Our first trip to the "Dark Side"

[RocketCityMama]

Good afternoon! We're here at USO 6/8-6/10 and visiting FL through 14th, just thought I would do a TR for those coming soonish, since we're almost in peak season.

I will come back and update pics later once I download them all.

Intro: We're a family of 5, mom, dad and 3 girls who are 14, 10 and 5. My oldest is going into 10th grade, middle into 5th and the young one Kindergarten but I am most likely homeschooling her due to her medical needs right now. I am also in school part time for my degree in Human Development and Family Studies, hubby is a contracts manager.

This is our first trip as a family to USO, I have been once about 25 years ago, so lots of changes. We left our home area on Sat 6/6, drove 8 hours and finished the drive on Sunday and arrived at Orange Lake Resorts. My FIL owns a timeshare, so we're saving a bunch of money staying here So far we're really enjoying the resort, it's spread out but we're staying on the River Island part, everything we need is nearby with a Publix and Target just up the road.

We purchased our tickets through UT back in March before the prices went up and got the buy 2 days get 1 free deal. No express passes either. We also after reading many trip reports and seeing great pictures, bought the 3 day star card as well, again before prices went up.

The plan:

Day 1- IOA til lunch time, head back to room for lunch, back to USO for the evening and dinner.
Day 2- USO til lunch, lunch at resort, then back to USO or IOA
Day 3 - IOA/USO for half and half most likely (again heading back in the hot part of the day for lunch)

We plan to eat dinner only at the parks, really looking forward to trying The Three Broomsticks and The Leaky Cauldron and one other for the 3rd day.

We are possibly looking to purchase AP's before the end of 3rd day, if so we'll add half days on both Thurs and Fri, but plan to sleep in, swim etc, and head to parks in the late afternoon.

Stay tuned for more details!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Woohoo! You're there!

Glad to hear you have arrived safely . Hope the weather is warm and sunshiny for all!

What a gorgeous trio of young ladies you have. Your oldest and youngest look just like their mom, while middle DD is the spitting image of Dad .

Happy to hear you are enjoying the resort, and can't wait to hear all about your in-park experiences. Have an awesome time....I will be following along for updates!

 

[elaine amj]

Really looking forward to your TR!!

 

[schumigirl]

Looking forward to reading along........and Gina is so correct about oldest and youngest daughters looking like you and middle looking like daddy..........

Waiting for more..........

 

[Loves The Mouse]

Looking forward reading your TR, we are going to Universal Jan '16 reading TR's gives me my fix till then. You have three beautiful young ladies! Enjoy your trip...

 

[tink1957]

What a lovely family you have...can't wait to read about your adventures at the darkside.

We have our annual HHN trip in Sept so I'm also getting my fix reading TRs, hope you're having a blast.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Woohoo! You're there!

Glad to hear you have arrived safely . Hope the weather is warm and sunshiny for all!

What a gorgeous trio of young ladies you have. Your oldest and youngest look just like their mom, while middle DD is the spitting image of Dad .

Happy to hear you are enjoying the resort, and can't wait to hear all about your in-park experiences. Have an awesome time....I will be following along for updates!

Thanks for stopping in! Well so far the weather has been great until tonight! Rain and thunder/lightening, so our park evening other than eating an overpriced dinner, was a bust.

Aww thanks, they are mostly sweet and what is funny the oldest and youngest when little babies looked JUST like their dad!

Really looking forward to your TR!!

Thanks! I hope to update more very soon!

Looking forward to reading along........and Gina is so correct about oldest and youngest daughters looking like you and middle looking like daddy..........

Waiting for more..........

Thanks for joining in My middle one does favor daddy in the looks but has my red fiery hair attitude lol I was born red and turned blonde

Looking forward reading your TR, we are going to Universal Jan '16 reading TR's gives me my fix till then. You have three beautiful young ladies! Enjoy your trip...

I know that feeling, I did the same thing a few weeks prior to our trip! Thank you so much, hope to share more details soon!

What a lovely family you have...can't wait to read about your adventures at the darkside.

We have our annual HHN trip in Sept so I'm also getting my fix reading TRs, hope you're having a blast.

Thanks for joining, so far so good, we've had a few ups/downs since getting here but overall we're having a great time.



I can't wait to have more time to sit down and really give you all the details of our trip! I am working on getting photos downloaded and our ride order etc. We had a thunderstorm park bust tonight, so we're back at the resort early but good because last night was a late late night. We're going to hit the Harry stuff first thing in the morning and hope to get almost all those rides down right away. Then we can explore the areas and shop etc.

Will check back in soon!

 

[Sailormoon2]

Can't wait for the full report.

 

[Loves The Mouse]

Looking forward to hear all about your trip, sadly it's your last day. But I bet your family had a great trip! Enjoy your last day, and wishing you a safe trip home!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Can't wait for the full report.

Looking forward to hear all about your trip, sadly it's your last day. But I bet your family had a great trip! Enjoy your last day, and wishing you a safe trip home!

Thanks! We just got home late late last night, drove 13 hours straight so a bit tired today. Give me a couple days to catch up on laundry and downloading photos and I'll be back to give lots of details. I will say we had an amazing time, did just about everything we wanted and are now AP holders so we'll be back in the next year! WOOT!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Thanks! We just got home late late last night, drove 13 hours straight so a bit tired today. Give me a couple days to catch up on laundry and downloading photos and I'll be back to give lots of details. I will say we had an amazing time, did just about everything we wanted and are now AP holders so we'll be back in the next year! WOOT!

Welcome home! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

And AP holders now too....awesome!

 

[Loves The Mouse]

Im glad you're home safe,and had an amazing trip. Wow AP holders that's great! Looking forward to reading your trip report, get some much needed rest.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Welcome home! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

And AP holders now too....awesome!

I think I am finally caught up on everything! I feel like laundry took forever, well I guess in a way it did, the first day home our washer broke!!! So then it was a day before we could get parts to get it working again. All done! Oh and our master bath shower head is leaking like crazy so that will hopefully be repaired tomorrow.

We're excited to go back! I wish we had more vacation time and/or it wasn't such a long drive LOL

Im glad you're home safe,and had an amazing trip. Wow AP holders that's great! Looking forward to reading your trip report, get some much needed rest.

Thanks! I am feeling rested now, been a busy week getting back in the swing of things and then the issues I mentioned above!

 

[RocketCityMama]

So let's see, I had every intention of giving you all a blow by blow, day by day account of our trip, alas I didn't take well enough notes and/or the sun fried my brain and I cannot recall what rides what days LOL so you'll have to go with my flow here and hopefully you'll see we had a great time even with a few mishaps along the way!

So onward!

Day 1:

Our first day at the parks was Monday, we decided to hit IOA first, now since we were not staying on property we did not have perks of EE like many others, we arrived around 8:30, parked and walked to the many moving sidewalk area lol not sure what you want to call it and got stopped because hubby forgot to put up GPS, so while he's running back to the car, kids and I are at the Amex screen where the kids can be on the screen etc. The lady comes over and starts talking about the card of course and I am like oh man, here we go. We're never going to get the parks! Hubby gets back, he listens to the spiel, decides to apply. If approved he would get 2 quick service dining cards to use, 1 snack, 1 drink and 1 meal on each. So he is off doing that and finally he comes back, approved, has card for dining (so then we have to stop by the concierge desk in City Walk to trade it for the real cards)... more time wasting. ARGH!

It's finally a few minutes after 9 and we're finally IN the parks! We have to go to guest relations first, get a wheelchair tag for stroller as my little one has Spina Bifida and normally wears orthotics, but she outgrew her others so we didn't bring them. However we brought her stroller to use as a wheelchair because while she can walk, she falls, a lot. We did not ask for the assistance pass since we really just need to keep the stroller with us. Then we have to go to the photo connect to get the card and lanyard. See how our timing is running???

We decide to hit Spiderman first, wait time was maybe 30 mins or so (insert bad memory here). So we're at the front of the line and they tell us to go on over to the express line. So off we go, walk on ride immediately. Not expecting that but thankful! As soon as we get off their is a TM holding a sign to meet Spiderman, our little girl LOVES him, so off we go across the street. No one waiting! He is so sweet and kind with her, no one is waiting, so he takes time with her. Get a picture with him and just her and then a family picture.

First day is the only day I can clearly remember our rides and we did all of them by 11:30 am in this order:

Spiderman - pretty much walk on due to wheelchair tag on stroller - this ride was awesome but scared my little one. Had to make her take glasses off and close eyes. Hubby and I later re-rode using the child swap a few days later.

Spidey meet n greet - less than a minute wait time

Dr Doom - 5 min wait - hubby and two big girls rode

Storm Force Accelerator- 5 min wait - we all rode, had fun!

Hulk - 30 min wait time -

During this is when we split up, hubby and oldest went to ride Hulk and I took the 2 younger ones to Seuss Landing where we rode the following:

Carousel - 5 min wait

Sam I am and Grinch Meet n Greet

Trolley - 15 -20 min wait, it was cute though and I like the photo area they had

Cat in the Hat - 5 min wait, it was nice and relaxing, not to much spin but enough to get you moving

1 Fish, 2 Fish - hubby and older girls rode this with the munchkin. I wear hearing aids and did not want to ruin them! My hubby got soaked LOL

So after that we decided to start heading back to the hotel for lunch!

More to come!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Great pics!!! Glad you were able to squeeze so much in after a slower-than-expected start .

The girls' themed t-shirts are AWESOME!

 

[Loves The Mouse]

Oh no not a time for your washer to give you problems! And also dealing with a water leak. Nothing like dealing with reality after a wonderful trip! Sorry, it's not fun coming home and having added expenses. I know how you feel...

Oh we have a Disney trip story, couple of yrs ago we went to WDW and our neighbors daughter was watching the cat. Well .... She came over to feed our cat and the floor was covered with an inch of water!! The water heater broke, thank God her father was home and came over and shut off the main water shut off. They cleaned up for us, got a great deal for a new water heater. ( A friend of theirs). Not an expense we wanted to pay after the trip.. But we were Very lucky they caught it early, it could have been worse.

Great start to your trip report, great pictures!! Looks like you had a great time even with some mishaps. Looking forward to more!

 

[macraven]

i didn't get the memo the trippie started.
that's my excuse for coming late........

sounds like a winner of a day at the parks so far!

 

[Sailormoon2]

That is a substantial amount of touring covered, even with the late start. Well done!
Love the spidey shots.

 

[schumigirl]

Youngest daughter is loving Storm Force isn't she.......great pic!

You did get a lot covered and the pics are lovely. Spider-Man is amazing........interaction with him is always fun. Love the Grinch too.......Sam I am is one we have never got together with Grinch......cool!

 

[RocketCityMama]

Oh no not a time for your washer to give you problems! And also dealing with a water leak. Nothing like dealing with reality after a wonderful trip! Sorry, it's not fun coming home and having added expenses. I know how you feel...

Oh we have a Disney trip story, couple of yrs ago we went to WDW and our neighbors daughter was watching the cat. Well .... She came over to feed our cat and the floor was covered with an inch of water!! The water heater broke, thank God her father was home and came over and shut off the main water shut off. They cleaned up for us, got a great deal for a new water heater. ( A friend of theirs). Not an expense we wanted to pay after the trip.. But we were Very lucky they caught it early, it could have been worse.

Great start to your trip report, great pictures!! Looks like you had a great time even with some mishaps. Looking forward to more!

I know! We already knew the washer was getting close, luckily it was a fairly inexpensive quick fix, just needed a new belt on the bottom and a plastic cover that goes over it. So yay for that! We also got the shower fixed yesterday, no more leaks and for just $50 but now we're not sure if we need a new hot water heater or if something isn't put together quite right in our shower. The hot water doesn't really get hot and doesn't last long at all. :/ I sure hope we don't need a new one, but I am thinking it is quite possible.

i didn't get the memo the trippie started.
that's my excuse for coming late........

sounds like a winner of a day at the parks so far!

No worries! I am really behind on getting started and posting due to all the mishaps with appliances around here! We had so much fun that morning!

That is a substantial amount of touring covered, even with the late start. Well done!
Love the spidey shots.

I agree, we were pleasantly surprised to hit so much for getting in late, we hoped this would be a continued trend!

Youngest daughter is loving Storm Force isn't she.......great pic!

You did get a lot covered and the pics are lovely. Spider-Man is amazing........interaction with him is always fun. Love the Grinch too.......Sam I am is one we have never got together with Grinch......cool!

My little girl loved it! I bet we were in there 5 mins or more in between him and her talking and all the picture taking. I was surprised to see Sam and Grinch together but it was a good photo op They took several, and each time one had a face covered by a hand LOL so I was glad to get one for a full face too!

Great pics!!! Glad you were able to squeeze so much in after a slower-than-expected start .
The girls' themed t-shirts are AWESOME!

Thank you! The super hero shirts were all bought but the next ones you'll see (minion and harry potter) were hand painted ones, a labor of love for sure. Good thing I had my trusty Silhouette cameo for stencils!