disappearingme
Dreaming
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2011
Hello!
We have been back for almost a month (sniff sniff).
Thanks to everyone who contributes on these boards - it was simply invaluable as my family benefited from everyone's tips & tricks.
So here goes.
Day One Wednesday
We had rooms at an airport hotel because we had an early flight. Met everyone for dinner (15 total) at ta local Mexican place. Good & everyone off to bed early for the flight the next morning. The first shuttle left at 5:45 & we wanted to be on it!
Day Two Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving. We all donned our family t-shirts for the plane ride. Very fun stuff. No problems with flight or getting luggage. We used Alamo & the lady was kinda rude at the desk but whatever - we can let it roll off our backs. We rented a mini-van & a 15 passenger van. Loaded up & got to Universal around noon. Our rooms were not ready so we went to Islands for their Thanksgiving buffet.
Note on the rooms - We had seven rooms (six of those seven rooms needed to be connected by two). I remember reading a trip report where someone had faxed a room list/people to the concierge before they arrived & it sounded like it saved some time. Wish I had done the same because they were all out of sorts that we needed connecting rooms (we had three families that needed to be connected). The rooms being ready sort of trickled: one was ready; then one was ready but the connecting wasn't, etc. . .) My family of five were the last to get rooms & my husband was STEAMED. This was about 5 p.m. so we had been there for five hours & even though we had eaten, he was irritated. It caused a fight between the two of us that was kinda dramatic (this is a theme in Orlando; three times in Orlando; three big fights). Go figure. We did get comped five breakfast buffets for the trouble with the room. That's fine though.
Islands Dining Room Buffet for Thanksgiving was just fine. I would have liked some beef options but loved the sushi & omelet stations. All good. We go in the hula dance line and enjoyed ourselves.
Got pics with Gru & Scooby as well
The experience at Islands was fine. Friendly & efficient.
We set off for Universal around 5:30 p.m. with the parks closing at eight. We went to Universal Studios first & did the Minions straight off. We used the handy dandy express pass & were in the ride queue about ten minutes later. We felt a little bad about it because we just zoomed right through but it didn't keep us up at night.
We absolutely loved Minions as our three kiddos are adopted. So sweet - my husband & I were both weepy towards the end (post big fight so we had all the feels going on). And we did have the spotlight on us as the ones who didn't shower (sorry folks).
We then met up with my husband's brother, wife & their three kids. We were in search of Diagon Alley and I won't lie - we passed it & didn't see it!! I knew it must be close because we saw Kreacher & the phone booth.
Oh my goodness - Diagon Alley. I just wish I had one day to spend there & Hogsmeade without my kids. Just to drink it all in. We just sort of started looking around & stumbled on Ollivander's. Oh so excited! Went in & we were the only ones in line. So we went in - the ten of us & were the only ones in the room. Ollivander came & started asking questions. I wanted to be picked sooooooo bad. My daughter was the witch whose wand choose her. It was absolutely a delightful experience. We then went into the adjoining wand shop & dropped coin for six wands - oh vey. I didn't get one (wanted George Weasley but you have to buy Fred as well. Glad I didn't get one because I would have hogged the magic making stations.
We did some magic. The kids ate some food at the Leaky Cauldron & we tried the warm butterbeer. We got on Escape from Gringotts & walked through & got on the ride in 15 minutes start to finish. I loved it so much.
I have never paid a lick of attention to Harry Potter until the day we found out we were going on this trip My niece is a hard-core fan but just missed it timing wise in terms of my interest. Well that all changed. We ended up listening to all the books (read by the imitable James Dale) and I fell in love with the whole darn world of Harry Potter. So everything about Diagon Alley & Hogsmeade was so precious to me.
The Gringotts Money Exchange was meh in terms of experience. Diagon Alley was deserted on Thanksgiving night near closing time for future reference.
Coming next . . . VIP Experience
We have been back for almost a month (sniff sniff).
Thanks to everyone who contributes on these boards - it was simply invaluable as my family benefited from everyone's tips & tricks.
So here goes.
Day One Wednesday
We had rooms at an airport hotel because we had an early flight. Met everyone for dinner (15 total) at ta local Mexican place. Good & everyone off to bed early for the flight the next morning. The first shuttle left at 5:45 & we wanted to be on it!
Day Two Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving. We all donned our family t-shirts for the plane ride. Very fun stuff. No problems with flight or getting luggage. We used Alamo & the lady was kinda rude at the desk but whatever - we can let it roll off our backs. We rented a mini-van & a 15 passenger van. Loaded up & got to Universal around noon. Our rooms were not ready so we went to Islands for their Thanksgiving buffet.
Note on the rooms - We had seven rooms (six of those seven rooms needed to be connected by two). I remember reading a trip report where someone had faxed a room list/people to the concierge before they arrived & it sounded like it saved some time. Wish I had done the same because they were all out of sorts that we needed connecting rooms (we had three families that needed to be connected). The rooms being ready sort of trickled: one was ready; then one was ready but the connecting wasn't, etc. . .) My family of five were the last to get rooms & my husband was STEAMED. This was about 5 p.m. so we had been there for five hours & even though we had eaten, he was irritated. It caused a fight between the two of us that was kinda dramatic (this is a theme in Orlando; three times in Orlando; three big fights). Go figure. We did get comped five breakfast buffets for the trouble with the room. That's fine though.
Islands Dining Room Buffet for Thanksgiving was just fine. I would have liked some beef options but loved the sushi & omelet stations. All good. We go in the hula dance line and enjoyed ourselves.
Got pics with Gru & Scooby as well
The experience at Islands was fine. Friendly & efficient.
We set off for Universal around 5:30 p.m. with the parks closing at eight. We went to Universal Studios first & did the Minions straight off. We used the handy dandy express pass & were in the ride queue about ten minutes later. We felt a little bad about it because we just zoomed right through but it didn't keep us up at night.
We absolutely loved Minions as our three kiddos are adopted. So sweet - my husband & I were both weepy towards the end (post big fight so we had all the feels going on). And we did have the spotlight on us as the ones who didn't shower (sorry folks).
We then met up with my husband's brother, wife & their three kids. We were in search of Diagon Alley and I won't lie - we passed it & didn't see it!! I knew it must be close because we saw Kreacher & the phone booth.
Oh my goodness - Diagon Alley. I just wish I had one day to spend there & Hogsmeade without my kids. Just to drink it all in. We just sort of started looking around & stumbled on Ollivander's. Oh so excited! Went in & we were the only ones in line. So we went in - the ten of us & were the only ones in the room. Ollivander came & started asking questions. I wanted to be picked sooooooo bad. My daughter was the witch whose wand choose her. It was absolutely a delightful experience. We then went into the adjoining wand shop & dropped coin for six wands - oh vey. I didn't get one (wanted George Weasley but you have to buy Fred as well. Glad I didn't get one because I would have hogged the magic making stations.
We did some magic. The kids ate some food at the Leaky Cauldron & we tried the warm butterbeer. We got on Escape from Gringotts & walked through & got on the ride in 15 minutes start to finish. I loved it so much.
I have never paid a lick of attention to Harry Potter until the day we found out we were going on this trip My niece is a hard-core fan but just missed it timing wise in terms of my interest. Well that all changed. We ended up listening to all the books (read by the imitable James Dale) and I fell in love with the whole darn world of Harry Potter. So everything about Diagon Alley & Hogsmeade was so precious to me.
The Gringotts Money Exchange was meh in terms of experience. Diagon Alley was deserted on Thanksgiving night near closing time for future reference.
Coming next . . . VIP Experience