Paula’s surprise vacation full of rest and relaxation
Ok – so you all know that I have been horrifically overworked for the past year and was long overdue for a vacation. I was originally going to go hang out in Florida with my aunt and uncle at the Villages just west of Orlando but the best laid plans were not to be. While I did spend some time at the Villages marveling of what my life could be once I turned 55 (the Villages is a huge retirement community that basically has all of the recreation an active adult could hope for – hello they have 37 golf courses!) this turned into so much more of a vacation because I went on a 4 night
Disney cruise on the new Disney Dream!!!! So, come aboard and share in my fabulous week away from reality.
Day 1
With my sister as my travelling companion, we were up and out of the house as the sun was rising to head for the airport. We had scored $95 each way flights on Southwest and were loving life with that price. We even splurged for the extra $20 for the express check in service that guaranteed us an A group boarding pass. After a bit of a bumpy flight and one heck of a right turn on the tarmac at MCO (seriously, I didn’t know planes could make a hard right turn at that speed) we were soon on our way to baggage claim and the car rental counters.
Our bags arrived with no issues and we were soon pulling gout in our shiny red Ford Taurus and heading to the Hyatt Place hotel across from Universal Studios. I had a date with a certain wizard….
Before I go on I have to talk a bit about the Hyatt Place chain of hotels. They are relatively new and come from the Hyatt group. While I have yet to stay in a Hyatt Regency that I haven’t loved (hello – the one in Jersey City beats any of the mid-town Manhattan hotels at that same price range and can’t compare with their view), the Hyatt Place group continues to exceed my expectations. I first stayed with them in Sacramento when I went out there for work. The rooms are a bit bigger than most and include a small sitting area in addition to a generous bedroom area. What truly makes this place fabulous is the staff. They are just so accommodating and nice – I really can’t say enough about them. When you check in you get a quick tour of the lobby offerings including the ‘kitchen’ area. All you need to do is ask and they are there to help you get what you need. Way better than a Hampton Inn, Marriott Courtyard, etc. and well within the same price range as these other chains. (think about $100/night depending on where and when you travel). We booked this through Universal’s website as they were a partner hotel and could get us into Universal’s Island of Adventures and hour earlier than the general public. No front of the line access but that pesky wizard doesn’t offer it anyways so no need to waste $300/ night on the on site properties.
After a bit of freshening up, we were off to the park. We had bought a two day, two park ticket so we were free to go where ever we wanted. The weather was a bit drizzly and generally kind of eh, but still decent touring weather. We headed through the empty gates (it was about 1:00 at this point), stopped for a sandwich at one of the coffee shops and then we started the walk back to Hogsmeade. We passed through the island with Dr. Suess theming which was cute and then through what I think was an Morrocan village, we were at the Hogsmeade gate. What struck us about our walk back there was how empty the park felt. It was as if no one was there. We soon realized where all the people were.
Hogsmeade was bustling with people but didn’t feel too crowded. We truly must have been there on an off day because while there were people there, it was not wall to wall. You could see all of the details in on the buildings and look in the shop windows and such with relative ease. We started to wonder back towards Hogwarts castle, stopped to see a bit of the Hogworts choir and frogs perform, and were pleasantly surprised by the ‘short’ wait time for the Forbidden Journey ride.
OMG what an amazing job they did with this ride. You enter into through the gates of the grounds, stow your stuff in a free locker and then head for the queue. You start out in the herbology greenhouses and soon find yourself in Dumbldore’s office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and then you are off on the ride. I won’t give away too many spoilers here but the queue is in some ways better than the ride as there is so much to see. The ride itself was just amazing. It is one of the most realistic motion simulator rides I have ever been on.
Of course they dump you into the shop where you can buy pretty much anything Harry Potter related. The one downside is that the pricing is not cheap and yet all you saw walking around were kids outfitted in complete robes, scarves and wands. The total for that package is easily pushing $200! We headed out of there (I needed a breather before we did it again) and walked back towards Hogsmeade.
While in Hogsmeade, we rode the dragon coasters which have been newly themed to be part of the Tri-Wizard tournament and then it was now time to try some Butterbeer!
My sister had the frozen kind and I had the straight up kind. I think the frozen had the edge on the straight. The flavor is hard to describe as it was part crème soda with a bit of the spice from gingerbread in there. There was this frothy top to it that was vanilla like as well. All in all it was tasty but whoa Nelly was it sweet! Not sure I could recommend that to anyone with an existing blood sugar issue. We sipped our butterbeers as we strolled through Zonko’s and the candy shop. I almost bought a chocolate frog but opted for the keychain instead. Following our stroll through the shops, we dumped the rest of our butterbeer as they were too sweet to finish. I will say this though – they were cheap. I think it was about $3 each and the serving size was decent. By far the most reasonable expense in the whole area! From here it was back to Hogwarts and the Forbidden Journey again. Yes, it rocked on the second trip and I picked up even more from the queue.
From here we continued through the rest of the ‘empty’ park on our way to the Spiderman ride. The comic book island had so many images from all of the comic strips I grew up with. It was fun to walk through and remember things like Billy’s round-about paths with the dashed lines from Family Circus or Dudley DoRight and even Boris and Natasha. Lots of smiles happening there. A quick trip with the Spiderman and we had decided that there really wasn’t anything else that captured our attention there. At this point, it was about 4:00 so we decided to walk over to the original Universal Studios park to check out a few favorites there.
First we had to check out the construction of the Despicable Me ride (really it is the renovation of the Jimmy Neutron ride). They had some images of Gru and the minions along the protective wall around the work area which were fun. I love the minions so I had fun checking them out.
From there we were off to hang with the Simpsons! We virtually walked right on to the ride and escaped Sideshow Bob’s attempt to kill us all in his theme park. A fun trip as always. We then headed over to hunt some ailiens down at Men in Black – another walk on and then decided to check out the Mummy returns. This was the first time we ran into a line. The board out front reported a 15 minute wait but it was really closer to 30. No worries as it really was the only line of the day and the ride was great as usual. At this point, the park was closing and we were on our way out happy that we did all of our must dos in one afternoon! Dinner that night was at the Hard Rock Café. Good food, good music and generally a great way to end the day. It was back to the hotel for a much needed night’s sleep.
Don't you feel just WONDERFUL about all of that! Oh! It brings tears to my eyes!
) but pleased and think of him a lot and thrilled for this outcome. 
- would ever be able to beat me on either. I go for a win not "let me focus and get the shot". Accuracy is a loser's sport. 
Strange. Okay brainstorming but get the carao. 
