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)
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)