Summer Trip Report Finally Yay!!

[macraven]

So nice you shared your trip with us

Your pictures are great!
Everyone looks like they had a blast

 

[bobbie68]

So nice you shared your trip with us

Your pictures are great!
Everyone looks like they had a blast

Thank you for replying and reading. Yes we did have a blast. We love being at there. I am excited about planning our trip in June. I get side tracked taking pictures, I want to do more next time.

 

[bobbie68]

The Last Day August 4, 2017

We had decided on an evening flight so that we could spend at least part of the day at the resort. I like to relax on travel day before heading to the airport. We always pack the night before so in the morning just move out of the room. We left our bags with the the desk and went about our day. We would be picked up at 4:30 from CBBR. The last day was a nice sunny one so we found great chairs by the hot tub/pool. We just spent the day swimming and eating. The poolside bar is really nice with good food. It is very convenient for the pool. The walk is only a few minutes to the main lobby for the food court soda and slush refills. The soda machine at the pool bar doesn't have a lot of choices. We like the nachos from the pool bar and we all settled on that for lunch.

DH and I were talking at the hot tub and realized that we are on such a tight time schedule with flying. It stinks to have to cut out if your in the middle of something fun to leave. If we had driven we could stay that extra hour and not worry about it. We decided with DD's ears so bad and having more flexibility that we will drive in June. I have never driven further then Ohio this year. It is about a 10 hour dive to there. I figured if I break up the drive with an overnight almost half way down I should be good. We are going to take advantage of our Cedar Fair Park passes and stop at King's Dominion and Carowinds.

At about 3:00 we had to pack it in and get ready to leave We like the shower and changing area area at the hotel so we used that. We don't like to stay with chlorine on our bodies till late at night. Our flight was at 8:30 and we wouldn't get home till after midnight. When we were done we just all waited in the lobby for our driver. My DD is funny though, she loves the slush machine so she kept going back every 5 minutes like 3 times to get them. At least we got use of the resort mug. I think we used the resort mug more last time. Our room was closer to the food court and we were at the hotel a little more. However, I think they are a great idea and we utilize it every trip.

Our ride pulls up and we say our good-byes till next year and it is such a somber mood in the car. We really enjoy Florida in general and our making plans to move there in a couple of years so we really hate leaving. The only thing we look forward to coming back to is our cats.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We had some dinner then waited at the gate. The one thing I didn't realize is that MCO does not sell gum anymore. It is banned from being sold there. I felt so bad for DD she needs to have gum and we just figured she would get it at the airport. Now I will make sure to have extra.

The flight home was a little better for DD which was good. Another awesome trip completed and couldn't wait to start planning the next.

everyone for following along. I really enjoyed doing a complete report with pictures. I am inspired now to take more pictures next time.

We are booked at PBH at the end of June so now I only have to wait 7 months

 

[macraven]

Love that you shared your vacation with us!


Won't be long until you take the next trip

 

[bobbie68]

Love that you shared your vacation with us!


Won't be long until you take the next trip

Thank you for reading and I loved sharing it. It brought back all the great memories of the trip. Yes I can't wait

 

[bellarinah]

Just found your trip report yesterday and read the whole thing. Really enjoyed it!! You packed in so much in your vacation!! I saw you mentioning writing up a pre-trip report for your trip in June this year. Have you strated it yet? If so, please put up a link so I can follow along. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Robo56]

Thank you for sharing your lovely trip report and pictures. Thank you for the great information on Volcano Bay and Discovery Cove.

You and your family will love the Portofino. That is my favorite resort at Universal. The rooms are big and nicely decorated. The staff there are so friendly. I have been going there for a few years and it just keeps getting better.

The beach pool is fun. The Villa pool is quieter if you want. The food and drinks from Splendido at the pool are very good. Nachos and fruit platter are easily shared by 4 people.

The Pizza’s at Sal’s are yummy. There is also a Starbucks there for those who are addicted to their coffee. I will admit I’am a tad.

There is a great sticky under Universal Orlando Resorts and Hotels on Portofino you will learn everything you need to know on Portofino. If you have any more questions about Portofino someone will jump in and help you.

Have a great trip in June

 

[bobbie68]

Just found your trip report yesterday and read the whole thing. Really enjoyed it!! You packed in so much in your vacation!! I saw you mentioning writing up a pre-trip report for your trip in June this year. Have you strated it yet? If so, please put up a link so I can follow along. Can't wait to read more!

Hi Thank you for reading it. I really enjoyed that trip and I loved doing the trip report! I enjoyed packing it with stuff but this time will be just Universal with a quick trip to visit a college for my DD. I can't wait to start my pre-trip report

 

[bobbie68]

Thank you for sharing your lovely trip report and pictures. Thank you for the great information on Volcano Bay and Discovery Cove.

You and your family will love the Portofino. That is my favorite resort at Universal. The rooms are big and nicely decorated. The staff there are so friendly. I have been going there for a few years and it just keeps getting better.

The beach pool is fun. The Villa pool is quieter if you want. The food and drinks from Splendido at the pool are very good. Nachos and fruit platter are easily shared by 4 people.

The Pizza’s at Sal’s are yummy. There is also a Starbucks there for those who are addicted to their coffee. I will admit I’am a tad.

There is a great sticky under Universal Orlando Resorts and Hotels on Portofino you will learn everything you need to know on Portofino. If you have any more questions about Portofino someone will jump in and help you.

Have a great trip in June

Hi thank you so much for reading it and the comments. I follow your posts all the time and you have great advice. The one thing I am a little sad I really wanted to get back to PBH. We ran into some financial issues so RPR is a little cheaper without the AP rate so we are booked club level there. I am going to keep checking AP up until I go if not then it is just another reason to do another universal trip. I will pool hop and visit over at PBH if I can't stay there. I haven't been back there in a long time and remember how pretty it was.

 

[jcc0621]

I didn't see where you are from. We have flown and driven (from Philly) and after the last time we flew and I had a medical issue that delayed me going home a few days after my husband and son we have driven every time. 2016 was our last trip and we stopped in St. Augustine for a couple of days. This coming summer we are driving and stopping Charleston, SC for a couple of days on the way up and Kings Dominion will be our stopping point on the way home. I like having the flexibility of being on my schedule of when we want to leave, etc

 

[bobbie68]

I didn't see where you are from. We have flown and driven (from Philly) and after the last time we flew and I had a medical issue that delayed me going home a few days after my husband and son we have driven every time. 2016 was our last trip and we stopped in St. Augustine for a couple of days. This coming summer we are driving and stopping Charleston, SC for a couple of days on the way up and Kings Dominion will be our stopping point on the way home. I like having the flexibility of being on my schedule of when we want to leave, etc

Thank you! I am glad to hear a positive response on driving. Yes after this trip with my daughter we will drive unless we have to get there quickly. I like the idea of the freedom to come and go as I please. This last trip I really felt the pressure of having to get to the airport on time as well. We are in CT so we are going to split the drive. We area going to stop at Kings Dominion on the way down over night then drive the next day to Orlando. On the way back we will stop at Carowinds in North Carolina. We are making the drive a two day affair. We bought Platnum passes for Cedar Fair Parks because we go to Cedar Point twice a year so going to take advantage of the East Coast. I am looking forward to the drive I think

 

[123SA]

Thanks for writing this report. I find these type of reports great for help with planning and I appreciate the time you spent writing it.

I have a trip planned the same time this year (July 31 - Aug 8). We will have UExp, so I'm not concerned about ride lines. However, my family is concerned about general crowd levels. Did you find the parks very crowded? Was is difficult to manage counter service meals or snacks due to summer crowds?

THanks for your help.

 

[bobbie68]

Thanks for writing this report. I find these type of reports great for help with planning and I appreciate the time you spent writing it.

I have a trip planned the same time this year (July 31 - Aug 8). We will have UExp, so I'm not concerned about ride lines. However, my family is concerned about general crowd levels. Did you find the parks very crowded? Was is difficult to manage counter service meals or snacks due to summer crowds?

THanks for your help.

Hi you're welcome and thank you for the nice comments. I enjoy writing it and being able to help anybody with their trip.

This was our second year with this week and I really liked it. The tour groups are gone and you mostly have families. I do not like crowded places and at no time (except for leaving a show) did I feel like people were on top of me. It is a summer crowd but I think it starts lightening up this week and is manageable.

VB was a little difficult for counter service but that is not a good judgement since it was only opened a couple of months and they were working out the kinks. I feel there is that peak time when the food stands are more crowded. When we would eat lunch at the HP restaurants we would be there by 11:45 if not we would wait till after 1:30. When we went to Thunder Falls Terrace about 1:00 the line was about 10 minutes to wait and go through for our food. It was funny because by the time we were done eating about 1:30 the line was much shorter. We found City walk restaurants less crowded during the day for lunch. In fact we found toothsome to be a good place to eat then.

Snacks we really don't do. We did have the coke free-style cup and the lines were a little longer at the outdoor carts to get filled up. I have to say those were our longest food/drink lines to wait in.

The EP will be helpful for the rides.

This year we have to switch our week to the end of June due to our AP expiring and VB being blacked out in July. I will miss this week and hope we like the week we are going this year.

Happy Planning and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[GoldmanTrust]

This is my favorite trip report. Thanks so much for sharing. We also love Cabana Bay and Volcano Bay. So this was super helpful!

Thanks so much!

 

[bobbie68]

This is my favorite trip report. Thanks so much for sharing. We also love Cabana Bay and Volcano Bay. So this was super helpful!

Thanks so much!

Hi you're welcome and thank you for reading my report. I am so glad it was helpful! I remember last summer when it was first opening we were all scrambling for information for our trip. I love these boards and the peeps here. Everyone is so passionate about their vacations and love to help people. I love writing them and sharing our trips. Yes I agree we love Cabana Bay and are actually going to miss staying there this year. We are going for 5 days and plan to spend more time at the parks and in July the express pass comes in handy. I had thought about going back there for a night but it would mess up my SMSM rate at RPR. I loved walking to VB last summer it was SO nice. I heard the shuttle is fine so the shuttle it is.

 

[ckmiles]

I dont know how I missed this report- thanks for posting the link from the VB thread!

Loved this report- thanks for sharing.