
The most interesting menu at Universal. Its composed of a zillion small plates . As usual we ordered three small plates to split
among the two of us. And best drinks at the resorts. I had two Grogs and Alene had two of a really delicious drink, can't
remember the name. We absolutely love Strong Water. Great view and ambiance, with live music, too.

 

[Skold]

... A short walk across the street to Sapphires Strong Water Tavern...