If you aren’t caught up, you can read Entries #1 and #2 here and here!
DAY 3- May 25th, 2021
Day 3 was our officially designated “Simpsons Day.” It was also the day of our dinner reservation at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.
The day began bright and early (aided by Starbucks again, of course). Our plans for the morning were to hit the Springfield area with Riley’s mom and sister tagging along with us.
We headed into the Universal Studios side of the park, and stopped by the famed Universal globe for pictures since we hadn’t gotten any by it yet.
We began the walk over to the Simpson’s section of the park, stopping for a few more photo ops along the way.
Our first goal in Springfield was to get one of the giant Homer doughnuts from the Kwik-E-Mart.
After a very nutritious breakfast of a giant donut, we hopped in line for the Kang & Kodos Twirl ‘n Hurl (themed after the aliens from the Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror episodes). It was mostly a kiddie ride, but still fun!
After the ride, we took in some of the views of the Springfield boardwalk. The theming in this part of the park was so fun and definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. There was something to see everywhere you looked!
Next on our itinerary was hitting up the Simpson’s ride again. We ended up waiting for a superrrrr long time, but playing Rock Paper Scissors and watching the Simpson’s clips passed the time relatively quickly.
After the Simpsons ride we took in a few more sights around Springfield, and even got to meet our first character of the trip!
After we accomplished everything on our list for the Springfield area, we headed back over to Diagon Alley (a recurring theme of our trip).
Our first stop in Diagon Alley was Weasley Wizard Wheezes, since we hadn’t been inside yet. Once again, I’m a huge Weasley twins girl, so I was ready to drop some serious money in their store.
I would’ve spent all day in that store if I could, but we had to move on. (Next trip, I’m just gonna convince my friends to leave me there). Next, we stopped by Florian Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor for some yummy ice cream to cool off because the morning was already heating up like crazy.
My friends opted for the Butterbeer ice cream, but I just had to try the earl grey lavender flavor since that’s one of my favorite combinations. It was AMAZING!
We found a little shady spot and enjoyed our ice cream cones (anything to take a break from the sun).
After our little break, we had to start the long trek over to the Islands of Adventure park to make our virtual line time for Hagrid’s. By this time, it was well over 90° and we were burning up.
Even with our virtual line pass, we still waited in a veryyyy long, very hot line for Hagrid’s. We finally made it on, and the ride was still a ton of fun, but we were definitely looking forward to getting back to the hotel for lunch and air conditioning.
After quick showers and a small lunch (since we had to save room for our dinner), we got all dressed up for our reservations at Toothsome’s Chocolate Emporium. We were so excited for the fancy dinner!
We got to the restaurant right at 4:45 for our reservation, and ended up being seated before Riley’s mom and sister got back.
The restaurant was beautiful inside, with plenty of things to look at while you waited for your food. Speaking of food, I had the gnocchi with chicken, sweet peppers, and a chocolate mole sauce, and it was delicious! It was really unusual and it was the first time I’d ever had chocolate mole sauce, and I loved it!
We also split an order of truffle fries as our appetizer, and they were wonderful. Of course we couldn’t go without trying one of Toothsome’s famous desserts, so we opted for splitting the Confetti Milkshake with Riley’s little sister.
After dinner, we had to check out the shop area of the restaurant just to see what they offered.
We decided to take a break from the parks that evening and just take it easy. We wanted to do some shopping and exploring in Citywalk since we really hadn’t been able to walk through it since we arrived. First of course, we had to take pictures in our dinner outfits 🙂
We also hung out by the river for awhile, watching the water taxis that run to and from some of the resorts and listening to the music echoing from the Hard Rock Hotel.
We went over to the huge Universal Studios store in Citywalk and did a little shopping, which resulted in the four of us having matching friendship necklaces 🙂
We walked all around to the areas we hadn’t explored yet, and ended up sitting in front of a bar where a young guy was playing the piano. We listened to him for quite awhile, and even got to talk to him for a little while. He was really good, and it was quality entertainment for our evening!
We had so much fun getting to hang out and do something a little different that night, just to shake it up since we had been spending most of our time in the parks. We headed back to the hotel pretty late that night, and got to see the most stunning full moon on our way back.
Day 3 was very sweaty and exhausting, but packed with so many fun moments! We had a wonderful time riding rides with Riley’s little sister and dressing up for a fancy dinner.
Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Make sure to watch for Entry #4 coming soon!
Stay sweet, Sophia ❤
Small Town Sophia 