"Where did you get those shirts?" An August TR, with lots of pics! Updated 10/28!

[Nicole786]

Hello guys!! Thanks for joining me on this trip report. My brother and I just came back from our 11 day Orlando adventure and I can't wait to share it with everyone! (So much so, that I still haven't unpacked) We have so much to talk about. We started our trip at Universal Orlando with many many stops at WWOHP (Wizarding world of Harry Potter) After our 2 night Hard Rock stay, we moved over to a heavenly 8 night Disney stay!! This trip was a long time in planning, over a year to be exact, we started saving/planning in May 2009 and its amazing how quickly its over, but what a great way to relive those moments/memories than to do a trip report? So lets get started!

Nicole: The leader of the trip report and Disney loving gal. I'm lucky that I surround myself with Disney loving friends so my "healthy" obsession can live on day to day. I work in the computer industry, and consider myself a super nerd especially with computers and movies/tv references. Luckily, this seems to be a popular trend around the DIS boards these days, its so funny how we all share so much in common

David: Lil' bro (not so little anymore) he's gonna make some girl very happy one day especially if that girl loves Disney! At first, while I was busy discovering the Dis boards years ago, he liked Disney but didn't love it. Now i'd have to say he's almost obsessed as I am!! He's a thrill ride maniac (wasn't always like that so its funny to look back over the years) and he loves to just BE in disney which a lot of us can say is a favorite as well. He's a recent high school graduate, an aspiring chef (he already works in a restaurant) and an aspiring Disney College Program student, he lurks on those forums as well as here, and he had some great conversations with the CP CMs at disney this trip!

Here is the shirt design referenced in the title (They are on the left, but the shirts on the right received attention as well):

We love Phineas and Ferb, and these shirts recieved a crazy amount of attention! I got a few monetary offers, one from a World of Disney CM! and lots of "Where can I get those shirts?" so I was excited! My hard work had paid off and we had a blast with all the attention!

Here are the rest of our Trip Stats
We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, August 20th-22nd and Disney's Polynesian Resort August 22nd-30th. When we got to Disney, we had the regular DDP so there will be lots of food porn pics

We love WDW, but we started our trip at Universal because we like it over there too. It's no Disney but it has its own charm, and we couldn't wait to check out WWOHP! We had a Harry Potter marathon before we went, which I highly recommend. We've seen the movies but it was like a refresher and we were able to pick up on a lot of the details. I'm not going to share as much detail with Universal as I do with WDW (except for the Potter parts because I know people are interested in that) but if you have any questions, feel free to ask us!

Okay, lets get started!

 

[Nicole786]

Chapter List

Universal Studios Day 1, 1 - Page 1
Universal Studios Day 1, 2 - Page 1
Universal Studios Day 1, 3 - Page 1
Universal Studios Day 2, 1 - Page 3
Universal Studios Day 2, 2 - Page 3
Universal Studios Day 2, 3 - Page 3
Universal Studios Day 2, 4 - Page 3
Arrival at Disney!, 1 - Page 4
Arrival at Disney!, 2 - Page 4
Arrival at Disney!, 3 - Page 4
Our First Night (MSEP!), 1 - Page 5
Our First Night (MSEP!), 2 - Page 5
Epcot on our First Day!, 1 - Page 6
Epcot on our First Day!, 2 - Page 6

 

[Nicole786]

Who could sleep the night before your trip? We sure couldn't. So we were up very early and anxious to get over to the Hard Rock hotel at Universal!! This is one of Universal's three on property hotels, and the perfect choice for David, a guitarist in his band and a lover of music.

When you stay on-site your room key acts like an express pass, and you also have early entry of one hour at WWOHP! That in itself was worth it in our minds, and because the HRH is in walking distance to the parks, we didn't think twice about staying there. Of course we were there way early, so our room wasn't ready. We just relaxed and then walked over to our first park Universal Studios!

We waited and waited for the ticket booths to open so we could redeem our ticket vouchers, that seemed like an eternity!! When we walked over to the turnstiles about 20 minutes until opening, we overheard the Team member (thats what they call them at UO) say that on-site hotel guests can get in early. Sweet!! We were excited to have this advantage for Rip Ride Rockit, but we came to found that we were stopped just before the ride anyway, and with David and I being slow walkers, not to mention the fact that we had to stop and put our carry ons in a locker, our "early entry" did nothing and we ended up waiting 20 minutes for the ride. We wanted to ask for first row but because its a constantly moving ride they don't do that. We ended up being first row anyway and our luck at Universal began!

What an awesome ride!! You pick a song from a touch display before going STRAIGHT up the incline and the song you pick plays through the coaster! I picked Muse - Stockholm Syndrome and it was perfect!

After that adrenaline pumping roller coaster, we were wide awake and our plan was to just circle the park and get on anything we wanted to with our express pass (the express pass excludes RRR right now, as well as the main HP ride) thats what we did! Here are some photos!

 

[Nicole786]

At around 11am we were starving so it was time for lunch! I had heard on the DIS Boards that over near The mummy was this awesome Irish restaurant called Finnegans, it was AMAZING!! Before we went there, we stopped for a ride on my favorite Universal ride The Mummy--amazing as usual!!

Than we walked here:

During lunch, I called the HRH to see if our room was ready (this was around 11am and we had already gotten on every ride we wanted to! and it was HOT!) they said it wouldn't be done until closer to 4pm…..we decided after lunch we would walk over to IOA and get on some water rides to cool down. Turns out we didn't have to, about 10 minutes later I got a call saying our room was ready! Awesome!! Here are lunch photos:

They give you Irish soda bread to start with some apple cinnamon butter. The butter spread was good, but I'm not a fan of the bread. I love the authenticity of it though!

David got the Corned beef sandwich on pretzel bread (he said it was amazing)

and I got Corned beef and cabbage. SO SO Good. I normally get this at a local pub on St. Patricks day, and they still win, but this was really great!

We left universal, stopping in the gift shop for some A/C and some fun!

In the planning stages of the trip, I was concerned that we wouldn't have any time for WWOHP and we should add a day. I thought our first day we would return to Universal after dinner and than wake up early the next day for WWOHP early entry. With all we accomplished in the few hours we were there, our new plan was to have dinner and go over to IOA to see WWOHP! We heard they extended the park hours until 10PM and from what I heard on the DIS, the later you go the less crowded it is. With our new decision, we were stoked!! But we really needed to relax, so we headed back to HRH to our room.

We had a great room location that overlooked the pool!

We threw on our swimsuits and hit the pool! We relaxed for about an hour but David had left his sunglasses in the room and the sun was really bothering him. We left to freshen up and nap before dinner. I couldn't sleep, I was too excited!

A few hours later we were ready to go! I noticed this awesome Nsync shadow box near the elevators on our floor!

Here we are waiting for the boat to CityWalk

We decided to go to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville---it was delish!! I had a slight issue when we first got there. I recently started wearing contacts and I rubbed my eye and it folded the contact while it was in my eye. I asked David to tell me if it was okay and he told me it was folded but I heard "yeah" for some reason so I rubbed it again and it pushed the contact under my eyelid!! Luckily I came prepared and in the bag had all my contact solution, and again, luckily it was an easy 2 minute fix! We had a great view of IOA and we could sort of see Hogwarts, man were we excited to just get out of there and over to HP!

Some food porn first. I got the coconut shrimp and David got some sort of Teriyaki chicken, both were delicious!

When we entered IOA, we walked over to Seuss Landing. So we could build anticipation, ride the seuss trolley ride, and hope that the later we got into HP the less crowded it would be. The ride was great and we were more excited than ever!!

 

[Nicole786]

We walked over and it was just so breathtaking!! I imagine it being the same when the Fantasyland expansion is over. It's just pure joy when you research something and research and finally you are there! Plus it wasn't empty but it wasn't crowded! the shops are so tiny that sometimes they have queues for them (JK rowling wanted it this way to preserve authenticity)

We met the Hogwarts Express conductor who was so funny and so in character the two times we saw him!

We rushed over to the shops, starting with Zonkos joke shop, and eventually getting over to the attached shoppe, Honeydukes. Where we purchased Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean, and Pumpkin juice.

But all David had been talking about was right around the corner from us:

ButterBeer, and I couldn't hold him back anymore!! Here is a video of David drinking it for the first time and calling it "pure happiness"



and here is a video of David eating Bertie Botts Beans!! Unfortunately he didn't get any gross ones on camera, but we had a blast that night trying the different flavors!



We walked around and grabbed another ButterBeer, snapping photos and walking through the shops.

The castle:

We waited in a 5 minute line for Dervish and Banges, man is that place tiny.

David trying on his Ravenclaw robes

Whats tinier is the wand shop! (connected to Dervish and Banges) For those going there is a less crowded Wand kiosk they added outside the castle. Lucky for us we were just there for a peek, we had no intention of buying wands this day or any day. I just snapped the photo as quick as possible and got out of there! They do have different wands from the different characters, so you can get a replica of Harry's wand, or Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore and loads more characters including Voldemort!

More D&B:

I thought this sign was cute:

The Monster Book of Monsters, that actually moved and growled when you walked by

Next, Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey, had a 40 minute wait. We figured why not! The ride takes you through the castle, with most of the queue outside in the greenhouse which is a shame because theres so much amazing detail inside the castle! No camera this time because we were afraid to bring any kind of carryon since we have never ridden it, don't worry lots more pics of it later!

Walking through the castle with the talking portraits was amazing Universal did such a great job. The ride itself is amazing also!! It made me really really really really dizzy, but with my friends recommendation later, I bought dramamine and it made the experience so much better! I get really motion sick though so don't go by me, David was fine. It moves and turns you and its just a fantastic cutting edge ride.

After riding it, the sun was now setting and Hogsmeade is just beautiful at night!!

We perused the now emptier shops over and over, and eventually made it over Flight of the Hippogriff.

This is a childrens coaster we thought would be like BTMR, turns out you shouldn't blink on this ride because it was over before it began!! It was so short, but luckily a walk on, and we enjoyed the queue and the view it gave of Hogwarts.

We grabbed two more ButterBeers and sat in the Owl Post with a newly purchased Hogsmeade stamped postcard. Called a bunch of people over excitement and just relaxed for a bit

We were exhausted at this point, and wow did we see a lot!! We decided to skip early entry the next morning in favor of sleeping in and getting a nice breakfast at the Kitchen (would we regret this on a Saturday??) When we left, the main IOA shop had some of the HP merchandise including robes, it was my turn to try on my house robes: Slytherin!

(Thats my best slytherin face)

We walked down the pool for a night swim once we returned, and they were playing Avatar. We were really only there for the outstanding Mozarella sticks the Beach Club has (the poolside bar) so we munched on those, and when we were so tired we nearly collapsed. We called it a night!

 

[UncleOrville]

Woot, first! Awesome job so far! Thanks so much for all the detail on WWoHP - we're going next week and I can't wait!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[jc040404]

Signing on!! Love your TR so far. I totally want to head off to Universal now!! Great pics!

 

[YukiPhnx]

What the???? SO MANY UPDATES ALREADY!! And I only have 2 chapters up so far.

Subbing and heading back to catch up

 

[wdwgirl03]

I'm here!

ETA: OK, now my thoughts...

That is awesome you were able to get over to WWOHP on your first day. I like how David called the butterbeer "pure happiness." That stuff is amazing.

I agree about Flight of the Hippogriff, but it was a walk-on for us too so it didn't really matter. I guess they had to have something designed for kids.

Bummer you got dizzy riding FJ the first time but glad you were able to enjoy it the second time. It really is so unique.

Love the picture of Hogwarts at night!

 

[Nicole786]

Woot, first! Awesome job so far! Thanks so much for all the detail on WWoHP - we're going next week and I can't wait!

Looking forward to reading more!

So jealous of you guys!! But you know i'll be following you on twitter, better post lots of details and pics!

Signing on!! Love your TR so far. I totally want to head off to Universal now!! Great pics!

Universal is a lot of fun! Thanks for coming on board

What the???? SO MANY UPDATES ALREADY!! And I only have 2 chapters up so far.

Subbing and heading back to catch up

I wanted to tie in the Universal stuff into just 2 chapters, the disney stuff will be more spread out

I'm here!

ETA: OK, now my thoughts...

That is awesome you were able to get over to WWOHP on your first day. I like how David called the butterbeer "pure happiness." That stuff is amazing.

I agree about Flight of the Hippogriff, but it was a walk-on for us too so it didn't really matter. I guess they had to have something designed for kids.

Bummer you got dizzy riding FJ the first time but glad you were able to enjoy it the second time. It really is so unique.

Love the picture of Hogwarts at night!

That ButterBeer is pure happiness!! Actually WWOHP is!! I love that place. I get dizzy on just about everything (even big thunder) so i'm surprised I've never tried Dramamine before! Its a wonder-drug!

 

[Cherry Limeade]

So excited to get to "see" WWoHP! Great report, BTW! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

I'm here!!!

Love the pics of Universal Harry Potter's world... Or whatever it's called... My kids are into Harry, I'm not, but they're begging me to take them... Looks like we're headed to Universal next year!!!

Love the TR so far!!! Can't wait to read the rest!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in on your fun. You and your brother have been able to accomplish a lot so far.

 

[Native NYer]

Joining in!

 

[MylilTink]

Your pics are great; what kind of camera do you use?

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

I loved your past trip reports and I can't wait to hear more about this one.

 

[YukiPhnx]

I've had Bertie Botts too! Ear wax is

Oh, I'm so excited to go! Staying in a hotel sounds really nice. Did you get a discount on the food too? I know buying the express pass also gives you that.

I'm a Hufflepuff!

 

[Enchanted]

Hey, Nicole! I've never been to Universal, but you have quickly made me soooooo jealous. I mean, you got your picture taken with DOC FREAKING BROWN. NEXT TO THE DELOREAN. That? IS PURE AWESOMENESS. I MUST DO THIS!!!!

Oh, and the Harry Potter stuff seemed cool too.

Just kidding. I'm a huge Potter fan, and I'm dying to see WWoHP for myself. DYING. Your pictures are helping though. Living through you is fun!

Hard Rock Hotel looks really nice. I think when we finally do Universal that we should stay there. We would definitely want the on-site express pass.

Can't wait to hear more. You had an amazing first day!

 

[MeMom]

I know nothing about all the Harry Potter stuff, but I know it must be very exciting for fans.

Views and food - I do know something about those. The coconut shrimp looks good, but I would have had David's choice, I think. And sitting out on the balcony overlooking the palm trees would be nice. You get to see palm trees every day, but that's a treat for a Tennessee girl.

 

[MarieTheCat24]

I'm here, Nicole!! Your report is AWESOME so far. I'm loving all of the pictures.

LOVE the NSYNC pic. Is it bad that I totally recognized those outfits? God, I was (and still am) such an NSYNC fangirl.

I'm not really into Harry Potter, but the Wizarding World has to be so cool for all you Potter fans. And yeah, I rode the Hippogriff thing back before it was Potter-themed, and I remember it being quite lame. And I'm saying this as a ride whimp. If I think something's lame, it is REALLY lame.

Can't wait for more!