"Is there pixie dust on the Darkside?" cramming UO,IOA,SW,AQ,LL into 5 days PTR

[rottiemom]

Yes, 5 days. Yes I'm probably nuts.

It started out simply enough. With a free dining pin from WDW. But no matter how I shuffled the dates the WDW trip was just too pricey. So I started idly poking around, looking at other options. We never take long trips (I miss my dog too much ) at least not long enough to include WDW and other parks.

So, always the bargain hunter, I realized that I had enough HHonors points to cover five nights at HGVC at SeaWorld...accommodations would cost us nothing! And I wouldn't be confined by any blackout dates. So I watched, and I waited for the airfare gods to smile. They didn't smile so much as shrug and I was able to grab reasonable RT fares so I booked the hotel and let the planning begin.

Thanks to the DIS I have discovered that planning is good. So I was planning for 2 days at SW, 1 at AQ and 2 for US/IOA. Shuttles to all from the hotel, no worries about transportation.

But my better half said, "Well we've got to go to LEGOLAND." But dearest, there is no room in my master plan for LEGOLAND...plus there will have to be cabs and shuttles involved. Oh well, what else is a vacation for if not for stress?

So I started really planning in earnest. And I realized that since we don't do coasters (our son doesn't like them, I'm a big sissy and my better half is a long time motorcyclist who gets no enjoyment out of coasters because "everything is controlled") it could be possible for us to at least hit our "must rides" at UO/IOA in a day.

Now remember what I mentioned earlier about being a bargain hunter? Well even with all of that the tickets to the assorted parks will run us just about 1K . Plus, no magical express so we'll have to pay for transport to and from the airport. Oh and no free dining so we'll be paying for meals too .

But we're going. We're actually taking a vacation, which we desperately need. And even my better half seems intrigued by the plan. Our son is delighted.

Me? I'm making lists, taking notes and pretending I'm organized. It won't be relaxing but then, our vacations never are. Why try to change thing now?

 

[-Hope-]

Definitely ambitious but also doable I think. We have four days coming up, 2at IOA, 1 at US, 1 at LL. We aren't coaster people either but are huge Potterheads so we need 2 days at IOA.

Can't wait to read more about your plans!

 

[coastgirl]

Ambitious, perhaps, not nuts. ;-) When are you going?

 

[rottiemom]

Definitely ambitious but also doable I think. We have four days coming up, 2at IOA, 1 at US, 1 at LL. We aren't coaster people either but are huge Potterheads so we need 2 days at IOA.

HP at IOA looks flat out amazing. I can't wait to see the detailing in person. I suspect that I'm more excited about that than my son is. I think your trip is after ours so I'll be happy to fill you in on LL. My better half went to the one in Denmark years ago so he is very, very anxious to visit this one.

Ambitious, perhaps, not nuts. ;-) When are you going?

I suspect that I'm nuts independent of the vacation plans .

We're going in mid August which is usually when take a vacation...when we take one. So we know it will be hot and have started our regimen of long walks in the summer heat to build endurance. Since our vacations before child (BC) were all extensive trips via motorcycle I have become an expert in packing light, staying hydrated, wash and wear hair and sweat proof mascara . It may be August in Orlando but I won't be wearing a helmet and leather jacket. Piece of cake!

So far my game plan is SW for our first day, AQ for the 2nd, UO/IOA for the 3rd, LL for the 4th & back to SW until we fly home that night. That's about to be carved in stone since I'm booking the LL shuttle as soon as I sign off of the DIS.

Since we both have lengthy daily commutes we decided against renting a car. We'll be at the mercy of shuttles and cabs. That should keep things interesting.

Coastgirl- does the NS in your sig stand for Nova Scotia? Which is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever had the privilege of visiting.

Thank you both for checking in. I'm curious to see how my plans develop too!

 

[-Hope-]

I'll be anxiously waiting to hear what you think of LL. I know HP will be amazing but I'll be waiting to hear that too!

 

[Metro West]

Nope...no pixie dust on the Darkside.

We have "mummy dust" at Universal...not that pixie stuff.

 

[rottiemom]

I'll be anxiously waiting to hear what you think of LL. I know HP will be amazing but I'll be waiting to hear that too!

I will do my best to be dilligent regarding LL. We'll be hitting the water park part as well since we're basically held captive by the shuttle times (not that that's a bad thing).

Nope...no pixie dust on the Darkside.

We have "mummy dust" at Universal...not that pixie stuff.

Mummy dust! I love it. More invasive and not as sparkly I'll bet .

 

[wiigirl]

Nope...no pixie dust on the Darkside.

We have "mummy dust" at Universal...not that pixie stuff.

 

[rottiemom]

Freaking Legoland is going to be the end of my sanity, I swear. Since my better half and I both have lengthy, traffic laden commutes we enjoy NOT renting a car when we go away. I knew that the easiest way for us to get to Legoland wad via their shuttle but we'd have to take a cab to the shuttle pick up (Premium Outlets). No biggie. The Mears fare esitmator said that it was around 30$ each way...OK. I might choke a little but I can swallow that. I stumbled across another fare estimatore on another thread that quotes the fare as more like 45$ each way...at that rate we might as well rent a car because it will be cheaper than the cab fare and airport shuttles.

I am torn between pricing this all out and comparing it to a trip to WDW if only to see how much cheaper the WDW trip woudl have been .

 

[-Hope-]

I hear ya with the transportation issues.

I ran lots of numbers and eventually figured out that our cheapest option was to rent a car for getting around Orlando and take the shuttle to LL. I tried to price out parking, gas, a couple of cab rides if we missed/ didn't want to wait for a couple of hotel shuttles, etc. and a car LL shuttle combo was best for us. I suggest trying to price out all of your options and see how it goes.

I also prefer public transit but it it's just not that convenient in Orlando and doesn't save a ton- even city buses and the I-Drive trolley add up. I signed up for email offers from Hotwire and ended up with a car for 5 days right at $100.

 

[rottiemom]

I hear ya with the transportation issues.

I ran lots of numbers and eventually figured out that our cheapest option was to rent a car for getting around Orlando and take the shuttle to LL. I tried to price out parking, gas, a couple of cab rides if we missed/ didn't want to wait for a couple of hotel shuttles, etc. and a car LL shuttle combo was best for us. I suggest trying to price out all of your options and see how it goes.

You're a smart woman. I talked myself down from the ledge and re-calculated fares using the actual addresses as opposed to who knows what random addresses I was pulling up from the fare generator and got cab fares closer to 15$ each way...which is quite reasonable (especially in comparison to 45$ each way). So I've been weighing everything and am leaning back towards (now) shuttle and cab. My main reason for wanting a town car to pick us up at the airport was for a grocery stop but I figure what we save on the extra town car cost & tips we could just spend in the hotel shop to pick up persihables like milk and yogurt.

I signed up for email offers from Hotwire and ended up with a car for 5 days right at $100.

Awesome deal! Oh if I could snag something like this I'd jump all over it. The best that I could find thru hotwire was around 150. I did sign up for their emails but nothing yet. 150 is reasonable, I think, but I'm so far the shuttle/cab combo is cheaper. I've already purchased the LL shuttle tix so that's done.

Hope, since you're HP fans you probably already know about this but we had a colleague visiting from the UK and he was telling us that the studio in west London where some of HP was filmed has been basically turned over to a place for tours with sets and mock ups intact. He said that it's absolutely amazing.

 

[-Hope-]

You're a smart woman. I talked myself down from the ledge and re-calculated fares using the actual addresses as opposed to who knows what random addresses I was pulling up from the fare generator and got cab fares closer to 15$ each way...which is quite reasonable (especially in comparison to 45$ each way). So I've been weighing everything and am leaning back towards (now) shuttle and cab. My main reason for wanting a town car to pick us up at the airport was for a grocery stop but I figure what we save on the extra town car cost & tips we could just spend in the hotel shop to pick up persihables like milk and yogurt.


Awesome deal! Oh if I could snag something like this I'd jump all over it. The best that I could find thru hotwire was around 150. I did sign up for their emails but nothing yet. 150 is reasonable, I think, but I'm so far the shuttle/cab combo is cheaper. I've already purchased the LL shuttle tix so that's done.

Hope, since you're HP fans you probably already know about this but we had a colleague visiting from the UK and he was telling us that the studio in west London where some of HP was filmed has been basically turned over to a place for tours with sets and mock ups intact. He said that it's absolutely amazing.

I've heard that! I've also heard that you can visit the castle where a lot of the interior shots at Hogwarts were done... the outside of the castle doesn't really look like Hogwarts though. DS is itching to visit London and DD has been in love with Paris for years. I'm really hopeful that we'll be able to save our pennies and make it over for a big trip to both cities before they go off to college. I have a few years to save BUT I have such Wanderlust that it's difficult to put away the money for a trip that's waaaay in the future when I want to go so many places now.

 

[rottiemom]

I have a few years to save BUT I have such Wanderlust that it's difficult to put away the money for a trip that's waaaay in the future when I want to go so many places now.

I hear you! As it is we're lucky if we can take a vacation every 2 years and that's WITH me rocking and rolling and working every cent. Oh well, that's part of the fun. sigh.

Airfare to the UK is killer...the taxes alone more than double the cost of the fare. Multiply that by 3 and we've well and thoroughly blown our vacation budget before we even start planning any vacationing!

Sooo...in my hunt for info on prices at HGVC's on site store I stumbled across another web page and that had a link to the I Ride Trolley which pretty much stops right in front of HGVC SW and goes directly to the Outlets where the LL shuttle is. Hmmm...I don't know if I'm game to try it for the morning when we have to catch the shuttle and have time constraints but when we get back to the outlets that evening? I'm totally game to forgo a cab and take the "Trolley". Not much info on the DIS regarding the trolley, though, so I guess it's not that popular an option. I hate to start yet another thread with yet another silly question so I'll hunt around a bit more for info.

 

[-Hope-]

I looked into the trolley. I really wanted to make it work but in the end, nothing trumped the good deal we got on the car. If I remember correctly there's a stop right at SW so a two day pass might be a good option for you.

And yes, the airfare overseas is a killer. My BIL lives in Germany and we were trekking over to see him about every two years (sometimes without the kiddos) but that was before I went part time. And I think prices have gone up a lot since our '08 trip. And I took my brother to the UK in '05 for a fairly reasonable price. That is just not happening any more.

 

[rottiemom]

I looked into the trolley. I really wanted to make it work but in the end, nothing trumped the good deal we got on the car. If I remember correctly there's a stop right at SW so a two day pass might be a good option for you.

sigh...

We watched the Muppets again recently and if you're familiar with the movie there's a scene where Miss Piggy is banging her head on her desk because she can't believe that she fell for the Muppet Man hoax. That's what I feel like right now...like banging my head on the desk because I can't believe that I thought this was going to be easy.

I had decided on shuttle + cab and went to book the shuttle from the airport. As soon as I keyed in the actual address the fares went up to 108$ RT! On a shared shuttle! Seriously? So for now I've rented a car and will keep watching the rates. I swear I feel like I make things much harder then they need to be.

So now I begin the process of making sure that we have everything that we need for our trip while there's still plenty of time to get it. And one of those things is endurance for all of the walking. We've started lengthy walks through our hilly neighborhood gradually increasing in length. This worked really well in the past for trips to WDW as we were used to walking a few miles in the heat. Spread out through an entire day it's almost bearable...well at least we were still able to keep on hoofing the next day .

 

[-Hope-]

We've been walking too, all of us. I signed us up for a virtual 1/2 marathon for charity that allows us to count the miles cumulatively. There's a 50th anniversary Doctor Who medal for completing it so we've all found it very motivating.

I've had those Miss Piggy moments too. I'm glad you figured it out and hope it's less stressful now.

 

[rottiemom]

Hope- the half marathon for charity idea is a great one! "Train" for your trip and all for a good cause.

Meanwhile, back on the crazy train that is my life. I've been checking rental car rates daily (at least) and yesterday our rate dropped to 101$! I was giddy, that's a rate that I can totally live with and is much cheaper than the shuttle/cab combo. So we pack a booster seat for my son, no biggie. Then, while heading to the pet store to look into time release feeders for my son's turtle's while we're away I found 20$ in the parking lot! Yeah! Excellent! 11 days out before our vacation and things are just rocking! I am totally ignoring the fact that SW has dropped their ticket price to 50$ for week days...la la la, can't hear you, besides my plan is to go to SW on the Saturday that we arrive. Those tickets are bought, the deal is done, let it go.

Got home last night to discover that our water heater had decided to take a vacation of it's own. 1100$ later we have hot water again and a brand new heater. Ugh.

Thanks to the DIS I discovered the USSSA tickets for universal which will save us close to 100$ even with UT's re-stocking fee once we return the tix that we got through UT. I won't be able to make up the cost of the water heater (obviously) but I'm back on bargain patrol. sigh...

 

[-Hope-]

Oh, I'm so glad you found a good price on a car!

And finding the $20 plus saving $$ on tickets is great news as well.

Sorry about the water heater though- such a bummer when things like that happen right before a trip.

As for going back into budget mode... having a car will help a bit. You can run to the store to have snacks and some light breakfast things in the room. We'll probably also be buying three larger CS meals to share with 3 people at some times during our trip. My mom and my daughter are not big eaters and while I don't mind spending money on food that gets eaten I HATE throwing it away. Just a few ideas we're using to try save a bit.

 

[rottiemom]

Thanks for the suggestions, Hope. It sounds like you think like I do . We have the meal plan for the two SW/AQ days, I can keep us fed for the other three. At least the heater didn't go while we were away so that we could come home to tides in the basement.

And when I wrote that I was going back into budget mode...I never come out of it .

Yesterday I started rounding up items that will need to be packed. Today we are officially at single digits!

 

[-Hope-]

Woot! Single digits!