pixeegrl
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2008
- Messages
- 1,768
Sorry, no exciting or quirky title but I will try and update daily!
Time for vacation!!! Myself, DH and DS1-17, DS2-14, and DS3-10. Last time we visited Universal was in 2008 and our youngest was not able to ride everything and he is a coaster fanatic. We promised him we wouldnt come back until he was tall enough to ride it all! Hes right at the 54 mark and our oldest is now a senior so its time to give it a go!
Saturday August 18th-Even though our flight isnt until 1pm we have a 2 hour drive to the airport as well as a stop to drop off our pup to stay with his best bud while we are away. We breeze through the airport in Norfolk, no problems. Catch our (full) plane and head to Orlando!
We land at MCO via Southwest. As we are leaving we see the security check point and WOW! Its definitely bigger than Norfolk and so are the lines! Now we normally get to the airport 2 hours before our flight and after seeing the lines here in Orlando
....you definitely want to be there early!
I check my email to find out where our Hertz rental is and head to its location. Now theres a note in my email that says Gold Choice is available and that we can drive something different at no extra cost but Im pretty sure they didnt mean the vette parked next to us. Besides, no one wanted to ride in the trunk
since there werent enough seats. We decided to stay offsite our first night because of our later arrival. When we first planned our trip we were going to drive but later we had enough points left to fly for only $300 more than the cost to drive 15 hours so it was a no brainer for us. However, when I decided to add a day on to our reservation there were no 6 night SMSM rates left so I was going to have to pay a $100 more for that first night at club. Um, no....so we booked a room at Holiday Inn Maingate on points. The drive was pretty quick and painless....except for the 4 tolls we had to pay! Crazy, wonder if theres a way to get here without stopping so many times?
The Holiday Inn Maingate really is right across the street! You can see the parking garage from our suite window. You can even see RRR all lit up at night. We had a 2 bed single room reserved with points but since hubby is Platinum they upgraded us to a 2 bedroom 4 bed suite for the night! Woot! The hotel is nice, maybe needs a little updating but the air sure works great in the room. BRRRR! I would never dream of staying offsite during peaktimes but if you are able to visit Universal during slow times and want to save money this is a great location in my opinion. After dropping off our stuff in the room we decide to head downstairs to the TGIFridays for some grub. Its 5:00 and we havent eaten since 8 that morning so we are all starting to get grumbly from starvation. The hotel will give you a voucher for kids 12 and under to eat free which its nice to at least have one person off our bill
The waitress we had was great! Very attentive but not too the point of being annoying.
Now this is the part where Im supposed to add food pics but we were all so starving I forgot. Sorry. The food was great....everything but DHs burger. He did say though that the fries and cheese dip were good and the salted caramel cake with ice cream was amazing. He must have meant it because my DH does not rave about restaurant food EVER! Trust me but apparently this cake was the greatest thing ever lol. DS1 got some kind of club sandwich which he inhaled because by the time I asked him how his sandwich was.....it was gone! DS2 got his usual-chicken fingers. DS3 got his free kids meal of spaghetti and a salad. The salad was good but the spaghetti was rather blah. He wound up sharing mine which was fine because I had plenty. I picked Grilled Chicken and Cheese which was garlic and herb marinated chicken breast over sauteed onions and melted cheese with mashed potatoes. There was plenty and the chicken breast was so tender I could cut it with my fork.
We had thrown around the idea of going over to the parks and guest services since I needed to pick up our 7 day tickets still (bought in 2009 for only $99 just before they quit selling them) but we were all too full and tired so we headed back up to the room. DS2 and DS3 decided to hit the pool so I took them downstairs for a while. The pool is pretty nice and its deep end is 8ft...which they loved! I think we were down there for about 30 minutes. I called my friend who we are meeting up with this week to see what they were up to. They had gone straight to IOA when they arrived in Orlando this morning. They LOVED it but said WWoHP was crowded and the other wait times around the park were about an hour. They are not staying onsite since there are 6 of them. I believe they are staying at a Marriott resort near Sea World. We made plans to meet up tomorrow (which is today now since I am typing this up Sunday morning).
We headed back to the room and just sat around watching tv for awhile before we all decided to hit the hay. Now its Sunday and nearly 8am so I need to pack up what little stuff we got out and get ready to grab some breakfast and head to HRH to drop off the rental and check in. Cant wait!!!!! I will try and report back daily but no promises! Thank you if youve made it this far with me.
Time for vacation!!! Myself, DH and DS1-17, DS2-14, and DS3-10. Last time we visited Universal was in 2008 and our youngest was not able to ride everything and he is a coaster fanatic. We promised him we wouldnt come back until he was tall enough to ride it all! Hes right at the 54 mark and our oldest is now a senior so its time to give it a go!
Saturday August 18th-Even though our flight isnt until 1pm we have a 2 hour drive to the airport as well as a stop to drop off our pup to stay with his best bud while we are away. We breeze through the airport in Norfolk, no problems. Catch our (full) plane and head to Orlando!
We land at MCO via Southwest. As we are leaving we see the security check point and WOW! Its definitely bigger than Norfolk and so are the lines! Now we normally get to the airport 2 hours before our flight and after seeing the lines here in Orlando
....you definitely want to be there early!I check my email to find out where our Hertz rental is and head to its location. Now theres a note in my email that says Gold Choice is available and that we can drive something different at no extra cost but Im pretty sure they didnt mean the vette parked next to us. Besides, no one wanted to ride in the trunk
since there werent enough seats. We decided to stay offsite our first night because of our later arrival. When we first planned our trip we were going to drive but later we had enough points left to fly for only $300 more than the cost to drive 15 hours so it was a no brainer for us. However, when I decided to add a day on to our reservation there were no 6 night SMSM rates left so I was going to have to pay a $100 more for that first night at club. Um, no....so we booked a room at Holiday Inn Maingate on points. The drive was pretty quick and painless....except for the 4 tolls we had to pay! Crazy, wonder if theres a way to get here without stopping so many times? The Holiday Inn Maingate really is right across the street! You can see the parking garage from our suite window. You can even see RRR all lit up at night. We had a 2 bed single room reserved with points but since hubby is Platinum they upgraded us to a 2 bedroom 4 bed suite for the night! Woot! The hotel is nice, maybe needs a little updating but the air sure works great in the room. BRRRR! I would never dream of staying offsite during peaktimes but if you are able to visit Universal during slow times and want to save money this is a great location in my opinion. After dropping off our stuff in the room we decide to head downstairs to the TGIFridays for some grub. Its 5:00 and we havent eaten since 8 that morning so we are all starting to get grumbly from starvation. The hotel will give you a voucher for kids 12 and under to eat free which its nice to at least have one person off our bill
The waitress we had was great! Very attentive but not too the point of being annoying. Now this is the part where Im supposed to add food pics but we were all so starving I forgot. Sorry. The food was great....everything but DHs burger. He did say though that the fries and cheese dip were good and the salted caramel cake with ice cream was amazing. He must have meant it because my DH does not rave about restaurant food EVER! Trust me but apparently this cake was the greatest thing ever lol. DS1 got some kind of club sandwich which he inhaled because by the time I asked him how his sandwich was.....it was gone! DS2 got his usual-chicken fingers. DS3 got his free kids meal of spaghetti and a salad. The salad was good but the spaghetti was rather blah. He wound up sharing mine which was fine because I had plenty. I picked Grilled Chicken and Cheese which was garlic and herb marinated chicken breast over sauteed onions and melted cheese with mashed potatoes. There was plenty and the chicken breast was so tender I could cut it with my fork.
We had thrown around the idea of going over to the parks and guest services since I needed to pick up our 7 day tickets still (bought in 2009 for only $99 just before they quit selling them) but we were all too full and tired so we headed back up to the room. DS2 and DS3 decided to hit the pool so I took them downstairs for a while. The pool is pretty nice and its deep end is 8ft...which they loved! I think we were down there for about 30 minutes. I called my friend who we are meeting up with this week to see what they were up to. They had gone straight to IOA when they arrived in Orlando this morning. They LOVED it but said WWoHP was crowded and the other wait times around the park were about an hour. They are not staying onsite since there are 6 of them. I believe they are staying at a Marriott resort near Sea World. We made plans to meet up tomorrow (which is today now since I am typing this up Sunday morning).
We headed back to the room and just sat around watching tv for awhile before we all decided to hit the hay. Now its Sunday and nearly 8am so I need to pack up what little stuff we got out and get ready to grab some breakfast and head to HRH to drop off the rental and check in. Cant wait!!!!! I will try and report back daily but no promises! Thank you if youve made it this far with me.
but I did let them know we would be willing to move tomorrow if one comes up. Got our keys-keyed and headed upstairs with the luggage.....heres where I get a little annoyed. We get up there and none of our keys worked. UGH!!! The lady forgot to key in our room. A nice guy let DH and the boys into the lounge to wait while I went back downstairs to sort it out. Of course now there is a REALLY long line at the check in counter. Everything gets straight and I head BACK upstairs. We get in the room and its nice but I think the extra square footage that makes it bigger than our room at the RPR is the bathroom area. I would have prefered more living space. 
