National Lampoon's Pandemic Vacation: CBBR December 2021!

It was nearing our time at Mythos, so we went to Kings Cross station to take the Hogwarts Express to IOA. This was the first time J and R had seen this station and rode the train in that direction.

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On the way in, I remembered the Pepper’s Ghost illusion where you pass through the brick wall at Platform 9 3/4's so I dropped back to shoot a little video of it. H and R approached it first but didn't realize what I was doing and turned to pose for a still photo. So in the video you hear me saying "Walk through! Walk through!" and then my hand comes up in the frame, swishing at them. (Hilarious and mortifying.) J also stops and I was swishing at her too but eventually I did get a little film of the illusion. Just google "Pepper's Ghost" for the very interesting history of this trick, that has been around since the 1800's!

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This time, we had to share a compartment, and I have to say that I much prefer having one to ourselves. Everyone loved the ride and we arrived at Mythos in time. Just a short wait for our table, and we asked for and got a lovely table on the veranda, well spaced from others. This was only my third restaurant meal in almost two years, and that was counting lunch at the Leaky Cauldron a couple days before!

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We shared a very nice Calamari for an appetizer, and for lunch I had Pad Thai, J had lamb meatballs with polenta, R had the Fork Knife and Spoon tomato soup and grilled cheese. All were good. The star of the show was H's octopus, which was huge even though it was billed as an appetizer. She said it was delicious!

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No one wanted a sweet, even though we were celebrating H's birthday. Just too full of lamb and noodles and tentacles!

Next up: A beautiful walk and wee wee weeing all the way home!
 
NOTE: THIS INSTALLMENT IS NOT FOR THE HIGHLY SENSITIVE!

I hit the bathroom after our lovely lunch, which was already odd because I'd taken a bathroom break when we arrived at Mythos and I hadn't drank much liquid at lunch. We began to exit the park. Right before we approached the walkway area, I noticed the sign for the Garden Path. It was much closer to Citiwalk proper than I expected! You miss all of the hustle and bustle of the walkway, hub and bus area. So we took it back.

On one hand it was beautiful:

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On the other hand, for some reason we no sooner entered the path than I had to go the bathroom AGAIN. I mean, intense discomfort bordering on pain. So it was hard to enjoy the bucolic nature of the path, but I'm reasonably assured that it was very nice. We got to the turnoff for the Royal Pacific Hotel, and H and R kept going while J helped me navigate towards the lobby and blissfully, its bathrooms.

We exited the lobby after, but not before catching some fun photos with Christmas tree bulbs:

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J's turned out much better!

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We got back on the path (we were about halfway to our resort) and wouldn't you know it, I immediately had to go again. Just an absolute emergency, but whaddya gonna do - we just foraged ahead to the end of the path, crossed the busy street, and we were at the far corner of the Cabana Bay property, close to our room. Why on Earth that happened, never before or since during the trip (or ever, really), it was so strange. And really ruined my Garden Path experience, though all four of us agreed that it was a great alternative to taking the bus. After dark I wouldn't go on it but it was really pretty and quiet.

J and I packed a little, checked our flight statuses, and checked in. We met the kids at the pool but didn’t swim, just lazed around a bit. Hit the food court to pick up dinner and ate in our room while getting ready for the parks PM. The last Harry Potter gifts included a "100% Magic" keychain, a magnet that showed kind of a Disney font that said "Hogwarts" and instead of Cinderella's Castle, it had the outline of the HP castle, a "Mischief Managed" patch, a Platform 9 ¾’s necklace and some rubbery unicorn throwies which we all started flinging all over the room! I also gave the girls some very cool HP stickers, in case they wanted to scrapbook their adventures after the trip. Though you know I saved the MOST fun stickers for myself!

Next up: Our final night! A special sporty birthday, and a special sparkling surprise!
 
I was tired that night, after a long travel day, and now four straight days and evenings of touring. Usually I prefer to have a week with a couple of down time days in there, but this was an action packed trip! I just wore some super comfy sweatpants and a sparkly shirt. Since it was our last evening, I gave out tons of gifts to kids on the bus.

One last view of the lit up Cabana Bay sign! (J's photo)

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The kids wanted to go to Diagon Alley at night, so we avoided the parade and got there. We brought wands and did spells, took photos and shopped. J and I got silly in Knockturn Alley when the others were somewhere else:

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I managed to get a pretty cool shot of the dragon, the moon and part of a holiday wreath:

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And I'm almost embarrassed to say how long I waited for this shot:

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Towards the end of the evening, I stopped and got a cookie at Sugarplums and asked her to wrap it for the plane and she put it in a fancy box! I was able to fit a Voodoo Doll donut home to my mom in it, and then cut up the logos for my trip scrapbook.

On the way out, something magical happened again. Every night it seemed like we were blessed with some special occurrence, and tonight as we left, the Cinematic Spectacular must have been happening, so the street we were traveling on had fireworks exploding right over our heads.

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These look to be going straight up, but they were also above our heads in an arc, and it was so beautiful and romantic!

Next up, the youngsters head out for a birthday celebration at NBC Sports Grill, and the oldsters head back to the room!
 
J and I took the bus back for our final ride to the hotel and H and R headed to Citiwalk. As always, even during busy times there was always one bus filling up and another pulling up behind. Since I was leaving in the morning, I made it rain Harry Potter gifts among the children near us, to the point where their parents were laughing and the kids were going wild.

Back to the comfort of our room:

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Time for left over Pad Thai (fun!) and packing (less fun.). While J and I were hanging out, packing and watching a Christmas movie, I kept getting texts from my daughter H. The reservation I had made for NBC Sports Bar for her birthday was a huge success! They were excited to be placed in the “Vikings” area with lots of other Minnesota fans to watch the game and they had prime seats that were the envy of all! Reportedly the wings and cheese curds were also beyond reproach.

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Not surprisingly, the 60 year olds were conked out when the 30 year olds got home.

Next up: An early travel day home, and some final thoughts on a wonderful, inexpensive trip!
 


I never finished my trip report because it's just too depressing to detail the last day, but here goes!

Friday 12/10

Three out of four of us had to leave around 5 AM to get to the airport, and I was the lucky one whose flight was later. I kind of got up to see them off! Then was able to leisurely get ready to leave at 8:15 for my 11:15 flight. I had James as my Superstar Shuttle driver and he was hilarious! It made an entertaining end to my week.

In Orlando, there was a terrifically long security line and a man zipped in front of me from the side about 1/3 of the way through the queue! Then he kept trying to squeeze ahead in the line, and trying to convince the TSA screeners to somehow let him avoid the second half of the line, etc. So that was some amusement during a boring line. Also they have gigantic virtual aquariums to look at, should the unruly behavior of others grow tiresome. At the end of security, I noted he was still waiting for a bin in another line!

Everything I need at an airport: A cookie from Sugarplums Sweet Shop, a bottle of Coke, and a book I'm reviewing for work!

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Got to O'Hare quickly and then it's a looooong walk to where the shuttle buses pick you up, but I made the next hourly shuttle so that was lucky. When I picked up my car, it was icy rain that somehow managed to run right down my back - welcome back to December in Illinois! Then more good news when the parking attendant charged me $20 for what I thought would be a $30 stay, so hooray! During the trip, I spent less money than I expected so I brought plenty of cash back. I paid for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, some Voodoo Donuts, lunch at Mythos, the Harry Potter onesie and HP acceptance letter ornament and that was about it. A couple of butterbeers and some food court meals.

The last fun thing that happened was that H and R went back to their state and decorated his Christmas tree with all their Harry Potter swag! This included all of the little ornaments, magnets, keychains, jewelry etc that they had gotten on the trip from me (the $3 stuff LOL) and the lovely wood acceptance letter ornament from Diagon Alley. For garland, they draped the Harry Potter scarves they got from J! I can't find a photo of it but it was beautiful.

For myself, I sent 344 photos to Walgreens for printing, and had to go back with another 40 later that week! I made a scrapbook of the trip which was fun and I enjoy looking at them in later years.

So, to sum up! A very inexpensive trip, both the cost of the hotel and park passes and the amount I spent in the parks and at Citiwalk. I always feel that Universal's prices are reasonable! Resort was fun, adored the Lazy River, ate some good food. We had beautiful weather, and more importantly, we managed the trip right before Omicron heated up. The luck of the draw.

You couldn't ask for better travel partners which I think this photo encapsulates:

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What were the downsides? We never got to get within a mile of Hagrids, which seemed out of service almost half of our trip. We missed The Mummy which was also down a couple of times, or swamped. I kind of wanted to see Bourne Stunt Spectacular which has great reviews, but we did see both the Grinch Show and the Hollywood Horror Makeup Show!

I've never seen the Frog Choir, and missed it again. Some day!

All in all, a fantastic trip and much needed after a couple of very stressful years.
 
Just binge read your report! Superbly written. Which must be what you do for a living!
 



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