NO, You're a Poo!! (No genie+ or LL) 10 day trip, split stay!! JULY 10-JULY 20 2024

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Day 10 - Disney Springs

Woke up this morning and drove over to Beach Club Resort for a 9:30am breakfast. We wanted to meet some of the core characters that we hadn't met yet this trip. I didn't realize that Mickey wouldn't be there so we missed him this trip. But we met Diasy, Minnie, Donald and Goofy! Each one of them came by twice and the second one time they didn't skip us just kind of chatted with us with their hand motions as they normally do. It was fun. The breakfast was good and everything was as I expected.



After breakfast we went out back and walked around the boardwalk, doing a little window shopping. I usually try to buy a sweatshirt everytime I come , but this time I only found one I liked and they didn't have my size. Bummer.


Once we got hot we got back in the car and headed back to our hotel to change and grab some extra bags with water etc. We were going to head over to Disney Springs. We usually save it for the end of the trip so if our kids havnt found a souvenir yet, they can certainly find something there. My 10 year old had already bought a lightsaber, my daughter had bought a sweatshirt in Hogsmeade. So it was mainly just me and my 20 year old son looking.

We parked in the Lime garage near marketplace, while Disney Springs is so beautiful I prefer the older sections with more of the Disney specific shops that I can't find elsewhere. Unfortunately I didn't find a sweatshirt but I did buy a mini stuffed Tuk-Tuk from Raya and the last dragon that sits on your shoulder via magnets. I work at an elementary school so I figured the kids will get a kick out of me wearing it.




We hit the Lego store and my 20 year old got a lego he has been wanting for awhile. We had a lego store discount so we offered to buy it for him. It was the Daily Bugle lego, he's big into super heroes and such.

So we all left with at least something. We headed back to the room again to shower and change. The kids were staying in the room tonight and eating food we got them from the Mara, and my DH and I were going on a date night!

I put on my dress and my DH and I drove over to the Contemporary Resort. We valeted our car and headed up to the 2nd floor to check in for California Grill. We had never been to this restaurant, but always wanted to try it. We never had before because we didn't want to have to take the kids, but now they obviously are old enough to watch each other.

So the good stuff...I enjoyed the food, our waitress was great and it gave a good date night vibe. We both ordered the filet for dinner and the farm salad for appetizer. For dessert I got the lemon poppyseed cake and my DH got some sort of cherry dessert.






When we were seated the restaurant was maybe 25 percent full. Small groups where at tables scattered all over with many tables of space between them. When we got seated it was right next to another table for 2 with a couple at it sort of weirdly close to each other. With all the empty tables and space I couldn't figure out why they'd put us right next to someone else, I suppose I could have asked for a different table but it was date night so I was trying to be laid back. Haha The only other part that was a bummer is our seat was in the back corner, yes, next to a window but it overlooked the roof and my back was to it anyway. It felt a bit of a bummer to choose a restaurant for a view to not see the view at all. If it was packed I would have understood, but oh well.

After dinner we gassed up the car for our drive home the next day. We took my 10 year old back down to the arcade to finish up his money on his play card and started packing up to head home in the morning.

Thanks for following along! It's been a fun trip!

 

[Paulaparm]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Skywatcher1206]

Thanks for sharing! Great trip report!

 

[BellaBaby]

I've enjoyed reading your TR. I'm at an age now (mid 50's ) where I would've said something about that table!
Especially since it wasn't busy at that point. Being an expensive restaurant too. Lol
Glad you enjoyed your meal tho!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

I've enjoyed reading your TR. I'm at an age now (mid 50's ) where I would've said something about that table!
Especially since it wasn't busy at that point. Being an expensive restaurant too. Lol
Glad you enjoyed your meal tho!

Yeah, I probably should have. We don't get out on our own much so when we do it's nice to make it as special as possible.

As a side note on our drive home we stopped to use the bathroom at Bucees and the line was longer then some disney rides. Hahah!!

 

[Miffy]

Thanks so much for your trip report. I loved reading it and seeing all your photos.

Next time, OP, consider going on RotR. The drop is comparable to Pirates and not at all scary and the rest of it is quite the experience, full of surprises.

If you're concerned about motion sickness, you enjoyed Remy, so you'll be 100% fine on RotR.

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Thanks so much for your trip report. I loved reading it and seeing all your photos.

Next time, OP, consider going on RotR. The drop is comparable to Pirates and not at all scary and the rest of it is quite the experience, full of surprises.

If you're concerned about motion sickness, you enjoyed Remy, so you'll be 100% fine on RotR.

Thanks! Yeah, once they got off they told me I would have been fine. At that point I didn't want to wait in the line. I'll definitely try it next time!

 

[Miffy]

Thanks! Yeah, once they got off they told me I would have been fine. At that point I didn't want to wait in the line. I'll definitely try it next time!

Nice! Something to look forward to . . . as if just going to WDW isn't enough to look forward to!

BTW, I only sometimes read trip reports and usually I do a lot of skimming, but I read every word of yours. It was enjoyable, informative, well written, and satisfying. Thanks again.

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Nice! Something to look forward to . . . as if just going to WDW isn't enough to look forward to!

BTW, I only sometimes read trip reports and usually I do a lot of skimming, but I read every word of yours. It was enjoyable, informative, well written, and satisfying. Thanks again.

Wow! Thanks, glad you liked it. I tried not to make it too wordy, as some of the real long ones I have a hard time following. (Bad attention span I guess)

 

[oceanmarina]

I think the fall in Rise is no scarier than the drop in pirates.

How was the heat? Are you counting steps? You seem to do a lot of buzz, then jungle, then mermaid, then haunted. Not exactly, but lots of zipping back and forth.

The trip sounds wonderful.

Yes to this. I also found the fall in Rise to be equivalent to Pirates (and I’m a ride wimp). For context, I found the drop in the Frozen boat ride in Epcot much more intense!

 

[jo-jo]

Yes to this. I also found the fall in Rise to be equivalent to Pirates (and I’m a ride wimp). For context, I found the drop in the Frozen boat ride in Epcot much more intense!

Years ago, I was on frozen (norway) and a grandma with little kids started freaking out, yelling I thought this was a kiddie ride. I think she expected splash mountain drop. I'm telling her it's over in a second and that's it. No more drops.

 

[oceanmarina]

Day 8 - Universal and Island of Adventure

We started our day at 9am park opening at Universal Studios. We went to Diagon Alley and it was amazing! We are huge harry potter fans and I couldn't possibly love it more. Crowds were so low the first hour, I got tons of pictures with it empty!

My family went on Escape from Gringotts, while I held their bags and looked around on my own. It was only a 15 min wait so I knew it wouldn't be long. I loved looking around at all the details. Once they got off the ride I showed them all the spots I had found.

I showed them Knockturn Alley which was so cool, we went in to look around at Bourgin and Burkes.

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We went out to see the Knight bus and got a family picture with the driver and the talking shrunken head. I loved that the head talked to us and was quite funny, I hadn't expected that!

Once finishing up Diagon Alley we headed on the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade. (We wanted to make sure to hit all of harry potter first and then we'd go back and do some other things, but that was our priority). I loved the express train. It was so fun how they created a storyline to it and made it feel like you were in the train from the books and movies. It was a quick min wait this early in the morning.

We arrived in hogsmead and wanted to walk through the Forbidden Journey without riding. My DH ended up staying to ride but none of my kids wanted to. Gringotts was about the most thrilling they could do. I love that they let you walk through the queue without riding.

Next we walked up and got some frozen butter beer, it was even better then I thought it would be. Like a butterscotch slurpee. My DH and youngest decided to go on flight of the hippogriff which was a 15 min wait. They both loved it. Nice family coaster.

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We used the bathrooms so we could hear moaning myrtle which was cool and then we looked through honeydukes which was so neat.

We wrapped up the Harry Potter sections of the park with that and headed towards seussland. We went on the Seuss high in the sky ride, which had a 15 minute wait, but we waited easily at least 30 min. It was so slow loading. It was a cute ride that had some great views but definitely not worth the wait. I will say we noticed that Universal has tons of queues with NO AC, whereas Disney has more. It was almost like Universal had very few places to cool off which was unfortunate.

The next ride we went for was Kong Skull Island. It was a 50 minute wait but definitely went by quick and was always moving along well...also another non AC, hot line. The ride was fun and well done. It didn't make me motion sick, but I did have to close my eyes for a few parts.

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At this point it was lunchtime and our two boys wanted to eat so we stopped at the Jurassic Park counter service, it was about 1:20 or so. We mobile ordered their food and went looking for an indoor table to finally cool off. Nope...none! We finally found a corner downstairs near a dinosaur with a rock we could sit on and eat. People were eating on the floor all over the place. I think this speaks to them not having enough places to cool off, people were so desperate to not eat out in the heat they were just eating on the floor everywhere. We didn't mind too much but just another difference we noticed from disney.

We were done with Island of Adventure at this point and got in line for the hogwarts train to go back to Universal and finish that park. It was a 45 minute posted wait..
Because we entered the line right after 3...yes 3 Brazilian tour groups of teenagers. Sigh. It ended up taking over an hour to get on th le train...again the train station was hot. The tour groups were loud and rowdy with tons of PDA which even my 20 year old felt uncomfortable about...but what can you do?

When we got on the train we were soo happy to be sitting and cool for a few minutes. Upon entering Universal we headed to get on ET, which had a 15 min wait. It was a quick wait, a nice cool line and so wonderfully themed. We enjoyed the ET ride so much, we'll done!

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At this point it was about 4:20 and the next Bourne Stuntacular was at 445 and it was recommended as a must do for me. So we got in line, pre-show was a little long since our legs were aching from all the standing but let me tell you...the show was amazing!!! All of us loved it. The actors were great, the screen they use is such a crisp beautiful picture. It was a highlight for sure. It did not effect my motion sickness at all!

When we got out it was around 520 or so and the new parade was starting at 6pm so I wanted to make sure we saw it. Another highlight for sure, the parade was wonderful we really enjoyed it. It was nice to have all the floats interesting to my age group and teens instead of the parade at disney which is more geared to the preschool subset.

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After the parade we headed over to Villain-con blast. It was such a unique and fun ride. It was walk on and I loved that it was just standing on a conveyor belt. It was easy to do twice in a row if you wanted to. I even got the highest score woohoo!!

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At that point it was almost 7pm so we decided to head home. We stopped at chikfila on our way back to Kidani. Then we ate our treats we had bought yesterday in MK.

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Tomorrow we are going to Kennedy Space Center so stay tuned....

Thanks for sharing a great trip report!

We did a split stay once, my husband hated the room changing aspect so we never did it again but I thought it was good because the Disney properties are so different, it’s almost like 2 vacations in one.

Can I ask the Mickey treat you posted (pictures above) , what kind was it and where did you buy it in MK? It looked good and I’ve never seen one like that.

 

[jo-jo]

When we were seated the restaurant was maybe 25 percent full. Small groups where at tables scattered all over with many tables of space between them. When we got seated it was right next to another table for 2 with a couple at it sort of weirdly close to each other. With all the empty tables and space I couldn't figure out why they'd put us right next to someone else, I suppose I could have asked for a different table but it was date night so I was trying to be laid back. Haha The only other part that was a bummer is our seat was in the back corner, yes, next to a window but it overlooked the roof and my back was to it anyway. It felt a bit of a bummer to choose a restaurant for a view to not see the view at all. If it was packed I would have understood, but oh well.

After dinner we gassed up the car for our drive home the next day. We took my 10 year old back down to the arcade to finish up his money on his play card and started packing up to head home in the morning.

Thanks for following along! It's been a fun trip!

We ate at canada with those super close tables. Once we were eating and a guy that was about 3 1/2 inches away, says "that looks really good". Not sure if he was expecting me to offer a taste.

 

[Jabroniville]

Cool report! You do all the stuff I can never manage to do- I don't drive so traversing Orlando's other museums was never for me. I didn't even know they had Titanic and Chocolate museums there! I wonder what else there is. I know I always wanted to check out Medieval Times at some point. Goofy kitsch like that is fun! Have you ever been?