khertz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2008
The TMs are Starting to Recognize Us!
A September 2018 Trip Report
Welcome, everyone, to my second Universal Orlando trip report! In case you missed my first one, you can find it here: "It's Because This Wand CHOSE Me!" September 2017 TR
Despite this only being my second Universal TR here on the boards, we are no strangers to the Universal parks! It’s been a part of almost every single WDW trip we have taken with the exception of a couple of trips when DS was a baby/toddler. But let me back it up. Some of you may know who we are, but some of you may not!
First up is me, khertz.
Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
I’m 33 years old, and a pediatric oncology nurse by trade. While I’m a total Disney lover, I’m a huge fan of Universal Orlando as well! I love nearly all of the IPs in the parks, namely Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Despicable Me, Fast & Furious, and Marvel. This was my 12th visit to Universal, and my second Universal-only trip.
Joining me and helping to fund our vacations is DH, sometimes found on the boards as @DDuck4Life .
Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
In case you’re unsure, he’s the one on the right. He is 34 years old, and an engineer in the oil field with a hobby for photography, so he will be responsible for nearly all of the photos in this TR, which means you won’t be seeing a whole lot of him! He is another fan of the Universal properties, though I think he would probably rate The Simpsons, Jurassic Park, and Marvel as his favorites.
Rounding out our traveling party was DS.
Universal18 01-060 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Honorable mention for this TR will be DD.
Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
She recently turned 3 years old, and since she is still not really tall enough to do much at the Universal parks, she had her own “vacation” at my parents house for the week. Don’t worry, she got to ride her bike in the house, have ice cream with chocolate syrup every night, and stay up late so she wasn’t jealous of our trip at all!
Our trip dates were September 15-22. Originally we booked September 16-21 at Hard Rock Hotel to avoid the higher rates on Friday & Saturday nights. Then we started thinking…why wait to drive in until Sunday when we’d have Saturday too? So we booked Saturday night at the Clarion Inn near the entrance to Universal so that we could have some time at the parks Sunday as well.
We had Seasonal APs we had upgraded to on our trip last year, and the last day we could use them was Thursday 9/20. We decided to add on an additional night at the end of our trip on Friday at our Wyndham timeshare Bonnet Creek. We figured even if we couldn’t go into the parks on Friday, we thought we could spend the day at the pools and lazy rivers around the resort, and maybe go to dinner at Disney Springs or something, then return home Saturday. As the trip got closer, DH got an offer to renew our APs for 20% off and 3 additional months free, so we started toying with the idea of renewing, but I’ll discuss that later in the TR.
So I hope you’ll join us for one of the best Universal Orlando trips yet! We ate at several new places, tried a few new things in the parks, and had an amazing time!
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