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.