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

[kittylady1972]

And found the photo from Feb 1997...DH's first trip to WDW and this is how he got to see the MK castle:

 

[kittylady1972]

Well here we are...just a day away from travel day! I actually PACKED this weekend...which is pretty amazing considering I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world. However it felt good to have it done and since DH and I are sharing one carry-on suitcase I did my best to keep things light. I'm sure I still have too much...but whatever. DH finished his packing last night. I just have toiletries and electronics to throw in tomorrow and I'll be good to go.

Changes...what have I done over the last few days? Well I finally gave up on Topolino's so hopefully some lucky family will get that reservation. It simply didn't fit into my schedule and despite trying to find alternative days/times I had zero luck.

I did find another ADR for Yak and Yeti...but now I have several ADRs in one day so I know I need to drop something there as well. We will just have to play it by ear.

I haven't dropped Cali Grill on Wednesday but I'm still wavering on it. I packed a few non t-shirts just in case we choose to keep it. We'll just see how things go. Maybe we'll just be spontaneous (WHAT?) that day and see if we can get ourselves on a walk-up waitlist whenever we are hungry. I then saw that a few sit-down restaurants are doing carry-out and that sounds cool also.

And in other news I ended up upgrading our Spirit seats to the big big front seats. For $34 total it was a no-brainer and with us flying in so late Tuesday evening it will be nice to hit the ground and get out quickly.

Since our first hotel is near Universal and our first day is all about Universal parks I thought I'd do a quick look into Express Passes. Um...nope. I don't see me spending over $200 EACH for those. It's not like we haven't done stuff here before and our passes will be good until the end of the year...so I'm just going to have us do what we can while there, maybe enjoy the Mardi Gras atmosphere there, and just hit a few things. First and foremost I want DH to experience Hagrids so that is A#1 on my list since I've done it already...twice...but nobody else in my family has yet. Beyond that my other "must" dos will be Gringotts (but not the other Harry Potter ride because I don't do well on that one), Rip Ride Rocket, The Hulk, Men in Black, E.T., Spiderman and then maybe Simpsons and Jimmy Fallon...as I can just tolerate those last two. I do horrible with simulator rides...I will avoid Minions at all costs because that one in particular really messes me up. Other goals will be to ride the train between the two HP worlds and have butter beer. That's all easy to do in a day for sure. Thursday through Saturday will be Disney park days unless we don't get onto Hagrids...then we may try to make a trip back there JUST for that ride if possible.

Well that's about it from here but I do plan to do some live updates here while we are there, maybe with photos or videos.

 

[angryduck71]

Well here we are...just a day away from travel day! I actually PACKED this weekend...which is pretty amazing considering I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world. However it felt good to have it done and since DH and I are sharing one carry-on suitcase I did my best to keep things light. I'm sure I still have too much...but whatever. DH finished his packing last night. I just have toiletries and electronics to throw in tomorrow and I'll be good to go.

Changes...what have I done over the last few days? Well I finally gave up on Topolino's so hopefully some lucky family will get that reservation. It simply didn't fit into my schedule and despite trying to find alternative days/times I had zero luck.

I did find another ADR for Yak and Yeti...but now I have several ADRs in one day so I know I need to drop something there as well. We will just have to play it by ear.

I haven't dropped Cali Grill on Wednesday but I'm still wavering on it. I packed a few non t-shirts just in case we choose to keep it. We'll just see how things go. Maybe we'll just be spontaneous (WHAT?) that day and see if we can get ourselves on a walk-up waitlist whenever we are hungry. I then saw that a few sit-down restaurants are doing carry-out and that sounds cool also.

And in other news I ended up upgrading our Spirit seats to the big big front seats. For $34 total it was a no-brainer and with us flying in so late Tuesday evening it will be nice to hit the ground and get out quickly.

Since our first hotel is near Universal and our first day is all about Universal parks I thought I'd do a quick look into Express Passes. Um...nope. I don't see me spending over $200 EACH for those. It's not like we haven't done stuff here before and our passes will be good until the end of the year...so I'm just going to have us do what we can while there, maybe enjoy the Mardi Gras atmosphere there, and just hit a few things. First and foremost I want DH to experience Hagrids so that is A#1 on my list since I've done it already...twice...but nobody else in my family has yet. Beyond that my other "must" dos will be Gringotts (but not the other Harry Potter ride because I don't do well on that one), Rip Ride Rocket, The Hulk, Men in Black, E.T., Spiderman and then maybe Simpsons and Jimmy Fallon...as I can just tolerate those last two. I do horrible with simulator rides...I will avoid Minions at all costs because that one in particular really messes me up. Other goals will be to ride the train between the two HP worlds and have butter beer. That's all easy to do in a day for sure. Thursday through Saturday will be Disney park days unless we don't get onto Hagrids...then we may try to make a trip back there JUST for that ride if possible.

Well that's about it from here but I do plan to do some live updates here while we are there, maybe with photos or videos.

I’m telling you the motion sickness patches I get prescribed let’s me do all the rides with no problem! You should try next time!
Have a GREAT time!!!! <3

 

[kittylady1972]

I’m telling you the motion sickness patches I get prescribed let’s me do all the rides with no problem! You should try next time!
Have a GREAT time!!!! <3

You are funny...but no it isn't THAT important for me to ride those rides. I've done them all before so I'm good. And thanks!

 

[kittylady1972]

Officially my birthday is now behind me, had a fabulous day celebrating with my family yesterday. Man I thought having young kids was crazy and chaotic at times...the older ones can always really crack me up sometimes. Having older ones driving...even more chaos. Still can't complain at all about my being now well within a year of 50. I plan to celebrate my milestone birthday this time next year in Disney at the same time MK will be celebrating as I'm only a few months behind.

Trying to make plans to meet up with a friend who lives in Florida who I try to see when I'm there but it rarely works out as she's always pretty busy. We shall see.

I cancelled a few ADRs this morning because I have found I can easily book some of them using another restaurant booking website and there seems to be good availability. I've now moved Wine Bar George up to tomorrow evening as a backup if we decide not to do Cali Grill.

I didn't realize all of the Universal restaurants were so hard to book and were already booked for our timeframe so we may have to miss out on Toothsome which is okay. I've booked Mythos for lunch tomorrow just in case we need something though. We'll see how we feel about that.

I've checked in for our flights, printed our boarding passes, and am mostly packed as I have a few things thrown on top of my carry on that need to make it inside somehow. In a few hours I'm taking my DD18 to an appointment where we'll consult about having her wisdom teeth out as they are really bothering her, so we will likely have that to look forward to later this month. I'm going to take her to lunch afterwards, then stop by and buy my Universal tickets/vouchers, then head home and spend a little more time with the family. My daughter will drop us off around 7:30pm at the airport for our flights and hopefully we'll be in our first hotel in Florida just before midnight. \

More to come for sure!

 

[kittylady1972]

Apologies for taking so long to give a report. I'm currently somewhere in the caves of Rise of the Resistance while the ride appears to be having issues. We snagged BG 97 or should say *I* did after DH tried for the 7am one and failed since I was literally driving through the gate at Yacht Club at the time on our way to a 7:10am breakfast at Ale and Compass.

So far the only big snafu was with the rental car and something I'll have to remedy in the future. That set our first night even later than planned putting us at our hotel closer to midnight than planned. But at least there were warm cookies.

We did very little at Universal but did ride Hagrids which was the goal. I somehow lucked upon snagging a virtual pass for that early. Othet than that we only did a few rides and enjoyed some of the Mardi Gras food booths before leaving around 2pm.

Today has been back and forth at HS and I'm just glad we arrived at the end of our RoTR boarding time or we probably would be the ones stuck on it. As of noe we have waited about 40 minutes and they are still announcing the delay. At least we have a bench to sit on in this cave. Glad I have on pants and had my jacket too.

We have a reservation at Ogas in about 2 hours so we should be okay for that. O was hoping to get some food before that as the food there is not much. Guess we will have to eat afterwards but where remains to be seen.

Weather here is absolutely fabulous and we did get some time at the pool today. Hoping to get more time there tomorrow.



Not savy enough to flip this cell phone photo so consider it artistic

Maybe more to come later.

 

[kittylady1972]

Snug and cozy and watching Something About Mary after our day at HS and a marathon hour at MK. Our RotR ride was quite strange and clearly had a lot of issues from the time we even started. We did make Ogas and then MFSR. This was the longest time I've spent in Galaxys Edge for sure. Then I had the plan to take a bus over to MK instead of waiting in line for the Skyliner so we had one hour at MK and did 3 rides. Our transportation adventures today were quite extensive and we did very little in the way of rides. Maybe tomorrow we will get more done. Plans are MK and then we will see what else.

 

[DLo]

Not a bad start. Hope the rest is magical.

 

[kittylady1972]

Last full day for us included 2.5 hours at MK, some pool time, some EPCOT time and some HS time. Bonus was snagging a very last minute Beaches and Cream reservation.


Lines were crazy early and not as bad later. Well almost as we did Mickey and Minnie's Railroad with about a 15 or 20 minute wait but Tower was over an hour at 7pm on an 8pm closing night.

I'm thinking of altering our plans tomorrow a bit. We will see.

We are packed and ready for our last day.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

The Ticket Conundrum Update

So for the record, total time on my call this morning to Disney Tech Support beginning around 8am was 55 minutes. Here's the scoop for those who don't know already. When you have more than one valid park ticket linked in MDE to yourself...there is a pre-assigned priority on those tickets...but you can't see that. Deactivating/Activating them in the MagicBands and Tickets area does no good. So basically when I bought 1-day hoppers last March, but didn't take that trip, then bought multiple 3-day and 4-day tickets for trips after that, despite deactivating the hoppers...they still got used for myself and DH during our 3-day trip in August and of course we couldn't hop anyway. Bottom line is that they ended up issuing us comp 1-day hoppers that are good for March...and if we decide to visit the parks for additional days and use non-hopper tickets we would have to visit a cast member desk before entering the park to make sure the tickets are prioritized correctly. It does make visiting the parks a little extra challenging in terms of planning...and I'd feel like we would have to hop first or last but not in the middle of doing a single park day.

Anyway all is good for now and I guess I'll pick a day we want to hop for now...make at least an initial park reservation with our one ticket...and see what happens when we go in March. This just might make us mostly do Universal parks instead which we did plan to do as well.

That's really frustrating. I'm glad it worked out for you in the end.

I was at Disney in August 2020 and I had a 1-day ticket, a 2-day ticket, and an AP voucher sitting in my account. Each morning at park entry, I'd ask them to verify which admission was used. Fortunately, they were used the way I wanted them to be, so I didn't have to get anything corrected. It did add a little bit of time at park entry, but it made me feel better. Also, it didn't hold up the entrance line; I had to go to the guest service line or one of the cast members that stand around with the iPads. They apparently have the ability to see more information than the entrance cast member sees on their screen.

View attachment 560352

When the package arrived, DH opened it thinking I had ordered one for him also even though he said he didn't want one. He seemed disappointed. So I got him an olive green one for fun. This one I just had to have since I was at the Magic Kingdom during the 25th birthday with the castle was this big birthday cake. That was also DH's first trip...so that means we are celebrating almost 25 years since his first trip (we were there I think in 1997...I'll have to check and try to find photos of us with that castle).

I've considered getting this Magic Band for the same reason as you - I was there in 1996 when the castle was decorated that way.

It looks like you're having a nice time on your trip, despite some transportation issues. The weather looks stunning.

 

[kittylady1972]

That's really frustrating. I'm glad it worked out for you in the end.

I was at Disney in August 2020 and I had a 1-day ticket, a 2-day ticket, and an AP voucher sitting in my account. Each morning at park entry, I'd ask them to verify which admission was used. Fortunately, they were used the way I wanted them to be, so I didn't have to get anything corrected. It did add a little bit of time at park entry, but it made me feel better. Also, it didn't hold up the entrance line; I had to go to the guest service line or one of the cast members that stand around with the iPads. They apparently have the ability to see more information than the entrance cast member sees on their screen.

I've considered getting this Magic Band for the same reason as you - I was there in 1996 when the castle was decorated that way.

It looks like you're having a nice time on your trip, despite some transportation issues. The weather looks stunning.

Yes the ticket thing worked out and now I know better. Deactivating them on your own in MDE does nothing. Why have that there?

The weather was absolutely PERFECT. Could not ask for better and no rain!

On the plane about to head home and weather next week show snow there. Ugh.

 

[kittylady1972]

Back home now as we landed around 1045pm and our daughter picked us up at the airport. It is so nice to be on the plane and text we have arrived and not longer after walking out of the terminal we have our ride.

Getting off the plane and feeling that cold air put me right into Grumpy mode. I detest cold. We will still have some freezing temperatures this week but today is supposed to get to 60 so I am playing tennis outdoors in an hour.

So our last day was nice but we didn't do much. It was nice to see Coronado Springs Resort for the first time. I think DH might consider staying there in the future. Our Sangria class was lovely but glad we ate before it (Watchos at Rix rocked) because we had to nap afterwards as I didn't feel driving was a great idea right after. Note the chairs in Grand Destino are perfectly good napping spots and the lobby there was the busiest Disney Resort Lobby I have seen in at least a year.

We had the bEST weather while there. No rain. So awesome.

We didn't do a ton of rides but thats okay since I'm just happy to be there. Yesterday we probably did the most and our plan for AK worked out perfectly. We ventured into to total madness that was Disney Springs before the airport. Wow.

I'm back in just over 2 months and I'll definitely have somewhat of a plan for us then so that our first time WDW visitor can experience as much as possible. 3 days was tough to do all of that but I think we can hit the major attractions in that time with a good plan.

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day One

So we will start with our travel day which didn't got as planned completely. We arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare after our daughter dropped us off. It's so nice to live 15 minutes from the airport. Our gate was full even if the rest of the airport was not though there was no announcement about it like airlines usually do.

I had paid for only one "real" carry-on bag and then our 2 free "personal" items with our airline...so I'm sure you will all know who that is but when we you flights as cheap as we do...you make it work. Since I had the carry-on bag attached to my ticket but DH and I packed the carry-on with both our stuff, that meant I got to board with the first group and DH would have to wait. So as I rolled up with my backpack (his) on my back and the carry-on (ours) and he took my "personal" item which is a small roll-on designed to go under the seat, my printed ticket of course didn't work. Now this airline does charge normally to print a boarding pass, but not when I have a printed one, so I stepped aside and they reprinted mine and DHs ticket just in case...but of course his ended up working. We got back in line together with his boarding group and all went well from there. I had paid for the "BIG" seat upgrade for us for this flight and WOW was it nice. I feel like I'd like to do that every time. It only cost me an additional $17 each from our original seats that I had selected which were Emergency Exit row seats. We were all set:


Flight was uneventful and we arrived and were off the plane quickly. We made it over to the rental car area, and I had chosen Alamo since I'm an Alamo Insider (their frequent renter program) and I was sure I had done the print ticket ahead of time option...but I figured I'd pull up the "ticket" virtually on my phone. Usually you just go directly to the spot they assign you and roll out. Oh and I had done their "we pick" option which means I qualify for a "free" upgrade to a different class at compact or above. So I was struggling to get the ahead of time ticket to show up on my phone or get the reservation to come up via my email link and phone. I had booked through BJs Warehouse but provided my Alamo information and apparently that was causing issues. The Alamo garage personnel advised me to go back inside the terminal to get it resolved. BIG SIGH because I knew there would be more people inside there. Thankfully I was able to use the kiosk inside to print a ticket which is when it displayed something about my booking not qualifying for Alamo Insider points because of how it was booked...fine. Ticket in hand we finally headed back to the rental car garage...but this was a good 20 minute delay or more as I tried to get the reservation to work on my phone before being told to go inside.

The kind Alamo gentleman directed us to the "free" upgrade of the night...where we had our choice of any MINIVAN we wanted. Just for the two of us. Fun! We would be ROLLING in style! Be jealous people:


Now it's been many years since I've been a minivan owner...but I drive our large SUV often enough so it was all good.

Soon we were on our way to the Doubletree Hotel near Universal for the night. I had already pre-selected our room (on the 2nd highest floor) and chosen the digital key option...but since we were parking a vehicle it did require us to go to the front desk anyway and get a key. We did that where they gave us our complimentary bottles of water and my favorite thing about Doubletree...these:


These are simply the BEST cookies...and better once you've had a rough time with your rental car at the airport. Delicious cookies and free water consumed we hit the sheets for the night.

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day 2: Universal Fun

So we woke up somewhat early because SOMEBODY had it in her head the the parks opened at 8am. I'm not sure when we awoke, but we got up and showered and decided we'd find some food once we arrived at Universal...oh and we were WALKING there. So since I was already paying to park the rental car the the hotel...why pay for parking at Universal also. It's actually a nice walk...especially on day one...though it would really be nice if they somehow opened up this pedestrian bridge across the highway which was in the same condition back when we last stayed here in March of 2020.



So there is a crosswalk here and that's our hotel in the distance. Once you cross this street, where I am standing to take this photo, you are pretty much on Universal property and right next to the parking garage.

We arrived at Universal and our first order of business was to pick up our park passes which we had to do at Customer Service...but the window wasn't open yet. It was probably around 7:30am and we were told the windows would open about 20 minutes before the parks...and as we stood outside of Universal Studios we realized we had some time...so we went to get some breakfast at what was one of the few things open:


We wanted back to Universal Studios entrance where we learned from the nice Universal employee that the park didn't open until 9am. Yep...it wasn't even 8am yet.

So we enjoyed our food near the entrance and then sat and waited. Eventually a line formed near the ticket windows where we would need to be and another line formed within the customer service ticket gates where I have picked up our passes in the past. That line was to space out the people lining up to enter the park though.

Our line moved slowly but we had no reason to hurry. The Universal employee who gave us our tickets was nice and he loved to talk and tell us many stories...which is when we realized why the line was moving so slow. There were only 2 or 3 windows open...and he was taking his time. No worries though, soon enough we were entering the gates...and where would we be headed but Hagrids. We enjoyed looking at the Mardi Gras floats and as we walked by Mummy we thought...might as well do that. We hopped on that with zero wait...and then moved on. It wasn't long before we realized...wrong park! We knew where Hagrids was located...and it wasn't here. No worries...we hopped on the train over to the other park!


NO wait there and soon we arrived over at the other side...where it was crazy of course. When I had first checked Hagrids showed a 70 minute wait I think, but at some point I glanced at my phone...it may have been before the train..and I saw Hagrids showing a virtual queue so I picked a time (there were two options) and it was 9:40am return. Perfect.

The queue had us lining up outside of the Harry Potter area but it moved quickly and soon we were inside the line for Hagrids. It moved pretty steadily for the most part...and I think overall we waited about 30 minutes. DH enjoyed it as I thought he would and mission accomplished our next stop was for this:


We enjoyed our frozen refreshments as we debated what to do next. I think we wandered around the rest of the park but the lines were looking pretty long at most of the rides. Spiderman and the Hulk looked a bit insane. We did stop for this though:


Priorities...a photo must be taken with a cat character of ANY kind always!

Seriously wasn't feeling any of the long lines, but I did want to at least do Men in Black so we decided to hop BACK on the train. This had quite the line for our return journey but it moved pretty steadily. I think it took us 30 minutes before we were on the train back...and headed to one of my favorite rides



This showed some kind of wait...I can't recall but it was pretty much a walk-on. We did okay but we didn't get the suit.

We were then getting hungry and and I had already decided some of the Mardi Gras food booths sounded good...so we hit a few of those.



We ended up getting the seafood paella which was very good and a nice sized portion. DH got a charcuterie plate of some kind and we shared it. Really good. We wandered a little more searching for food booths since the app didn't give locations of the different booths so we would have to stop and just see which ones were around as they were spread out throughout the park.




The other thing I wanted to try was also a seafood dish...and I found it eventually as well.

We were quite sad to learn that Rip Ride Rocket wasn't operating this day as that would have been another must do ride.

It was just around 1:30pm and we decided we were really done, and since our Disney Resort room was ready we would be okay going back there and chilling for a bit. So we walked back to the Doubletree, grabbed our minivan, made a quick stop at the nearby Walgreen's for some bottles of water and some snacks, and headed to our Disney Resort. Up next: Riviera Resort and first night's dinner

 

[MrsSLF]

Loving your trip report, especially from another Marylander. Speaking of, I loved your masks on the plane---can you share where you got them?

 

[kittylady1972]

Loving your trip report, especially from another Marylander. Speaking of, I loved your masks on the plane---can you share where you got them?

Thanks for reading and commenting. The masks are from a local company called Route One Apparel. They sell in a lot of local establishments as well but you can order directly online and they are a great company and they are great masks.

 

[MrsSLF]

Thanks for reading and commenting. The masks are from a local company called Route One Apparel. They sell in a lot of local establishments as well but you can order directly online and they are a great company and they are great masks.

Ah, ok! I think I've seen their ads on Facebook. I'll check out their website. Thank you!

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day 2: Universal Fun

So we arrived at Riviera Resort and guessed correctly on which side to park. I had requested a room close to the Skyliner...well they definitely delivered on that one. When you stepped outside of our little first floor patio room (which was on a corner mostly facing the parking lot) this was pretty much the view...the Skyliner station:



We spent a little bit of time getting ourselves unpacked before eventually hopping a bus over to Disney Springs for our reservation at Wine Bar George. This would be our first real visit there (I've ordered a drink to go from there before, that's it) and I would say we will be back. We were a bit earlier than our original reservation but they still seated us.

Now it would have been nice to have a table upstairs, but instead we were at a high top near the bar...but that's okay. We started off with drinks...I'm not even sure what they were but they were good:


Our food order initially was the warm spiced olives and the sagnaki...LOVE me some flaming cheese. Wish I had taken photos of the cheese on fire...but so good!


DH got the octopus salad...no thank you.


I got the Frisee Salad:


It was nice and refreshing. I held off ordering another drink since I wanted to have a "dessert" drink at the end. DH got some really expensive tequila:


He proclaimed it the best and smoothest tequila ever...and when we got home he visited a local liquor store to buy a bottle...which was not cheap either.

I selected a frozen dessert drink of some kind:


This was good but as I was drinking it our server cleared our plates and brought out two new forks. We hadn't ordered any other food. Of course I had told them I was celebrating my birthday though. Soon this little piece of key lime dessert arrived:


It was the perfect ending and was delicious!

Settled our bill and headed out. Really wanted to try out Gideons but the line was pretty long and it was closing soon. Instead we wandered over to Amorette's and selected 2 desserts to bring back to our room.

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Birthday to Me Day 2: Universal Fun

So our two desserts from Amorette's are shown below. We would have one later that evening and then we would fall asleep soon afterwards. The other dessert was consumed a day or two later. Both were good but not the best ever. I am not fond of fondant that's for sure.

 

[kittylady1972]

GIRLS GRADUATION TRIP UPDATE

So over the weekend I noticed our June SWA return flights dropped a bit in price/points. Since I have two tickets booked on points and one paid for with cash, I went ahead and rebooked them...getting about 2K back in points and some cash back as well. Nice.

I'm really hoping our rental car will come down in price as that's still a bit more than I'd like to pay.

And finally I have decided with so little time at Universal it would be nice to get Express Passes at least for one day...but they have already increased at least $50 more in price each from the last time I had checked. At this point, it would be cheaper to just book a Universal hotel for a night...and so that's what I have done. I'm not sure we'll really stay there overnight, though it would be convenient. Either way it gives us Express Passes for our arrival day and the next day, which will be worth it for sure.

My good friend also emailed and texted me tonight...she has purchased her RT airfare for the trip on Spirit..about $90 total RT. Not bad at all.

So that's where we are with May/June and now I'm thinking I just may need to start thinking about a few fun ADRs for us while we are there.