1st Univeral / Tollens Family Vacation ever

[cheetara]

This is my 1st trip report ever, so please be kind I just wanted to 1st Thank everyone on this board for all the help on planning our 1st vacation to Universal. It was an amazing trip, and I still can't believe were back home!
History behind this trip is it was a life long goal of mine to take the kids and go to Florida. I have not been to FL since Epcot opened in the 80's. So I really wanted to go back, and see stuff. My DH hasn't been back since he was stationed in Jacksonville in 1990. So needless to say it's been a REALLY long time. I've been planning and saving for this trip for 2 years and 4 months since my DH told me Dec 2005 that he wanted to take me to Orlando. Yes he is a sweetie (just don't tell him i said that, it's not macho)

So here goes. . . pictures will be on the way shortly.

Cast of characters. .
Me - D/ Julie 35 (planner of this trip), DH/ Max- 41, DSS/ Max - 17, DS/ Mug - 11, DS/ Jug - 8

Mode of transportation - Driving from Upstate NY
Dates: 4/10 - 4/19
Day 1 (kind of)
We both had to work until 3 pm and the kids all had school. But at lunch my DH surprises my with "oh by the way I want to leave this afternoon, due to weather. Are you packed and ready to go?" I look at him and "What?" That's right he wanted to leave a day early! WOO hoo, oh wait nope I was not packed all the way. But by goodness I spent my lunch on rapidly packing up the car, and getting ready when we got off work. Fast forward to the evening, we're on our way driving from upstate NY to orlando. We made ressies to stop in VA for night, which is not a bad start. . . except you got it around 7 pm in PA we got caught in a I-81 traffic jam. Ohh NOOO . . . yip we inched along, inched along, inched along. An hour passes, two hrs passes and we've only gone 2 miles in that time! It's now 9 PM DH is cranky, kids cranky, me getting a headache and were nowhere near Winchester, VA and still a few hours away from stopping for the night. Finally around 10 and we've gone a whole 4 miles now. DH spies a detour sign and starts jockeying the car into position across 3 lanes of traffic to get to the ramp. Mind you I've been good the whole and not said a word about having to pee. DH 3 lane of traffic departure, just about made me pee my pants. I'm hanging on for dear life and praying that we don't get into an accident. So back on track the DETOUR. . well the detour was off the highway into dark, unmarked country roads that winds around into nowhere for 30 minutes. I'm nervous by now, have to pee and DH is past the cranky part. I keep the peace and say nothing. 1 hr passes and we still don't see the highway. Yip were lost, so we back track and back track. OOPs theres a sign! HOORAY the sign was a little 4x6 sign on a sign post with a red arrow on it and pointing north. Hmm . . . . so we turn, and more country roads and more roads with red arrows and finally the highway. . . woo hooo. By now it's 11 pm. So we zoom onto the interstate and head our way to Winchester, VA. We finally arrive at our hotel around 1:45 AM and check in. The receptionst told us were weren't the 1st ones to arrive this late tonight. Apparently a huge accident tied up I-81 for hours. We check into our room and crash for the rest of the night. On a sad note, we found out from my Dad when he called to see if we were ok that a young girl passed away in that accident we were stuck in.

Day 2 . . . We finally get up and moving around 9 and head off to the hotel breakfast. It was good, but coffee icky and back to more driving on day 2 but with lack of sleep we didn't get very far at all. MY Dh has to stop at a starbucks and check into work with his laptop and I'm cranky from lack of sleep and caffeine deprived. An hr later and he;s still not back from Starbucks and the kids are hot, tired and hungry. I end up stomping into the coffee place and asking him "WTH?" by the way by this time he's had coffee and a treat is sitting in airconditioning! He looks at me goes "What?" Normally i would not have minded this, and understand that he still needed to work since he runs his own business, but today uh huh I wansn't going for it.Told him to hurry up before i left him there! The kids and I take a walk and
and have some lunch and end our day early in Lumberton, NC. Luckily we didn't encounter any bad weather like the news said we would. Sunny and clear and just beautiful.
Day 3. . . more driving and finally ORLANDO! We all get going and drive through SC and GA and finally FL border. Kids all yell and woo hoo and DH and I sigh with relief! Finally only a couple more hours to Orlando. Yeah right! Yes once again we hit traffic jam. Right now it's about 3pm and we should be hitting our rental house around 5:30. Nope not to happen, we inch along past Jacksonville with construction and an accident. We see a pickup truck flipped over on the side of the road with a smashed up 5th wheel trailer. I mean smashed to bits. Crews of people were trying to get someone out of the truck. I say a quick prayer for those people and hope everyone is ok. We finally get moving and it's 5:30 now, and we still have a 2hrs of driving left. The hours streak by without incident, thank goodness. We finally find our cute little rental house. Were located in Davenport which is about 20 minutes from universal. A quick hop on to I-4 and walla! There's Universal!! We get out of the car, look around the house surprise! The house is a 4 bdroom, 2 bath with private pool house! Holy s*** WOW it was fabulous! I have to say this was the most awesome deal I found for our trip. My sweetie DH turns to me and says "WOW Honey, you did good! I'm throughly impresses" Now for my DH to say this is really a huge relief off my shoulders.
The kids all unpack in their separate rooms, and they are all happy. They spy the pool and before I know it there all in it! We finally get ourselves together and get something to eat at the local Applebee's and get some groceries at Publix and around 11 we all crash after another dip in our pool

Day 4 and the rest coming up soon. I'm getting a little tired and actually need to pick up my pictures so I can load some in for you all.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me! Julie

 

[Metro West]

Sounds good so far...I remember those long road trips!

Keep going with the report!

 

[phamton]

You're doing a great job. I'm enjoying reading your report. Thanks!

 

[donaldduck352]

Cann't waite to read more.

 

[cheetara]

Day 4 Sunday Drizzle & Gloomy
Wake up on sunday and it's dark and sprinkling outside. Hmmm ok well my DH and look at each other and decide not to go to parks today. We'll bum out for awhile which was ok with the kiddies too. Around 11 am we pile into the car and headout of the development we are in Davenport and head to the local Tourist Center to get some info. Found some interesting stuff there and decided to head down to I-drive to the tourist center there for more info. We head back out in the drizzle and marvel at all the buildings and stuff we can do. Kids yell out that they see Downtown Disney, and then we loop onto I-Drive. OH MY! It's a feast for the eyes, the kids were speachless which is not an easy thing to do! All you here in the car is "Mom, look at this . . ., Mom, look over at that" and so throughout. They marveled at WonderWorks, and Ripleys, the restuarants Bola which they got into a debate about if that is Mario Batali's from the FoodNetwork. No you have to understand our family and kids since we love the foodnetwork channel and watch it all the time. So going and see this and seeing Emeril's place was a high on their list of must sees. My Dh and I are getting a kick out of the people and places on I-Drive. It was wonderful! We stop and get our info at the center, and it starts to POUR out and I mean POUR. It came down in buckets. So we all piled into the car again and drove around it find a Wal-Mart for some groceries for the week. We finally find one and we get stocked up and head back to the house. While the way we scope out Universal and what we can see. I'm getting so excited by now I'm worse then the kids by now. Pointing out stuff to my DH about what I've gleaned from all of you on this site. I point out the onsite hotels, the hot spots, where to park. By now he's rolling his eyes at me! and thinking i'm a total geek. I felt so cool being able to point things out and saying "oh yeah so and so on DIS said this about that, and this person we had to try that while we're here" but alas he still thinks I'm a geek.
An hoo we end up back at the house, the rain has stopped finally. We all head to the pool for a quick dip, make dinner, and relax by the pool with a much needed glass of wine. In all a really good day, but I can't wait for tomorrow though!

Next . . . .day 5 and our 1st day at IOA!

I'm wrapping this up for tonight I need to pick up my pics!! Thanks everyone

 

[cheetara]

Day 4 Sunday Drizzle & Gloomy
Wake up on sunday and it's dark and sprinkling outside. Hmmm ok well my DH and look at each other and decide not to go to parks today. We'll bum out for awhile which was ok with the kiddies too. Around 11 am we pile into the car and headout of the development we are in Davenport and head to the local Tourist Center to get some info. Found some interesting stuff there and decided to head down to I-drive to the tourist center there for more info. We head back out in the drizzle and marvel at all the buildings and stuff we can do. Kids yell out that they see Downtown Disney, and then we loop onto I-Drive. OH MY! It's a feast for the eyes, the kids were speachless which is not an easy thing to do! All you here in the car is "Mom, look at this . . ., Mom, look over at that" and so throughout. They marveled at WonderWorks, and Ripleys, the restuarants Bola which they got into a debate about if that is Mario Batali's from the FoodNetwork. No you have to understand our family and kids since we love the foodnetwork channel and watch it all the time. So going and see this and seeing Emeril's place was a high on their list of must sees. My Dh and I are getting a kick out of the people and places on I-Drive. It was wonderful! We stop and get our info at the center, and it starts to POUR out and I mean POUR. It came down in buckets. So we all piled into the car again and drove around it find a Wal-Mart for some groceries for the week. We finally find one and we get stocked up and head back to the house. While the way we scope out Universal and what we can see. I'm getting so excited by now I'm worse then the kids by now. Pointing out stuff to my DH about what I've gleaned from all of you on this site. I point out the onsite hotels, the hot spots, where to park. By now he's rolling his eyes at me! and thinking i'm a total geek. I felt so cool being able to point things out and saying "oh yeah so and so on DIS said this about that, and this person we had to try that while we're here" but alas he still thinks I'm a geek.
An hoo we end up back at the house, the rain has stopped finally. We all head to the pool for a quick dip, make dinner, and relax by the pool with a much needed glass of wine. In all a really good day, but I can't wait for tomorrow though!

Next . . . .day 5 and our 1st day at IOA!

I'm wrapping this up for tonight I need to pick up my pics!! Thanks everyone

 

[cheetara]

Ok what am i doing wrong? I can't seem get insert photos. Can someone lead me some advice?

 

[Metro West]

Ok what am i doing wrong? I can't seem get insert photos. Can someone lead me some advice?

You have to have them posted on a photo sharing site like Photobucket in order to post them here.

Bummer...I was looking forward to reading day 5 of the trip report.

 

[cheetara]

Thanks Metro! I'll get that loaded with pixs, but will continue on with DAY

Day 5 - Monday
Monday we wake up to beautiful cool weather, with lots of sunshine! My DH has to work in this AM, so the kids eat breakfast and hope into the pool while we wait. I have my morning coffee out by the pool and so goes how every morning for me starts with coffee and orlando brochures by the pool. This is just a fabulous way to start the morning! HINT HINT honey. . . LOL

10:00 am rolls around and DH wraps up for the day, and we gather what we think we will need for our 1st day at the parks and head out. We drive up I4 and onto the ramp way for Universal. I'm so excited I'm bouncing off my seat in the car. Get to the gates and pay the nice clerk for parking and head on into the parking garage. WOW just the parking garage is big! We get to where we need to park the car, and remember some one from the board said to take a picture of the parking area sign where we parked. Just as a safety precaution I also write it down. (Make note of me writing this down for safety, you'll understand in a bit!) Now the kids are besides themselves after seeing all the people there heading into the parks, and whine about being not able to ride with this many people. WE head off for the walkways a friend of mine told us about and even that is soooo coool This place is just awesome and we haven't got to the actual parks yet. We continue on and we finally see Citywalk. I'm just so impressed, I grab my DS 11 camera and start to snap pics of everything. We slowly walk through Citywalk in awe I just can't believe the theming and colors and all the details. Holy moly my DH exclaims as he see's the actual real plane by the IOA entrance. He and the boys wander over to look at the plane. He's impressed as he realizes it's the actual plane not a replica. After more looking and exclaims (tourist! ) we continue over the bridge and start to hear the theme music for IOA. We get to the turnstiles at the gate and have a small wait and the very nice woman at the gates scans us through and off we go into IOA.
I must say that after reading and seeing all the pictures from this board I still was thunderstruck! That place was amazing. . . . no other words for it! I remember froma thread I read about the Suess worker and nobody evers goes right, so I plead with my family to GO RIGHT! and we did after some very weird geeky looks I got from DH and DSS and we head into Suess landing and look, or more to the point of gawking. The colors. . . the music the everything. We wander around and find the trolley ride and its wait is for 30 minutes. Ok no problem we head right in, and the wait was 30 minutes but the line was always moving while we were there. We even got to see Sam I am, and the Grinch too. We finally get on the ride and the kids think this is soo cool, even the 17 yr old. The ride ends and we all chattering about what we all saw as we head off the ramp back into Suess landing. We spy the grinch again and take his picture from afar and we continue on with our wanderings. We head into Lost Continent next and heres a picture of DH and the kids on the bridge

We wander and look, and look some more and read about the shows and continue on with our wandering. We come across the Dueling Dragons and see that it only has a 5 minute wait. Since I can't go on the ride because of Jug being too small, much to his ever lasting disgust and my DH and DSS head into the ride without any urging from me. Here's a pix of me and jug in front of DD.

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We waiting for them to get off and wander the shops, and see the enchanted tree which was cool. The guys get off the ride and my DH loves it! DSS well he's not lovin it, and says he won't go back on it again (which as you'll read on becomes the progression for all rides later on in the week) We head off towards the Flying Unicorn so my DS 8 can ride a coaster as he mubbles it's for babies! I hear this behind me from DSS "Mom, do you have my digital camera?", "Uh NO! You're 17 I don't have to hold your stuff for you", "Dad, do you have my camera?" DSS reply to DH. DSS gets the same reply as mine. Then the "oh no, I lost my camera on DD" WHAT!! I'm thinking oh crap the parking lot picture is on that camera. . . So we go back to DD to talk to someone on the ride, then the guys head to lost and found. WE wait there for them and get into line for the flying unicorn. DS8 and myself ride the coaster, DS 11 won't ride it because he's too scared and we have a blast. Next Jurassic Park Ride. . .

 

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

This is very fun to read...

 

[fvols98]

Subscribing

 

[ATAfamily]

Anxiously waiting to hear more about your trip.

 

[fvols98]

Subscribing

 

[cheetara]

Ok sorry about the delay, had some complications at work that needed tending too. So here goes with the rest of DAY 5 @ IOA.
After the flying unicorn, MY DH and DSS head off to the lost and found and me, DS 8 and DS11 head to Jurassic Park and wait for them there. The theming in Jurassic park is unbelievable to say the least. We wander around an look at everything we can, and we come across the JPRA ride and it has only a 10 minute wait. I tell the 2 boys come on lets go! We head into the ride and everything is cool, the wait wasn't 10 minutes we load right into the raft. Now my DS 8 is excited to finally be on the ride, my other ds 11 is iffy at best right now. He's worried about everything! LOL . . .So long story short, the outside ride they both are cool, taking pix's, exclaiming over the dino's, just general awesomeness to be had. NOW we head into the inside part of the ride, and I have to honest I was a little freaked too, but DS 11 is panicing about how dark it is, and what is coming up. Whick thank goodness he doesn't know about! All is ok as we head up the ramp, I have two little hands clamped on each of my legs. Ok whew I sigh with relief after nothing so bad happended going up the ramp of the ride and DS's are ok, spitting dinos make him laugh and what not. Then I hear from our seat mate "Holy bleep, look at the T-REX and drop" "What" to late and we plummet down the past the T-Rex, and I'm hanging on to my boys for dear life and praying I don't need therapy for me and them!! SPLUSH. . . goes water every where and the people are cheering, ride is over. This is what i hear from my DS 11 "Mom, I am NOT GOING ON THAT EVER AGAIN! It's too scary" "oh come now Mug it's not that bad, I really liked it. Now you know what to expect we can all go again when we find Dad." Mug "No Mom, I'm not going again. I don't like it and it's scary". Well I left it at that, why push it and make it worse for him and me. So we head off to view our pix and that was hilarious and wished I had my digital camera with me. Oh that's right DSS 17 lost it already! Darn it. . . So off we go to find DSS 17 and DH and continue on with our tour JP. We finally meet up with them and turn right around and head back to JPRA to ride again with everyone. We get to ride entrance and DS 11 again refuses to go on. Ok no problem, I snag DSS 17 and DS 8 who wants to again anyway and off we go. Wait was less than 5 minutes and off we go, BUT we got the front of the ride this time not the back. IT was great for me anyway! Same progression as before outside fine, inside another thing with both 17 yr old and 8 yr old. 17 yr freaking out about it being dark, ohhh noooo the drop he screams like a GIRL! His head was in my lap, and DS 8 and I are laughing and screaming as we head down the shoot. Ride over and we are soaked! DS 8 is telling Dh about being eaten by the t-rex and how scary it was. DSS 17 is chirping how cool it was, and I just had to point out that he screamed like a girl and was hiding his head. So in all a very good ride. We all head off to Popeys and Ripsaw falls next. Now DH and I are looking at everything Dagwoods, and all the older cartoons we had forgotten about and chatting about them. We walk past rip saw falls and DH wants to ride this, and we see no waiting so we head on in, and in and in and it took forever to get the actual entrance to get on the ride. But the theming was cute. We all get into a log, and place scared cats DS 17 and 11 and 8 in back then DH and me in from of the log in that order. And were off, we hear Scared cats 17 & 11 pipe up, we hear scared cat 8 pipe up and the mutterings are funny to say the least. The ride through the tunnels is fun and cute and lot of things we had forgetten from the cartoons. Then we head down the main shoot of water, and I'm so glad the picture was taken right then. If you can picture this (I have to scan the picture first and insert later) me screaming in the front, DH hanging on for dear life next, DS 8 screaming, DS 11 has his mouth wide open and has a "Oh crap" look plastered on it, and DSS 17 again hiding his head in his lap! SPLUSH and once again I'm drenched and luckily so is everyone else in the boat too! We get off the guys take off their shirts to wring them out and thank goodness it's warm out and we all dry pretty quick. But kids are getting tired and we decided to head out for the day since it's almost 5 anyway. And we start the process of wandering out of the park and do some window shopping. We head back to parking garage and DH asks where we parked. I don't know, the pix was on the camera. Oh yeah camera was lost on DD earlier. I hear a my DS 8 pipe up "Mom, didn't you write it down in your wallet!" I look at my DS 8 and think WOW he remembers that! Hmmm interesting. So I did through my fanny pack into my wallet and looksy here, I did write down Car found in Spidey area 453 on our parking receipt.
So in all it was an excellent day at IOA, I really, really enjoyed myself. Which to be honest I was surprised by, I guess I was expecting something the long the lines of Six flags or something. So pleasently surprised. DH and I can't wait to come back by ourselves to everything again. But that is in the far future unless he has business. So this ends DAY 5 next to come Day 6 and Universal Studios and the tears continue. . . .

 

[angela3676]

OMG! This last installment was soooo funny. I have really enjoyed reading your trip report. Can't wait for more.

 

[cheetara]

Ok everyone here is Day 6 of our trip. Today we head to Univeral Studios and more of the boy drama continues on this day. 7:30 AM I wake up and the boys are already up and waiting for breakfast. So I get them going, and hubby rolls out too, he gets busy on work related stuff and I sip my morning joe out by the pool. Today is very cool, so no swimming and the locals are all wrapped up in ski jackets and very winter clothes. I find this interesting especially since I'm in a t-shirt and shorts and getting the weird looks!
Any woo Hubby wraps up work around 10 and we head of to Universal again today.HURRAY I've been anxious to see this side and ride all the rides.
So parking lot is mobbed today and I'm a little disappointed that we might not get to do much today because of all the people. We park and head on to citywalk and the studios. We stop by guest relations as I have a gift card for universal dollars and change that in for us and away we go. 1st glitch the turnstiles today are running the biometric scanning today. No problem I slide through, then we hit the problem because the lady didn't read the tickets correctly and asked for the wrong person. Instead of asking for hubby who is a Jr, she scanned DSS 17 who is the III. Not a problem once I explained the problem and we all get through with no issues. Wow the Universal Side is amazing and we head down the road towards the mummy. We turn the corner and what do we see but a production film crew filming something.

Wait time is only 20 minutes so we head on in with everyone. Now if you read the day 5 we had some issues with a couple of the boys being scared. No I should have been warned right, if the JPRA scared DS 11 and DSS 17 the mummy was going to right? apparently I was not listening to myself. Any woo we get into the waiting area, and I'm lookin around and hubby and I are just enthralled with all the stuff and talking about it. We hear some grumbling from DSS 17, but ignore it. We hear some more grumbling from DSS 17 and now DS 8 is starting in. WHAT? Hubby starts questioning what is going on, and telling DSS 17 to knock it off, being he's upsetting DS 8. All is quiet and we get into the dark maze area, past the box and up close to the next area before where all the stairs area. I look over and see hubby doing that. I ask what is the problem and I see DS 8 crying and DSS 17 figeting around telling us he's scared and wants to get off. Hubby sees a exit sign and jumps the ropes with DSS 17 and DS 8 grumbling and irritated with DSS 17. I told don't worry about it, he tells me to stay and take DS 11 on the ride. Ok then. They leave and me and DS 11 continue and I point out the art work to him and try to calm him down a little since he paniced with dad not being there with him. We continue on and get into the big room with stairs and a CM starts to pop up and scare people. OH NO! DS 11 starts to cry hysterically and i try to calm him down and tell him it's ok. That they do that to get people into the ride experiece. Nope he's not having it so we kindly ask the CM to show us out of the exit and we wander around in the dark lost for about 10 minutes and finally come out into day light. Now DS 11 and I can't find hubby and the other boys so we continue searching for them and hear some music and signing coming from the blues area and see this

boy the woman can sing and it was wonderful music too. We enjoy that for bit and wander into the mummy shop and find hubby and boys waiting for us there. He looks up and at me. I tell him my saga with DS 11 and he just can't believe this is happening. So continue with our walk and come across Jaws and head across this bridge and see this

Krustyland no, it's not open but the stuff was great. Can't wait to go back and see this. My hubby is very disappointed that the simpsons ride is not open. Next hubby I tell him and we head on to MIB alien attack ride.

MIB only has 10 minute and we head onto ride that all together. I have to tell I WHIPPED BUTT! I was awesome, since i really stink at video games, but I got 123,000 pts. I really hope that was not a glitch and I seriously impress hubby and the boys with my skils We get off the ride, and find our picture and make our purchase and head off. Hubby is hungry so go and find something to eat, get a little lost in Woody woodpeckers area and finally get to Mel's Drive in. Burgers were ok, but I still have sticker shock over that . I won't even tell you about that any ways we relax their for while, hubby and I get a kick out of the little birds. Boy are they funny! One got right on hubbys chair, then hoped to his tray and just sat their while we ate our burgers. We didn't feed it, but gosh it was funny and the looks hubby was giving the little bird. We wrap up and head over to horror and make up show. No I have to tell you that I really thought this was going to be cheezy and lame. But it was really good, maybe it was the crowd we were in, but it was so funny. The kids got a kick out it and the ending what just to die for when the werewolf leaped out at this little lady from canada named Marjorie. We file out their, and we see a kid get violently sick and DS 8 is just so disgusted with this kid. Hubby and I we just chuckle and continue on we Lucy and Dezi out and get a pix of them

and yes that is my DS 11. We continue on because we see the queing for Beetlejuice show going on. We get to that the older gentlemen who was talking with people and he did the preshow for this was really good. I don't know who he is but he was great and kept all us entertained while we waited outside and inside. The show was good and the boys got a kick out of the monsters and what they were all doing. My DS 8 got a huge kick out of the Beetle juice looking up the skirts of the zoombie cheerleaders! and still talks about it today. We walk around somemore and find Shrek has a 10 minute wait also and do that too. That was really good, and hubby & I giggled over some of the stuff being said since it was over the boys head and didn't get it. That pretty much concludes our day at the studios. In all it was great except for the boys and I have no idea whats up with that. We head on out since the park is closing early tonight.

 

[Metro West]

I hope you aren't done? I start having withdrawl!

 

[cheetara]

I hope you aren't done? I start having withdrawl!

Nope not done, still uploading pics. Day 7 is coming a little later today

 

[Metro West]

Nope not done, still uploading pics. Day 7 is coming a little later today

Great! Our system is down at work and we have nothing to do. That will give me something to read!

 

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

I have a question? did u ride the mummy..