Orlando, Day 2 - Raining Pancakes

Though we had planned to get up early and make our trip to Universal Studios, the entire gang woke up late on Day 2. We took one of the cabs provided by the resort down to Universal CityWalk. From there, we walked down to the ticketing booths.

That was when the rain hit. The ticketing booths had shelters with crappy design. It started pouring on us while we queued. We went up to the counter and had a messy exchange with the counter lady over the roar of the rain. She misunderstood us and gave us 2-day Park-to-Park tickets which cost us 200+USD each. Jieqi realised something was wrong and got us to ask her to do a double-check. What we really wanted were 3-day Single Park Admission tickets. She corrected the mistake while we waited in the rain, and eventually passed us our tickets.

TIP: If you wish to get tickets, buy them online instead of getting them directly from Universal’s ticketing booths. You will save 10 to 20USD on each ticket that way.

Since half the day was already over and it was raining shits and giggles, we decided we wouldn't activate our tickets until the next day. Once the rain lightened, we walked back to CityWalk and had lunch at the Cowfish, a fusion restaurant that combines Japanese bento and sushi concepts with American burger fare. I got a cup of tea and a burger called The Big Squeal, which had pulled pork stacked atop a juicy beef patty, smothered with cheese, onion strings and bacon coleslaw.

That thing's a monster.

After lunch, Jieqi found out there were actually bus services that could get us back to the hotel. The entire cost of a one-way journey was just 2USD per pax, a huge difference from the hotel’s transport service. We walked towards the bus stop from Universal, stopping along the way to watch some ducks.

Who let these quacks out?

We got back to the resort with one transfer. A quick break later, we went out once more to do some exploring. We soon ended up at the International House of Pancakes, or IHOP as it’s called. They basically serve up breakfast all day, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The servers are friendly, personable and efficient, refilling our bottomless drinks as soon as we drained our glasses, offering to take pictures of us and chatting us up after we’d finished our meal.

Group shot!

For dinner, I ordered IHOP’s special: four white chocolate pancakes soaked in raspberry syrup. Each table is also equipped with four bottles of syrup: traditional pancake syrup, butter pecan syrup, blueberry syrup and strawberry syrup. It was an amazing late-night breakfast meal.

When dessert becomes a meal, that's when shit gets real.

A short post for a short day. Day 2 was faced with a slight hiccough, but nonetheless managed to end on a white chocolate and raspberry syrupy note. All’s well that ends well with pancakes.