Third Time's the Charm! A June, Oct/Nov and Dec '19 PTR complete 12/22!

[NJlauren]

Your trip looks so fun! I’m jel I love Nashville and would love to explore the other spots in that area of the country!

I feel like I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to do you know?

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Your trip looks so fun! I’m jel I love Nashville and would love to explore the other spots in that area of the country!

I feel like I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to do you know?

Thank you! It was an amazing trip.

I get it 100 percent! I want to go back already to Tennessee and to the Great Smoky Mountains but I also want to go see so many new places.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Sunday October 27, 2019 plans

This day will be a Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure day! I'm beyond excited to get more Universal time in on this trip.

The last few trips have been very Disney-centric, with our only Universal time being for HHN. I've realized now the last time I stepped foot in Islands of Adventure was March 2017! I really do love Universal and I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd but with the Disney APs, it's much harder to justify the additional cost of Universal tickets.

I'm looking forward to revisiting some of our favorite things and for new experiences.

Some must-dos are:

-the new Hagrid coaster! - hopefully the virtual queue will be open at this point

-meeting more characters! We never seem to meet very many at Universal but I would love to meet Beetlejuice, some Marvel characters, Dr. Seuss characters and strange as it seems, the glitter farting troll! Plus, I need to see Hello Kitty again!



-Raptor encounter

-Jimmy Fallon attraction- the only time we did it so far was in soft openings



Plus, I need more Butterbeer!



At night, we will be attending our first night of Halloween Horror Nights.







We plan to use the "Stay and Scream" benefit. Basically, on HHN nights, Universal Studios closes at 5 pm. If you are in the park before 5 pm and have a ticket for HHN that night, you can enter a holding area in the park to wait for horror nights to start. The benefit is, as soon as the park is clear of day guests, they release each holding area to certain houses before they open the gates for the guests waiting outside.

Last year, Stranger Things was extremely popular and listed crazy wait times. The plan is to be in the holding area that lets out to the Stranger Things house to knock it out with the shortest wait possible.

We're also interested in eating at Cowfish and Toothsome on Citywalk over the course of our Universal time!

----

On a side note- I've been trying to do online check-in for the Disney resort portions of our trip and apparently the whole system isn't functioning right now?! Why Disney IT, why do you do this to me!
​

 

[amazingact21]

Smart approach with the holding areas. I think knocking out the Stranger Things house first is the best route to go!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Smart approach with the holding areas. I think knocking out the Stranger Things house first is the best route to go!

I think so too! Last year we didn't have day tickets and when we got inside, the line was already an hour long!

 

[missangelalexis]

Your plans for Universal sound great!!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Your plans for Universal sound great!!

Thank you! I'm excited to spend more time there again!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Oga's Cantina!

Hope everyone is doing well! It's been a rough week here. I had to work 6 overnight shifts (12 hours each!) in a row so I'm just finally catching up with the human world I feel like. Plus, in worse news, my dad's best friend since he's 5 years old passed away last week and my dad is having a hard time (understandably so) dealing with it.

I'm decompressing my immersing myself in catching up on the boards.

As I'm sure you all know, reservations for Star Wars Galaxy's Edge experiences dropped a week ago. I was able to book Oga's Cantina without any trouble at all for two different days on our trip.

The first one is for the 2nd day of our trip when I've planned for us to use the EEMH so our reservation is for 9:30 AM. The breakfast options are pretty limited but I think it'll be fun to grab a light snack and drink on our way out of the park! The other reservation for later in the trip is in the afternoon so we can enjoy the "typical" experience.

I didn't book a lightsaber or droid experience. Neither of us are interested in building a lightsaber and I'm kinda interested in a droid but my heart isn't set on it. If I decide I want one later on and a reservation isn't available, I'll just take it as a sign it wasn't meant to be.

December trip

This trip with my sister is officially a go! She recently started a new job and told them at hiring that she needed the days off!

We are booked at All-Star Movies and were even able to score the Halloween Mickey magicbands to upgrade to (even though we're going for Christmas ). We purchased our flights home already since the 8 pm jetblue flight home was only $60. It jumped back up to $132 the next day so I'm glad we booked it.

We still have to book our flights there but we're both excited to be heading back to Universal and Disney together!​

 

[amazingact21]

Hooray for landing the cantina reservations!
So sorry for your dad's loss. I'm sure it's a difficult time right now.

Glad you were watching those flights for December and nabbed them before they rose again!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Wow awesome snag on the $60 flights! Its always such a win when you see them skyrocketed the next day! lol

Does Hagrid's have express pass? I haven't looked much into it since DH and I won't be going until March but I am curious!

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm sorry for your tough week

Glad you got 2 cantina reservations!

Yay for December be officially on!

 

[NJlauren]

$60! Wow jel on that one! Our feb flights are outrageous and have been since he Day the came out...

I booked Ogas too for breakfast I figure if I go early and by myself it will be fine. DH really isn’t that into it, but it could change! Plus I love bloody Mary’s haha!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Hooray for landing the cantina reservations!

So sorry for your dad's loss. I'm sure it's a difficult time right now.

Thank you. It's so hard to see him having such a tough time and not be able to do anything about it.

Glad you were watching those flights for December and nabbed them before they rose again!

Me too! I couldn't believe how much they went up in a day!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Wow awesome snag on the $60 flights! Its always such a win when you see them skyrocketed the next day! lol

Thank you! Definitely a good feeling!

Does Hagrid's have express pass? I haven't looked much into it since DH and I won't be going until March but I am curious!

It doesn't have express pass yet, I'm assuming it will eventually since the other Harry Potter rides initially didn't and do now but who knows. They originally said it would use the virtual line system but I don't think they've started using that either

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I'm sorry for your tough week

Thank you.

Glad you got 2 cantina reservations!

Yay for December be officially on!

I'm so excited!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

$60! Wow jel on that one! Our feb flights are outrageous and have been since he Day the came out...

Oh no! Hopefully the prices drops eventually!

booked Ogas too for breakfast I figure if I go early and by myself it will be fine. DH really isn’t that into it, but it could change! Plus I love bloody Mary’s haha!

DBF isn't a huge drinker but I figure after leaving MNSSHP and getting up for EEMH at 6 am, we'll both be ready for a drink at breakfast time lol.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Monday October 28, 2019 plans

Now that the first MNSSHP has taken place, I've been stalking the MNSSHP thread and the vlogs, blogs etc. I am so disappointed that there isn't a single new character meeting this year! We love Halloween and travel every year in the Halloween season specifically to attend MNSSHP. Two years ago, I would've jumped on the opportunity to purchase the $299 pass to attend as many parties as possible during our trip. Now, I don't even feel I can justify us attending a second MNSSHP. I don't mean to be a downer but even with the new fireworks, I feel it wouldn't be that hard to change the costumes the fab 5 meet in or toss in an additional ride overlay.

Obviously we're still going to go and still have a good time but I just miss the excitement of seeing what new characters would be out. Rant over. Thanks to anyone who didn't run away already.

I'm struggling with deciding whether or not to keep our reservations for Cruella's Halloween Hideaway. The reviews so far are "meh" at best. I'm hoping Disney takes some feedback from the first party and it gets better!

In other news, we went shopping the other day and I found the perfect bag in the Disney store outlet for MVMCP!


And it was only $25! I love it!

We got a package today addressed from V. I. Passholder support and I couldn't imagine what was going to be in it. I was shocked to open it and find:



We called after they announced they'd be giving these out at Villains After Hours AFTER we had already attended. When we called, they said they'd email us but we never heard anything about it again so I figured it was a lost cause. I have an ornament addiction and was bummed we wouldn't get these so I'm so excited to have them!

Onto our October trip plans:

For Monday, October 28, we will be off-site in our Universal portion of the trip. We'll be spending the day in Universal/IOA but first, we have to make a quick detour back to Epcot.

We have reservations for our first ever Food and Wine event! It's one of the Mix it, Make it, Celebrate it events to make a Lemba Rum Pineapple Cocktail.

The event is at noon so we'll enjoy a relaxing morning before going to Epcot and then head back to Universal once the event is over. I'm also hoping to preorder some cookies from Gideon's bakehouse and pick them up on the way back to Universal!

​

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Yay for the ornament! What a fun surprise to come home to.

I've also been stalking the MNSSHP thread as we're attending the 4th party. Since it's our first, and everything is new for us, I was relieved that they hadn't made too many changes. That means my plan based on how things went last year can stay basically intact. I can see why it must be disappointing for someone who has attended several, though. You'd think they could find a happy medium, making a few character and ride changes each year to keep it interesting for those who can attend regularly.

 

[missangelalexis]

I agree that they need to change up the characters a little at MNSSHP! It's definitely a lot different than it used to be a few years ago

Omg that purse is adorable!! I say it every time, but you find the BEST items at the outlet! I really need to make a trip there for myself!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Yay for the ornament! What a fun surprise to come home to.

I've also been stalking the MNSSHP thread as we're attending the 4th party. Since it's our first, and everything is new for us, I was relieved that they hadn't made too many changes. That means my plan based on how things went last year can stay basically intact. I can see why it must be disappointing for someone who has attended several, though. You'd think they could find a happy medium, making a few character and ride changes each year to keep it interesting for those who can attend regularly.

I was so excited to open that package!

I hope you're having a great night at the party. A happy medium would be great- I would even be happy with some costume changes for the Fab 5, like Goofy in the skeleton costume he wears in Disneyland!