"PARKOUR!" "CROSSFIT!" A January 2015 trip report UPDATE 1/20

[broadwaybookworm]

Hello DISers and welcome to my very first trip report!

Well, not exactly. I attempted to do one previously, but quickly forgot about it. Hopefully it won't happen again. I figure since I'm usually procrastinating anyway, might as well do something semiproductive with my free time!

This was a rather sudden trip. My mom had a conference at the Dolphin hotel, and of course invited me and my sister, both off on break, to come and enjoy WDW. Unfortunately, my mom would be working both days so she couldn't go and enjoy the parks with us. Since she didn't want to be left out, we also planned to spend two days at Universal Studios Florida, which we hadn't been to in about ten years. As I am a huge Harry Potter fan, I was incredibly excited.

The Details
When: Sunday January 11th through Saturday January 17th
Where: Dolphin Hotel, then Loews Royal Pacific Hotel for Universal.
What: 2.5 Disney Park days and 2.5 Universal Park days.

Let's Meet Our Cast!!!
Amanda/Me

I am a college freshman majoring in Computer Science. This trip made me really want to do the DCP. I am the planner of the family and arranged all the FastPass+ (it was the first time we went since the new system was put in place) as well as other planning. This has gotten me hate at times, and my mom told me to chill this vacation as we wouldn't be able to do everything. We'll see how I managed that. My favorite character is Belle, and my favorite ride is Soarin'.

Liz

Liz and I are twins, and as you can see, we look super alike! Liz is majoring in journalism and wants to eventually be a reporter on ESPN. She has gotten several tough injuries while playing lacrosse but has stayed strong, being the only person I've seen plan to go to the hotel gym while on a Disney vacation (NOTE: while we did arrive at the tail end of marathon weekend, none of us were participating). Liz's favorite characters are Minnie Mouse (evident from her hat) and Alice, and her favorite ride is the Tower of Terror.

Mom
The reason for this trip! My mom is probably the closest to my preferred touring style, which is really nothing but "get there early". She worked are whole Disney trip but quickly got into the swing of things at Universal, to the point where she enjoyed some rough rides more than we did! Her favorite (Universal style) characters are the Minions and her favorite ride was The Simpsons ride.

Shaina

A friend of Liz's since kindergarten and basically an honorary member of the family by this point, Shaina was able to come along with us on the trip! This was good for Mom and me, as Liz wanted to go on many thrill rides that we weren't into and was also strangely averse to riding alone. It was also Shaina's first time in the parks in about 5 years and her first time ever in Universal. She's a very go-with-the-flow type tourist, to the point where I'm still unsure what her favorites are. Shaina will hopefully also be responsible for the majority of photos on this trip report (I took about 5) once they are put up on Facebook.

Hope you come along for the ride!!

 

[broadwaybookworm]

Table of contents

 

[amberg93]

Here to follow along. Looks like a fun group

 

[broadwaybookworm]

CHAPTER 1: "Am I awake for nothing???"

Travel day started bright and early for us, if by bright you mean"so early the sun hasn't risen yet". Packing is usually quite the stressful endeavor for me, as I usually think I"m doing great when in reality I'm missing something really important. Mom woke us all up at 5 am, and from there it was a mad dash to get ready for the car that came to take us to the airport at 5:30.

Now, Mom's great, but she can be a bit of a bulldozer when it comes to traveling. I was so busy getting ready that I was unable to grab a drink before we began our long journey to the airport. It made for one thirsty car ride.

The driver was a little weird, as he at first told us pretty harshly that he had another pickup soon and he had to get going. However, once we were all in the car, he became extremely chatty. Us four tired ladies couldn't really respond, too focused on either are trip or how little sleep we got.

Once we got to the airport, we began the process of check in. Little did we know, this boring official process would put a major snag into our plans. Since my mom got her plane ticket booked through her job, she had to book the rest of ours separately, which was more than a little confusing. She commented to me at the time that our tickets cost a lot less than hers, even with her work discount (uh oh). My mom checks herself in and her bag, and everything's fine. Then she tries to check me and my sister in. No dice. Why? You can't check in more than 12 hours before your plane takes off.

Yes, that's right. My mom, confused, had booked me, Liz, and Shaina on an 8:30 PM flight to Orlando instead of her 8:30 AM flight. I probably would have been more horrified by this if I hadn't been so tired, but instead I just hoped that we would get it fixed and not miss an afternoon of park time. My mom was told by an employee to go to the special services table and hopefully get us all new, correct plane tickets. So we dragged our bags across the airport terminal to the slow-moving line.

Liz was less annoyed by Mom messing up the flights as she was that she had to wake up for the earlier flight and come to the airport tired, hungry, and thirsty. The chapter title was a phrase she repeated many times while we waited in line. Finally we made it to the front. The woman was very helpful, and apologetically told us that there was no way we could all get on the 8:30 AM flight. She could, however, get us all on an 11:30 AM flight. Desperate, we decided this was good enough.

And after one quick trip through security (side note, the last time I was in an airport I was pulled over because of a snowglobe, so I was happy that wasn't happening again) we were in! And we only had to wait 4 hours until our flight began boarding!

NEXT: Four ladies, four hours, one airport. Who will be able to sleep on the floor??

 

[broadwaybookworm]

Here to follow along. Looks like a fun group

Thanks! It was pretty fun, even if we did have to split up a few times.

 

[NMW]

subscribing

 

[amberg93]

Oops, your Mom made a mistake with the tickets but at least in her defense it was an AM or PM mess up and not just like completely random times.

Still sucks that you got up so early for a much later flight though :/