First Ever TR 10 days, we did Disney, Sea World & Universal...boy am I exhausted!

[cjsteiger]

This is my first ever trip report and I hope you'll enjoy!!

I'd first like to introduce you to my cast of characters

DH John He loves Disney as much as I do which makes us very compatible. He is a coster junkie. He is very sweet and even asked me to marry him at Cinderella's castle, can't believe that was over 14 years ago.

DD Mindy Is 10 and she loves Disney but I'm not sure if she would love it on her own or she loves it becasue I do. She is very shy and sweet. Loves anything HSM or HM/Miley Cyrus

DS Bradley Is 7 and he is my funny boy. He will act very shy but loves to crack us all up. He loves everything Star Wars!!!

Then there is me DW & DMom Cheryl I have always been a Disney girl. I used to listen to a record of the Cinderella story over and over again. As a kid we went when all there was Magic Kingdom. We always stayed in Fort Wilderness and I find myself going back there like home. I love going and wish we could go more often but I guess I'll just have to settle for every other year.

We have been planning this trip for over a year and a half and it was one of the best trips we have done. The kids were the best ages, most of the time. We had several pixe dust moments and for the most part the weather was great!!

I hope you'll join me for this magical ride. I am going to try and post some of my first photos a little later. Right now the insurance guy is due any minute.

Cheryl

 

[noahdove]

I can't wait to read more..I am taking my 8 year old great niece in August and she has NO clue...she thinks we are going next August 2010....she will find out in 15 days

 

[cjsteiger]

Marilyn Thanks so much for joining me. I hope to keep it intresting. 8 is a great age. My son will be 8 in 3 months and he had a blast most of the time.

Cheryl

 

[cjsteiger]

Sorry to take so long to start another installment but have had some computer issues and life! Anyway, we started planning this trip in January 2008. We decided that we really only realistically would have 2 more times we’ll be able to take the kids in February. I know we could go other times but being that my husband is a teacher and a Field Hockey and track coach and I won’t go in the summer, we are kind of stuck. We figure that when my daughter get’s to High School we won’t want to be taking her out for 4 or 5 days. We’ll have to see how things go but that is our plans for now.
OK, so back to where I was going. I truly love to plan our trip. I learned so many things from the Dis boards, got ideas for shirts and generally loved dreaming about our adventure.

Our first plan was airline tickets and because we are gone over the President’s Week Air Fare sucks!! We always pay through the nose. After spending a whole day flying 3hours because of layovers to get a cheaper flight I decided I would just suck it up and get a direct flight even if that meant paying more. My first plan was to go to the airport on Thursday night and sleep over so we could leave real early in the morning on Friday. My wise husband says why not fly out Thursday night instead. Well you don’t have to ask me twice. I found a flight leaving at 6:10pm arriving at 9:10pm with Continental and planned for a cheap hotel near the airport. It would be close because we live 45 minutes from the airport and the kids and my husband would need to go to school that day and when I made these reservations I was working on Tuesday and Thursdays. So it was some cause of concern but I chose to put it, along with the thought that in February there can always be a blizzard that affects our travel, out of my mind.

We considered a lot of places to stay and again came back to the cabins at Fort Wilderness. We love them and we like having a place that feels like home. Other years we have done more eating in the cabin but you will see as I get into this TR that we did a lot more eating in the restaurants I learned about on this great board. I booked our room only reservation and then kicked myself for not getting our Disney tickets before the price went up but I am so glad I didn’t because when I heard about the 4 for 3 deal I called up and asked if it applied to the time I was going and the Cabins at Fort Wilderness and to my SURPRISE it did. Now I have been going to Disney in Feb. my whole life and have never had a deal at that time in fact it is considered peak and always the most expensive. So we changed my reservation to the package. I had already done all my number crunching so I knew this was a great deal for us. The $200 gift card was a real clincher.

We promised the kids we would stay at the Nick Hotel as they had seen it on TV and were dying to stay there so we planned for 3 nights and we would use those for our Universal, IOA and Sea World days.

All the plans were coming together. The only thing I will try to remember is to book my rental car well in advance. Usually we book it keep it until the middle of our Disney stay then return it to the Car Care center in Disney World and then have my parents take us to the airport for the flight home. When I looked into that a month before our trip it was going to cost over $500 for a week, YIKES! In the end we got the same car kept it the whole 10 days and drove ourselves to the airport and it cost a little over $200.

I made 3 ADRs before we left, Teppan Edo, Chef Mickey’s and Whispering Canyon Café. My husband loves Cirque Du Soleil (we have seen all the ones that have come to the NY area) so he wanted to have the kids see La Nouba so I made Ressies for that as well. I purchased all our tickets for Universal and Sea World ahead of time so we were all set to go!!

Join me for the next installment where we hit the friendly skies for our 10 day adventure!!

 

[KittyKat08]

Hello!

Your trip sounds wonderful so far, I can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

I'm in

I am excited to hear about Sea World I haven't been there since I was really little!

 

[deanie]

I'm in also!!

 

[earthfaries]

Sounds like a wonderful vacation!! I can't wait to read all about it

 

[brandip22]

Can't wait to read more! We'll hopefully be going for 10 days on our next trip, so I am looking forward to reading how you did it.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I used to stay at Fort Wilderness as a child too. What great memories.

My kids are around the same age and would kill to stay at the Nick hotel. so I can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[cjsteiger]

Thanks so much everyone for joining me. I'm getting ready to post a in a few minutes. I'm going to post pictures too, I hope!! First time for that.

Cheryl

 

[cjsteiger]

Brad napping in the van on the ride to the airport

My John and our driver John

Mindy

Brad's happy to be getting on the plane at last

Getting on the plane

The day had been choreographed down to the minute. The shuttle was due to arrive at 3:15. That was a change from the original time of 2:55 because my husband told me(on Monday) he had a mandatory after school faculty meeting that was only supposed to last until 3pm so I had to call and ask them to change our time. I made the change but I was really worried we would be late getting to the plane. It turned out that my worries were unfounded because we had terrible wind here in the Northern Jersey area so I flight ended up being delayed 3 hours. When I booked our trip I worried about snow and ice holding us up never did I think I would have to worry about wind!!! If we had been leaving on time we wouldn’t have had to worry as arrive at the airport at 4:10pm and the skycap took our luggage at the curb and had us on our way in a matter of minutes. I used envelopes that I got off this board and had all my tips ready and waiting for the shuttle drivers and the skycaps which was really nice, no digging in my pocketbook for $$. I was annoyed that Continental switched up our seats. They had moved 2 of our seats which would have had the kids sitting together and myself behind and John on the aisle across the way. The very nice girl who was a real Disney girl (Mickey Sweatshirt and Mickey travel pillow) switched aisle seats with my husband so he could sit with the kids. I got to sit behind them and relax. Usually it is the other way around and he gets to relax while I hold off any squabbles. The kids began their homework assignments. Brad had most of his math completed when he got off the plane. We would have to make some time to finish the rest for both kids. I was very lucky that the kids’ teachers sent work as the school policy is not to send work but I nicely asked the teachers and they were all accommodating.
We had a nice dinner in the airport; the kids split plain buttered spaghetti with meatballs from Famiglia Pizza and John and I got very filling meals from Ming Tree, I had the Bourbon chicken, glazed carrots and rice. John had beef and broccoli with veggies and noodles. We walked around for a bit trying to find ice cream, no such luck. Then we decided to hang out by the gate. We finally began to board around 8:30 PM; we took off around 8:50 3 hours later than we were supposed to. For all the wind at takeoff the flight was very smooth. We landed at 11:18pm the tail wind helped us make up time.
Things went very smoothly getting our luggage and even the car rental pick up. I bypassed the line which was 4 or 5 deep and used the kiosk at Alamo. We headed out to choose our economy size car. We couldn’t decide a red one, a white PT Cruiser a black one. Finally we were about to take the PT Cruiser when someone else came along and took it so our choice was made the black Kia. We were able to fit all 4 large suitcases in the trunk and some of the carryon bags. We headed to the hotel for the night. In retrospect I should have packed our first night and day stuff in one bag so we didn’t need to bring in all the suitcases into this hotel were we would only be staying overnight. THANK GOD!! I realize now that sometimes you get what you pay for!! I chose this hotel for 3 reasons, it was cheap, very close to Universal and not too far from the airport. It was a very small old room. The bathroom was the size of a closet but like I said it would do for one night. We would be heading to the Nickelodeon Hotel the next day and I know it will be better. We all collapsed in bed and were asleep in minutes. The boys bunked together in one queen bed and the girls in the other
The hotel the next morning

These are the pictures my son took
The hotel

Mindy

John bringing out the bags

Oh yes and finally a picture of me, Cheryl

START OF OUR FIRST FULL DAY

We all woke surprisingly early because we had such a late night last night but everyone was in good spirits who could not be we were in Florida and it was going to be 70 degrees and sunny. We all donned our shorts and matching tie dyed shirts. That would be a running theme throughout this trip. We headed down to the lobby for the free breakfast, this was another thing that attracted me to this hotel. After a nutritious breakfast of cereal, bananas, bagels, muffins, juice and milk we left the hotel for our first stop of this trip Universal Studios. John and I had been here about 14 years ago but have never been back. He has been wanting to go and now feels that the kids are big enough to ride. I think we should have waited until our next trip but I relented. He kept getting upset when they wouldn’t go on things and we got into several small tiffs over it. We headed to the Studios at 8:30 and because of our hotel we were there in about 10 minutes. I will say this over and over again pre planning and all the little goodies I got from this board made things go much smoother. I had our parking money all set in an envelope along with our vouchers and other necessary items. We whizzed through the gate parking in Jaws 116. Then came the walk to the gate. None of these things existed when we were here the last time so it took us a while to make it to the gate and pick up our tickets. I had purchased them through AAA online at home so we were quickly on our way through the kiosk. Our kids thought that the moving sidewalks were a ride in themselves. Why pay so much money for admission when we could have just ridden the moving sidewalks all day. HAHAHA

Riding the moving sidewalks

City Walk

Mindy and Brad - My Dad is a huge Nascar fan so we are by association

Mindy

Bradley

John

Cheryl & Mindy

Up Next: The Rest of the Day at Universal

 

[cjsteiger]

We had our picture taken at the front gate and got our tickets.

After obtaining our Studio Guide we headed to the Universal Store to get our AAA coupon book. It had great coupons in it but we never did use them because they really didn’t work for us. They had all kinds of Mardi Gras stuff out so the kids had fun trying on the huge beads. I can’t imagine wearing these around all night. We chose to do the studios on the 13th because they were having a Mardi Gras party on the 14th and I thought it would be so busy that day. We made a really great choice as the studio was very light with crowds on Friday. As we walked down Rodeo Dr, Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd to our first ride The Simpsons I took these pictures.

The Simpsons Ride was a lot of fun. My son Bradley didn’t like it much. For some reason on this trip he suddenly became afraid of all the 3D rides and anything he hadn’t been on in the past. He got better later on the week when we went to Disney. My husband and I had a few words about the whole situation as he couldn’t understand his constant reluctance. I took one for the team and stayed off the rides with him or on some occasions his sister too. The Simpsons ride is very funny a little too bouncy at time but fun. If you are a fan of the show you will love this ride so much detail. I’m not a big fan but I knew enough to get the inside jokes.

Next we headed to the Men in Black Ride we stowed our small bag in the lockers outside and were on the ride in no time. My hubby and I are big fans of the movies so we were really excited to ride this and knew the kids would like it because it was like a video game. My son again was not happy but we finally convinced him that it was like Buzz Lightyear and in the end he did have a good time. We got our picture because it was 20% off before 11am. As a scrapbooker I am a big fan of all the pictures from rides I can get. Unless we look really horrible I will buy at least a 5x7. It’s one of the few times I get in the pictures.

After Men in Black we headed over to Jaws and found it was closed for refurbishment. I was so bummed as I really liked this ride and I thought the kids would too. We did get to take a family pic with Shark because of the kindness of another family. We also had fun playing with the shark hats at one of the street vendors. Because it was so early in the morning the stores were still just waking up it seemed.

 

[OhMari]

Welcome to your first Trip Report, but I have seen you around the boards. I recognize your name, since your last name is very prominent in my town.

Anyhow, I am going to Universal, and I haven't been there since 2000. I'm pretty sure I will be there by myself, since my dh will be in a conference all day. There is another wife going along, but I don't know if she will go with me. So I am enjoying your Universal days.

OhMari

 

[cjsteiger]

OhMari

Thanks so much for reading along.

There are 4 Steiger's in my small town and only one is related to us(my inlaws)

We seemed to be more relaxed at Universal. I think it had to do with the much smaller crowds.

More coming soon.

Chreyl

 

[cjsteiger]

We got in line for the Disaster but after about 10 minutes of waiting in the queue outside Brad was really starting to have a meltdown so he and I got out of line and took our time walking around looking at all the different things. Brad loves to squish pennies so we did some of those. I had set up 4 of the mini m&m containers with quarters and pennies for the kids. It was a great organizational tip. We went back over by MIB and bought slushies for everyone. John and I had coke ones and Mindy got cherry and Brad had blue raspberry. We waited across the way sitting on the porch of San Francisco Pastry Co. Nothing in there really struck our fancy so we just enjoyed our slushies and each other’s company. After what seemed like forever John and Mindy came out and told us what a cool ride Disaster was and that Brad would have liked it. Oh well, maybe next time.

We then headed over towards the New York area and walked around checking out all the neat places. John wanted to ride The Mummy. We couldn’t talk the kids into riding and I don’t like doing the baby swap as I don’t want to ride alone. You’ll see in a later installment that we figured out a way around this. When we got to Disney my parents were with us so we were able to ride without a problem. While John was riding The Mummy, Mindy and I had hair wraps put in our hair. I gave Brad $5 for the arcade and it was gone in a matter of seconds because he is obsessed with getting a Nintendo DS and they had one in a Crane Game. I eventually gave him another $5 but told him he could not spend it on the Crane Games. He did play other video games. After John finished riding twice we did a little shopping in Sahara Traders. I like things about Egypt so it was hard not to buy a bunch of thins but I did get a King Tut pen for myself and Mindy’s teacher who loves Egypt also.

I want to shop in Macy's in NY but they won't let me in!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I love the hair wraps. My DD gets them everytime we go. I watched the lady do it last time and now I can do it at home for her. I'm not as fast as the people in the park but I'm getting there.

I only went to universal once and it was pre-children probably about 14 years ago. I'm hoping to go to Universal on our next family trip so I need to start paying attention to all those tips you keep mentioning.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

I'm anxious to hear about Sea World! We are going in June, but haven't been there in 5 years.

 

[tiggersam00]

loving all the hat pics! Too cute!! I am excited to see a TR with all 3 park groups as well Looks like a fun trip

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Hello! Loving the TR so far. I'm so jealous you got to go on vacation for TEN days! The longest I've gone so far is eight, but ten would be PERFECT!

You said you don't like to ride anything by yourself - I'm with you! Me, neither! It's just not as fun without anyone there to share the excitement with.

Looking forward to more...