A Spoonful of Sugar Loaf Helps The Medicine Go Down! * Updated 06/07 page 13*

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Loving your trip report!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Hi Katie!

I am here and really enjoying your new TR so far! The house you stayed at is beautiful! 10 mins from the parks sounds amazing. Your day in EPCOT also looked great! Looking forward to reading more

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I'm so glad there's another trip report from you. I always love reading them.

 

[TimNJ]

More please Katie!

 

[LLM]

Such a fun trip report!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

That house is incredible. It’s so tough to give up the convenience (and full immersion) of on site, but it’s tempting when you see the rentals available.

I totally agree, I'm such a Disney hotel fan girl and even I enjoyed staying offsite for once, particularly with a larger group of travellers

Teppan Edo always looks and sounds so fun, but I always skip it because we have two restaurants 15 minutes in either direction...yet we never go to either of them so I don’t know why I’m all “it’d be a waste to do this at WDW when I can do it at home.” If I do go, it’s to the third option which is the “fast food” version that one of them opened in the market near my office so same food but no show, which I admit, is like what’s even the point?

Haha! We have nothing like that near us so it's a bit of a novelty! But with soooo many good places to eat in World Showcase (and WDW in general) I don't blame you for skipping it if you have something similar back home.

DISNEY TIME!

Woooo!

That is very sad. Goofy is very cool.

I know! Poor guy glad we got to show him some love.

I wasn't brave enough, but I didn't like Green that much. Might do Orange next time I go.

We've done green before, thinking back it's a little boring isn't it. Orange was actually exciting to do, I'd do it again!

Can't wait to hear about what happened on Valentine's Day!

Coming right up!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

My parents are from South Africa and one of my mom’s favourite games growing up was net ball. Thanks for posting a video of it!
Brenda

Awesome! I played in school, then had about a 10 year break and got back into it. So fun!

Very popular game here during tailgating before a college football game.

Interesting! I didn't even know what it was before we played this game, it's somewhere between uncommon to non-existent here in the UK!

Oh dear how scary. I'm glad you were armed.

Right?! I was cracking up, I think Fran was half joking, half serious

Yes the front of the park is full of it.

Ugh, I hope they're making good progress! It didn't feel like a proper park experience with all those walls to walk around and nothing to look at

You're much braver than I. DH loves this ride but no one will ride Orange with him.

Haha, only just!! I had an 8 year hiatus on missioning with the orange team! I definitely know why people avoid it, it really messed with my head first time around!

I'm so sorry. I live in Louisiana and I have been to Dallas since the late 80's when we lived in Texas.

Very cool! I'd love to go one day. Fran and Lin were telling me all about this country bar they would go to together where everyone did line dancing! It sounds so fun!

Love this ride photo! Everyone is having so much fun.

It's great isn't it! I love Photopass!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

So, we bought a temp pool this summer with everything going on. Big enough for 6 people and this became a regular activity for us. There is only so much you can do in a small pool. And it is HARD when you switch directions!

Sounds fun!! Is it really warm where you live? It's always questionable here in the UK, even in summer

OMG!!! This is TOTALLY accurate! It was pretty bad for awhile there!

Right! Ugh I kind of hate it, maybe I'm dramatic because it's for the greater good and it'll be so worth it when it's finished. It just doesn't feel like I'm at Disney, you know?! Thank God World Showcase was fairly untouched!

I bought this as a Christmas Gift for Gwen this year! (Half cause I loved it too!)

Love it!! Great choice, I really wish I'd bought it! I take random photos like that hoping that I'll look back through my camera at some point and remember to go buy it (if I haven't blown my budget already..!) but I often forget... Maybe next time!

Okay... Seriously, I doubt they'd open anything that was in the middle of a refurb. Might not be safe or operable or pleasing to the eye... or all of those.
But...
The Queen? Maybe? The President?

We can risk the life of the Queen and the President but NO ONE ELSE

He probably cheated.

The only possible explanation.

There was definitely some there. Did you check under the beds?

I laughed at first, but as we made our way through the house with those knives the adrenaline definitely got to me...!

Obit: "Tragically, during a game of keep-ups... Sorry, I can't go on. It's too ridiculous."

You know... I don't think I've ever taken a tram from a parking lot at Disney.
They may not have had any when I first went.

I don't think I had either! It was easier than I thought. I always imagined it was a drag to stand around waiting for transportation.. not to a park.. not even back to your hotel.. but to your CAR but it was quite efficient actually!

"Yum and wow" for construction????

Correct. A Staceyism that can be used in any situation, positive or negative. In my head anyway When I want to say "wow" the "yum" just fits, you know?

Well! Good!
I've had a very similar experience. (sans beer)
First couple times I rode it, I felt ill. But the next time... I was fine.

It must just take some getting used to!

Thank goodness. Very bad things would've happened if you hadn't.

Would we have even made it? I think not.

ew.
And your Eiffel Tower photo is accurate.

Aw I know. I was kinda miffed that Lin and Ian's first ever Soarin' experience was in a top corner, but at least they still loved it! They're very understanding

I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with. His willingness to bowl over small children, or the fact that the small child was able to bring him down.

It's not an isolated incident

I feel like Boris gifs really bring our country together, those who love him and hate him

That's faster than some internal busses!

Right! I'm looking at you, Animal Kingdom Lodge buses

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Well, here I come back from a Dis hiatus for a while and what's the first trip report I notice when I return? Yours! Such a happy moment, I have always really enjoyed your TRs. I'm so sorry the pandemic affected your wedding but hope it's only that much more wonderful later. And your recounting of the Frozen ride did trigger a thought -- piece of wedding advice. When asking two people to do a reading, do NOT, under any circumstances, choose the lyrics to Love Is An Open Door for your reading. No kidding, DH and I went to a wedding of his friend (he was a groomsman) in Dallas coincidentally where another friend and a bridesmaid were asked to do a reading. The friend did not realize what the reading was until he showed up, thinking it would be a Bible passage or poem. Nope. It's the Frozen song that highlights the emotionally abusive and manipulative behavior of the power-hungry, psychotic villain against an innocent heroine. He was beyond embarrassed but the bridesmaid was so into it. It was brilliantly awkward so naturally I filmed the whole thing.

Yay! and thanks for reading!!

Hahaha that is so funny!! I get that the lyrics are sweet and cute, but perhaps it's a bad omen for marriage...!

I don’t think the song or lyirics highlight Hans’s abusive character in any way. The context we learn later does that. It’s actually quite a lovely song.

Very lovely and cute lyrics! But again, maybe a bad omen

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Loving your trip report!

Aww yay I'm glad! Thanks for reading!

Hi Katie!

I am here and really enjoying your new TR so far! The house you stayed at is beautiful! 10 mins from the parks sounds amazing. Your day in EPCOT also looked great! Looking forward to reading more

Yay Alison! glad you're here! The house is great isn't it! I miss Disney so much, I can't wait until we're allowed to travel over to the US again

 

[TheLittleKatie]

I'm so glad there's another trip report from you. I always love reading them.

Aw thank you so much!! So glad you enjoy reading my ramblings

More please Katie!

Coming right up!

Such a fun trip report!

Thank you, so glad you're enjoying it!

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 3
Friday 14th February 2020
Part 1 – We’re Universal Passholders!


Happy Valentine’s Day!!!
I woke up at 6:30am and Jamie woke up at around 7am (love that early jet lag!)
No one else was up yet so we caught up on an episode of Love Island, which is absolute trash TV from back home, but everyone is so obsessed with it

I went to the bathroom and came back to find a Valentine’s card on my pillow!
I guess I kinda messed up here.
Jamie’s the best, but he's never been the most Valentinesy person
Since we’d been in Norway and had a busy couple of weeks before coming out to Florida I didn’t bother getting him a Valentine’s card, as I thought there was NO WAY he would’ve got me one, packed it in his luggage and brought it here with him.

BUT ALAS!
I do apologise, I underestimated him
Bad fiancé award

Here’s the card he got me!

We started to hear people getting up so we went downstairs and had croissants and donuts for breakfast!

At 10:30am, me, Fran and Lin went to get a pedicure!
Lin drove us to a nail salon near Publix at Ovation in Davenport, just off Osceola Polk Line Road.
We called it our GALentines treat!
It came with a full hot stone foot massage
We also sat in these big massage chairs which were super intense and made us shake and shimmy.
That actually completely healed my upper back, which had been a bit sore since the flight!

We all got different shades of pink nail polish.

Before:

After

We got back home at around 12:30 and made cheeseburgers for lunch.

Fran had been trying to make her way through this giant candy apple that she got before me and Jamie arrived, but I don’t think she could get past the halfway mark

We had a giggle at this tweet from WDW News Today…

HOW?


But also EEK because escalators swallowing people up is TERRIFYING.
(It happens… DON’T Google it, spare yourself a nightmare!)
I hope the owner of this shoe knows they are lucky to be alive.

A special message from Living with the Land

Once our lunch had settled, Rob, Fran, Jamie and I got ready and went to Universal!
I wore my entire Hufflepuff garb!
We drove over and arrived at around 3pm!

It was a gloomy afternoon…

…Soon to be made much brighter by the fact that JAMIE AND I BOUGHT OUR FIRST EVER ANNUAL PASSES IN ORLANDO!

We had started to buy our regular tickets at the gate, but we were told it would only be an extra $90 for us BOTH to upgrade to Seasonal Annual Passes!
We’d travelled out to Orlando in January/February for the last 3 years so we just said we may as well try to plan our next trip for January 2021 and make use of the passes!
That would definitely save us money!
Plus, Rob and Fran had gotten annual passes with Florida Resident discounts because of the house, so we joined the club!
WOOWOO!

(Side note: Pretty much as soon as we returned back to the UK after this trip the whole world went into lockdown due to COVID-19.
I messaged Universal to say that we had JUST bought annual passes in February, and now we weren’t allowed to travel to the States to use them, and asked if there was anything that could be done.
They were so amazing and accommodating, and said that next time we’re able to travel over there, we just need to go to guest services, and they will re-activate our annual passes for a fresh 11 months from that day!
How great is that!)

We went into Islands of Adventure first!

Our plan was to make a beeline over to the brand new Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure!
This had just opened about 8 months ago.
Rob and Fran had ridden it before our arrival, but it was mine and Jamie’s first time!

We got side-tracked a couple of times though, as there were lots of characters all over the place, just standing on their own!

Not sure what's happening here...

Continue for next post!
​

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 3
Friday 14th February 2020
Part 2 – Lumos Solem!


We soon made it to Hogsmeade!

We went straight to Hagrid’s, put our belongings in a locker, and joined the queue!
The wait time was posted at 75 minutes, which was pretty accurate, but we were constantly moving and there was loads of fun stuff to look at.

We also had a jolly good time in that queue, I don’t know why we were so hyper
But it made the wait seem like only about 30 minutes.
We made up a really stupid secret four-way handshake that we all contributed 4 moves to.
We were all moving around in a circle and lassoing etc etc.
We must’ve looked crazy

We also played some quick-fire rounds of “Animals beginning with…” which quickly became a favourite queue game on this trip
(that, and “Foods beginning with…” )

After approximately 75 minutes in line we made it to the front!
Literally the front, Rob and Fran got the front row!
The first time they rode it Fran was is in the side car, so she went on the bike this time and she was SO scared!
She HATES to “plummet”
As in the feeling of leaving your stomach up above you.
And there are a couple of minor plummets in this ride, but she was very brave!
I let Jamie have go on the bike, I felt so tiny and low down in my little sidecar!

This was SUCH a good ride!
I’m sure all of my previous trip reports have some kind of complaint about how many screen-based rides/simulators Universal was spending their money on.
I’m so glad they made a new classic coaster!
(Plus, they have the new Jurassic Park Velocicoaster on the way too!)
The accelerations were so fun, and the part where the track goes vertically up and then you immediately come straight back down really took me by surprise!
And the drop is great too!
I can’t figure out how it’s done!

It was super thrilling and I loved it!

We exited the ride at 5pm, and there was a looong line for the Hogwarts Express, so we just walked back around to the front of the park to get into Universal Studios!

We stopped for Starbucks on the way

I got an iced vanilla latte, yum and wow

In Universal Studios we saw a list of live concerts that were coming up…

All-American Rejects!!!
My glorious emo teenage years.

Mardi Gras was going off!
The atmosphere was great!

Anyway, we rode The Mummy, twice!

I love The Mummy!
It’s another super fun classic coaster.
Also there was no line at all, as always.
Jamie ran ahead and hid in the shadows, then jumped out and scared Fran
She screamed so loud!

After The Mummy we headed out of the park and drove home.

On the drive Fran took the role of Quiz Master for a chaotic trivia session

We got home at around 7:15pm to have dinner with Lin and Ian.
We ordered from an Indian restaurant, and we played a murder mystery about the Soviet Union and Russian communism

It was heavy stuff and tricky to follow while the wine was flowing!
But it was really funny, especially everyone attempting to do accents
Plus, I was the only person to correctly guess that Rob was the murderer, just sayin’

Then all six of us played some table football!
We played boys vs girls and the boys completely destroyed us

We went to bed real late, before a very early start tomorrow morning…


Goodnight!!

Click for next post!

​

 

[pkondz]

We can risk the life of the Queen and the President but NO ONE ELSE

But of course. They should be willing to do things like this for their people.

I laughed at first, but as we made our way through the house with those knives the adrenaline definitely got to me...!

I don't think I had either! It was easier than I thought. I always imagined it was a drag to stand around waiting for transportation.. not to a park.. not even back to your hotel.. but to your CAR but it was quite efficient actually!

Good to know for future reference.

Correct. A Staceyism that can be used in any situation, positive or negative. In my head anyway When I want to say "wow" the "yum" just fits, you know?

Huh. I thought it was just for good stuff.
Now I know.

It's not an isolated incident

Wow. He was aiming.... um... maybe that other guy wanted kids at some point??

 

[pkondz]

we caught up on an episode of Love Island, which is absolute trash TV from back home,

I've heard of it, but have never seen it. Not sure if we get it here or not.

I went to the bathroom and came back to find a Valentine’s card on my pillow!

Awww.

BUT ALAS!
I do apologise, I underestimated him
Bad fiancé award

Katie! How could you?!?!?!?

It came with a full hot stone foot massage

So... excuse my ignorance. How is that done? Do they just place hot stones on top, or under (or both) and leave them? Or do they move them around? Or?

We also sat in these big massage chairs which were super intense and made us shake and shimmy.

Love those things.

That actually completely healed my upper back, which had been a bit sore since the flight!

Good!

We got back home at around 12:30 and made cheeseburgers for lunch.

Interesting. I've never seen a burger with crumbled cheese.

We had a giggle at this tweet from WDW News Today…

Yikes!

HOW?

I'll tell you how. As I've actually had it happen to me.
When I was very little... probably... 6? or thereabouts? I was riding up an escalator with my mom. I had runners that were too big for me on. (You'll grow into them.) For whatever reason, I pressed one of my shoes up against the riser of the step I was on. Because... I don't know why. Just a kid experimenting with things, I suppose. Anyways, my shoe was bent at the toes at a 90 degree angle (because they were too big, remember?) When the escalator arrived at the top, it neatly easily chopped off the first inch or so of the shoe. Luckily, my toes weren't there.

So... don't press your shoe up against the riser. Just... don't.

But also EEK because escalators swallowing people up is TERRIFYING.
(It happens… DON’T Google it, spare yourself a nightmare!)

I have seen that video. It's awful.

I hope the owner of this shoe knows they are lucky to be alive.

Or to still have toes.

I wore my entire Hufflepuff garb!

Good for you!

JAMIE AND I BOUGHT OUR FIRST EVER ANNUAL PASSES IN ORLANDO!

Nice! And...

We had started to buy our regular tickets at the gate, but we were told it would only be an extra $90 for us BOTH to upgrade to Seasonal Annual Passes!

...and... why not? It's so cheap!

(Side note: Pretty much as soon as we returned back to the UK after this trip the whole world went into lockdown due to COVID-19.
I messaged Universal to say that we had JUST bought annual passes in February, and now we weren’t allowed to travel to the States to use them, and asked if there was anything that could be done.
They were so amazing and accommodating, and said that next time we’re able to travel over there, we just need to go to guest services, and they will re-activate our annual passes for a fresh 11 months from that day!
How great is that!)

That's really great of them. And how it should be.

Not sure what's happening here...

You guys look like you're holding up an inebriated cat.

We made up a really stupid secret four-way handshake that we all contributed 4 moves to.
We were all moving around in a circle and lassoing etc etc.
We must’ve looked crazy

I’m sure all of my previous trip reports have some kind of complaint about how many screen-based rides/simulators Universal was spending their money on.
I’m so glad they made a new classic coaster!

I got an iced vanilla latte, yum and wow

So that means it was either good or bad, right?

All-American Rejects!!!
My glorious emo teenage years.

My eye caught REO Speedwagon.
You take it on the run, baby!

Anyway, we rode The Mummy, twice!

Jamie ran ahead and hid in the shadows, then jumped out and scared Fran
She screamed so loud!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Is it really warm where you live? It's always questionable here in the UK, even in summe

We are in New Jersey and in the southern part, so our summers are fairly warm. Mostly 80's and 90's...

d came back to find a Valentine’s card on my pillow!
I guess I kinda messed up here.
Jamie’s the best, but he's never been the most Valentinesy person

That is so sweet. It' snice when they do suprise us like that every once in awhile.

I messaged Universal to say that we had JUST bought annual passes in February, and now we weren’t allowed to travel to the States to use them, and asked if there was anything that could be done.
They were so amazing and accommodating, and said that next time we’re able to travel over there, we just need to go to guest services, and they will re-activate our annual passes for a fresh 11 months from that day!
How great is that!)

It def has sounded like Universal has been doing a good job accomidating folks.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I have missed some of your updates - I will have to go back and see what I missed.

Day 3
Friday 14th February 2020
Part 1 – We’re Universal Passholders!

I went to the bathroom and came back to find a Valentine’s card on my pillow!
I guess I kinda messed up here.
Jamie’s the best, but he's never been the most Valentinesy person
Since we’d been in Norway and had a busy couple of weeks before coming out to Florida I didn’t bother getting him a Valentine’s card, as I thought there was NO WAY he would’ve got me one, packed it in his luggage and brought it here with him.

BUT ALAS!
I do apologise, I underestimated him
Bad fiancé award

Here’s the card he got me!

​

Awww, and oops! Funny card, too!

At 10:30am, me, Fran and Lin went to get a pedicure!
Lin drove us to a nail salon near Publix at Ovation in Davenport, just off Osceola Polk Line Road.
We called it our GALentines treat!
It came with a full hot stone foot massage
We also sat in these big massage chairs which were super intense and made us shake and shimmy.
That actually completely healed my upper back, which had been a bit sore since the flight!





After

​

​

What a nice time. It's nice that your back felt better after.
I love this pink sparkle nail polish!

We had a giggle at this tweet from WDW News Today…

HOW?


But also EEK because escalators swallowing people up is TERRIFYING.
(It happens… DON’T Google it, spare yourself a nightmare!)
I hope the owner of this shoe knows they are lucky to be alive.

​

Soooo, something similar happened to me once, but not this severe. Those teeth, as you found from Google, can really be awful.
The something similar that happened to me was the front tip of my shoe got caught too far forward on one of the steps, and it lifted the upper step up enough to cause the entire escalator to do an emergency stop. Oops. Fortunately, it was in a store that was uncrowded at the time, and my shoe did not get completely stuck like the one in The Land.

Whoever's shoe that is was fortunate they did not get injured. How embarrassing to happen in such a crowded place. Also, I wonder if they got their shoe back or what happened for their footwear.

Once our lunch had settled, Rob, Fran, Jamie and I got ready and went to Universal!
I wore my entire Hufflepuff garb!
​

​

I'm also a Hufflepuff!

​

We had started to buy our regular tickets at the gate, but we were told it would only be an extra $90 for us BOTH to upgrade to Seasonal Annual Passes!
We’d travelled out to Orlando in January/February for the last 3 years so we just said we may as well try to plan our next trip for January 2021 and make use of the passes!
That would definitely save us money!
Plus, Rob and Fran had gotten annual passes with Florida Resident discounts because of the house, so we joined the club!
WOOWOO!

​

I've never been to Universal, but I'm planning to go this summer. (Well, I was planning to go last summer, but that didn't happen.) I was pricing out tickets and also found that an AP is going to be the way to go. I'm looking forward to seeing a New To Me park, and I hope it's not insanely crowded.

(Side note: Pretty much as soon as we returned back to the UK after this trip the whole world went into lockdown due to COVID-19.
I messaged Universal to say that we had JUST bought annual passes in February, and now we weren’t allowed to travel to the States to use them, and asked if there was anything that could be done.
They were so amazing and accommodating, and said that next time we’re able to travel over there, we just need to go to guest services, and they will re-activate our annual passes for a fresh 11 months from that day!
How great is that!)
​

​

That's really great.

 

[footballmouse]

You guys seem to have so much fun on your trips, you even make standing in line fun!

 

[vamassey1]

Fran and Lin were telling me all about this country bar they would go to together where everyone did line dancing! It sounds so fun!

I love line dancing. We do them at weddings too.

Here’s the card he got me!

Very cute!

It came with a full hot stone foot massage

Love these.

But also EEK because escalators swallowing people up is TERRIFYING.

Stuff of nightmares. I hope Disney replaced their shoe.

(Side note: Pretty much as soon as we returned back to the UK after this trip the whole world went into lockdown due to COVID-19.
I messaged Universal to say that we had JUST bought annual passes in February, and now we weren’t allowed to travel to the States to use them, and asked if there was anything that could be done.
They were so amazing and accommodating, and said that next time we’re able to travel over there, we just need to go to guest services, and they will re-activate our annual passes for a fresh 11 months from that day!
How great is that!)

I was really worried as I was reading about your purchase. Good to know they are going to work with you.

We got side-tracked a couple of times though, as there were lots of characters all over the place, just standing on their own!

Great characters.

We also played some quick-fire rounds of “Animals beginning with…” which quickly became a favourite queue game on this trip
(that, and “Foods beginning with…” )

This does sound fun when you have a group.

She HATES to “plummet”
As in the feeling of leaving your stomach up above you.

I love the plummet, that's why TOT is my favorite thrill ride.

In Universal Studios we saw a list of live concerts that were coming up…

Great list!

Mardi Gras was going off!
The atmosphere was great!

Mardi Gras was very much missed this year in South Louisiana.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Sounds like a fun day at Universal. How great you and Jamie became Passholders, and I'm glad Universal Customer service was accomodating due to the current circumstances!