In which we (sadly) leave Disneys Port Orleans French Quarter and head to Universal Portofino Bay

 After ten days at Disney we will be seeing out our remaining four days at Universal. We are staying at a signature hotel. They are quite posh but that’s not what makes them special. What makes them special is that guests of the three signature hotels get free Universal Fast Passes. These allow you to skip the queue on all the rides. So they are a big thing.

We finished off our dining plan by buying French Quarters famous Beignets (to take with us) then got a Lyft (same as Uber) to our new hotel.

Big room at Portofino Bay

Outside the Hotel

There is a boat to the Parks

Arriving at Universal Studios

French Quarter Beignets for lunch (doughnuts to us)

The Movie Parade

City Walk in the pouring rain

Tea at the Chocolate Emporium

And one of their famous Milkshakes

Portofino at night

Notable Events

It was very sad to leave Disney behind, not least because we now leave the dining plan behind and now pay for all our food! We have also left the fantastic Photopass behind, although we are looking into Universals version as we love it so much.

You can get to City Walk, where two of the parks are, by bus, boat or walking. We walked back after the meal and it took about 20mins.

Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived at noon so we headed straight for the park and walked on several rides with our Express passes.

While sitting nicely eating our beignets on a bench (see photo) a swarm of Spaniards surrounded us really invading our space. Why I do not know as there was plenty of room in the whole rest of the park. 

We went on a fantastic Harry Potter ride where you get in an altercation in the Gringotts basement. We were sat next to a young boy and his mum. At one point Voldemort appeared waving his wand and the young lad pointed to me and said ‘ Here’s Harry Potter! Over here!’. So I was offered up for sacrifice.

Universal has a similar thing to Disney with the Halloween nights, but they are more adult and go on later. We obviously voted against attending. It does mean the parks close earlier though, and when we went back to the restaurant later the area was heaving.

There was an almighty storm in the evening, with spectacular lightning. Hence the umbrellas.