FeetOffTheTable
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2018
Good morning everyone! We are a week away from out trip, so I figure this is as good a time as any to start our (pre) trip report. This was originally scheduled way before COVID and we had to make some adjustments. There was concern that my work wouldn't allow me to go either, but after a meeting with my boss late last month where we came up with a plan for after my return, she gave me the OK to go and I was officially allowed to get excited.
Some background: Our family consists of me (37 yo female, actually might as well make that 38) and my husband (who we will refer to as "G", 43) and our son ("B", 4). We are passholders at Universal, but given our sons age we have included short Disney trips with that as well. This trip was supposed to be our "Big" one, spending multiple days at disney because I feel hes at a great age for it. But alas plans got changed, so we not going quite as all out as we originally planned but still planning to have a good trip! My parents are also joining us for the Disney part (and second universal leg) and they are both in their mid 60s
Heres the schedule we have:
Thursday Sept 24th- Flying AA to MCO from VA. Uber to Cabana bay where we will stay in a family suite until the 28th. We will get in too late to enjoy the parks thursday, but will have the next three days. We might end up hitting up City Walk or the pool this evening, just depends on what time we get in. We are planning to use instacart and get food (and wine!) delivered so that we can have lunches and such in the room
Friday sept 25th- Sunday sept 27th - Universal/ Islands of adventure. This weekend is the test for the halloween festivities, and presumably they will be happening next weekend based on the extended park hours. We are NOT HHN fans so wont be checking out the houses at all and were a bit disappointed when they announced them, knowing it woult lead to more crowds. But they extended the hours and added a couple things for kids (trick or treating if thats not just this weekend, and the scarecrow hunt), so now im excited again. Plus being passholders there, we have seen it all before. However we still intend to head over first thing in the mornings and try to get some of our favorites out of the way. We actually really enjoyed in March going to Islands first thing; everyone rushed to Hagrids so we were able to wander hogsmeade virtually empty! My son is big into super heros currently, especially spiderman. However I showed him a video of the ride and he said it was scary, so I dont know if he will do it. It will be nice to have him tall enough to do a few things though now, since he was 39" last time we went and now hes closer to 41". We are big Harry Potter fans, so tend to spend most of our time in those areas. It never gets old! I read that for Ollivanders now you have to sign up, so we might try to do that one day and have a wand choose B, if its allowed to have someone so young do it. He always steals our wands, so might be time to get his own, even though he isn't 11. Just no one let the ministry know that he is doing underage magic! My parents will arrive Sunday night
Monday Sept 28th - oct 1 - check out of Cabana bay and Uber to Caribbean Beach resort. we will spend the next 4 days at the various disney parks before heading back to universal again on thursday the 1st
Thursday Oct 1- check out of CBR and head back to Cabana bay after we finish at Disney. Unless we get out of disney very early, we wont hit up universal thiis day
Friday Oct 2- Sunday Oct 4: This leg of our trip was actually supposed to be a cruise until monday, but obviously that isn't happening. So once I got the OK from my boss we met with my parents and decided to go back to universal for a few more days. They bought season passes because with the room discount it was actually $250 cheaper than buying a multi day park ticket and hotel. Plus this way they can go back if they want. We switched our flights from monday to sunday, just to save a little money on hotels and it only cost $10 total to do, which is great! My parents likely wont spend as much time at universal as we do (they like to sleep in), but I do want them to try Hagrids and none of us have seen Bourne yet, so those will be good to do with them. Plus i think they will enjoy doing some rides like Jimmy Fallon with B, now that hes bigger. Hopefully he likes them! I'm glad we're going back to Universal for a second leg, especially since the park hours were shortened on thursday/friday from when we orignally booked and the weekend are more crowded. This will give us more time to enjoy and see everything we want, plus maybe have some time to go back to the hotel and enjoy the pool mid day.
So stay tuned! This report is going on the Universal trip reports, so I will only be sharing my experience with Universal (as well as flying) here, but will link to the Disney report for those interested! Disney trip report can be found by clicking this link. This post is similar there, but focuses on Disney instead of Universal and all subsequent posts will be Universal specific here and Disney there
Some background: Our family consists of me (37 yo female, actually might as well make that 38) and my husband (who we will refer to as "G", 43) and our son ("B", 4). We are passholders at Universal, but given our sons age we have included short Disney trips with that as well. This trip was supposed to be our "Big" one, spending multiple days at disney because I feel hes at a great age for it. But alas plans got changed, so we not going quite as all out as we originally planned but still planning to have a good trip! My parents are also joining us for the Disney part (and second universal leg) and they are both in their mid 60s
Heres the schedule we have:
Thursday Sept 24th- Flying AA to MCO from VA. Uber to Cabana bay where we will stay in a family suite until the 28th. We will get in too late to enjoy the parks thursday, but will have the next three days. We might end up hitting up City Walk or the pool this evening, just depends on what time we get in. We are planning to use instacart and get food (and wine!) delivered so that we can have lunches and such in the room
Friday sept 25th- Sunday sept 27th - Universal/ Islands of adventure. This weekend is the test for the halloween festivities, and presumably they will be happening next weekend based on the extended park hours. We are NOT HHN fans so wont be checking out the houses at all and were a bit disappointed when they announced them, knowing it woult lead to more crowds. But they extended the hours and added a couple things for kids (trick or treating if thats not just this weekend, and the scarecrow hunt), so now im excited again. Plus being passholders there, we have seen it all before. However we still intend to head over first thing in the mornings and try to get some of our favorites out of the way. We actually really enjoyed in March going to Islands first thing; everyone rushed to Hagrids so we were able to wander hogsmeade virtually empty! My son is big into super heros currently, especially spiderman. However I showed him a video of the ride and he said it was scary, so I dont know if he will do it. It will be nice to have him tall enough to do a few things though now, since he was 39" last time we went and now hes closer to 41". We are big Harry Potter fans, so tend to spend most of our time in those areas. It never gets old! I read that for Ollivanders now you have to sign up, so we might try to do that one day and have a wand choose B, if its allowed to have someone so young do it. He always steals our wands, so might be time to get his own, even though he isn't 11. Just no one let the ministry know that he is doing underage magic! My parents will arrive Sunday night
Monday Sept 28th - oct 1 - check out of Cabana bay and Uber to Caribbean Beach resort. we will spend the next 4 days at the various disney parks before heading back to universal again on thursday the 1st
Thursday Oct 1- check out of CBR and head back to Cabana bay after we finish at Disney. Unless we get out of disney very early, we wont hit up universal thiis day
Friday Oct 2- Sunday Oct 4: This leg of our trip was actually supposed to be a cruise until monday, but obviously that isn't happening. So once I got the OK from my boss we met with my parents and decided to go back to universal for a few more days. They bought season passes because with the room discount it was actually $250 cheaper than buying a multi day park ticket and hotel. Plus this way they can go back if they want. We switched our flights from monday to sunday, just to save a little money on hotels and it only cost $10 total to do, which is great! My parents likely wont spend as much time at universal as we do (they like to sleep in), but I do want them to try Hagrids and none of us have seen Bourne yet, so those will be good to do with them. Plus i think they will enjoy doing some rides like Jimmy Fallon with B, now that hes bigger. Hopefully he likes them! I'm glad we're going back to Universal for a second leg, especially since the park hours were shortened on thursday/friday from when we orignally booked and the weekend are more crowded. This will give us more time to enjoy and see everything we want, plus maybe have some time to go back to the hotel and enjoy the pool mid day.
So stay tuned! This report is going on the Universal trip reports, so I will only be sharing my experience with Universal (as well as flying) here, but will link to the Disney report for those interested! Disney trip report can be found by clicking this link. This post is similar there, but focuses on Disney instead of Universal and all subsequent posts will be Universal specific here and Disney there