Caution: The Moving Walkway Is Now Ending - Pre-trip report - 4/28/12 - Almost time!!

[Iheoma]

Hi Everyone,

After years of reading the Dis and a couple of WDW trips I've decided to write a pre-trip and trip report. The thing is - this time we're not going to WDW at all. Not even looking in the direction of the mouse. We're doing our first "Everything but Disney" trip. So we're staying onsite at Universal and spending time at Universal Studios, Island of Adventure, Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens - I've got the whole trip planned....mostly.... BUT I think that should probably introduce us before I say anything more about the trip.

Me - Known as "E". I'm the planner for the trip - and all trips for the family. Definately tend towards the "type A" personality style. What I LOVE the most about vacations is really unplugging from the "real world" of emails, blackberries, traffic, ect.

DH - Known as "T". We met in college and have been married for twelve years. T is by far one of the most laid back people I've ever met. He loves to travel but really hates to plan - he likes the plans - but doesn't want to do any of it. His vacation motto is "Whatever you want to do E."

DD - Known as "K". K is a great 10 year old - still young enough to want to play and explore but old enough to be a little independent. Her true passion is dance -she studies at a classical ballet school and has been dancing since she was three. She LOVES traveling.

AND - our lovable dog - Cupcake - two year old, white and cream Maltese/Poodle who joined our family in July 2010. She's not going on the trip but I have a feeling Ms. Cupcake (as she is called in our house) may play a role in this story.

So - here's a a picture of us when we travelled to Jamaica to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. For some reason it's a huge picture

Thanks for reading. I'll add more about the reason for the title and more about the planning in my next post - I've been waiting for Don Draper for over a year now....

 

[TCB in FLA]

Looking forward to hearing more! We are also doing a non-Disney trip in 8 days!

 

[Carol17]

 

[Brownie54]

Looking forward to reading your report. I'm glad the picture is big. It's a great picture!

 

[macraven]

i'm here.
let the pre trippie begin!!


btw, beautiful family!

 

[cjsteiger]

Can't wait to hear more. Love you picture such a beautiful family.

 

[Mikkimús]

looking forward to the report,
you are one gorgeous family

 

[jcc0621]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[DisneyDreamerMom]

Can't wait to read more - you have a beautiful family!

 

[Iheoma]

Thanks so much for reading the first part of the pre-trip reports.
Thanks so much for the compliments as well - I'm self-conscious about posting pictures online so this was a big first step for me.

So let me share a little more about the title of the trip report. As I said earlier, I'm the planner for all vacation activies in our family. So, being a planner and living in Chicago - a city with an airport that is notorious for weird weather and delays - we always fly Southwest (domestically) and always the earliest flight available. So on our last WDW trip in 2008 we were in the airport around 5:00 a.m. and heading towards our gate.

I think that it would be a great idea to take the moving walkway to get the gate sooner. Mr. Laid Back says that he doesn't really see the the need to, but says "sure". Now most people WALK down the moving walkway, but T decides that he would rather relax and enjoy the scenery of the lovely airport . At this point the people behind us are wondering what's going on - remember this is a super busy Chicago airport - on a Monday morning. So lots of folks start walking past us giving a stern looks. At this point, I said, "T - can you just walk up. This thing is supposed to help us move faster - not slow us down".

T (who is being his typical happy-go-lucky self) turns around to face me and says something along the lines of this being his first day of vacation, relaxation, no rush, ect. Then, K pipes in and says "Daddy be careful. It's like the elevator at the store". T continues to laugh and joke about how relaxing it is not to walk on his vacation while everyone else was rushing around. At that minute, the moving walkway ends (with of course plenty of notice) and T - who is facing backwards and chatting with us, trips and falls off of the moving walkway. This of course backs things up on the moving walkway even more and requires many staff members to come over to the belt to make sure T was ok - so you have this 6'4" guy, wearing a WDW shirt and a back pack - on his back at the end of the walkway and people stepping over and around him to get to the next moving walkway. T was totally fine (besides a little embarassment) and we took twice as long to get to the gate. Now whenever we fly, T is totally serious (looks straight ahead, won't talk to anyone) when he's on the moving walkway. We'll see what happens when we fly next month.

So actually about our upcoming trip -- exactly one month from today!!
We've decided to take the a trip to Orlando and not going to WDW. Let me say first that we LOVE WDW. Our last trip was for 8 days in 2008. We stayed at the Beach Club, did the meal plan and pretty much didn't leave the "World" the entire time we were in Florida. We loved it so much that I can't imagine staying off-site. That said, we love to travel and experience new things. It just didn't make sense to us to not to do something new this trip back to Florida. K and T have never been to USF/IOA and the last time I went to USF - there was no IOA and I was a senior in high school. So this trip we've decided to branch out and do something absolutely different and make this a non-WDW Florida trip.

Here's a little about our trip plans. After a lot of thoughts and consideration (from K and E) we've decided to stay at the PBH for our 8 day trip. I've been back and forth deciding about club level, but finally decided against it. The main reason we're staying onsite is for that "immersion" experience that may be similiar to WDW. I know it won't be the same, but it might be cool to just be "in" Universal while we're on vacation. Also, I've got high expectations for hotels - I know that PBH is a themepark hotel, but I really like Loews hotels (I've stayed in couple in other parts of the country) and it's important to me that the hotel is of pretty good quality. We're definately not the type of folks who "just sleep" in the hotel. We like the whole hotel experience - great pool, great staff, comfortable and spacious rooms. It seems that PBH will fit the bill.

Our touring plans - we plan on spending a couple of days at USF/IOA, Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica. Our plans are also to see the Blue Man Group and to attend the Luau at RPR. Hopefully this will be a fun and relaxing vacation. I'll post some more details about our plans in upcoming posts.

 

[macraven]

you'll enjoy the luau.
so much fun and such good eats there!

bmg is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
have you seen bmg in chicago?

loking forward to more of the pre trippie and then the trippie.

 

[Brownie54]

Your dh, T, Mr. Laidback sounds just like me. I laughed so hard reading of his tumble and I can just picture the scene in my head. He must have looked like a turtle on his back with a constant flow of people coming towards him. I probably shouldn't laugh, but I did. I do hope the only thing bruised was his ego. Enjoying your trip report.

 

[Iheoma]

you'll enjoy the luau.
so much fun and such good eats there!

bmg is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
have you seen bmg in chicago?

loking forward to more of the pre trippie and then the trippie.

Thanks for the feedback on the luau - I'm looking forward to it. We haven't seen BMG in Chicago - this will be the first for us.

 

[Iheoma]

Your dh, T, Mr. Laidback sounds just like me. I laughed so hard reading of his tumble and I can just picture the scene in my head. He must have looked like a turtle on his back with a constant flow of people coming towards him. I probably shouldn't laugh, but I did. I do hope the only thing bruised was his ego. Enjoying your trip report.

I laugh every time I think about it too T wasn't hurt but he surely doesn't fool around any more with the moving walkways.

 

[Iheoma]

So - here we are just three days away from our trip. There are several things I could be doing to prepare for the trip but instead I'd rather be on the Dis reading trip reports and adding to my one pre-trippie. For example, right now there are several half unpacked bags from Target in the dining room, pantry and kitchen - no food in any of them - just loads of stuff that could be packed. BUT the thing is that T has not taken the suitcases out the "closet of doom" and there's a serious chance that I could get hurt if I try. I could go ahead and put a couple of loads of laundry in the machine. OR I could help K clean her room (room of doom) and help her organize her clothing for the trip. BUT the Dis draws me in - like a book you've already read or a t.v. show that you tell yourself that you will not watch again -- you know what's going on already, but you just want a little bit more time to read it again. I'm not saying that the DIS is not immensely helpful and fun, it's just a real addiction for me.

Anyway, enough train of thought ramblings.....I wanted to share some of our plans for the week and get any advice/input/2 cents/FWIW comments. Rather than give a boring day by day I'll just put the plans into general categories.

Hotel - We're staying at PBH - the earlier thread "Portofino in Feb" has been really great for info.

Resturants - We have ressies for Texas de Brazil (we've never eaten at one before, in Chicago we always go to Fago de Chao) and the RPR Luau. We plan on having dinner at Margaritaville, Sal's, Bahama Breeze and possibly Mythos. This leaves us a couple of nights where we don't have plans yet - My type "A" Disney planning self is really challenged by not having "ADRs" for every dinner - but hey - we're doing things differently at Universal.... I also noticed we're eating a pretty "safe" and "normal" resturants for us. In Chicago we typically go out for all different types of ethnic food or really good steaks so when we're on vaca in Florida we tend to eat at more chain resturants. I would love to have some really great seafood or some great Cuban food - any ideas would be great.

Parks - We have access to the parks for 14 days (Flex pass). We plan to go to Universal 3 days, Sea World 1 or 2 days, Aquatica 1 day, Busche Garden 1 day -Even as I type this I wonder if we're going to be able to keep up with this schedule....

Shows/Night Time Entertainment - This was my biggest challenge planning differently than I would with WDW. Universal and the other parks we're touring close MUCH earlier than WDW. So we've got to plan activies (or rest or sleep). With WDW we'd go until we could barely walk into the hotel each night. Anyway, we've got tickets to Blue Man Group and the RPR Luau. We'll probably check out the new mini golf course at Citywalk and I'm sure that T will want to check out the Avengers movie one evening.

Rental Car - This I've saved for last because I love getting a good deal. Originally we were paying $262 for a midsized SUV. Now I've got a standard car for 8 days for $99 from Alamo I'm hyper about it because I LOVE to shop and I LOVE to save money -- less rental car money = more shopping money!! I sent a text to T about it while he was at the barber. He sent be back the message - "nice - but I'm getting my hair cut." Classic T....

Thanks again for reading. I'll post again when we get back

 

[tinkermamaof2]

You will absolutely love staying on site at Universal..our first time at Universal was this past March. We stayed at the Royal Pacific and absolutely loved everything about the experience. We did find the room a bit small so are looking at a one bedroom suite for our next trip...which by the way we are already planning! The walk to the parks and City Walk was short and lovely, just another wonderful plus for staying on site! Have an amazing time! Can't wait to hear about it when you get back!! Enjoy!!

Patti

 

[pattiken]

great pre-trip report..very funny about DH.
Have great trip and cant wait to here all about your trip when you return.
good job on car rental. we are going in sep and rentals way to much at this time..I will wait as well

 

[Panagiota]

I live about 45 minutes from Busch Gardens and used to have season passes to it. You will love it. Top-notch roller coasters and terrific animal habitats.

PLEASE take time to see the animals. The tiger exhibit is great, edge of Africa is awesome.

Take the train ride around the park you will see a lot more animals than what you see in AK. Don't miss feeding the kangaroos.

 

[Iheoma]

Hi Everyone,

We just got back to Chicago (or the Matrix as T calls it). We had a wonderful vacation. I will do a longer post with pictures and details as soon as I can figure out the photo thing again.

 

[wilma-bride]

Welcome home - just read your PTR, loved it and can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Love the picture on your first post, hope to see lots more fo you guys enjoying yourselves. I am particularly interested to hear about the Luau as we are thinking of booking for when we are staying at RPR in August.