** Happy Birthday to Me (March '21) and Happy HS Graduation to Her (May/June '21 PTR) [5/8 update]

[kittylady1972]

I smiled when I saw this-
So skinny fries are just your regular American fries though here they may be skin on fries (where the potato hasn't been peeled before chopping or they may not have any skin on them (hope that makes sense). They'll often be listed on menus as "skinny fries" because the same menu will also have "chunky chips" which are like the ones you get in the Yorkshire County Fish Shop in the UK pavillion.
Spuds is just a slang word for potatoes and we love our spuds here - boiled, mashed, roasted, champ which has scallion mixed in (though not me I don't like champ)-we love all of them

When we first started visiting we did both but the tickets were a lot cheaper then and we stayed off-site at LBV crossroads area in those days. Then we slowly graduated to the moderate resorts. Then a disastrous stay at Royal Pacific. Eventually we ended up at the Epcot area resorts and I can't go back

Oh me too!

I like your style

Ah...thanks for helping the American out regarding the fries! Sorta what I was thinking a little bit...and makes sense.

"Disastrous" stay...that doesn't sound good. However I'm with you on the EPCOT resorts...I really love that area but on the flip side I do enjoy BLT for the ability to walk to MK and back so as much as I wanted to stay at an EPCOT resort, my daughter really loves MK (and so do I) so I'm good staying here for our trip!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Our RP stay was bad from the start. We had booked through a well known, worldwide holiday company so had paid in full many weeks before our trip and when we arrived at the hotel after a 9 hour flight they had over-sold the rooms. There were people shouting and angry in the lobby so it wasn’t just our room that they overbooked Our kids were tired out from traveling and needed their beds, it was 7pm but they were wrecked, and the hotel had no room for us and their only solution was to move us to the Peabody for the night. They kept saying but you can still use your tickets and get the express access now as if that was such a wonderful thing for them to do! Given that we had in fact paid cold hard cash for those very things I was not impressed by them. We were mad, tired and unhappy but we just wanted to get those kids in bed so the next day wouldn’t be wrecked too so off we went ( they drove us & brought us back the next day to get our actual room). Then when we got our room it had no hot water for 3 days in a row! We gave up, called the holiday company rep and got moved. Ended up in the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and had a lovely holiday just not the one we planned. I’d love to give the universal hotels another go but my husband is still bitter so I doubt it will ever happen. I think it was handled very badly by them at check in and well the refusing to adequately address the hot water issue for 3 days just finished us off!

 

[kittylady1972]

Our RP stay was bad from the start. We had booked through a well known, worldwide holiday company so had paid in full many weeks before our trip and when we arrived at the hotel after a 9 hour flight they had over-sold the rooms. There were people shouting and angry in the lobby so it wasn’t just our room that they overbooked Our kids were tired out from traveling and needed their beds, it was 7pm but they were wrecked, and the hotel had no room for us and their only solution was to move us to the Peabody for the night. They kept saying but you can still use your tickets and get the express access now as if that was such a wonderful thing for them to do! Given that we had in fact paid cold hard cash for those very things I was not impressed by them. We were mad, tired and unhappy but we just wanted to get those kids in bed so the next day wouldn’t be wrecked too so off we went ( they drove us & brought us back the next day to get our actual room). Then when we got our room it had no hot water for 3 days in a row! We gave up, called the holiday company rep and got moved. Ended up in the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and had a lovely holiday just not the one we planned. I’d love to give the universal hotels another go but my husband is still bitter so I doubt it will ever happen. I think it was handled very badly by them at check in and well the refusing to adequately address the hot water issue for 3 days just finished us off!

Oh wow...that sounds horrible so I don't blame you at all. It also reminded me that RPR did something similar to me. We booked 2 nights I think in October for Halloween Horror Nights. Some friends came with us, so we each had a room. When we arrived to check in, RPR gave them a room but then told us they could give us a room...but it had no bed. Ummm...what??? So they have these suites that have connecting bedrooms and a main living room area with a huge sectional with foldout bed, kitchen, large dining room, lovely space overall. They didn't have the bedroom available...but we could stay in the main room. I asked to see it first and to check out the fold-out bed because I wasn't about to be uncomfortable for a few nights. It worked out okay and they did cut us a discount (we booked directly through them I think) but it's just interesting that they did something similar to you. What kind of hotel OVERSELLS their rooms like that? I didn't even know that was possible.

I'm hoping our first experience coming up at Hard Rock Hotel in May will be good, but since we don't really care about the room and have a Disney room booked for the same night...no big deal.

 

[kittylady1972]

SUMMER GIRLS GRADUATION PLAN

Quick update regarding our May/June graduation girls trip. Tickets were all purchased yesterday. I'm a bit concerned about our Universal passes now as some reports are indicating rejections at the ticket window when you activate the passes if you aren't active duty military. I've never had a problem activating them before, including last month. We shall see what happens as I may also be trying to upgrade my pass to a Universal Annual Pass while there.

Tickets were added to MDE yesterday and I made our park passes. Sadly HS is already sold out all week. It was showing available Saturday but now that is gone. I guess our plan will be to hit that park during it's final hours maybe once or twice. As we don't care about doing GE stuff we'll be okay.

Our plans are now:
Monday: Arrival; heck into Hard Rock Resort and get our Express Passes; head to Universal to activate passes and hit the parks for a little bit. We need to decide if we want to stay in our Universal room or head to Bay Lake Tower instead for the evening.
Tuesday: Head back to Universal, probably park at Hard Rock since we have a room there anyway, and then head to Universal parks from there. Enjoy a few hours at the parks before leaving and going back to our Disney room.
Wednesday: MK Park Pass. Walk over to MK in the morning and do as much as we want to do while there. If crowds build, we can retreat back to our room for a while or just relax at our resort. Maybe afternoon/evening head over to HS to try to do a few rides there.
Thursday: Animal Kingdom Park pass. Head there to arrive close to when it opens. Get our rides on there for a few hours. Maybe have lunch there. Return back to resort for a while. Evening time at MK.
Friday: EPCOT park pass. Since EPCOT likely will have a later opening, we can chill for a bit before heading over there around park opening. Get in as much as possible at EPCOT. Maybe hop over to HS for dinner and some park time there. Return to Bay Lake Tower and maybe spend the last 2 hours or so at MK (anticipating a 10pm closing).
Saturday: Last full day...bummer. MK park pass so head over there after packing up. Spend as much time there as we want. If we are done, we can drive over to EPCOT or HS but we'd have to hit the road around 3:30pm for the airport.

Seems like a pretty good plan so far. I have to say I am glad I reserved our rental car already because rental car prices are getting INSANE. There was a time (last month even) when I could book and rebook and prices kept dropping. Now all I see is prices INCREASING every day. Crazy. Will be interesting to see what happens later I guess.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Yes - rental car rates are going crazy! Costco even put a notification on the top of their rental car page because it's so bad. Apparently there is some sort of covid-related supply of rental cars and it's not meeting the demand of all the people hoping to travel this summer.

I booked a while ago and it's almost double what I booked now for a summer reservation.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

What kind of hotel OVERSELLS their rooms like that? I didn't even know that was possible.

Isn’t it mad! We were so cross! They were fully booked across their hotels as we were prepared to pay more to stay at any of them but there was no room at the inn. It was made worse when the manager came down and revealed they allowed guests to extend their stay so they’d run out of rooms. My husband is a very calm, even-tempered guy but also determined and logical and he was outraged. He asked them to explain how they had our money for several months but decided to give the room to someone else and they just shrugged their shoulders and walked away! The angry man we’d encountered coming in was ranting while walking up and down the length of the lobby and tbh he didn’t seem that unreasonable anymore but my kids were a wee bit frightened by him so we just wanted them out of there. Needless to say we aren’t in any rush to go back. Can’t believe you booked direct and they thought it was ok to give you a room without a bed! Glad it worked out ok though. It’s hard to pass up the chance of the express pass and they’re pricey to buy in park so the room makes it worthwhile if you’re visiting with 4 of you.

I'm hoping our first experience coming up at Hard Rock Hotel in May will be good,

I have heard great things about Hard Rock Hotel through some trip reports read on here a couple of years back. I would honestly be happy to give it or Portofino a chance but, yeah, not sure anyone else in the family agrees with me. By the time we get to travel again we will be so happy just to be somewhere else a tent on the side of the road will seem like heaven!

 

[kittylady1972]

Yes - rental car rates are going crazy! Costco even put a notification on the top of their rental car page because it's so bad. Apparently there is some sort of covid-related supply of rental cars and it's not meeting the demand of all the people hoping to travel this summer.

I booked a while ago and it's almost double what I booked now for a summer reservation.

Yes...insane. According to what I've read, rental car companies sold off a lot of their inventory just to survive during COVID when people weren't travelling. Now people travelling want the rental cars...so demand is high...but the companies can't even replenish their inventory due to car companies not selling them cars at fleet rate discounts like before...because consumers are buying cars and doing a lot of travel on their own via car now also. So it's a crazy crazy time. Now that things are starting to pick back up the rental companies are struggling to keep up. I'm also glad I booked our May/June rental already but beyond May/June if we travel again...we'll likely have to drive as it will be cheaper. Or take the AutoTrain to Florida.

 

[kittylady1972]

Isn’t it mad! We were so cross! They were fully booked across their hotels as we were prepared to pay more to stay at any of them but there was no room at the inn. It was made worse when the manager came down and revealed they allowed guests to extend their stay so they’d run out of rooms. My husband is a very calm, even-tempered guy but also determined and logical and he was outraged. He asked them to explain how they had our money for several months but decided to give the room to someone else and they just shrugged their shoulders and walked away! The angry man we’d encountered coming in was ranting while walking up and down the length of the lobby and tbh he didn’t seem that unreasonable anymore but my kids were a wee bit frightened by him so we just wanted them out of there. Needless to say we aren’t in any rush to go back. Can’t believe you booked direct and they thought it was ok to give you a room without a bed! Glad it worked out ok though. It’s hard to pass up the chance of the express pass and they’re pricey to buy in park so the room makes it worthwhile if you’re visiting with 4 of you.

I have heard great things about Hard Rock Hotel through some trip reports read on here a couple of years back. I would honestly be happy to give it or Portofino a chance but, yeah, not sure anyone else in the family agrees with me. By the time we get to travel again we will be so happy just to be somewhere else a tent on the side of the road will seem like heaven!

Wow...that really is crazy. I don't blame you for leaving for sure. I have also heard good things at HRH and we've stayed at Portofino before and it was really lovely too. Ah I sure hope travel resumes at least by next summer. I am now starting to RE-plan out our big family Europe trip including a cruise for summer of 2022.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Yes...insane. According to what I've read, rental car companies sold off a lot of their inventory just to survive during COVID when people weren't travelling. Now people travelling want the rental cars...so demand is high...but the companies can't even replenish their inventory due to car companies not selling them cars at fleet rate discounts like before...because consumers are buying cars and doing a lot of travel on their own via car now also. So it's a crazy crazy time. Now that things are starting to pick back up the rental companies are struggling to keep up. I'm also glad I booked our May/June rental already but beyond May/June if we travel again...we'll likely have to drive as it will be cheaper. Or take the AutoTrain to Florida.

UGH. That's more information than I had on the subject and it's worse than I thought. I was hoping a batch of cars was on the way to Florida for MCO but just stuck in the Suez Canal.

The rate I have for my summer trip is not as low as I'd like - almost $600 - but it's far better than $1000+. This is for a compact! I'm still hoping I might be able to rebook at a lower rate once my trip gets closer, but I'm not expecting to be able to. Of course, this is the trip that is the last year I could use the Magical Express, but I have multiple off-site parks planned that I already have tickets for, so I actually need the car this time.

 

[kittylady1972]

New week...not too much new to report. I only can say how excited I am that at least for May/June I can get photos of the girls without MASKS at the parks. With this being a first trip for my daughter's BFF, it will be nice to have those memories. After this year, her BFF moves to Texas with her family, she will go to college there while my daughter attends WVU and stays based in our home in Maryland. I am hoping we can fly her out to visit or her friend back here to visit at least at some point.

Right now my daughter is slowly recovering from a very rough procedure on Monday to remove her wisdom teeth. It's been far from the easy experience, with calls to the doctor on Tuesday and a visit to see him when we couldn't keep the bleeding under control over 24 hours later. Tuesday night was also rough and I was sure I'd have to take her back again, but she managed to rally a bit and I felt better leaving her for a little while to head to work for a few hours. She maybe be 18 but she's still my little girl and I hate seeing her so miserable, and it's not even pain but the constant bleeding. She attempted in-person school today (they only go 2 days a week right now) so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime from home for a few days I'm sure I tweaked our ADRs for April and May/June a few times. Right now I'm focused on April which is now 18 days away.

PLANS:
Arrival morning of 4/26 (just me and DH)
Drive to Bay Lake Tower, check-in, then hop over to GF for lunch at GF Cafe
Head to Universal for a few hours
Return to hotel. Thinking of doing an evening eat and drink around the monorail resorts. Open to suggestions but I'm thinking since we are at Bay Lake *IF* we can make the early time we might try to hit up Cali Grill at 5pm and see if we can get a seat the bar there for some food/drinks. If not, then travel over to GF and find a place there for a drink and/or some food. After that we would have to go to TTC and walk over the the Poly and hope to have a Lapu Lapu and maybe even a Dole Whip there. Then back Bay Lake Tower for final drinks and/or food maybe at the Wave. This seems like a lot...so not sure how doable it will be for us. This is the only "Disney" stuff for this trip...since our park time will be at Universal only.
Tuesday we check out, plan to be at Universal the entire day, have early dinner at Toothsome there, then back to the airport for our flight home.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

New week...not too much new to report. I only can say how excited I am that at least for May/June I can get photos of the girls without MASKS at the parks. With this being a first trip for my daughter's BFF, it will be nice to have those memories. After this year, her BFF moves to Texas with her family, she will go to college there while my daughter attends WVU and stays based in our home in Maryland. I am hoping we can fly her out to visit or her friend back here to visit at least at some point.

It is exciting. Bummer the BFFs will be so far apart next year.

Right now my daughter is slowly recovering from a very rough procedure on Monday to remove her wisdom teeth. It's been far from the easy experience, with calls to the doctor on Tuesday and a visit to see him when we couldn't keep the bleeding under control over 24 hours later. Tuesday night was also rough and I was sure I'd have to take her back again, but she managed to rally a bit and I felt better leaving her for a little while to head to work for a few hours. She maybe be 18 but she's still my little girl and I hate seeing her so miserable, and it's not even pain but the constant bleeding. She attempted in-person school today (they only go 2 days a week right now) so we'll see how that goes.

Ouch! Hopefully she's doing okay at school today.

In the meantime from home for a few days I'm sure I tweaked our ADRs for April and May/June a few times. Right now I'm focused on April which is now 18 days away.

PLANS:
Arrival morning of 4/26 (just me and DH)
Drive to Bay Lake Tower, check-in, then hop over to GF for lunch at GF Cafe
Head to Universal for a few hours
Return to hotel. Thinking of doing an evening eat and drink around the monorail resorts. Open to suggestions but I'm thinking since we are at Bay Lake *IF* we can make the early time we might try to hit up Cali Grill at 5pm and see if we can get a seat the bar there for some food/drinks. If not, then travel over to GF and find a place there for a drink and/or some food. After that we would have to go to TTC and walk over the the Poly and hope to have a Lapu Lapu and maybe even a Dole Whip there. Then back Bay Lake Tower for final drinks and/or food maybe at the Wave. This seems like a lot...so not sure how doable it will be for us. This is the only "Disney" stuff for this trip...since our park time will be at Universal only.
Tuesday we check out, plan to be at Universal the entire day, have early dinner at Toothsome there, then back to the airport for our flight home.

Wow! Just a single night?! That's one of those benefits of being on the East Coast and having short flights.

For your monorail crawl, I'd probably go clockwise, since that's the way the resort monorail travels. Otherwise, if you do go BLT/CT and then GF, you could walk to Poly from the GF instead of riding the monorail almost all the way around to the TTC and walking from there.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Ach your poor daughter-hope she's doing ok today. Sad that her friend is moving away-hopefully theu can manage to meet up occasionally.
Plans sound good-I'm no help as I've never stayed on the monorail but I like the idea of eating and drinking at a few resorts

 

[kittylady1972]

It is exciting. Bummer the BFFs will be so far apart next year.
Ouch! Hopefully she's doing okay at school today.

Wow! Just a single night?! That's one of those benefits of being on the East Coast and having short flights.

For your monorail crawl, I'd probably go clockwise, since that's the way the resort monorail travels. Otherwise, if you do go BLT/CT and then GF, you could walk to Poly from the GF instead of riding the monorail almost all the way around to the TTC and walking from there.

Yes I'm sad for them, but I imagine she'll spend most of her summer with her boyfriend now anyway as soon as he's home from college and when he isn't doing military training.

It is nice to be able to hop on a pretty cheap just over 2 hour flight to Orlando. We have already done it as a day trip and I had considered that for this one also...but decided to extend to two days. We also live within 15 minutes from the airport. Super easy.

I've never walked to the Poly from GF so I'll have to look into that if the weather is decent.

Ach your poor daughter-hope she's doing ok today. Sad that her friend is moving away-hopefully theu can manage to meet up occasionally.
Plans sound good-I'm no help as I've never stayed on the monorail but I like the idea of eating and drinking at a few resorts

She is doing okay...but going back to the doctor today because she is still experiencing bleeding which doesn't seem normal now that she is 4 days out from surgery. I'm sure she and her BFF will find ways to get together as they have been so close over their last 8 years of school. I am hoping my monorail plans work out!

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day 5: Time for Class...and Naps!

Realized I'm a bit behind in finishing up this TR...so here is the final birthday trip installment. We woke up Saturday morning and finished packing up our stuff so we could head out. Here was my original plan:

Saturday: AK in the early morning. Leave by 1pm or so and head to Coronado Springs for Sangria University at 2:30pm...graduate from class. Then back to Animal Kingdom for a few hours. I have a Yak & Yeti reservation (have never eaten there) but not sure if we will be full from our experience to eat. Head to the airport around 6pm/6:30pm. I realized our flights are actually later than I thought, so realistically we can arrive at the airport closer to 7pm or 7:30pm.

So we figured we'd get some food at Animal Kingdom knowing they have a place there in the park with breakfast sandwiches but we munched on our remaining snacks before throwing out the rest of our food stash.

It was a beautiful day as we walked through the park around 8:30am. Since it was within the first hour of opening, we decided to buck our usual touring plan and instead of heading to Pandora for Flight of Passage...we decided to hit Expedition Everest first.



I mean who doesn't love this great view (except maybe @Jenny Sanders):


Next up I believe was Dinosaur:

Yes we pretty much walked onto this one:


Next was the Safari...and we couldn't believe the line STARTED at the Lion King theater but it moved very quickly and I think we were on the ride in about 20 minutes. We did have this family in front of us that couldn't get it together and the 3 small kids trailed behind the dad when the mom went off to put away the stroller...or finish a drink...can't recall. The kids we were sure were going to fall and hurt themselves as the one small one was trying to walk and jump off the rocks along the edge of the line trail. Of course we ended up in the row behind them on the ride and we already KNEW they would be the ones standing up on the ride a few times...and we were right. Enough about that...a few obligatory animal shots...man love my new cell phone camera:



Oh and the BABY RHINO!


Next we were hungry...so we searched for some food. We were getting close to lunch so DH got in line and got some food and we sat a bit while he had food...and coffee...or soda...some kind of caffeine:


Next we decided we would hop in line for Flight of Passage...but along the way I decided I also needed a snack:


This was my VERY FIRST Mickey Bar the entire vacation...on the very last day. That's crazy...I love these things.

So we got in the line for Flight of Passage which was long...but didn't seem so bad knowing it was socially distanced.

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day 5: Time for Class...and Naps!

We left off as we got in line for Flight of Passage. I think the estimated wait was somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour and that's about what we waited. It was still such a nice day that it went by quickly.




At this point we had done all we wanted to do and it was probably around 1pm. We were looking for someplace to eat and normally we would choose Satuli but we decided to look for something outside the park. We knew we wanted some food before our 2:30pm Sangria University class. I had read good things about Rix at Coronado Springs and since we needed to be there for the class that seemed like a good idea. So we headed there.

I will say Coronado Springs is one of the few resorts (maybe the only one) that we have yet to really even visit, though we have been to Gran Destino Tower for dinner. So I was so unfamiliar with where we should park and the person at the front gate was absolutely no help. I was sure we didn't need to be near Gran Destino but there we were parking there and then walked to find where we needed to be...and Rix. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be...and DH checked and Rix could seat us without an ADR...so we had a table. I didn't want anything too big...so we decided to share these:


OMG were they good! I added a salad to mine...but it was a HUGE salad...and DH got some wings which he liked. Service was wonderful here also. Soon enough we were done and though it was close to 2pm only we decided to seek out the location for our Sangria University class.

We found it:


This is the view looking back across the water...this restaurant is just lovely and centered in the middle of the water. So nice.

You can see it in the distance here.

They really didn't start seating us until after 2:30pm and it was done very well, everybody had their own table very much spaced apart and the class had two "instructors" each on in a different area of the restaurant.

They kept setting up our area:




We had these four glasses of Sangria to try at any time...and this lovely corn dip:


The corn dip was really good as you can tell. I'm glad we did have something more substantial to eat before this though.

For those interested who haven't been, they start out with these four glasses of Sangria and the instructor talks about the ingredients in each and we try them and we discuss them a bit and what we like and don't like but I couldn't tell you what we learned. We just enjoyed the atmosphere and the drinks. Once the first part is done and we've had a chance to record what we liked and don't like, we then choose our base and an alcohol and we get to mix up our own Sangria...that was fun.


I can't tell you what either of us made or what was in it but it was very good. We enjoyed it and then the final part was that they presented us all with certificates:


Class was soon finished...about an hour later. We were both now feeling pretty good. We made a stop at the restroom and the gift shop there at Coronado Springs...but we realized we were in no shape to drive to a park. I wasn't sure risking transportation would be a great idea. And did I mention...we were feeling a bit tired. So we walked around a bit and then ended up inside the lobby of Gran Destino...where the lobby was really buzzing. Yet we found some chairs...and both of us took a little nap.

I can't say for how long...but eventually we woke up and I thought...well how about we take a little visit to Disney Springs on our way out to the airport. We had about 90 minutes or so to kill so that's what we did.

Wow.

Disney Springs on a Saturday late afternoon...totally insane. The long line for temp check to get in went quickly at least. We did a full circuit around the area but I don't think we really stopped in anywhere...though maybe we did. Either way, soon we made our way back to our car and headed out to the airport. We would arrive in plenty of time of course...I feel like we do this a lot on our last day, always end up at the airport earlier than I would like to be. We let our kids know we'd be on our way soon since they would be picking us up at the airport around 10:30pm.

Flight was uneventful...always good. Nothing else really exciting except I need to remember how early the food at the MCO airport closes as I waited too long to find something to eat...and I had a hard time getting anything but a slice of pizza by the time I did find something. The lines were extra extra long close to that closing also. I need to remember this for next time for sure and we'll stop for food before we go I think.

That pretty much concludes our little adventure...just in time for us to start our next one though it will mostly be NON-Disney. Still considering leaving a little bit earlier than we had planned. I will need to make that decision soon.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Wow Dina you really packed a lot into that last day!
You AK photos are stunning! Love the baby rhino . Sorry you got stuck behind "that" family.
Yours is the 2nd review of Sangria University I've read (Jenny's was the 1st) and it sounds so good. Laughed when I saw you both had a wee nap afterwards. Sounds like the perfect idea
We always have a lot of time to spend at MCO and I have to say I hate that they have so little airside. Most other airports we travel through have a decent selection of restaurants/food outlets and a lounge or 2 that you can pre-book and pay for if you want a more chilled place to relax. MCO not so much Maybe by the time we actually get to travel there will be something other than Aussie Outback to sit down and have a table service meal. Fingers crossed anyway. Glad your flight home was uneventful - always the best kind of flight

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I mean who doesn't love this great view (except maybe @Jenny Sanders):

So true!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Looks like I've been remiss in updating our April plans...even though we've talked about it I wasn't sure we would go through with it. Now we mostly have a new plan...but honestly we are still debating if we leave even earlier. After all...why sit around here all weekend when you can sit around in Florida, amiright?

I managed to book a resort for Sunday night using up our remaining DVC points. I had limited options with my limited points so we ended up with a room at Boardwalk. Since we will likely just be backpacking it anyway, no worries about switching up resorts since Monday night we are still at Bay Lake Tower. I have waitlisted Sunday night there as well but won't hold my breath.

PLANS:
Sun 4/25: Arrival early morning (despite saying I wouldn't do any more early flights...we are this time...as of NOW...though we did discuss a Saturday evening arrival and staying at the Hyatt at MCO)
Drive to Boardwalk and check-in if the room is ready...if not directly to Universal Studios
Lunch right now is set for Toothsome
Spend a few hours at Universal, then return to Boardwalk
Dinner at Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs

Mon 4/26: Light breakfast then head to Universal again...lunch is at Cowfish
Return in the afternoon to relax and check-in to Bay Lake Tower
Dinner at The Wave (maybe) or do a circuit of food and drinks on the monorail resorts

Tues 4/27: Breakfast and pack up
Head to Universal for the remainder of the day or just hang out...see how we feel
Arrival at airport close to 4:30pm for flight home

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I like your plans. Not long to wait now!

 

[kittylady1972]

And so we shall be NOMADS...we've moved our flights and now we leave Saturday late afternoon. So no early morning flight for us now...yippee. We had to add a hotel night though, and since the rental car is so crazy now...I needed to find a cheap place. We debated if we wanted to be near Disney Springs or Universal...but I've chosen Universal. So we will spend one night there, check out, move to Boardwalk, check out, move to Bay Lake Tower. Nothing else has changed so far.