gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
I actually wish the bigger villas didn't have full kitchens. We would never cook on vacation! It just seems like it would be wasted space. And staring at me all week making me feel guilty, lol!
PTR - Heading to the "Other Side" in July!!!
- Thread starter gtpoohbear
- Start date
I actually wish the bigger villas didn't have full kitchens. We would never cook on vacation! It just seems like it would be wasted space. And staring at me all week making me feel guilty, lol!
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
How this Trip Came About
Well, maybe just a bit more history to put things in perspective. We have had a tradition of doing one “big vacation” every year, and we generally alternate who picks it.
Then of course, we sneak in several smaller trips in between. (A lot of the Disney trips in my last post were these “smaller trips”) I'm careful not to call these smaller trips "vacations." But DH accuses me of slipping in more and more of them every year, lol!
These are the “big vacations” we have done so far, and who chose them. (And a couple that are yet to come!)
2005 (Jaime) - Hawaii, Island of Kauai. (Left Lily with the grandparents for this one, we’re so bad!) Actually spent very little time on the beach, did a lot of hiking and exploring.
2006 (Brian) - Yellowstone, Wyoming. Lily’s first “big vacation” at 2yo. Stayed in the park at the Snow Lodge, so many wonderful memories that week.
2007 (Jaime) - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Our only all-inclusive vacation so far. A lot of time spent in the pool! And one adventure on a pirate ship.
2008 (Lily) - Disney World. This was THE trip that started it all, at the Poly.
2009 (Brian) - Glacier National Park, Montana. Lots of hiking and sightseeing, and an overnight backpacking adventure.
2010 (Lily) - Disney World. With the ILs at CBR, the trip that I was pregnant with Owen.
2011 (Jaime) - Negril, Jamaica. Beaches resort. Weather wasn’t great all week, but enjoyed some pool time and meeting the Sesame Street characters.
2012 (Brian) - Yosemite, California. Brian always picks national parks, lol! This one didn’t disappoint, lots of hiking, biking, backpacking, and general cuteness from 1-year old Owen.
2013 (Jaime) - Disney World. YC, and the trip that ended up being very different, and possibly our last ever “big trip” here. (Probably has the MOST effect on our currently planned Universal trip)
2014 (Lily) - New York City, Washington DC, & Williamsburg, VA. A whole east-coast tour! Saw all the major landmarks, and 4th of July fireworks from the Capitol Lawn.
2015 (Brian) - Seattle & Olympic National Park, WA. Fell in love with the part of the country! Brian stayed an extra week to do a guided mountaineering trip.
2016 (Jaime) - Universal Studios, FL. THIS trip, obviously, yet to come!
2017 (Lily) - 7 night Western Caribbean Cruise, NCL Escape. She’s been begging to do a cruise for years. To date, we’ve booked 3 others that we later canceled. Hopefully this one sticks!
We should probably give Owen his first pick soon, seeing as how he’s already a year older than Lily was when she chose Disney World. Of course, she had a little help with that one. Maybe 2018
So, for this trip, it really goes back to 2013, our Disney World trip where my oh-so-perfect plans fell apart. The week ended up being very different than what I planned. We changed almost all of our ADRS while we were there, changed our touring style, and did a bunch of stuff we had never done before.
This was my plan:
At first when we got home, I felt defeated. How had I blown the plans THAT badly? But after some reflection, it became obvious that we simply needed to try new things. I had to let go of my obsession with our 2008 trip, and stop trying to repeat it. All of our best memories from this trip were when we did new and different things. Our repeats always fell flat.
So, we started talking. Maybe we needed to shake things up a bit. Not try to do the same Disney trip every 2-3 years. Maybe we should try a cruise, or go to Universal instead…
These ideas rattled around for a year or so. (We already had our east-coast adventure planned for 2014) Finally, in late 2014, we booked our first Disney Cruise, for March 2016. Later found out it would be a Star Wars cruise, icing on the cake! And planned a summer trip (for 2015) to FL - we would spend half the week at Disney water parks, and half at Universal. (This was not to be our “big vacation” though, just taking advantage of some time Brian already had off work, and we would combine it with a visit to my family)
You may notice that both of those should have happened already, but are missing from my list. Well… I had been worried all along about doing a summer trip to FL. I HATE heat. And humidity. I live in Colorado, remember??? So I was already having second thoughts.
And then... Lily’s swim team announced their “travel meet” for the year, the same week we were going to FL. It was across the state, an area we had never been to (Grand Junction, CO). So, we decided to make a small vacation out of that instead, and push our Universal trip back to December (2015). It would be cooler, though more crowded. But the kids thought it was really cool that we were actually flying out on Christmas morning.
And then… September came. And Brian took the job with Google. Which meant we had to move to Boulder. And he would be starting over with vacation time accrual. For a lot of reasons, a December vacation just wasn’t looking like a good idea. And maybe not the cruise either. I had been having second thoughts about the cruise already, so it was an easy decision to cancel. New plan, kids and I would come down to FL for spring break (instead of the cruise) and spend a few days at WDW, then DH would join us for a few days at Universal.
And then… we found out about Lily’s water polo tournament in California. So we canceled all our spring break plans to go to Disneyland instead. And rescheduled Universal for August. Yep, back to summer. And just over a year past when we were originally going to go. Before this, we had an Alaskan cruise scheduled for August, but the family voted unanimously that they would rather go to Universal. So, by default, it ended up becoming our "big trip" for the year. The previous plans only had it being one of our "smaller trips", and add-on to something else.
And then… I realized I was being stupid. Our biggest limiting factor is Brian’ vacation time. (Unfortunately he only gets 3 weeks/year at Google, he had gotten spoiled by getting 5 weeks at Adobe.) But he does get off 2 days for the 4th of July. So if we scheduled our trip then, it would “cost” us 2 days less. So we moved it YET AGAIN. It’s 5th incarnation, I believe. Hopefully this one sticks, as I’ve now done some things that I think may be non-refundable.
And that, my friends, is how a vacation comes about.
Well, maybe just a bit more history to put things in perspective. We have had a tradition of doing one “big vacation” every year, and we generally alternate who picks it.
Then of course, we sneak in several smaller trips in between. (A lot of the Disney trips in my last post were these “smaller trips”) I'm careful not to call these smaller trips "vacations." But DH accuses me of slipping in more and more of them every year, lol!
These are the “big vacations” we have done so far, and who chose them. (And a couple that are yet to come!)
2005 (Jaime) - Hawaii, Island of Kauai. (Left Lily with the grandparents for this one, we’re so bad!) Actually spent very little time on the beach, did a lot of hiking and exploring.
2006 (Brian) - Yellowstone, Wyoming. Lily’s first “big vacation” at 2yo. Stayed in the park at the Snow Lodge, so many wonderful memories that week.
2007 (Jaime) - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Our only all-inclusive vacation so far. A lot of time spent in the pool! And one adventure on a pirate ship.
2008 (Lily) - Disney World. This was THE trip that started it all, at the Poly.
2009 (Brian) - Glacier National Park, Montana. Lots of hiking and sightseeing, and an overnight backpacking adventure.
2010 (Lily) - Disney World. With the ILs at CBR, the trip that I was pregnant with Owen.
2011 (Jaime) - Negril, Jamaica. Beaches resort. Weather wasn’t great all week, but enjoyed some pool time and meeting the Sesame Street characters.
2012 (Brian) - Yosemite, California. Brian always picks national parks, lol! This one didn’t disappoint, lots of hiking, biking, backpacking, and general cuteness from 1-year old Owen.
2013 (Jaime) - Disney World. YC, and the trip that ended up being very different, and possibly our last ever “big trip” here. (Probably has the MOST effect on our currently planned Universal trip)
2014 (Lily) - New York City, Washington DC, & Williamsburg, VA. A whole east-coast tour! Saw all the major landmarks, and 4th of July fireworks from the Capitol Lawn.
2015 (Brian) - Seattle & Olympic National Park, WA. Fell in love with the part of the country! Brian stayed an extra week to do a guided mountaineering trip.
2016 (Jaime) - Universal Studios, FL. THIS trip, obviously, yet to come!
2017 (Lily) - 7 night Western Caribbean Cruise, NCL Escape. She’s been begging to do a cruise for years. To date, we’ve booked 3 others that we later canceled. Hopefully this one sticks!
We should probably give Owen his first pick soon, seeing as how he’s already a year older than Lily was when she chose Disney World. Of course, she had a little help with that one. Maybe 2018
So, for this trip, it really goes back to 2013, our Disney World trip where my oh-so-perfect plans fell apart. The week ended up being very different than what I planned. We changed almost all of our ADRS while we were there, changed our touring style, and did a bunch of stuff we had never done before.
This was my plan:
At first when we got home, I felt defeated. How had I blown the plans THAT badly? But after some reflection, it became obvious that we simply needed to try new things. I had to let go of my obsession with our 2008 trip, and stop trying to repeat it. All of our best memories from this trip were when we did new and different things. Our repeats always fell flat.
So, we started talking. Maybe we needed to shake things up a bit. Not try to do the same Disney trip every 2-3 years. Maybe we should try a cruise, or go to Universal instead…
These ideas rattled around for a year or so. (We already had our east-coast adventure planned for 2014) Finally, in late 2014, we booked our first Disney Cruise, for March 2016. Later found out it would be a Star Wars cruise, icing on the cake! And planned a summer trip (for 2015) to FL - we would spend half the week at Disney water parks, and half at Universal. (This was not to be our “big vacation” though, just taking advantage of some time Brian already had off work, and we would combine it with a visit to my family)
You may notice that both of those should have happened already, but are missing from my list. Well… I had been worried all along about doing a summer trip to FL. I HATE heat. And humidity. I live in Colorado, remember??? So I was already having second thoughts.
And then... Lily’s swim team announced their “travel meet” for the year, the same week we were going to FL. It was across the state, an area we had never been to (Grand Junction, CO). So, we decided to make a small vacation out of that instead, and push our Universal trip back to December (2015). It would be cooler, though more crowded. But the kids thought it was really cool that we were actually flying out on Christmas morning.
And then… September came. And Brian took the job with Google. Which meant we had to move to Boulder. And he would be starting over with vacation time accrual. For a lot of reasons, a December vacation just wasn’t looking like a good idea. And maybe not the cruise either. I had been having second thoughts about the cruise already, so it was an easy decision to cancel. New plan, kids and I would come down to FL for spring break (instead of the cruise) and spend a few days at WDW, then DH would join us for a few days at Universal.
And then… we found out about Lily’s water polo tournament in California. So we canceled all our spring break plans to go to Disneyland instead. And rescheduled Universal for August. Yep, back to summer. And just over a year past when we were originally going to go. Before this, we had an Alaskan cruise scheduled for August, but the family voted unanimously that they would rather go to Universal. So, by default, it ended up becoming our "big trip" for the year. The previous plans only had it being one of our "smaller trips", and add-on to something else.
And then… I realized I was being stupid. Our biggest limiting factor is Brian’ vacation time. (Unfortunately he only gets 3 weeks/year at Google, he had gotten spoiled by getting 5 weeks at Adobe.) But he does get off 2 days for the 4th of July. So if we scheduled our trip then, it would “cost” us 2 days less. So we moved it YET AGAIN. It’s 5th incarnation, I believe. Hopefully this one sticks, as I’ve now done some things that I think may be non-refundable.
And that, my friends, is how a vacation comes about.
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Wow those are some cool adventures. We did California and Disneyland a few years ago and loved it. We would love to do some different things but we always end up at Amusement Parks for the most part. I think the exception was one time we rented a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee and that trip only included zip lining and horseback riding and some mini golf and fishing at the cabin which had its own pond.
Hoping your Universal trip works out well. This will be our first time doing universal and staying on-site and I hope it is as fabulous as I am expecting it to be.
Hoping your Universal trip works out well. This will be our first time doing universal and staying on-site and I hope it is as fabulous as I am expecting it to be.
cantoine
Don't just fly soar
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2013
We had a couple only trip schedule to Disney to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary for memorial day weekend. We even got the chefs table at V&A. But then life happen and I took a new job with Child Protective Services, when I did that it was explained no vacation for 6 months. so we had to postpone our tip until further notice. I was not happy about it and tried to see if I could get friday off since we already had Monday off. It was approved and we started getting hope. Until I was told I am the on call for Monday for the holiday. So we had to cancel the trip. We were already going to Orlando for November 2016 for our daughters birthday and so we decided to try again next year! Hopefully soon we will be able to takenour trip.
Can't wait to read more about your upcoming trip. I am a huge Disney planner and had a trip planned to the tee for October 2013. It was going to be magical. It was far from it. Everything I had planned had fallen apart. After that trip I stopped with all the planning and just went with the flow. We have been back several times since then and they have been some of our best trips. Sometimes planning ruines things and doesn't allow for new opportunities. Can't wait to read more on your upcoming trip
Can't wait to read more about your upcoming trip. I am a huge Disney planner and had a trip planned to the tee for October 2013. It was going to be magical. It was far from it. Everything I had planned had fallen apart. After that trip I stopped with all the planning and just went with the flow. We have been back several times since then and they have been some of our best trips. Sometimes planning ruines things and doesn't allow for new opportunities. Can't wait to read more on your upcoming trip
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
if it was entirely up to me, we would probably always end up at some sort of theme park, lol! But DH loves the outdoors so much, that we have to compromise and do national parks too. And sometimes everyone gets it in their head that they want a beach vacation, though we are almost always restless by the 2nd or 3rd day.
These darn jobs interfering with our fun plans! We had all of our plans this year turned upside down when DH took the new job because it looked like he wouldn't accrue vacation time fast enough. Of course, after I canceled and moved everything around, we found out that they are actually allowed to "borrow" up to a week of time. Oh well. Probably better not to start off the job with a vacation deficit I guess. Hopefully the wait will pay off for you in November.
It seems like the more "magical" I expect a trip to be, the less it actually is. Maybe low expectations is really the key, lol!
cantoine
Don't just fly soar
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2013
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Yes low key is nice but my family (not me) ends up getting bored. My parents live near Myrtle Beach, so we visit there often and spend lots of time at the beach when there...and hitting every mini golf course that we can while there! That's our "low-key" because we have a place to stay for free, we usually order out or eat out with my parents or they cook (sometimes we cook also) and we can take day trips to do touristy stuff in Myrtle Beach area. It's about a 7.5 hour drive from our house to theirs, so we usually only go when we can stay for a very long weekend or a week, but because my kids have gotten accustomed to that drive, the Florida drive is easier for them. I do admit that even our favorite Disney trips have involved a lot of downtime at pools and not constant park time.
RocketCityMama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2009
Wow you have done some awesome trips! I am trying to branch out more, our go to's are the beach, Disney and universal right now. With small day trip/weekend trips to Chattanooga TN. I really want to take the girls to the DC area, out to some national parks too. My oldest is going to be a junior next year so I feel like our time is running out but I am hoping as she is older she'll still want to join us!
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
Oh I love Chattanooga! I grew up mostly in Memphis, and we would take quick weekend trips there a lot. Always stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo - so many fun memories there!
Lily, my oldest, is just finishing 7th grade, but I'm already getting weepy about our time running out. This and next summer's vacation area already planned, so that means we only get 4 more before she's (hopefully) off to college. I better choose wisely, lol! And I have no idea what things will look like after that, if she will still want to, and be able to come with us.
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
An Overview of our Trip
I'm in a bit of a fog this morning, and have given up and hope of being productive, so I'll just think about our vacation instead, lol! And I don't really have any appropriate pictures, so I'll just play with font colors instead.
So I've focused a lot already on our history, now it's time to dig into the future, and specifically this trip! A few details and thoughts...
Tickets
As usual, I spent many hours obsessing over which tickets to buy. When we were going to do a split stay with Disney, I was looking at just doing 2 days, and not thinking the park-to-park was worth it. But we had some friends who went a year or so ago, and said it was absolutely worth it just to ride HE. And they are SO much more frugal than us, I figured if they were lobbying for it, we should do it, lol!
Then our trip slowly got longer and longer with each new incarnation... and I was thinking I would get 4 day tickets. And then noticed that UCT had something called a Universal 3-park Unlimited Ticket. Good for 14 days. Well... we won't be there for 14 days, but we could theoretically use more than 4 days. If we spent some time in the park on our arrival day. Or if I changed our early Monday morning flight home to be an evening one... thank goodness SW doesn't charge change fees! So, that's what we ended up buying.
Oh, and the ticket includes Wet-n-Wild. I don't know if we will make use of that or not, but it's there if we want it. We do love water parks, so much that we got season passes to Water World, our local water park, which is actually one of the biggest in the country and has several Disney/Universal quality attractions. So, I don't know if we will want to spend vacation time at a sub-par water park, but if we get too tired of the heat it might still be a good option.
And we'll be able to spend as much time as we want at Universal/IoA. In hindsight, it probably would have been better for at least one of us to get an AP, so that we could have had free parking, since I don't see any way of getting out of having a car. Oh well. Then I'd just be tempted to try to sneak in another trip this year, lol!
A Typical Day
I think I mentioned once or twice that I HATE heat. And I HATE humidity. So a July trip to FL is going to be a challenge. But it's what we've got to work with at this point, so we'll make the best of it. Our first two big Disney trips were in June, and after the second, I swore I'd never come to FL again in the summer. (And technically that was still spring. Oh well!)
So... pace is going to be the key. We will hopefully be getting an early start every day. EE isn't posted yet for July, but from what I see of June and last July, it will most likely be 7am at both parks. We are early risers anyway, so I don't want to waste this time.
And then we will most likely need to head back to the resort for an afternoon break. Either in the room, or in the pool! We used to always take mid-day breaks on our Disney trips. We've gotten out of the habit lately, when we've been on shorter trips in cooler weather. But I think it will be a non-negotiable this time.
I have dinner planned most nights, and hopefully we'll get in some park time either before or after.
Schedule
I'm trying not to over schedule this trip, but I do want to have a tentative plan in mind. There are some things I probably can't change, but the ones I can, I won't hesitate to if we decide it's not what we want. This is a rough idea of what I have so far, I'll probably post more details about each day later.
Sat-Mon:
In Naples, FL visiting my family.
7/5 Tue:
Drive to Orlando. Check in at RPR. Hang out at pool. Dinner at HRC, Blue Man Group Show 6pm.
7/6 Wed:
Universal - HP stuff during EE. HE to IoA, maybe do Jurassic Park and/or Toon Lagoon. Lunch at 3B? Break at resort. Dinner at Vivo Italian 6pm. Evening in IoA after, maybe watch fireworks if not too tired.
7/7 Thur:
Sea World - more about this later, but the only thing I know for sure is Dine with Shamu for dinner
7/8 Fri:
Universal- Minions during EE and Production Central, Woody Woodpecker, and World Expo. Lunch - maybe Monsters Cafe? Break at resort. Pirate Dinner Adventure 5pm.
7/9 Sat:
IoA - HP stuff, Marvel, anything else we haven't done already. Hopefully lunch at Mythos. Not sure about the rest of the day?
7/10 Sun:
Universal - finish HP during EE, Minions again? New York & Hollywood. Lunch at Mels? Afternoon break. Dinner at Bob Marleys 6pm.
7/11 Mon:
Chance to finish up anything or re-do favorites. Flight home is at 5pm, so have until ~2pm at the parks.
Quite a few ?? still, and some rather unplanned time. But I think (*hope*) it will be okay. I'm also keeping in mind some back-up-plans in case we either run out of things to do, or really need something indoors (if we just can't take the heat, or we get a day that's a total wash-out).
There is so much summer busy-ness in between us and this trip that it's making seem farther away than it really is! Both kids are doing swim team and taking tennis lessons, and a couple of other camps. And we have a travel-tournament for water polo before then as well.
And Lily is going to Greece. Yes, that's right, my 12 yo DD is going to GREECE without me! She is going with a school group (from her old school, before we moved). They leave in less than 3 weeks. I think once she is safely back, I can start to get more excited about our vacation. Right now the knot in my stomach is from nervousness, not excitement, lol!
I'm in a bit of a fog this morning, and have given up and hope of being productive, so I'll just think about our vacation instead, lol! And I don't really have any appropriate pictures, so I'll just play with font colors instead.
So I've focused a lot already on our history, now it's time to dig into the future, and specifically this trip! A few details and thoughts...
Tickets
As usual, I spent many hours obsessing over which tickets to buy. When we were going to do a split stay with Disney, I was looking at just doing 2 days, and not thinking the park-to-park was worth it. But we had some friends who went a year or so ago, and said it was absolutely worth it just to ride HE. And they are SO much more frugal than us, I figured if they were lobbying for it, we should do it, lol!
Then our trip slowly got longer and longer with each new incarnation... and I was thinking I would get 4 day tickets. And then noticed that UCT had something called a Universal 3-park Unlimited Ticket. Good for 14 days. Well... we won't be there for 14 days, but we could theoretically use more than 4 days. If we spent some time in the park on our arrival day. Or if I changed our early Monday morning flight home to be an evening one... thank goodness SW doesn't charge change fees! So, that's what we ended up buying.
Oh, and the ticket includes Wet-n-Wild. I don't know if we will make use of that or not, but it's there if we want it. We do love water parks, so much that we got season passes to Water World, our local water park, which is actually one of the biggest in the country and has several Disney/Universal quality attractions. So, I don't know if we will want to spend vacation time at a sub-par water park, but if we get too tired of the heat it might still be a good option.
And we'll be able to spend as much time as we want at Universal/IoA. In hindsight, it probably would have been better for at least one of us to get an AP, so that we could have had free parking, since I don't see any way of getting out of having a car. Oh well. Then I'd just be tempted to try to sneak in another trip this year, lol!
A Typical Day
I think I mentioned once or twice that I HATE heat. And I HATE humidity. So a July trip to FL is going to be a challenge. But it's what we've got to work with at this point, so we'll make the best of it. Our first two big Disney trips were in June, and after the second, I swore I'd never come to FL again in the summer. (And technically that was still spring. Oh well!)
So... pace is going to be the key. We will hopefully be getting an early start every day. EE isn't posted yet for July, but from what I see of June and last July, it will most likely be 7am at both parks. We are early risers anyway, so I don't want to waste this time.
And then we will most likely need to head back to the resort for an afternoon break. Either in the room, or in the pool! We used to always take mid-day breaks on our Disney trips. We've gotten out of the habit lately, when we've been on shorter trips in cooler weather. But I think it will be a non-negotiable this time.
I have dinner planned most nights, and hopefully we'll get in some park time either before or after.
Schedule
I'm trying not to over schedule this trip, but I do want to have a tentative plan in mind. There are some things I probably can't change, but the ones I can, I won't hesitate to if we decide it's not what we want. This is a rough idea of what I have so far, I'll probably post more details about each day later.
Sat-Mon:
In Naples, FL visiting my family.
7/5 Tue:
Drive to Orlando. Check in at RPR. Hang out at pool. Dinner at HRC, Blue Man Group Show 6pm.
7/6 Wed:
Universal - HP stuff during EE. HE to IoA, maybe do Jurassic Park and/or Toon Lagoon. Lunch at 3B? Break at resort. Dinner at Vivo Italian 6pm. Evening in IoA after, maybe watch fireworks if not too tired.
7/7 Thur:
Sea World - more about this later, but the only thing I know for sure is Dine with Shamu for dinner
7/8 Fri:
Universal- Minions during EE and Production Central, Woody Woodpecker, and World Expo. Lunch - maybe Monsters Cafe? Break at resort. Pirate Dinner Adventure 5pm.
7/9 Sat:
IoA - HP stuff, Marvel, anything else we haven't done already. Hopefully lunch at Mythos. Not sure about the rest of the day?
7/10 Sun:
Universal - finish HP during EE, Minions again? New York & Hollywood. Lunch at Mels? Afternoon break. Dinner at Bob Marleys 6pm.
7/11 Mon:
Chance to finish up anything or re-do favorites. Flight home is at 5pm, so have until ~2pm at the parks.
Quite a few ?? still, and some rather unplanned time. But I think (*hope*) it will be okay. I'm also keeping in mind some back-up-plans in case we either run out of things to do, or really need something indoors (if we just can't take the heat, or we get a day that's a total wash-out).
There is so much summer busy-ness in between us and this trip that it's making seem farther away than it really is! Both kids are doing swim team and taking tennis lessons, and a couple of other camps. And we have a travel-tournament for water polo before then as well.
And Lily is going to Greece. Yes, that's right, my 12 yo DD is going to GREECE without me! She is going with a school group (from her old school, before we moved). They leave in less than 3 weeks. I think once she is safely back, I can start to get more excited about our vacation. Right now the knot in my stomach is from nervousness, not excitement, lol!
kittylady1972
Disneyholic
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2003
Your plans sound GREAT so far! I'm a bit with you on the heat in Florida, but we have now been twice in June, last year in July and one year in May (back in 2009...and that was a very hot week and had very little if any rain at all...unheard of in Florida) and I think we now know our limits. We follow the same gameplan as you for the most part...hit the parks early, break for lunch, back in the evening if we want and we found in July that worked out really well. It was nice just spending afternoons at the pool or relaxing in the room with lunch.
How exciting for your daughter going to Greece. What a great opportunity. I think I'd totally freak if my 13-yo daughter went but I know she would also love it.
Love your fun dinner show plans as well. Sounds like an amazing trip!
How exciting for your daughter going to Greece. What a great opportunity. I think I'd totally freak if my 13-yo daughter went but I know she would also love it.
Love your fun dinner show plans as well. Sounds like an amazing trip!
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
Glad to know there is at least hope for the heat not being unbearable! That's probably my biggest worry right now. At least we'll be in FL for a few days before getting to Universal, maybe the humidity won't be such a shock by then.
gtpoohbear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
Okay, I've been neglecting my PTR a bit, time to get back to it! The kids are out of school, and our busy summer schedule has taken root around here. Most days start with Lily's 6:30am swim practice, then the rest of the days is a myriad of Owen's swim practices, Lily's water polo practices, tennis lessons, oboe lessons, dentist appointments, etc. And Lily is leaving for Greece next Wednesday! We had the final meeting last night - it's starting to seem way to real!
The big "talk" about the trip lately has been the Harry Potter stuff. So I thought I would make a post focusing on that. I actually had to remind Lily in the car last night that there IS other stuff at Universal too, but she just shrugged and said she didn't really know the movies from most of the other rides, so she has little interest right now. I think I know where we'll be spending most of our time, lol!
We are actually fairly "new" Harry Potter fans. The movies started coming out when I was in college/grad school, and most of our friends quickly segregated into two camps. You were either a Harry Potter fan, or a Lord of the Rings fan. (I think those movies must have been around the same time) For some reason, no one was both! I might not have cared about either, but our circle of friends were all big LOTR people, so that's what I became, by default.
The Movies
When I was pregnant with Lily, I ended up joining one of those movie clubs, where you get a bunch to start for free, then have to buy another every month. I somehow ended up with the first Harry Potter movie in my collection. We didn't watch it until I was at the hospital, in labor! (It was a LONG day - 14 hours in the hospital bed before she arrived) So my first HP memories are clouded by images of doctors and nurses coming in and out, and generally being foggy from the epi. But I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Slowly, over the next few years, we began working our way through the series. DH's parents were big fans, and would occasionally talk us into watching the next one when we were at their house. I think we only got through the 4th or 5th one though, and never considered ourselves to be all that "into it". After my FIL passed away several years ago, we stopped watching and had mostly lost track of which ones we had seen.
When talk started of making this trip, I knew we needed to see the whole series, and by that time, figured we should just start over. Again, I think we got through number 5, and then we moved. And were without our Apple TV for 3 months. And then another 2 months before we were settled in enough to hook it up, lol! So we had another hiatus. But we did finally finish the last one a few weeks ago. And, maybe just because we know we are going to the WWoHP, have all become rather intrigued. Maybe even a little obsessed.
The Books
I tried to get Lily to read the books several years ago, but she just wasn't interested. I suggested it again a few months ago, and had her download the first one onto her iPad. I asked her a couple weeks later if she had read any of it, and she seemed confused at first.. "Which one?" Turns out, she was already on the 3rd book, lol! She has now read through all 7, in less than 3 months. So she is our official Harry Potter expert. Apparently she even won a HP trivia contest on the last day of school, probably helped that the books were so fresh in her mind! She says her dream would be to go to Hogwarts, but on a normal year, without all the Voldemort drama.
Souvenirs
So there will definitely be a lot of time spent in HP world. Both kids are planning to get a wand. Maybe the interactive ones, they'll probably decide once they are there. I really want to see the "show" at Ollivander's, but I'm actually really hoping neither of the kids gets picked. Especially Owen, he will likely just freeze up and refuse to speak at all. Lily would probably enjoy it if she let herself, but she would be nervous.
She was initially wanting to get a robe, but isn't so sure now. They are awfully expensive, and since it's going to be hotter than the surface of the sun, it's not like they will wear them while we are there. But I'm sure there will be plenty of other HP paraphernalia to feast upon.
Wardrobe
Okay, I have to admit, I got a little cheesy here. I just couldn't resist the fact that there are 4 houses at Hogwarts, and 4 of us! So we sorted ourself into houses, and will be representing them while we are there. At first, I was going to get us each a shirt, to wear on the first day. But there were so many, how to choose? Maybe I'd get two. Or three. Or four. Afterall, we will most likely have 4 park days at Uni/IoA...Yep. Bought a total of 16 shirts. Here is a picture of 2 of them (each) that I posted on FB a while back. I was too afraid to admit on there how many I had really bought - hopefully people here won't be so critical of my obsession, lol!
So... who was sorted into which house?? I gave Lily first pick, since she is the most-obsessed. You would think she would have gone with the obvious - Gryffindor. But that was too predictable, lol! She chose Hufflepuff. Probably because it is the LEAST talked about, and maybe that fits better with her desire to just be a plain, normal Hogwarts student with no unusual shenanigans going on. Here she is wearing one of the shirts not in the picture above...
I've mostly "quarantined" the shirts until our trip, but she really wanted to wear this one to school one day, so I gave in.
Next I let Owen pick. Normally, he is a villain sympathizer, so I expected him to pick Slytherin. But apparently, in HP, he likes the heroes, so he chose Gryffindor. Red is his favorite color, so I guess that makes sense. And he does have the glasses going for him, if he just had darker hair he could totally pull off a young Harry Potter. I had trouble finding coordinating shirts to ours, since he needs kids sizes, but I finally came up with something that will work pretty well. He just recently got his first pet - a red betta fish. Which he named Gryffin, and says his nickname is Gryffindor. I tried to explain that usually, the nickname is a shortened form of the real name, not the opposite. Didn't change his mind at all. Oh well!
So that leaves DH and I with Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I could have gone with either, but I figured DH would protest being the villains, so I gave him Ravenclaw. I think it's a decent fit, since their trait is supposed to be wisdom, and he is definitely the smartest of the bunch! And I don't really mind Slytherin, since Snape was my favorite character. His is such a tragic story. I would have a few choice words to share with James Potter if I ever met him, lol!
At the Parks
So, the important part, right?? I'm still having a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around what is what and where. But it looks like the two "big" HP rides are Escape from Gringotts and Forbidden Journey. Owen isn't tall enough for FJ, so we will obviously have to split up for that one. And probably for Gringotts too. I showed him a Youtube video of the ride, and he insists that he is NOT rising it, lol! He is not much of a thrill rider yet, especially if it's dark and spooky. (We even had trouble getting him on rides like Peter Pan and Small World until last year). But, we'll have plenty of time to take turns, and hopefully he will at least be brave enough to walk through the queues. Flight of the Hippogriff looks like it might be right at his level right now, so we do that while we are split up.
I do want to eat at both Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron, even if it's just for a snack or drink. Still not sure how exactly this fits into our touring plan, but I'm sure it will work out one way or another. And of course we will ride Hogwarts Express, both directions. Lily is especially excited about that!
Early Entry hours were finally posted, just as I suspected, both parks will open at 7am everyday. So that's my plan - to spend at least 4 early mornings at HP. Hopefully everyone else is agreeable to getting up early!
And that's really all I know. I'm actually kind of excited that I feel like I don't know much about it. Maybe it will feel more "real" if it's a surprise, lol!
The big "talk" about the trip lately has been the Harry Potter stuff. So I thought I would make a post focusing on that. I actually had to remind Lily in the car last night that there IS other stuff at Universal too, but she just shrugged and said she didn't really know the movies from most of the other rides, so she has little interest right now. I think I know where we'll be spending most of our time, lol!
We are actually fairly "new" Harry Potter fans. The movies started coming out when I was in college/grad school, and most of our friends quickly segregated into two camps. You were either a Harry Potter fan, or a Lord of the Rings fan. (I think those movies must have been around the same time) For some reason, no one was both! I might not have cared about either, but our circle of friends were all big LOTR people, so that's what I became, by default.
The Movies
When I was pregnant with Lily, I ended up joining one of those movie clubs, where you get a bunch to start for free, then have to buy another every month. I somehow ended up with the first Harry Potter movie in my collection. We didn't watch it until I was at the hospital, in labor! (It was a LONG day - 14 hours in the hospital bed before she arrived) So my first HP memories are clouded by images of doctors and nurses coming in and out, and generally being foggy from the epi. But I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Slowly, over the next few years, we began working our way through the series. DH's parents were big fans, and would occasionally talk us into watching the next one when we were at their house. I think we only got through the 4th or 5th one though, and never considered ourselves to be all that "into it". After my FIL passed away several years ago, we stopped watching and had mostly lost track of which ones we had seen.
When talk started of making this trip, I knew we needed to see the whole series, and by that time, figured we should just start over. Again, I think we got through number 5, and then we moved. And were without our Apple TV for 3 months. And then another 2 months before we were settled in enough to hook it up, lol! So we had another hiatus. But we did finally finish the last one a few weeks ago. And, maybe just because we know we are going to the WWoHP, have all become rather intrigued. Maybe even a little obsessed.
The Books
I tried to get Lily to read the books several years ago, but she just wasn't interested. I suggested it again a few months ago, and had her download the first one onto her iPad. I asked her a couple weeks later if she had read any of it, and she seemed confused at first.. "Which one?" Turns out, she was already on the 3rd book, lol! She has now read through all 7, in less than 3 months. So she is our official Harry Potter expert. Apparently she even won a HP trivia contest on the last day of school, probably helped that the books were so fresh in her mind! She says her dream would be to go to Hogwarts, but on a normal year, without all the Voldemort drama.
Souvenirs
So there will definitely be a lot of time spent in HP world. Both kids are planning to get a wand. Maybe the interactive ones, they'll probably decide once they are there. I really want to see the "show" at Ollivander's, but I'm actually really hoping neither of the kids gets picked. Especially Owen, he will likely just freeze up and refuse to speak at all. Lily would probably enjoy it if she let herself, but she would be nervous.
She was initially wanting to get a robe, but isn't so sure now. They are awfully expensive, and since it's going to be hotter than the surface of the sun, it's not like they will wear them while we are there. But I'm sure there will be plenty of other HP paraphernalia to feast upon.
Wardrobe
Okay, I have to admit, I got a little cheesy here. I just couldn't resist the fact that there are 4 houses at Hogwarts, and 4 of us! So we sorted ourself into houses, and will be representing them while we are there. At first, I was going to get us each a shirt, to wear on the first day. But there were so many, how to choose? Maybe I'd get two. Or three. Or four. Afterall, we will most likely have 4 park days at Uni/IoA...Yep. Bought a total of 16 shirts. Here is a picture of 2 of them (each) that I posted on FB a while back. I was too afraid to admit on there how many I had really bought - hopefully people here won't be so critical of my obsession, lol!
So... who was sorted into which house?? I gave Lily first pick, since she is the most-obsessed. You would think she would have gone with the obvious - Gryffindor. But that was too predictable, lol! She chose Hufflepuff. Probably because it is the LEAST talked about, and maybe that fits better with her desire to just be a plain, normal Hogwarts student with no unusual shenanigans going on. Here she is wearing one of the shirts not in the picture above...
I've mostly "quarantined" the shirts until our trip, but she really wanted to wear this one to school one day, so I gave in.
Next I let Owen pick. Normally, he is a villain sympathizer, so I expected him to pick Slytherin. But apparently, in HP, he likes the heroes, so he chose Gryffindor. Red is his favorite color, so I guess that makes sense. And he does have the glasses going for him, if he just had darker hair he could totally pull off a young Harry Potter. I had trouble finding coordinating shirts to ours, since he needs kids sizes, but I finally came up with something that will work pretty well. He just recently got his first pet - a red betta fish. Which he named Gryffin, and says his nickname is Gryffindor. I tried to explain that usually, the nickname is a shortened form of the real name, not the opposite. Didn't change his mind at all. Oh well!
So that leaves DH and I with Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I could have gone with either, but I figured DH would protest being the villains, so I gave him Ravenclaw. I think it's a decent fit, since their trait is supposed to be wisdom, and he is definitely the smartest of the bunch! And I don't really mind Slytherin, since Snape was my favorite character. His is such a tragic story. I would have a few choice words to share with James Potter if I ever met him, lol!
At the Parks
So, the important part, right?? I'm still having a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around what is what and where. But it looks like the two "big" HP rides are Escape from Gringotts and Forbidden Journey. Owen isn't tall enough for FJ, so we will obviously have to split up for that one. And probably for Gringotts too. I showed him a Youtube video of the ride, and he insists that he is NOT rising it, lol! He is not much of a thrill rider yet, especially if it's dark and spooky. (We even had trouble getting him on rides like Peter Pan and Small World until last year). But, we'll have plenty of time to take turns, and hopefully he will at least be brave enough to walk through the queues. Flight of the Hippogriff looks like it might be right at his level right now, so we do that while we are split up.
I do want to eat at both Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron, even if it's just for a snack or drink. Still not sure how exactly this fits into our touring plan, but I'm sure it will work out one way or another. And of course we will ride Hogwarts Express, both directions. Lily is especially excited about that!
Early Entry hours were finally posted, just as I suspected, both parks will open at 7am everyday. So that's my plan - to spend at least 4 early mornings at HP. Hopefully everyone else is agreeable to getting up early!
And that's really all I know. I'm actually kind of excited that I feel like I don't know much about it. Maybe it will feel more "real" if it's a surprise, lol!
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Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
