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View Full Version : Long Memorial Day Weekend Trip - Travel Day and First Day



MizMissy
06-09-2011, 10:21 PM
Thursday, May 26. Today was planned as a travel day.

We were driving from Lafayette, Louisiana – approximately an 11 hour trip … always right around 12 hours though because of extra/unexpected stops. We had hotel reservations in Orlando this evening (it was some “resort” close to Universal, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the name – probably because we checked in around 10 or 11 pm and left before 7 am). We usually wait until the drive over to make reservations for the night, but our friends found a great rate at this hotel earlier in the week and we decided to book the same place. Our plans were to leave around 9, it was a little closer to 10 a.m. getting on the road.

Work, as usual, was crazy up to the point of leaving, although this one may have been more so. I had a brief to finish before I left, so I woke up at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning to finish it. However, as luck would have it, several issues and emergencies arose at work that day taking me away from brief writing. I worked until 1 a.m. Thursday morning on the brief. At that point, I had not packed a thing … or even really organized my thoughts on packing. Only a few short hours after going to sleep, I had several last minute thoughts/changes for the brief, so I woke up around 4 a.m. and worked at least until 7 a.m. I began packing at that time, but was not my most organized. Dear sweet DH assured me we were driving instead of flying, so overpacking was not a problem at all. However, at 9 a.m., “dear sweet DH” informed me for the first time that we had to drive separately for the first 2 ˝ hours of the trip because of an early morning work commitment after our trip, he was not going to return all the way home Tuesday evening. This was not welcome news after my lack of sleep. In fact, I continued to work through most of our drive and maybe only slept half an hour on the trip over. Oh well, I’m on vacation … right?? Amazingly, the only thing we forgot to bring with us on the trip was a camera. We had our iphone cameras (which I have used mostly for our last 4 family trips anyway) and I intentionally did not bring our nice Canon camera because I was not bringing a backpack into the parks, but I had intended to bring one of our smaller digital cameras along. In the grand scheme of things, we didn’t really miss it.

The first night hotel was okay. A very large place and I think probably older (from what I could see at night and dawn), but the rooms were clean. We made it to bed before midnight and I was up by 5 a.m. the next morning. I tend not sleep that much anyway, but the room had double beds and that did not lead to a very comfortable night’s rest.
Friday, May 27th. Check into Hard Rock and our first day in the parks. We had four day, multi-park tickets to Universal. We purchased our tickets on-line before we left and picked them up at will call.

SUGGESTION – if you are spending multiple days at Universal and intend to purchase on-line prior to the trip (a good idea because you receive a discount), I recommend will call tickets. We arrived ˝ hour before park opening on the first day and there was no line for the will call kiosks. All you need is the paper copy of your confirmation and the credit card you purchased the tickets with for the will call. Our friends printed their tickets at home and they had to carry and keep up with their 8 ˝ x 11 printed emails/confirmations for the entire trip, whereas with will call – we had credit card sized paper tickets. I found our tickets much more convenient, esp. with us entering multiple parks, multiple times each day.

ANOTHER SUGGESTION: I learned from helpful Intercotees that lockers were a pain and I needed to travel lightly. I purchased lanyards for my kids and BFF’s DS for them to put their room keys in and wear around their necks – this was a lifesaver for Express Pass because the kids would ride rides over and over and I did not have to worry about having to hand them their tickets or them losing them … and on some rides, you have to show your room key several times in the queue. I also purchased cute Vera Bradley wristlets for myself and BFF … there was a clear plastic cover on one side for keys, and inside the small zipped bag, there was room for an iphone, slots for credit cards and a small zipped area for cash/change. I also purchased matching lanyards so we could wear it on our wrists or around our necks and they were small enough to put in pockets in the lines that did not allow any carried items. Perfect. Most of the time, there was usually one person in our group that was not riding the “big ride” so they could hold extra stuff, but considering how much time I spent with just my kids and myself in the parks, this wristlet was very, very convenient.

(continued below)

MizMissy
06-09-2011, 10:22 PM
Amazingly, DH, DD(11), DS(8) and I were up, dressed, car packed and driving to Hard Rock Hotel before 7:00 a.m. The Hard Rock was only a few minutes away. It really is a beautiful hotel. We “checked in” – basically, they gave us room keys so that we could use Express Pass at the parks and would text us when our room was ready. DH asked about upgrades, but she said the hotel was “sold out” for the weekend. Wow. I was expecting big crowds at the parks and at the hotel pool. However, because we asked about upgrades and they could not accommodate us, the desk clerk gave the kids Hard Rock pins, a few blow up toys for the pool, and gave us an all-access pass that allowed us 10% off in different restaurants on property and the gift shop. We left everything in the car and headed to the parks.

Our friends checked in at the same time and we all walked over together. All together, there were 6 families in the main group (2 or 3 other families joined at various parts of the trip), 15 kids ranging from ages 8-20 (my DS was the 8 year old) and the only girl in the group was my DD11. My DD was perfectly fine with this dynamic since she is more tomboy than girly-girl and one of her best friends, my BFF’s 10 year old son, was in the group. We have one picture (this Friday morning before 9 a.m.) with all 27 of us (6 families) together, but I’m not sure if we were all together as a group after that point. It was a good group to travel with because everyone was really low key about plans and you could join or go on your own or with smaller groups without any real discussions. My BFF would send texts in the morning and at varying points about different plans, meeting points, but everything was very fluid.

The walk from HRH to IOA is less than 10 minutes. HRH to Universal Studios is maybe 5 minutes. The walk from HRH to US is shorter than the walk from The Contemporary to MK. I loved the convenience. Everything was so close, we traveled back and forth between the two parks, our hotel and CityWalk numerous times every day. They have three wheeled bicycles to take people to and from the hotel and parks and also a water taxi, but I only used the water taxi once. The walk was just too easy. At IOA at 7:30 and picked up tickets from will call. They let people through the gates at 7:45 and lined people up along the main street towards SuessLand, then started letting people through. We were in line for Forbidden Journey at 8. Now, I cannot do simulator rides so I was very nervous about this ride, but I was determined to experience it at least once. I took a Bonine (motion sickness pill about an hour before) … I later regretted this decision. The only problem with arriving so early is that we walked through the queue so quickly, we really did not get a chance to see it all. We all rode the ride – I sat on my flip flops – I still had to close my eyes in spots, mostly the flying parts on screen. This ride is pretty intense … unloading was a bit of an issue because I was slightly disoriented from the ride, trying to quickly get up and retrieve my flip flops behind me and then steady myself on the moving walkway….WHEW. Hmmmm, glad I experienced the ride, had not yet decided if I would ride again. Next, the kids spent some time looking at wands. DS really wanted one, but I was determined we were not going to carry anything around the parks with us, so I told him we would buy one later. We rode the Hippogriff ride next. My kids are thrill ride junkies. I think they were happy to ride this ride once, but did not repeat it the remainder of the trip. We moved onto Dueling Dragons. DH and BFF’s DH sat out the ride. I probably should have done so too. I wasn’t exactly steady on my feet after FJ, this ride did me in. My kids LOVED it. When I exited, I was walking very unsteadily and swallowing. At least, I wasn’t the only one … BFF was not feeling so great either. We waited towards the exit – a place where the blue dragon goes right in front of you at the end of the ride – with parts of the group while everyone finished up their rides. Kids and BFF’s DS rode again – this time in the front seat. They may have ridden the ride two or three times. With the whole group gathered, we took our big group picture together at this spot. Harry Potter World was getting very crowded at this point (probably just 9 a.m.) so we headed out of that section of the park. We walked through SuessLand (we actually never rode anything in SuessLand the entire trip … we always seemed to be walking quickly through it to get to somewhere else). Next, we covered Hulk (once again, I should not have ridden, I had an immediate headache from take off), but DH and the kids and most others in the group LOVED it. DH was really impressed with the engineering of the ride. Then, Spiderman … yes, I’m just a glutton for punishment at this point. Although, I really liked Spiderman. I had to close my eyes at the fast moving screens part, but I liked most of the ride (except the part where I slammed my head onto the side of the ride when it jerked quickly to the left … ouch, but I had already had a headache from Hulk). Our last ride with the group was Jurassic Park … that was a fun ride, everyone loved it and we joked about having the big guys in our group in the back of the boat, so the front really did not have that much water. It was about 11 a.m. and we received a text our room was ready. I think some were going to head to CityWalk for lunch and others to ride more rides, my immediate family decided to head back to HRH, check in and have lunch by the pool. However, first, we decided to return to Harry Potter World and let the kids choose their wands. They really enjoyed this part and the cart wasn’t too crowded. We also checked out Zonko’s and Honeydukes. Very, very crowded. They really should have made these shops and the whole area larger. Nevertheless, we picked out a few pieces of yummy fudge, chocolate frogs for the kids and bertie bott’s beans for DD.

Let me take a minute to highly endorse the benefits of Universal’s Express Pass. Really, it’s almost obnoxious the way they handle express pass line vs. stand by lines. In most cases, you walk onto the ride immediately … even if the stand by time is an hour or more. Hulk may have had a 30 minute standby wait, but Spiderman and Jurassic Park were 60 minutes and we walked right on the rides. My kids’ first visits to Disney were in low crowd September – they were spoiled by being able to ride their favorite rides over and over. Last May’s trip to Disney with big crowds made the trip frustrating because it took so long to accomplish things. After experiencing express pass and the fact that they are certified thrill-ride junkies, I’m not sure if we will be returning to Disney anytime soon, but they will return to Universal in a heartbeat.

We returned to HRH and picked up our real room keys. Sixth floor, pool view. We unpacked and changed into our swimsuits. Lunch was at the Beach Club next to the pool … maui maui tacos for me, burgers for DH and DD (DH’s burger was enormous, but it was also $15), chicken tenders for DS and a few margaritas for the adults. Ahhh, vacation officially began. I managed to find two chairs together (not an easy task) and the kids and I enjoyed the pool for a while. DH returned to the room to rest. A couple hours later, I showered and changed and the kids and I met up with BFF, her kids and a few other members of the group to return to IOA for water rides. The kids went in their bathing suits (I love Land’s End bathing suits – swim shirts and shorts for DS and cute swim shirts and skirts for DD, they were wearing bathing suits, but they are fully covered from sun exposure). BFF and I watched the kids ride the wet rides…they LOVED Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges (like Disney’s KRR) and Ripsaw Fall’s (a flume ride … I can’t compare it to Splash Mountain because that is my all-time favorite ride and no ride can compare to it in my book). They also enjoyed just standing in the “splash zone” at Jurassic Park River Adventure and getting soaked.

(continued)

MizMissy
06-09-2011, 10:23 PM
DH did not go to the parks with us that afternoon because he had a few business calls and errands to attend to, but he texted me at about 6 to see if we wanted to meet him at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner. I can’t remember but the rest of the group split up, I think they returned to the hotel to eat, maybe more pool time. As we were leaving, my kids wanted to ride Hulk again. I wasn’t a fan of the ride earlier, but usually thrill rides don’t bother me so I decided to try it again. Big mistake … as soon as the ride took off, I had an immediate, intense headache. I had to sit down afterwards and the kids rode the “tea cups” (I’m not sure the name of the spinning cup ride next to Hulk) a few times while I rested. DH called at this point to see if we would meet him at Bubba Gump. I was not feeling well, but thought food would help. We left the parks (yes, kids were still in their bathing suits, but they were fully covered for dining in a restaurant) and waited about 30 minutes for a table. I still had a terrible headache and it did not improve much through dinner but I did feel better after eating. The food was pretty good – we are very wary of eating seafood outside of Louisiana and at a chain restaurant because we are used to very seasoned food, but it was good. I had grilled shrimp tacos (yes, I had grilled fish tacos for lunch) and I think DH had Capt. Dan’s dish (the sauce was good). I can’t remember what the kids ate. It was probably 9 by this time … considering I had been up since 5 a.m. with very little sleep the days before and a long day in the hot, humid parks and sun by the pool, it was time for bed. I also think that the motion sickness medicine may have contributed some to my not feeling well. It can dehydrate you and I am not used to taking it. Not sure if it was the cause, but it felt good to blame my problems on it instead of me overdoing it. ;-)

All in all. A good and very fun first day. My kids are LOVING Universal and HRH so far.

Sorry it's so long. I was only going to do a summary of our trip instead of day by day, but it's easier for me to give too many details.

NJGIRL
06-10-2011, 07:16 AM
Great report. I'm glad your family enjoyed Universal. BTW my son feels the same way, he prefers Universal also.

BigRedDad
06-10-2011, 09:38 AM
I enjoyed this post so much. I can imagine the Memorial Day crowds may be similar to my trip next week. We are staying at Royal Pacific and definitely using Express Pass. I cannot stand waiting in a queue for more than 15-20 minutes. ADD kicks in, heat starts to get to you, kids start complaining, and vacation just turned into my version of Living Hell.

buzznwoodysmom
06-10-2011, 09:43 AM
Wow, now that is one jam packed day!!! I was tired just reading it. LOL. Oh my gosh, Hulk did me in too. I have no limitations when it comes to rides, there really isn't anything that gets me sick, that I'm afraid of, or that I don't want to ride. I love it all. However, I don't think I'll ever ride Hulk again. I had a massive headache after riding. While riding it felt like a skull crushing pressure on my head.

I'm anxious to read the rest of your reports, specifically about the resort. We just started going to Universal on our Disney trips, big Harry Potter fans. I'd like to try to stay at one of the Universal resorts within the next few years. It appears that you guys are happy with your stay. Can't wait to read more details about the resort.

MizMissy
06-10-2011, 02:28 PM
Oh my gosh, Hulk did me in too. I have no limitations when it comes to rides, there really isn't anything that gets me sick, that I'm afraid of, or that I don't want to ride. I love it all. However, I don't think I'll ever ride Hulk again. I had a massive headache after riding. While riding it felt like a skull crushing pressure on my head.

I'm anxious to read the rest of your reports, specifically about the resort. We just started going to Universal on our Disney trips, big Harry Potter fans. I'd like to try to stay at one of the Universal resorts within the next few years. It appears that you guys are happy with your stay. Can't wait to read more details about the resort.

Denise - I really do not know what it was about Hulk ... I thought it was maybe a fluke the first day, but I never tried it again because I did not want to risk another headache.

I will try to include more details about HRH, maybe in my final thoughts, but we absolutely LOVED the hotel. I'm not certain where the other 2 hotels were located (I never saw them) but HRH was right next door to Studios. The grounds were very lushly landscaped and there were a lot of neat memorabilia throughout the hotel. It was pricey, but no more so than a Disney Deluxe hotel. The pool was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed the slide, there was a ping pong table set up in a cabana, a pool table near the pool, and every afternoon there was a DJ who played lots of fun pool games with the kids, and a pool movie every night.

I am terrible at judging the size of rooms, but the room was a good size. I don't think it was as big as our room last year at the Contemporary, but definitely bigger than our AKL room. 2 queen beds, a table with 2 chairs, and a sitting chair and ottoman in the corner. The Beach Club had good food offerings, if a bit pricey, at the pool - a nice covered seating area or servers to bring food to your chairs. We also ate at the Kitchenary one evening. Once again, good, but pricey food. We brought an ice chest with us in the room for more drink options, but since it was such a short stay, we did not bring groceries (other than chips and poptarts) in the room.