I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[elgerber]

So basically the Apocalypse has arrived?

Yup it would appear so.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Wow, they just cancelled mail service tomorrow in Minnesota!

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Totally agree on USO. I was floored by how much our november trip cost us. I didn’t put it all side by side, but I felt like I spent way more two days there than our two days at Disney.

Did you think food and stuff? The hotel was expensive but when you add in the EP it was less than a Disney deluxe easily. Tix are a little more but I’m upgrading to APs for very little. Never been so just curious we will be there Presidents weekend

 

[Alexle2007]

Did you think food and stuff? The hotel was expensive but when you add in the EP it was less than a Disney deluxe easily. Tix are a little more but I’m upgrading to APs for very little. Never been so just curious we will be there Presidents weekend

Not OP, but we find the food prices to be reasonable for the most part. At CityWalk, there is a nice variety of restaurants. Toothsome and NBC Grill are our favorites there. At Portofino, the one Italian restaurant has AYCE at a reasonable price, especially if you load up on shrimp. We like the breakfast buffets and they are a bit pricey. With your AP, you’ll get a discount which is nice. You can use it at the restaurants at CityWalk also. Souvenirs are typical prices. Have a great time! We’ll be there Thurs-Sat this week, staying at the HRH.

 

[Lain]

@Lain

View attachment 379102

Thanks!

 

[havaneselover]

Not OP, but we find the food prices to be reasonable for the most part. At CityWalk, there is a nice variety of restaurants. Toothsome and NBC Grill are our favorites there. At Portofino, the one Italian restaurant has AYCE at a reasonable price, especially if you load up on shrimp. We like the breakfast buffets and they are a bit pricey. With your AP, you’ll get a discount which is nice. You can use it at the restaurants at CityWalk also. Souvenirs are typical prices. Have a great time! We’ll be there Thurs-Sat this week, staying at the HRH.

I found the food prices to be comparable but the quality at USO to be much better. Loved Toothsome for dessert. I also think the value resorts (specifically Cabana Bay) are so much better than a Disney value. At Cabana Bay, it felt like a resort to me. Pop didn't. I loved it and it was fine. Just a very different experience. Fantastic fitness center, awesome food court, room was in the main hotel, pools were nicer, etc.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Did you think food and stuff? The hotel was expensive but when you add in the EP it was less than a Disney deluxe easily. Tix are a little more but I’m upgrading to APs for very little. Never been so just curious we will be there Presidents weekend

We stayed at Hilton and didn’t even get EPs haha. Had no issues riding everything we wanted to even on a holiday weekend. I guess I just had it in my head that Universal was cheaper than Disney because everyone always complains about how expensive Disney is, so I was shocked to find that we easily spent as much or more than we did at Disney. 2 day PTP tickets were $500-something. We ate at The Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks for lunches both days and I thought it was pretty pricey for, frankly, very poor quality. DH and I both love Disney food and we both got two meals in Toy Story Land for lunch that were way better and cheaper than what we got there.

That being said, we LOVED the Harry Potter section of Universal! We definitely plan to return to that, but we both agreed that we didn't like anything else about the park. In the future, we'll do one day PTP tickets and just head straight to Harry Potter spend the day there. We are huge HP fans so we're happy to spend all day walking around Diagon Alley and looking at everything. We're already planning to go again once the expansion is completed.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I found the food prices to be comparable but the quality at USO to be much better.

We ate at The Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks for lunches both days and I thought it was pretty pricey for, frankly, very poor quality. DH and I both love Disney food and we both got two meals in Toy Story Land for lunch that were way better and cheaper than what we got there.

Haha, contrasting views at the same time! I do recommend Cowfish to anyone who goes to Universal. We ate there for dinner our second night because we have been to the Cowfish in Raleigh, NC multiple times when we're there for horse shows.

 

[Ngwira]

id use 8000 Hyatt points. $.02 per point isnt a bad redemption.
for sure if the property has resort fee or parking fee...
also, $160 probably needs to add tax too.

Thanks!

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Not OP, but we find the food prices to be reasonable for the most part. At CityWalk, there is a nice variety of restaurants. Toothsome and NBC Grill are our favorites there. At Portofino, the one Italian restaurant has AYCE at a reasonable price, especially if you load up on shrimp. We like the breakfast buffets and they are a bit pricey. With your AP, you’ll get a discount which is nice. You can use it at the restaurants at CityWalk also. Souvenirs are typical prices. Have a great time! We’ll be there Thurs-Sat this week, staying at the HRH.

Awesome thanks for the tips!! Honestly I think all amusement parks are expensive. What I like about Disney is there are some decent options even if they rip you off. Will def head to CityWalk. Staying at RPR. I heard to restaurant at Sapphire falls is good maybe tapas? And Mythos? Do you recommend either.
Also we are just getting the seasonal
AP so I don’t think any discounts right?

We stayed at Hilton and didn’t even get EPs haha. Had no issues riding everything we wanted to even on a holiday weekend. I guess I just had it in my head that Universal was cheaper than Disney because everyone always complains about how expensive Disney is, so I was shocked to find that we easily spent as much or more than we did at Disney. 2 day PTP tickets were $500-something. We ate at The Leaky Cauldron and Three Broomsticks for lunches both days and I thought it was pretty pricey for, frankly, very poor quality. DH and I both love Disney food and we both got two meals in Toy Story Land for lunch that were way better and cheaper than what we got there.

That being said, we LOVED the Harry Potter section of Universal! We definitely plan to return to that, but we both agreed that we didn't like anything else about the park. In the future, we'll do one day PTP tickets and just head straight to Harry Potter spend the day there. We are huge HP fans so we're happy to spend all day walking around Diagon Alley and looking at everything. We're already planning to go again once the expansion is completed.

Oh good. My kids are huge HP fans so it’s a must do for us as well. We were planning to eat at both HP restaurants you went to. Sounds like we are better off taking a break and heading to hotel or CityWalk. I think like Disney places can be hit or miss. Def have had some crappy expensive meals in HS. Oh and that awful space place in MK. Cosmic rays? Lol

 

[havaneselover]

Haha, contrasting views at the same time! I do recommend Cowfish to anyone who goes to Universal. We ate there for dinner our second night because we have been to the Cowfish in Raleigh, NC multiple times when we're there for horse shows.

We did a week at USO in 2017 and loved the food (miss the butterbeer and giant donuts!). we did eat at either 3 broomsticks or leaky cauldron--don't remember which and I wasn't impressed. I think it was the city walk restaurants and the food court at Cabana Bay that saved the day for us.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

I found the food prices to be comparable but the quality at USO to be much better. Loved Toothsome for dessert. I also think the value resorts (specifically Cabana Bay) are so much better than a Disney value. At Cabana Bay, it felt like a resort to me. Pop didn't. I loved it and it was fine. Just a very different experience. Fantastic fitness center, awesome food court, room was in the main hotel, pools were nicer, etc.

Def want to try toothsome. And Cabana bay looks so nice and i always see great prices for it. We wanted EP since it’s our first time and it’s a holiday weekend but I’d stay there in a heartbeat

 

[havaneselover]

Def want to try toothsome. And Cabana bay looks so nice and i always see great prices for it. We wanted EP since it’s our first time and it’s a holiday weekend but I’d stay there in a heartbeat

I hear you! Because we were there for a week at a slow time, we didn't need it. And sometimes the EP lines were longer (which I know is not normal). But if I were going for a few days or at a busy time I would not be staying at CB or SF.

 

[Alexle2007]

Awesome thanks for the tips!! Honestly I think all amusement parks are expensive. What I like about Disney is there are some decent options even if they rip you off. Will def head to CityWalk. Staying at RPR. I heard to restaurant at Sapphire falls is good maybe tapas? And Mythos? Do you recommend either.
Also we are just getting the seasonal
AP so I don’t think any discounts right?

Oh good. My kids are huge HP fans so it’s a must do for us as well. We were planning to eat at both HP restaurants you went to. Sounds like we are better off taking a break and heading to hotel or CityWalk. I think like Disney places can be hit or miss. Def have had some crappy expensive meals in HS. Oh and that awful space place in MK. Cosmic rays? Lol

We’ve only stayed at SF once over Thanksgiving when we did a resort only stay besides breakfast didn’t eat there. We typically hit the breakfast buffet and then have dinner so we skip lunch. My DS is very picky so we haven’t tried either of those. We typically go to the same restaurants for all of our visits now.

RPR has a character breakfast buffet on the weekend. I want to say on a Sun morning, if you have kids. DS12 thought the characters were ok but he is kind of past that stage now.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Awesome thanks for the tips!! Honestly I think all amusement parks are expensive. What I like about Disney is there are some decent options even if they rip you off. Will def head to CityWalk. Staying at RPR. I heard to restaurant at Sapphire falls is good maybe tapas? And Mythos? Do you recommend either.
Also we are just getting the seasonal
AP so I don’t think any discounts right?

Oh good. My kids are huge HP fans so it’s a must do for us as well. We were planning to eat at both HP restaurants you went to. Sounds like we are better off taking a break and heading to hotel or CityWalk. I think like Disney places can be hit or miss. Def have had some crappy expensive meals in HS. Oh and that awful space place in MK. Cosmic rays? Lol

It sounds like you and I have similar food preferences because I also hate the food at HS and I don’t think I’ve eaten at Cosmic Rays since I was about 15 but it’s definitely what I think of when I think greasy theme park food!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Def want to try toothsome. And Cabana bay looks so nice and i always see great prices for it. We wanted EP since it’s our first time and it’s a holiday weekend but I’d stay there in a heartbeat

If you can get there first thing in the morning, I definitely recommend going through the regular lines for Forbidden Journey and Gringotts. The lines are incredibly themed and you’ll miss most of it using EP!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Hmm, these are what we ordered according to my account history. Weve never had issues taking them or having them fit up above.
https://www.ebags.com/product/trave...pandable-rollaboard/311979?productid=10417657

So the actual dimensions listed are different than what Amazon lists.

 

[PolyRob]

I'm going to head to reddit to see the news thread and catch up. We are still here at WDW. It has been awful. Worst trip ever. Sigh.

Started with my moms flight being delayed so we waited at the airport for 2 hours for her. I didn't want to leave for the resort without her, since she doesn't travel ever. Finally got to bed after 1am.
Sunday was pouring rain and cold so we opted to skip the parks and went to Ikea to get stuff for DDs apartment. Did the Snow White dinner that night. It was really good but DD3 was scared of grumpy...and I mean terrified. She wouldn't get off our laps the whole meal and kept looking over her shoulder. Best Disney pic ever of her impersonating evil queen though:
View attachment 379032

Then we woke up that night about 1am to DD3 vomiting. Over and over. No sleep. Around 7am it ended up in my hair, so we had to get up and shower. It was Monday morning now and DD19s move in day. How was that going to work since I was the driver on the car?? My mom ended up staying with hattie while she slept and I drove DD19 to the apartment to get checked in. I left her there and went back to get my mom and DD3. Well DD3 had a bit more energy after her nap so we went to Walmart for more stuff. More vomiting ensued. Then DD3 was acting like she was a normal kid. Had to return the rental at 4pm at dolphin so then took dd3 for another nap. We were still holding out hope of going to after hours at MK....12 hour bug??? She napped 4-6pm and woke up with a fever and miserable. Sigh. I went to the desk and they were kind enough to refund my tickets. Overnight last night was rough. She spiked such a high temp and Motrin wasn't even helping. I Finally at 3am I got her up and put her in the tub to cool her down. We both slept a few hours after that. Woke up this morning with no new fever. Went down to breakfast and she vomits again and feels like her temp is creeping up. Double sigh. So we've been in the room all ay. She is sleeping and DD19 is getting dressed to go to casting. We are supposed to go home tomorrow.
I am considering adding a night or two since SWA is allowing flight changes for free. Waiting to see if DD feels better this evening. If so, I will add them so we can have some park time tomorrow and Thursday at least. If not, we will go home as planned and come back in a few weeks. I guess the plus side is our APs aren't activated yet since we haven't been to a park, so they will last long on the back end than planned.

ETA: Oh and we have had plumbing issues, DD19's and my mom's ticket have disappeared from MDE even though they weren't used and concierge reassigned them to new dates for me, and the app has been awful this trip. Maybe I should just go home and try again another time.

Oh no! I hope your daughter feels better and that the start of the CP for your other daughter goes well!

 

[punkin]

To my the Barclay has better perks as it give 10% back on miles you redeem!

True. I want to double check when his citi AF hits and try to time the application. Thatnks for your advice.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Verbiage was 24m...card will be 24m this coming May so I don't think I would be eligible. I don't even use mine but have been getting some referrals thanks to people on dischurners.

This is her design - expiring in September...I am going to bet she will go with Tinkerbell.

View attachment 378873

I got a letter offering me an upgrade. The verbiage is odd. First, it says Dear Cardmember, obviously acknowledging I am indeed a cardmember. Then it says I am eligible to switch my Disney Visa to a Disney Premier Visa. But the fine print says I am NOT eligible if I am a current cardmemeber or a previous cardmember.