WDW 8/17-8/26 (updated 8/31 in new thread, see siggy or last post)
- Thread starter zigzagzerr
- Start date
dismom9761
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2005
- Messages
- 5,331
Welcome home!!
Looking forward to reading all about it and seeing the pictures.
Looking forward to reading all about it and seeing the pictures.
zigzagzerr
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 519
Hi! I just linked over from the Peep thread...
Welcome home to gorgeous Maryland! Where in/around "Bal-da-more" are you from "Hon?" I live "way up 95" (or over the Susquehanna River and through the woods) in Cecil County...
Hi MJ, "hon"!
It was even better to come back and hear that the weather in Balmer was yucky all last week, while I was in sunny Florida!!
We're over in Howard County, in Ellicott City.
DisneyObsession
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2006
- Messages
- 1,492
OK...you're back, laundry should be done, kids are in school....where is the first installment??? 
We're waiting!!!
We're waiting!!!
zigzagzerr
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 519
Mods -- could you please move this to the current trip reports board? Thank you.
Well, the day had finally arrived and mighty early, too!
But we didnt care, cuz we were finally going on vacation. 
This is one problem with always taking your vacation the last week before school starts
.it takes all summer to get there.
We had packed the rest of the stuff up the night before thankfully, and we had all showered the night before as well. So, when the alarm went off at 4:00 am, all we had to do was roll out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and wave goodbye to the cat. Even had time for a cup of coffee its important to be at least somewhat awake on the drive to the airport.
Check-in at BWI was painless other than a scary moment for me when our big suitcase weighed in at exactly 50 lbs (over 50 lbs, you pay a heavy suitcase fee at Southwest). So I was a bit concerned that our suitcase was STARTING the trip at that weight how much would it weigh at the end of the trip, with souvenirs, dirty laundry, etc.?
Good thing we also brought a smaller suitcase, more loaded with food and supplies (i.e. stuff we wouldnt be bringing home), so we would have to be careful to distribute the weight a bit more evenly later on.
We had our A boarding passes, so we sneered at the losers in the B and C lines (you can surely anticipate some karma biting us in the bum on the return trip!
), and made our way onto the plane.
Okay, heres my tip for nervous fliers. I have traveled by plane quite a lot of times, and I still am not too crazy about it, especially if there is turbulence. Since our flight left at 6:30 a.m., I didnt think it would be seemly to use our free drink coupons, so my other airplane strategy is this (and Ive used it on several fairly heinous flights) I steal my daughter Tinks handheld Tetris game. Since Tetris is a pretty easy game, but takes some concentration, you can focus your attention almost to the exclusion of everything else going on around you (just ask your kids something when theyre playing a video game, and youll know what I mean). I have gotten pretty good at Tetris over the course of these flights and can play for quite a long time .the time flies by a lot faster for me than it would if I were reading or crossword puzzling, etc. So, there you have it it may not work for everybody, but its a godsend for me. And since the flight from Baltimore to MCO is only 2 hours, it was the perfect amount of distraction.
Oh, I almost forgot we had the most hilarious Southwest crew for this trip. They were singing us ballads over the loudspeaker and cracking jokes it made the flight a lot more fun, and added to our vacation-ey mood. And, as I said before, they did all this at 6:30 in the morning pretty peppy for that hour, wouldnt you say?
Our flight arrived at MCO at 8:40 a.m. We have taken this same flight on several of our vacations I just love arriving when its still early enough to have a whole first day in Florida, no matter what youre planning to do.
And, boy oh boy, they really get em in, get em out at MCO. We picked up our luggage and rental car and were pulling into the Royal Pacific parking lot by 9:30. Completely awesome! As was the hotel. This is Universals budget resort. Now, its not really budget by any stretch of the imagination (we were paying $191 for our one night), but its totally tropical (whoops, the valley girl in me is coming out) and green and gorgeous. Check in was amazingly quick and painless, and would you believe our room was ready at that hour of the morning? We took our resort keys straight out though, because we had one day left on our Universal passes, and were dying to use them.
Universal has boats (or water taxis) that will take you to the parks. We were too impatient to get going, though, and headed out along the walking path. This is a great walking path its nice and shady (as opposed to the path between Epcot and MGM that is out in the blazing sun but more on that later), and although it takes you all the way through City Walk to get to the parks and is a little bit of a haul, its really a very nice way to go.
Coming up next Front of the Line bliss
Well, the day had finally arrived and mighty early, too!
But we didnt care, cuz we were finally going on vacation. This is one problem with always taking your vacation the last week before school starts
.it takes all summer to get there.We had packed the rest of the stuff up the night before thankfully, and we had all showered the night before as well. So, when the alarm went off at 4:00 am, all we had to do was roll out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and wave goodbye to the cat. Even had time for a cup of coffee its important to be at least somewhat awake on the drive to the airport.
Check-in at BWI was painless other than a scary moment for me when our big suitcase weighed in at exactly 50 lbs (over 50 lbs, you pay a heavy suitcase fee at Southwest). So I was a bit concerned that our suitcase was STARTING the trip at that weight how much would it weigh at the end of the trip, with souvenirs, dirty laundry, etc.?
Good thing we also brought a smaller suitcase, more loaded with food and supplies (i.e. stuff we wouldnt be bringing home), so we would have to be careful to distribute the weight a bit more evenly later on.We had our A boarding passes, so we sneered at the losers in the B and C lines (you can surely anticipate some karma biting us in the bum on the return trip!
), and made our way onto the plane.Okay, heres my tip for nervous fliers. I have traveled by plane quite a lot of times, and I still am not too crazy about it, especially if there is turbulence. Since our flight left at 6:30 a.m., I didnt think it would be seemly to use our free drink coupons, so my other airplane strategy is this (and Ive used it on several fairly heinous flights) I steal my daughter Tinks handheld Tetris game. Since Tetris is a pretty easy game, but takes some concentration, you can focus your attention almost to the exclusion of everything else going on around you (just ask your kids something when theyre playing a video game, and youll know what I mean). I have gotten pretty good at Tetris over the course of these flights and can play for quite a long time .the time flies by a lot faster for me than it would if I were reading or crossword puzzling, etc. So, there you have it it may not work for everybody, but its a godsend for me. And since the flight from Baltimore to MCO is only 2 hours, it was the perfect amount of distraction.
Oh, I almost forgot we had the most hilarious Southwest crew for this trip. They were singing us ballads over the loudspeaker and cracking jokes it made the flight a lot more fun, and added to our vacation-ey mood. And, as I said before, they did all this at 6:30 in the morning pretty peppy for that hour, wouldnt you say?
Our flight arrived at MCO at 8:40 a.m. We have taken this same flight on several of our vacations I just love arriving when its still early enough to have a whole first day in Florida, no matter what youre planning to do.
And, boy oh boy, they really get em in, get em out at MCO. We picked up our luggage and rental car and were pulling into the Royal Pacific parking lot by 9:30. Completely awesome! As was the hotel. This is Universals budget resort. Now, its not really budget by any stretch of the imagination (we were paying $191 for our one night), but its totally tropical (whoops, the valley girl in me is coming out) and green and gorgeous. Check in was amazingly quick and painless, and would you believe our room was ready at that hour of the morning? We took our resort keys straight out though, because we had one day left on our Universal passes, and were dying to use them.
Universal has boats (or water taxis) that will take you to the parks. We were too impatient to get going, though, and headed out along the walking path. This is a great walking path its nice and shady (as opposed to the path between Epcot and MGM that is out in the blazing sun but more on that later), and although it takes you all the way through City Walk to get to the parks and is a little bit of a haul, its really a very nice way to go.
Coming up next Front of the Line bliss
dismom9761
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2005
- Messages
- 5,331
Loved the first installment! Looking forward to more.
Looking forward to more.zigzagzerr
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 519
It goes by the order you print your boarding passes. You're allowed to print them from your computer about 24 hours before your flight -- so the first so many passes are A, then B and C. No assigned seats on Southwest planes, so they board you in A group, B group and C group order. If you're C, you're pretty much stuck with whatever seats are left -- usually middle seats.
Whenever we've ended up in the C group, we always feel like the great unwashed.
zigzagzerr
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 519
At last glance, we were heading toward the turnstiles of Universal Studios, ready to start our first day of vacation. 
We had shuffled our belongings around, in order to travel light today, just a fanny pack. So unfortunately, I dont have any pictures in the park today
(Jim remembered mid-day that his new cell phone had a camera function, so he did take a few pics, and if we can figure out how to put them on the computer, Ill post them). We wanted to travel without a backpack if possible, because Universal, on some of its attractions, will not allow you to bring any type of bags, backpacks, purses, etc. They have free lockers outside the attraction for you to store your stuff which is great, but on a really crowded day, there is a vast sea of humanity all trying to use the same lockers. Kind of a pain, so we wanted to try to avoid that.
I should mention here that we really love Universal Studios its not Disney, and it doesnt have to be Disney. As my the title of my report says, I believe that you can create magic wherever you go, providing you bring a sense of fun and adventure and an easygoing attitude. Our family just enjoys being together doesnt matter where. And Universal is a really awesome place to be.
Especially if you have Front of the Line (FOTL).
If you stay onsite at Universal, you get this unbelievable perk. As a Disney reference, this would be the equivalent of having an unlimited fast pass to every single attraction in the park. Universal calls it Express Pass, and the great thing is that they have an Express Pass line at virtually all their rides and shows -- as opposed to Disney having it at only the most popular rides.
What this means is that we arrived at 10 in the morning and walked onto every ride and show without waiting, all day long. Fantabulous!
Getting back to the fact that we didnt have a camera today, I was disappointed about that because as we were hightailing it to the back of the park to ride Men In Black, we were bumping into tons of characters with no one else around how often does that happen? So we got to visit with Curious George, Scooby Doo and Shaggy and a few others .but hugs only, no pics, sorry. It was cool, though.
Men In Black is a shoot-em-up ride (like Buzz Lightyear, but cooler) where you ride around shooting aliens with laser zappers for points. They can also shoot back at you, spinning your car around. And you can shoot at the car next to you and spin them. At the end, you get a score for your car (group of 6) in competition with the car next to you. We rode this twice in a row (just cuz we could) and it was really fun. Im no good at this kind of thing, but its a real rush if you hit a good target. On our second try, the guy sitting in the next row up scored a huge score, something like 400,000 points. We were greatly impressed.
We made our way over to the waterfront next, to ride Jaws. In this boat ride, the driver takes you around the quiet seaside village that is being terrorized by a giant shark. Its all very fake and the guide plays it off in a comical way the shark itself is definitely big and relentless, but is played for laughs, not screams. Tink, however, did not like it AT ALL. The poor Aussie girl sitting behind us (around Tinks age, maybe a little older) was terrified and crying at the end, telling her parents I told you I didnt want to go on this!. So, you never can tell how these things will affect people.
We arrived just in time to see the Monster Makeup Show. If youve never seen this, you should its a real must-do for us. While showing the audience how monster movie makeup is done, the two hosts are absolutely hilarious we were practically rolling on the floor at times. They poke fun at people in the audience. Imagine my joy when the host and this big hairy monster both started doing the Focker Watch sign to this little boy in the audience 
I bout keeled over laughing!!!
So, one of the gags they do is that the host guy is running around the stage with a pretend dagger in his chest, spurting fake blood, and he grabs somebody in the audience to come save me!. He turns to this British woman in the front row and she says (I kid you not), I would if you were from the U.K., but since youre American, Ill let you die. Excuse me? So after we all bood her, the show went on ..but later on, when the host was pretending like he was going to throw fake blood on the audience (it was really water), he made sure to give her a proper drenching. Karma for sure! Anyway, this is an awesome show and a lot of fun. And I know the dis police will come beat me over the head for it, but I do enjoy when they tease the audience and say hey, we dont have to be nice to you, this isnt Disney.
By this time, it was 11:30ish and having eaten breakfast at 4, we were getting a bit hungry. Stopped for lunch at the Boulangerie, which is a pastry and sandwich place near the entrance of the park. This is the 2nd time weve eaten here, and its never crowded maybe because it was so early, but I also noticed that the park map listed it as a breakfast place and didnt mention that it served lunch. So if folks are checking out the map, they may not find it. Anyway, it has nice sandwiches made on croissants (yum) and they come with fresh fruit and potato salad. Oh, have I mentioned that the desserts here come from the Cheesecake Factory? We split two sandwich platters, a large lemonade, and piece of Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cheesecake. Divine.
I should mention also that you can use your AAA card at the food/souvenir shops in Universal and get a discount. Cool! Lunch was about $22, and was plenty for the 3 of us. Also Popeye and Olive Oyle walked through and said hello while we were there.
Right across from there is the I Love Lucy tribute, so if youre real lucky, you might see a show while youre eating lunch. We didnt this time, but here is a pic from our last visit.
We decided (cuz were not too smart) to do the Jimmy Neutron ride after lunch. Probably not the best idea to ride a simulator after you eat but oh well .I like the part at the end where the whole theater does the chicken dance, especially the bounce bounce bounce bounce ..Tink loves it.
Almost as much as she loves the Animal Planet show, which was our next stop. The show had a little trouble getting started, as the animal actors werent cooperating in fact, the trainers had to go running after one of the cats who tried to sneak out through the bushes! There is a part in the show where they use a little kid volunteer who whispers articles of clothing to a dog who then goes backstage and brings them out. As a joke, the dog will usually bring out something embarrassing like a bra, and the host will tease the kid you asked for that? Hmm. Well, they pulled this on a little boy who went running back to his mother sobbing that he didnt say that .poor kid. Maybe they need to re-think some of these things.
After a quick visit to ET (think Peter Pan ride but longer and more detailed), we wandered around the childrens play area. Looks fun but very wet. From several of the trip reports, we had heard about a Barney the Dinosaur fountain in there, where all the coins tossed into the fountain are donated to the Give Kids the World foundation. So, we made sure to pay a visit and empty our wallets there. After reading several of the Make a Wish trip reports, I have the utmost respect for the wonderful experiences they provide these kids.
Couple more Universal attractions left we rode the Earthquake ride. This is an amazing experience, and trust me ..Im a California girl, been through plenty of earthquakes. I was in college when the 1987 earthquake hit in Northern CA, right near the epicenter in Santa Cruz. Scary times ..
We saw the Monster Rock & Roll Revue which is fun. One of the best things about seeing the park today was the fact that we could get to the shows about 10 minutes before they started and still get a great seat. Also, everyone we met was very polite and pleasant just out to have a good time, like us.
Saw the Shrek 3d movie
I can now vouch that even the seats at the very end of the row have a great view, cuz those are the seats we had. Even at Uni, you must move ALL THE WAY DOWN, FILLING IN ALL THE AVAILABLE SEATS. 
Having seen all of this, we were about done at Universal. It was around 3 in the afternoon, and since we had hoppers, we headed next door to Islands of Adventure for a little while.
Whew, running out of time here more tomorrow.
We had shuffled our belongings around, in order to travel light today, just a fanny pack. So unfortunately, I dont have any pictures in the park today
(Jim remembered mid-day that his new cell phone had a camera function, so he did take a few pics, and if we can figure out how to put them on the computer, Ill post them). We wanted to travel without a backpack if possible, because Universal, on some of its attractions, will not allow you to bring any type of bags, backpacks, purses, etc. They have free lockers outside the attraction for you to store your stuff which is great, but on a really crowded day, there is a vast sea of humanity all trying to use the same lockers. Kind of a pain, so we wanted to try to avoid that.I should mention here that we really love Universal Studios its not Disney, and it doesnt have to be Disney. As my the title of my report says, I believe that you can create magic wherever you go, providing you bring a sense of fun and adventure and an easygoing attitude. Our family just enjoys being together doesnt matter where. And Universal is a really awesome place to be.
Especially if you have Front of the Line (FOTL).
If you stay onsite at Universal, you get this unbelievable perk. As a Disney reference, this would be the equivalent of having an unlimited fast pass to every single attraction in the park. Universal calls it Express Pass, and the great thing is that they have an Express Pass line at virtually all their rides and shows -- as opposed to Disney having it at only the most popular rides.
What this means is that we arrived at 10 in the morning and walked onto every ride and show without waiting, all day long. Fantabulous!
Getting back to the fact that we didnt have a camera today, I was disappointed about that because as we were hightailing it to the back of the park to ride Men In Black, we were bumping into tons of characters with no one else around how often does that happen? So we got to visit with Curious George, Scooby Doo and Shaggy and a few others .but hugs only, no pics, sorry. It was cool, though.
Men In Black is a shoot-em-up ride (like Buzz Lightyear, but cooler) where you ride around shooting aliens with laser zappers for points. They can also shoot back at you, spinning your car around. And you can shoot at the car next to you and spin them. At the end, you get a score for your car (group of 6) in competition with the car next to you. We rode this twice in a row (just cuz we could) and it was really fun. Im no good at this kind of thing, but its a real rush if you hit a good target. On our second try, the guy sitting in the next row up scored a huge score, something like 400,000 points. We were greatly impressed.
We made our way over to the waterfront next, to ride Jaws. In this boat ride, the driver takes you around the quiet seaside village that is being terrorized by a giant shark. Its all very fake and the guide plays it off in a comical way the shark itself is definitely big and relentless, but is played for laughs, not screams. Tink, however, did not like it AT ALL. The poor Aussie girl sitting behind us (around Tinks age, maybe a little older) was terrified and crying at the end, telling her parents I told you I didnt want to go on this!. So, you never can tell how these things will affect people.
We arrived just in time to see the Monster Makeup Show. If youve never seen this, you should its a real must-do for us. While showing the audience how monster movie makeup is done, the two hosts are absolutely hilarious we were practically rolling on the floor at times. They poke fun at people in the audience. Imagine my joy when the host and this big hairy monster both started doing the Focker Watch sign to this little boy in the audience
I bout keeled over laughing!!!So, one of the gags they do is that the host guy is running around the stage with a pretend dagger in his chest, spurting fake blood, and he grabs somebody in the audience to come save me!. He turns to this British woman in the front row and she says (I kid you not), I would if you were from the U.K., but since youre American, Ill let you die. Excuse me? So after we all bood her, the show went on ..but later on, when the host was pretending like he was going to throw fake blood on the audience (it was really water), he made sure to give her a proper drenching. Karma for sure! Anyway, this is an awesome show and a lot of fun. And I know the dis police will come beat me over the head for it, but I do enjoy when they tease the audience and say hey, we dont have to be nice to you, this isnt Disney.
By this time, it was 11:30ish and having eaten breakfast at 4, we were getting a bit hungry. Stopped for lunch at the Boulangerie, which is a pastry and sandwich place near the entrance of the park. This is the 2nd time weve eaten here, and its never crowded maybe because it was so early, but I also noticed that the park map listed it as a breakfast place and didnt mention that it served lunch. So if folks are checking out the map, they may not find it. Anyway, it has nice sandwiches made on croissants (yum) and they come with fresh fruit and potato salad. Oh, have I mentioned that the desserts here come from the Cheesecake Factory? We split two sandwich platters, a large lemonade, and piece of Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cheesecake. Divine.
I should mention also that you can use your AAA card at the food/souvenir shops in Universal and get a discount. Cool! Lunch was about $22, and was plenty for the 3 of us. Also Popeye and Olive Oyle walked through and said hello while we were there.Right across from there is the I Love Lucy tribute, so if youre real lucky, you might see a show while youre eating lunch. We didnt this time, but here is a pic from our last visit.
We decided (cuz were not too smart) to do the Jimmy Neutron ride after lunch. Probably not the best idea to ride a simulator after you eat but oh well .I like the part at the end where the whole theater does the chicken dance, especially the bounce bounce bounce bounce ..Tink loves it.
Almost as much as she loves the Animal Planet show, which was our next stop. The show had a little trouble getting started, as the animal actors werent cooperating in fact, the trainers had to go running after one of the cats who tried to sneak out through the bushes! There is a part in the show where they use a little kid volunteer who whispers articles of clothing to a dog who then goes backstage and brings them out. As a joke, the dog will usually bring out something embarrassing like a bra, and the host will tease the kid you asked for that? Hmm. Well, they pulled this on a little boy who went running back to his mother sobbing that he didnt say that .poor kid. Maybe they need to re-think some of these things.
After a quick visit to ET (think Peter Pan ride but longer and more detailed), we wandered around the childrens play area. Looks fun but very wet. From several of the trip reports, we had heard about a Barney the Dinosaur fountain in there, where all the coins tossed into the fountain are donated to the Give Kids the World foundation. So, we made sure to pay a visit and empty our wallets there. After reading several of the Make a Wish trip reports, I have the utmost respect for the wonderful experiences they provide these kids.
Couple more Universal attractions left we rode the Earthquake ride. This is an amazing experience, and trust me ..Im a California girl, been through plenty of earthquakes. I was in college when the 1987 earthquake hit in Northern CA, right near the epicenter in Santa Cruz. Scary times ..
We saw the Monster Rock & Roll Revue which is fun. One of the best things about seeing the park today was the fact that we could get to the shows about 10 minutes before they started and still get a great seat. Also, everyone we met was very polite and pleasant just out to have a good time, like us.
Saw the Shrek 3d movie
I can now vouch that even the seats at the very end of the row have a great view, cuz those are the seats we had. Even at Uni, you must move ALL THE WAY DOWN, FILLING IN ALL THE AVAILABLE SEATS. Having seen all of this, we were about done at Universal. It was around 3 in the afternoon, and since we had hoppers, we headed next door to Islands of Adventure for a little while.
Whew, running out of time here more tomorrow.
jcc0621
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2007
- Messages
- 12,317
Ican;t believe I didn't see this before. That's okay, I'll just blame Jo. J/K Jo, Ly/MI
We were at Disney the same time. We flew home on the 24th. I checked your schedule though, and we weren't at any of the same palced at the same time.
We like Universal, but if we have a choice of only one, it will be Disney. Did you do IOA at all? We like that too!
Can't wait to read more
Janet
We were at Disney the same time. We flew home on the 24th. I checked your schedule though, and we weren't at any of the same palced at the same time.
We like Universal, but if we have a choice of only one, it will be Disney. Did you do IOA at all? We like that too!
Can't wait to read more
Janet
dismom9761
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2005
- Messages
- 5,331
Sounds like a great day! Staying onsite there is the way to go!
Staying onsite there is the way to go!
DisneyObsession
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2006
- Messages
- 1,492
There's nothing wrong with going to Universal! In fact, we have always enjoyed our time there. I think ET is one of my favorite rides. We never did make it to IOA when we went in '99. However, my sister liked those rides.
Can't wait for more. (with pics!)
In fact, we have always enjoyed our time there. I think ET is one of my favorite rides. We never did make it to IOA when we went in '99. However, my sister liked those rides.Can't wait for more. (with pics!)
-
Disney Confirms Tuesday Return for 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' on ABC
-
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster's Outdoor Twin Across the World
-
Bonus Points DVC Listings: More Points & No Dues for 2025!
-
Festival Favorites Global Marketplace NOW OPEN at EPCOT
-
3 Days Left! Save 40% On Your Next Disney Cruise
-
Universal Orlando Releases Statement Following Stardust Racers Incident
-
New Disney Merch: Peter Pan Loungefly, Cakeworthy, and More
Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
