18th Birthday Trip…When I’m 20! - December 10-16, 2021 Trip Report at Portofino Bay Hotel!

[DL1WDW2]

No lines for check in before noon and they gave this to my son . I don’t think I have ever noticed guests wearing these before so nice surprise…and now I notice lots of guests wearing their birthday pin so I am wishing everybody HB when I see their birthday pin!
Having fun … not too crowded
VelociCoaster went down and I kept thinking my son had better not get out of the line cause he knows better…Success, finally, fixed their glitch and he was front row and another single rider guy got to be front row too “Bonus” for other guy & both first time riders…Said it was crazy fun !

 

[themeparklover26]

Sounds like a great plan for a great trip!! Have fun - you'll have plenty of time to do everything.

Thank you!! We’re excited!

 

[themeparklover26]

Checking into Cabana Bay tomorrow! Thanks for reminding me I love Sals Pizza and Deli…and Voodoo Donuts and TODAY Cafe
You will have so much fun for the holidays…be sure to make an appointment online to have your picture taken with the Grinch
(Seuss All You Can Read Library December 2020)
View attachment 596498View attachment 596499

My family loves The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!! I’ll definitely have to add a picture with the Grinch to our must do list!! Have an awesome time on your vacation!

 

[themeparklover26]

Seems like there is another trip report for holiday planning… I love Universal for every single holiday. This trip will be for my sons bday holiday! Already thinking about trying the chocolate cake at the Hard Rock! The best meal on property last Xmas Day was the Kitchen at the Hard Rock… great buffet and a discount with AP (AAA) . So much cheaper and Better than any $$ meal$$ at Disney. Great service too!
I know Harry Potter official postcards are sold and HP stamps but I will try to remember to look for you. Also if they “ postmark” them still on property. (I collect postcards) …

We’ll already be back home on Christmas Day, but we’ll definitely need to try the Hard Rock! We’ve been turned off by the Hard Rock our other times in Orlando because it is a chain we’ve eaten at before, but with all the good things I’ve heard about it on here, we’ll have to give it a try if we’re in Citywalk for dinner.

Thanks for checking out the postcards for me! I found a cool set on Amazon I’m saving for a little birthday present to myself when I turn 20 in September, but it would be cool to have some from Universal also! Definitely keep me updated if they still postmark them too! I have a couple friends who are die hard Harry Potter fans and will think it’s so cool to have the postmark!

Tell your son I said happy birthday and I hope y’all have a great time on your trip!

 

[themeparklover26]

No lines for check in before noon and they gave this to my son . I don’t think I have ever noticed guests wearing these before so nice surprise…and now I notice lots of guests wearing their birthday pin so I am wishing everybody HB when I see their birthday pin!
Having fun … not too crowded
VelociCoaster went down and I kept thinking my son had better not get out of the line cause he knows better…Success, finally, fixed their glitch and he was front row and another single rider guy got to be front row too “Bonus” for other guy & both first time riders…Said it was crazy fun !

I’m so glad y’all are having a great time! The birthday pin can really make things special I had one on during our original Disney leg of this trip and so many cast members (and other guests!) went out of their way to do something special for my birthday.
That’s exciting to have ridden front row on velocicoaster! I’m so pumped to get to ride it while we’re there. It honestly doesn’t look like wait times have been too bad on it so far either from what I’ve seen on the Universal App!

 

[themeparklover26]

PRE-TRIP REPORT: T-112 DAYS
This will be a relatively short post, but I just wanted to give a few quick updates.

A few weeks ago, we realized that the bump from the cancerous tumor in Happy’s nose (our dog that will be joining us for this trip) had gotten quite a bit larger. We knew that this didn’t necessarily mean that the tumor was also larger, but it did worry us enough that we were keeping a closer watch on her breathing. Sadly, after some observation we realized that her breathing had become much more labored and she was now solely breathing out of her mouth, meaning the tumor was completely blocking her nasal passage. Although she was still breathing, she acted like she was starting to suffer and we knew that it was time to have the hard conversation about putting her down. Considering the vet had told us she had about 3-6 months left 6 months ago, we knew this might be coming but we were hoping she could last a little longer.

After discussing it, we decided to try one last type of holistic medicine we had read about online (we had already made the decision not to put her through chemo so holistic was our only route). We all agreed we would wait a few days to see if she improved on it at all before making the decision to put her down. We were sure glad me made this decision because the medicine worked miracles. Literally the day after she started on the medicine, she started to act more like herself again. Her breathing was still only out of her mouth, but it looked to us like the bump on her nose had shrunk a little. We thought we all might just be tricking ourselves that it was working, but the next day I woke up to find her laying asleep on the floor - with her mouth closed!!! Now, a week later, the bump has shrunk even more and she’s happily breathing with a closed mouth. Here’s a live picture of her holding her tennis ball, and best of all breathing normally!!

https://imgur.com/a/fqZEoho

Also, if anyone wants any information about the cancer medication we’re giving her, feel free to send me a PM and I would be happy to share the info with you

Having a little bit more hope that Happy will be healthy enough to travel with us in December finally motivated me to call Portofino Bay and let them know that we will have a four legged friend with us. The phone call was very quick and both TM’s I spoke too were very friendly. They also told me the price for her would only be $100 which was a pleasant surprise. I had read on multiple different websites that it was $50 a night with a max of $150, but learning that you’ll be saving $50 is always a plus! I do have a strange feeling that we’ll be reallocating that extra $50 to Honeyduke’s purchases, though

Other than that scare with Happy, everything has been great here. I had a little scare of my own this morning when I learned I was close contacts to someone with COVID, but luckily I was tested today and was negative.

With everything pretty settled at home, though, the days have been seeming even longer knowing this trip is looming in the distance. It feels so far away right now, but I’m sure time will fly by once I go back to college. Until then, I’ll just have to pass my time reading trip reports, researching Universal, and perusing Harry Potter merchandise on Amazon!

 

[schumigirl]

PRE-TRIP REPORT: T-112 DAYS
This will be a relatively short post, but I just wanted to give a few quick updates.

A few weeks ago, we realized that the bump from the cancerous tumor in Happy’s nose (our dog that will be joining us for this trip) had gotten quite a bit larger. We knew that this didn’t necessarily mean that the tumor was also larger, but it did worry us enough that we were keeping a closer watch on her breathing. Sadly, after some observation we realized that her breathing had become much more labored and she was now solely breathing out of her mouth, meaning the tumor was completely blocking her nasal passage. Although she was still breathing, she acted like she was starting to suffer and we knew that it was time to have the hard conversation about putting her down. Considering the vet had told us she had about 3-6 months left 6 months ago, we knew this might be coming but we were hoping she could last a little longer.

After discussing it, we decided to try one last type of holistic medicine we had read about online (we had already made the decision not to put her through chemo so holistic was our only route). We all agreed we would wait a few days to see if she improved on it at all before making the decision to put her down. We were sure glad me made this decision because the medicine worked miracles. Literally the day after she started on the medicine, she started to act more like herself again. Her breathing was still only out of her mouth, but it looked to us like the bump on her nose had shrunk a little. We thought we all might just be tricking ourselves that it was working, but the next day I woke up to find her laying asleep on the floor - with her mouth closed!!! Now, a week later, the bump has shrunk even more and she’s happily breathing with a closed mouth. Here’s a live picture of her holding her tennis ball, and best of all breathing normally!!

https://imgur.com/a/fqZEoho

Also, if anyone wants any information about the cancer medication we’re giving her, feel free to send me a PM and I would be happy to share the info with you

Having a little bit more hope that Happy will be healthy enough to travel with us in December finally motivated me to call Portofino Bay and let them know that we will have a four legged friend with us. The phone call was very quick and both TM’s I spoke too were very friendly. They also told me the price for her would only be $100 which was a pleasant surprise. I had read on multiple different websites that it was $50 a night with a max of $150, but learning that you’ll be saving $50 is always a plus! I do have a strange feeling that we’ll be reallocating that extra $50 to Honeyduke’s purchases, though

Other than that scare with Happy, everything has been great here. I had a little scare of my own this morning when I learned I was close contacts to someone with COVID, but luckily I was tested today and was negative.

With everything pretty settled at home, though, the days have been seeming even longer knowing this trip is looming in the distance. It feels so far away right now, but I’m sure time will fly by once I go back to college. Until then, I’ll just have to pass my time reading trip reports, researching Universal, and perusing Harry Potter merchandise on Amazon!

Oh I`m glad to read the pooch is doing well.....and good to hear you were negative on the covid contact.

Oh once you`re back in college, yes, the time will pass quicker than you can imagine......

 

[nouvellefleur]

PRE-TRIP REPORT: T-112 DAYS
This will be a relatively short post, but I just wanted to give a few quick updates.

A few weeks ago, we realized that the bump from the cancerous tumor in Happy’s nose (our dog that will be joining us for this trip) had gotten quite a bit larger. We knew that this didn’t necessarily mean that the tumor was also larger, but it did worry us enough that we were keeping a closer watch on her breathing. Sadly, after some observation we realized that her breathing had become much more labored and she was now solely breathing out of her mouth, meaning the tumor was completely blocking her nasal passage. Although she was still breathing, she acted like she was starting to suffer and we knew that it was time to have the hard conversation about putting her down. Considering the vet had told us she had about 3-6 months left 6 months ago, we knew this might be coming but we were hoping she could last a little longer.

After discussing it, we decided to try one last type of holistic medicine we had read about online (we had already made the decision not to put her through chemo so holistic was our only route). We all agreed we would wait a few days to see if she improved on it at all before making the decision to put her down. We were sure glad me made this decision because the medicine worked miracles. Literally the day after she started on the medicine, she started to act more like herself again. Her breathing was still only out of her mouth, but it looked to us like the bump on her nose had shrunk a little. We thought we all might just be tricking ourselves that it was working, but the next day I woke up to find her laying asleep on the floor - with her mouth closed!!! Now, a week later, the bump has shrunk even more and she’s happily breathing with a closed mouth. Here’s a live picture of her holding her tennis ball, and best of all breathing normally!!

https://imgur.com/a/fqZEoho

Also, if anyone wants any information about the cancer medication we’re giving her, feel free to send me a PM and I would be happy to share the info with you

Having a little bit more hope that Happy will be healthy enough to travel with us in December finally motivated me to call Portofino Bay and let them know that we will have a four legged friend with us. The phone call was very quick and both TM’s I spoke too were very friendly. They also told me the price for her would only be $100 which was a pleasant surprise. I had read on multiple different websites that it was $50 a night with a max of $150, but learning that you’ll be saving $50 is always a plus! I do have a strange feeling that we’ll be reallocating that extra $50 to Honeyduke’s purchases, though

Other than that scare with Happy, everything has been great here. I had a little scare of my own this morning when I learned I was close contacts to someone with COVID, but luckily I was tested today and was negative.

With everything pretty settled at home, though, the days have been seeming even longer knowing this trip is looming in the distance. It feels so far away right now, but I’m sure time will fly by once I go back to college. Until then, I’ll just have to pass my time reading trip reports, researching Universal, and perusing Harry Potter merchandise on Amazon!

So glad to hear Happy is doing better! I'm sure Happy will enjoy her little family vacation as well.

 

[themeparklover26]

PRE-TRIP REPORT: T-27 DAYS
I can't believe I will be back in Orlando in less than a month! Time has absolutely flown by and now that things are beginning to settle down at school, the excited restfulness for the trip has set in. I'm currently attempting to stave off the excitement by binging Disney World documentaries, but I thought I should go ahead and give another quick update about the trip and tell you all about an averted disaster

About two weeks ago, I had the awful realization that I had looked at my university schedule wrong while scheduling this trip. I had originally thought my last day of finals was on December 10, but when I looked again, I realized that our last day of classes was December 10 and finals were not actually over until December 17. I knew that we would not want to go to Orlando that close to Christmas, so I was afraid we would have to cancel this trip yet again

My university allows us to self-schedule our exams and take them on our own so the schedule can be pretty flexible as long as our professors are okay with it. Thankfully after talking to all of my professors, one of them informed me we would not have a final, two of them said they would allow me to take my final during the last week of classes, and one of them told me the exam would be available at 8 AM on December 11, so I would have to leave Saturday afternoon instead of Friday afternoon which only pushes our trip back by one day. We called Costco Travel and Portofino Bay to see if we could push our hotel reservation back by one day or even add a day to the back end, but unfortunately Portofino Bay only has suites available. Although it would have been nice to push it back a day, my parents said they could drive down early Saturday morning to take advantage of almost a full day at the resort and I could just meet them there that evening. They also said they wanted to add an extra day to our trip since they would now have to miss the entire workweek anyway, so now we will be spending December 12-14 as park days, spending December 15 as a resort day, and spending December 16-17 as our last two park days before driving home the morning of December 18. Our reservation at Portofino Bay is from December 11-16 so we will not have our express passes for the last day in the parks, but we are hoping we won't miss them and that this will just be a leisurely park day after having four express pass days to ride whatever rides we wanted to.

We still have not scheduled the hotel we will need to stay at for the night of December 16-17, but we are planning on accomplishing that this weekend. We also have not scheduled my flight yet, but I need to figure out how long my exam will take on Saturday morning before figuring that out.

With all of that pretty much figured out, now it's just a waiting game until I finally get to take this long awaited trip. I only have three weeks left of classes so I'm sure they'll fly by. I also am able to go back home for Thanksgiving week so I'll be able to pack my Universal suitcase to leave at home for my parents to take with them when they drive to Orlando.

Thank to all who have been following long as of now! We're in the home stretch now and I'm excited to be able to post some live pictures of Orlando for you all in less than a month!!

 

[macraven]

Hope you have a great vacation!
Your hotel key card is valid for the ep lines on your check out day

 

[themeparklover26]

Thank you!
I had read about that online, but we checkout of PBR on December 16, so we'll still be left without the EP on the 17th in the parks We're still consistently checking to see if a room opens up, though!

 

[macraven]

I hope you score and able to add an additional night!

 

[themeparklover26]

PRE-TRIP REPORT: T-21 DAYS
After a crazy few days of booking and cancelling flights and booking and cancelling hotel rooms, I think we finally have our trip plan set in stone.

I spoke to my professor about the final I’ll have to take the Saturday that I leave and he said we’re given 4.5 hours to complete it. Since the exam opens at 8 AM and the airport is 1 hour away, the earliest flight I can schedule without the fear of missing it is at 2:30. However, planning would be just too easy if there was a flight leaving around that time. Instead, in the small airport that I have to travel out of, there are exactly two flights that will end up in Orlando leaving that day: 12:30 PM and 4:15 PM. Since there was no way I could make the 12:30 PM one in time, I begrudgingly scheduled the 4:15 PM one that would not be arriving in Orlando until 8 PM that night. Furthermore, this flight only had a 30 minute layover in the Charlotte airport which is a decently big airport, so I was also afraid any delays would cause me to miss my connecting flight. I was upset to be missing what could be an entire evening at the resort and possibly even more, but this appeared to be my only option.

However, I kept thinking about it and was able to come up with a better solution. I realized that if I arrived at the airport by 7:30 AM so I could begin taking the test at exactly 8 AM, I would have 4 hours to complete the exam before boarding started for the 12:30 flight. My parents were originally against this plan since they were afraid I would have to rush through the exam, but since the professor said this exam would take as long as the last one which only took me about 2 hours, I was able to convince them that I would have more than enough time. The 12:30 flight also has a 1.5 hour layover instead of a 30 minute one which makes me feel better about having time to catch my connecting flight. This flight was also about $50 cheaper than the 4:30 PM one which was also a nice perk.

Thankfully since we booked through Capital One Travel, we were able to cancel the flight within 24 hours of booking with no penalties and were able to schedule the 12:30 PM one instead. So now, the final plan is for me to take a flight leaving at 12:30 PM and arrive in Orlando at 5 PM to meet my parents who should be arriving by car around the same time to pick me up at the airport.

We also finally got our hotel for the last 2 nights booked. My parents saw that PBH had a garden view 2 queen bed room open up for those 2 nights so they immediately booked it. However, since this is a peak time and we do not have any discounts, the room was $450 a night. My parents said they were willing to splurge for this since this trip has been 2 years in the making for my birthday, but I told them I would feel guilty making them spend another $900 on a trip that is already expensive. As much as I wanted to stay in PBH for our last two night I could not fathom them having to pay that much for it. So, we went ahead and cancelled that booking and started to search for another hotel.

We eventually settled on the pet friendly Comfort Suites that is 5 minutes away from PBH on Major Blvd. This room was only about $120 a night for a suite, so the cost was very appealing also. One of my largest concerns with not staying on Universal Property our last 2 nights was that we would not have an express pass for our last day in the park, but after the helpful advice from @macraven , I realized our express passes wouldn’t work in Volcano Bay anyways, so we are just going to do Volcano Bay on our last day.

The only other problem with moving hotels is moving my dog that will be traveling with us. Although my parents were already planning to take mid day breaks from the parks to check on her, moving her from one hotel to another would be more time consuming than they would like in the middle of a park day. So to combat this, we’re moving our break day to Thursday so we can hang out at PBH until 11 when we have to check out, then we can grab my dog and let her hang out with us for a while before we can check in at Comfort Suites at around 3. This will also give us the day to explore something else in Orlando which we’re excited about.

So to sum up all this chaos, here is our trip schedule:
12/11 at PBH: Arrive in Orlando at 5 and grab dinner at Disney Springs or City Walk before checking in to PBH to hopefully do some night time hot tub hopping if we’re not too tired
12/12-12/15 at PBH: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios (maybe pop over to Volcano Bay if we decide we have time)
12/16 at Comfort Suites: Break day from the parks to spend the morning relaxing at PBH before moving to CS and then exploring something else in Orlando
12/17 at Comfort Suites: Volcano bay until it closes at 5 then end the night back at Islands of Adventure
12/18: Drive back to Georgia

Hopefully our plans won’t change again and this will be my last pre-trip report post! We’re all excited for what seems to be shaping up to be an awesome vacation. Thanks again to everyone who’s been following along!

 

[macraven]

Sounds like you have it all planned out and it will run smooth!

 

[themeparklover26]

Sounds like you have it all planned out and it will run smooth!

I'm hoping so!

 

[CynBeth]

We just stayed at PBH for 2 nights before Disney and loved it! I was with my DH and DM in a garden view 2 queen bed room. We had the park to park pass and saw 4 shows plus the holiday parade and the cinematic one at the end of the night. And also the projections on Hogwarts. We are ride wimps do not go on any coasters or anything with a drop so we went on almost all of the motion simulators except for 2 that we ran out of time for. We were not sure if we could handle them we are fine on the ones at Disney but heard these are more intense so we got the prescription motion sickness patch that we put on an hour before we started going on any rides It lasts for 3 days and felt fine even on Simpsons and Forbidden Journey. Don’t know if you heard that you should ride the Hogwarts Express both ways you get a different experience. Also when you hear a rumbling noise in Diagon Alley it means the dragon will be about to spew fire. And, get a lanyard. It is great to have as your room key is what you use to show for the express pass line and you have a ticket for your park pass and you can put them in a clear card holder facing each other so a bar code shows each way you turn it and they can quickly scan.

 

[AuroraluvsPhillip]

Be sure to study hard for that exam so that you can zip right through it! Hope it wasn't my son forcing you to take a final at the airport, as he's a college prof in VA.

Glad your doggy is doing better too. Sounds like you guys are all set for a great trip!

 

[themeparklover26]

We just stayed at PBH for 2 nights before Disney and loved it! I was with my DH and DM in a garden view 2 queen bed room. We had the park to park pass and saw 4 shows plus the holiday parade and the cinematic one at the end of the night. And also the projections on Hogwarts. We are ride wimps do not go on any coasters or anything with a drop so we went on almost all of the motion simulators except for 2 that we ran out of time for. We were not sure if we could handle them we are fine on the ones at Disney but heard these are more intense so we got the prescription motion sickness patch that we put on an hour before we started going on any rides It lasts for 3 days and felt fine even on Simpsons and Forbidden Journey. Don’t know if you heard that you should ride the Hogwarts Express both ways you get a different experience. Also when you hear a rumbling noise in Diagon Alley it means the dragon will be about to spew fire. And, get a lanyard. It is great to have as your room key is what you use to show for the express pass line and you have a ticket for your park pass and you can put them in a clear card holder facing each other so a bar code shows each way you turn it and they can quickly scan.

It sounds like you all had an awesome trip!! I’m so glad to hear you loved PBH. We had the choice between any of the three premier hotels with the vacation package we purchased, and we chose PBH so I’m really hoping it was the right choice! Thanks for your tips! I’ll definitely add lanyards to our packing list!!

 

[themeparklover26]

Be sure to study hard for that exam so that you can zip right through it! Hope it wasn't my son forcing you to take a final at the airport, as he's a college prof in VA.

Glad your doggy is doing better too. Sounds like you guys are all set for a great trip!

If he’s a web development professor at a liberal arts college then we might need to talk

Thanks for your kind words!! I just arrived back home for Thanksgiving break and am already cuddled up with dog starting to study!! I’m hoping I can get through the exam quick enough so I’ll have time to grab lunch before the flight!

 

[mickeymom22]

Can't wait to hear all about your trip. We are going for our first time to Universal a few days after you leave.

Have a great time!