TikiFamily Trip Report December 2014

Cast of Characters
TikiGoddess, 41, mom
Julie, almost 12
Katie, 10

Try this link for pictures: Photobucket - the first picture will come up, then go backwards to see the rest.

Warning: this is the unabridged version of my trip report. Proceed at your own risk, and remember to take breaks when necessary.

I've been putting off this trip report, mostly because it's the holiday season and things have been crazy busy in my house. But also because after I write my trip report, it feels like I've 'closed up' the trip in my mind and it's finally over. I love savoring the moments in my head and feeling like I have something left of the trip to enjoy. But alas, there's also the time limit of memory. I better do this now before I forget the good details.

Thursday December 11

We got up around 4:00am and were off to airport at 4:45. The kids were amazed at how many people were also awake at the hour. We checked our baggage inside and quickly got through security. I'm glad they don't always ask you to take your shoes off! I did get picked to go through the 'tube scanner', where you have to stand with you arms over your head. The longest line of the morning (perhaps the entire day!) was for Dunkin Donuts but we needed breakfast and I needed iced tea. After a 10-15 minute wait, we got our food and only had a short wait until we were boarding our plane. My one daughter had a B section boarding pass but it was no problem having her join me and my other daughter in our A slots. The plane was only 2/3 full (very few kids too) which is unusual for us, as we are used to full summer flights with oodles of kids. It was probably the quietest flight we've been on in years, not even much turbulence!

We even landed about 20 minutes early. Since we were sitting right by the wing, it didn't take us long to get off the plane. But then of course we had to wait around for our checked bags. On we had those in hand, we trooped over to the rental car lot. I had reserved a standard car from Alamo and had done the preregistration online, so we walked directly out to the full size lot (Alamo doesn't have standard cars in Orlando, so you get a full size). There was a family about ten steps ahead of us who got the Lime green Kia cube car -- the only cool car there. We ended up with a silver Hyundai Sonata that was clean and comfortable.
Driving out of the airport, it was wonderful to see the palm trees! The ride to Universal was smooth and easy. I had thought ahead and made sure I had money for tolls. When we reached the exit for Universal, I turned right and went to I-Drive so we could buy water at Walgreens. A case of 24 bottles helped us save some money.

We crossed over to Universal and found the self-park for Royal Pacific Resort. Check in went quickly and our room was ready. We were in the wing (2) that is furthest from the parks but since we were only there for one night, it didn't matter. The room was clean and bright. The only drawback was that we didn't have a refrigerator to use - they only offer a minibar and even that was locked up in our room. It would have been nice to have cold milk with our cereal the next morning. We dropped our stuff and headed out to the car to find my left-behind cell phone. Back into the hotel to get our express passes, then we wandered about and got slightly lost trying to find the walking trail to the parks. But as soon as we got it right, the walk wasn't too long. I liked that there was a security guard doing bag check right before we entered City Walk. We never waited in line for security. Takes away some of the craziness of doing it right by the main gates like Disney does.

It was turning into a beautiful day. The weather was sunny but in the mid 60's. We wore our sweatshirts/fleeces the entire time at Universal, especially the second day when it was cloudy and cool. We entered the park around lunch time. The entrance to Islands of Adventure is really cool - I love the theming of the buildings on each side as you come in. And we could hear Hulk right around the corner, so that was our first ride. After about a 10 minute wait, we were launched into space. We all got off exclaiming what an awesome ride it was. We made a plan to come back and ride it again. We went over to Doctor Doom's Fearfall, which we walked right on... Thankfully. The ride was so short that I would have been very disappointed if I had spent any amount of time waiting in line for it. Launch up, a few bounces, back down. And it needs a refurb - peeling paint etc. After that I forced the children to stop for a minute and eat something - we stopped at Croissant Moon and shared some tasty sandwiches, iced tea, and desserts. Then we found one of our favorite areas of the park, Seuss Landing. The Cat in the Hat ride was charming and well done, although I could have done without some of the spinning. I'm always a fan of Carousels, and the Caro-Seuss-el did not disappoint. I wish they had turned off the water on the One Fish Two Fish ride, but it added to the fun. The Seuss version of the TTA (the Sneetches ride) was cute but they only had one track running and we ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get on.

Having had our fill of Seuss-ness for now, we went through the Lost Continent area, sad that we had missed the Poseiden show by about 5 minutes. My older daughter has read quite a few Percy Jackson books and loves mythology. But we have all read the Harry Potter books, so we were content to walk into Hogsmeade.

The Harry Potter portions of Universal are amazing. Hogsmeade has that Book 4 feeling with the Triwizard elements (pep rally, Dragon Challenge). We enjoyed looking in the stores and buying candy for ourselves and for friends. We saw the singing frog choir and then got into Ollivanders with no wait. The girls bought their own interactive wands and we played around with them in the village. The wait for Hogwarts was more than we wanted to wait, so we continued past into Jurassic Park. We ended up in the building by the lake (paths not well marked...) But then when we found the main path, we found the Jurassic Park River adventure. My older daughter has always loved dinosaurs. We haven't seen the movies but I knew that she would like the ride. So we donned our plastic throwaway ponchos that I had brought with us for just this purpose, and we rode. And then we rode again because it was so much fun. We managed to stay dry on the big drop thanks to the ponchos.

We slowed down a bit after that. We got snacks (pretzels, popcorn, and a rare soda for me) and walked through Comic Strip Lane. The water rides there make Kali look tame. No way I’m riding them in December! We made the full circle back to Marvel area and got a locker. Spider-Man was a good ride but a little jerky for me. I kept wondering why we didn't die when the villains had a perfect shot at us! We all liked it but decided it wasn't worth doing again. Besides, there was hardly any line at Hulk. So we rode it twice and ended up in the back both times. I would recommend the back - you can see the car in front of you spiraling and dropping. Very cool.

I admit that we all felt a bit headachy after being through the Hulk's six inversions twice. So we gathered ourselves and took some quiet time in Seuss Land on the Cat ride and the fish ride. I sat out on the fish ride - I was not going to take a chance and get wet at this point!

It was getting later in the afternoon and the park was going to close at 6, so we headed back to Hogsmeade for more wand-play and the Forbidden Journey. There was a short posted wait but we had no problem getting on. I had to tell the girls to slow down and enjoy the queue because there was no line holding them back! The details were cool.

I don't remember much of the ride except that it went from scene to scene very quickly and there was a lot of movement. I know at one point we were situated looking up at the ceiling. I only wish they had allowed riders to stay in one scene and take it all in before moving to the next. I am not prone to motion sickness so it didn't bother me that way, but my thought after riding was: overload.

And by then we had overloaded ourselves. Being up at 4 am, flying to Florida, and spending a busy 6 hours in the park was enough. We dragged ourselves out of the park and found dinner at Vivo Italian Kitchen in City Walk. It was quiet, relatively empty of customers, and there were white linens, plentiful bread and olive oil, water glasses, and a nice waiter who grew up close to my hometown. We ordered various dishes of spaghetti and went over the details of the day. Feeling much refreshed, we caught the boat back to the resort (a very nice ride), took showers, and went to bed at a decent hour.

The night's sleep was interrupted a few times by people talking loudly in the hallway. I must admit that one of the drawbacks of hotels are that hallways echo. And people talking on cellphones seem particularly amplified. Especially when they are arguing with someone in a foreign language. Nonetheless, we got a decent amount of sleep in the very comfortable beds and woke around 7 the next morning.

Friday, December 12

We got up, had a simple breakfast of cereal without milk, packed up, and brought the bags out to the car. We took the walking path to City Walk and I went to Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich and iced tea. City Walk is a really nice entertainment district. We had been impressed with the atmosphere the previous night, with all the lights twinkling and the music playing.

But we were on a mission, so after Starbucks we headed for the Studios. It was supposed to have early entry at 8. We got there around 8:25 and walked right in. We followed the crowds around to Diagon Alley first. Wow. Stepping through the brick wall the first time -- just wow. I was amazed at the overall feel and the depth of detail they built into every inch of it. We took a quick picture with the girls and a cast member photobombed them - they didn't even notice the scary looking dude standing behind them.

We had to go into Zonko's but then I dragged the girls out so we could see how the line was for Gringott's. 30 minutes. Hmm. We decided to get in the standby line, but quickly changed our mind and went into the single rider queue. Now I know you're saying, you need to see the indoor queue! But we knew we would be riding it again, so the single rider line would work for us this time. We pretty much walked on the ride and were in the same vehicle. I loved the Gringotts ride. Just enough thrill, great characters, storyline, effects - and just enough movement. The use of video screens is overdone at Universal (a bit of a one trick pony) but this one I would have ridden many times.

After that we wandered around Diagon Alley, looking in shops and using the girls' interactive wands. We discovered our favorite section, Knockturn Alley. So much fun. Borgina and Burkes had so many artifacts, you could spend hours in there looking at things. We found a shirt for my husband in there.

The next step was to take the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade and back. It was past 9am at this point so we walked through the station to the train. (I've been to London -- this is an accurate representation of a tube/train station, just cleaner and nicer smelling). The train ride was very neat! We loved the actual train compartment, it was just like in the movies.

When we arrived in Hogsmeade, the girls decided that they wanted to ride Dragon Challenge. So we wound our way through the very long but empty queue (well themed but never ending) only to find that I couldn't ride with my bag and they didn't have lockers anywhere near the ride. So I sat it out while the girls rode both sides. They thought both sides were great. I was happy to sit still for a while and wait for them!

We headed back to Diagon Alley on the Hogwarts Express after that. The ride back was just as good as the ride there. We did more wand stuff, shops, and did Ollivanders again. So when we walked into the waiting room of Ollivanders, I started talking to the cast members stationed there. We had a rather interesting conversation about all things Disney and Universal. When it was time to go into the wand choosing room, the girl I had been talking to told my girls to stand up front. I'm thinking, maybe this means they'll get picked! But alas, two brothers got chosen. My girls took it in stride though - they said it was okay because they already had their wands. :)

My only complaint about Diagon Alley is Celestine Warbeck's sound engineer. Holy mother of pearl, the volume was turned up so loud that it was painful to the ears. We didn't spend much time in that area of the Alley because of this. We did get to peek in the money exchange and talk to the goblin there. We also had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. It was tasty - kids loved the fish and chips, and I had the chicken sandwich. We had a frozen butterbeer to share. I liked it the most, the kids were just okay with it. Very much like frozen cream soda.

Katie got vanilla ice cream at Florean Fortescue's afterwards (I know... All these great flavors and she chooses vanilla?). We did one last visit to Knockturn Alley and after few wand works, we said goodbye to Diagon Alley. After all, it was the middle of the day and we hadn't seen anything except Harry Potter stuff!

We walked south to MiB headquarters. The kids haven't seen the movies yet (too many swear words) but they got the idea of it. We rode it three times. Big hit. Once we figured out that you have to hit the aliens more than once (listen for the sound and the light on your gun) we had a ball. I wish Buzz Lightyear was this good. :)

We walked past the Simpsons and the kids areas. My girls were more excited to see the Delorean from Back to the Future. We found our way to Minion Mayhem. Great theming, great preshow, and fun family experience. We bought my husband a "build a minion' kit to put next to his Mr. Potato Head at school.

Then we rode the Mummy, which was to become one of our favorite rides at the park. This is like Gringotts with a mix of roller coaster and effects. The fire on the ceiling effect was my favorite. We all rode Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit next (about a ten minute wait) and I chose Happy for my music. The video recording afterward was very funny to see - you could tell this rollercoaster freaked me out a little. I was holding on tight at times. I think it's the fact that the harnesses don't go over your shoulders. I feel safer when I'm held in that way.

We went back to Mummy and rode that twice, then the girls went to do Rip Ride again without me. I tried to find some hot tea (my sinuses were bothering me and I had a headache) - to no avail. So I sat down on the artificial turf in front of the stage in the waning sunlight and waited for the kids. I love that they are old enough to go off on a ride with each other.

That was enough for us... It was around 4 or 5 I think, so we got out of the park (after stopping to get candy from the candy store and taking some mandatory pictures by the big globe). We rode the boat back to the hotel, got in the car, and drove down to Pop Century. Despite the fact that it was Friday rush hour we had no traffic delays and were there in about 15 minutes. We checked into Pop, moved our car over to the 70/80 lot, and found our room. It was a few doors down from the two rooms that we stayed in during our April 2013 trip!

We got dinner from the food court for me and Julie. Katie said she wasn't hungry. I knew she would be so I got spaghetti for myself - something she would pick at and then want more. ;). We brought it back to the room so the kids could watch TV and eat. Sure enough, Katie wanted more after a while so I left them in the room while I got more food and more hot tea from the food court. We got to sleep early after showers and unpacking.

Saturday, December 13

A good morning is a morning at a Disney resort. We had cereal (with milk) in the room before we headed to AK. We drove into the parking lot and were in the first row of cars. I headed to guest services as I needed to upgrade my ticket. Hundreds of dollars later, we got in line, called my husband to say hello, and were in the park about 5 minutes later. We decided to skip the safari and go to Dinoland instead. It was ours and ours alone - we rode Primeval Whirl two times in a row without getting out of the car. Same for Triceratops Spin. We walked on to Dinosaur. Maybe Universal had killed some of my hearing, but Dinosaur didn't feel as loud as it usually does. We walked over to Asia and hit the tea shop for pastries and hot tea. We walked through the Jungle Trek but our favorites, the bats, were not out because it was too cold. We did see the pheasant who has the amazing call. Once we finished that, we headed back to Everest only to find that the wait was like 40 minutes long -- and there was no single rider line!! That was our strategy. Darn it! Oh well. We gave up and walked towards Africa to see if we could get into FotLK. We had just missed a show. We wandered around some of the trails to the north of the tree of life and then went into see ITTBAB.

We were tired and there was some dispute over when we should take our break – go to Pop, have lunch, then head to Epcot and the Studios, or go to Epcot, have dinner at Pop, then head to the Studios. My older daughter and I wanted to go to Epcot since we weren’t tired yet. So we went out to the parking lot…. and proceeded to forget where we parked. We were in the first row of cars, how hard could it be?? But which lot? After about 5 minutes (felt much longer) we finally found the car. By this point my younger daughter was in tears and upset. So we went back to Pop Century, got lunch from the food court, and relaxed in the room for an hour or so. I fell asleep and woke up groggy and with a headache. Bad idea for a nap at this time!

I took some Advil and shook the sleep from my head – after all, this is Disney, there’s no time for sleepiness! We drove over to Epcot and made sure to take note of where we had parked. We used our prebooked FP+ to do SSE. There was a 20 minutes wait posted for standby. After that we entered Test Track, using our FP+ again. As we were waiting in the line (FP helps with the wait but it’s still a long queue inside…) some young CMs came up to us. They handed us 3 paper FPs to use on any ride! When I asked why, they said they loved my older daughter’s shirt so much that they just had to give them to us. The winning shirt? A Teefury.com mashup of Totoro and Big Hero 6. (She got plenty of compliments on it in other places too!) We were so excited by this little bit of Disney magic. That meant that we would be able to go on Soarin’!

I have to admit, I really like the new version of Test Track. The girls love being able to make their own car and see how it performs against other cars. Yes, it feels like Tron, but you still get the old thrills of the sharp turns and the outside speed test. After we finished building and testing our cars, we used our FP+ for Mission Space (the more intense side).

My older daughter insisted on going to Japan (she is big Pokemon fan and had promised a friend that she would buy her something). So we walked and walked and walked. Thankfully the weather was fine! We spent a bunch of time (and money) in Mitsukoshi and then got snacks on our way around World Showcase – kaki gori for me and ice cream for the girls. When we made it back to Future World we waited in line to do Imagination (okay it was only 5 minutes but there was a LINE). Then we used our magic FPs to do Soarin’. We usually wait for first row but settled for 2nd row this time because Julie wanted to get over to the Studios in time to meet Baymax.

It was getting late so we got out of the park and drove over to the Studios. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday night in December, and everyone else in the Orlando area had the same idea as us – to see the Osborne Lights. We sat in traffic for 45 minutes before the parking attendants told us that the lot was full. Not the best moment of the trip. Julie was upset that she had missed her chance to meet Hiro and Baymax, her new favorite characters. And we were all upset that we hadn’t gotten to see Osborne Lights. But we made the best of it. We went back to Pop Century, had a nice dinner at the food court, did some shopping for friends in the store, and checked with concierge to see if there were any Baymax plush being sold anywhere on property. Working together, the CM and I figured out that they had sold out fairly quickly and another shipment was not expected any time soon. Back in the room I went on Amazon and found one for $20. Julie was happy again.

The girls took a shower while I packed up and we all watched Tangled until we fell asleep in our beds. It had been a long but ultimately happy day.

Sunday, December 14

I never sleep well when I’m at Disney. If I wake up, it’s inevitable that my brain will start thinking about what we’re going to do that day. Especially on Magic Kingdom days! And our last day of vacation was just that. I woke up early and dozed with happy thoughts of our day to come. We all got up by 6 to pack up, shower, and eat breakfast. I had cereal and milk available for the kids but only Julie ate it. We slowed down our fast exit from Pop to get breakfast sandwiches for me and Katie. We all felt better with some food in our tummies.

We arrived at the TTC early enough to be in the first row of cars. We had just missed the parking tram so we had to trek in. The monorail was not running so we worked our way up to the front of the crowd in the ferry. We were in the park on Main Street by 8:15am. We walked to Splash through Adventureland and it was deserted. Thunder Mountain was a walk on. Back to Adventureland where we walked onto Pirates, the Jingle Cruise (love the decorations but the script needs a little work), rode the Magic Carpets (girls rode twice while I did some shopping). My favorite little store is the one directly across from the spitting camels. I always find neat jewelry in that store – and this time I found a silver bird necklace.

We went over to Fantasyland and rode Small World (walk on) and Mine Train (with our FP+ - good thing we rode when we did because it was closed later on). We had some time to kill before our Peter Pan FP, so we got Sorcerer's cards in Liberty Square and played a round. Back to Peter Pan for FP, saw Philharmagic, then we had our Be Our Guest lunch. Last summer we had lunch here and really enjoyed it, especially with the order-ahead FP option. I had the veggie quiche, Katie had the kid’s pork, and Julie had the croque Monsieur. We shared two cupcakes – those are the best part of the menu if you ask me. We really like the atmosphere of the West Wing. We also noticed that we weren’t given a rose – they just found us through our Magic Bands (I presume) and delivered our meal. This is becoming a must-do for us each trip.

After lunch (around noon) we headed down to Tomorrowland. I called my husband on the way and found out that our flight had been delayed a little, giving us some more time in the park! It ended up being about an hour delayed which was good for park time but made us a little more tired on Monday morning.

We rode Space Mountain with our third FP+. Then we got new FPs for the Speedway. The CMs at the kiosk were able to look at what was available in the next hour or so – that was helpful. They definitely know their way around the system now. There wasn’t much availability for a lot of rides but we just wanted something that we wouldn’t need to wait for. The park was getting crowded in the early afternoon. So we visited Stitch and then realized that Julie didn’t have her hat. She had left it on Space Mountain. We went back to look for it twice but it was never found. We gave up and bought her a new one later (it’s the Mickey through the years hat – she loves it).

Lost hats call for ice cream. So we got ice cream at the shop near Mickey’s Star Traders, had a nice relaxing ride on the TTA, raced around the Indy Speedway, and got a FP for the Barnstormer.

We texted jokes to the Monsters but none of them were used in the show. We enjoyed it anyway. Next was a quiet rest in the Carousel of Progress (I did not fall asleep!) and then we headed up to Toontown to use our Barnstormer FPs. I love the new theming of the ride and queue (but why on earth is most of the queue in the sun?). We didn’t mind the sun – the weather was in the low 70’s and for the first time of the trip we didn’t have to wear our sweatshirts!

Snack time again – pretzels and popcorn kept us happy while we sat on a tone wall overlooking New Fantasyland. We sauntered through the busy land to Country Bear Jamboree and then circled around to Main Street. The girls did a round of Sorcerer’s while I looked in the shops. It was after 4 and the park was getting really crowded due to the sold out Christmas Party that night.

We sadly left our favorite place on earth (although Katie was being extra cheerful, trying to cheer me and Julie up, the sweet thing). We took the monorail, caught a parking tram, found the car easily, and drove out to the airport without incident. Rental car check in went smoothly, checked our bags, got through security, found some dinner, and boarded our flight home. We landed around 10:30 and were happy to see my fabulous husband waiting for us at baggage pickup.

Monday morning was painful. We were back in the cold weather and yes, we had to go to school and work that day. My husband and I debated about keeping the kids home for the morning to let them rest, but they did really well in getting themselves ready for school and when the bus came, they were on it. It took me about 3 days to feel normal but it was all worth it!

Lessons learned when traveling in December:

Good – almost nonexistent crowds at Universal
Good – awesome weather!
Good – being able to stay in the parks in the afternoon and get to bed early
Good – Christmas decorations at both resorts
Good – quiet flights
Bad – missing a weekend in December at home to prepare for the holidays
Bad – weekend visits to Florida make for a very exhausting week afterwards
Bad – shorter trip means fitting 2-3 parks into one day. Don’t think I would do that again. I’d rather spend more time at one park than get just a little taste of 2-3 parks.

Thoughts on Universal from a lifelong Disney fan’s point of view:
It was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. The parks were, for the most part, well maintained and clean. The theming was well done, especially in the Harry Potter parts of the park. We particulary enjoyed the roller coasters and Seuss Landing. Two days with Express Pass access and low crowds was plenty of time. We could have done one more day to see our favorites again and enjoy the hotel and City Walk.

I will go back to Universal again especially if they expand their Harry Potter section once more. The only downfall of the parks was that many of the rides involve spinning or motion-sickness inducing effects. My husband gets motion sickness so he would have been sitting out for many of the rides.

Overall:
It was a whirlwind, but we managed to stay in the moment and go slowly. We made some great memories and look forward to making more in 2015!

Thanks for reading!
Kathy

Even though there were some downs during your trip, it sounds like a good time was had by all!

Having just done a few days at Universal a couple of months ago, I can tell you the simulator type rides (of which there are many) were a real problem for my husband who does get motion sickness. He ended up sitting out many of the rides which I ended up doing solo - it certainly makes for a less enjoyable trip and, although we both enjoyed the theming of the Harry Potter areas of the parks, we would not rush back to Universal any time soon.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing - it was fun to read!

Kathy!

You had a great trip!!! Busy but good!

I agree with you on all of your Good and Bad points.

I LOVE Disney over the holidays, but giving up any time in December is brutal. We went once in December. However...we have discovered that right before Thanksgiving is a very nice time to go. Weather is pleasant, it is busy, but the park hours are great, even AK was open until 8, and the Holidays decorations are always amazing!
Happy New Year!
Thanks for your report!
Julie:mickey:

Great trip report! I agree, losing weekend time in December is tough but worth it - I just did some Christmas gift shopping at Disney to make up for it LOL.

I want to go back to Universal just for Diagon Alley and the pool area at Royal Pacific. I am not prone to motion sickness, but one day of rides at the main park (plus a questionable dinner at Lombards) did me in. Too many motion simulators. I like the variety at Disney better.

Happy New Year!

Kathy, it sounds like your trip with the girls was a fabulous one! A very different start with the Universal visit to begin with than you are used to - which sounds like a total blast by the way. The details of the HP stuff sound incredible! DS and I are big HP fans so I look forward to touring Universal some day as you have just done.

As far as your whirlwind Disney tour, it sounds exhausting but oh so wonderful. I am so glad you got to get away with the girls. Thanks for sharing all of the wonderful details with us!!! :mickey: