RVGal
Whaaa?
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2005
I guess I'll have to spread my days out for this trip report between the two boards because we did Universal/WDW/Univeral/WDW/Universal.
A little background, I suppose, would be in order. I have always planned our previous vacations to the Orlando area because my sister used to live in Winter Park (hence my extreme number of visits to Disney in the late 70s to late 80s) and I felt like I knew more about the area and all that. This time, I decided to let DH do the planning and see what he came up with. I can enjoy the ride without being the pilot sometimes.
So, off hubby goes click-clacking away in his sorta-sweet-yet-kinda-pathetic hunt and peck typing journey on the keyboard of the computer. He'd come out with this glassy eyed expression and then mumble to himself and head back to surf some more. It was difficult, but I stayed away.
After several days of phone calls, computer time, etc., DH announces that he has it all worked out and proudly exclaims, "You won't believe the deal I got!" I should take a moment to mention that my hubby is... ummm... I don't want to say "cheap"... and "frugal" has simply become the PC way of saying "cheap"... so let's call him a "bargain hunter".
So, I ask the required, "What deal is that, honey?"
"I found a great resort off International Drive and we get the whole vacation, 5 days/4 nights, for only $99... plus they are giving us a deal on show tickets."
Okay, my first thought was to panic that he had booked us in a fleabag motel and how was I going to burst his bubble and tell him that there was no decent hotel available for that kind of money. Then it sank in. A deal on show tickets? 5 days/4 nights for $99? "Honey, what do we have to DO to get this deal?"
Yup. You guessed it. A freakin' timeshare presentation.
Sigh.
Anyway, so now we have a hotel (at least it is a Marriott Vacation Club Resort), and he booked our flight, then he went on to make character breakfast reservations at both MK and IOA. I decided to keep an open mind and let him do his thing. He found the 7 day Universal ticket deal and bought that, then he dug up our Disney tickets and through much red tape cutting discovered that we still had two days left on some old (non-expiring) tickets. Cool.
Our flight out was late on Saturday, May 26th. I had hoped that the kids would be asleep before the flight took off... or at least DS2 would be... but that just wasn't happening. Both DS5 and DS2 were too excited to sleep. Oh, well. The flight turned out to be uneventful and I have learned that the single most important item to have in my carryon is lollipops. They are a special treat that keeps them both focused, still, and keeps their ears from popping at takeoff. Lollipops. Don't leave home without them.
We dragged our tired brood to the rental car counter and encountered our first snag. The very polite and helpful man at the counter informed us that we had 3 reservations in the system, but they had all been canceled... no payment was applied to any of them. Excuse me? "Did you use one of *those* bargain internet companies?" I glared at my husband. "Yeah, we booked through Priceline." "Oh, well that's probably the problem. You'll just have to call them and get them to apply payment."
It's almost midnight... I have a sleeping toddler on my shoulder... a tired and cranky 5 year old by the hand... and a cart full of luggage, car seats, etc. Don't make me come over this counter and hurt you little man.
My husband calmly pulls out the printout from where he booked the car and shows it to the guy. He also pulls out his cell phone and calls the 800 number on the printout. Using the reservation number and, with help from the customer service rep at Priceline, he finally finds our reservation with payment applied. He even upgraded us to a bigger car. It might have been all he had available, but it seemed like a nice thing after all that.
We got ourselves and our stuff loaded and drove to our overnight hotel. Since we didn't want to blow one of our 4 nights without a full day on each end, DH booked an airport hotel for the first night. We wound up at the Wingate, which was just the first traffic light outside the airport. Wonderful. It was also a very nice hotel and, even though it was pretty close to fully booked, we never heard any outside noise. Not even a plane flying overhead. The continental breakfast the next morning was enough for all of us (make your own waffles, fruit, muffins, scrambled eggs, juice, milk, coffee) and we checked out to head for our new home away from home.
The plan was for DH to take me and DS5 to US and drop us off while he and DS2 went to shop for our basic supplies and get us settled at the Marriott. We were in the car, on the way to US, and he looks over at me and say, "I want to go too. Why don't we all go and we'll all do the shopping and stuff later." He is such a kid... that's why I love him! I offered to drop him and DS5 off while I did the chores, but he kept insisting that we all do it all together. That IS the point of family vacation I suppose, so I gave in (twist my arm ).
We pulled up to US parking at about 11am... along with just about everyone else who was thinking of going to Universal on Sunday. It was only about 10 deep at each booth.
We actually got through quickly and parked. After the moving sidewalks, which turned out to be DS2's favorite ride, we found the booth we needed to convert our online order into tickets. Thank goodness we didn't have to stand in the regular buy-a-ticket-here lines. It was madness!
Our first picture of the day...
As we walked in, the standby wait times for Shrek 4-D and Jimmy Neutron were both listed at 45 mins. I told DS5 to pick one and he chose Shrek. When we walked up to the line, I realized that there were motion warnings, so I checked with the TM at the entrance about DS2. He was extremely nice and told me that the seats would simulate a galloping horse and we were more than welcome to let him lap-sit so we could all stay together. Great! It didn't take anywhere near 45 mins to get into the pre-show... more like 20mins... so we couldn't complain about the wait. DS5 LOVED the movie and DS2 didn't mind it. I'm sure he wondered why we were sitting in the shaking chairs, but he's seen big brother's Shrek movies enough that he was fine. When we left the theater, Shrek and Donkey were across the street for photos. Donkey was hysterical! We encountered our first character hog (you know, the I-have-a-digital-camera-so-I'll-take-200-shots-and-delete-all-but-the-perfect-one-later people
) and Donkey made fun of them... saying all the things that we'd really love to say but don't... and it was like free therapy to stand there and listen to him. He also made fun of a mom that was dragging her small, screaming child up to get a picture. "Yeah, momma, that's right. Drag that baby even if she doesn't want come. That'll be a great momento for you both." 
After laughing with Donkey for awhile, we cruised over to the Kidzone area. DS5 started complaining that he was hungry, so we grabbed a pizza at the Kid Zone Pizza Company. It was okay. Expensive for what it was, but then isn't all theme park food? DS5 was happy and we were all full, so that's all that matters. One thing that I really appreciated was the way Universal has the food broken down on their park guides. Since both of my kids are fussy eaters, it really helped to know where the "chicken" restaurants were!
DS5 and I headed off to ride E.T., while DH and DS2 were going to the Barney Show. We only wound up with a 10 min wait for E.T., so we found the others in the pre-show area of Barney and all watched the show. Even though DS5 had done much eye-rolling and complained that he had "SO outgrown Barney... that's for babies...", we all had a good time and really enjoyed the show. Mrs. Peek-A-Boo, who sets the tone in the pre-show, did a fantastic job.
Here's Barney...
... a little fuzzy, I know. I was actually obeying the "no flash photography" rule.
The boys had a wonderful time in Barney's Backyard playground.
I really like the way they have the playground set up for the littlest ones. All indoors... no big hiding places to lose them in... the doors are manned by TMs to make sure there are no small escapees. Perfect.
We caught the Star Toons Character Show, but didn't stick around for the picture sessions. DS5 was getting hot and cranky and DS2 was pooping out, so it was time to head out and find our hotel... resort... whatever.
We checked in at the Marriott Grand Vista, but they had bumped us over to the Marriott Cypress Harbor...
Our room turned out to be a very nice, two bedroom villa with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and a screened in patio. I can deal with that. By the time we found the Publix, shopped, and got everything back, it was time to get ready for the Pirates Dinner Adventure. DH's sister and family live in the Orlando area, so my SIL was tapped to do the babysitting thing with DS2, while the rest of us (including my nephew and his GF) set off for the Dinner Theater. It wasn't far and we found it with no problems. We checked in, got our table assignment, then dove into the masses to sample the appetizers. Oh, but first...
Can't miss an opportunity for a $20 souvenir photo, can they?
DS5 got his face painted and generally had a good time. Other than the wait in line for appetizers, all was well.
For us, the Pirates Dinner Adventure was fun (cheesy, but that is an automatic assumption when going to a “dinner theater”). There was one character, the “Golden Gypsy”, who made absolutely no sense. She was completely out of context for the story. The stunts and singing and all that worked for me, but the circus-style “gypsy” performer just seemed way out of place. If they had cut her segments out, the show would have been much better in my opinion. It is one of those things where the more the crowd lets go and gets into it… cheers for “their pirate” and such… the better the show will be and the more fun everyone will have. Our crowd was something of a dud, so it probably wasn’t as good as it could have been. DS5 enjoyed it. It turned out to be about 15 minutes too long for him. Just before the final battle to save the princess, he said it was taking the pirates “a long time”… but when I ask him about it now, he still says it was fun.
The food, however, was AWFUL. I don’t have enough words to describe how very, very, VERY bad the food was. How can anyone make chicken and shrimp taste quite that horrible is beyond me! I know we were paying more for the experience than the food, but they could have at least made an attempt at something edible. DH even left food on his plate, and he is a founding memeber of the "A Clean Plate is A Happy Plate" club. If you want a good meal, this is NOT the place to go.
And so, tired, but generally happy, we returned to crash in our beds and look forward to another day. Tomorrow will be MK day, with a required early start to make our Breakfast with Pooh & Friends ADR.
I know. I ramble. And I'm sure it is WAY more than you ever wanted to know. But I enjoyed replaying the day out in my head, so forgive me...
If you want to continue the journey, I have rambled my way through Day 2: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474912
A little background, I suppose, would be in order. I have always planned our previous vacations to the Orlando area because my sister used to live in Winter Park (hence my extreme number of visits to Disney in the late 70s to late 80s) and I felt like I knew more about the area and all that. This time, I decided to let DH do the planning and see what he came up with. I can enjoy the ride without being the pilot sometimes.
So, off hubby goes click-clacking away in his sorta-sweet-yet-kinda-pathetic hunt and peck typing journey on the keyboard of the computer. He'd come out with this glassy eyed expression and then mumble to himself and head back to surf some more. It was difficult, but I stayed away.
After several days of phone calls, computer time, etc., DH announces that he has it all worked out and proudly exclaims, "You won't believe the deal I got!" I should take a moment to mention that my hubby is... ummm... I don't want to say "cheap"... and "frugal" has simply become the PC way of saying "cheap"... so let's call him a "bargain hunter".
So, I ask the required, "What deal is that, honey?"
"I found a great resort off International Drive and we get the whole vacation, 5 days/4 nights, for only $99... plus they are giving us a deal on show tickets."
Okay, my first thought was to panic that he had booked us in a fleabag motel and how was I going to burst his bubble and tell him that there was no decent hotel available for that kind of money. Then it sank in. A deal on show tickets? 5 days/4 nights for $99? "Honey, what do we have to DO to get this deal?"
Yup. You guessed it. A freakin' timeshare presentation.
Sigh.
Anyway, so now we have a hotel (at least it is a Marriott Vacation Club Resort), and he booked our flight, then he went on to make character breakfast reservations at both MK and IOA. I decided to keep an open mind and let him do his thing. He found the 7 day Universal ticket deal and bought that, then he dug up our Disney tickets and through much red tape cutting discovered that we still had two days left on some old (non-expiring) tickets. Cool.
Our flight out was late on Saturday, May 26th. I had hoped that the kids would be asleep before the flight took off... or at least DS2 would be... but that just wasn't happening. Both DS5 and DS2 were too excited to sleep. Oh, well. The flight turned out to be uneventful and I have learned that the single most important item to have in my carryon is lollipops. They are a special treat that keeps them both focused, still, and keeps their ears from popping at takeoff. Lollipops. Don't leave home without them.
We dragged our tired brood to the rental car counter and encountered our first snag. The very polite and helpful man at the counter informed us that we had 3 reservations in the system, but they had all been canceled... no payment was applied to any of them. Excuse me? "Did you use one of *those* bargain internet companies?" I glared at my husband. "Yeah, we booked through Priceline." "Oh, well that's probably the problem. You'll just have to call them and get them to apply payment."
It's almost midnight... I have a sleeping toddler on my shoulder... a tired and cranky 5 year old by the hand... and a cart full of luggage, car seats, etc. Don't make me come over this counter and hurt you little man.
My husband calmly pulls out the printout from where he booked the car and shows it to the guy. He also pulls out his cell phone and calls the 800 number on the printout. Using the reservation number and, with help from the customer service rep at Priceline, he finally finds our reservation with payment applied. He even upgraded us to a bigger car. It might have been all he had available, but it seemed like a nice thing after all that.
We got ourselves and our stuff loaded and drove to our overnight hotel. Since we didn't want to blow one of our 4 nights without a full day on each end, DH booked an airport hotel for the first night. We wound up at the Wingate, which was just the first traffic light outside the airport. Wonderful. It was also a very nice hotel and, even though it was pretty close to fully booked, we never heard any outside noise. Not even a plane flying overhead. The continental breakfast the next morning was enough for all of us (make your own waffles, fruit, muffins, scrambled eggs, juice, milk, coffee) and we checked out to head for our new home away from home.
The plan was for DH to take me and DS5 to US and drop us off while he and DS2 went to shop for our basic supplies and get us settled at the Marriott. We were in the car, on the way to US, and he looks over at me and say, "I want to go too. Why don't we all go and we'll all do the shopping and stuff later." He is such a kid... that's why I love him! I offered to drop him and DS5 off while I did the chores, but he kept insisting that we all do it all together. That IS the point of family vacation I suppose, so I gave in (twist my arm
).We pulled up to US parking at about 11am... along with just about everyone else who was thinking of going to Universal on Sunday. It was only about 10 deep at each booth.
We actually got through quickly and parked. After the moving sidewalks, which turned out to be DS2's favorite ride, we found the booth we needed to convert our online order into tickets. Thank goodness we didn't have to stand in the regular buy-a-ticket-here lines. It was madness!Our first picture of the day...
As we walked in, the standby wait times for Shrek 4-D and Jimmy Neutron were both listed at 45 mins. I told DS5 to pick one and he chose Shrek. When we walked up to the line, I realized that there were motion warnings, so I checked with the TM at the entrance about DS2. He was extremely nice and told me that the seats would simulate a galloping horse and we were more than welcome to let him lap-sit so we could all stay together. Great! It didn't take anywhere near 45 mins to get into the pre-show... more like 20mins... so we couldn't complain about the wait. DS5 LOVED the movie and DS2 didn't mind it. I'm sure he wondered why we were sitting in the shaking chairs, but he's seen big brother's Shrek movies enough that he was fine. When we left the theater, Shrek and Donkey were across the street for photos. Donkey was hysterical! We encountered our first character hog (you know, the I-have-a-digital-camera-so-I'll-take-200-shots-and-delete-all-but-the-perfect-one-later people
) and Donkey made fun of them... saying all the things that we'd really love to say but don't... and it was like free therapy to stand there and listen to him. He also made fun of a mom that was dragging her small, screaming child up to get a picture. "Yeah, momma, that's right. Drag that baby even if she doesn't want come. That'll be a great momento for you both." After laughing with Donkey for awhile, we cruised over to the Kidzone area. DS5 started complaining that he was hungry, so we grabbed a pizza at the Kid Zone Pizza Company. It was okay. Expensive for what it was, but then isn't all theme park food? DS5 was happy and we were all full, so that's all that matters. One thing that I really appreciated was the way Universal has the food broken down on their park guides. Since both of my kids are fussy eaters, it really helped to know where the "chicken" restaurants were!
DS5 and I headed off to ride E.T., while DH and DS2 were going to the Barney Show. We only wound up with a 10 min wait for E.T., so we found the others in the pre-show area of Barney and all watched the show. Even though DS5 had done much eye-rolling and complained that he had "SO outgrown Barney... that's for babies...", we all had a good time and really enjoyed the show. Mrs. Peek-A-Boo, who sets the tone in the pre-show, did a fantastic job.
Here's Barney...
... a little fuzzy, I know. I was actually obeying the "no flash photography" rule.
The boys had a wonderful time in Barney's Backyard playground.
I really like the way they have the playground set up for the littlest ones. All indoors... no big hiding places to lose them in... the doors are manned by TMs to make sure there are no small escapees. Perfect.
We caught the Star Toons Character Show, but didn't stick around for the picture sessions. DS5 was getting hot and cranky and DS2 was pooping out, so it was time to head out and find our hotel... resort... whatever.
We checked in at the Marriott Grand Vista, but they had bumped us over to the Marriott Cypress Harbor...
Our room turned out to be a very nice, two bedroom villa with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and a screened in patio. I can deal with that. By the time we found the Publix, shopped, and got everything back, it was time to get ready for the Pirates Dinner Adventure. DH's sister and family live in the Orlando area, so my SIL was tapped to do the babysitting thing with DS2, while the rest of us (including my nephew and his GF) set off for the Dinner Theater. It wasn't far and we found it with no problems. We checked in, got our table assignment, then dove into the masses to sample the appetizers. Oh, but first...
Can't miss an opportunity for a $20 souvenir photo, can they?
DS5 got his face painted and generally had a good time. Other than the wait in line for appetizers, all was well.
For us, the Pirates Dinner Adventure was fun (cheesy, but that is an automatic assumption when going to a “dinner theater”). There was one character, the “Golden Gypsy”, who made absolutely no sense. She was completely out of context for the story. The stunts and singing and all that worked for me, but the circus-style “gypsy” performer just seemed way out of place. If they had cut her segments out, the show would have been much better in my opinion. It is one of those things where the more the crowd lets go and gets into it… cheers for “their pirate” and such… the better the show will be and the more fun everyone will have. Our crowd was something of a dud, so it probably wasn’t as good as it could have been. DS5 enjoyed it. It turned out to be about 15 minutes too long for him. Just before the final battle to save the princess, he said it was taking the pirates “a long time”… but when I ask him about it now, he still says it was fun.
The food, however, was AWFUL. I don’t have enough words to describe how very, very, VERY bad the food was. How can anyone make chicken and shrimp taste quite that horrible is beyond me! I know we were paying more for the experience than the food, but they could have at least made an attempt at something edible. DH even left food on his plate, and he is a founding memeber of the "A Clean Plate is A Happy Plate" club. If you want a good meal, this is NOT the place to go.
And so, tired, but generally happy, we returned to crash in our beds and look forward to another day. Tomorrow will be MK day, with a required early start to make our Breakfast with Pooh & Friends ADR.
I know. I ramble. And I'm sure it is WAY more than you ever wanted to know. But I enjoyed replaying the day out in my head, so forgive me...
If you want to continue the journey, I have rambled my way through Day 2: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474912
in the system and they had a hard time finding the right one.
IF you check your last day TR, i DID comment on your TR (and Spidey breakfast!) I went thru it again lookin' for tags.... 
