Some Fun on the Surface-of-the-Sun!! (Universal TR - July 2016)

schumigirl · Jul 25, 2016

Fabulous!!!

Love all your pics.......and you crammed so much into one day! Even with grouchy kids at times......lol......the indoor Hot tub is a little bit of a secret.......ssshhhhh! Lol.......you're right, hardly anyone uses it......

Love Mythos, but it is the coldest place in the park........I usually go outside for a warm up soon as I'm finished my meal.......I hate being cold!

So glad you got to ride Kong and enjoy it........and yes, you'll have to come back for the Hulk....it's looks really cool and hopefully not the headbanger it had become!

Love reading your report......... :thumbsup2

B's Marie · Jul 26, 2016

Just started reading and loving it!!

pigletto · Jul 27, 2016

I hate that "Beginning of the End" feeling! Usually for me it's starts slowly in the middle of the week. Instead of saying "We still have 6 days left!" I start saying "We only have five days left". It gets a little more desperate every day until finally I give in on departure day and accept I am going home. Departure day is all business for us though. We usually book the earliest flight out because we are in going home mode.

I agree, I think you will have to go back to ride the Hulk.

gtpoohbear · Jul 28, 2016

Okay, I'm determined to get the last day posted. I feel like I'm running out of steam here at the end, much like I was on the trip, lol! DD has been at camp all week and I tend to be a nervous wreck when she's gone, it's hard to focus on anything. But I probably need the distraction. So, it's coming right up

Lynne G said:
yeah, I did the early leaving time with my teens a few years ago. Lets just say, it's a good thing the big bright yellow late tag on our luggage still got our luggage home. Now, we shoot for a mid afternoon, so all can sleep in, get a nice late breakfast and then we're home before dinner.

I hear ya with the heat too, while we are having record breaking hot days, it just makes all grumpy. When we traveled at the end of the summer, my kids spent more time in the pool than the parks.

Excellent pictures!

I know that's what we SHOULD do. I always plan it like that at first. Then I just can't help myself. And it's been unusually hot here too. I got in the car the other day and it said it was 114! It wasn't really that hot once the car aired out, but still. I'm done with summer!

schumigirl said:
Fabulous!!!

Love all your pics.......and you crammed so much into one day! Even with grouchy kids at times......lol......the indoor Hot tub is a little bit of a secret.......ssshhhhh! Lol.......you're right, hardly anyone uses it......

Love Mythos, but it is the coldest place in the park........I usually go outside for a warm up soon as I'm finished my meal.......I hate being cold!

So glad you got to ride Kong and enjoy it........and yes, you'll have to come back for the Hulk....it's looks really cool and hopefully not the headbanger it had become!

Love reading your report.........

I just barely remember Hulk from last time we were there, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

And I actually felt a little weird going into the hot tub room at first - like I wasn't even supposed to be in there! It was so hidden, definitely a secret!

B's Marie said:
Just started reading and loving it!!

Yay! Glad to have another reader!

pigletto said:
I hate that "Beginning of the End" feeling! Usually for me it's starts slowly in the middle of the week. Instead of saying "We still have 6 days left!" I start saying "We only have five days left". It gets a little more desperate every day until finally I give in on departure day and accept I am going home. Departure day is all business for us though. We usually book the earliest flight out because we are in going home mode.

I agree, I think you will have to go back to ride the Hulk.

You know, I think part of the reason that the last day doesn't tend to go well is that we are in "going home mode" already. We're tired, stressed, rushed, distracted, etc. Makes it so much easier for things to go wrong, and harder to relax and enjoy. This one could have been worse. Owen had a minor incident, and Lily was a bit grumpy all day. But most of the day was salvaged, at least! One day I'll learn my lesson though, and stop trying to squeeze every last second out of the vacation!

gtpoohbear · Jul 28, 2016

Chapter 8. Surviving the Last Day Curse (Day 7)

Well, this was it. Our last day. Our flight was leaving MCO at 5pm, and we fully intended to suck every last second out of the day. We would have to be checked out of the room by 11am, but that gave us several hours to hit the parks, so we were determined to be at US by 7am, despite not having gotten to bed until after 11pm. Owen talked me into giving him a Diet Dr. Pepper in the room, claiming he needed the caffeine. (He never gets soda, so this was a rare treat)

For the first time, there was actually a long line at security coming from the resort walkway. I tried to get a selfie of all of us, but Lily was refusing to cooperate, so I had her take a picture of the 3 of us instead. And then realized how TIRED we looked, lol! Then she did a selfie of just her. Couldn’t be seen with us riff-raff apparently. (But you can see the cute shirt she bought last night)

We headed straight for Minions and walked right on. I specifically asked to be put in an odd-numbered row because I had figured out last time that those are the front cars on each level. So we were directed to row 3 (after getting row 4 the first two times). Sure enough, we had a perfect, unobstructed view! It was a great way to start our last day.

We headed towards DA, and stopped to see the Knight Bus on the way.

Lily mostly wanted to just see the area and wander around some more. We thought about riding Gringott’s again, but the wait was already 30 minutes. If we could have talked Owen into doing it, I wouldn’t have minded, but none of us were willing to wait that long just for a second ride.

So we wandered around some more, looking in shops and Owen was playing with his wand outside (he was the only one who brought his today) until Leaky Cauldron opened for breakfast at 8am. We, mostly by accident, stumbled into Knockturn Alley. I’m really glad we found this, it was so cool! Lily loved looking in the Dark Arts shop buried back there. Then it was time to eat.

Right as we were ordering, Owen suddenly had to go potty. So I ran back to the restrooms at the back of DA with him while Brian and Lily finished getting our food. Oh, if only I hadn’t been in SUCH a hurry. (This will be a minor tale of woe, just a warning). When we returned, I had to explain to the TM at the entrance (a nice, elderly, wizardly looking gentleman) what we were doing, as he wanted me to get back in line, but we finally made it to the table where Brian and Lily were already eating. We discussed our plans for the rest of the morning, cleaned up our table and were headed out of DA. So I asked Owen to give me back his wand so I could store it safely in its box in my backpack.

He wasn’t holding his wand.

Every bad expletive I could think of ran through my mind at that moment. We ran back in to check the table, having to explain to the same TM again why we were bypassing the line, but it wasn’t there. Brian didn’t recall seeing him with it in the restaurant at all.

The restroom. He had it with him when I took him to the restroom. I ran back there as fast as I could, leaving Brian behind. I think he was chatting with the same TM outside LC about our problem but I didn’t stick around to participate.

The stall we had been in was open, but no wand. I was getting panicky. There was a TM just outside the restrooms helping people with wand spells. I figured if someone found it and wanted to turn it in, he would have been the natural person they would have gone to. I had to wait several long, painful minutes to get a turn with him, and he knew nothing.

I knew it was possible that it would turn up at Lost & Found. Eventually. But we had so little time. I instinctively patted Owen on the head and told him I was sorry. Up until now, he hadn’t even seemed that worried, just assuming we would find it I guess. But once he saw me give up, he burst into tears. I picked him up to comfort him, and he laid on my shoulder sobbing.

Not angry, not throwing a fit. Just heartbroken. So many tears. I decided right then that I was going to fix this. You see, 6 years ago, on our last day WDW (much like today - Last Day Curse!), Lily had lost her autograph book at breakfast. Filled with 30+ signatures that she had proudly collected throughout the week. That was something I couldn’t replace. And oh, there were tears then too. I did buy her a few small presents to try to make up for it. But it’s a loss that still haunts me to this day. THIS loss I could replace. For $50, right then and there.

I knew Brian wasn’t going to be happy, but he could tell I was in no mood to argue. I didn’t really even give him a chance, just declared my plans and marched straight into Ollivander's. It didn’t occur to me until afterwards, I probably could have saved some money by getting the non-interactive wand, since we were leaving. Oh well. I did mention to the TM at the register that we were replacing a lost one, hoping maybe someone had turned it in there. But no luck.

Oh well. Problem solved, time to move on. Owen was being so sweet, he hugged me over and over and thanked me a million times for buying him a new one. The TM in front of LC stopped us again on the way out, wanting to know if we had found it. We told him we just replaced it instead. I know he felt really bad, he really was a sweet guy.

We had lost a bit of time, and only had about an hour before we needed to head back to the hotel to pack up. I really wanted to ride Mummy again- so as quickly as we could, we made our way through the queue and child swap. It was even more fun the second time!

Then we raced over for another ride on Woody Woodpecker, and Owen played on the playground for a few minutes while Lily and I went for one last ride on E.T. Not gonna lie - I was mostly swayed by the fact that E.T was cool, playground was hot, lol!

There was only one ride we had not done yet - the Simpsons! The kids don’t know the Simpsons at all, but I thought we should at least ride it once. It was going to be tight, but hopefully we had time. It was another motion simulator - made Brian a little queasy and my neck a little sore, but it was still fun. I thought it was hilarious how they poked fun at themselves a bit with all the theme park jokes, lol! (And you can tell we were rushing by now, I didn't even stop to get a good picture!)

We were definitely running behind schedule to get back. The kids did talk us into one last frozen treat on the way, and then Brian became convinced that we needed to sit down on a bench and “relax” for a few minutes before heading back.

We opted to take the boat, even though we just missed one. It was so hot, I no longer cared if we were late, I just needed to be out of the sun. And at least the boat dock was shaded.

Once back in the room, it was a packing frenzy. We had less than 30 minutes, and the room was in total chaos! Housekeeping was knocking at our door at exactly 10:55, and I apologized that we weren’t quite ready yet.

Finally, we were packed, bell services came for our stuff, loaded it in the car, and we were off. It had been a great week, and we were more than a little sad to be leaving. We still had some time before our flight, and the first order of business was lunch. We ended up at TGI Friday’s. We almost never eat at chains on vacation, but it was close and easy. Not great though - our server was a little out of it, and the food was nothing special.

Brian and Owen were really wanting to go to Wet n’Wild. Lily most definitely did not, but I wasn’t even sure what else to suggest at that point. WnW was included on our passes, so it would be free, and at least by being wet we could stay cool. We would only have about an hour anyway, so I told her to deal with it.

Boy, it is a LONG, HOT walk from their parking lot! It’s a terrible set up. And then it took us a long time to find the locker rooms after being given wrong directions. Though I did think it was cool that the guy who scanned our tickets said he usually worked at Universal, and awarded 20 points to Slytherin for me wearing my shirt

In the locker room, I almost lost my cool with Lily. She was whining and complaining non-stop, and generally being a brat. She tried to make-up with me after she realized how upset she had made me, but I needed time to cool off (literally and figuratively, lol!). And she wasn’t really repentant yet anyway.

We headed straight to Blastaway Beach, a splashy area with lots of small slides. Owen was having a blast, Lily was still moody. She did have some fun despite herself, and did a few of the slides with the boys and posed for a selfie with me.

We briefly went over to the wave pool, but the kids were both a little underwhelmed by the waves. I guess we're spoiled by our local water park. It's wave pool will knock a strong, grown man off his feet and crashing to the shore before he knows what's happening, lol!

The time passed quickly, and at least we were cool for most of it. Overall, the park wasn’t something I would have gone out of my way for, but neat to at least see it once before it closes later this year.

As usual though, I was left thinking that maybe I should have stuck with my original plan and just gone on home this morning. It's SO hard to have a good last day. In hindsight - would I really have rather not had this day? I honestly don't know. We had some fun. We had some tears. And fights. But maybe it was worth it. All in all though - really a great week and successful vacation.

It was time to head to the airport

Both kids fell sound asleep in the car on the way, no surprise!

Our bags were a mess and would have to be repacked (because we had taken all the swimming stuff to WnW, plus had a few things in the car that were never packed.) Somehow, we got it all into the airport and checked in.

After security, we were eating a snack when Lily’s shoe broke! It was a flip-flop (a cheap one I bought at the grocery store) and one of the straps just snapped right off! I couldn’t find a single pair of shoes in any store, so she had to make do with a pair of fuzzy socks. She was convinced that they weren’t going to let her on the plane without shoes, she is such a negative-nelly sometimes!

Otherwise, the trip was uneventful. I was SO sleepy when we got to the Denver airport! I'm pretty sure THIS was the most tired I had ever been.

We made a stop at Village Inn before making the 30 minute drive home, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open and on the road. The very next morning, I came down with a bad cold. I can’t believe how close that was to ruining our trip! I was so grateful that it didn’t, that I felt bad even complaining about it at all. But man, I think we really wore ourselves out on this one. Maybe I’m getting too old for this, lol!

So - a few parting thoughts…

We will definitely be back! Probably not for another week-long vacation, but for a shorter trip. And NOT in the summer, lol! Every year, we alternate whether we spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family, so we are always in FL either in November or December. And we’ve gotten good at slipping in a few days at WDW first. We are already booked for our December Disney trip, and not willing to change those plans (plus if we did two trips in one year I’d feel really bad that we didn’t get APs)

But, we didn’t have any firm plans for next Thanksgiving (2017)! I had assumed we would go to Disney, but hadn’t even decided where to stay yet. I think this will be a Universal trip instead

It will actually be the week before Thanksgiving, assuming the kids get that week off from school like they normally do.

I'm torn between staying at Cabana Bay or Hard Rock. I know Brian really liked HRH, but I'm wondering if it's really worth it, when the EP didn't seem like it helped us THAT much most of the time. And it should be as busy. But, we have a while to decide.

Brian and the kids say they like it better than Disney. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite between the two, they are just very different. Although, even I have to admit that Universal is "winning" at a lot. The interactions with the TMs, the rides, overall theming of the parks... it's hard to imagine any of it being any better.

The heat was definitely a major factor for us. I kind of knew it would be, but was hoping we would get lucky and maybe it would be a cooler week. Instead there was a heat wave. But, I think we managed to have a lot of fun anyway, even if we had to hide in the room more than I would have liked.

Looking forward to next time though, when it’s not surface-of-the-sun hot!!!

P.S. I just finished unpacking our suitcases last night (finally, I know I'm a slacker!) and found this picture from our first night at HRC. I totally forgot I bought it, lol!

macraven · Jul 28, 2016

you have some awesome pictures in your report.
a great read.

JennC · Jul 28, 2016

Thank you for sharing!

schumigirl · Jul 28, 2016

Oh bless his little heart with the wand!! I'm so glad he got another.......

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your report........really enjoyed reading it.....glad you're returning another time......... :thumbsup2

ravenclawforever · Jul 28, 2016

I have a daughter who is a champion of leaving things in bathrooms, and she is 17. Drives me nuts. Fortuanately since I know this about her, I always double check when she comes out. At her age, I'm not inclined to replace anything.

jump00 · Jul 28, 2016

Wonderful Trip report :sunny:

Jump00

B's Marie · Jul 28, 2016

This was great reading! We are headed in a few weeks and you made me so excited! Great pictures too! :goodvibes

Dinohood · Jul 28, 2016

great reading your trip report it looked fun. Has for lost items I know that well when i was your son's age i lost a coin purse at sea world after get soaked at the killer whale show i was sad.

samheatherwhite · Jul 29, 2016

Thank you for sharing. Wonderful Report!

johnaalexis · Jul 30, 2016

gtpoohbear said:
We made our way to Seuss Landing at IoA for dinner. It wasn’t busy at all, but at first we had trouble getting the TMs behind the counter to pay attention to us. But I think they were just trying to get organized, because once they were ready, they were happy to help us. When we went up to pay, it turned out only one register was working, and it was the one on the opposite side of the food line that was open. So the cashiers were trying to go back and forth to ring things up, so that the guests didn’t have too. I joked to the cashier that Dr. Seuss would have been amused at this situation and she agreed that he would have loved it

That piece of pizza is bigger than Owen's face!!! It look yummy though!!!

johnaalexis · Jul 30, 2016

Awesome TR! Amazing Pictures too! I look forward to reading your future reports!!!

tinkerbell1112 · Aug 2, 2016

gtpoohbear said:
Chapter 3. Taking the Hippogriff Home (Day 2 - Part 2)

Somehow we made it back to the room. Lily was “still dying”, but at least waited until she was at her bed to totally collapse. Brian went on down to the pool, but I stayed in the room with the kids for a while, hoping we could rest. The pool hadn’t been very appealing yesterday, afterall.

But Owen wasn’t having it. He was bouncing all over, and eventually I gave up and got him into his swimsuit. He had been having fun playing with his wand, though. It was so funny, he kept looking at it adoringly, and saying “My beauty, my precious, precious beauty.” It was a little creepy and Gollum-like, actually.

Lily had been complaining of being tired all morning, and I thought she was going to stay in the room and sleep, but at the last minute decided to come with us.

Brian had found a much better spot today. Not on the sand, and mostly in the shade. Yay! And the fact that I had been pre-chilled in the room for a while made the hot water more bearable. After swimming for a while, we relaxed in our chairs and ordered some drinks.

Mine was supposed to be a virgin daiquiri (not much of a drinker myself, I did enough in college to last a lifetime, lol!) but I’m pretty sure they gave me a real one. It wasn’t very strong, but definitely had something in it. I had planned on sharing with the kids when they got out of the pool, but instead I ordered them a smoothie, for fear I might make them drunk.

At one point, some of the resort staff came around giving out free popsicles. It was great timing, because Owen had just come back from a very “successful potty trip”. Maybe TMI, but let’s just say that he has some “issues” that we deal with on a regular basis, and at home he gets rewarded with popsicles. So it was perfect.

It ended up being a much better pool afternoon than we had the day before, and I’m glad we gave it another chance. Still wish the water was cooler, but at least it was a chance to relax. Lily, unfortunately, was still quite grumpy most of the time, constantly exclaiming how tired she was. Apparently reminding her that she could have stayed in the room and slept was not helpful, lol! She did seem to perk up a little after drinking her smoothie, though.

This was one of the few nights that I didn’t have specific dinner plans. Lily wanted to go back to Diagon Alley, mostly to shop, so I thought it would be a good chance for us to eat at Leaky Cauldron. We ended up walking again, because we just missed a boat.

Owen played around in the Magic shop for a few minutes, but Lily really had a one-track mind at that point. She wanted a Hogwarts robe. I had told her before the trip that she could buy one “big thing”, and she had been determined that this would be it. I didn’t think it was a particularly practical choice, but she wasn’t going to feel content until she had one.

Brian was trying to be patient while she tried on robes, but admittedly got restless and finally wandered outside with Owen. Of course she picked out a yellow-trimmed Hufflepuff one. It took us a very long time to check out though. There were two registers open - one was dealing with a complicated return, and the other was dealing with a declined credit card. Oh well, mission finally accomplished. Even though it was still swampy outside, she had to wear her robe until we left DA. And of course she was positively beaming the whole time.

Owen hadn’t bought his souvenir yet. He had said earlier that he loved Flight of the Hippogriff so much that he wished he could take it home. Well, we couldn’t take a roller coaster home, but maybe a Hippogriff? A stuffed one of course! He loved that idea! And we easily found one in the pet store. Lily also used her allowance to buy a toad, so now she was all ready to be shipped off to school. Amazingly, her earlier tiredness completely faded once she was shopping for wizard gear, ha!

We decided to get dinner. Lily and I shared the Ploughman’s Platter, the only vegetarian entree. She is not strictly a vegetarian like me, but will usually only eat chicken, and even then only if she’s in the mood for it. So it worked well for us. And of course the LC was so well themed, like everything else here. We were all still in awe!

But, Brian declared that we were done with Wizarding World for tonight (Lily would have been happy to never leave!) We went to Transformers, and it ended up being one of Brian’s very favorite rides. I enjoyed it too, though it made my neck a little stiff. The line with EP was still a little over 20 minutes. Lily complained the whole time about how "horrible" this was. Brian and I just laughed at how spoiled she is - when we were kids, a 20 minute wait for a headliner ride would have been unbelievably good!

Afterwards, Owen was really wanting to buy a glowing blue ball that he had seen a couple of places, so I sent Brian and Lily off to ride something while we shopped. I think they went to Men in Black. I actually didn’t know much about this one, or if it would be appropriate for Owen, so it was a good chance for them to do a recon mission They really enjoyed it, and Brian thought it would be fine for Owen, so we would have to make sure to get over there again on another day.

We found his glowing ball, and he played with it while we waited to meet back up. We were thinking about staying for Cinematic Spectacular, but the weather was iffy. No rain, but a lot of dry lightning around. Enough that it chased Owen and I out of the open area we were waiting in, for fear we were about to get struck. We did see part of a parade going by, but Owen wasn't too interested in watching.

Once we met back up, we all decided we had had enough and called it a night. We would have plenty of other chances to see the fireworks, and no need to push it past what everyone was comfortable with.

The walk back was a little unpleasant. Lily and I had both been suffering from some heat rash, and it was really bothering her by now. Brian didn’t help matters when he made fun of the way she was walking because of it. But, we made it with no meltdown, and despite the minor drama at the end, it had been a really good first day!

We were all feeling very impressed with both of the parks, and I was starting to wonder if I had been wrong to assume this would be a one-and-done destination for us...

I'm really enjoying reading this (first trip report I've actually stuck through, but we're heading here for the first time in about 15 days) I just bought my DD9 a robe on Amazon for about $28. please tell me that was wise and that I would have been paying a ton more at the store? I'm sure the quality there is much better though. **edited to say I looked at a link someone else sent for a lanyard and saw the price of the robes. I was going to be upset if it was only like double what I paid, but see that they most likely aren't.

you didn't have reservations for LC and you got in with not much wait? that food looks great!

tinkerbell1112 · Aug 2, 2016

Just finished reading through this post and I must say it's made me much more excited for our trip. (not the heat part but the crowd part seems more manageable than I thought based on your pictures and wait times). I do think we'd be besties if we knew each other. I have to agree whole heatedly with your "move it from the table buddy". no saving if you aren't ready to eat! Are most of the pictures you posted with the borders from their Universal photo service? I hadn't thought I wanted it, but seeing your pictures has made me reconsider

gtpoohbear · Aug 3, 2016

tinkerbell1112 said:
I'm really enjoying reading this (first trip report I've actually stuck through, but we're heading here for the first time in about 15 days) I just bought my DD9 a robe on Amazon for about $28. please tell me that was wise and that I would have been paying a ton more at the store? I'm sure the quality there is much better though. **edited to say I looked at a link someone else sent for a lanyard and saw the price of the robes. I was going to be upset if it was only like double what I paid, but see that they most likely aren't.

you didn't have reservations for LC and you got in with not much wait? that food looks great!

Yeah the robes were expensive! A little over $100, I think? But of course they are thick and sturdy, not costume quality. I actually didn't think it was a very practical purchase, since I wasn't sure when she would ever wear it again. But we went to the release party for Cursed Child (at our local B&N) and she actually wore it there, so not a total waste, I guess!

There was no wait at all at LC or 3B. We did breakfast right as they opened, so we were almost the first in there. Dinner was around prime dinner time (6-7pm, maybe?) and no wait at all. I was pleasantly surprised. And we had our pick of tables

tinkerbell1112 said:
Just finished reading through this post and I must say it's made me much more excited for our trip. (not the heat part but the crowd part seems more manageable than I thought based on your pictures and wait times). I do think we'd be besties if we knew each other. I have to agree whole heatedly with your "move it from the table buddy". no saving if you aren't ready to eat! Are most of the pictures you posted with the borders from their Universal photo service? I hadn't thought I wanted it, but seeing your pictures has made me reconsider

Haha, that's probably my biggest pet peeve. The pictures with borders were from the PhotoConnect, which I pre-ordered. Overall, I'm pretty glad I got it. I just wish there was more flexibility - I like how Disney Photopass lets you crop and zoom, then choose a border. These were pre-made the way I posted them, no option to change anything. In fact they didn't even give me the border-less version, had I wanted it. But, it's still about the only way we ever get family pictures, so better than nothing.

Can't wait to hear about your trip - I know you are going to love it!

tinkerbell1112 · Aug 4, 2016

gtpoohbear said:
Yeah the robes were expensive! A little over $100, I think? But of course they are thick and sturdy, not costume quality. I actually didn't think it was a very practical purchase, since I wasn't sure when she would ever wear it again. But we went to the release party for Cursed Child (at our local B&N) and she actually wore it there, so not a total waste, I guess!

There was no wait at all at LC or 3B. We did breakfast right as they opened, so we were almost the first in there. Dinner was around prime dinner time (6-7pm, maybe?) and no wait at all. I was pleasantly surprised. And we had our pick of tables

Haha, that's probably my biggest pet peeve. The pictures with borders were from the PhotoConnect, which I pre-ordered. Overall, I'm pretty glad I got it. I just wish there was more flexibility - I like how Disney Photopass lets you crop and zoom, then choose a border. These were pre-made the way I posted them, no option to change anything. In fact they didn't even give me the border-less version, had I wanted it. But, it's still about the only way we ever get family pictures, so better than nothing.

Can't wait to hear about your trip - I know you are going to love it!

Disney cruise photos are the same way - I had to crop the borders off with my own program. Glad your dd got to use the robe again! And I'm hopeful we can get into some restaurants without reservations. So totally different than Disney!!

beebeeryan · Aug 10, 2016

Great TR! Just read through the whole thing, stopping to feed my family and now forgetting all the comments I had for each chapter.

We're heading for our first non-Disney trip in 2 weeks, so still hotter than the surface of the sun. We are used to it though, we always go the last week of August and power through it with lots of pool breaks. We have 3 full days at Universal this time, last year we did our first Universal trip, but only a day and a half before Disney. We're staying at Portofino again.

I have a swimmer too, my 10 year old, just finished his summer season on 2 teams and now watching and dreaming of the Olympics! While having a bit of a break till he starts again in September. Also have a very moody teenager. I swear he acts like a teenage girl even though he is a boy.

We are doing Seaworld for the first time and now I am worried, I keep hearing people saying, oh I hope your not disappointed, it nothing like Disney. Well I know that, but my boys love marine anything so I hope it's an okay day. We are also doing Discovery Cove which every raves about so I know Seaworld won't be at the top of the great day list. One and done maybe. Hopefully we enjoy it enough.

Nice to see someone else didn't realize The Mummy was a rollercoaster! I totally missed the signs and the announcement they make, which I heard the second time. First time I was shocked at the first drop and my sunglasses flew off, I had them tucked into my shirt not realizing what kind of ride it was. Luckily they were cheap ones so I got new ones. Hubby's lanyard flew off and landed in the lap of women behind us, luckily or we would have had to go get tickets and express pass re-printed.

I totally would have bought another wand too!

Enjoyed reading about your trip, thanks for sharing.

Some Fun on the Surface-of-the-Sun!! (Universal TR - July 2016)

It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Proud Redhead

Earning My Ears

It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts

Earning My Ears

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

Live Long and Prosper

Live Long and Prosper

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

Share this page