The Dark Side, DVC Stay, Hoop Dee Doo & More-APRIL 2015 Trip Report***Completed 8/23***

[buzzrelly]

Hello all…I love reading trip reports and reliving the magic through reading about everyone's vacations, so I thought I could start one of my own! But being that this is my first report, bear with me if I mess things up!

First, our cast of characters and some background. Traveling on this trip was DS13, DD11, DM (MOM?), and Me.




You can probably figure out who's who in the pics without much explanation. I couldn't find a picture of just me alone since I am the designated picture taker. Always have been. Occasionally, DM will offer to take some pics, but she has a hard time figuring out where to touch on my iphone, and I am not the most patient person so I end up behind the camera most times. And honestly, that is just fine by me! I don't love myself in pictures much anyway!

I am the Disney nut in my family, and I have brought up my children to be just as crazy about Disney as I am, as every good mother should!

My Dear Mom took her first trip to WDW (and actually her first trip ANYWHERE!) with us in 2010 and she was hooked. She loves it probably as much as we do! She has come on every trip with us ever since: Cruise on the Disney Magic in 2012, WDW in 2013 and 2014, and then this trip.

I became a DVC member just last year when I thought about how much we love WDW and plan on returning over and over. It seemed a no-brainer for me and I am so glad I finally did it. The only regret I have was not becoming a DVC member sooner! So this trip was to be our first as DVC members, and we booked our home resort of BLT. Before becoming DVC members, our favorite resort was The Contemporary. I LOVE being able to walk back and forth to the MK, or taking the monorail to EPCOT!

Anyway, this year was a year of firsts for us. Our first DVC trip, our first trip to Universal studios, etc. We have never been to Universal and the kids and I have been wanting to see all the Harry Potter stuff, so we decided that with all the money we are saving on our resort with our DVC membership (HA!), why not go spend a couple of days on "The Dark Side," as they like to say! We decided that since we were only going to be at UO for a couple days, we wanted to stay onsite and take advantage of the early admission and front of the line passes. We booked Lowe's Royal Pacific and were very happy that we did. The resort was very pretty and well-maintained and close enough to walk to City Walk. Here we are at our first early admission...



We were up before the sun and anxious to see the Harry Potter areas!

I guess I'll take a break here…my life (the grocery store) is calling! I will post more soon with LOTS of pictures! I took at least 600, plus I have the Photopass and Universal's photo pass (Forget what it's called!)!

Thanks for starting to follow along…see ya' real soon!


I forgot to reserve Post #2 for the Table of Contents. See Post #6, or click here for the Table of Contents

 

[crepemyrtle]

Following along, and looking forward to reliving the magic with you.

 

[buzzrelly]

My life is in order…for a little while anyway. The kids are occupied, we have some food in the house, and it's kind of rainy and crummy outside. Needless to say, the perfect time to add on to my trip report!

I should have said in the first post that the dates of our trip, April 9th-April 20th, 2015. This was the longest trip we'd ever taken…another first…our first 11 night trip! I was a little nervous that it was going to be too long. Guess what? It wasn't! None of us were longing for home by the end! Shocking, I know!

We were to take a 4:30 pm flight from BDL and I had everything so well planned out. But you know what they say about the best laid plans…

The plan was that I was going to get my hair done and looking pretty in the morning (I can't have Mickey seeing any grays, now can I?!), then I was going to pick up the kids early from school, bring them home quick to say good-bye to the dog and grab their electronics, grab something to eat and head to the airport which is about 30 minutes from us. But DD came home from dance the night before complaining of a sore throat and that morning had a low-grade fever of like 99.3 which made me worry that she may be getting sick. So as I am sitting at my hairdresser's, I decided to call the pediatrician and see if they would maybe prescribe an antibiotic that I could bring with us just in case she got worse while we were on our vacation. I know, I know…of course they wouldn't do that but they told me to bring her in for a throat culture. Ugh! I was convinced that doing a throat culture at this point would be a waste of time but I reluctantly agreed to bring her. Which meant that I had to get them from school an hour earlier, which also meant that my hairdresser had to rush to get me out of there so I could go! Thank God I've been going to him for 30 years and he graciously hurried his way through my blow dry. I ran to the school and got the kids. They were surprised to see me an hour early and they were thrilled, until I told them WHY I was early! We hurried over to the pediatrician and I was a nervous wreck by then…my stomach was in knots thinking how much time I was wasting and how I just wanted to get on our way. We got a new pediatrician in the office and this was my first time meeting her and I'm trying to rush her but not be impolite. Not quite sure I pulled that off since I was so nervous. She was so nice and told me they'd run the rapid strep test right away, but since DD hadn't had a sore throat for at least 24 hours, it probably wouldn't show up positive. She was also going to run the longer version and give me a prescription to take with me. Well, just our luck, wouldn't you know that the rapid test came back POSITIVE! I was shocked! And then I was thanking my lucky stars that I had brought her in then! I would hate to have her get sick in Florida! So off we went with a prescription for an antibiotic that DD would have to take for 10 days…hurried to CVS and hurriedly explained to the pharmacy tech that we were literally off to catch a plane! After that was all done, we ran home to meet DM and finally left the house for the airport at about 1:30. Did I mention that while I love flying, I only fly once a year and it really stresses me out. The whole checking the luggage, getting through security, etc. I usually relax some once I am through security and sitting at the gate. So while I know I get to the airport way too early, I'd rather sit at the gate and relax than be rushing and panicking that we won't make the flight! We got to the gate around 3, I guess and the plane started boarding around 4.

Here are some obligatory plane/airport pics…

Sitting at the gate…





You'd never know DD was sick! She was acting like her little goofball self!

And our plane…


And up in the air…

You're probably noticing there are more pics of DD than there are of DS. That's because when I pull out the camera, DD starts posing automatically. DS just kind of grunts and won't make eye contact. Ugh…teenage boys! LOL! Actually, he is a pretty good sport to put up with us girls and our shenanigans! He even smiles for the camera sometimes!

Yay! We landed!



I love MCO and getting on this monorail…this is when my vacation mode really starts to kick in!



So another first for us on this trip was NOT taking the Magical Express …Sad, I know. But since we were heading to Universal first, we had to either rent a car or hire a car service. We decided to go with the latter since I don't like driving on unfamiliar highways, and we always use WDW transportation while we are there. On the advice of many people on these boards, we hired Tony Hinds to drive us from MCO to Universal and then from Universal to Bay Lake Tower. Overall, we had a good experience, with just one minor glitch on the second leg of our trip, that I will explain more about later.

Tony met us in MCO near the baggage claim and helped us get our luggage out to the van which was waiting right outside for us. I think we were in the van and on our way about 15 minutes after we landed. Crazy! So while I thought I would really miss taking the ME, once I was sitting in that van and our way, I never gave it a second thought!

We had a lovely ride which seemed to go by pretty quickly. I think it may have been around 30 or so minutes from MCO to the Royal Pacific Resort. We had a pleasant conversation with Tony and he pointed out some points of interest, like the new Orlando Eye that was just built. We soon arrived and Tony tried to slow down a little so we could get a couple pictures.

Our first glimpse of Universal…



And our hotel…



I think this is where I'll pause for now…I didn't realize this would take me so long! I'm really starting to get the hang of this posting pics and editing thing now, so hopefully this will start moving along a little faster!

Up next, checking into our room at Royal Pacific and then some Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

 

[buzzrelly]

Following along, and looking forward to reliving the magic with you.

Thank you!!

 

[jandlinz]

Following along. Can't wait to see pictures of BLT. We are in estoppel for our SSR resale. We wish we could have bought BLT. I secretly hope we can one day, but I thank my lucky stars my DH agreed to buy into DVC in the first place. Like you we wish we would have bought sooner. Can't wait to see your pictures!
-Lindsey

 

[buzzrelly]

It seems I forgot to save space for a table of contents…whoops! I told y'all to bear with me, didn't I? Well, start "bearing'" now!

Table of Contents
April 9th, Part 1-The kink in our plans and Taking Off
April 9th, Part 2-Checking in and City Walk
April 10th, Part 1-Up at the crack of dawn to see a dragon
April 10th, Part 2-The Big Pink
April 10th, Part 3-Hogsmeade and Islands of Adventure
April 10th, Part 4-Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville
April 11th, Part 1-Islands of Adventure
April 11th, Part 2-Who wants a Krusty Burger?
April 12th, Part 1-Last morning at Universal
April 12th-Universal Photopass Pics
April 12th, Part 2-Finally getting to BLT!
April 12th, Part 3-Cruisin' in the Jungle
April 12th, Part 4-Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party
April 13th, Part 1-Will I, or Won't I Conquer Everest?
April 13th, Part 2-Safari Breakfast with Donald and Friends
April 13, Part 3-Animal Kingdom in a Nutshell
April 13th, Part 4-A Little Bit Goofy
April 14th, Part 1-Droppin' it at DHS
April 14th, Part 2-Rock N' Roller Coaster!
April 14th, Part 3-It's Time to Play the Music
April 14th, Part 4-Let Me Draw You a Picture
April 14th, Part 5-Where Did The Hat Go?
April 15th, Part 1-Second Star to the Right
April 15th, Part 2-Gotta Keep on Movin' Along
April 15th, Part 3-The Magic Spells of Merlin
April 15th, Part 4-Walkin' Right Down the Middle of Main Street, USA
April 16th, Part 1-Soarin'
April 16th, Part 2-Flowers and Gardens
April 16th, Part 3-More Flowers and Gardens
April 16th, Part 4-Pool, Pizza and Sorcery
April 17th, Part 1-Soarin
April 17th, Part 2-Splash…again!
April 17th, Part 3-ELP
April 18th, Part 1-Plans? What Plans?
April 18th, Part 2-Typhoon Lagoon
April 18th, Part 3-Beaches & Cream (with food pics!)
April 19th, Part 1-Chef Mickey's & MK
April 19th, Part2-Hoop Dee Doo!
April 19th, Part 3-Skipping Wishes
April 20th, Part 1-Now It's Time to Say Good-bye
April 20th, Part 2-Now It's Time to Say Good-bye
April 20th, Part 3-Now It's Time to Say Good-bye

 

[buzzrelly]

Following along. Can't wait to see pictures of BLT. We are in estoppel for our SSR resale. We wish we could have bought BLT. I secretly hope we can one day, but I thank my lucky stars my DH agreed to buy into DVC in the first place. Like you we wish we would have bought sooner. Can't wait to see your pictures!
-Lindsey

Thanks! Is estoppel the right of first refusal? If so, good luck with that! Fingers crossed that it all goes through okay! I am sure that you will get a chance to stay at BLT no matter which resort you buy into! It really was a great place! We booked a Theme Park View for next year's trip already and I can't wait to go back!

Here's a pic of BLT to tide you over…this was taken from the boat from Fort Wilderness... ...

 

[buzzrelly]

Day 1 (still)
Tony dropped us off at Royal Pacific Resort. We had researched and looked up pics of RPR and one of the reasons we chose to stay here was for the beautiful grounds. Once we got there and saw it for ourselves, we knew we made the right choice.





Sorry that some of my pics seem blurry. That's what you get when you try to walk and take pictures t the same time!

Check in to RPR was a breeze. The only request we made when reserving our room was for a recently renovated room. We were put in Tower 3 in a renovated room and were very happy with it!

Here are a couple of room pics…


I always TRY to remember to take a pic of our room number…



Love the flowers…


Our little tiki guy in the background…

I'm guessing it was around 8pm by now and we were all hungry since we hadn't eaten since lunch (unless you count all the goldfish crackers and gummy bears we scarfed down on the plane!). We decided to head to City Walk to get something to eat and to check things out. But the first thing we had to do was shed some layers, we were definitely dressed more appropriately for CT than we were for FL! The thermometer in my car on the way to the airport said 43 degrees. It was at least double that in Florida! It actually felt lovely to us once we lost the sweaters and jeans!








It was a lovely evening and a very nice, scenic walk to City Walk. I felt like the walk was about the same as walking from BLT to MK, or maybe just a little longer.

Once we got to City Walk, there were a ton of food places to choose from so we split up since nobody could agree. If anyone has 2 or more kids that actually agree on things from time to time, let me know your secret! My two never seem to want the same things at the same time!

DD and DM went to Red Oven Pizza Bakery, and Ds and I headed over to Moe's. DS loves Mexican food and DD won't touch it. Go figure. Moe's line was really long and it seemed to take forever to get our food. I couldn't believe how crowded City Walk was, in general! It actually worked out though since DD's pizza was made fresh and took time to cook. By the time DS and I got back with Moe's, DD and DM had just gotten their pizza.





I'm not the greatest at remembering to take pics of our food before we start eating , but here are a couple. I was going to post one more pic of City Walk in general, but I reached my limit! City Walk is kind of like Downtown Disney, but if I had to choose which I like better, DtD wins, hands down. City Walk was way more crowded than DtD, and for us, there just wasn't as much to do there…aside from eating, of course! There seemed to be a much younger crowd there, and a lot of partying and drinking and smoking. Just not our scene, though I am not bashing people who like that sort of thing. Downtown Disney just has way more shops and more G-rated entertainment that we enjoy.

Since there wasn't too much for us to do here, we just headed back to the resort to rest up for our FIRST (there it is again!) early morning extra hour.

Up next…Getting up at the crack of dawn to see a dragon!

 

[buzzrelly]

Day 2-April 10, 2015
PART1
Both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure were opening early today, so we had our choice of which one we wanted to head to first. I guess this is one of the perks of going on Spring Break with millions of other people…they needed to spread us out. We chose to head to Universal Studios to see that dragon that everyone was talking about.

Being that this was our first day, I was super excited to get up and get started. I was up and ready to go first so I went down to the Orchid Lounge for some coffee and juice and some fruit for breakfast. I may have been a little TOO excited though, since when I got down there they were just setting up. They let me get my items though and I just had to wait a couple minutes to pay since they hadn't gotten the cash register ready yet. My receipt from that morning said it was 5:56 am!

I went back up to the room and wrestled everyone else out of bed and hurried them along. My DM can be a poke in the morning, and for the whole trip she was the last to be ready. I was always first, DS second, and DD third. My poor kids and mom have learned to put up with me being the timekeeper on the vacation. I don't know what it is, but for the first couple of days I am super impatient and antsy to get going. Usually after a couple days, I relax some and kind of go with the flow. I think it's just so much a part of my life, being the timekeeper and making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be. Plus, being a nurse, I have to be on task or my patients don't get their meds, or fed or taken care of. It's hard for me to just turn that part of myself off when I go on vacation!

Well, we made it to the park in pretty good time…this pic was taken at 6:49. It was still semi-dark and the street lights were still on…

It was such a nice morning. The weather was perfect and it was so quiet and peaceful on our walk. We hadn't explored the hotel enough yet to find where the boat launch was and since we had just walked to City Walk last night, we knew where the walking path was so we thought it would just be faster to walk.

Early morning hours at Universal are not like at WDW. When we walked through the entrance, there were people directing us to Diagon Alley. Most everything else in the park is closed. Diagon Alley seems to be just about as far from the entrance as you can get! We were all excited and hurrying to get there, so I took a few more pictures but we were walking and they came out blurry. Here's the least blurry pic…


And our first glimpse of the Dragon…isn't he (she?) cool?!!


Since we aren't the fastest walkers, we hurried to get in line at Gringotts behind what was already a fairly sizable line. We didn't mind a little bit of a wait though because there is so much to look at.





It actually felt to us like being on the set of a movie. The goblins were so life like! Just to clarify, we are not the biggest Harry Potter fans. I read part of the series many years ago and I have seen the first 2 movies. The kids haven't read the books and have seen a couple of the movies, as well, and DM has not read the books or seen the movies. Despite this, we were in awe of this place. So I guess you don't have to be the biggest HP fans to appreciate what a great area this was!

After waiting in line for a bit, there was an announcement overhead that they were having technical difficulties. NO!! Just what I was afraid of! I had heard that this ride goes offline quite a bit but I was hoping it wouldn't happen to us. We discussed whether we should leavee and go to Islands of Adventure to see Hogwart's, but we all decided that we would just stick it out in line and hope for the best. And we were glad we did since it started working again about 15 minutes later. The ride itself was pretty cool too.

Since we started planning for this trip, DD has been dying to get an interactive wand. So after Gringotts, we headed over to Ollivanders and watched the little wand show. It was cute but neither of my kids got picked and it was absolutely FREEZING in there so I couldn't wait to get out! After the show, we were let out into the store where the kids each picked out a wand. I think DD got Harry's wand and DS picked Draco Malfoy mom's wand.



After a little practice, the kids really got the hang of casting spells. Admittedly, it was slightly frustrating for them at first but there are actually people walking around to help them figure it out. And when they spells worked, it was exciting!





We wandered around Diagon Alley a bit more and checked things out. DS had his first Butter Beer. I took a sip of his and decided it was too sweet, but he loved it. This was just one of many he would have over the next couple days.



We spent a couple hours checking things out and casting spells and, of course, checking out that dragon. That never got old…



I ran out of picture space, so I will make a PART 2 in the next post…To be continued…

Up next… The Big Pink!

 

[buzzrelly]

Day 2-April 10, 2015
PART2
The Big Pink

We headed out of Diagon Alley and over to the Simpsons area. We used our Express Pass and went on the ride which was funny and kind of cute. But were all getting hungry at this point and DS was anxious to try The Big Pink Doughnut, so we headed over and got him one., but first we ran into these guys…



The Big Pink Doughnut…

That thing was a monster, and yup, DS ate the whole thing! Ah, to be a growing boy!

DM got some other pastry, and DD and I each got ice cream cones (yes, I know it's breakfast…don't judge! It is vacation, after all!). We wandered around Springfield a little more and took some pics…





I HAD to have someone take my pic with the Delorean from Back To The Future. It is one of my all time favorite movies! Years ago I went to Universal Studios in CA and rode the BTTF ride and loved it. I think they turned it into The Simpsons Ride, if I'm not mistaken. I'm sad the ride is gone, but I was pleasantly surprised to see they kept the Delorean.



With our bellies full, we walked back to King's Crossing to take the Hogwart's Express over to Islands of Adventure.




There was a time on our lives that DS was OBSESSED with trains. It started out with Thomas and carried on into Steam Trains, etc., so we have seen our share of trains. And yet, this one was still impressive. Though I've heard that it's not even a real train? If it is not, they sure fooled us! We waited about 10 minutes to board, and from then it was about a 5-10 minute ride in which there was a little entertainment going on. I won't say too much so I don't spoil it for anyone, but it was amusing and helped pass the time.

To be continued...

Up next…Hogsmeade and Islands of Adventure…

 

[wiscbugs]

We did a WDW/Universal trip at the end of March/early April. I thought the wands were the best part of the Harry Potter worlds....all of those interactive stations were very cool.

 

[goodmorningirl]

Joining in!

 

[buzzrelly]

We did a WDW/Universal trip at the end of March/early April. I thought the wands were the best part of the Harry Potter worlds....all of those interactive stations were very cool.

Honestly, that was our favorite part too. DD couldn't get enough!

Joining in!

Awesome!

 

[buzzrelly]

DAY 2-April 10, 2015
PART 3
Hogsmeade and Islands of Adventure

After seeing Diagon Alley, seeing Hogwart's Castle wasn't quite as impressive as it would have been.It's almost like after seeing the Magic Kingdom, none of the other parks will WOW you like the MK did. But honestly, the area was still quite amazing and very well done.



The line for the ride was too long at this point and we couldn't use the Express Pass for it, so we decided to skip it and ride first thing tomorrow morning during the extra morning hour. So we walked around a bit and did some spells…



Around lunch time, we decided to head back and have some pool time. We were all getting hot and hungry, and some friends of ours had just gotten there and were hanging but the pool so we wanted to meet up with them.

On the way out, we stopped for Chocolate Frogs…





And then we took the boat back to RPR and hit the pool…



If any of you are from New England, you KNOW what a terrible winter we just had! This felt soooooo amazing after that! The pool at RPR was awesome. Our favorite part was the chair towels that fit over the backs of the chairs! I wish Disney had those. Disney's pool towels are SUPER SKIMPY, in comparison!

We met up with our friends and spent a few hours just relaxing, before going back up to the room to get ready for dinner.

To be continued…

Up next…Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville...

 

[buzzrelly]

DAY 2-April 10, 2015
PART 4
Wasted Away Again in Margaritaville

This was a long day! I can't believe I had to split it into 4 parts!

Anyway, I just wanted to post about our trip to Margaritaville. This turned out to be one our best meals of the trip. My mom and I are both Jimmy Buffet fans and were excited to go here. We got a seat outside, which was nice because it was warm out but the seating area was nicely shaded. We got there around 6, which I guess is a good time to go because we didn't have to wait at all for a table, but by the time we were leaving, a line was forming.

Ironically, we didn't order Margaritas. DM and I are not big drinkers. I occasionally have a drink but often times it just makes me sleepy. I needed the little boost of caffeine from my Diet Coke after this long day!

The restaurant was cute and had a nice beachy vibe.



DD made some glasses out of these sticky sticks…




We all enjoyed our dinners there very much. DM and I each for salads with chicken. We decided later that we would start sharing meals because the salads we so big that neither of us could finish!


DS ordered the burger, which he enjoyed. This was the FIRST of at least 10 burgers he ate down there! I don't know how he didn't get sick of burgers, but he didn't!


And DD ordered the chicken fingers and french fries off the kids menu, which is her staple food item.


It was a satisfying meal and we were all stuffed. We walked around City Walk for a bit and then walked back to RPR to walk off some of our fullness.

It was such a beautiful night anyway and the walk is really very pretty.

Finally the end of day 2.

Up next…Day 3, Doing it all in Reverse!

 

[catmom46]

I'm following along, too! Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[buzzrelly]

Thanks! The updates take longer than I thought they would, and I've been picking up extra shifts at work so I haven't had a chance to write! I can't wait to sit tomorrow with a cup of coffee and start day 3! Spoiler alert…we went to Islands of Adventure and rode the Hogwarts ride!

 

[buzzrelly]

Day3-April 11, 2015
Part 1
Islands of Adventure

I now know why people say to take notes when they are going to write a trip report. I don't even remember how we got to the park this morning! In my defense, in the pictures it looks like I am still drinking my coffee so I was probably in a fog . It was still dark and the time stamp on my first pic says 6:47 am…



We got to the turnstile before they were opened at 7 and went straight to Hogwarts castle. This pic is kind of cool because it still was pretty dark out…



The castle was really cool inside too, though not as cool as Gringott's Bank. We went through the line and there was a short delay when we got to the room where Harry, Ron and Hermione came out on the balcony. We were nervous that the ride was breaking down like Gringott's did the day before, but we quickly started moving again…



My mom and I LOVED this ride! We thought the ride itself was way better than the Gringott's ride! The kids, well, they didn't love it quite as much…

HaHa! This is one of my favorite pics from the whole trip! The kids couldn't even keep their eyes open, and I don't want to say why because I don't want to ruin the ride for anyone who hasn't gone on yet. My mom and I got off and wanted to go back on, but we couldn't persuade the kids to come so mom and I went in the single rider line. We went on and off in about 15 minutes, even though the regular line was getting pretty long by then. If you are going for the first time though, I would recommend going through the regular line at least once to check out the castle.

By 8:17am, DS was already ready for his butter beer…

This time he got the regular one, which he didn't like as much as the frozen one he had gotten yesterday.

We walked around for a bit and the kids went on the dragon challenge roller coaster, which doesn't frighten them in the least…go figure! We just spent a couple hours checking things out, casting spells, etc.



We finally made our way out of the area and checked out the rest of the park…

Once we spotted Jaws, we HAD to make our way over for a pic. DS loves the movie, and I remembered the ride from Universal in CA years ago. I guess the story goes that the shark kept breaking down (kind of like the Yeti!). Anyway, we still needed to get our pic with him…


By then, we were all getting hungry…I don't even remember if we ate any breakfast! Another lesson…takes pics of everything you eat! Off to find some lunch…

To be continued...

 

[buzzrelly]

Keep scrolling

 

[catmom46]

LOL That ride pic is just priceless! I haven't been on it and don't plan to, simply because it's a motion simulator, which I don't do well on. I plan to do the castle tour, though, as I really want to see it. Looking forward to part 2!