Disney Addicted
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2011
Hello, hi, welcome! My family is going to Universal Studios Orlando for the first-time late August. Although it was not planned this way, I consider it my birthday treat as I turn 50 a month before we leave. When the heck did this happen?? Anyways, guess what date is my birthday. Hint: Harry Potter and I share the same date. I think it’s pretty cool. My daughter was only maybe 3 years old when I discovered the Harry Potter books – I think when the 2nd or 3rd book was released. It’s hard to tell who is more excited now. I’m pumped that our decision to go means she is *finally* listening to the Harry Potter audio books I got her years ago. She is consistently amazed how much more happens in the books than the movies. I wish I could get my son to read the books. I’m sure he would love them but lately if it’s not anime, he won’t read it. What happened to the kid who loved Geronimo Stilton books? How did he get to be 15 without reading my beloved Harry Potter books? (sigh)
So now we are just over 7 weeks away from our trip to Universal Studios. Myself, my husband, our 20 year old daughter and 15 year old son. There were times I didn’t think we would go through with this trip as we seem to have a lot of expenses lately. However, when I offered to forget about it, my husband insisted we go. As he pointed out, this will probably be our last family vacation. The kids will be moving out before we know it. Thankfully I managed to save a huge chunk of change off our vacation cost!!
Thinking back, while we have done many day trips, we have only had 1 real vacation we fully paid for. Ten days in Disney (NOT long enough) 9 years ago. Other than that, a couple of weekends to Great Wolf Lodge. Luckily, we have been blessed with what I call my subsidized vacations - contest vacation wins! This was them young once upon a time.
While this is primarily a Universal vacation, we are skipping off to Animal Kingdom for a day; Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party; Gatorland; and maybe some shopping. On our one and only Disney World vacation we missed Animal Kingdom. Both my daughter & I woke up with minor colds and our family ended up leaving the park 3 hours after we arrived. I spent the day in bed while the rest enjoyed the pool at the resort. After a good long rest I was able to enjoy our Boma dinner and the Pirates & Pals voyage. So, yes, I had Disney gift cards left from previous surveys and I hit up more surveys so we can redo our Animal Kingdom day!
I asked my husband if there was anything in particular he wanted to do and he would like to attend MNSSHP. We did on our 1st vacation and he really enjoyed it. That works for me! I felt we missed out on so many rides and shows as the kids wanted to meet characters and collect candy. But hey, they were 11 and 6 after all. This time the focus will be on rides, shows and the parade!
As for Gatorland, we have never been there either. Heck, until we went to Disney World we never set foot in Florida and we stayed completely on-site. My kids loved watching.. GatorBoys I think it was called? I was disappointed we never saw a ‘gator at Disney. This will be a surprise. They don’t know we are going to Gatorland.
I would like to thank Mother Nature for throwing us a last minute-ice storm April 2018. This trip would not have happened without WestJet giving us credit for a future flight as we drove two days to Florida to catch our cruise (mostly paid for with Air Miles). A week before our flight I kept reading online chatter about a last minute winter storm hitting the weekend of our flight. I started talking to my husband, my father and our friend (3 family cruise) about driving. The cruise was paid through Air Miles 2 ½ years earlier. I was NOT going to miss our first ever cruise. Three days before our flight we made the decision to drive. I think if my husband had not ended up with an ear infection he would have held out for the flight. First time I have been grateful to an ear infection! The cruise was on Sunday; the flight on Saturday; and Friday morning we started driving (3 families, 2 cars) to Florida. I phoned WestJet to cancel the flights as we hit the highway. The guy I spoke to was super nice and gave us a full credit even though WestJet had not put out an advisory yet. I think they knew darn well the ice was coming. Anyways, it turns out the ice storm hit our area in the wee hours of Saturday morning and our flight was cancelled. We had never driven to Florida before either. 16 hours the first day; 12 hours the second day. But we made it by Saturday night and were on-board Sunday afternoon. Whew! Here's a couple photos a neighbour sent of our street on Saturday, and a photo of my husband & I dressed up for formal night on the cruise.
Of course, as we drove to Florida, I started plotting ways to use the flight credit, Air Miles and PC Optimum points for a vacation. Whenever my husband caught me with a dreamy look in my eyes, he would roll his eyes as he knew what was going through my mind. Hey, how come he can’t figure out my mind most other times?
Also, a big thank you to Air Miles Canada, PC Optimum, various survey sites and my euchre league. These saved us a huge amount of money in attraction tickets and other expenses. For those unfamiliar with PC Optimum, the program gives “points” for purchasing groceries and things. The points can then take money off your total purchase in $10 increments. I “cash” them out by taking anywhere from $10-$50 off my grocery total and then taking that $10-$50 I “saved” on groceries and putting the money into our vacation fund bank account.
I am really excited at how much I was able to save! I’ll get to that in my next post.
So now we are just over 7 weeks away from our trip to Universal Studios. Myself, my husband, our 20 year old daughter and 15 year old son. There were times I didn’t think we would go through with this trip as we seem to have a lot of expenses lately. However, when I offered to forget about it, my husband insisted we go. As he pointed out, this will probably be our last family vacation. The kids will be moving out before we know it. Thankfully I managed to save a huge chunk of change off our vacation cost!!
Thinking back, while we have done many day trips, we have only had 1 real vacation we fully paid for. Ten days in Disney (NOT long enough) 9 years ago. Other than that, a couple of weekends to Great Wolf Lodge. Luckily, we have been blessed with what I call my subsidized vacations - contest vacation wins! This was them young once upon a time.
While this is primarily a Universal vacation, we are skipping off to Animal Kingdom for a day; Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party; Gatorland; and maybe some shopping. On our one and only Disney World vacation we missed Animal Kingdom. Both my daughter & I woke up with minor colds and our family ended up leaving the park 3 hours after we arrived. I spent the day in bed while the rest enjoyed the pool at the resort. After a good long rest I was able to enjoy our Boma dinner and the Pirates & Pals voyage. So, yes, I had Disney gift cards left from previous surveys and I hit up more surveys so we can redo our Animal Kingdom day!
I asked my husband if there was anything in particular he wanted to do and he would like to attend MNSSHP. We did on our 1st vacation and he really enjoyed it. That works for me! I felt we missed out on so many rides and shows as the kids wanted to meet characters and collect candy. But hey, they were 11 and 6 after all. This time the focus will be on rides, shows and the parade!
As for Gatorland, we have never been there either. Heck, until we went to Disney World we never set foot in Florida and we stayed completely on-site. My kids loved watching.. GatorBoys I think it was called? I was disappointed we never saw a ‘gator at Disney. This will be a surprise. They don’t know we are going to Gatorland.
I would like to thank Mother Nature for throwing us a last minute-ice storm April 2018. This trip would not have happened without WestJet giving us credit for a future flight as we drove two days to Florida to catch our cruise (mostly paid for with Air Miles). A week before our flight I kept reading online chatter about a last minute winter storm hitting the weekend of our flight. I started talking to my husband, my father and our friend (3 family cruise) about driving. The cruise was paid through Air Miles 2 ½ years earlier. I was NOT going to miss our first ever cruise. Three days before our flight we made the decision to drive. I think if my husband had not ended up with an ear infection he would have held out for the flight. First time I have been grateful to an ear infection! The cruise was on Sunday; the flight on Saturday; and Friday morning we started driving (3 families, 2 cars) to Florida. I phoned WestJet to cancel the flights as we hit the highway. The guy I spoke to was super nice and gave us a full credit even though WestJet had not put out an advisory yet. I think they knew darn well the ice was coming. Anyways, it turns out the ice storm hit our area in the wee hours of Saturday morning and our flight was cancelled. We had never driven to Florida before either. 16 hours the first day; 12 hours the second day. But we made it by Saturday night and were on-board Sunday afternoon. Whew! Here's a couple photos a neighbour sent of our street on Saturday, and a photo of my husband & I dressed up for formal night on the cruise.
Of course, as we drove to Florida, I started plotting ways to use the flight credit, Air Miles and PC Optimum points for a vacation. Whenever my husband caught me with a dreamy look in my eyes, he would roll his eyes as he knew what was going through my mind. Hey, how come he can’t figure out my mind most other times?
Also, a big thank you to Air Miles Canada, PC Optimum, various survey sites and my euchre league. These saved us a huge amount of money in attraction tickets and other expenses. For those unfamiliar with PC Optimum, the program gives “points” for purchasing groceries and things. The points can then take money off your total purchase in $10 increments. I “cash” them out by taking anywhere from $10-$50 off my grocery total and then taking that $10-$50 I “saved” on groceries and putting the money into our vacation fund bank account.
I am really excited at how much I was able to save! I’ll get to that in my next post.
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