Harry Potter, a bit of MNSSHP, Shades of Green - Fall 2017 Pre-Trip AND TRIP Report!

[Travelgrrl]

Bex, the active ingredient in Bonine is 25mg of meclizine hydrochloride, or it might just be labeled as meclizine. Dramamine has dimenhydrinate (usually 50 mg) which I don't like because it makes you sleepy.

So anything labeled 'meclizine', no matter what brand, should work a treat!

 

[Travelgrrl]

To sum up: What a great day! We did at least 22 different things: Rode Spiderman, Hulk, Spiderman again, met superheroes, Dudley ride and Bluto ride (NOT Ripsaw as I said earlier), had Annie's Pretzels, rode Kong ride, toured Hogsmeade and gave out house cards, bought Prefect badge, lunch at the 3 Broomsticks, saw the Frog Choir, Ollivanders wand show, did spells in Hogsmeade, rode Forbidden Journey, mailed things at the Owl Post, took the train to Diagon Alley, had a tart break, did spells in DA, rode Men In Black and Simpsons, and yogurt at Menchies.

Nephew and GF went to the Disney parks this day while elder sister and Mom relaxed. In the afternoon, the four of them went to Animal Kingdom where somehow they wangled their way onto the Avatar rides. They had dinner at the Tusker House, where Mom was pretty excited with her cocktail!



Their dinner included seating for Rivers of Light. Here's Mom and elder sis looking great!



Next up: Our final day at Universal!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Our final theme park day! Nephew and his sweet GF were leaving, and Mom and elder sister planned a relaxing day at Shades of Green. We were out at the shuttle stop bright and early!



Look how bright eyed and bushy tailed! Contrast that with this, a few moments later on the shuttle:



Juuust enough time for a catnap on the way to the parks.

Today we just wore Harry Potter t-shirts and it was the first time all week that I did not have, in effect, a costume on when touring! Marauder's Map dress, Mouseketeer costume, Tweedle Dee costume, Hogwarts Ravenclaw house uniform. I have to admit, it was kind of nice to be wearing something bland and invisible after attracting tons of attention with all of the others. (Which is crazy: why dress up unless you WANT attention? But 4/4 days was enough.)

My t-shirt was given to me from my little sister before the trip. It says "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus" which is the Hogwarts school motto. It means "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon" in Latin. I was the most comfortable I'd been all week, in a nice cool shirt and a pair of shorts.

 

[macraven]

i'm still reading along and enjoying your trip report

 

[FoxC63]

I mentioned that the night before we left, I laid out Hogwarts acceptance letters on my sister and niece's bedside table. (They live elsewhere but were at our home that night.) I didn't have a stuffed owl handy but I found an orange and white stuffed cat that looked like Crookshanks and put it next to them.

My niece LOVED it! The letters were supposed to be the gift, but she slept with the cat that night, smuggled it into her suitcase, and slept with it every night afterwards. She's getting to be a grown up 13, but one always needs a lovey, right?

Here she is, snuggled up to her mom and Crookshanks during the trip:

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Oh, and they loved the Hogwarts letters, too.

Just getting caught up, hope you're still on the board!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Just getting caught up, hope you're still on the board!

Still here Fox and almost to the end of the Trip Report! Hope you're enjoying it!

 

[FoxC63]

Still here Fox and almost to the end of the Trip Report! Hope you're enjoying it!

We are! Glued to be honest. We're planning the exact same trip so your info is imperatively crucial!

 

[FoxC63]

OK! On with the trip report!
I grew up in the 60's, where the message was to generally defer to adult men in all cases. In the 70's I remember they had "Assertiveness Training" for women so that they could literally learn how to stick up for themselves. In a situation like this, it can be hard to do it, to remain polite but stick to your guns.

Dang girl you've got cahonas!!! One word - Respect You rock!!!

 

[FoxC63]

Sat 9/23 was our first big park day!

View attachment 275023

I made the mistake of calling him "Stan" but he pointed to his name tag: "Nigel". A few days later it was "Nigel" again, but couldn't remember if it was the same guy or not. Maybe all substitute conductors for the Knight Bus are named "Nigel".

Stan/Nigel same difference, right!?

 

[FoxC63]

Today, our Mom went with elder sister, the remaining kids (all little girls) and adults to Cinderella's table for breakfast, then the Pirate's League after. Quite a wild first day for a 91 year old! Here's a photo of Mom in her pirate regalia!

View attachment 275612

And thanks, Schumigirl!

Hopefully you get a sense of who I am to know this moves me in such a positive way - LOVE it! 100 points to you! Hi Mom!

 

[FoxC63]

I made my way outside to have a cigarette

Wait...what?!???????? Noooooo. Hmmm. Yep, we're still buds! (cough, cough) just joking, sort of.

 

[FoxC63]

I like to keep track of how many adventures we had during each day, and today it was 20:
Photos on way in, Kreacher at 12 Grimmauld Place, the Knight Bus, Telephone Booth, Escape From Gringotts, Ollivanders, spells in DA, Hagrid's motorcycle, Florian Fortescue's ice cream, Knocturn Alley, Pepper's Ghost Illusion at Platform 9 3/4, giving out Hogwarts Express tickets, Hogwarts Express train ride, Forbidden Journey ride, Flight of the Hippogriff, churros snack, spells in Hogsmeade, Honeydukes and Chocolate Frog, and two things I forgot to mention: Moaning Myrtle in the bathrooms at Hogsmeade, and "A" had Butterbeer in there somewhere!!

AMAZING!!! Love the ticket idea too! Oh my son needs to read those books if he plans on going with me!

 

[FoxC63]

Only at Disney can you get in trouble and it's like getting punched with a marshmallow.

You're so darn funny!

 

[FoxC63]

We were fed! We were dry! We met this super fun CM and my niece gave him a Slytherin card. He was truly delighted - and then went and grabbed some kind of notebook and gave us front of the line passes to the ride of our choice! (Hint: Forbidden Journey, AKA The Best Ride, Ever)

After he posed with us, we saw the witch behind, photobombing! By far, this is my favorite photo of the trip.

View attachment 280218

When it came time for him to choose a young wizard, the Ollivanders wizard slowly, slowly raised his hand and pointed to my niece. Well, the softly weeping went right out the window, because from then on I was all out sobbing.

There was a family with two little boys there, and I could tell the Mom was hella peeved that the two weren't picked. Well, they had Thing 1 and Thing 2 t-shirts on, and the three of us were kitted out in full Harry Potter drag. Of course, he was going to pick my niece. Somehow the sound of me crying didn't add to her joy.

Love the witch photobombing your pic! And LOVE this trip report! OMG! just too funny!

 

[FoxC63]

I'm done? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

More please

Excellent trip report I would love to hang out with you any day! Love all the costumes, everyone looks amazing. You look amazing in your map dress - just beautiful and I love the shape of your glasses, yes I noticed those specs! You're on my radar sis!

 

[Travelgrrl]

Dang girl you've got cahonas!!! One word - Respect You rock!!!

Just WAIT until the final day of our trip, for the denouement of the story! I will never use this company again, yet still feel bad enough for them not to want to slam them online.

Hopefully you get a sense of who I am to know this moves me in such a positive way - LOVE it! 100 points to you! Hi Mom!

I know you lost your Mom this year, Fox and I'm so sorry. I know I'm lucky that my Mom is still able to make new memories with us at her great age.

You're so darn funny!

Hahaha, just ask my kids.

 

[mcjw2011]

Anyway, no one else was around, so we posed with Captain America and another handsome chap who I did not recognize. Then a larger group of superheros came and we all posed. After quite a bit of googling, I can caption this as "Storm, Me, Wolverine, niece, sis, and Rogue". You can see our (as yet) dry outfits here. Why dry, you ask? Because we were off to the wettest rides I've ever been on, outside of a water park!

That was Cyclops. It's was definitely off-season, as the Marvel superheroes usually break up and do photo-ops separately -- Rogue and Storm usually pair up.

 

[schumigirl]

I love the picture of your mum with her cocktail.........lovely to see her enjoy it so much........

Your pictures are so good, it’s been fun reading along.........

 

[FoxC63]

Just WAIT until the final day of our trip, for the denouement of the story! I will never use this company again, yet still feel bad enough for them not to want to slam them online.

I know you lost your Mom this year, Fox and I'm so sorry. I know I'm lucky that my Mom is still able to make new memories with us at her great age.

Hahaha, just ask my kids.

You can list the name of the company. A fellow DISer slammed Undercover Tourist re "Safety Protocols" to which they responded to her thread after MANY pages of fellow DISers agreeing not to do business with them due to their online purchasing procedures. EPIC!

 

[FoxC63]

I love the picture of your mum with her cocktail.........lovely to see her enjoy it so much........

Your pictures are so good, it’s been fun reading along.........

Did you write a trip report too? I'd love to read about it! I'm just getting back on the boards after months of heavy costume sewing and our trip.