IckyMickey
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2006
Hi Everyone!
We just had our first snowstorm of the season, so we are just hanging out inside today and I guess it’s as good a time as any to try and start this trip report. With all the helpful information on the DISboards we had a great vacation at Sea World and Universal Studios, I thought I’d share mine – especially for newbies around Christmas!
Here's our snow. With all the bad weather in the US this week, it looks like we were pretty lucky!
It’s hard to believe last week we were at Islands of Adventure and it was sunny and 82. I am so glad the snow held off until we were back though! I kept a close eye on the weather the last few weeks.
This trip was only made possible because I won a trip to Sea World! I am a Coupon Queen, Rewards Master and Game Enterer! How did I win in it? Those wonderful MyCokeRewards points that are on the bottles and boxes of Coke products.
Not my favorite picture, but I've got to give a shout out to the thing that made this trip happen! I love my Diet Coke!
I entered at the end of last year in a sweepstakes for a trip to Sea World and got an email in February that I had won. Of course I was skeptical because it doesn’t give you a lot of information and wants your social security number, personal information, and signaturs returned within 5 days, but it turned out to be legit! Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything back until I contacted them in May and then with all their rules – 6 weeks notice, multiple travel days submitted so they could approve, use by the drawing date of 12/31/15 – it wasn’t as exciting as it first was. Add to that my older son was graduating high school, so we had graduation parties that summer, college orientation, the move to college and then finding a time that worked for everyone it was a little stressful instead of joyful. Finally I crazily chose the pre-Christmas dates starting 12/19 prayed there wouldn’t be a snow storm that day in Milwaukee and added a few more days before we flew back on 12/24 to go to Universal Studios and the excitement returned. There were a few more snags along the way, but in the end it all worked out and we had a wonderful trip!
So what did I win?
A 3-day 2-night trip to the Sea World of my choice for 4, including
Round trip airfare
Park passes
Quick Que passes
All Day Dining passes
$250 for a rental car
The snags I talked about were that the tickets and information was all supposed to come 2 weeks before departure. The travel agent setting up our trip didn’t receive and send it out until the Tuesday before we were to leave (leaving Saturday morning), and when we got them there were 2 days worth of all tickets, passes, etc and one more issue I’ll bring up the 2nd day at Sea World. Fortunately we had only planned on going to Sea World two days, but that information would be nice to know more time than 3 days before the trip. Also, the package they sent out was FedEx and after they sent it told me I needed to sign for it, which I was at work all day and couldn’t. So my husband drove out to the FedEx building at rush hour where it was supposed to be at 5:00 and he was informed that the driver got sick, left the truck and so a sub had to pick up the truck, finish the route, and it didn’t return until 7:30. Finally at 8:00 pm Wednesday night we had the tickets. What a relief! I had started to wake up in the middle of the night and make plans if the tickets didn’t come on time. We let the stress of the situation go and excitedly prepared with our college son coming home the next day and leaving for our vacation in only 3 days!
When we won the trip and I started thinking, I knew that if we were going to Florida, we could finally do Universal Studios. We had never been to US-Orlando and only to IA 15 years ago. My younger son was always in the 15th percentile for height so we wouldn’t go until he was tall enough to enjoy the roller coasters and then the last few years we did trips around the US to see the country. We did visit US- Hollywood last year and it was ok – but we wouldn’t return to it. We knew US-Orlando would be much more to our liking and were excited!
So, who are we? We all love a good restaurant, shows, and roller coasters (we have season passes to Six Flags Great America in Chicago.) I love character pictures and I don't think they mind either.
Myself, a 45 year old mom who was a HR professional but left my job to stay home and raise my kids about 13 years ago, supplementing some of that lost income as a school bus driver. Crazy – I know! I keep telling myself the last couple of years it’s time to head back into the real world, but having breaks, snow days and summer off with my kids makes me so lucky! I don’t really like heights, so rides like the Giant Drop where you just sit up high aren’t my thing, but roller coasters up high aren’t a problem. Both DH and I don’t like spinny things like the Tea Cups any more. We are too old for that!
DH – 45 years old and an electrical engineer. DH’s belly is bigger than it should be and so there were a few rides that were a problem for him. I will note them as I go along.
DS19 – Back home from his 1st semester in college in Iowa (4-1/2 hours away). He’s up for anything, can eat a lot, but needs to watch his weight as he is a pole vaulter and track season is about to start.
DS13 – In 8th grade and tall enough to ride anything. Yeah! There isn’t much he’s afraid of, but I think some of my height issues brushed off on him.
Well, I think I’m ready to start. I’ve got my notes and receipts all ready to go. I hope I can do as nice a job as other trip reports I read!
We just had our first snowstorm of the season, so we are just hanging out inside today and I guess it’s as good a time as any to try and start this trip report. With all the helpful information on the DISboards we had a great vacation at Sea World and Universal Studios, I thought I’d share mine – especially for newbies around Christmas!
Here's our snow. With all the bad weather in the US this week, it looks like we were pretty lucky!
It’s hard to believe last week we were at Islands of Adventure and it was sunny and 82. I am so glad the snow held off until we were back though! I kept a close eye on the weather the last few weeks.
This trip was only made possible because I won a trip to Sea World! I am a Coupon Queen, Rewards Master and Game Enterer! How did I win in it? Those wonderful MyCokeRewards points that are on the bottles and boxes of Coke products.
Not my favorite picture, but I've got to give a shout out to the thing that made this trip happen! I love my Diet Coke!
I entered at the end of last year in a sweepstakes for a trip to Sea World and got an email in February that I had won. Of course I was skeptical because it doesn’t give you a lot of information and wants your social security number, personal information, and signaturs returned within 5 days, but it turned out to be legit! Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything back until I contacted them in May and then with all their rules – 6 weeks notice, multiple travel days submitted so they could approve, use by the drawing date of 12/31/15 – it wasn’t as exciting as it first was. Add to that my older son was graduating high school, so we had graduation parties that summer, college orientation, the move to college and then finding a time that worked for everyone it was a little stressful instead of joyful. Finally I crazily chose the pre-Christmas dates starting 12/19 prayed there wouldn’t be a snow storm that day in Milwaukee and added a few more days before we flew back on 12/24 to go to Universal Studios and the excitement returned. There were a few more snags along the way, but in the end it all worked out and we had a wonderful trip!
So what did I win?
A 3-day 2-night trip to the Sea World of my choice for 4, including
Round trip airfare
Park passes
Quick Que passes
All Day Dining passes
$250 for a rental car
The snags I talked about were that the tickets and information was all supposed to come 2 weeks before departure. The travel agent setting up our trip didn’t receive and send it out until the Tuesday before we were to leave (leaving Saturday morning), and when we got them there were 2 days worth of all tickets, passes, etc and one more issue I’ll bring up the 2nd day at Sea World. Fortunately we had only planned on going to Sea World two days, but that information would be nice to know more time than 3 days before the trip. Also, the package they sent out was FedEx and after they sent it told me I needed to sign for it, which I was at work all day and couldn’t. So my husband drove out to the FedEx building at rush hour where it was supposed to be at 5:00 and he was informed that the driver got sick, left the truck and so a sub had to pick up the truck, finish the route, and it didn’t return until 7:30. Finally at 8:00 pm Wednesday night we had the tickets. What a relief! I had started to wake up in the middle of the night and make plans if the tickets didn’t come on time. We let the stress of the situation go and excitedly prepared with our college son coming home the next day and leaving for our vacation in only 3 days!
When we won the trip and I started thinking, I knew that if we were going to Florida, we could finally do Universal Studios. We had never been to US-Orlando and only to IA 15 years ago. My younger son was always in the 15th percentile for height so we wouldn’t go until he was tall enough to enjoy the roller coasters and then the last few years we did trips around the US to see the country. We did visit US- Hollywood last year and it was ok – but we wouldn’t return to it. We knew US-Orlando would be much more to our liking and were excited!
So, who are we? We all love a good restaurant, shows, and roller coasters (we have season passes to Six Flags Great America in Chicago.) I love character pictures and I don't think they mind either.
Myself, a 45 year old mom who was a HR professional but left my job to stay home and raise my kids about 13 years ago, supplementing some of that lost income as a school bus driver. Crazy – I know! I keep telling myself the last couple of years it’s time to head back into the real world, but having breaks, snow days and summer off with my kids makes me so lucky! I don’t really like heights, so rides like the Giant Drop where you just sit up high aren’t my thing, but roller coasters up high aren’t a problem. Both DH and I don’t like spinny things like the Tea Cups any more. We are too old for that!
DH – 45 years old and an electrical engineer. DH’s belly is bigger than it should be and so there were a few rides that were a problem for him. I will note them as I go along.
DS19 – Back home from his 1st semester in college in Iowa (4-1/2 hours away). He’s up for anything, can eat a lot, but needs to watch his weight as he is a pole vaulter and track season is about to start.
DS13 – In 8th grade and tall enough to ride anything. Yeah! There isn’t much he’s afraid of, but I think some of my height issues brushed off on him.
Well, I think I’m ready to start. I’ve got my notes and receipts all ready to go. I hope I can do as nice a job as other trip reports I read!