schumigirl
It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts
- Joined
- May 15, 2007
For those that don`t know us, we are Carole`n`Tom...a very happily married couple from the United Kingdom who have been married just over 31 years and who love more or less everything Orlando and Florida have to offer and we keep coming back for more.
This will be our 26th trip to Orlando and our 5th for the Christmas period, accumulating over 430 nights at Universal Orlando hotels in that time period, yes the hotels are a huge part of our trips, we love every second we stay there whether it be Sapphire Falls or Royal Pacific, and again both those hotels will be part of this upcoming trip.
It only seems 5 minutes ago we were coming home from our May trip and everything that brought us, and missing our usual September trip for HHN was strange, but we decided to give it a miss and I do think we needed a break from it as it was becoming routine for us and that`s never good. We have been visiting at that time since 2007 and last year we didn`t enjoy it as much as we should have, it was a lot to do with just how busy the event has become and therefore we thought give it a miss and see how we feel next year. Also the lovely keishashadow spoiled us I think by introducing us to Howl o Scream at SeaWorld which was a phenomenal event and we enjoyed that much more than any of the Universal HHN nights in the end. I think we may have outgrown HHN as it is just too much of the same thing for us now after 16 years attending it.
So we decided late last year to book a Christmas trip instead. We love the Holidays and Christmas is my favourite time of the year so we were so looking forward to celebrating all that Universal and Orlando has to offer this time of year.
Our wonderful son Kyle decided that he had made his last trip with us in May, he has so many other plans right now which is as it should be of course, but, we will miss him along for the ride for sure. He is fabulous company and has the best nature of anyone I know, wicked sense of humour too and we`ve loved every second he was with us. Although it is also true that it`s lovely being a couple again, just the two of us is also wonderful and we absolutely adore our trips together too.
In case you haven`t read one of these TR`s before and have no clue what we look like, this was us in May this year on the patio area of Strong Water Bar and taken by the lovely Maggie. I like to be able to put a face to a name on TR`s I have to say.
We are not planners, never have been and the only thing we do like to plan is meeting up with friends old and new, and hopefully we`ll manage that this trip too. Dining reservations fill us with dread and unless it`s for a special occasion, we just don`t book anything, except the obvious of course like flights, hotels and so on, but that`s about the only things, we love being spontaneous and just wake up and decide what we`re doing that day.
But, the planning that we do have to began last year when we booked our flights with Virgin Atlantic which we tend to do first before anything else and even though we thought we were quite early with our dates, we had a rough idea of the time frame we wanted but can change to suit depending on availability, so looked online first then called up when we saw flights that had seats available and thought we were sorted. We can just book online, but we had a load of miles to use up and doing it online is a nightmare, so we called the number up and told her which flights we wanted and had the seats we wanted to book ready to share....
Well, the Premium seats on the way out to Orlando had disappeared while we were on the call.....these flights do fill up quickly, so the next best option for us were the front two exit row seats in Economy. We have had them once before when Virgin Atlantic flew the Jumbo Jet (much missed) they were decent, so, we have plenty of legroom as there is no one in front of us and delighted to say it saved us around $1400 going out in economy which is always nice. I hadn`t looked at how much cheaper it can be to do it that way so it was a nice surprise.
Who says I can`t find a bargain now and again.......
We did manage to get the Premium seats we wanted on the way home which is probably preferable to us as we can sleep better in Premium with the larger comfier seats. We were glad it wasn`t the other way round. We fly out on Friday November 17th and come home Sunday December 3rd.
On the way out we only get one suitcase each at 50lb each, plus hand luggage, which I think we can about manage, maybe....but I think we`ll go buy another suitcase while we`re out there for coming home as we do get 2 suitcases each coming home. Sounds like a plan!
If we have a lot on the way out we can take another suitcase and pay the charge which isn`t a fortune and might be worth it as we do take a lot of gifts out to folks as well as enough clothes for a 3 month stay....or so I`m told
I can`t disagree.....but, I`m of the mind I`d rather have too many clothes and not need them as the other way around! It is only for 16 nights, so maybe I will try to take less....again, I can only try!!
So, flights sorted, we knew our dates now we just needed to get everything else booked!! We have some lovely meets planned this trip and a few ideas for something a little different too, plus our usual park time too, we`re looking forward to the Parade as that is always so lovely and incredibly festive.
And of course Strong Water Tavern will feature heavily again!!
I`m glad to start this Pre trip report now as we are already more than half way through September, and we have just over 8 weeks to go.....so I hope you read along, please join in and enjoy it, it`s always lovely to read comments along the way, we have so many lovely posters on here that make these trip reports what they are.....
Feeeed us 
We had another great, relaxing evening. The show was phenomenal for theme park offerings.
back Elsa....always good to see you here and thank you, always glad to know you enjoy the TR`s......I`ll tell Tom again you enjoy the pictures 
