Back Stage Magic June 2016 - Mini Trip Report - Finally Back to Finish Up

[hilarys]

We have had so many great and detailed trip reports on the BSM trip (and I would likely not do it justice) that I am not going to do a full blown trip report. Because we are doing some pre-days at Universal Studios Hollywood and because I think this will be the first trip report since some of the DL closures have gone into effect, I figured it would be good to do a mini trip report.

Travelers: Me, DH, DS (13 - this is a special trip as a gift for his 13th), and DD(11)
About Us: We are California natives and have been frequent Disney visitors all our lives and once the kids came along, we became full blown Disney freaks. All four of us are Disney freaks/history buffs so this tour is great for us. We have done one other ABD (Central Europe in July 2014) and are DVC owners and love DCL cruises. Basically Disney is our favorite way to travel. We love ABD and DCL because we enjoy making new friends when we travel and stay in touch with several other DISers and have made repeat trips with some of them.

Pre-trip plans: DH and kids will drive down to the Universal Hilton the Friday before our ABD starts. I am going to fly down in the afternoon after work. I fly into Burbank and then we head to Malibu for a sunset dinner. We decided to stay at the Hilton because we discovered we had enough points to book 2 rooms for two nights at the Hilton. The pre-stay price at the Loew's was going to be high especially because we are booked as two reservations which would require two rooms to be booked for pre-night. Saturday we have booked the VIP Tour at Universal. I have not been since college and DD has never been.

Sunday: the plan is to have brunch somewhere (Universal, Santa Monica, or Huntington Beach, or Downtown Disney???) and then drive to the Grand Californian. We will drop our car off for the week (if you drive, valet parking for the week is included) and then have a transfer at 1:00 pm up to the Loews.

We are really excited for this trip and all of the incredible things we will see. As the trip goes on I will try to add some thoughts on doing this trip as a regular Disneyland visitor. We know the parks really well but are looking forward to the history and backstage access. We have already set the stage with the kids that this is not like one of our regular trips, that we will going with tour and not our own plans (no, DD you cannot ride BTMRR over and over).

Post plans: We have one post night booked to take advantage of the included park hopper and then will hit the road Saturday morning to head home.

 

[carpenta]

Great!!!! Another trip review. I can't wait to follow along. Thank you Hilarys for taking the time and bringing us along with you and your family.

 

[sayhello]

I'm looking forward to this! I grew up in Southern CA, going to Disneyland frequently, and have been back several times since moving away. I've just not felt like I could justify the cost of the BSM ABD, since I usually stay with family when I go to SoCal, am really familiar with Disneyland, etc. I'm looking forward to your perspective!

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

Looking forward to following along! BSM is such an important trip for Disney fans. I'd love to go again one day.

 

[Calfan]

We've got BSM booked for June 2017 and will either do it then or push it to 2018, so I'm also looking forward to your report and what you think, especially since we are also regular Disneyland visitors.

 

[OKW Lover]

Looking forward to this trip report. We've done BSM 3 times now and are ready to go again!

 

[disneyphx]

Looking forward to this! Have a great trip!

 

[tgeorge]

My friend and I have this trip booked in December 2017. We both love Disney and Harry Potter, so we're going to add Universal before the ABD as well. I'm excited to hear about your trip. I just know I have a long time to wait! It will definitely be worth it though

 

[jkckr]

We'll be on this trip. Look forward to meeting you on Sunday

 

[85glht]

Subscribing. We did this trip once a few years ago. It is one ABD trip that we would do again. Looking forward to you reports.

 

[hilarys]

Glad to have many of you following and one fellow DISer along on the trip. I will try to provide you with interesting updates but I am an accountant not a writer

Just a bit of the usual pre-trip chaos going on right now.
-I found out that none of my partners are in the office tomorrow, so I am now going to drive with the rest of the family mid-day tomorrow rather than fly. Figure I can get at least 4 hours of work in the car in between telling the kids to stop touching each other and handing out snacks.
-Started packing - original thought was that this would be such an easy trip to pack for compared to a cruise, but so many of our recent trips have been cruise or DVC where doing laundry is easy. I actually need to pack 8 days worth of clothes for this one.
-DS walks into my room just before 6 this morning as I was getting ready to walk out to leave for work saying he had bug bites all over and itched. They looked like mosquito bites but were all over his body! I gave him a benadryl and some itch cream. The report is that all evidence of them is gone but DH is still going to take him to dr this morning.
-DH has an MRI for on-going back problems this afternoon. He is feeling ok/mobile now, but hoping to avoid flare ups on the trip.
-On the positive side DD is healing nicely from her broken collar bone suffered on May 6 - she should be able to do all the rides that she wants to do.

So the first part of the trip is going to be the Hollywood part - Dinner tomorrow night in Malibu, Saturday Universal with VIP tour and we decided to do brunch at The Ivy on Sunday before dropping the car at the Grand Calif for our transfer to Loew's

Wish me luck with packing and that everyone stays healthy.

 

[Calfan]

Glad to have many of you following and one fellow DISer along on the trip. I will try to provide you with interesting updates but I am an accountant not a writer

Just a bit of the usual pre-trip chaos going on right now.
-I found out that none of my partners are in the office tomorrow, so I am now going to drive with the rest of the family mid-day tomorrow rather than fly. Figure I can get at least 4 hours of work in the car in between telling the kids to stop touching each other and handing out snacks.
-Started packing - original thought was that this would be such an easy trip to pack for compared to a cruise, but so many of our recent trips have been cruise or DVC where doing laundry is easy. I actually need to pack 8 days worth of clothes for this one.
-DS walks into my room just before 6 this morning as I was getting ready to walk out to leave for work saying he had bug bites all over and itched. They looked like mosquito bites but were all over his body! I gave him a benadryl and some itch cream. The report is that all evidence of them is gone but DH is still going to take him to dr this morning.
-DH has an MRI for on-going back problems this afternoon. He is feeling ok/mobile now, but hoping to avoid flare ups on the trip.
-On the positive side DD is healing nicely from her broken collar bone suffered on May 6 - she should be able to do all the rides that she wants to do.

So the first part of the trip is going to be the Hollywood part - Dinner tomorrow night in Malibu, Saturday Universal with VIP tour and we decided to do brunch at The Ivy on Sunday before dropping the car at the Grand Calif for our transfer to Loew's

Wish me luck with packing and that everyone stays healthy.

Doesn't it seem like getting out the door is sometimes the hardest part about a vacation? Fingers crossed all goes smoothly for you guys. We did a VIP tour at Universal Orlando before our Thanksgiving cruise in 2014. We wanted to make sure we got all the access we wanted to the Harry Potter stuff, and it worked out great. Let us know what you think of your Universal Hollywood VIP tour. We plan to hit Universal in conjunction with our BSM trip (either in 2017 or 2018).

 

[TNnerd]

Following along. I'm going on this trip in August, so I'm excited to read your updates! Enjoy your trip!

 

[85glht]

Oh my! Lots going on pre trip. I hope your trip goes off without a hitch! Keeping fingers crossed for you and your family! Looking forward to your posts on this trip

 

[hilarys]

We are on the road. Expected arrival at Universal Hilton at about 4:00 (depending on how many snack stops we make).

 

[west&east]

Following along as well my friend! Wish we were joining you this time!

 

[tgeorge]

You'll have to let me know how it is staying at the Hilton and then moving to Lowes. We're going in early to do Harr Potter as well and I have a ton of Hilton Points, so we could stay for free. But, if it is a pain, then we can pay to stay at Lowes.

 

[hilarys]

You'll have to let me know how it is staying at the Hilton and then moving to Lowes. We're going in early to do Harr Potter as well and I have a ton of Hilton Points, so we could stay for free. But, if it is a pain, then we can pay to stay at Lowes.

It has worked really well so far. The convenience of the hotel to the park is great. The rooms are perfectly acceptable. The pool looks nice although we did not have time to use it. I really like the convenience of being able to just make a less than 10 minute walk or take the hotel shuttle to the park in the morning. I think it would have been a hassle (certainly do-able, but just not as convenient). We move to the Lowe's tomorrow. We have our car so we actually drive all the way to the Grand CA to drop the car there. If you did not have a car it would be really easy to take a tax from the Hilton to the Lowe's. It really isn't that far away. If you have Hilton Points, I would go for it.

 

[hilarys]

First Night:
We arrived at the Universal Hilton just after 4 after an uneventful drive from the Bay Area. The rooms had been booked on Hilton points and the only issue we had was that we had inadvertently booked adjoining rooms, not connecting rooms. The rooms are typical Hilton, with a comfy bed clean and spacious. We relaxed in the rooms for a little bit before heading out for an 8 o'clock dinner reservation at Nobu in Malibu. I know we have some foodies in this group and I would definitely recommend Nobu if you like sushi/Cal-Asian food. We made reservations the day they opened for booking and requested to sit outdoors. The setting was just spectacular - the surf was very high and the waves were crashing right under the patio. we were close to the doors not the railing and we could still see the crashing they were that close and that large. The food, the setting, the restaurant filled with L.A.'s beautiful people made it a fitting opening to our Hollywood trip.

Pre-Day Universal Studios:
We had reserved an 8:30 VIP Tour Experience. If it is in your budget, this is a great way to go. We did everything except one show and several of the rides we did multiple times. We arrived at the park about 7:50 and checked in at the VIP Tour Lounge. The lounge had a continental breakfast buffet set up that included pastries, sandwiches, oatmeal, yogurt and most importantly coffee/lattes. Our guide checked in with us and asked us to meet by the front door at 8:25. The lounge had bottles of water to grab and take with you into the park. Our guide also provided us with ponchos to use on the Jurassic Park ride. Our tour group was officially 14 but several people broke off at different times to do their own thing. For the first part of the tour, Helen took us to all the rides in the park. The tour includes VIP front of the line passes which can be used all day as many times as you want. It was great having a guide because several of the rides at Universal do not allow any bags and lockers are provided. Helen would hold our bags so that we did not have to wait in line for lockers. About 12:30 we broke for lunch which was a nice buffet with plenty of choices for everyone. At 1:30 we joined up with another group for our Backlot tour. The Backlot tour with the VIP tour has a few differences from the regular Tram Tour including riding on a smaller open sided bus and getting off the bus at several stops to look around and take pictures including in the prop warehouse. The backlot tour lasted about 2 hours and was really good. After the Backlot tour she took us to a few more attractions that we had not done yet and then turned us loose about 5 pm. At that point it was only our family and one couple left, the others had all dropped off by then. We us our VIP front of the line pass to do the rides in Harry Potter a bunch more times and caught the Animal Show. We left the park about 8 and grabbed dinner at Hard Rock Cafe at City Walk before heading back to our hotel.

I know there have been some people with questions on the VIP Tour and I would be happy to answer any questions about it our about Universal in general. This was my first visit in over 20 years. We are very much a Disney family but came away quite impressed with Universal and think there may be a few things they do better than Disney (gasp). The theming in Harry Potter is very good and my family does not even know much about Harry Potter (kids have never gotten into it, but maybe they will now). Again, if it is in your budget the VIP TOur is great. The park was very crowded but we did so much and it was so nice to have breakfast, lunch and water included.

Tomorrow is a bit of a lazy day as we switch locations and get ready for our ABD. I have warned the kids to get sleep tonight while you can.

Ask away with questions.

 

[tgeorge]

Did you have to book the VIP tour far in advance? I'm intrigued with front of the line passes and the special back lot tour. Since this will probably be my only trip out there, it may be worth the splurge. It definitely sounds like it was worth the money.