First post ever..... long time reader..... But I just have to say that I do enjoy reading your trip reports. Your pictures are great. I can almost imagine being there as I read!
Wow, I ranked a first post!!
That's pretty awesome all in itself. Thank you so much for the kind words, they mean a lot
. Thank you so much for reading along.....I hope you'll join me on the next report as well. And don't be shy.....feel free to chime in wherever you feel comfortable doing so! It's all the comment from my readers that make these reports so much fun to write (and hopefully equally as fun to read)..
I think whatever works for you works for us! But I vote for starting Christmas now (selfish I know) if you have time. We were really good at keeping ourselves entertained on your TR while you were gone last year
Yes, you guys were AWESOME at keeping the chatter flowing while we enjoyed our little getaway in Orlando
. I think I may just kick things off later today, assuming nothing wonky comes up in the interim. It's a rainy Thursday here in SE Michigan so I might as well entertain myself by turning the clock back to Christmas. I may have to turn on a little Mannheim Steamroller to get in the mood
.
Long time reader here...I found your trip reports when we were planning our big Universal trip last year. I would love it if you started the Christmas trip report sooner rather than later...am so curious to see more about Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (we are attending our first party on an Orlando trip this November).
Am glad Dash is feeling better!
Thank you so much!
I will definitely kick things off before we leave, just to keep things moving along (I am already rather far behind
..... eventually I will catch up!!). You will love
MVMCP.....it was very festive and fun. I took so many pictures, and I can't wait to share them all!!
Must...have...more...trip reports!!
Sad to see this one end, but can't wait to hear about the next adventure!!
Thank you!! I can't wait to get writing about our December antics....there were so many new and fun experiences!!
What a fun tradition to end your trips! My youngest son loves Waffle House so we don't get to IHOP much!
P.S. I say take a break from trip reports and start on December when you get back
We must try and give Waffle House another kick at the cat someday. I hope the one we tried to eat at several vacations ago was an anomaly. It is still the one and only restaurant we've ever entered and refused to eat at. Perhaps we'll try one in Kissimmee sometime and see if it is better than the Lake Buena Vista location.
Firstly, don't be indecisive and carry on with the Christmas trip report
Secondly, I have to say (once again) it is always a pleasure to read your trip reports and share your wonderful memories and of course food delights!!
Thank you Gina and Steve xx
Thank
YOU so much for reliably reading along and commenting so regularly......I
love it when people post and chat right along with my entries
.
Gina,
Thank you for being so generous with your time to show us all that can be done for fun in the Orlando area! I may enjoy the food picts the best.
It helps me to decide where we must go next time.
Aw, thank you!!
I am ashamed to say that my food photos from December are much fewer and far between.....we were travelling with friends on that trip, and for some reason, I just didn't take as many pictures at mealtimes
. But....there are still some. And the important things like the Kitchen Sink were definitely well photographed!!!
Your next trip is so close!
I vote for starting your Christmas trip now. I'm so glad Dash is feeling better.
Thank you Shannon!! 9 days to go.....I can hardly believe it!
Almost time to get out the luggage.
I vote on Christmas first with whatever schedule works best for you, though it'd be awesome if you start before your trip. Then there's somewhere you can pop into if you want while you're gone
My only request is to please put the link to the new report here when you start it. I don't really venture to the trip report boards any more. There's a few people I've found that I like how they tour and report so I follow them from report to report
I will absolutely do that
. I hope to maybe get writing later this morning, and the first entry posted by sometime this afternoon. I have been mulling it over in my head all night, trying to come up with a title.....that's always the hardest part!
I'm so glad you are enjoying your Henry Ford membership. We used it so much when we had it. I can't believe I didn't see you on Saturday. That would have been great. We were there from 11-5-we closed the place. We were going to get there a bit earlier but our hotel had an art tour at 10 so we did that first. It really was crowded on Saturday, what a change on Sunday! I got the shirts from The Bay they are for the 150 anniversary.
I'm glad your kitty is feeling better!
My vote is for you to keep going with your report. Makes my day to read your reports!
If you go to Noah Webster's house, tell the guides that you are Canadian and are not happy with Mr Webster. My kids were disappointed that tea wasn't being served at the English cottage...I guess it doesn't start until June.
LOL, it was funny when we went into Noah Webster's cottage....the staff member working there launched into their spiel about how Mr. Webster set about "correcting" the British spellings and removing all the "useless" letters like the U's in neighbour, labour, etc. He laughed when we told him we were Canadian, and thought the British spellings were just fine the way they were
. Turns out his father was born in Montreal, and we had a wonderful little chat.
We arrived for park opening on Saturday, and stayed until about 3:30. It was shocking to see so many people still streaming in with just 90 minutes left until the park closed!! I can see us visiting there on a very regular basis; from our door to the parking lot, its only a 20-25 minute drive for us. I can't wait for the first baseball game. We also plan to attend the Civil War Re-enactment weekend in May. It's definitely appealing to Steve's inner history geek.
All caught up now so I am all for more TR now
Your wish is my command!
Stay tuned!
Thanks for another great report Gina. We are really starting to sway towards heading "home" next March now. The C$3000 airfares to both Cabo (our first choice) or Orlando (our second) is putting a damper on plans. It looks like Allegiant from Ogdensburg will be reasonable, but March isn't release yet. In all likelihood we will make the long drive once again. Getting used to that now, and the total cost is about $600 (gas and hotels) and there is no rental required in Orlando.
Also glad to hear that Dash is recovering from his ordeal. Have to wonder at what might have happened to the poor guy, I bet he could tell an incredible story if he could talk! (Yeah, you should have seen the other guy...!) Love the picture of him holding onto Steve's arm for all he's worth.
As far as timing goes, I think you need to a VERY compressed Christmas report, and then get to the spring. You're eventually going to fall far enough behind that something has to give. Write a quick one on Christmas and then do Spring while it is still fresh. Just my C$0.5 (since we don't have pennies), but that is probably about US$0.02 anyway...
LOL, I am not very good at 'compressing' anything when it comes to my writing
. I may have just had a grade 10 English teacher who told me I was "verbose"
(quite true, I'm afraid, but hurt my 14-year-old feelings nonetheless). No matter how much I try, a "quick" entry generally ends up being a lengthy one. I probably end up sharing way too much useless and irrelevant information, but it just seems incomplete without it. Hopefully I will be able to get December and spring both wrapped up before my Employment Authorization Card comes in and I begin job hunting in earnest.
The big ol' question that everyone has is "how on earth did that cat manage to break a tooth?". I'm not sure if I want to know, or if I DON'T want to know
. We hear the two of them running amok like a pair of elephants after we go to bed at night, so heaven knows the hellry he got into while we slept. Perhaps being blissfully unaware is the better way to be (a parenting coping mechanism, so to speak). Dash tends to act first and think later. Violet is often looking at him with pity, as if to say.......
Sigh. Dash, you're an idiot.
I am sorry to hear your Mexico plans aren't coming to fruition. I know you sounded excited to be planning something new and different for a change of pace. That's a CRAZY price for flights, OMG! A week at SVR is sure a nice Plan B, though
.
Great trip report, I'm sad it's over! And obsessively checking rental car rates definitely pays off - I was checking the Alamo website at least twice a day until I finally scored a 2 week full size rental for $230!!!
I leave for Orlando tomorrow and your trip report has definitely helped increase my excitement!
What a GREAT price on your rental car!!
Well done, my friend!
Have an amazing, incredible, SPECTACULAR time in the sunny south!! If you have a chance, pop in to my next report and give us a live update or two while you're there
. I'll be posting the link to the December report on this thread a little later.
Hey Gina! Are you planning a stop at
MNSSHP for your trip this fall? If so, have you heard about any memory maker shares going on around your dates? Usually we're staying at Disney so we just get our own. But, with this trip being on site at Universal, predominately about HHN and only a single visit to Disney for the Halloween party I can't justify spending the $150
Well, the answer to the MNSSHP question is.......a definite maybe
. We would both like to add it to the October itinerary, so if the budget will allow, it shall be so
. Halloween Horror Nights will take first priority (with an RIP tour and the Scareactor Dinner), as October will be predominately Universal-focused again. HHN ticket prices have been released, but so far, the cost of the RIP tours is still an unknown. And then there are MNSSHP tickets.....if they are over $100 per person, we're out (we'll do a day at the Food & Wine Festival instead if the hard ticket events become more expensive than a regular day ticket). So, we'll see how much we ending up spending on this spring getaway, then decide on the October add-ons from there.
If we do end up purchasing MNSSHP tickets (which I suspect will end up being the case....we LOVE that event!) I will absolutely be looking for a Memory Maker Share. I have had great success in finding shares on the easywdw forums (they have a specific section for photography) and I've always paid under $25 for our portion of the share cost. Like you, for party-only Disney visits, its the only way I could ever justify the cost of Memory Maker. It might be a shade too early to hop in on an October share just yet, but I'll bet we'll see several of them by early summer.
