First timers, family of 6, (June 2015)

[lizzilou]

I'm a newbie here, so I may do this all wrong, but I got such great advice here and I found trip reports so helpful so I thought I give it a try. My pictures are huge and I have no idea how to scale them. We were in Orlando from June 6-June 12 and went to Universal June 8-11. Stayed off site at Nick Suites but bought package through Universal for EE.

About us. My Dh and I have been together for 11 years. We have 5 & 3 year old boys together and he has 14 & 17 year old boys from his previous marriage, so we had a range of boys with us 3, 5, 14 & 17. We've had full custody of the older boys for many years so we are one big happy family.

Since there were so many of us and transportation with 6 people can be tricky, we drove from Raleigh, NC down to Orlando on the morning of June 6. Its a little under a 9 hour drive without stops so it wasn't too bad a of a trip. We have dual DVD players in our van and my boys are road trippers. We went to lunch at DTD, Earl of Sandwich, and visited the Lego & Superhero store as we got into town so we'd get to see some Disney. I had no idea lunch was at the complete opposite end from the parking deck though. BTW, DTD has the coolest parking deck ever. The boys thought I was crazy to be so impressed with a parking deck but it made finding a spot simple. I have some relatives who live in Kissimmee who were happy to host us, so we stayed with them for 2 nights to relax and visit a bit after our drive.

On Monday morning we got up early and headed to IOA for our EE. We didn't get packed up and on the road as early as I wanted to, but it is hard getting so many people out the door. I was a bit worried about getting our tickets and them letting us in for EE since we weren't staying on site, but the ticket kiosk was super easy to use. EE was at 8am and we didn't get into the park until about 8:10am.

We picked up our Photo Connect card and went straight back to FJ. There was already a 30 min wait but they said single rider was only 5 minutes. Since it was our first ride we had no idea how to use child swap or single rider, I asked if we could child swap single rider. The TM told us yes, which I later learned was incorrect, so we proceeded up to the ride. I really wish we had more time in line. We went by all this cool stuff so fast and I barely had tome to take it all in.

Child swap is so awesome, the ride lines were fun for the littles and they got to sit and watch a movie in most of the child swap areas. We tried to not do two child swap rides in a row, but it was nice to not split up like we normally do at theme parks. Like I mentioned before they weren't supposed to let us child swap single rider, but when we got to the ride they didn't care. I didn't care for FJ. I like roller coasters and thrill rides normally, but FJ was the first ride ever to make me feel motion sickness. They lost our photo too at the ride photo booth and it wouldn't be the first photo lost.

We then got some butterbeer, I had frozen the rest of my fmaily got regular, and rode dueling dragons. What an awesome coaster. I rode the red side first and it is my favorite coaster ever. So smooth and just fun, not scary. By now Hogsmeade was getting really busy. We bought our Coke Freestyle Cups, which was a awesome deal for us, and headed to Jurassic Park which was what I was looking forward to the most.

I loved Jurassic Park. The River Adventure was a little intense for my 5 year old, it might not have helped that I let myself get into it all, but he survived. I didn't get too wet and the 3 & 5 year old had fun in the splash area while waiting for the others to finish their child swap ride. We all then ran around together in Camp Jurassic. The caves were really fun.

Since we were wet we decided to go on to the Ripsaw Falls. The wait time was listed at 20 min, but we actually spent more like 45 min in line. They lost our parties first ride picture. We were bummed because it was of our 5 year old and he makes the funniest ride faces.

We couldn't check into Nick Suites until 4pm, they said they hold our luggage but no rooms early, so we decided to wait until the 3pm Marvel Meet & Greet. Then leave to check in. The Marvel characters were great. We met Dr. Doom, Capt America, Wolverine, Cyclops and did a green screen with Spiderman. They all joked and talked to the kids like it wasn't 100 degrees out and they hadn't seen 1000 kids already that day. Capt America and the Spiderman photos were Photo Connect photos and the TM were always really good about taking cell phone picture for you.

We then left and to check into Nick Suites.

 

[lizzilou]

Nick Suites

I read some good and bad reviews of Nick Suites. I really wanted at least EE and we needed to sleep 6 comfortably so was bought a package though Universal for Nick Suites. They are listed as two bedroom, but it was really one bedroom with a king, an area without a door with bunk beds and a living room area with a pullout sofa. It was plenty of space for all four of us. It was clean and spacious enough which is all we really cared about. The water park was a huge draw for us and my kids love TMNT so we were hoping to get a few photo ops in too.

We weren't completely satisfied though. The water park is only open from 11am-7pm, 11am is really late for kids who have been up since 6am to wait for on a pool day. Also we were there for 5 days and only saw two characters, Sponge Bob and the squirrel from Sponge Bob. The TNMT meet and greet was scheduled for only one day that week and it was the morning before we could check in. They have the outfits, use some of that resort fee to pay some guys to put on a costume at least twice a week! You could pay $30 a person for a pizza dinner with them, but that wasn't really in line with what I wanted to do. I would have been much happier about our $35 a day resort fee if they had earlier hours for the water park and we saw more characters roaming around. There wasn't much Nick in our Nick Suites stay.

 

[lizzilou]

After checking in and grabbing some dinner at Fudruckers, we decided to finish our day at Universal since IOA closed early at 6pm for a special event. We happened to get there as the 7pm character parade was starting. Then we all went to the Shrek 3D show then the older boys and DH rode single Ride Ride Rocket and Twister. I was going to take the littles on the DM ride but the wait, like the whole three days we were there, was over an hour. BTW we used and loved the Universal App the whole time we were there. The wait times weren't always correct but they were a good guide.

We went over to the Transformer ride to see if my 3 year old who is obsessed with Transformers was tall enough in his athletic shoes. He was just barely tall enough and so sad when they told him they weren't sure, so the TM who was manning the front took us around and made sure that he could get on. We bypassed the whole line and got right on the ride. It was amazing!

We caught the Cinematic Spectacular, which I only saw part of because by then the littles were ready to go and I packed them up in the stroller. What I saw was neat and I was so happy for fireworks. I'd heard Universal had no fireworks so it was a nice surprise!


Day 2
The second day our plan was to take the Hogworts Express from IOA to Universal and do Diagon Alley. It was everyone else's plan too.

It was super crowded that EE. The boys all rode the Flight of the Hippogriff while we waited for the Hogwarts Express line to die down. We then got on and went right to Escape from Gingotts. The HE was so fun. We all liked it a lot.

I really liked Escape from Gringotts. It was a fun ride! Diagon Alley is amazing too. We all agreed that we liked it better than Hogsmeade.

 

[lizzilou]

We then found a place to activate our Coke Freestyle Cups and went on MIB since the line was only about 15 min. My 3 year old was a little scared of the aliens you saw while waiting in line. I liked it but it has the worst child swap. They made you get back in line about halfway through the line after waiting in line. All the other child swaps have you get on right away. I was a little miffed. The older kids were loving child swap though since they were allowed to get back on too. They got to ride most rides twice.

We then did Simpsons land for lunch. I picked it because it was a really fun theme and they claimed to have vegetarian options for me in Lisa's Teahouse of Horror. We went in Moe's and snagged a table, we found out later you aren't supposed too, oops. We all split a giant pink doughnut, they are really good, and then left the boys at a table while we got food. DH had the chicken and waffle sandwich, he said it was good, I had the veggie sandwich, it was awful. The bread was dry and hard on top and soggy on bottom. DH told me I should complain about a $9 gross sandwich but I was too hungry to bother.

I also had a Duff with Barney.

We split up then and gave the big boys some freedom to roam around for a couple hours. It was then on to the Simpsons Ride fro the four of us, which I found really jerky but Ok and the Twirl n Hurl for the little guys. We were getting worn out so we decided to go to the Animal Actors show since my 5 year old loves animals. It was a good show and nice to sit down for a minute. We then rendezvoused with the older boys for ET and headed back to the hotel for some downtime.

We got back to Universal with only a little time before it was going to storm. We met the older boys at the CityWalk food court for dinner. They did Rip Ride Rocket, Return of the Mummy and Disaster while we were gone. During dinner the older boys told us Photo Connect lost their Mummy photo, that's four ride photos so far they couldn't find for us. We all went back in and rode the Return of the Mummy, child swap for the littles, then as a family rode Transformers. My 3 year old loves Bumblebee so we were trying to get a photo with him. They had to cancel because of lightening his 7, 7:40 and 8 pm appearance. While we waited for his last 8:40 time, DH and I rode Rip Ride Rocket and single riders. It was awesome! A little scary because there was a lightening storm not too far away, but it added to the experience. Finally we learned they were going to have Bumblebee come out. For the few of us who had been waiting for hours they said he would come out quickly. I got a cell phone photo, but the Photo Connect people lost this photo too! I was so bummed !

 

[lizzilou]

Day 3 was a pool day. It was a nice break. My dad lives in Ft. Myers so he drove up to have lunch with us. I made reservations at Rainforest Cafe. My 3 year old slept through most of it. He had a fun filled morning at the pool.

 

[lizzilou]

Last day at the parks

We only had missed a few things we wanted to do by the end of day 2 so we made a list.

Missed:
Despicable Me
Disaster (Me and DH)
Spider Man
Raptor Encounter
Dr. Seuss Land
Bilge Rat Barges

We decided to focus on getting on Despicable Me so instead of EE we went for rope drop at 8:30. I got us to rope drop around 7:50, it was our best morning yet and then wondered the wisdom of getting up early and waiting for almost an hour to get in vs. an hour in line.

They did let us in around 8:30 and we ran to get in line. I was a bit disappointed. I thought for such massive wait times it would be super awesome, so maybe my expectations were just too high. My little boys and big boys enjoyed it though. My littlest just loves minions. I have no idea what the scavenger hunt was but he loved these signs.

The big boys and I went on Rip Ride Rocket one last time since the wait time was short while DH and the littles tried to get another Transformer picture. Optimus Prime was there. It was still exciting for my boys but no Bumblebee. They said they were having computer trouble at the picture kiosk so DH just took his Photo Connect card and left. Later we realized the card was blank! They lost our Transformer pictures again! We had a very nice Photo Connect TM go through the photos in memory later that day with us and she couldn't find them either. It was so disappointing.

We raced over and got on the HE back to IOA. We walked on. I liked the ride from Universal to IOA the best. Once there, the raptor has just come out when we walked by so I stood in line with our 17 year old to meet him. It was so much fun. I'm a Jurassic Park lover and this made my day. The TM took video too. It was great!

Then on to SpiderMan, which I loved and I took the littles to Dr. Seuss Land while the big boys went on Poseidon's Fury. We decided to skip Bilge Rat Barges since we were all exhausted and we've been on that type of ride many times before. We went up to Hogsmeade and had a late lunch at Three Broomsticks.

Back to Nick Suites for us to enjoy the slides. We were planning on returning later that night, but we got on everything we really wanted to ride and saw all we wanted to see so we just chilled at the hotel. I just picked up some subs from Publix for dinner by the pool. We went out to breakfast that next morning and went on our way.

We had such a great trip. Universal is awesome. We are still a little pissed that Photo Connect lost so many of our pictures but were still very happy that we got it. Child Swap, Photo Connect, Single rider lines, Coke Freestyle Cup and EE were the keys to our success.

 

[mrsabbott]

I love how sweet Spiderman was with your youngest boy! What a sweet moment captured!

 

[disneyavonohio]

Good report. We were there June 2nd through the 9th and photo connect worked great for us, no lost ride photos. But looking now it seems we did not get the right spiderman photo, all I have in the system is my kids with spiderman and a green screen. Did you have to do anything extra to get the magazine cover?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Great report and photos . May I say I am in awe of a woman who is raising 4 boys. I can't imagine how much laundry and cooking you must do . I only have one son and OMG! He keeps me busy all on his own!

So sorry that Photoconnect was so problematic for you. We used it the first week of May and all went perfectly. I wonder if they were having system issues all across the board?

 

[lizzilou]

Good report. We were there June 2nd through the 9th and photo connect worked great for us, no lost ride photos. But looking now it seems we did not get the right spiderman photo, all I have in the system is my kids with spiderman and a green screen. Did you have to do anything extra to get the magazine cover?

Did you have them add the background at the computers by spiderman or did you just take the picture? We waited for them to edit our pictures on their computer and then add it to our star card.

I forgot about two more Photo Connect problems we had. We are missing one of our Simpsons couch photos and the camera was down at the Jurassic Park Jeep. I really liked Photo Connect, I just wished it had worked better for us.

 

[disneyavonohio]

Did you have them add the background at the computers by spiderman or did you just take the picture? We waited for them to edit our pictures on their computer and then add it to our star card.

I forgot about two more Photo Connect problems we had. We are missing one of our Simpsons couch photos and the camera was down at the Jurassic Park Jeep. I really liked Photo Connect, I just wished it had worked better for us.

We just took the picture I believe, no one said to go to the computers....now I know. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[soma151]

Great pic...

 

[schumigirl]

Lizzilou........glad you had such a wonderful trip!!

Pictures are lovely, you can really see you all enjoyed it a lot. And Spider-Man is just the cutest guy ever with little ones.

Sorry you lost some pics though.......that's a shame.

 

[Loves The Mouse]

Nice universal trip report! Sorry about them losing some of your pictures. You have a handsome set of young men. Love the photo of your little one with Spider-Man showing him how to do the hand sign! Wihat what is the Coke freestyle cup deal?

 

[mrsabbott]

I guess when I was posting, you had also posted some more and I missed it! I'm caught up now! I saw that you are also a vegetarian! The kids and I all eat vegetarian while my Hubs eats meat. That is a bummer that your sandwich was gross! We didn't do any quick service meals. If you ever go back, Mythos has an amazing vegetarian Pad Thai! The next time we go, I want to eat at the Leaky Cauldron and want to try the Ploughman's Platter without the scotch egg!

 

[macraven]

you wrote up a great trip report!
sounds like you packed a lot of fun things to do on your vacation

so sad that the photos were lost....
i would be if that happened to me.

i'm glad to read of another woman that has 4 boys.
our oldest was 5.5 when the next three came around.
added 3 more boys in 4.3 years.

boys are fun to raise but you aleady know that