sersee05
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2009
- Messages
- 1,023
**Disclaimer!** I do not have Diagon Alley pictures...we didn't even visit it. Sorry! Plus I talk a lot so this could be a long read. Sorry again!
Ok..so a lot of you have been helping me along the way. I asked a lot of questions and I really appreciate all of your help. It really paid off! So thank you!
I have a family of five with three kids ages 17, 12 and 9. Normally we go to the Outer Banks in the summer and rent a house. But the past few summers , my oldest daughter has been playing lacrosse every summer so we haven't had a chance to go on vacation.
This year she was done with summer lacrosse . Wahoo! We were at Disney in November for a lacrosse tournament. We extended the time and went to the parks. We stayed in a house in Windsor hills. It was a very nice house. IT was a tough trip because it centered around DD17 lax schedule. We couldn't plan well and were disappointed that some nights things ran so late, we had to order papa johns
It was disappointing because the kids all thought it lacked the magic. They all love Disney but were yearning for bigger rides.
Anyhoo. We looked into Outer Banks . We were late this year getting planning and ended up running into everything being booked. Plus the ones that were left were expensive. So I thought...hmmm lets go to the Gulf and vacation in Anna Maria. I researched it and it seemed beautiful . Ds9 hates the beach...and I mean HATES it. So it isn't a fun vacation for him. He is scared to death of sharks and is always on edge when any of us are in the water. DH likes the beach for about 2-3 hours. So I figured we could go to Busch Gardens and the aquarium . Something for everyone!
But the homes were e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. when you started adding in all the fees. My daughter is graduating this year so the college expense is on our mind. Dh and I really wanted to stay in a budget. So we decided we could either spend the money on a house and beach it or go for the cheaper two bedroom condo and do the busch gardens and aquarium thing.
I started to do it when my thoughts started to wander. Two bedrooms for a 17, 12 and 9 year old?
Sharing two double beds? One tv I started getting cold feet. That might just be too much togetherness.
So I backed off and started pricing Disney. Why not? It has something for everyone! Well when I started getting the pricing
, it was not good . $4000 without food? We weren't eligible for the free dining offer. We have never been able to have the fd. Its something that is on my bucket list since it enables us to try all the Disney restaurants overrated or not. I hear everyone talking about them and I want to try. But when I checked prices for oop..
Then we looked into Universal. Voila! It was reasonable and I could stay offsite . So started checking vrbo and all the sites. It was crazy how little there was. Then DD12 got sick with some mysterious virus that I have named Shanaynay. It was so weird. Pain in her side, high fevers, vomiting, no energy and fatigue. It lasted a month! We had her tested for mono and they thought it could be her appendix. So that stopped my planning cold.
She started to finally get better and then dd17 got sick. Her side of her face swelled up! Her parotid(sp?) gland was infected . Technically she didn't have the mumps but the virus did the same thing and attacked the same area
When she was finally better..it was two days before we had planned on leaving. I had nothing in stone. I had a couple places I was talking to ..but then I happened to inquire about this three bedroom condo . The owner got back to me and gave me an awesome rate which I jumped on. The plans were finalized the night before we were to leave
It was crazy. So windsor hills it was!
I researched the tickets and knew undercover was the cheapest. Actually I think ticket mania was even cheaper than UT but I didn't have time for either. I found that buying from the Official ticket center when I got down there was my cheapest option.
So we packed and off we went at 4 am from NJ! We had smooth sailing all the way down to Florida. We arrived and stopped at the Perkins . We all wanted breakfast. Unfortunately for me, the night before I started having stomach issues. So I had to watch what I ate.
We checked into the condo and I was so happy
It was exactly like the pictures. It was managed through Global . There was a comforter left on the chair and the dryer was full of towels and sheets. Two tvs weren't working so I put a call in that night. The condo provided towels and sheets, so I just wanted to cya with global. The next day, the comforter was removed and tvs fixed.
Monday was our first day at the parks. I had to go check in at Global first and then go get my tickets. We bought 2 day park to park with a day free. We also bought a day at Kennedy space center and then left one day open. By the time we did all that, we got to Universal a little later . To my surprise it wasn't horribly crowded. We got to go on quite a bit. We went into Hogsmeade . So that is where everyone was!! That was so congested , you could hardly get around. However , they managed to get on the Forbidden journey ride with only a 30 minute wait. Dd17, Dd12 and Dh LOVED that ride. They thought it was fantastic and we are not Hp fans at all. I thought the town was awesome. Again not hp fans but I could appreciate all Universal did. Very cool.
One thing I noticed is a lot of people having trouble with their interactive wands. I knew from being on here that I had to try butter beer. I liked it! Dh17 liked it more and drank all mine. Butthead.
I had made a reservation at Vivo through the Universal page for Monday night. We headed over to our dinner and basically we stepped inside and the skies opened up and it poured. Perfect timing! We ate and I had chicken parm .I loved it. It wasn't overly spicy. Dh had the risotto and was disappointed that it was such a small portion. He said it was quite good. Ds9 had the pizza and said "it was the best pizza EVA!". He is a pizza connoisseur. DD17 had linguine and clams and said "Oh my goodness...so good " through a mouth full of food. It went well. We ordered dessert due to the rain and storms. By the time we were done we went back out and rode some rides and then headed back to the condo!
Day 2 Tuesday: We went to Islands. Kids loved the Popeye barges..although we warned them about getting wet. It bothered my son the most. Any man that has been through the chafing, knows what I am talking about...My son got that walk. My husband puts on what he calls "ball powder" to help but my son said he forgot to put it on. So he was hurting that day. We headed over to Jurassic and the ride was a looong wait. We said..no issues since they would get wet again and headed in to terrace to eat lunch. A squirrel had gotten in the restaurant and was terrifying a lot of people crawling under the tables and chairs. My kids named him Lenny.
We left and went back outside and Dh and ds started walking when dh realized it said "splash zone". He called my ds back but ds didn't hear him. Dh heard the ride coming and told him to move..but too late.. He got soaked. It was pretty funny
They weren't able to do jurassic or spiderman that day because they didn't feel like waiting. I had a ressie for Mythos through open table so we went and watched Sinbad(horrible show!) and then ate. It was awesome to have such freedom! We arrived 15 minutes early and had to wait the 15 minutes to be seated. But we were seated at exactly he reservation time. I was shocked!
I loved making a reservation and not having to wait another hour to be seated!
. Then we rode some more and headed back to the condo.
Day 3 Wednesday: Kennedy space day! This was nice because we got to sleep in a bit . We didn't get there until noon. We walked around the exhibits and my kids were so bored.
Dh and I were hoping there was more than the nature exhibit. We ate and then went to Hubble Imax. Kids pepped up because they enjoyed it. Then we headed on the bus tour. Let me tell you...for dh and I?? That was fantastic. It was awe inspiring to me. To think I have watch shuttles on tv take off from there. I remember being home sick and seeing the news report when the Challenger exploded. It was great. The kids thought it was cool. The driver was very good and gave us a lot of info. I even saw my very first wild alligator swimming next to the road. Then we went and saw the rocket which Dh thought was incredible. But when we went and saw the Atlantis? well.. 
I got chills. Was a good day. We left at 7pm and stopped at Fridays for appetizers since it was late.
Day 4 Thursday: Well this was our off day. We were going to go to Cocoa beach but saw a news report the night before that a kid was bit by a shark on cocoa beach that day./.. So No Cocoa Beach! Ds would have a heart attack! So we decide to go back to Universal and add a day for Friday. That was really easily done at guest services inside the park. It was soooo hot this day. We at a few times at Richter Burger co while we were there. The kids liked it and then my husband went and got a turkey panini and sandwich with potato salad from San Fran pastry. That was so good! IT was great not to have to have a burger! We never got to do Despicable me. Because of all the early entry, the ride was always had a ridiculously long wait time. But I got a picture of my kids with Spongebob! All was right in the world! The transformers was awesome. Loved seeing Bumblebee and Optimus out for pictures. I was quite mesmerized by them! This night we had Trex resizes so we headed off to downtown disney. I had a ressie and only waited 15 minutes Woohoo!! My kids love this restaurant so we always have to go. I couldn't remember what I usually get and just got a cheese burger because I figured..how bad could you screw that up? Let me tell you.. my burger was just fantastic 
Day 5 Friday: Last day But it was good because we were ready for it to be our last day. We went on things everyone wanted to ride again. Ripride coaster had only a 30 minute wait this day. Surprisingly Friday was a much lower crowd in my opinion. Maybe everyone was in line for Despicable me. Dd17 and dd12 went on the rip coaster. They came off saying " Best coaster eva!" Never got a chance to go check out Diagon because whenever a ride went down on wait time we ran over to go on it.
All that was left was souvenir shopping! I was kind of disappointed that Hp kind of took over the gift shop. But I got my minions mug and dd12 got her its so fluffy unicorn!
For those of you who know who Nancy Kerrigan is...I saw her multiple times. DS9 doesn't ride a lot of the rides and neither do I ..so he and I always hang out where they come out of the rides. I saw her multiple times.
It was a great trip! It was so freeing not to have to plan to the gills. We got to do most of everything. Although hot, it was manageable until the humidity rolled in. But I was definitely tired at the end of the week.
Ok..so a lot of you have been helping me along the way. I asked a lot of questions and I really appreciate all of your help. It really paid off! So thank you!
I have a family of five with three kids ages 17, 12 and 9. Normally we go to the Outer Banks in the summer and rent a house. But the past few summers , my oldest daughter has been playing lacrosse every summer so we haven't had a chance to go on vacation.
This year she was done with summer lacrosse . Wahoo! We were at Disney in November for a lacrosse tournament. We extended the time and went to the parks. We stayed in a house in Windsor hills. It was a very nice house. IT was a tough trip because it centered around DD17 lax schedule. We couldn't plan well and were disappointed that some nights things ran so late, we had to order papa johns
It was disappointing because the kids all thought it lacked the magic. They all love Disney but were yearning for bigger rides.Anyhoo. We looked into Outer Banks . We were late this year getting planning and ended up running into everything being booked. Plus the ones that were left were expensive. So I thought...hmmm lets go to the Gulf and vacation in Anna Maria. I researched it and it seemed beautiful . Ds9 hates the beach...and I mean HATES it. So it isn't a fun vacation for him. He is scared to death of sharks and is always on edge when any of us are in the water. DH likes the beach for about 2-3 hours. So I figured we could go to Busch Gardens and the aquarium . Something for everyone!
But the homes were e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. when you started adding in all the fees. My daughter is graduating this year so the college expense is on our mind. Dh and I really wanted to stay in a budget. So we decided we could either spend the money on a house and beach it or go for the cheaper two bedroom condo and do the busch gardens and aquarium thing.
I started to do it when my thoughts started to wander. Two bedrooms for a 17, 12 and 9 year old?
Sharing two double beds? One tv I started getting cold feet. That might just be too much togetherness.So I backed off and started pricing Disney. Why not? It has something for everyone! Well when I started getting the pricing
, it was not good . $4000 without food? We weren't eligible for the free dining offer. We have never been able to have the fd. Its something that is on my bucket list since it enables us to try all the Disney restaurants overrated or not. I hear everyone talking about them and I want to try. But when I checked prices for oop.. Then we looked into Universal. Voila! It was reasonable and I could stay offsite . So started checking vrbo and all the sites. It was crazy how little there was. Then DD12 got sick with some mysterious virus that I have named Shanaynay. It was so weird. Pain in her side, high fevers, vomiting, no energy and fatigue. It lasted a month! We had her tested for mono and they thought it could be her appendix. So that stopped my planning cold.
She started to finally get better and then dd17 got sick. Her side of her face swelled up! Her parotid(sp?) gland was infected . Technically she didn't have the mumps but the virus did the same thing and attacked the same area
When she was finally better..it was two days before we had planned on leaving. I had nothing in stone. I had a couple places I was talking to ..but then I happened to inquire about this three bedroom condo . The owner got back to me and gave me an awesome rate which I jumped on. The plans were finalized the night before we were to leave
It was crazy. So windsor hills it was!I researched the tickets and knew undercover was the cheapest. Actually I think ticket mania was even cheaper than UT but I didn't have time for either. I found that buying from the Official ticket center when I got down there was my cheapest option.
So we packed and off we went at 4 am from NJ! We had smooth sailing all the way down to Florida. We arrived and stopped at the Perkins . We all wanted breakfast. Unfortunately for me, the night before I started having stomach issues. So I had to watch what I ate.
We checked into the condo and I was so happy
It was exactly like the pictures. It was managed through Global . There was a comforter left on the chair and the dryer was full of towels and sheets. Two tvs weren't working so I put a call in that night. The condo provided towels and sheets, so I just wanted to cya with global. The next day, the comforter was removed and tvs fixed.Monday was our first day at the parks. I had to go check in at Global first and then go get my tickets. We bought 2 day park to park with a day free. We also bought a day at Kennedy space center and then left one day open. By the time we did all that, we got to Universal a little later . To my surprise it wasn't horribly crowded. We got to go on quite a bit. We went into Hogsmeade . So that is where everyone was!! That was so congested , you could hardly get around. However , they managed to get on the Forbidden journey ride with only a 30 minute wait
. Dd17, Dd12 and Dh LOVED that ride. They thought it was fantastic and we are not Hp fans at all. I thought the town was awesome. Again not hp fans but I could appreciate all Universal did. Very cool. One thing I noticed is a lot of people having trouble with their interactive wands. I knew from being on here that I had to try butter beer. I liked it! Dh17 liked it more and drank all mine. Butthead.
I had made a reservation at Vivo through the Universal page for Monday night. We headed over to our dinner and basically we stepped inside and the skies opened up and it poured. Perfect timing! We ate and I had chicken parm .I loved it. It wasn't overly spicy. Dh had the risotto and was disappointed that it was such a small portion. He said it was quite good. Ds9 had the pizza and said "it was the best pizza EVA!". He is a pizza connoisseur. DD17 had linguine and clams and said "Oh my goodness...so good " through a mouth full of food. It went well. We ordered dessert due to the rain and storms. By the time we were done we went back out and rode some rides and then headed back to the condo!
Day 2 Tuesday: We went to Islands. Kids loved the Popeye barges..although we warned them about getting wet. It bothered my son the most. Any man that has been through the chafing, knows what I am talking about...My son got that walk. My husband puts on what he calls "ball powder" to help but my son said he forgot to put it on. So he was hurting that day. We headed over to Jurassic and the ride was a looong wait. We said..no issues since they would get wet again and headed in to terrace to eat lunch. A squirrel had gotten in the restaurant and was terrifying a lot of people crawling under the tables and chairs. My kids named him Lenny.
We left and went back outside and Dh and ds started walking when dh realized it said "splash zone". He called my ds back but ds didn't hear him. Dh heard the ride coming and told him to move..but too late.. He got soaked. It was pretty funny
They weren't able to do jurassic or spiderman that day because they didn't feel like waiting. I had a ressie for Mythos through open table so we went and watched Sinbad(horrible show!) and then ate. It was awesome to have such freedom! We arrived 15 minutes early and had to wait the 15 minutes to be seated. But we were seated at exactly he reservation time. I was shocked!
I loved making a reservation and not having to wait another hour to be seated! . Then we rode some more and headed back to the condo. Day 3 Wednesday: Kennedy space day! This was nice because we got to sleep in a bit . We didn't get there until noon. We walked around the exhibits and my kids were so bored.
Dh and I were hoping there was more than the nature exhibit. We ate and then went to Hubble Imax. Kids pepped up because they enjoyed it. Then we headed on the bus tour. Let me tell you...for dh and I?? That was fantastic. It was awe inspiring to me. To think I have watch shuttles on tv take off from there. I remember being home sick and seeing the news report when the Challenger exploded. It was great. The kids thought it was cool. The driver was very good and gave us a lot of info. I even saw my very first wild alligator swimming next to the road. Then we went and saw the rocket which Dh thought was incredible. But when we went and saw the Atlantis? well.. I got chills. Was a good day. We left at 7pm and stopped at Fridays for appetizers since it was late.Day 4 Thursday: Well this was our off day. We were going to go to Cocoa beach but saw a news report the night before that a kid was bit by a shark on cocoa beach that day./.. So No Cocoa Beach! Ds would have a heart attack! So we decide to go back to Universal and add a day for Friday. That was really easily done at guest services inside the park. It was soooo hot this day. We at a few times at Richter Burger co while we were there. The kids liked it and then my husband went and got a turkey panini and sandwich with potato salad from San Fran pastry. That was so good! IT was great not to have to have a burger!
We never got to do Despicable me. Because of all the early entry, the ride was always had a ridiculously long wait time. But I got a picture of my kids with Spongebob! All was right in the world! The transformers was awesome. Loved seeing Bumblebee and Optimus out for pictures. I was quite mesmerized by them! This night we had Trex resizes so we headed off to downtown disney. I had a ressie and only waited 15 minutes Woohoo!! My kids love this restaurant so we always have to go. I couldn't remember what I usually get and just got a cheese burger because I figured..how bad could you screw that up? Let me tell you.. my burger was just fantastic Day 5 Friday: Last day
But it was good because we were ready for it to be our last day. We went on things everyone wanted to ride again. Ripride coaster had only a 30 minute wait this day. Surprisingly Friday was a much lower crowd in my opinion. Maybe everyone was in line for Despicable me. Dd17 and dd12 went on the rip coaster. They came off saying " Best coaster eva!" Never got a chance to go check out Diagon because whenever a ride went down on wait time we ran over to go on it. All that was left was souvenir shopping! I was kind of disappointed that Hp kind of took over the gift shop. But I got my minions mug and dd12 got her its so fluffy unicorn!
For those of you who know who Nancy Kerrigan is...I saw her multiple times. DS9 doesn't ride a lot of the rides and neither do I ..so he and I always hang out where they come out of the rides. I saw her multiple times.
It was a great trip! It was so freeing not to have to plan to the gills. We got to do most of everything. Although hot, it was manageable until the humidity rolled in. But I was definitely tired at the end of the week.
