“Life is Grand, it Yacht to be, we are at Disney! 1/29 New TR link, a question, and this TR is complete!

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in for all the fun!

So glad to have you here! We had a great trip with a few bumps along the way, pretty standard for long trips!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Can't wait to read all about your summer trip! Sounds like everything started off just right.

Thanks for joining in! I’m worried about your trip, the ticker says you leave tomorrow, are you going with Dorian out there? If so I hope it is just fine and you have a great trip!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! I recently started reading TRs and yours have been some of my favorites! I mostly do Disney trips with my mom, so I love reading about mom-daughter trips . We are doing a Disney and Universal trip together in a few months so I'm sure I will get lots of ideas from your TR!

That shuttle trip would have had me panicking inside . Glad to hear the airport security went quickly, I'm from Minneapolis and I know the airport has been going through some security location changes...I'll probably get there extra early for our next trip.

Thank you so much for following along! I’m so happy you enjoy reading along and you travel with your mom

Yes, The MSP airport had major construction at the TSA areas, it did go fairly quickly, we do have TSA precheck for all flights so this really can be a time saver. I don’t recommend only having a hour before your flight leaves! It did work for us and I hate sitting around the airport. We fly out of Duluth in the winter and it literally takes 15 minutes to check in and go through security!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Oh my goodness.....I hate when anyone is late, or makes me late, so yes, I`d have been ill thinking we might not make it!!!! Thank goodness it worked out.....seeing long queues at airports are horrible though! Glad you have precheck......

But, sounds like a fabulous departure day....aside the turbulence, which I strangely love......lol......I know......crazy!!!

Portofino Bay is a lovely hotel, happy you liked it and were pleased with where your room was! And Sal`s too!!! Yay........

FJ can knock me a little funny too at times, sometimes I can only do it once.....on an empty stomach isn't good for me! But, so glad your visit was fun and yes, EP is priceless!!!! Wouldn't be without it.......

So much looking forward to your next day in The Studios!!!!

I was a little nervous, I have done this shuttle to airport many times and normally we end up sitting around the airport for almost 2 hours and that is why I lived on the edge this time!

I don’t mind a little turbulence but a couple years ago we literally dropped unexpectedly and a flight attendant broke her arm! It was so fricken scary, I am now nervous it will happen again!

I think being hungry and tired with my ears a little plugged caused my queasiness, it was way more than I have ever felt on the ride!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! This looks to be fun!

So glad to have you here, it should be a fun time!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Signing up again!
Portofino Bay looks great. I’ve never stayed in a Universal Resort but it’s impressive.
I really like the Spider-Man ride too. But it reminds me how much in Universal is actually Disney property now, especially after the Fox merger.

Yay Glad to have you joining in again, Thanks!

We did enjoy the resort, we were only there the 1 night so not an expert by any means but it was nice!

Spider-Man is still one of my all time favorites at US/IOA!

 

[suse66]

We were in Orlando a little early, this is always a plus! We headed down to pick up our luggage. I love the Delta app, it tells you when your luggage is on the plane and when it is on the carousel. We ordered a Lyft to take us to Portofino Bay, our driver looked like Jon Snow! We arrived and checked in by 6:15pm, not bad!

The Hotel was beautiful and our room was on the lobby floor and not far from it. We had a pool view! We dropped our luggage off and headed to the boat dock. I love the boat rides here. The Captain’s are so nice and who doesn’t like listening to Sweet Caroline, my song!

Not a bad travel day at all, even with a few little hiccups!

We ordered a Margherita Pizza from Sals and it was delicious! I forgot to take a picture of it. We took it to go and ate in our room and got ready for bed! We had a wonderful day overall!

Gorgeous room and it looks like you had a fun night!

 

[DouglasE]

Thankfully, your journey to Orlando ended up being uneventful. While I don't mind turbulence, there is a point when it no longer becomes fun for me. Once the flight crew have to strap themselves in , no thank you.

I don't know why it is, but a nice bathroom always impresses me. I really liked your room's bathroom at Portofino. Also, your pictures seemed to indicate a larger, roomier room. If that is the case, then kudos to you. Looking forward to hearing about more details of your trip. Your initial description of your plans included things that I will be neglecting on my October trip, so it will make for great reading.

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Thanks for joining in! I’m worried about your trip, the ticker says you leave tomorrow, are you going with Dorian out there? If so I hope it is just fine and you have a great trip!

Thanks! We are leaving a day early (today) hoping to beat the storm. I've heard the new TSA lines at MSP are ridiculous too, so we are planning to be there 3 hours early

 

[Steppesister]

You're just too cute, Girly!

We have found each time we go now in August, it is getting more crowded, grrrr!

And too hot!

Perfection. Nothing better than this!

 

[sheri18]

Joining in

 

[disneyAndi14]

Not a bad travel day at all, even with a few little hiccups!

It was pretty successful overall, we have had some bad ones. I was glad we didn’t have any problems with our timing!

Gorgeous room and it looks like you had a fun night!

The room was very nice and big! I loved how roomy it was, it did remind me a little of the GF.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Yay sleep!

Those middle of the night wake ups are brutal even when Disney is the destination

Oo no! I would've been in a major panic.

It was a little nerve racking especially without any cushion time!

That's really nice. I don't think we've ever flown delta

I really like the app and the airline!

I really want to meet the troll that farts glitter and Mike thinks I'm crazy lol

I agree, so cute and funny!

Sounds like another fun trip!

It was a hot trip! We did have a lot of fun despite the large crowds, boo!

What? Oh, no! That would make me super tense! I always drive to the airport and park there so I on't have to worry about any of that. I'm glad you made it there in time!

I don't think I knew you were going to UO. Can't wait to hear all about it!

We always take this shuttle and I knew it takes exactly 2hr 30 minutes to get to the airport so I decided to live on the edge, it was a little stressful when I realized I didn’t really give us much if any cushion time!

great pics thanks for sharing!

Nothing better than Orlando and Disney to decompress the stress from working in a hospital!

We also love Portofino!

And Thanks for joining in! Our Disney/US trips are such a nice change to the everyday work stress, ugh!
Portofino Bay was a great resort.

I'm with you. I hate those 3 am wake ups for flights. I vowed never to do it again and my next 2 trips have much better departure times. This lady needs her sleep!!!

I do hate them, I get no sleep! I unfortunately did it to us in January, we leave at 5:15am, kill me now, lol!!

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip with Andi!

Hi Fallon! , thanks for joining in! Glad to have you here!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I would have been freaking out with the shuttle fiasco . I am a nervous air traveler. I make my family get to the airport early so we won’t miss our flight . I fly direct if possible - luckily , we live in Atlanta so most of the time this is possible. We had connecting flights on our last family vacation and sweated it out both ways. I kept trying to tell myself the airlines do this everyday .

I am going to Universal in Nov so looking forward to that part of your TR . FJ got me last time ( and the Hulk too ) when I went on an empty stomach. ( I was excited and running late for early entry ). Lesson learned .

I have flown so much and I knew in my mind we would be fine except I didn’t really plan for delays! I do think you need a little more cushion time even with TSA pre check! We always have to connect from our smaller airport in Duluth or we have to shuttle 2.5 hours to Minneapolis. Connection can be stressful especially if flights are delayed, ugh!!

I think I got queasy because we were hungry and my ears were a little plugged from the flight! I am so scared of Hulk and Rip Ride Rocket, I won’t go on either of those, lol! I really enjoy US/IOA, fun parks. I do find some rides are very similar so we have never stayed more than 2-3 days there. We get everything done in that time. I would like to take it slower there sometime and spend more time on all the details and City Walk.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi! Longtime lurker joining in! I have enjoyed reading many of your trip reports and wanted to let you know that your trips with Andi inspired me. My DH is not a big Disney fan, so I stopped dragging him along and last year I started taking my 2 daughters on my own to WDW. They are almost 11 and 14 now, and I hope we are still taking these trips together when they are Andi's age and older!

So nice to have you join in! I’m so glad you and your daughters are enjoying Disney! This trip Andi was sentimental and she kept saying I can’t believe how many memories we have from our Disney trips. I hope your daughters continue to like it as they get older. I think they will because of all the memories!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Portofino is so pretty, I love those rooms! I also like King Kong to a point as I miss the original Kong ride.

Express pass is expensive but great to have! Ugh Hagrid's, I should be able to ride in Dec. but the lines are crazy not to mention the staggered opening times and days it doesn't open in the morning

I really liked the resort, it really made you feel like you were in a little seaside Italian town!
The EP is so nice to have, I did get an AP rate for the hotel and this did help, it still was expensive for 1.5 days at Universal. I thought for sure we would get on Hagrid’s at some point but it was crazy and down several times!
I remember the original Kong ride and I also loved the Jaws ride!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi hi hi, I'm here! Wouldn't miss it!

Karamie!! So glad you are here!

What do you mean? it's so easy!

Yes being a nurse is such a stress free job!

Having Dad pay for everything alleviates my stress too

You lucky girl!!

Cute look!

Thank you, that skirt was so nice for Florida weather, I really liked it!

Security lines are always so stressful!

MCO is terrible, the TSA agents are liked the militia! Lol!

My friend would have died!

He was dreamy, a little young for me, haha!

Portofino is so lovely! The room looked really nice too!

It really was nice, I wish we had more time there!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Hi there! Figured I'd be on time to your report since I'm so behind on everyone else's Can't wait to hear more about your adventures. Certainly seems like the weather got slightly better for you all. We had heat indexes of 110 the early part of the trip and a storm every day. You are so right on the crowds. They were much higher than I remembered the last few Augusts being. I wondered if the Star Wars previews ended up bringing more people in.

Hi Kari, Glad to have you here! Wow it was hotter for you wasn’t it. Here I thought our feels like temps of 102 were bad
I was really disappointed with the crowd levels, it usually is our one time out of the year the crowds are usually low! I agree with you, the SW previews brought a lot of people down! The Halloween party was so crowded, worse than the media first party last year and this one wasn’t even sold out, Disney really oversold this one!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Thankfully, your journey to Orlando ended up being uneventful. While I don't mind turbulence, there is a point when it no longer becomes fun for me. Once the flight crew have to strap themselves in , no thank you.

I don't know why it is, but a nice bathroom always impresses me. I really liked your room's bathroom at Portofino. Also, your pictures seemed to indicate a larger, roomier room. If that is the case, then kudos to you. Looking forward to hearing about more details of your trip. Your initial description of your plans included things that I will be neglecting on my October trip, so it will make for great reading.

Nice to have you joining in! The bathroom was so nice and big, I really liked it! The room was much larger than some I have stayed in! We did many different things this trip and it was fun to add new things!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Thanks! We are leaving a day early (today) hoping to beat the storm. I've heard the new TSA lines at MSP are ridiculous too, so we are planning to be there 3 hours early

Have a wonderful trip, crowds should be so nice and low!