mumzie2three
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
- Messages
- 644
ABOUT US: Hi all! We are a family of 5, me and hubby with three children: two girls, 13 and 11, and a 4 yr old son. I LOVE Disney but I love the theming of Universal and the size of the parks. I am a huge Potter fan plus I love Seuss and Popeye from my childhood. My girls love MIB, Shrek, and they are going to be surprised by the new Minion ride. My son is obsessed with Spiderman and he freaks at the Universal commercials that show the ride. Hubby likes roller coasters and he likes watching his kids have fun. He is never disappointed by my vacation planning.
IN THE BEGINNING: So this whole trip started with a great deal on plane tickets. Southwest had $99 each way from Providence, RI to MCO which fit our family of five budget. Originally, the plan was to fly down mid-day on Thurs. Aug. 23 and return home mid-morning on Tues. Aug. 28th (my kids would miss first day of school). I basically shaped the trip around the tickets and convinced hubby that we would be crazy not to go.
Based on these dates I was planning on booking RPR and after mulling it over for a few days I saw that club level had opened up for our dates. Yay!!!! It was always my dream to stay onsite after our last trip (even if the kids don't need a mid-day break, I do) and after reading the boards, club level seemed like it might be more convenient than purchasing a stockpile of drinks and snacks. The SMSM rate is a great incentive too. I think we will consume enough food/drinks to make it worth it.
Next step was to contact Tony Hinds to be our round-trip transportation from airport to hotel. $100 rt with booster seat and grocery stop (which we might use to grab dinner since our flight lands at 8:30 pm).
CHANGE IN PLANS: My husband has family in FL so he wanted a day to see them and after only a few days of re-checking Southwest, I found a flight down for $95 the day before (leaving Wed instead of Thurs). It was an easy decision since there was no change fee and I got a $20 refund!
This means adding another day at the beginning of trip, so I called Loews and there were no club level rooms for that day. Oh no!!! I hesitantly booked a standard and then spent almost 2 weeks wringing my hands over it (see other posts where I complain about the rate). Plus, I really didn't like the idea of having to change rooms and went so far as to book HRH club for Wed-Tues. I know we would probably be happy at any of the on-site hotels, so I just cancelled the HRH and I am very relieved to have finally committed 100% to RPR. Booking off-site first night and then going to RPR the next morning would have been even more of a hassle than just moving within the same hotel.
I figure I will call hotel a few days out and request a room near the lobby for the first night so we can get into/checked out of room with out messing with elevators/long hallways. I might also make a request for our club level room based on some of the room suggestions here.
OTHER DETAILS: I ordered our 4 day park-to-park tickets from Undercover Tourist and feel like we saved a bundle. Now I am planning on ordering some Universal gift cards so I can control the kids' spending. I have also pre-bought souvenirs like t-shirts and shorts, activity books. My plan is to tell my youngest that there is a special surprise waiting back at the room for him each day. Hopefully this will prevent a lot of expensive impulse buys. I have Seth's book and it has totally gotten me amped! My next post will probably deal with what I'm bringing and my rough itinerary.
PS: This trip is a surprise for the kids and I'm still figuring out how/when to let them in on the destination.
IN THE BEGINNING: So this whole trip started with a great deal on plane tickets. Southwest had $99 each way from Providence, RI to MCO which fit our family of five budget. Originally, the plan was to fly down mid-day on Thurs. Aug. 23 and return home mid-morning on Tues. Aug. 28th (my kids would miss first day of school). I basically shaped the trip around the tickets and convinced hubby that we would be crazy not to go.
Based on these dates I was planning on booking RPR and after mulling it over for a few days I saw that club level had opened up for our dates. Yay!!!! It was always my dream to stay onsite after our last trip (even if the kids don't need a mid-day break, I do) and after reading the boards, club level seemed like it might be more convenient than purchasing a stockpile of drinks and snacks. The SMSM rate is a great incentive too. I think we will consume enough food/drinks to make it worth it.
Next step was to contact Tony Hinds to be our round-trip transportation from airport to hotel. $100 rt with booster seat and grocery stop (which we might use to grab dinner since our flight lands at 8:30 pm).
CHANGE IN PLANS: My husband has family in FL so he wanted a day to see them and after only a few days of re-checking Southwest, I found a flight down for $95 the day before (leaving Wed instead of Thurs). It was an easy decision since there was no change fee and I got a $20 refund!
This means adding another day at the beginning of trip, so I called Loews and there were no club level rooms for that day. Oh no!!! I hesitantly booked a standard and then spent almost 2 weeks wringing my hands over it (see other posts where I complain about the rate). Plus, I really didn't like the idea of having to change rooms and went so far as to book HRH club for Wed-Tues. I know we would probably be happy at any of the on-site hotels, so I just cancelled the HRH and I am very relieved to have finally committed 100% to RPR. Booking off-site first night and then going to RPR the next morning would have been even more of a hassle than just moving within the same hotel.
I figure I will call hotel a few days out and request a room near the lobby for the first night so we can get into/checked out of room with out messing with elevators/long hallways. I might also make a request for our club level room based on some of the room suggestions here.
OTHER DETAILS: I ordered our 4 day park-to-park tickets from Undercover Tourist and feel like we saved a bundle. Now I am planning on ordering some Universal gift cards so I can control the kids' spending. I have also pre-bought souvenirs like t-shirts and shorts, activity books. My plan is to tell my youngest that there is a special surprise waiting back at the room for him each day. Hopefully this will prevent a lot of expensive impulse buys. I have Seth's book and it has totally gotten me amped! My next post will probably deal with what I'm bringing and my rough itinerary.
PS: This trip is a surprise for the kids and I'm still figuring out how/when to let them in on the destination.
The latter being the most troubling, of course. In all the chaos, my husband let our destination slip, so the older two now know where we are going but not where we are staying. Our little boy is still in the dark. 
