rowan555
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 566
So my 12 year old daughter and I went to Universal Studios last August for a mother/daughter trip, and we had a blast. We spent 9 days in Orlando - 3 nights at Royal Pacific and 3 full days at the parks, then 5 days at a Sea World hotel enjoying Sea World, Aquatica, some shopping, and Fun Spot USA. Since I bought an AP to secure a hotel discount, I decided a few weeks ago what the heck, let's take advantage of the AP and go one more time before the Diagon Alley craziness ensues. We'll be heading there on May 10th.
Our plan, thus far (after making changes no fewer than 6 times), is this:
Saturday - Drive from New Orleans to Orlando - proceed immediately to Universal Studios since neither of us have any patience WHATSOEVER. When it closes at 9, check into whatever hotel I end up booking for that one night.
Sunday - Check into RPR bright and early, print our express passes, and haul butt to IoA. We're not big Harry Potter fans, so if we make it there for early entry, we'll go directly to Dragon Challenge and ride it until we feel sick, then head to Spiderman. The plan is to spend all day at the park, since on our last trip, even with the August heat, we ended up spending our day from open to close at the parks without a hotel break.
Monday - Rinse and Repeat! Check out of the hotel, toss our overnight bag in the car, and spend all day at the parks until US closes at 9 PM. Enjoy one last boat ride back to RPR, then head to the hotel where we'll spend the rest of our time in Orlando Still working on which hotel that will be - booked Sun Sol through a Groupon deal, but reviews have been mixed, so I'm considering other options - the one "Deal Breaker" for my daughter is that it must be a hotel with free breakfast - she loves the convenience of that, and hey, free is always good, I can't complain that the one thing she insists on costs no money, lol.
The rest of the week is tentative, but this is what I'm thinking. Any other suggestions are appreciated. Although please note, our original plan was to re-do Sea World and Aquatica, and we've decided to NOT do that.
Tuesday - Typhoon Lagoon. I have some old "plus passes", so this will be a FREE day. I also have about $40 in credit card reward Disney dollars, so our lunch/snacks will be covered as well. It's up in the air whether we'll do Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, but TL just appeals to me more from the photos. We've never been to either. I'm hoping the water is warmer than at Aquatica, because I hate cold water, and I don't normally even get in the water in Mexico when we vacation in May!
Tuesday evening - Outlet Mall shopping at the Premier Outlet further from Universal. My daughter "needs" more Converse, and she likes the crazy selection they have at the outlets. The pair she bought in August is falling apart. We better buy two pair this time! We'll also grab dinner somewhere. Possibly go to Dave and Busters if we aren't sapped from the water park. We don't have one in Louisiana and I've always wanted to check it out.
Wednesday - Fun Spot USA (the one near Universal, not in Kissimmee). We went here last time and despite a 4 hour rainstorm which put a damper on the day, we had an absolute BLAST and both want to do it again. This will be a long day since they close very late. We'll take a mid-day break to have a quick lunch and hit the other outlet mall for more Converse. She may want to hit the Disney store to trade pins too, since while she doesn't want to go to the Disney parks, she loves pin trading.
Thursday - sleep late, maybe hit the hotel pool if there's a decent one wherever we end up. Head to Universal/IoA for one last hurrah on our favorite rides. Dinner at City Walk then Blue Man Group.
Friday - drive home!
How does this sound? Originally we were going to stay one more day, but since we eliminated Sea World from the itinerary, I figure we can wrap things up by Thursday night. Unless I come up with another day's worth of fun, in which case we'll head home Saturday instead.
Our plan, thus far (after making changes no fewer than 6 times), is this:
Saturday - Drive from New Orleans to Orlando - proceed immediately to Universal Studios since neither of us have any patience WHATSOEVER. When it closes at 9, check into whatever hotel I end up booking for that one night.
Sunday - Check into RPR bright and early, print our express passes, and haul butt to IoA. We're not big Harry Potter fans, so if we make it there for early entry, we'll go directly to Dragon Challenge and ride it until we feel sick, then head to Spiderman. The plan is to spend all day at the park, since on our last trip, even with the August heat, we ended up spending our day from open to close at the parks without a hotel break.
Monday - Rinse and Repeat! Check out of the hotel, toss our overnight bag in the car, and spend all day at the parks until US closes at 9 PM. Enjoy one last boat ride back to RPR, then head to the hotel where we'll spend the rest of our time in Orlando Still working on which hotel that will be - booked Sun Sol through a Groupon deal, but reviews have been mixed, so I'm considering other options - the one "Deal Breaker" for my daughter is that it must be a hotel with free breakfast - she loves the convenience of that, and hey, free is always good, I can't complain that the one thing she insists on costs no money, lol.
The rest of the week is tentative, but this is what I'm thinking. Any other suggestions are appreciated. Although please note, our original plan was to re-do Sea World and Aquatica, and we've decided to NOT do that.
Tuesday - Typhoon Lagoon. I have some old "plus passes", so this will be a FREE day. I also have about $40 in credit card reward Disney dollars, so our lunch/snacks will be covered as well. It's up in the air whether we'll do Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, but TL just appeals to me more from the photos. We've never been to either. I'm hoping the water is warmer than at Aquatica, because I hate cold water, and I don't normally even get in the water in Mexico when we vacation in May!
Tuesday evening - Outlet Mall shopping at the Premier Outlet further from Universal. My daughter "needs" more Converse, and she likes the crazy selection they have at the outlets. The pair she bought in August is falling apart. We better buy two pair this time! We'll also grab dinner somewhere. Possibly go to Dave and Busters if we aren't sapped from the water park. We don't have one in Louisiana and I've always wanted to check it out.
Wednesday - Fun Spot USA (the one near Universal, not in Kissimmee). We went here last time and despite a 4 hour rainstorm which put a damper on the day, we had an absolute BLAST and both want to do it again. This will be a long day since they close very late. We'll take a mid-day break to have a quick lunch and hit the other outlet mall for more Converse. She may want to hit the Disney store to trade pins too, since while she doesn't want to go to the Disney parks, she loves pin trading.
Thursday - sleep late, maybe hit the hotel pool if there's a decent one wherever we end up. Head to Universal/IoA for one last hurrah on our favorite rides. Dinner at City Walk then Blue Man Group.
Friday - drive home!
How does this sound? Originally we were going to stay one more day, but since we eliminated Sea World from the itinerary, I figure we can wrap things up by Thursday night. Unless I come up with another day's worth of fun, in which case we'll head home Saturday instead.
