There and Back Again (or Off the Bucket List, onto the Murtaugh List) - A Road Trip Report

[starvenger]

Murtaugh List - Per the Urban Dictionary, "A list made famous from the TV show How I Met Your Mother inspired by Danny Glover's character Roger Murtaugh in the movie series Lethal Weapon.

Putting something on the Murtaugh List acknowledges that as you grow up, there's stuff you just can no longer do that you did in your youth."

(If you haven't seen Lethal Weapon, a) you should, and b) look up the phrase as I can't repeat it here)

So, with apologies to JRR Tolkien, here we go:

Preamble (edited from the Pre-Trip Report)
Generally speaking, my family goes on two trips a year. One is usually a generational cruise with my parents, siblings, and assorted kids. The other is some sort of trip with my wife’s side of the family. My mother-in-law lives with us, so obviously that trip is done with her in mind as well as us.

Last year we skipped that trip as my wife’s best friend from the UK came over for a visit (we live in Toronto). And later went on Harmony of the Seas on an Eastern Caribbean Itinerary (I wrote a report on it - link is in my signature). This year, we were going to go on the Caribbean Princess, but the infant/toddler facilities didn’t look great to my brother (my nephew will be 2 at the time of the cruise) so we pivoted to an old reliable - Allure of the Seas. I will be looking to do a report on that as well.

And normally this year would be the biannual trip to the UK (quadrennial for me - I would normally head to Ohio to visit friends and do a Fantasy Football draft. Long story short - it was done at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Which is also pretty cool.). However, this year my sister-in-law and her two daughters are instead coming over to Canada in late July/early August (first time for the girls), while her husband heads home to China.

So, head count - there is me, my wife, 2 daughters (10 and 7), my mother-in-law (MiL, 70), my sister-in-law (SiL), and her 2 daughters (10 and 8). Eight people. Two of which have never been to North America. Clearly, the only thing to do is a Road Trip. Because I'm apparently nuts.

The question, of course, was - where? Lots of options near us - New York, Boston, Montreal, etc. We could go to a beach town - I went to Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach and St. Petersburg as a kid, would love to take my kids there again.

But this is the DIS, so the final decision was rather obvious.

As I was basically the sole driver, the plan was to drive down with an overnight stay. Arrive on a Saturday, and leave the following Saturday, so effectively 6 days in the Orlando area. Route down through Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Savannah. Back up via the I-75/401 corridor

The question now, as always was, what to do in Orlando? This is going to shock you guys, but people in the UK love Harry Potter, and my nieces were no exception. So Universal Studios was put in play. And given the additions at DHS and AK, we decided that MK and Epcot would be our two parks at WDW. Coincidentally (or not), we had 2 days left on our no-expire passes. So 2 days at WDW and 2 days at Universal. And yes, that meant that the per day cost was more, but since we were not doing more days at the parks, the savings gained by those extra days would have been lost. That left us with 2 extra days to chill/shop/whatever, which was fine by us.

So with that out of the way, we needed to figure out lodging. With 8 people and only 2 days at WDW, staying onsite isn’t the best option. Getting 2 hotel rooms would've been fine, but potentially pricey, so the ideal stay was a rental property, as that would be roomier, plus have a kitchen available for cooking. After searching through booking.com, airbnb and things like Bonnet Creek, we booked a 4BD/3BA townhouse at Lucaya Village Resort via airbnb. FWIW the host is listed as a verified superhost with nearly 1000 reviews across their properties, so from my experience with airbnb (I’ve used them 4-5 times now) that’s about as trustworthy as you’re going to get with the site. Not saying it’s 100% guaranteed, but I felt pretty comfortable with this. The main issue is that, not having been to the place, you're never absolutely certain how a place would turn out.

Next: The Drive

 

[starvenger]

The Drive

The road trip portion took a bit of planning. There are a few things to take into consideration here, not the least of which is that we have 8 people in a minivan. I never thought I’d end up using the 8th seat add on that is provided with the minivan, and yet it’s come in handy while the family is in town. With 4 kids, and one senior (my MiL is 70), and one driver, my plan was to build in a rest stop every 2 hours or so. If we skipped a stop, so be it. But I needed to be prepared in case people needed to stop.

The tech gear - Garmin GPS, Sirius Satellite Radio, a USB with around 200 tunes (half for the kids, half for me), various tablets and phones, and a dual DVD player (for which my Sister-in-law’s DVDs didn’t work, but my Mr. Bean DVDs did.). Also a couple of Anker 4-port USB chargers. I got them for my upcoming cruise, but it would work just fine here.

Non-tech gear - bicycle gloves (my hands get sweaty), 5 hour energy shots, an “As Seen on TV” HD Vision Visor (I wear glasses so this helps reduce glare), passports, park passes and a binder full of TripTiks, travel insurance, booking information and a spreadsheet with my travel itinerary (including stops).

The route we ended up taking should be fairly familiar to my fellow Canadians in the Golden Horseshoe. Take the QEW, go through Buffalo/Niagara, take I-90, hang a left just past Erie, and head “straight” down through Pittsburgh, the infamous Summersville speed trap, Charlotte, Savannah and Jacksonville. And then a quick jaunt across I-4 to the Orlando area.

Day 1
First day was a Friday, and we managed to get out of the house at 6:30. Which on a regular weekend is probably decent at the border. But this was a long weekend, so our wait was about 30 minutes to get to the booth.

Now as an aside, about 4-5 years ago we went on a road trip to New England, and my wife and mother in law were still UK Citizens with permanent residence status. And they got though the border with no issues whatsoever. No I-94 cards, no wait at the customs office, nothing.

But 2018 is part of a different era with CBP, and thus we were back waiting at the customs office for my sister-in-law and nieces to get their I-94 cards. Took about 45 minutes to get called, and our customs officer could not have been nicer during the interview process, which took about 5 minutes. So it sucks that we had to wait, but it was fine otherwise.

As you might imagine, this delay put us back a bit. I was hoping to be in Charlotte no later than 10pm. I was clearly too optimistic.

The drive down to Summersville was uneventful. I heeded the general warnings and went at the speed limit on US19. We ended up eating dinner at Applebees. Not the best meal, but the 2 for $20 promotion did mean we could stretch our dollar a bit more than normal.

After that, we encountered a few bottlenecks on I77. Of note was that one of the tunnels going north on I77 was reduced down to one lane, resulting in a backup of 2-3 miles. And going through some of the winding freeways in the dark was nuts. At some points we were surrounded by no cars and few reflective signs/lines, and my the view from rear view mirror was pitch black. At this point I was rueing my choice of Charlotte for a stop..

We ended up reaching our destination, Homewood Suites Charlotte North, a little after 11pm. At which point I realized I goofed. I thought I’d booked 2 rooms with 2 doubles and a sofa bed. Nope, they were 1 double and a sofa bed, but they got us rooms with a king bed. I ended up sleeping on one of the pullouts, and my sister in law slept on the other one. Kids, of course, slept on the nice, comfy, king beds.

Day 2
We got some breakfast, checked out, and were on the road at 8:30am. Encountered a bottleneck at the I26/I95 junction, encountered an accident at the GA/FL border, and saw a lot of construction on the 295 in Jacksonville. Clearly, this was the work of one person:

(If you haven't watched The Good Place, it's awesome)

Side note - we saw a lot of signs for Peach World. We stopped at Peach World. It was not worth it. Get your peaches the way they were meant to be acquired - from a can, put there by a man, in a factory downtown.

Ahem. So I-4 is undergoing construction, and if you’re travelling anywhere between the Orlando Premium Outlets (International Drive) and Winter Park, be ready for some craziness. It is a bit of a mess, and we got to drive through it (lucky us). Regardless, we were in downtown Orlando at around 6:30, and decided to eat at the Saigon Grill, as seen on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Now I know some of you may scoff at Guy Fieri, and I don’t necessarily blame you for it, but DDD usually has a positive effect on the businesses he visits, so full credit to him for helping out these small places.

The food, I have to say, was about as good as advertised. Golden pancake was a good appetizer, spring rolls had a lot of meat and not a lot of filler, and the pho was fantastic. Lots of flavour in the broth. In terms of Orlando’s Vietnamese restaurants, I’d say that I like Lac Viet better, but ymmv.

After that, it was off to the house. The property is located east of World Center Drive, between Vineland and the 192. And happily, it was as nice as it seemed in the pictures. Plenty of space for the eight of us, and about 2 minutes from a Wal-Mart so we could get what we needed after dumping our stuff. It was a little late to try the pool, but that was fine.

Wal-Mart, to my chagrin, did not carry Shiner Beer (I used to work in Houston, and it's my favourite American beer). I made do. We bought some other things, like milk, eggs, and bottled water, but I felt like a beer was in order after the drive.

So after all that (and a hot shower), it was off to bed before our first park day.

Next: Universal Islands of Adventure

 

[pigletto]

Great start to your trip report! I appreciate reading about your drive, as we will be making the drive from Niagara for the first time this March. I’m looking forward to reading the rest .

 

[isabellea]

Sounds like a fun trip!

We always got our GA peaches at a fruit stand next to a random gas station and they are so worth it!!! Like Niagara peaches eaten ripe in Niagara!!

 

[starvenger]

We always got our GA peaches at a fruit stand next to a random gas station and they are so worth it!!! Like Niagara peaches eaten ripe in Niagara!!

The peaches were good, without a doubt. But the shift from anticipation via the billboards to the reality was very disappointing. Gotta hand it to them though - the advertising is very effective.

 

[starvenger]

Day 3 - Universal Islands of Adventure

So why not start this vacation with the one place I’ve never been to? Truth be told, I looked up some crowd calendars and that really dictated when I should go to which park. And the other three parks had a specific day that was “good” for me, so Sunday at IoA it was.

We ended up sleeping in a bit. We woke up at 7 (note: this, for me is sleeping in), got changed, drank some coffee, tea or milk, put on sunscreen, and got out the door at 8… to head to McDonald’s. Which apparently doesn’t have a bacon and egg McMuffin. Someone has to explain to me how you could have a bacon and egg McGriddle and a bacon and egg biscuit, but no McMuffin. It seems doable - if you can sub the omelette with a round egg this shouldn't be much different - so clearly I’m missing something here.

Regardless, we got our food, took I4 up to Universal and got into the parking lot (Spider-Man) at 8:30. Love the covered parking lots. Got our spot (quite close to the escalators) and headed through the security/ticket scan. And then, into the parks.

Now, the Unofficial Guide to USF tells you to head to Hogsmeade to get the Harry Potter stuff out of the way early, and so we did. And looking at how the line winds around just to get to the lockers for Forbidden Journey, I’m glad we didn’t have to find out what it’s like if it’s crowded.

The ride itself was fantastic. A bit intense, even for me, as the dangling feet aspect did make things a bit harrowing, but for a first ride at the park, it was everything I could hope for. Made me want to do a behind the scenes to see how the technology worked.

Hannah and I went on Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a fun junior coaster. But with that done, it was some more exploring of Hogsmeade.

After that, we started to walk around the "islands", and hit the next ride, Jurassic Park. Being a water ride, I did expect to get a bit wet. However, I did not expect to get water spit into my ear by a dinosaur. (I imagine that I won’t get to use that phrase again.) But overall a fun ride that was quite refreshing early in the morning.

The kids then went on Pteranodon Flyers, which provided a little break for the adults, and a nice view of the area for the kids. The looked around Camp Jurassic afterwards, but weren’t really interested in staying.

Wanted to go on Skull Island, but by this point the queue had reached the 60 minute mark, so we skipped Kong and went to Toon Lagoon, where we went on Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges. And got soaked. Completely head-to-toe soaked. The middle of the raft has a heavy tarp covering some bins, and I definitely recommend putting everything you want to keep dry in there. Especially your phones. And wear some fast-dry clothes.

Still, this ride was a lot of fun. I appreciate rides that say that “you will get wet on this ride” and completely follow through.

After this we took 30 minutes or so to dry off a bit, walk through Marvel Superhero Island, then went to find lunch. We wanted to sit down for a bit, so after looking at the menu decided to eat at Confisco Grille. This, honestly, was a mistake, as it wasn’t good. We were eating light and had the “Signature Oven Fire Pizza”, which looked like a bad margherita pizza with sausage. Taste was OK, but below par for even an amusement park. C’est la vie.

Next, we headed to Seuss Landing. Kids did all the rides here. I appreciated Cat in the Hat as it resembled a “classic” Magic Kingdom ride like Snow White or Frog and Toad’s Wild Ride, , and I wasn’t expecting to get that here.

After that, it was on to the Lost Continent and the shows… because it was humid and we wanted to sit down. The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad was a decent if not particularly spectacular stunt show. Full credit to the cast (who worked hard) but the plot was pretty bad. Seemed like parts of the story were shoehorned in. The show could probably use a rewrite so that the princess is more of a hero and doesn’t randomly vacillate between hero and damsel in distress. But that’s just my opinion.

Next was Poseidon’s Fury which was… well it was cheesy. And not in a good way. Again, credit to the guide for trying but this story was hard to sell to the audience. Part of that is the reliance on projection effects vs practical effects, but the former is safer and (probably) more budget friendly, so I kind of understand why they went in this direction.

After this, it was getting to 4pm, so we decided on one last ride. Most people wanted to do some of the Seuss rides again, while Hannah and I went to Spider-Man. Since we were a little short on time, we went to the single rider line… and got on in about 5 minutes. A lot of fun, and a good way to end the day.

Dinner was pizza, as people just wanted to crawl into bed and rest up. Don’t blame them, as the next day we were heading out to Universal Studios Florida.

 

[starvenger]

Day 4 - Universal Studios Florida

So I haven’t been to USF since I was a kid, and since then, pretty much everything has changed save for ET. GPS for some reason took us to the Jurassic Park parking lot, and I will say this as a word of advice - try to avoid this one as we ended up on the top deck right away. If you’re coming up I4 east, take the Sand Lake exit (74) and wind your way through the resort to get to the Spider-Man lot.

This was definitely a day where I wish we had paid for the Express Pass, as all the rides seemed to be busy all day, to the point where the single rider lines got shut down due to peak capacity. Sucked for us, as we ended up waiting in line (and in the sun) a LOT. No bueno.

We managed to get onto Escape from Gringotts, Simpsons, Race Through New York, and Shrek 4D. All of which are some form of big screen, motion simulation ride. Why there are so many of these, I’ve no idea, but we were kind of sick of this ride by the end. But Gringotts was fun. Walking through the bank was interesting, and the vehicle was reminiscent of the Spider-Man ride from IoA. Still, how many motion simulators with 3D glasses can one do in a day?

We got to see a couple of the street shows as well, but I think that the combination of the heat, the long lines, and the 4th day of being on the go (if you include the driving) caused almost everyone to tap out around 4. We were originally going to go to Vivo at 6pm, but decided to call it a day and head back to the apartment. Kids fell asleep on the ride back.

And to add insult to injury, I was wearing my Crocs closed-toe sandals (as my shoes were still wet from the previous day’s soaking) and developed a blister, which has become an all-too common occurrence with these sandals. Never had an issue with Crocs flip flops so I think I have to quit the sandals. I used to have Keen sandals and if I can find a sale I’ll be going back to them..

Note: We ate lunch at Richters Burger Co in the San Francisco area. As far as overpriced amusement park burgers go, this was pretty good. I’ve had some really bad ones before (looking at you, Canada’s Wonderland), so having a burger that is cooked nicely AND tastes good is a pleasant surprise.
We got back to the apartment, showered, and went to Ichiban Asian buffet, which happened to be a 2 minute drive from our place. I won’t call this the greatest buffet I’ve ever had, but fresh sushi/sashimi/maki and a hibachi grill make this decent value for the price ($12 adults/$8 kids 3-11). If you go, definitely opt for the hibachi fried rice over the one sitting in the buffet tray. It’s just rice and egg, so order some hibachi vegetable for some extra colour and crunch.

And so the Universal portion of the trip was done. Looking back, I'd probably do Islands of Adventure again, but Universal Studios really did nothing for me. Kind of cool to see the replica sets, but with rides that seem pretty similar to one another it doesn't feel worth going unless we get Express Pass to do everything.

Next: Rest Day!

 

[starvenger]

Day 5

Finally, a rest day. Kind of. Went to Publix the day before to get some breakfast items. Ended up with eggs, sausage (maple and regular breakfast) and… Spam. Because bacon cost $6/pack, and Spam is, honestly, not bad when you fry it up. Bear in mind that we’re Chinese and eat all sorts of weird stuff, to the point where someone once described scrapple to me and I kind of went “oh, ok. Is that all it is?” Also found a 6 pack of Shiner Bock. Score! Anyway, $15 for meat and eggs to feed 8 is not bad.

After breakfast, we went out to the Premium Outlets on International Drive. Bought some stuff, ate lunch there (wife and I split a Five Guys cheeseburger. Not sure why but I can barely finish one of their junior burgers) and came back to the house… where we saw two chartered buses pulling in. Apparently there is a large family vacation going on, which begged a couple of questions:

• where did they all come from?
  
  
• How in the world did they manage to book presumably 10+ houses on one property?
  
  
• What kind of group discount did they get for… well, everything?
  

I feel bad for whoever had to organize and keep track of everything and everyone. It was probably a full-time job.

Regardless, the kids wanted to hit the pool, so that’s what we did. The property has a pretty nice pool. Curved, probably 25m in length, with one of those mushroom fountains for the little ones to splash around in. I presume that the ambient heat warms the water enough that it’s quite pleasant in the pool. We spent 90 minutes in there, came back, showered, and made dinner. Nothing fancy - really just some non-fried instant noodles with veg and meat leftover from breakfast. To be honest it was just a nice break from eating out (or takeout) all the time.

And it was helpful to rest up, because the next day was the co-main event.

Next: Epcot

 

[starvenger]

Not to pile onto Universal but something I forgot to mention is that every ride seems to spill out into a gift shop. I get it because you want to get kids with their recency bias and all, but it feels cheap and unnecessary. Heck, you don't even need a ride to draw people in there. Case in point - my kids looooooved the Hello Kitty store at Universal.

 

[starvenger]

Day 6 - Epcot

So after our rest day it was time to take in Walt Disney World. Epcot is probably my favourite place out of the four Disney parks, but admittedly I’ve not been to Hollywood Studios since it was called MGM, and probably won’t go until Star Wars Land is completed.

So for Fastpass+, we got Mission: Space, Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth. With the dearth of rides at Epcot, it does make sense that they split the attractions into tiers, and put Soarin’, Test Track and Frozen into one, and basically everything else into the other.

After a quick breakfast, we were out the door at 8:15 and parked at 8:35. I actually didn’t expect the trip to be that short, but it was a left onto Vineland, a left onto World Center Dr, and straight on till Epcot. Can’t complain about that. We were into the park before rope drop, and we’re not “must be at rope drop” people , so that was kind of a neat thing for us.

Because my mother-in-law’s knee was bothering her, we got a 2-day wheelchair rental. Which my younger daughter then decided to monopolize. She is without question my MiL’s favourite (bao bao, as we say), and so of course she was allowed to do this.

If this were a TV show, this would be what we call “foreshadowing”.

So first stop was Test Track, which is quite a bit of fun… when you’re not waiting 45 minutes to get to the life-sized slot racer. But even at the start of the day we were waiting 20 minutes, so I’m glad we went here first. I managed to make a car that was apparently the most efficient but sucked at everything else. It looked like a Smart Car. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that.

Kids then got to play around with the cars on display. I apparently paid a lot to discover that they want to go to an auto show. We tried to play around with the driving simulator, but it was impossible to use with the one hand steering and the other holding the grip for forward/reverse. Change the controls to a d-pad and I’d probably be fine. Just like racing Mario around.

Of course, another reason for doing this was that our first FP+ was for Mission: Space, since the two pavilions are beside each other. My wife got a little freaked out reading reviews of the ride (which curiously always seemed to be for the Orange mission) so opted out, along with my mother-in-law. Now I didn’t realize that this would mess up the FP+ booking later, but on this day it was kind of a moo point.

Anyway, we opted for the less strenuous Green mission, and it was at this point that I noticed that my older daughter’s iPhone (actually my old iPhone 4, minus a SIM card) was not in her pocket. She had been keeping the phone in her back pocket, which IMO is usually a bad idea since you can lose things without noticing. Like, say, an iPhone. Since my wife was not on the ride, I messaged her and she went back to Test Track to see if the CMs could help her out. They in fact checked every car but found nothing. I went back after the ride and checked the promo area. Nothing.

Outwardly I was calm, but on the inside I was definitely

With few options at this point, I filed a lost item report online. Included as much information as I could, including the type of case, lock screen image, and even the unlock code - it’s already lost, what’s the harm giving someone the code as a verification measure? So expensive lesson learned… maybe.

As it turned out, the Green mission was not intense at all, so much ado about nothing it seems. This was when I went back to help my wife look around the exhibit. And then, on to the next ride.

Our next FastPass was Soarin’, and so we headed over to The Land. With time to kill, we went on a perennial favourite, Livin With The Land. Surprisingly, we had a 25 minute wait, but because it was a continuous ride, the wait felt shorter than the lines for the moving theatres of Universal. Always fun to see what’s growing in the greenhouse.

Then it was off to Soarin’. We hadn’t seen the updated version yet, so this was new to us. And it was… not as good as the previous version? Maybe it was our location in the theatre, but the images seemed a little off, none more so than the Eiffel Tower, which had a distinct curve to it. It unfortunately took me out of the moment. As much as I slagged the moving theatres at Universal, they really did seem much better with their video than Soarin’. I'm not saying that we have to have a 3-D show with mist sprayed in our face, but the ride definitely deserves better than what we got.

After Soarin’ we had lunch at Seasons (since it was right there and all). I was impressed with the variety of food… some of which I even got to eat! My older daughter had the pork roast, and she destroyed that thing. My older niece had a quarter rotisserie chicken, and did similar damage. The younger ones had kids pasta and meatballs. And my mother in law had Mongolian beef with noodles, which I got to try, and it was… not good. Even by the standards of Chinese-American cuisine this was bad. Over cooked chunks of beef, oversauced veg and noodles… seems like something that belonged at Nine Dragons or PF Changs.

After lunch, we headed to Spaceship Earth, which featured a 10 minute wait for FP+. Seems long, until you realize that it was a 45 minute wait for Standby. Score another one for FP+

I used to love Spaceship Earth. And this was the first time that it felt dated. I think this is because there isn’t any portion that really looks to the future. The ride reaches the present, and sort of… ends with Steve Jobs in his garage. You get a cutesy animated show on the way down, sure, but it’s little more than a distraction as you descend to the debarkation platform.

After Spaceship Earth, we started on the part we were secretly dreading - the walk around World Showcase. On a hot and humid August afternoon. I know, shocking that you'd get that kind of weather in Florida.

First stop was England for some fish and chips. A bit salty, but still decent food for the adults. Next was France and a walk through the streets there. Then it was off to Japan, where everyone but me jumped into the store for some AC. I opted for a frozen Kirin (note: no ID asked for) and watching the kaga drum performance. Let me say this about the Kirin. The frosty froth definitely kept the beer colder for longer than I expected. But the froth tastes like nothing, and ends up being kind of a waste. Next time, I won't bother getting it.

Kids then got some shave ice... mmm, tasty. I think I liked the ones in Hawaii better but these were quite nice.

And at this point we were kind of dragging our feet. My MiL was still refusing to use the wheelchair. A pride thing, certainly, but as the son-in-law it’s not my place to call her out on it and get her to use the thing. Fortunately there were a couple of attractions to help us out.

We decided to watch American Adventure, which I’d never done before, but since we had to kill some time we watched the Guardians of the Galaxy show in the bandstand. The story was strange, and Star Lord sounded like a surfer dude for some reason, but the singing was on point. Full marks to the musicians for sure.

American Adventure was… definitely an attraction that exists. I wish I could tell you more, but I quite honestly slept from the first words of Mark Twain until the end. And I have no regrets about it.

Next stop was Germany. We did some exploring, and I had another beer (Warsteiner). Again, I was not asked for ID, so it seems like I had my passport for nothing.

Norway had the expected lineup for the Frozen ride. We decided to skip as it was still too hot. Since there was a ride in Mexico, we decided to go in there.

I hadn’t been to the Mexico pavilion in years. It still looks pretty cool. The pyramids don’t look as mathematically precise as, say, Chichen Itza, but I can let it pass here. Probably a different story if the pavilion was new. Gran Fiesta Tour was pretty cute, but I could definitely see them changing this to a Coco theme in the future.

So now we were in that limbo period where we were waiting for our dinner reservation to come up. We thought about just leaving, but we did want to have a dinner at Disney, so decided to stay and eat, then go. I would’ve liked to stay for fireworks, but c’est la vie. Time to look for something else to do.

Frozen still had a crazy long line, so we decided to head to The Seas with Nemo as the app showed no lineup. We walked into the Innoventions East area, where we took a quick break. My MiL decided to stay here instead of going on the ride. The ride is really showing its age. The animation superimposed against the aquarium tanks is fun, but it does feel like Nemo could use another refresh. It just doesn’t feel very timeless, I guess.

After the ride, I noticed that my older daughter had lost her hat. Fortunately, this one was easier to backtrack as she had it when we went into Innoventions. And sure enough, we went back, she looked in the restroom and it was still there. So 1 for 2 on lost items.

We decided that it was close enough to our reservation time of 6:20 and went back to World Showcase. We saw the boat getting ready to board and decided to take it rather than walk around to France. It was a good call, as it allowed us to relax and get into the food eating mood.

I love Chefs de France. The food for me has been consistently good there, so it’s no surprise that we keep coming back when we’re at Epcot. I keep trying to get the kids to try something else, like the Moroccan restaurant, but apparently their adventurousness only goes so far. Then again, they just tried balut (seriously) yesterday, so in a few years, who knows?

In any event, I went for the prix fixe, and I managed to eat my main of Boeuf Bourguignon. My app and dessert somehow got split among four kids. I’ve love to tell you that the French onion soup was wonderful, but I can only tell you that it smelled wonderful, and that’s about as close as I got to tasting it. The beef was actually much more tender than I was expecting, and was very enjoyable. My wife had the steak frites, and while the frites were just average, the steak was well seasoned and tasty.

After dinner, we took the boat back to the World Showcase entrance and headed home. During the walk to the car we noticed some clouds, which was probably a bad omen for anyone staying for Illuminations. And sure enough, when we got home the rain started. I suppose we unintentionally dodged a bullet there.

But it was time to rest up, because the next day was our final park of the trip.

Next: Magic Kingdom

 

[scrappydew]

We love Chefs de France also! It's funny you only got to smell the soup...

 

[starvenger]

Well, it was apparently that good. The things we do for our kids...

 

[starvenger]

Day 7 - Magic Kingdom

Last park day, second last day in the Orlando area. Now as I previously noted, my MiL opted not to use the wheelchair yesterday. Perhaps predictably, her leg was so sore that she opted not to go to MK with us. Which does suck, but it would be cruel to force someone to walk around when they’re clearly hurting. So the second day on her pass ended up being something of a sunk cost. We had bought it about 3 years ago, so I suppose it doesn’t sting as much.

We left the house about the same time as the previous day, and parked close enough to walk to the TTC.

After an impressively thorough bag check (seriously… they checked every compartment of our backpacks. No doing things halfway like at the other park checkpoints.) Up to the monorail, and that’s where things ground to a halt, as there were technical issues with the doors.

But I’m from Toronto, so I’m used to delays at the TTC. After that brief interlude, we headed out to the Magic Kingdom itself. I realized some time ago that I’ll never stop enjoying the trip through the Contemporary Resort. I think it’s the hubris of designing the train to go right through the centre of a large building that really sells it.

At this point, the rope drop has already happened, so we take some photos outside and head into Main Street USA. I head over to the rental area and get a refund for the wheelchair.

The Fastpasses on this day were at the time of booking Pirates, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise was listed for the afternoon so realistically I didn’t think that would stay as an option.

We took our time heading to Pirates. Offered the kids a chance to ride Aladdin but they declined. Pirates already had a bit of a line so the fastpass came in handy here. I didn’t recall the ride being a “wet” ride but we did get splashed a bit on the ride. And in contrast to Spaceship Earth I felt that the changes they (keep) making to the animatronics actually work to keep it feeling fresh.

Next was a ride that I hadn’t been on since I was a kid - Haunted Mansion. Fiddling around with the app, I was able to shift the FP to an earlier time and so we slid in there about 10 minutes after finishing Pirates. My younger one was a little apprehensive about going on the ride (she’s afraid of ghosts) but put on her brave face and went on with us. The advancements in technology have really helped this ride out, as it makes some of the ghosts more realistic, and that adds to the campy macabre-ness of the ride. I don’t think my daughter is going on this ride again though. To her everything she saw was like

(I'll give you a like if you can spot where this is from)

and she was all

Next, was Fantasyland and It’s a Small World, which I managed to FP us on for. Not really necessary - the line was maybe 15 minutes, but I was fiddling with the app seeing what I could do to allow for a logical progression across the park. The ride, of course, is a signature ride of the park, and it is admittedly a little boring, but the trip doesn’t feel complete without going on it. So we did.

Our next couple of rides were something of a break. We’d never seen Mickey’s Philharmagic so this was a good time to experience it. While we were waiting in the queue I booked our next FP for Under the Sea. This was a fun show, lighthearted as one might expect and I guess something of a musical revue of various movies and such. Quite enjoyable I thought.

Next ride was the Carousel which is exactly what you think it is. The kids love them, and who am I to put a damper on their fun?

Now at this point it was only 11am but given our FP time was about 12pm we decided an early lunch was in order. The Village Haus was right there but we ate there 3 years ago and the food was… mediocre. I will say that getting the kids meals there is actually very good value but at the end of the day a bland flatbread pizza is still a bland flatbread pizza.

After reviewing the nearby options we went to Columbia Harbour House. We got the trio platter, two lobster rolls and a couple of kids meals. The fish wasn’t as good as the previous day’s fish (understandable) but still tasty. The sandwiches had a fair amount of lobster, more than I was expecting from an amusement park meal. And apparently it tasted good as well (I don’t eat lobster, so didn’t try it)..

After lunch, we headed back to Fantasyland and Under the Sea. And as I was trying to book the next FP, I discovered that my wife’s tap didn’t take as I couldn’t book her for anything. But once we finished the ride we took care of that at the attraction’s FP station.

Also taken care of: sunscreen. I haven’t mentioned it up until this point but we tried to make sure that we were redoing our sunscreen every so often. Sometimes it seems like a quarter of my backpack’s weight is sunscreen (the rest is water), but better safe than burnt.

Next ride was Dumbo. I was trying to book FP for the kids but my sister in law said that they didn’t need a FP for this ride. Big mistake, as we waited 40 minutes for them to ride the elephants. The lesson here - don’t listen to your sister-in-law. Oh, and use FP for everything that you can. And for us, that meant trying to book the next ones. Since my older daughter wanted to go on Space Mountain I split the FP up so that we went on that and everyone else did Toy Story. Which was great! Not so great - the times were just after 3, meaning that we wouldn’t be able to watch the parade.

But at this point it’s about 1:30, and the kids are flagging a bit. Working to our advantage was the proximity to the WDW Railroad, and a train that had just pulled into the station. So a nice 20 minute or so ride around the park is a nice break. And we took the time to figure out what to do.

We decided that instead of Toy Story, everyone but the older one and I would go watch the parade, and we’d meet up afterward. It’s a shame that they took away the FP option for the parade. We did that in 2015 and it was GREAT. No one obstructing us and everyone could see my daughter’s Birthday button. But, you know

But since we had some time before that, we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. I feel like this is an underrated attraction since the main features are air conditioning and hidden CMs improvising jokes. Improv is pretty tough though, so I have to give props to the CMs making that happen.

After Monsters Inc most of the crew went to watch the parade. With time to kill, we went over to the Astro Orbiter and rode that. Outside of height, is it really any different from Dumbo or Aladdin? Not really. Nice views though.

Then, Space Mountain. We were directed to the right side. Lots of small turn-then-drop portions, made for a lot of fun, especially when you’re anticipating the drop - and then get another sharp turn. I remember having to wait 45 minutes for this ride in 2015, so the fast pass was nice to have.

Once we were done, I messaged my wife, and it turns out they were having Ice Cream on Main Street, and we joined them. I should note that currently you have to exit to the back and walk around the ride building to get back to Tomorrowland. I believe this is because of the construction for the Tron ride, but I could be wrong.

Back in Tomorrowland proper, I got some good news, as the iPhone had been found! But because it was end of day and we weren’t coming back to the parks, I decided to get the phone shipped to us. Might have been a mistake as almost 2 weeks later we’re still waiting for the phone to be shipped, but if the status changes I’ll update this thread. Still, inside I was definitely going

So we met up on main street and had some ice cream. Aside: I know some folks are advocates of the Dole Whip, but we had them a few years ago at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii and to us they were just OK. Hence, ice cream.

At this point the kids are pretty much done. We weren’t planning on seeing much more, so that’s fine. And oh by the way, it looks like some rain clouds are a-coming. We return the stroller, get to the monorail, and everything is fine until we get to the TTC. Once we got out of the monorail, the floodgates opened.

Now, we weren’t that worried about getting wet, but we did want to avoid getting soaked, so we waited 10 minutes or so at the TTC before moving out to the shuttle carts. Seats were unsurprisingly a little wet but overall we achieved our goal of “not getting soaked”. And the rain (finally) ended when we got back to the house. Seemed kind of long as far as Orlando rains go, but not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things.

Dinner was at an Italian place my wife found called Ciao Italia near Sea World. Food was good… but the place was pretty empty. Location may have something to do with it as I would not have have even seen this place if I was driving by. Still, nothing to complain about with the meal.

Next: Last day in Orlando!

 

[starvenger]

Phone Update - Checked my mail today and there was a package from WDW. Sure enough, it was the iPhone! A happy end to that saga.

Day 8 - Rest Day

Since we were driving the next day, we’d planned for this to be a rest day. But it also gave us a buffer in case a day was forecasted to be completely rained out. Fortunately that didn’t happen, so we had the day off. But of course, a day off still means I gotta drive around, and we did. My wife and MiL have a fascination with Ross, Marshalls and… Target. I worked in the US for 8 years so I suppose I got used to Target, but they love going to the store, so we went. Ross and Marshalls are a little more self-explanatory, although we do have Marshalls in Canada, so maybe that one is still a bit strange. I don't really question these things though.

After shopping, we went way up I-4 back to Lac Viet, a Vietnamese restaurant on Colonial. We discovered it more or less by accident a few years back after going to the Orlando Science Centre and craving some pho. The food here is really good, The pho probably doesn’t have the depth of flavour that Saigon Grill has, but items like the bun buo hue are arguably better. We got some bun as takeaway for dinner later.

After lunch we drove back to the house, and it was raining a little bit. Kids wanted to swim, and as the forecast was not for thunder and lightning, I felt that swimming would be fine - I mean, if you’re already wet, is a little rain going to bother you?

After swimming, we got a rotisserie chicken and some veg from Publix, and used the rest of our instant noodles for dinner.

Then it was time for some final packing. Since we were leaving early, I packed most of our stuff into the minivan so we could leave at (more or less) our target time.

Day 9 & 10 - Driving

The drive back was pretty simple. I-4 up to Florida’s Turnpike, which merges into I-75, then keep going until Detroit, and get on the 401 to head home.

The first day was up to Knoxville. We got up early, and were out the door at 6:45am. With a quick stop at McDonald’s, we were on I-4 at 7, ready for a long day of driving.

The drive was uneventful save for some major traffic in Atlanta. It was midday Saturday and thanks to construction, lanes were reduced to 2 in some spots and in a major city like Atlanta, that’s kind of nuts. I think a detour using 285 would’ve been better but I remember the northern merge point with I-75 also being stop and go so perhaps not.

The end result of all this was that we rolled into Knoxville around 6:30… which unfortunately was just in time for the Saturday evening dinner rush. We wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory but it was a 90 minute wait. We went to Texas Roadhouse instead where the food… wasn’t bad. I don’t know how “Texas” the place really is (they did serve Shiner, so points for that) but after 12 hours on the road I suppose I also didn’t care that much.

Our stop was the La Quinta Inn Knoxville North, which wasn’t anything special, but featured 2 comfortable queen beds in each room, which was perfect for us to get some sleep.

Next day we woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast. When I was looking at hotels in Knoxville breakfast wasn’t a huge priority. I knew there was a McDonald’s close by so worst case scenario But if they’re offering you food and you’re around to accept that offer, you might as well take it. Again, we were in the car at 7 ready to move along

The Knoxville-to-Lexington stretch of I-75 is probably the “scenic” part of the drive. In quotes because for the driver (me), it was all downhill and foggy. Not exactly ideal but there’s not much you can do but pop in some music (say, a little Bohemian Rhapsody) and keep driving

We gassed up at Costco in Lexington (thankfully empty at that time of day) and stopped for a quick lunch at a Panera in Dayton. I thought about stopping at Skyline Chili, but I wasn’t sure how the combination of a 3-way and around 6-7 more hours of driving would affect people. We made one more stop in Toledo for some gas (and some Tims - you’ve no idea how much I missed the stuff while in Florida) and headed over to the Ambassador Bridge.

I75 in southeast Michigan is under construction. Going south requires a detour to the airport but going north it’s just fine… except that you have to drive over the “lovely” Michigan roads. I hadn’t been through Michigan in about 5 years and the roads were as bad as I remembered. Perhaps a few less potholes but it’s still how I remember it.

The Ambassador Bridge CBSA booths were packed, and took use 45 minutes to get to the officer and get cleared. He seemed more interested as to why my sister-in-law didn’t have an entry stamp (Answer: Toronto Pearson has automated customs terminals that don’t administer a stamp), but once that was done, we were off onto the 401. And this part of the drive… kind of uneventful. In the summer, there’s really no issues driving this road.

Getting back to the Toronto area, we decided to take the 407 toll highway as the 401 here is traditionally packed. And the 407 allowed us to zip along north of the city. Pulled into the restaurant at 6:45 where we ate. A lot.

After stuffing ourselves silly it was a quick 5 minute drive home.

Finally home!

 

[starvenger]

Trip Post-Mortem - Notes and other Stuff

• So the reference to the Murtaugh List is that if we ever drive down to Florida again (never say never) we’ll break it down a bit more because the 2 day drive down was a bit much. Maybe we break it into a 3 day journey or stop for a couple of days somewhere, but a 2 day journey down? Yeah, I think I’m too old for that… stuff.
  
  
• The minivan itself didn’t feel crowded for the folks in the back. I think that, with 4 kids it wasn’t too bad in terms of space. And we seemed to stop enough times to prevent car sickness.
  
  
• Five Hour Energy really works. Not something I would use every day though.

• At the parks we used Mission cooling towels. Not sure if they have them at the dollar stores in the US but at Dollarama they were $4. I didn’t feel that they were quite as effective as they could be in the humidity but I did feel that they helped a bit with the heat. I will need to try them at Canada’s Wonderland here in Toronto to get a better gauge of their abilities.
  
  
• We had a couple of different types of insulated water bottles but I found that the ones with straws worked better than the ones without, as they reached below the ice to give you the coldest water. Also our Contigo metal bottle seemed to keep ice longer than our Bubba.
  
  
• Do not be afraid to ask for ice at the food counters!
  
  
• Sunscreen - we use a non-aerosol spray sunscreen called Kinesys. Applies easily and appears to stay on the skin better than conventional cream lotions, especially while in the water.
  
  
• For this trip I used the crowd calendars from Undercover Tourist to determine which days to go to the park. Crowds were listed 7/10 for all days so we went with their “recommended” parks to determine days. I felt that they were accurate for their Epcot, MK and IOA days, but USF felt more crowded. But I think they were accurate enough that I would use them again in the future.

• If I’m ranking the parks I’d probably go Magic Kingdom, Islands of Adventure, Epcot and Universal Studios. Don’t get me wrong, I love Epcot, but it is really showing its age and some of the things they’re doing to refresh the place could not come soon enough.
  
  Universal Studios has a 3/4D moving theatre problem, and someone seriously needs to stage an intervention because they’ve hit a point where every ride is somehow both unique and generic at the same time. And these theatres create wait times for people out in the sun.

• The one thing I did love about both Universal parks is the lack of having to plan so far ahead. Yes I didn’t get the chance to do as many rides as I would’ve liked, but with no FastPasses and limited value from the Virtual Line, we got to “go with the flow”... outside of hitting the Harry Potter, areas of course.
• Still, read the "Unofficial Guide" if you get the chance. Great tool, and an easy read. Just don't read while you're driving

I gotta say, writing about the trip was fun, and I hope that it was an enjoyable read. Can't wait for the next vacation, which starts... Saturday.

Next Trip: Allure of the Seas!!!

 

[ottawamom]

Very enjoyable read. Took me off on a little mini vacation just reading it. Glad everything worked out so well. You are a brave man to have traveled with all that family in one van.

 

[jchurch0409]

I really enjoyed reading this! Thank you for sharing your trip!