WOOHOO Complete 4/08 Trip Report NOW UPDATING WITH NEW SPRING 2011 PRE TRIP PLANNING

[wwessing]

shameless bump

 

[WyldLynx]

Thank you sooooooooo much for the detailed report I have so enjoyed reading every bit. It has been very helpful for me who is planning our first trip ever to Orlando. We are going to drive too but we are only in Tennessee so it won't be quite a long and we are driving when the kids are most likely to sleep most of the way both down and back. But U have so started one of many lists to come...LOL

 

[wwessing]

Thank you sooooooooo much for the detailed report I have so enjoyed reading every bit. It has been very helpful for me who is planning our first trip ever to Orlando. We are going to drive too but we are only in Tennessee so it won't be quite a long and we are driving when the kids are most likely to sleep most of the way both down and back. But U have so started one of many lists to come...LOL

You are absolutely welcome! Feel free to ask any questions you might have. I'm happy folks are still reading and learning from my report!!

 

[wwessing]

to me

 

[wwessing]

shameless Happy New Year bump

 

[wwessing]

Looks like we won't be getting back for more of this fun until 2012.

Can't go this year, going to Las Vegas, Hollywood and Grand Canyon next year, so it's 2012 before we can MAYBE go back says DH. . .

So, I'll have to content myself with my wonderful memories of this trip. Questions anyone??? Give a sista a chance to go "oh, yeah. . .I remember that day".

 

[wwessing]

Just got word over this weekend that we are on for another Uni trip in 2011. We were planning to go to Vegas, Grand Canyone, etc. but our special needs daughter wants nothing to do with it. Since we can't go without her, looks like we will be returning to Hard Rock and Universal (among other things) as this is the only vacation she will consider.

W O O H O O!!!

While I was looking forward to the trip West, I do get a working trip to Vegas this July without my family. Ok, so that might be some fun, I'll be attending a conference and won't have my family with me. (sigh) the sacrifices we must make

So, planning has begun and I am about 6 months behind if I use our 2008 trip as a guide. I didn't know anything then, so planning this time should be simpler and 12 months more than adequate (that's half the fun). Suppose I'll keep this report going rather than starting a new one, just change the title up a bit.

Stay tuned. . . I plan to complete updates as I go along. Already have some gripes about how costs have increased just since spring, 2008!!

 

[nmartin]

I read your last trip report and loved it. Looking forward to hear about your new trip. We are planning our first trip to Hard Rock this Aug. Not much to plan though! I am one of those people that love planning trips!

 

[wwessing]

Just found out that our district's spring break for 2011 is the week of March 14th. While I'm not certain the weather will be all that warm in Orlando, it will hopefully be better than in central Illinois!

Easter in 2011 is not until April 24th so we should be good on rates . . . that was my biggest worry. . . so here's a big W O O H O O ! ! !

Preliminary research looks like we are going to stay at one of the Sea World resorts for the first half, then move to HRH for a few days. Those dumb Universal ticket prices have gone up so much since they did away with the 7 day deal. I wrote Universal and said BRING IT BACK!! They had that promotion for 3 years and told me that they had lots of requests for different ticketing options. Ok, great, offer more ticket options but BRING BACK THE 7 DAY PASS FOR $99. When we went in Spring 08, they were like $85, but $99 would still be excellent. Looks like we will have to go with the 4 day tickets, though we really wanted more days.

Bush parks, at least in the Orlando area, have a great promotion right now. If you stay in one of their resorts, you get your choice of unlimited entry into two parks for the number of people in your party. For my family, if we stay at one of their resorts, we would have unlimited access to Sea World and Aquatica (our choices) for the number of days we are at the resort. The least expensive resort is still 4 diamonds, like HRH, and looks like it is very nice. I'll have to do more research and see what opinions are. . . haven't gotten that far yet.

So, right now in our prelim stages, we are looking at leaving on March 9th, after the kids get out of school and traveling all night again (recall special needs dd). We would then only have to take the kids out of school for 2 days and still have a good number of days for our trip. Our return drive is broken into two days, but we handled the straight through drive there ok. If DH would only let me drive a little more, he could sleep for a few hours, which was the plan in 08. He kept saying "I'm fine" so he ended up driving most of the time. Silly man. . .

Stay tuned. . . .

 

[renee9558]

I've read your TR all afternoon. Very impressed. Without having to go back and add everything up. How much did you budget for the trip? Do you allow so much for food daily? I'll be at Universal/Sea World/and maybe a day at Aquatica, DH/DS will fish on Wed. so my DD13/I will be on our own. We will vacay 6 days. I'm just curious what your tenative budget looked like. Thank you the report it jUST what I needed!

 

[wwessing]

I don't mind sharing our budget at all. As a matter of fact, I think I put the total somewhere in the trippie. . but our budget was $8,000 and that's about what we spent.

Since it's obvious I'm totally obsessed with planning details. . . actually we need to plan to an extreme level of detail to help our dd17 prepare for travel, we had a spreadsheet that delineated the date, where we would be that day and where we had planned to eat. Once we determined the places we wanted to eat, I researched menu's and prices so we could be certain there was something on the menu dd17 would eat and the ability to estimate how much each meal might cost. From that we determined the food budget for the entire trip. I'm looking at my budget spreadsheet for that trip . . . . we estimated about $200 per day and $2,000 for the trip. I even figured that we would have 465 individual meals during the trip . . . . I'm such a geek. I did quite a bit of recordkeeping during the trip. We saved all receipts and I logged them at the end of each day. I knew we had plenty in our budget to accommodate everything we wanted to do, but I kept close track day by day. It didn't take that much time and dh wanted to know where we were every day as far as our budget. For a little bit of work at the end of each day, it allowed us to do some things we hadn't planned on, such as dining at Emeril's. Since we knew exactly where we stood within the food budget, we knew we could afford to take our family there. When we went shopping, dh knew exactly where he was with that budget, and allowed the kids to shop accordingly.

While I know there are some folks who don't have to worry about such things, we do not have that luxury. We did not spend a penny we hadn't saved and anything we charged, we knew we had the funds to immediately pay it off once we returned home.

I think somewhere in my trip report are some details about my "book". I used a 3 ring binder and dividers to keep track of everything. I had prepared expense tracking sheets ahead of time, so it was simple to keep tabs. My guess is dh came home a little under budget, actually. We even estimated fuel expenses, since we were driving. We knew approximately how many miles we would be driving; estimated fuel mileage of the van we rented; and estimated how much gas would be per gallon. Voila. . . . more geeky budget sheets. We had a very, very detailed budget. It even included laundry expenses, which were really minimal, but dh didn't want any surprises. Thanks to our extensive planning, there were really no financial surprises and things that did come up were beyond our control and had nothing to do with our planning.

Our budget had a line for van rental, hotel expenses, park tickets, food, fuel, parking, animal feeding, snacks/drinks at parks, go-karting, cabana at aquatica and a sizeable misc. budget just in case I missed something. The actual dollars budgeted was $8,352.70, to be exact. Some of these expenses we paid ahead of time such as tickets, one night hotel on each reservation and some gift cards for a couple of the restaurants we would visit.

I really tried to include all the prices that I could, with the exception I think of how much each t-shirt or souvenier cost, though I did include some totals when shopping. Those little things like parking, feeding animals, snacks, drinks, etc really sneak up on you if you don't plan and have a budget. People always come back from vacation and complain about how much they spent or overspent and usually they didn't include the details, just the obvious expenses. With a little thought and planning, you can avoid the overspending and having huge credit card balances when you get home. That can ruin a vacation faster than anything, in my opinion. I know there are those on these boards who will disagree with the budgeting and keeping every receipt and all the recordkeeping, and that is fine for those who don't need to worry about it. If you don't have to be concerned, then all this isn't for you. My trippie was for everyone, but the financial details are for those who aren't fortunate enough to be able to travel with unrestricted funding. The way we handled our finances worked beautifully for us and really, truly kept everything on track.

As I plan for our upcoming 2011 trip, we will use the same techniques we did in 2008, and I believe I've already complained about the increased cost of everything : ) I saved all the documents from 2008 on my computer, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel, if you will. I'll just adjust everything to this trip, get another binder and off we go

Hope this has helped with your planning. If you are traveling with kids, you really can't overplan in my opinion. You know your family, you needs and what you want to experience. Keep gathering information and planning. As long as you can be flexible with things that may change between your planning and your actual trip, you should have a great time.

 

[renee9558]

Thank you soo much for your valuable input!!

 

[wwessing]

Thought I would update a bit. Because so much of my research has been done with our 2008 trip and we have already established our goals for 2011, I've put this planning on hold just a while.

We are in the process of refinancing our home; ordering a new hauler for our camping trips (we ride ATV's and dirt bikes); getting braces for dd's 13 & 17 and remodeling 2 of our bathrooms. I've got a business trip to Las Vegas in July which I am planning for (taking dh with me ) and a 9 day camping/riding trip coming up in June. So, because of all these other things going on, I've sorta put the 2011 trip planning on hold for a few weeks until all these other things are under control. Plus, hotel and resort rates aren't published for March 2011 just yet and the manager at HRH who was so wonderful in 2008 has been off work for an extended period. I don't really want to work with anyone else, so I'm waiting for their return to commence any HRH planning.

I can share some of my other trip info, though. For my business trip to Las Vegas, I'm attending a user group conference. My dh can attend with me for an additional fee, which we have to pay and his flight. Paying an additional fee for him to attend will include him in everything except for the actual sessions. Since he's not in the same industry I am, he doesn't care about those sessions, but he can attend the cocktail dinner the night before everything kicks off and have all the meals with me. Considering we are staying at the Wynn, it's a great deal for us and an opportunity to get away together for a few days. We will only be gone 4 days and some of that time I'll be attending sessions, but we would never stay at the Wynn on our own. So, I've been looking at flights, which are costly to say the least. Fortunately, my flight is a business expense, so we only have pay for one airfare. . . good thing Not too much planning to do, though, since it is a business trip and I do have obligations. We will have one night to figure out where to have dinner on our own and a couple lunches as well. Not looking to spend a bunch of money, so I am doing some research to see what is available within walking distance since we aren't renting a care. Really, though, there is excellent public transportation available in Vegas, so that's not a concern, just time restraints mostly. I've been using the great website called CHEAPO Vegas. Lots of great information and all with great humor.

Before that, though, is our main family vacation for 2010. We would like to take a couple longer weekend getaways, but it will depend on finances of course. So we are planning a 9 day camping trip in June. Dh bought himself a new quad over the winter and sold one of his motorcycles. Now we all have 4 wheelers and a couple bikes if someone wants to ride on two wheels. Our current hauler is 17 feet, but it's not near large enough to haul all our toys. We had to take tires off the smallest quads to fit them in the back of our truck and the hauler was, literally, packed nearly to the ceiling. It was a nightmare to load and unload. It took at least a couple hours to unload and set up the hauler as a camper. The park we camp at is about 4 hours from our home, so not a bad drive at all, but when you don't leave until 3 or 4 pm, it's dark and late and everyone is hungry and the kids don't want to help unload so they whine and our first night is never much fun. I can't get a fire built and hot dogs cooked fast enough and dh can't get the hauler converted and beds set up quick enough. . . . so, we decided we would bite the bullet and order a new hauler. This one is going to be 24 ft. by 8.5 ft vs our current hauler which is 17 ft by 7 ft. Quite a bit more room and it will hold all our "toys" plus all our camping equipment with no problem. At least that is what dh tells me. We have been searching for a hauler for months. Dh pores over every publication that sells then. We had hoped to find a very nice used hauler, but they just aren't available. When you do find one, they are too pricey for used, but at least we know they hold their vaule well so when/if we ever sell either of ours, we will get our money back. So we have finally found the make and model of hauler we like. It's not one of those expensive things, but certainly not bottom of the line either. Fits our family fine. . . kinda middle of the road. Not cheap but not over the top. Dh and I have spent months planning exactly what we want and finally, we are within a couple of weeks of ordering it. I had to get dh to compromise of some things because he wanted to go ahead and get everything we ever wanted installed right now. Granted, that would be nice, but not affordable. So, we compromised and spent a little extra to get the things we both felt were the most important. Don't ya love it when a plan comes together. Once we get the hauler, we still have to install the flooring. . . manufacturer wants way too much money and it's fairly easy to do, so we saved a few hundred and will put in some sweat equity. Ok, so seriously. . . I'm not going to be doing it. Dh and my nephew and son-in-law will be laying the floor. We have, however, designed a design for the back door that lays down into a ramp. It's going to be way cool if I do say so myself. Floor is going to be black and white checkered. . what else would a NASCAR fan install, right?? Ramp door is going to be tiled in black and white as well, but has a specific design for when it is laid down. We are also going to install our own work bench, tool boxes and cabinetry. All those things are very, very expensive to have built in by the manufacturer as well, so we've already purchased cabinets and I bought dh a big craftsman tool box last year. We've spent hours, at this point, determining where things are going to be installed, the dimensions, etc. It's really sorta like building a house, only on a mini scale. Last week we found a sale on some other items we needed. . . or so we thought we needed and probably overspent. Dh picked up a couple new ez up canopies and a new bed for us. We have one of those queen size double stacked air mattress so it's not like getting up off the floor when sleeping on it, but he found a bed that is completely up off the floor. It folds up like one of the canopies, so it is a queen bed air mattress on a frame, completely off the floor and we will see how it works out. The girls were excited because that means they get our very nice double stacked queen mattress for their own. I hope I like this new one he bought. Dh also picked up some very nice molded plastic drawers. . .like a dresser. We are trying to keep everything as light weight as possible for easier towing. He can pick up the drawers and store them on the workbench when the hauler is not being used as a camper. When it is, we will all have drawer space for our things.

Ok, so enough detail to bore you to death yet??? Dh says I need to come help him with something, so signing off for now.

 

[wwessing]

So I heard back from the manager at HRH, and all is set. All I have to do is make my reservations, and they will be certain that we have the same room we had in 2008. They SO TOTALLY ROCK!!

We have been talking about dining as well. Keep in mind that we have to plan as many details as far ahead as possible for dd17 to be able to process and deal with being away from home and her routine. So, having said that, we went back over the meal planner from 2008 and chose many of the same places. Most she remembered and is excited to return to. Since she knows she can enjoy something off their menu (much to our amazement. . .she NEVER gets tired of grilled chicken salad) and chose a few new places, but I will have to be certain I can get those menus over the next couple months. We will have to look over them to be sure they have something she can recognize and accept.

Last time we didn't go to Mythos because I was worried about their menu. I'm going to look it over again (think I can get it online) and if they don't have something she is comfortable with, I think I will call and ask if they will accommodate her. The rest of us really, really want to dine there. She did fine at Emeril's before and we hadn't even planned for it ahead of time. She worried about it for a couple hours during the day before we went, but she didn't freak out or refuse to go, and once there, she enjoyed the experience. It was so wonderful to see her laugh and smile in a situation that was completely "unprepared". Actually, we had a hard time getting her to return to the hotel after the meal, which late for us anyway, and then a walk around CityWalk. She didn't want to go back she was so jazzed up from her big night that it was like midnight before we could go back to HRH.

As usual, I digress. . .but I wanted to put up what we had decided so far. . . just in case anyone really cares. Most of the places we went last time, so have a good idea of the cost and the few places we weren't super happy with won't be getting a return visit. So far we have decided on IHOP (yeah, I know, big deal right? but we don't get there hardly ever and the kids love it), Joe's Crab Shack (none in our area), Sweet Tomatoes (same thing, none in our area), Lone Star (or another steak house. . living in IL we get great steak whenever we want, but we had a really good meal there last time which was reasonably priced and everyone enjoyed) Emerils, Margaritaville, Hard Rock Cafe, and NBA City (all on CityWalk), Mythos (IOA) Thunder Falls Terrace (IOA) Mama Della's (PBH) and whatever restaurant is in WWoHP. We will also go to Sharks's Grill (SeaWorld), The Kitchen (HRH - for breakfast buffet. . yyuuummmmm) Lombard's Seafood Grille and Richter's Burger Co (both in Studios). We will be at Aquatica two days and renting a cabana on both. Their cabana's are really nice and last time we ordered from a menu, specified what time we wanted the food delivered and it was good. We will do that again on both days. We will eat another day at SeaWorld, but have left that open to "family choice". . .which means we have to at least go somewhere dd17 can get chicken strips and fries, which is pretty much everywhere. Since we are planning to stay at Residence Inn SeaWorld International Center for several days on the front side of our vacation, we will take advantage of the breakfast included in the hotel price/package. From my research so far, it appears that they have a "full American" breakfast every morning along with the usual "continental" breakfast. This works for dd17 as well because she will want cereal with milk every morning, which is always readily available at those type of breakfasts (God help us if they don't have Fruit Loops or Fruity Pebbles ) If we get tired of that fare after a few days, we will find something outside the hotel. I've budgeted for that circumstance as well. We will need to eat at Magic Kingdom (under much duress have I agreed to go there) but I have no idea what is available, if we need to make ressies and I am being very passive/aggressive by not researching this when I know exactly where to go to get all the information I could ever need or want about any Disney park. I will eventually. . .I just have to get past my HUGE reluctance and objection to ever stepping foot in any Disney park again (so I've carefully avoided stating MY PERSONAL OPINION about this issue on any forum here ever. I will continue to keep that opinion to myself because it is a lose/lose situation if I were to try to explain why I feel the way I do. I'm not stepping in that steamy pile for anything. . . ) So, our Magic Kingdom day is completely unplanned, other than I know we will be visiting on a Monday and I know that Disney takes more preparation than any other park in the entire world and that's the one I have been working on the least (ok, how about none, still in denial). I'll get there. . . .

So far we've got this. . . we will be leaving our home (central Illinois) on Wednesday, Tuesday March 15th, 2011 after the kids get out of school. We will drive straight through (dh and I take 4 hour shifts more or less) so each of us can get some sleep. We will stop for supper somewhere in northern Kentucky, just over the IL/KY border then only gas stops until we get to IHOP in Gainesville, FL. This way, same as before, kids can sleep through much of that drive.

After breakfast, we will finish the drive to Orlando and hopefully check in early at Residence Inn SeaWorld to take advantage of the "tickets for length of your stay" deal. I need to find out yet if it that includes your check in and check out days, though I believe it does. Once we check in and get our tickets, we will be off to SeaWorld for a slow day. Dh and I will obviously not be fully rested, so we figure a few hours at SW, then an early evening at the hotel for swimming and a "family choice" dinner. Probably that means take-out from somewhere like TGI Fridays. The next two days (Thu & Fri) will be Aquatica days with Joe's Crab Shack and Sweet Tomatoes, respectively, on the planner.

Sat & Sun will be SW days, except if we have done everything by the end of the day Saturday or even after a couple of hours Sunday (might go in just to feed the dolphins at opening) then have a shopping/swimming day. Monday will be for Magic Kindom and will be an open to close day (so says DH who really, really, really wants to see the light parade. . whatever it's called). There's a whole very sad story behind this, which is the ONLY reason I am capitulating on the Disney park thing anyway.

Tues moves us to HRH (yes!) and the Universal parks for the remainder of our days, which will be four. Tickets have really gotten very expensive and we are hoping that they will come down in price before we go in a year, so I'm holding off on buying anything to see what will come along. Those days are pretty much unplanned, other than we have to know where we are going to eat (dd17 again) so for now we have only lunch and supper planned. I think we will go to Studios on Tues and Thurs and IOA on Wed and Fri. We are thinking NBA City on Tues, Emeril's on Wed, Margaritaville on Thur and Hard Rock Cafe on Friday. Not sure how everything else will fit in, but depending on reviews of whatever restaurant is in WWoHP we will probably want to go there. It's up in the air, then, for Thunder Falls, Lombard's and Richter's. Likely we will leave off Richter's. . . we can get really good burgers other places and Thunder Falls Terrace, while cafeteria style, has the cool view. Lombard's is full service, a nice sit-down break from the day and has good reviews. Breakfast for those days will either be in the hotel room, except for Saturday when we will dine at The Kitchen (did I say yum), or at one of the parks. I'd like to try PastaMore' for breakfast and maybe Croissant Moon Bakery. We ate at Boulangerie last time, has some muffins and such, and it was ok to good. Nothing spectacular, but good all the same. We shared items from there because they are so big. We purchase like 3 things then shared them (also with the birds and squirrels and chipmonks cuz that's waaay more fun than eating ourselves . . . in the world of my children).

Oh, one other thing. . . I don't think I've complained nearly enough about how much prices have increased. Renting a van is going to cost substantially more and so are Universal tickets. Our meal budget is $400 more than last time and hotel costs are up as well. I think our budget is going to be at least a grand more than last time But I haven't told DH this yet and I'm going to blame it all on Disney so he can't complain.

Until next time. . . . .

 

[wwessing]

*sigh* . . . I haven't had any time to work on our upcoming trip.

Dh has me busy with the new hauler. We just brought it home this past weekend and have been working on laying the tile floor. . black/white checkered of course. Next we have to build and install the workbench, cabinets and a few other finishing chores.

Had to put aside the Uni trip planning for a month or two.

Celebrated dd10's 11th birthday today. So she's dd11 now Have our granddaughters 1st birthday next weekend and then Memorial Day weekend at Lake of the Ozarks. Right after that, it's off on our first camping trip in our new hauler with our new toys and if things work out just right, we will be picking up the girls a new Polaris Razor, which is a side by side utility vehicle that they have been wanting for a year now.

So, sorry, no progress on the current universal trip planning for a few weeks.

 

[unsinkable]

I really enjoyed your trip report!

I want to take my family to US specifically for WWoHP and yours is the first trip report I have read. It sounds so great! I am headed to the library to get a "Everything Other Than Disney World" Orlando travel book b/c your trippie has me so excited.

I have 2 teens and a tween and we have only been to Disney so this is a big change for us. It sounds like we can stay just at US and do a ton of stuff, right?

I have a child with a medical condition that affects her but isn't noticable to others. I really like your matter-of-fact way of dealing with your child's situation. It is inspiring to me to read. Thanks for that!

 

[alamashdar]

Great TR!!! Love the details!

 

[wwessing]

I really enjoyed your trip report!

I want to take my family to US specifically for WWoHP and yours is the first trip report I have read. It sounds so great! I am headed to the library to get a "Everything Other Than Disney World" Orlando travel book b/c your trippie has me so excited.

I have 2 teens and a tween and we have only been to Disney so this is a big change for us. It sounds like we can stay just at US and do a ton of stuff, right?

I have a child with a medical condition that affects her but isn't noticable to others. I really like your matter-of-fact way of dealing with your child's situation. It is inspiring to me to read. Thanks for that!

Glad you had the time to read my trip report! Makes the time it took to create it worthwhile when others read it and pick up the information they are looking for.

If you are interested in books, I would highly recommend Universal Orlando 2010 - The Ultimate Guide To The Ultimate Theme Park Adventure by author Kelly Monoghan. I have purchased a couple of the editions and took the most current one on our 2008 trip. I'm kind of holding out for the 2011 before I purchase again since we will be going next spring. I also purchased a book titled The Other Orlando. . . same author. It is where we discovered the awesome go-cart tracks as described in my trippie. Kelly recommended The Dessert Lady, which if you recall, is where we picked up those oh so sinful creations early on our trip. Plus, there is great information about SeaWorld, etc in that book.

I have been to Universal staying off-site because I didn't know about the on-site hotels then, and we stayed, as you know, at HRH. Seriously, I doubt if we would go if we couldn't afford to stay on-site. It makes a difference that I can't accurately desribe because it's one of those things that you just have to experience to truly appreciate. Knowing how it is to visit the parks while staying on-site vs the other options, not sure our family could go back to staying off-site.

DH wants to visit Magic Kingdom on our upcoming trip, and I'm still resistive, both in mind and spirit, not only because of the horrible experience we had on our last visit, but because I know we won't have the perks there that we will at Universal. I'm trying to get my mind around it so I can go without negative expectations. . . but it's certainly a struggle at this point. I will manage to open my mind before that day comes, so I can enjoy the experience with my family and not go looking for what is wrong, rather than all that is wonderful (ooohh. . . I so gagged on that ). So seriously, I know it's a wonderful place, otherwise why would people flock there by the millions, drop all that dough and then live for their next visit?? I really, really want that experience too. . . . .

So thanks again for reading and I wish you the best trip ever.

 

[wwessing]

Great TR!!! Love the details!

Thanks! Very happy you enjoyed!!

 

[unsinkable]

Glad you had the time to read my trip report! Makes the time it took to create it worthwhile when others read it and pick up the information they are looking for.

If you are interested in books, I would highly recommend Universal Orlando 2010 - The Ultimate Guide To The Ultimate Theme Park Adventure by author Kelly Monoghan. I have purchased a couple of the editions and took the most current one on our 2008 trip. I'm kind of holding out for the 2011 before I purchase again since we will be going next spring. I also purchased a book titled The Other Orlando. . . same author. It is where we discovered the awesome go-cart tracks as described in my trippie. Kelly recommended The Dessert Lady, which if you recall, is where we picked up those oh so sinful creations early on our trip. Plus, there is great information about SeaWorld, etc in that book.

I have been to Universal staying off-site because I didn't know about the on-site hotels then, and we stayed, as you know, at HRH. Seriously, I doubt if we would go if we couldn't afford to stay on-site. It makes a difference that I can't accurately desribe because it's one of those things that you just have to experience to truly appreciate. Knowing how it is to visit the parks while staying on-site vs the other options, not sure our family could go back to staying off-site.

DH wants to visit Magic Kingdom on our upcoming trip, and I'm still resistive, both in mind and spirit, not only because of the horrible experience we had on our last visit, but because I know we won't have the perks there that we will at Universal. I'm trying to get my mind around it so I can go without negative expectations. . . but it's certainly a struggle at this point. I will manage to open my mind before that day comes, so I can enjoy the experience with my family and not go looking for what is wrong, rather than all that is wonderful (ooohh. . . I so gagged on that ). So seriously, I know it's a wonderful place, otherwise why would people flock there by the millions, drop all that dough and then live for their next visit?? I really, really want that experience too. . . . .

So thanks again for reading and I wish you the best trip ever.

Thanks, again! You're so helpful.

I hope the MK portion of your trip works out. I'm sending good thoughts!