Gina--I agree that the drive from FLL is a DRAG. Just brutal sometimes. What about flying into Tampa? Spirit (who I do NOT recommend), Delta and Southwest all appear to have non-stops from DTW to TPA? The drive over from TPA isn't bad at all. I think we've flown into 7 or 8 different FL airports for various trips to Orlando, WDW and SW Florida to visit my folks. TPA is super easy to get around as well.
Tampa is definitely an option
. If our Frontier experiment is a bust in May, then we'll certainly be looking into other alternatives for the fall. A 90 minute drive is certainly better than 3+ hours to FLL!!
I'm really, REALLY hoping that Frontier turns out to be a win. Their fares are so reasonable, and it sure would be awesome to be able to fly affordably from DTW to MCO. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes and hoping for the best.
Gina- I hope you win the lottery. I'd love to win but you have to play to win. lol Madeline's dream is to buy an RV and I wouldn't mind either. I'm hoping we find out some wedding details soon, like a date or even just if it will happen this year. It's hard being on the groom's side of the family especially when the groom is so much younger than us. If it were my sister I'd know all the details by now.
I suspect that there will be LOTS of wedding talk on our trip in May. I am guessing they'll be looking at a date somewhere in 2019.....generally booking a venue alone will mean they will be waiting a year or more before tying the knot. There tends to be quite a waiting list in our hometown.
I would love for them to get married at Greenfield Village in Dearborn.......it would be so incredibly charming! The bride could arrive in a horse drawn carriage, they could tie the knot in Martha Mary Chapel, and then have their reception in Eagle Tavern after riding off to their photo location in a Model T Ford [while their guests enjoy unlimited rides on the 1913 Hershell Carousel]. Unfortunately, our sweet Brittney is not convinced
. I thought it was the next best thing to a destination wedding!
In terms of a Christmas trip, warmth and sunshine was more what I had in mind but it's a long ways off yet. We will have to see. I would love to have a big Christmas holiday again so let's leave it open. You know I'm about half way between you and Jake so a short drive for the inlaws and the outlaws.....not sure if you are an inlaw or an outlaw though.
Fools seldom differ...that's one I have not heard.
Steve's comment on your flight.....just be happy you didn't fly with me because I would have said "at least we die together".
Warmth and sunshine? What, you're not enjoying the 2-week sub-zero freeze that's currently gripping the north?
I think Steve may have just tacked on that very statement, after I hissed a reply of indignation at him
. Something tells me you two would get along famously
.
I put your dates in my calendar! It's always possible we can make it down, most likely toward the end of your trip.
We're going to Universal in two weeks just for a weekend, our last trip on our APs.
I haven't made any vacation plans beyond that. I'm usually big into getting the summer planned, but have been too busy and/or too lazy. I'd like to do one big trip like we usually do, maybe out west, but it may be a bunch of small ones, which definitely puts Orlando in play. Sea World would be great, especially since we have not done Mako yet or ridden Kraaken with the VR goggles.
I'll be following...
Boy, that year sure went fast!!
It just seems like you made the leap and bought those AP's!! Did you guys manage to visit Volcano Bay on any of your trips? We really, really enjoyed our day there in October.
Do keep us posted as the day crawls closer, and let us know if a meet up for drinks or dinner or ??? would happen to work. I am sure Jake and Britt will love to meet your family, too!
I can't bring myself to read trip reports. I.Just.Can't. I can only scan the pictures. If I want to read something that long, I will read a book.
Thus, I do not go to the forum but maybe once a year to look at pictures. I would think the folks who enjoy reading trip reports could find this post easier if it was in the trip report forum.
I read the first sentence "The first entry in a pre-trip report is always my least favorite: it always leaves me struggling with where to begin
. This one is especially difficult, as even though I.." Then double checked three times what forum I was on... Then wondered why it was posted here. Must be an accident. LOL. Yea... I know some love trip reports. I am not in that category. So, yea, I have only read the first sentence. But thanks for clarifying! oh... and I live in Central Florida. It is great. I can read your post because it's not written in a trip report format.
I would guess that most folks on this site wouldn't enjoy reading
my reports, because we are not big Disney fans. We're big ORLANDO fans. If there was an Orlando Trip Reports forum, I'd post this thread there. When my only options are Disney Trip Reports or Universal Trip Reports, and this fits in neither, I can only attempt to find a place that this thread fits best. In my opinion, that's here.
I did try to be very clear, in the thread title, that this was a PTR so as not to mislead anyone who may decide to open it and read.
I can confirm this. On our last trip we went to visit my sister who recently moved to Tampa. It didn’t feel long at all and there was at least something to look at on the drive. It’s maybe an hour and 15 minutes? We were coming from Universal .
My sister flies back and forth regularly from BUFF to TPAand really likes the Tampa airport for how easy it is to navigate as well. She’s coming back and forth every six weeks or so and says it’s great to land and get out of that smaller airport so quickly .
If you haven’t looked already.. TPA might be a good solution.
I definitely miss the small airport experience. Buffalo and Syracuse were so wonderful to fly in and out of......easy and stress free. Detroit is MUCH busier, and much larger. All those people make me feel
.
Which reminds me.. I had forgot to mention, I have a long weekend in February to visit my sister in Tampa. My mom gifted all the girls (my sisters, my daughter, and 2 girlfriends of my brothers) a long weekend in Tampa for Christmas! Seven of us are going and staying three nights in a beach house in Madeira Beach. She got us all one day PTP tickers for Universal as well!!
I told her that dd and I would happily stay at the Beach house on the Universal day because one day tickets are stupidly expensive and we were passholders and spent 14 days at the Universal parks in 2016/2017. She wouldn’t hear of it and wants all of the girls to go to Diagon Alley together. It will be a lovely day. We’re a Potter loving family and the biggest super fan of all (my one sister) has never been.
What an amazing, awesome and generous gift!!! Your momma ROCKS! You are going to enjoy some Florida sun and warmth after this ridiculous deep freeze
. And how cool for you to experience the parks with "just the ladies". Have a butterbeer (or two
) for me while you're there, would ya?
Yep, it's a PTR on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions forum. It's not the first and probably won't be the last. The mods will move it if they see fit, and we will all go follow it on the new forum. No big deal. Now that you know it is a PTR, you should be able to easily avoid it.
Thanks for the warm wishes.
That's 29.95 plus shipping, handling, and with all the wear and tear, best to buy the damage insurance, for a grand total of...
yikes, that's a big number...
No day off for me. There have been a few of those over the past couple of weeks, and I only get paid when I work, and Christmas shopping is just over. So... I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go!
I hadn't realized how lazy I'd become after almost 2 weeks off work, until I pulled a three day stretch when I finally got back to the office this week. By last night, I was too pooped to party
. How I managed to juggle a full time job and two part time ventures just a year ago, I have no idea!
So excited. I can't wait to get home from work and delve into this. We are going Feb 10-20.
Holy moly! That's just around the corner! Details, we need details! Where are you staying? Which parks are you visiting?
Happy New Years! And wow is 2018 starting off exciting! Congratulations to the newly engaged! Returning from the coldest. Trip. Ever. as Winter decided to happen this week in Florida. New Year's Eve was tons of fun but the weather was ridiculously cold rest of week!
Oh how I would love to pop down for a quick trip in May! Maybe just DH and I if cards fall right, as we booked for June already. DH is talking Universal passes this summer and I told him if he does that, then we HAVE to come back for Halloween festivities-he and middle DD can go to
HHN and the boy and I will run off to
MNSSHP-loved the party I went to this year!
We are also celebrating 25 years this year. There are a lot of "milestone" things happening with family this year though (65 bday, 21st bday, and other anniversaries 45? Maybe?) that the family is talking about going to Las Vegas in October and we'd not be able to do both Orlando and Las Vegas.
But YAY!! To a new PTR!
You're celebrating your 25th too? How cool! What date? Maybe we got married the same weekend?
I loved following your most recent Florida adventures on Facebook, though I was bummed that it was so cold while you were there.
@Ruthie5671 is currently in The World right now, and she's been remarking that its still awfully frosty there. Weather, no matter what the season, can really throw a monkey wrench into carefully laid plans. We have yet to have a wash-out, rainy trip....so every time we go, I always expect it to monsoon. The pessimist in me is alive and well sometimes
.
October in Orlando is SO much fun!! Halloween Horror Nights was amazing this past year.....we did the Scareactor Dining Experience and the RIP Tour (with Steve's brother and sister-in-law) and it was one of the best nights of our whole trip. MNSSHP was a lot of fun, too, but we found it much more crowded this year than in the previous two years. I'm not sure that we'll do either event this autumn (when the budget for our spring trip is ballooning quickly
) but its hard to say. Especially if that lottery win manages to come my way
.
Wait, what?
I heard you had very deep pockets
.
. Or better yet, I could host y'all here! How do you feel about Christmas in Michigan?
. Not that I had too much worry that they wouldn't be (I am pretty sure he was the first one in the whole company to book holidays for the 2018 year 
) but it's just a comfort knowing that he has received the thumbs up from his employer 
I am falling in love with that girl there!
.
to the thread, by the way. Hope we will see you around here a lot more often, now that you've found us. 
