Yay! We're Going To Get Chased By Zombies! Oct. HHN PTR

[codygirl5150]

Hi everyone! I'm so excited for my upcoming trip, I've decided to give this PTR thing a shot to help pass the next 12 days, which seem to get longer and longer as the trip gets closer and closer!

First, introductions:
Me - Cody (not a dude, as my friends call me) - single mother of 1, hard working career girl, and cheap wine conneseur. The ladder 2 were major contributors to the booking of this trip.

DD13 - Zoe - artist, anime and video game obsessed, cosplayer, lover of all things scary, definitely walks to the beat of her own drum. Despite her ever changing hair color and urge to make the world look at her with a bit of nervousness, she's an all around great kid!


The trip:
We will be doing a quicky trip 10/1-10/4, with HHN on 10/3. As I mentioned earlier, wine and work were contributors to the booking of this trip. Let me explain...

After a particularly stressful day at work, no vacation all summer, and a bottle of my favorite cheap wine, I decided it was time to escape. I checked out flights, and found an awesome deal on Allegiant Air and just bought the tickets! So, I knew we were going to Orlando in a couple of months, and I'd figure out the details after a good, long, night of sleep. Thanks wine!

But, a vacation was born. And the bubble of excitement was growing as the stress was already melting away! Let the over planning begin!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Exciting!! Looking forward to hearing more about your trip . You arrive just a short time before we do....we don't get there until October 10th.

12 days will pass super fast!!

 

[codygirl5150]

Exciting!! Looking forward to hearing more about your trip . You arrive just a short time before we do....we don't get there until October 10th.

12 days will pass super fast!!

Thanks for reading! I'm in that giddy "what else can I do to plan" stage. I hope I stay busy. It'll be here before we know it!

 

[codygirl5150]

So, the flight is booked! Now, where to go? I knew we'd go somewhere in Orlando, so I had bought the RT shuttle along with the airfare (Allegiant only flies to Sanford). We've been to Disney several times, and although we had a wonderful time, it really isn't my daughter's thing. Last year we went to Orlando and did all of the Sea World Parks and Discovery Cove. It was amazing, but I wanted to do something different, so that was out. So of course I check out Universal.

Last time I was at US/IOA, HP World was being built. I'm a huge fan of the books and the movies, so I've always drooled over the pics and have wanted to go back. Zoe likes them too, but isn't a super fan like me. (Side note: when zoe was about 5 or 6, we went to a HP book release party at a local music and book store. I dressed her up like a house elf and she won second place in the costume contest! I'm pretty sure this was the basis for her love of cosplay. I created a monster! Quite literally, see image above.)

So, I got on the site, and what's this? Halloween Horror Night's? Oh yeah I've heard about that before but WAIT! What is that....OMG zombies! And they chase you in the streets? Done. Trip decided.

I. Love. Zombies. Not so much The Walking Dead for some reason, but absolutely love every zombie movie that I've ever seen. Ever. And Zoe loves scary things, dressing up like scary things, scaring me, scaring her cousins, even scaring grandma. I knew that this would be the perfect mommy-daughter trip for a mommy-daughter team like us!

So, the obsessive trip planning has begun. Multiple spreadsheets, checking and double checking reservations in case I somehow screwed something up, and of course constantly on the DIS looking for tips and tricks, dining menus, and familiarizing myself with acronyms. I can't wait for the first HHN reports to show up as I impatiently wait. Less than 2 weeks now! I can't wait!!!!!

 

[tink1957]

Reading along....you're going to have a blast at HHN.

We'll be there at the same time as you ...hope we can say hello on the 1st.

 

[codygirl5150]

Reading along....you're going to have a blast at HHN.

We'll be there at the same time as you ...hope we can say hello on the 1st.

I wish we could but we won't arrive until late night on the 1st. Will you be there past the 1st?

7 days to go!!!!!!

 

[tink1957]

We'll be there for 7 nights starting 9-29 so we might run into each other at some point.

 

[Krista in MA]

Hi Cody! It sounds like you've got a fun trip planned, minus the zombies! Ha. Don't get me wrong, I love zombies, in the movies, on tv, far away from me and NOT chasing me down the universal streets

I'm looking forward to following along! We'll be there from the 1st through the 4th so if you see us running from US before anything scary happens, chase us down and say hi

 

[Kivara]

Hi Cody! Sounds like the perfect trip for the two of you...Harry Potter and zombies, hehe. Can't wait to see how much your kiddo enjoys HHN (sounds like just her thing!)

 

[codygirl5150]

Hi Cody! Sounds like the perfect trip for the two of you...Harry Potter and zombies, hehe. Can't wait to see how much your kiddo enjoys HHN (sounds like just her thing!)

It DEFINITELY couldn't be any more perfect!!!

 

[codygirl5150]

Hi Cody! It sounds like you've got a fun trip planned, minus the zombies! Ha. Don't get me wrong, I love zombies, in the movies, on tv, far away from me and NOT chasing me down the universal streets

I'm looking forward to following along! We'll be there from the 1st through the 4th so if you see us running from US before anything scary happens, chase us down and say hi

That's how I feel about clowns, and DD is loving the fact that Jack the creepy scary clown is the focus of HHN this year and will scare the bejeezus out of me! Freddy Krueger, great! Zombies, even better. But clowns, no thank you!

 

[codygirl5150]

I can't believe in 1 week we will be leaving on a jet plane, from regular life in Arkansas (go Hogs!), and arriving in sunny Florida for a fun filled weekend!

I'm extra excited about this trip because Zoe has finally caught the thrill ride bug! She has always hated anything ride-related that is fast or high. I, however, have always love them! Before this summer, our trips to theme parks were filled with spinny rides and slow moving track rides with weird songs and animatronics. I don't know what happened, but around the age of 30, my body decided that it was finished with the spinny rides, and if I ignored it, my stomach would make me pay But, over the summer Zoe went with a friend to Silver Dollar City in Branson, and thanks to peer pressure, she fell in love with living life on the edge (with a tightly secured lap restraint of course). So this trip will be full of firsts for us. Nothing like a little mommy-daughter bonding over loop de loops

We arrive in Sandford at 9pm and will be taking a shuttle to our hotel on I Drive. We're staying at a Universal partner hotel, so we at least get early entry. We're only taking carry on luggage, so I hope we can be in the room by 10:30pm, but that may be a little unrealistic. Regardless, we will be at the park by 8am Saturday to get our Potter on!

7 day to do list: book boarding for the dog, call shuttle company to arrange arrival time, write packing list, buy miniature toiletries, prep my coworker to cover my work while I'm out, and most importantly-calm down! Geez it's vacation after all!

 

[NikkiMouse]

I have just started researching HHN for next year! I'm a real woose when it comes to scary so I must be currraaaazy!

DH and I went to HHN way back in 1999 before DD was even a zygote! It scared the bejesus out of me! All those scary folk with chainsaws chasing us around the streets of Universal!

This trip is for DD 16th birthday so looking to step things up to more grown up experiences. She sounds like your DD as in she loves creepy stuff and being different!

I hope you are having an amazing trip and come back to reassure me that it will be ok!