Ok here we go-my 1st attempt at writing a scintillating and edge of your seat trip report-LOL. After endlessly jotting down notes and dinner reservations and tips about who knows what in my little notebook/calendar, on 8/7 I was ready to put my knowledge of all things Universal to the test and start our vacation. For those of you who want to know a little bit more about the Universal Griswalds read on, for those of you who could care less about us scroll down a little ways (although you'll be sorry as we are a lively bunch!) DH -whom I have almost driven to taking heavy duty meds as each day I would regale him with some catastrophe (the flight time changed, I couldn't get dinner reservations until 9:30 at Emeril's...etc). Next we have oldest DS (16), this is the child who is so laid back that we, as his parents, generally have to do a pulse check every few hours. Next is DD...ahh DD(12 going on 19). This particular child walks around with a permanently wounded expression on her face generally because we as her parents refuse to allow her to do things that EVERYONE ELSE is doing, you know, like get a belly ring and that new inking that Angelina Jolie has. She will probably be referred to as the pouter for the rest of the trip reports. Next is youngest child, DS (10)- this is the child that will ride his bike down our very steep driveway standing on his head, but absolutely refuses to ride ANY type of roller coaster AT ALL. Finally there's me, obviously the brains of the bunch, who else would plan this vacation down to the last minute detail and check these boards diligently for 3 months gleaning every possible morsel of info that might be of some use on our UNIVERSAL VACATION
But I digress, back to the VACATION.
The morning of the VACATION was pretty uneventful other than the fact that the 3 cherubs who were bouncing off the wall the night before are now comatose, despite me yelling "WHO'S READY FOR VACATION" about 25 times. Although after the 3rd time youngest DS popped out of bed like a jack-in-the-box and then proceeded to ask me 5 million times "when are we leaving". DD was her usual charming self, snarling at her brother "leave me alone" when he asked her if she wanted help with her suitcase. Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun. DH asked me if we had everything to which I replied, "yes", but he apparently didn't believe me because he asked me about 10 more times before we actually got out the door. Did pulse check on oldest (still alive!) and we were off to the airport. Waited about 1 1/2 hours until we could board plane during which time I reminded oldest to breathe periodically, middle child pouted because I refused to buy her a $4.00 cappuchino (sp?) and youngest child repeatedly asked, "is that our plane" every time one went past the window. We land about 45 minutes late in The Sunshine State to rain and clouds, but it's OK because we are on VACATION
Our driver from TTC is waiting for us at baggage claim and is very nice, although I know he is having a cow because we are so late AND we are stopping at the grocery store on the way to the hotel. Meanwhile the pouter is of course pouting because we really didn't rent the limo. I tried to tell her that but she seemed to think I was kidding when her father said, "A limo, are you out of your mind?" OK we are loaded up and ready to go, wait, are we at Universal on a ride already? No, that's just the driver going at warp speed and playing a little bumper cars with the people around him. Stop at grocery store and it was sort of like an old Marx brothes movie where we were all trying frantically to get through the grocery store in our alloted 20 minutes and buy every conceivable food item that we might possibly need over 6 days. DH kept saying, "We're not going to eat all this stuff" as I kept shoving more stuff in the cart, while I righteously said, "you never know" (it was the principle of the thing, ya know). Children were scattered through the store on separate missions. we regrouped at the cash register and I paid for stuff that the kids know I would NEVER buy for them at home, but hey it's VACATION. We're off in Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster (whoops, wrong vacation), I mean the van and we rocket to the HRH. As we go up the driveway, the clouds part, the sun shines brilliantly and we hear harp music playing, THERE IT IS!! (well, we didn't really hear harp music, I think it was Duran Duran, but you get the picture). Ok flash to a Marx Brothers movie again, as 5,000 bellboys (men) descend on us to load up our luggage and 22 plastic grocery bags. Our driver whisks off with assurances that he will return in 6 days to bring us back to reality. As we go in, there is no line and I sashay up to the front desk armed with all my tidbits and Lydia, the lovely hotel service representative (I don't know what the politically correct title is) says, "You aren't going to yell at me are you?" Well no I hadn't really thought about it, but trying to be the obliging guest I offered to if she wanted me to. She apologized and said that the last customer yelled at her for an hour (I KNOW it wouldn't have been anyone from these boards!) Anyway, she was so grateful that I wasn't in the yelling mood that she gave the kids their A+ cards w/o even looking at their report cards (to which the pouter said, "see, I knew I didn't have to bring it"), gave us a movie coupon and popcorn (alas, no upgrades available), and told us we could go right up to our room. (In hindsight, I should have asked for the Elvis suite, she probably would have given it to me). We received our MAJIC cards (FOTL) and went up to unload our stuff. After a brief, but heated debate over whether we should get our Universal tickets today or tomorrow, we opted to wait until Friday as it was already 5:00. Children immediately made themselves at home by throwing their clothes everywhere to put swim suits on and were gone before I could say, "pick up your clothes". DH and I wandered around for awhile, sat in the hot tub with 36 other people and then went up to change for our 9:30 dinner at Emeril's. Popcorn and movie pass was brought up and we promptly lost (I'll explain later) it. After I spent an hour trying to undo the Foxy Cleopatra look I had going on from the humidity, DD had primped for 2 hours, DH kept asking me where I put his one pair of shorts (I didn't touch them), and DS's stood around looking bored, we were finally ready for dinner. Off we went to Emeril's. Upon arrival the pouter sulked because we requested a children's menu for her, oldest DS smirked at her, and youngest DS promptly dropped his silverware on the floor. Because I was trying so hard to keep track of all of our waiters, I'm not sure if I remember everything we ate, but I will try for all of you enquiring minds. Appetizer: Barbequed shrimp-very good as I remember although only having 1/2 a shrimp it was hard to tell. The family inhaled these and left a sparkling clean plate using the bread to mop up the sauce (classy people that they are). DH and I had the cedar-planked salmon (YUM!) oldest DS had the stuffed quail (he will eat ANYTHING that is not nailed down and loves trying novel foods)-said it was really good, younger 2 ending up ordering off the children's menu, I for the life of me cannot remember what they had, but they seemed to like it. Dessert-DH-homemade peach pecan ice cream (very good), Me-Banana Cream Pie (good it wasn't sweet but tasted very bananay(?)) Youngest DS had the vanilla ice cream-(liked it alot) DD had the parfait (liked it) and I don't remember what other DS had, must have been good, it was gone in about 10 seconds. Drum roll please.....total for our Emeril's experience-$173.00, good thing we're made of money
after I gave DH CPR, I reminded him that we rarely eat at expensive restaurants, blah, blah, blah....ok I tried. By now it was 11:00 we had had just about all the fun we could possibly take in for one day so we headed back to HRH and after a bathroom parade and another brief, heated exchange over WHO was sleeping on the air mattress (it wasn't going to be me that's all I knew) we all fell asleep with visions of MIB and Spidey running through our heads. End Day 1
But I digress, back to the VACATION. The morning of the VACATION was pretty uneventful other than the fact that the 3 cherubs who were bouncing off the wall the night before are now comatose, despite me yelling "WHO'S READY FOR VACATION" about 25 times. Although after the 3rd time youngest DS popped out of bed like a jack-in-the-box and then proceeded to ask me 5 million times "when are we leaving". DD was her usual charming self, snarling at her brother "leave me alone" when he asked her if she wanted help with her suitcase. Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun. DH asked me if we had everything to which I replied, "yes", but he apparently didn't believe me because he asked me about 10 more times before we actually got out the door. Did pulse check on oldest (still alive!) and we were off to the airport. Waited about 1 1/2 hours until we could board plane during which time I reminded oldest to breathe periodically, middle child pouted because I refused to buy her a $4.00 cappuchino (sp?) and youngest child repeatedly asked, "is that our plane" every time one went past the window. We land about 45 minutes late in The Sunshine State to rain and clouds, but it's OK because we are on VACATION
Our driver from TTC is waiting for us at baggage claim and is very nice, although I know he is having a cow because we are so late AND we are stopping at the grocery store on the way to the hotel. Meanwhile the pouter is of course pouting because we really didn't rent the limo. I tried to tell her that but she seemed to think I was kidding when her father said, "A limo, are you out of your mind?" OK we are loaded up and ready to go, wait, are we at Universal on a ride already? No, that's just the driver going at warp speed and playing a little bumper cars with the people around him. Stop at grocery store and it was sort of like an old Marx brothes movie where we were all trying frantically to get through the grocery store in our alloted 20 minutes and buy every conceivable food item that we might possibly need over 6 days. DH kept saying, "We're not going to eat all this stuff" as I kept shoving more stuff in the cart, while I righteously said, "you never know" (it was the principle of the thing, ya know). Children were scattered through the store on separate missions. we regrouped at the cash register and I paid for stuff that the kids know I would NEVER buy for them at home, but hey it's VACATION. We're off in Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster (whoops, wrong vacation), I mean the van and we rocket to the HRH. As we go up the driveway, the clouds part, the sun shines brilliantly and we hear harp music playing, THERE IT IS!! (well, we didn't really hear harp music, I think it was Duran Duran, but you get the picture). Ok flash to a Marx Brothers movie again, as 5,000 bellboys (men) descend on us to load up our luggage and 22 plastic grocery bags. Our driver whisks off with assurances that he will return in 6 days to bring us back to reality. As we go in, there is no line and I sashay up to the front desk armed with all my tidbits and Lydia, the lovely hotel service representative (I don't know what the politically correct title is) says, "You aren't going to yell at me are you?" Well no I hadn't really thought about it, but trying to be the obliging guest I offered to if she wanted me to. She apologized and said that the last customer yelled at her for an hour (I KNOW it wouldn't have been anyone from these boards!) Anyway, she was so grateful that I wasn't in the yelling mood that she gave the kids their A+ cards w/o even looking at their report cards (to which the pouter said, "see, I knew I didn't have to bring it"), gave us a movie coupon and popcorn (alas, no upgrades available), and told us we could go right up to our room. (In hindsight, I should have asked for the Elvis suite, she probably would have given it to me). We received our MAJIC cards (FOTL) and went up to unload our stuff. After a brief, but heated debate over whether we should get our Universal tickets today or tomorrow, we opted to wait until Friday as it was already 5:00. Children immediately made themselves at home by throwing their clothes everywhere to put swim suits on and were gone before I could say, "pick up your clothes". DH and I wandered around for awhile, sat in the hot tub with 36 other people and then went up to change for our 9:30 dinner at Emeril's. Popcorn and movie pass was brought up and we promptly lost (I'll explain later) it. After I spent an hour trying to undo the Foxy Cleopatra look I had going on from the humidity, DD had primped for 2 hours, DH kept asking me where I put his one pair of shorts (I didn't touch them), and DS's stood around looking bored, we were finally ready for dinner. Off we went to Emeril's. Upon arrival the pouter sulked because we requested a children's menu for her, oldest DS smirked at her, and youngest DS promptly dropped his silverware on the floor. Because I was trying so hard to keep track of all of our waiters, I'm not sure if I remember everything we ate, but I will try for all of you enquiring minds. Appetizer: Barbequed shrimp-very good as I remember although only having 1/2 a shrimp it was hard to tell. The family inhaled these and left a sparkling clean plate using the bread to mop up the sauce (classy people that they are). DH and I had the cedar-planked salmon (YUM!) oldest DS had the stuffed quail (he will eat ANYTHING that is not nailed down and loves trying novel foods)-said it was really good, younger 2 ending up ordering off the children's menu, I for the life of me cannot remember what they had, but they seemed to like it. Dessert-DH-homemade peach pecan ice cream (very good), Me-Banana Cream Pie (good it wasn't sweet but tasted very bananay(?)) Youngest DS had the vanilla ice cream-(liked it alot) DD had the parfait (liked it) and I don't remember what other DS had, must have been good, it was gone in about 10 seconds. Drum roll please.....total for our Emeril's experience-$173.00, good thing we're made of money after I gave DH CPR, I reminded him that we rarely eat at expensive restaurants, blah, blah, blah....ok I tried. By now it was 11:00 we had had just about all the fun we could possibly take in for one day so we headed back to HRH and after a bathroom parade and another brief, heated exchange over WHO was sleeping on the air mattress (it wasn't going to be me that's all I knew) we all fell asleep with visions of MIB and Spidey running through our heads. End Day 1
