Thing 1 and Thing 2 Take on Orlando Oct 2010: 3/13 HHN Video, final thoughts

[sand2270]

Hi, some of you may have followed along on my pre-trip (incomplete) report (link below if you are interested). If you did I apologize for leaving anyone hanging. I am good about finishing my trip reports so I promise that won't happen this time. Since I never finished the pre-trip I will try to fill in some of those details as I go through this report.

Our trip took place in October 2010 and originally I wasn't going to write a trip report. However, I have no Disney trips planned for 2011...nothing...nada...zilch...and I have been missing our trips so I decided to share this one to sorta help me relive it. Since I am sitting home sick with a cold I caught from my DD I decided to take a stab at it today.

The cast of characters includes me and my DD11 (who was 10 at the time). We also have guest characters who happen to be other DISers who I have struck up great friendships with over the past couple of years. I have decided to give them names based on the first initials in their names, so joining us we have Aye (like the Fonz...AYE!!! LOL) and her BF Jay. We also have Tee and Arghh (or her first name starts with R...but Arghh is a little more fun to say), our friend Dee and Aye's children sprinkled in here and there.

Me and DD11

The first part of our trip was focused on Universal, Discovery Cove and SeaWorld with some DisneyWorld sprinkled in. I decided to post the first half under Universal trip reports, when I start the DisneyWorld half I will post under the WDW trip reports.

I will try to keep the chatter to a minimum and the pictures to a maximum. However, I am a details person so if at times my incessant blabbering about details bores you please feel free to skip ahead to the pictures...I won't be insulted.

If you have any interest in past trips, those links are at the bottom of my signature. I will get started in my next post...enjoy!

Pre-Trip Reports
Come on Hotel Deals!
Ok Let's Talk Tickets
Is Renting a Car Really That Interesting? You Tell Me.
How Are We Getting To Orlando?
Where Are We Going To Eat?
Itinerary Take 1
Resort Pictures
What Do You Mean the Fall Break Dates Changed?
Farewell Plan A...Welcome Plan B
Plan B
Adventures in ADR's - What Didn't Make The Cut?

Universal Table of Contents
The Day Before The Day We Leave
Arrival Day: I Spent How Much on Pierogies??
Day 1: First Day at Islands of Adventure (Part 1)
Day 1: First Day at Islands of Adventure (Part 2)
Day 1: Haunted Carriage Ride (Part 3)
Day 2: Discovery Cove (Part 1)
Day 2: Discovery Cove (Part 2)
Day 2: Exploring Universal (Part 3)
Day 3: Islands of Adventure (Part 1)
Day 3: Universal, Outlets, Tu Tu Tango (Part 2)
Day 4: SeaWorld (Part 1)
Day 4: SeaWorld (Part 2)
Day 5: Islands of Adventure (Part 1)
Owl Post
Video of HHN and Final Thoughts

DisneyWorld Table of Contents
WDW Annual Pass Farewell Tour
Day 5: POFQ Check in and Epcot
Day 6: Animal Kingdom (Part 1)
Day 6: Animal Kingdom (Part 2)
Day 7: 1900 Park Fare and MK (Part 1)
Day 7: POFQ pool and Epcot (Part 2)
Day 8: Epcot and Garden View Tea (Part 1)

 

[sand2270]

This update won't have any pictures

I am pretty sure I covered this in the pre-trip report but I should probably comment on what prompted this trip. I took my DD on our first WDW trip in May 09. I had been before on a couple short trips and we had been to Disneyland a number of times. This was our first time tackling the World together and we had an amazing time.

I decided I wanted to return in 2010, but I wanted to venture outside the world and go to Universal to see Harry Potter, and also visit Discovery Cove and SeaWorld. I also wanted to go during Food and Wine and the MNSSHP. My DD gets a fall break so the timing worked out well (If you want to read about me having to reschedule our entire booked trip check out the pre-trip report ).

The day before our flight out I took the day off and finished packing, cleaned the house, and was on facebook a lot posting about my excitement. I have back problems so I went to PT in the morning to fit in one more session before our trip.

Around 2:30pm I loaded the car and I picked up my DD from school. We drove to Phoenix which was an uneventful drive, it usually is. Last year we stopped at Eegee's (A local sub shop) on the way out of town. This time we were meeting a friend of mine in Phoenix for dinner.

We checked in at a Hampton Inn where I had a park and stay deal (more details on this in the pre-trip report). Parking for our trip was included in the price of the room and they would shuttle us to the airport in the morning. I have found I have less stress when we drive up the night before and stay, instead of driving up the morning of our flights. The cost of the hotel is usually close to the cost of parking my car for that period of time so it makes sense to do it.

The hotel was nice, recently renovated. The pool looked nice and there was a small putting green, neither of which we got to use. There was also a comfortable looking lounge area outside off the lobby with flat screen tvs and lots of little sitting areas outside. It was definitely a much nicer place to stay compared to where we stayed last year and I think the price was comparable.

It was really hot and we went to the wrong elevator so we ended up walking around trying to find the room lugging all of our luggage. When we finally found the room the phone was ringing, it was my friend calling me from the lobby. She was in the lobby asking me how to get to the room and I had no idea since we had ourselves gotten lost (doh!), she talked to the front desk and they told her where to go. The room was recently remodeled, it was a little cramped with both beds in the room but was nice.

I bought my DD a trip present for the airplane and gave it to her in the room, a Frankenstein type barbie doll. She was very excited and gave me a big hug. She loved the doll and played with it the whole night. My friend was excited to see my DD, she hasn’t seen her since she was 4 so it was a nice little reunion.

My friend drove us to Cadillac Ranch. We sat outside because we wanted Happy Hour prices and there were no seats inside. Man was it was hot! We were on a second level balcony with misters and I was sweating buckets. The things you do for cheap happy hour food. We had a good time catching up.

One of my best friends is in the Def Leppard Pour Some Sugar On Me video (yes I am 100% serious, they had done some of the shooting at a concert in Tucson). It came on the outside tv's and my DD had never seen it. I was able to show her my friend in the video and she thought that was the coolest thing! She has no idea who Def Leppard is...but it was cool seeing mommy's friend with big hair and blue eyeshadow in a music video.

There were some roller derby girls skating around below and we took my DD's picture with a couple of them (though I can't find them, I have a feeling my friend took them with her camera ). We walked into the Justice so DD could get sunglasses for the trip and I also bought her a book that went along with her new doll.

My friend drove us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes. We got ready for bed and watched The Office (I love The Office). Finally we went to bed around 10:30 and surprisingly enough we both fell asleep fairly easy, even in our excitement.

 

[sand2270]

At this point there isn't a lot of excitement, it gets better once we finally get to Orlando .

I woke up first and started getting ready. I had a hard time getting my DD to wake up, which would be a theme this trip. We were finally ready to leave the room and got our bags together. We walked to the closest elevator this time however it was accessed by a small flight of stairs. I guess I should give our luggage count. We had my normal sized rolling suitcase, my DD's small suitcase (overhead bin size), our small rolling DisneyWorld dufflebag (that we bought in the World last year), my DD's messenger bag and my purse. Not bad but wasn't the easiest pulling those bags up that little flight of stairs.

The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast. They had nice choices, I remember seeing a make your own waffle station. We got to the lobby, found a table and put our luggage there. We both ate light for breakfast, no waffles for us this morning, neither of us was very hungry. Another theme on this trip. My stomach was often unsettled. It was still really warm, if it would have been cooler we would have sat on the nice patio outside.

After breakfast we had some time before our shuttle, so we moved over to a couch in the lobby where we joked around and took pictures of ourselves.

We were getting anxious and were finally called for the shuttle and got to the airport. The check in line for Southwest was busy but moved fast. We checked both suitcases and took the rest on the plane. We went through security, also busy but moving fast. We got through security without any issues, I had prepared DD before hand. Our travel morning was running smoothly.

I wanted us to get some food for the plane. We grabbed two snack packs from Starbucks which had cheese cubes, grapes, carrots and ranch dressing and I got an iced latte. I wanted us to charge my iphone and my DD's ipod but there were no comfy chairs with chargers left so we sat at the high chairs at a charging station.

Finally we were boarding and on our way!!


The flight was easy, I was happy I paid a little more and booked a direct flight. We were able to leave about 3 hours later than the earliest flight, and only arrived about 45 minutes after the earliest flight would have gotten us there.

We watched movies, ate our snacks. When we landed we made our way to the luggage area. The luggage area was really busy, but we got our luggage pretty easily. I did miss that part about using Magical Express, not having to deal with getting the luggage. We lugged all of our luggage to the Alamo check in kiosks. They are kind of far away and it was a bit of a chore with all of our bags. Once I got to Alamo I used the kiosk and checked in with no problems. We were directed outside to pick our car. I picked a Chrysler Sebring (ok so I mentioned I am a fan of The Office and Michael Scott drives a Sebring...that should have been telling as you will find out later in the trip).

We got on the road and found Universal and the Hard Rock hotel pretty easily. The weather was beautiful! I was so excited when we could see Universal. Since we had to get over to Epcot to meet friends, I decided to valet the first night. Check in was easy, DD was given a plastic blow up guitar at check in. I showed my All Access card but they were completely booked and were not able to upgrade me. He called valet and they rode up the elevator with us with our luggage. We were on the 5th floor garden view. Room view was very nice and we could see the water way where the water taxis travel.

We changed quickly into shorts, got the car from valet and drove to Epcot. This is the best we could do trying to capture the gate as we drove under it..

My DD tried.

I used the map feature on my iphone a lot during the trip...sometimes it was great, many times it was not (more details on that later too). My friend Aye told me parking was a nightmare due to Food & Wine but when we got there it wasn't. We got a space very close in the 7th row. We were very excited and stopped to take a picture in front of Spaceship Earth.

We found Aye by Test Track. She had fastpasses for us so we went and got in our first ride of the trip. It's my DD's favorite ride so she was excited and I appreciated Aye picking up the fastpasses for us.

After the ride we walked over to Mexico to meet up with Aye and her BF Jay. They got us some pierogies from the F&W cart. My DD loves pierogies so I went back and got more. Neither of us eat sausage so I just got the pierogies and realized I had spent $20 on 4 pierogies EESH! No more pierogies that week. I think I was a little tired from traveling and was just thinking about food not really processing the cost. I think we also got potstickers, another favorite of my DD.

We were trying to find our other friends, Tee and Arghh, who were on their last day in WDW. We finally found each other and went back to ride Test Track since we had gotten more fastpasses. Tee and Arghh had a DVC fastpass, but they couldn't use it since TT was out of FP's. They went in the single rider line, the CM saw this and gave them some special fastpasses so they could ride with us. Thank you nice CM .

We all had a good time catching up in line. We talked about what we should do for the picture that is taken on the ride. Arghh suggested nose picking and my DD liked that one (Gross!). Well you can see the result below…

I think it came out nicely...

I thought I had gotten the picture scanned on a Photopass card so I could purchase it later, but I couldn't find it on my Photopass cards, so I was glad I captured one with my phone. The park was closing so we all headed out and took the tram to our cars. It was only a few hours but it was nice to see my friends and we had a lot of laughs in that short amount of time.

On the way back to the hotel I had planned for us to stop for some groceries. I had used Garden Grocer on our last trip, but since we had the car I figured it would be cheaper to just stop somewhere. I am not a Walmart fan but it was the only place that was going to be open that late so we made our way there. Ugh this totally ruined our vacation buzz. We had trouble finding stuff and DD was grouchy and so was I. I think it had just been a long day and it was finally hitting us. I was so happy to get out of there.

We got back to the hotel, dropped the car at valet and got the groceries upstairs. It was around 10:30 and we were both still hungry so I told DD to order room service. The little bit we had eaten at Food & Wine just wasn't enough. I ordered a burger and DD got chicken strips. We were starving and it tasted so good! I don't order room service often, but sometimes it just hits the spot. We sat at the room service table in the bed, watched TV and got our vacation buzz back. Once we were done DD wanted to wheel the cart to the hall since the Room Service waiter had told us to do that.

I know DISers like food pictures, I hope no one is too grossed out by my

I had a little more time to explore the room amenities once we got back. There was a Keurig coffee maker which I was looking forward to trying. The alarm clock had an iPod hookup so I would put my phone on that each night to charge. The bathroom was split with a sink and vanity area and a bathroom with a small sink, toilet and shower. We finally got ready for bed and went to sleep excited to start our first full day tomorrow and see Harry Potter World for the first time!

 

[klacey1]

Hi, I'm subscribing! Great start!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Me too! I'm in... . I get to see WWOHP in 9 months so can't wait to hear all about it

 

[sand2270]

Hi, I'm subscribing! Great start!

Me too! I'm in... . I get to see WWOHP in 9 months so can't wait to hear all about it

Thanks it's a little more fun writing these when you know you have some readers . I should have another update complete tonight.

 

[cajunaggie]

Luvin it. We will be there in just over 2 months!

 

[sand2270]

I am going to split up this day into a few reports since it is pretty long.

I woke up early so we could make the 8am early entry into WWOHP. I am not a morning person…when I have to go to work. Vacation is another story . I like those few quiet moments I get before I wake my DD up. I think I made coffee in the Keurig…I really liked using that machine during our stay. We ate breakfast in the room and headed downstairs.

The water taxi was not at the launch so we decided to walk to Islands of Adventure. There were rickshaws offering rides for tips but I said no. I probably should have said yes since my DD was a little anxious to get there, but it was a beautiful, cool morning and we had plenty of time so I wanted to enjoy the walk. The walkway from the hotels is very pleasant, lots of greenery and shade that runs along the waterway. We passed a butterfly garden that I wanted to remember to explore later in our trip. We stopped at a the baggage check before you can enter the theme park area and headed over to Islands of Adventure.

We lined up around 7:45am to wait for the gates to open for resort guest early entry. Universal does not allow an early entry with a rope drop. So if you are far back there can be some delay getting in the gates. We made our way over to WWOHP following the crowd. We walked at a good pace but we weren't rushing or racing like other people. We had never been to this park before so I was trying to take it in a little bit since it was our first morning.

We went through Port of Entry, through Suess Land, The Lost Continent (where I pointed out Mythos and told my DD we were eating lunch there). Than we got to HP and I got choked up when I saw Hogwarts. It really looks amazing. I was so happy we were there. Again a year of planning finally comes together.

We stopped to take a few pictures, but otherwise headed straight for the castle and Forbidden Journey. I wanted to ride that first and take time to explore later. We put our stuff in the free lockers and got in line. The queue takes you through the castle. Because we were so early the line was not that bad so we went through the castle a little faster than I would have liked. I missed some of the details. I forgot about the castle tour, otherwise we probably would have done that at some point. In the room with the talking pictures of the Hogwarts founders the line stopped. Eventually a loud speaker came on and told us the ride was down. We were free to wait or leave. I knew it would get worse later, told my DD this, and we agreed we should wait.

I should talk a little about the FOTL access that comes with being a Universal resort guest. I wanted to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel and the Front of the Line Access that comes with an onsite hotel helped solidify that decision. I have some serious pain problems with my back and right leg which are aggravated when I stand for long periods of time.

I had an incident during the May adult trip when I was at tea at Garden View Tea Room with Aye. My back had started acting up that morning at Animal Kingdom, by the time we were done with tea and waiting for the monorail (to get to MK to take a bus back to POP) I was in so much pain that I told her I needed to get back to the hotel now and I was paying for a taxi. We got back to the room, I popped a pain pill and stayed in the room for a few hours laying down until I felt better. So the pain can be terrible, it is pretty much a constant thing I live with now, however when I have a particularly bad episode I am basically done for a few hours.

I knew for the most part I would be ok since we had FOTL and we planned to take afternoon breaks so I could rest. I also had pain killers (Yay Vicodin!) with me in case I needed them. One of my only concerns was Forbidden Journey since I knew there was no FOTL access AND the lines had been long, so it was important to me that we hit this ride first thing in the morning to minimize our wait. So when they announced the ride was down I got concerned and my back started hurting. I did some of my stretches while we waited, the ones that don’t look weird and won't make people look at me strangely LOL. About 20 minutes later they announced the ride was working. We moved through the queue at a good pace.

The ride loads very fast. I wasn’t sure if I should keep my hat and flip flops on. I ended up grabbing everything and holding onto them. I also had my camera since they said it was ok to take thru the line. However once we loaded Universal employees kept telling me not to use it on the ride…which I wouldn't do…honestly as jerky as the ride is I don't even know how I would. The ride was intense. A combination of 3d and animatronics. There is a barrier between each seat. When the ride got very intense (spiders, lots of jerking around, etc.) I reached my hand around and put it on DD's leg in case she was scared (since I knew I was). I really just wanted it to be over, the ride jerks you all over the place.

When we got off DD started crying which I had predicted. She said the spiders scared her. Ugh…why does this always happen? As much as I love HP we were not Forbidden Journey lovers at that moment in time. My DD became very brave when it came to rides as our trip went on. I remember her saying she would go on again, but we never made it back on.

We decided to walk around the village.

We bought butter beers, one frozen and one regular since I wanted to try both. At first I liked the regular more and DD liked the frozen better. Later, DD didn't like them anymore at all and I liked the frozen better. Since she wasn't going to drink anymore I got rid of the regular one and finished the frozen one.

DD went into the bathroom, when she came out I asked her if she could hear Moaning Myrtle. She said she could so I went in to check it out.

I like how they were called Public Conveniences...

We checked out HoneyDukes and Zonkos but didn't buy anything.

We saw the Owlery.

We went into the wand store but it was very crowded, was difficult to really look at anything. DD was very interested in the wands and spent some time in the wand store while I stayed off to the side since it was so crowded.

DD was very interested in the wand ceremony at Ollivander's. The line by this point was long for that. We agreed to do another early morning and do that first. I told her if she was picked I would buy her a wand.

We went back to ride Flight of the Hippogriff where I used FOTL. We didn’t have a very long wait for this. Fun, quick coaster similar to Goofy's Barnstormer. Since there wasn't a very long wait we rode a second time.

It was getting crowded so we decided to see the rest of the park.

Since this is a pretty picture heavy post I will continue in the next post...

 

[DizDragonfly]

I also had my camera since they said it was ok to take thru the line. However once we loaded Universal employees kept telling me not to use it on the ride

How big was the camera they let you take on? I don't need to carry a bag. But, I'd really like to bring my camera to Universal. I just don't want to deal with lockers all the time.

 

[sand2270]

How big was the camera they let you take on? I don't need to carry a bag. But, I'd really like to bring my camera to Universal. I just don't want to deal with lockers all the time.

Just a little Canon digital camera. When I am in the parks I use the neck strap, for rides I usually put the wrist strap on and hang onto it with my hand.

 

[DizDragonfly]

Just a little Canon digital camera. When I am in the parks I use the neck strap, for rides I usually put the wrist strap on and hang onto it with my hand.

Thanks! I think, right now, we're planning on two days at Universal. Maybe I'll bring the pocket sized camera on the first day and the big camera the second day. That way I might have an idea of what I want to take "better" pictures of and I'll be more familiar with the territory.

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Yeah from what I read we might do the wand ceremony first, then go ride Forbidden Journey, your thoughts? We have early entry as well

 

[sand2270]

Yeah from what I read we might do the wand ceremony first, then go ride Forbidden Journey, your thoughts? We have early entry as well

hmm...we had more than one day so I knew we could do one the first day and the other the next. From what I have read some early entry people do the wand ceremony than head over to FJ...I just don't know since we didn't ride again after our first day.

We managed to do the wand ceremony twice during early entry...but the time of year we went is a slower period also.

 

[klacey1]

Great update! Sorry you guys didn't love FJ-- I have heard there's a lot of "jump at you" moments.

 

[sand2270]

I wanted to stay on the Suess and Lost Continent side since we were having lunch at Mythos at 11:30. On our way over DD saw a stuffed animal she wanted at the water balloon carnival game and she asked to play. I played with her since I wanted to improve our chances of winning, but we lost to the other family there. They walked away and it was just us, so we played two more times so she could get the stuffed animal she wanted.

We went on the Suess train which is elevated. After DD wanted to press pennies in a store where she saw a penny pressing machine. We ended up browsing in there for quite a bit. DD bought some silly bands and a necklace and I bought us Thing 1 and 2 shirts and a Cat in the Hat hoodie shirt for myself. We decided to ride One Fish Two Fish. I used my FOTL but I think they put us in the wrong line because other people were allowed to board before us even though they entered the line after us. After that we went on Cat in the Hat, which is a dark ride with animatronics.

We went back over to The Lost Continent to have lunch at Mythos.

They sat us in a backroom with lots of windows. The room had some special name, preferred room or something. It had a really cool ceiling but looked like an overflow or party room. However it did have a nice view of the water and the park. I don't think either of us was very hungry and we were both tired. The bread was nice but I cut DD off so she would eat her lunch. I ordered a coke and the pork chop with blueberries and pistachio nuts, DD had water and the child's steak. DD loves steak and it is not on a lot of children's menu, so she was happy it was offered. The child's steak portion was a lot, she ate about half which was a good portion. The pork chop was good but I was more thirsty than hungry. I think if I had been less tired and hungry I would have enjoyed it more. Lunch was good but neither of us was really in the mood for it.

If you looked up in the room we were in this is what you saw…

DD wanted to ride Jurassic and I was trying to figure out how to get over there. The map showed a path from Lost Continent to Jurassic but I couldn't find it. I kept looking at the map thinking it's supposed to be right here…where is it!!! After we walked back and forth a few times I realized it was closed off. We would have to go through WWOHP or walk all the way around, so we decided to walk back through WWOHP. It was really crowded by now. We walked through to take the bridge to Jurassic Park. The bridge offered some nice angles of the castle so I took some more pictures.

We used FOTL and walked right on Jurassic, there were hardly any lines for anything outside of WWOHP. We did get wet but it wasn't too bad. DD was so concerned about her stuffed animal that she kept wrapping it with my sweater. She loved it and wanted to go again. Again we walked right on. I remember going to Universal Studios in CA right after the Jurassic Park ride opened there and waiting forever! Even with the FOTL we didn't need it, there were no lines the ride was walk on.

We walked over to Ripsaw Falls and used FOTL. We were DRENCHED after this ride. I was wearing denim shorts and didn't want to get them worse, but DD wanted to ride again. She asked if she could go by herself. I asked if I could walk her through the line and than exit and they said yes. I walked her through and I went outside the exit to where the ride ends to wait for her. I am not sure how we missed seeing each other since I was watching the boats unload, but I turned and saw her walking on the ramp above me and called for her. I am glad I saw her.

We decided to do Bluto's Barges and used FOTL. Fun ride, but we got drenched again! This time we were 100% soaked through our clothes. At this point I was uncomfortable and suggested we go back to the hotel and swim. I didn’t want to walk around with my shorts soaked. DD had denim leggings on and was also uncomfortable.

Here are some more IOA pictures..

We walked over to the water taxi launch and took the boat back to the hotel. The water taxi launch lets you off by a back door, which leads to a small hallway that takes you right to the elevators. Very convenient.

Next up…pool time!

 

[sand2270]

Great update! Sorry you guys didn't love FJ-- I have heard there's a lot of "jump at you" moments.

I think we would have liked if we would have ridden again, it was very disorienting. Plus my DD is scared of spiders and the big spiders in the ride are what upset her. My DD did mention going on again and said she would close her eyes during the spiders, but we never made it back.

She has done that with a lot of rides...Indiana Jones, Expedition Everest....hated them at first, cries, says she never wants to go on again...than all of a sudden she is asking to go on and loves them.

 

[sand2270]

Once we got back to the room we got out of our wet clothes, hung them on the clothesline in the shower, changed and headed down to the pool with some waters and Pringles.

The pool was packed. I remembered the man at the check in desk telling me the were completely booked. We did find two chairs near the zero entry. The water was a little chilly, I only went in a little bit. DD loves slides so she used that quite a bit while I sat in the zero entry part. We stayed at the pool for about an hour and headed back to the room to shower and change.

We were meeting Aye and her girls at Fort Wilderness to do the Haunted Carriage Ride. I got the directions wrong when driving over so had to circle a few times before I found the correct entrance into MK. I think I almost drove into a CM entrance, but I pulled over and turned around. This was a theme of this trip…I kept getting lost! It was driving me crazy because I was using the map app on my iphone and it consistently gave me wrong directions when we were on Disney property.

I had to upgrade DD's one day ticket from our 09 trip (We did a split stay with two packages, I had already used my extra one day ticket to purchase an AP) and get my Guest Assistance card for my back. I've already mentioned my back problems and I brought a note from my back doctor. The note my doctor gave me cracked me up. It says "Ms. ___ has a painful orthopedic condition. Please avoid standing in line @ Disney. Recommend pre-board at airport". He was very specific…that note made me laugh every time I looked at it.

We had not eaten dinner yet so I figured we would just grab something at one of the resorts. We drove over, parked at the TTC and took the monorail over. Aye was there so DD stayed with the girls while I went to Guest Services. There was really no line and I got everything taken care of very quickly. We decided to take the boat over to Fort Wilderness and we would get some food there.

The boat ride over was very pleasant, the weather was great. Fort Wilderness is very nice. We walked over to the food area and it turns out they don't have a food court and the to go options are very limited. I ordered DD a salad and I got a pulled pork sandwich. We didn't have a lot of time and the pulled pork sandwich took forever. We got our food and walked over to the loading area, the carriages were just leaving for the prior group so I had some time to eat. This was a very messy sandwich, I had to use a plastic knife and fork and it was very difficult to eat on my lap. I ate most of the homemade chips and enough of the sandwich to fill me up.

Us waiting for the carriage wearing our new shirts...

The pickup area is right by the stables so the girls went to look at the horses while I tried to eat my sandwich. The carriage pulled up and we climbed in, the girls sat on one side and Aye and I sat on the other. The driver offered us a "piece" of Halloween candy and I missed the piece part and started grabbing one of everything. She finally said "one please"…oops I was so embarrassed…and hungry…I think the weird sandwich and my hunger drove my greediness.

Spoilers ahead…I don't think Fort Wilderness is going to offer this anymore, but if you don't want to know details about the ride you may want to skip the next pararaph.

The carriage ride started, it takes you down a dark path through the woods with the story of Ichabob Crane playing. It is very dark and spooky and we all kept freaking each other out going "What was that?! Did you hear that?!" Eventually the Headless Horseman appears, he came right up to the carriage and we were all losing it! He kept circling the carriage and came right up next to DD. Than our carriage starts to take off and we start crossing a bridge. The story says we will be safe if we cross the bridge. The Headless Horseman starts chasing us and we are all yelling "Go! Go! Go Faster!" We make it across the bridge safely…whew. We see the Headless Horseman circle a few times and disappear into the dark. After the ride is over you are dropped off at a different location than pickup…maybe because they don't want guests spoiling it for other guests.

Ok spoilers over

DD and the girls looked in a small gift shop across from the food area. DD bought the girls and herself a bracelet of orange and black plastic Mickey heads, I thought it was very generous of her to use some of trip money to buy the girls a small gift.

We got in line to board the boat back to Magic Kingdom. The boat was crowded…and full of bugs!!! They were everywhere…windows, seats, floors. People were losing it, kids were screaming, it was like a horror movie. I decided to sit and be as still as possible…pretend they weren't there. I told Aye my strategy was to keep telling myself "there are no bugs…there are no bugs…". Honestly it was the only way I could cope the boat was really gross. Aye said I was eerily quiet LMAO!

Now the weird thing is I can't remember what we did after this. I think we went into MK with the kids and met up with Jay, but I am not sure if I am confusing that with another night. I didn't take any other pictures so I don't have anything to reference. We had Discovery Cove the next day so I do think we made it an early night.


Tomorrow is Discovery Cove!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

WOW how cool is that! I wish I had know about the haunted carriage rides when we were there, though maybe they had not offered them yet since is was the end os September. How fun for the girls though.

I had another question. Did you enjoy IOA. To be it seemed the least fun of the two parks, minus WWoHP

 

[sand2270]

WOW how cool is that! I wish I had know about the haunted carriage rides when we were there, though maybe they had not offered them yet since is was the end os September. How fun for the girls though.

I had another question. Did you enjoy IOA. To be it seemed the least fun of the two parks, minus WWoHP

I believe the haunted carriage ride is only offered during the Halloween period. I am glad we did it...the 5 of us, all girls, I think made it scarier than it really was since it was so dark and spooky!

Hmm...I think we enjoyed both parks about equally. We missed some key rides in Universal Studios...The Mummy, Twister, Terminator. The day we went we got tired and we never made it back over.

I would definitely do a split stay again, I enjoyed the Universal parks and hotels. It was so easy to get around, reminded me of the Disneyland area. I wasn't crazy about Citywalk...seemed too generic and kind of thrown together to me (Panda Express, etc.) however my DD loves Panda Express so it was easy to get her dinner one night because that was familar to her.

 

[sand2270]

Discovery Cove morning…finally. I was so excited about this! I talked about our tickets in the pre-trip but I will repeat that part over here.

When I started looking for tickets our dates for Discovery Cove showed a price of $250. I waited and waited, hoping some kind of discount would be offered. Around July from the DIS I found out about an AMEX offer for $50 off. I used that and purchased our tickets. The Discovery Cove tickets include admission to Sea World.

Than it happened. I found out my DD's school pushed up the dates of the Fall Break. I had to see if I could rebook my entire trip. Again, all the details are in the pre-trip but what happened with the Discovery Cove tickets was they allow a one time change with no fee AND the tickets were cheaper for those dates! So I think I saved another $20 a ticket!! If I recall I think I paid $179 per ticket. Even though it was a huge pain rebooking the trip ended up saving me a little money and I was able to add an extra day to our trip.

I get up at 7am to get ready and immediately start the Keurig coffee maker in the room. I really enjoyed the coffee maker and used it each morning. I didn't hit Starbucks or a coffee counter once on this trip…which is a surprise for me. But between the Starbucks Fraps I bought for the room and the Keurig I was set.

We got ready and left for Discovery Cove, we didn't have too much trouble finding it (one of the few times I didn't get lost) and it wasn't a very long drive from the hotel. Discovery Coves parking lot is not very large, I am assuming due to the limited amount of entries allowed each day. No trams, needing to record our parking space or anything.

We made the very short walk to the welcome lobby where we were greeted and asked to wait in line to be directed to a check in desk. At check in they take your picture and assign you badges to wear for the day. You can also have a credit card added to the badges for charging privileges, which I did but never used. They also take your free picture here. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

We headed over to the continental breakfast. Neither of us was incredibly hungry. I think I had a yogurt , a small danish and some fruit. DD I think had a small bagel. It was a great day, a little cool in the morning, but sunny and we knew it would warm up. We were very excited about our day and both happy to be there. We got done with breakfast around 8:45, the park facilities didn't officially open until 9am. We put our stuff in a locker and decided to check out the bird aviary since the employees said it was best to go in the morning since the birds were more hungry. We had to sit and wait for a few minutes until 9am for that area to open up.

I am not really a fan of birds so figured we would check this out quickly and leave. We walked in and headed to the counter where they had small ramekins filled with items the birds would eat. She told us to hold it out and be prepared since the birds would land on us. This turned out to be really cool. The birds were very exotic and colorful. They would land on your arms and head and eat. It was surprising when they would land on your head.

This is a terrible picture of me but you can see one landed on my head…

When we were done we walked back over to the locker area and picked up our wetsuits for our dolphin swim. Next time I will bring a skirt less suit to wear under the wetsuit. It was not easy to get that wetsuit on and off. We put on the dolphin safe sunscreen they provided. It was almost chalky and hard to completely rub in. We also took some silly pictures of us in the wetsuits. We used water shoes while we were there, these were great.

My DD was being a comedian and making faces at the camera. The wetsuit look was not a good look for me, so this is the only halfway decent picture of the two of us I could find…

Our dolphin swim was scheduled for 10am so we headed over to the dolphin area. You sit in an area where you have to fill out and sign waivers. It was warm and sitting in that wet suit was really hot. They had us watch a small video, divided us into groups and called off our group numbers. The person calling off our group number was who we needed to follow. We were the last group called.

They led us into the dolphin lagoon and told us to go slow since it was slippery. The water was very cold. DD couldn't stop shivering…and complaining. I was starting to wonder if this was a bad idea. They asked us to line up shoulder to shoulder so the dolphin could not swim between us. I told DD to keep moving to try and warm up and I kept my arm around her. Once the dolphins came out she forgot about being cold.

The trainers told us about the dolphins and had them swim by us so we could pet them. They also had them do some jumps and tricks for us. After that we got to go over to the dolphin one family at a time to take pictures and swim with the dolphin by holding onto their fin. The half hour went by really fast but we really enjoyed it.

After we left the water we were taken over to the photo area where we could look at our pictures and decide on a package if we wanted one. My DD's pictures came out really well. Mine were terrible!! I don't know if I needed to put on makeup before the swim or do my hair or what but I was surprised at how awful I looked in them. But my DD's were cute and I really wanted the CD. It ended up making more sense to buy the big package with the CD. I spent a lot on pictures, I rarely buy picture packages but I felt like this was such a unique experience that I was going to splurge.

This one made the Christmas card

Continued in the next post...