Weekend Getaway Turns Into Spend-Fest of Ridiculous Proportions!! May 25-29, 2006

[alexramz1515]

nice report, looking foward to your last day

 

[alexramz1515]

wheres part three???

 

[Jennifer48]

I'm THISCLOSE to giving up on this TR

 

[aztecgoods]

I wasn't going to do this but since I read Oybolshoi's post I decided to, so here goes, and I start by saying to Oybolshoi in the words of Dustin Hoffman in Wag the Dog, "that's nothing nothing" in reference to a few of your more annoying experiences which sound to me like was all due for you guys going at a crowded time.

My last trip to the best place on the planet Universal, was ruined by the infamous Ex-Girlfriend. Although I still had a good time just being there despite considerable attempts at this person that I will refer to as Paddy Whack in attempting to ruin this experience. I will preface this post by saying that this was really all my own fault. My little voice was telling me from the first weekend I spent with Whack that I should dump her immediately, run, change my name and number and don't look back, but simply because she had a smoking body and was great in my favorite room, I let my other voice do the talking.

But the kicker was, after about a month of dating this person, I had had it, and was in the process of operation dump her when she hit me with "let's go on vacation, and I'll pay for all of it" came up. Since she was very wealthy I went along with it since in my mind I was thinking well free vacation to Universal is a good idea and I can dump her when I get back. WRONG, stupid move. My little voice was saying taking this person on a trip like this is akin to taking a marauding elephant into a tiny room filled with viles of extremely sensitive nitroglycerin, but oh well the other organ talking on top of the free part won over. LESSON, listen to the other voice above, not the voice below.

Anyway, the trip starts off fine with the flights into Orlando. But all %$#@ breaks loose the first morning, we have a psychotic explosive experience because I got up early and went for coffee without her despite the fact that she was still asleep, ok, not looking good, but bite my tongue and we check into the Royal Pacific.

Yes the RP is my favorite hotel at U now, I requested a room with a view to IOA and it was awesome. Having that lighthouse in the window is so cool, and the pool was right below. I love Portofino too, but the RP is cheaper, closer to IOA (walking distance, only about a 7 minute walk) and you end up right at Jimmy Buffets first place you come too.

Ok, first of all this person (Whack) typically has a good day, everything is fine, then crazy day next when everything is not. Besides the morning the first day was fine. Took the boat past the Howard Hughes plane in the harbor, (Yes Howard Hughes actually used to fly that plane, not sure if he actually owned it however.) Go into IOA first, since IOA is my favorite, took whack to all the great spots, first to Suess, then my favorite section Lost Cont., dined at Mythos (where else?) then on to Jurassic. The parks were the usual great time even being with whack so the first day from what I can recall (its all a little fuzzy now).

Next day did not go good at all, very very long story short, I kicked her out of the room for her outragous behaivor and ended up spending the rest of my trip by myself. Which was fine, but it really is a more enjoyable experience if you can spend it with someone you love. In sum, just a quick run down of her outragious behaivor. 1) Normal one minute, screaming the next for no apparent reason, 2) Lost car and room keys constantly, then blames it on me, 3) loses valet ticket one day, liked to never get the car. And many other things, the screaming for no reason however was the end, and why she got the boot out of the room, I won't bother listing the other weird and crazy items she did and will move on now.

That was last year, so have a new girl now just had our 1st year aniversary the other day and things are great, can't wait to take her for her first time in a few weeks. I am also looking forward to this for it will give me the opportunity to exercise the demons that haunt me in the Royal Pacific from the trauma whack put me through. The Royal P is such an awesome place I can't wait to go back with someone that I actually care about and enjoy being with. Same for the rest of the U property, great place even when you are with a person that is crazy, yet you still manage to have a great time, despite attempts by Jeffrey Daumer's sister to ruin an otherwise terrific place. At least I didn't end up with an Ice pick stuck in my chest.

LESSON, listen to your gut instincts on these things.

 

[aztecgoods]

Just to add some of the more positive aspects of the trip. The Mummy was new at this point last year when we went, GREAT ride, very dark and creepy, maybe the creepiest ride in existence at any park anywhere, really good stuff. Everything else was terrific regarding the park experiences. Did Shrek for the first time, it is really good.

For Oybolshoi, I would recommend you guys not going on a holiday weekend and stay at the RP instead of hte Portifino, yes the P is slightly more elegant and classy, but the RP has a great tropical Asian theme, and is a lot closer walk than the Ptfino. Can't beat the much cheaper price too. I love the path walk due to the fact that J. Buffets is right there. I ate there probably 3 times, great nachos and everything else for that matter.

I also stayed at Cocoa Beach for a few nights which I highly recommend, very nice beach, not as good as Destin, but then again, nothing is. Drove into Universal one day by myself since I had a 7 day pass. Was great again even by myself. At this point whack was long gone, thank God.

Whack did pay for 1 $200 dollar lobster dinner, but other than that I got stuck with about 75% of the bills, but oh well, life lessons that I will never forget. And now that I found a truely special and great person in the new girlfriend, it makes me appreciate her all the more. We will be going in a few weeks and I plan to stay at the RP the whole time and request the IOA view as well, I stay at the top floor to get the best view, and I may add that the view from RP of IOA is truely great in and of itself. Probably one of the most positive memories of U in general is the view of IOA from the RP. This will be her first time to go and I know she will love it.

 

[oybolshoi]

Aztec,
thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your experience and advice. It sounds like you have found a much better person to have fun with and that is always a good thing. Be sure to let us know how everything goes on your upcoming trip - I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.

I think, however, you may have taken my trip report a bit too literally - 99% of what I write is tongue in cheek or self-satire, if you will. So even if it reads as if I'm annoyed, upset, etc. I am usually coloring it for effect so that it's more amusing for the people who choose to read it as well as for me and my husband when we add it to our scrapbook.

We'll probably be back again next year at the same time - maybe we'll see you there!

As for you long suffering readers...I apologize for the lateness of Day 4...between bad weather, bad health, and work related travel I have neglected you, and I'm sorry. I will have it finished by this weekend and posted here for your comments. Thanks again, and many many apologies.

 

[oybolshoi]

I toyed with the idea of waiting until Labor Day to post the rest of this just beacuse I thought there was some nice symmetry to that idea (trip actually ends on Memorial Day...author drags out trip report until Labor Day and unofficial end of summer), but that's just wrong.

I really do apologize for the delay - you don't want or need the details but sometimes the real world gets in the way of all the fun stuff here at the DIS and that is just what happened to me. I'm very hopeful that in another few weeks things will start looking up health-wise and I will soon be able to get back to my usual, always amused self as opposed to my recent very tired, out-of-sorts only partially amused self.

So, if you doubted that Jay and Brenda really had a fourth day at USO / IoA, doubt no longer! I have returned to regale you with the final day of mini-vacation delights!!

Getting on with it already....

Before hitting the sack we decided to by-pass the resort altogether for breakfast on Sunday morning. Club Level has been a waste of our time and money as far as we're concerned, but you never know until you try. To quote the brilliant, if often misunderstood, Homer Simpson, "We tried, and we failed. The lesson is: never try."

So now we know - next time we come back (and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later) we'll pass on the Club, thanks anyway, 'cause it ain't for us. We'll take that money and go gorge at Tchoup Chop again instead!

Following the theme of the weekend, we do not set the alarm, choosing instead to wake up when we wake up. Thanks to years of rolling out of bed at 5AM for work, Jason and I seem constitutionally unable to sleep much past 8AM on any morning unless we're sick. So, it's still pretty early when we get up on Sunday. We think going to CityWalk for some breakfast seems like a good idea - gives us a chance to stretch our legs, we can check out some of the stores, and then we can bop back into Universal for a bit before heading back to those mango coladas...I mean the Villa Pool for the afternoon.

Although the wait time for those fun little boats at the dock is pretty light this morning (I wonder if people are at church?) we decide to walk again. For one thing we like the meandering pathway and the feeling of privacy we have while strolling along through the foliage...it's really lovely during the day and it's wonderfully romantic in the evening - I strongly suggest you give it a try some time when you're staying at the Hard Rock or at PBH. The other reason we decide to walk is that we wanted to poke around the Hard Rock Hotel and see how it compares to the only other one we've seen, which is in Las Vegas.

Quick thoughts on the Hard Rock Hotel based on a 15-minute reconoissance mission: Loved the guitar sculpture in the fountain out front; lobby seemed spacious and inviting, the pool area was awesome, and the public bathroom I used was extremely clean and so large that I tried to leave through what turned out to be a supply closet because I got turned around (too many mirrors on their part and no coffee on mine resulted in my looking like a bigger dork than usual!). Great music playing throughout the hotel, but as much as I enjoy Metallica and Rush and The Who, I'm not sure I want to hear them blaring in public places at 9AM in the morning. Just a matter of choice, but on the surface we decide that we like the relative peace of PBH just a bit more than the hip edginess of the HRH.

And now we are in search of that much needed morning caffeine boost with some breakfast munchies - we don't want to eat too much...it's another hot day and we have another anniversary dinner scheduled for this evening. We opt for Starbucks, and so did a lot of other people. The line moved fairly well, but it took a long time for the liquid refreshment to appear. I was surprised by this only because the Starbucks in our area have the morning rush down to a science, and I doubt they see the kind of traffic that comes through Citywalk. But no matter - it's nice and cool inside and we have no place in particular to be and those iced mochas are going to taste soooo yummy, right? Well, as I learned every Starbucks is different and some people are better at making drinks than others.

Before you all start throwing things at me, I am not a pure coffee drinker. I much prefer a cafe au lait or cafe mocha...I really never drink coffee by itself. For one thing I'm really not supposed to drink caffeine very much and for another coffee on its own is too bitter. I'm the person that people ask, "Do you want some coffee in your milk and sugar?"

Anyway, those iced mochas were so dark the light of day barely penetrated them. We took our black-holes-in-a-cup outside with some muffins and some bottled water and found a nice shady table to people watch. I did not like my mocha - too bitter - and poor Jason had to finish mine as well as his while I drank all the water. He, being the coffee expert, said that they probably put extra espresso in the drink. Perhaps they did, all I know is at that moment I sure wished James from the Disney Magic was there to make me one of those incredible mochaccinos from the cruise last fall. Hmmmm...perhaps I can use this as an opening wedge for why we need to take another cruise...I file this thought away for future vacation planning reference.

The Starbucks at CityWalk is up on the second level so once we are finished with our light breakfast we wander around a bit just to see what the place really has to offer. We had a chance to read all the posted menus and file away a few places that we'd like to try the next time we pay a visit (Bob Marley's sounded pretty tasty and I'd love to try Bubba Gump's - you can't go wrong with shrimp in my book!). We also stood up on the overlook by the movie theater and watched the crowds just streaming in...we never realized that there was a single point of entry that sort of pushes everyone in through CityWalk in a big mass that then filters left or right to whichever is the park of choice. We've only ever gone to CityWalk from the PBH and rather stupidly never really stopped to think about how everyone else had to gain entrance. It certainly went a long way towards explaining why the morning crowds in CityWalk seemed so large and so disorganized - they were all trying to get away from each other and figure out where they were going at the same time.

And as much as we like the CityWalk area, it is too small with too much crap crammed in for comfort, namely those game booths and merchandise kiosks. We haven't been to downtown Disney in about three years so I can't really compare the two, and that would probably be like comparing apples to oranges because Disney has more space to expand. If Universal wants to grow Citywalk I guess they'll have to do so vertically!

Anyhoo... we decide to make one last effort to find Plankton before giving up completely and writing a strongly worded letter of disapproval to the head of cartoon character marketing. The Universal store seems like a good place to look, and so we look, and look some more, and then some more. Nothing...no Plankton...cripes! I decide to ask the nice young lady behind the counter why Universal doesn't try to market its villains a little more strongly. Surely there are other twisted people out there like Jay and me who identify with the bad guy???

Imagine, dear reader(s)... who am I kidding? Is anyone other than me even reading this any longer?? Well, just in case, can you imagine how we felt when this wonderful person said, "we have Plankton."

"You have Plankton?" this was repeated in a hopeful, yet skeptical tone of voice.

"Yes, we have Plankton."

"We've been looking everywhere for Plankton since Thursday and we couldn't find him anywhere!"

"We have Plankton."

OK, now I'm starting to get just a little uneasy. Is she referring to the cartoon character from Spongebob or does she mean that Universal has taken to selling baggies of seawater filled with drifting oganisms typically munched on by higher underwater lifeforms? If she's talking about the first option then we're definitely interested in doing business. If she means option number two, it's time to leave.

"Really? You have Plankton? Hey Jay!" I decide it's time to bring in the reinforcements. "She says that they have Plankton here! Do you see him anywhere?"

Jason shows up at my side (we just happened to be the only people in the store while this conversation was unfolding and I think that just helped to make it more goofy). "You have Plankton?"

"Yes, we have Plankton."

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at this point. I'm starting to feel like we're in the Twillight Zone but I know that can't be possible because that ride is over at Disney-MGM. Could the salesgirl be a cyborg? Maybe her programming has a glitch. Maybe two thirty-somethings shouldn't be combing the stores looking for a cartoon replica of what amounts to dinner for fishies.

It's time for a command decision - I try a different question:

"Where is Plankton?"

"He's with all the other Spongebob stuff."

Moderate success - her programming chip must have short-circuited for a moment. To quote from Cool Hand Luke: "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

"Could you point us in the right direction because we must have missed that display."

She was very nice and did just that, coming out from behind the relative safety of the counter to walk us to a wagon-wheel type display case filled with stuffed versions of Spongebob, Patrick, Squidworth, and...wait for it....PLANKTON!!!!

Jason and I are delighted. This is a ten-inch, light green, plush Plankton with one large eye and two crazily bent antennae. He's awesome and for only $10 we decide to buy one for Jason's brother as well, who has four small children and was responsible for turning us on to Spongebob in the first place. We are so excited that we start singing Plankton's version of the "FUN" song to each other: "F" is for fire that burns down the city; "U" is for...Uranium bombs; "N" is for no survivors...."

We quickly realize that perhaps this isn't the place to be singing that song and pay for our purchases while effusively thanking the young sales clerk for her assistance in making this one of the highlights of an already damn fine weekend getaway!

TBC...

 

[cntkg1]

As always Brenda....

 

[oybolshoi]

We practically skipped out of the Universal Store at CityWalk, so happy were we with the unexpected challenge of finding and purchasing Plankton. He has become our new vacation mascot and will be traveling to WDW with us in October. We figure he needs to experience a few days at the happiest place on earth...

Although I'm jumping ahead here a bit, I thought you all might like to see our family portrait, taken the same day we returned home from our trip:



I warned you guys that I'm functionally illiterate - I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to upload one stupid picture from shutterfly and I cannot get it to work.

Oh well...just use your imaginations. It's me and Jay and Plankton posed on the sofa in our living room shortly after getting home... it's a hoot and I wish I could have shared it with you but like I said...vocabulary good, technical skills bad. It's a miracle that I even found this place and am able to communicate with you all.

Back to the story...

We decide that we need to spend a little more time playing around in Universal - we especially want to go back to Men in Black and see if I can manage to ruin another picture. So, tickets in hand we approach the front gate with some trepidation, knowing full well what is about to happen. That's right...for any of you who managed to remember my earlier posts my fingerprints won't scan. While this may come in handy if I ever make it to London to steal the Crown Jewels it does not make entrance to Universal Studios easy. Once again I explain that the scanner has not been registering my existance all weekend (for one horrible moment I wonder if I'm a cyborg) and I offer multiple forms of identification, dental records, an IQ test, and several strands of hair for DNA testing. Mercifully they decide that having me sign the book is adequate proof and we are allowed entrance. I'd like to apologize to the good people of Orlando right now, because by the time I cleared the turnstile it looked like most of them were waiting behind me to get into the park. I'm sorry. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my fingerprints and so is my IT department at work beacuse it doesn't work on me there, either. At least I'm consistent!!

We detoured over to ET before getting to Men in Black - we were feeling nostalgic for this ride, which we remembered from our 1996 visit. What a difference a decade makes! I think we had a 10-minute wait to get into the building where you give your name to an attendant who types it into the computer and hands you a dog-eared playing card. Once you board the ride, proper, you hand the playing card to another attendant and magically at the end when ET is saying goodbye he knows your name! Isn't that cool? Jason and I have a serious discussion as to which names would be most entertaining to use: Ruttiger...Mrs. Bouvier...Smithers...Hugh Jass...we finally settle on Worker and Parasite - they are the East German cat and mouse who replaced Itchy and Scratchy on Krusty the Clown's show on one episode of the Simpsons. I get to be Worker and Jay gets to be Parasite. We got a pretty weird look from the guy manning the keyboard but he humored us and we laughed ourselves silly at the end of the ride when ET said, "Wur-ker...Para...site."

Next time we go back Jason's going to be Hugh and I'm going to be Jass so that ET will say, "Hugh-Jass." Say it out loud, kids, and you'll know why it's funny.

 

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing

 

[Jennifer48]

yey! Brenda's back!

Thanks for posting another installment. I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling well. I hate when the real world gets in the way of reliving magic at US/IoA or Disney!

 

[aztecgoods]

That was funny, good description of your trip with humor at right places. Glad you didn't mind me horning in on your thread for my nightmare trip to U last year, but didn't really want to put that on its own thread for being a little embarrasing, just thought maybe you guys would appreciate it. Can't wait to go back!!!

 

[oybolshoi]

I still can't seem to get the pictures to post...I am truly technically challenged. All I know is that there is no web address listed under the pictures when I upload to shutterfly...most annoying this is.

Technical support in the form of Jason has arrived! Wait for it....

Doesn't Plankton look thrilled to be with us? And don't I look like warmed-over travel crap?

 

[oybolshoi]

Once we're through messing with ET we head on over to Men In Black. We share our locker secret with a few bewildered looking individuals and help one very confused foreign gentleman through the entire finger-scan / locker process. See how nice we can be sometimes?

This ride is so much fun and we got stuck in the city block just before facing off with the huge alien so even a crappy shot like me was able to wrack up a ton of points. I just kept aiming for the aliens in the hotdog cart. Mmmmmm...hot dogs.

I still managed to half-way ruin the picture but we bought it anyway because both of us look so serious. It's a tough job, killin' alien invaders while on vacation.

**A piece of vacation advice, if you will. On this day, all the transactions we tried to...transact... with our hotel key outside of the hotel property kept getting rejected. We were told that the system was down and so we paid cash for those purchases. Always keep your receipts, my fellow travel fiends, because when our credit card bill showed up there were almost $100 in charges for items we paid cash for after being told that the charge didn't go through to the room. I called Loews right away and they investigated and refunded us the money but it was still a bit annoying. So always keep an eye on that stuff so that you don't end up getting double-charged for something.***

Now I'm hungry again...I have days like that...some days I can't seem to get enough food and I eat like crazy, other days I don't want to eat at all and the thought of food makes me nauseous. Today is a food day so we celebrate with a couple of hot dogs and a big ol' Icee!! Finally! An Icee stand that works!! It's a refreshment miracle! We park ourselves along a bench in a nice shady area overlook the bay...the Amity section of the park is directly across from us and apart from a few little birdies we have the place to ourselves. I still can't figure out where all the people are...we saw them when we came in...it's pushing noon...but there don't seem to be many people in the park. I wonder if they're all stuck somewhere?

Well, vacation time is winding down and if we want to ease into dinner tonight we need to relax at the pool. We bid the studios a fond farewell, thinking that perhaps we'll return next May if we're lucky, and we walk back to PBH one last time.

We proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon at the villa pool, which was busy but not so crowded that you couldn't enjoy yourself. Those mango coladas were the bomb, but imagine my surpirse when after I placed my order for one, Jason proceeds to request a banana daiquiri!!



I give Jay one of those puzzled looks that I'm so good at. "Who do you think you are - Fredo Corleone?"

"Nah," says Jay. "I'm much better looking."

Well, I can't deny that, but for the rest of the day I mock my husband for ordering such a girlie-drink by calling him Fredo. He says the drink is actually quite good but I only like bananas right out of the peel. I don't mind eating them but I don't want to drink them.

We have reservations at Tchoup Chop tonight for our anniversary, which is actually tomorrow (the 29th...the day we leave, what a let down). I won't go into the details here because if you're really interested you can click on the link in my siggie and read the review. Suffice to say that this was one of the best meals we've had in a long time, and we've had some good ones. Great atmosphere - good service - terrific food. We will definitely go back the next time we're staying on property.

This was the first time we were at the Royal Pacific, too. It seems like a nice hotel, but it reeked of cocoa butter, or maybe it was coconut oil...whatever it was it was waaaaay too sweet and made me sick to my stomach (nothing a wine flight with dinner and some port with dessert couldn't fix!). The view of IoA from this hotel was great - we had a blast just watching Dr. Doom and the Hulk while we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to PBH.

Once back at the hotel we made a run for some cafe mocha only to find that now their espresso machine is broken... d'oh!! We tried the dessert offering in the Club lounge even though we weren't hungry - they had some cookies, milk, coffee, and some kind of fruit tart. I am still not impressed - I put out a better spread at my house for free. This only reinforces our opinion that club level at PBH is grossly misrepresented....that, or they had a really bad weekend. Regardless, the best thing about having Club access was the ability to print off our boarding passes a day early.

And now, for all intents and purposes, our brief soujourn is over. We must pack for the dejected return to Stinktown. We're slightly tanned, we're stuffed full of good food the likes of which we won't see again for another five months, and we're saddened by the thought that we can't seem to win the lottery so that we could take a permanent vacation for the next 40 years or so.

Reality bites. But that's why I'm always thinking of the next vacation!!

Some final thoughts: we really did have a great time on this trip and we discovered our other favorite time of year to visit Florida: May!! We enjoy both theme parks, especially IoA, and continue to find new delights in CityWalk and in the hotel properties. When we go back, and we will go back, we will still stay at Portofino because we think it's a beautiful and relaxing place to stay, but we will pass on the Club level and suggest that you consider doing the same. I guess it's worth it if you and your family will eat enough of the offerings and attend enough of them on a daily basis to make the cost worthwhile. We were very disappointed in their presentations and in this case see no reason to spend extra money on that when there are so many other places and things we could spend money on instead.

Overall trip rating: Four Planktons out of a possible Five

Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay in finishing up. Still happy to answer any questions should they arise.

Brenda

 

[aztecgoods]

I would only suggest hearing a little more about some of your ride and show favorites, which ones do you think are the best and why etc. P.S. I always stay at the RP for that spectacular view of the IOA, when you go to the P, request a balcony, book way in advance to insure it. Balconies the only way to go there, they are awesome.

Also, you never gave us the money shot of how much you guys spent? Per your thread title "spend fest of ridiculous proportions", you can't leave us hanging like that! Unless I missed it.

 

[oybolshoi]

We are thinking of trying a bay view room with a balcony if we go back next May. And unless health issues get in the way we will go back!

And since you asked...I tried to hint around at how much we spent in some of my posts without ever giving actual dollar amounts but that's not really very informative, is it? I'd estimate that between the hotel, two anniversary dinners, an afternoon at Mandara Spa, souveniers, and transportation we spent about $3,500.

I titled the thread the way I did becuase the whole trip started out as a relatively inexpensive idea that spiraled out of control faster than I could say hot stone massage! We always end up splurging on vacations...it's a bad habit but what are you gonna do?

I would only suggest hearing a little more about some of your ride and show favorites, which ones do you think are the best and why etc. P.S. I always stay at the RP for that spectacular view of the IOA, when you go to the P, request a balcony, book way in advance to insure it. Balconies the only way to go there, they are awesome.

Also, you never gave us the money shot of how much you guys spent? Per your thread title "spend fest of ridiculous proportions", you can't leave us hanging like that! Unless I missed it.

 

[aztecgoods]

Ouch, yeah thats a bit much for a weekend, but oh well, that place is a money trap anyway, there is hardly no way to go w/o spending lots! Hope Plankton is doing well.

 

[oybolshoi]

Plankton is doing great, thanks for asking!

When he's not trying to avoid our cat (who likes to chew on his antennae) he's plotting ways to take over WDW when he visits there next month with Jay and I as our official vacation mascot.

We're goofy at our house, but that half's the fun.

Are you going to HHN this year? It sounds like it will be pretty cool.

Ouch, yeah thats a bit much for a weekend, but oh well, that place is a money trap anyway, there is hardly no way to go w/o spending lots! Hope Plankton is doing well.

 

[aztecgoods]

I would love too, but right now I'm waiting on a peice of property to sell before I can go on vacation, when it sells I'm there, not sure if it will in time to make it to HHN, but whenever it does that's when I'm going back. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I would love to go. Are ya'll just doing Dis next time with no Univ plans? I always try and do a little of both.

 

[starwishing]

oybolshoi, just finished reading.....wonderful trip report!!! It sounds like you and your husband had a great time!!!! Loved the picture....Plankton looks like he is up to something diabolical..... ....I'd watch him!! As far as the money you spent.....hey, life is short....and I'm sure you both work hard....ENJOY IT!!!! (am I right? ) I hope you get your dream job writing....you definitely have a flare for it!