The Ever-changing US-IOA-SW-BG TR - June 2016 Trip - COMPLETE!

[kittylady1972]

Any QUESTIONS?? Happy to try to answer them! I'll say I still prefer Disney but this was a nice break from that for all of us!

 

[Lynne G]

I'm glad you thought it was a nice break. I found not many vacations are cheap. Though with a car, you can at least buy food outside the park. I always stop and get breakfast stuff, as I am happy with a bagel or muffin and some coffee from the room. I also tend to eat dinners outside the park. I like Finnegans in the park, but not many other dinner places. Sometimes I eat at a place in Citywalk, most other times, I take the car and drive 10 or so minutes. I like sweet tomatoes, the bbq place, and the teak bar, about a 15 minute ride. I'm also known to seek ice cream. I always buy a discounted steak n shake card, so I like to go there for a dinner or big breakfast too.

Disney is so much bigger, and not as scary rides, but if your kids are like mine, and really enjoy the thrill rides, if you can afford, I always try to fit USO in our Orlando vacations.


Thank you for doing this report. I've enjoyed reading it.

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm glad you thought it was a nice break. I found not many vacations are cheap. Though with a car, you can at least buy food outside the park. I always stop and get breakfast stuff, as I am happy with a bagel or muffin and some coffee from the room. I also tend to eat dinners outside the park. I like Finnegans in the park, but not many other dinner places. Sometimes I eat at a place in Citywalk, most other times, I take the car and drive 10 or so minutes. I like sweet tomatoes, the bbq place, and the teak bar, about a 15 minute ride. I'm also known to seek ice cream. I always buy a discounted steak n shake card, so I like to go there for a dinner or big breakfast too.

Disney is so much bigger, and not as scary rides, but if your kids are like mine, and really enjoy the thrill rides, if you can afford, I always try to fit USO in our Orlando vacations.

Thank you for doing this report. I've enjoyed reading it.

Yes I think we considered going off-site for food but it was so convenient to stay in the resort area and I already had two reservations for dinner so we figured we'd just try them. It worked out okay...but we probably wouldn't do them again. We even talked about trying a place in Citywalk one night...but that was the night I had leftovers for dinner instead...much cheaper.

I do think we will do another USO trip sooner rather than later. I don't know if we will be able to squeeze in another one while I still have my AP, but a friend of mine who works at Universal might be able to snag us some free passes and if that happens we might do ONE day there in November before our Thanksgiving Disney trip just to ride Hulk.

I'll try to do some more writing on our Discovery Cove / SeaWorld / BG Tampa days also.

 

[kittylady1972]

Before I move on to the other parks, a few photos of our trip to share.

Kids on day one as we are about to finally hit the Universal Parks for the first time:

 

[kittylady1972]

OK I just typed a long post with lots of photos...and lost it! UGH! I'll see if I can try again later!

 

[angryduck71]

Yay! I can't wait until we go next summer! Glad you had fun! Just got word my team made the District playoffs -- let's both try to get far and meet each other!

 

[kittylady1972]

Yay! I can't wait until we go next summer! Glad you had fun! Just got word my team made the District playoffs -- let's both try to get far and meet each other!

Which team is that? I am pretty sure the 8.0 Mixed Team I'm playing on right now will make it to Regionals (Districts) which is in August. I don't think my own 40+ 3.5 ladies will get that far and it's too early to tell if my other 40+ 3.5 team that I play on will make it but there's lots of season left there. I've just agreed to play on a 7.5 Combo Team but I don't know if that one advances at all.

I'll keep you posted!

 

[angryduck71]

Which team is that? I am pretty sure the 8.0 Mixed Team I'm playing on right now will make it to Regionals (Districts) which is in August. I don't think my own 40+ 3.5 ladies will get that far and it's too early to tell if my other 40+ 3.5 team that I play on will make it but there's lots of season left there. I've just agreed to play on a 7.5 Combo Team but I don't know if that one advances at all.

I'll keep you posted!

My 7.0 mixed is going to Sectionals in September - I'm not on an 8.0 Mixed team... But, just found out about my 3.5 18+ team. (My 40+ 3.5 team they now don't play a district playoff -- the one time they did was the time my team was undefeated through the season and then we lost in playoffs. Ugh!)

We should just plan a trip to meet in Florida an play tennis!

 

[kittylady1972]

My 7.0 mixed is going to Sectionals in September - I'm not on an 8.0 Mixed team... But, just found out about my 3.5 18+ team. (My 40+ 3.5 team they now don't play a district playoff -- the one time they did was the time my team was undefeated through the season and then we lost in playoffs. Ugh!)

We should just plan a trip to meet in Florida an play tennis!

I just joined this 8.0 Mixed Team this season...and they partnered me with a great 4.5 guy. We've had some AWESOME matches so far. Last weekend we played back to back matches against a GREAT team...and we won both of them. It was funny because the guy/girl we played against the first time we squeaked out a win 7-5, 7-6. It was a match we were flexing because of the July 4th holiday weekend, so we played it on June 26th.

We happened to be playing the same team that same Sunday evening in a scheduled match. My captains asked if we would be okay playing again and we both said yes. When the lineups were exchanged, by chance we ended up facing the SAME guy...this time with a new partner though. She was not as strong as his earlier partner, and he was clearly tired out from our first match. We took that one 6-3, 6-2 but we were both running out of steam that second set for sure. Oh and this was AFTER I played a 3.5 singles match that morning at 8:30am...that I lost 6-4, 7-5 and I probably should not have lost it. I think my singles game has not been that great lately and I clearly was not into the match too much since I was up that second set 5-1 and lost it.

Sadly I just learned that my mixed partner is moving to North Carolina, so won't be playing with him again next year which is too bad. He and his wife are retiring there and he's taking up golf with her instead since she doesn't play tennis. I'm sad because he is a great player, so supportive. We have one more match to play to end this season and hopefully he'll return for Regionals in August. It would be great if we could advance to sectionals from that but we'll see!

I'm all for meeting up sometime to play in Florida though!!

 

[angryduck71]

I just joined this 8.0 Mixed Team this season...and they partnered me with a great 4.5 guy. We've had some AWESOME matches so far. Last weekend we played back to back matches against a GREAT team...and we won both of them. It was funny because the guy/girl we played against the first time we squeaked out a win 7-5, 7-6. It was a match we were flexing because of the July 4th holiday weekend, so we played it on June 26th.

We happened to be playing the same team that same Sunday evening in a scheduled match. My captains asked if we would be okay playing again and we both said yes. When the lineups were exchanged, by chance we ended up facing the SAME guy...this time with a new partner though. She was not as strong as his earlier partner, and he was clearly tired out from our first match. We took that one 6-3, 6-2 but we were both running out of steam that second set for sure. Oh and this was AFTER I played a 3.5 singles match that morning at 8:30am...that I lost 6-4, 7-5 and I probably should not have lost it. I think my singles game has not been that great lately and I clearly was not into the match too much since I was up that second set 5-1 and lost it.

Sadly I just learned that my mixed partner is moving to North Carolina, so won't be playing with him again next year which is too bad. He and his wife are retiring there and he's taking up golf with her instead since she doesn't play tennis. I'm sad because he is a great player, so supportive. We have one more match to play to end this season and hopefully he'll return for Regionals in August. It would be great if we could advance to sectionals from that but we'll see!

I'm all for meeting up sometime to play in Florida though!!

Sounds like you had an awesome mixed time! Think of me July 15-17 -- I'll probably play singles and right now temps are supposed to be in the 90s in KC. I REALLY wish I had dropped those 30 pounds I wanted to for the last 9 years (thanks, son... )

 

[kittylady1972]

Sounds like you had an awesome mixed time! Think of me July 15-17 -- I'll probably play singles and right now temps are supposed to be in the 90s in KC. I REALLY wish I had dropped those 30 pounds I wanted to for the last 9 years (thanks, son... )

LOVE my mixed teams for sure...but I think my singles game has steadily declined since I haven't played it as much. Bad news for me is that I will probably end up playing singles for my own team this Sunday, and for another 3.5 team on Saturday morning...then mixed matches Friday (8.0) evening and Saturday (7.0) so busy tennis weekend for me. The only good thing is the Saturday morning match is indoors (with A/C) and I think temps for Sunday morning here in MD will be in the 80s so hopefully not too bad for that match.

I'm with you on the 30 pounds I've gained since having baby #3 (umm...12 years ago) and I'm slowly working on getting that weight back down...but just started recently. Apparently when you get above age 40 you can eat really NOTHING if you want to maintain weight...no matter how much tennis you play! And to lose it...yeah I wish I didn't like food so much. I've dropped just over 10 pounds or so in the last 10 weeks but still have a long way to go!

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm back...with attempt #2 to share some more photos from our trip.

I already mentioned our room was great. We truly loved Portofino Bay and wish we could have spent more time there enjoying it. My DH would like to try Royal Pacific next time though. The view of the "quiet" pool from our room:


On our very first day of arrival there was a light shower, but it didn't deter us from hitting the parks. One of the rides the kids were looking forward to was a coaster they had missed out on five years ago because they weren't big enough. Then and now photo:



After a full day at the park, we returned to our resort and decided to keep the reservation of the dinner I had booked at Trattoria del Porto. It was such a nice evening that we decided to sit outside, which was when the waitress reminded me that characters wouldn't visit the outside tables. I had forgotten it was a character meal. In any case, I guess Bart and Homer couldn't resist when we were one of only two tables seated outside (and the rest of the restaurant wasn't terribly crowded either) so they stopped by and visited with us and took photos, which was cool:



As for the food here, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here again. My husband is Italian but honestly we are good with most Italian chain restaurants (Olive Garden, Carrabbas) and the kids just wanted pasta so the all you can eat pasta bar made sense. I mostly wanted some kind of meat in a sauce (no pasta) and a salad, but for the price of those two items on the menu I could just make something like that up from the all you can eat stuff for cheaper. That's what I did and it worked out.

I'm glad we finished and had time left to hit the parks. I remembered reading the last two hours of the day was a great time to visit the HP sections, and we had yet to see the "new" Harry Potter section. Honestly it took us a while to find out how to get TO that section. We were wondering in the vicinity of where we knew the train station ended at Universal Studios but there were no signs to indicate how to get to Diagon Alley. We finally walked through an area...and there it was in front of us...as well as all of the people. Actually it wasn't too bad and I must say that Escape from Gringotts was a GREAT ride...so unique...and the queue in the bank was so well done!





The wait wasn't horrible but this was the only ride we did here. Our timing worked out that as we finished riding the evening Cinematic Spectacular was about to start. The boys had no interest in staying, so they headed back to the resort. We stayed to watch and since my DH and I are both movie fans it was cool to see all the movie clips...but not a show I would go out of my way to see again. I can't tell you how many times we started to walk away thinking the show was over...and then more stuff would begin. So strange. Disney wins on the evening shows hands down.



Although none of us are huge Harry Potter fans, there is just something cool about all of the Harry Potter stuff at both parks. We rode the Hogwart's Express four times and loved it each time.



Oh and when they tell you to stay seated...they mean it. Don't ask how I know that!

My youngest son has become a huge Back to the Future fan in the last few months. So when we walked by and found Doc hanging out...this was a great opportunity for him:

 

[kittylady1972]

More photos...continued....

I couldn't resist another opportunity with then and now photos of my two boys. They reluctantly agreed to this one:





Hubby also got a photo with one of his favorite characters:



I got one with one of mine:


However what was cooler was meeting another version of Woody that same evening during our next character meal at The Kitchen:



The Kitchen ended up being a very good meal overall for us. I wish they hold told us about the bread first...because you can fill up on that yummy deliciousness very quickly and we had ordered the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer...also huge with LOTS of chips! My husband had a steak which he said was just okay...not the best but not the worst. My older son enjoyed his Filet and I think my youngest enjoyed his burger. My daughter had a kids meal with grilled chicken...however the chicken was dry and a bit burnt and overall NOT good at all...and the waitress did take that off the bill. I had the shrimp tacos which were AMAZINGLY good...but I could only eat one of three of them. I took them back to the room, stored them in the cooler, and had them the next night and they were still pretty darn good!

Oh and we also met this very cross-eyed Scooby:


We did wait TWICE to ride Skull Island:



The first time was practically a walk-on after the line started moving...I think it was maybe an hour from the time we got in the very long "standby" line that was setup in case the ride opened and across from the regular queue. Once we moved, we went through the long line inside of the ride very quickly and NONE of the indoor elements were working at all and NO scare people in the walls. It was a different story the SECOND time we decided to wait. They had moved the standby queue to another location, the line moved VERY slowly through the entire queue and stopped frequently and overall our wait was over two hours. We had had such good luck the first time that we were sure once we started moving a little bit that things would go quickly and then at some point we were so far in the line and committed and the pain in the butt factor to try to get OUT of the line would have been huge...so we just stayed. This time all the indoor queue stuff worked which was cool AND we had one person scare from behind the wall. Definitely wouldn't wait that long again...but it was our last ride in the parks so we just went with it.

I did force my kids to stand in line for one NON-RIDE thing...and yes I got complaints but if you could see the video taken by the guy there of my daughter being scared by this dinosaur...it was WORTH the wait:



I think the kids did find this a cool experience despite the wait and complaints.

Always fun to take photos around the parks...so there is this one which was MY idea...even though my DH felt it made him look bad:


If you can't laugh at yourself...then you can't hang with me.

Kids got in on the fun too:






This was the one photo my daughter insisted on getting before we checked out of our hotel:



Oh and of course the big draw for both Harry Potter areas was the butterbeer for my family:



We did get it frozen too...it was good but not my thing. We also tried the ice cream at Florean Fortescue's one day and that was a nice treat. We had lunch at Three Broomsticks but we've eaten there before. It was good but expensive...but I think that was mostly due to all the butterbeer. We shared 3 meals between the five of us and it worked out okay.

Ah...teenagers and pre-teens:


This is still one of my personal favorites:


We rode it once on day one and then twice on another day because DH was determined to earn the suit! We did get it on the last ride and I got the top score in the family so I was good after that!

I think we've determined that this should be added to a regular rotation for us in the future. With any luck we will do a short return in the fall around Thanksgiving JUST to ride the HULK!

 

[schumigirl]

Fabulous pictures!

Gotta love scooby doo...........

 

[kittylady1972]

Fabulous pictures!

Gotta love scooby doo...........

Thanks! Yes he was fun.

 

[MrsNesbet]

loved your trip report!! i have older kids too so this was great!!! Any advice for first timers? We are staying the 2nd week of June next summer. 3d/2n at Royal Pacific. Huge harry potter fans! We have never been and I am so excited.
Then we are moving to a condo (I think) and going to DC/SW/AQ with a rest day or two in there. (we will hit down town disney on that day, we love t-rex.)

 

[kittylady1972]

loved your trip report!! i have older kids too so this was great!!! Any advice for first timers? We are staying the 2nd week of June next summer. 3d/2n at Royal Pacific. Huge harry potter fans! We have never been and I am so excited.
Then we are moving to a condo (I think) and going to DC/SW/AQ with a rest day or two in there. (we will hit down town disney on that day, we love t-rex.)

Well since we are NOT huge Harry Potter fans I can't speak much on that, only that it would probably be best for you to take full advantage of the early entry hours at the parks and get to HP first thing in the morning. We always seemed to hit those areas in the afternoons and they were just PACKED! We utilized single rider line one day to avoid the wait, but as a fan I would say you don't want to do that your first time on the big rides there because you miss so much of the theming of the queue.

Other than that, staying on property and getting FOTL access is the only way to go. My family LOVED that they could just walk up to the Express Lines and have their card scanned. We still had to wait somewhat, but not nearly the wait of the regular lines. We did all the big rides we wanted to do with our 1.5 park days or so, and then went back an additional day to do a few missing ones and redo favorites.

Discovery Cove was amazing...just get there as EARLY as possible. The lines were long for checkin (but went quickly) and even LONGER for breakfast...which moved pretty slow. We had lunch early (like 11:30ish) and then went back just before 4pm to get one more meal so we felt we got our money's worth in food there. Lots of good snacks, ice cream, drinks. We definitely didn't need a meal that night. SeaWorld was also great and though we stayed at a SW hotel with front of the line access we found it wasn't necessary at all! Even the newest coaster had a very short wait. I think SW might be hurting there as they clearly expected more of a line for the new coaster (Manta) and we never saw one...in June. Now Aquatica lines...those were insane! We only spent the last 2 hours of a day there and they were still crazy long lines! I guess if you were doing that, I would suggest hitting that first in the morning when it opens, hang out, then return and get cleaned up and save SeaWorld for an afternoon/evening instead. I love the shows at SW but kids (and DH) are all BLAH...SHOWS...NO! We did see one (Clyde and Seamore) but that was it. We've seen Shamu before and nobody seemed interested in much there.

We also love T-Rex for dinner. It's killing me that I don't have a reservation for our next Disney trip during Thanksgiving week and I know walking in with a party of 11 would be crazy. I don't know, we may just have to give it a shot because I think my young nephews (4 and 2) would love it.

Have a great trip! We think Universal will be part of a rotation for us in the future!

 

[tortilla24]

It really looks like you guys had a blast! I wanted to do that raptor encounter but just didn't have time. Next time for sure!

 

[kittylady1972]

It really looks like you guys had a blast! I wanted to do that raptor encounter but just didn't have time. Next time for sure!

It was really cool!

 

[kittylady1972]

So it has been decided...we'll have one more visit to the Universal parks before the end of this year. Our #1 Goal: The Hulk because it was still in refurb and we missed it and the kids really want to ride it.

While I wanted to try another Universal Resort, with the park not being open very late anyway it just makes more sense to spend less money and stay on Disney property. So while we will spend a full day (and only ONE day) at Universal, we'll then check into Shades of Green that evening to begin the Disney part of our trip.

We were spoiled with our FOTL passes for sure, but are hoping the Saturday before Thanksgiving won't be too bad. Any idea what to expect for a wait time as a regular rider on The Hulk on a Saturday morning? We'll really just re-ride favorites from our June trip and probably won't get to any of the Harry Potter stuff. We really just want to hit the bigger stuff and maybe things we missed in June all in one day at Universal.