I Won a Trip to Sea World !?! Well then, we're going to Universal too! 12/19 - 12/24/15 - All Done!

[IckyMickey]

Day 4 Tues 12/22, Islands of Adventure - Part 6

After the Accelatron we headed over to Doctor Doom’s Fearfall – which rockets you 150’ into the air. Like I said, I don’t really like heights and will skip the Giant Drop at Great America – 20 stories – 227 feet, but this one didn’t look so bad. DS13 didn’t want to ride it – he said he felt a little dizzy from the last ride, but I’m not sure if it was the height on this ride. So we let him sit it out and then decided he really should have rode it with us. So we rode, it and it was fun. It shoots you up and you are off your seat at the top (a fun scare) when it starts to come back down, and then shoots you up only one more time. Like Tower of Terror, but not as many times or as high. So we got off, found DS13, made him ride it, (you leave your bags right in your room) and he was like “that’s all it was?” yup, mom knows best.

We then rode Spiderman. This was our 1st 3D ride we ever went on – back in 2001 – and loved it so we were excited to go on it again. It was pretty much a walk on with our express pass, otherwise the wait was 60 minutes. As we were waiting to get on, we saw this man try to get his small son on that we all knew wasn’t tall enough to ride. The worker measured for clarity and said no, but they could do a child swap. The man just got really angry and stormed out. He waited an hour, why didn’t he just child swap instead of leaving? I felt bad for the older kid who had to leave then too.

We looked around Toon Lagoon as we passed through recreating a few pictures we did way back in 2001.
Our Polish last name begins with "Pogo" so DH needed a picture. We are Mr. Pogo, Mrs. Pogo, Pogo, and Little Pogo.




Another throwback, hope you don't mind!



Last throwback to 2001! DS19 on DH's shoulders wouldn't look like this. lol


We got into the Jurassic Park area but never made it back to the Discovery Center. DS13 wasn’t feeling like an explorer.

They did decide to do the Jurassic Park River Adventure. We had done it at US-Hollywood and hadn’t really gotten wet, but the people coming out of this ride were soaked! I wasn’t too excited about getting drenched and we had our bags (I left my cheap poncho in the room, and the locker rental was $4!) I sent them on in – they walked on the ride with their express passes otherwise the wait was 45 minutes - and then second guessed myself. Right after they went in, two people took off some pretty nice ponchos and threw them on the top of the garbage. If I had any guts, I would have grabbed one and found them in line. Instead I tried to get my nerve up to grab one and run into the line – until a CM cleaning up garbage walked by and shoved the m down deep. Decision made for me. I decided to head across the entrance and get a soda refill since DS13 was complaining about being thirsty. Well, it took as long for me to get a refill as it did for them to ride – about 15 minutes! OMG – every person in line in front of me was ordering about 5 items each – turkey legs, pretzels, and hot dogs – oh my! I got my $1.06 refill and walked over to the exit and they were coming towards me laughing and soaked, so I was ok with missing it. DS19 said they were front heavy since all 3 were sitting in the front. Lol They all had fun but DH said the animatronics are getting old, but DS13 thought it was great.


Since they were wet, we headed over to Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls and they express passed it again – DH said it was still about 15 minutes or so to get on the ride, but the regular wait was over an hour. I found some ground to sit on and got out my camera ready to take a picture if I could actually spot them. I did! So I got a good spot at the railing and took a few action shots. They came out drenched again and had a lot of fun. DH thought it was almost the same ride as Splash Mountain, but still fun.

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 4 Tues 12/22, Islands of Adventure - Part 8 - the last one

** Here's where I start getting wordy. Hope I don't bore you!


That was about 4:25 so walked back to RPR (I hate that walk although it was rather short), got on our swimsuits, and headed down to the pool. DS13 saw they were making icee’s - they were free, picked his flavor and got one. He thought the workers were very funny as they were younger and bickering about boys vs girls being hard to work with.


We then headed over to the hot tub, although DS13 would rather have played football in the pool. We had a nice chat with some other people who told us all about the activities at the resort and pool area. Apparently if you stay and play some of the family games at the resort, and you win you get an adult and kid’s drink coupon for free. They also said how good CowFish was – I had read that a lot but knew we wouldn’t be able to try it on this trip. Since we were new to the pool scene, I didn’t realize that they had people walking around taking drink and food orders and delivering them to your lounge chair or hot tub. Dang, I had known that our evening would have probably been different – lol. Plus they had a nachos at the bar that was huge – not quite as big as Margaritaville’s but still pretty darn big for about $10 I think. Instead, when we were changing into our swimsuits we found a flyer under our door for Joe’s Pizza and decided we’d order from them and hang by the pool a little more then head back to the room to get ready for an evening in the parks.


So, I called Joe’s Pizza and an Indian guy answered (I’m sure I’m not being politically correct, sorry!) This was Joe? I couldn’t understand him on my phone at all – I’m sure it had to do with my smartphone, the area, and his accent. I must have said “what?” at least 10 times – it was pretty embarrassing. I finally placed the order - The Great Deal – 1 XL / 2 topping pizza, 20 wings, plus 3 free cans of soda (why not 4?) all for $23.99. After tax and delivery charge $30 plus tip. So I ordered about 5:50 and it was delivered about 45 minutes later – they did say 45-60 minutes. They called us and let us know they would be there in 5 minutes and DH met them down at the bridge. When DH was walking back with the pizza, some lady asked him if he was from Joe’s Pizza. lol We ate in the room with no plates, and the pizza was ok and the chicken wings the same - I ordered medium spicy and I didn’t taste anything. Oh well, it filled our bellies.


We decided to do Universal tonight and again it was a very quick entry. I think we wanted to do Simpson’s again, so we headed towards it down Hollywood Blvd. We had just missed Terminator 2 3D by like 2 minutes and kept walking and ended up at the Horror Make-up Show at 7:45. What the heck, let’s go. It was so funny! Mostly because their audience volunteer was a Chinese girl who didn’t understand a lot of the directions or what was going on. She screamed when they started cutting her arm with the fake knife, and even grabbed the knife at one point. We were all cry laughing. At one point, they were doing things with fake arms and legs and the lady host said “don’t worry – these were made in China - just like you” and the girl just smiled and nodded. We walked out of there still laughing. It is only about a 15-20 minute show and we were out as the Macy’s Parade was going by.


So we made it back to the Simpson’s ride and the express line seemed long, but it really wasn’t too bad. I had one of those out of line experiences. The rest of my family had entered the line and 2 boys had jumped in front of me right before me so as we walked up the ramp, I wasn’t worried as I’d just catch up once we were stopped. Then this lady behind was kind of snotty and was like “excuse me, I’d like to catch-up to my kid’s” and I was like “that’s fine I’d like to catch up to my family too” and walked in front of her boys. CheezIts, relax lady. So we rode it again, got the front seat, but we were all like “ah” – the first time is always the best (as in the same vacation, we forgot a lot since last year.)

DS19 tried to win DH a stuffed Duff Beer at the strong man game at 8:53pm. It was 3 tries for $5. We didn’t see anyone win when we watched, but what the heck. DS19 got up to 98 – close but no Duff.



We had to hit Men-in-Black again and walked right up to loading with the express pass. We made DS19 sit in the back all by himself so we all had front row, but he was fine with that and got to use 2 guns, and beat us again… maybe with both guns.

It was finally time for Hogwarts Express – King’s Cross Station. We got there about 9:15 pm and no one was in line and we had to walk and walk and walk even though we could have just done the stairs and onto the platform. I don’t remember seeing much since we were speed walking to catch the train. We were on the train by 9:21 and had to share with 4 other people. It was a fun ride – and no walking!







Since we still had those HP express passes DH19 and I decided to use them on Forbidden Journey. We thought we were going to pass a lot of people, but there was no one there! Seriously, we didn’t need them at all except to do less walking. (that’s a positive!) DH19 and I got on, got off, and decided we didn’t like it. I don’t know if it was the pizza, but I was getting a little motion sick. I just concentrated on not getting sick on the ride and wishing it was over. That’s weird since I don’t get motion sick – I can even read in the car for hours! I really wish I would have loved it.

When we were walking to FJ, they had a Live Performance going on for The Triwizard Spirit Rally. It was a cute little show about 10 minutes long and it was the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang students. The boys first did the fighting, rolling and gymnastics routines which looked all manly, and then the girls did their dance with the ribbons which was cute. When the girls would pass the boys and make those girl sighs, the boys would make “lovey” faces at them. It was cute and I’m glad we stopped to watch them. They could have very well been in the movie, they looked and acted just like it.

While DS19 and I were on Forbidden Journey, DS13 and DH went on Dragons Challenge twice – once blue and once red. They loved it again!

I forgot, I went into the bathroom and you could hear Moaning Myrtle. I didn't know I would, so it was a fun surprise to hear her! lol

We took the Hogwart's Express - Hogsmeade Station back to US to experience the other way and then headed out of the park. DS13 and I took the boat back and the boat really fits a lot of people. Our line was pretty long but a lot of people fit on it. Another thing was that they don’t do any safety checks taking the boat back to RPR. Why not? At 10:10pm the guy right behind me was drunk and didn’t want to wait for the boat and thought they wouldn’t get on it any way and started swearing. I gave him a look since DS13 was right in front of him and he stopped but then he started whining that he wanted to get sushi and more drinks. Seriously girlfriend, it’s 10:10 and he’s drunk and slurring his words, tell him no. Plus they would have been on the boat that showed up 2 minutes later. But she didn’t, and they headed back to CityWalk. Ah, young love.


DS19 and DH walked CityWalk and looked around. They enjoyed it, but were back about 11:00.


My smartphone says I walked 10.58 miles today! My legs would agree!!!!!


So here’s what we did in a nutshell:

1. 7:40 Picture in front of IA tower
   
2. 7:50 Hogsmeade
   
3. Forbidden Journey
   
4. Flight of the Hippograff
   
5. Dragon Challenge – 2 times
6. 9:20 Butterbeer
7. Got lost – backtracked a lot
   
8. Poseidon’s Fury
   
9. Pict’s with the Lorax
   
10. 10:30 One Fish, Two Fish
    
11. 10:40 Oh the Stories You’ll Hear – with pic’s afterwards
    
12. 11:00 Mythos for lunch!
    
13. 12:00 Trolley Train Ride
    
14. 12:10 -12:37 Picture with the Grinch
    
15. 12:45 Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular
    
16. The Cat in the Hat ride
    
17. 2:05 Storm Force Accelatron
    
18. Doctor Doom’s Fearfall – 2 times
19. Spiderman
    
20. 3:15 Toon Lagoon walk through
    
21. 3:30 Jurassic Park River Adventure
    
22. 4:00 Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
    
23. 5:00 Back to the hotel for a swim
    
24. Ordered pizza for dinner
    
25. Back to Universal Studios
    
26. 7:45 Horror Make-Up Show
27. The Simpsons Ride
28. Men-in-Black
29. 9:15 Hogwarts Express – King’s Crossing Station
    
30. Forbidden Journey / Dragon Challenge
    
31. Hogwarts Express – Hogmeade’s Station

 

[schumigirl]

Nice trip report!!! How'd I miss it........enjoyed catching up.....although I skipped SW...hope you don't mind, straight to Universal part........

Lovely pictures.......the ones of your two boys in front of the snowman is lovely! You did get some lovely pics of the places and I hear you on the walking........we all do more than we think at times.......

Enjoying reading along......

 

[champagne27]

Fabulous trip report - thanks so much for taking the time to detail it! You really accomplished a lot!

 

[IckyMickey]

Nice trip report!!! How'd I miss it........enjoyed catching up.....although I skipped SW...hope you don't mind, straight to Universal part........

Lovely pictures.......the ones of your two boys in front of the snowman is lovely! You did get some lovely pics of the places and I hear you on the walking........we all do more than we think at times.......

Enjoying reading along......

Thanks schumigirl! Your trip reports are awesome. You may know your way around Orlando better than those that live there! I laughed during your TR when you said you started crying when you left your son at home. I totally would have too! Someone told me that I would eventually have to take vacations without him, but not yet. I needed to talk to DS19 everyday for the 1st month he was at college - even if it was just 2 minutes. Then he came home, left things out of place, etc, and I understood the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder." I'm still taking him on vacations though!

Fabulous trip report - thanks so much for taking the time to detail it! You really accomplished a lot!

Thank you! It's so nice to see a post other than my own. I love details, but the receipts and camera time really helped. It's fun writing, but it sure takes a lot of time. I still need to get DS19's FAFSA done! (but this is more enjoyable.) DS13 has a wrestling tournament tomorrow so I'm going to try and post Day 5 tonight.

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part I

Like the song from Adele “Hello?” I know you are out there reading. Almost all the posts are mine – but I know I haven’t read my TR 1000 times. I hope you don’t all think I’m a big cranky pants after Day 4’s whining. Lol

I forgot to add that when I used the restroom at Hogsmeade, Moaning Myrtle was talking in there. Awesome! I did add it to my TR later, but in case you had already read it I wanted to make sure you knew about it. I also know now that I missed some of the other HP special effects from the DISboard chats, but I’ll try to figure them out and list them at the end.

Weather - It was supposed to be 84 degrees today and a 30% chance of rain. I’m happy to say it didn’t rain, but it was cloudy so it didn’t feel like 84 either. I didn’t think it was humid, but my hair was gradually telling me something was up. By Day 4 it was not doing well and certainly not by Day 5. I don’t know if it’s the water in Florida, the hotel, or the humidity but the hair doesn’t lie. I’d like to say I also bought this cute Christmas shirt I wore Day 5, but gosh I look horrible in it (I had been doing proteins shakes for breakfast and lunch for 2 months, but that’s what happens when you’re on vacation.)

For those of you waiting for me to say we made it back to the pool, we didn’t. We would have loved to have had pool time (and drink time) but that wasn’t our priority. When we travel like this, it’s to see the sights and we hit it hard. I should really have done a TR last year when we did Vegas, Grand Canyon (good story there!), Disneyland, Universal, and the beach last day (also the day that DS19’s girlfriend’s house had burned down.) Except for the fire (and the crying breakdown I had in the restaurant at DL) it was wonderful. I think I would have named that TR - Wait what? DisneyLand is only 4 hours from Vegas? We're Changing our Plans!

You probably figured out by now I’m not perfect. Lol So back on track, DS13 would have especially loved pool time, but that’s why we rent a cottage on the lake for a week each summer. A week of doing nothing except reading romance novels (that’s me) and playing drinking bochee ball (adults only.) We don’t have waiters come take our food and drink orders, but we’ve got kids who need to learn those important lessons. Lol Plus some of those kids have driver’s licenses so when we order out, it’s ordering our kids to go pick up some tacos from Taco Bell. I know, I should be parent of the year! OK, Seriously back on track…



On to day #5 in the parks. The last day in the parks.

6:50am Boys – time to wake up! It’s the best they got along all week! (Actually they got along pretty good this week!)



The last day is always our catch-up and do-over day. What did we miss? What do we want to do again? It was a small list and we were flexible. We took the boat over and had a quick ride. Maybe we just made early entry – only a few minutes, but it’s something. I know that we had wanted to get a big pink donut all week, but that wasn’t our first stop.

1st Stop - Universal Studios

Revenge of the MUMMY was our first and second – 2 times in a row baby! DS19 had locker duty. There was no line so early with our express passes – loved it! We love this ride – we rode it 5 times in 3 days.

Transformers was next. Again express passed it right in and enjoyed it.

8:40 am - Finally, it was time for the Big Pink Donut. Lard Lad’s wasn’t open yet, which I don’t understand since it’s a donut shop and it’s morning. Fortunately Kwik-E-Mart and our Indian lady friend were open and had plenty of big pink donuts waiting (we only bought 1 though.) $5.32 w/tax




Embarassing story – since I’m baring my soul anyways. After the picture above, there was a small water stream coming out of the fire hydrant and I’ve got long legs so I just stepped over it. But in the middle with one leg over and the other being lifted the water pressure increases and sprays me all over the crotch area. Seriously, I just got sprayed 180 degrees from knee to knee. It wasn’t that wet, just a little embarrassing. DH said DS19 told him “mom just got sprayed in the crotch” and DH said “I know, just keep your mouth shut.” DH pointed out that it been him, I would have been rolling around on the ground in tears. Very true! Well, we are still laughing about it at home now – including me and now I need to fix my make-up.

DS19 loves Men-In-Black so we hit it one more time. He did his locker duty and walked on with our express passes. The wait wasn’t much longer on the regular side, but ours was real walk on. I’d like to report that at least 1 time I beat DS19, but that was probably only with the 100,000 bonus at the end. Lol

After that ,we headed back into Diagon Alley.

8:56 am Guess what we got??? Butterbeers! Shocker! A regular ($5.85 w/tax) and a frozen ($6.91 w/tax). The last ones – and the regular tasted bad – almost like a Diet Butterbeer. A little bit of a disappointment for our last one.


Thank you Hopping Pot!


I love this area!



The Tales of Beedle the Bard were just starting so we stood and watched. (My picture taking has really gone down hill.) It was cute with a moral of the story with 3 witches and a solider. They use puppets on sticks and I’m glad we stopped to watch it. It only last about 10 minutes if even.


9:10 am I had read about Ollivanders Wand show and we got in line and waited about 5-7 minutes. I asked the guy if we were chosen if we needed to buy the wand and he kind of rolled his eyes, but said no. We were ushered in and I believe I heard that they allow 28 people in at a time. After a little preshow, they take you back to the wizard and he positions everyone so the shorter people (DS13 & DH) were in front. I’m sure he was scoping everyone as he walked past. There was a little boy about 8 with his robe on and tattoo lightning bolt on his forehead and he got picked. It was soooo cute! Without giving too much away, the wizard picks out a few wands and has the person try them out and of course the last one is it. There was a guy next to me who took a picture with his flash at the beginning of the show and the wizard just stopped – looked at him an extra second – shook his head and said “muggle.” The boy with him was very direct when he said “put that away!” The dad was like – I didn’t know the flash was on and quickly put the camera away. lol I am so glad we went, I didn’t know what to think and really was planning on skipping it, but it was just so nice and so Harry Potter. We did wander around the shop as DS19 seemed kind of interested in getting a wand.





About 9:40 we left the store and waited for the Gringotts dragon to shoot his flame, and we waited and waited and waited, with everyone else (lots of people - you can see below.). When at 10:03 it still hadn’t shot fire, we left. We could hear the rumble, but the flame wasn’t working. Bummer!

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 2

We were hungry and I insisted on eating at the Leaky Cauldron but lunch doesn’t start there until 10:30am. I wanted HP ambience today! So we left the HP area, checked out the Fear Factor casting information.




Since the Leaky Cauldron serves lunch starting at 10:30 instead of 11:00 like other restaurants, we were happy and hungry! We went back into Diagon Alley, did some shopping, bought some stuff (I’ll show all our souvenirs at the end) and then sat in front of the menu and tried to figure out what to eat.

10:30am Leaky Cauldron – We ordered and then they seat you, and we were seated in the back and couldn’t see anything. I wasn’t that happy, I wanted to be in the main area (which had plenty of open tables) so DH went up and asked if we could move and we were seated right up by the Leaky Cauldron. The lady who moved us didn’t seem happy but I was!

Our food came very quickly.

DS19 got the Beef, Lamb and Guiness Stew with a salad for $14.37 w/tax. A combination of beef and lamb with creamy root vegetables served in a warm crusty bread bowl. He ate it all, and he said he liked it but it didn’t seem very big and I’m sure he wished it was a big burger instead.


DH ordered the Mini Pie Combo – Mini cottage pie (beef) and mini fisherman’s pie (salmon, shrimp, and cod) both in a potato crust served with a salad for $14.37 w/tax. He said it was small but he liked it. Shoot a blurry picture!


DS13 decided a Child’s Macaroni and Cheese with Grapes and apple sauce was good for him, and he was surprised the mac & cheese was so small! $7.44 w/tax. He did get dessert which I will show you shortly. Blurry again!


I got the Ploughmann’s for One. Yeah! – they do let you order it for one, but it isn’t on the menu. $10.64w/tax. A ½ of a Scotch egg (or 5 bites if you share with your family,) 3 kinds of cheese, fresh bread, miniature pickles, chutney, grilled tomato, green salad and creamy horseradish-mustard dipping sauce. Just what I wanted! Yum!


We shared 2 drinks – the Otter’s Fizzy OJ and the Peachtree Fizzing Tea – both were 5.31 w/tax. The Fizzy OJ has a cinnamon/sugar ring on the top. DS19 who loves tea liked the OJ better. Hmmm. I thought they were both interesting. Leaky Cauldron doesn’t serve any soda, so we needed to get the specialty drinks.


Our total came to $57.45. Honestly, we wouldn’t probably eat there again because of the food choices, but we agreed it was very cool!

11:01 am As I said, DS13 was still hungry after his kid’s meal and wanted an ice cream – and we were still eating. Since we had charging on all of our room key, we sent him away on his own to order and charge it. In hindsight, we didn’t give him much direction on what to do, but he came back telling us he had to sign a receipt – I think he thought he was pretty cool. He came back with this:

A Salted Caramel Blondie ice cream in a waffle cone from Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor - $6.38 w/tax. OMG – this was so YUMMY! I think DH was thinking about this all day after he had a taste.

A few more pic's of The Leaky Cauldron

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 3

11:18 am The Simpson Family was out – at least Homer, Marge and Bart. Two days ago when we couldn’t get in line, Lisa was also out. She wasn’t but we got in line anyways. This was on the to-do list since we kept missing the open line on our 1st day. It was almost our turn when Bart leaves, so we were bummed but took the picture with Homer and Marge (it was windy). About 1 person after we’re done and gone, Bart and Lisa both come out, but of course the line was closed so we couldn’t get back in for the family picture. Darn! We were not lucky with the Simpson Family!



We headed over to Terminator 2 3D and finally watched it. I don’t have a lot to say. We wanted to see it, we saw it, we didn’t need to see it again. It was kind of weird and cheesey and the live actors didn’t look like the screen actors at all. The end.

Anyways, DS19 decided he wanted to try out for Fear Factor Live and we were heading back over there since he needed to be back there at 12:20.

However, the Simpson Family was supposed to be coming out again at 12:10 and I made sure we were standing in both areas where the line could be (I had become a character stalker!) My 2nd spot was right – in the shade by Kwik-E-Mart and they were all there this time! Hurray! We were first and got our pictures at 12:15.

Homer was giving DS13 some attitude right away.









After pictures DS19 hurried over to the Fear Factor Live try-outs and we walked over to see if he would make it or not. They have you play Simon Says, do some jumping jacks and other physical activity, tell the camera why you want to be on it, do some paperwork and prove your date of birth, height and weight. Then they call you all back to the front and tell you which 5 they chose. There were only 7 trying out, but for later shows there were quite a few more. Yeah, they chose DS19! So we parted ways as he was going in to get ready for the 1:30 show.





If we walked fast, we could make the Barney Holiday Show at 12:45pn. DS13 loved Barney when he was little and didn’t mind stopping in. We made it, used our express passes just in case (there isn’t a lot of room in this area like the other shows.) They had a little preshow while standing in line, then we were let in, found a seat and the show began. It was so cute – Barney, BJ and Baby Bop were there. They sang some regular Barney songs and then Frosty the Snowman came out and sang about him. There was a special needs girl about 10-11 years old at the show and when Barney came out and sang she was crazy happy. She was just swinging her arms and dancing the whole show – it was as much fun to watch her joy as it was to watch the show. The show ended about 1:10 and we needed to get back and watch DS19. They had some reserved seats waiting for us which we didn’t want to miss. If we could have stayed, I would have definitely insisted on DS13 getting a picture with Barney. We probably could have gotten in the front of the line as Barney was near us, but I didn’t want to be pushing little kids out of the way.

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 4

So we quickly headed back to Fear Factor Live and they sent us into the handicap line to wait. Once we were let in, the family members were in the 3rd & 4th middle rows. The show started actually a little early – about 1:25 and there was a pretty big crowd! There were 5 contestants – 3 men and 2 women – one of the women was a tough mudder and looked pretty fit!




Pay attention to the cat walks on the right and left, in a few pictures...








The first challenge was hanging 40’ in the air off of a V-shaped bar. The first person to drop is eliminated from the competition. It’s probably not the fairest elimination as women usually have weaker arms then men, and that’s what happened – one of the girls dropped 1st. DS19 and another guy dropped at the same time (he said it gets really slippery cuz your hands are sweating.) The winner was the tough mudder girl! Woot for girls!




She got to choose her partner and she chose DS19! I don’t know why, maybe cuz she could only remember his name or maybe cuz he’s so cute? Lol I thought DS19 had a good chance to win. He’s smart, athletic (he did cross country, wrestling and pole vault in high school) and not afraid of anything.


As the 4 headed to the back to get ready, they had a bug challenge that you could apply for. The bug challenge was gross – 5 scorpions on the lady’s face and then a surprise at the end they bring out this special spider that can jump 20 feet and then they go to open the box and it flies into the front row – which is full of kids who were picked to help in the show. It was hysterical the way they all screamed and scattered!

View attachment 144105

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 5

Fear Factor Live Continued

The next challenge was a partner challenge. The girl was hung and swinging with a bucket and DS19 had to stick his hand in an aquarium of eels and get a bean bag from the bottom then throw it at his partner for her to catch in the bucket. (The same for the other team of 2 guys.) We were all excited, he stuck his hand in, threw it and it flew over her head by about 4 feet! I think he got 2 in and the rest were flying high. Yes, one of the very few things he isn’t good at he had to do – throwing! He played little league but still doesn’t have the great throwing skill that even DS13 has now. I’m sure he was nervous and didn’t think of throwing underhand ???






Anyways, it ended up being tied so for the tie breaker his partner who was still hanging was given 3 small squid and Zack was tethered so he couldn’t move any closer but could go left and right and his partner who was started swinging had to throw them at DS19 and he had to catch them in the bucket. First one – caught, Second one she threw going backwards between her legs and DS19 caught and the 3rd was a desperate throw which was too short and he couldn’t get to it. In the mean time the kid volunteers were shooting water cannons and stuff at them. The other team caught all 3 and got to go on to the championship. I wish I had better pictures, but I was too busy watching and cheering!

DS19 tethered. You can see the other team's guy hanging in the background with his squid ready to swing!


Getting read to swing.


A close-up of the squid they were throwing and catching.


So they interviewed DS19 and asked him what happened, and he said “I’m not very good at throwing.” The host responded “yes, we figured that out.”



And then they took the walk of shame. He was allowed a quick shower and met us out shortly after the show ended. What an awesome experience!


While the finalist were getting ready, they did the Food Challenge. They had 3 people who had to drink a fish guts blended mix and whoever finished it first won. Nobody won a prize so it was just for fun. A fun time if you have the time!


At 2:30 pm as we left and were walking by the Simpsons, Crusty the Clown and Side Show Bob were out! We jumped in that line and finally got that picture. Another check off the list.

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 6

Right across the way by the pond is Duff Gardens – the bar. DH had “kind of” wanted a beer, but I was going to make this a good day of memories so we headed over and had him order a Duff beer $8.51 w/tax. I had heard it tasted bad, but I thought it tasted like Miller Lite but with a bad after taste. DH said it sucked and tasted like Old Milwaukee. (Hey we’re from Milwaukee so we KNOW beer!) As DH says, you drank it to say you drank a Duff Beer. I got DS19 a Flaming Moe’s in a souvenir cup for $9.57. That was interesting but warm. The cup is weird with holes across about 1” from the bottom. It looks like it’s stuck that way. That’s a stupid cup. We didn’t want to leave DS13 out so we got him a refill in our Minion cup and DS13 realized they had Buzz Cola and ordered that (cola with some syrup pumped in.) He was happy. The bill with tip came out to $22.14.

The Flaming Moe's




They serve some like 2’ chilidogs there – but I can’t find a menu that talks about it. It was a nice place to stop and rest for a few minutes. Shady and pretty area.



We were hungry and like corned beef so I talked the family into heading over to Finnegan’s Bar and Grill across from the Mummy. We LOVED it! We walked in and they had immediate seating – it was about 3:05. There was a guy playing a guitar in the bar area and we were over in the restaurant but could hear him and he was singing some corny park songs. The menu looked very good and I couldn’t decide between the reuben and the corned beef sandwich. I really wanted the corned beef sandwich but I wanted the 1000 Island dressing too. Our wonderful waiter Jason said he would just add the dressing to my sandwich – perfect!

After we placed our order, drink order – 3 waters and a Diet Coke ($3.40 w/tax) for me, they brought over this wonderful loaf of bread with maple butter. Yum – we scarfed that down!


I would say it took a little longer to get our food, the bread came out at 3:17 and our food at 3:42 but we all used the restroom and relaxed and looked at the maps. Jason did keep us informed about the food. It was worth the wait!

DH & DS19 got the Webb Burger – a burger, with corned beef and breaded onion strings on a bun with wedge fries. $14.90 w/tax and totally worth it! DH says “It was delicious for park food.”




I got the Tipperary Corned Beef Sandwich – warmed corned beef, with sautéed onions, and swiss cheese, on a pretzel bun with wedge fries. Plus I got some 1000 Island dressing on the side too. So yummy! $11.70 w/tax. What a bargain and way better than Fast Food Blvd.


DS13 got the Dublin Chicken Sandwich with melted cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, and wedge fries. He chowed that down! Also $11.70 w/tax.


I would definitely return to this restaurant and recommend it to others. The food taste and quality was outstanding! Our total bill with tip came to $66.61.


We only had a few things left on the list – so we headed over to the Minion gift shop and in through the back to see if the Minions were out. They were and there was no line! We hurried over and took some pictures, but the phone and the dark weren’t working together. I should be able to fix them, but for now – our Minion pictures! Picture at 4:09 pm.





Right after we were done, the Minion ride got out and there’s this crush of people. What timing we had! We did some shopping in the Minion store and DS13 picked out his souvenir. I’ll put that in Day 6’s post.

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 – Wed Dec 23 – Our Last Park Day – Part 7

I'm doing throwbacks to the Minions last year when we were at Universal - Hollywood. I sure wish we could have seen Gru but at least the purple minion last year was really cool!






Now, back to the review...

Animal Actors was on at 4:45 so we walked over that way. DS13 and I had to use the restroom. There was a line for the ladies and all of the sudden I’m standing there and realize that I am a head taller than everyone else in my line – in front and behind me. I called over to DS19 and was like making a funny face and had my hand lined at my neck trying to point out how short everyone was. I’m use to be taller around other women, but I felt like the gargantuan woman! With shoes, I’m probably 5’9” so that was weird! Lol

Animal Actors was cute, but honestly not as cute as the Pets Ahoy show at Sea World or maybe they were just so similar I felt like I had already watched it. Afterwards, they had some of the dogs out and we went up to pet them. You realize how much you miss your pet once you are petting another one.

Here’s a movie star dog – Marley from Marley & Me! This picture is at 5:17 so the show wasn’t quite 30 minutes.



After that, DS19 says he was pretty sure he wants a wand. Really cuz it’s our last day in the parks at 5:30 pm and now you want a wand? “I think so” he says. So we headed back to Diagon Alley and into Ollivander’s where we waited and waited while he looked around and prayed for the “wand to pick him.” I was carrying 4 boxes at one time following him around! He really liked Voldemort’s and another one, but something wasn’t right. Then Professor Dumbledore’s landed in his hand and the lights flashed and music played (not really) and he had his wand. The kind, thoughtful, smart wizard – yup that sums up my kid too. The interactive is $47.95 or $51.07 w/tax and the non-interactive is $40 +tax. I told DS19 to spend the extra $8 to get the interactive, and he did. Which meant our final night was walking around both parks doing spells. I can’t imagine how much they make in a day here – there is a constant line waiting to check out!

DS19 was a happy boy! We went through all of Diagon Alley and did the spells (they give you a map that tells you where they are, but you can also find silver circles on the ground that give you directions as well.) It was fun, he was happy, and even I got to do a few.






I actually got the windows to light up when he couldn’t. He got it after me, but I did it first. It’s a little addicting and lots of fun!



While DS19 was walking around doing his stuff I sent DS13 into Florean’s to get DH the ice cream he had talked about all day – except there was a line that went out the door and down the street! So about 15 minutes later it cleared up and DS13 went back in and got DH his Salted Caramel Blondie waffle cone. Here’s the same picture as DS13’s but a close up. Yummy! $6.38



So after the spells were all done in Diagon Alley, we boarded the train to Hogsmeade. We got to walk slower this time through the train station and I actually saw where the wall is that you jump through. How clever! So, I did my ballerina jump through the wall – hey you only live once! Lol For some reason we didn’t have to share a car, which was fine and made the quick trip over to Hogsmeade.

DS13 and I were ready to call it a night and wanted to grab some souvenirs so we offered DH to go around Hogsmeade with DS19 doing spells. They said the spells on this side were even cooler. I’m glad he was enjoying it and really I’m glad he waited so we weren’t carrying a wand around for 3 days!

DS13 and I went back to the Seuss bookstore and I got a new Christmas hat then we headed over to Spiderman for a souvenir for my nephew. It was hard to find something that just wasn’t junky, but he loves Spiderman so we had a few ideas. We got a soda refill, looked for a picture frame ornament from Universal and couldn’t find one. Then we just sat by the exit for a little bit then headed back to the room about 7:45pm.


Back in the room I organized everyone’s souvenirs since they were required to carry them on the plane themselves which is why I told them to bring bigger bags than a knapsack. DS and DS19 showed up a short time after us and we cleaned up the room and got ready for our 6:00 am departure. The pool and Bula Bar were still open and I really wanted a drink, but I was just too tired by the time I cleaned everything up. I tried to give DH the hint, but I guess I wasn’t specific (or direct) enough.

We were off to bed by 11:00 since we needed to be up shortly after 5:00! Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and we were heading home.


Total miles walked today – 8.6! Aleve pills – 2.


Alright, I'm zonked and need to get ready for an early morning tomorrow. I will finish soon!

 

[disneynan]

Thanks for posting - sounds like you and your family had a wonderful (semi-free) trip! Loved that you posted specific times and prices. And food pics - we are foodies. Heading there for our first visit in April, can't wait! We are going because I won a sweepstakes last spring from our local grocery store - I am also a sweeps fanatic LOL

 

[DnA2010]

Wow I just read your report! What a fun vacation! I especially liked reading about your dS's fear factor experience! How fun! Thanks for all the details and food pics

 

[HM]

Really enjoyed your trip report. Is there a wrap up coming?

 

[IckyMickey]

Thanks for posting - sounds like you and your family had a wonderful (semi-free) trip! Loved that you posted specific times and prices. And food pics - we are foodies. Heading there for our first visit in April, can't wait! We are going because I won a sweepstakes last spring from our local grocery store - I am also a sweeps fanatic LOL

Thanks and congratulations! That is awesome! We wouldn't have been able to go without winning this trip. Airfare takes such a chunk of $$ and we wouldn't drive the 20 hours. You must be so excited. I know I wanted to tell everyone, but that was a little odd. So what did you win?

My step-dad is a big sweepstakes enterer, but he does the ones with postage. That's way too much $$ for me, but I guess that's his hobby. He did win a trip to Germany from Godiva Chocolate and $100,000 on the Let's Make a Deal Hershey Kiss sweepstakes. That's was pretty cool as my mom and step-dad were on the show and picked 2 numbers - if they matched they would win a million. No such luck, but a great story and helpful money in their retirement!

 

[IckyMickey]

Wow I just read your report! What a fun vacation! I especially liked reading about your dS's fear factor experience! How fun! Thanks for all the details and food pics

Thanks - it was lots of fun! The Fear Factor experience was awesome and a great memory for him and us.

Really enjoyed your trip report. Is there a wrap up coming?

Glad you liked it! Yes a wrap up is coming. I think the winter blues hit - Christmas is done, our trip is done, my trip report is almost done, my good friend is at Disney right now celebrating her 50th birthday and it is 0 degrees here for the 3rd day. Brrrr!

I'm ready to finish, but the rest seems so boring compared to the fun days we had. Hope I don't disappoint!

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 5 - Wed, Dec 23rd - Our Last Park Day

Here's the exciting list of what we did. Loved that it was all of our favorites and Finnegan's was so delish!

1. 8:10 am Mummy – 2 times
2. Transformers
   
3. 8:40 A Big Pink Donut from Kwik-E Mart
4. Men-In-Black
5. Diagon Alley – Tales of Beedle the Bard, shopping
6. 8:56 Butterbeers!
7. 9:10 Ollivander's Wand show
8. 10:30 Lunch at the Leaky Cauldron
9. 11:18 Picture with the Simpson Family
10. Terminator 2 3D
11. 12:20 Fear Factor Try-Outs
    
12. 12:45 Barney’s Christmas Show
    
13. 1:30 Fear Factor Live (started about 1:25 though)
    1:47 Walk of Shame
    2:00 Ended around this time
14. 2:30 Side Show Bob & Crusty Picture!
15. Duff Garden – Duff Beer, Flaming Moe’s and some rest
16. 3:15 – 4:00 Finnegan’s for an early dinner
    
17. 4:10 Minion Pictures (went back thru the gift shop by the ride)
    
18. 4:45 - 5:10’sh Animal Actors show
    
19. Back to Diagon Alley to buy a wand!
    
20. 6:00 pm Let the wand fun begin!
21. One more ice cream from Florean Fortescue's
    
22. 7:10 Train to Hogsmeade – I jumped through the wall!
    
23. Wand fun & Souvenir shopping
    
24. 8:20 Good bye Universal – thanks for the awesome memories!
    

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 6 - Thurs Dec 24th - Heading Home

Wake-Up - DH and I both set our alarm clocks for about 5:10am as Tony was picking us up from RPR at 6:15 (I had emailed him the day before to confirm.) I slept horribly again. I was worried that none of our alarms would go off or that we didn’t have enough time to all be up, showered and ready or it would be crowded at the airport and we should have gotten there earlier... Since we were all up and ready and down checking out at 6:00am, I was paranoid for nothing again. The crazy thing I thought was that there were other families up, dressed and just strolling around like it was 8:00am. I remembered at the last minute to leave a tip for the housekeeping. I remember in Disney I had made “mouskeeping” envelopes every day. I hadn’t done that here, but I did put a note on top for them.

Check-out - I checked my bill from RPR as I had read about being charged for the waters, parking etc. I had clearly told my kids when we got to the room that they could not even bump the waters on the dresser or in the fridge. The bill was perfect and we were good to go.

Car Service - I walked to the exit and there was my family and super nice Rick, instead of Tony, who had come to take us to the airport. I was impressed that he was there 15 minutes early and we were all packed up in his black Suburban and on the way to the airport.

Airport - We flew Southwest and there were some kiosks outside at the drop off area. They guy said he would print our boarding passes and take out luggage there. I love these kiosks since not a lot of people use them and I like to use them whenever I can (and when it’s warm enough!) I was a little annoyed when he kept using the words “my service” and “my kiosk”. I get it, you want a tip. I planned on tipping him anyways. We were checked in and luggage gone in less than 5 minutes!

I don’t remember if we had to take the tram back or not, but I do remember walking up to the security lines. They just look so daunting but it didn’t take long and we were cruising through. I had just gone through when I turn around and hear “is he with you?” and see the TSA guy with DS13. What!?! Apparently the scanner saw something (the zipper on his sweats?) and they just needed to wand his left ankle, DH needed his right ankle wanded (he thinks his jeans were too baggy/thick) down there. It was quick and we were all cleared.

Breakfast - We were all hungry and thought they would have some good food selections at our terminal, but they didn’t. We ended up standing in a very long Starbucks line for what I think is very expensive drinks. I had promised DS13 Starbucks when we walked past it last night in IA so I knew we were going to have to get it. There wasn’t really any place to eat either except for La Brea Which is just as expensive. So the line took forever and if you ordered a frappe that was even longer! The guy behind us got his coffee as they were announcing “last boarding call” and he went jogging down- I would have been freaking out!

The warm coffee guy was quick, but the frappe lady was slow! I feel bad for people behind me at Starbucks because I don’t know what to order and have to ask a few questions – what’s the difference between a latte and a machiatto? I don’t like a lot of coffee flavor but don’t mind a bit. I did decide quickly though and we did order some breakfast items. Our Starbucks bill was $28.77 at 7:02 am. Dang.

DH – Chocolate chip croissant (he got a Diet Coke from the gift shop across the way)
Me – Caramel Brulee Machiatto & lemon bread (the best lemon bread ever!)
DS19 – Java Chip frappe & chocolate chip muffin
DS13 – Double chocolate chip frappe & chocolate chip croissant


We are all finally seated and eating and ½ way through realize the chocolate chip croissants are only croissants. That’s what the receipt says but not what I ordered. Well, the line is too long to reorder so they ate them and then we waited to board.


Overbooked ! - As we waited, the Southwest attendant made the announcement that they were overbooked by 1 seat. If someone would give up their seat on this flight, they would be rebooked for later and arrive at home at 5:40 pm tonight and be compensated for the cost of their ticket and given $300 extra. Wow! If it wasn’t Christmas Eve I would have seriously thought about it (for DH of course.) He looked at me too. They made the announcement again so it was still not taken. We agreed that if they upped it to $500, DH would be sprinting to the counter! They made the announcement one more time before we boarded and it never went higher, so we all flew home together.

Boarding was a breeze again and we were group A #’s 25-28 so we really got the pick of the plane. Since we were apparently too close to the wing to see a lot on the flight down, I let everyone else choose these seats. DS19 and I sat together again, and DS13 and DH with both boys getting the window. Our flight attendants didn’t seem as cheery as the ones heading down to Orlando, but we had a male flight attendant who was very funny doing to the safety speech examples. A good way to have people pay attention!


Our flight - We took off right on time about 8:30am. It was smooth but I still clung to DS19’s arm and closed my eyes and prayed to my grandparents for a safe trip home. We were flying for some time and I knew that we weren’t heading north. I looked out the window (which I don’t like to do anyway) and there was the Atlantic Ocean under us! What the heck! We were really going the wrong way. Since I am slightly paranoid flying (cough cough), it did flash through my mind that we had been hijacked and were doomed like the Indian flight. I know that sounds crazy, but my mind can make up some pretty crazy stuff pretty quick! Nobody else seemed to be freaking out, so I took it easy and I think DH managed to convince me that due to the bad storms that had gone through the mid-states on December 23rd, we were probably taking a bit of a different route. That seemed like I thought I could agree with and that meant that we would hopefully be skipping any turbulence also.



The flight attendants had just taken our drink orders when the seatbelt light came on and then the attendants were required to be in theirs too. That’s never a good sign to me. The captain announced we were flying over Atlanta and would have some turbulence due to the storms from the day before still moving east. We had turbulence, and not really that bad, a few did freak me out a bit, so I thought if I just laid my head back and tried to relax, maybe sing some Christmas songs in my head, I could get through this. So I did, and I was so tired from not getting a lot of sleep the night before I fell asleep! Good plan! Until I woke myself up later snoring. Bad plan! There was a lady about 30 sitting next to me, so I thought I’d make a jest about my snoring to see if it had been that loud and her response was “don’t worry I’m used to it.” Great…

We got to talking (I’m good at that) and she talked about her worries about getting pregnant and I told her my stories and we talked about crazy family, etc and the rest of the time flew by.

We were supposed to land at 10:25am, but actually got in about 10:00 am. I called my sister, we picked up our luggage and met her outside. It is so crazy that you wake up in this fabulous hotel on vacation where it’s warm and sunny and then 4 hours later, you are stopping at Pick’N Save for some last minute food items. Reality Shock!

I love Disney but one of the last places I wanted a family trip together was Universal and I didn't think it was going to happen. I think I had some good luck come my way. It was an expensive 3 days but worth it as we may not be back as a family.



Some of my thoughts:

Lanyards – Like I said I bought some cheap ones online at Amazon. If you have an express pass, I would certainly get one. The lanyards at Universal were only about $7.95 and much cuter than our generic colored ones, but we were ok with them.

Express Pass – Love the express pass. We were only there 3 days so time was important to us. I would certainly try and find a way to stay onsite again to get that express pass.

RPR Room – Staying on site was so nice! We loved the boat and wish we had more time for the pool. As others have said, it has a Keurig in it and the coffee is complimentary. We called to double check. We actually brought our own hot chocolate Kcups, etc but then we were up so early we didn’t really have time to make or drink it. Like I said earlier, we upgraded to the water view but we were never in the room to enjoy it. In hindsight we shouldn't have upgraded and saved the $60.


US Orlando vs US Hollywood – As I’ve said before we weren’t impressed with US-H. No big roller coasters, but they did have Mummy, Transformer, Simpsons, Shrek, and Minions. DS19 missed the Haunted House they had at US-Hollywood. I didn’t – lol. It would have been very cool to have it at US-Orlando though. Also, they had a back lot tour at US-H that was very neat to see - Jaws, King Kong, Desperate Housewives, the Bates Hotel.


I apologize if I droned on, I’m sure this wasn’t very exciting to read.


I just got my credit card bill and have a wonderful spreadsheet of our expenses I might share.


I certainly want to share those fun souvenirs we got!

 

[IckyMickey]

Souvenirs Anybody?

We don't need a lot of trinkets and such, but we each found something that would remind us of our vacation (and a few gifts too). All prices include tax.

From Sea World: The penguin DS13 won at Plunko $5, the ornament for our tree $12.73 (with a picture space) and DS19 bought this nutcracker with a turtle on his head $10.60.


My new Christmas hat $31.90 and Minions ornament $6.34.


DS13's souvenir - Kyle from the Minions lol $26.57



DH's "water" insulated glass. $23.38 (I thought the tag said $18.95). Our Flaming Moe's souvenir cup.


DS19's Professor Dumbledore interactive wand $51.07




Christmas Presents from DS13:
DH got this wall-mounted bottle opener - he plans to install it on our pool deck. It will come in handy! $18.05
I got this cute Minions mug that I love. I thought it was a little pricey to buy for myself - $18.06 - but was a wonderful Christmas present from a thoughtful DS13!


Grandma and Grandpa needed something for watching the dog and got some chocolates from Diagon Alley's sweet shop. $8.47 each
I have not heard of them finding any toads or flies in their chocolate yet.


DS19 wanted this Chocolate Frog $11.66. It comes with a trading card. I don't know if he's eaten it yet but it went back to college with him.


DS13 got DS19 these Exploding Bonbons for Christmas. I believe he said they were orange and pineapple pop rocks in chocolate. $10.60
DS19 got DS13 some Duff Beer ear buds which I don't have a picture for. $18.06


I've got a few more things to share, and then I'll be officially done. But I don't think it's going to happen tonight.