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

[wwessing]

Great report!

Hey. . .glad you're here! Got any 411 on that shopping dilema I described?? I'm guessing you don't do much souvenir shopping. . . .but you know about everything else, so, come on, give up the good stuff!!

 

[macraven]

still more days coming on the report wendy?


i'm waiting.

 

[ky07]

Great trip report

 

[wwessing]

still more days coming on the report wendy?


i'm waiting.

There is just one more day, Saturday, at Universal. Sunday and Monday were travel days, which I will include just to be complete. My goal is to finish up this weekend.

 

[wwessing]

Great trip report

Thanks Lawrence! Glad you are enjoying it.

 

[Thadine]

Hi,

I am scrolling through the Universal/IOA stuff trying to get a few tips for our upcoming vacation and I found your trip report.
Thanks for all the great tips, I really enjoyed reading your detailed report.
Hopefully you will get a chance to finish it.

We will be eating at Margarithaville and Emerill's too but I think we will skip Bush.
I am not a roller coaster person so I am not sure that I will enjoy spending a whole day there.
We also decided to go see the Blue man group.

Thadine

 

[donaldduck352]

Thats the great thing about TR"s you get a feel of the resort and plan accordingley!!

 

[wwessing]

Hi,

I am scrolling through the Universal/IOA stuff trying to get a few tips for our upcoming vacation and I found your trip report.
Thanks for all the great tips, I really enjoyed reading your detailed report.
Hopefully you will get a chance to finish it.

We will be eating at Margarithaville and Emerill's too but I think we will skip Bush.
I am not a roller coaster person so I am not sure that I will enjoy spending a whole day there.
We also decided to go see the Blue man group.

Thadine

Glad you enjoyed my report. We loved Busch Gardens, and we didn't ride any coasters. There's alot to do, especially if you have animal lovers in your family. I will say, however, when we return, we will likely skip Busch Gardens for an extra day at Aquatica. We feel like we really explored BG, but didn't so much at Aquatica. We will go back to BG, definitely, but probably not until the kids are a little older so they can enjoy it from a different perspective next time.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[wwessing]

I've finally finished another day of our trip. Yep, on the ball. . . . amazing, isn't it?

I've got the text completed and saved, now I'm uploading the pics to photobucket. . .which is taking FOREVER!!!! I should be able to post, complete with pics, in a couple hours

 

[macraven]

I've finally finished another day of our trip. Yep, on the ball. . . . amazing, isn't it?

I've got the text completed and saved, now I'm uploading the pics to photobucket. . .which is taking FOREVER!!!! I should be able to post, complete with pics, in a couple hours

and................


i set the timer on my microwave to go off 2 hours from now.....








we will see you then, won't we.....

 

[wwessing]

Photobucket is taking SO much longer than I expected. I've got tons of pics left to download, but just for Mac, I'm going to post the report and add the rest of the pictures later.

I'll be breaking it up into several posts to allow for later addition of my photos. . . here it is.


May 3, 2008
Saturday – The Final Day (besides traveling home that is)

Today is our last day at Universal. We are up early, have breakfast in the room and dressed to go. It’s a full day of Island’s today. . . . or was supposed to be. DH says he wants to go back to the Studios so he can ride the Simpson’s. After heaving a heavy put-upon sighing sound, I agree and off we go.

Once off the water taxi, up the stairs and into the Studios without much of a wait at the turnstiles. By the way, we had no problems with the ticket readers the entire time we were here. Straight back to the Simpson’s. . . . . whoa. . . there’s already a huge wait time and it’s only minutes after opening! I’m not waiting in that line and dd11 doesn’t want to go on it either.

We agree where to meet in an hour (as I laugh) and dh gets in line with the other kids. Dd11 and I go off to ride MIB. It was walk on with our fotl and we had a blast. Can’t remember scores for this ride, but I know it was nothing to note here. I was so busy trying to remember all the tips I had read about, I forgot to shoot!! What a goof. . .

After the ride, dd said she wasn’t feeling so well. We checked out the MIB gift shop for a few, bought some water and a snack ($5.15) and went to sit in the shade for a few. Dd still didn’t feel very good after a while, so we went to get a bottle of coke hoping that would help settle her stomach. She wanted to go to the Curious George area and maybe splash around a little, so we headed over. Uuuuummmmm, what the heck is that rope doing there blocking this whole section?? Into the Cartoon Store we went to ask about it and were told that area doesn’t open until later. I won’t even get into this, other than to say while I understand a little that this part of the park is not yet busy, we should be able to have use of the entire park when we want to. No rides were closed for refurb, it simply wasn’t open yet. I don’t recall any signs saying the park opens at 9:00, except for this section. . . . .

So forced to do something else, we looked around in the cartoon store and found my grandson the cutest little t-shirt! ($16.99 and sent to HRH. . . I love this feature).


(Pictures coming soon!!)

 

[wwessing]

May 3, 2008
Saturday – The Final Day (besides traveling home that is)

*Continued*

By now it’s time to head back to Simpson’s to see if the rest of the family is finished (insert chuckle). We find a seat in the shade and wait. Actually, it wasn’t too long before they came off the ride. The wait time sign was pretty accurate, short by about 18 minutes. Dd15 doesn’t feel so well now. She apparently didn’t take the motion sickness medication I had given to her that morning. Oops, left it lying on the table. . . . . Ok, but no whining allowed now. The real story is she didn’t want to take it because she got upset with me over something like socks or shoes. . .yeah, that was it. . . she wanted to wear cheap old worn down flip flops she used at the pool for walking around the parks all day and we vetoed that choice and had her put on her walking shoes which we paid a crap load for just a couple weeks prior to vacation. I guess she thought she’d show me by not taking the medication. . . . . . (another big sigh). So now we have 2 kids not feeling well, and one by her own design. If she would have told me she didn’t take the pill, I would have given her another I had in my baggallini and she wouldn’t now be feeling motion sick. She stopped being angry about 10 minutes after she put her shoes on, but didn’t want to admit she left the pill on the table. Insert image of me pulling on my hair imagining myself shaking her until her brain kicks in. Instead, we told dd’s 15 & 11 they could sit outside MIB while we went through. They agreed and we headed back over, left them in some shade and walked on again with our beautiful, wonderful and amazing fotl pass. We had tons of fun and were back with the sickies in a snap. We walked our way toward the front gates, riding a couple things here and there (sickies excluded) so we could go over the Islands. Dh stopped for a Powerade ($3.00).

On the way to Islands, Dh wants to go into Hard Rock Café to look at the merchandise. We purchase a couple of t-shirts as gifts ($20.24 each after AAA discount and have them sent to our hotel).

It’s getting busy now, being a Saturday and all, and we hustle to Islands of Adventure, through the gates without much wait and start exploring. Seuss Land is amazing. I know you have all heard that before, but it’s one of those things that you just have to see for yourself. We took some random pics here and there, stopped for some Goose Juice and some Moose Juice ($8.08 for 2 smalls) and continue exploring. Rode some rides and kids are getting hungry, except for Dd15 who is still complaining about feeling sick and her sunburn is bothering her. We go to The Enchanted Oak for lunch.

This is a way cool place, and cafeteria style. I really wanted to go to Mythos, but no one else did at that moment and we had really splurged at Emeril’s. So, cafeteria style it was for lunch, which I didn’t mind so much. We got the chicken & rib platter, smoked chicken platter and enchanted hamburger platter, plus an extra ear of corn and a refill on our drink. We used our AAA card for a discount ($3.37) which made our total $32.35. We found a table and sat.

Kids seemed to be withering in this hot, Florida sun and I suppose it was good that vacation is coming to a close.

Random pics. . .

 

[wwessing]

May 3, 2008
Saturday – The Final Day (besides traveling home that is)

*Continued*

After lunch, we wander and ride a bit. Dh wants a churro, so stops for one ($3.19) and a refill on the drink (.74). We go to the Mulberry Street Store to pick up another t-shirt for Alex aka Bubby my grandson and find something really cute, of course. It was $15.95 on the rack and after AAA discount and tax the total was $15.29. DH wants to go into the Trading Company and finds a shirt for himself. I believe it was the first for him and with the lovely AAA discount, we are out of there for $18.16.

You guys know what this is. . . .

We are still wandering and riding, but dd11 has gotten her shorts all wet is getting a rash from the heat and the wet and dh stops and picks her up some cool sponge bob shorts at Port Provisions ($9.58 with AAA). By this time, it’s around 5:00, dd15 can’t take it anymore and dh wants to spend more time.

The other two want to stay with their dad, so I take dd15 and we head back to HRH for a rest before going to dinner at Bubba Gumps.

Dh and dd’s had a lot of fun. Rode a lot more and stopped for a lemon slush and soda refill ($4.56) and also picked up 3 Thing t-shirts and Cats, Hats and Things. They got red 1, 2 & 3 shirts. Total for all 3 was $57.37 after AAA discount. Dh had also picked up a few other t-shirts. Some for the girls and maybe himself, for a total of $79.37 after, of course, AAA discount of 10%.

The Spidey in the foreground of this picture is a live person. Dh and the girls thought it was a manequin, like the other one, but then he moved! They said it was waaaay cool!

Here's another with live Spidey in a different position and the girls just below him

After dh and girls get back, they rest for a few, clean up and we are back on the boat to City Walk. We absolutely loved that boat ride. The walk was very nice, the path beautiful and interesting, but we just loved, loved, and loved the water taxis. They just seemed to start, and end the day exactly right.

Once on City Walk, we realize it is PACKED! There were groups wandering around and all the restaurants were so busy. We HAD to go to Bubba Gumps because of the gift cards I had purchased prior to vacation. There are no BG’s where we live and we would have wasted $100 if we hadn’t gone that night. So, we have no choice but to suck it up, put our name on the list and wait for 90 minutes. Dh went to get a drink and dd’s and I found some much coveted bench space just as another family was called to be seated. We realized that there were LOTS of younger kids. Still not sure what type of group they were, but there were over 100 of them, all waiting for BG’s seating. . . yikes!!! If we would have had a choice, at that point we would have gone elsewhere. We knew it was going to be crazy with all those kids. Anyway, it was after 9:00 before we were seated and, yup, all those loud, giggling, messy children were seated all over the restaurant. Had the servers running like crazy because basically they all were seated at once. We ordered our drinks after waiting like 10 minutes without anyone acknowledging we were there. Finally they arrive and we are ready with our order. Not letting our very harried waitress get away again. By this point, dh is starving and grumpy, as were the kids. The girls all ordered Kid’s Shrimp ($5.29 each), I ordered Bourbon Mahi Mahi ($17.75) and dh ordered the rest of the menu . . . . . ok, seriously he ordered Run Across America ($13.99) and some garlic peel and eat shrimp ($23.98) that was supposed to be an appetizer for the family. I also ordered a drink called Pearadise ($7.95) and the others soda ($2.65 each).

Dh didn’t get his shrimp until the other entrée’s were served, which made him very unhappy since he requested before. Salads were late and right before entrée’s . . . basically the kitchen, and servers, were a mess due to that giant group that came in right before us. Halfway through our meal, they really started leaving and the kitchen and staff seemed to get back on track. Nevertheless, it was too late for our service to be what we expected. The food was ok, not what we had been expecting either, but we were very hungry and tired by this time and just wanted to eat and relax. The bill was $97.44 before tip. I don’t know what dh tipped, but I know it wasn’t one of his famous 25% tips. The server, which overwhelmed, was not friendly or patient. She did not listen to, or meet our requests, which weren’t many considering. Dinner was dumped on our table and a manager came by once to ask about drink refills. No apology from anyone for the poor showing and I’m guessing dh left around 12 – 15% tip. I probably would not have been that generous. A simple apology for all the problems would have gone a very long way toward improving our service. Anyway, we realize this was an unusual event, though dh thinks that they probably encounter large groups all the time and should be prepared, considering that there are lots of groups that go to the parks. It makes sense they would go to the restaurants as well. We still love Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and will return.


(I've got food porn for this section)

 

[wwessing]

May 3, 2008
Saturday – The Final Day (besides traveling home that is)

* continued - one more time*

We walked around City Walk, did a little shopping for a couple last minute items we wanted for our mother’s. The Endangered Species shop has some very nice merchandise. We found some things there which were surprisingly reasonably priced. . . and other things that were waaaaayyyy expensive.

Dh wanted a cinnabon to take back to HRH with him, so we stopped in there and he picked up a Pecanbon to go ($3.73 with AAA disc.) He also picked up a couple drinks and the girls wanted a couple churro’s as well ($9.12). While they were sitting and munching their snack, they all noticed a kiosk where they were doing henna tattoos and hair wraps.

Dd’s 9 & 11 both wanted their hair wrapped and dd15 wanted a tattoo. . . . geez, how did I know that was coming? Dh told them they could, so we got right in as the wrap lady was just finishing up with her customer. Dd 9 picked her colors and a couple beads and off she went. It was interesting to watch, but took forever.

My girls have long hair and they charge by the inch. Dd9 had 13 inches wrapped and dd11 had 14. While dd 11 was getting her wrap, dd15 got her henna tattoo on her ankle.

It was cute, but ended up not lasting as long as they said it should.

Anyway, they all loved it, so that’s what matters, right. . . .total was $66.62 and I think dh tipped, but not sure.

We watched a live band or two while waiting for hair wraps, and that was enjoyable.

It’s after midnight and definitely time to go back to HRH for our final night. The water taxi line was the longest we had seen it, but we got right on the next boat to HRH and headed back. Girls dragged themselves to the room and grudgingly changed into pj’s. Turn down was completed, so we were able to get settled in. No bookkeeping for me that night, and it’s lights out.

Tomorrow – departure day and breakfast at The Kitchen.

 

[macraven]

you know homie, my timer went off hours ago and i couldn't for the life of me remember why i set it..........


then when i was making dinner, it came to me.

i am glad i found you here busy working on the trippie.....

 

[macraven]

good thing i waited around.....

yay.......more trippie and more pictures.....


i'll keep checking back later this evening....



did you do the breakfast buffet at the Kitchen?
i did and loved it.
i was stuffed in the late afternoon after i pigged out there.....

 

[wwessing]

good thing i waited around.....

yay.......more trippie and more pictures.....


i'll keep checking back later this evening....



did you do the breakfast buffet at the Kitchen?
i did and loved it.
i was stuffed in the late afternoon after i pigged out there.....

Your jumping the gun on me Mac. . . what. . . Christmas isn't soon enough to hear about Sunday, travel home day??????

Ok. . .ok. . .since you have been so faithful and not complained a bit rolleyes1), here's a teaser. . . .

Yep, we did the Kitchen for breakfast and loved it. The food was wonderful, the selection overwhelming, and the service perfect. Even the juice was very good . . . . and, in our experience, you don't find that very often. There were the cutest little bottle of hot sauce (Tabasco) I've ever seen!! We totally pigged out, knowing we had a very, very long day ahead of us.

There was one not so good moment when we first got there. . . but more on that later.

 

[macraven]

okey dokey....


i'll be patient and wait for the rest of your trippie.


that's what a nice homie i am..........

 

[wwessing]

I'm just going to finish this up. I don't have any travel home pics, other than the few I took of the girls playing around the fountain while waiting for dh to load up the luggage. I'll post those later.

Sunday, May 4

Our last morning here. We travel home today. If you remember from the beginning of this trippie, we drove straight through. We decided that was not going to happen on the return trip, as it was just too exhausting. We have no plans on where we will stop and no reservations (eeewww, the thought. . . . ), but we are going to enjoy our last minutes at HRH.

Up early, pack up, which doesn't take too long. Make sure I have all the little bottles of goodies to take back to our food pantry (they are always looking for those items to put with people's food orders), and dh calls for our luggage to go down.

After the luggage has been picked up, we go down to the Kitchen for breakfast. We had a free breakfast for each of us coming, so that was a bright spot in the day. Sorry, but I don't know how much the breakfast buffet is there, however I do know it is not inexpensive. . . especially if you are not a big breakfast eater. It so happens that we all love breakfast, so are ready to chow, plus we know it's a looooonnng way home and fast food is pretty much going to be the only meals we have for the next 48.

We go to the Kitchen and enter from the patio. The hostess asks us if we went to sit inside or out, and I reply "inside". She is looking at dh and has this funny look on her face and said to me "well, I hope we aren't going to have a little dispute over where to sit" and I was like "huh?". She said "HE is shaking his head no to sitting inside". I turn to look at my husband, because it is certainly unlike him to want to sit outside, in the already blazing sun and sweat through breakfast. So, I turn to see why he wants to sit outside, and he's like "I didn't say anything. . .I want to sit inside." The hostess responded "I didn't make that up, sir, you were shaking your head NO, were you not?". He said No, I was not shaking my head no and she rolled her eyes.

Ok, at this point she has been more than rude and I'm pissed (oops, that will get censored). What I have not said previous to this, because it is not an issue for us, ever, is that my husband has something called Essential Tremors. His head tremors. Sometimes it kind of looks like palsy, but only not. . . clear as mud now?? Honestly, it didn't even dawn on me what she was saying, and I didn't even connect his tremors with her thinking he was purposely saying no. . . but let me say that when I did, I was no longer pissed about her rudeness. . . .I WAS FURIOUS!!!! First of all, it is clear that he isn't shaking his head no. . . you don't just stand there and shake your head continually for maybe 90 seconds when you are saying no. Second, even after he said he wasn't saying no, she insisted, and his head was still tremoring. My response to her was "Oh, you have mistakenly pointed out my husband's Essential Tremor issue, which, by the way, he has no control over, and made a big deal out of it with your ever-so-friendly and welcoming attitude. So perhaps you can seat us now before the OTHER half of the restaurant thinks my TREMORING husband is being obnoxious - and yes, we do want to go inside!" To her credit, she immediately realized how furious I was, turned fire red from hairline to neckline and apologized as she seated us. Dh was like, it's ok, really, we just want to get some breakfast now. I was still angry, though she did apologize, and maybe was having a bad day. It was not acceptable and I hope she learned from the experience. I won't go on any further with this, but I will say that the on-duty restaurant manager came to our table, checked on us and tried to comp us the meal. I explained that we already had the meal comped, and this was our final meal at HRH, and thanked him for the gesture. He apologized again for the "situation" and I knew that the hostess had felt so bad she went to her manager and explained what happened. Likely she was horrified and she did embarrass my dh. . . which is why I got very angry. BTW, he has since gone to a specialist and takes medication which is helpful. His neurologist told us that he has one of the most severe tremors, of his type, that he had ever seen and nothing would make it completely go away, but the meds should help. . .and they do. It is not going to progress like say Parkinsons, but the tremor looks like that. Dh is fine and healthy.

So, once seated and past the drama, we head to the food stations. OMG How do you pick??? There were so many lovely choices we didn't know where to start first. I tried to stay away from the heavy, bread type items so I could sample more, but I got sooooo stuffed, I still didn't get to taste half of what was there. I snagged the little bottle of Tabasco sauce. . .it was so cute I couldn't help it . . . and took it with me. I still have it. . . can't bear to use it. Maybe I'll take a pic and post it. . . . Everyone LOVED the meal. . the food was excellent. . . the service was very good and I would recommend checking it out. I think we would go back, even if we had to pay full price for the breakfast buffet. It was the best breakfast we had during our entire trip.

After we were stuffed to the point that we needed rolled up to the parking area, we waddled our way up. Dh retrieved the van, got our luggage and the girls and I went to sit by the fountain and wait. I snapped a few pics, which I will post as soon as they upload

Then we left, sad, but tired and actually glad to be heading home, though dreading that long drive. Next trip, dd16 is going to get drugged, knocked out and tied up. . .but we are flying!!

I know we drove to Tennessee and stayed in some nasty truckers hotel. . .that's all I will say. Had some yucky fast food for dinner and again for breakfast and finally arrived home sweet home on Monday afternoon. It did take a couple days to reacclimate ourselves to "real life" and I know I was very grumpy for a few days. All those months of meticulous planning, all the money, all the anticipation. . . all gone. . . over. . . finite. I wasn't expecting the depression. . . seriously, you can laugh. . . but I think I was depressed for a few days. Then I pulled it together, got all our nearly 600 pictures printed off my digital, even put together a photo album for the kids to take to school. I limited it to 100 photos and we have some of the best memories of our lives. Definitely our favorite vacation ever and we will go back. We have since decided that we will wait a few years to return. We want to kids to have a different experience and think they will see things differently in a few years. Probably, more important, the current economy prevents us from spending that kind of money again. . .at least for another few years so that fits with our plan.

I debated with myself about sharing this information. . .but have decided to share that we spent $8,000 on this trip. I listed everywhere I could how much things cost, but I remember wishing that someone would flat out say what they spent on their vacation. We didn't HAVE to spend this much, but decided that we were not going on the cheap. I know many people go on a much, much smaller budget and have as much fun as we did. We really agreed that we were going to be able to do whatever we wanted and not have to tell our kids "no" all the time. We wanted to stay in nice places and go to all the parks we had on our list. We did all that. We didn't have to do things like go to Emeril's or rent a cabana at Aquatica. We didn't have to spend money on lot's of things that we did. . .but that is why we saved and worked our butts off (well, apparently dh is the only one who worked his butt off because mine is still extra large ). Advance planning, budgeting and saving allowed us to do what we did. Our vacation was long, we had to travel far and we did not skimp on any expenses. If our kids wanted the t-shirt, they got it. If they wanted to experience something they hadn't before, we were able to do that for them.

Dh plans to take them to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon next, and we want to take a trip to the Colorados, if you will, because we ride ATV's/motorcycles and have heard about some wonderful riding opportunities there. He also wants to take our family on a cruise. So, it looks like maybe 3-4 more years before we get to go back to Orlando. We've got enough good times to remember to hold us over I think.

Some things we would do differently would be to fly, for sure! We will probably not return to Busch Gardens on our next trip, but spend two days at Aquatica, though we loved BG and will return again, just not next time. We probably wouldn't stay for 10 days because we would eliminate so much traveling time by flying. Save ourselves 3 nights of hotels and 3 days of car rental. We will probably try one of the other on-site hotels next time and we won't stay at Nickelodeon again. Not that we didn't enjoy it, because we did. The girls loved it and had a great time. Our kids were almost too old for it last year, and will definitely have outgrown it in a few years time. We feel like maybe we "wasted" money on staying there because we went off-site every day. So we would just find a nice place with an awesome swimming pool and stay there during the days we did SeaWorld, Aquatica and next time we will definitely do swim with the dolphins at Discovery Cove. We would also probably not plan any other parks during the days we stay on-site at Universal. Basically, our schedule would work differently than this time.

I want to recommend HRH for anyone with children with special needs. This is one area where I did not provide any detail, but trust me when I say that HRH more that met our needs and without their help, I'm not so sure things would have gone as smoothly as they did. I also want to give Nickelodeon Hotel props because they were wonderful as well. Since our stay there was only 3 nights, as opposed to 6 at HRH, we probably didn't need as many accommodations, but both places worked with us wonderfully and for many months in advance. While I laid out my husband's plans for traveling with our kids, there's no way to know for sure if those trips are possible because of one of our children's special needs. How those evolve and change as she grows older, we will have to see. Unless we can find places willing to accommodate kids with special needs as we did in Orlando, we will likely not be able to make those trips. For those of you who know what I'm talking about. . . well, you understand where I'm coming from.

We thank God every day for our special child(ren) and for our ability to travel a bit and have adventures like we did last Spring.

Thanks to all you homies who helped along the way and I hope that I can pay it forward with this trippie.

 

[wwessing]

Ok, all pictures have been added and my trippie is complete!!! Hope lots of folks enjoy it and find it helpful. Always available to answer questions.