Our Universal Thanksgiving Vacation

[SAHMKC]

Hi all!

First of all thank you to all the DIS board members who's advice helped me to make this an awesome Thanksgiving vacation for my family. I'll be writing this review over the next few days. I apologize that there will be no pictures as we are not big picture takers!

A little bit about our family - me - obsessive compulsive planner, DH - our go with the flow Dad, DS14 - Potter Fan and hater of all roller coasters and DD12-thrill (but not coaster) riding diva. DH asked that I tone down the ocd planning for this trip and I tried my best to be more go with the flow. When we have gone to Disney I had a color coded chart of where, when and what we would be doing every minute of the day. This time I planned but not to the extreme. We had initially thought we would do two days at Universal and one day at a water park, however unseasonable cold temperatures changed our plans. So we bought the special buy two days get the third day free park hopper pass and I am so glad we did!

We arrived at RPR on Tuesday evening. We booked our transportation through Tony Hinds Transport -http://www.taxi-mco.com/Drivers/Tony%20Hinds.htm. Our flight was delayed an hour and 15 minutes out of Kansas City due to the storms on the east coast. However Tony was there to pick us up. We thought that we would miss shopping at the grocery store, but Tony assured us that we would make it before the Publix closed. We got to the store about 10 minutes before closing and loaded up on snacks, water and bud light for DH. I thought wait I better get an adult beverage for myself - so I ran and grabbed a couple of Angry Orchard hard ciders and a bag of white cheddar popcorn that caught my eye. As the cashier was ringing up my late addition, my DD exclaimed oh I love those! I quickly assured the shocked cashier that she was referring to the popcorn and not the Hard Cider. I highly recommend Tony for your transportation - It was $100 round trip including the grocery stop.

Then we made our way to the RPR and had a lovely welcome. Everyone from the bellman to the front desk staff were just delightful. We checked-in and got our express passes. We were in Tower 1 connecting rooms King 1715 & 2 Queens 1717. When we first walked in there was a musty odor, but having lived in a humid climate for seven years I did not freak out. I quickly turned up the AC in both rooms and the odor was gone in minutes.

The rooms were very nice. My only complaints were that the pillows needed to be replaced and that there was not an assortment of teas for the Keurig coffee maker as advertised on the website. I found only decaf green tea and in the mornings I need caffeinated tea. I called Star services and asked if they bring up some caffeinated tea and they came right up with some more decaf tea! So my DH just offered to grab some tea in the morning from the orchard lounge for me. After getting everyone unpacked and settled in we went to bed. Tomorrow we were rising early for early entry into Harry Potter World!

 

[SAHMKC]

We woke up early to take advantage of the hour early entry into Harry Potter World. While I was wrangling the kids out of bed, DH went to the Orchard Court lounge to pick up breakfast. He brought back a plain croissant for DD, a chocolate chip muffin for DS, a chocolate chip muffin and ham, egg, and cheese croissant for us to split. (Of course he brought some wonderful breakfast tea too!) Unfortunately the muffin was dry and hard. None of us ate more than a bite of muffin. The croissant and croissant sandwich were both excellent. So I split my half of the croissant sandwich with my DS and we both had a couple of powdered sugar donuts DS had bought for a snack.

Then we were off to IOA. Since we were in Tower 1, we just walked down the stairs and used the walking path instead of taking the boat. When we arrived at the bridge to IOA, the line already extended halfway across the bridge. As we were waiting for entry, we noticed some black clouds beginning to roll in. My husband checked the radar on his phone and assured us that it would quickly pass. Luckily, we made it through the gate and into the gift shop before the downpour began. So we just browsed around the store as we waited out the storm. As we were waiting I heard a woman arguing with her DH (I assume) about how he was the only one unprepared for the storm and that he was basically ruining their day. Everyone in their party, but him was outfitted in rain gear. He was telling her they should just wait it out. I quickly assured her that the rain was going to be over shortly. I hope it helped, but at least they stopped arguing so loudly.

The rain ended and we headed out dry! We went straight to Forbidden Journey and jumped in line. I didn't mind that it took about 30 minutes to ride, because we enjoyed the castle so much. I was a little apprehensive about FJ as so many people have nausea issues riding it. Both DS and I have stomach issues, so I was worried one of us would get sick. DS hates roller coasters, so I was just paranoid that he was going to hate the ride. However, all my fears were unfounded! Everyone loved the ride and no one was sick at all.

We headed straight to get in the queue for Ollivander's . This was about another 30 minutes. During which time my kids taught me a new game called -sticks. I was terrible at it as it involves math! My DS quickly refused to play with me as I lost every time. My DD loved playing with me for the same reason! So we passed the time quickly by everyone making fun of my terrible math skills! When we entered Ollivander's DD was chosen to pick a wand. It was a nice show and funny too. She was given an Ash wand even though it wasn't her birthdate wand. I'm sure it's because her name is Ashleigh! She is not a huge Potter fan, so she didn't want to keep it. She has spotted the unicorn from Despicable me and had her heart set on that! DS picked a wand instead.

Then we headed to get a frozen butterbeer. It was pretty cool out, so we just shared one. It was so good! We should have got more than one!We stopped in at Honeydukes to pick up some candy. The kids got some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, fudge flies and a chocolate frog. The TM who checked us out was awesome. she told us to make sure we did not open the fudge flies and chocolate frog at the same time or the frog would eat the flies. Then she explained that we needed to eat the back legs off the frog first so it couldn't hop away. That was a really nice experience for us. We convinced DS to try the Hipograff coaster as it is a tamer coaster ride. He hated it! He just hates coasters, especially any kind of drop. We look around Hogsmeade a bit more and then decided we should head toward Mythos for lunch.

Now DH did let me make three reservations for this trip and Mythos was one of them. We had about 25 minutes until our seating at 11:00 and decided we needed something to do. DD wanted to go back to Seuss Land and ride the over the head Seuss trolley train ride. DH & DS claimed that to be the lamest ride. DD & I enjoyed the view. Then I insisted we ride the Caro-Seuss-al. DD & I thoroughly embarrassed the boys with our enthusiasm for this ride! I wouldn't wait in-line for either ride, but with the express pass there was no wait. We headed back over to Mythos for lunch. Mythos was not quite open, so the kids broke into the Botts Beans as we waited. I got a vegetable ugh! Mythos was really good. I highly recommend eating there. It honestly was not that much more expensive than some of the counter service meals. DH & DS both had a burger, DD had the chicken fingers and I had the beef medallions.

After lunch we went to Poseidon's Fury and then to Sinbad's Stunt show. I would pass on the stunt show if you are in a time crunch. It wasn't that great. When then went to the Jurassic area. We didn't want to ride any water rides as it was too cool. We decided to check out the Jurassic Park Discovery Center. Shockingly, my kids spent about 30 minutes here and DH & I just sat a chatted. It was really nice break for us. Then we headed around through Toon Town and into the Marvel Action Hero area. We rode Spiderman twice in a row with no wait! Thank you express pass! DD decided we had to ride Cat in the Hat, so we headed over to ride it. It was definitely my least favorite ride - way to jerky for me. DS remarked that Thing 1 and Thing 2 were creepy looking. We totally poked fun at him for the rest of the trip about that! We headed back to the RPR for a mid afternoon break. More to come...

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[macraven]

i love reading trippies!

sounds like you and the family had a good start for the first day.


looking forward to more of your time at the darkside.

 

[schumigirl]

Lol on the beans.......I got 3 nasty tasting ones in a row........I gave up on them after that

Nice start, looking forward to the rest

 

[SAHMKC]

Thanks for following along!

I forgot to add that we stopped on the way out to pick up the "it's so fluffy" unicorn for DD. We are pretty exhausted, so we just hung out in the rooms. As I was dosing off I hear "oh yuck" and hysterical laughter from the kids' room - DD discovered the vomit flavored bean! - Schumigirl - some of those beans are so awful!

After our afternoon rest we decided to go to city walk to look around and have dinner. We decided on Bubba Gump and were not disappointed. We didn't have too terrible of a wait. We were seated next to a table with 5 kids under 8! They were remarkably well behaved. I'm not sure if they were siblings or cousins because I had heard them saying they had to split up the party to get seated. Wow kudos to those parents - I think 2 is hard enough!

It was pretty cold out that night and DD insisted she needed a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. This is where the Diva comes in play! So we go up to Starbucks and wait in line to get this peppermint mocha. During the wait I am asking her where she has had a peppermint mocha. She's never had any kind of mocha! So I say "Don't you think a peppermint hot chocolate would be a better idea?". No - Diva has heard of the wonders of the peppermint mocha from her friends and has to have one. So 30 minutes and $5 later, DD discovers that the wonders of the peppermint mocha have been greatly exaggerated! She hated it. DH & DS were like you waited 30 minutes for that! At least the cup kept her warm on the boat ride back.

When we got home, DH discovered one of his favorite movies was on, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, so we watched that together. We went to bed early as we decided to take advantage of the early park hours the next day.

The next morning, we got up a little earlier to make sure we would be closer to the front of the line to get in IOA. Once again DH grabbed breakfast - no muffins this time just a croissant and 3 croissant sandwiches - and I wrangled the kids out of bed. We walked to IOA and were pretty close to the front of the line.

When we got in we headed straight to FJ and jumped in line. The queue was moving really quickly and we got on in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the ride stopped for a few minutes. It wasn't a long wait, but the kids thought it really took away from the experience. After that ride I felt a little queasy, so I ate some ginger candy as we waited in line to ride a second time and that really helped. It took about 30 minutes for the next ride. I had some more ginger candy after that ride too! But it was nothing terrible and passed pretty quickly. I wonder if had something to do with stopping the first time.

We shopped at the store and DS decided he really wanted a Ravenclaw hoodie. He loves blue and that they are the "wise" house. He's a bit of a nerd - his group of friend even refer to themselves as the nerd herd! After shopping, we decided it was time to head out to Universal Studios and try that park next.

 

[tink1957]

Reading along and enjoying your report so far

 

[mrsabbott]

I can't WAIT to get some Bertie Botts!!

Funny story.. I absolutely love Jelly Belly's and there used to be this candy store where you could get them by the pound.. you could even mix the flavors you really like! You were also able to get little boxes of the Bertie Botts and one time, Hubs got be a pound of Jelly Belly's.. what he didn't tell me was that he got a box of the Bertie Botts and dumped in the bag! I took them to work with me that night, all excited, and got a taste of some NASTY ones!!

Your DD reminds me a little bit of my oldest with the Starbucks!! I love coffee drinks and she just KNEW that she would love one too.. so I let her get one and, bless her heart, she didn't want to actually ADMIT that she didn't like it.. but the look on her face said it all! LOL!

Looking forward to reading more!!

 

[SAHMKC]

I can't WAIT to get some Bertie Botts!!

Funny story.. I absolutely love Jelly Belly's and there used to be this candy store where you could get them by the pound.. you could even mix the flavors you really like! You were also able to get little boxes of the Bertie Botts and one time, Hubs got be a pound of Jelly Belly's.. what he didn't tell me was that he got a box of the Bertie Botts and dumped in the bag! I took them to work with me that night, all excited, and got a taste of some NASTY ones!!

Your DD reminds me a little bit of my oldest with the Starbucks!! I love coffee drinks and she just KNEW that she would love one too.. so I let her get one and, bless her heart, she didn't want to actually ADMIT that she didn't like it.. but the look on her face said it all! LOL!

Looking forward to reading more!!

Wow! I bet those nasty botts beans were a huge surprise!

DD is one of those kids who when her mind is made up- no amount of reasoning can change it! She knew it was going to be wonderful just like your DD. The one good thing about that personality trait is that she also doesn't cave to peer pressure. A lot of the girl here love Miss Me jeans and DD wants nothing to do with them. She says all the rhinestones and buttons hurt when you sit on them! LOL She doesn't care at all that they are the "in" thing.

 

[SAHMKC]

So we headed on over to Universal Studios and the first thing we see is the Despicable Me ride. Now I did almost no research on US as we were not planning on touring US originally. We had thought we would do IOA, Sea World and a Water Park. So I did not know the DM queue was going to move in bursts rather than a steady stream. So we jumped in the Express Pass lane and just stood there. I told them there must be something wrong let's come back later! It was a big mistake as this would have been the quickest EP time of the day.

We headed out and got on the Twister ride/show. It may not have been my best idea as I live in a place that has frequent tornadoes. The queue was causing me some anxiety as I have relatives in Moore and Oklahoma city that had just been through horrific tornadoes last spring. Everyone else was fine and I was fine after the "experience" too. I guess I just get emotional over the truly devastating effects of tornadoes because it hits a little too close to home!

After that we jumped on The Mummy Ride. (Ok remember no research right) I had no idea it was an indoor roller coaster. I felt like the worst Mom in the world as we were barreling around and dropping off on that coaster! Poor DS hates coasters and the ones in the dark are his least favorite! I blame his coaster hatred on DH because he allowed DS to talk him into riding Space mountain as his first coaster when he was 8. luckily we survived without him throwing up and he wasn't too pale when he came off.

DH wanted to catch the Blues Brothers show, so we went to wait for it to start. They were really great and a lot of fun. They have an "Aretha Franklin" singer who was amazing. The sax player was so great. He kept leaning his mic down for me to sing into! I apologize to anyone who had to hear that! DD is actually a musician and singer. She plays electric, acoustic and bass guitar in addition to singing lead and backing vocals at a local "rock" school. Of course she was not going to sing into the mic with me!

That allowed DS enough time to recover from his traumatic experience. So we decided to go straight to transformers as we knew DS would love it. We pretty much walked right on the ride. It was my second favorite ride of both parks. Being a Potter fan nothing trumps FJ for me. Ds agreed with me. DH and DD felt it was better than FJ but not by much.

We decided it was time for lunch. Somehow we ended up at Mel's Diner. This is the only place I ate at that I truly disliked. The hamburgers were lukewarm and awful. At least the fries were good. See sometimes it pays to research things! So I wouldn't recommend this restaurant.

We checked the DM queue and it was like 40 minutes with EP! So we decided to do the Shrek experience. It was cute. DM was still a long wait, so DD and I decided to go to the Horror Make-up show. I was so glad DS was not with us. He would have hated it. I'm not sure why, but he hates monster movies and blood and gore in them. It doesn't seem to bother him at all when he's playing video games though! The boys were going to the Terminator show which for some reason DD thought would be too creepy. Which is weird because she wasn't put off at all by the Horror Make-up show. DH & DS were too late to catch that so they went to watch fear factor. After that they went on the MIB ride. We headed over to meet them and rode it once with them. We decided to try one last time to get in line for DM and it wasn't terrible wait by that time maybe 15 minutes. It was a cute and fun experience.

We decided to head back to RPR with a quick stop at a place that had cheesecake for DD. It was time for our afternoon break!

 

[SAHMKC]

So after our afternoon break, we all got dressed up and went down to The Island's Dining Room for Thanksgiving dinner. Although the buffet dinner was expensive, it was worth the money. We ate so much. There was a seafood bar, traditional Thanksgiving food, prime rib, sushi bar, make to order stir fry, kid's food bar, and DESSERTS! DD went back for fried rice three times! She also got her picture taken with a minion. The only downside to the whole evening was that the dessert bar was placed in the same room with the kid's food, a balloon artist, and face painters. We were there about 6:30 and the kid's area had descended into a Lord of the Flies scenario. The kids were unattended and given balloon swords. There was also a shortage on the kid's food and I was worried there was going to be some sort of sacrifice! Really, it was difficult to get to the desserts due to the children running wild, but we braved it. I was only wacked a couple of times with balloon swords. It was a minor difficulty that unfortunately could have been avoided if parents would supervise their children or if the desserts had been moved to a different area.

After dinner, we went back to the room and rented Despicable Me 2 to watch together. It was a nice end to the evening. We decided to sleep in and not go to the park early the next day.

 

[toystory1130]

Was there anything a vegetarian could eat on the buffet? I'd hate to spend so much if there is little he could eat. Thanks!

 

[SAHMKC]

Was there anything a vegetarian could eat on the buffet? I'd hate to spend so much if there is little he could eat. Thanks!

There were vegetable side dishes. I don't remember anything specifically for vegetarians like tofu for the stir fry. The stir fry would be a great choice as they had noodles, rice and an assortment of vegetables and sauces to choose from. There was another thread that discussed Thanksgiving Buffets at all the resorts and the full menus were posted. It is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3187886&highlight=thanksgiving+buffet
I hope that helps!

 

[SAHMKC]

So, our last day at the parks has arrived! We slept in a little later this morning. DH still brought breakfast back to the room for us. Today was the warmest day for our stay. We decided that we wanted to try all of the water rides we had missed in IOA. First though, we headed out to US to finish up on some of the rides we missed and let it warm up a little!

At US we headed to the ET ride. The whole family declared this ride lame. Maybe the kids would have like it better if they had seen the movie. We finally convinced DD that the Terminator show would not be too creepy and headed out to see it. It was so weird during the queue part where they show a video about all the great stuff cyberdine will be able to do in the future. Since the movie the ride is based on was made in 1991 most of the technology is now here and even better than they imagined. It was really creepy when they got to the part where all students everywhere would learn the same things across the country. My kids were like it 's "Common Core"! For those of you not from the US - just recently they have instituted a new policy requiring all schools across the country to teach the same curriculum in every public school - it's called Common Core and there are a lot of us who don't like it! So I'll get off my soapbox and get to the point! We really enjoyed the show and were glad we talked DD into going. We then decided to ride Transformers again.

After that it was time for lunch. We headed out to Margaritaville for lunch. I had chicken quesadilla's and they were really good. DD & DS did not like their food. DD had the chicken fingers. DS had a bacon cheeseburger - unfortunately he forgot to ask for cheddar cheese, so he got American. They both ended up having a slice of my quesadilla - good thing there was a lot of it!

Next we headed to IOA to brave the water rides. It still wasn't that warm - about 76. We rode Popeye's & Bluto's Bilge-rat Barges first. We were completely soaked! This was DS's and my favorite water ride. We headed straight to Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls. Again we were even more soaked. It was DD's & DH's favorite water ride and DS's least favorite. It was a little too much dropping for him. We headed over to the Jurassic Park area to ride the River adventure next. Everyone enjoyed the ride. DD & DH wanted to ride Ripsaw Falls again and DS and I decided to head back to RPR. We sure did get some looks as we were walking through the park dripping wet. BRRR it was cold in the shady areas!

It worked out nicely for us to get back a little early as DS was able to grab a shower before DD got back. DH, DD and I were planning on checking out the hot tubs in the pool area as soon as they got back. DS had had enough water and wanted to play computer games. I changed into my suit and DH & DD arrived shortly. They got changed and we headed down to the pool area. Unfortunately one of the hot tubs was not operational, so the one that was working was super crowded. DD had a Diva moment and decided she was going straight back up to the room. We tried to convince her to wait a bit to see if it cleared out, but she was not going to do that. So, we all went back up to the room. DD took a shower and promptly fell asleep! Yep tired = Diva behavior for sure.

 

[Metro West]

Very good report...thanks for sharing.

 

[Micday]

Great report, thanks for sharing!

Could you tell me what time did you guys leave your room on the second day to get closer to the opening? I want to be "up front" but not make my family wait to long (I'll never hear the end of it lol)


thanks!!

 

[SAHMKC]

Great report, thanks for sharing!

Could you tell me what time did you guys leave your room on the second day to get closer to the opening? I want to be "up front" but not make my family wait to long (I'll never hear the end of it lol)


thanks!!

The first day we got there right about 8:00 and the second day we got there at 7:45. It's about a 5 minute walk to IOA from RPR. I think the lines really depend on what time of the year and day of the week you are going. You might want to ask this question on the IOA/US boards with the specific day you are hoping to get in early. I hope that helps!

 

[Micday]

Thanks!!

We will be there is Sunday, I'm so excited!

 

[SAHMKC]

Thanks!!

We will be there is Sunday, I'm so excited!

I know you will have a wonderful time!

 

[SAHMKC]

So for our last evening at RPR, we had reservations at Tchoup Chop. We all got dressed after our afternoon rest and headed down to the restaurant about 6:30. We were seated pretty quickly, but the menu had changed from what we had looked at before online. My DS had something in mind and it was no longer on the menu. Both DD and DS ended up ordering chicken fried rice. Neither liked the fried rice. DH & I ordered dumplings, spring rolls, sashimi, California roll, and a specialty roll with tempura shrimp. The sashimi was very large. The California roll had a sauce on it that I didn't care for. I honestly don't think I would go back to Tchoup Chop, as the stir fry was better and sushi was as good as what we had at the Island Dining room. At the end of dinner DS said "I really wish we could have one more butterbeer." DD agreed! Well it's a bit of a walk, but why not. So I ran back up to our room and grabbed all of our passes. Then we headed out for one more butterbeer! This turn of events was pretty shocking to DH & I as both DS & DD had been pretty worn out and it was quite a hike. It just goes to show you how good frozen butterbeer really is! So we all enjoyed one last stroll through Harry Potter world before we left.