We "shipped" off our parents and we stayed in Disney! updated 7/18! The final chapter

[Nicole786]

Chapter List

1. Universal part 1
2. Universal part 2
3. Checking in at the wilderness lodge
4. The magic kingdom!
5. Mom checks in about the cruise!
6. Our WL room, Boma, MK at night
7. Our epcot morning, part one!
8. Epcot morning, part two!
9. The WL arcade, dinner at Kona!
10. DHS EMH
11. Blizzard beach morning and the WL pool!
12. Our afternoon off? and whispering canyon!
13. Dinner at yak and yeti/AK emh
14. Epcot morning waiting for mom and dad
15. Mom and dad return!
16. Mom and dad return!
17. We check into AKL!
18. We check into AKL! Part 2
19. AKL, Epcot for dinner
20. our last full day 1
21. our last full day 2
22. our last full day 3
23. The Final Chapter


Hello everybody! We're back from a magical walt disney world vacation!! This was a little bit different than your average trip because our parents went on a Disney Cruise (our treat!) while we stayed at disney world!! If you want to hear more about how we pulled off this awesome surprise last year, and more about the trip details in general, click here for our pre-trip report

But here's our plans to give you an idea

May 8th-10th - royal pacific resort in universal orlando
May 10th-15th - wilderness lodge while mom and dad are on the disney wonder!
May 15th-17th - animal kingdom lodge (the WL wasn't available the entire stay, mom and dad also stayed here when they came back from the wonder)

and here is the cast!

Me - nicole, planner, and trip payer
david - my brother, loves his sister for taking him to disney world, look for his comments in BLUE
mom - so excited about this vacation (so were we all!) loves BELLE, gets so excited anytime she's near! Her comments are in PINK
dad - really needed this vacation!! So excited up until the very last second and so appreciative!

Mom and dad took lots of pictures, and even met someone on the boat who "knew them!" because of this, mom wants to participate in the trip report, and since I have no idea the details of their cruise this will be a big help!!

If you are interested in seeing loads of pictures of the Wilderness Lodge, stick around! if you are interested in seeing lots of pictures of the Animal Kingdom Lodge (light fixtures, wallpaper, carpet) stick around!! If you ever wondered what life was like at the dark side (universal) stick around!! We'll start with just a brief summary of universal studios and staying at universal's royal pacific hotel, and than we'll begin our disney trip!! first chapter coming up![/SIZE]

 

[teruterubouzu]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to reading your trip report. Hope you're feeling well soon.

 

[MeMom]

I checked in one more time before calling it a night, and here you were!

It's nice to hear that Mom and Dad are known for their connections to some Dis celebrities.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about it. I'll probably even read a little bit about 'that other place', but I'll definitely be tuned in when you get started at the Disney part.

I hope you are feeling better and getting caught up on your rest.

 

[Nicole786]

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to reading your trip report. Hope you're feeling well soon.

Thanks we're starting early (or should I say late?) tonight!

I checked in one more time before calling it a night, and here you were!

It's nice to hear that Mom and Dad are known for their connections to some Dis celebrities.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about it. I'll probably even read a little bit about 'that other place', but I'll definitely be tuned in when you get started at the Disney part.

I hope you are feeling better and getting caught up on your rest.

Glad you checked in again, hopefully you'll stick around for the brief universal bits (theres only 2-3 i promise!)

 

[Nicole786]

I'm going to try and keep the universal parts pretty brief. I know there are a few out there interested in heading here one day especially when harry potter opens. I do think Universal has its own charm (no where near disney service of course!) but since loews owns the hotels, I do believe we've had some of our best experiences here! So for those who are interested, I hope you find these chapters useful, and if anyone has any questions about universal i'm sure i can answer them!

We always have a great time at universal orlando resort! We really enjoy the parks there (of course they don't measure up to disney) but david and I have had the pleasure of staying at the hard rock hotel. We love this place, you get universal front of the line pass for staying at a universal hotel, and you get treated like royalty! Well this time, we decided to try a different universal hotel (the royal pacific) and since mom and dad have never stayed on site there, it was a new experience for all! It was a beautiful hotel with a polynesian style theme:

We arrived late the first night, so our trip officially started the next day! We slept in a bit and went to grab some breakfast at the BK Whopper Bar at city walk (they have boat service from the royal pacific). This is a unique restaurant to universal (they are piloting it and may bring it elsewhere) but during the day for lunch, you can get all these different kinds of whoppers and they have a toppings bar! We had a good start and ready for the day!

We started at our favorite, islands of adventure. It is split into themed lands (like magic kingdom) but more entertainment-based. They have suess landing, the lost continent, jurassic park, toon lagoon, and marvel. Next year they will be adding the wizarding world of harry potter! A themed land just for HP!

We enjoyed the rides here david and I went on dueling dragons (david was excited to try this coaster and we had a great time) We cooled off in toon lagoon with dad and took some fun pics and headed into spiderman, a family favorite!!

This is dudley do rights ripsaw falls in Toon Lagoon (this themed lands puts you in the sunday comics!) you get absolutely soaked on the rides here. They also have popeye which is like kali river rapids but much longer and you can't escape the water here! Mom skipped dudley do right, we all went on popeye! Heres us after dudley do right!

Here we are on the jurassic park ride, another great one!

By lunch time we were finished with IOA and headed over to Universal studios, the first park and more movie-themed park. It reminds me very much of hollywood studios, it used to be a working movie studio and has a lot of movie-based attractions, mom especially loves Lucy (from i love lucy) so this was our first stop. I didn't mind because I loved the air conditioning and the constant loop of classic lucy scenes!!

Coming up we finish off our day with the rest of universal studios and dinner at a great restaurant!!

 

[KatGarcia]

Welcome back! I am def interested about the US stuff, I am trying to plan a trip there. Stop by my PTR when u get the chance so I can pick your brain!

When are you coming back up to NY again?

 

[Charleston Princess]

I'm here and super excited that you have started your TR! The Royal Pacific is a very pretty hotel!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

Yippee!! A new TR, I love this.

I made first page! I'm not late to this one.

You are such a sweet and thoughtful daughter/sister to treat your family to this vacay! You go girl!

Universal Studios looks like a lot of fun. The last time we went there was in 2004, I'm sure it's changed some.

Your hotel looks beautiful.

BK Whopper sounds like a great idea!

Everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves. Even when wet!

Hi, DMom! Hi, David! Hi DDad! (I gave him a color)

 

[topdog]

Welcome back. I went to stay at Royal Pacific a couple of years ago. Great hotel. They have great Mojito at the bar.

Can't wait to hear about the trip.

 

[wdwgirl03]

If you are interested in seeing loads of pictures of the Wilderness Lodge, stick around![/COLOR][/SIZE]

YEAH!!!!! Can't wait to see all the WL pictures!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

I'm here. I checked last night before heading to bed and you weren't here yet. I go to bed earlier than MeMom since I'm getting up one or two times during the night to feed Isabella. Great start. We did Universal Studios a LONG time ago. Trent has talked about him and Jarvis going for a day because they have more thrill rides.

 

[timandlesley]

Welcome back, LOVE the Universal pics, so excited for your report, you are off to a great start!
Lesley

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

im here im here, welcome back, nice to see a little bit of different things in TR, like your universal and glad it will include some stuffrom the cruise, i love reading about the cruises.

great start

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more!

 

[Nicole786]

Welcome back! I am def interested about the US stuff, I am trying to plan a trip there. Stop by my PTR when u get the chance so I can pick your brain!

When are you coming back up to NY again?

I was planning on coming up there June 18th-21st, but I'm not sure if i can. It will definitely be this summer though!

I'm here and super excited that you have started your TR! The Royal Pacific is a very pretty hotel!

It is very pretty! I'll have more pics soon!

Yippee!! A new TR, I love this.

I made first page! I'm not late to this one.

You are such a sweet and thoughtful daughter/sister to treat your family to this vacay! You go girl!

Universal Studios looks like a lot of fun. The last time we went there was in 2004, I'm sure it's changed some.

Your hotel looks beautiful.

BK Whopper sounds like a great idea!

Everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves. Even when wet!

Hi, DMom! Hi, David! Hi DDad! (I gave him a color)

Haha dad may pop in also, so I guess we should give him a color too!! You should check it out again, if you go in with the expectation that its nothing like disney you'll probably like it!

Welcome back. I went to stay at Royal Pacific a couple of years ago. Great hotel. They have great Mojito at the bar.

Can't wait to hear about the trip.

Yeah we had a great experience at the RPR! Didn't get to check out the bar (werent there long enough)

YEAH!!!!! Can't wait to see all the WL pictures!

Yaay, good cuz i have LOTS!

I'm here. I checked last night before heading to bed and you weren't here yet. I go to bed earlier than MeMom since I'm getting up one or two times during the night to feed Isabella. Great start. We did Universal Studios a LONG time ago. Trent has talked about him and Jarvis going for a day because they have more thrill rides.

They should go to Islands of Adventure if they decide to go. Are you dising while feeding Bella?? Thats what I would do!

Welcome back, LOVE the Universal pics, so excited for your report, you are off to a great start!
Lesley

Thanks, i know you guys were interested in Universal so stay tuned for some more (albeit brief) pics/details from universal!

im here im here, welcome back, nice to see a little bit of different things in TR, like your universal and glad it will include some stuffrom the cruise, i love reading about the cruises.

great start

Oh my dad has all the pics from the cruise and there are lots!

Signing on for more!

Yay, welcome!

 

[Nicole786]

After cooling off at the Lucy Experience (and mom shopping) we continued our tour around Universal. We headed to ET but it was down for some reason (we love that ride, so cute!) so we moved on to Simpsons. I get sick on motion simulators and Simpsons, while its a smoother ride than Star Tours, still makes me dizzy. Dad loved back to the future so David and dad went on it while Mom and I stayed back to share a strawberry slushie, yum!

They were gone for a LONG time. I was actually starting to get worried. See where they are in the "line" (gotta love express! ) they are right outside of where they split you to go in the room for the ride. This was like 25 minutes later and still no sign of them! There was a problem and here is dad and david to explain

Davids (and dads) Thoughts: They couldn't get the lap bar down. We had to go through the preshow once and than when we got on the ride the lapbar wouldn't go down. They had to leave the car while the screen above us played the ride even though we didn't move. Then they made us get out and go in another room and watch the preshow AGAIN and then we went back in and they had the same problem! So we had to sit through the ride movie without moving again, and than back out and finally back in. It eventually worked but we were simpsons-out"

So needless to say dad didn't like the simpsons ride.

We headed to Jaws, walked right on

and than we all headed to disaster. This is such a fun attraction! Chistopher walken is a feature in it, and I won't ruin it for anyone its just a lot of fun! The ride itself is just okay but the interactions are great!

Then david and I ran over to the mummy, the greatest attraction in all universal!! This ride is so awesome if anyone is heading to universal, get here as close to park opening as possible, you'll want to ride it twice!!

It was lunch time so we decided to grab some lunch back near disaster at a place called "richter burger" which is themed like an earthquake shelter. (this entire area is themed after san francisco)

Here's mom and dad walking through "NY" (does it remind you of DHS?)

After this we went on ET (love it!) and decided to leave as it was getting very hot and very crowded very quickly. We would come to know and love this boat dock:

All three hotels have their own boat dock that goes to this boat down in the middle of city walk. City walk is a boardwalk-like strip that seperates Universal Studios from Islands of Adventure. In order to get to the other hotels (besides walking) is to take the boat to this dock, and transfer. We did this multiple times this night! (another reason I like the hard rock hotel, to walking distance to the portofino and the parks!)

We decided to pool hop to the hard rock because their pool is a little less plain than the royal pacific (FYI at universal this is allowed and encouraged) so we had to take the boat to city walk, boat to hard rock.

We had a blast here! There is a 200ft water slide, bubble jets at the sides of the pool, and an underwater music system! If you are swimming you can hear the music! AWESOME!! Oh, and did I mention you can drink in the pool??

We spent a good amount of time here before it was time to boat hop back to the royal pacific. It was time to freshen up for our dinner at Mama Dellas, which just like wdwinfo.com says is amazing!!

Here we are leaving the royal pacific, by the way these pics were taken with my canon rebel, which is what I used in disney also, I carried around a pocket canon in the universal parks, and proceeded to drop it and break the flash. Which is why I try not to carry expensive things

One of my favorites of the trip, this is the Portofino Bay Hotel in the background! Pretty, right??

Dinner was awesome we had an amazing server! He even went to a neighboring restaurant just to get dad salad dressing!! They have opera singers in the restaurant who came over and sang to mom and dad congratulating them

We never walked inside the portofino (actually, mom and dad have never even seen it, they loved it!) so we walked inside! They do an impressive disney-like job on the attention to detail, you feel like you are walking around Italy!

I joked around and posed them for this picture, but I love it!

And that just about wraps up our day at Universal!! We went back that night and made sure everything was in order because Mom and dad were heading to the Disney Wonder!! And david and I were heading to the Wilderness Lodge the next day!! Stay tuned!

 

[KatGarcia]

LOVE the pics of your parents- they are sooo cute!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I guess your dad and David can pretty much recite the Simpsons film now! Yikes!

Love the two pics of your parents -- they are too cute having such a good time!

 

[MeMom]

I know it's blasphemy, but I actually have been to Universal a couple of times, but it's been a while. I know our crew has talked about going over to check out Islands of Adventure for a day. I think they would really enjoy that. If I go anywhere off Disney property, it'll most likely be to take Brooklynn to Sea World. The trouble is, once we have the Disney tickets paid for, it's hard to think about another $70+ to go somewhere else for a day.

There's no doubt that there are awesome rides and attractions and beautiful hotels over that way, though. I'm sure there will be a day we will go there again, probably when the girls are a bit older.

Sorry to hear about the camera accident.

I'm ready to hear about the arrival at Wilderness Lodge!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

They should go to Islands of Adventure if they decide to go. Are you dising while feeding Bella?? Thats what I would do!

Several times a day. I am trying to really clean and organize the house so I do that between feedings and then when she is ready to eat I must sit down so I usually Dis then. I have become pretty efficient at one handed typing even left handed!