Worlds Collide: A Split Stay with The Grump, The Teen, The Tween, and Grandma

[CJsMom]

This trip was taken in November 2014, and yes, I am just now finding the time to finish the trip report that I really did start to write a couple of months after I got back! Life interferes with our addictions, and maybe that’s a good thing, or I’d be on the Disboards 24/7. Many will ask, why bother two years later? My sister is currently planning a trip to Universal and Disney for January, and she's asked me a few questions about it. I thought, I should really get that trip report done since it might be able to help someone else plan their trip. So, I'm determined to finish it now, and I hope it can help a DIS'er out!

Our previous family trip to the World was in 2007, a really fun surprise trip for the kids, who were 5 and 7 at the time (if you've got nothing better to do, the link to that trip report is in my signature). In 2010, I was able to convince my girlfriends to do a portion of our 40th birthday trip at Disney. Epcot Food and Wine is the perfect venue for a girls’ trip! I tried to get them to stay longer than 2 days, but some of them actually wanted to go relax at a beach for a few days (crazy, right?). Once I got back from that trip I started plotting our next family trip to Orlando, but it took me a while to convince the Grump. Speaking of the Grump, I should introduce our cast of characters.

Me – Obsessed with planning my next trip, even though it may be years away. I console myself with season passes to Six Flags, but it’s just not the same. I’m a Systems Analyst stuck in the cold Northeast, but my heart is in Disney.

The Grump – Ah, The Grump. A wonderful man who dislikes theme parks. Not just Disney or Universal, but all theme parks. Rides make him sick, crowds make him annoyed, shows make him sleepy. He puts up with it for us, but after four trips to Orlando, he’s made it clear that he’s done.

The Teen – Too cool for school. Upon hearing about this trip, he asserted that Disney was really for kids and couldn’t we go and visit a city? I informed him that Orlando is a city, to which he replied, “No, a fun city, like Miami”.

The Tween – I called him Tigger in my last trip report, and although he’s older and more “mature”, he’s still pretty Tigger-ish. Excited, but trying not to show it too much lest his older brother give him crap for it.

Grandma – My Disney partner-in-crime! She visited Disney for the first time with my sister and her family in 2012, then came back with us in 2014, and now she’s hooked. So hooked that in 2015 she booked another trip with her best friend. And a couple of months ago, she and I did a long Food & Wine/MNSSHP weekend - so much fun!

I started out my trip planning by telling the Grump that we wouldn’t do Disney. He wanted to bring the kids to Kennedy Space Center, so that’s how I got him to buy in. A trip to the Space Coast, a visit with relatives who live in Melbourne, the beach, and I threw in a day at Universal because we hadn’t been there before. “That’s all we’ll do”, I said. With my fingers crossed behind my back.

Little by little, I added stuff. Like 2 days at Universal, because we’d want to see both parks, right? And a day at Disney, just for me, I told the Grump. You and the kids don’t even have to come if you don’t want to. You can do a beach day instead and I’ll drive over myself.

Enter Grandma. She wanted to go to Epcot and Magic Kingdom, so that’s 2 days. So I told the Grump that my mom wanted to come, and she wanted to do two days at Disney, and of course I wouldn’t let her do that all by herself (fyi Grandma is a young 68 and in perfect physical shape, still works full-time, and is fully capable of doing pretty much anything by herself). So, the Grump smiled knowingly, nodded, and gave up completely. “As long as we’re still going to Kennedy Space Center”, he said, “just tell me when to get on the plane”.

Now I had full control, and the scope creep began. I decided to schedule the trip around Thanksgiving, to give us a couple of extra days without missing more work and school. Flights on the Saturday before and after Thanksgiving were outrageous, but I got a bargain on a Thanksgiving Day flight. Bonus: not hosting Thanksgiving!! I would take the kids out of school the week after Thanksgiving. At 7th and 8th grade, this would be the last time I would take them out for a vacation. My goal was to avoid the busy parks during Thanksgiving week, so we would spend the first part of the trip visiting the Melbourne relatives and the Space Coast, then move to Orlando on Sunday and spend the rest of the trip in the parks. Oh, and I added more parks. All four Disney parks. Because how can you just visit two? The schedule started off like this:

Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day) – Fly JetBlue out of Worcester at zero-dark-thirty, arrive in Orlando late morning. Pick up rental car. Drive to Melbourne hotel.

Nov. 28 Friday – Kennedy Space Center (The Teen’s birthday)

Nov. 29 Saturday – Cocoa Beach

Nov. 30 Sunday – Drive to Orlando, check in at Hard Rock Hotel, visit Islands of Adventure

Dec. 1 Monday – Universal Studios

Dec. 2 Tuesday – Check in to Fort Wilderness Cabin, MVMCP pm

Dec. 3 Wednesday – Hollywood Studios

Dec. 4 Thursday – Epcot

Dec. 5 Friday – Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs pm

Dec. 6 Saturday – Fly home Jet Blue, arrive Worcester 6:40pm

Over time I decided to switch it up a little and stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for the first four nights. It didn’t appeal to me to switch hotels three times, and it really wasn’t a big deal to drive out to the coast. It also gave us a full day at Islands of Adventure on Sunday. I changed our check-in to Fort Wilderness to Monday night instead of Tuesday morning, so that we’d have some time to enjoy the Fort before heading over to MK on Tuesday night.

Missing a couple of pictures here...so to be continued tonight...

 

[CJsMom]

I booked plane tickets the day that Jet Blue released the schedule for the fall, which I believe was in March. $208 round trip for Thanksgiving Day departure in the early morning was a better price than I had hoped for. Of course, Jet Blue proceeded to switch the flights around, making our arrival in Orlando late in the day and the departure from Orlando at 8am. No way was I getting up at 4am to get to the airport on our last day of vacation! These were the only flights available from that airport, but when I called Jet Blue, because our flights had been changed by several hours, they allowed me to switch airports and flights at no charge. I picked Boston, an 11:00am flight on Thanksgiving Day to Orlando, and a 4:00pm flight home on Dec. 6th.

We told the kids about the trip on Easter, which was a little early, but I wanted to tell them in a fun way. I printed out “DISNEY WORLD AND UNIVERSAL STUDIOS” on the computer, cut out the letters, and put them along with the candy inside the plastic eggs that we hide around the house. I told them they had to work together to put the letters in order and figure out where we were going on vacation later that year. They figured it out pretty quickly and despite their attempts to remain cool and aloof, I think they were excited – more excited about Universal than Disney.



It was a long wait from April to November, but I had lots of fun planning my days, making and revising ADR’s and FP+ reservations. I had never visited Universal, and I found a lot of great information on The DIS as well as the Orlando Informer site. I’m a Harry Potter fan so I was pretty excited to see these areas of the park. The kids and I love big roller coasters, so Universal had a lot to offer us. I pre-ordered both Universal Photo Connect and Memory Maker. I wanted lots of photos of this trip, especially because Grandma was coming with us, and I knew it would be our last family trip to Orlando. The Grump wants to visit some other places before the kiddos fly the nest, and I’m on board with that. I just wish our vacation budget was bigger so we could do both.

Fast forward to November – and we are getting a day-before-Thanksgiving Day snowstorm! Are you kidding me? I have lived in the Northeast all my life, so I am aware that sometimes it snows in late November. But hardly EVER! As soon as I saw the weather report I informed the Grump that if it even seemed remotely like the snow was going to disrupt our plans we were getting in the car and driving down to Florida. He laughed at me. He thought I wasn’t serious. Believe me, I was.

Up next: Travel and Day 1!

 

[macraven]

I'm in for this report


I have a grump also but leave mine at home


Hope you did not have to drive and fly...

 

[CJsMom]

Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014

Plan: Arrive Orlando 2:30pm, check into Hard Rock Hotel, dinner at Margaritaville, 7:30pm

We did not drive.

Despite the predictions, the snow fell more lightly than expected, so we only had a few inches on the ground by Thanksgiving morning. Our airport limo (i.e. shared van) arrived a little early at 7:45 am, and we were off. We had the “shared” van all to ourselves that morning – nice! Our driver was a Disney fan who had visited the parks many times. He had a guidebook in the van, which he handed to me. The Grump laughed and told him I could have written the guidebook (not true, but I did already know most of the tidbits that the driver was giving us).

The airport was not busy at all, lines were short, and we got through security with no issues. The Teen got TSA Precheck, which was pretty funny considering that the last time he flew, when he was 7, I could not check him in online because his name was identical to one on the “Do-Not-Fly List”. (That caused me all kinds of panic since we were flying Southwest without assigned seats, but it all worked out fine in the end.) He thought he was pretty special and was going to go through the line alone but then Grandma looked at her boarding pass (apparently for the first time) and realized that she had it too. They walked off together, all smiles that they didn’t need to take their shoes off and take out their liquids. The Grump, The Tween and I got into the regular line and did our duty. We all reconvened at the end, Grandma and The Teen smiling smugly as they sat on their bench waiting for us, and got to the gate a little before 9:00am. Two hours to wait until the flight. Amidst grumbles of “why did we have to get here so early?” The Tween and The Teen (and Grandma) got out their electronic devices and headphones and amused themselves.





I went and got some muffins and juice/coffee/tea for all, and the time went by fairly quickly. An aside…and at the risk of being called Captain Obvious…I was rejoicing at the ease of ushering big kids through the airport. The last time we flew they were 5 and 7. Not babies, so it wasn’t ridiculously hard, but they are much better now at waiting, and carrying their own bags was a huge benefit! And on the
plane – let’s just say they weren’t on the floor in front of their seats poking at each other this time (if you’re interested in that story, see my last trip report!)

The flight was uneventful and we landed a little early in Orlando. It was about 65 degrees and sunny. We picked up our rental minivan and The Grump asked, “so where are we going?” I informed him that we were headed for the Hard Rock Hotel!

Although it’s more expensive, I’m an on-site kind of gal. Whether it’s Universal or Disney, I love the proximity to the parks and staying in the bubble. I even hated the idea that we rented a car this time because taking the Magical Express is part of the “bubble” for me! Alas, there is no Magical Express to get us to Universal or out to the coast, so we needed a rental car. It ended up being almost the same price to keep the car for the entire trip as it was to return it after our transfer to Disney, so that’s what we did. It was nice to have the car for a couple of grocery stops, and since we had the kitchen at Fort Wilderness we cooked in a couple of times to save a little on food. I had heard some stories about transportation “difficulties” at Fort Wilderness, so it was nice to know we had the car as an option, although we never did use it to get to the parks. Getting the rental car was very easy. Budget was convenient, an easy walk right across the street from baggage claim. I had traveled to Atlanta in October, where I had to walk miles with my bags to get to the shuttle train which takes you to the car rental area, where you have to drag your bags down an escalator, and then walk another mile to get to the car. It was nothing like that!

Staying on-site at Universal was a no-brainer for me. I wanted Unlimited Express Passes, early entrance to the parks (Harry Potter, people!), and the ability to walk to CityWalk and the parks. I picked the Hard Rock Hotel knowing that the kids would think it was cool and The Grump would like it for the memorabilia. It was a good choice. We got a deluxe room so we had an extra bed for Grandma. The deluxe rooms are bigger and have a pull-out sleeper couch along with 2 queen beds. We didn’t spend much time in the room but it never felt cramped or crowded with five people. I booked the room in July and got the Stay More Play More discount. With tax and daily parking fee ($20) it was $1606 for 4 nights for a 2-Queen Deluxe room.

 

[CJsMom]

I'm in for this report


I have a grump also but leave mine at home


Hope you did not have to drive and fly...

My last two trips, I have left the grump at home. Since he told me he was "all done" with Orlando theme parks, I feel no guilt.

 

[CJsMom]

It took about 25 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. We brought our GPS with us, and I had loaded the map update from Mousesavers. We tried using the GPS in the rental van, but found out later that our GPS was a lot more accurate. I also brought a couple of rolls of quarters for the tolls, which was recommended by DISers on the Transportation forums. It’s a lot more expensive to use the SunPass in the rental car. We parked, then realized we had to drag our bags up quite a few stairs. TIP: if you park a car at the Hard Rock Hotel, drive up to the front and drop your bags off at the lobby, THEN go park the car, as the parking lot is a level below the lobby!

The lobby is very cool, with rock music playing and rock memorabilia all around. We checked in, and our room was ready. Now off to find our room, 1140! After dragging the bags upstairs, we had to go back down as our room was on the lower level. I felt like Hansel and Gretel in the woods, wishing somebody had left us some breadcrumbs. We walked for what felt like miles and miles. That hotel is huge! We all collapsed on the beds when we finally got there!

After we got settled, we walked back to Emack and Bolios (the “Grab and Go”) for a small lunch to hold us over until our reservations for “Thanksgiving dinner” at Margaritaville at 7:30pm. For those of you that are thinking of the food courts at the Disney resorts – this was very small in comparison. There was a walk-up counter for sandwiches and some hot items, and ice cream of course. Then there were some pre-made items and drinks in coolers. I noticed some donuts and muffins as well, which I would be getting for The Teen’s birthday the next day. There are only a couple of booths inside, so don’t count on getting a seat there if it’s busy (we took our food back to the room). The Grump and I split a turkey sandwich, which cost about $9. The kids split chicken fingers and fries. I think Grandma got a yogurt and some fruit.



The Tween decided he wanted to swim. At 65 degrees it was a little chilly for me, but that didn’t dissuade The Tween. The Grump took him back to the room to get changed, and after they got back, The Teen asked me if we could find the way to CityWalk. So he and I did some exploring and ended up walking over to CityWalk. It was closer than I thought – only about a 5 minute walk. The Teen was impressed with CityWalk. He loves basketball, and when he saw NBA City we had to go in and check it out (since this trip, it has been replaced with the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium). He was happy to hear that I had made reservations there for Sunday night. We did a loop around the lake, found Margaritaville, then headed back to the Hard Rock pool. The Tween was still swimming and The Grump and Grandma were sitting on beach chairs chatting. Grandma and I decided that we needed to do our due diligence and check out the pool bar. We got specialty drinks in plastic cups ($14) that could be refilled during our stay for a slightly cheaper price ($8). It’s a cute souvenir.



There are paddleball tables out by the pool area, so the Grump and The Teen played for a while. Finally, we dragged the Tween out of the water so we could get ready for dinner.

The walk over to Margaritaville took about 10 minutes. We took our time, strolling along and looking at everything.



When we got there the first thing we saw was a giant line out the door. Not to worry, I assured everyone, I had made reservations. Funny thing about those reservations – made through OpenTable – they didn’t seem to mean much. Our reservation was at 7:30pm, and we didn’t get seated until almost 8:30. Apparently they didn’t expect to get as much business as they did on Thanksgiving Day and they were understaffed. They had a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with turkey, stuffing, etc., but once we sat down the server informed us that they had sold out of it. No worries, none of us were going to get that anyway. We got Pretzel Bread as an appetizer that was very good. I got the Chicken Quesadilla appetizer as a meal and enjoyed it. The Grump and The Teen got burgers, which they enjoyed. The Tween got pasta, which was ok. I didn’t make note of what Grandma got, but I think she liked it. I got a margarita (of course), which was very good. Grandma decided to stick with wine. The only issue we found with Margaritaville was that it was so loud. Here’s a picture of the inside:



You can see the volcano in the back. It erupts about every ½ hour or so, and Jimmy Buffet classics are played. I’m a Buffet fan, so I liked it, but it was loud. About 9:00pm a live band came on, and although the band was good it was hard to make conversation. We left, and wandered around CityWalk for a little while before heading back to the Hard Rock. Again, so worth it to stay at a Universal Hotel. You cannot beat the proximity to CitiWalk and the parks!

Up next, first full vacation day!

 

[schumigirl]

Nice report!! Love the grump description........think we all know one of them........my friend has one that sounds exactly the same........

Yes Margaritaville is very loud........it's hard to converse especially at night when dining there........

Love the picture of you with grandma.........it's a nice one.......

 

[Rovim]

Great report. Hard Rock is a great place to stay. We love it in the summer time. Great pool and slide.

 

[CJsMom]

Nice report!! Love the grump description........think we all know one of them........my friend has one that sounds exactly the same........

Yes Margaritaville is very loud........it's hard to converse especially at night when dining there........

Love the picture of you with grandma.........it's a nice one.......

Thank you, it's one of my favorites too!

 

[CJsMom]

Great report. Hard Rock is a great place to stay. We love it in the summer time. Great pool and slide.

I would stay there again for sure!

 

[CJsMom]

Friday Nov. 28th, 2014

Plan: Kennedy Space Center, dinner with Aunt and Uncle

Day 1 of vacation – there’s no better feeling than that!

We all got a good night’s sleep. The beds are very comfortable. I had been worried about Grandma sleeping on the pull-out couch, but it had a better mattress than a typical pull-out and she said she slept very well. I was up before anyone else (without setting an alarm), showered and got ready, and headed out to Emack and Bolios to pick up birthday donuts to celebrate The Teen today. It was about 8:00 in the morning. Emack and Bolios was packed! And I mean hard to move, hard to see anything, packed! The donuts and muffins were gone. I grabbed some milk and juice – we’d settle for some protein bars that I’d thrown in the suitcase. TIP: skip Emack and Bolios in the morning and get breakfast at CityWalk or in the park. The room had a small Keurig, so at least there was caffeine – tea for me, coffee for Grandma. A few room interior pictures:



Pull-out couch:



One of many decorative pillows with kitchy sayings on them:






Sink outside of the shower/toilet:






It took about 45 minutes to drive out to Kennedy Space Center. There were at least three tolls, all about a dollar apiece. If you are paying cash, you need coins. Also, the cash lanes are way off to the right – it almost looks like you are exiting the highway to get to them. If I hadn’t read this previously on the Transportation Board I would have been totally confused.

This was a great day to tour the Space Center. It wasn’t crowded at all. The Grump and I had toured once before, the first time I dragged him to Orlando before we had kids. We both really enjoyed it, but it was a launch day so it was crazy-crowded and HOT in September. It may have bothered me more since I was 6 months pregnant with The Teen at the time. This was a totally different experience, and a lot of activities had been added since then. We took the bus tour first to view the launch pads, crawler and building where the rockets are assembled.

 

[CJsMom]

The boys were pretty excited to see a couple of gators sunning themselves next to the road. Unfortunately those pictures were on The Tween’s iPod Touch which died last year.

Next was the Apollo exhibit. Not to be missed – the size of it is incomprehensible unless you actually see it. The boys were impressed. I think this is a good age to take kids here – they are old enough to appreciate the scope of the exhibits and very interested to read everything.







We had lunch at the cafeteria at the Apollo exhibit. We had typical cafeteria fare. I think Grandma and I had salads, The Grump had some kind of soup, and the kids had pizza. The food was not bad, and the prices were not outrageous.

Next we toured the Atlantis exhibit. Wow, just, wow. Really impressive.









We did the Launch experience, and while it wasn’t as cool as Mission Space, it was pretty good. To end the day, we watched an IMAX movie about life on the International Space Center. We got a few pictures in the rocket garden on the way out:



We spent the entire day there and still didn’t see everything. In my opinion, totally worth the price of admission which was $50 per person.

After leaving KSC, we drove over to Melbourne to visit my aunt and uncle. They made dinner for us, and had a birthday cake for The Teen. I had mentioned to them that we wanted to go to the beach the next day. I was planning on Cocoa, but they knew about some less crowded, less touristy options, so we made plans to meet them at their house first. We got back to Orlando about 11:00pm and crashed.

Up next: our beach day!

 

[macraven]

Nice photos !
Glad to be able to read and share this portion of the vacation with you

 

[HelloMimi]

A bit late to the party, but I'm following along!
Bless you for writing in a way that's detailed but easy to follow! Your use of proper punctuation and spelling totally won me over.

 

[CJsMom]

Nice photos !
Glad to be able to read and share this portion of the vacation with you

Thanks for reading!

 

[CJsMom]

A bit late to the party, but I'm following along!
Bless you for writing in a way that's detailed but easy to follow! Your use of proper punctuation and spelling totally won me over.

Welcome! I promise that I will actually get to the parks soon!

I'm kinda anal about my punctuation...

 

[CJsMom]

Saturday Nov. 29, 2014

Plan: Tables Beach & dinner at The Kitchen

Grandma and I were up early. We got ready, then headed out to the Publix right down the street for some supplies. We got breakfast items, snacks, PB&J/bread and some sandwiches to bring to the beach. Publix has a deli where you can get sandwiches for very reasonable prices. It was $7 for a large sub, which was so big it could have been split between 3 people!

We got back to the room, dragged the boys out of bed, packed up a cooler bag, and headed to the beach. (Note: the room had a good sized fridge, bigger than the square ones that most rooms at Disney have). All in all, it took about 45 minutes to get there. We met my aunt and uncle at their house, and they loaded up the car with beach chairs and boogie boards for us. We went to Tables beach, which is between Cocoa Beach to the north and Melbourne Beach to the south. It is right near Patrick Air Force Base. All down this stretch of road (South Atlantic Avenue) are public beaches with small parking lots, and all are free parking. There are no public restrooms, but there were outdoor showers. We had the beach practically all to ourselves. It was still only 65 degrees, which is a little cool for me to go in the water, but the boys jumped right in. I thought the water might be warmer, but I guess the Atlantic is cooler than the Gulf. But there were waves for the boys to boogie-board, so all was right with the world. The Grump, Grandma and I sat on the beach with my aunt and uncle and chatted. All I could think of was here I was on the beach in November, while at home, there was snow on the ground!



We left the beach around 4:00 to head back to Orlando. I had made reservations at The Kitchen at the Hard Rock for 7:30pm. After showering the sand off, we headed over and got seated right away.



The food was fantastic! I had Chicken and Sausage Pasta. The Teen got the Kitchen Burger, which was huge! The Tween got pizza and fries and I think Grandma got salmon. Only The Grump was a little unhappy. He got a Chicken Pot Pie that had a very strong tarragon flavor that he wasn’t nuts about. It does say Tarragon on the menu – I guess that should have been our warning.

About halfway through our meal, The Tween said “Mom, I thought you said we weren’t doing any character meals.” I looked up, to see Scooby Doo and a Minion headed our way. Oops.

Now, The Teen and The Tween had told me that they did not want to attend any character meals on this trip. At first, I balked, because Chef Mickey’s is my absolute favorite, and I had decided we would go there for our Thanksgiving dinner. I changed my mind for a few reasons. Most importantly, the cost of that meal on Thanksgiving was going to be ridiculous due to the seasonal pricing. And the boys weren’t going to enjoy it. And why drive over to Disney when we had so many restaurants to choose from at Universal? So I cancelled it and made a reservation at The Kitchen for our Thanksgiving dinner. Then, early in the fall I found out that The Kitchen wasn’t doing its’ regular menu for Thanksgiving. There was a pricey buffet in its’ place. If it were just me, The Grump and Grandma, I might have paid the $58 per person. We would have gotten our money’s worth from it. But after looking at the menu, I knew that the boys would not. So I cancelled that reservation, moved it to Saturday night, and chose Margaritaville for our first night dinner instead.

I knew that The Kitchen had characters on some nights, but I had not thought to check it when I changed the reservation. Apparently Saturday nights are one of those nights. I swore to them that I didn’t know, and was met with suspicious stares. Once the characters came over though, they had fun with them. The Teen feigned annoyance afterwards but it wasn’t his best effort.





We all wanted the signature “Kitchen Sink Cake” for dessert but we were so full we had to skip it.

We waddled out, and decided a walk was in order. First we walked upstairs to the lobby to get our Express Passes. You have to put your hotel room key into a machine in the lobby, which takes your picture and spits out your “paper” Express Pass. This only took a few minutes, so we spent a few more minutes exploring the lobby and gift shop. Grandma and I bought Hard Rock magnet/bottle openers.

A few pictures of our little tour:









(This picture was taken the next day but it shows the Christmas decorations and stairway nicely – seemed to fit here!)

I could have taken a lot more pictures of the rock memorabilia, but the kids were getting antsy to (“do something”). So, we walked over to Portofino Bay to check it out. It’s a beautiful resort with a nice courtyard to sit and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, The Tween had eaten too much, and got a terrible stomachache. I had to check out the Portofino Bay gift shop for some Rolaids, which I paid $8 for. So, we sat and looked at the view while The Tween cursed himself for eating too many French fries along with 2 giant glasses of chocolate milk. When he felt well enough, we walked back to the Hard Rock and headed to bed, excited for our first day at the parks!

Coming up...yes, we ARE going to a theme park!!

 

[macraven]

WOOT!

 

[CJsMom]

Sunday Nov. 30, 2014

Plan: Islands of Adventure

I practically flew out of bed at 6:00am! Harry Potter, people!! The boys had to be dragged out of bed, but I was determined to make it to park opening for 9:00am to take advantage of early entry into Hogsmeade. Having breakfast items in the room made it much easier (and cheaper!) to get everyone fed and ready. A 10-15 minute walk brought us to the Islands of Adventure gate. For those who don’t want to walk, there are boats available from the resorts to CityWalk and the park entrances. Universal is so convenient. I don’t mind the Disney busses, but it is so nice to be able to walk to the parks!



We walked straight to the back of the park to Hogsmeade first. I walked in and got tears in my eyes! It’s amazing, truly just like walking into the books. I have about 50,000 pictures, but I’ll just post a few here.



In this picture, you can see that The Teen is carrying the backpack. I didn’t carry the backpack the entire trip. Did I mention how much I love travelling with older kids??









There was about a 20-minute wait for FJ, which did not take Express Pass at the time, so we hopped into line. There was so much to look at in the queue that I was glad for the wait.





I absolutely loved this ride. Where else in the world can you feel like you are riding behind Harry on a broomstick? Unfortunately, if you get motion sickness, this is not the ride for you. There is a lot of “swooping” when you ride on broomsticks. Now, I thought this ride was going to be similar to Soarin’,
which The Grump can do without feeling sick. So he hopped on with us. Big mistake. FJ is a lot more “motion-y” than Soarin, and The Grump felt terrible when he got off. This did not bode well for the day. He never actually got sick but was not feeling well. Here’s our ride photos – and you can tell that The Grump is just wanting to get the h**** off this ride (second picture, far right).





He and Grandma found a bench to rest on while the boys and I tackled Dragon Challenge. There was only a 10-minute wait, but we were able to use the Express Pass, so our wait was more like 2 minutes. I will tell you that we were spoiled rotten with our Unlimited Express Passes! They are well worth it. However, if you didn’t want to spend the extra money staying on site or buying them, on the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving, the parks were not that crowded. If we didn’t have the passes, I think the longest line we would have been in was 45 minutes. Still, 5 minutes is a lot better than 45! We did both coasters, then checked back in with The Grump.

 

[CJsMom]

He was feeling a little better, so we decided to take a ride on the Hogwarts Express. We rode over to Diagon Alley, but did not go in, as I had planned to go there the next day. Instead, we hopped back on the train and rode it back. There are different scenes in the windows on the return trip, so it’s good to ride both ways. It was only a 10 minute wait each way (no Express Passes can be used).











Once we got back, the Frog Choir show was happening, but the boys didn’t want to watch it. They were anxious to ride some big rides. We left Hogsmeade, planning to return at the end of the day, and headed over to Marvel SuperHero Island.

The Grump was feeling better, but not up to attempting any more “motion-y” rides. So he held the bags while we rode Spiderman twice and Dr. Doom’s Fearfall. Grandma rode Spiderman with us and loved it but wanted nothing to do with Dr. Doom, so she hung out with the Grump. Spiderman was incredible. I was blown away by the special effects. I did DD once, but that was enough for me. The boys went back on again, flashing their Express Passes like they were celebrities. Unfortunately for us, the Hulk was closed for refurbishment. We are still bummed out that we didn’t get to ride, and I keep telling the Grump that we need to come back for that reason. He’s not convinced.

After this, we left the park for lunch. Since the room was so close, I figured that we could grab some lunch at CityWalk, then go back to the room and change into bathing suits for the rides that were going to get us soaking wet. Grandma and I got sandwiches at the Bread Box – Roast Beef and Turkey. They were good. The Tween decided to stick with peanut butter and jelly, which I had picked up at the grocery store, since his stomach was still iffy. The Grump’s stomach had recovered from FJ enough that he was able to get a burrito from Moe’s, and The Teen opted for chicken fingers and fries at Emack and Bolios back at the hotel. It was nice to have all that variety so close together, although it took longer than I thought to gather everything and get back to the room.

Once back at the Hard Rock, we relaxed and ate. It was nice to take the break away from the park. After finishing our lunch, we got our bathing suits on (well, the boys and I did) and headed back to Islands of Adventure to get wet! We got our picture taken when we went back in – I was in too much of a hurry to get to Hogsmeade to do it earlier in the morning!



It was about 70 degrees that day, and I would have preferred it to be a little hotter for water rides. We did Jurassic Park first – Grandma and The Grump joined us with ponchos – but we were all surprised at how wet we got!





The boys and I did Bilge-Rat Barges and Ripsaw Falls a few times, and they got back on Ripsaw Falls after I was done.



These rides will get you completely drenched, like you swam in a pool, and I’m pretty sure ponchos wouldn’t help much. By the time we finished, it was 4:00, the sun was going down, and it was getting chilly. I thought we’d be able to stay in the park and dry off while walking around, but it just wasn’t warm enough. So we walked back to the Hard Rock to get dry clothes on. Lots of walking back and forth that day! Grandma was a trooper, keeping up with us the whole time.

The Grump decided to stay back in the room and catch some of the football game while we returned to Hogsmeade. We did FJ again with only a 10-minute wait, the boys and Grandma did Flight of the Hippogriff, then did DC a couple more times. I sat with Grandma and enjoyed some Butterbeer while the boys did a few more rounds of DC. It was good, but too sweet for me to drink more than half of it. I had wanted to get over to Ollivander’s for the wand show, but unfortunately we never made it.

At this point the park was closing, and we had reservations at NBA City for that night. On the way out I waited in line to get the day’s pictures edited. The Universal Connect photo package was only $40, and we got all of our ride photos plus a few pictures that photographers took around the park. I had read online that it’s best to get the photos edited at the end of each day and also check to make sure that all the pictures you are expecting are there. The line was pretty long, and at the time I was annoyed that I had to waste time in it. In the end it was worth it because it turned out we were missing a couple of pictures and some other people’s pictures were in our account. While I did that Grandma and the boys did some shopping. She found the mug I wanted with the Marauders Map on it – yay! I still use it at work every day.