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Brilliant!
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2003
- Messages
- 80
Will I miss the opportunity to leave a cold Iowa winter for a week in Florida!
What an awesome time we had.
I am going to do a "trip report" for the first part of our stay. Will do the rest later.
We were in Florida February 13-18
This trip is as much for me as my family and friends since I am mostly copying and pasting this to an email.
30 something parents with boys ages 8 and 6.
We flew out of Chicago on USA3000 on Sunday. Flight was later in the evening and of course the usual O hare delay of 45 minutes.
We arrived in St Petersburg Florida at around 8:30 P.M. Great flight on USA3000 would definitely do it again. Had a great deal on our tickets worked out to about $115 per person round trip.
This airport proved to be a great place to fly into since it is very small and only about an hour and 30 minute drive from Orlando.
Spent about an hour in line to get our rental car. Had reserved a van, however, none were available. Kind of like the Seinfeld episode with the rental car. Had to splain to them what a reservation was
Worked out very well anyway got a Buick Rendezvous at a good rate. Plenty of room for us and a nice vehicle. Reason our rental was gone and they were out of almost every car was I forgot it is Git R DOne NASCAR racin week at Daytona.
Made our way out of the airport and found our destination in Orlando (Embassy Vacation Resort. We had two nights here we got Comp for test driving a car back in the summer. They tried to get us into one of their time share scams but we did not even go.
This is however a great place to stay convenient to all the attractions. We had a very nice and spacious 3 bedroom 3 full bath room including a hot tub.
Full kitchen screened patio etc... etc. Not sure what kind of rate you can usually get from them but it would be well worth it just for the space alone and to save a few bucks on eating.
We pretty much got settled in our room and hit the beds.
Day 2 Monday:
Sea World: Had a great time here. Took in all the shows. I had not been to Sea world in about 20 years and it is still a very fun and beautiful park.
Just enjoyed strolling around and the beautiful weather. Our whole stay we had zero rain and temps were 52-57 for lows and 73-81 for highs. I did indeed check the paper EVERY day and look at what the temps were back home
After a long day at Sea World we headed back to the "Embassy" and went swimming and for a canoe ride at the on site lake. Ordered pizza, watched some tv and called it a night.
Day 3 Tuesday: This is the day we all have been waiting for, slept in, checked out and headed over to the Royal Pacific resort for our 3 night stay.
Arrived at the RPR at 10:15 A.M. and YES the room was ready! I had bought a Preferred Annual pass and got a room rate of $119 per night with it.
No freebies or upgrades...did not push it and did not care since we were here and ready to go!
Got things situated and headed to Universal Studios. What a beautiful place this is btw. Took the boat shuttle and headed over. Got our tickets at the kiosk and headed in for the photos for our passes. Bought Mardi Gras lanyards to hold our passes and room keys for easy FOTL access.
I must say I was very spoiled by FOTL. I would not go any other way! My son and I rode MIB 3 times in a row while others had not even gotten through once!
I do not want to go into any great detail on any of the rides (for fear of spoiling it for someone,besides I am getting tired of typing). We did not have a bad experience on any of the rides. Everything we diedwas a great time especially:
Spiderman
Jimmy Neutron
Back to the Future
MIB
Kids also just loved the Jurrasic park area (cannot remember what it was called) but it had an awesome multi story cave to explore with areas to get wet.
Took in all the shows, Sinbad, Animal Planet, and Nickelodeon
I got "volunteered" to help out and go on stage for the Animal Planet show. It was alot of fun. Also managed to be chosen with one of my sons to take part in the Nick show.
Did I mention the great weather yet!! Just awesome. I look outside today and it is gray and dreary (maybe 25 degrees) what a bummer. Just glad i am off work for another 4 days!
Stayed at the park until they pushed us out the doors at 6P.M. Then headed straight to Margaritaville. Food was just OK. Margaritas were great. Had a "big rita" and Strawberry Margarita. My wife had a couple Pina Coladas she said were awesome. After dinner walked around city walk for a bit and then headed back to the room.
Kids got changed and we went swimming until they closed at 9:00 P.M. This acutally surprised me when we were told they were closing. Thought they would at least be open until 11P or so. Anyone know the reason why they close so early?
Water was very nice. We had our own cooler with drinks. We brought drinks into the parks daily as well. Cutting a few corners here and there can really help.
I bought a collapsable $8 wal mart cooler prior to our trip and iced it down with drinks and milk every day. Dozen dunkin doughnuts for breakfast every morning as well.
Well those are some of the first half highlights. I will finish the rest later.
Feel free to ask any questions. I kind of feel like a UO and IOA expert now if thats possible.
What an awesome time we had.
I am going to do a "trip report" for the first part of our stay. Will do the rest later.
We were in Florida February 13-18
This trip is as much for me as my family and friends since I am mostly copying and pasting this to an email.
30 something parents with boys ages 8 and 6.
We flew out of Chicago on USA3000 on Sunday. Flight was later in the evening and of course the usual O hare delay of 45 minutes.
We arrived in St Petersburg Florida at around 8:30 P.M. Great flight on USA3000 would definitely do it again. Had a great deal on our tickets worked out to about $115 per person round trip.
This airport proved to be a great place to fly into since it is very small and only about an hour and 30 minute drive from Orlando.
Spent about an hour in line to get our rental car. Had reserved a van, however, none were available. Kind of like the Seinfeld episode with the rental car. Had to splain to them what a reservation was
Worked out very well anyway got a Buick Rendezvous at a good rate. Plenty of room for us and a nice vehicle. Reason our rental was gone and they were out of almost every car was I forgot it is Git R DOne NASCAR racin week at Daytona.
Made our way out of the airport and found our destination in Orlando (Embassy Vacation Resort. We had two nights here we got Comp for test driving a car back in the summer. They tried to get us into one of their time share scams but we did not even go.
This is however a great place to stay convenient to all the attractions. We had a very nice and spacious 3 bedroom 3 full bath room including a hot tub.
Full kitchen screened patio etc... etc. Not sure what kind of rate you can usually get from them but it would be well worth it just for the space alone and to save a few bucks on eating.
We pretty much got settled in our room and hit the beds.
Day 2 Monday:
Sea World: Had a great time here. Took in all the shows. I had not been to Sea world in about 20 years and it is still a very fun and beautiful park.
Just enjoyed strolling around and the beautiful weather. Our whole stay we had zero rain and temps were 52-57 for lows and 73-81 for highs. I did indeed check the paper EVERY day and look at what the temps were back home
After a long day at Sea World we headed back to the "Embassy" and went swimming and for a canoe ride at the on site lake. Ordered pizza, watched some tv and called it a night.
Day 3 Tuesday: This is the day we all have been waiting for, slept in, checked out and headed over to the Royal Pacific resort for our 3 night stay.
Arrived at the RPR at 10:15 A.M. and YES the room was ready! I had bought a Preferred Annual pass and got a room rate of $119 per night with it.
No freebies or upgrades...did not push it and did not care since we were here and ready to go!
Got things situated and headed to Universal Studios. What a beautiful place this is btw. Took the boat shuttle and headed over. Got our tickets at the kiosk and headed in for the photos for our passes. Bought Mardi Gras lanyards to hold our passes and room keys for easy FOTL access.
I must say I was very spoiled by FOTL. I would not go any other way! My son and I rode MIB 3 times in a row while others had not even gotten through once!
I do not want to go into any great detail on any of the rides (for fear of spoiling it for someone,besides I am getting tired of typing). We did not have a bad experience on any of the rides. Everything we diedwas a great time especially:
Spiderman
Jimmy Neutron
Back to the Future
MIB
Kids also just loved the Jurrasic park area (cannot remember what it was called) but it had an awesome multi story cave to explore with areas to get wet.
Took in all the shows, Sinbad, Animal Planet, and Nickelodeon
I got "volunteered" to help out and go on stage for the Animal Planet show. It was alot of fun. Also managed to be chosen with one of my sons to take part in the Nick show.
Did I mention the great weather yet!! Just awesome. I look outside today and it is gray and dreary (maybe 25 degrees) what a bummer. Just glad i am off work for another 4 days!
Stayed at the park until they pushed us out the doors at 6P.M. Then headed straight to Margaritaville. Food was just OK. Margaritas were great. Had a "big rita" and Strawberry Margarita. My wife had a couple Pina Coladas she said were awesome. After dinner walked around city walk for a bit and then headed back to the room.
Kids got changed and we went swimming until they closed at 9:00 P.M. This acutally surprised me when we were told they were closing. Thought they would at least be open until 11P or so. Anyone know the reason why they close so early?
Water was very nice. We had our own cooler with drinks. We brought drinks into the parks daily as well. Cutting a few corners here and there can really help.
I bought a collapsable $8 wal mart cooler prior to our trip and iced it down with drinks and milk every day. Dozen dunkin doughnuts for breakfast every morning as well.
Well those are some of the first half highlights. I will finish the rest later.
Feel free to ask any questions. I kind of feel like a UO and IOA expert now if thats possible.
